THERE SHE GOES . . . ━︎ criminal minds

one . . .

EXTREME AGGRESSOR;
season one, episode one.

Joseph Conrad said . . . 'The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary. Men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.'

Grace Ackles was an optimist. She was an optimist in her love life, when she could never figure out why her relationships only consisted of one night stands. She was an optimist in her social life, when she was constantly rooting for everybody's happiness, sometimes at the detriment of her own. She was even an optimist in her work life, when day after day she had to look into the faces of murder victims, and try and bring them to justice by catching their killers.

Yet, Grace was no optimist for her own mental or physical health. She knew there was no use for it. She consistently put herself into situations which had the potential to harm her - both mentally and physically - and she didn't seem to care. Whether that was because she was self deprecating, or because she believed she no longer had the ability to hurt anymore, nobody knew.

It was like the woman had no control over her emotions. She was the most happy and excitable and emotional person anyone had ever met, and most people believed that to be true - because it was, in a way. Smiling and laughing (and in Grace's case, singing) every single day is what was able to keep her going. But getting closer to her is when people were able to see the real Grace. The Grace that had permanent iron walls built around her every single day of her life. The Grace that had been beaten and bruised and knocked down by the universe too many times to count.

There was only one person that knew that Grace. For now. And his name was David Rossi. He had witnessed the most traumatic days of the woman's life, and had been there for her ever since. He always checked up on Grace, especially since she began working at the BAU, even if he was on book tours, or doing some other thing he does now that he'd retired.

The agent inhaled sharply as the thud of footsteps filled her ears. She had been away from the BAU for three months on an undercover job in Los Angeles, and had only returned to Quantico two days ago. Even though the man she was undercover to find had found out about her being an agent, and shot her in the left arm (just four days ago), Grace was entirely willing and happy to return back to the most favourite part of her job. Being a profiler. It's what she was good at.

Strauss had only chosen her for the undercover job because the agent she originally wanted to send backed out. Grace was always thrilled to help out anyone, so she offered to go. Despite the protests of Agent Hotchner, her boss, Strauss agreed, and Grace was sent to Los Angeles without a goodbye to her team. But she didn't like the undercover life. She had to be mean and rude and quiet, and that was not like Grace. So she was ecstatic to be back.

Grace loved being a profiler. It was all she ever wanted to do.

Morgan had called and informed her that they had been given a new case, so she agreed to meet him and Hotch outside of their office building before taking the car to the plane.

"Hey." Morgan rushed to give his friend a quick hug, knowing how little time they had for this case. "Hi, hey!" She grinned up at the two men, happy to see them both again after three months. Morgan and Grace were best friends, other than her longest friend, Jeannie Katz. When Grace met Morgan, they just clicked - and ever since her first day on the job, they were inseparable.

Hotch stiffened, almost uncomfortable to talk, "Grace, you should stay behind for this case. You've only just got back, you shouldn't rush into the field again."