Darling deception- a criminal minds fanfic

A jet of blues

Boring.

That's all Morgan could think of as the bank robbery footage was being shown in his first briefing  back.

Utterly disinteresting was the theories and predictable profiles being discussed.

Almost mind numbing, the usual searching through the airport to the FBI jet.

All of it was so dull, so lifeless, now he the brightest thing in the universe wasn't there.

It wasn't that his job was boring now, not by any means, it was just that without Darling there, it wasn't exciting.

It was just a briefing without her expressions, just a pat down without her teasings, just a plane without her stealing the free toiletries.

He couldn't help wondering what she would think of the case if she were here, what kind of mental gymnastics she would bring to the theories, how she would just seem to know what to say when things got too dark.

Morgan looked around at the team as his boss revealed the death of yet another child, but no one seemed to react- or they seemed to already have.

It was like they were drained of any emotion, too numb to feel anymore, automatically full of the normal anguish they would push down on a case like this.

Of course Morgan felt it too, just as he did every time a fact of a case like this was revealed, but it seemed he was the only one able to feel it.

"So which one of us has to talk to the presumably weeping mother then?" Emily rolled her eyes, rubbing her forehead as Rossi took a swig of his 'coffee' across from her.

"Woah Em, the lady just lost her kid" Morgan couldn't help reacting as an almost corpse-like Reid read next to him, "give her a break."

"It's just the same thing with them every time; oh woe is me, who could have done this- when in reality it's probably the same man she's let into her house and bed" Emily shook her head bluntly, not fully aware of her own words before she saw Morgan's frowned reaction, growing even more when no one else reacted around him.

"What's gotten into you guys?"

"What?" Ashley looked up from her phone with a slow blink.

"It's like I'm on a jet full of zombies or something."

"That sounds like something Darling would have said" Reid mumbled to himself next to Morgan with a small glimpse of brightness before hunching back over his book.

"We're landing in 10 minutes" Hotch yawned, seemingly ignoring the phone buzzing next to him "read up on the files and get ready for your assignments."

"You gonna get that Hotch?" Morgan raised his eyebrow at how nobody reacted to the noise, Hotch momentarily looking at him like he was insane before finally hearing the phone.

"Right, yes, of course, I-" his lack of colour seemed to drain all the more when he saw the contact ID on the device, swallowing hard as he quickly took the call to the bathroom.

"What was that do you think?" Morgan quizzed at the disinterested team, or what was left of them it seemed.

"Just a private call I guess" Rossi shrugged, tossing his latest book review to the side.

"Since when do you care about people's privacy Mr Gossip?" Morgan teased before looking around at the group again, "seriously, what's wrong with you guys today?"

"It's been a rough few months kid" Rossi shook his head, "we're exhausted- aren't you?"

"I mean yeah there's been some intense cases but-"

"It's not just that and you know it" Reid mumbled under his breath.

"What?" 

"She didn't come back" Rossi would have snapped if it didn't take too much energy, "Darling didn't come back this time kid, we're all feeling it."

"Quite frankly it's weird you're not" Emily shook her head, Ashley nodding next to her.

"Yeah, I don't partially like the woman and even I'm feeling her absence."

Morgan tilted his head with confusion before the realisation that none of them knew she was back, and had been for the last month.

None of them had the life breathed back into them by her humming around his apartment, the smile back on their lips from her hair in the shower drain, her smile up at them.

It felt selfish not to tell them, like he was keeping her to himself or like she was some kind of secret, but he knew it wasn't his place to tell them.

She told him that she was going to work it out herself, that she wanted to do it herself, and he had to listen to that, he had to let her even when all he wanted to do was fix it all so she didn't have to.

"Right..." he responded cautiously, unsure whether or not to lie to his exhausted looking friends.

"So what's up kid, why aren't you-"

Just as Rossi seemed to perk up at the thought of prying Morgan for gossip, the plane jolted, sending them all to the side as it turned in the air.

"What's going on?" Emily gripped onto her seat with as much fear to her voice as she could muster given her tired eyes.

"Are we turning around?" Reid glanced out of the window as Hotch came marching into the jet from the cockpit, a new wave of life seeming to have struck him.

"What's going on Hotch?" Morgan asked, earning a momentary glare he didn't understand before his boss turned to the rest of the team.

"We're heading back to the office, there's been an update on a previous case."

"What? Which one?" Morgan quizzed, this time feeling the glare like a dagger as Hotch spoke the words that brought the life back to the entire jet's faces.

"Darling's case."