Days had passed since the team had their first and last sight of Athena Adams, of their Athena.

For the most part, the group kept themselves busy; diving into theories of who was framing her, of who could have hurt Morgan's mom, using Athena's half-filled file of horror that turned out to be her own history.

Hotch found himself delving more into where she had been for those 5 days instead of the case like the others; of what she had done, what had happened to her- whatever it was, it had changed her in a way he wasn't sure she could come back from.

Morgan on the other hand, expectedly so, failed to distract himself in the team's shared workaholic tendencies, instead only focusing on her, on focusing on Athena in the now; where she was, where she had gone, why she had left into nothingness from the office 7 days before.

"Morning handsome" Garcia's bubbly voice barely dragged him from the last known location of her tracking device still at the office, turning to see his brightly dressed friend shaking her office door.

"You okay there, baby girl?" 

"Yeah, my stupid office door is just jammed- care to put those muscles to good use?"

"Only because of that compliment" he joked through the slight sting of his cracked lips, twisting the stubborn handle before pausing at the hushed whisper on the other side of the door.

"Did you leave a computer on?" He went to turn to Garcia before his eyes froze on the broken stiletto heel jammed into the keyhole- immediate recognition sprouting in his pained chest.

"Take your keys out" his barked demand jumped his friend as he banged on the door, a tone shift that felt almost desperate, "Athena! Open the door!"

"B-break it down! You have my permission!" Penelope's startled voice didn't dare question his assumption of who was in there, if anyone at all, as the sounds of files transferring sped up and computers roared.

"Stand back!" He threw his shoulder into the door twice before it smashed just as the computers swirled to a stop, both stumbling into the empty room; exactly how Garcia had left it.

"That's not possible" Morgan marched to the keyboard, fighting the insanity in his stomach, the fear that it was winning, terrified that the shadows would turn to her too, something he could never touch, "there's no other way out of here- I heard her!"

"Derek, honey, have you been sleeping-" Garcia's gentle hand on his shoulder was no match to the hair rising on the back of his neck, forcing him to turn sharply from the woman comforting him to the one woman who could.

Athena froze halfway on her way to sneak out from behind the door, catching his eyes with a genuine stare before a cheeky smile plastered along side a wink; just as she raced out of the room.

"Athena!" Morgan was out of the door before Garcia could turn around, following a still limping Athena as she skidded at the elevator where the security were waiting to go on break, doubling back on herself just as they turned.

"Fuck-" Her voice somehow laughed and winced as the same time, inches away from crashing into Morgan before she slipped to the floor, quickly skidding under his legs towards the BAU office, "-I hate Mondays!"

"Athena! Get back here!" Morgan continued to chase, a chase that felt familiar, a chase that he didn't enjoy now.

"Morgan, what is going- Athena?" Hotch slammed back into his door as she rushed past him to the briefing room quickly followed by him and the rest of the team who surrounded the door.

"Stop running- you have nowhere to go" Morgan panted in front of her, watching as she slowly walked backwards to the end of the room with her hands lazily held up in defence, a sly smile threatening her lips. 

"You guys always did doubt me" she winked before hurling the USB at his head and, in once swift motion that he would have bet she had rehearsed in her head, pulled out her gun and shot the glass window; seconds before throwing her body out of it.

"Ow my head- wait! Holy shit! Athena!" Morgan scrambled to his feet with a now USB shaped dent in his forehead, rushing to the now shattered window on the 6th floor, preparing to see her body splattered on the pavement below.

But somehow it was worse, somehow more heart wrenching, some how more gruesome.

There was... nothing?

She wasn't there, just glass smashed on the floor with speckles of blood.

No traces of her.

Nothing.

Almost like she was never there in the first place.

"T-that's not possible" Reid stammered as the team stared in shock, too shocked to spot what sent Morgan sprinting out of the office down the very same street he knew she had, not stopping once before he was outside her apartment door; sweat covered and panting.

His hand readied for the door before it switched to his gun when he saw it unlocked.

His chest rose and fell against his will, growing panicked all the more when he saw the state of the apartment;

Dried blood splattered the floor, furniture tossed against the walls, glass photo of the two shattered under his feet as he looked around with concern before a voice behind him alerted his gun.

"Who are you- oh my god" the man whose voice he recognised as Kyle squeaked from the gun directed at him, and then once more from the giant man barking at him.

"Where is she?!

"W-who are you?" 

"Where is Athena!?"

"S-she told me not to tell anyone! Especially men who broke into her apartment so excuse me if I have a hard time-" 

"I didn't- I'm with the FBI! How do you know where she-"

"Wait, wait, wait- are you Morgan?" Kyle tilted his head, "huh, I thought you'd be taller."

"Just tell me where Athena is" he shook his head with a grumble, a lump in his throat, "I need to see her, I need to know she's okay."

"Yeah, you're definitely Morgan" Kyle half laughed to himself before cautiously stepping back from the gun, gesturing him up the corridor, "come with me; she's going to be pissed I brought you here but I don't know how to help her and I assume your first aid trained given the whole FBI stuff."

"What do you mean-" Morgan came to a stop as the pristine apartment door opened, revealing a blood covered Athena picking glass out of her eyebrow with a vodka bottle as her mirror.

