LIKE A GIRL ｡ CRIMINAL MINDS

ONE.

ONE; DAISY AND DEREK

IT IS A KNOWN FACT, THAT IF YOU WITNESS DAISY ALVAREZ CRY, A LITTLE PIECE OF YOUR HEART CHIPS AWAY. To watch the tears slowly prickle in her eyes, her bottom lip wobble and her cheeks flush wasn't a sight welcomed by many, especially considering how rare the event was. She wasn't a crier. She was a doer. She got up every morning and pretended her job wasn't taxing on her mental health as well as the wellbeing of others. She kept her head held high, and hardly ever let it slip that she had become nothing but a shell of her past self over the last ten years of her life.

"Good morning, are you Daisy?"

Daisy's lips pressed into a thin line as she placed a fresh bouquet of flowers on the young woman's bedside table. They were yellow; a colour that symbolised happiness, and the stimulation of mental and muscle energy. Perhaps there was a small part of her, deep down, that thought something as small as a colour could make a difference.

"Yeah, that's me," her dark eyes wandered everywhere but the bed, knowing that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to have turned up after almost a month. The doctor said that if she was to go away for too long, she'd be forgotten. But it had gotten too hard. It wasn't her fault, she'd just been...busy; busy staring at the wall of her apartment, ignoring the incessant ringing of her landline. She knew it was just her friends or her local salespeople checking up on her.

Daisy turned her head back to the doctor, who shook his head once. He knew what she was going to do, despite his warnings not to. His eyes were practically begging for her to keep her mouth shut.

"Thanks for coming to visit," the woman hummed, blinking slowly. The sunlight shone down on her dyed hair, though half of it was gone now. Daisy still thought she was beautiful. "I don't get many visitors."

Daisy lowered herself onto the chair beside her sister's bed. She exhaled softly and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear - a nervous tick. "Beanie-"

"Beatrice. My name is Beatrice."

Daisy swallowed, feeling as if she'd been stabbed in the chest at the correction. She closed her eyes for a second to recollect herself. "Beatrice, do you remember anything that happened?"

"Ma'am, I don't think that's a good idea," the doctor took a hesitant step forward, but Daisy didn't spare him any more of her attention. Instead, she reached for her little sister's hand and squeezed. Beatrice stared at her, confused.

"What do you mean?" the bedridden woman's thin eyebrows furrowed, creating a gentle wrinkle in the centre of her forehead. Daisy had always been jealous of her eyebrows. They never needed maintenance - they were somehow always perfect. It was the little things that used to bother her, but they all seemed so unimportant now.

"Do you know who I am?" she pressed on, trying to force down the lump that rose in her throat. She couldn't cry, not in the middle of a hospital. Not with her watching. "Don't you remember me, Beanie?"