#oh wow you have time to write prompts but not HFWG?

[maybe-itll-be-someday]

From the prompt list - General 7.

Seems peak Hotchniss let’s be honest.

For you, my dear friend.  Prompts are from this list - if anyone would want to send me more! 

“Is that blood?” “Yes but that doesn’t matter right now, what does matter is-” “You are literally bleeding.”

Words: 800

Prentiss has always been relentless. 

Aaron has always admired that about her; the sheer bravery that she seemed to own in spades, hands steady and eyes unblinking as her fingers flexed over the trigger of her gun, analyzing crime scenes with an objectivity that was hard to teach. She pursued leads with an unwavering belief that every lead she had was worth looking into - even when those leads ended up with them getting lost in the woods attempting to look for a cabin that housed years of transgressions against the women of Ohio. 

His feet are already aching, the long miles trudging up to the peak of some mountain he’s already forgotten the name of taking a toll on his already exhausted state. He regrets not bringing proper boots, instead trudging up almost four miles in an old pair of sneakers he had the foresight to bring because he thought he might have time to go for a run. 

If only they had taken the compass, like Dave insisted, but the park ranger had clearly said if they had just followed the trail that it was a little less than a mile. 

But Prentiss had insisted on taking the lead, and he let her because it was her lead, but now he’s pretty sure they had gone in circles. 

They definitely should’ve taken the compass. 

“Prentiss?” He calls out, when he realizes that Emily is nowhere in his line of sight. There’s nothing but a flash of silence that causes his throat to seize. The unsub was still out there, his identity only partially built but they only had a rough profile and absolutely no clue if this was even the mountain that his cabin was in. 

She’s a grown woman and a good agent, he reminds himself, but he picks up his pace and follows down the corridor of tall trees that she had disappeared down only minutes before. 

“Prentiss?” He calls again, his heart pounding with a ferocity that he’s unsure if it’s attributed to all the hiking they had done or the fact that Prentiss had disappeared into the woods without backup and a serial killer of women who looked similar to her was still lurking somewhere. They didn’t have reception since they lost it a mile back, so calling for help wouldn’t be possible. 

What if the unsub had taken her, and they were still lost in these fucking woods...

“Hotch! I think I found it.” She startles him when she emerges from behind a dense gathering of thick pine trees. His eyes immediately catch the streak of red that’s dripping down her arm, from a large gash that peeks out from underneath the tight-fitting shirt that she had worn today. 

The one that had grabbed his attention instantly when she walked into the precinct this morning. A dark blue shirt that highlighted her curves, tight in a way that made him clear his throat and divert his attention immediately when she strolls up to him, asking for an update on patrols from the night before. 

It also grabbed the attention of pretty much every cop within a twenty feet vicinity of her and he thinks he feels something akin to jealousy when the lead detective appraised her with wanton eyes. 

“You’re bleeding.” Hotch says, pointing out the trail of blood that seeped at the edge of her short sleeves. She barely glances at it, barely acknowledges that the gash that looked like it would probably need stitches. 

“Yes but that doesn’t matter right now, what does matter is-”

“You’re literally bleeding.” He says, already looking behind him and trying to figure out which way they came from and how to get down this godforsaken mountain. But she just has her hands on her hips, her eyes narrowed in a look that he’s seen before. It was the same fiery look she gave him when he contested her being hired into the BAU - an unwavering commitment towards what she believed in and he would be annoyed if he wasn’t in awe of her. 

She definitely wasn’t coming down the mountain with him until they found the cabin. 

“I found the cabin.” She huffs, wiping the blood on her arm with the back of her hand and Aaron has half a mind to create a tourniquet with his belt to stop the bleeding but he had a feeling she would punch him if he tried. “I’m not going to die from a superficial cut on my arm.” 

“You look like you had a knife fight with the unsub.” 

“Well, luckily for you, it was only a poorly placed branch that I got in the way of.” She stalks off in the direction she came from, ignoring his pointed looks at her wound. 

He thumbs the wedding ring on his left hand, the secret of his crumbling marriage heavy on his finger as he follows her towards the cabin. 

Maybe one day, he’d learn to be as relentless as she was.