Sergeant Abigail (Abby) Laurens transfers to the BAU after an operation in Iraq goes horribly wrong and she loses the one man she's ever truly loved. Desperate to escape her guilt she throws herself into her new position but when someone comes back...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
.
abby poured herself the strongest cup of coffee she thought she could bare the taste of. She hovered over by the narrow coffee station at the back of the jet; stirring what little milk she had added. They had been in the air for over four hours and they were all so drained; there wasn't much more information they could get until they landed in Alaska. They had exhausted every possibility and their research reflected it.
"Abby. Have you got a minute?"
She jumped slightly as a very serious-faced Hotch appeared beside her.
"Yeah, I got four hundred and twenty minutes." She looked over at her boss who looked slightly confused, "Because the flight is seven hours and seven times sixty is...you got it." She trailed off, taking a sip of her coffee and flinching. "That's disgusting." She looked inside the mug and shrugged and then threw the whole mug in the trash. "Oops."
"Abby." Hotch said firmly but kindly. "I know what you're doing."
"Hotch, I'm okay. I had my two weeks off to 'process my recent trauma' and it was...fine. It was fine, okay? I'm fine." Abby lowered her voice not wanting the rest of the team to hear but they were too involved in their work to listen. Apart from Spencer who, of course, could do both at once.
"The Bureau tried to insist on a month, minimum," he interrupted her before she had the chance to do so first, "because of the extent of your trauma-"
"Because it was my old CO who shot me, mhm, yeah." Abby smiled sarcastically.
"They wanted to push for two months." Hotch ignored her remarks.
"So, why am I here?" Abby smirked knowingly at the older man.
"Because I told them this is the best place for you to heal. You need people you trust and people who you feel safe around. Do you remember what I told you on your first day?" He said, keeping the same tone throughout.
Abby took a deep breath. She found conversations like this, especially with Hotch, very uncomfortable. It wasn't him; she just had the overwhelming desire to prove herself to those higher in command and admitting that she was finding it hard to adjust to...recent events would not be doing that. But she was grateful that they could have this conversation on the jet and not in Hotch's office as planned.
"To come to you when I had a bad day." Abby resisted the urge to say something sarcastic.
"Has Reid or the team told you about Emily?" Abby nodded. "I said the same to her-"
"That conversation go well, did it? 'Cause I hear she's in London now." Abby snapped involuntarily, she hated this. She just wanted the stupid plane to land. "I'm sorry, Sir, I didn't mean-"
