It was just after midnight as Darling pushed herself to her feet after redressing her wound in the walls of the prison on her way back up from the basement control room where an encounter with two inmates on her way out after rewiring the last generator to the phone outside didn't exactly go as planned.
The knife was still in her hip, blood oozing out of her side as she wrapped her torn beige t-shirt made into bandage strips around it, leaving her just in her white- and now blood splattered- long-sleeved under shirt tucked into her prison trousers that had a fare few snags and rips on them from crawling through the walls.
"It's okay Darling, it's literally fine- this is fine, it's just a knife in your body, no biggie, no biggie at all" Darling tried, and failed, to keep herself calm as she found herself back in the middle of the prison- knowing she had only 10 minutes to get to the yard and make the call before the power from the finale generator went out.
To her surprise, she couldn't see anyone in the cells- well, she couldn't see anyone alive.
There were dead, or near enough to dead, bodies all around the inner courtyard, but not the hustle Darling saw Luke fall off the higher level into earlier.
She stepped over the bodies with a wince of every movement, trying to not let the knife fall out, knowing it was the only think stopping her bleeding out and knowing even more she didn't have time to die with how much she had to do.
"Get to the phone, get to the team, get to Derek" she repeated to herself in a whisper over and over again as she reached the yard doors that had 5 minutes of power left, swiping the card and creeping out just as a noise came from behind her further in the prison in one of the cells.
She didn't have time to give into her curiosity and turn back to see who it was or what was happening, nor did she want to find herself in another prison fight or 'meeting' with the guards.
Instead, her feet automatically ran to the phone box, pushing in the coins with shaking hands and praying that Morgan had kept his promise to always answer the phone.
She knew logically she should call Hotch or Erin Strauss, but it wasn't just the fact Morgan's number was the only she knew off-by-heart making her call him instead.
Something in her chest, something deep behind her ribcage forced her to automatically dial his numbers.
Something bitter-sweet telling her that if they ended up not getting here in time, that this might be the last call she ever got to make, that this was the last time she would ever get to talk to him.
That thought hit her like a truck, as did the voicemail machine instead of Morgan's voice.
"Come on you stupid handsome son of a bitch! Pick up the phone!" She hit her hand on the box, putting in more coins and trying again, not even realising the tears were trailing down her face as her rage continued.
"You said you would always pick up! You promised me, you god damn liar-" she hit it again, over and over again with shaking, bloodied hands as the tears continued to flow- being cut off by a voice she thought that she had imagined until it spoke again.
"Hello?" Morgan's sleepy voice echoed through every part of Darling's body, an automatic cry of relief leaving her throat.
"Derek!"
"Darling? Is that you? How are you calling me at 3 in the morning-"
"Please shut your gorgeous mouth right now and listen to me" she let out a much needed breath, finding that all the pressure that had been residing in her chest somehow vanished with just his voice, "I have so much to tell you and no time to do it; you all need to get here right now, there's been a prison riot started by Candy's dead body being used to start a gang war and ended up including the guards somehow, someone is trying to get people to kill me in here and I think it's the same person who killed Candy and is somehow responsible for the strip club killings, I don't know who but it's someone close to the guards somehow who could get them to kill Candy without anyone knowing and and-" A thought hit Darling mid ramble, a thought about something Rhoney said earlier before she tried to kill Darling.
'I know it had something to do with you and that other one he's always sneaking around with.'
Another thought flashed through her mind quicker than lightning, slotting with that original thought like two puzzle pieces coming together.
Not a thought, a memory, one where she was stood at this very phone box watching a familiar face chat to guards through the fence in the normal prison yard on more than one occasion.
And the finale cherry on top of the cake of a thought came next; the fact that this person was the only one missing in the strip club from the main floor when Jules was killed, the only one who had a bruise on her face that matched the self defence bruising on Jules dead body's knuckles
"Natalia" Darling thought out loud, almost stumbling back as everything slotted together almost perfectly.
"Woah, woah, woah, slow down there Darl- what the hell is going on?" Morgan was trying to catch onto all the information being hurled at him, "there's a prison riot? Are you okay? Are you safe?"