"Kyle where is your alcohol, never mind, I found it- What the fuck?!"

Their eyes met for less than a second before the bottle was thrown at an instinctively ducking Morgan who was already chasing a quick to throw herself out of yet another pane of glass Athena, caught mid jump by his arms wrapped around her waist.

"Let go of me! Get your hands off me!" 

Her scream was different, it was angry, it wasn't punctuated with curses, it seemed... scared.

She was just trying to get away from being stopped from escaping, she seemed terrified of being touched, terrified of him.

"Stop it!" He held on tight even as she threw her head back into his nose, spitting the blood onto the floor as she wiggled desperately in his arms, "Athena stop it!"

"Stop fucking touching me! Please stop touching me! Please! Derek! Stop-" 

Kyle watched watched in horror and confusion, shutting the door so the neighbours wouldn't call the police, not that they weren't used to hearing the sounds of fights in this neighbourhood.

"Stop trying to jump out windows and I will!" Morgan's bark shook the room before she finally fell out of his arms, a panting to her chest as she looked up at him, ignoring his concern when he spotted the fresh blood on her skin.

"You made me jump out of a window, what did you expect would happen, I'd bleed glitter?"

"I didn't make you jump out of a window" he rolled his eyes at her sarcasm, heading to the kitchen to grab a wet cloth as Kyle stepped back towards the door.

"Uh-I'm gonna go..." 

"No!" Athena stared daggers in his direction, "you brought him here; get rid of him, fight him if you have to."

"You want me to fight this guy? Athena, look at him! He makes the rock look like a ladybug- I'll fucking die!"

"Not if I kill you first for bringing him here-"

"Stop threatening to kill the kid" Morgan interrupted, brushing past Kyle with a cold shoulder and pushing Athena onto the couch to clean her wounds.

"Stay away from me- I don't need your help."

"Shut up" he hushed with an eyeroll of his own, attempting to clean the slices of glass in her face despite her stubborn wiggling.

"Don't tell me to shut up" she pushed him away from her with a infuriating to let her hand linger on his arm, to let her anger slow, to let him help.

"Stop hitting me- you're too weak, it doesn't make any impact" he sat her down without a struggle despite her efforts, "you're hurt, let me clean your wounds then you can go back to hating my guts and beating up Kyle, speaking of which; you got a first aid box in here?"

"M-me?" Kyle stammered before Morgan's never ending eyeroll directed at him, shaking his head apologetically, "no, uh, no I don't- sorry, I plan more for brunches than FBI invasions."

"Go to Athena's apartment and get me her sewing kit, bandages and any alcohol you can find."

"Cool so everyone's just ordering me around today..."

"Why do you need a sewing kit?" Athena tilted her head at Morgan as Kyle left before realising she was talking to him, shutting her mouth out of stubbornness that Morgan couldn't help but chuckle at, picking glass out of her skin with the now bloodied cloth. 

"Something tells me whoever stitched up your stomach didn't do a very good job."

"That's rude, it's not exactly easy to good straight lines when you're trying to hold your own fucking guts in-"

"Wait, you stitched yourself up?"

"Well it was either that or die- I wish I'd picked the other option now" she mumbled sarcastically at his almost terrified, concerned face, shifting as far from him as possible whilst he studied her now hollowed face, wanting nothing more than to apologise profusely and stroke her cheek until she was full again.

But he settled for a nod, continuing to clean her blood off in silence- a silence he couldn't stand for long.

"Why did you jump out of a 6 story window? How did you even manage to survive? That fall should have killed you."

"Stop that."

"Stop what?" 

"Stop pretending that you care when we both know that you don't."

"All I'm saying is it was stupid-"

"You're stupid!" Athena pushed him away from her, not realising he had a hold of a shard of glass in her thigh that tugged down her leg and cut it more as he stumbled back on the couch.

"Ow! Mother fucker!" 

"I'm so sorry!" Morgan rushed back over with concern, only realising his automatic response to her pain when he realised she had allowed it, pausing at the awkward interaction of him holding her again.

It wasn't like before, he couldn't just hold her and make her feel better, to make her feel not alone.

Because he had made her feel that way, alone.

He had left her in that feeling, and there was no apology that could change that.

"Just get it out of me before I stab it into your eye" Athena grumbled, shuffling from him once more as she grabbed the vodka bottle once more.

"You can't drink."

"Like fuck I can't."

"No Athena- you can't drink" he pulled the bottle from her lips before she kicked him in the leg which made him drop it, she caught it before it hit the floor and smugly took a swig.

"Stop! You're not allowed to because-" 

"Because of my brain damage? Don't you think I fucking know, it's my broken brain, idiot!" She yelled before collecting herself with another swig, an emptiness to her voice, "I don't care."

Morgan fell to a silence as he watched her.

There was something she wasn't telling him, there was a lot, there always was- but this was different, he could just tell.

Something had made her lose the tiny once of hope she had left, something that had defeated the undefeatable.

Kyle entered the room with 5 bottles of booze, a sewing kit, bandages and a sewing machine before Morgan could make the mistake of asking what was wrong with her.

"Why the sewing machine, buddy?" Athena laughed, ignoring but enjoying Morgan's scowl of her joyful tone shift with Kyle.

