Unknown- A Criminal Minds Fanfic

Chapter 49- Same Mistakes

I unlocked the door to my apartment, pausing with my hand on the handle for a second before turning it and pushing the door open.  I was immediately assaulted by a torrent of barking as Chocolate charged at me, jumping up and almost knocking me over as he covered my face in dog kisses that were more slobber and dog breath than anything else.

"Hey, boy," I said with a grin, pushing him down so I could get inside and then crouching down to pet him, ruffling his ears.  I hadn't seen him in more than a month, but judging by his half-full food dish, the pack of treats I'd spotted on the counter, and the new chew toy abandoned on the floor, Mrs. Mulcahy had been taking good care of him.  Or maybe Garcia, but I had just gotten back to DC a few hours ago and, aside from being interrogated by Hotch, I hadn't seen or talked to any of the team in about a month, either.

After explaining the whole situation, in detail, to two other agents that were informed about my undercover op, I had spent another night in a hospital in California at Hotch's request to treat my concussion and the second degree burns scattered over my arms before releasing myself the next morning.  Then I crashed in a hotel room for a few days, though not much crashing was involved, because I had meetings upon paperwork upon paperwork instead.  When you accidentally get arrested by one branch of the FBI while undercover for another branch of the FBI while you're technically on leave from the FBI, you can expect at the very minimum three solid days' worth of paperwork. And I had at least another day and a half's worth to complete before they'd even consider letting me fill out the paperwork to return to work at the BAU, and that didn't include processing time. 

But I was home now, and not about to make the same mistakes again.  Intel had it that Matthew Skinner had crossed the border into Mexico, so for the moment I let myself pretend I was relatively safe.  

Not to mention that they had tracked down Danielle and a few other girls that had been sold and returned them to their families, so the scarring flesh on my arms that I was still going to therapy for wasn't for nothing.

And, I was surprised to find out once I had extricated myself from Chocolate, the team had cleaned up my apartment for me.  The broken door and doorjamb to my bedroom were fixed, looking just like they had before, all of my books and furniture were put back in order, and the broken lamp on the carpet had been replaced with another light on the table right inside the door where it had been.  There was also a basket full of smelly lotions and soaps and bath bombs sitting on my kitchen table.  I didn't even have to read the tag to know they were from Garcia, though judging by the dust that had settled over the plastic wrap encasing the whole thing, they'd been put there a while ago.

Chocolate didn't leave my side, to the extent of sitting right on the other side of the shower curtain while I took a shower and staying so close to me I tripped on him twice as I made myself a nice homecooked meal of boxed mac and cheese before sitting down to complete more paperwork.  He curled up at my feet, gnawing on his new chew toy, and when I finally gave up and went to bed around three in the morning, he dutifully followed, practically sleeping on top of me all night.

And since Chocolate wouldn't even let me out the door the next morning, I ended up taking him with me to run errands that afternoon, instead, opting to walk instead of taking my car solely because the dog was with me.  It had started snowing, though, and by the time I was finished, everything was wet with dense flakes clinging to the streets and my coat and getting caught in Chocolate's fur.

I quickly grabbed some to-go from a Chinese place on my way back home, trying to ignore the fact that it was just one block from the café Matthew Skinner had frequented when he was stalking me.  Chocolate must have noticed my anxiety, he stopped and circled back to look at me, whining and leaving smeared dog prints on my jeans from pawing at my knees.

"I'm fine, boy.  Come on, let's go home," I told him, tugging on his leash as I started walking, only to almost lose my balance as someone bumped into me hard enough to jar my shoulder.  I almost dropped the container in my hand, a dull pain shooting through my chest from the cuts that were now more faint white lines than jagged flesh.

"Hey," I snapped, looking over my shoulder at the receding back of an older man.  I caught a glimpse of an annoyed snarl through the wet hair in my eyes, like it was my fault he'd bumped into me.  Don't be fooled, New York City wasn't the only place with rude street-goers.

I was setting all my bags on the counter, trying to get Chocolate's leash off my wrist cause he was jumping around my feet, recalling the encounter, when I froze.

That snarl on his face...before I could stop it, a sob wrenched from my throat.  No!  This was supposed to be over, I was supposed to be able to fill out my paperwork and have everything return back to normal, back to how it was before I got that first damned email in my inbox.

I took a shuddery breath, choking back tears as I got my wrist free of Chocolate's leash, but he had stopped jumping and was instead staring up at me in confusion and concern.

I fished my phone out of my coat pocket and sat on the couch before my legs could give out under me, pressing call for the first number on my recent's list with a shaking finger.  I wasn't going to make the same mistakes again.