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thewulf · 1 year ago

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Emotionally Involved || Aaron Hotchner

Summary: Request - hi! can you write a hotch angsty / fluff piece based off the episode of s3 ep 20 where they go to NY and have to work with Kate Joyner and Hotch treats reader like how he did to Morgan and pushes reader aside bc even after reader being there for him after his divorce with Hayley and thinking there was something more but then ends in fluff? :)

A/N: Love me some Aaron Hotchner!! Here's a good old angst to comfort :) Thank you for the request anon! Also, sorry this took so long. Lost my CM inspo but found it again. Hope you enjoy!

Pairing: Aaron Hotchner x Y/N

Word Count: 3.9k+

“New York baby!” Morgan grinned giving your shoulders a squeeze as the two of you walked off the jet.

Shaking your head, you followed him down the steps and towards the SUV’s towards the end of the runway, “You’re far too excited Derek. It’s not like we’re allowed to have fun when we’re here.” You tried not to dampen his parade too hard, but you also didn’t want to get too excited to be here. The team had a job to do, and you needed to be on your A game, Hotch had made that perfectly clear to the team.

“Let a man dream sweetheart.” He threw you a wink before walking ahead of you towards the SUV.

The ride to the precinct was uneventful as the team chatted about the unsub and the profile. When you got there you nearly gasped when your eyes landed on Kate. She was a Haley look alike, that was for sure.

Her eyes never seemed to leave yours as she greeted the team and went through the case. You stood back as her looks turned to mere glares. The team was even picking up on it as Spencer nudged your side and sent you a questioning glance. You merely shrugged your shoulders letting him you didn’t know why she was acting so cold towards you.

The team got to the newest crime scene with concerned citizens watching all around. It truly never got easier to see the distressed faces and worry rampant throughout a community. A dead body laid there with a mere tarp covering his or her indecency from the crowd. A bullet to the head. It truly never got easier.

When you looked up at the camera and the position of the body on the street you shook your head, “With the placement of that camera, odds are the only view we’ll get of him is the back of his head.” You noticed speaking out loud as you were trained to do. Observe your surroundings and bounce off ideas with the team.

Kate wrinkled her nose before giving you a rather unfriendly look, “Let’s not be too quick to decide what we do or don’t have.” She spoke abruptly before walking off. All you could do was bite your tongue and give her a curious look before somebody spoke up from beside you.

“The duchess at work has spoken.” The cop from the precinct snickered before walking off leaving just you and Hotch behind.

Bewildered you just gave him a look, “Did I do something?” She was giving you and you only an attitude while the rest of the team caught a pass.

Hotch sighed before coming out with it, “FBI Brass has made it clear to her that if she doesn’t figure out this case she’ll be reassigned. And you are at the top of the list to replace her.”

You were sure you looked like a deer in headlights at that moment. You? You were just a low-level profiler who’d been with the team for a few years but nothing major. You were good, not great, at your job. You’d never really put much thought into promoting out of your job anytime soon. You loved where you were, the team, Aaron as your boss. It worked. And worked well.

“You’re joking.” Was all that spilled out of your mouth earning a tight-lipped head shake from Aaron.

He looked a little annoyed before answering, “Why should you be surprised Agent? You’re good at your job. People notice that.”

You shook your head, “I thought the Bureau was thrilled to have stolen her away from Scotland Yard?” Still not buying it fully.”

Your boss just shook his head clearly uncomfortable with the whole ordeal, “I don’t know. I guess the politics here are different. And as you can see, she doesn’t really pull the punches.” He gave you a curt look before walking away leaving just you standing there under the camera. What the hell just happened?

You stook there as the group reformed talking about the Tarot Card the unsub left leaving your mind reeling. Why in the hell would you ever be on a list to replace anybody? Was Aaron talking you up that much? Did Strauss notice you?

When you got back to the precinct Garcia dropped the bomb on the team. There was more than one unsub. The team was left speechless as discussion ensued.

Hotch spoke up setting the new plan in action, “Dave you and Reid talk to the agents here. Y/L/N and Prentiss, brief the police when each shift comes on duty tomorrow. JJ and Morgan you’re with me.”

You frowned not liking where the case was heading, “I think we should get out in the streets Hotch.” He’d taught you to speak up when you thought things weren’t right, so you decided to. You were a team after all.

Kate shook her head though, “I brought you here to create a profile.”

You noticed your team mates awkwardly looking away trying to avoid the situation as best as they could. They sensed Joyner’s dislike towards you. But you couldn’t keep your damn mouth shut. You’d thought Hotch would have your back, but you were surely mistaken, “Which we can give in the morning, and they can share with the afternoon shift.” You spoke back to her. It must’ve been more aggressive than you thought because Hotch just gave you a set of wide eyes as if to say, ‘back off’.

“We’ve allocated every extra man we have. This is New York City. It’s not like a few more people is going to blanket the city.” She spoke to you as if you were a child. A mere stupid child. You’d have normally shut up there, but your pride was hurt, you could admit that. She was attacking you, you had to attack back.

“I understand it’s a long shot Kate. But these guys hit mid-day.” You started to plead with her, trying to have her reason with you, “we could be strategic. Target INGRESS and EGRESS to particular neighborhoods. Position us near 14th, 26th, 59th…” Kate just looked away annoyed as hell at you. But you had to challenge her, there were lives at stake and you couldn’t stand it.

“Y/L/N, it’s not your call.” Hotch stopped you giving you the disappointed boss look. You gave him your best disappointed look right back at him. He was acting weird. You thought you knew the man. But maybe he was down bad for the Haley look alike. Maybe you weren’t as close as you thought you were. Some profiler you were.

Your pride and now ego was trampled upon as that just went down in front of your entire team. Giving a sigh through your nose all you could do was grab Emily’s arm and walk away. You had a police debrief to do anyway.

She just gave you a look as you walked away from the group, “What the hell was that?” She asked once the two of you were far enough away so that they couldn’t hear.

You shook your head, “Hell if I know. Let’s get this over with.”

She pursed her lips, “You good?”

Nodding your head, you opened the door to the room where they were all gathered, “All good Emily. Let’s deliver the profile.”

After delivering the profile and avoiding the curious looks from your all too nosey coworkers you found yourself walking back into the central office of the precinct with Rossi. You heard Hotch on the phone with somebody mumbling something incoherent.

“What’s going on?” You asked once you got close enough. Rossi grabbed at the back of your arm sensing the bad blood between you and Kate who was standing right next to Hotch.

“We’ve got eyes on one of them. Subway platform between 59th and Lex.” Hotch spoke clearly trying his best to stay calm. Calm always won out in situations like this.

But your heart dropped, “59th? We could’ve been right there.” You pleaded more with Hotch than with Kate. He simply avoided your gaze and looked towards Kate who looked frustrated with the entire ordeal.

“He’s got a gun! He shot her!” You heard Garcia through the phone.

Your heart broke even further. Did her dislike towards you get that poor woman killed? You looked down at the ground as chaos erupted around you.

“We lost him.” You heard the disappointed voice of Garcia through the line.

Frustration bubbled over as you let out a sigh, “We could’ve had that guy.”

“Even if we were on the platform. Odds are he would’ve gotten away.” Kate spoke up sensing she needed to say something, the case was beginning to run away from her.

“Maybe! But it was worth taking a shot.” You fired back frustrated that she wasn’t listening to you. You were used to working with a team that bounced ideas off of each other. Sure, Hotch made the final call, but he always included your ideas as a consideration, always. Kate just straight up would rather ignore you than consider that you might have a decent idea.

“We had every available man on the street!” She snapped back at you losing a bit of her regular professionalism. At least you were getting under her skin a bit.

“And we suggested to you that you use this very capable team.” Your voice was laced with irritation as you tried to break through to her.

But Aaron stepped in. And again, it hurt when he took her side over yours, “Second guessing doesn’t do us any good right now agent.” He looked at you, not towards her, you.

Fuck it. Might as well let him have it now, “Hotch, how in the hell am I supposed to look at these cops in the eye and tell them that we’re actually here to help them?” Your voice was laced with venom as you let your emotions take over. Fuck professionalism when people were dying because a woman didn’t like you.

“We’re here to present a profile, that’s what we need to do.” He looked at you so coldly you wanted to walk away. You might say something that could damage the relationship you’d managed to cultivate with him.

You couldn’t stop your fiery tongue that usually worked out in your favor, “I said to put us at those express stops, 14th, 26th, 59th and that’s exactly where they hit.” You tried to reason with your boss who was toeing the line.

He raised his voice needing you to tone it down, “It’s not your place to have this discussion Y/L/N.”

You raised an eyebrow in defiance towards your boss, “My place?” You noticed Kate looking the other way. She looked uncomfortable.

“You need to back off.” His voice was laced with that same venom you’d just spit at him.

You started walking backwards shaking your head, “We’ve got seven bodies Hotch.”

“Which is exactly why we need to stay focused.” He didn’t miss a beat as he kept his eyes locked on yours.

You did what he didn’t expect though. You cracked a smile. Maybe you were a little jealous, but you had to call out the tone deaf man, “Focused?” You walked forward so only he and Kate could hear, “From where I’m standing, all your only focus is on her Hotch.” Kate shook her head not really believing her ears.

“Take a walk, now.” He spit at you.

You simply nodded, “Sure, boss.” You waved to Rossi who looked equally as stunned at what was happening. He’d never seen you act so defiant. But then again, he’d never seen Hotch wrapped around one woman’s fingers so easily.

You walked right out of the precinct and down to a Bodega frustrated beyond belief. Unbelievable. Maybe you’d just torched your relationship with your boss, but he was being a real fucking dick to you. You were also being a real fucking asshole right back to him and her. You get what you give you suppose.

You’d found your way to your hotels bar getting yourself a nice cocktail and chatting with the bartender. You weren’t planning on going back to work that night, anyway, might as well get a little fucked up. Have some of the fun Derek so desperately wanted. But in the end you couldn’t. Wouldn’t. You were still on the job.

But you were interrupted on your first drink. Rossi spotted you taking a seat right next to you. You would’ve kept your mouth shut had it not been for the three drinks coursing through your system.

“I know.” You sighed as he sat down, “I was out of line.” You admitted knowing you were still partially at stake for the events that unfolded.

“You get a little too emotionally involved sometimes. I know the feeling.” He stated waving the bartender down for his own drink. Rossi was like the dad of the team for everybody, especially to you though. He’d taken you right under his wing once he’d joined the team. The two of you worked together well and he had a sense of duty to you. He needed to check in on his young buck.

You huffed looking up to him, “I just felt like Hotch was taking her side.”

“There are no sides here.” He stated simply watching you curiously. Did he know of the massive crush you were harboring towards the older man? You’d been so damn good at hiding it that it’d be a shame if it came out now.

You nodded your head, “I know Rossi.”

He didn’t let up, “Word is. They have an eye on you if SSA Joyner gets canned.” He stated simply. Your eyes went wide as this was brought up for the second time in a few hours on this case. First from Hotch, not from him, “People talk. But if she were to get fired it’d be because we didn’t solve this case.” He knew that’d be all you needed. You were competitive. Just like him.

“Rossi, I hope you’re not saying you think I want her to fail.” You took a bit of offense to that.

He shook his head, “Of course not. But I’ve never seen you push a superior like that before.” You raised your eyebrows thinking about what he said before he continued, “So, would you take the job?”

You shook your head quickly, “I don’t know. It’d be nice to be the one making the calls…” You spoke out loud trying to think.

“And dealing with the politics of running a field office?” He threw that question right back at you, “Doesn’t seem like you.”

“The B.A.U. wears people out Rossi.” You admitted quietly while sipping on your drink, “Look at Gideon. He was the best. And in the end, he ran away.” You looked forward and not at the man who was staring holes into the side of your head, “Hotch hasn’t even thought about cracking a smile in over a damn year! That man had to take a personal day just so he can have a conversation with Jack.” You groaned clearly frustrated, “What about you?” You asked, having to know what he thought. You’d just laid it all down on the line clear as day, “How many times have you been married Rossi?” You finally looked back up to see him nodding along with your rant.

“I get it. But I’ll make you a deal. If I think you’re losing it I’ll pull you out myself. But right now. I see someone who wants to get back on the job.” He looked down at the cocktail, “Or is there another reason you’ve gotten it nonalcoholic?” You looked down eyeing the receipt that exposed you so easily. He walked away patting your shoulder wanting you to follow him.

You’d suck it up. For the job and for Aaron. The walk back to the precinct was silent. Your heart was pounding as you walked into the room with the both of them, “Listen, about earlier…” You were looking at Kate, not Hotch, Kate.

She shook her head looking almost embarrassed herself, “You spoke your mind. I respect it. Let’s move on.” She gave you a half-baked smile, good enough for you.

When the case was solved it was too late for the pilot to take off, so the team went back to the hotel to prepare for an early flight home. No matter the time though you were always wound up after a case was solved so you made your way to the hotel bar that was open into the late night, thank goodness. This time you weren’t worried about being on the clock.

“You did well.” The familiar husky voice of your boss sent shivers up your energy depleted body that was still coursing with adrenaline.

Your eyes flicked up to the man you had yet to apologize to, “Thanks Hotch.” You looked away from him quickly before continuing, “I’m sorry about today, I didn’t mean to…”

He cut you off for the second time. This time much more gently, “It’s okay Y/L/N. It’s nice to see you so… passionate.” He almost broke into that rare Hotch grin you rarely saw since the divorce with Haley.

You huffed slightly not enjoying being teased by the man, “I just…”

“I know.” He must’ve had a thing for interrupting you because he kept on doing it, “I didn’t disagree with you, you know. It wasn’t our time or place. I didn’t want to step on her toes. It was touch and go there.” He admitted while taking the beer he had ordered from the bartender, “And then the explosion.” He paused trying to find the words letting you interrupt him.

You gave him a knowing smirk this time, “Are you trying to apologize to me Hotch?”

He bit his lip not having a damn clue in how he was affecting you rather severely, “I’m trying to say there are no hard feelings agent.”

You raised your eyebrows feeling somewhat daring. He approached you after all, “Agent?”

Rolling his eyes he gave you the smallest smile, “Y/N.”

You hummed finishing off your own beer, “That’s more like it Aaron.”

You, just like him, had no fucking clue what you did to him. You calling him Aaron? Oh, he was a goner. He didn’t want to admit how fucking hot he found you fired up in the precinct earlier on in the case giving your higher ups a piece of your mind. But he was your boss, he had to simmer you down before you really ruined your chances of getting promoted. As selfish as he was and wanted to keep you on the team forever he knew you were destined for much, much larger things. You were a natural leader, Aaron found that out quickly. You worked cases with ease and took on the difficult tasks without a second thought. He was constantly amazed by you.

This time he gave you an easy smile. It’d been a while since he felt good enough to smile. Maybe it was the weight lifted off their shoulders from solving the case to your casual flirting with him, but he was feeling good. Damn good. And as tired as you looked Aaron couldn’t deny how pretty you were. That easy gorgeous that never even had to try. He was enamored with you. As always.

“Is that a Hotchner smile?” You quipped not believing your eyes.

“Shh. Don’t tell the team.” You saw it grow just a little.

You shook your head turning your body towards him in the seat knowing he’d get the hint. Hotch was a top-notch profiler and he’d read you like a kindergarten book, with ease, “For the record, I’m not going to take that job.” You stated looking right at him seeing his curious reaction.

“Oh?” He looked at you with genuine curiosity hoping you’d elaborate.

You nodded, “Not ready for it. Have a lot to learn still.”

He let out a soft sigh of relief, “You may think that. But you’d make one hell of a unit chief.”

You grinned giving his hand a quick squeeze hoping you weren’t crossing the line with him, “Maybe in the future, yeah? I just wanna live for now though.”

“I’ll take that.” He grabbed at your hand this time holding it firm, “Have lots to teach you still.” He agreed with you hoping he wasn’t showing too much joy though his face, he still had to keep a somewhat professional composure in front of you. He was still your boss. For now. He just had to give it some time. He knew you were going to be something a little bit more special than just one of his employees. You were… unique.

You nodded, “I should’ve asked this sooner, are you alright?” He didn’t drop your hand, still holding it gingerly in his.

He looked down at his glass before looking up at you, “I’m alright. Thanks for asking.” He hummed hoping he wasn’t making you feel too awkward.

“Would you say anything if you weren’t?”

He shook his head, “Probably not.”

“Can you tell me if you’re actually okay? Your friend died. You were almost blown up…”

He stopped you for a record fourth time, “I promise, I’m okay. It’s adorable that you worry.”

Your cheeks surely lit up like a Christmas Tree on the holiday itself, “Somebody needs to. You’ll run yourself ragged.”

He grabbed at your other hand definitely crossing a line, but he just didn’t give a damn, “You don’t have to do that.”

You didn’t give him a second to argue as your replied, “I want to.”

He nodded flashing you that smile you saw early on in your career but was gone recently, “I’m glad it’s you then. If anybody is.” He admitted almost shyly as his eyes left yours looking away quickly.

You gave his hands a squeeze, “Just tell me if it’s too much Hotch. If I’m ever crossing a line. If I’m too much.”

He looked back up at you with the softest eyes, “You could never, ever be too much.”

“Too emotionally involved?” You pressed.

He laughed throwing his head back, “Rossi got to you I see?”

“He say the same to you?”

Aaron nodded his head, “He did.”

“That man will be the death of me, I swear.” You grumbled knowing what he was up too. He always said the two of you would work out and kept bringing it up now that he was single.

“You and me both sweetheart, you and me both.” He tossed you a wink before standing, “Come on, let’s get you to bed. We’ve got a long day tomorrow.” He held out his hand for you to take. Without a second thought you grabbed at it as he pulled you out of your seat. You were enjoying your hand being in his far too much.

“Whatever you say boss man.” You gave his hand a squeeze as he led you out of the bar and to the elevators getting ready for bed. The two of you sat in comfortable silence as two big cheesy grins coated each of your faces knowing something new was bubbling up between the couple. Something the two of you had been waiting on for a long time coming. One that you knew you’d happily accept. One you’d hope he’d embrace too. Little did you know he was ready to dive into the deep end with you, headfirst and all.

