indelible - (adj.) impossible to erase or forget.

bau agent!reader (no specific pairing atm)

You step off the elevator alone, rushing to put away your coat and bag at your desk in the bullpen, and attempt to remind yourself to be in the present as you swing open it’s large glass doors.

You can deal with it later. Don’t let it affect your work.

But the pressing weight of it on your mind won’t leave, even as you try to distract yourself with paperwork.

For the first few hours, and when anyone asks why you were running late, you easily brush it off without concern. Then a case comes through the BAU channels and you’re all shuffling into the private room to get a rushed briefing from Hotch and Penelope of what to expect, and where exactly the case is taking you all this time.

You end up only half listening. Absentmindedly playing off the way everything is suddenly feeling muted after the rush of urgency flooded your system when Hotch had announced a new case to the bullpen - too similar to the rush you’d felt confronted with just this morning.