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hotchnisslvr · 5 days

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for her, i’d endure

pairing: emily prentiss x reader

rating: t

word count: 7.6k

genre: angst, hurt/comfort

warnings: torture, descriptions of blood/injuries, drugs

summary: When you and Emily are kidnapped by The Chameleon, an elusive unsub that team had been tracking for years, you’re forced to watch her endure torture at his hands. In the hospital, you reel from your own injuries and the guilt of not being able to stop anything from happening to her. Angst and hurt/comfort with a happy end.

It’s hard to keep them open from the pain it causes you to try. You can’t help the slow drowsy blinking that follows. If they’re closed it doesn’t hurt as bad. Maybe this is a dream. Yeah, a dream. Just close your eyes and go to sleep, you tell yourself. You’ll feel fine in the morning.

Someone harshly whispers your name. You stir, but ignore it. Closing your eyes, you murmur something that isn’t quite a response, and try to welcome the darkness to take over. You just want to sleep whatever this is off…you try to at least. The harsh rasping whisper returns. There’s your name two, three times.

“Huh?” is all you can muster as you crack your eyes open once more. There’s a fluorescent light somewhere to your left, casting strange shadows over your field of vision. Your eyes burn. You want to close them again.

“Yes, that’s it!” cries the whisperer, “stay with me!” There’s an urgency in their voice, and as you take a few measured breaths, you gain more and more control over your senses. “Are you hurt?”

Emily. That’s Emily’s voice.

“My head,” you complain about the throbbing in your temples. “I think I hit my head.” You move to touch the side of your skull to assess the damage when your wrists don’t follow through with the command from your brain.

“What the—” There’s a sudden clarity that takes over as you hear the clatter of metal against metal. Your wrists are bound behind your back. You kick your legs out, or at least you try to. They’re bound too with zip ties to the legs of a metal chair that’s bolted to the floor.

“Don’t panic.”

“Emily?”

Fingers brush against yours from behind your back and you cling to them, though it’s awkward as you try to reach them. You’d know the feel of her hands anywhere. He’s got you and her back to back.

“I’m here,” she says soothingly, despite the edge in her voice.

“What happened?” you ask as your field of vision begins to clear and the picture of where you’re being held begins to form. It's dark save the fluorescent light you noticed earlier. There’s a few panels in the ceiling still flickering to life, though most are dark. Wires and cables hang haphazardly from the ceiling and water drips from a cracked pipe that stretches over the width of the room. The floor beneath your feet is concrete. You can’t see a door and the only windows are two small rectangles high near the ceiling. You’re underground. “Where are we?”

“The Chameleon,” Emily says after a short while.

Your heart skips a beat and you have to take a few measured breaths to keep the panic from creeping in. “You’re sure?”

The Chameleon, nicknamed such by the local media, is a serial killer that you and the team had been chasing across the East Coast for the last two years.You and the team didn’t care much for these nicknames as they often sensationalize the killer and detract from the victims, but it the name was fitting due to his nature to blend in to every environment he’s been a part of. This is largely due to how he is able to gain his victims' trust. Some of his known ruses include posing as law enforcement, a member of the clergy, other first responders, caretaker for a “lost” elderly patient, and more. He’d feign a scenario that caused the victims to unlock their doors, stop their cars, or otherwise pull their focus under the guise of safety. Once their guard was down, that was all he needed to ensnare them in his trap. Victims were initially blitz attacked, as evident by the bruising to their heads and faces, but as he evolved he began to dose them with heavy sedatives before taking them to a secondary location where he’d hold them for twenty four hours. During this time, he tortured his victims indiscriminately; sometimes cutting, sometimes burning, sometimes removing pieces of them or utilizing a combination of all three before ultimately succumbing to his need to kill. He favored a knife, often slitting the throats of his victims once he’d grown tired of playing with them. Despite his ability to blend in and kidnap his victims undetected, everything else originally pointed to someone just starting out, unsure of their preferences. However, this unsub evolved quickly. Victimology stopped differing and he’d settled on a pattern for women in their thirties, dark features, and often in roles that provided some sort of power. Though methods of torture varied, the rotation or combination of torture implicated states similar enough to create a pattern. He stuck to the routine, though. One woman every three months for the last two years. That was until recently. Now, a woman had been going missing weekly, suggesting a major deviation. Something had changed for this unsub, increasing his need to kill quicker and more often. Emily fits the victimology, but taking you too? It didn’t make sense? He’d never taken in pairs before.

“Fuck,” you mutter. You pull at the cuffs around your wrists, but they’re clamped too tightly. They don’t budge. “How long was I out?” you ask.

“Hours,” Emily responds. She sounds tired. “I don’t know how many.”

You blindly reach for her fingers again, this time with your other hand. When you brush against them, they’re slick with something.

“Emily?” you ask, concern edging into your voice. “What’s he done to you?”

“Cutting,” Emily answers clinically. “Left arm, chest, and right leg. They’re superficial.”

Red clouds your vision knowing he’d hurt the woman you love, and that you’d not been conscious enough to at least try to do anything about it. When you get your hands around this bastard’s neck…you yank hard against your restraints and hiss when all it does is cause the metal to dig deeper into your wrists.

“Baby, stop,” Emily whispers, keeping her voice low in case The Chameleon can hear. “We’ve been closing in on this guy. We just have to hope the team recognizes we’re gone before…” her voice trails off as a door opens.

Your heart stops and then starts, it’s usually steady beat now pumping erratically against your chest. You remind yourself to breathe, to take measured breaths to slow your heart and fight off the instinct to panic. The body’s natural inclination for self-preservation is astounding, but you couldn’t just think about yourself right now. You needed to be alert and look for anyway to wriggle into this guy’s psyche, anything to keep him from hurting Emily any further.

There’s a metallic clank as whatever door that’s out of your eye line slams shut. Heavy footsteps echo in the space and you count. Twenty four. There’s twenty four steps. You can’t fight the way your body tenses as a silhouette begins to emerge from the shadows. As the figure comes into focus, your eyes widen in surprise.

“Surprised to see me?” the man says, a twisted smile curving on his

“You know him?” Emily asks as she attempts to crane her neck to look at him.

You take in the man before you: white, mid-30s, average build, dark curly hair, and blue eyes wild with evil intent. You don’t know his name, but you've seen him before. You all had. Your mind flashes to each body dump where the team had investigated and gathered initial evidence to further flesh out the profile. You close your eyes and let your mind’s eye expand your field of vision to include the gathering crowd of onlookers. As you mentally guide yourself through each crime scene, you can clearly see him.

“You were there the whole time,” you say with a surprisingly level of calm as you open your eyes and meet his gaze directly.

He extends his arms to either side, a look-at-all-i-have-accomplished gesture, though there’s no audience save the two of you to take in his performance. “What can I say?” he says. “The media named me for my ability to blend in anywhere I go. I like the nickname, I do.” He points his finger at you as he begins to circle around you and Emily like you’re an injured seal in shark infested waters. “Though you profilers don’t like when these major news outlets do that. It sensationalizes the killer while taking away from victims.” He stops in front of you and bends at the waist to look you in the eye. You muster as much contempt into your gaze as possible.

“Good,” he snarls. “Those sluts aren’t worth remembering anyway. Any thoughts on that, agent?”

You nod. “Yeah, actually, I think I’m pretty tired of listening to you whine about your mommy issues.” A fire ignites in his eyes as you say this. You smirk. “Ooo, that did something. Did that strike a nerve?”

His lip curls as he takes a shuddering breath.