Aaron Hotchner/Criminal Minds: Permanent Taglist (Message me or comment below if you want to be added!): @loving-and-dreaming @kmc1989 @memeorydotcom @matisse556 @buckylov3r @taygrls @ah-blossom @daily-evanstan @hardballoonlove @14buddy22 @rosiahills22 @djs8891

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hotchfiles · 8 months ago

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↪ kate joyner and hotch were fucking in the period of her appearance, an essay

it's sunday and i have no social life and i think way harder about hotch than a normal sane person should but. since getting into criminal minds there has been The Question (and it wasn't just me! i've seen other people talk about it): did hotch cheat on haley while liaising with kate when she was in scotland yard? i always doubted that because he's not a cheater (but he is A man...), so today i bring you my updated theory: they were in the starts of a relationship before she died. i'm not without evidence. so let's go!

3x20

kate calls hotch on his personal phone, late at night

he speaks to her very casually for someone who doesn't talk on a regular basis and only know each other from a past assignment

jj's reaction shows it isn't common for hotch to go above jj when choosing cases

again, very casually speaking of her, calling her kate only

the apparent common knowledge is that she's a brit but

hotch not only knows she has a dual citizenship, but also which parent is british and which one is american

AND MY FAVORITES

IT ONLY GETS BETTER FROM HERE ALRIGHT

LETS GO

why say that if not to imply hotch has interest in her because she looks like his ex wife who he recently divorced (not willingly !)

AGAIN WITH THE FIRST NAMES! she doesnt call him hotch ONCE. its aaron, from the start. and HIS SMILE. LOOK AT THIS FUCKER'S FACE

garcia's reaction to the informality

now why would emily use this tone if it was to imply hotch is a CHEATER???

no thats the "oh they ARE fucking" tone

this is sort of a reach because hotch worries about everyone he works with but STILL, going from "i know her because we liaised" to this--i rest my case

then this, i didnt think too much of it because hotch can be a bit of an ass with protocol and hierarchy whateverrrr BUT

emily was sooo uncomfortable which shows in fact that wasnt normal behavior

WHY SAY THAT IF THE TWO OF THEM WERENT OBVIOUSLY FUCKING !!!!

is that it? obviously not, i am in fact INSANE so

4x1

THE FLIRTY EYES AND SMILES

AGAIN. HE DOESNT CALL HER JOYNER. NOT EVEN ONCE. KATE. AT ALL TIMES.

THIS WOMAN IS DYING AND LOOK AT THE WAY SHES SMILING AT HIM AFTER SAYING SHES NOT IN PAIN very allison dying in the arms of her first love coded

another detail i like to point out is that aaron is completely capable of walking rn, he could easily walk over to the end of the street to talk to one of the officers there but he just wouldnt, couldnt, leave her alone.

he knows the first responders wont get near them yet, he keeps BEGGING that someone does

and now for my final argument

the way he holds her hand by the ending before putting it back in place

NOW I REST MY CASE

#aaron hotchner x reader #hotch x reader #lari is kind of insane

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boldlyvoid · 1 year ago

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I Know Places | Masterlist

Aaron Hotchner X Female Reader

Overall Warnings: coworkers to lovers, mutual pining, idiots in love, hurt/comfort, sharing a bed, eventual smut.

AO3 Link

Part One: Mayhem - Reader pov | 15k

After Aaron is hurt during a terrorism case in New York City, reader is faced with the undeniable truth that she is falling in love with her boss. While ensuring that he doesn't lose his hearing, she nurses him back to health despite her coworkers' knowing looks and comments. Navigating through her crush, knowing he's still in love with his ex-wife is going to be rough.

Part Two: Minimal Loss - Hotch pov | 10k

Away on a case with Reid, he and our dear reader are held hostage by Libertarian Cult Leader, Benjamin Cyrus. It's now Aaron's turn to try and keep his cool while Leading the Hostage Recovery and Support mission at the same time he's realizing he's fallen in love with his subordinate...

Part Three: Omnivore - Reader pov | 8.1k

Reader thought that Aaron was depressed post-divorce and following the death of Kate Joyner... nothing compares to how he is dealing with the mass amounts of guilt surrounding The Boston Reaper.

Part Four: Roadkill - Hotch pov | 14.9k

Once again, Aaron puts himself in harm's way. Once again, reader scolds him for it. Bickering like an old married couple in front of the whole team, it becomes glaringly obvious that they're more than just coworkers now.

Part Five: Living Children - Reader pov

After coming home from Canada, they head to their separate apartments for a night of rest before their next case... only that case comes 4 hours later and Aaron isn't answering his phone.

Part Six: I Know Places - Hotch pov

Worried for Aaron's safety as he heals, she takes him to the one place she knows no one can find them. The Bed and Breakfast in West Virginia.

Part Seven: Hunters, Foxes - Reader pov

With his ex-wife and child in Witness Protection, Aaron worries that Reader is also on Foyets hitlist. She, on the other hand, isn't worried. She would kill for him if need be... in fact, she does.

Part Eight: 100 - Hotch pov

#I know places #aaron hotchner #masterlist #aaron hotch fanfiction #aaron hotchner x reader

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hothothotch · 1 year ago

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𝒂𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒆𝒓 𝒙 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕

since i'm getting lost between my own stories, i decided to organize them in a masterlist that will be fixed on my profile.

so, behold: the aaron hotchner x reader multiverse!

requests:

'Til I See You Again: Reader was a part of Aaron's first case, and they meet again after years. TW: they flirt.

Breaking Hearts: Set on S03E20/S04E01. Reader is a BAU Agent and is mistreated by Hotch on behalf of Kate Joyner. TW: angst, fluff, 5.3 k words.

Midnight Snacks: Aaron catches you and Jack having midnight snacks! TW: fluff.

Don't You Say You're in Love: Your and Aaron's daughter pretends she's not dating someone... until Aaron meets the guy. TW: Hotch being a Dad.

Friends In The Corner: When Jack is bullied for having pink polish on, Aaron decides to help boost his confidence... by doing the same. TW: Hotch being the cutest Dad in the world.

Courage: When your father discovers about your and Aaron's situationship, Aaron stands by you. TW: protective Aaron, swearing.

series:

(𝑰 𝑷𝒖𝒕 𝒂) 𝑺𝒑𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝑶𝒏 𝒀𝒐𝒖 | 𝑨𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝑯𝒐𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒆𝒓 (coming soon)

SUMMARY: in which a witch hoping to fulfill a promise ends up falling in love with the absolute man she wasn’t supposed to

PAIRING: beast! Aaron Hotchner x witch!Fem Reader

WARNINGS: story loosely based on Beauty and The Beast’s plot, but with a few (read: a lot) changes. Magic. Grief. I think that’s it.

LOVE IS ON THE RADIO! (coming soon)

PAIRING: Aaron Hotchner x Famous Fem! Reader

SUMMARY: it’s common knowledge that the closest Aaron Hotchner always got from listening songs was his old Beatles’ album that played on repeat in his car — that is, until you stumble over him during one of his workouts.

T/W: fluff in its purest form; reader is a singer; fluff again; talks about cases; a lot of McFly songs being mentioned for no apparent reasons; fluff; reader pretends to be a normal girl (but that obviously doesn’t work — oh look, another McFly song); fluff; potential angst; media harassment; fluff; age gap (reader is 30 and Aaron’s 41, but the age is not so important, so feel free to change it as you want); fluff.

𝚝𝚒𝚖𝚎 𝚜𝚝𝚘𝚙𝚙𝚎𝚍 | 𝚊𝚊𝚛𝚘𝚗 𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚌𝚑𝚗𝚎𝚛 (ongoing)

SUMMARY: after ten years dormant, The Boston Reaper attacks again in the dead of night, one day after Tom Shaunessy's — the officer to whom the case was initially given — passing. having inherited the case from Shaunessy (read: having stolen the case from the Boston PD), the only thing Aaron Hotchner wants is to get the killer and finally put an end to his history of endless murders. but when he unexpectedly bonds with a surviving victim, it's not only Aaron's desire to do the job that drives him but the urge to protect the only person that saw in him something he couldn't see anymore.

PAIRING: Aaron Hotchner x Fem!Latin American Reader

TW: talks about stabbing (it's Foyet, after all); actual stabbing. Specific triggers written on the chapters.

𝓲𝓽'𝓼 𝓷𝓸𝓽 𝓾𝓷𝓾𝓼𝓾𝓪𝓵 | 𝓪𝓪𝓻𝓸𝓷 𝓱𝓸𝓽𝓬𝓱𝓷𝓮𝓻 𝔁 𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓭𝓮𝓻 (ongoing)

PAIRING: Aaron Hotchner x BAU!Fem Reader

SUMMARY: aaron hotchner knows that when you’re not in a relationship with someone, it’s not unusual to see the person you’re smitten with (but won’t admit) falling in love again and again and again… for someone else. but when his feelings start to grow too much and become a bit too obvious, maybe he should start marveling the idea of making it known.

TW: fluff, a lot of fluff. comments about cases (possible spoilers). aaron being jealous, a lot. reader has a brief (like, one chapter) relationship with derek. cannon typical cm content. other warnings on its respective chapters :D

one-shots:

𝒔𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒏𝒆 | 𝒂𝒂𝒓𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒕𝒄𝒉𝒏𝒆𝒓

SUMMARY: you’ve been working as Jack Hotchner’s babysitter for the past two years, but as your wedding day gets closer and closer, you start questioning if you’re taking the right step — or if you should jump into the abyss of feelings you developed for you boss, Aaron Hotchner.

PAIRING: Aaron Hotchner x Female Babysitter Reader

TW: fluff, really, a lot of fluff. except for the beginning, that’s is pretty much angst (i think?). there’s a small suggestive comment towards the middle of it, but i don’t think it can be considered NSFW (let me know if it does).

#aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner x reader #criminal minds #hotch #hotch x reader #hotch x you #aaron hotchner fanfic #aaron hotchner imagine #aaron hotchner fanfiction #aaron hotchner oneshot #aaron hotchner requests

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cloudlessly-light · 1 year ago

Note

Hi. Can you write something about Emily being obsessed with Aarons arms pls …

Title: Seems you cannot be replaced (Chapter 5/7) Summary: It shouldn’t have happened, but they were drunk. It shouldn’t have happened but it felt right. It shouldn’t have happened but now it has. It shouldn’t have happened now they have to deal with it.

Or, Emily always leaves before he wakes up, but she always leaves a note. Word Count: 3,3k Rating: Explicit Warnings: Smut, oral, dirty talk, feels

“I’m sorry.” She whispers it in the quiet elevator the next morning as they’re getting ready to leave.

He’s standing in front of her, back turned. They’re alone and Emily wants to disappear. She hadn’t counted on them being alone so quickly, hadn’t expected not to give them both some more time to digest that she left him. Again.

Guilt was seeping through her body, like every nerve was set ablaze by regret and had been ever since she wrote her message only a few hours before.

“Aaron?” She tries softly and reaches for him, but the second her hand lands on his upper arm he takes a step forward.

“I don’t need an apology.” He says just moments before the doors open and reveals the team standing in the lobby, already waiting for them bags in hand. “I need you to give me some time. You know what I want, how I feel, if you can’t give me that then you need to give me some time.”

She knows he’s right, she knows that she’s the one that’s hurting him. So she sucks in a long breath as he walks away. It doesn’t matter that she knows that she’s made a mistake, not when she could hear the heartbreak in his voice, could see the hurt in his eyes.

It was her choice, and now she’d has to live with the consequences.

“Hey, Prentiss. You good?” Derek’s familiar voice comes from behind her. It’s been a few days since Texas, since that night and Emily knows that the team’s picked up on something. She’s been tired, easily irritated in a way that she normally wasn’t.

“Yeah. Just a bad week.” She turns in her chair and forces a smile that she hopes looks genuine. “Not enough sleep, you know how it goes.”

“Is it-” He stops himself, eyes flittering quicky to the bruise that’s still on her wrist, finger shaped blues, greens and yellows coloring her skin. “Is it because of the case? Because of-”

“No this has nothing to do with the case.” She cuts him off and she can tell that Derek knows he’s overstepped. “I’m fine Morgan, really.” She stands up and squeezes his shoulder. “But thank you for caring.” Her voice was genuine now, because as much as she didn’t want her friends to meddle in her life, she appreciated that they cared.

“Anytime, Princess.”

It’s not even a week later and they’re flying to New York. Things are still strained between them, clipped words and sharp sentences that she doesn’t mind because she knows that Aaron, just like her, aren’t granted the privilege to put physical space between each other. He’s hurting and trying to cope the best he can. So she gives him that.

The second she hears about Kate Joyner she feels annoyed, the subtle dig Dave makes, the knowing looks between JJ and Spencer, it all bugs her. Jealousy she knows she has no right to feel rooting in her stomach and stays there. It doesn’t help that the woman is stunning, a copy of his ex-wife and Emily forces a joke to JJ but all she wants is to drag Aaron out of the office the blonde had just dragged him into.

The jealousy doesn’t go away, even if she manages to subdue it in between fired shots and detective Sam Cooper who she’s seen right through. But that didn’t mean that she didn’t enjoy the banter, the easiness of it. It also didn’t hurt that he was easy on the eyes.

And then the unsub stops mid-chase and shoots him, so she fires back and for a split second everything stops.

Her mind is still reeling as Cooper is being driven off in an ambulance, his blood still on her hands. Aaron is there, he shows up with Joyner but his eyes are on her and she can tell that he’s looking to see if she’s hurt, a slight franticness to him as he does. But she’s okay, gives him a nod and then he continues to talk to Dave and Spencer.

When they regroup it all makes sense. They aren’t dealing with a group of unsubs, they’re dealing with terrorists.

There’s been an explosion, and everything is chaos. There’s been an explosion and she’s been driving like a maniac to find her team. There’s been an explosion and Aaron isn’t there. Aaron isn’t there.

She can’t think about anything else, can’t think about anything other than that he is gone and she knows in her gut that something is wrong. Then Penelope tells them what’s happened and she breathes a sigh of relief because he’s okay, even as her body is filled with disgust because Kate is hurt, badly. She knows she shouldn’t feel relief, but she does because Aaron wasn’t in the car, he isn’t dead.

She’s the first one to say that she’s going to the hospital, she needed to see him, needed to make sure he was still alive.

“I’m fine.”

She hears his voice just as a doctor pushes back a curtain and she follows him quickly.

“Where are my clothes, please?”

“Lay down.”

The sound of her voice seems to surprise him just enough to make him stop.

“I said, lay down and let them do their job.” She says again, staring him down as her arms cross over her chest. To her own surprise he listens.

“Can you give us a minute?” She turns to the doctor who nods, seemingly more than happy that someone else would take over. Once they’re alone she stands planted at the foot of the gurney, glaring at him and he glares right back.

“Has anything happened since the blast?” He asks and she feels rage curse through her.

“You could have died.” She ignores the way her voice shakes but knows that he hears it.

“Emily-”’

“No, Aaron no.” She cuts him off and he sits up, his feet already on the floor before she manages to push him in the chest to keep him from getting up. It doesn’t hurt him, barely makes him budge but he stays sitting on the edge of the bed. “You could have died tonight and we are still in this mess.” A single tear falls down her cheek and he carefully wipes it away.

“But I didn’t.” He says softly and she fights a sob that wants to erupt. “I didn’t die.”

“What if I- fuck Aaron I didn’t know- all I could think about.” She starts her sentence over and over. This isn’t the time or the place, she knows that. But she also knows that not telling him how she felt was impossible, not after having thought that she’d lost him.

He seems to realize too, his eyes gentle and warm as he waits for her to tell him what they both knew, what they had been fighting for weeks now.

“I didn’t.” He whispers and closes her eyes tight, like she’s trying to rid herself of the memories. “I’m right here, I didn’t die.”

“You could have.” She repeats and his warm, large hands move to gently hold her hips, the simple touch nudging her the last bit to say what she needed. “I-I can’t lose you. I’m falling in love with you.”

For a few seconds he stays completely silent, eyes on her, face almost an unreadable and she thinks that she’s too late. But then he smiles.

“So what I needed to do was to almost get blown up for you to admit your feelings?” His words make her chuckle, even as a few more tears fall from her eyes.

“You’re such an ass.”

When they kiss it’s soft, a promise of more and for those few seconds, nothing existed but them.

But of course they’re in the middle of a terrorist attack, Kate has died, and they don’t have time for much more. The team shows up, and as they’re putting the last few pieces together Derek, as brave as he is, drives off with a bomb in a way that Emily would later call stupid.

“I saved all of us.” He defends as they all get ready to leave for the airport the next day. Except Emily and Aaron, they’re driving back.

“Yeah, you’re still and idiot.” She teases just as Aaron walks out and gives her a nod.

“Hey, you’re sure you want to drive back to Washington? I could do it.” Derek offers and she smiles because he has no idea just how much she wants to be alone with Aaron right now.

“I’m good Morgan. I’ll see you at the office.”

When she gets in the driver’s seat, Aaron is already seated in the passenger seat.

“Ready to get going?” She asks and he nods with a smile.

“Did you tell him?” He gestures to Derek who’s about to get into the car and drive away.

“No, let’s keep this between us. For a while.” She feels his warm hand on her thigh and she places her own over his and gives his hand a squeeze.

Three weeks later

They’ve been together only for a few weeks when Emily wakes up with Aaron’s strong arm around her middle. They had spent almost every night together, getting to know each other as more than friends and colleagues and she came to find that it was easy to differentiate Aaron from Hotch. She wakes up before him, something that was rare but she loved when she got to enjoy him as he relaxed against her.

She let her eyes drift over his strong arm, the comfort of the slight heaviness something she’s gotten used to. She looked over his arm, from where his fingers twitched slightly as he slept, to the dark hair starting low on his wrist that she can’t help but to gently trace with her finger. His muscle jumped and she knew he was waking up so she turned from where she was lying on her side.

“Morning sweetheart.” He mumbled, voice rough from sleep and she couldn’t believe that he was this effortlessly sexy. Still couldn’t believe that she had fought this for as long as she had.