"I didn't know what the sewing things were for and thought if he was making you a bandage sling then a machine would be quicker, and I, uh, now realise that's not right."

"You're such a himbo" she chuckled as he passed a bottle of wine over the couch, interrupted by Morgan once more.

"She can't drink."

"Why not?" Kyle asked before stammering with a panic "wait- you are over 21, yeah?"

"Do I look like a child? Yes I'm over 21."

"And- wait, you're not pregnant, are you?" 

"Why does everyone always assume I'm pregnant? Do I just look pregnant all the fucking time?" Her humorous eyeroll turned to pure rage, throwing the bloodied cushion dividing her and Morgan at her neighbour like it could kill him, "no! I'm fucking not!"

"No! Oh my god no, I'm sorry!" Kyle quickly apologised "I didn't mean it like that- you don't look pregnant, I just worried because I can't think of another reason you wouldn't be allowed to drink and you have been drinking all week so I wouldn't have wanted to be letting a pregnant lady drink- I'm sorry!"

Morgan watched with almost jealous confusion at her quick to come smile, chuckling surprisingly at Kyle with a nod as he shuffled into the kitchen awkwardly.

"You've been here all week?" Morgan quizzed quietly after the suffocation from the lack of her voice became too much.

"Hiding in plain sight is my speciality."

"What were you doing in Garcia's computer room?"

"You guys get paid to figure that out."

"What's on the USB? What did you take?" He asked with a gently cleaning of her cheeks, very aware of how close he was to her face once more.

A position he weeks prior wouldn't blink twice at, a position he now craved like astronaut abandoned in space watching the earth.

"I didn't take anything, asshole" Athena defended, folding her aching arms at his 'I know you're lying' face, "I really fucking didn't!" 

"Okay... then what did you plant?" 

"If you idiots have gotten anywhere with the file then you should be able to find it."

"Why won't you just come help us? You obviously know something we don't- we can work together and figure this out together if you'd stop being so damn stubborn."

"I did help you out" she spat, finally meeting his gaze with a brief dropping of her bitterness that only left pain, "for over two fucking years I helped you idiots out and where did it get me? What did it leave me? Gutted and with glass in my face? Some fucking help you were..."

Morgan paused at the realisation of how long she had been on the team, of how little time he had to hold her, of how much more he wanted.

Losing the love of his life would be tough, he knew that, he knew she would never forgive him, he didn't deserve her to, he knew that.

And he would accept that the love of his life, the only love of this life and all the rest to come, would be over.

He just wished he'd had more time to love her before it was over.

"I'm still working on what I have to find-" Athena didn't take any notice of his pained expression as she shuffled from him "-out, I don't have time to do your shitty jobs for you."

"Right" he cleared his throat, ignoring the emptiness in his chest that he was sure would last until the day he and it stopped for good, grabbing the sewing kit and vodka bottle before helping her sit up properly.

"What are you doing?" 

"Helping- now lie down, this is going to hurt" he carefully lifted her shirt to look at the cut that had only bled more since he last saw her with the few shakily administered stitches having torn open. 

"Don't touch me" she pushed his hands from her, quickly pulling down her shirt.

"Oh you'd prefer to bleed out on your neighbour's white couch then, yeah?" 

"What's happening to my couch!? It's designer!" Kyle's voice echoed with a scream of panic from the bathroom as Athena rolled her eyes, slumping down onto the couch with frustration.

"I can lie down by myself you fuck face."

"Can you pull up your top for me?" Morgan asked softly, noticing how scared she seemed when he tried to, although she was quick to cover it with anger, he could tell something more fearful lay beneath that rage.

"It's... it's kinda stuck" Athena mumbled through a wince as she tried to pull the top further up against the dried blood collected within the wound.

"Okay, don't pull on it, it's gonna hurt if you do that-"

"It's going to hurt either way genius!"

"Stop tugging at it, let me help-"

"I can do it myself- FUCK!" 

Athena's frustration was cut off by her tugging her shirt up with a sudden rip, howling in pain before shaking her head, swallowing her tears as she lay down with her stomach now exposed.

"I told you I could do it myself."

"Yeah by making yourself cry in the process" Morgan mumbled as he adjusted himself onto his knees just as Kyle came back into the room, "just listen to me for once."

"Ew- I'll, uh, go grab you one of my t-shirts to change into" he stumbled back with a gag from the sight of the grizzly wound, not noticing Morgan's slightly jealous eyebrow raise before shaking his head and dampening a cloth with vodka to dab on the long, deep gash that spread where his hands once did.

"Fuck-" Athena bit her lip to stop herself screaming at the clear liquid cleaning her blood, squinting her eyes with every incision, with every stab, with every word Morgan spoke to distract her from the pain that only made it worse.

"So how long has that been going on?" 

"What?" Athena lifted her head to look at him, rolling her eyes at his mocking gesture towards a still gagging Kyle re-entering the room again with a pile of shirts. 

"I couldn't figure out which one you would prefer- they're all going to be too big but I wasn't sure if you wanted plain or a pattern or a graphic tee, or-" Kyle rambled, trying not to look at the blood, "ew!"

"Thanks Kyle, that's really nice of- SON OF A BITCH! You could have warned me before you stabbed me again you dickhead-" 

"Hold still" Morgan pushed her shoulder down, "it's hurting more because you're moving."

