Rosemary

Three, 𝐍𝐨 𝐖𝐚𝐲 𝐎𝐮𝐭

"One of the unspoken rules in the BAU is don't make Spencer cry."

"Love is insanity, isn't it?" - Jane Hanratty (Offscreen)

With her phone held up to her ear, Erwyna approached the same doors she had come across many times before. Before January 16th, 2006, these doors gave her a sense of peace and tranquility. But that was before. Before, when she hadn't been to Italy; before, when she still had family within miles of her. Before, when her mother was still alive.

Many times within the last twelve months, her mother's colleagues had contacted her, requesting her to remove her mother's belongings from her desk. The very things that proved her mother had even stepped foot in that place at one point, they wanted to remove.

Erwyna understood where they were coming from, and she had tried plenty of times within the last year. But she could never push herself through the entrance. She would always make it to the sidewalk in front of her mother's law firm, but she could never even set a single foot inside. Knowing her mother wouldn't be there to greet her this time wasn't something Erwyna believed she would be able to cope with. She didn't want proof that her mother was gone. Yes, she had watched as they placed her mother's corpse six feet underground. But she still wanted this to be a fever dream. If she went inside and took one last glance at her mother's desk, she'd have to face the fact again that her mother was never coming back. She couldn't deal with that. Not until today, at least.

"Erwyna, you can do this." The voice on the other side of the phone rang through the constraining air, uplifting Erwyna.

Erwyna stayed silent as she stared at the doors, frozen in place. "No, Cal-"

Callie cut off Erwyna, not wanting to listen to her bullshit. "You aren't a coward, Erwie. You are Erwyna motherfucking Torres, and the one thing about us Torres women is that we don't give up." Erwyna could almost hear Callie smiling at her, as absurd as that sounds, as she continued to speak. "I know this is tough, but I'm here okay, Erwie? I am always here."

Erwyna took a deep breath as she reluctantly nodded and began to walk inside. But as soon as she stepped over the threshold between the front doors and the office, she immediately stopped in her tracks once again. "I'll- I'll just do this tomorrow-"

"Erwyna!"

"Fine, fine. I'll go in," Erwyna continued to amble again. "I'm just- I'm going to hang up now so I can focus... thank you, though, Callie."

"Anytime. I have to get back to work myself anyways." Callie responded. The Torres women both removed their phones from their ears. Erwyna then advanced to the doors made of glass that would lead her to her mother's true resting place.

As she pushed the doors open, everybody immediately noticed her. However, they watched her every move as if she were their prey in a crowded forest. Not one person could bring themselves to stand up as she walked past them. However, a few people let out their sympathetic, "I'm so sorry, your mother was an angel," while they remained in their seats.

Erwyna approached her mother's desk at once, and she could feel the grief veil over her head. Erwyna sat down in the office chair her mother had sat in countless times before, striving to put the malicious men and women of our world away. She noticed that everything of her mother's was exactly as she had left it- even the case files she had recently managed to finish. Erwyna chalked them still being there up to her mother's colleagues making copies of the files. Her leather jacket was also still draped over the back of the seat, and Erwyna's picture from when she still had those dreadful bangs was still framed underneath the computer screen. Her mother probably kept it to remind herself that her daughter was safe even if she was countries away from her perturbed mother.