SECT BOUND . aaron hotchner

3.10

The day had passed slowly, Annie using the seemingly endless lists of people she still needed to contact to distract her from the previous events that day. The more she concentrated on acting professional the less she filled with a mixture of worry and dread and her mind played possible imaged of her family's fate. There were times - when she had been waiting for her messages to be returned - where Annie's heartbeat had caused her ribs to ache and her sternum to feel as though it had become weak. The pounding was all she could hear in those moments, her brain stuck in a trance she wished would end.

However, for the majority of the time, Annie was able to keep her fear locked in the furthest and darkest room of her mind. It was double bolted and surrounded by a river of her own tears, to get to it she would have to drown. She wasn't about to let her colleagues watch her break down, not now that she had shown them the dedication her strength. When she felt her lungs burning as they began to fill with her saline soaked sadness, she would glance to the framed photo of Jack that sat on her desk – the old photo of Elisha and Eden as toddlers resting in the corner of the frame – and she would convince herself that her lives could and would co-exist. Her heart may have ached for the comfort of her earlier life, but she knew that if anything was changed, she would lose the people she held close to her now.

The office had emptied before the woman stood from her desk, crossing the carpet to look out of the window and towards the remaining agents in the bullpen. In a few seconds, she had opened the door and made her way over to them, forcing a smile to her face as she hid the conflict that burnt deep inside. No matter how okay she was, she would never be woundless again. The two agents didn't notice her cracked eyes, nor the darkness that framed them from her sleepless night, they simply saw her smile and returned it.

Without thinking, the woman had pushed herself onto the edge of Derek's desk, causing his to shake his head in amusement, "You know you could have just taken Reid's chair."

"Then I would have still been shorter than you, and where's the fun in that?" Annie joked, having brought a certain amount of light back to her eyes. "You two waiting here for fun, or have I interrupted the dream team as they try to complete the paperwork?"

Emily let a hum of amusement vibrate across her lips, pulling her desk chair towards the only remaining people in the bullpen, "Could ask you the same question, I don't think many people will be answering their phones at this time of night. Even if it is you on the other end."

"Was that a complement, Em?" The ginger queried, her tone light and fruity as she sat with her friends. "I need to write my reports and observations up, the FBI doesn't accept it in note form apparent."

"That's a shock." Emily responded sarcastically, leaving back in the chair as she let out a slight yawn. "I have way too much paperwork left from the last case, Morgan is-" She paused, turning to face him, "What are you doing?"

He raised his shoulder, looking between the two women before him, "I've just got a gut feeling that were gonna get a call. I'd rather not be half way through a beer when it comes through."

"Smart man," Emily muttered. "It's better to be safe than sorry, can't risk wasting half a beer."

"Right," Annie interjected. "You can't even put it in the fridge and finish it when you get back, because you never know how long our cases are going to last."

The male agent nodded, "Remember our week and a half in Ohio, Prentiss, that was one of the longest cases I've ever worked."

"It was raining, like the entire time we were there." Emily groaned as she recalled the time Derek was discussing. "I think this job is the reason I don't take vacations; I have seen the worst of every state at this point."