"Well excuse me for feeling a fucking needle in my stomach- fuck, I think I'm going to throw up- bucket!" Athena called out to Kyle who threw his mop bucket with his eyes closed to avoid the sight of blood, also missing the sight of said mop bucket smacking into Athena's head.

"Kyle!" Morgan yelled at him before Athena twisted and threw up into the bucket from pain, instinctively holding back her hair just like he always had, "Athena, breathe, the needle is still in you, you have to lie down-" 

"Give me a fucking minute!" She yelled between gags as he gently but firmly pushed her shoulder back onto the couch, waiting for her to cover her own face with a cushion to muffle her screams; holding up a weak thumb to let him know she was ready which brought little humour to the stressful situation it seemed Kyle couldn't stomach.

"I-I can't watch this!" He gagged in sync with Athena before rushing to the bathroom to avoid her screams- but to both his and Morgan's surprise, she didn't utter a sound.

The only reason he knew she was alive was the growing grip of her white bearing knuckles on the cushion, the tensity of her stomach beneath his hand, the shallow breaths he hated being responsible for causing.

"Almost done, I promise" he felt the odd urge to assure, fighting the urge to take her hand in his for support- but for who, he wasn't sure.

It wasn't just her body that tensed and shook with every stab of the needle, he had to swallow almost as much vomit as her before the last stitch- part of him wishing it were they other way around.

He recalled back to the time they were kidnapped, one of many times it seemed, and how she was the one who searched through the dead body, the fact that she was the one who dug into her slice in her palm to get them out of there, the fact she had popped her shoulder and knee back in multiple times to be able to help people; he thought about how she was so much stronger than him in all the ways it mattered, breaking him in two thinking about how defeated she was only days prior. 

"Are you almost done?" Athena's pain struggled against the cushion as the finale stitch was pulled, tied off and sterilised before he wrapped a bandage on as best as he could.

His hand lingered on her side for a split second once he finished he finale wrap around, feeling her slowing breaths beneath his palm, the natural resting place on below ribs he once called home that he could never visit again.

"That fucking sucked" Athena sat up slowly, once again rejecting his hand to help and wincing in result, although he was too taken aback by the tears covering her face.

"Are you-" Morgan tried to ask but she had brushed past him, forced herself to stand and grabbed a t-shirt from the pile Kyle had brought in for her.

"Turn away, freak" she mumbled from the corner of the room as Morgan watched her toss the blood soaked top on the back of the chair, revealing her once nude bra turned red blood bath soaked from the raw marks on her back.

"Dude-" she peaked over her shoulder with an eyebrow raise as he studied her basic routine of putting on a shirt that somehow took his breath away, "-don't be weird, perv."

"Shit, yeah of course-" his eyes darted to the floor as her injuries flashed in his memory over and over again, how she tried to hide herself, how badly wounded she really was, how he couldn't help cherishing getting to see her dress again.

Her usual honey-soaked laughter brought as much relief as it did confusion as she turned to him, clearly enjoying his embarrassment before she crossed the room to the bathroom door.

"I'm all stitched up now Kyle, you can stop being a pussy-"

"B-be out in a minute!" He gagged back between vomits.

"You two are perfect for each other-" Morgan's muffled grumbled drew Athena's attention back to the couch with a slight smile, "-you both throw up all the time for no reason."

"Oh? Oh yeah, we are great together, the perfect couple" she smirked, swaying her way to the armchair next to his, wiggling her eyebrows as she taunted, "the sex is great."

"That's... cool" he shook his head, standing up with an understanding of her urge to throw herself out of windows to avoid conversations, feeling a deep, pained, embarrassingly jealous dirt in his chest.

"Or at least I assume it is-" she continued before cocking her hip with an eye roll, "-I don't really know since he's gay and has a boyfriend, but he looks like he'd get the job done."

"You're insufferable" Morgan shook his head at the realisation of her messing with him, being met with a brutal glare as she sauntered to the drinks bar.

"And you're a jealous asshole who needs to fuck off and leave me alone."

"You really should stop drinking, it's not going to help your headaches" Morgan found himself pulling the drink from her once more, unsure why he was doing this dance again, knowing exactly why the outcome always made the tango worth it.

His hands sat an inch above hers as she pulled it back towards her, yanking back towards him once more with a connected gaze that dragged her along with the bottle into his chest. 

Athena stared up at him as their bodies pressed against each other in such a familiar yet ghostly position, like looking from the other side of a painting once lived, never to return, both having a firm grip of the bottle. 

"Have it your way" she let go with a clearing of her throat and stepped back, Morgan having to quickly move his other hand to stop the bottle smashing, dropping it moments later when Athena grabbed the gun out of her bag, immediately holding his hands up in defence.

"Woah!" 

"Oh relax, idiot, I just need to clean it" she rolled her eyes, taking apart the gun in a remarkable amount of time, the entire thing cleaned and reassembled within a matter of seconds.

"That was... where did you learn to do that?" He asked in shock, Athena loaded the gun and smiled sarcastically.

"Harvard."

"Wait-" Morgan stood in front of the door as soon as she stepped towards it, "-where do you think you're going?"

"Don't make me jump out the window again; move" she opened the door that was quickly closed by his arm above her, a suspicious glare down at her.

