𝗘𝗡𝗗𝗟𝗘𝗦𝗦𝗟𝗬, 𝗰𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗱𝘀 (𝟮)

𝗢𝗡𝗘

"Life brings tears, smiles and memories. The tears dry, the smiles fade, but the memories last forever"
-Unknown-

"Right there!" Maya shouts as she points to the car her, and Derek are in a high-speed chase. Derek finally uses a pursuit interruption technique to stop the sedan they're chasing, but they wind up in the middle of the road- with a huge truck about bearing down on the passenger side of the SUV, the side Maya is on.

"Derek!" Maya shouts outs loudly, her eyes widening in shock.

TWO DAYS EARLIER

"Ah!" Maya grunts as she uses her fist to punch the punching bag multiple times, sweat pouring down her face and chest. She lifts her leg up, delivering a quick kick to the bag before staying steady and doing 4 jabs at a time.

Her phone begins beeping and Maya grabs the punching bag before it moves around and uses her forearm to remove her boxing gloves. She looks down at her phone and sees that the team has to head in for a case despite them having the weekend off.

"Ugh" Maya groans as she spits out her mouth guard and pushes her very sweaty hair that is sticking to the sides of her cheeks out of her face.

_____

Then it's over to Quantico, where everyone is complaining about their plans for the weekend being interrupted by a call into work. Maya arrives last, freshly showered and in a new outfit but new bruises on her knuckles.

"Still boxing?" JJ asks, looking down at Maya's knuckles. "Yeah, a lot" Maya answers as she walks past the rest of the team and starts heading towards the conference room.

"Hey, hey" Derek calls out, catching up with Maya and placing his hand on her back reassuringly.

"Are you okay? You've been boxing a lot recently" Derek wonders and Maya sighs as she rests her hand on Derek's bicep, looking up at him. "I tell you every-time that I'm fine. Boxing just helps me not think about it" Maya states as she pats Derek's arm and proceeds to the conference room where the team gives a rundown of the case.

Two women were abducted and found in a park posed in a praying position. Hotch and Derek start off with some analysis, pointing out that the brutal rape and murder can't possibly be about robbery, since the victims' jewelry was left on their bodies.

"Maybe this is a religious thing. He makes them pay for their sins" Maya declares as she shifts uncomfortably in her seat.

"I doubt that. These women had pretty clean backgrounds" Alex states and Maya scratches that off the list. "Since the posing was done postmortem, maybe it's a representation of the way in which he made them beg for their lives" Reid states and Rossi sighs because they've definitely seen that before.

"He's getting off on the power. Wheels up in 30" Hotch states before he exits the room, the rest of the team packing up their things.

Maya stays behind and closes her eyes, taking deep breaths.