"I mean I have a knife hanging out of me and had to thumb out a guard's eyeballs to stop him raping me but other than that I'm doing pretty well I'd say-"
"What?!" Morgan's voice boomed down the phone with equal parts furious rage and overwhelming concern, "he did fucking what?!"
"Shush your mush and just listen, I only have three minutes before the power cuts out completely and I can't waste time; there's an inmate in here, she's saved my life after trying to end it, given me a free tramp stamp that I'm pretty sure will give me some kind of disease and is moments away from giving birth in a very unsanitary old infirmary-"
"What? Someone's giving birth? You got a tramp stamp? I don't understand-"
"Would you please just listen to me?!" She snapped, "get the team here, get SWAT here, whatever I don't care- all I need you to do is promise me that you'll get an ambulance here and have some kind of midwife to help her get to a hospital before she gives birth, please Derek, please, promise me that."
"I need to get you out of there, I'm going to call Hotch-"
"Don't hang up" she begged, letting out a sigh and sniffing back up her tears, "please, please just promise me Derek."
"I-"
"You don't break your promises, not to me, you never have- I need to know that you'll do this. If it's between getting me out of here or making sure that baby and it's mother is safe; I need you to promise me you'll pick them."
"You know that I can't promise you that, you know that I won't."
"You have to-"
"We can get you all out, all you have to do is keep safe and follow protocol, Hotch will come up with a way to-"
"I just got a blade stabbed into my hip whilst hiding in the basement, tell me how exactly I'm supposed to stay safe in here and I'll fucking do it!" She suddenly snapped, "but if you can't, if it shockingly turns out that you have no idea what it's like in here right now and you can't give me any orders other than 'stay safe' then you will shut up, get the team here and keep your promise to me to get that woman out of here before she pops against any sort of bullshit protocol, you got that?!"
There was a split silence before Morgan's chuckle came down the phone, "yes mam."
"Did you just call me mam?" Darling couldn't help her own laughter, slightly in shock that she had just yelled that down the phone at him and even more in shock of his amused response.
"I told you before, I like this stern side of you" he smiled, knowing that she was terrified out of her mind by just her voice and doing the only thing he knew would distract her for a moment to get her bearings; making her laugh.
Darling looked down at the watch she had taken from Greta before she left to make sure her timing was perfect; 1 minute left.
"I have to go sugar, I've got a baby to figure out how to keep in a woman's stomach and a case to finish solving- something isn't adding up; how could Natalia do all of that? The killings in the club out of jealousy, sure that makes sense and the flirting with the guards I can see but I don't get how she could be partners with Nick in this operation, she was terrified of him-"
"Breathe" Morgan interrupted her rambling, "you need oxygen to keep that big brain going."
"I don't have time to breathe-"
"There's always time to look after yourself, make time- after all, you made a pinky promise to me that you would, and you don't want to lose a pinky now do you?" He teased but his grip on the phone and panic in his chest made him clutch onto that silly promise she said to know that she was still alive.
Darling felt her eyes shut tightly, squeezing the phone as a tear slipped out and wishing desperately that Morgan was there with her, or more so that she was there with him.
Anywhere, no matter the hellish place like this prison, could be made better just by having him by her side.
"I... I love you Derek" she held back her tears, placing the phone down and turning before she had a chance to let them out, running to the door and scanning the card with a second to spare just as the power cut out with the door locking behind her, Darling stumbling into the dark prison.
The only lights bringing any sort of break from the darkness came from the emergency illumination tape on the bars and floor,
Darling let herself take Morgan's advice and took in a breath, realising how far along in her absurd plan she was.
She had made it to the basement, re-wired the whole prison circuits and got to the phone in time.
She had made the call.
She had gotten help.
No longer was she alone, someone knew what was happening, someone was coming- but it wasn't over yet.
She had to survive, and more importantly keep her promise to Morgan, she had to keep herself safe.
Smooth sailing from here, Darling tried to keep optimistic in her head which had been proving harder and harder the more things that were thrown at her in here, in the literal sense too sometimes.
But it was almost over.
The past month of hellish prison life, and the first part of the case before that, was almost over.
The was a light at the end of the tunnel, she could almost grasp it.
