Normal Was Always a Lie

a Katherine Carson short story

Carson Investigations Office

January 2008

Jake unwrapped the second half of his sandwich and watched Sammi pick at her salad. She’d been quieter than usual for about ten minutes now. Which meant she was building up to something.

She twirled her fork through the lettuce one more time, then set it down.

“So,” Sammi said, “I’ve been noticing something.”

“Yeah?” Jake took a bite, waiting.

“Lee can find patterns in data that anyone else would miss.” Sammi leaned back against the couch, her tone carefully casual. “Like that insurance fraud case last week? He pulled connection threads from three different databases that had nothing obviously linking them. It was amazing.”

Jake nodded. “He’s good at that.”

“That’s from his NSA days, right?” Sammi watched him closely. “All those years analyzing intelligence data?”

“Yes.” Jake could see exactly where this was going. Sammi knew about their history. The National Security Agency and Espionage Services Agency and Army Rangers.

“And you—” Sammi gestured at him with her fork. “You were Army Rangers, then the Espionage Services Agency, then NSA. You’re ridiculously good at finding people. Following them without being seen. And you still have all these contacts who can get you access to things faster than they should. Not illegal, just …”

“A lot of people owe me favors,” Jake said mildly.

“Right. Exactly.” Sammi sat forward now, her enthusiasm building. “So I’ve seen these special skills from Lee and from you. Skills from your former careers.” She paused, choosing her words. “But you both act like Katherine was better than both of you. Like she was the star operative or something.”

Jake set down his sandwich and gave Sammi his full attention.

“But she seems...” Sammi trailed off, clearly struggling with how to phrase it. “Normal? Like, she’s a great detective, don’t get me wrong. She’s smart and observant and clients trust her. But she doesn’t seem to do anything you and Lee don’t do.” She met his eyes. “So what am I missing?”

Jake studied her for a long moment. Sammi wasn’t prying for drama. This was genuine curiosity. Three months of paying close attention had earned her the right to ask.

Exactly what he and Margaret had hoped for when they’d convinced Katie to hire her. Give Katherine a student smart enough to see past the careful limits. Let her rediscover those parts of herself through mentoring. Katie would refuse, of course. So Jake had promised he’d do the training himself.

“Katie is anything but normal. She has skills.” Jake kept his voice even. “But she doesn’t like to tap into most of what she learned in her ESA days.”

“Why not?”

“She has her reasons.” Jake’s tone carried finality. “It’s not my story to tell.”

Sammi absorbed this, her analytical mind clearly working. “But you’re saying she could if she wanted to.”

“I’m saying Katie was the best operative I ever worked with in twenty years in intelligence.” Jake held her gaze. “And I worked with some exceptional people.”

“Better than you?”

“In the things that mattered most? Yes.” No hesitation. Just truth.

Sammi sat back, processing. “Okay,” she said finally. “Okay.”

They ate in silence for a few minutes. Then Sammi’s phone buzzed with a reminder about filing that needed to be finished by end of day.

“Back to the glamorous world of document organization,” she said with a dramatic sigh.

Jake smiled. “That’s what you signed up for.”

“I know, I know.” Sammi gathered her lunch containers. “Thanks, Jakey.”

“For what?”

“For taking the question seriously.” She headed back to her desk.

Jake finished his sandwich slowly, thinking.

The plan was working. Katherine had started “helping” within two weeks. Jake had watched her slowly engage more over the past three months. Explaining case strategies, teaching interview techniques, letting Sammi shadow her on client meetings. Small steps, but real ones.

Sammi was perfect. Young enough, new enough, that Katie could feel protective rather than defensive. Margaret’s former student, smart and passionate, asking to break into investigative work. Easy to convince Katie that training her was good for the business.

But Sammi deserved to see what he and Lee already knew. The woman organizing case files and conducting client interviews had capabilities that went far beyond standard detective work.

He just needed the right opportunity.

And actually ... he might have just the thing.

---

Jake stood from his desk at 4:30 and grabbed his jacket. “Come on. I want to show you something.”

Sammi looked up from the filing cabinet. “Show me what?”

“You’ll see.” He headed for the door. “I’ll drive you home after.”

Sammi’s eyes lit with curiosity as she grabbed her coat. “Okay.”

They drove fifteen minutes toward a warehouse district.

“You asked a fair question at lunch,” Jake said. “Deserved a real answer.”

Sammi turned to look at him, waiting.

“Most of what Katie still lets herself use looks like regular investigative work. Her instincts, intuition, reading people. She calls them detective skills.” He paused. “You wouldn’t notice she’s doing anything different.”

“But she is.”

“Yeah. She is. But what I’m about to show you… You’ll see why Lee and I know she’s better than us. Why we defer to her judgement.”

He pulled into the parking lot of Summit Rock Gym, a converted industrial building with high ceilings and large windows.

Inside, climbing walls stretched thirty feet high, covered in colorful holds. Ropes hung from the ceiling. A few climbers worked various routes, their movements careful and deliberate.

Jake walked through the main area without stopping. He stopped at the edge of the advanced section in the back and pointed toward the far wall.

Sammi followed his gaze.