"Where are you going?"

"To explain to spoon feed your college graduate teammates what I planted since you're too incompetent to figure it out on your own, now let me-" she pulled the door again with a shocking amount frustration that he let her have, letting go of his blocking at the worst possible time. 

"Ow!"

"Oh my god- I'm so sorry!" Morgan dropped to her side as she skid back on the floor from the door smashing into her nose, immediately being met with her throwing her whole body at him in rage.

"You son of a bitch!" 

"Jesus Christ woman!" He blocked aggravated punch after punch she threw down at him before catching her hand, twisting and throwing her under him before their anger seemed to pause as they looked down at each other, said anger wanting to feed into their usual sexual tension.

"Get off me" she grumbled at his locking hold that kept her down, "I'm going to kill you!"

"I'm sorry for letting the door hit you, I didn't think it would hit you that hard" he apologised, "I thought you would move-"

"I don't fucking care!" She struggled with rage running through her body, trying to break from his grip, trying to avoid his eye contact.

"Athena-" Morgan spoke sincerely, catching her gaze for a moment, feeling every part of her rage disappear for just that moment; she melted under his grip, feeling her heart tug up and up and up towards the one place it felt like it could beat-

"Uh- am I interrupting something?" Kyle's voice drew Morgan's secure gaze across the room as the bathroom door opened, Athena of course taking the opportunity to throw her whole head up at him to escape.

"What the hell?!" Morgan exclaimed, falling backwards from the headbutt whilst Athena twisted her body out from under him, scrambling through her bag for her gun once more.

"Woah! Woah! Woah!" Kyle squeamishly kicked the bag across the floor, "you're not shooting anyone in my apartment, this rug is a one of a kind."

"I'll kill you Kyle!" Athena yelled, seconds from launching herself into doing just that before Morgan's arms trapped from behind.

"Calm down, stop getting so angry" he signed, his nose bleeding almost simultaneously with hers.

"Fuck you!" She yelled, throwing her head back once more into his but failing to escape his grip, it seemed no matter how many times she had tried and failed befor,  she always gave it her best shot.

"Apologise to Kyle" Morgan shook her, "now."

"Fuck you Kyle!" Athena yelled before letting out a soft sigh, "I'm sorry Kyle, baby, I didn't mean that."

"Awe, Thee, it's okay, it's been a busy day and mercury is in-" Kyle made the mistake of stepping closer just as Morgan adjusted his grip.

"I lied!" Athena threw herself at him with a cackle of rage only kept at back by Morgan's quick grip, scooping her waist and slamming her against the wall.

Their bodies smashed into each other as Morgan's forearm spread across her upper chest to pin her in place, his other arm held her hands above her head to stop her hitting him; which of course she immediately tried to do.

"Enough!" He commanded with an authority, an anger, a desperation he hadn't had before, "stop acting like a child!"

"Don't tell me what to do!" 

He leaned in with a stern expression of anger as she jerked back and forth, pinning her with his chest to let his hand hold her face still, forcing her eyes to see the severity of his despite knowing she could feel his heart beat against her chest, giving away any power he pretended to have over her.

"I said; enough" he spoke sternly in a hushed volume, "okay?"

A sarcastic smile crept onto her lips as her body loosened, telling him it was safe to let go of her; he stayed in the same place.

"What's on the USB?" 

Her chest rose and fell against his forearm.

His heart pounded against his ribs.

"Why don't I just show you?" She mockingly smiled, struggling to get out of his grip before he pushed her back into the wall with ease. 

"Only if you say you won't runaway, try to kill me or Kyle or anything else stupid that you're planning."

"Fine, god you're so needy-"

"Say it" he gripped her wrist tighter, pinning her hands above her head as he leaned in, "say it, Athena, say it." 

"Uh..." Kyle's awkward voice interrupted tension he couldn't watch without popcorn, "can I go?" 

"No!" Athena and Morgan barked at the same time, both pausing after at their accidental synchronicity.

"O-okay, you're both really scary so I guess I'll just... sit here... on my now bloodied designer carpet."

"Let me go, asshole" Athena's glare shot back to Morgan who held strong despite his phone ringing in his pocket.

"Say it."

"I promise I won't do anything stupid- there, happy? Can we all continue our lives now or shall Kyle get his gravestone put in this apartment?"

Morgan stared at her for a moment, letting his eyes flicker down to her lips briefly before he stepped back away from her.

"Fucking noses, who needs them anyway" Athena mumbled as she held out a hand to help Kyle up, wiping her dripping blood onto his arm as he shook his head.

"I can see why you went for him, he's very- ow!" Kyle whispered to Athena but she hit him before he could finish his compliment about Morgan.

"Stop hitting him" Morgan grunted at her, wiping his own bleeding nose on a cloth.

"Mind your fucking business."

"You two must have been hot together" Kyle whispered which earned another punch of his very bruised arm.

"Hey!" Morgan barked, storming over to stare down at her, "I said stop it"

"And I said mind your own fucking business; I guess neither of us can hear today!" She barked immediately back up at him, his eyes scanned her face before brushing past her and shaking his head.

"Let's go- now."

"Fucking fuckidy fuck" her incoherent, grumbled frustrations only amused an already teasing Kyle who had just enough common sense and fear to mumble his sass directed at her.

