❝ Some things scratch at the surface while others strike at your soul. ❞
𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐎𝐋𝐈𝐍𝐄 𝐋𝐔𝐂𝐀𝐒 𝐇𝐀𝐒 𝐃𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐂𝐀𝐓𝐄𝐃 her whole life to catching the monsters in this world in hopes of fixing something that is broken inside of her.
Tha...
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" Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it. "
— Helen Keller
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17.1 ; AFTERMATH.
IN THE QUIET OFFICE, CAROLINE sat at the small kitchenette table with her eyes focused on the mug in front of her. She watched as the packet of sugar she had poured began to dissolve as she stirred her coffee. She knew it wasn't the best idea to drink coffee at night, but she had no other ideas. She still had paperwork to file from her last case and she needed to write up a profile for a local police station in Colorado. She couldn't do that if she was dead on her feet.
"Doesn't anybody ever go home?" She heard Gideon ask. She glanced up and took a sip from her coffee.
"You're here," she replied. Across from her, Elle snickered.
Caroline looked over at her friend and couldn't help but smile a little. Elle's return to the BAU had been recent but welcomed, even if she had thought it was a little too soon. It was nice to have her back, to have a girl to talk to on a case besides JJ.
Despite the events a couple of months ago, Elle was doing well. She had cut her hair into a short bob that Caroline thought she absolutely rocked and had started taking boxing lessons. She was even eager to get back to work—jumping into every case they had with everything she has. However, Caroline knew there was a difference between what a person shows versus what they feel inside. It was a skill—mastering the balance between the two—that she knew all too well.
"Exactly," Gideon quipped as he opened the refrigerator. "Trust me, you don't want to model your social life around mine."
JJ rested her hip against the counter as Spencer slid into the chair next to Caroline, his own coffee in hand. "If it makes you feel any better," the press liaison commented, "Hotch and Morgan took off."
"Hotch is married," Reid said as he sipped his coffee, the stem from the drink fogging up his glasses. "And Morgan's, you know, Morgan."
JJ reached across the table and handed the file in her hands to Gideon. The older profiler began to flip through it as he asked, "What's this?"
"Police in Dayton, Ohio need our help with a serial rapist."
Elle leaned forward, pressing her elbows on her knees. "What's the story?"