“I think I did, didn’t I?”

His knuckles collide with your face and there’s an explosion of stars behind your eyes as you feel your lip split in two. Emily calls your name and curses the unsub’s. There’s a buzzing in your ears as you blink the fog away. You sit up as best as you can and spit blood onto the floor. If his attention is on you, it’s not on Emily.

“Is that the best you can do?” you say, leveling your gaze back on The Chameleon. “You had to hit me from behind the first time. Are you scared to face a woman head on? Too much of a coward to face them? Or are you just too weak?” You incline your head toward your lap. “After all, you’ve got us tied up. Untie me and we’ll see just how well you do one on one.”

The Chameleon seethes, nostrils flaring as his rage blossoms. “You know nothing!” he bites.

“We know, everything.” You answer. He may not have been on the team’s radar, but you’ve seen this type before; a man that’s been forced into a submissive role and emasculated his entire life finally snaps and turns the tables on innocent women to make up for the lack of care he missed out on from a mother figure his entire life. He blames them because he can’t take his anger out on the person he wants to most. Mommy.

“Do you?” he sneers and you don’t flinch away from his hot breath on your neck.

“You’re easier to read than a children’s nursery rhyme,” you taunt.

The Chameleon snarls and this time his knuckles collide with the center of your face and there’s a sickening crunch. Blood pours from your broken nose onto the front of your shirt.

“Enough!” Emily shouts. “She’s not the one you want.”

You blink through the haze and blaring pain. Emily’s name is garbled as you try to say it, but there’s too much blood in your mouth. Just like the flickering gaze of a reptile, his eyes shift instantly to her. The desire that alights his face makes you want to throw up. She’s the one that fits the victimology. She’s the surrogate, the object of desire in his twisted fantasy.

“I think,” he says slowly, and you’re surprised you don’t see a serpentine tongue flicker between his lips. “That this next part will be more fun with an audience.”

Your vision shifts in and out of focus as you follow his movements. He shuffles just out of view of your peripheral vision and trying to force your eyes to see farther than they can exacerbates the splitting pain in your skull and face. Everything throbs. You can hardly see straight.

He returns with a syringe in hand. He holds it up for you to see. “Maybe I am weak,” he says bitterly. “But I’m the one in control and there’s nothing you can do about it.” He pushes the syringe into your arm and a slow, metallic heat creeps through your veins. Your limbs quickly grow heavy and your senses begin to dull.

Behind you, Emily pulls at her restraints. “Hey! What are you giving her? Leave her alone. You don’t want her, you want me.”

A choked laugh escapes the unsub as he cuts the zip ties at your ankles. You want to kick out at him and knock that smug look off of his face but the signals from your brain are cut off. Your body won’t follow the command your mind is ordering due to the drugs scrambling your system. Your eyelids are heavy. You want to close them. The unsub recognizes this and slaps at your face. “No, no. You can’t close your eyes, now. You’ve got a show to watch.” His lips twist into a sickeningly delighted smile. He slips a key from his pocket and undoes both sets of cuffs keeping you bound to the chair. You slump forward against him and he catches your weight easily. He wraps his arms around your waist and grunts as he hoists you over his shoulder. There’s static coursing through your limbs and despite every wish and desire to lift even a finger, your limbs don’t cooperate.

You slide off of him like rain down a windowpane, though instead of coming to a gentle stop you hit the ground like a stone thrown into a pond; all of your weight crashing down. Your head rattles against the wall and stars explode across your vision once more.

Emily calls your name and you try to focus on that. You blink and her form comes into focus. She’s bound in the same manner that you were in a chair exactly like yours. There’s blood staining her clothes, her blouse cut to ribbons and her pant leg tattered from where he slit it open with a knife; the same knife he used to cut into skin. Blood drips onto the floor.

She smiles at you and her gaze is so tender as her eyes meet yours. “Whatever he does to me, it is not your fault.” She’s soothing you. She’s about to endure more torture and she’s trying to comfort you.

You want to speak, to tell her you’re sorry, that you love her. You want to stand, to untie her and take her to safety. Most of all you want to put that unsub in the ground. A single tear leaks from your eye as The Chameleon wheels a tray table near Emily. The soft eyes she reserved for you steel upon seeing him.

He picks up a scalpel, his fingers gentle as he curls them around it; a stark contrast to the violence he inflicts with it. “Let’s get started, shall we?”

Emily licks her lips and raises her chin to look him in the eye, defiant in the face of danger. “I’ve already come back from the dead once before. At least if you’re successful, I know whose ass I’m haunting first.” She narrows her brown eyes to slits. “Come on, lizard boy. Let’s dance.”

•

Tears leak down your cheeks as you’re forced to watch what he does to her. She continues to taunt him, but her voice has grown weak. She’s losing too much blood.

“I wonder,” Emily says, her breathing labored. She lifts her gaze to meet the unsub’s. “You love that knife.” She inclines her chin toward the blade in his hand and his fingers twitch. “Tell me, is it because you can’t get up? Are our mommy issues too severe?”

A wild scream tears from his throat as he backhands her. A sharp grunt of pain leaves her lips but no scream. She sheds no tears for him. She’ll show no fear to him and allow him to feed off of her emotions like he did with his other victims, but he knows she must be feeling the weight of the torture, of the exhaustion settling in.

Her voice is tired, but her words are dagger tipped. “You’re not a man,” she spits blood on the ground, her teeth stained with it as she bares them at him. “You’re just a coward, a little boy missing mommy’s hand to guide him through your pathetic, wayward life.” Each word is sharp and articulated, a needle digging a little deeper and deeper into his flesh with each cutting syllable.

“Enough!” he bellows, spittle flying from his mouth as he lifts his arm. In one swift downward motion, he plunges the scalpel into her thigh.

She screams, her voice ragged and raw. A panicked sound bubbles in your throat, but the drugs overpower your ability to call out to her. Your fingers twitch as you try to summon any amount of strength to them, but to no avail. You can’t move them anymore that. You try to wiggle your toes and only feel a tinge of movement from them. Tears leak down your cheeks and drip off of your chin. The tear stains left behind are cold overtop of the dried blood smeared across your face from your broken nose, still throbbing with pain.

Emily sits hunched over, her shoulders heave with shuddering breaths. She’s breathing. She’s alive. She’s alive. She’s alive. The thought plays on repeat in your mind. If she dies, there is no place this slimy, spineless creature can hide where you wouldn’t be able to find him.

A strangled moan rumbles from behind your lips as The Chameleon approaches Emily. There’s a smirk on his lips as he brushes his fingers along her jawline. Just as quickly as the smirk appears, it dissipates as he shoves her face away from him, disgust twisting his features.

“I think I’ve had enough of you,” he grits through clenched teeth. “You’re all the same. There is no place for women like you. I’m doing the world a favor by getting rid of you.” He picks up another knife off the tray table and moves to stand behind Emily, knife poised beneath her throat. His shifting eyes fall on you and his smile returns. “I hope you’ve enjoyed the show.”

You feel your brow pinch as a wash of emotion floods through you. Your hand twitches and you manage to ball it into a fist, but you can’t force much more than that.

“Emi—” your tongue lolls inside your mouth and you can’t get her name out but it’s enough to get her attention. Her wavering brown eyes fall on yours and you hope she can feel your full apology and profession of love in your eyes as you await the inevitable.

“I love you,” she mouths and a sob shudders free from your own.

A single gunshot cracks through the air like a whip.

