Just something that I thought of, and had to write it down. Is about Prentiss, but can really be anyone on the team. Enjoy!
For the first time in over fifteen years, Emily Prentiss pushes sleep when her alarm buzzes this morning. She debates doing it for maybe a few seconds, but the obnoxious beeping, the never-ending sound—well, she just cant stand it. So she presses sleep.
It is ironic. Because even though she told her alarm clock that she was going to sleep, she knows she isn't going to be able to. She hasn't had a real sleep in what feels like forever (and probably was). So as she lays in bed not sleeping, she tries to come up with excuses for being late.
Traffic? No; Reid comes the same way as her and will most likely be there on time.
Long line at Starbucks? No; JJ had been in her house and knows that she has her own coffee machine.
Water wasn't working, so she couldn't shower? No; they would be able to tell if she showered, and she wasn't going in to work dirty.
Sick? She thinks about that one, but then remembers that she works with trained profilers who could be able to tell whether or not she was sick in their sleep.
Sleep...
She longs for sleep. She begs for it, prays for it every night. But it doesn't surprise her that it never comes; if there is a G-d, why does she do what she does for a living? If there is a G-d, why does she have to catch murderers every day of her life? Why do so many people have the same job as her?
So no, it doesn't surprise her that praying doesn't work.
But that doesn't change that it upsets her.
As she lays in bed, she closes her eyes. But soon after, she has to open them. Because she can't stand to see those horrible sights that seem to be etched on the inside of her eyelid for eternity.
Every time she closes her eyes, she sees the pale, bloodless faces of corpses. She sees guns and violence. She sees the psychotic unsubs with an inhuman amount of "crazy" in their eyes.
Sleep is worse than awake. Because when she is awake, she sees pictures. But when she sleeps, she sees movies. She sees how the poor corpses died, she sees what the guns are used for. She sees the "crazy" in the unsubs eyes as something tangible.
She dreams about her team being caught by one of the unsubs, she imagines them not being able to get out.
She knows, when she is awake and asleep, that it is always a possibility.
And finally, Emily knows why she hit snooze for the first time in fifteen years.
It's because she is sick.
Not physically, but mentally. She is exhausted. She is seeing images no human being should have to see. She is afraid.
But she is not scared of the unsubs that she chases after—she is scared of her job. She is terrified of the fact that she can catch these guys; horrified because catching them means that she puts herself in their minds. So she tries to distance herself at work, at home, everywhere.
She is surviving, but she is hardly living.
She knows there is no way to explain this to her team, so she gets up slowly and turns the water on for a hot shower.
Trying to wash away the images. But she knows that they will just come back to haunt her tonight.
Because she is sick.
sorry for any inconvenience, but I forgot to put this story under "finished". It's only a one-shot, and don't plan on continuing it. sorry again!