"Have fun you two lovebirds... I'll just clean all this blood off my stuff alone I guess..."

The two 'love birds' walked in silence to the office, as far away from each other as they possibly could be. 

Morgan occasionally looked over at her as she walked with her arms crossed over her chest. He looked at her face, it was disguised to look blank and almost angry but had looked at it enough before to know that underneath was pain and fear, she wasn't doing well but hiding it better than she had ever done before.

"I- "Morgan went to speak

"No" Athena said, shooting down his outreach to start a conversation. He shook his head at her stubbornness and rolled his eyes before looking forward the rest of the walk.

"Oh my god- she's back!" A guard called out as they stepped out of the elevator to the BAU floor where security were stood around as the glass was getting swept up.

A guard pulled his gun out but Morgan pushed it down and kept walking next to Athena who gave the security a condescending smile.

"Athena" Hotch said with surprise as she walked into his office with Morgan stood behind her so she couldn't run away, the rest of the group were dotted around the office and ran over when they heard her name.

"You're back!" Emily said almost excitedly.

"Are you okay? How the hell did you survive that fall?" Rossi asked but Athena ignored them all and threw the USB at Hotch before slumping in a chair casually.

"What is this?" 

"Plug it in" she said, disinterested in the conversation.

"We can't do that without a security test" Reid said but Hotch had already plugged it in, he was done not trusting Athena.

"What is all of this?" Hotch asked.

"The stuff I managed to get on my mom when I went to England, before I was kidnapped once again" she said, "I think someone didn't want me to have this stuff and tried to stop me from finding the rest of it- I think they took her as well."

"What?" Hotch asked with surprise, realising none of them had thought about where Athena's mom had gone.

"She was mingled with some pretty bad people, even by my families standard" Athena said "I think she came to me for help and some kind of security but they got her again- I think they're probably doing what they did to Morgan's mom to her and going to make it look like I did it" she tried to hide the shaking of her voice.

"Wait- you said that the people who hurt you didn't do this?" Hotch said with confusion.

"They didn't, they couldn't have- but the people they worked for could have" Athena said.

"What do you mean 'worked for?'" Hotch asked, noticing her past tense.

"I think you know" she looked up at him, Morgan sighed.

"Take your judgement and shove it up your stupid fucking ass" she turned to him.

"You know what-" Morgan went to argue.

"Enough- enough arguing, I can't take another year and a half of you two arguing all the time" Hotch interrupted, Athena stood up.

"Don't worry Hotch, you don't have me for that long" she said walking towards the door but Morgan didn't move.

"Get out of my way" she said "I gave you the information you idiots needed to do this the legal way- now I get to leave."

"No" Morgan said looking down at her.

"No?" She raised an eyebrow and stepped closer to him "you don't get to tell me no, in fact- you don't get to talk to me at all."

"Grow up" he stepped closer to her, she shook her head and went to brush past him but he grabbed her arm. She twisted swiftly out of his grip and pushed him against the wall, pinning her gun to his back. The group all readied their weapons.

"Don't ever touch me again Derek Morgan, don't even fucking think about it" she whispered in his ear on her tippy toes before pulling back, chucking her gun across the room and going to leave.

"Athena, you can't leave" Hotch walked over and stepped in front of her.

"Are you going to arrest me?" She asked

"No-"

"Are you going to kill me?" She asked

"Of course not-"

"Are you going to do anything but give me a 'stern' telling of about responsibility?" She started at him passive aggressively and took his silence as a response.

"Then I think I can leave" she went to walk past him, he grabbed her arm and she punched him in the face.

"Stop fucking grabbing me!" She yelled, this yell was different. It wasn't out of anger, it wasn't out of spite- it was out of pure fear. Something about being grabbed over and over again clicked something in her from last week and filled her with fear and survival took over. She fell back into the door to get away from the two men in front of her who looked at her with concern as she held her wrist and tears filled her frightened eyes.

"Athena" Emily stepped towards her as she saw her friend shaking.

"Stop! Please, please stop touching me" Athena yelled, retreating further back into the room.

Panic, that's all she could see.

She couldn't see the team, she couldn't see where she was- she was suddenly taken over with pure terror.

 Her mind flashing from the past week, people grabbing her, suffocating her with their presence.

"Everyone get out" Hotch said seeing the panic on Athena as she stumbled to the corner of the room.

"But we should help-" Reid went to say, seeing he tremble to her knees.

"Get out" Hotch said leading everyone out and shutting the door, he stood on the other side of the room as far away from her as possible so she had space.

She tried to wipe her tears away as quickly as they came.

"Count with me" Hotch spoke softly and began slowly reciting numbers to distract Athena.

"I don't want to fucking count-"she struggled to breathe through the panic.

"5, 6, 7" Hotch continued, she closed her eyes and focused on his voice.

"11, 12, 13" her mind started shifting back to her body, she could feel his office around her. She could hear his voice clearer and could feel the warmth of the heating on her skin instead of the cold, dock air that her mind brought back.

"20, 21, 22" she slowly unbaled her hands, she had been holding a small blade in each hand as a defence and which had sliced into her skin from the amount of pressure she was putting on it, she tried to focus on his voice.

"30, 31, 32" she felt her breathing returning, the tears still flooded her face but she was able to soften the irregular breaths.