As the unsub slumps to the ground, Derek’s hulking frame comes into view. “He’s down!” He calls as he holsters his weapon and rushes to Emily. His hand moves to the knife in her leg.

“Don’t!” Emily warns. “Let the medics handle it. The keys to the cuffs are in his pocket.”

As Derek squats beside the unsub Hotch and Spencer clamber down the stairs, spilling into the room.

“We need medics,” Derek says to them, eyes filled with concern. “We need them now.”

“Copy that,” Spencer states as he presses against his earpiece and relays the information.

Hotch holsters his gun and rushes to your side. Crouching down, his hands smooth your hair back from your face to inspect the damage.

“Can you hear me?” he says. You blink heavily as his face comes in and out of focus. He repeats the question and says your name. He’s asking you to talk to him, but you can’t.

“He injected her with something,” Emily says weakly as Derek works to uncuff her. “A sedative or a paralytic, I don’t know. She can’t move. She can’t, she can’t—” Emily’s eyes flutter and roll back in her head. Your eyes widen as she slumps forward. Derek catches her before she can face plant the concrete and risk dislodging the scalpel sticking out of her thigh before the medics can do their job to ensure she’s not at risk of bleeding out, if she wasn’t already.

Your hand twitches, fingers jerking against your palm as a sound of desperation eeks past your still lips. Hotch presses his hand into yours and squeezes. His hard eyes meet yours and there’s pain and understanding in them. He’s born witness to seeing the love of his life killed by an unsub. It was something he wouldn’t wish on his worst enemy. He had to hope that Emily would survive what she’d endured here tonight. He squeezes all of that hope into your palm as the medics crash down the steps, backboards and kits at the ready.

“She’ll be okay,” Hotch promises, though there’s a hint of doubt on the edge of his words. “You’ll be okay.”

As the medics make way and his hand slips free from yours, you can only hope and pray that what he says is true.

•

A gentle beeping is the first thing you hear as your senses slowly creep back to life. The sound is soft, but each punctuated tone sends a pulse of pain to the space behind your eyes.

Your eyes crack open and you squeeze them shut again as the bright white of the fluorescent lighting blinds you.

“Shit,” you hiss. Your voice is hoarse.

“Hey, you!” greets a female voice. Penelope’s voice.

“Too bright,” you grumble.

“Oh! Hold on!” Her heels click against the tile of the hospital floor, a switch flicks, and the light behind your eyelids darkens. You feel the relief immediately though the bruising around your eyes and throbbing pain reverberating through your nose and cheeks starts to overwhelm your senses as you become more alert.

You crack one eye and Penelope’s bright face comes into view. Her pink cat eared headband matches her glasses frames and lipstick. Her smile reaches her eyes and that only just eases some of the anxiety that floods your system, the only other thing you’re able to feel besides the pain. If Emily was dead, Penelope wouldn’t be able to look you in the eye right now.

“I need to see her,” you say, sitting up and immediately regretting it. The room spins and your hand flies to your head, fingers pressed against your temple in a poor attempt to stop the whirling sensation.

“Sweetie, oh my God, don’t—” she stands up and crosses the room, but you’re already pushing the sheets back.

You curse as you rip the IV from your arm, the tape holding it in place ripping out the hairs on your arm. Garcia tries to take hold of your hands, but you bury them inside the folds of the hospital gown as your fingers feel for the numerous electrodes tacked to your chest. Hooking the tips of your fingers around the wire once you find a place to bunch them together, one swift tug is all it takes to dislodge them. The machine beside the bed flat lines as it no longer receives your heart rate.

“Honey please don’t make me—” Her face scrunches as you move to stand. She sticks her arms out to block you from doing so “Oh, you’re going to make me, ok— Derek! Hotch!”

Her shouts are like a drill through your skull. You blink and black spots your vision as it blurs. The pain in your face is so intense, but you have to push through it. If Emily could endure what she did, you can push through this to get to wherever the hell they were keeping her in this goddamn hospital.

Hotch and Derek burst into the room, eyes frantic and scanning the scene. Morgan swiftly cuts through the space, swerving in front of Penelope and taking you by the arms. Garcia may have hesitated to stop you in your tracks but Derek has no reservations whatsoever.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” he asks sternly.

Two nurses rush into the room and Hotch placates them with a gesture implying things are under control . He says something to them in a low voice and they glance your way once before nodding and leaving the space.

“I need to see her,” you say as you push against Derek, but in your current state you may as well be trying to push the Leaning Tower of Pisa upright.

His grip around your wrists is firm, but gentle; his hands placed just above the bandages from where the cuffs had bitten into your skin.

“She’s not awake yet,” Derek says. His features soften as he looks into your panic filled eyes. “She’s stable. She’ll be okay, and I promise you that the minute she wakes up I will take you to see her.”

“But Derek—”

He clicks his tongue. “No buts. You’re no use to her if you’re not well. You nearly overdosed on the drugs that man gave you. He broke your nose so badly, they had to re-break it to set it correctly. You have a concussion. Are you hearing me? You need to get your ass back in that bed.”

“Honey, listen to him.” Garcia adds, her voice equal parts soothing and concerned. “You can barely stand.”

You squeeze your eyes shut as hot tears well in your eyes. They slip down your cheeks and seep into the medical tape plastered to your face and nose. You draw in a shuddering breath as Derek guides you back into the bed. He presses a warm hand to your shoulder before stepping back and putting an arm around Garcia.

“Come on, mama, let’s go get a coffee while the nurses get her hooked back in.”

Penelope’s mouth drops into an o-shape as if she’s about to protest.

“I’ll stay with her,” Hotch assures her. “Go. I’ll call if anything changes.” That comforts her enough to let Derek steer her out of the room and into the hallway.

As the sound of their footsteps fade away, Hotch exhales a heavy sigh. The heels of his loafers click against the tile as he crosses the room and takes the chair Penelope had been occupying at your bedside.

“How are you feeling?” he asks as he reaches over and presses the call button to summon the nurses.

“Like someone cracked me in the face with a sledgehammer.”

A hint of a smile passes over your supervisor’s lips and a ghost of a laugh passes your own. You wince as the motion sends a new wave of pain rippling throughout your face.

“How bad is it?” you ask.

“The doctors say it should heal fine. They’re baffled that the break didn’t do any damage to your septum. The bruising will take time but you won’t need surgery so—”

You lift your eyes to meet his. “Not me, Hotch.”

His lips press into a firm line. “She lost a lot of blood,” he says after a moment. “In total, he cut her about fifteen times before stabbing her. She was right to tell Morgan not to pull the scalpel out. It was dangerously close to her femoral artery. The unsub was either incredibly calculated in avoiding it or it was dumb luck that saved her.”

Your brow pinches as his words sink in. “What was his name?”

Hotch’s chin dips in response to your question. “Carson Peters. He was a Vet Tech on the perimeter of the geographic profile. We never even interviewed him.”

“The whole time we never knew his name,” you breathe.

“If I know Emily, I’m sure she came up with a few,” Hotch remarks, trying to lighten the mood.

Your lips twitch, but a smile doesn’t take shape. There is an entire slew of names you’d wanted to hurl at the unsub, to say anything that would have taken his attention off of Emily for even a second but you couldn’t because of the drugs he’d pumped into you. You squeeze your eyes shut as an image of him cutting Emily flashes through your mind.

Hotch says your name. You hear the deep tenor of his voice, but it’s as though you’re underwater. Emily’s cries of anguish echo in your ears.

“I’m sorry,” you whisper as a tear leaks from the corner of your eyes. “Emily, I’m sorry.”