“Good morning.” She smiled as he pressed a lazy smile against the crook of her neck where he had buried his face. “It’s still early, you can keep sleeping.”

“Or, I could do this instead.” He already sounds more awake, lips trailing from her neck to her jaw and then he’s kissing her as he shifts and she feels all of him pressing against her. He’s hard against her thigh and she whimpers slightly against his lips.

“I never thought I’d meet someone with a higher sex drive than me.” She teases and he hums in between kisses that are getting more heated as his hands start to move down her body.

They fuck lazily, enjoying each other until he’s coming deep inside of her as she grinds on top off him.

Later she finds herself watching him again. He’s making her breakfast, wearing nothing but dark green boxers that hang low on his hips and she’s almost taken back by how delicious he looks. She once again finds herself looking at his arms, how the strong muscle is hidden under soft skin, watches the veins as he sits beside her, how the coffee cup looks tiny in his large hand.

“What?” He asks, catching her not so subtle gawking with a teasing smirk.

“Can’t I enjoy the view?” Her words make him blush, and it’s another thing she loved about him. He had no idea just how gorgeous he was.

“What do you want to do today?” He changes the subject and she shrugs as her hand lands on his forearm.

“I don’t know, we could stay at home? Relax for once?” She traces a finger through the fine hair covering his arm, eyes fastened on it.

“Or, you could meet Jack?”

That made her look at him so fast he almost laughs.

“Already?” They had talked about it, but she had figured that it would be months before Aaron was ready for that. “You don’t think it’s too soon?”

“No.” It’s his turn to shrug. “I mean unless you’re planning on ditching me anytime soon?” He winks at her as her mouth opens and closes repeatedly. “I’m only kidding.” He stamps a kiss to her lips. “If you’re not ready to meet him, then that’s okay, it is soon. I just want him to meet my girlfriend.”

“That’s the first time you’ve said that.” She smiles, big and toothy and he chuckles.

“That you’re my girlfriend?” When she nods he moves to gently hold her neck, pulling her forward. “Of course you’re my girlfriend, Emily.”

She smiles into a kiss and when they break apart there’s not a doubt in her mind. She wants the man in front of her, she wants him forever.

“Call Haley and ask if it’s okay.”

That same night she’s coming into the kitchen just as Aaron takes the chicken out of the oven, hair still wet from her shower, body wrapped in a bathrobe. She was tired, but it wasn’t tired in the way you were in you slept too little or were too stressed, no she was tired in the way you were when you had spent hours with a three-year-old. It was the kind of tired she didn’t mind, because Jack was worth it.

“So let me be the first to say, Jack adores you.” Aaron says as she stretches, her hands high above her head.

“I adore him too. He’s such a great kid.” She goes to hug him from behind and presses a kiss to his shoulder. “But am I a horrible person if I say that I’m happy that it’s just us tonight?”

“No, you’re not.” He’s smiling when he turns around to face her. “Did you have something in mind though?” When her eyebrow raised and she gives him a look, his hands grip her a little tighter. “What about dinner?”

“I’m not hungry, at least not for food.” She removes her bathrobe and reveals the lace underwear set she’s wearing.

“Emily.” Her name is a breathy gasp and when she falls to her knees in front of him, Aaron moves to lean against the counter.

She holds his gaze as she gets his jeans off then presses a kiss against his bulge over his underwear. When she feels him jerking against her lips she smirks.

“Take off your shirt.” She says and he immediately complies. “You’re so fucking sexy.” She looks over his body while pulling down his boxers. “And all mine.” When she takes him in her mouth his knees buckle for a second.

“Fuck baby.” He husks out, fingers easily finding their way to her still damp hair. She moans softly around him, the feeling of his fingers gently tugging and gripping making her shiver as she slowly works her way down his shaft.

He’s getting harder with every second, each swipe of her tongue and every suck making him delirious with want. Then she looks back up at him, eyes hazy in that familiar way, pupils blown wide.

“So good.” He whispers and her cheeks tint pink at the praise. “I swear you were made for me, every fucking hole.” His fingers tighten in her hair and she whimper around him. Her thighs clench as she starts to bop her head faster.

She takes him as deep as she can, ignores how she chokes and how her eyes turn glassy as she works his cock over. When his hips start to jerk against her face, she wraps a fist around him and starts to pump. She pulls off him only to suck in a couple of breaths and then she takes him back in her mouth. Her tongue swirls around the tip of him as her hand twists his base and Aaron groans above her.

“I want you to come in my mouth.” She pants and his jaw clenches as he swallows hard. “I want it all.” Spit hangs from her bottom lip and he wipes it with his thumb before sucking that same thumb between his lips.

“Make me come, then.” He smirks and she has him in her mouth only a few moments later. She pushes forward, keeps going until her nose presses against his pelvis and Aaron groans. Her throat contracts around him, her eyes are glassy as she looks up at him, and then she pulls back, only to do the same thing again and he thinks he’s going to lose his mind.

He tugs her hair again and then he fists it hard, making her gasp around the tip of him. She knows what he wants, so she sits back on her heels and opens her mouth wide. When he starts to thrust against her face, she can’t resist and moves a hand between her legs. She’s soaked, the fabric of her underwear damp and she moans quietly around his cock as he keeps pushing his hips against her.

“Don’t come.” He grits out, almost overwhelmed by the pleasure of her mouth and the visual of her on her knees touching herself. “You’re going to wait until I’m ready to fuck you.”

Emily nods, even as her fingers are circling her clit faster. She can tell that he’s getting close, hips stuttering, filthy words fall from his mouth and she’s pretty sure she’s dripping onto the floor by now. Her eyes move over him, from his face, to his chest, to his arms. She can see the muscle in his forearm tense as he grips her hair tighter. She knows how strong his arms are, how easily he pins her down or throws her around and she whines at the thought.

“Gonna come.” His hushed words bring her eyes back to his face. “You ready for it?”

She nods frantically, stops touching herself and instead focuses everything on pleasing him. He tenses just as he grunts and then the salty taste of him lands on her waiting tongue. His hips jerk as she sucks on his tip, her hand coming up to jerk the rest of him, drawing out the pleasure until he’s backing away, still panting.

“Jesus Christ Em.” He leans against the counter, hands gripping it to keep steady before he helps her up to stand. He pulls her into a kiss, pushes his tongue against hers and groans at the taste of him that still lingers. His hand moves into her underwear and when he feels the slick of her he can’t help to hum. “My my, such a messy girl.”

“Aaron.” She whimpers, her hands digging into the muscle of his upper arms. “Need you.”

“Then why would you make me come in that pretty mouth of yours?” He teases as he turns them around until he can bend her over the counter. “Don’t worry, I’m going to take care of you sweetheart.”

He makes her come three times before he’s even inside of her, by the time they land in a messy tangle of limbs Emily’s exhausted and sated. She falls asleep with her head on his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

The next morning Aaron wakes up to an empty bed and for a second he feels panicked, but then he hears Emily humming to herself in the bathroom and his eyes move to the note that’s on her pillow.Don’t think the notes stop just cause I’m your girlfriend now. Em

#hotchniss #hotchniss smut #hotchniss fanfiction #aaron hotchner x emily prentiss smut #aaron hotchner x emily prentiss #hotch x emily #criminal minds smut #criminal minds fanfiction #aaron x emily #aaron hotchner fanfiction #aaron hotchner smut #emily prentiss fanfiction #emily prentiss smut

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dr-spencer-reids-queen · 1 year ago

Text

Mayhem: Final Part

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Word Count: ~2.3k

Summary: Quickly following the events after the car explosion, you and Hotch are affected in more ways than one.

Warnings: canon violence, canon language, canon talk of death, methods of kill

Author’s Note: I do not own anything from Criminal Minds. All credit goes to their respective owners. If there are any warnings that exceed the normal death/kills from the show, I will list them. If you’ve seen the show, then it’s the same level of angst unless otherwise stated

Hotch peels onto the road and follows the directions all the way to the ER. You look behind you at the man, and he tries his best to keep Kate alive. There is something about him that strikes you as odd, and it comes to you the second he locks eyes with you.

“He’s the second bomber,” you whisper, but no one hears you.

Hotch makes it to the ER, but he gets stopped by some men that are posted outside of it.

“What's this?”

“Secret Service. We're directing all emergencies over to Lenox Hill.”

“I'm SSA Hotchner. I have SSA Joyner on board. She was injured in the bomb blast at Federal Plaza.”

“Credentials?”

“They're in my jacket at Federal Plaza,” Hotch sighs.

“Here, Hotch,” you say and hand over your badge.

After the Secret Service looks at it, he hands it back to you.

“I appreciate that, Agent, but this hospital is on a strict bypass.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means the hospital is closed. We're redirecting all emergencies to Lenox Hill.”

“She's not gonna make it to Lenox Hill!”

“I'm losing her! She's crashing!” the man in the back yells.

The Secret Service man can see Kate isn’t going to make it, so he allows you to pass through. He talks to the other servicemen inside the hospital so they know you need immediate ER help. The stranger is on top of Kate giving her CPR as you and Hotch wheel both of them into the ER entrance.

“What do you have?” the doctor on call says as he and a bunch of nurses come over.

“BP is 50 over 30, and she's bradycardic with severe spinal injury.”

He, Kate, and the other doctors disappear further into the hospital as they work on saving her, and you and Hotch stand in the middle of the ER wondering what to do next. Your vision is more blurry than before, and Hotch seems to have a hard time focusing on his surroundings as well.

The adrenaline that you two had is drained, and now you’re feeling the effect of the blast. Hotch collapses onto the ground, and four nurses help you and Hotch to separate beds to get you checked out.

After seeing the gashing wound on the back of your head, the neurosurgeon on call comes down to get you a head CT that generates immediate results.

“CT came back clean. You have no visible bleeders. Can you follow my finger, please?”

She moves her finger from left to right, and you follow it easily despite it being a bit blurry. She takes out her flashlight and looks into your eyes to make sure there are no effects on your eyes.

“Besides the wound, you look okay. One of our surgical interns is going to clean that wound and give you some stitches. Take it easy and get lots of rest. You’re very lucky.”

“Thank you,” you mutter.

An intern replaces her, and he gets you cleaned up so he can see the wound clearly. He pins your hair back and begins the process of closing your wound. Just then, Derek comes barreling into the hospital after arguing with the Secret Service men outside.

“Doc, how’s Aaron Hotchner and Y/N?” Derek asks, showing his badge to him.

“He’s got acute acoustic trauma in his right ear, and I pulled shrapnel from his leg. Y/N has a head laceration, but her CT came back clean.”

“Derek?” You move the curtain to the side and see your beloved coworker as the intern continues with your stitches. “Where is Spencer? Is he okay?”

“He’s fine. Everyone else is fine.”

Hotch is right next to you, and he shoves the curtain aside when he hears Derek’s voice.

“Morgan, where’s Kate?”

“She’s in surgery.”

“Where are my clothes?”

“Both of your go bags are on their way.”

“What happened to Sam?” you ask him.

“He's dead.”

“Morgan, the profile is all wrong. Everything they’ve done so far has appeared to be something it’s not.”

“They want us to think it’s over with the seemingly random acts of murder, the attempt to hack into our security surveillance systems, and the suicide by cop,” you say. “Don't forget the death card telling us they know we're watching. All of these were distractions. They are tests to record police response times. They’re all setups to make us fear there is a bomber. It’s like they were a sideshow, and the main act will just seem like another bombing when really, it’s been their target all along.”

Just then, the entire team comes rushing in with your and Hotch’s go bags. Spencer pushes to the front and immediately heads to you, and you smile at him. The intern finishes and cleans up his station before leaving.

“I was so worried about you,” he says and brings you into a hug.

“I’m okay, baby. We’re okay.”

Hotch closes the curtain to give himself privacy to change, and Spencer does the same thing for you. You open your go bag and grab the first outfit you see, but pause when you feel yourself swaying.

“Spencer? I need help,” you say in a small voice. Spencer opens the curtain enough for him to pass through it. “I’m too dizzy.”

Spencer helps you out of your hospital gown and into the clothes you chose from your go bag. You steady yourself on his shoulders as he slides your pants on, and you sit down on the hospital bed so he can put your socks and shoes on.

“I was so worried about you,” he sighs.

“I needed to be with Hotch. I couldn't explain it. I’m okay, though. My head CT came back clear. Just a couple of stitches.”

“Still. When I heard…”

“I’m okay. I promise.” He buttons your pants and smoothes out your shirt. “Thank you.”

“Of course,” he smiles and kisses you.

Once you and Hotch are dressed, it’s time to get down to business.

“Are you okay?” Emily asks you and Hotch.

“Yeah. I just want to understand why we’re still alive.”

“I think the idea was to maim, not to kill.”

“Did you identify Sam?” you ask Spencer.

“Garcia put Sam and the other dead unsub into every known database. Nothing.”

“We know how terror cells evolve. They learn from one campaign to the next, and how to stay off the radar like the London bombers,” Rossi states.

“Yeah, but they hit at 8:50 in the morning with a series of coordinated blasts aimed at London's transportation system. This cell targeted a lone SUV where the only people on the street are three federal agents.”

“Garcia said the device was placed under Kate’s SUV.”

“Yeah, I saw it right before the bomb went off.”

“It was likely made using oxidizing agents, including chromates, peroxides, perchlorates, chlorates, and red mercury, all jammed into a device no larger than a cell phone,” Spencer speculates.

“Imagine what a bomb the size of an oil drum could do.”

“Yeah, but to make something that big, you'd need a chemical engineer.”

“Like the recently deceased Dr. Azahari Husin, Asia's most-wanted bomb-maker? Authorities dubbed him the demolition man. He treated each bomb like a work of art. One wrong move, and he becomes a victim of his own creation. He'll be more revered than all of the people who died as a result of his devices.”

The team brought a laptop with them so that they can go over the bombing footage from Kate’s SUV. Emily plays the footage, and you see Sam place the bomb on the underside of the car before you, Hotch, and Kate walked over it. In the video, you yell at Hotch and tackle him to the ground, but the blast has already blown back everyone.

“Did you ever find Sam's cell phone? Did he call 911?” Hotch asks.

“No. He dialed one number six times every few minutes. It was a disposable cell. Garcia tracked the number, but it went dead minutes after Sam died. Whoever had it destroyed it.”

Something clicks in your head about this whole mess.

“All of the other bombings were sideshows. This hospital is the main show. They wanted to test police response times, and they wanted to shut this whole city down because whoever they were targeting is in a hospital that’s supposed to be closed. The Secret Service has someone in this hospital they are targeting, and an ambulance with its sirens on will go through every barricade. The bomb is here somewhere, but how will they get one in?”

“Through the ambulance,” Spencer says.

“Sam was calling the ambulance driver.”

“Who are the Secret Service protecting?” Derek asks.

“I don’t know, but let’s go.”

“God, I knew something was wrong,” you groan and hold your head. “I should have known.”

“This isn’t your fault,” Spencer says to you.

He says it, but you feel like it is. If you had known, then maybe Kate wouldn’t be so injured that she’d need surgery. Regardless, you’re here, and you have to find the bomb before it goes off.

“Who do you have in here?” Derek asks the man in charge.

“Why is that information important to you?”

“Where is the ambulance I drove?” Hotch asks.

“In the basement. Why?”

“There's a bomb in it and it's rigged. It's rigged to assassinate whoever it is you're protecting. You need to get them and everyone else out of here right now.”

“We can't do that. He's undergoing surgery as we speak.”

“Do you have eyes on the paramedic I came in with?” Hotch asks the head of security. The man searches the cameras for the man and sees him heading down to the basement. “Is that a cell phone in his hands?”

“Garcia, can you remotely access the cell phone grid I’m in and jam all the frequencies?” Rossi asks her once he got her on the line. “There's a bomb in the basement of this building.”

Derek can’t sit here and wait for this guy to blow up the building, so he jumps straight into action. He runs away from the team and to the staircase so he can find the bomb and get it out of here. Along with the driver, you can see Derek rushing down the stairs to find him.

“Where the hell is he going?” Emily asks.

“He went to find the bomb.”

“Alone? Let’s head down.

While your team searches the basement, the secret service men are going to canvas the hospital for the ambulance driver. To prevent the driver from knowing where you are, you’re going to take the stairs instead of the elevators.

Once in the basement, you walk alongside your team with your gun out in front of you. This man isn’t going to get away with this. You pass by the elevators and gasp when you see that all of the Secret Service men are dead inside. They took the elevators, and the driver saw this. He waited for them to reach this floor and killed them all.

You push down your feelings and continue on since there is nothing you can do for these men. Derek had gotten here before you, and he got inside the ambulance and raced out of there since there is nothing preventing the driver from setting it off. Penelope can jam the signals but only for so long.

You hope and pray that he will make it to whenever he is going in time because you will not lose someone on your team. The ambulance driver sits on the ground in defeat, checking his phone to see when he can make that call.

As soon as the signal is back online, he makes the call, and you close your eyes hoping that Derek is okay. He drops the phone and looks up at your team with an evil smirk. He has a knife to his throat, and no matter how much you try to convince him to drop it, he is a dead man either way.

“Put it down. It’s over,” Hotch demands.

The man grins and slices his neck. He’d rather be dead than face whatever charges he will get because of it. The cell didn’t get to kill whoever it is they were trying to, so the man was airlifted as soon as he was out of surgery. It sucks but the cell will follow wherever he’s going.

According to Penelope, Derek managed to get the ambulance to Central Park where it exploded. There were no casualties, Sam and the driver died for their cause, the cell will probably stay hidden for a while, and Kate succumbed to her injuries. You tried so hard to keep her alive, but she died soon after you got her medical help.

This entire case was nothing you’ve ever faced before, but now you’ll be better prepared if something like this ever happens again. The doctors refuse to let you and Hotch fly, so you’ll have to drive back down to Quantico. Derek decided to stay behind to drive Hotch, and Spencer stayed behind to drive you. You could take one car, but it’d be nice to have some alone time with him.

“How is your head?” Spencer asks as you two reach the car.

