counting stars | criminal minds [discontinued]

2 9 | S U P E R V I S I O N

"i watch tiktoks"

For Florence's first night home, Garcia and Morgan tag-teamed her for the night. Once everyone else had gone home, they helped her get ready for bed. While she had been happy to be surrounded by the people she loved, Florence was exhausted.

Garcia changed out her bandages, doing her best not to make a disgusted face when she saw the wounds — Florence had never actually looked at them, so she didn't want to give away how bad they were. Then, Morgan helped her get back into her bed while Garcia fixed all the medicines she needed to take. She also laid out the second dose that they'd have to wake up in six hours to give to her again.

"Do you want me to stay in here until you go to sleep?" Garcia asked, brushing some of her hair back.

Florence shook her head and yawned. The pain medicine was keeping her sleepy. "I'm alright. Thank you both for staying."

"No problem, Sunshine," Morgan said, leaning against the door frame. "We'll both be down the hall and will hear if you need anything."

"I am so glad we have you back, Sweetie," Garcia said, kissing her forehead. "Goodnight."

"Night," Florence muttered tiredly.

Morgan flicked the lights off, and then he and Garcia went to sit in Florence's living room. It was still a little early for them to go to bed. They stayed up for another two hours, just watching tv and talking. Eventually, though, Garcia got up to go to sleep in the guestroom — Morgan had oh so kindly offered to take the couch.

"You know, I thought that with all that pain medicine, she'd be knocked out so much that she wouldn't snore," Morgan said, grinning. "But no. It sounds like there's an abominable snowman loose in her room."

"At least you're farther from the sound than me," Garcia said, chuckling. "I should've brought some earplugs."

"Yeah, well—"

Morgan stopped, hearing Florence's snores suddenly cut off and turn into a scream.

"No! NO, PLEASE! HELP!"

Morgan was on his feet in a second and running back to her bedroom, with Garcia quickly following. He rushed into the room and saw Florence thrashing around in her bed, trying to fight off the danger in her dream. Her screams were like the ones from the video Hallowell had sent of her.

Morgan ran over and held her arms down to keep her from hurting herself more. "Florence. Baby Girl, I need you to wake up," he said in a calm voice.

It took several more moments for Florence to snap awake, yelling in alarm as she did. She tried to pull away from Morgan's hold, still thinking she was in her dream. Garcia quickly turned on the lamp in the corner so that Florence could see them. Florence finally saw that it was Morgan holding her and not Halliwell and she froze.