«I have to believe that
even if something seems like
it can't be fixed,
doesn't mean it's broken.»
It had taken only a day from that point to arrest Ilary Benson, a prostitute working the streets of Baltimore with whom all the men had had contact. Nothing had come from Penelope's online searches because the only way to find Ilary was to find her on the streets.
She hadn't given Baltimore any trouble up until that point, before her first victim brutally raped her. That had been her stressor and had led her to kill other six innocent men.
All those men had only needed a woman to dominate them in bed and Ilary, in her devious and dirty games, had killed them one by one, without a particular connection. The only thing they all had in common was that they were men.
In the corridors of the local Baltimore police station Daisy saw how JJ carried the girl in handcuffs. The younger agent couldn't help but think that Ilary was one of the most beautiful girls she had ever seen. On that day of investigating her they had discovered that people there called her Pink Mouth, because, they said, she put love on everything she touched.
She had only arrived in Baltimore two months prior, and as soon as she took to the streets everyone realized with a glance that she was not a missionary. There were those who made sex out of boredom, those who chose it for work, but it was said that Pink Mouth was neither one nor the other, she did it out of passion.
But passion, Daisy knew well, often led to satisfying one's desires by hurting other people and so it was that from one day to the next Pink Mouth brought upon herself the fatal wrath of all the people of Baltimore.
Yet for Daisy it was shocking to note that although it had been proven in various ways that that prostitute was a murderer, the concept was not clear to everyone. At the police station that day there were many people, from the commissioner to the sexton with red eyes and hat in hand, to greet Pink Mouth who for a while, with many pretension, brought love to the city.
There was a yellow sign, with a black writing saying goodbye Pink Mouth, spring leaves with you. The funny thing for Daisy was that they hadn't had time to publicly release the news of the arrest yet.
Evidently such original news didn't need any newspaper, like an arrow from above it was shot and quickly passed from mouth to mouth.
Someone had told her that even a parish priest, who did not despise Pink Mouth, wanted that ephemeral asset of her beauty next to him in a procession a few weeks before, and with the Virgin Mary in the front row and Pink Mounth not far away, they had taken sacred and profane love for a walk around the city.
"It's getting really late now. Go to sleep, we'll return home tomorrow afternoon calmly, we haven't been able to sleep properly for days." - Emily said interrupting Daisy's thoughts
Everyone seemed to be happy with that choice, but Daisy's heart skipped a beat. If they had returned home in the next afternoon she would have missed the appointment to see her daughter and that asshole wouldn't never let her recover it.
It was instinctive, tears began to well up in her eyes. It was the first time she cried after Claudia's death and she was doing it there, in the middle of a police station and under everyone's eyes. She wanted to bury herself because she couldn't stop crying.
"Hey what's going on?" - JJ asked her, approaching her gently
The blonde had understood that the situation was not going to improve any time soon and had kindly led Daisy to a small room in the police station, where the rest of the team had followed them. It was clear to everyone that it was hysterical crying, but no one could understand what had caused it.
Emily looked at her with a terrified look, extremely worried. She was torn between doing something to help her or continuing to keep the distant boss side and hiding what had happened between them the previous week.
When her dark eyes met the bright and hysterical eyes of Daisy, who continued to cry, a hysterical, cold and cynical laughter also invaded the room, tormenting the ears of all the profilers: Daisy couldn't stop laughing and crying.
She had totally lost her lucidity, she felt like she was under the influence of drugs again. Everything around her had disappeared, there was only herself, the fear of never seeing her daughter again and Emily's dark eyes, who looked at her terrified and paralyzed.
"Maybe you should take a minute and breathe for a second." - Luke told her suddenly, bringing her back to reality
"No, I can't stop because in life traumas and losses don't stop. God doesn't work like that. Because you can do everything exactly the way it was supposed to be done and people still die." - Daisy shouted at Luke
Everyone looked at her bewildered and terrified. Nobody knew what to say or what to do, nobody understood the source of that sudden nervous breakdown. Daisy had lost her temper and nothing seemed to be able to calm her down.