“Fine,” you sigh.

“What’s wrong?”

“There was a reason why I needed to be with Hotch and Kate. I felt like I needed to protect them, and I couldn't even do that.”

“You also got hurt in the process,” he says.

“Hotch and Kate may have died in the explosion if I wasn’t there. It doesn’t matter anyway, Kate’s dead. I should have seen it coming. I did see it coming. I saw Sam put the bomb there, but I was too late.”

“That is not your fault.” He cups your jaw and lifts your head to look into your eyes. “You can’t predict everything.”

“I know,” you whisper.

“Let me take care of you now. Just take it easy until you’re better.”

He leans down and kisses you before helping you into the car. It will be a short physical recovery, but not a short one mentally.

Follow my library blog @aqueenslibrary where I reblog all my stories, so you can put notifications on there without the extra stuff :)

#spencer reid #spencer reid fanfiction #spencer reid fanfic #spencer reid x reader #spencer reid fiction #spencer reid fan fiction #spencer reid fan fic #criminal minds #criminal minds fan fic #criminal minds fan fiction #criminal minds fic #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds fluff #criminal minds angst

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sequinsmile-x · 1 year ago

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Eros

Emily wasn’t surprised that she’d started to sleep with one of her professors, but she was surprised that she’d fallen in love with him.

A Hotchniss AU.

-x-

Hi friends,

It's been a WHILE since I wrote this one but I recently got inspired, and @cloudlessly-light is always telling me we need more Hotchniss smut, so here we are.

Happy Saturday everyone, enjoy the professor hotch smut <3

-x-

Warnings: Smut, 18+

Words: 2.6k

Read over on Ao3, or below the cut

She was mad at him.

She knows it’s unfair, that he hasn’t done anything wrong, but she can’t help it. Through nothing but chance, she’d been in the same building as his office and had spotted him talking to another student, someone Emily knew was called Kate Joyner.

She had stood back and watched as Kate flirted with her boyfriend, her smile wide and her hand on his arm as she laughed at whatever he had said. Aaron was funny, but he wasn’t that funny. It made jealousy burn in her belly, and she left before he saw her.

Later in the day, they’d met in the parking lot as planned, ready to go for dinner, and she’d seen Aaron waiting by his car as she left her last class of the day. She’d walked out with a guy from her class, Andrew, and she could feel Aaron staring at them. His gaze burning into her skin from where he was standing. She hates herself for it, but she feels a sense of pride rush through her at the thought that he is jealous too.

She makes excuses to not go to his after they have dinner together, something she regrets when she gets home. She changes into her pjyamas, made up of a pair of her underwear and one of his shirts, and mopes around her apartment, doing chores she’d neglected for days as she sips a large glass of wine.

She’s just about to call him, to ask him to come over when she hears a knock on her front door. She’d never be able to explain why, but she knows it’s him before she even looks through the peephole. She sighs as she pulls the door open.

She leans against the door, “You have a key-”

He’s on her in a second, his hands on her hips as he pushes her into her apartment, his lips over hers as he cuts her off. He swallows her surprised gasp, and she automatically kisses him back, her fingers tight in his hair, her body responding to him before her brain can catch up with what’s happening. She vaguely hears her front door slamming shut, the pictures on the walls shaking with the force of it, as he leads her further into her apartment. It’s only when her back collides with the kitchen counter that her brain comes back online.

She feels the cool marble countertop through the thin material of the shirt that she’s wearing, his shirt, and the heat of him pressing her to it and the contrast makes her pull away from him, breathless as she sucks in air she grasps his shoulders, unsure even when she’d held onto him that tightly, or when he’d pressed one of his thighs between hers, the rough material of his jeans pressing her underwear against her clit. The sensation makes her clench around nothing, anticipation warming her skin as she looks at him, nothing short of animalistic desire burning in his eyes, his pupils blown so wide she can see herself reflected in them. It makes her feel even more on edge. She can feel a damp spot already appearing on her underwear, the material firmly pressing into her, and she wonders if he can feel it through his jeans.

“Aaron-”

“You’re mine,” he says, growling at her, finally releasing the tension she’d seen in him as they ate dinner, his back straight and his jaw tense as they spoke about their days. She’s sure it should make her angry, the possessive way he says it, the way he holds her even tighter, the material of his shirt that she’d stolen bunched in his hands as he holds her in place, but it doesn’t. She feels her skin get warmer, her body thrumming with it, “Not Andrew Mendoza’s.”

She huffs out a breath, her laugh catching in her chest as his hand sneaks under her shirt, his thumb skimming the underside of her breast, “He’s just a friend.”

If she was honest, he was barely even that. Just a guy from one of her classes whom she’d spoken to a few times as they waited for their professor to arrive. He was nice enough and handsome, and he clearly had a crush on her. She knows he’s someone she’d probably go for if she wasn’t so absolutely in love with the man currently pressing her against her kitchen counter, his jealousy as obvious as his need for her, both of them written all over his face.

“You’re mine,” he repeats, pressing his leg firmer against her, smiling when she moans, her hips rolling against his thigh as she seeks out more pressure. He kisses her fiercely his tongue sweeping through her mouth and then he pulls back. She groans and chases his kiss, her eyes flicking up to his as he looks down at her, his eyebrows raised expectantly. She knows what he wants, want he wants to hear, and she cups his cheek making him look at her. She presses her thumb into his lower lip, enjoying the familiar plushness of it as she smiles at him.

“I’m yours,” she says, her voice thick with want, “I’m all yours.”

He’s on her again, just as much intensity as when he first showed up, his hands on her hips as he lifts her, depositing her onto the kitchen counter. Her heated skin hitting the cool marble makes her hiss and shiver, but she barely has time to think about it as he pushes her thighs apart, his fingers rubbing her through her underwear.

He groans at the damp material against his skin, “So wet for me already sweetheart,” he says, smirking as her hips stutter. He looks at her as she leans back, her palms flat on the kitchen counter. She was breathing heavily, her pale skin flushed pink, the blush disappearing down her chest and beneath the white material of the shirt she was wearing. He never failed to be taken aback by her beauty, by how responsive she was always. He leans in and kisses her throat, trailing his lips down to her chest, nipping at her collarbone with his teeth, smiling against her skin as her breath catches in her chest, “I bet no one else can make you feel like this.”

She gasps, her nails scratching the marble she was sitting on as he pushes her underwear aside, the feel of his skin directly against hers making her moan, “No, no one,” she chokes out, her hands in his hair as she guides him up for a kiss, her whine lost in it as he rubs circles over her clit at the same time, “Just you.”

At first, she was certain that the fire between them, how he’d make her fall apart in a way no one else ever had, how he seemed to just know her body from the start, was just because of the clandestine nature of it all. The fact he was her professor and she his student, all of their encounters in his office, on the same desk he marked her papers. It was only as they carried on, both lost in the incredible sex and the feelings that had grown around it, that she realised it was more than that.

If she was someone else, if she believed in such things, she’d think they were made for each other.

“It’s like you were made all for me,” he mumbles, unknowingly saying what she was thinking, and he kisses her as he presses two fingers into her, groaning as she clenches around him. His hips twitch at the feeling, impatience for the feeling of her wrapped around him flooding his veins. He suddenly feels the desperate need to see more of her, to feel more of her, and uses his spare hand to tug at one side of the shirt she’s wearing, the buttons skipping across the floor as he tears it.

“I liked that shirt,” she breathes out, rolling her hips as he pushes his fingers in and out of her, his thumb relentless against her clit.

“I’ll let you steal another one,” he replies, pressing his lips against her collarbone before he moves downwards, paying special attention to her breasts, licking at her nipple bar, smirking against her skin as she moans, her thighs twitching, “You can have them all.”

“Aaron,” she groans, warmth building in her belly, sparking in her blood as he builds her up, never quite touching her as he knew she needed to be touched, keeping her on the edge. “Please.”

He pulls her in for a kiss, fierce and possessive as he pulls his hand from her, smiling as she groans against him. He steps back and licks her from his fingers, groaning at the taste of her.

“Delicious,” he says, kissing her once more before he steps back, his eyes never leaving hers as he kneels down in front of her, “I think I’ll have some more.”

He dives in, his tongue against her clit. She moans as he pulls her closer, his hands under her thighs as they rest on his shoulders. She forgets about everything else but him, the way makes her feel, and she digs her fingers tight into his hair, holding him in place in case he dares to stop. If she could think of anything else, she’d worry she’d smother him, her thighs clamping around his head as he finally pushes her over the edge. She screams as she comes, half capturing it by placing her hand over her mouth, well aware her neighbours had complained about the noise before.

“Fuck,” she breathes out, watching as he stands up, his eyes darker than ever. She feels nothing short of empowered, even more desire for him overwhelming her, as she watches him wipe his mouth and chin on his shirt sleeve before he undoes his jeans, never stopping looking at her he approaches.

She lifts her hips just enough to take off her underwear, throwing them on the floor before she reaches for his, pulling him in close as she kisses him, tasting herself on his tongue. She reaches between them and pumps him, a punched-out groan his response as he grasps at her hips holding tight. She wraps a leg around him and groans as he pushes forward, the familiar stretch of him stealing the breath from her lungs.

“Mine,” he grunts, punctuating it with a thrust that makes her grasp his shoulders, her nails almost ripping his shirt.

“Yours,” she says in response, clenching around him, turning her head to capture his lips in a kiss. She pulls back just enough to speak again, her breath skipping over his lips, “All yours.”

They work up a familiar rhythm, both of them lost in each other, in the pleasure that was overtaking them. He feels her thighs shake, a sign that she was close again, and he removes a hand from her back to rub her clit, groaning as she gets tighter around him, her breathless moans echoing around them.

“That’s it, sweetheart,” he says, his lips against her ear, making her shiver, “Come for me.”

She comes, hard, her entire body giving out in a way that makes her slump forward, her forehead against his shoulder. He speeds up, his need for her increasing. Despite the fact she's here with him, that she’s wrapped around him in every conceivable way, he feels the spark of jealousy from earlier come back, the thought of another man wanting her making him hold her tighter.

“Fuck, Em,” he grunts out, his hips moving faster, “Fuck you feel so good.”

She wraps her legs tighter around him and lifts her head, her lips against his ear as she whispers, knowing what he needs, “Only you make me feel like this,” she says, hooking her leg higher around his hips, her heel digging into his lower back. The change of angle makes her gasp and she closes her eyes as he places his hand on her thigh, holding it so tightly she knows he’ll leave bruises, “No one else. Just you.”

He growls as he comes and the warmth of it inside of her makes her sigh, seeking him out for a gentle kiss. They share a smile and he kisses her once more before he pulls back just enough to look at her. He suddenly looks sheepish, like a different man to the one who had shown up here and pounced on her.

“I’m sorry,” he says, tucking some of her hair behind her ear.

She breathes out a chuckle, “For what?” She asks, purposely clenching around him, smiling widely when he groans, “From where I’m sitting you have nothing to be sorry for.”

He shakes his head at her lovingly, “For being a jealous idiot. You were just talking to the guy.”

She bites her lower lip and she tilts her head, “Well if this is what just talking to the guy gets me, then maybe I’ll flirt with him next time,” she jokes, laughing again when he frowns, “I’m kidding, baby,” she says, kissing him, “You have nothing to be jealous about. But I get it…it’s hard, having to be… subtle about everything.”

They didn’t keep their relationship a secret anymore, now she was no longer one of his students, but they were careful. Never making it too obvious that they were together on campus. She was looking forward to graduating later this year, partially so the studying was behind her, but also so she no longer had to try and pretend she wasn’t completely in love with him.

Aaron frowns at her, “What do you have to be jealous about?” He asks as he steps back, lamenting the feeling as he slips out of her before he pulls his jeans back up.

“Are you kidding?” She asks, her hands on the kitchen counter as she stands up, smiling at Aaron as he steadies her, his hands on her hips, her legs still unsteady, “You’re the youngest and the hottest professor on campus by far. And you’re nice. And smart,” she scrunches her nose up as he pulls her closer, his hands on her lower back, “You’re a catch and every woman, and several men, on campus know it.”

“I’d never look at someone else, Em,” he says, stamping a kiss to her cheek, “Why would I when I have you?”

She hums, “Kate Joyner was flirting with you earlier,” she says, the words escaping her without her meaning them to, and she shakes her head at herself, “I saw you with her.”

“She come to my office hours,” he says, running his hand up and down her back, “She needed help with a paper.”

Emily scoffs, “Of course she did.”

“Emily-”

“She has a crush on you,” she says, cutting him off, “And I can’t blame her.”

“She’s my student, I’m not going to…” he drifts off and sighs as she raises her eyebrows at him, both of them realising he’s managed to latch onto her biggest insecurity in their relationship without meaning to.

She shrugs, “You have form for sleeping with your students, Aaron,” she says, smiling tightly at him before she looks down at the ground, “There are scratches on your desk that prove it.”

He cups her cheek and makes her look at him, “None of this happened because you were my student. It’s because you’re you,” he stamps a gentle kiss against her lips, “You’re mine.”

She chuckles, nodding, her cheeks warm with love and embarrassment. It feels absurd that he’s able to calm her down so quickly, that he’s able to squash concerns she’s had since the moment they started this, the moment it became clear to her that this had turned into more than sex.

“Yeah,” she says, holding the collar of his shirt as she pulls him in to kiss him again, “And you’re mine.”

-x-

Tag List:

@ssa-sparks, @lukeclvez, @lyds102, @glockleveledatyourcrotch, @hotchnissenthusiast, @danadeservesadrink, @ssamorganhotchner, @emilyprentissisgod, @notagentprentiss, @freesiasandfics, @emilyshotchniss, @thecharmingart, @paulitalblond, @hancydrewfan, @camille093, @whitecrossgirl, @moonlight-2-6, @rawr-jess, @florenceremingtonthethird, @jareauswife, @ms-black-a, @beebeelank, @aubreyprc, @zipzapboingg, @psychopath-at-heart, @criminalmindsgonewrong, @fionaloover, @kinqslcys, @prentissinred, @ccmattis-22, @denvivale317, @thrindis, @hotchsguccitie, @cmfouatslota77, @alexblakegf, @aliensaurusrex, @prentissxhotch, @emobabeyy, @victoiregranger, @stormyweatherth, @wanderingdreamer009, @ssablackbird, @luhwithah, @lex13cm, @prentiss-theorem, @dont-emily-me, @mrs-ssa-hotch, @jocyycreation, @itsmytimetoodream, @hotchnissgroupie, @controversialpooh, @capsshinyshield, @canuck-eh

Join my tag list here!

#aaron hotchner #emily prentiss #aaron hotchner fanfiction #emily prentiss fanfiction #hotchniss fan fic #aaron x emily #hotchniss fanfic #hotchniss fanfiction #aaron hotchner x emily prentiss #hotchniss #Aaron Hotchner Smut #Emily Prentiss Smut #Hotchniss Smut

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ssahotchnerr · 8 months ago

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wip game!!!!

tagged by my sweet @hotchfiles <3333

rules: reveal the titles of the documents in your WIP folder and tag as many people as there are documents. let others ask questions about the ones that interest them and post snippets or explain the contents as you see fit!

(i usually do titles last SO here’s just a brief description of each wip)

- protective!jealous!aaron while on a date night, this one does happen to have a title 🤭 (brad’s back 🤭🤭)

- jealous!aaron dealing with a situation similar to the episode lo-fi (kate joyner) — reader has a close history with an agent this time (who resembles aaron, may i add) and he’s not having it

- jealous!soccer moms 🫢

- aaron and reader get into an argument (kinda heated, while in his office with the audience of the bullpen subtly listening in) and aaron has a particular way of resolving it

- mom!friend reader taking care of the team after a very rough case <3333

i feel like everyone has been tagged at this point, so if you see this and would like to describe your wips, please tag me i wanna see :D

#let’s talk aaron <333333 #i would love to discuss these with y’all so if you have questions or anything PLEASE lmk!!!!!!!!!#or i would love to share snippets if y’all want them :D #aaron hotchner #criminal minds #aaron hotchner x reader

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criminalmindsgonewrong · 2 years ago

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Emily Prentiss is what the FBI like to call a rogue. After having her Supervisory status revoked, she’s offered a job with the BAU, her status back, and a clean slate, an offer that’s impossible to refuse. On her first day, though, she finds she’s already fairly well acquainted with her new boss.

chapter twenty-two: lo-fi wordcount: 6.9k

Read it on: ao3 | fanfiction

JOIN MY TAGLIST

“Aaron,” the British accent that came from her was as annoying as it was endearing. She didn’t call him Hotch, she called him Aaron. And, for some reason, that was almost the worst part. Nobody called him Aaron; Emily only called him Aaron when they were alone, or inside of her own head.

On either side of her, Penelope and JJ glanced across, the three of them sharing a wordless judgement, a promise of a discussion that would take place later, an assessment of what they were witnessing. Penelope looked away, but JJ’s eyes lingered on Emily’s for a moment longer, and she knew Jennifer was checking on her. Still the only member of the team who knew about their affair, JJ was the only one who could possibly assume Emily would feel any sort of way about Kate and Aaron’s interaction. Emily gave the smallest shake of her head, and they both looked forward once more as Aaron introduced them, pasting perfectly polite smiles onto their faces and giving Kate Joyner a nod of acknowledgement. Emily tried not to purse her lips too tightly together. She was secretly pleased to see that Morgan didn’t offer her any sort of smile at all.

Poor Kate had no idea how many members of the BAU already had her card marked for things that were completely out of her control.

taglist: @hopefulfangirl24 @thebewingedjewelcat @platypus-whit-boots @luhwithah @cvtsbutcut3 @acetheticlytired @ccmattis-22 @duchessas @lucreziaq2001 @scorpiofangirl1109 @natasha-barton @lil-koala @themetaphorgirl @sequinsmile-x @emobabeyy @my-mummy-dust @section-chief-prentiss @canyouhearmyfear @psychicmuffinpandasludge @bingetvcarls @loriprentiss

#illicit affairs #criminal minds #criminal minds fanfiction #aaron hotchner #aaron hotchner fanfiction #emily prentiss #emily prentiss fanfiction #hotchniss #hotchniss fanfiction #fanfiction #ia #22 #lo-fi #taglist

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eldrai · 9 months ago

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writing pattern tag game

Rules: List the first line of your last 10 (posted) fics and see if there’s a pattern!

a textbook case

“So,” Derek says, and Aaron has just enough time to pray it’s not about Joyner or the explosion, “why profiling?”

i am not this body that imprisons me

Some days, Spencer starts to hate the team a little bit.

