❝ what color is the wedding dress for that? ❞

A MUNDANE DAY was a concept Olivia was too familiar of. It's quite shocking considering her field of work. She examines crime scenes, surrounds herself with death and gore, and figures out the psychological makeup of some of the nation's most sick and twisted beings in order to detain them. To the average civilian, Olivia's days were anything but mundane. She's grown accustomed to the wickedness she sees on an almost daily basis. However, as of lately, she's felt as if she's lost the novelty of it all.

It wasn't because she was becoming dubiously comfortable with all the nefarious things she hears. It was simply because nothing ever changes. A horrible murder happens, the BAU comes in to help solve the case, they find and imprison the criminal (on copious occasions), then Olivia goes home feeling like shit. She rarely sleeps because she sometimes thinks about the victims and how cruel the last few moments of their lives were.

Her personal life played a factor to the tedious cycle in her life. She absolutely loves the twins and Elijah, but nothing new really ever happens — they're all aware of it, too. Elijah stays the night sometimes and they happily hang out together and the twins are either at a friend's house or locked inside their rooms. It wasn't that she wasn't happy with her life or job — she was — she just wished something a little more compelling or happy happened as a beautiful contrast to her everyday routine.

         Nevertheless, Olivia prepared herself for another dull, yet gruesome and shitty day. Emily Prentiss stood in front of the television screen at the round table, presenting the team's newest case. In Plymouth, New Hampshire, a married couple was shot and killed in their own home. However, the couple's daughter, Ruby, was missing. Their current theory was that the unsub had some sort of relationship with the family.

Olivia examined Grace and Kellan Butler's bedroom. Pools of blood were dried up on the bedsheets and pillows. She looked inside the closet and knew something seemed suspicious. She went into Ruby's room where she found Emily to let her know about her findings. She started to explain, "So, I looked at the rest of the house. Something wasn't right. Tara told me that Grace had some issues — money issues, specifically."

She opened the closet door in the Butlers' room to reveal many luxurious clothing items and accessories. "She couldn't stop hitting the 'place order now' button."

Emily looked through the items, "Oniomania — compulsive shopping disorder." She pulled out a dress and commented incredulously, "This dress alone is worth half of my salary."

"Well, we considered that the dad might've had enemies. Maybe we're looking at the wrong parent. Maybe this played a role in the unsub taking Ruby." Olivia suggested.

Emily considered it, "Yeah, but we're still hitting the same wall. Why take Ruby over this?"

"Well, it depends on how bad their debt was. So, how bad did it get?" Liv thought.

Garcia was able to confirm that Grace had a very bad shopping addiction. However, they were able to rule out their money problem being the reason for their deaths and Ruby's abduction. The team was able to deduce that the unsub thought he was saving Ruby from her parents' bickering and that he watched the family for quite some time.

While Rossi and Emily were at a coffee shop, interviewing the manager about the Butlers, they were interrupted by a girl in a red dress. The two agents instantaneously recognized her as Ruby. Tears streamed down her face as she announced, "Excuse me? He says you're my mommy now." Right after saying that, she fainted. Rossi and Prentiss went outside to look for the unsub, but he was nowhere to be found. They figured the unsub was going to strike again, thinking he was going to be saving another child.

And they were right. The unsub had killed Carter and Julie Shaw, taking their daughter, Naomi, who is the same age as Ruby. Back at the police station, Olivia was with Rossi and Emily, thinking of another way to identify the unsub. Spencer came up to the three of them and started sharing his theory, "We've been looking so hard at the families, that we missed the most obvious connection — genetics."

"But the families aren't related." Rossi said.

"You have no idea how right you are." Reid told. "Take Kellan and Grace Butler. Both of Ruby's parents have green eyes. Ruby also has green eyes, but one of her eyes has some shadings to it. It's a result of a condition called heterochromia. It's genetic, and neither parent shares it. So I kept digging, and the Shaw family tells a similar story. Specifically, the daughter's blood type matched neither parent."

"But that's impossible. The blood types would have to be shared unless. . . unless they're not related." Emily figured.

Olivia concluded, "So, both girls are adopted. Our unsub is trying to save adopted 8-year-old girls."

"Why didn't Garcia find this?" Rossi questioned.

