Rosemary

Three, 𝐍𝐨 𝐖𝐚𝐲 𝐎𝐮𝐭

Erwyna could feel the tears start to fall, but she neglected to throw a fit like she had last month at the police station. Nobody in here was responsible for her mother's death anyway. They didn't deserve an outburst, at least not now. She picked the picture up and began to run her thumb over the glass protection, hoping to feel her mother's warm touch again.

As she placed the picture back down, she let out a loud exhale before standing up and grabbing every remnant of her mother's being, something she couldn't bring herself to do at her own house. But that was different, merely anybody visited her mother's house besides her. Here, everyone cared about her mother of course. But they couldn't just keep her mother's position and desk vacant for longer than a year, understandably.

Erwyna smelled the jacket and she swore she could still smell her mother's perfume so vividly. Its iridescent rose scent made the hairs on every part of her body stand up. At last, she grabbed her picture as she finally noticed everyone's looks of compassion. She could feel their hearts throbbing for her, but she knew they would likely never understand her pain to this degree. This sense of pain that kept her awake at night, that kept her walking into her mother's bedroom nearly every night hoping to find her asleep. This sense of pain that kept her screaming at the sky every morning and every night in hopes of receiving a response.

The car came into view as Erwyna stumbled out, nearly dropping everything inside her hands- she couldn't bear to take more than one trip. The troubled looks from her mother's found family would linger on her again, and she hated that pitiful attention.

As she managed to open the back door, her phone began to ring again. She fumbled with her mother's precious belongings before delicately placing them down and raising the phone to her ear like she had just ten minutes ago.

"Callie, this is not funny. I'm fine, you don't nee-"

"Uh, Callie? This is JJ, we have a case.."

"Oh, just- I'll be there in half an hour, don't worry."

And with the most antiquated part of Rosemary's past erased, Erwyna stepped into the car and threw her phone into the passenger seat in a more vulgar fashion. Meanwhile, she let a few more salty tears drip down onto the center console before she started the car and took off, never to revisit this building ever again.

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Like every single active-case day Erwyna had participated in before at the BAU, she stood in front of the doors, stationary. Except, every day it was for a different reason; her first day, it was because, of course, it was her first. On her second day, she stood in front of those doors for an immensely fleeting amount of time due to it being her first time on the jet, as ridiculous as that sounds, and today it was to regain her composure. She had only been working there for a month, she didn't want to cause a commotion by having yet another nervous breakdown just inside the bureau.

When she finally decided that she was adequately composed, Erwyna decided to enter the colossal edifice with her poker face disguising her distress.

The elevator ride was avidly desolate with her being the only person inside the entire time, allowing her to have another brief breakdown. However, this also gave her the chance to recompose herself.

A loud, meretricious beep suddenly informed her that she had reached her desired floor and, as she wiped the remaining tears, Erwyna entered the BAU. Everybody else - besides Gideon - was already there, but Emily was the only person waiting for Erwyna in the bullpen. She stood up as she watched Erwyna walk in, immediately being able to see through the disguise.