We All Know What We've Done

The moment the blindfolds came off, they were in trouble.

grit your teeth (all you can do)

If there is one thing he remembers the most vividly from his father’s funeral, it is the heat.

until it doesn't hurt

Sometimes the bad days came on slowly.

too much in this world i can't seem to shake

He comes home with stitches and 200mg Zoloft a day.

everybody's scared of something

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

strength in the open

Hospitals are a nightmare.

soft

Aaron's head resting on his shoulder, eyes closed and his face contentedly relaxed, Derek would think he is asleep if not for his hand.

you're one of us [OFMD]

The auxiliary wardrobe is brimming with fabrics of all kinds, soft and velvety and silky and woven, a veritable treasure trove of textures.

I think the conclusion here is i tend towards shorter sentences for starting. Or at least shorter sentences which work better when they're immediately followed my my second sentences lol

Thanks for the tag @domestikhighway58 ! And I think everyone I want to tag has already been tagged by someone else, so anyone who sees this and wants to do it, consider yourself tagged :)

#tag game #writing #honestly the biggest pattern is 90% of my fics being about hotch suffering #which is news to nobody

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boldlyvoid · 1 year ago

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I Know Places: Mayhem

18+ Aaron Hotchner x Fem Reader | Masterlist | AO3 link

Summary: After Aaron is hurt during a terrorism case in New York City, reader is faced with the undeniable truth that she is falling in love with her boss. While ensuring that he doesn't lose his hearing, she nurses him back to health despite her coworkers' knowing looks and comments. Navigating through her crush, knowing he's still in love with his ex-wife is going to be rough.

Warnings: Canon Typical Violence (mentions of rape and murder), hurt/comfort, Drug use tw as well as drug addiction mentions, unrequited love (so she thinks), There's only one bed

Word count: 15,088

From the moment Aaron was served divorce papers in the office, something about him changed. He was angry, which was to be expected. He was unpredictable as if he was ever predictable before… He was hot-headed, willing to jump down someone's throat at the drop of a hat, but he was also quiet. Withdrawn. He looked lonely.

She watched on from the sidelines, she brought him coffee on days where it seemed worse and sometimes even a baked good just to get him to smile. She offered to partner with him at the precincts, share hotel rooms, and drive with him just for the chance to get him to talk.

Keeping it inside wasn’t helping.

And at first, he didn’t say anything. Little by little, as he realized she wasn’t going to share his feelings with everyone on the team, he began to tell her things.

She stayed back to help him with paperwork, he picked her up in the mornings so they could get coffee and treats together, and he even called her on days off just because he wanted to. They’d stay up for hours, in their own beds, sharing little stories about growing up and failed relationships and sometimes they would say absolutely nothing… it was nice just to know the other was there. Her favourite moments, however, were when he’d put on the same show she had on in the background just so they could talk about it.

She went from wishing he had someone to talk to, to being his friend and keeping all his secrets. It was nice…

And then they went to New York.

Kate Joyner, the lead agent on this case, was a spitting image of his ex-wife, Haley. It was almost scary how much they looked alike, and of course, Aaron has known her for years. He met her at Scotland Yard and they “Liaised” whatever the fuck that meant. Everyone was skeptical of her at first, even the beat cops on the task force… for them, it was the way she acted more important than she was, her posh accent and the overall misogyny of hating successful women.

For Y/N, it was the way Aaron looked at her. The way he doted on her and agreed with her every move. The way he’s sticking to her side like a lost puppy and how he doesn’t see anything wrong with his new behaviour.

It was at this moment that she realized her boss wasn’t just her friend. Not even her best friend. She had a crush on him and the mere idea of him liking someone else was sending her into a tizzy.

She found herself agreeing with Derek Morgan more than ever before on this case, not because she knew he was right (he was) but because it meant she could go against Agent Joyner. She was argumentative for a very petty reason, but at the end of the day, Derek was right. Kate was on her high horse, she wanted to stay in the good graces of the FBI and keep her job. And that cost her another life.

This case is unlike anything she’s seen yet. Unlike the others, she hasn’t been on the team long enough to have seen one of everything. Morgan, however, has been. From being a Chicago cop, on the bomb squad and 3rd in command at the BAU, he’s seen almost everything.

When they touched down in NYC, there had been 5 victims already, the local FBI was on the scene as it was protocol, but the BAU was a last-ditch effort to crack this case. Each victim had been shot, point blank in the head and the unsub was able to flee each time without being seen. Those who did get a glimpse only saw a black hoodie. Nothing more. There was nothing to tie the victims together, each killed in a different neighbourhood, no common victimology, no sexual component, no robbery and no geographical connection. It was as if they were random. Like the unsub didn’t care who he killed, he just wanted the thrill of killing.

He’s killing roughly every two days which doesn’t give the investigation team much time to come up with theories or ways to catch him in the act, between kills. The press is having a field day, the civilians of New York are terrified and the police are stumped. It hasn’t been this bad since the Son of Sam in ’76.

When they arrived, Agent Reid was quick to get a geographical profile up and running to asses the unsub's comfort zone. Hells Kitchen, Murray Hill, Lower East Side, Chinatown and East Harlem were all marked on the board. Using anti-geographical profiling, they note that the unsub is organized, he strikes at the same time of day he knows where the cameras are placed and that all means he’s doing his own surveillance. These spots aren’t random. They mean something to him. And because of how calculated he is, they know he’s a need-based killer. He’s killing outside of his comfort zone… meaning every other neighbourhood in the city has a reason to be terrified.

The 6th victim is killed while holding a pretzel, hailing a cab. By the time the public registers that there has been a gunshot and taken cover for themselves, the unsub has faded into the crowd once again. Not before leaving a tarot card, this time.

Death.

It’s the same card the D.C sniper left at the scene of one of his scenes. Either this unsub has no idea its spiritual meaning of rebirth and transformation… or he has a deep understanding of Behavioural Profiling and he’s toying with them. They’re going with the latter theory.

They also brought along their technical analyst this time. Penelope Garcia. She’s been looking over all of the surveillance footage from each crime scene, including the most recent. With her physically there with them, she’s able to run her own software and programming through the old-ass NYPD tech and she’s figured out something huge. There isn’t just 1 unsub. There are two.

They’re not killing together, which is weird. From previous killing teams, they know it’s highly unusual for them to do things apart from one another, which leads them to suspect they might be dealing with a gang. There could be more than 2 unsubs and until they know more, Derek wants them out on the streets so they can be even more hyper-vigilant.

Kate, however, didn’t like that suggestion.

“These guys hit at midday,” he reminded her and ranted until Hotch cut him off. “We could target ingress and egress to particular neighbourhoods, position us near express stops. 14th, 42nd, 59th—

“Morgan, Morgan stop. It’s not your call.”

Instead of taking Morgan's great advice. They went back to their hotels for the night.

Aaron had noticed that Y/N was being strange. He could sense her distaste for Kate and thus, he distanced himself from her for the case. He had his own hotel room, so did their other leader, David Rossi, and almost everyone else shared. Reid went with Morgan and she was supposed to room with JJ, only JJ’s boyfriend showed up… she’s pregnant and he couldn’t stand the thought of not being with her during a case like this.

It just drove home to her even more just how alone she was.

In the morning, Aaron stayed with Kate at the precinct and Y/N huffed about it. Instead, she stuck herself to Spencer’s side as they gave their profile that morning, to the news, the police and the rest of the FBI agents at 26 Federal Plaza.

Just as they finish their talks, the unsub hits their 7th target. At 59th and Lex. Right where Morgan predicted they’d hit next. Thus causing the two men to shout at each other in front of everyone in the building.

“I said to put us at express stops, 14th, 42nd, 59th,” his voice gets louder with each number. “And that’s exactly where they hit!”

“It’s not your place to have this discussion!” Hotch shouts back.

“My place?”

“You need to back off,” Hotch warns.

“We’ve got seven bodies, man!”

“Which is exactly why we need to stay focused.”

“Focused?” Derek all but laughs in his face. He drops his voice, steps in closer to Aaron and looks past him to Kate before continuing. “‘Cause from where I’m standing, all you seem to be focused on is her.”

“Take a walk. Now,” Aaron matches his tone and then turns away from him.

The whole office is quiet. Not a single sound is heard. It was true. Aaron’s been uncharacteristically following this woman’s lead since the moment they got there… even before when he talked her up on the jet over.

Y/N catches his eye, silently relaying that she agrees with Derek… he’s not wrong. Even Hotch knows it.

This 7th kill brings forth the knowledge that there is a 3rd shooter. You see, one of the programs Penelope has takes the height of the unsubs on the camera, across the 7 videos there are 3 different heights. They’re definitely working with a team but not a gang. They haven’t reached out to the police, the media or given any clue as to what their mission is yet, either.

—

The next morning, Y/N is sent out onto the streets, partnered up with one of NYPD’s finest. Detective Cooper. He’s respectful, loyal and kind. They get along like a house on fire. He’s one hell of a flirt, but he doesn’t mean anything he says because he’s happily married. He’s funny, too, making her laugh as they walk through the streets, patrolling 14th Street, downtown and Brooklyn, baby.

There’s a gunshot which makes their heads turn in the direction from which they heard it. It takes seconds for them to start moving towards it, and even quicker for Y/N to press the button inside her jacket sleeve to talk with Penelope in the surveillance booth. “Garcia?”

“I’m on it, I’m on it,” she rushes through the speaker in Y/N’s ear. Searching hundreds of cameras for the unsub. “16th and Broadway! He’s running east on 16th!”

“He’s headed our way,” she says, tapping Cooper's arm and taking off with him down the block.

The unsub sees them and starts running the other way, they both draw their weapons and sprint even faster after him. Cooper is quick on his feet, he must’ve been a runner in his high school days as he’s leaps and bounds in front of her.

The unsub darts down an ally, runs halfway and waits for Cooper to turn the corner and bang. He shoots Cooper in the chest. Having seen it happen, Y/N rounds the corner with her finger on the trigger and pulls it, twice, as soon as her sights are on the unsub. He goes down before he can even get a second shot out.

She takes his weapon from him, makes sure he’s going to stay down and rushes back to Cooper. “Cooper!! Garcia, we’ve got an officer down on 16th west of union square!” She shouts into her mic.

“let me see,” she instructs Cooper to lay back and let her look at the wound. It’s on his left shoulder, bleeding like a son of a bitch. “Okay. You’re okay it’s going to be okay.”

“Garcia, can you see us?” She shouts into the mic again. “We have an officer down!”

She presses down on his wound, “Cooper stays with me, It’s going to be okay.” She assures him. Keeping her eyes on his until they hear sirens approaching. “See, it’s all good, you’re going to be fine.”

The ambulance arrives first, one paramedic attends Cooper, and the other attends the unsub. Not long after, Morgan, Rossi, Reid and JJ are arriving on the scene together. Cooper lost a lot of blood but they think he’ll make it. He’s loaded up and taken to the hospital as a second ambulance arrives purely for the unsub. He’s not going to make it. All the answers to the questions they had, died with him.

“I should’ve had to shoot him,” she says to herself mostly. Trying to rationalize what just happened.

“he shot a cop, Y/N you did what you had to do,” Derek reminds her.

“I know… I just mean, he was ahead of us. He could’ve gotten away but he stopped. He waited for Cooper to round that corner. He shot him on purpose.”

“Tell me about his behaviour, was he panicked? Was he winded?”

“His hands were steady,” she recounts. “His eyes were dead calm. I mean, these guys have been hyper-vigilant. Organized! They do pre-surveillance. I mean, what are the odds they would shoot someone only two blocks from where me and Cooper are standing?”

“You mean he deliberately caught someone where he could be caught?” JJ asks.

“What if he did? What if he chose this spot because we were here?”

“What are you thinking?” Derek asks, wanting to know where she could possibly take this.

“He had no ID on him. He waited until we caught up to him, he was strangely calm, I-I-I, it, it was like suicide by cop!” She sums it all up with a stutter.

“Why? Why would he do that?” Derek asks.

“I don’t know? Maybe to make us think everything was finished?” She hypothesizes. “What if they don’t know we know there are 3 of them and this was their way of getting us to think we did it. We got the bad guy. We can go home now. What if they want us to back down so they can do something worse?”

“We need to go back through the profile and figure out what we missed,” Derek announces, agreeing with her that something is off.

Hotch and Kate show up mere seconds later, dipping under the crime scene tape and rushing over to their little group. Rossi and Reid, who were standing over the body of the unsub, make their way over too. It's a team huddle.

“We think we might have a serious problem,” Rossi announces.

“What is it?” Hotch asks.

“We have multiple unsubs, they’re disciplined, they’re using counter-surveillance. They know the FBI movements, there’s a hierarchy. What does that usually equal?” He poses it back to Hotch.

“Terrorism,” he answers.

They get off the streets then, regrouping back at Federal Plaza to go over the newest findings and re-profile the unsubs. Reid explains that these murders simulate a bombing. They station someone to watch the scene and gauge police response time, at which point they know when to bring in a second bomb. Their ideal situation is to take out a first round of civilians and a second round of first responders. they’ve seen this before, just never like this.

Something bigger is coming. How soon? They don’t know.

“I think they’re targeting points of entry,” reid points out, referring to his map. “Each murder has taken place at a bridge or tunnel.”

Y/N steps up closer to the board. “Holland tunnel, midtown tunnel, Manhattan bridge.”

“If a bomb went off, the emergency response would shut down any ability in or out of the city,” JJ reminds them. “It’s like people would be trapped on the island.”

“Keep in mind it’s still a theory, like any profile,” Aaron says, calming their nerves before they all panic.

Just then, Garcia calls Morgan's phone. “We’ve got a problem. I went ahead and checked all 4,468 cameras and they’ve hacked into the surveillance system. They’ve got footage of every crime scene. They’ve been watching since the beginning.”

“How could we not have caught this?” Hotch asks.

“They were smart. They hacked in one camera at a time, it wasn’t system-wide, I had to check each camera one at a time.”

“And this is from every crime scene?” Y/N asks, making sure she has it right in her mind.

“I’m afraid so… they hacked into 1 camera at every scene. The one with the best angle, we only caught it because Lisa here, my number 2, was checking the days after each murder and noticed the shots were different. The angles changed so minutely that you wouldn’t notice a difference unless you were zoned in on that camera 24/7.”

“Thanks, Garcia,” Derek says. “Call us if you find anything else.”

“So much for theory,” Dave retorts.

“We need to hit the ground running,” Kate stands, visibly anxious about what this means to her job.

She’s so close to being fired and replaced, she’s been warned they want to replace her with Derek Morgan. It’s why the two of them have been butting heads. She wants to get ahead of his before all of New York City is up in flames and her head is on the chopping block.

“Reid,” Hotch calls his attention as they enter the room. “Take Y/N go brief Port Authority police.”

“Yes sir,” they both agree at the same time.

“JJ I want you on the phone running point with the Governor, Dave will you go talk to the commissioner? And Morgan, I want you to brief Homeland Security. Kate and I will meet with the Mayor.”

Everyone starts to get up and get going, “We’ll meet back here as soon as possible. Stay alert, stay vigilant. With them knowing were here, we could become a target.”

She lets Reid drive, throwing him the keys as they walk to the elevators. They’re the first to leave. They make it 6 blocks from the plaza when they hear the news over the radio. 10-80. That’s cop talk for an explosion. They slow down, reid pulls them to the side of the road and they listen closely. “Please note that 10-80 was a car bomb.”

Reid flips on the sirens, all the traffic on the road comes to a halt and he u-turns out of there faster than she’s ever seen him move a vehicle. With their lights and sirens going, they run every red light, they make it back to Federal Plaza and rush up to see the rest of the team. The whole time, she’s on the phone, trying to get at least 1 member of the team but there’s no service. “New York of all places should have service!” She shouts, slamming her flip phone shut again.

“we’re here,” Reid announces, throwing the car in park.

They rush back upstairs, it’s just Rossi that’s left in the building. “A car bomb?” Y/N says as she makes it to Rossi’s side. “Did they say where?”

He shakes his head. “No, and the cell towers are down. This is what we’ve been waiting for. We’re looking at 8 suicide bombers that are about to hit each and every location of the murders. Reid, I need you to make a list and get it to homeland security and quick. Tell them to pour troops into all those sites. This isn’t a false alarm. This is terrorism.”

“Actually, if we’re correct, it’ll be 16 suicide bombers,” he reminds Rossi. “One for the civilians. One for the first responders.”

“Fuck,” Rossi mumbles under his breath. Referring to the TV for a moment as the first news reporters have arrived on the scene.

The woman on screen holds her hand to her ear, listening to what information she has. “I’m hearing that the explosion was a car bomb. The car in question was a black SUV just outside 26 Federal Plaza.”

They all know what that means. Hotch was right.

Rossi presses the quick dial button for the CCTV command post, getting in touch with Penelope as she returns to the computers. “Can you see anything?”

“I literally just sat down sir, give me one moment,” she says as they hear furious typing. “Where am I looking?”

“they said the explosion was a Black SUV just outside Federal Plaza—

“Oh no, you don’t think—

“I need you to look, Penelope,” he pushes her back to the main focus. “Can you see anything yet?”

“Hold on I have 300 camera angles and— have you heard from anyone?”

“I’m here with Reid and Y/L/N, but we haven’t heard from anyone else.”

“Oh no, oh no no no,” she chants to herself as she keeps looking. “Sir, I’ll call you when I know more I cannot multi task like this.”

“Thank you, Garcia.”

Until then they just have to sit and wait… just not in this building.

