Workaholic { A Criminal Minds Story }

chapter four

The next case arrived once again rather soon, and it did nothing but disappoint Gabrielle even more, as she but only grew closer to Reid. It was stronger than her, as if an invisible force was making her do it, was making her go closer. And she hated that. All of her life she had been in control, and now this new feeling was stepping in, and was threatening everything she believed in. He was her coworker, she could not fall in love with him. But how could she resist those soft hazel orbs? She was starting to fall hard, and for everything in him, from his nervous gesturing, to his incessant statistics, from his curly locks to his slender hands. Everything.
           
Splashing cold water into her face, Gabrielle scolded to herself. She could not let this happen – she would fight it.
“Gabi?” A small tired voice was heard as the eight years old boy went into the kitchen, before smiling as he rushed to hug her. “Did you get the bad guys?” he asked and looked up at her with hopeful eyes. Hope that turned to pride as she nodded softly.
“We got him.” She smiled faintly, as they had indeed gotten the psychotic murderer. “Now it’s late, and you have school tomorrow Archie.” she reminded him and gently picked him up.
“Please tell me about it?” he asked, rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes, beaming faintly.
“When you’re older I will, not now.” she shushed him and went into the tiny bedroom, on her tiptoes. “Now shh or you’ll wake mom up.” she gently tucked him in, ignoring his huff, and pressing a kiss to his forehead. “Goodnight Archie.” she whispered and got up, smiling as he yawned in reply, snuggling the blankets.
Going up to her bed, into the same room, Gabrielle fell asleep within a few minutes, drained and not wanting to overthink the way she did earlier.
 
Cases went by, and she did her best to stay away from Reid, managing to somehow team up more with either Elle or Morgan – Gideon was avoiding putting her with Hotch as both were just too similar, too quiet and scary to whoever was interrogated – even simple witnesses. But one day, she got with Reid again, both into the back of the car as Gideon was in the front with the local police chief. 11 year old girl Billie had went missing twenty hours ago – and a dead body had just been found. Gabrielle had already seen dead bodies, but as she saw the small feet and wet brown hair, her stomach ached painfully, and she felt sick. She was barely older than Archie was – and she could not help but see him, which caused her to grow pale. If she usually was the one to go to Reid, this time it was the other way around, as the tall man wrapped an unsure arm around her, leading her away.
“Take deep breaths.” he told her softly, a little embarrassed and unsure of what he was doing, but his slender arm did not leave her shoulders.
“I’m fine –” she lied, not wanting to appear weak, but the image of the body would not leave her mind, except that in her head, it was not whoever this was – it was Archie. And this image started to creep into his mind more and more, overwhelming her, leading her hands to shake.
“It’s not Billie.” Gideon spoke as he went over to them, frowning at Gabrielle. “Go for a walk Aspen.” he told her, and she nodded, parting away from the reassuring hold, to walk off, taking her phone out to call the school her little brother was attending. And thankfully, he was alright. She went back to them, having calmed down. Billie was found that same evening and was safely returned to her parents, the pedophile was arrested and would thankfully rot in jail.
On the way back, Gabrielle watched as Morgan, Elle, JJ and Reid played poker – not joining as she had no idea of how to play it. The only thing she understood was that Reid kept winning. A little before they landed, she was surprised to have Morgan sit by her, clearing his throat.
“Are you feeling any better?” he asked her casually, earning a confused frown from Gabrielle. “Reid mentioned you felt off when you guys found the body.” he explained. “If you gotta talk, you can come to me.” he stated, before adding. “Reid only told me because he doesn’t know how to help. No judging from any of us – we all have triggers.” he reassured her.
“I’m fine.” she shook her head. “It was nothing.” she looked down at her hands, before looking up into his brown eyes. “I’m all good.”
He nodded, before leaving her alone, seeing she would not speak to him.
           
Once they arrived, she went to her desk to write the report, but avoided looking at anyone, focusing onto the report itself. She had a few to work on, and would most likely spend a good part of the night onto it, but at least, it would be done.
It was midnight when Gideon walked past her. “You should head home.” he told her, glancing over at her. “How do you feel?”
“I’m fine.” she stated before nodding softly. “I’ll just finish this one and I’ll go.” she promised, leaning back as she typed down the report. “Have a nice evening Gideon.” she added, gently – but implying she would rather be alone to manage to work and focus.
“You too Aspen.” he replied and bid her goodnight, walking out.
           
