[✓] 𝐶𝐼𝑁𝐷𝐸𝑅 | 𝐒𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐂𝐄𝐑 𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐃

𝟑 | 𝐋𝐄𝐒𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐒 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐍𝐄𝐃 | 𝟏/𝟐

— 𝒞 —

𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐇𝐑𝐈𝐋𝐋 𝐑𝐈𝐍𝐆𝐈𝐍𝐆 of her cellphone was the first thing Charlie heard as she woke up, and she let out a long groan.

As she reached for the phone on her nightstand, her eyes glimpsed the time on her clock—a little past six in the morning. It was only a half hour before her alarm was supposed to go off, but she would've much rather kept that half hour of sleep. 

"Hello?" she yawned into the phone as soon as she answered the call, settling back onto her pillow.

It was Hotch. "Sorry to wake you."

"Oh, no, I was already" —another yawn— "awake."

Hotch chuckled at her obvious lie. "Well, you need to be at the office as soon as possible. It's urgent."

She frowned. "All right. See you soon."

Once Hotch had hung up, she slowly sat herself up and leaned her head back against the headboard. A long sigh passed through her lips as she shut her eyes, and it took a lot of willpower to open them again.

Sleepily, she forced herself to get out of bed and stumbled her way into the bathroom.

Her eyes squinted as she flicked the lights on, and she stood still for a moment as she let herself get used to the brightness. Letting out another sigh and wishing she could just crawl back into bed, she stepped toward her sink and washed her face.

She swiftly brushed her teeth before combing the tangles out of her hair. Once it was straight enough, she brushed it behind her shoulders and leaned forward to get a better look at herself in the mirror as she applied light makeup.

She then headed to her closet and quickly changed into a white blouse that she tucked into black jeans, and she tugged up the puffy sleeves to her forearms. She slid a couple of gold rings on, and she admired them for a second as the light glinted off them.

It was half past six by the time she had slipped on a black coat and grabbed her purse. She hurried down her apartment building and to the parking lot, a shiver immediately sent down her spine as the chilly air embraced her.

A beep rang into the silent air as she unlocked her car, and she sighed as she sat down in the driver's seat, dropping her purse into the passenger seat. She let her head fall back against the headrest, and she prayed that whatever emergency it was, it wasn't that bad (though the fact that Hotch said it was urgent wasn't all too reassuring).

The office wasn't too busy when she got there, and it seemed that she wasn't the only one who was tired when spotted Spencer making coffee in the kitchen.

She plopped her stuff onto her desk—which happened to be the one pushed against Spencer's—before wandering towards the kitchen.

"Tired?" chuckled Spencer as she used her hand to cover another yawn.

"Oh, just a little." She sighed, using one hand to accept the coffee pot that he then held towards her while grabbing a mug with the other. "I'm assuming this is another thing I'm gonna have to get used to?"

He chuckled once more, turning and leaning back against the counter as he used a popsicle stick to stir in the sugar he had just poured in. "Just wait till the two AM calls."

She only groaned as she poured the coffee into the mug, and the bitter aroma helped to wake her up.

She heard the door open, though she paid it no mind as she spooned a bit of sugar into her mug and grabbed a popsicle stick to mix it in.