Waiting Games (Criminal Minds)
Title: Waiting Games
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Wordcount: 216
Notes: I don't feel capable of summarising this. Written, once again, for random_fic_is_random. With very spotty knowledge of seasons three and four.
1.
The air inside the house hangs empty, suspense long given way to lonely resignation. Dust settles, but with no sense of permanence; every so often, the wet cloth will descend and for a few days all will appear clean.
This house was never a home, no matter how its owner deluded himself. No matter how its current caretaker deludes himself, either. In the five stages of grief it locked into denial long before there was anything to grieve for. But the house is full of ghosts, even when the dust has been wiped away.
A waiting place. That is all.
2.
They all play the waiting game. Morgan hates stakeouts, but he doesn't ever complain when there's a life he loves on the line. Not even when his back and shoulders are one solid knot and he hasn't slept in a real bed for the past three days. Not even when there's blood drying into his jacket or mud ground into his skin.
Sometimes it's none of these things. Sometime it's just Reid on a bad day, Garcia feeling cut off from humanity. Hotch signing divorce papers, JJ trying to keep herself together before she goes home to her own family. Prentiss working overtime with a cold. They've got each other's backs; the waiting is worth it.
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Wordcount: 216
Notes: I don't feel capable of summarising this. Written, once again, for random_fic_is_random. With very spotty knowledge of seasons three and four.
1.
The air inside the house hangs empty, suspense long given way to lonely resignation. Dust settles, but with no sense of permanence; every so often, the wet cloth will descend and for a few days all will appear clean.
This house was never a home, no matter how its owner deluded himself. No matter how its current caretaker deludes himself, either. In the five stages of grief it locked into denial long before there was anything to grieve for. But the house is full of ghosts, even when the dust has been wiped away.
A waiting place. That is all.
2.
They all play the waiting game. Morgan hates stakeouts, but he doesn't ever complain when there's a life he loves on the line. Not even when his back and shoulders are one solid knot and he hasn't slept in a real bed for the past three days. Not even when there's blood drying into his jacket or mud ground into his skin.
Sometimes it's none of these things. Sometime it's just Reid on a bad day, Garcia feeling cut off from humanity. Hotch signing divorce papers, JJ trying to keep herself together before she goes home to her own family. Prentiss working overtime with a cold. They've got each other's backs; the waiting is worth it.