A firm hand slips into yours and you gasp, flinching from the contact. The image distorts and vanishes. You open your eyes and take a deep breath, dropping your gaze onto the hand in yours. You lift your eyes to meet Hotch’s hard stare. His fingers squeeze around yours and he nods.

“You’re safe,” he assures you. “Carson Peters is dead. He can’t hurt you, Emily, or anyone else ever again.”

Your fingers twitch around his as you blink back the onslaught of tears that want to pour out of you. “I couldn’t do anything.”

Hotch’s features soften. “I know.”

“I couldn’t stop him.”

“There’s nothing you could’ve done.”

You swallow the growing lump in your throat. Hotch squeezes your hand again, intentionally doing so to keep your mind from wandering. He’s keeping you grounded.

Your voice cracks when you speak. “I felt so helpless.”

“I know,” Hotch states as he levels his gaze on hours. His brown eyes waver as he speaks. “Witnessing a loved one’s abuse and not being able to do anything about it is a torture all its own. In our positions we have the authority to do something about it and in most cases, we can. When we can’t,” he pauses and takes a deep breath. “It’s natural to play it over and over again, to wonder where you went wrong, to think that somewhere along the line you could’ve done something, anything, to change the outcome.” His brow lifts toward his hairline. “We will kill ourselves ruminating on the what ifs and what could have beens.”

We. He’s not just talking about you anymore. He’s talking about his past when the unsub George Foyet killed his wife, Haley. You’d joined the team several years after her murder, but you’d been briefed fully on the case. It was well known to everyone in the BAU.

It’s your turn to squeeze his hand and you realize how out of the ordinary this exchange is. You’re as close to Hotch as anyone else on the team, but he’s not usually the touchy-feely type; the occasional half hug or handshake sure, but this level of vulnerability is uncommon.

A nurse walks into the room and Hotch stands to greet her. He shakes her hand and introduces himself formally; name, rank, and title. Establishing credibility for what, you wonder. He speaks in low tones and after a moment the nurse looks at you before looking back at him. She nods her head and he thanks her before she exits the room.

“What was that about?” you ask.

“A favor,” he answers as the nurse guides a wheelchair into the room.

“Five minutes,” the nurse says, aiming a pointed look at Hotch.

“Understood.”

The nurse leaves and Hotch pushes the chair up to the edge of the bed. He slips a hand behind your back to help stabilize you as he extends his other hand for you to grab hold of.

“Where are we going?” you ask as you take the proffered hand. You groan as you sit up and your head spins. You swear you can feel every bone in your face throbbing as pain threatens to split you in two.

“To see Emily.”

Your heart swells. You look at Hotch, eyes widening. “I thought—”

“I told the nurse you’d stay put and allow them to do their jobs and help you if you were allowed to see her. Hence, the five minutes.”

“Five minutes,” you repeat, nodding your head.

Hotch smiles reassuringly. “Five minutes.”

Slowly, Hotch assists with the transition from bed to chair. The shift exhausts you and it sinks in just how weak you are. However, the prospect of seeing Emily keeps you alert enough to push through.

The trip to Emily’s hospital room is short. She’s two right turns and one long hallway away from yours. The door to her room is cracked when you arrive and JJ opens it as Hotch reaches for the door.

“Sweetie!” JJ smiles brightly at you, though her eyes are tired. She leans down to pull you in a gentle hug, minding your face as she does so.

Her eyes flit between you and Hotch. “She’s in and out of consciousness. They’ve got her on some pretty strong painkillers, but she’s going to be alright.”

“Are you ready?” Hotch asks.

Your heart hammers in your ears, but you nod your head and whisper, “Yes.”

JJ steps out of the way so Hotch can wheel you inside the room. You raise your chin to peer over the threshold and whimper upon seeing Emily, hand moving to cover your trembling lips. She lies still beneath the sheets, which are pulled up over her lap. Her arms sit atop the sheet, her left arm bandaged from above the elbow to her wrist. Bandages peek out from beneath her hospital gown. An oxygen cannula is fitted under her nose and butterfly bandages hold close the split in her eyebrow. Hotch puts the brake in place after wheeling you right up to her bedside. He places a gentle hand on your shoulder. “JJ and I will be right outside. Five minutes,” he says.

Your eyes don’t leave Emily. “I understand.”

When the door clicks shut you let the floodgates open. You take Emily’s hand in yours, minding the IV jutting out from it, and cradle it to your cheek. “I’m so sorry,” you sob. “I’m so sorry I couldn’t do anything to stop what he was doing to you.”

You blink away the stars that dot your vision as each sob sends an intense wave of pain through the break in your nose and bruising under your eyes.

Emily’s thumb sweeps slowly across your cheek. You take a shuddering breath and swallow your tears as you turn your attention to her. Her eyes crack open and a small smile ghosts her lips.

You gasp and choke back a sob. The smile that splits your face sends a burst of pain through your bones, but you don’t care. It doesn’t matter. You’d feel this pain and all that she endured to see her warm, brown eyes on yours like they are now. Her smile, despite the pain meds dulling her senses, reaches her eyes and they’re so bright. As you look into them, for a moment you’re no longer in the hospital. You’re on a bench overlooking the Potomac and the sun is setting; its golden rays falling over Emily’s face and her eyes changed from brown to liquid gold. It was then you knew you’d never love looking into someone’s eyes as much as you loved looking into hers, that you’d never love anyone as much as you loved her.

You blink once and you’re back in the hospital. “I’m so sorry,” you blubber and clutch her hand to your chest. “Baby, I’m so sorry.”

Her voice is hoarse when she speaks, but the way she says your name is as soothing as ever. She shushes you and presses her fingers into your skin as she grips your hand. “Shh, baby, honey, look at me.”

You swallow and try your best to still your quivering lip as you raise your eyes to hers. Hers are focused as she looks at you. Her perfectly manicured eyebrows arch toward her hairline as she inclines her head toward you. “There is nothing that you could’ve done that would’ve prevented this, and that is okay.”

You squeeze your eyes shut and shake your head in refusal.

“Hey,” Emily says, pulling you back in. “Look at me.”

You sniff and take a deep breath as you open your eyes. “If anything,” she adds. “Your being there saved my life. He drew out the torture because he had an audience. If you hadn’t been there, there’s a chance he would’ve killed me before the team got to him. Do you understand?”

Your gut response tells you that she’s right, and you have to fight the part of your brain that’s telling you otherwise.

Her hand slips out of yours and reaches to cup your face, keeping her palm along your jawline to avoid your injuries.

She smiles and gestures to herself with her other hand. “Most of this is superficial anyway. The knife he jammed into my thigh will scar and take a while to heal, but that’s the worst that was done to me. I was,” she presses her lips together as tears glisten in her eyes. “I was so worried about you.”

Something between a laugh and a sob escapes your lips. “We make quite a pair, don’t we?”

Emily laughs in turn, the sound enough to make your heart swell three times over. “At least we’ll be able to spend our recovery together,” she says hopefully.

You smirk and tilt your head, considering. “My place or yours?”

Just then the door creaks open and Hotch steps inside. He smiles. “Sorry to cut the reunion short, but if I don’t get you back, I think the charge nurse will have my gun and badge.”

You all share a laugh. As he fixes the brake on the wheelchair, Emily tugs your hand toward her mouth and places a soft kiss to the backs of your knuckles. “I’ll see you soon, okay?”

You smile and nod as the tight feeling in your chest from before ebbs away. “Okay.”