"Go to sleep Johnson and consider yourself free on Monday too." - Emily said suddenly
Even though what Emily was telling her was absolutely nothing comfortable or gentle, her voice still managed to have a strange and unexpected calming effect on Daisy. Everyone was grateful for that new sudden change in mood, except Daisy, who wanted to continue screaming and crying for hours.
"I don't need to rest, Prentiss." - she said exasperatedly, looking for any excuse to scream again
"Yes, you need it. Go to sleep and the next time I want to see you must be on the jet tomorrow at four in the afternoon and then Tuesday morning in the offices. That's an order." - Emily said, raising her voice
"Fine!" - Daisy said leaving the room without even taking her things back
Emily was completely paralyzed after that whole scene. She couldn't understand what was happening, but one thing was clear to her: there was something about Daisy Johnson that wasn't right and she felt stupid for not realizing sooner that there really was something strange about that girl.
Emily wasn't sure what, whether it was too much beauty or perhaps too much kindness, the inexplicable talent or the ability to please anyone, but something about that girl was extremely off and Emily made it her personal mission to understand what was really happening.
"That girl will be the death of me." - she said sighing before leaving the room and getting knowing looks from all her colleagues
When Daisy returned to her room she immediately fell asleep. She hadn't realized she was so terribly tired. She slept for ten hours straight, waking up directly at eleven the next morning.
Like every one of her awakenings in the last period, that too came with a bitter taste, but that wasn't Penelope's fault, that time it was only her head's fault. The last of the dreams she had had that night, more properly a nightmare, had left her speechless.
In her dream Emily, her damned and cursed Emily, was holding her little Rose in her arms, who was crying, crying desperately and all Daisy wanted to do was pick her up and make her calm down because Emily couldn't.
But Emily was angry, furious and for no reason she wanted to give her daughter up in her arms. Emily had told her that she was not worthy of being Rose's mother, that she was a dirty traitor and that from now on Rose would be with her.
Daisy had screamed, she had tried to stop Emily, to stop her from disappearing with her daughter, but there had been no way to stop her boss who had gone away to who knows where with her daughter in her arms. Daisy's ears, however, did not stop being tormented by that cry.
It was like a dagger in the chest. She remembered being desperate, screaming so much and looking for Emily in every corner, but she and Rose had disappeared and all that remained of them were only tears and anger.
Coming back to reality, Daisy realized shortly after that she was terribly sweaty, that she had fallen asleep with her clothes on and that she smelled terribly. She still had five hours before she had to get on the jet and see everyone again, so she had to take a shower.
The realization of what had happened the night before suddenly hit her as the jet of boiling water relaxed every muscle in her body. She had totally lost control and couldn't explain how it could have happened.
She was sure that Emily and everyone else were immensely angry at her for making that scene and she didn't know how she could fix it. Her only way out was to blame stress and tiredness for what had happened, hoping that a group of six profilers would believe her umpteenth lie.
At four in the afternoon she showed up on the jet on time. Upon entering she noticed that everyone was busy happily taking and laughing with each other while drinking whiskey. Daisy smiled slightly as she realized what a great team they actually were.
What distinguished them was great professional respect when they worked, but the ability to laugh and joke like friends when off duty, breaking down all the barriers that work imposed on them. None of them had noticed her presence before Daisy walked up to the first empty chair next to JJ and sat down.
"Hey stranger, how are you today? Did you manage to rest?" - Tara asked, smiling at her and gently stroking her arm
Daisy immediately met Emily's gaze. She was furious, but what intrigued Daisy was that Emily wasn't furious with her: she was furious with Tara for daring to touch the youngest agent. Emily Prentiss wasn't furious, she was jealous and Daisy gave her a mocking smile, happy to have discovered how her boss's face lit up when crossed with a new emotion.
"Yes, I slept a lot. I'm sorry about yesterday, I don't know what came over me." - she said, trying to meet everyone's eyes
"Don't worry, this job can sometimes be particularly stressful, the important thing is to be able to clarify your mind." - said Luke
"Now just think about resting tomorrow too, you're lucky you can" - said Rossi in a desperate attempt to obtain a day-off for everyone, but without success
Daisy breathed a sigh of relief, she never thought that getting out of that situation could be so easy. But she hadn't calculated Emily Prentiss: she wasn't so easy, she wouldn't have given up as easily as the others.