Blood Be Thrown ✷ Aaron Hotchner

III. Those Willing to Drown

III.  Those Willing to Drown

ORPHEUS
          How can you forgive me?

EURYDICE
          It wasn't your fault.

ORPHEUS
          Whose, then?

EURYDICE
           Fate.

✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦      ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦ . 　⁺ 　 . ✦

LAUREL ATWOOD

For a mildly renowned federal agent who carries around a gun and runs into the slightest flash of danger, Laurel hates conflict.

She wonders if she's always despised it — she can't remember that far back. There were times as a child when her parents happy, go lucky marriage wasn't all that it was cut out to be, and she'd sit on the top step of the stairs, listening to them argue in the kitchen about who would pay the next bill, and where seven year old Laurel would go when they were both out of the house working. It was why her mother had ended up taking a work from home job in the end — she hadn't wanted to Ryne to come back to an empty home after school each day. Things had been bad for a while — then they had gotten better, and then they had gotten much worse.

Laurel hated conflict in her sophomore year of high school, she was sure of that. That was the year that her and Lily had started growing up, and taking an interest in boys — it was also the year they had their biggest falling out. Laurel hadn't been the most trend setting kid in high school, that was for sure — she preferred the drums to dancing, the library to the middle of the cafeteria. Lily, on the other hand, had been a full blown cheerleader alongside the ones that made fun of Laurel in the middle of the hallway. It wasn't to say that Laurel didn't have a few special words for those cheerleaders, because even back then she had the same backbone she holds now, or that Lily didn't defend her every single time, but for that period of time Laurel remembers the rift that had driven between them, causing an awkward tension to spread through every room they were simultaneously in.

When they had eventually resolved it before the beginning of junior year, Laurel had all but let out several breaths of relief, conflict finally leaving her system.

So, it would be ironic that of all the jobs she ended up in, it had to be the one with the most possible conflict. The only job with more possible conflict than this is if Laurel decided to become an MMA fighter.

After speaking to Mae Hall's father, Laurel was left with a renewed sense of anticipation and energy to find Aimee Lynch, and what had happened to Mae Hall. Maybe it was because Mr Hall reminded Laurel so much of her own father, who had first lost his wife, and then thought he lost his daughter. However, Laurel would dwell on that another time — now, she was focused on the children who were all missing.

After her talk with Mr Hall, they had gathered back in the conference room, where they had concluded a list of people who fit the profile and were on an essentially naughty list from social services. Laurel was impressed to find how easily Garcia was able to narrow down half of the people on the list, and then a quarter, until they were left with twenty three. Still, each agent held hesitation as they approached the situation, knowing they had to get it right the first time around.

Ryne finds herself with Hotch, Rossi, and JJ as they approach each house, asking how many children, where they are. There are some houses that are quickly eliminated due to a lack of fit to the profile they've created, or simply because the children are in plain sight and neither Charlie nor Aimee are among them.