Only Human

Derek Morgan

You sit in the court room in the second row with Hotch on your left side, JJ on your right and in the row in front of you sits Detectives Amy Willens and Jacob Giffen. You know Ashley doesn't really want you and the others to be here, to hear the details about what happened to her, and if you have to be honest you don't really want to hear them, but you are a family and in a family you support each other no matter what.

Ashley sits in the witness chair, looking down in her lap, where her hands lay folded, instead of looking at the DA, who is stranding right in front of her. Riley Madison has her dark red hair pulled back into a neat bum and is wearing a light gray skirt suit with a white shirt. You have to admit she is good looking and at the moment her appearance stands in big contrast to Ashley, who is in very overly sweet clothes. It seems almost wrong to you, seeing your colleague wearing light blue jeans, a pink blouse and with her hair in a high ponytail. You had just gotten used to the loose hanging hair, dark jeans and the navy hoodie. Ashley had wanted to wear the hoodie, but the DA had told her to take it off so the jury would be able to get a better look at her bruises, so now the hoodie lay neatly folded in Emily's lap.

"Miss Seaver, can you tell me what happened the night of your rape?" Riley asks, walking closer to the witness chair.

Ashley looks up at her with an emotionless expression on her face. You know that expression. It means that she has gone into herself, locked her feels up inside of her, so no one can see how scared she is or how fragile she feels. "I was on my way home from work. Well I was home, but there weren't any free parking spots in front of my building, so I had to drive a block away to find one," Ashley tells as she fiddles with the edge of her right sleeve. "I parked my car, got out and went to get my bag from the backseat when someone pushed me through the door and down on the seat. I tried to scream and fight him, but he caught my arms around the wrists with one hand and held them over my head while he covered my mouth with the other. He only held me like that for a moment, I guess he figured out he couldn't remove my clothes if he didn't have a hand free, so he let go of my hands and mouth and instead folded his fingers around my neck."

You watch as Ashley talks and notice how her emotionless facade is about to break. Her face seems less hard and she is moving uncomfortable in the chair. "I scratched the side of his face and hit him all I could before everything started going black and I could no longer move. He kept his left hand around my throat while he slid his other hand up under my skirt. I don't usually wear skirts, because they aren't very practical at work, I can't really move or run in them, but I had a meeting with my boss and she's kind of old-fashioned, always wears skirt herself, so I decided to do so too. I... I hoped..." Tears starts rolling down her cheeks and Ashley stops her rambling as she slowly moves her right hand to rest on her throat.

"Ashley?" Riley asks, looking concern at her, just like you and the others are. You want to go up there and comfort her like you have done with Desiree and even Sarah so many times before when you were children.

Judge Brenneman leans over the edge of his chair. "Miss Seaver, do you need a minute?"

Ashley wipes the tears of her cheek and sits up a little straighter. "No I'm fine," she says shaking her head and then she takes a deep breath and continues. "His knees were pressing hard against my tights, but as he moved his hand up under my skirt he press one knee in between my legs and ripped my panties off. I heard him unbuckle his belt and felt him move around over me. His grip on my throat loosened and I was just about to scream when it felt like my entire body got ripped apart. As he rapes me his grip on my throat tightened again and this time so much that I almost blacked out." Ashley sniffles and you can see on her face how much she's fighting not to start crying again. "When he was done with me he let go of my neck and sat up to close his pants and somehow I got my left leg free from under him. I kicked him so hard in the stomach that he fell out off the car and down on his back on the road. I got my bag of the floor and then I just started running."

"And what happened after that?" Riley asks.

"I woke up in a hospital bed. How I got there I don't know."

"Thank you" Riley says with a smile and then she looks at the judge. "No further questions." She sits back down behind her desk and sends Mike Langan's attorney, Alex Trevor, a smirk.

Brenneman nods his head. "We're in recess. Court will resume in ten minutes." He banged his gavel and Ashley quickly get's up from the witness stand, walking right past you and out the doors of the court room. The seven of you follow after her and as you walk out you wrap a protective arm around Garcia. She lays her head on your shoulder. "I can't wait for all of this to be over," she mumbles. "But what if..."

"That evidence against him is strong," you reassure her, but you know that there is still a chance that he might go free, you just don't want to think about that."

When you walk out the doors of the court room you see Ashley sitting on the bench to the right. JJ sits down next to her and lays a hand on her knee. JJ had been the most welcoming to Ashley when she became a part of the team. It might be because she had never seen Ashley has her replacement, as you kind of had in the beginning.

"I thought I told you not to come," Ashley says, getting up from the bench. "How did you even know it was today?"

Emily looks guiltily down at the hoodie she is holding in her arms. "They asked and we thought you could use the support." She hands Ashley the hoodie and she puts it on quickly. You can see relief wash over her face and you know that she now feels much safer. You wish you and the others could make her feel just as safe as that piece of fabric.

"Are you mad at us for coming?" Reid asks worried, but Ashley shakes her head.
"No, it was really nice of you to come."

"We couldn't let you be all alone in there," Garcia says with a smile.

"I wasn't alone. Detectives Willens and Giffen were there."

"They aren't your family," Dave says and Ashley lets a small smile crawl over lips.

For a moment the atmosphere seems much lighter and it's like you all are able to breathe. "You did really good in there," you say, wrapping your arms around Ashley in a light hug and just like that everything changes.

"Don't touch me!" she screams and pushes you away from her violently. Her reaction to your hug surprises you as much as herself and for a moment she looks confused around each of you. No one knows what to do and when Emily takes a step closer to her Ashley turns around and runs in the direction of the bathrooms.