Darling deception- a criminal minds fanfic

Easy Peasy

'Just survive and get through the three weeks, don't stir any waves, don't press for information, be safe, be smarter' he had told her before she left, comforted by her pretending to swim before she was cuffed and led out of the station.

But he knew Darling now, he knew that no matter what he told her, how much he subtly tried to beg her to not cause any trouble, that she was like him- that she would do anything to get to the bottom of a mystery that intrigued her.

So he decided that he had to keep her safe.

He had prepared Luke to be an undercover guard in the prison to keep an eye on her, telling him to keep her away from any inmates, to get her cellmate to be the least threatening person he could find, to do everything to make sure she couldn't get herself into trouble.

He had gotten Emily in on the lunch team, telling her similar things, giving her authority to ruin the whole mission and pull agency rank in the lunch room if he she saw Darling getting into any trouble there.

He had even gotten Reid in as a doctor in the infirmary to call her in for visits every day to check on her, calling her in for what reason he hadn't quite figured out yet but had told Reid to make something up.

Yes, Hotch had prepared everything to make this go smoothly, but he still found himself frozen with panic hours after Darling had left for prison.

"Agent Hotchner" a voice of one of the station officers was suddenly beside him.

"What? I mean yes?" He turned, clearing his throat and trying to bring his mind back to the station and not all the ways this mission could go wrong, all the ways he could find Darling dead.

"I thought I should tell you... never mind, it's not my place" the officer, who Hotch had quickly learnt was trying to get into the FBI after him literally telling Hotch that multiple times, spoke and went to turn away.

"What is it officer Nolan?" Hotch prompted with a sigh, not having time or patients for these rank climbing games.

"I just thought you should know what your agent got up to last night" he pulled out the security footage showing Morgan walking into the locked room where Darling had been placed for the night and then not coming out until hours later before work in his same clothes.

Hotch paused and tilted his head at the tape, taking the tablet from Nolan and rewinding it with suspison behind his eyes.

"I know there's probably an explanation and I would never accuse him of anything but I know that if I was an agent then I wouldn't be hanging around and using my place on your team to-"

"Goodbye officer Nolan, that'll be all" Hotch dismissed him, turning with the tablet and walking into the briefing room where the team were walking, looking over at Morgan before deciding he would need to expand on his suspicions before accusing him and Darling to avoid another morning 'professional behaviour' talk incident.

"Have we received any updates from Luke yet?" Hotch asked Garcia down the phone instead, sitting next to Reid who was mindlessly fiddling with the origami rose Darling had given him months and months ago.

"He arrived four hours ago, he said that Darling arrived and is about to go through searching and cell assignment- poor thing, she must be scared out of her mind" Garcia replied.

"Make sure he's the one to do her searching" Hotch ordered.

"Why him?" Morgan quizzed.

"He can 'search' her in a private room so she doesn't have to actually get searched with the others- is there a reason you don't want him searching her Morgan?" Hotch replied with suspicion in his voice.