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the reaper
IT'S DARK OUTSIDE WHEN HE SHOWS UP AT HER DOOR. The moon has been high in the sky for hours, and the stars smothered by the city lights. She's got a stomach full of food, and a dessert that pushed her over the edge of satiated right into uncomfortably full. The TV plays low in the background, white noise while she flips through the pages of her textbook and scribbles her notes into the notebook beside it.
Her boyfriend is sprawled on the couch, where she is sitting on the floor, using the coffee table as a makeshift desk. Their close proximity is their makeshift quality time, between their jobs and her education. Silence settled amongst them, but peaceful silence nonetheless.
The knock on the door startles both of them. She shares a confused look with him, but he's already up on his feet, walking across the open floor to peer out the peephole before swinging the door open.
"Agent Hotchner?"
The solemn-faced man gives him a short nod. "Sorry to bother you this late, Agent Bell. Is Jane here?"
"Yeah," Calvin nods hesitantly, brows furrowed worriedly as he turns his head to look at Jane. "It's for you, honey."
Jane pushes herself to her feet, still clutching her pen in her hand as she makes her way over to the door, a smile growing on her face. "Hey, Hotch, what are you doing here? You dropping Jack off for a case?"
He says nothing for a moment, and then sighs, the noise short but disappointed. "Jane. He's back."
The pen clatters to the floor at her feet and Calvin shifts quickly, picking it up and placing a hand on her back to steady her.
"Jane? Baby, you alright?" Calvin looks between his girlfriend and his superior, face twisted in concern. "What's going on, Agent Hotchner?"
Jane reaches around to grab his wrist in her suddenly clammy hand. "Calvin– go, um– go grab our bags, alright?"
"Our– Jane, what's going on? Are we in danger?"
When she meets his gaze, he finds fear in her eyes that he hasn't seen since their first year together, when she was still wary of the real world and of him. Before the trust had sealed itself between them. "It's– it's him, Cal. It's The Reaper."
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She was young, when it happened. Not as young as she'd been when her life had first taken a turn for the worst, but young enough.
Young enough to know that no matter how much time passed, this would never leave her.
Interning at the FBI was a dream most people in her degree path could only hope for. Jane got lucky– she truly got lucky, like her name was picked out of a top hat by a magician, or something. Getting into a good school was hard enough, even after she changed her name, so getting picked to intern for the summer in the FBI's Forensics department was something she couldn't even fathom happening to her.
