Darling deception- a criminal minds fanfic

One more lie

Darling didn't come back to the station for three days following her storm out of it from argument between her and Morgan.

She wasn't in her hotel room where she had checked out from hours after leaving the station, Hotch couldn't get a hold of her, the SUV she had signed out hadn't been flagged up anywhere- she was just gone.

That was until she walked into the station three days after she went missing with a stack of files and notebooks full off scribblings- hair tied back and in the same outfit she had left in.

"Darling!" Morgan spotted her immediately but she pushed past him and walked into the conference room, not saying a word to anyone and tearing everything down from the board.

"Dawson? You're back!" Hotch came walking in with the rest of the team, "what are you-"

"Please be quiet" she spoke simply and pinned up various papers from her notebook, pictures she had printed off of the victim's smiling from their Facebooks instead of their dead bodies the team had up before.

"I figured it out" she turned to the team who waited with confusion.

"You figured what out?" Hotch prompted, wanting to take her to the side and tell her off for leaving for days but curious about what she had in her files.

"The case, I figured it out" she replied simply.

Morgan couldn't focus on what she was saying, he just stared at her.

She looked so tired, like she hadn't slept for three days- which she hadn't, her clothes looked dishevelled, like whatever little sleep she had gotten had been in those same clothes.

Her usually bouncy hair was fluffy and flat, pulled up and back into a ponytail but her curtain bangs spilled out onto her face no matter how much she tucked them behind her ears.

But still, he couldn't help thinking she looked beautiful as he always thought she did- but that thought came with the pain of remembering how their last conversation went.

She took off her jacket and threw it on the chair instead of placing it on it like she normally would, pacing back and forth as she explained.

"This case has nothing to do with these men like we thought, nothing to do with them at all- purely victims of circumstance in a way, but not in the way we thought-" she tried to begin but Hotch interrupted.

"Slow down, where have you been? What's going on-"

"-I followed the paper trail of each man a week before they were assumed to be abducted" she ignored him and continued, "and I found that they all went to the same place around here more than once, the country club, which would be normal except none of them are members there and-"

"Darling, stand still-" Hotch walked over to her, standing in front of her and placing his hands on her shoulders to stop her but she shook his hands off her.

"Stop interrupting me! I have not been camped up in a shitty motel room for the last 3 days and nights pacing back and forth from there and sketchy bars following my stupid brains leads just for you to not let me explain the things that I lost sleep to find out!"

Hotch stared in shock at her outburst before nodding and stepping back, "okay... but after, you will tell me what's going on with you?"

Darling paused and thought- something she had been doing far too much of in the last few days.

What's one more lie?

"Of course" she gave a small forced smile at him before going back into what she was saying, "none of them were members there- but they all went on the same nights at different times, leaving at the same time. At first I thought; okay, sketchy rich guys going to a secret country club late night party? Either a secret gay thing or they hurt someone who wants revenge, but then I looked into the country club more-"