Psychosis

Chapter 54- Rumor Has It...

Isabel looked up at the building and took a deep breath. She was going to be going back to her old team, and she was nervous about it. What if they didn't want her back? What if they saw right through the mask that was still attached to her face? She had been able to clean up the blood, but she could always tell that it was there. Especially when she moved her face too much and still felt the sting. As long as she didn't let anyone know about the pain, though, she would be fine. The mouth had gained enough pliability that it would move when she spoke, but it was still firm enough that it barely dropped out of that damn smile.

As long as nobody looked too deeply into her eyes, she'd be fine.

"Take a temporary leave", they had said. "Just to give you some time to take care of yourself", they had said. Well, she had taken some time, but she hadn't been taking care of herself. She didn't know how. But as long as she was able to convince her superiors that she was better, she would be okay. She nodded to herself, before walking until the building and facing her doom.

At first, nothing really happened. But then her old teammates spotted her, and from there, it was all commotion with all of them wanting to give her hugs and handshakes and to tell her "welcome back". Well, okay, she didn't actually let anyone give her any hugs. There was only one person she would let hug her, and as far as she could see, he wasn't there. However, just a few minutes later, when she was answering all their questions, she heard a voice behind her.

"Isabel." She turned around, and there he was, standing just a few paces away. She had a couple items in her arms, but she dropped them immediately (hopefully they weren't fragile) and walked right over to him, throwing her arms around him. He put his arms around her, and she rested her head on his chest, reveling in his embrace. "You came back."

"I told ye I would."

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The next day came with little progress in finding the killer. It was around noon on the third day in Sinclair that Ciara watched as the team discussed information the community had given them about the Whittles. However, they really hadn't asked any of the pertinent questions that she knew would help them. She sighed, wondering when they would finally give in and let her go talk to the community. She knew what she was doing. She knew these communities. She knew these people. She wondered how long it would take them to give her a chance to show them that.

She looked down at that damn picture, before sighing. She knew she needed to drop the picture thing, but it just wouldn't leave her mind. There was something poking at her mind, telling her that she was forgetting something, but what she had forgotten, she wasn't exactly sure. It'd probably come to her when she least expected it, that she knew. She looked over at Reid, who was busy poring over the file, trying to figure out the missing piece.

They hadn't talked about what happened by the fountain. The morning after, they had both pretended like nothing had happened, and Morgan and Akilah had only mentioned it once. Although, that was only to assure her that whatever had happened was between her and Reid, and they weren't going to tell anyone about the whole situation. If she wanted to talk about it though, they had told her, they were there for her. But it was like they said. What happened was between her and Reid, and she planned on keeping it that way.

It wasn't that she didn't want to talk about it. She just wanted her and Reid to be absolutely alone when they did. They hadn't done so the day before because they both needed time to process everything that had been said. Ciara especially needed to come to terms with the fact that she had let Reid see her be vulnerable. She had admitted that she was never okay, and she had admitted that he did actually know something about her.