Cruel - Criminal minds enemies to lovers

Interrogation

It had been three weeks since Athena's mother spent the night in her bed.

Three weeks of Athena sleeping on the couch.

Three weeks of constant motherly 'love.'

The explanation of where she had been for 20 years never came, nor what happened the night she 'died,' but the growing resentment of having her around all the time certainly did. 

She wasn't sure if it was her personality, how tired she was having to deal with the brain damage side effects, but coming home from long work days on in-state cases to a pestering mother made a part of Athena wish she had never come back.

The guilt of course always followed, sticking to her constantly like the headaches that stuck like a bad toupee.

She just wasn't used to coming home and seeing her apartment a mess because her mom thought the couch looked better a different way, or coming home from being beaten up by unsubs and having to cook a full meal and lunch for someone else, nor was she used to the back pain that came from the couch that looked far nicer than it felt to spend three weeks on.

Athena had tried to suggest the idea of her spending the night at Morgan's early into her mother's stay, but she quickly shut that down; saying how much she missed her and wanted her to be with her after all the time she had been forced apart.

But when Athena got home after a 6 hour plane ride, two hour drive and 20 minute walk she found her mother fast asleep anyway and all the food in the apartment gone.

'Time spent together' seemed to mean 'brief lecturers about how to improve her life and curtains.'

A divide built in her chest.

On the one hand it was her mother. 

Her mother, the woman she had dreamt about being around for years. 

But on the other hand, it was beginning to look like her mother wasn't a great person like she had thought. 

Athena had spent enough time with her father and men in general to know what gaslighting looked like, to know how guilt tripping felt and enough time with herself to recognise someone who was trying to hide the things they had done to know that her mother's arrival wasn't all good news. 

The constant sly insults followed by quick contradicting compliments of Athena's appearance threw her off, the scrutiny of Morgan made her uncomfortably defensive and her interest in the cases and the team made Athena particularly wary of the woman, but the 5 year old who wished she could hold her mother's cold dead hand for a moment longer won every battle, won every divide, won every doubt.

"You look tired" Rossi's comment barely made her look up from her phone as Athena walked in on Monday morning.

Of course he was right- she was extremely tired in a way she had never been.

The headaches had become a permanent part of her now, she threw up on the way to work every day from the pain, having to take double dosages of her medicine to make up for all the doctors sessions she had missed because her mother 'needed' her.

"Good morning to you too, asshole" she rolled her eyes, hating how people talked about appearances so casually now, pushing past him to sit in the dark briefing room alone. 

Athena always had a funny relationship with being alone.

She used to hate it.

It was all she had ever known, and it was safe, too safe to the point of lonely.