She was covered in more blood than she knew what to do with, her hair was clumped together in its long somehow still bouncy ponytail that desperately needed washing, and she did literally have a knife hanging out of her body- but it was almost over.
Darling let herself take in that moment, that glimmer, of hope for the first time in weeks, almost breathing in a hint of fresh air she could imagine of the outside world compared to the dark musk she had been living in.
A breath that was snatched away from her swiftly as quickly as it came as she heard a noise from a cell she just walked past, turning and automatically holding up her fists in a defence.
"Woah-" Luke turned as he left the cell, spotting Darling a few cells away, looking her up and down, "-someone looks like they've had a bad Christmas."
"Luke!" She exclaimed in an overwhelmed relief, automatically running and throwing herself into his arms, "you have no idea how happy I am to see you!"
She let herself cling onto him for dear life, hearing him chuckle slightly before his arms wrapped around her in the hug.
"Good to see you too D, but we should go-" He tried to urge in a tone Darling didn't quite understand but pushed past.
"Wait! I have so much to tell you about the case; okay it doesn't make any sense but I think one of the girls, Natalia, is behind it instead of Candy, you know the dead one. But I don't understand how she could be fully behind it, I talked to her, I was around her in that place and although she did seem the type to be a little crazy behind the eyes and kill someone in the heat of a moment but I don't think it was enough to mastermind all of this-" Darling started to theorise out loud, "-this kind of operation this detailed takes someone clever, too clever for their own good almost, someone who would let their ego take over, and that's not like Natalia at all."
"That's interesting Darling but we really should go before the inmates come this way-" he brushed past her and tried to get her to follow him down the corridor.
"No but this is really bugging me, I can't figure out how she could have called the police to arrest Nick whilst killing Jules or why she would do that in the first place if she was going to be put in here anyway-" she shook her head, confused as to why he wasn't more shocked about her revelation before spotting something on his hands even in the dim lighting.
Blood.
"Are you injured?" She tilted her head with concern.
"What? No?"
"Then why do you-" She went to quiz, something in the cell next to her catching her eye and making her turn her head fully.
"Wait! Don't look in there, we need to go-" Luke called out, but it was too late.
"O-oh, oh my god!" Darling exclaimed at the body with its throat slit tossed onto the bed, cold dead eyes wide open in fear staring at Darling.
A pair of eyes that had looked at her with sympathy before, that had a glimmer of hope in them in that strip club, that once had so much life in them.
A sigh pulled her gaze from the dead body of Natalia as Luke rubbed a hand down his face with a shaking of his head and an expression that suddenly made the missing pieces of Darling's puzzle slot fully into place.
Her eyes widened in shock as the confusing realisation hit her, making her slowly shake her head in disbelief.
"You... you... no, no this can't be happening, you-"
"Yes Darling, I killed her-" he rolled his eyes, letting his act drop with a sarcastic tone "-do you want a trophy for figuring it out Sherlock?"
"I don't understand" and she really didn't.
Why did he kill her? Why had he been so eager to take Hotch up on this assignment after removing himself from the team before to focus on 'other career paths'? How had Luke been apart of this?
Darling paused in that thought, remembering about Hotch saying there were rumours of someone connected to the team having connections to Nick.
Luke seemed to spot that realisation and let out a small laugh, "I'm was his boss, he claims we're business partners but getting the guy in prison and me the title was the plan from the beginning- and with your help it seemed to work out in my favour."
Darling shook her head again but this time almost desperately, "n-no, no I didn't-"
"Oh but you did Darling" he stepped forward towards her, "you getting yourself into that place and setting him up was exactly the excuse I needed to send the NYC cops in to arrest him and get him killed in prison, tying up loose ends and all that- which, is exactly why I'm in here too."
He stepped forward again, Darling automatically feeling her body step back in response to him getting closer.
"I don't understand" she repeated, but she did- all so clearly now, she understood perfectly.
To tie up loose ends.
"We both know you would have figured it out eventually, that you wouldn't leave well enough alone until you figured out a case perfectly" he shook his head with almost frustration for her, "do you know how much of a god damn pain in my side you've become?"
Something else clicked in Darling's head then, something that felt a lot like betrayal.