A Critical incident command centre is set up at 700 Hudson, they’re rushed out of 26 fed, down the back stairwell and out the door. A shuttle bus comes to pick them all up in waves, and a bomb sniffer dog is there too, checking the shuttle busses before they leave, they even check Reid and Y/N’s SUV before they head out themselves. They stare out the windows, trying to get any look they can at the scene but they don’t pass it. They’re completely in the dark as to what is going on.

When they make it to the command centre, JJ is pulling up right behind them.

“oh my god, JJ,” Y/N wraps her up in a hug. “Have you heard from the others?”

“My phone isn’t working,” she complains. “Come on, let's head inside. I’m sure there’s a news helicopter out by now and live footage from the scene.”

Upstairs, the phone is ringing like crazy, Dave rushes to it and hits the speaker. “Hello?”

“Rossi, open the computer I have live footage from the blast!”

At the same moment, Y/N turns on the TV then to see helicopter live footage of the scene. It shows Aaron and Kates SUV in flames, Kate on the ground and Aaron covered in blood hovering over him.

She almost loses her mind thinking he’s hurt. She starts to leave, grabbing her things and searching for the keys in Reid's bag but it’s not there. “What are you doing?” He stops her.

“Aar—Hotch, he—he needs us? Shouldn’t we go to him?”

“We profiled that the first attack was to garner a response from the police, if the police and ambulance show up there will be a second bomb taking out all the first responders, we can’t go,” he reminds her.

“But he’s hurt and bleeding? Shouldn’t someone go to him? Let me go to him!”

“Y/N… we can’t,” Spencer looks her dead in the eyes, all the compassion in his soul seeping out through his own, he knows why she wants to run to him. But he can’t let her.

“Hey, hey look,” JJ calls their attention back to the TV to show Derek running up to him. “Look, Dereks there, he’s going to help him until we know it’s safe to bring in the emergency services.”

She quickly makes her way back to the TV, watching with a hand over her mouth, she’s beyond worried. Anxious doesn’t even begin to cover the sinking feeling in her chest. Kate’s dying. He has to watch a second woman who looks like his wife leave him in just a few short months. This is going to kill him if another bomb doesn’t.

Penelope has eyes on the crime scene, she calls both JJ and Derek, allowing the team to have some form of communication altogether. She goes back on the security footage, and she notices the bomber place the bomb and sit around and watch it go off… and then he returns to the scene.

He was the same kid currently “helping” Hotch.

He even called 911 for him… the next thing they see on the TV is Derek take off after the unsub and a single ambulance pulls onto the scene.

“Can I go now?” Y/N asks the rest of them.

“Yeah, you can” Rossi agrees. “Penelope you find out what hospital they’re going to through the dispatch system and Y/L/N’ll meet them there.”

“Got it, sir… but I’m not seeing anyone dispatched to Hotch’s location?” She explains. “There’s a strict order not to go… they must’ve gone of their own volition.”

“Okay… can you follow the ambulance on the cameras?” JJ suggests, “Find out what way they’re going and cross that with the nearest hospital.”

“I can do that,” she says, furiously typing away. “Yeah, I can do that…. Okay, they’re headed uptown…”

She wants to run. She feels like she could chase down the ambulance and meet Aaron there in a matter of seconds, that’s how much adrenaline is rushing through her veins.

“Saint Barclays!” Penelope shouts once she has it. “Go, go now!”

“Spence, keys!” Y/N shouts to him and he throws the keys her way. She catches them and then she’s off. She doesn’t even take the elevator, she runs down 6 flights of stairs, pushes open the fire exit doors and books it for their SUV.

Once inside she has the car on, her seatbelt fastened and her lights and sirens on. She speeds down the street, whipping the SUV around corners, she haphazardly comes to a halt in the emergency parking lot and throws the car in park. She leaves her door open and runs inside the emergency room.

She stops the first nurse she sees, “Hi, hi, I’m looking for agent Hotchner? He just came in he— oh my god,” she notices him. “Is he okay?”

“So far we’ve diagnosed him with acute acoustic trauma in his right ear and the doctor is working on pulling shrapnel from his left leg. But he’s going to be okay. He passed out shortly after arriving, my guess is that the adrenaline didn’t allow him to realize how hurt he was and so the blood loss and the equilibrium challenges from his ear injury all caught up to him all at once.”

“Okay,” she calms down a bit. “And the agent he brought in?”

“She’s in surgery,” the nurse explains. A solum look on her face. This won’t end well.

“Can I sit in there with him?” She asks, pointing to Aaron’s little corner of the ER.

She shakes her head, “Not until the doctor is done. When he wakes up he might be a little scared and confused, I wouldn’t want you getting hurt as well.”

“Okay…” she understands, so she waits there, resting against the nurses station and watching over him from afar.

Morgan comes rushing in not long after. She’s too busy listening to him talk to the nurses to notice that Aaron is up, he’s confused and yelling from his ear injury. He rips off his vital cords, and there’s an elongated beep ringing through the ER as the nurses try to get him to sit down.

“Agent Hotchner—

“Aaron,” she cuts the doctor off and rushes in front of him. Places her hands on his chest and looks up into his eyes, “Hey, it’s okay. You’re okay. Calm down… you’re at the hospital. Kate is in surgery, Derek is here too.”

“I need my clothes,” he says in a softer tone. “Where are my clothes?”

“We’ll get you your go bag, just calm down a second,” she ushers him back to his bed and makes him sit down.

“Has anything happened since the bomb went off?” He asks, looking past her to Derek.

He shakes his head. “No.”

“And Sam?” He asks.

“He’s dead.”

That must be the kid who detonated the bomb and stayed back to pretend to help… he just wanted to see the results of his destruction.

“The team needs to be here, we need to discuss this together… I don’t understand why they’d just set off one bomb and in a place none of the other attacks happened?” He says, trying his best to rationalize it but he can’t figure it out.

“I’ll call the others… Y/N?”

“I’ve got him,” she smiles over to Derek. “Go.”

She turns back to Aaron with a small smile, she looks to his ear which is packed with cotton and the dried blood that dripped down his neck. “Excuse me?” She grabs the attention of one of the nurses. “Can I have some antibacterial wipes, I just want to clean the blood off him?”

“Sure,” the nurse says before disappearing for a moment. “Here,” she hands her a few things to get him all cleaned up.

“Thank you,” she smiles.

“Thanks,” Aaron adds. Feeling sorry for reacting the way he did moments ago. “You don’t have—

“Well, I’m going to,” she cuts him off. She peels open one of the little packets and unfolds the wet wipe inside of it. “I’m sorry if this stings at all.”

She wipes the blood off his ear and neck, she tilts his head back a bit and she starts on the marks on his forehead and cheeks, her heart aches for him. He reaches out and holds her around her hips, letting his shoulders drop as he relaxes a bit… and then he rests his head against her chest and hugs her.

She rubs his back, “You’re okay…” She rests her cheek on the top of his head for a moment. Resisting the urge to kiss his head, instead, she waits for him to pull back and then she smiles at him. “I’m so glad you’re okay. I don’t know who I’d talk to anymore if I lose you.”

“You’d need something a lot stronger than a bomb to get rid of me,” he teases, finding his humour again.

She manages to laugh. “Okay, big guy, I’m glad to see your humour is still intact… how’s your leg?”

He looks down at it, his hospital gown rests at his thigh, and he can see the bandages on his calf. “Okay, I didn’t realize I hurt it?”

“Shrapnel,” she explains. “They got it all.”

“That’s good.”

Derek comes back around the corner then. “The teams on the… way? You two wanna tell me something?” He teases.

“Oh hush,” Y/N waves him off. “I’d worry if it was you or Reid or JJ too.”

“Not Rossi?”

“He barely ever steps into the way of danger,” she reminds them. “He’s too old for this shit.”

She takes a step back from Aaron, his hands fall back to rest on his own legs, and he sighs. “Any news?”

Derek shakes his head. “None. Homeland security is about to call everyone off, they think this was all a false alarm.”

“They’d be stupid to do that,” Aaron remarks.

“I know… it doesn’t make any sense?”

“Who did that Sam kid keep calling? Garcia said that there weren’t any ambulances dispatched to his area, how’d they know to get there?” Y/N asks.

“I don’t know… let me call Garcia,” Derek suggested, stepping out of the room again.

“The hospital's on a bypass,” Aaron looks up at her with horrified eyes. “The secret service is here, they didn’t want to let us in but… oh, god, I drove the bomb right in here.”

“We don’t know that,” she tries to push his worries away.

“We do. We do know that. They knew we’d catch on to them, they knew we’d stop all first responders from actually responding or run the risk of having the first wave taken out as well. This was their way to get to a presidential target.”

The team comes rushing in then, JJ has his go bag in her hands, “are you okay?”

“I’m fine, I’ll change, Y/N tell them what I told you,” he orders, ushering her out of the room and closing the curtain on himself so he can change.

She repeats Aaron's thoughts, and Derek supports his theory by explaining that Sam never called 911. He called the same number 9 times, a disposable phone, that was destroyed around the same time Sam died. They planned this. This is their end game. They had to get moving.

Derek, JJ and Rossi head down to the garage while Y/N Hotch and Reid head up to the operating floor to warn the secret service. The hospital begins evacuations, Derek finds a bomb in the ambulance and Penelope puts a jammer on the cell phone signal so it can’t go off while they think of the next steps… then Derek gets the brave idea to drive the ambulance out of there, towards a clearing, all by himself.

It’s stupid, it’s reckless… but it works.

They find the unsub, the paramedic that Hotch drove in with, sitting down in the ambulance bay, knife to his throat and phone detonator in his hand. He’s waiting for a reconnection. One that will come in 10 seconds. But they’re already onto him… he has no choice but to end his life or go to prison. So he picks up a blade and slits his own throat.

The case ends with 8 dead civilians, an injured cop, 3 dead suspects and the death of Kate Joyner.

Aaron leaves with a broken heart and ringing in his ear that doesn’t seem to be stopping any time soon.

The majority of the team heads home. JJ leaves as soon as she can, newly pregnant and with the love of her life. Derek, Reid and Rossi all head back in the bureaus jet… Y/N offers to drive Aaron home. The pressure in the air would hurt him in her flight and taking the train home alone would be sad, so she drives him.

They drive in silence most of the way. He has a few naps, waking up only to drink some water and take more medicine. She expected to be bored, but keeping him safe, making sure he gets home okay, that’s more than worth it.

—

Back at Quantico, Aaron’s placed on a medical leave of absence while he recovers from his ear injury. He’s not happy about it. Not at all. He isn’t allowed to join them on cases, and he’s not even supposed to come into the office until he has a doctor sign off that he’s good to go back into the field… but that doesn’t stop him.

He needs something to do. He’s so bored in his bland little apartment that he comes into the office just to hang out with Anderson and help with paperwork.

He has a couple MRI’s lined up in a week to check the damage to his ear, it still hasn’t stopped ringing which he doesn’t quite mind… it’s the pain that bothers him. He’s been given a prescription for T3s, which worry Y/N just a little. They worry Reid a lot.

Everyone in the office stays up to date with Hotch’s condition, they all talk about it like he’s their father in a nursing home, prescribed something new. It’s sweet how much they care, but Aaron hates being doted on. He hates that people see him as weak even if it’s just for a little while. It sucks not being the leader they’ve come to know and love. But the thing about love is that it doesn’t stop once you get hurt, it just gets bigger.

They’re talking on the phone again too, he holds the receiver to his good ear and he turns on subtitles for their shows so he can still follow along. Every now and then he has her repeat something, and he scolds himself, saying he feels like he’s 85 and senile but she loves it.

“Hey, it just means you actually care about what I have to say.”

“I do care,” he reminds her. “And I appreciate how much you care about me too… I almost forgot what it’s like to have someone care about me so much.”

“Has she reached out at all since the accident?” She pries.

“She brought Jack over the other day for a few hours, he just wanted to cuddle and show me his toys which was nice… Haley sat in the corner and read a magazine the whole time. She didn’t even ask about it.”

“I’m sorry, Aaron,” her heart breaks for him. She knew that the divorce wasn’t his idea, not even the slightest… he still loved her. He probably always would.

He brushes it off, asking her about their latest case instead. She told him everything, from the time they gathered in the briefing room until the flight back home, she recounted it all. He just hummed along, letting her know he was following, he didn’t ask many questions, seemingly because he knew if he just listened longer they’d be answered.

It becomes a habit after that. He calls at the end of a case just to ask her how it went. He knew he could read about it in the paperwork later, but it was more rewarding this way.

He has 1 week left until his ear is healed completely, he’s convinced the doctor to let him go back to work if he takes it easy, which means once they get back from their current case, he’ll be back out there.

He calls her at 11pm Virginia time, knowing she’s just an hour behind him in Illinois. They’re done with the case but staying 1 more night just to sleep it off. He expects her to be in her own hotel room, away from the others, able to take his call… she isn’t. She’s sharing with JJ.

She sees his name on her caller ID and takes her phone with her to the door, “I’m just going to take this I’ll be right back,” she assures JJ.

“Do you have your room key cause I don’t want to get up and let you back in, I’m exhausted,” JJ asks.

“Yeah, yeah I do,” she rushes out as she leaves the room. “Hello?”

“Hey, sorry were you asleep?”

“No, I’m sharing with JJ tonight, we were talking,” she shares.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry, how are you? How’s the ear?”

“Good… I can go back to work tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” She repeats, concerned as all hell. “Aaron, you still have a tear in your ear, if you’re not careful you’ll lose hearing forever. It’s not a joke. Don’t you want to be able to hear? We can catch a few more bad guys without you. It’s okay?”

“I need to come back to work before I lose my mind,” he responds with a bit of an attitude. “If I have to sit in my tiny ass apartment and stare at these white walls any longer, I will go crazy.”

“I rather you mad than deaf,” she explains, trying to keep herself together. “If you come back to work you’re taking it easy. I’m going to stick to your side like glue, you hear me? I’m not letting this get worse.”

“Fine, mom,” he teases her. “Whatever you wish.”

“I thought you liked that I cared?” She teases back. “You’re my best friend, who else am I going to talk to if you can’t hear me?”

“You can’t get rid of me that easy,” he assures her. “It’ll be fine.”

—

The Angel Maker case is one she studied at the academy. Victims were beaten with the assailants' bare hands until they were dead. Post-mortem stab wounds were found in each victim's torso, made by a screwdriver, each victim's wounds in a different pattern. Some with more holes than the others, as if he was experiencing different amounts of rage with each woman. There were also signs of sexual assault. He completely abused these poor women after death. It was a good thing they caught him.

He died a year ago yesterday, by lethal injection at the prison in Lower Cannon, Ohio. They thought they were done with him as soon as he was lowered into the ground…

Their newest victim, Delilah Grennan, was bludgeoned to death with what is assumed to be a hammer. She too, was stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver. She was also raped. Only the weird part was the semen left at the crime belonged to Cortland Bryce Ryan. The Angel Maker himself.

“So this unsub is a weaker guy?” Derek proposes. “Or at least someone who perceives themself as weak?”

“He brought along the hammer to make sure the job was done,” Y/N adds, staring across the table at Aaron, watching him blink slowly. He’s in pain as if someone smacked him upside the head with a hammer and he’s keeping it to himself.

She almost misses Rossi’s hilarious joke about the elephant in the room… the dead man's seamen at the crime scene, that elephant, all because she’s staring at Hotch. “It’s obvious someone planted the DNA at the scene,” Aaron adds, his voice small yet powerful at the same time.

“In the victim…” Derek reminds him.

“That’s one theory,” Spencer mumbles.

“There's another theory?” JJ asks, leaning over the back of his seat, wondering what’s going on inside that genius head of his.

“Think about who shares the exact DNA profile as another person,” he hypothesizes.

“Reid, you’re not seriously floating around the idea of an evil twin?” Morgan groans, knowing Reid all too well.

“No, I’m not. I’m floating around the idea of an Eviler Twin,” he raises his brows, proud of himself for that one. No one else finds it funny. “Traditionally the concept is a good twin and an evil twin. But in this case, it’s evil twin, Eviler twin.” He says it with more suspense this time.

No one says anything. Y/N just shakes her head, trying not to smile cause it was funny… and then Aaron grips his forehead and hunches forward, something is making his head hurt.

“JJ get him some water,” Y/N suggests right away, keeping her voice down. “Hey, where are your pills?”

He points to his bag over on the other side of the aisle and she’s quick to pull his bag over and start looking for them. She takes two from the little orange medication bottle and slides them across the table just as JJ brings him a glass of water.

“Were you actually cleared to fly?” Morgan asks in a similarly low tone.

Aaron swallows down his medicine and nods, he doesn’t say anything, he just rests his head back against the headrest and keeps his eyes closed. Everyone turns to Y/N instead, asking questions with their eyes. She shrugs, she doesn’t know what to say. Other than she knew this would happen.

—

It happens again when they’re digging up the original unsubs grave. The sound of the metal grinding as the front-end loader hauls the coffin out of the dirt, it’s way too loud for Aaron. He covers both of his ears and starts walking away, cowering from it all. She pats Reid's shoulder so he stays there and watches everything go down with the Sheriff and then she follows Hotch through the cemetery towards a tree that he’s leaned himself against.

She carefully runs her hand over his side, inside his suit jacket, “hey,” she whispers, getting him to look at her. He’s almost crying with how bad it hurts.

“Don’t look at me like that,” he whispers back.

“How am I supposed to look at you?” She argues, raising her voice a little. “You said you were cleared for duty. This isn’t what being cleared looks like. You’re going to go deaf if you don’t take it easy.”

“I’m going to go deaf if you keep yelling at me like I’m 4,” he spits back. Reaching into his pocket for more pills, she takes the bottle from him.

“Uh-uh, no. You had two 3 hours ago. It’s not time for more. Stop putting yourself in harm's way and relying on these,” she scolds him. She steps in even closer to him so it’s just them to hear. “I care about you. I’m not letting you ruin your life because you can’t find the patience to actually heal properly.”

She has her finger pressed into his chest as she stares him down, asserting her own dominance over him. “I’ll be administering these to you from here on out, got it?”

He nods. “Yes ma’am.”

