"Where's McDowell?" Hotch demanded, rushing into the room the local police station had set up for them.
"Break room," Morgan answered, sifting through the pile of crime scene photos on the table in front of him.
"I'll get her," Reid offered, heading to the break room.
She was in there, head down, her hair shielding her face as she stared into the mug clutched in her hands. He wondered what she was drinking, because she didn't like coffee.
Her head lifted when she heard him before he'd even called her name.
Reid's eyes widened in surprise and he immediately asked, clearly worried, "What happened?" as he came into the room and sat down next to her.
Her lip was split, a bead of blood seeping from it, and she had a small cut on her head, a drip of blood drying right above her eyebrow. McDowell quickly turned away, her fingers flexing uncomfortably around the mug in her hands.
"Hey, are you okay?" Reid asked her, touching her chin and turning her head so she was facing him, but she irritatedly pulled back and swatted his hands away.
She paused a beat before answering solemnly, "I went to see my dad."
"Did he hurt you?" Reid immediately jumped to the conclusion, concern overpowering the anger at someone hurting her.
"No. Well, sort of," she said, falling silent again before continuing, "He didn't even know who I was. He was having a fit and when I came in he just kind of...attacked me. Yelling, throwing stuff, he hit me."
This was the most Reid had ever heard about her father, and he could already see why she never talked about her family.
She stared down at the mug in her hands. Reid noticed a smear of red on the rim from her split lip. She looked back up at him, and he almost thought she was going to start crying but then the whole set of her face changed, her eyes hardening, her jaw set.
"Well, now you know why I don't talk about my family," McDowell said, her voice icy and bitter before she took another sip of whatever was in her mug.
It was then that Reid caught a faint hint of whiskey.
"Did Hotch want me?" she asked, getting up and going over to the sink to rinse the mug and wash the blood off her face.
"Yeah, we got a break in the case," Reid answered casually, deciding to just go along with the fact that she was pretending everything she'd just said hadn't even happened.
He'd have to talk to Morgan and go visit McDowell's father, perhaps.
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Criminal Minds One Shots
FanfictionA collection of story blurbs containing cut material and alternate scenes from my book Unknown- A Criminal Minds Fanfic but also some random Criminal Minds stories featuring the members of the BAU and the character Charlie McDowell. Not all stories...