Katherine stood at the base of what looked like the most difficult route in the gym—an overhang section with widely spaced holds, the kind that required serious upper body strength and problem-solving just to attempt. She wore athletic clothes, her hair pulled back, chalk dust on her hands. She was checking her harness with practiced efficiency.

“Is that—” Sammi started.

“Just watch,” Jake said quietly.

Katherine stepped up to the wall and studied the route for ten seconds, reading it the way other people read books. Then she reached for the first hold.

Sammi’s mouth fell open.

Katherine moved up the wall with impossible precision, her body flowing from hold to hold. She reached for grips that seemed too far apart, core strength pulling her across the overhang without hesitation. flexibility and power adapting to each challenge.

Jake had seen this hundreds of times. In controlled environments like this gym. In the field, where the stakes were life or death and the walls weren’t equipped with safety holds. He’d seen Katherine scale embassy walls, apartment buildings, warehouse exteriors. Places that weren’t meant to be climbed, finding handholds in brick and stone that other operatives swore didn’t exist.

It still amazed him every single time.

Because it wasn’t just physical capability. It was the way her mind worked. The spatial awareness. The ability to see solutions in spaces that looked impossible. Reading the wall three moves ahead, positioning for problems she hadn’t reached yet. She could read a vertical surface the same way she read people. Seeing patterns, connections, possibilities that others missed.

This was what he’d wanted Sammi to see. Not the operational skills Katie kept carefully hidden behind “detective work” labels. But this—something she still let herself enjoy. Something that showed what she was capable of when she stopped holding back.

Katherine reached the top of the route and tagged the final hold. Then she rappelled down with the same controlled grace, her movements economical and precise.

When her feet touched the ground, she unclipped from the rope and reached for her water bottle.

That’s when she saw them.

Jake watched Katherine go still for just a moment. He could see her read the situation. He’d deliberately brought their newest team member to watch her climb.

She knew exactly what he was doing.

Katherine walked over, wiping chalk dust from her hands, her blue eyes assessing both of them.

“Jake.” Her tone was carefully neutral. “Sammi.”

“Hey, Katie.” Jake smiled. “Thought I’d show Sammi the gym. She mentioned she likes climbing.”

“That was incredible,” Sammi breathed. “I’ve never seen anyone climb like that.”

“It’s just practice.” Katherine took a drink from her water bottle. “Years of practice.”

“That’s not just practice,” Sammi said. “That’s—that’s like professional level.”

Katherine shrugged, but a slight smile touched her face. “I’ve been climbing since I was a kid. My grandfather thought it would be fun.”

And it had been, Jake knew. One of the few things Katherine had chosen for herself, not for training. She’d turned it into an operational tool later, used it on missions across three continents, but climbing had always been hers first.

“Do you come here a lot?” Sammi asked.

“Two or three times a week.” Katherine’s posture relaxed another degree. “It’s good exercise. Keeps me sharp.”

“She’s being modest,” Jake said, meeting Katherine’s eyes. Letting her know this was intentional. “Katie could probably teach the instructors here.”

Katherine shot him a look, but she didn’t contradict him. Didn’t shut it down.

That was permission. Or at least acceptance.

“I should get back to it,” Katherine said. “I’ve got another route to finish.”

“We won’t distract you.” Jake gestured to the seating area.

Katherine nodded and headed back to the wall. Within moments, she was climbing a different route, equally challenging.

Jake gave Sammi time to process. Katherine’s strength and grace, the problem-solving happening in real-time, capabilities that went far beyond recreational athletics.

“This is what you meant,” Sammi said quietly. “About skills.”

“One of them,” Jake confirmed. “Infiltration. Getting into places that should be impossible to access.” He paused, watching Katherine navigate a section that would have stopped most climbers cold. “Climbing’s one of the few things Katie still enjoys from those days.”

Sammi continued tracking Katherine’s progress up the wall. “Why this one? Why not the other skills?”

Jake considered how to answer that. “Because climbing’s just climbing. It doesn’t require her to be someone she’s afraid to be.”

Katherine was at the top of the route now, tagging the final hold with one hand, her body balanced perfectly against the overhang.

She finished the route and started a third one. Jake watched her climb. Up on the wall, Katherine was whole. No carefully acceptable pieces. Just all of her, the way she was supposed to be.

And she was letting Sammi see. She could have stopped. Made an excuse, left. Instead, she was climbing a third route.

“Come on,” he said finally. “Let’s get you home.”

---

Jake drove through the early evening traffic toward Sammi’s home.

“You and Margaret and Lee, you’re trying to help her remember who she was. Before,” Sammi said quietly.

Sharp kid.

“Yeah.” Jake pulled up in front of the Garcia house. “She’s told herself that detective skills are acceptable, operative skills get buried. We think it’s time she stopped splitting herself in half.”

Sammi unbuckled her seatbelt. “Jake? How good was she? Really. In her ESA days.”

Jake met her eyes. “The best I ever saw.”

Sammi nodded and got out.

Jake watched her head inside, then pulled back onto the road. Katie would have questions tomorrow. About the gym, about Sammi, about what he was trying to accomplish.

And he’d answer honestly.

Because small steps toward Katherine whole again, not hiding half of herself because she thought using those skills betrayed Daniel’s memory.

That was worth whatever lecture he’d get tomorrow.