As Hotch exits the room with you in tow, JJ hands you two cups of coffee. “For you and your watchdog,” she says with a nod towards Hotch.

You thank her and as Hotch pushes you back towards your room, you finally feel like things will be okay.

•

Two weeks later, you’re still on medical leave, but you feel as though you're getting back to normal. You’d been released from the hospital first and a few days later, Emily. Her apartment was bigger, so you’d gone to yours and with help from Penelope packed a bag. It was easier for you two to be in the same place knowing how often the team would be checking in.

Garcia had stayed over with you, helping you keep track of the medications the doctors had prescribed. She helped take care of Sergio too. The little guy had been all too happy to see you, weaving in between your legs and rubbing his furry head against your calves. When Emily returned home a few days later he couldn’t stop meowing. When she rested, he’d fall asleep beside her or curled up in her lap.

Just as expected, members of the team had been through in pairs, on their own, or as a whole. Penelope stopped in daily with coffees and pastries from the shop next to Emily’s building. Derek came by every other day, occasionally with Savannah when her work schedule allowed. She’d checked Emily’s wounds a few times from your insisting as you were worried about infection. Savannah assured you each time that Emily was and would continue to be fine so long as she kept up with changing her bandages and taking the antibiotics she’d been prescribed. Hotch had only visited once, which was unnecessary but still so kind of him. You knew he often stayed late working to ensure everyone else could go home on time. He did this all while balancing his responsibility as a father and the fact that he sacrificed a little bit more of his personal time just to check in on you two meant so much. Rossi had sent homemade Italian with Penelope or Derek. This week you’d been given enough carbonara to feed an army.

You’re fixing two bowls now for you and Emily, a late dinner as you’d both fallen asleep around 3pm and napped until 7pm no thanks to the pain medicines that kept you two on relatively similar sleep schedules. You shred some parmesan and sprinkle it over the top before sticking a fork into each.

“I’ve got dinner!” you call as you make your way back to the bedroom.

“Thank god, I’m starving.” You push open the door with your hip and place the bowls on Emily’s bedside table.

You lean down and kiss her, wincing slightly. The bruising around your eyes and cheekbones has gone down dramatically, but your nose was still bound and held in place by a splint and medical tape. The doctors say in about a week or so, it should be healed completely but to still exercise caution with day to day activities.

Emily rests on top of the covers. Her hair is up and out of her face in a loose ponytail, pieces of which had fallen out while sleeping and now stick to and around her face in various places. You try your best to smooth them down before cupping her chin in your hand. You smile and stroke your fingers along the smooth skin of her jaw before dropping your hands to pull the throw blanket down off of her waist, exposing her legs, bare except for the plaid pajama shorts she wears and bandages wrapped around her thigh.

She shivers in response to the air against her legs. “Sheesh, give a girl some warning!” she protests and you throw her a cheeky grin.

You open the bedside drawer and retrieve the supplies to clean and dress her wound. “We should finish the rest of that movie,” you suggest as you climb onto the bed to kneel beside her. Using a small pair of scissors, you carefully snip away the bandages to reveal the square gauze pad covering the wound. “I want to know how it ends and we keep falling asleep.”

Emily snorts. “That’ll happen when we both take narcotics before bed thinking we’ll make it to the end.”

“Yeah, but,” you remove the gauze and inspect the incision, searching for any signs of infection around the twelve carefully placed stitches. As you squeeze a bit of the antibacterial ointment onto your finger and gently rub it over the spiky black threads of the sutures, you can’t help but think of how much it resembles the caterpillars that used to invade the trees in your backyard as a kid, a story Emily did not care for your retelling when you first did this. “It shouldn’t be so hard to make it through a two hour movie.”

“I still can’t believe you’ve never seen The Parent Trap,” Emily says, bristling as your fingers rub over a particularly sensitive area.

You apologize as you lay a fresh gauze pad over the wound. Your fingers move quickly as you unroll and wind a new roll of bandages to keep the gauze in place. When you finish, you wipe your hands off and gently massage the skin around her thigh knowing it helps to stimulate blood flow to the area.

Emily moans in response to the treatment. Her head lolls to the side and she peeks at you from behind long lashes. “I can’t wait to show you how grateful I am for your incredible nursing skills.”

You arch a brow at her as a smile quirks at the corner of your mouth. “Down girl,” you tease playfully.

Emily bends her opposite leg, raising her heel to curve around your body. She pokes her toes up under your tee shirt and your back stiffens as they touch your skin. You reach behind your back and grab her by the ankle, chastising her as you laugh and place it back on the mattress. “Emily!”

“What??” she asks, laughter tumbling from her full lips.

“We’ve not been cleared yet for that!”

She pouts in response and you clamber over her, carefully, so as not to disturb the injuries of her leg. You straddle her waist and lean down to place a soft kiss along the curve of her jaw. “Trust me, I want to get back to that as much as you do.” Your eyes drop to the swell of her breasts, her nipples poking through the thin fabric of her camisole. “But you and I both know neither one of us are capable of having gentle sex, and I don’t think our doctors would be happy if we did anything to make this take any longer than it already is.”

Emily groans in frustration. “Stupid doctors and their stupid orders.”

You laugh as you lean down to grab your dinners off her nightstand. Carefully, you lift your leg and roll over her body to your side of the bed; passing Emily her bowl as you do so. You reach down and pull the throw blanket up over both of you as you snuggle into the uninjured half of her body. She turns and places a kiss on your temple as she grabs the remote and clicks on the tv.

As she twirls pasta around on her fork, she turns to you and smiles. “I’m glad you’re here with me,” she says, eyes twinkling.

You smile in turn. “I can’t think of anywhere else I’d rather be than with you here, right now, at this moment in time.”

“I love you,” she says.

“Not as much as I love you,” you answer.

“Impossible,” Emily promises.

186 notes · View notes

luciferlokinox · 2 years

Text

Criminal Minds Incorrect Quotes

~Reader Insert~

Reid: *Screams* Reader: *Screams louder to assert dominance*

Hotch: Should we do something?

Rossi, observing: No, I want to see who wins this.

Rossi: I think we’re missing something.

JJ: Teamwork?

Reid: Concentration?

Prentiss and Morgan: A general sense of what we’re doing?

Prentiss, setting down a card: Ace of spades.

Morgan, pulling out an Uno card: +4

Garcia, pulling out a pokémon card: Jolteon I choose you!

Reid, Trembling: What are we playing?!

I posted this while watching NCIS :)

#aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotchner x gn!reader #incorrect criminal minds #spencer reid x reader #derek morgan x reader #emily prentiss x reader #david rossi x reader #Jennifer jereau #bau team #bau family

3K notes · View notes

littlespacereader · 10 months

Text

It’s my Birthday!!🥳🎊🎉

And in celebration of my birthday I made a Criminal Minds Readers fic! Please enjoy!!

Big Birthday, Little Birthday

Caregiver!BAU Family & GN Little! Reader. Completely SFW:)

Tags: BAU team as a family of Caregivers, birthday party, presents, cake, diapers mentioned, play arguing, pacifiers, sippy cup

Nicknames: little one, darling, sweetheart, kid, kiddo and la mia gioi (my joy in Italian), birthday kiddo, Daddy Hotch - Morgan’s joke to Hotch, babygirl - Morgan’s nickname to Garcia

I walked into work, hands in my pocket and my head hanging low. Today’s my birthday, which is normally a happy celebration to anyone else, but to me it wasn’t.

