counting stars | criminal minds [discontinued]

2 1 | M U G G E D

i had original plans for this chapter to be a little angsty, but it ended up being a real fun time

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"did you almost kill us for mcdonald's"

"We're monitoring the situation, but we've not been officially invited on the case," Hotch said.

He was in the bullpen with Morgan, Prentiss, JJ, and Rossi. They were discussing a new murder in the DC area. A prostitute was found shot and her fingers were cut off. Given that it was only one murder, they couldn't be sure if it was serial or a one-time thing. They would still keep their eyes on the investigation though.

While they were busy talking, they almost didn't notice Florence come in for work. Morgan caught her in the corner of his eye though and checked his watch. Surprisingly, Florence had never been late to work before, so he was curious.

"Hey, Sunshine," he called before she could quickly walk away. "C'mere real quick."

Florence paused before turning around and making her way towards them. When they all got a good look at her, they all frowned. Her jeans had fresh rips in the knees, and they could see that the skin was scraped too. She was also holding her left arm against her stomach. Morgan forgot all about asking her why she was late.

"Oh, sweetie, did you fall off your skateboard again?" JJ asked. Then before Florence even answered, she rushed to her office to get her first aid kit.

"Uh, yeah," she mumbled, not looking any of them in the eye. JJ came back and handed the kit to her, just telling her to return it when she was done. "Thanks, JJ."

"Wait, where's your skateboard?" Rossi asked, crossing his arms.

"I decided to walk today. Yeah," Florence said, nodding her head. They all narrowed their eyes. Clearly, her injuries were fresh, meaning she had fallen on the way to work. "I gotta get to the office. Garcia has a ton of files for me to digitize today. Bye."

Florence rushed off before any of them could get another word in.

"I'm no profiler, but that was weird, right?" JJ asked them, looking down the hall Florence disappeared down.

"Clearly she was on her skateboard when she fell this morning," Prentiss said, tilting her head. "Maybe it broke and she had to throw it away?"

"You don't think she would've dramatically made a scene about the death of her board the moment she stepped in the building?" Morgan asked, raising an eyebrow. "I don't think she broke it."

"She didn't have her backpack either," Hotch realized. "She brings her laptop and Capri Suns in it every day."

"Hold on," Rossi said, putting up a hand. "What if someone took it? They knocked her off the board — that explains the injuries. Usually, she doesn't mind telling us about getting hurt while skateboarding. But someone pushed her off, and she hurt her wrist when she fell. He grabs her backpack and her skateboard and runs away. I think Florence got mugged."