❝ But I'm only human
and I bleed when I fall down ❞
The Behavioral Analysis Unit team around Aaron Hotchner gets called in to assist on a serial killer case in New York where they meet the young and surprisingly talented Special Agent Skylar Brown...
!TW! mentions of rape, possible graphic description, panic attack, mentions of suicide & alcholism, self harm
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Before she died, Irene Brown was a great mother. No parent is ever perfect, but it was Skylar's humble opinion that her mother came the closest to the definition. Irene always put her family first. She strived for her daughter's happiness, willing to go to the ends of the earth for her. She was proud to be a mother. It's what she had always wanted.
Irene grew up in a broken home, that's why she had wished for a house full of children since she was a child herself. She wanted to be better than her parents, make her children feel loved, and take care of them. But instead, she fell in love with a man whose only love has ever been the military. They got married young, had a daughter and then, Irene had to raise her all on her own. Her wish for a house full of children faded more and more every day.
Even though she wasn't exactly happy, she tried her hardest to make the best out of it. After all, she had loved Michael. She had loved him so incredibly. Michael had loved her, too, he still did, but he wasn't exactly good at expressing his emotions.
Irene used to appear as the happiest woman with the brightest laugh and a world full of possibilities ahead of her. A great musician passing her gift onto the children she taught.
She always put her daughter's happiness over hers. Skylar remembered her open-mindedness, the way she always saw the good in people and hardly ever discriminated against someone. Irene hardly got angry, only at the people that tried to put her family down. They always tried to tell her that she was too young, but she proved them wrong every single time.
Skylar grew up with a lot of rituals. Every morning was the same; it taught her that a structured lifestyle was important — maybe that was why she was so afraid of ever losing control. She grew up with a strict schedule. Once that was gone, she soon realized things aren't as easy as they seem when you're an adult.
Irene used to ask her a question every night before bedtime.
"What is one good thing that happened to you today?"
As a child, Skylar's answers varied from I got an A in English or I caught a frog on expedition today. It wasn't so hard to find happy things because children see the good in everything. As Skylar got older though, happiness started to fade. The picture of her fading mother hiding behind a facade of happiness became clearer. And she started to think that maybe, happiness was nothing but an illusion for when life is falling apart, and it always falls apart in the end.
Irene got pregnant again when Skylar was eighteen. She had always wondered what it would be like to have a little sibling running around. Her mother was beyond happy when she found out the good news. The smile that had slowly started to fade had reappeared and Skylar was happy to see her happy. The illusion turned to truth, which proved to her that maybe there was some hope after all. They planned the nursery, they planned to build a playground in the backyard; Irene was all too invested in her vision of the perfect family.