"44, 45, 46" he spoke as he saw her slowly open her eyes and swallow. She lifted her bleeding hand and wiped the tears from her face.

"Are you okay?" Hotch asked softly, "I can keep counting if you like"

She chuckled quietly and looked over at him.

"I didn't think you could count that high" she joked, he felt comforted by her humour.

"You cut your hands quite badly" he said looking at the blood dripping onto the carpet.

"Not the worst thing that's happened this week" she shrugged and carefully stood up, wiping the blood on her jeans that already had speckles of blood on them.

"Can I bandage them up?" Hotch asked, not wanting to step closer to her without her permission in fear of overwhelming her again.

She nodded reluctantly, she was fiercely independent more than ever now but her hands were shaking too much for her to bandage them up herself.

"When was the last time you ate?" Hotch asked, taking the first aid box over to her as she sat on the desk with her legs dangling.

"I don't know" she shrugged, he looked at her.

"Your sugar levels are probably down, that's why you're shaking and your vision is blurry" he said wrapping her hand, she nodded.

"I've just gotten used to the blur now- it's a part of me" she joked.

"Have you been taking your medication?" 

"Hotch, I've barely been able to drink water once a week- so no" she chuckled.

"We should get you to a doctor."

"What's the point" she shrugged, he paused and looked at her.

"Athena- is there something you're not telling me?" He asked.

"Always is" she smiled and hopped off the table after seeing he had finished bandaging up her hands.

He instinctively went to grab her arm to stop her walking away but stopped himself so he wouldn't make her uncomfortable like before.

"I think you should stay around for a while- just until we find your mom and whoever did this, then you're free to go" Hotch said, she turned to him knowing that was a lie but knowing he wouldn't let her go now that he had seen what kind of state she was in.

"Three weeks" she said "I'll stay for three weeks and then I'm taking it into my own hands, my own way."

He nodded with a small smile as a knocking came from the door, he looked over and saw the group waiting anxiously.

"I forgot how needy they all were" Athena rolled her eyes and sat back onto the desk as Hotch opened the door.

"You can come in, I won't murder you all- yet" Athena spoke with a familiar humour in her tone, a natural charisma that she used as a mask however recently, she had let her mask slip.

Never again, she thought to herself as a con-mans grin swept over her face, taking its natural place like it had when she had first walked into the room full of the BAU members her first week here. A grin that sheltered her, a grin that protected her, a grin that held safely her when no one else would.

"Are you okay?" Morgan spoke quietly from the far corner of the room as the others filtered closer to her. Her eyes darted to him and for a moment, she felt the mask slip again. She shook the thoughts from her head and plastered her smile back onto her face, she would keep it there even if she had to hold it with her bloodied hands.

"Fuck off" she darted a shoulder forward before sliding herself off the table and walking towards the briefing room that was now exceptionally colder than usual with the smashed window pane.

"Sorry about that fellas" Athena smiled to the men who were assessing the damages, they looked at her with confusion.

"You? You did this? We were told someone jumped out of the window- we assumed a suicide" the man holding a new glass sheet said in shock.

"I mean I technically did jump out of the window- I just know how to land" Athena smirked and stood in front of the screen as the team walked in behind her after having a few minutes to talk alone.

"Take a seat, I went through the trouble of preparing a PowerPoint for you simpletons" she said, hoisting herself up on the tall chair in front of the screen.

"Uh- we're kind of in the middle of repairing the window?" The man at the back of the room said.

"Oh don't mind us- just trying to stop an evil mastermind, I'm sure your window is far more important- right?" Athena's smile gave them the fear they needed to nod and leave the room quickly.

Morgan watched her face. He watched her confidence and her squared off shoulder that made her look put together- he knew it was all a lie. She was good at masking things, in fact he had never seen her do it this well before- he was ashamed to admit it even impressed him but mostly it scared him. It scared him to think how many times she had popped on a cocky smile and confident walk to distract them, to distract him, of what was really festering inside her. He couldn't help but think back to what she said about the note, about why she had written it and felt his heart tug for her. He thought back to those months ago, he thought about how she laughed with him, how she made witty comments to amuse him, how she had been the bravest person he had ever seen- all of it was a disguise for how broken she was feeling.

"Morgan-" Her voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Pay attention- I'm not wasting my valuable breath re-explaining everything to you idiots because you couldn't be bothered to listen."

And just like that, she had managed to make his sympathy for her turn into an eye roll of frustration.

"As I was saying" she continued with the PowerPoint.

"The dudes who took me belonged to something big, they were always talking about a leader- someone who had been in charge of this underground crime circuit for years. They said I knew too much, that their leader had told them to do what ever they wanted to me to get information before they killed me on the 5th day" she spoke "but the leader make it clear that it had to be the 5th day, which leads me to believe-"

"That was when Morgan's mom was found, they set it up so you would be killed and found with her and be given the blame" Hotch finished her sentence as realisation hit him.

"Bingo" Athena said, "that way their little secrets would die with me and they would have someone to blame for attempting to kill Morgan's mom and it would stop you guys from questioning if someone else did it because you would have thought it was me- we already know that would have worked" she couldn't help but glare at the group who looked embarrassed and stayed silent.

