On the outside, she looked like she had it all together. She was organized, her arrest rates were higher than ever, she ate healthily and even exercised semi-regularly. She was friendly at work and would sometimes even join her coworkers at Shaw's after closing a particularly hard case. But, there was something about her that no one could ever find out, not that anyone would ever have any reason to find out. She was careful, never letting it show. She never let anyone get too close to her so that they would never have a reason to find out. She hid behind a pretense of professionalism with her pants suit so that no one could ever see. No one would ever find out that Amy Santiago self harmed on a nearly daily basis.

That is, until everything came crashing down around her.

The day started just like any normal day. She woke up at 6:30 am, commenced her morning routine, and was out the door by 7:30 am so that she had plenty of time to get to the precinct by 8:00 am. She started by finishing up some paperwork on some arrests from yesterday and then flipping through her case files to see what she needed to do today. She was opening her drawer to get out her notepad and colored pens so she could make her to-do list when Jake rolled in five minutes past 8:00 am.

"Good morning Santiago. Already on the grind I see." Jake grinned at her as he plopped down at his desk, throwing his satchel on the ground haphazardly.

"Some of us like to get here on time," Amy replied. Although Jake and Amy were constantly bickering back and forth, they genuinely cared for one another and enjoyed each other's company. Their banter was just their way of communicating.

"Actually, I have something that might be of interest to you," Jake said, piquing Amy's interest. "There's this case that I've been working on, and I have enough evidence to bring the perp in. However, he's known to be a runner, so I'll need some back up when I go to pick him up. Would you be willing to give me a hand?" Jake gave her that soft smile that she could never seem to turn down.

"Of course! That seems fun. Let me just use the bathroom and grab my jacket and then I'm ready to go!" She walked swiftly back to the bathroom and went straight into a stall. She pulled her pants down and stared at her thigh, which was wrapped in a bandage which had a bit of blood seeping through it. She hastily grabbed the extra bandage that she had stuck in the vent and rewrapped her thigh. She couldn't have that slowing her down while she was trying to chase down a perp.

A couple of hours had passed, and Jake and Amy were still waiting for their perp to come out of the hotel Jake knew he was staying at. They were chatting casually and eating some snacks when they finally spotted him. Quickly jumping out of the car, they both chased off after the guy. He turned down an alley, which allowed Amy to continue chasing after him while Jake ran to cut him off at the other end of the alley. Just as Jake ran into the perp, Amy tripped over a loose rock on the street. Because of the speed at which she was moving, she went flying and slid across the asphalt. Luckily, it didn't seem like she was badly hurt, but she was hurt enough that she couldn't get up right away.

"Amy! Are you alright?" Jake had handcuffed the perp to a fence and was now trotting over to check on his partner. "Oh my goodness! You're bleeding really bad! Wait, why are you already wearing a big bandage?" Jake's tone changed from concerned to confused.

"What are you talking about? She groaned as she went to sit up. As she did, she noticed that her pants' leg had ripped, exposing her bandage. Unfortunately, it looked like her tumble had reopened her wound which was starting to bleed through the bandage again. "Don't worry about that! That's just an old injury." She hurriedly tried to get up to convince Jake she was fine, but a wave of dizziness washed over her and she slipped back to the ground.

"Come on, Amy. You don't have to act tough. You obviously got hurt. I already called back up because I wasn't sure how badly you were hurt. They just pulled up so I'm going to turn this perp over to them and then I'll bring a medic over to check you out. Just don't try to get up again." Jake was already leading the perp away and starting to holler over to the back up which had indeed already showed up. Amy cursed herself for being so careless, and tried one more time to get up. However, as soon as she put her weight on her hands and was once again hit with a wave of dizziness, she resigned herself to her fate.

"Hello! My name is Josh. I see that you hurt your leg when you fell. Let me take a look at that." The medic bent down and started reaching his hand out to undo her bandage.

"No!" Amy protested a little too harshly. The medic gave her a strange and concerned look. "Sorry, It's just that I would prefer for you not to do this out in the middle of everything. Is there somewhere we can go that's a bit more private?"

"Oh sure," Josh replied, "We have the ambulance just over there. I can check you over in there if that's okay with you. Can you walk on your own?"

"I would greatly appreciate that," Amy said, "I think I can walk but I am still a little dizzy, so I might need a steadying hand." Amy took the medic's hand, and after a few wobbly steps, she was walking just fine over to the ambulance. Once she reached it, she could feel her heartbeat speeding up. "You know, I think I'm alright. I was just shaken up I think."

"That might be true, but I still have to check you over. It's protocol." Josh shrugged his shoulders as he motioned for Amy to step into the ambulance. She obliged, and sat on the stretcher with shaky hands. "Alright, first let's check out this leg. He began undoing Amy's bandage, and she felt herself holding her breath until she felt the bandage come all the way off. "Um… is this what I think it is?" The medic questioned.

Amy looked down at her thigh, which was now completely exposed. There she saw the cuts she tried so hard to keep hidden from the world. Some of it was completely healed. You could barely even see the scars anymore. Others, however, were so fresh that they had been reopened by her fall, including the cuts she had made just that morning while trying to calm herself down before going into work.

At that moment Jake jumped into the ambulance. "Okay, it looks like we have everything wrapped up here. Amy, are you ready to go?"

"I think I'll need to take Agent Santiago back to the hospital." Josh gave Amy a telling look as Amy's heart dropped out of her chest.

"What? Why is that?" Jake just now looked towards Amy for the first time and his eyes immediately fell on her thighs. She saw the shock wash over him as he physically stumbled back.

"Jake, please don't look!" Amy began to choke on her words as tears blurred her vision. Jake jumped out of the ambulance and rushed back towards his car. At this, Amy began sobbing. She had never felt this exposed in her life. The ambulance ride to the hospital went by in a blur. All she wanted was to go home and pretend this day had never happened.