"You... you were the person who told everyone to kill me, you killed Candy and blamed it on Rhoney and start all this to be able to get rid of me- didn't you?"
"That was actually Natalia's idea, she did not like you" he chuckled and shook his head, "or she liked you a little too much if you know what I mean, poor girl was obsessed with you, wanted to be you desperately from the moment she saw you. She called me about you in that club, which was how I knew to send in my buddies from the NYP to that strip club, to start this whole thing, to use you to my advantage-"
"What?"
"-that's why she had to go too" he shrugged, stepping closer again, "can't have my old number two having a thing for my new second in command."
"I am not your second in command" she stepped back again, shaking her head with disgust and disbelief of what was being revealed.
"But you could be" he stepped forward once more, "think about it D; this whole operation, it can become bigger- that's why Nick had to go, he wasn't thinking bigger. He just thought of the club, of using those girls, of renting out those rooms- but not the scale I know it can be, the trades I can tap into with your help and that deceptively smart brain of yours- your looks on my business cards wouldn't hurt either-"
"I... I don't believe this, this can't be true, none of this can be true- you're lying, this isn't you!"
"Oh come on, really with that shit? You don't know me" he laughed, "but you could, you could know me so much more than you think- we could be a team Darling, we could do this together; plant the knife on Natalia, call the team on my radio here and say it was all her and then carry it on bigger and better without anyone knowing, we could use the NYC force like I've been doing, we could do it all. I mean I was going to do it alone, almost finishing the job before you found me leaving the cell- but this is good, no, no this is great-"
Darling stared at the mad man in front of her, a monster, more terrifying than any other mad man she had seen before because this was a monster that knew how to act like a man.
One who knew how to hide in plain sight, to lie and deceive his way into thinking he was anything more than those two things;
A monster, a man.
"-Because now we can do this together, and it's more believable if you say it was her too; that whole team will believe anything you say, most of all that doormat buddy of yours" he shook his head with a crazed smile, looking over at Darling, "all you have to do; is say yes."
"Yes?" She scoffed, knowing she should say anything he wanted to hear to get out of here but the anger and betrayal bubbling in her chest taking over, "to what? To playing Bonny and Clyde with you?! To starting some sort of messed up sex trafficking entrepreneurship? To being the reason innocent people like Jules and Candy died- not to mention god knows how many died in here because of the riot you caused! You want me to say yes to that?!"
"Uh, yeah?" He said like it was an obvious easy choice.
"How about go to hell" she spat, shaking her head, "god, what the hell has gotten into you Luke?! This must be some kind of joke, some elaborate prank by you and the team or something because that is the only reason this makes any god damn sense-"
"It makes perfect sense" a darkness grew over Luke's brow, a twitching to his eye from her mocking.
"No it doesn't!" She laughed in outraged shock, "this plan of yours is stupid! No, it's beyond stupid- what's stupid is that you actually think it could work-"
"It will work-"
"Fucking how?!" She exclaimed, "even if I didn't know everything now, nice job telling me like a sloppy bond villain by the way, then someone would have figured it out, hell the figure prints you've probably left all over Natalia's body would be a dead giveaway. Even so, even if people didn't see all of that glaring evidence and piece it together, this 'big brilliant plan' of yours wouldn't last!"
"It so would-"
"It's ridiculous to think that you can make a strip club turned brothel where people have already died and don't trust each other into an upscale escort service for cops to hide money laundering and whatever else it is you've gotten yourself into! It is bound to all fall apart for so many reason!" She yelled, throwing her head back, "god how stupid are you?!"
There was a silence before Darling moved her head back, seeing Luke much closer to her now with a terrifying look in his eyes.
"Not stupid enough to leave you around now."
Darling tilted her head with confusion at what he meant and his sudden demeanour shift as if he had quickly changed his mind and a new plan, or the original plan, had formed.
"It's a shame really-" he continued, walking forward as she walked back automatically, "-I was looking forward to having you around, as relentlessly annoying as your pretty little mouth is when you yap on endlessly, I'm sure it's good for something."
"You're disgusting" she automatically responded in a whisper, outraged and terrified of her friend- no, not her friend, this man, that looked completely unrecognisable now.
