Battleground | Criminal Minds (gxg)

Chapter 17

Carli's POV

Pain is an interesting thing. There's the kind of pain that chips away at your soul, death by a thousand cuts, that works at your heart until there's nothing left. There's the kind of pain that is a crashing wave of heartache that knocks you to the floor and steals the oxygen from your lungs. That leaves you crying and screaming and begging for it to go away. There's pain that burns like flame, or stings like ice when it touches you. Pain that steals the scream from your lips and the thoughts from your head as a blade plunges into your flesh. Pain from a ripping bullet that leaves you in shreds.

And there's smaller pain. A headache that won't go away. A drag in your footsteps pulling your heart out of your chest. A numbing feeling of falling, further and further away from what it was like before it hurt to breathe.

And then there's the pain in your thigh when you're lying on the couch after being stabbed three days ago and you want to saw your leg off because the pain meds don't do shit.

The tv is on but I'm not paying attention. My body aches with a lack of sleep and fire shoots through my leg every time I shift. I haven't been sleeping. Last night I finally got maybe an hour or two, only for it to be interrupted by a panic attack. And yes, I proceeded to fall off my bed and hit the floor on my bad leg. I stayed there all night, crying and swearing and drifting in and out of sleep.

It's been a rough three days.

Garcia brought me a gift basket of baked goods I've been snacking on. She makes some damn good snickerdoodles. Other than that and the apples included in the basket, I've hardly eaten. I haven't moved from the couch all day, except to take a bath around noon. It hurts too much to walk.

My phone rings a few minutes later and I groan. I force my eyes open and glare at my cellphone on the coffee table. I sigh and reach for it, trying to move as little as possible. It's Garcia.

"Hey, PG."

"How are you?"

"I feel like shit."

"Great!"

I frown. "Uh, what?"

"We're here to cheer you up." Just as she says it I hear a loud knock on my front door.

"P, if you think I'm moving from this couch to let you in, then you've gone crazy."

"Then it's a good thing I forced you to give me a copy of the key the last time you almost died."

I smile. "When are we saying that was?"

"Hm. That case last month when you dislocated your shoulder fighting the unsub. Anyways, we're coming in." She hangs up before I can respond.

My front door swings open and I toss the phone back on the coffee table. I prop up on my elbows and watch Morgan, Garcia, JJ, and Reid file into my apartment. "Hey C!" Morgan shouts as he comes to the couch and hops over the back.

I roll my eyes as the others take seats on the couch. "Y'all are so lucky I'm wearing clothes."

JJ raises an eyebrow. "You call that clothed?"

I look down at my body. I'm wearing sweatpants and a bra. "I call it not naked." I glance sideways at Reid, who's blushing. "There's a hoodie on my bed if you'd be so kind."

He nods once and runs upstairs. I sit up and Morgan helps me move my leg to the coffee table, propping it up on a pillow. When Reid returns I pull on my Patriots hoodie and lean back into the cushions.

"What are you guys doing here? Don't you have to work?"

Garcia shoots me a concerned look. "It's Saturday."