“Good, now the noise has stopped over there, go look in the casket and then I’m driving us back to the precinct,” she says as she steps away from him and marches away.

Reid and the sheriff were the first to see that the casket was empty. Someone stole his body and god knows how long ago. Aaron takes once glance at the empty box and heads back towards the SUV, getting in the passenger side with a huff.

“What’s going on with him?”

“He’s not better. He wasn’t cleared because he’s healed. He was cleared because he’s a sweet talker and the doctor believed his bullshit,” she rants. “He’s taking his meds like candy, he’s not taking care of himself… so I let him have it. I’m going to drive us back, I’m administering his meds from now on. He’s going to actually heal whether he likes it or not.”

Reid follows her to the car, and as soon as they’re out of earshot of the local cops, he asks it. The question she’s been dreading hearing.

“You love him, don’t you?”

“What?” She turns to him with a faux look of confusion. “I mean, yeah? We all do. He’s our boss?”

“No. If this was just you protecting a co-worker, you would’ve done the same thing for me after Tobias Hankel…”

“Spencer,” her heart breaks for him. “I wanted to help you, we all did, but we didn’t know how.”

“You just did to him what you should’ve done for me,” he almost cries. “You should’ve reached into my bag and taken the drugs away from me… but you didn’t. Because I’m just a co-worker to you. Admit it. You love him.”

“I can’t,” she gives in. “He still loves Haley. I’ll never be her.”

“No, you can’t… but maybe he doesn’t want you to be,” Reid simplifies it. “maybe he needs you to be everything she wasn’t.”

“I don’t know,” she sighs, “but we’ve gotta go… I’m sorry, by the way.”

“It’s okay,” he places his hand on her arm and they keep walking. “I’m not jealous or anything, I just sometimes get mad that it happened to me at all.”

“You can talk to me about it whenever,” she makes sure he knows that. “I’m always here for you.”

“Thanks,” he smiles at her, knowing she means it.

—

Turns out, they had difficulties putting Ryan to death. The whole town had a conspiracy that he never actually died… so finding his empty casket rocked the whole police station. Even in his last words, he said he’d come back to life to finish what he started. Putting the town at ease was their number one priority, aside from catching the new killer. Because a town in panic causes more crime, and more death than a single killer could even imagine.

Hotch proposes that the person who took Ryan's body is the same person doing these copycat killings. They had to’ve had help from inside the prison… probably the same person who was getting all his memorabilia and… fluids, out of the prison.

Yesterday, before they found the empty grave, Derek interviewed a guard at the prison, Guard Rutledge. Weird guy. Sketchy, Derek called him.

So, what are the odds that when Garcia— the ever-incredible computer genius who leaves no stone unturned— searches the web for Angel Maker memorabilia, the most common seller is a man by the name of Sid Rutledge? Slim pickings, but of course, our girl Garcia figured him out.

Morgan is tasked with repaying Rutledge another visit, this time, at his house. He takes Y/N along with him for backup and the two of them make it to his house just after nightfall.

They knock on his door, making their presence known, “Sid!! FBI Open up… come on, man, I just want to talk.”

She peers through his windows, there’s no movement in the main room and all his lights are still on. “I’m not seeing anything?”

Derek twists the doorknob, testing if he can get in before he breaks a door down (he’s good at that) and the door pushes wide open.

“That’s weird,” Y/N remarks. “Guys got two deadbolts and doesn’t bother to lock either?”

“Sid?” Derek calls out once more, unholstering his weapon and raising it. “Sid, we’re coming in.”

Y/N follows his lead, holding her weapon, her finger on the safety, she doubts she’ll have to use it but just in case… they search around his main living room, clear the kitchen and then head off towards the bedroom, down the hall. From the doorway Derek can see the man’s feet, he’s laying in bed.

“Wakey-wakey, my man,” he shouts as he pops into the room and finds something they didn’t expect.

Rutledge, laying in his bed with his pants off, in just his shirt and boxers, dead. Shot in the head and in the groin.

“That’s personal,” Derek says under his breath.

They put their guns away, Y/N pulls rubber gloves out of her back pocket and starts to put them on. In her other back pocket, a wad of evidence bags.

“Well yeah, he was selling the unsub memorabilia… Rutledge knew his face.”

“Now the unsub’s covering his tracks,” Derek says with a sigh. Putting his own gloves on before taking out his cell phone. “Hey, Hotch… we’re gonna need crime scene and the coroner at Rutledge's place… yeah. Shot twice, I’d say he’s been dead for at least an hour, maybe two. Yeah. See you back at the precinct soon. Bye.”

“You think he contacted the unsub after you visited him at the prison? Maybe he wanted them to get their stories straight?”

“That or he threatened him… he might’ve wanted the glory of catching a killer?” Derek proposes.

She looks around his room for a moment, nothing sticks out, so she heads to the bathroom. “God, it stinks in here… muggy and thick, too much old spice.”

“Really? He strikes me as an aqua velva kinda guy,” Derek teases.

In the bathroom, what does she find on the first shelf? That exact cologne. “you're good!”

“I’ve been at this longer than you, kid,” he teases. “Anything good in there?”

On the counter, there’s a bottle of pills. She suspects antidepressants or even allergy meds, nope. She reads the bottle and laughs, “No shit… Viagra.”

She makes her way back out into the room and holds the bottle up, “I think we’ve got this unsub all wrong.”

“Why?”

“He was taking Viagra. You only leave the door open and take this when you’re expecting someone. There doesn’t look to be a struggle in here either, his pants came off willingly… either Sid’s gay or our unsub is a woman.”

They bring their findings back to the police station, most of the crew has gone home for the night and the minimal, small-town, night shift has clocked on. Y/N and Derek walk in on JJ and Reid sitting together at the table, Hotch pouring himself more coffee and Dave on the phone in the back room.

“we’ve got news,” Derek announces.

“He was taking Viagra,” Y/N places the evidence bag on the table. “I sent the crime scene photos we took to the computer, you’ll see on there that there wasn’t a struggle. He was shot in the head and in the junk… he was expecting the unsub for sex.”

“I knew it!” Reid lets out a cheer, almost too loud for their little bubble. “When you were gone I was suggesting that. There’s an abnormally high amount of female fans of serial killers, the way they love these killers is fascinating, there are endless lengths that these women will go to, to feel closer to the killers. Buying his sperm, continuing his killings… to a psychopath, in her mind, doing those things would bring her closer to him. A woman in love, no matter how her brain works, would do anything for the man she loves.”

Y/N just looks at reid with wide eyes, feeling called out in a sense. Of course, he’d come to that conclusion after their talk and what he’s seen. She just hopes Aaron doesn’t realize it too. She’s not ready to lose a friend because of her stupid crush on him.

—

On their 3rd day in Ohio, they finally give the profile. They fill the cops in on their theory and in doing so, they calm the nerves of the town thinking a ghost is on the loose, killing these women. It takes up an hour of their morning, they answer every question available and then start narrowing down suspects.

JJ gets a list of women who visited Ryan in prison before he was put to death and Reid goes back through his fan mail to ascertain a pattern that would lead them to the unsub. Alongside that list of women who visited Ryan, they also found out that Sid Rutledge worked at a woman’s prison. He had a history of smuggling things in and out for sexual favours. Ie. they found the reason why he was shot in the dick.

They have two main suspect pools, insane fans and wronged women. Finding the cross over… that would be where the unsub is.

Y/N and Rossi are sent out on the road, their job is to interview the woman who visited Rutledge and wrote him. Most of them were crazy, basically harmless and not worth the time. Their last interview of the day, however, she— she was different.

Shara Carlino, she visited the angel maker 70 times and even bought herself a home overlooking the prison. She’s quite beautiful, you’d never know she’s fucked in the head… within those 70 visits, she was subject to their rigorous strip searches and 3-hour wait times just to see him for 10 minutes.

“That’s Two hundred and 10 hours of waiting and just 11 hours of face-to-face time with the love of her life?” Y/N does the quick math in her head and then shakes it.

“Would you endure that for a man?” Rossi teases.

“No… I’m more into catching the killers than fucking them.”

“Amen, sister,” Rossi jokes, knocking on Shara’s door.

“Hello?” She answers, just as pretty as her photo. Red hair, pleasant smile. She’s dressed up like she’s ready to go out… “can I help you?”

They hold their badges up, “Hi, yes, we’re with the FBI we’re looking into the recent copycat murders and we’d like to speak to you about Cortland Ryan.”

She invites them in, and offers them tea or coffee but neither of them takes a cup. They sit down at her kitchen table and Y/N opens a file. “According to the logs, you were the angel maker's number one fan?”

“His name was Cortland and I wasn’t a fan,” she spits back. Sensitive as ever.

“How would you categorize your relationship?” Y/N asks.

“We were lovers.”

“Last time I checked, they didn’t allow conjugal visits on death row?” Rossi makes a joke out of her comment.

“It wasn’t about physical interaction. When you take away the flesh, all that’s left is the soul,” she says with a mystical expression. Truly believing the words that leave her mouth. “Everything was understood between us. We had no secrets. Cortland made me feel alive in a way no free man ever could.”

Gross, she thinks… but pushes it away to ask her most pressing question: “Where were you on the 16th of this month?”

“Why?”

“We have reason to believe that this copycat killing was done by one of his female fans,” Rossi explains. “Someone who knew Cortland very well.”

“I was out of town with the company I work for, ask anyone there,” she states her alibi and stands by it, visibly hurt by the fact anyone else could be close to Ryan.

“Do you know another woman—

“there were no others,” she cuts Rossi off. Sure of herself.

“I can show you logs and fan mail,” Y/N starts sifting through her evidence folder. “I have photocopies of the letters, women who sent Cortland their photos and even their panties…”

“They didn’t mean anything to him.”

“But… whatever connection you had with Cortland died with him,” Y/N looks at her through her lashes, faking sympathy and driving the wedge in deeper. “Not the copycats. She believes that every time she kills for him, every time she repeats his ritual, their connection gets stronger and will keep getting stronger until she completes his mission.”

“That is of course, unless you help us stop her,” Rossi adds.

That breaks her. she’s visibly distraught by the thought that someone is closer to him than she was. They see it in her eyes that the psychopathic logic makes sense to her… “there was something… he sent me a letter a few months before his— his passing. I knew it wasn’t meant for me. It was addressed to “my dove.” He never called me that.”

“Do you have the letter?” Y/N asks, so close to the finish line she could taste it.

“No. I burned it.”

“Did the text reveal anything about the woman?” Rossi asks.

“The text was a joke,” she spits back. “Usually his prose was beautiful, seamless.. as if he didn’t even have to try. But this— this letter was pedestrian. Crude.”

“You never asked him who this Dove was?” Y/N pries further.

She shakes her head, staying quiet in her hurt.

“I thought there were no secrets between you?”

She laughs, looking Y/N up and down, “You’ve never been in love, have you.”

Y/N smirks, wanting to laugh at the assumption because oh, if she only knew…

Back in the car, she scribbles down some thoughts as Rossi drives. It’s quiet, the radio is on volume 4 and they barely hear it over the sound of their tires bumping down the old, crumbling paved road of this small town. She shakes her head, thinking to herself, how was it that Reid, someone who’s never had a deeply romantic love in his life could guess her feelings so fast and this woman, this deeply troubled yet deeply in love woman couldn’t see it.

She would go to the ends of the earth for Aaron. She’d kill for him if she had to. She wanted to cradle his head and kiss his hair, she wanted to make him lunches for work and dinner when they got home. She would have his babies for crying out—

“oh my god,” she speaks into the silence of their car. “Why else would she buy the sperm if not to just plant it at the scenes?”

“Cause she’s insane?” Rossi laughs.

“She wants his babies!” She makes herself more clear. “She wanted to make a mini Cortland… holy shit.”

She picks up her phone and calls Garcia, “Hey, weird question but are you able to access all obstetrics and gynecology records in this country, by any chance?”

“I can, why?” She asks.

“I think the unsub might’ve tried to get pregnant with the unsubs sperm… she might’ve had checkups, gone to the hospital because of a loss or even had the baby and it died, can you run all the records and cross it with women who visited Cortland and or went to the prison that Rutledge worked at?”

“I sure can try,” Penelope assures. “I’ll call you when I know more.”

—

On the morning of their 4th day, they have another victim. Same bludgeoned skull, same rape, same torso wounds. The house is just like the others too. No sign of forced entry and every single window in the joint was opened too.

Y/N, Hotch and Derek head to the crime scene, Reid, Rossi and JJ stay behind to look through the fan mail a 3rd time with their eyes open for “dove.”

Once the coroner is done with the body, they head back to see her for themselves. With her gloves on, Y/N moves the woman's shirt up to see her torso marks. She was the only one to see the first victim when they arrived, she knew of the findings and how there was paper in the wounds… she takes out her notepad and starts to draw out the marks, ripping off the page to then hold it over her.

“Aaron,” she calls him back over. “Look, Ryan knew what he was doing, he had it all memorized when he made his marks, this unsub needs a stencil, that’s why they found paper in the wounds of the first vic… and I think I know what they’re trying to make out.”

She takes out her phone again, calls Reid and puts him on speaker, “hey, whatcha got?” He answers.

“I think the unsubs were marking out constellations on the victim's stomach… but I don’t think it’s the zodiac?”

“I just found a secret code inside all the letters to Dove that I’m trying to crack… you know, there is a dove constellation, it’s part of the heavenly waters?”

“Reid,” Hotch makes his presence known. “Can you have JJ pull the images of every single victim, this case and the original, and match them to the constellations in that family?”

“I sure can… you know, it also makes sense why all the windows are open at the crime scenes now, he wanted their souls to escape back to heaven, he was quite literally making angels,” Reid explains.

“Sick… well, we’ll be back at the precinct in 30, nice work,” Y/N smiles as she hangs up.

—

When they arrive, JJ has all the torso pictures on the board with printed-off photos of the constellations. “There are 9 main constellations,” she explains once they’re close enough. “Ryan did 6 and our unsub has done two more, the only one she hasn’t done is the dove… either we’ll have a new body tonight or she’s going to do it to herself.”

“So she knew about the real meaning of the stomach marks but we didn’t?” Derek can’t believe it.

“They were a lot closer than we realized,” Rossi adds.

“More than that,” Reid pipes up, scribbling on his own whiteboard. “They were in love.”

“You cracked it already?” Y/N can’t believe it. It’s been not even an hour since their phone call.

He nods, “I profiled the author, Cortland Ryan. He was on death row with several high-ranking members of the Aryan brotherhood… either they taught it to him or he read a lot of 16th-century literature. The Aryans like to use a cypher based on a 400-year-old code written by Sir Francis Bacon…”

“So it’s a binary code,” Derek says with a sigh, always amazed at how Spencer’s mind works.

“Bacon used a 21-letter alphabet, this one is 24. Each letter is assigned a string of 5 binary digits. This combination yields 32 possible encodings. Normally, you’d use a computer to run all these combinations but it was quicker just to do it long-hand until I found the right one.”

Y/N wraps her arms around him and holds him close, “Oh, I love your brain, you beautiful genius, you!”

He blushes, and wiggles out of her grip, making his way to the table with all the letters. “Thanks… now, we don’t have a complete record of their correspondence, but I was able to make a chronology. The woman he calls “Dove” established contact right after the trial.

They all read through the letters, disgusted by what these two people called love. “Ew, okay here she said ‘Take heart, my love. I will bring a part of you back into this world… you will watch over us from the stars.’ Us. she was definitely pregnant when she wrote that.”

“Agent Hotchner!” The sheriff comes running to the room. “We just got reports of a woman attacked in her home by a female assailant.”

“Y/N, we’ll head to the scene, you 4, call Penelope, and tell her to make it her priority to cross-reference birth records with the women on our lists!” He calls as they all head towards the door. “I don’t care if you have to physically head to the local hospital and read through records and interview staff, I want a name!”

She follows Aaron out of the station and he searches his pockets for his keys, “you can drive, right?” She asks.

He nods, “I haven’t had any medicine at all today. I’m feeling better…”

“Okay, good,” she gets into the passenger seat beside him.

They buckle up their seatbelts and Aaron places his hand on her headrest, looking behind them, “Hold on.” He backs up and spins the SUV around, following the sheriff to the scene in his police cruiser.

Reckless driving shouldn’t be so hot… but she swoons anyway.

When they get to the scene of the crime, it’s so totally different from what they’ve seen 2 times before. The assailant pretended to break down and walked up to the victim in her driveway, asked to call a towing service and they tried to attack the victim. She screamed for help so loud the rest of the neighbourhood heard it, left their homes and beat the assailant into submission, subduing her until police could come make an arrest.

“Are you kidding me?” Y/N can’t believe who she sees in the back seat of the police cruiser… “That’s Shara. Shara Carlino. Rossi and I interviewed her the other day. Her alibi is solid.” She walks over to the cruiser and opens the door, Hotch in tow behind her. “What the hell, Shara?”

“It worked for her, why couldn’t it work for me!” She cries, bloody and bruised.

Y/N just shakes her head, “Because he’s dead. He’s a psychopath who never fucking loved you, he never could. You ruined your life for him, and for what? You don’t even look that good in orange.” She slams the door closed and scoffs. “And she accused me of never having been in love before.”

“Have you?” Aaron asks.

She wasn’t expecting that, she stands a little taller and shrugs, “I mean… yeah? Once or twice.”

“Third times the charm,” he teases, patting her shoulder and then walking back towards the SUV. They weren’t needed here.

—

They’re all sitting at the table when Penelope calls again.

“So there were 463 children born in Lower Cannon between 2006 and 2008,” Garcia recounts over the phone. “If you want me to find baby angel maker, I’m gonna have to narrow this down.”

“I have a letter here, there’s a quote from Cortland that says, ‘I knew even before you told me that the future had taken root,’” Y/N reads. “That must mean she did get pregnant… that letter was written January 7th, 2007.”

“Cool so fast forward 9 months—

“Ten, actually,” JJ corrects her. “There are 40 weeks of pregnancy, so it’s actually closer to 10 months.”

“Seriously?” Penelope had no idea.

