Classified light- a criminal minds fan fiction

Healing

"You're turning into a bit of a flight risk kid" Rossi tried to joke as Cameron came back to work, forced to by Hotch who told her that Strauss would find out and send her away if she didn't.

She was half tempted to say 'let her' but the fear of him had suddenly grown stronger ever since she thought she had sent that letter and it all came flooding back.

The pain, the betrayal, the torment; the fear.

She chuckled at Rossi, a familiar laugh that the team didn't think they would hear so soon.

But she was oddly a lot like herself again, smiling brightly, making conversation- nothing like they expected her to be after Hotch called them all to a private meeting and made them vow to not mention anything to do with the Tradesmen, them finding her or what they all assumed they had done to her; he didn't want anyone bringing it up to accidentally upset her, he couldn't let her be upset, he couldn't see her in pain.

But she seemed fine, no, she seemed better than fine.

Cameron was smiling, laughing, joking, wearing her usual kind of clothes instead of trying to dress like an agent or someone she wasn't which she usually did after running away.

She was wearing a pair of blue light wash denim oversized overalls with the legs cuffed and black converse. Underneath the dungarees she was wearing a white t-shirt with embroidered flowers on it, her usual necklace taking its natural place on top of it with a daisy chain necklace sat above it.

Reid watched as she took off her oversized sage green cardigan and bag, placing them on the back of her chair in the briefing room where the aircon had broken just as a heat wave hit the state.

He watched as she flipped her head down and pulled her hair into a bouncy pony tale, pulling out a few face framing pieces as she laughed with Morgan in their conversation he observed quietly, taking in how she moved, how she laughed- how much joy she was radiating from just being her again.

"Jesus Christ- it's like a frigging sauna in here" Emily walked into the briefing room and was hit with the wave of heat as she sat down.

"Yeah- aircon is broken on the 4th floor and they've had to turn it off for everyone above it, which just happens to be us" Rossi sighed and rolled up his shirt sleeves of his shirt that he was already sweating through.

"Wow, I really picked a great day to wear a pant suit" Emily sighed and took off her blazer before looking at Cameron and laughing.

"You look dressed for the weather at least."

Cameron smiled, "my new phone has this thingy that tells me what the weather will be."

Morgan laughed, "that would be called the weather app Cam, every phone has one."

She tilted her head, "then why aren't you all dressed for the weather?"

He smiled at her words that would have been a quip from someone else but was a genuine question from her, "because we're idiots."

"Speak for yourself- I can be smart, occasionally" Rossi laughed and pulled out a battery powered hand held fan from his bag with a smug eyebrow wiggle before frowning at it not turning on.

"Rossi, you might need to put batteries in it first for it to work" Emily rolled her eyes with a chuckle.

"Wow- you're right, you're such a genius Rossi" Morgan teased before spotting Cameron's arm.

"Is that a new tattoo?" He quizzed.

She looked down at the part of her arm where there used to be the faintest outline of a bite mark from Radormir, a fresher one on the opposite arm underneath bandages from the week before that she would also get tattooed over in the following weeks once it healed.