"-But alas-" he shrugged, "-it seems you're going to have to end up like the other 'business partners' of mine, but maybe-" his hand grabbed hers before she could run and twisted her around against the wall, "-just maybe you'll do me the favour of putting up less of a fight than them, I've had enough blood on me for one day."
"P-please Luke, you don't have to kill me-" she found herself automatically begging as a panic flooded her, along with something else that had been building from the pits of her stomach all day the more things kept being thrown at her, something that was threatening to boil over.
"Oh come on now, of course I do" he chuckled, leaning down to her ear, "but my offer still stands; we can always have some fun before you go. You still remain as the only female 'friend' who hasn't seen my-"
"You son of a bitch-" Darling felt that building bubble momentarily, filling her with enough rage to throw her head back into his head and stumble away, eyes glued to him in rage, "is that really what you're thinking about?! You just killed a woman, you're moments away from going through with your 'mastermind' escape and that's what's in your head?! I thought we were friends!"
"Friends?" He laughed before his voice turned cruel and mocking, "oh Darling, you should know by now; people don't stick around you because they want to be your 'friend.' They just bide their time, waiting for you to do what you're known for; opening your legs and letting anyone inside-"
"How fucking dare you" she whispered with tears growing in her eyes and sick in her throat.
"You know I'm right, it's just a known fact at this point" he shrugged, "look at that 'buddy' of yours, Derek, he's just biding his time, waiting until you bend on over for him like we all know that you'll eventually do to stop him leaving you-"
"You shut your mouth-" she snapped but he continued.
"-in fact, I'm sure he's already tried, hasn't he? In all of your years of friendship, he must have. A brush too high up your thigh, a hand on your back lower than usual, a stare down your body- just little things you noticed that you pushed past because he was 'just your friend,' but he was really seeing how far he could go-"
"I said shut up!" She yelled, "don't you talk about him like that!"
"So it's true?" He raised an amused eyebrow at her.
"No! No of course not! He would never- Derek would never... he would never think like that, he wouldn't treat me like that, he's-"
"Oh" Luke laughed with a realisation at the hurt on her face, "holy shit, you've fucked him- haven't you?"
"What-" Darling's outrage grew.
"Jesus Christ" his mocking laughter grew with it, "I knew you were a whore but I didn't think you were that desperate that you would ruin your whole friendship just to keep someone around who was bound to leave you if you didn't give him-"
"You have no idea what you're talking about" she shook her head desperately, "he wouldn't- he didn't- he wouldn't do that."
"Why wouldn't he?" He moved closer, following her as she backed away, shaking her head and turning to leave, "why do you think you're so special that he wouldn't? He got what he really wanted from you this whole time; you on your hands and knees in front of him-"
"Shut up!" She covered her ears and continued storming away from him, no longer worrying if he was going to try to kill her, just wanting him to stop talking, just wanted the insults and gossip she heard as a teenager to leave her mind, the shame she didn't know why she felt not being able to leave her chest.
But she realised too late that she should have been worried about him trying to kill her, that she shouldn't have turned her back to him, that she shouldn't have taken his bait of getting worked up.
"Really?" He stepped forward as his hand clamped around her throat and twisted her to him, holding her close with a grip on her back, "then tell me Darling; where is he now? Why isn't he here to save you? Why doesn't he care enough to be by your side after you let him have the goods?"
"Shut your-" she tried to say through terrified tears before his hand clamped hers shut.
"You want to know why he's really not here?" He leaned down, "because he doesn't care about you, he never has- no one cares about you Darling, no one ever has and no one ever will. Not that team, not your father, not god- and not Derek Morgan."
The tears rolled down her face that he brought closer to his spiteful eyes, "that is why you will always end up here; alone. No one, and I really mean no one, cares about you more than what you and that body can do for them."
He brushed a hand over her lips, "because let's be honest Darling; what more are you than a ditsy blonde with a tight ass and a decent rack?"
"Don't forget about her spunky personality" a voice surprisingly called out behind them, Luke snapping around to see a heavily pregnant, pantless, sweat covered woman hobbled up next to a taller woman with short black hair who looked as if she could rip out his throat with one glare.