“it was news to me too,” JJ rolls her eyes. “I’m going to be pregnant almost all year.”

“Damn, well, with that new math… I’m looking at August to September 2007… single mothers only, cause you know, you don’t want to brag— oh your baby daddies a 3rd-grade teacher? Mine likes to poke people in the tummy with tools… I have 9 names.”

They all laugh at Penelope's strange sense of humour. “Cross-reference them with women from the female Prison Rutledge was at,” Derek suggests.

“Chloe Kelcher,” Penelope announces.

“Wait,” Reid stands up and starts looking through his papers. He pulls a file from a box and places a piece of paper on the table. “She was on the jury…”

“She was exposed to the case evidence,” Derek adds. “That’s how she knew about the stomach wounds.”

“She fell in love with him sitting across from him in the courtroom,” Hotch says with a shake of his head. “She heard everything, she saw what he was capable of, and she wanted him anyway.”

“What happened to the baby, Garcia?” Y/N asks.

“He died at the hospital—

“Microvesicular Steatosis,” Reid finishes. “Microvesicular steatosis is characterized by small intracytoplasmic fat vacuoles— liposomes— which accumulate within hepatocytes. Most common causes are tetracyclines- or acute fatty liver of pregnancy, Reye's syndrome, and hepatitis C.”

“Okay… so the only way to stay close to him after the death of both him and her baby, was to keep killing. Two questions, how did she pick her victims and how do we figure out the last one before it’s too late?” Hotch asks.

“Look at the type of women she was killing, as opposed to Ryan going after women who sexually excited him, she needed a way to get close to them. Delilah made jewelry and sold it from her home, Maxine ran a daycare out of her house. This would give Chloe an opportunity to make an appointment with them and gain access to their homes… and then she could go to the bathroom, crack a window and hope it was still open when she returned in the middle of the night,” Y/N proposes.

“Okay, let’s get suited up, Garcia, send us her address and search her internet history, see if she’s booked a time to meet with anyone today,” Hotch orders and then hangs up the phone.

At her house, she’s nowhere to be found. What they do find, however, is a kid's bedroom covered in glow-in-the-dark stars and the decomposing body of Cortland Ryan in a treasure box near what would’ve been her baby crib. It’s disgusting… they call the coroner to pick him up and keep searching the house.

The Sheriff finds her Filofax filled with dates off appointments and people she knows… she had visits with both Delilah and Maxine the day before their murders, but no tools. No Rape kit, either.

“She had an appointment this morning,” Dave announces, reading the book back. “Faye Landreaux, 126 North Red—

“Red River Drive,” The Sheriff finishes the address off. “She’s a CPA, she does my taxes.”

“Does she work out of her house?” Aaron asks.

“Yep.”

“Let’s go.”

—

At the scene, they find Chloe’s car parked on the road. The windows are closed, that’s a good sign that nothing has happened yet… but they need a plan. They need a way to make sure this ends without another death.

It was Y/N’s job to draw the suspect's attention away from her next victim, speaking to her through a bullhorn while Derek snuck into the house and got the victim to safety. She makes Aaron stand away from the bullhorn, his good ear closest to her so that she doesn’t ruin his hearing further as she talks the suspect away from the bedroom.

She taunts her, reading letters Cortland wrote to other women, making her question the love they had for one another. “He wasn’t capable of loving you. He was a narcissist, Chloe. He was lying to you. He wrote countless women the same words.”

Reid quickly recalls the letters from memory, rushing the words down on paper and holding them up to her.

“Possessions matter not to a condemned man but I cannot leave this world without seeing your face one last time,” Y/N reads over the bullhorn. “It isn’t your fault that he made you feel these things, trust me. It isn’t your fault your baby died.

Just then, Derek returns with the victim. While what Y/N was saying made her upset, losing a victim just made her furious.

It was her last chance to complete the love of her life mission and be joined together forever in the afterlife… another crazy conclusion made in the mind of a psychopath.

“It’s over Chloe, we have Faye,” she says through the bullhorn. They hear her destroying things inside, so she adds. “You have nowhere to go.”

“I think we have some teargas ready to go,” the sheriff adds.

“We’re not going to need it, she doesn’t have any place to go,” Aaron assures him.

“Maybe she’ll do us all a favour and put herself down?” He suggests.

“No, she won’t do that either. She’s not done,” Aaron knows her too well.

After a few moments of silence, Chloe starts to come out of the house. Everyone draws their weapons and points them at her as she wields a small revolver. Rossi asks her to put it down but she doesn’t back away.

“Go stand back there,” Y/N suggests to Aaron, motioning behind the car with her head while she keeps her gun locked on Chloe. “If we shoot you’re going to be in pain again, go. Now, Aaron.”

Surprisingly, he listens. He makes his way away from them just in time for Chloe to raise her weapon and the sheriff pulls the trigger, knocking her to the ground. He and Y/N rush to Chloe, taking her weapon from her before they check on her… she’s gone. This is what she wanted. It’s then that Y/N notices what she’s done. Made herself the last victim, completing what the angel maker set out to do a decade ago.

She really was his dove.

When she looks back, Aaron is holding his head and leaning forward, even at a distance it still made his ear ring. She walks over to him and holsters her gun, “you okay?”

“I’m good, I’m good… thank you for making me move,” he says in a hushed tone.

“You’re welcome,” she says but she doesn’t feel good about it. He’s still hurting. He was going to keep hurting until he was fully healed.

—

They spend the night in a hotel, partnered off to save money when they know the price of keeping the jet in a hangar for another night is already ridiculous.

Rossi pays for his own room on nights like this, leaving 1 person lucky enough to also have their own room… so they give it to JJ. Now that she’s pregnant she deserves something nice.

Derek is with Reid, leaving Y/N with Hotch. The way she wanted it.

They change separately in the bathroom, he goes first and then they switch. By the time she’s done and coming back out, Aaron is sitting in his bed, reading through a case file.

She puts her bag down by her bed and takes a chance. She sits on the edge of Aaron's bed and he looks at her softly, smiles even, “Thank you for being hard on me this week.”

“I was just about to apologize,” she admits. “I don’t like raising my voice at you, but someone has to take care of you.”

“You were right, though… I wasn’t fully cleared, I lied and said I’d stick to light duty but I threw myself into this case thinking it would be fine.”

“I know,” she sympathizes with him. “You’re going through a lot. Your job is really all you have left and when you can’t go to work, what else are you going to do?”

“Go crazy,” he laughs. “I’m not going to fly home tomorrow. I’m going to drive back.”

“That’s a long drive, like 7 hours back to Quantico?” She worries. “Do you want me to come with you?”

“No, no… not unless you want to?” He looks at her with puppy dog eyes. He’d never ask, but he’d let her if it was her idea.

“We can make it a whole thing, I mean tomorrow is Friday, we have the weekend off, we don’t need to be back in Virginia till Monday,” she suggests. “We could have some fun?”

“That sounds nice,” he agrees. “Would it… would it be weird to hug you?”

“Not at all,” she doesn’t mind in the slightest, she simply moves in closer and opens her arms.

She holds him there, resting her chin on his shoulder, she closes her eyes and makes it last. He’s so warm, his strong arms feel so comforting and he smells good, too. It’s perfect. She didn’t realize how badly she craved his touch until he was pulling away and it felt like it was over too soon.

“Any time you need a hug, let me know,” she offers. Leaving it at that.

—

They take the long way home.

It only takes an hour for them to get out of Ohio, they make it to West Virginia around lunchtime and pick a random small town to go get some food. The diner they pick is so cute, old-time-y and pink, the waitresses are on rollerblades, it feels like they’ve been sent back in time.

They go further back in time, however, when they decide to stop at the little antique shop just down the road.

Most of the stuff is junk… that’s to be expected. But there’s a box near the counter, “photos ¢25 each” and they’re almost all in black and white, some sepia and faded, but all old. That’s for sure.

She digs through the pile while Aaron looks around at a few things and she finds a few that just break her heart. A 30’s bride, smiling wide with the biggest bouquet of flowers she’s ever seen, just excited to marry the love of her life… and a couple sitting on the porch of their first house, he has his arm around her and she’s got her hands on her pregnant belly. they’re starting a life together. There are school photos and family pictures, all worn with time and left to collect dust in someone else’s shop.

The saying is “A picture is worth a thousand words” but each photo here is worth a thousand years. Most of the people in these photos are dead now, their love only exists here, in this shop, in her hands. These people who fell in love and lived to the best of their abilities and died surrounded by family, they had no idea where these photos would end up… so she buys a bunch of them, to keep their memories alive longer.

One of them she buys not just for that reason… but because the couple in the photo looks a little bit like her and Aaron. Part of her thinks that she was always meant to find these, Aaron was meant to get hurt, they were meant to go on this drive and her photos were supposed to come back to her. Her whole heart is so sure that she’s loved Aaron before, that she’ll love him again too, she’ll love him in every lifetime until the world dies too.

She keeps the photos that she wants to buy in her hands as she makes her way around the store. Aaron’s in the back, looking through stacks of old newspapers and letters. He looks up at her and smiles, “look at this,” he hands her a handful of letters. “These are from 1944, a couple sent them back and forth to each other during the war… look how in love they were.”

She reads through the letter with tears in her eyes. Stories of this couple's missed anniversary, their oldest child was starting to learn how to play baseball, their youngest had just started to walk… she ends every letter the same. “I pray to god every night you make it home to me, I know he’s working on it for us.”

She holds her hand over her heart and tries so hard not to let out the sob, “Oh my god?”

“I know,” he smiles, glossy-eyed and blushing. “What did you find?”

“Photos,” she hands them to him. “Doesn’t this guy look like you?”

“Oh, wow…” he honestly can’t believe it. He runs his pointer finger over the woman who looks like her and his shoulders drop. “I guess we’ve been here before.”

“I think we have,” she agrees. “How weird is it that out of all the places we could’ve gone, out of everything that could’ve ever happened, you got hurt just in time for us to have to drive through West Virginia?”

He shrugs, “I don’t know… you know my mother's family used to live here in 1745, they were coal miners.”

“So you might actually be related to this guy?” She holds the picture up again.

He nods, “that or I’m a vampire,” he jokes. “I’ve been living here for hundreds of years.”

She shoves him, “You’re so funny.”

They wander around some more, Aaron finds a painting he likes and she picks up a cute set of dishware and when they go up to pay, the owner smiles at them. “Together or separate?”

“Together,” Aaron answers over Y/N saying “separate.”

“You don’t have to,” she worries but he takes the plates and her photos from her hands and puts them on the counter.

“I want to,” he assures her with a smug smile.

“First date?” The lady asks, so sure she’s got it right.

They shake their heads, “Co-workers, we had some business to attend in Ohio and thought we’d take the long way home…”

“Oh,” she smiles to herself, knowing there’s something else there… she can feel it. “Well, I’m glad you stopped here, these things were in need of a nice home to go back to.”

“Aaron here has a new apartment that is very boring,” Y/N teases. “This painting will be perfect for the wall in his kitchen.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Aaron muses.

She gives them a total, Aaron pays in cash and she wishes them well on their journey home. “I hope to see you back here one day.”

“Us too,” Y/N answers, giving her a smile and a wave.

—

They keep driving east, thinking they could probably make it back to D.C. around 3 in the morning if they didn’t stop. Instead, they pick out a cute little bed & breakfast with the hopes of staying there for the night.

The little bell on the door rings as Aaron holds it open for her, there’s a little old lady sitting behind the counter crocheting, she looks up when she hears the noise. “Oh, hold on, my daughter just ran to the back to get more receipt paper, she’ll check you in in a moment.” She has a posh English accent and a sweet smile.

“Thank you,” Aaron gives her a smile back.

They don’t have to wait long, a middle-aged woman comes out from the back room and stops dead in her tracks when she sees there are people. “Oh, I’m sorry to keep you waiting, did you have a reservation?”

“No, we’re just driving though and wondered if you have a couple rooms we could book?” Aaron asks.

She clicks her tongue off the roof of her mouth, “Uh… oh, no, we only have 1 room left—

“Does it happen to have two beds?” Y/N cuts her off, scared to have to share.

“No, I’m sorry, we have just the one queen left,” she explains. “I can call the inn 30 miles down the way and see if they have two rooms left?”

“No, no it’s okay,” Y/N brushes it off, “I don’t mind sharing…”

“As long as you’re okay with it,” Aaron agrees.

“We’ll take it,” Y/N decides, giving the lady a soft smile.

As the woman starts to write up their receipt and mark her books that the room is taken, Y/N asks about breakfast. “What time is breakfast tomorrow?”

“We can bring it to your room between 7 and 11,” the elderly lady explains, going into detail about the meal options they have.

“You’re in room 6,” she explains, “it’s going to be $173 for the one night and the breakfast in the morning…”

Y/N beats him to the punch this time, taking her credit card out and setting it on the table, “you bought everything earlier, it’s my turn.”

“Fine,” Aaron lets her do it. “But I’m getting lunch or dinner tomorrow.”

“You can try,” she teases, punching in her information and running her card through the machine.

“And I just need you to both sign the guest book,” the keeper explains, pushing the book toward them. “You know, in case you go missing and the police need to recount your steps,” she says with a laugh. Thinking it could never happen.

“We are the police,” Y/N teases.

“FBI actually,” Aaron adds. “It’s a good thing you keep these, I can’t tell you how many times we’ve reached a dead end because people don’t update their books.”

“Oh, well, thank you,” the woman stands a bit taller, feeling proud of her little business.

They get their key after that, they head back to the car to get their bags and head to their room… they’re quiet at first. She heads into the bathroom to change and hype herself up for what’s about to happen. She has to share a bed with the love of her life knowing he doesn’t feel the same about her. She doesn’t know if he’s going to make a pillow wall between them or sleep with his own blanket so they don’t have to touch. She’s so nervous she doesn’t know what to do.

She slips into her work pyjamas, just a simple pair of shorts and an old college t-shirt, she brushes her teeth and adds a bit more deodorant because the last thing she wants is for him to not like her AND think she smells.

She’s honestly just a ball of anxiety.

When she comes out, he’s already changed. In his boxers and a white shirt, sitting on top of the covers with his phone pressed to his good ear. It’s barely 8pm, she can tell by the smile on his face that he called Jack.

“I love you too, buddy, have a good sleep,” he says with a whispered tone. “Bye.”

She puts her bag down by the night table on what will be her side of the bed tonight. “How is he?”

“He’s good… He’s starting school next week. I can’t believe how big he’s getting,” he explains, shaking his head. He hates that he’s missing it too.

She takes a seat on the bed, facing him, her one leg curled under the other, “are you going to drop him off?”

He nods, “I’m going to try my best to be there that first morning, I want to get some pictures of him walking in and wearing his big backpack.”

“That’s going to be so cute,” she swoons. “Oh, I wish I could see it.”

“Come with me?” He asks, “I can pick you up on the way to work, you’re close to his new school anyway.”

“That wouldn’t be weird?”

He shakes his head, “No… I mean, Haley might even have her new boyfriend there.”

“You’re kidding?”

He shrugs, “At this point, I wouldn’t be surprised.”

Her heart breaks for him. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be, I mean, it happens. Not many kids who meet in high school stay married for life,” he rationalizes it. “And the ones who do aren’t happy about it.”

“Still, I hate knowing she hurt you,” Y/N sympathizes. “You’re a good man. You shouldn’t have to choose between your job and your family. She knew this was your job when she got pregnant. I don’t know what she was expecting.”

“Me either,” he sighs, he puts his phone on the night table and leans back against the pillows. “Can I have some more medicine now?”

She laughs, he sounds like a kid when he asks. “Yeah, let me get it.”

She grabs a complimentary bottle of water off the dresser and gets his pills from her purse, she hands him two and watches him take them. “You know why I stepped in, right?”

He nods, taking both his pills before he speaks again. “I appreciate it, too. I wasn’t using them as instructed, it could’ve gotten bad.”

“We almost lost Spencer and no one stepped in,” she whispers, ashamed that they all knew and did nothing. “I couldn’t let that happen to you.”

He puts the bottle of water back down on his night table he takes her hand and pulls her closer and wraps her up in a hug, resting his chin on her shoulder. “I appreciate you more than you know.”

She hugs him back, her second hug in 2 days. She closes her eyes and bathes in his strength, “you’re my best friend.”

“You’re mine,” he assures her. “Come get in bed?” He asks as she pulls back.

“Okay,” she nods, walking around to her side, he scoots under the covers and she pulls the covers down to get in herself. The lights are still on, but they lay on their sides and face each other, “this isn’t weird?”

He shakes his head, “I don’t think so… do you?”

“If I cuddle you in the middle of the night I’m sorry,” she says, feeling a bashful wave fills her cheeks with heat.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had someone to cuddle into… If anything, I just do it due to muscle memory,” he admits. “I’ll move away if—

“No, no you don’t have to,” she cuts him off. “Honestly, I might be nice?”

“Yeah,” he agrees, smiling softly.

He’s smiled so much today that it makes her heart so happy.

She nervously moves in closer to him, he lays back against the pillow and she cuddles into his side. He rests his arm on her back, she keeps her hand on his stomach and he holds it with his free hand. “I’ve had a lot of fun today.”

“Me too,” she swoons. She settles against him, she expected him to be hard… he looks so big and strong she didn’t expect him to be so soft and cuddly.

She could get used to this. However, this is not her life. Playing pretend is fun for a while but sooner or later she’s going to have to wake up and face the consequences. He doesn’t love her back, he simply misses having a wife.

She can play that role. She’s just not ready for the director to yell cut.

General Taglist

@ncsls0515 @stevesmunsons @reidsbookclub @sweetyyhippyy @manuosorioh @mrs-dr-reid @k-k0129 @squishyturtle @katsukis1wife @babybisexual @marsmunson86 @buckleyhans

IKP taglist

@southernraven @alluringshawn @lambsheepsheeping @lmg-stilinski24 @louderfortheback @deludedfruitcake

#aaron hotchner #aaron hotch hotchner #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotch x you #hotch smut #hotch x reader #criminal minds smut #criminal minds imagine

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