the girl who i love(d)

the briefing

|chapter tws: mentions of overdose, murder/death, suicide, guns, SA (rape), and injuries|

a/n: i'm so sorry, i forgot to mention elle's appearance!! it's the straight long hair look, as if she never changed it :) now enjoy!

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JJ rushed into the briefing room, where all of the team was sitting. "We've got a case," she spoke and walked over to the front of the room. Without allowing anyone to comment on her entrance or what she was doing, she started projecting images of the case she was referring to.

"Oh, god, JJ!" Garcia exclaimed, turning her face to look away from the terrible sights in front of her.

"Sorry, Pen." JJ replied to the obvious fear on her friend's face. "Ah, don't worry," Derek started with his usual playful smirk, "She'll survive, especially if she's going to-"

"Elle."

Reid stared at the woman in the doorway, in shock and disbelief. She was stood there; completely unaffected by the events of their last case together, the Fisher King case. Her wounds were obviously not as bad as they were before and you could tell that just by looking at her stance, how normal it was. She wasn't leaning on anything for support. She looked like it had never happened.

"Yeah, I was gonna say if she's gonna replace her for the time being, but-" Morgan cut himself off when he realized that Reid was talking about something behind him. He turned in his chair, and so did everyone else in the room to see their teammate once again. 

Gideon looked over last, staring right into her eyes. "Elle. What are you doing here?"

"We have a case to solve. Or at least that's what I heard JJ say, unless I heard wrong."

There was a moment of silence. Each profiler in the room could tell that she was being defensive so they would take the hint, 'don't ask any questions because i am not going to leave.' And just her plain old friends could tell that she wasn't doing okay. She would never usually say these things. The injuries may have been cured, but her mind surely wasn't.

Hotch leaned a bit back in his chair, giving Gideon a glance. When the look was transferred and understood by the other man, JJ realized that it was the time for her to continue and break the silence. As she began explaining the case, Elle took a seat beside Reid, who was listening but also never taking his eyes off of her. He didn't care who saw him looking. He had to be worried about his bestfriend, or nothing would change. And they all needed her to get better if they'd get their sexual offense specialist, only female field agent, and close friend back.

"Okay, there are seven victims in total. This is the most recent one; Ivy Sawyer, 23. Born and raised here just about 40 minutes from us, she was known as the city, Falls Church's, signal of luck. She was a student at Stratford University when she went missing about two weeks ago, then her body was found at the front of her home just 24 hours later."

"And the reason for getting the case so late?" Aaron asked from his spot at the table.

"As usual, nothing tied in. The only noticeable thing that's the same is the cause of death, but because this unsub has killed seven women over nine months, they were all labelled suicides, and they're each in different cities. Local PD hasn't had a reason to connect it."

"What's the major difference?" Morgan's voice spoke.

"Age," the agent switched photos on the screen so that it would no longer be showing a dead corpse, "and lifestyle."

She began showing pictures of each female that had been killed, but instead of their lifeless bodies, the screen showed old pictures of them smiling with their families -- in graduation photos, or just overall throughout their lives. Some even included their families and friends, but none of them showed remote signs of unhappiness. That part especially made Penelope's stomach turn, possibly worse than her stomach felt when she saw the bodies.