Spencer answered, "She didn't know to look for it. It's a small town. Perhaps the parents don't want he daughters to feel like outsiders."

"We need to deliver the profile." Emily stated.

Their main lead was someone who worked in the adoption system, but the workers they looked through were all clean. They figured the unsub may have had a daughter he gave up for adoption and Garcia was looking through it, but she couldn't find anything. She did find, however, that news broadcasters harassed Jayne Archer, the manager of the coffee shop, about Ruby being in the hospital. Olivia couldn't believe that they revealed that on television. Jayne not having Ruby unlike the unsub planned could result him in devolving and even killing Naomi.

In an attempt to destress, she approached a vending machine to get a snack. This case was very stressful, so perhaps she deserves a bag of Skittles and bottle of water. She noticed Rossi with a cup of coffee in his hand, staring off into the distance. "Hey." She greeted him.

"Oh, hey." He walked up to her.

"I've seen that kind of stare before. Stare of regret, humiliation, or disdain?" Olivia tried lightening the mood.

"Disdain? Maybe all the above; I'll figure it out later." He told her before confiding, "All this work, it all goes down the toilet once we're on the 6:00 news."

"Yeah, I know, it sucks." She sympathized, grabbing her things from the vending machine. She changed the subject, "Oh, I also heard someone had their wedding proposal shot to hell." Penelope told JJ and Olivia the moment she was able to. She felt insanely terrible and she just had to tell someone about it.

Rossi nodded, "Yeah. That didn't go quite according to plan."

Olivia frowned a bit in compassion, "Sorry to hear about that. Just trying to cheer you up." She shrugged.

He looked at the expression on her face. "Go ahead, I know you wan to say it."

"Okay, I was actually thinking about this after the case with the mummies and Spence and I found out about Krystall—" Liv started. Rossi interrupted her, "Oh, God. Liv, that was back in September, months ago."

         She held her index finger up at him, holding her thought in, "Yeah, I know. So, if you marry your third wife for the second time, what color is the wedding dress for that?" She chuckled.

Rossi laughed too, "I admit, I've been wondering that myself."

"So, how are you gonna propose?" She asked him.

"I don't know. I just want it to be perfect." He replied.

"Well, luckily enough for you, you work with an entire team of perfectionists." She smiled.

Matt entered the hallway and searched for the two of them. When he did, he announced, "Hey, guys. We got something." The pair followed him into the room he was just in, where he and Emily told them about a case that is tied to their current one. The victims' adoptive daughter, Ashley Carson, has a picture where she was wearing the same dress Ruby wore. Ruby and Naomi are surrogates for her. Ashley unfortunately passed last year because of a congenital heart defect, which was the unsub's stressor. Ashley's birth father is the unsub, Jordan Halloran.

The team traveled to Becky (the birth mother)'s home where the unsub was going to take Naomi now that he sees her as Ashley. They used Becky's smart TV to play Ashley's memorial video via bluetooth. The emotional tribute to her life played as Jordan surrendered. Olivia couldn't help but feel bad. Not necessarily for Jordan, but for Becky.

While on the jet back to Quantico, Rossi enlisted the help of the team to prepare something for him back at the BAU. When they arrived and settled their things down, Rossi took the elevator down to meet Krystall as everyone else helped Penelope decorate the BAU.

Olivia was so ecstatic. Decorating a place where terror lurked to make it a little more pleasing for a special occasion. Gold colored lights and lanterns all over the waiting area for the elevator was like a beautiful shining star. Out of all the days and nights Olivia came home to the BAU, she's never seen it look so gorgeous. And to add even more fluorescence to the bright star, Krystall said yes to Rossi's proposal. The couple went around the group, sharing hugs, friendly kisses, and words of congratulations.

In the midst of the celebration and the champagne, Olivia finally got out of her slump. The slump that dragged her into thinking that every day was a nonstop and endless routine of insignificance. That one priceless moment of happiness permeating through an area of darkness was enough contrast to prove that the little things can make everything worthwhile.

ANGIE'S NOTES ☺︎︎
since today is my last day of winter break, im updating this and my peter parker ff now😁
but it also means i might be less consistent
with updating again😀!! yay😀!
anyway have a lovely day baes <3