She eventually finished, almost two hours later. It was past two in the morning, and she did not want to head home, knowing she would wake her brother up. So she texted Norman – and if he did not reply, she would just head to a random motel to finish the night. Luckily, he did reply, and told her to hurry there.
Finally, at three, she knocked onto the door, meeting a sleepy Norman.
“Hey- the fuck are you doing so late?” he yawned and let her in, running a hand through his hair. Since he had stopped working as an agent, he had not picked any other job so far.
“Had to finish some paperwork, and I didn’t want to procrastinate any more.” she admitted, stepping inside.
“You’re sick Gabi, go rest, you look terrible.” he chuckled softly, shaking his head. “What was the case?” he asked and went to sit onto the couch, watching her take the sofa.
“Little girl went missing, some sick pervert had her in his attic.” she murmured. “And we found a drowned body.. she was so small –” she added.
“And you saw someone else, didn’t you?” Norman said, his voice softening as he looked gently over.
“Yea…” she muttered, unlike the others, Norman knew her family, her insecurities – he knew her by heart, and she had learned to trust him. “I – I know that he’s fine, I checked – but it shook me up.” she admitted, running a hand through her long blonde hair, green eyes looking at Norman’s steel blue ones. “They noticed. I don’t want them to think I can’t handle this.” she sighed heavily.
“You’re human, everyone has ups and downs, even us – particularly us. With the things we see, it happens.” he stated, his eyes looking away. “We aren’t unbreakable. I’m sure you remember what happened with me, we are all weak at times.”
“I don’t want to be. I can’t be.” she murmured. “Weakness can’t happen – what if I miss clues, and it leads to someone dying? I can’t afford being weak Jay.”
“Would you say I was useless when addicted?” he asked her, sighing – she needed to understand that it was fine to have downs.
“Jay – it’s not what I’m saying and you know it.” she muttered.
“Then don’t you say you having a moment of weakness is going to compromise the whole case. You are all a team for a reason – when one is not fully there, the others are. Learn to rely onto others, the way we relied onto one another.” He sighed over, before added, before she could reply. “Now off to bed, it’s late.” he got up – knowing her stubbornness, and knowing she would therefore  just end up disagreeing with him.
Giving in, she nodded and got up, smiling a bit at him. “Thanks for everything Jay.” she murmured, before laughing softly as he brushed it off. “Hurry off before I get mad. Don’t you thank me for so little.” he told her, smiling fondly.
She went up to the friend’s room, heading straight to bed, too tired to change or shower. She’d do it in the morning. Closing her eyes, her mind wandered off. Should she confess to Norman concerning Reid? Surely it would be weird after what had happened a few years back. But at the same time, both were over it, and he was her best (and only) friend. Perhaps he would help and advice her, even though she knew damn well what he would most likely say. He would encourage her to think about herself rather than always put her job first. Yet it did not matter right – the other was clearly not interested, and if anything happened it could compromise a lot. It was everything but a good idea and she knew it. Eventually, she drifted off, falling asleep, and remaining so, until the sun peaked into the room, causing her to wake up. The smell of toasts and coffee led her to getting up, heading toward the kitchen – surprisingly, Norman was not there, he had most likely went back to sleep as it was barely six in the morning. She took a quick breakfast, before heading to shower. It was six thirty when she left the house, leaving a thank you note onto the counter, as she drove to her place, having enough time to do so before heading to so before going to work.
Hearing voices inside, including a rather annoyed one, she quickly went inside after unlocking the door.
“Hey give him a break.” she went in, interrupting the argument. Seeing the broken wine glass onto the ground, she quickly gathered what had happened. Archie must have accidentally broken the glass his mother was drinking, and the latter was probably already drunk and had therefore grown mad at him. “He didn’t purposely break this glass.” she stated and went over to her brother, brushing his hair back soothingly. “You good?” she whispered gently to comfort him, smiling as he nodded a little. “Go take your bus okay?” she added, glaring at their mother darkly, before grabbing his hand. “I’ll take you to school actually.” she muttered, not wanting to face her mother, and also as she saw he had no lunch ready. She’d buy him one on the way.
“Where’s the money Gabrielle?” the woman asked coldly. “I can’t feed him if you greedily keep that money to yourself.”
She aggressively placed money onto the table. “Don’t spend all of it onto alcohol.” she warned, before grabbing Archie’s jacket, leading outside quickly, sensing another argument was about to break. Gently holding his hand as they went downstairs, she tried her best to hide her annoyance against her mother. “Did you make all of your homework?” she asked, opening the front door as they went out, toward her car.
“Mmh I did everything.” he told her quietly and went into the car. She knew he was shaken up, and she couldn’t blame him – he did not deserve this, he was just a kid. She wished she could offer him a better life than she had had herself.
“Well done – hey, wanna stop by the store so you can pick a sandwich and some gummies to share with your friends.” she smiled, gently tickling him to cheer him up, her smile widening as she heard him laugh and giggle.
“S-stop! Okay.” he squealed and giggled more, trying to wriggle away, before buckling in as she stopped and went up to drive to the store.
She dropped him off at seven thirty, going to the entrance along him, before letting him go, turning around. Not seeing as Garcia happened to drive by, spotting her. Obviously, it led her to assuming this little boy may be her son.

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Words : 2068