the devil may care // s.reid

chapter 5 - i'm still alive, aren't i?

tw: talking about events from the previous chapter

Melanie woke up with a sharp pain in her leg. What time was it? 9.57, oh fuck she was late to work. Yeah Hotch had given him some time off from work, but she definitely wasn't going to use it. Moreno had been trough much worse.

She got up and hopped into the bathroom on one leg. Melanie had forgotten her crutches into the living room so this was what she had to do. She took of her bandages. Moreno wanted to scream when she saw her shoulder. She felt so disgusting every time she saw that word on her skin. The scar would be there forever, was she going to feel disgusted forever?

She quickly put new bandages on the wounds. She jumped back to her bedroom and got changed. She continued the jumping all the way to her living room where she finally grabbed her crutches. Using the crutches all day long really made her hands hurt. Melanie was going to be furious if she didn't have as big biceps as Morgan did after the constant hand workout the crutches made her endure.

Moreno started to drive to the office and at 10.34 she was finally standing in the elevator. Everyone was shocked to see her when she walked out of the elevator with her crutches. "What? I still need to do the paperwork that you all know i love so much" she joked and started to walk towards her desk. "Pretty boy over here already took care of all your paperwork for the next three weeks" Morgan said with a big smirk on his face.

"I'm late for couple hours and he's already stealing my job" Melanie said with made up offense in her voice. She mouthed a thank you to Spencer and gave him a soft smile. "Well then i guess i just have to sit here and look pretty" she joked while Hotch walked up to her desk.

"May i have a word with you agent Moreno" Hotch said while being as professional as he could. "Hotch i'm sorry that i was late, it won't happen again" Melanie said hoping that her being late was the thing he wanted to talk about. "To my office. Now" he said firmly, making it clear that her being late wasn't the topic of the talk he wanted to have.

She followed him into his office and sat across from him. "Melanie what the hell are you doing here?" Hotch asked with a slight anger in his voice. "I know i'm supposed to rest but i just can't. I would rather be dead than stay in bed for three weeks" Melanie answered and Hotch just looked her angrily. "Oh yeah oops, i forgot that probably this isn't a good time for 'rather be dead' jokes" she said slightly laughing awkwardly. "But i mean it, i don't want to stay home. I would rather stay off the field and do the boring profiling work than stay at home" she continued and Hotch's look softened.

"I don't want you in the field until your wounds are healed. Am i making myself clear?" Hotch asked and she nodded excitedly in response. "Thank you so much, i understand" she responded with a smile on her face. "I'm not done. You will not do any paperwork, Reid already took care of that and you will be arriving at work 10.30 for the next three weeks so you can get enough sleep" Hotch continued setting up more rules for her. Melanie didn't care about the rules as long as she was still able to work with her team. "Thank you Hotch, this means a lot to me" Moreno said. Hotch gave her a list of things she needed to do today and after that she was dismissed.

— — —

"I just don't think it's good for her to be back already" Melanie heard Spencer say to Hotch when she arrived to the briefing room. Hotch had sent her to a lunch break and obviously her team wasn't expecting her to be back so soon. All of them were having a team meeting without her, they were all talking about her. Obviously she was a bit offended as she looked at her teammates.
"Guys please don't blame Hotch. I basically begged him to let me stay here. I would've even gotten on my knees if i didn't have this whole leg thing going on" she said making her teammates give her a little smile.