When Liv faced a loss that would rewrite her entire life, she stepped away from her work. A year and a half later, she returns to the BAU in search of normalcy; so she can finally move on. On a new team, Liv is immediately thrown into the game of ca...
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Liv woke up to the sharp pounding of a persisting headache, sprawled across her couch in a pathetic fashion. The dull aching made her groan in response, rubbing her eyes furiously as she tried to wake up. She didn't even need a sharp memory to know what had happened. They finished the case, she realized that she was feeling a way towards her boss that was not requited, and she did what any other girl would do. She spent the weekend getting really, really drunk.
Her phone buzzed next to a ahlf bottle of wine on the coffee table, and she looked at it to see a message from Garcia, alerting her of a new case. She had been banking on at least one day to get to recover from the hangover, but unfortunately, she was going to have to power through. She rolled off the couch, angrily pulling the curtains of her living room shut to block out the sun. She needed to wash off the smell of booze before she could afford to go into work.
In fact, despite her state, she took the care to piece herself together with as much dignity that she could muster, leaving it to her drunken self to feel her feelings. Now, she only wanted to work.
Liv pulled her hair out of her face, staring down her reflection with a mix of annoyance and exhaustion. She wasn't quite sure if she were ready for the day, even after she had put her appearance together. If there was any comfort in knowing what her last conversation with a Hotch meant, it was that now, she could go in and do her job without interruption. Not even the slightest bit of distraction. Or so she was telling herself.
As she watched herself in the mirror, a glare of a sparkling ring caught her attention, still twisted in it's broken chain on the counter. She picked it up, rolling it over in her fingers and letting it slip off the chain. The coldness of it settled in her palm, before she slid it on her finger, just for the sake of missing the feeling of it's familiarity. She took a moment to watch it, twiddling her fingers around, before sliding it back off. She wasn't sure why, perhaps it was out of worry of losing it again, but she set it back down rather than keep it with her. She wondered what her therapist Sydney would have to say about that.
By the time she made it to the BAU, she saw the back of Morgan as he walked into the briefing room, assuming that mostly everyone was already there. She hurried to catch up to them, finding she was right.
Eyes landed on her as she walked in, chiming in with hellos and kind greetings, every chair at the table already full. All except one, that she looked at with reluctance as it sat next to a distracted Hotch. She drew her breath without realizing, pausing only for a moment before becoming painfully aware that she needed to sit down. She did so without a word, instead taking great interest in the blank board in anticipation.
"Ten year-old Daniel Lanham was reported missing--" Garcia started soon after, pulling up a young boys picture. "Went on a camping trip with his father last November. His remains were just discovered by hikers in Pennsylvania"