"And her notorious right hook" Greta let a flicker of a smirk hit her lips as Luke looked confused at her, a look of confusion that was replaced with pain as said right hook smashed into his face, Darling using the opportunity to hit to escape his grip.
But she didn't escape even when she could.
That something that had been building in her stomach, that terrified rage since getting there that had been hidden behind 'it's okay' and 'I'm going to be fine, it's not so bad' smiles had snapped open, she had snapped open.
And all she could see was rage.
All she could feel was a monster inside her, clawing her way out to attack a man.
A primal rage screamed out of her at Luke who caught her forth punch she threw at him, twisting her and throwing her into the wall, grabbing her ponytail and yanking her back to him quickly.
But everything went into slow motion for Darling.
His hand grabbing her hair, fingers fisting her ponytail, a control gained over her from her hair.
The kind of control someone had when she was a child, the kind of control someone had before they made her drink and crashed into a tree off a bridge, the kind of control someone had tried to get as they pinned her against the guard's office wall.
A control taken, not given.
A control stolen from her, a control that always started with someone grabbing her hair, a control she wasn't going to let anyone ever have again.
"Holy shit!"
"Jesus Christ-"
"Fuck!"
The cries of shock around her bounced as Darling yanked the blade out of her hip within a matter of a half second and hurled it behind her head at the hair; slicing clean through the flesh and bone of Luke's fingers like a blade through grass.
Long blonde hair mixed with blood fell to the floor along with the fingers as the echoes of Luke's screams jumped off the walls surrounding them.
"Y-you're fucking insane!" Luke yelled at Darling, clutching his hand and stumbling back in fear of the woman who looked up from the floor as her now considerably shorter curled waves messily chopped just below her jaw flopped around her face, a murderous look of hatred in her eyes, the look of a woman who had nothing to lose as she gripped the blade tightly.
"You have no idea how insane I can be" she glared at him, somehow standing taller than she ever had.
"You fucking bitch!" He yelled, scrambling at his hip for his gun.
"I'd suggest you leave that 'fucking bitch' alone-" Bone's voice caught his attention, turning and seeing Bone and Greta with the yells of their group from the floors above, "-unless you want your last moments alive to be being beaten to a pulp by a pregnant lady."
Luke stared between them for a moment before turning to Darling, "this isn't over."
He ran down the corridor clutching his hand that was missing 3 fingers and spouting blood, Bone nodding to her women to chase after him before she keeled over in pain and shock.
"Holy shit-"
"Bone!" Darling ran over automatically to help, ignoring the agonising pain from her hip that was spouting blood and the terrified buzz through her body of what she had just done.
"You're out of your god damn mind" Greta grabbed her before she could get to Bone, pulling her into a shocking hug, "you're batshit crazy."
"Thank you?" Darling didn't quite understand her compliment but couldn't lie that she felt relieved to have the woman who hours ago threw punches at her face holding her tightly, tears automatically streaming down Darling's face.
"You chopped off his fucking fingers!" Bone laughed in shock, "that was badass kid."
"I... I guess I've just had a really bad day-" Darling shook her head with an almost gag at the thought of what she just did, "I was just... god I was just so angry."
Bone nodded with an understanding, "it's easy to get like that after pretending you aren't angry for a long time, it's good to let it out-"
"Although maybe next time don't let it build up so much that the only way it can come out is by having a gory remake of the Tangled hair cutting scene" Greta added.
"You've seen Tangled?"
"Of course I have, I may be a criminal but I'm not a psycho" she chuckled, something Darling had never heard from her before.
"Thank you" Darling said sincerely to both of them, "for coming for me, thank you for saving me."
"We didn't save you" Greta placed a prideful hand on her shoulder, "you did that all your own."
They shared a moment of grateful soft smiles at each other that was cut off by a groan of pain next to them.
"Not to interrupt your bonding moment but I do have a human trying to make it's way out of my vagina that is quickly becoming a pressing issue" Bone keeled over in pain, Greta being instantly by her side and leading her into a spare open cell to lie down with Darling rushing over too.
