Disclaimer-

I do not own Criminal Minds because if I did, my OC would be with Chocolate Thunder and not Savannah -

It had been three years since they last saw her. Three years since the woman whom each of the members had bonds with left them for a secret mission in Kuwait. Three years since the woman he loved walked out of his life forever…Or so he thought. It was a huge surprise to see her in the break room pouring herself a cup of coffee into her cute little penguin shaped mug. Not much had changed in her appearance other than her hair. The short, shoulder length, straight strawberry blonde was now replaced with a waist length, curly blue-black brunette. 'Turn around.. Turn around.. Please.' He thought to himself. He just had to see her face and confirm that it was her. She never even said goodbye to him; just up and left. Just as he was about to mutter her name, Garcia walked in and practically screamed it. It took the woman by surprise that she spilled a little coffee on the ground and looked up smiling.

"Jesus Garci, you scared me half to death!"

The woman spoke. It was like music to his ears hearing that silky voice again, but it sounded off. It sounded as if she had died and been brought back to life; like she went through a change. But unknown to him, she had changed. A lot. This mission in Kuwait made sure she would never be who she use to be three years ago. He watched as the team came in to see what the fuss was about and watched their expressions when they saw her. Rossi and Hotch just in the back watching, knowing already of her return, as one by one they hugged her and welcomed her back asking her how was the trip to Kuwait.. Wait what? Trip to Kuwait? How- when- when did she tell them? How had they known but not him? Did she honestly not tell him and tell the rest of them? That was a cold play. So he stood there still in complete shock with his arms crossed in front of his chest when Hotch ended the interrogation.

"You guys know that you aren't allowed to ask her about Kuwait considering it was top secret and we aren't even supposed to know so instead, let's get to work."

They all left as she was the first and they all followed. Did she not say anything to him? Again? What was he dead and only spoke to strange little boys that helped him solve the mysteries of the dead?

"You coming Morgan?" Said the voice that broke him out of his train of thought. He looked up and saw JJ speaking to him.

"Oh yeah." And followed her to the conference room. Garcia took her place in front of the room and began debriefing the team.

"Firstly I would like to say we are all soooo happy Vex is back! Welcome back Fae Montiago LaVexen!" Everyone clapped and Vex just gave Garcia a side-ways smile as she went back to business. "Second, the case. Thirty-five year old Alaska Young was a marine found dead in his car as if he had been in an accident. Later found out it was staged in Washington DC. Twenty-eight year old Anna Fitzgerald found in the locker room of a base gym, hunched over a vanity mirror with missing organs and Cato Merrick was just 20 years old found by his roommate in the barracks, an arrow in his throat." The first to make a comment on this was Vex.

"This case is really weird... Were they all marines?"

"Oh god how I've really missed hearing your interrupted comments. I wasn't finished deary but I still love you regardless. Each one of the victims were branded with different symbols. Alaska with the chinese symbols I have yet decode, Anna the Japanese symbols I have yet to decode, and Cato a weird symbol of shovel, hammer, a stone block, and two lightning bolts all in a circle. They will be decoded very soon and sent to your phones. However, chloroform was found in their systems so they were most likely knocked out then killed."

"Now, considering these were marines, we will be working alongside an NCIS team in Washington D.C. It's only about an hour away so we will be driving down there. We leave in 20 minutes."

Hotch said as the team gathered their things and left the room. Vex headed to where her desk sat, unused for three years and smiled as she saw no one had touched a thing, which was surprising, when she was stopped by Reid.

"So you know how you never really said goodbye and instead video chatted me?" He asked her.

"Yep."

"I'm taking that as a you being terrified of saying goodbye to me in person and that you were gonna cry because I mean a lot to you." Did he really just-

"Reid, you have GOT to stop over analyzing stuff. Goodness. But, you are right. You know how I hate crying." Morgan overheard this and started remembering the last time she really cried.

It was raining and Vex had just learned the little girl she tried to protect died in the hospital with a gunshot wound. She was only eight years old and sacrificed herself to save Fae. When asked why she did it, she replied by saying, "I was ready to die before you saved me and because you saved me, I could save you." It broke her heart and Morgan comforted her the days Hotch had given her off, saying she'd be okay. She never really was herself after that but she was a tough girl and she could sometimes hide that sort of stuff. His memory was shattered much like his thoughts were earlier by Garcia.

"Yees

h Chocolate thunder can she have her face back?" She asked him .It wasn't until she mentioned it that he realized he was, in fact, staring.

"I can't help it. I never thought she'd come back. I thought.." His voice trailed off.

"We all thought that. But here she is. She made us a promise and she kept it."

That was right. She did make a promise. That no matter what ever happened to her, she would always find a way back.