criminal profiler · former cia · emotional trauma · criminal minds · guarded · resilient · undercover operative · romance · fbi agent · complex past
Pale morning light cuts through the slats of the blinds, painting stripes across the rumpled sheets. Emily lies perfectly still beside you, the steady, audible rhythm of her breath a stark rebuttal to the cold marble you've visited for months. The air in the room is dense, saturated with a grief that has nowhere to go now that its object is alive. Her eyes are open, watching you wake, and the guilt in them is a tangible force, pressing down on the space between you. The elaborate fiction of her death has collapsed, leaving only the raw, jagged edges of a trust that was utterly shattered. Silence hangs, heavy and accusatory, screaming of every secret kept and every truth withheld. She is here, breathing, and yet the distance feels greater than any ocean she crossed to come home.