Cruel - Criminal minds enemies to lovers

The agent and the tourist

Athena was back at work.

Something she had never thought would happen ever again, partly because she thought she would escape and take down her mother on her own and partly because she thought she would be dead.

Still, after reluctantly coming back to America with Morgan once he was discharged from the hospital, she was brought to another council meeting with Hotch where they told her she would have to go back to working on cases with the team to serve her sentence which had doubled given her escape. They asked her, no- they told her that she would have to do this alongside helping the team track down and put a stop to her mother which meant they wanted to keep her around to use her as some sort of bait."

"They can do that to you again" Morgan said as they drove to work together.

"They're the frigging FBI my dude, they can do whatever they want- there's only so many times I can take them down" she shrugged with a chuckle, flipping through the manual she had been given before throwing it into the back of the car.

"How to be a good employee- chapter one, don't try and kill your team" she said in a mocking tone at the pamphlet. Morgan laughed and turned to her with a smile.

"What are you staring at, idiot?" She looked over at him.

"Just nice to see you dressed for work again, it's nice to see you next to me again" he smiled.

"Careful with that tone, it doesn't say it in the handy dandy pamphlet but I think sleeping with your co-workers is almost as frowned upon as trying to kill them and I've done both with you" she joked.

"Yeah you have" he smirked.

"Ew- I forgot how gross you are" she teased. 

Since Athena couldn't go back to her apartment because her mom knew where it was, she had been partly staying with Morgan at his apartment and partly staying in the hotel across from the office where she had once basically lived when she was hiding from her father. The irony of it being yet another parent that was forcing her to hide out that hotel had not missed her.

Morgan had offered her to stay with him the whole time instead of going back and forth and even though she wanted to, and she desperately did, she said she should have her own space. She felt weird how much she wanted to be with him all of the time, to be constantly in his arms after being without him but she knew that it wasn't a good idea to basically move in with him after not 'being together' for a while. Or maybe she was just trying to distance herself in some way to protect herself, she wasn't quite sure. She was surprised that she didn't feel any left-over resentment for him after how he treated her and blamed her for what happened to his mother, who was now back in Chicago out of her coma and making a speedy recovery, but she didn't. She just wanted to be around him, to be with him.

He had made them sit down and talk about everything that had happened with them much to her reluctance, he said that it was important to him that they continue properly in a way that made sure they both understood each other and he had the chance to apologise to her so they could go forward together without any resentment. She told him how she was fine to just let it all go and move on but he needed her to understand why he was sorry.

"Do you need me to understand or do you need me to forgive you to make you feel better?" She said two hours into their talk one evening, he paused.

"Because I forgive you Morgan. I understand why you thought that, I understand why you acted like you did- it doesn't mean it hurt any less, doesn't make it any less shitty" she added, she was tired and had spent the majority of the evening just nodding and not taking in much of the heartfelt words he said.