𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐏𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐭
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ
𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗿
𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦

     "𝐓𝐰𝐨 more shots and then we can go!" Liv says over the loud music as she holds up the bottle of tequila.

Noah grimaces and holds her hand up. "Why two?"

"Because we need to loosen up before we can dance, otherwise it's embarrassing," the redhead says as she pours six more shots.

"Liv, I can't take any more," Jess says as she covers her mouth.

"C'mon!" Ronan cheers as he picks up one of the plastic shot cups and holds it up.

Tate distributes the rest of the shots to the group. Noah peers over at Hailey, seeing that she seems to be fitting in. She didn't take her as a party person, but it looks like she's having a good time. Noah turns to look at her girlfriend and sees quite the opposite expression on her face.

They all cheer for a good night and knock their shots back. Everyone except for Jess, that is, but Noah takes hers and then grabs the blonde's finishing it before anyone else can notice. She hands the cup back to Jess as everyone comes to and downs their chasers.

"Okay, maybe only one will do," Liv notes, her voice sounding full of pain.

"We have to go dance so I don't think about throwing up," Ronan says as he puts his arm around the redhead.

"Yeah, I have to go find Casey," Tate mentions, looking around for his girlfriend, who ran off with her other friends.

Everyone heads to the living room, which has become the designated dance floor. Noah grabs Jess' hand, pulling her along with them. They find themselves in the heat of the crowd, surrounded by their peers as they all sway to the beat.

Noah reaches out with a smirk, her hands finding Jess' waist. She pulls her close, feeling the blonde's arms around her neck. They sway together, Noah leaning down so that their foreheads are gently pressed against each other.

Each new song starts and Noah doesn't feel her energy slowing down. Jess giggles as Noah twirls her around, feeling like the only person in the room through her girlfriend's eyes.

Jess goes to the bathroom with Liv for a few minutes, leaving Noah with their friends. Tate and Ronan are dancing together, not noticing what Parker sees, which is Noah practically falling over as the alcohol seeps into her bloodstream.

"Hey, are you good?" he asks.

"I'm fine," Noah replies with a smile.

"You just...you drank a lot more than usual," he says over the music.

"Everyone did," Noah shrugs as she looks up at him, wondering what his goal could be with his questioning.

"Yeah, I know," he replies casually. "I'm just checking."

Noah shows a small smile and turns back to Jess, who dances with her, their bodies moving freely within the crowd.

𝘧𝘣𝘪 𝘷𝘢𝘯

"You got any movement?" Derek asks, speaking to the agent stationed on a nearby roof with a sniper, waiting for his instructions through an earpiece.

"Negative," the agent replies. "No movement detected."

In a van on the street, Derek and JJ await any movement or signal from the sniper and surrounding posted agents. They watch the screen that shows the feed from a camera that's positioned on the window of an apartment they think is Doyle's.

"That's all Hotch said?" JJ asks Derek. "Take the shot?"

"Yeah, but he's pissed," he replies, not peeling his eyes away from the screen.

Before JJ can say anything, her phone rings and she answers right away. "Hey, Spence," she says.

"Can't find him," Spencer replies, referring to Declan.

"What do you mean you can't find him?"

"The Dean said that the school is on Fall break."

JJ looks to Derek, silently exchanging glances that speak for her. "Okay, call for backup and get to the house."

"We're already here."

"Do you see the agents?" JJ asks. "We sent them to watch the house."

"Their cars out front," Spencer says, but his voice sounds unsure.

"The lights are off," Rossi mentions in the background.

"I'll call you back," Spencer says and hangs up.

"No, Reid—" JJ replies, but is cut off by their line getting cut. She sighs and turns to Derek, worried about Spencer and Dave not waiting for backup.

Derek opens his mouth to comment, but a cop car suddenly approaches, chasing another vehicle. JJ and Derek turn to watch the two cars whirl around the street corner, but they turn back to the screen. Luckily for them, the sirens got Ian's attention, making him briefly check the street through his window.

"You see that?" Derek asks the sniper.

"I've got movement," the agent replies.

"He's in there," JJ confirms and opens her car door, Derek doing the same.

The two of them make their way into the building. It's an old apartment complex, so it doesn't have an elevator. They open the door to the staircase, moving swiftly, but being cautious. They keep their weapons up, ready for any surprise Ian may have up his sleeve.

Derek takes the lead into the apartment, kicking the door down. They clear the apartment but hear a commotion coming from the bedroom closet. Derek opens the closet with JJ ready to fire behind him. It's empty, but the vent in the ceiling is open.

"He's going to the roof," Derek says as he starts running. "JJ, cover the back stairs."