It just reminded me that I’m another year older which frustrated me to no end. It wasn’t like I could just stop aging, I knew that, but the idea of being older hurt my little self tremendously.

The comments people say like “Wow you’re getting so big now! I can’t believe you’re that age” or “You’re really growing up” just make me want to stomp my foot and go “No! I’m still little! I’m still just a little kid.” But not everyone would truly understand what I mean by that.

So I simply stopped telling people my birthday and avoided it all together. That was…until I joined the BAU.

I didn’t realize how close I would become to the team and how close they would become with me. My regression was something I kept to myself for years but after a particularly tough case I regressed involuntarily on the plane back and the whole team found out it.

I thought that I would be fired soon after, but instead the team looked after me and was accepting of my regression. All of them acted as Caregivers to me. Some like JJ, Morgan and especially Hotch make an effort to look after me all the time, regardless of if we’re on a case or not.

So it should’ve been no surprise to me what happened today.

I walked out of the elevator and into the bullpen to find it completely empty. I paused the unusual sight.

“What the hell?” I said to myself.

My first glance was to Hotch and Rossi’s offices which were completely dark. Now that is odd. Hotch is always the first one to work. If anyone was going to be here, it was him.

I glanced at my watch. 7:34 am. We had to be at work by 7:30. I was running a bit late but that meant the whole team running later than me? Where is everyone? Did work get canceled and no one told me?

But just as I was about to investigate strange occurrence my answer surprised me.

“SURPRISE!!!” The team jumped up and shouted.

Balloons and confetti flew into the air as everyone came out of their hiding spots. I couldn’t help but smile at the excited team. But I was mostly in shock. No one’s ever thrown me a surprise party.

“Happy birthday!!” Garcia was the first to run up and give me a hug out, knocking me out of my shocked state.

“Thank you,” I said squeezed in the tight hug. Once we broke apart I looked at the team confused, “How did you guys know?”

“Are you kidding me? I make a point of having everyones birthday’s written down.” Rossi explained.

Before I had a chance to say anything Morgan snuck over and put a big cake hat on my head. “There we go! Today your birthday royalty! Come on, we got you a cake!”

The group lead me over to the desk that had my surprise birthday cake. As I walked over to the desk I looked for Hotch, a bit overwhelmed by the surprise party. But I was getting ushered too fast by everyone that I couldn’t see him.

Emily noticed and smiled back at me with a gentle grin, “Come on everyone, let’s not crowd them. They’re still in shock from the surprise.”

I sat at the desk with the chocolate cake infront of me. The cake was filled with candles to the point of causing an actual fire. In the middle sat two number candles that screamed in my face the age I was turning.

“Make a wish sweetheart,” JJ said pulling out her camera.

That number, the never ending climbing number of my age stared back at me. My smile turned to a bit of a frown as I stared at the cake. With one big breath I managed to blow out all the candles in one go. Everyone cheered and smiled but I was struggling to do the same.

A soft hand held my shoulder and brought me out of my sadness in a heartbeat. I looked up to see Hotch swooping in like a knight in shinning armor.

While everyone was busy getting something to cut the cake Hotch pulled up a seat next to me. “I tried to talk them out of it but it’s a BAU tradition and they insisted you get the special treatment too,” He joked. “But don’t worry this is just the first party, the second party will be a bit more relaxed.”

I looked at him confused. “Second party?”

“Well today’s your birthday so we’re going to celebrate you entirely, both your big self and your little self. This party is for your big self. Later we’re all going to go to Rossi’s house and celebrate all over again so your younger self can enjoy your birthday too.” Hotch explained.

I just stared at him as tears started to form in my eyes. It was as if all that anger and frustration built over the years had finally released. They understood and they cared. They didn’t see me as getting older, they still saw me as their little one. They’re truly my chosen family.

“Thank you!!” Was all I managed to croak out before I gave Hotch a tight hug. He chuckled and wrapped his arms around me.

“Hey now what’s this? Is Hotch’s gift so terrible it made you cry?” Morgan joked as he came over with the knife to cut the cake.

We broke a part and I shook my head. “No it’s not him, it’s all of you. I…I usually hate my birthday but this,” I looked up at my team. “All of this, it’s so sweet of you.”

“Wait until later! I got you the BEST gift.” Spencer exclaimed excitedly.

“Ohhhhh I doubt that Spence. You haven’t seen what I got them. I’m sure I’ll be the favorite one tonight.” JJ said winking at me.

“You can fight about who got the better gift later. For now let them eat the cake so I can get a slice myself. After all it’s bad luck to eat the cake before the birthday kiddo.” Rossi explained.

I couldn’t help but laugh. Morgan cut me a piece of cake and I took the first bite, allowing everyone else to get their slice and eat.

The rest of the morning and afternoon was a little bit of working and a little bit of my “big” birthday party. After cake everyone gave me what they called “adult present” which really was just a new coffee mug, a lamp and other boring stuff.

Then it was off to do paper work for the rest of the day. I was not allowed to do anything without the cake hat on my head though, that was the birthday rule despite my persuading.

The whole work day I was buzzing with excitement of what they had planned for me when we got back to Rossi’s house tonight. The more I thought of it, the more I wanted to regress and just get to the party. But I couldn’t! I had a real job and real work to do.

So like any reasonable Regressor, I sped up my work and did everything in record time so I could regress. With my stack of files finally accomplished, I picked them up and made my way to Hotch’s office.

It was a rule set up by the team after finding out about my regression that I should always see one of them and tell them I’m feeling smaller, whether I was on a case, in the office or even at home. That way I could regress in the safety of one of them.

So perfect opportunity! I had to drop off the files to Hotch and I’m feeling smaller, it’s a win win! Plus if I’m being honest with myself… I’m the closest Hotch. He’s just so gentle and fatherly!

Hotch was hunched over his own files when I knocked on the door and entered. His focus frown immediately turned to a small smile seeing me enter the office with this ridiculous cake hat still on.

“You couldn’t get out of wearing it?” He joked.

“I tried to argue but they said it’s tradition.” I shrugged.

I handed him the files then took a seat across from him. “I completely the files and filled out the paperwork so it can be analyzed. Oh! And I examined the lab reports and wrote about them too!”

Hotch listened to me overly and enthusiastically explain my paperwork to him. The moment I walked in he knew I was regressing so why hide it? That’s the problem when all your Caregivers are profilers. They know everything just by looking at you.

“That’s great Y/N, thank you. Are you starting to regress now that it’s getting close to your party?” He asked. I eagerly nodded.

“Okay, then you’re gonna stay with me till we’re ready to leave. Sound good darling?” Hotch said, standing up from his desk to close his office’s door.

“Sounds good!” I smiled back. Crossing the room going back to his desk he ruffled my hair a bit.

“I have a little surprise for you while you wait.” He said once seated again.

He opened his desk drawer and pulled out a wrapped gift. “It’s a little something I found in a shop on our last case. A small present before your party.”

I eagerly ripped the paper away to reveal a new coloring book and crayons. I gasped and eagerly looked through the pages. “It’s so cool! Thank you!!” I jumped from my chair and ran around the desk to hug Hotch.

He chuckled and hugged me back. “I’m happy you like it. It’s just a little taste of what’s to come tonight. But now I sadly gotta keep working on my boring paperwork. Why don’t you color a picture for someone while you wait?”

“Great idea!” I ran back to my chair and got to work coloring away.

I was in my 4th picture when Rossi entered the room. “Hey kiddo, what you’d got there?” He peered over my shoulder.

“Hotch got me a safari animal coloring book!”

