Rowan had taken Aaron`s car back to his house. She had to ask where the guest room was, because she`d never been there before. He told her, and she piled her stuff in there. She unpacked a bit, then sat on the couch with Homer`s The Oddessey. She was a big fan of books that most people would never even consider reading for fun. Her favorite book since she was twelve was Moby Dick.

She looked at the time and realized that she had been reading for hours, and it was time to go pick up Aaron from work, since she had taken his car. In the car on the way home, he made the mistake of trying to get her to talk about the attack that ruined her career. He said she should go to a therapist.

"I`m not crazy Aaron!" she almost yelled.

"I know," he said calmly, not looking from the road, "but you`ve been through a lot. I just think it might help."

She shook her head, and when he glanced at her, he saw an unbelievable amount of pain in her eyes. They didn`t talk for the last few minutes home. When they parked, she walked inside with him. Jack was with Haley`s parents, so the house was quiet. He sat on the couch and turned on the television. She walked into her new room, put on purple shorts and a gray cami, then grabbed something Aaron didn`t know she had: her razor blade. She`d been using it for less than a week, but was already feeling as though she depended on it, as though she were addicted.

She went to the bathroom, which happened to be right behind where Aaron was sitting. She put the toilet`s lid down, and took her shorts off and threw them aside, all in one fluid motion. She was rushing. She hadn`t been able to cut on the plane or since she`d arrived. That`s what made her know it was bad; she couldn`t handle going a full twenty-four hour day without doing it. She dug the razor into her upper thigh, cutting deeply and watching the blood flow. It was bleeding a lot more than her other cuts had. She wasn`t at all suicidal, but there were a million other unexplainable emotions causing this, and they were powerful.

She saw the neat straight lines of cuts on her legs, no criss-crosses, because she hadn`t run out of room yet. What hurt her the most though was seeing the bruises on her thighs from where they had pryed her legs apart. She began to cut at a furious pace, slashing deeply over and over again. Blood was dripping down onto the toilet when she heard a knock on the door. Just then she realized that she`d been sobbing, apparently loud enough for Aaron to hear. She quickly put on her shorts and threw the razor into the bathtub, praying he wouldn`t see it.

"Are you ok?" he asked as soon as she opened the door.

She nodded, but didn`t speak. He tried to get her to look at him, but she looked straight at the ground and refused to look at her brother. He stopped trying long enough to spot blood dripping down the side of the toilet and onto the floor. He pushed past her and into the bathroom, and once he got close to the bathtub he saw it. A bloody razor. He took both of her arms, which were now hugging her body nervously, something he`d never seen her do before, and turned them over. He was surprised when he didn`t see a single cut. He noticed that their was blood on the fingers of her right hand, which she must`ve been holding the razor with.

"Where`d you cut?" he asked with a fear in his voice that wasn`t normally there.

She stood silently for a long time, until she realized he wasn`t just going to let it go. "My legs," she whispered quietly, still not looking up.

"I need to make sure they`re not too deep," it wasn`t a question, it was a demand.

"N-no Aaron. No. Just please, just let it go. I`m fine."

He shook his head and looked at her expectantly. She sighed and removed her shorts. He gasped, something he rarely did, when he saw how many brand new cuts littered her legs. He crouched down to look. Several of them were deep enough to maybe need stitches. He sighed as he stood up. Rowan quickly put her shorts back on.

"We have to go to the hospital and get these checked out."

"Aaron-"

"No. We need to make sure you`re ok. And I want you to start seeing a therapist." None of this was a suggestion; hsi tone made that clear.

"Fine," she muttered, and walked past him out of the bathroom.

He followed her out.

Rowan followed Aaron into the BAU, thoroughly embarrassed, with a total of six stitches on a few cuts. Aaron wasn`t letting her stay home alone. It hurt that she had to be treated like a child, but she understood why. When Aaron walked into his office, she walked past it to Agent Rossi`s office. It looked like he had just arrived because he was just taking a seat. She knocked on the open door, not smiling as much this time. She had always had a little crush on him, and now that she was back and had seen him again, she remembered why. He was handsome and seemed to be the perfect mix of caring and tough.

He looked up at her and smiled, "Come in; what are you doing here?"

She couldn`t help but smile just a little bit back at him, "Aaron doesn`t trust me at home by myself, and its kinda awkward with him right now so I thought if you didn`t mind I could just hang out in here today. I won`t bother you or anything. I mean, I can just sit here and read."

"Sure," he said. Then curiousity got the better of him and he added, "Why doesn`t he want you home alone?"

She bit her lip, unsure what to say; but she had never been one to keep secrets and she felt like she could trust him. "He caught me cutting myself. I had to go get stitches last night."

He nodded, as though he wasn`t surprised. "Are you seeing a counselor?"

"I will be, starting today," she said miserably.

"It might help."

"I know, I just feel like I`m some crazy nut-job."

"You`re not. Plenty of people go to therapy. After what you`ve gone through, you should have someone to talk to."

She nodded in agreement, "Yeah but there`s a difference between 'someone to talk to' and a proffessional whose trained to work with crazy people."

He grinned. He appreciated her honesty, it was refreshing. And she was beautiful... Before he could think, it just came out, "Do you want to go out with me?"

He was about to retract the statement by saying "just as friends," or something to make him feel less foolish, but she nodded and he finally saw her genuine smile again.