He quickly takes the last flight of stairs towards the roof. He holds his weapon up as he bursts through the door and scans the area. He sees a figure moving across the roof, heading right for a ladder.

"I've got the shot, agent," the sniper informs him.

"Don't take the shot!" Derek shouts. "Don't shoot! I got it!"

He holds his weapon up, trained on the man who has his back to him. In just a split second, he could end his life. He could get the vengeance he'd thought about for months. He could secure Noah's safety and ease his guilt of being too late to save Emily. But he stops and so does the assailant.

Ian turns around, holding his arms up, and he fearlessly stares down the barrel of Derek's gun. "Wanna kill me yourself, agent?"

𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬𝘦𝘳'𝘴 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦

The colorful strobe lights whirl around the room, and Noah's eyes have a hard time recognizing what's going on around her. The music is drowned out, but she can still feel the booming bass through the floor. She's losing control, the beer can in her hand being the only thing she has a grip on.

Noah had downed a few more drinks, most of them from a game of beer pong she lost.

"Hey," Jess says over the loud music as she grabs her girlfriend's hand. "Hey, look at me. Maybe we should get some air."

"I'm good," Noah slurs as she continues to dance.

"No, you're not," Jess replies as she pulls her out of the crowd and to the front porch.

"I'm fine," Noah says as she steadies herself on the porch.

Jess guides Noah to sit down on the stairs, helping her as much as she can. "There you go, babe. Just sit down for a few minutes."

"I just need some water," Noah assures her, but the way her words warp together says otherwise.

"Maybe you should relax," Jess says as she takes the beer can out of Noah's hand.

"I don't need to relax—"

"You're really drunk," the blonde replies and holds Noah's chin so her head is kept in place and not mindlessly bobbing around.

"Just trying to cover some pain," Noah jokes.

"That's not how you get through pain—"

"Just for tonight."

"No, not ever," Jess corrects her firmly.

"My mother is dead, I think I deserve some grace."

"You're gonna keep using that?" Jess asks, unimpressed. "I get it, you're going through it, but I want to help you get through it the right way. Not drinking too much and driving yourself crazy with trying to find your brother—"

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Noah—"

"No, you said you'd be there for me, no matter what, that you were my partner in crime. But really you just think I'm driving myself crazy?!" Noah asks as she stands up, wobbling for a moment before she walks down the short staircase.

"I just want to help—" Jess pleads as she reaches out to stop Noah from falling over.

"I don't need you to fix me!" Noah shouts sternly, making Jess fall silent. "I don't need anything from anyone."

The blonde doesn't say anything more, hurt by Noah's tone more than anything. Words can be empty, but she's never spoken to her like that. Doing what she knows Jess hates, Noah turns her back on her and walks away.

Noah walks down the street, not caring if her father sees this as the perfect opportunity to finish his revenge. Her steps are slow and unbalanced, her body swinging from side to side like her slurred words.

Quantico isn't the best town to hide from her psychopathic father. It doesn't have a large population, although most of it is made up of military personnel. It's full of nature, which Noah has found interesting to adjust to, seeing as she never ventured out of the city in Seattle. Noah follows the Potomac to the park, taking in the scenery in the night air.

Noah feels the soft ground beneath her shoes as her memory takes her to a safe place. Somewhere she can be herself and feels strangely comfortable. She lowers herself to the ground, sitting against the back of her mother's tombstone.

"Hey, Mom," she says softly as she leans her head back, looking up at the stars. "Happy birthday."

Her eyes glance down to the tombstone, leaning her back against it.

"I remember once telling you that I could handle anything life would throw at me," Noah says, her eyes withering in her drunkenness and her fingers picking at the grass beside her leg. "I said I've been through so much shit that nothing could phase me. I could make it through anything. But I don't think I can make it through this," she continues as tears mix with her slurred words.

Noah tries to swallow the lump in her throat, but it's hard to control. Now that her mind has been loosened by alcohol, it feels like everything she's been bottling up is finding its way out.

"Living without you is so unfair," she sobs, tears freely flowing down her cheeks. "Why does everything get taken away from me? I try, and try, and try to do better, to be better, but the world keeps punishing me! I don't understand what I did to deserve this. I feel like it's my fault, like, I brought my bad luck on you."

A soft breeze flows by, her wet cheeks stinging in the cold air, which dries her tears. It's like she can feel her mother's fingers brushing her tears away.

"I just can't believe that I finally got what I wanted and it was taken from me. But, then again, I can believe it too. This is what it's always felt like. Every good thing was ripped away from me. My dad, Max, and now you."

The breeze moves across her again, this time shifting her hair.

"I know you're not really gone," she whispers, the breeze displaying her mother's presence. "I know that you live on with me forever, but it's still hard. All I have to get me through the rest of my life is what I learned from you in a year."

