❝We might not be that young anymore, but that doesn't mean we have to stop living.❞
Lots of things have changed in the BAU since Dr Theodora Blackwood left the team led by Jason Gideon, because her family needed her at home. Now, after a hiatus of 5...
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CHAPTER 3: DARK AS HIS SOUL (3x8: lucky)
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NOVEMBER 21, A DATE THAT once represented one of the best days in their lives, one full of joy, happiness, tons of ice cream, laughter and love, and now it was no more than just a reminder of all these. Mateo Lombardi would have turned 50 years old today. The magic age. The dividing line in one's life. From this day on, he would have been living on the B side. Same people, same life, but a different soundtrack. Yet, he couldn't enjoy it. His hourglass stopped working after 44 years, freezing his life and not letting them celebrate now. It had wrapped Theo's day in this thick fog she couldn't shake off.
"God, I'm so excited," Grace whispered beside Theo in the elevator as they waited to arrive at the sixth floor. Theo took her out of school for the day—like she did every year—so they could spend it together, and as she had promised her before that she could meet Rossi one day, today seemed to be a good one to make that happen. At least, Grace's mind was occupied with it, instead of thinking about her dad's absence.
"I know you are." Theo smiled, wrapping her arm around Grace's shoulders, and she pulled her closer to plant a kiss onto the top of her head. Grace was almost as tall as her mother, but Theo's high heels added a few extra inches to her height, letting her feel like time hadn't been so cruel and Grace was still just a kid, not a grown woman. "Keep it cool and don't make me regret this, okay?" she asked with a smile, stroking Grace's blonde hair.
"Mom, I'm seventeen," she sighed with a roll of her eyes, and Theo chuckled. Oh, she knew.
On the BAU's floor they stepped out of the elevator and started walking towards the glass doors of the bullpen, when Theo's phone started ringing. She stopped to get it from her handbag, making Grace huff at her angrily. She didn't want to wait any longer. "Mom, come on!" she whimpered loudly, tilting her head back in annoyance.
"I have to take this. Don't go in there alone." Theo pointed at her with a hard stare, then turned away and answered the call. "Theodora Blackwood. Oh, hi, Mrs Watson," she greeted the principal of Grace's school, then her eyebrows furrowed as she listened to what the woman was telling her from the other end of the line.
When Grace heard the name of the caller, she bit her lip and glanced at the bullpen shyly. She really shouldn't go in there, but she didn't want to stay here either. She knew why her mother was getting that phone call, and she couldn't let it ruin her opportunity to finally meet her idol.
"I'm sorry, are you sure you're speaking to the right person? Grace would never do something like that," Theo said with knitted eyebrows, but Mrs Watson had evidence that it was Theo's daughter with another girl and two boys who got caught in the boys' bathroom during biology class, sharing a bottle of vodka. "I can't believe this," Theo muttered, and Mrs Watson asked her to talk to Grace, because if she does something like this again, there'll be serious consequences.
