Mo grá

Call It What You Want

At 7:00 I'm sitting in an armchair in the lobby of the hotel. My first (second?) cup of coffee is in my hand.

Hotch throws an apple at me. I catch it with one hand without looking up from the spot on the far wall I'm staring at.

"Eat." He says.

"Yes, sir," I say sarcastically as I take a bite.

"You look tired," Reid says as he stands next to me.

JJ hits him lightly in the arm. "Spence."

"Thanks, Reid." I glare up at him, failing to hide a small smile.

To be honest, I'm exhausted. I got maybe three hours of sleep last night, and they weren't exactly great.

I realize Reid's still talking to me. "What?" I look up at him.

"I said, the amount of time we sleep doesn't actually matter as much. When we wake up in our sleep cycles is what really affects how tired we feel."

"Thanks, Kid Genius, but I'm pretty sure you have to sleep to have sleep cycles," I say with a smirk.

"Yeah, good point."

I focus my attention on Harris fully as she approaches me, Reid, and JJ. I take a bite out of my apple to avoid having to talk.

"You get any sleep?" she asks.

Reid answers for me. "No."

I glare at him again as he shrugs.

Morgan walks over laughing. "Prentiss tends to do this thing where she works herself to death and pretends she's completely fine."

Harris looks down at me and raises her eyebrows. "Sounds healthy."

"It's too early for this shit," I mutter.

"Language," Reid says next to me.

I finally break into a smile as Morgan, JJ, and Harris laugh.

"You guys ready to go?" Hotch asks from the door.

"Yeah, coming." I stand up, the four of them surrounding me.

Morgan is right in front of me, his eyes a good half foot above mine. I look up at him with a small smile. "Time to go play firefighter," I say.

"Yeah, I'd bet you look great in that uniform." He gives me a cocky grin. "Or maybe just part of it."

🦋

Twelve hours later and we have our unsub in custody. She was laying low but had to set another fire to ease her compulsions. When she did, we got her. Thankfully, no one else got hurt.

The jet landed about an hour ago, but I'm sitting at my desk in the BAU.

Hotch told me to go home but I wanted to get started on the cases JJ gave me at the beginning of the week.

She's in her office right now, the only other person here besides me and Morgan, who sits at his desk.

It's late, the moon shining through the windows. The only other light comes from the two desk lamps we're using.

Another hour passes when I shut the file in front of me, resting my head in my hands.

JJ warned me it was a bad one.

I'm used to the violence. Broken bodies, blood, and gore often fill my cases. Horrible weapons and methods of hurting other people. But this...

They were ripped apart. Literally ripped apart.

I massage my temples, trying to ease the tension headache behind my eyes.

"Emily?" Morgan notices me hunched over.

I look up to meet his eyes across the room.

Silently, I get up from my chair and walk over to him. I sit on his desk, looking down into his face. He doesn't say a word as she moves to sit beside me.

"It's just..." My voice trails off as I try to find the words. "It's a bad one," I say quietly.

"Do you want a second opinion?"

"No, I got it, I just... needed a break."

JJ walks around the corner into the office. "Hey guys, I'm heading out."

🦋

Thud

My fist connects with the punching bag, the chains jingling as it swings.

Thud

Jab, cross, long hook.

The bag swings back towards me.

Front kick with my left, spinning around into a back kick with my right.

The chains clink as they collide.

I'm facing the bag again, my fists flying in my white gloves.

Jab, jab, cross. Right hook. Slip left. Right thrust, left short hook.