"It's actually almost impressive how much work they put into this, how much planning and work had gone into setting this up" she shrugged, 

"But they didn't prepare for one thing" she smiled, "me."

Morgan couldn't help but feel a ghost of a smile creep onto his lips at her arrogance, he knew it was fake but he still felt a comfort at the stubborn, self-centred, egotistical woman he once tried so hard not to love.

"What did you do to them?" Hotch asked before quickly adding, "it doesn't matter, whatever it was in self defence- you won't be in trouble but we need to know. We need to know if the people who hurt you are alive."

"They're not" Athena responded, her face unreadable but Morgan saw a flash of pain in the corner of her eye.

"How many of them were there?" Emily asked.

"6" Athena said, the room fell silent as they realised she took down 6 grown men all on her own after they did god knows what to her and sliced her open to die.

"Oh my-" JJ covered her mouth.

"Don't pretend that you haven't seen me do worse before" Athena rolled her eyes sarcastically.

"A-are you okay?" Reid asked her, thinking of her implications of the words 'whatever they wanted' from earlier.

"Why do you all keep asking me that?" Athena tilted her head "I'm obviously not and you obviously don't care so let's both stop pretending."

"We do care, kid" Rossi said.

"Well I don't" Athena smiled angrily, turning back to her PowerPoint.

"They all had this tattoo on them- gold star to anyone who can recognise it" she said looking around the room, no one spoke.

"Anyone? No? What a surprise" Athena shrugged sarcastically and clicked the next slide to show two bodies they had seen on the same screen a few months ago.

"Oh my god" Emily said in a gasp.

"That's right ladies and gentlemen- the case of Professor Green, the man who kidnapped young upstanding citizens and forced them into prostitution before killing them when he felt like it. We noted that these poor gals were made to have small tattoos on them before they were sent out on their finale jobs. Guess which pack of 6 men also had said tattoos?" She said watching the groups faces drop as they realised it was connected.

"There's the reaction I was looking for" she said, pressing the next slide.

"And guess who spent 4 days being 'convinced' to bear the same tattoo?" She said pulling up her cuffed jeans to reveal a set of cuts, deep cuts on her ankle where the start of the Lily flower tattoo sat a few day ago.

"What happened to it?" Hotch exclaimed, seeing the spot of flesh where the tattoo would have sat missing.

"They cut it off my body on the fourth day when I refused their offer for the finale time" she said in an overly casual tone to hide how much it hurt.

"Athena, we need to get that bandaged up" Hotch stood up.

"Sit down drama queen" she rolled her eyes "I've had a lot more of me skinned for a lot less than simply saying no."

"What did they offer?" Morgan asked, his voice pained by her words of her past. He had felt the scars of her skinning on her back, felt the deep indentation and white lines that were faint with time but still there even after all these years.

"Nothing that concerns you" she gave a condescending smile before turning back to the board.

"Anyway- this tattoo-" she carried on, "-I thought it was strange that a group of big burly men who were in no way delicate or dainty had such a intricate simple matching tattoo with each other so after I did what I had to and stitched myself by up, I did some digging."

The slide switched to one from a dark web website.

"They call themselves the lily crime family. I had only heard of them once before when I was a girl, my father spoke fearfully of them to another council member one night after a particularly bad 'lesson' where he thought I was passed out on the table. I didn't hear much but he seemed terrified of them, it was reassuring to see that someone like him could fear something but now I know that must mean this group are somehow worse than him" she said, the group hung to every word she spoke.

"It also tells us that this group have been going on far longer than we would have thought. I didn't have much time to do research before you assholes detained me at the airport but in Kyle's apartment the last few days I managed to compile at least 20 of your cases, 20 of your unsubs that can be traced back to this underground crime team" she said. The group froze. A million thoughts running around their collective minds. Guilt of detaining Athena, who was Kyle? How were they connected to the cases?

Athena flicked through the slides that recounted the information with evidence that she had just given.

"They're involved in everything?" Hotch asked.

"In a way" Athena said "unlike my father, they're more aloof with how they're involved but they seem to have their hands in many jam jars. They control the ringleader who controls the ring master and so on- they're the top of the chain who creates the leaders who think they're the top of the chain. May layers of governors of hell if you will. I wouldn't be surprised if they had some kind of a hold on my father's cult and that's why he was so fearful of them."

Her casual tone in her words reminded Morgan of how numb she was to the horrors of these realities, the horrors of these types of underground worlds.

"That's... terrifying" Emily shook her head.

"And what's more terrifying is how much they wanted to kill me" Athena said hopping out of her chair "and how pissed they're going to be when they find the bodies of the 6 men in the crates where I left them."

Morgan watched her casually dart around the office, planting her hand into Rossi's breast pocket and swiftly swiping his phone.

"Ah, just as I thought" she smiled at his phone before he could even register that she had took it.

She threw it on the floor and smashed it.

"What the hell, kid?!" Rossi exclaimed

"You, my good sir, keep your Bluetooth on all the time. They will undoubtably know exactly where I am now- thanks" she smiled sarcastically and walked back to the front of the room.

"So we don't have long, well I have less time than you but still- we need to find out who this leader is, that way we find my mom, why they attacked Fran and what that asshole wants from me" she said clicking the button to the next slide.

"Let's get to work"