asterias_reverie
The world still knows his name.
Spoken in whispers and fleeting conversations- once showered in glory, now an afterthought.
Tony Stark is missing.
The words are everywhere- on the news, in papers, murmurs in the hallways of the BAU between case files and coffee breaks.
She has been listening since the first moment she saw the headlines, since the first moment her hands shook too hard to hold the paper steady, since the first time a sinking dread crawled it's way into her chest and stayed there.
It's been three months.
Three months of dead ends and unanswered calls. Three months of poring over satellite images, of tracking Stark Industries shipments, of losing sleep over every rumor of a sighting.
Three months of chasing a ghost.
Last known location: Afghanistan.
__________
The BAU is used to secrets.
They are buried in case files and crime scenes, stitched between the words of unsubs, lurking in the spaces between the truth. The team knows how to unearth them, how to read between the lines and how to drag the darkness into the light- kicking and screaming.
Ashlyn Edwards has spent years making sure her past stays there, dead and buried.
But when a case shakes the foundation of her carefully constructed life, she is forced to confront it's ghosts- and the weight of regret, heavy as iron chains.