Noah shifts to look at the stone behind her. In the vase built into her mother's tombstone, there's a single flower. A lilac freesia. The teen lifts the flower and brings it to her nose. It's an airy, fruity aroma, Noah envisioning it as a fragrance of freedom and love, of a time when someone must have had everything they thought they ever wanted. A time when she had Emily and their life together, right before it was taken away from her.

Noah sits the flower back in the vase before peering up again. She takes a deep breath, exhaling the last of her emotions. She finds a bright star that twinkles against the dark backdrop of the sky.

"A wish for your birthday," she notes. "You can't make it, so I'll make it for you. So even if it was just for tonight, I wish we could be together again. Even just for a moment, a few seconds. I would give anything."

𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘣𝘢𝘶

Derek walks Ian Doyle down the hallways of the BAU, feeling like vengeance is right at his heels. They take him right to an interrogation room and an agent firmly sits him down on the metal chair. Derek looks down at him from across the table, standing to assert his dominance.

"Forgotten where I've been, agent?" Ian asks. "Places far worse than this."

Derek stares at him with a look that could kill. "Doyle, where's Declan?"

"Don't play dumb, you found him a month before I did. He's living in that lovely little house our friend set up for him," Ian says, feeling slightly defeated, but hiding it well. "Should have found it sooner. Finally remembered she likes cul-de-sacs."

"Where is Declan right now?" Derek continues his questioning, not letting Ian change the subject. "You expect me to believe you had nothing to do with his abduction?"

"And you expect me to believe this isn't part of a strategy? You tell me my son is missing when I know he was safe a few hours ago? You'll have to get more creative."

Derek pulls the chair in front of him back with a loud screech before sitting down. "Listen to me, you son of a bitch, I am not playing games with you. If you care about anybody other than yourself, you give me a list of who would have done this."

"Why would anyone take Declan?" Ian asks.

"You tell me," Derek replies.

"No one even knows he exists."

"Someone does," Derek assures him. "Because when we followed you to that little rat trap, somebody took him from his house. Somebody else was watching you, Doyle. Now, tell me who."

"I don't know!" Ian exclaims. "I don't!"

"Your son is missing," Derek reminds him. "So think."

Doyle's eyes dart around the room, trying to figure out what he's missing, and why someone would want to do this. "I don't know," he mutters.

The truth is, there could be hundreds of people who want revenge on him. While he honors loyalty and has had many partners in the past, he still has enemies. There are people who would love to determine his final moments with their own hands, who would wish to see him struggle.

Derek stands up, pacing back and forth as he waits for Ian to crack, but he never seems to falter. His concern is genuine and his body is giving it all away.

"Doyle, I'm gonna ask you one last time," Derek says as he leans his hands on the back of the chair. "Who hates you enough to take him?"

"How long has it been?"

"Six hours."

"You've had your time to find him, now let me have mine."

"That's not about to happen," Derek says with a small shake of his head. "In case you forgot, you're still a danger. And the fact you were roaming free before this already makes me sick."

"How is she doing, by the way?" Ian asks with a small smile. "I see her by the grave sometimes. I've had the decency not to interrupt."

Derek's stomach turns at the way Ian twists it into some sort of sick joke. "You keep her out of your mouth."

Ian would normally go off on an entire tangent, but he's more concerned about his son. On the other side of the glass, Aaron walks into the observation room, standing beside Dave, who has been listening to Derek's interrogation.

"Well, that's a good look," Dave comments on Aaron's beard. "How was the desert?"

"Hot," Aaron replies.

"Have you seen Jack yet?" Dave asks.

"No, Jessica took him to Hershey Park for the weekend."

"Well, he'll love that beard."

"Yeah, we skyped every day. He's not a fan," Aaron says as he turns to Dave with a smile.

Dave shows a grin as well and peers over at Aaron as he holds his phone up to his ear. "Who're you calling?"

"WITSEC," Aaron answers. "Noah needs to be transported here as soon as possible. We need eyes on her right now."

"At least the sight of him in handcuffs will be some sort of relief," Dave notes as he watches every inch of Doyle's face.

"What?" Aaron grits, his voice sharp and eyes squinted. "Find her. Now."

Dave furrows his brows and feels his heart sink. "What happened?"

"Noah wasn't at the apartment."

𝘲𝘶𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘰 𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘬

Noah watches her breath puff out into the cold air, her throat drying at the bitter temperature. The quiet only lasts for so long until she hears someone shuffling through the Autumn leaves. She sees a flashlight a few yards away from her and sits up straight, but the light blinks a few times, allowing her to relax.

"What're you doing here?" she asks.