"I called my team- I don't know where on earth they are but Derek said he would get them, I made him promise to, he promised he would get you help" Darling desperately said, "I don't know where they are, they should be here, I did it, I got to the phone and-"
"It's okay kid-"
"N-no, no it's not because I timed it out, it should have only taken an ambulance and them 10 minutes to get here and t-they should be here, you should be on your way to hospital, you shouldn't have your baby in here and-" a panic flooded her, a helplessness, a failure in her chest.
"Darling-" Bone took her hand from the bed, "it's okay."
Her voice was soft, softer than Darling thought possible for a woman like her, a softness that was reflected even more surprisingly in Greta's eyes as she nodded at Darling.
"You did your best."
"B-but it wasn't enough" there was a child like pain in Darling's voice.
"You almost got beaten to all hell by that guard, got stabbed in the leg, rewired the whole prison and got an unwanted haircut- which looks sick by the way- all because you wanted to help me not give birth in here-" Bone chuckled in-between breathes of pain, "-that's more than enough."
"I'm... I'm really sorry" Darling crouched down with tears in her eyes, "I'm so sorry I couldn't get you out of here in time."
"Hey, it's not your fault- if I wanted luxury birthing treatment I probably shouldn't have gotten myself thrown in prison" she laughed, "but you can help me, you could do me one more favour."
"Anything" Darling gripped her hand, "anything at all."
"Can you radio your little team and tell them to bring me a spare pair of pants? Mine are fully covered in my water gunk and blood two stories above us right now."
Darling went to laugh but paused with a realisation that she did in fact have a radio in her hand, one that had been on Luke's hip, one she had automatically taken in the brawl without knowing.
"Oh my god!" She stood up quickly, grabbing the radio with shaking hands and ripping off the back, quickly finding herself re-wiring it with ease to reach police and agency intercoms.
"Hello?! Hello can anyone hear me!? This is Darling- I mean, shit, this is agent Darling Dawson!" She yelled down it in a panic, "please?! Please can anyone hear me?!"
"Darling I was joking-" Bone tried to say but Darling continued.
"Derek!? Hotch?! Reid?! Anyone!? Please! Please listen to me if you're out there or if you're close, I need you, I need you all so desperately! I know I acted like I didn't, like I had this covered but, fuck, I really don't!" The tears that wouldn't stop flowing continued as she rambled, "Hotch you were right, it was a stupid plan, I was stupid- I'm so stupid for thinking I could do this I-"
Darling shook her head at her self pity and cleared her throat, "just please, if anyone can hear me, if any of you guys are listening please, I need your help. I don't care if you can't send in a SWAT team or can't risk sending anyone in; you need to. Not for me, not to control the prisoners, but for a woman who I have a promise to keep to, for a friend. I need to get her out of here, or get someone in here who knows how to help her- please!" She begged, waiting for a few moments for a response, but there was none.
Just silence.
A silence that was a reminder that she was alone, that no one was coming to save her, that it was down to her.
But she didn't know how to do this, she didn't know how to help, and it terrified her more than words could say.
"Please! I'll do anything!" She yelled down the radio desperately.
"Darling-" Greta placed a sympathetic hand on her shoulder, both of them pausing when the radio sparked up, but not from someone they wanted to hear.
"Anything? What a compelling offer" Luke's mocking voice raced through Darling's mind.
"How did you-"
"Get onto the radio wave? You're not the only one who knows their way around the basement wires- I'm ex-military, remember?" He mocked, "I'm just calling in to take somoeone up on your offer."
"I haven't, and will never, offer you shit-" She spat back with a familiar burning rage in her stomach.
"Yeah, eat shit asshole!" Bone yelled before groaning in pain.
"That baby will be there any moment now" Luke continued, but not seeming to talk to Darling or Bone "I don't know about you but I don't like the odds stacked against a premature baby in a freezing cold prison cell-"
"We didn't ask for your opinion asshole-" Greta spat.
"Well you might want to hear it when I tell you what I can offer you and your little mess of a wife there before she dies in labour" he said in an overly calm tone, "go back to our deal, and I'll lead you out of here to safety- to a hospital just like I said when you came to find me after Bone brought Darling to the infirmary to you. If you, Greta dear, bring me Darling alive and ready to do whatever I want, then I will get you and that child making machine out of here."
