Cruel - Criminal minds enemies to lovers

Slipping Through My Fingers

(warning girlies, this is a tear jerker of a chapter to bring us back lowkey sdgsgfss sorry!) 

Athena had solved the case, again.

She had chased the perp down fourteen flights of stairs, again.

She had been held at gunpoint, again.

She had out-witted, out-smarted, out-beat-a-criminal-with-a-steal-pipe- yet again.

And as she sat on the edge of yet another ambulance at the end of a too-long case she hadn't signed up for, someone else's blood splattered on her pregnant stomach, she thought of each time she had sat in this position before, sans the child sitting on her bladder.

The familiar rush of adrenaline swam through her veins, her pupils were dilated as the medic cleared her of a concussion, the smell of alcohol wipes on her scrapes brought a sense of comfort she only assumed other people felt when they returned to their childhood homes, of course her childhood home was a number of cult tunnels now burnt to a crisp.

She heard Hotch and Morgan's argument down the road, she knew she should interrupt, be a 'strong independent woman' who didn't need defending or standing up for in either side of the argument, but she was tired, her ankles were swollen and her back hurt more than when she was skinned alive.

Torture she could handle, pregnancy? Now that was something else.

 "Penny for your thoughts?" A soft voice broke the silence as Reid came into view.

"You know I'm yet to receive this illusive penny from you Mr Reid" she chuckled through a yawn, patting the spot next to her on the cold ambulance edge for him to take.

A beat of silence passed.

Then another.

Then one more before he gathered the courage to turn to her.

 "So..."

"It's fine."

"What?" He tilted his head with confusion at her almost peaceful face that turned lazily towards him.

"You're sorry, sorry for not talking to me, sorry for not being there, sorry I was brought back, sorry for everything- it's fine, it's always fine, everyone's always sorry, everyone always wait's for me to say it's fine."

He sat in the silence for a moment before clearing his throat quietly.

"You... you did really good out there, on this case, I mean... you seemed like you again."

Athena didn't respond as he left her side, but a flicker of a small smile fought on her lips before the paramedic helped her up so he could leave.

"When are you due?" He smiled down at her stomach.

"Oh I've been in labor for the last seven hours" she replied too casually, staring down the road where Morgan pushed Hotch before storming her way.

"You've what?"

Athena had walked away before he had time to process her confusing sentence, meeting an understandably furious Morgan halfway down the street she had just chased a 6ft man down with a crowbar.

"Get your stuff, we're getting a different flight back" he wouldn't meet her eye, he was mad at her, she knew that, she wanted him to be.

"I don't think I will" she spoke almost as if in a daze, waltzing past a bubbling Morgan who turned sharply.

"Excuse me?"

"I didn't know it was meant to be a full moon tonight" she smiled lazily at the night sky.