16
"Love Remains The Same" - Gavin Rossdale
Thursday, January 2, 1997 was my first day at the FBI. The day before had been New Year's, and they had offered to let me report on Monday, the 6th, but I was too nervous to wait that long. I knew if I was left alone any longer I'd start doubting myself again, so I convinced them I could come in and get acquainted at the very least. That's how I started an eleven-year adventure that changed my entire life, namely because it became my entire life.
I was twenty-six years old, having just left the Baltimore City Police Department, and scared out of my mind. My boss at the time was Deputy Director Kara Exstead, a tough but fair woman who could tell I had no idea why I was alive yet alone carrying a badge. I don't know if she saw something in me or if it was just the way the chips fell, but I'll be forever grateful to that woman for introducing me to my partner, the man who would become my best friend and eventually, my husband.
He was twenty-nine at the time. That'll tell you how far we've come right away. I can still tell you exactly what he was wearing. We were introduced, we shook hands, our eyes met, and that moment when we looked at each other I knew something in my life was going to change. He has the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen, and I could just tell that he was different. I have no idea what the hell he saw in me, but I knew John was going to change my life. And obviously I was right in ways I never could have imagined back then.
To this day I can't take my eyes off him. He's still the most handsome man I've ever seen. Whether it's in those eyes or the soothing sound of his voice, or the way he dresses better than I do, or...well I could go on about his good looks for awhile. But John also has that intangible quality. It's not just charm, although he is from the South, which means he's got a lot of it (when he bothers to use it, which is almost never). There are a lot of people who can get by on that. He has self-confidence. Conviction. A command presence. This force that draws attention, that makes people understand that he knows what he's doing, even if you don't have a clue. I knew that he always knew what was happening even when I didn't. I was fortunate enough to rely on him while I got my own confidence back, and to know that I could trust him when I didn't trust myself. It was like two magnets and no one has ever made me feel that way except John. I knew it had to be for a reason.
That first day we must have talked for hours. From there we spent the next three years building the kind of partnership that others became jealous of, because we weren't just partners but also best friends. It would have been impossible not to bond with him, not after everything he did for me. Not just at work, either. Weekends hanging out together, lunches, dinners, phone calls, birthdays, holidays. He was there for me the night my sister died. And the day I almost joined her. No matter what, or when, or where, he was always there. He's always been there. Just that in the fall of 2000 we got handed a case that would change both our lives forever.
Adverse circumstances bond people. It's a fact of life. There's no saying that our relationship wouldn't have evolved to this point if we had just stayed working in CID these last few years. But seeing the things that we saw, surviving the things that we went through -- super-soldiers, bounty hunters, alternate dimensions, higher planes of existence, and the fact that he died and was resurrected -- those things brought us even closer together. We faced adversity together. We feared together. We found solace together. The entire world as we knew it -- as a normal, sane world where we were on our way to the career fast track -- was shattered. But what we learned is that the love, the respect, the passion we had for one another was still the same. In fact, it only grew stronger.
Muse: Stark Patrick
Fandom: The X-Files (OC)
Words: 740
Thursday, January 2, 1997 was my first day at the FBI. The day before had been New Year's, and they had offered to let me report on Monday, the 6th, but I was too nervous to wait that long. I knew if I was left alone any longer I'd start doubting myself again, so I convinced them I could come in and get acquainted at the very least. That's how I started an eleven-year adventure that changed my entire life, namely because it became my entire life.
I was twenty-six years old, having just left the Baltimore City Police Department, and scared out of my mind. My boss at the time was Deputy Director Kara Exstead, a tough but fair woman who could tell I had no idea why I was alive yet alone carrying a badge. I don't know if she saw something in me or if it was just the way the chips fell, but I'll be forever grateful to that woman for introducing me to my partner, the man who would become my best friend and eventually, my husband.
He was twenty-nine at the time. That'll tell you how far we've come right away. I can still tell you exactly what he was wearing. We were introduced, we shook hands, our eyes met, and that moment when we looked at each other I knew something in my life was going to change. He has the most beautiful blue eyes I've ever seen, and I could just tell that he was different. I have no idea what the hell he saw in me, but I knew John was going to change my life. And obviously I was right in ways I never could have imagined back then.
To this day I can't take my eyes off him. He's still the most handsome man I've ever seen. Whether it's in those eyes or the soothing sound of his voice, or the way he dresses better than I do, or...well I could go on about his good looks for awhile. But John also has that intangible quality. It's not just charm, although he is from the South, which means he's got a lot of it (when he bothers to use it, which is almost never). There are a lot of people who can get by on that. He has self-confidence. Conviction. A command presence. This force that draws attention, that makes people understand that he knows what he's doing, even if you don't have a clue. I knew that he always knew what was happening even when I didn't. I was fortunate enough to rely on him while I got my own confidence back, and to know that I could trust him when I didn't trust myself. It was like two magnets and no one has ever made me feel that way except John. I knew it had to be for a reason.
That first day we must have talked for hours. From there we spent the next three years building the kind of partnership that others became jealous of, because we weren't just partners but also best friends. It would have been impossible not to bond with him, not after everything he did for me. Not just at work, either. Weekends hanging out together, lunches, dinners, phone calls, birthdays, holidays. He was there for me the night my sister died. And the day I almost joined her. No matter what, or when, or where, he was always there. He's always been there. Just that in the fall of 2000 we got handed a case that would change both our lives forever.
Adverse circumstances bond people. It's a fact of life. There's no saying that our relationship wouldn't have evolved to this point if we had just stayed working in CID these last few years. But seeing the things that we saw, surviving the things that we went through -- super-soldiers, bounty hunters, alternate dimensions, higher planes of existence, and the fact that he died and was resurrected -- those things brought us even closer together. We faced adversity together. We feared together. We found solace together. The entire world as we knew it -- as a normal, sane world where we were on our way to the career fast track -- was shattered. But what we learned is that the love, the respect, the passion we had for one another was still the same. In fact, it only grew stronger.
Muse: Stark Patrick
Fandom: The X-Files (OC)
Words: 740