Sadie's hand trembled as Luke uttered those three words, triggering a wave of panic. The echoes of her mother and father saying the same words, followed by pain and abandonment, flooded her mind.
Flashbacks haunted her, but when Luke reassured her, she couldn't reciprocate. "Sadie... you don't have to say it back. I just wanted you to know that I love you." His words made her flinch, and she stepped back, holding back tears.
"I can't," she muttered softly, haunted by the fear of history repeating itself. "Can't what? Please, Sadie, talk to me," Luke pleaded, but she had already decided. The specter of potential heartbreak or worse, abuse, pushed her to leave.
"I can't..." she said, turning to walk away. Sadie left Luke bewildered and hurt, ending their year-long connection and breaking his heart.
Following their breakup, Sadie disappeared from Luke's life without a trace. She immersed herself in profiling classes, determined to become a profiler. Unexpectedly, she found her place in the Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU).
What she never anticipated was the twist of fate that brought Luke into the same professional sphere. Two years after their parting, he joined the BAU.
Could the challenges they faced in the BAU lead Luke and Sadie to rediscover their connection and find their way back to each other?
You've worked as a member of the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Team for 4 years now - a career you dreamt of growing up. But 6 months ago, the love of your life was ripped from you suddenly in the worst case of your career.
To this day you still can't wrap your head around it - how little you knew about the woman you'd planned to marry someday, why she chose to disappear without her team, why she'd put herself in a position where you could lose her.
So many questions had been occupying your mind ever since her funeral, but one thing was for sure:
Every bit of joy you had left in you died with Emily Prentiss that day.
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Dreaming of Emily being alive again had been the only thing keeping you going so far. But the reality of that might be quite different to how you'd expect.