“Really?! How exciting!” Rossi said patting my shoulder. He smirked at Hotch, “He couldn’t wait till your party to give it to you?”

Hotch smirked and tried to shrug it off, “One little present before the party won’t hurt.”

Rossi couldn’t help but smile. Hotch is the toughest agent he’s ever known in the BAU. But even his cold exterior was no match for Y/N’s little side.

“Well I came in here to tell the two of you that everyone’s done for the day. Are you ready for your party?” he leaned and asked me.

“YES!!! FINALLY! Let’s go! Let’s go! LET’S GOOOO!!”

~~~

Thankfully the ride to Rossi’s house wasn’t too long because I was so excited to see what they had planned. Once we arrived JJ and Garcia took my hands and lead me to the door.

“Okay now I want you to close your eyes.” Garcia instructed.

With my eyes closed they guided me into the house. Once they got me in the right spot the two shouted “Open!”

I gasped once I opened my eyes. The whole house was decorated!! Streamers, balloons and little decorations everywhere. On the dinning room table next to me sat matching plates and cups all with a printed theme from my favorite tv show.

Again, I could feel myself getting a bit teary eyed. “It’s so pretty! I love it!! Thank you!” I turned and hugged JJ.

“It was a group effort…but I’ll gladly take the hug.” JJ wrapped her arms around me, hugging me tightly.

The moment we broke apart Morgan picked me up and spun me around on his shoulder. “It’s present time kiddo. Come on, I got you the best present!” I couldn’t breathe I was laughing so hard.

Spencer chimed in behind us, “I definitely have the best present!”

“Wait until they sees mine. All your present will be left in the dust.” Emily added.

The coffee table infront of the couch was filled with presents. Morgan dropped me down with a plop onto the plush couch causing me to bounce. I couldn’t help but giggle.

“Careful we don’t want to hurt them before they get all these presents!” Garcia said getting me more and more excited.

I sat up and looked in awe at the colorful boxes! I couldn’t wait to open them all up!

“Wait! Where they’re birthday hat?” Emily asked seeing my cake hat missing.

“Leave it, they’ve had it on long enough today.” Hotch chimed in, sticking up for me.

“Ohhhhhh Daddy Hotch to the rescue.” Morgan joked, rolling his eyes playfully.

“Enough bickering! Here kiddo, you can open mine first.” Rossi said grabbing his gift bag and handing it over to me. He sat next to me and watched me open his gift.

I immediately dived into the bag and unwrapped my first gift which was a plastic cooking set! “Wowwwww!!” My eyes looked at all the little pieces of plastic food. It even came with a little apron and chef’s hat for me to wear.

“Now when I’m cooking in the kitchen, you can cook along side me.” Rossi pointed out.

I turned and hugged him. “Thank you!”

“Of course la mia gioi.” Rossi said as we broke apart. He always knew I loved when he spoke Italian. La mia gioi means my joy in Italian.

Next up is Garcia who had the most colorful gift wrapping. It was almost a crime to rip the paper…almost. I ripped it away to reveal the softest elephant stuffed animal in the world! I immediately brought it close and hugged it.

“Elephants are a sign of good luck, so wherever you and your elephant go you’ll always be lucky.” She explained.

I gave her a hug, the elephant squished between us. “Thank you!”

“Of course sweetie! Now all it needs is a name,” She pointed out.

I take a good look at the elephant, but there was only one name that made sense. “Lucky!” I smiled looking at my stuffie.

Garcia smiled, “That’s a perfect name!” I placed Lucky at my side and the presents continued on.

Next up is Emily who in an “end all competition” for who has the best present with JJ, Spencer and Morgan. Emily took a seat next to me and handed me her gift.

I immediately ripped it up to reveal the softest blanket ever!! And it was so long! I could be wrapped twice over in this blanket! “Oh my God it’s soooooooooo soft!!” I couldn’t help but bring it close to Lucky and I.

“Now every time you start to regress I can wrap you up like a little burrito.” She joked poking my sides causing me to giggle. She stood up and wrapped the blanket around me.

“Thank you!” I made sure to give her a hug as well.

“Of course sweetheart. I’m so happy you like it.”

Next up is JJ who took her seat next to Emily. “Here darling,” she said handing me the box.

I quickly opened it and gasped. It’s something I’ve wanted for a while! A miniature farm play set complete with the little cows, chickens and sheep!

“It’s a farm!! And I got cows and sheep and chickens!” I picked it up and showed everyone who lit up seeing my excitement.

I stood up and gave JJ a hug. “Thank you!!”

“You’re so welcome! I’m so happy you like it.”

Once I went to sit down she eyed Morgan and winked. He rolled his eyes. “Alright kid, the best present is right here.”

Morgan stood up and grabbed his present, handing it over to me. I couldn’t wait to see what it was, considering the hype behind it. So I immediately started to rip the wrapping away.

Morgan’s gift was a collection of art supplies compete with a new set of colored pencils, markers and a new sketchbook. It all came together in a little case so it would be easy to bring on the go. Again, I gasped looking at the present.

“Our little artist here could use some new supplies. I’ve been seeing you struggling with those old colored pencils and figured you needed an upgrade.” Morgan boasted.

“I love it!! Thank you!!” And like everyone before Morgan got a hug.

“Of course kid! Couldn’t have my artist left with subpar supplies.” Morgan joked. Once I went back to sit, Morgan looked over at Spencer. “Try to beat that pretty boy.” He winked.

Spencer rolled his eyes and got up to hand me his gift. It was HEAVY! By far the heaviest of all the gifts. Like all the other gifts, I ripped into it to reveal a book. Not just any book though, this book was The Illlustrated Encyclopedia of Fish.

“Wow!” I said, flipping through the book.

“You got them a book? That’s your wonderful present? A book?” Morgan asked.

“This is not just a book, it’s an Illlustrated copy of the Encyclopedia of Fish. It has every sea creature with pictures and descriptions. It’s a perfect gift for them! They love animals and this is every sea creature known at the moment.”

“At the moment?” Rossi asked.

“Every year we know discover over 2,000 new marine species. We know more about space than we do our own oceans which make up 71% of our planet. Studies say-.”

Spencer’s rambling was cut off by my thank you hug. “Thank you! I love it!” I broke apart from our hug. “Can you read it to me later?”

Spencer lit up with a smile, “I would love to.” After I walked back to my spot Spencer just turned and smiled at Morgan with all the sass in the world.

Finally it was Hotch’s turn for his present. His present was the smallest of the group. But knowing Hotch, it was the most thoughtful.

I opened the tiny box to reveal something I’ve wanted for the longest time but was always too shy to ask or get, a pacifier. I stared at it in awe before looking up at Hotch. He just smiled and nodded his head for me to try it.

I immediately popped it into my mouth and within seconds I started to feel myself regress further. With a heavy sigh I looked back at Hotch and smiled, “I wove it!” I said around the pacifier but my words got a bit muffled.

The group laughed but we’re all gushing over how cute I looked with the pacifier.

“I know you’ve been wanting one for a while now. I even got it in your favorite color.” Hotch explained. “Best part is what it comes with.” Hotch stood up and grabbed something from the gift box I missed.

He attached a colorful band to the pacifier and then clipped the other end to my shirt. “There,” he added. “Now you’ll never lose it.”

I jumped up and hugged him tightly. “Tank yuu.” I mumbled around the pacifier.

He hugged me back just as tight. “Anything for you little one.”

And with that, the gift giving was over and you know what that means…ITS PLAY TIME!!

While Rossi, Hotch and Emily went into the kitchen to cook dinner, I stayed in the living room and started to play with all the new toys with JJ, Garcia, Spencer and Morgan!

