Darling deception- a criminal minds fanfic

Day three

"-Please! I'll do anything!"

Darling's words tore own the radio outside the prison where the team were all gathered, SWAT units and tents being set up barely 20 minutes after Morgan had stormed into Hotch's house, breaking down the door, and dragging him out of bed with a ramble of how Darling needed them.

After he finally calmed down enough to explain, and Hotch put on some clothes, they got the team together outside the prison and even managed to get Erin Strauss there to get grants of permission quicker without going through warrants.

"Call her back! Talk through the radio to her!" Morgan yelled at Reid who held it, "tell her we're here!"

"It doesn't work that way Morgan" Hotch sighed, "she's re-wired it inside there, she can call us but we can't call her."

"Well make it work!" He yelled.

"Agent, calm yourself-"

"Calm myself?! Are you fucking kidding me Hotch?!" Morgan yelled.

Calm was the furthest thing that Morgan was, and had been, feeling since getting that call, since hearing Darling's 'I love you' that sounded a lot like a goodbye.

A goodbye he wasn't prepared to hear.

A goodbye he wouldn't let her give.

"Yes calm yourself, you're an agent- act like one" Hotch ordered, Morgan staring at him in shock.

"You can't really be saying that, Hotch she's trapped in there, you heard how terrified she sounded- I don't have time to 'act like an agent.'"

"You getting worked up isn't going to help her in there" Hotch reminded him.

"Well then let me go in there!"

"I'm not having this conversation with you again" he shook his head and walked away.

"Why not?! Because you know I'm right, because I'm wanting to do something that'll help her whilst you're doing nothing like usual?!"

"I'm doing my job-"

"You're letting her stay in there terrified- she's begging for our help! She literally begged for your help and you're ignoring her!" Morgan yelled, "you're a coward!"

"I'm her boss!" Hotch turned and yelled at him so suddenly that it jumped everyone around him, "that's how I can help her, by being her boss- by doing my job and doing it well. I can help her by running this like a prison riot and getting her out of there just like I would any other agent-"

"But she's not any other agent!" Morgan argued, "she's Darling!"

"She shouldn't be- she should just be an agent to you!" Hotch yelled again before shaking his head, "like she is to all of us."

"That's... that's not true Hotch, you know that's not true" Rossi's voice came from behind Morgan, "you know we all think of her more than just an agent, she's our friend."

"Cases don't have places for friends, that's how you make stupid mistakes" Hotch huffed and glared back at Morgan, "that's why I don't let my agents think of each other more than agents, because things like this happen."

"Like what?"

"You thinking that she needs you" Hotch said before he could think about the spitefulness of his words, but he couldn't stop himself, "your god damn hero complex need to protect her is what will get her killed if you go charging in there with a SWAT team and poorly designed rescue mission. This is not a rescue mission, it is a case, a case that will end with her safely out here if it's the last thing I ever do, but a case that I will not treat as anything else before that- do you understand me?"