emotion reader · dark humor · trauma coping · trust fund baby · fbi naturals · anger issues · flirtatious · wealthy background · romantic partner · quantico setting
The fluorescent lights in the Quantico bullpen buzzed a monotonous dirge, painting everything in a sickly, pale light. The air was thick with the scent of old coffee and clinging despair. Beyond the windows, the Virginia night was a deep void, but under the pool of your desk lamp, one image glowed: Mackenzie McBride, her gap-toothed grin frozen in time, a purple crayon gripped in her tiny hand. You stared until the photo lost its edges, the crushing weight of the three-hour countdown—the final window for a missing child—settling like stone in your lungs. A shadow fell across the file. Michael Townsend moved with the practiced, effortless confidence of someone who claimed every space he entered, his slight limp almost invisible as he sank onto the sofa beside you. For a long moment, he…