Darling turned slowly with wide eyes to a guilty and apologetic looking Greta, shocked to find out that she not only knew it was Luke who had gotten everyone to try and killed her, but that even after meeting her, even after Darling risking her life and almost being assaulted to save Bone, that she went and made a deal with him.
"How could you?" It was Bone's outraged voice that spat at Greta to Darling's surprise.
"Baby I can explain-"
"You're not even denying it you son of a bitch!" Bone yelled, tears in her eyes, "you were going to do that?! After what she did for me?! After how much she's helped us?!"
"I didn't know!"
"But you know me!" She yelled, "you know I wouldn't let someone live if I was going to kill them unless they earned my trust, unless I wanted them alive!"
"Bone please you're going to cause more damage to the labour if you keep yelling-"
"I don't give a fuck!" Bone threw whatever she could at Greta, "I will scream this whole damn prison down if it means it will fall on you! Fuck-"
Her groan of intense pain stopped her screams of betrayal.
Something was wrong, Darling didn't know what but there was far too much fresh blood traveling down Bone's thighs for this to be normal.
She needed medical attention, she needed help, she needed to be anywhere but here-
Darling froze with a thought, no, not a thought; a need.
A need to help this woman she barely knew.
A need to keep her promise.
A need that came with a consequence she didn't let herself think about as she pulled the radio to her mouth.
"Okay."
"What?" Luke quizzed, Bone and Greta sharing a similar puzzled expression at her in the middle of Bone's almost comedic slapping at Greta.
"O-okay, your deal Luke- Greta will keep it" Darling spoke quickly before she had time to think about what she was saying, because she already had, just in the way Hotch had said before she would;
Analysing the risks, thinking through every possible outcome, all the ways it could go wrong and end with her dead, or worse.
But just like Hotch had said, she would always take those risks even if she knew it meant certain death, if she could help someone by trading herself, taking the pain for them so she didn't have to witness them going through it, finding it easier to go through that pain herself instead.
"I'll bring myself to you, Greta will bring me to you so you can't go back on the deal- and then you take Bone and her to get help; you take her to the team, you take her to Derek, he'll know what to do, he'll be outside- I'm sure of it" she spoke down the radio with fresh tears running down her face but an uneasy steadiness to her voice, "you promise me that you'll do that, and you can... you can have me."
"Have you?" He raised an intrigued eyebrow.
"To kill me, to hurt me; whatever it is you want" she let out a pained sigh, "just... just promise me."
"Darling no!" Bone yelled at her.
"Promise me Luke" Darling continued, "you may be a backstabber and wacko beyond belief, but you are a man of your word- you have to be."
There was a silence before Luke spoke, "okay, I promise.
"No!" Bone screamed, "no! Darling I'm not letting you do this-"
"I don't have a choice" Darling wouldn't look at her.
"You have a fucking choice to not let a maniac kill you!"
"Not if it means you and your baby will die!" Darling snapped her head to her and yelled before her voice came out as a whisper, "not if it means someone else gets hurt if I live, I will not let that happen again."
"Again?" Greta, who had shocking tears in her eyes, caught onto her whisper, Darling just giving her an exhausted look before nodding.
"Okay, I'm ready, we need to go now-"
"Like fuck you are-" Bone tried to push herself to her feet, screaming in pain instead.
"Bone please-" Darling crouched down and took her hand, "-please just let me help you."
"I'm not letting you die!" Bone yelled, squeezing her hand.
"I thought that was the original plan?" Darling let out a small chuckle through tears.
"Well plans fucking change and despite my better judgement I've come to enjoy your stupid annoying self-alive!" Bone shook her head before sighing and grabbing Darling's other hand, "please kid, please promise me that you have some sort of plan- I know I can't stop your stubborn ass going, even if I wasn't pregnant as shit, but promise me that you aren't just walking to your death, that you have a way out of this. Promise me that you'll find a way out of this."
Darling looked at the begging in her eyes, the need to hear her say it, the knowledge that she wouldn't rest or let go of Darling's hands if she didn't.
Darling nodded with a forced smile before hugging Bone tightly, and for the first time in her life; Darling made a promise she wasn't going to keep.