Darling deception- a criminal minds fanfic

Easy Peasy

There were two things Darling knew to be true in her life in this moment; she was going to decorate her jail cell with Dolly Parton posters Hotch agreed to get smuggled in for her, and she looked great in an orange jumpsuit.

There was also the third thing being that she was terrified out of her mind as she sat on the prison van, but she was trying to push that out of her mind and just focus on the first two, also trying to ignore the less than pleasant looking women around her who were already glaring at her.

It's okay, they're just trying to make friends- just smile, that's a good idea, everyone loves a smile .

She tried to calm herself down, smiling over at the women staring at her before one of them made a slicing motion across her neck at Darling.

Okay noted; not everyone loves a smile after all.

She shook her head at herself, trying to stop the shaking in her leg before a knee nudged hers.

"You've never been to prison before, have you sport?" The older woman covered in tattoos sat next to her raised an eyebrow at her.

Darling shook her head with an awkward chuckle, "that obvious, huh?"

"You've got that newbie look in your eye, still got that hope in you that it might not be as bad as you're thinking" she nodded and turned back to face the front, "try to hold onto that."

"Why?"

"Because-" the woman turned back to her, "that fades quicker than the fear does."

"Have you been in there before?" Darling spoke after a few moments of silence.

The woman raised an amused eyebrow at that question, "let's just say I didn't get any of these tattoos outside a jail cell, one for each year I've been here."

"Wow" Darling nodded, "they're, uh, really nice, very artistic."

The woman burst into laughter at her, getting a glare from one of the guards at the front of the bus who she paid to attention to, turning as much as she could to Darling, "ignore them, it's safer that way- what's your name kiddo?"

"I'm Darling."

"Darling?" She raised an eyebrow at her, Darling preparing herself for an insult directed at her name like usual.

"My granddaughter was called Darling too."

Darling smiled over at the woman, "really? I've never heard of anyone with my name before."

"I picked it out myself after I killed her mom and ate her dad" the woman spoke casually, not noticing Darling's eyes widening in fear, re-realising that she wasn't just on a normal bus trip but was literally surrounded by criminals.

"O-oh okay... that's... interesting" Darling nodded awkwardly, glancing over out the window next to her and watching the prison come into view, gulping at the sheer size of it and how dreadful it looked.

She wasn't sure what she had expected.

But whatever it was, it was about to be replaced by the harsh reality of what was behind those walls as they drove through the gates, securing the reality that this was happening, that Darling Dawson was being sent to prison.

Hotch stood in the empty station hours after sending Darling off, a feeling of dread sitting with him long after she left.

He knew logically it was a good plan, a solid plan, but he also knew the prison system and he knew that Darling had no idea what she was going into.