"You know what I'm doing here," Andre, the WITSEC agent, calls out to her. "Let's go! It's freezing."

Noah rolls her eyes and slowly lifts herself. She walks towards him slowly, trying to hide her influenced state.

"You're wanted at HQ," Andre says as he escorts her to the car.

"Why?" Noah asks. "It's, like, eleven or something."

"Boss' orders."

"Boss," Noah says softly. "Stressful Strauss or the boss, boss."

"Boss, boss. But, at this point, Strauss probably knows you weren't at the apartment when he called."

Noah sighs as they arrive at the car and Andre opens the back door for her. She gets in and as they drive, she leans her temple against the window. She looks down at the car floor, trying to retain her nausea.

When they arrive, she steps out of the car, keeping her balance and walking alongside Andre. They make their way to the elevator and when the doors slide open on the sixth floor, he points down the hall.

"Go to the bathroom," he says lowly. "Get it out and clean up. I'll tell them you'll be there in a few."

Noah looks away from him, her cheeks red from remorse. "Thanks," she mumbles and heads to the bathroom.

She locks the bathroom door behind her and checks all the stalls. She heads into one of them and kneels in front of the toilet, preparing herself to get the alcohol out. After a few tries, she has to force it out, coughing roughly as she thinks she's got it all. She flushes the toilet and stands up, rushing to the sink.

Noah washes her hands and then bends down to rinse her mouth out. When she stands up again, she jumps as she sees her father in the mirror behind her. She closes her eyes, knowing that he's not real. When she opens her eyes again, he's still there, so she splashes cold water over her face. After the shock, he's gone.

"Jesus," she huffs under her breath. She grabs a paper towel and dries her hand, tossing the crumpled-up paper in the trash on her way out.

Noah breathes deeply as she prepares herself to stand before the team. She passes through the bullpen, gazing up at the round table room, where everyone is gathered.

"Where the hell were you?!"

Noah peers through the window and sees Derek yelling at Andre. She pauses her steps for a moment, taking a deep breath before she jumps into the shark-riddled waters. She uses the back door of the round table room, walking up the few steps to get there.

"That's three times she wasn't where she was supposed to be on your watch!" Derek berates the agent, who accepts it without question.

"Morgan," Aaron interjects, trying to keep the man calm. He glances at Noah, making everyone else do the same.

"Where were you?" Derek asks her.

"Nowhere," Noah shrugs.

Aaron puts a hand up, stopping the two from arguing any further. "Sit down," he says to the teen.

Noah looks around at everyone, wondering what's going on. She eyes Penelope, who usually always gives something away in her eyes. But she seems to be hiding just as much as the rest of them.

Aaron sits beside her and looks her in the eye as he tells her the truth. "These past few months, Morgan has been investigating Doyle."

"I know," Noah mutters.

"Earlier tonight, they were able to track him down and we've taken him into custody."

The statement sobers her up immediately, an ice-cold shiver running down her back. "What? Are you serious?"

"We believe that his son, Declan, was abducted by Richard Gerace, who became an enemy of Doyle's because he was a problem for Lauren Reynolds. The woman taking care of Declan was found dead—"

"What?!"

"She was killed earlier tonight. The coroner is looking into it now, so we'll have more details on that soon. But she was definitely murdered."

"Is Declan okay?"

"We think so," Aaron replies. "If the abductor is using him as a rouse, he won't hurt him. At least, not for now. But they might come after you next."

"No," Noah shakes her head. "If they're trying to get back at Doyle, that won't work. He doesn't care about me—"

"You'd be surprised what we find some criminals caring for."

Noah's eyes widen slightly and a lump forms in her throat before she softly shakes her head. "So what happens now?"

"We're going to question him more," Aaron explains. "And we'll take it from there. But he will go to prison, and he will be there for the rest of his life. I can promise you that."

Noah nods, knowing that Aaron's promises don't come easily. This time, her father will be put away and he'll stay there.

The teen's chin quivers at the realization that it's over. She can finally have her freedom back. She can get back everything that she thought she lost—at least, almost everything.

Penelope quickly hugs Noah and lets her hide her tears in her chest. Aaron excuses himself and nods at JJ for him to join him outside the room. They walk out of the bullpen and towards the hallway, Aaron checking if anyone can hear them.

"It's time," he says shortly.

"Why?" JJ asks with a worrisome expression, scared that it's too risky. "Derek may be able to break Doyle without her."

"Declan tried to make a call. She's on the way."

"Alright," she nods softly. "I'll get Morgan."

"I'll tell the others," he replies, but stops her before they part. "And JJ?"

"Yeah?" she says as she turns around.

"Don't tell Noah. She can't find out this way."