First we played farm with my new farm set. Which was so funny! JJ and I were farmers and Morgan was a sheep, Spencer was a cow and Garcia was a chicken. It was hilarious hearing Spencer and Morgan argue over who should have the bigger stall at the farm.

Then we played restaurant! I took everyone’s orders as they sat on the couch and pretended they were at a fancy restaurant.

“Here’s your food sir,” I said handing Spencer a plate of plastic chicken and plastic watermelon.

“I asked for an apple not watermelon.” Spencer pointed out.

“Wow sounds like a real Karen at the table behind us, right babygirl?” Morgan said overly loud to Garcia. I started giggling.

“I’m not being a Karen! I ordered an apple.”

“It was the chef’s choice to make it a watermelon.” I added.

“Who’s the chef?” Spencer asked. I turned round and pointed to Lucky who was now sporting the chef’s hat and apron.

“Oh! My apologies. I didn’t know that Lucky was cooking.” Spencer quickly recovered. “Thank you for the meal.” He winked at me.

Then I went over to the next table of Morgan and Garcia. “How is the food?”

“It’s absolutely divine! My compliments to the chef.” Garcia said in a super fancy tone.

“I couldn’t agree more.” Morgan added in the same tone.

“Alright, enough restaurant. The real chef has finished dinner.” Rossi said entering the room.

Everyone entered the dining room. In the center of the table sat tonight’s meal and another the cake! For dinner Rossi cooked my favorite meal of all time! He’s the best!

I knew immediately where I was sitting, the telltale sign being the only one with plastic utensils and a sippy cup.

Everyone took their seats and started to dig into the dinner. I sat at the head of the table, Hotch at my right and Emily at my left. Periodically the two would cut food when I needed or wipe my face with a napkin, both of which I was always grateful for.

Then after eating dinner it was time for the best part…THE CAKE!! This cake was the cutest! Themed along with everything else. But the best part about it was the number candle in the middle which was simply the number 2, my little age.

As everyone started to sing happy birthday, I couldn’t be more happy and grateful for my BAU family. They organized and made my birthday so special to both my big self and my little self.

“Make a wish Y/N.” Hotch said at the end of the song.

With my wish in mind and one mighty breath I blew out all the candles in one go. Then it was cake time!!

Most to the cake ended up on my shirt and face mostly due to my excitement to eat it as fast as humanly possible. And while you might think that would be embarrassing, it wasn’t with my little family. They simply found it adorable.

“You have more cake on your face than your plate sweetheart.” Emily joked. “After dinner we gotta get you changed.”

And so she did. Using some spare pajama left here for this very reason, I was changed into the comfortable pjs as well as a diaper.

With myself now changed and padded, I spent the rest of my birthday night relaxing with my amazing Caregivers on the couch.

I used Morgan’s new art set and made some pictures for everyone. But as the night started getting later, I started to get more tired.

I popped my pacifier in my mouth and searched for Lucky. Then I grabbed Lucky and my new blanket, holding them both in my arms. Finally I grabbed Spencer’s book and brought it over to him, taking a seat along side him.

“You want me to read about some fish?” Spencer asked, I simply nodded.

“Alright, let’s get you comfortable first.” Spencer put the book in his lap before he helped wrap me up in the soft blanket. “There you go. Now you’re ready to hear about some marine mammals.”

He wrapped one arm around my shoulders and flipped open the book with the other. “What should we start reading about?”

I rested my head in his shoulder stretch my legs over his lap. I pointed out a chapter on whales.

“Whale? Okay, page 126 then.” He flipped to the page and started to read. “Whales are a widely distributed and diverse group of fully aquatic placental marine mammals. Whales can range from 8.5 feet to 98 feet in length, making them the largest mammals to ever live.”

As Spencer started to read on my eyes started to get heavier and heavier. Eventually I just gave into the sleepy feeling and snuggled closer to Spencer, letting my eyes close and drifting off to him talking about the different types of whales.

“Certain species like the humpback whale communicate using melodic sounds known as a whale song. Humpback whales only have been heard making clicks, while toothed whales use sonar to communicate with one another,” Spencer continued on.

“Spence,” JJ whispered to him. He lifted his head from the book and looked over at her. She just nodded her head in Y/N’s direction. Spencer looked down to see Y/N peacefully asleep wrapped around his side. He smiled and closed the book.

“Well your gift is good for something.” Morgan joked whispering as well.

“Don’t listen to him it’s a great gift. Y/N looked so excited to hear you read it.” Hotch pointed out.

“They loved everything more than I could’ve imagined.” Garcia smiled.

“How are we going to top this next year?” Emily asked.

“I already have a few ideas.” Morgan smirked.

The family laughed.

“They needed this, that last case was tough for them.” JJ added.

“They needed this and we needed this. They do just as much for us as we do for them.” Rossi pointed out.

They all nodded in agreement. Everyone needed a break away from the harsh and sometimes disturbing job they all work for. Regression was not only beneficial for Y/N, it was beneficial for them too.

“To many more birthday to come for our little one,” Rossi raised his glass. They all cheers, all except Spencer who couldn’t move with a sleeping Y/N at his side.

“Happy birthday Y/N.” Spencer whispered, leaning over and kissing the top of Y/N’s head.

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emberfrostlovesloki · 9 days

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CM Artist Shout Out

Photos by @hannaloony

Y'all what can Hanna not do! Look at how ✨C✨U✨T✨E✨ these are. The pastel aesthetic is so lovely and so spring-coded. The kawaii Spencer and Garcia at the top with the coffee and bears! The look on Hotch's face in the top right! AGH I just love it so so so much! Thank you so much for sharing your art with us. These make me so, so happy. I've made the top left pic the background of my PC. Please check out @hannaloony's page for more great content like this!

If you are looking for other cool, nifty, keen Criminal Minds content creators of all kinds, feel free to check out my Aaron Hotchner and CM Content Creator Spotlight (linked).

Text Break Banner by @cafekitsune

Just another little update from me: I'm sorry I've been so inactive on here. Once the semester is over I fully plan on coming back with a vengeance. I have so many ideas I want to write about and one restest to write (I am so excited about this one!) I hope you are all doing okay and have a good start to your week - Love Levi 💛

Tag list (🩷) (@tgskitten)

#criminal minds #artist spotlight #hannaloony #criminal minds art #cozy art #pastel aesthetic #soft reid #soft hotch #bau family #cm #aaron hotcher #emily prentiss #spencer reid #derek morgan #penelope garcia #love love love #art aesthetic #digital art #not my art

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shondaland-criminalminds · 2 years

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Spencer: Do you support gay rights?

Emily: Not only do I support gay rights, I support gays wrongs

Hotch: Prentiss what did you do?

*microwave explodes in the BAU’s kitchen*

#incorrect criminal minds #criminal minds #incorrect cm #emily prentiss #incorrect criminal minds quotes #criminal minds incorrect quotes #cm #cm fandom #cm incorrect quotes #criminal minds fandom #criminal minds gone wrong #spencer reid #aaron hotchner #bau family #lgbtq

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life-and-love-in-a-myst · 3 months

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When the team have to go to a crime scene at a school... certain kiddos spot their dad and uncles... they get to hang out with them, especially baby girl Hotchner.

#aaron hotchner #derek morgan #spencer reid #criminal minds #bau family

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exist4me · 1 year

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Night Out

cw: fluff, suggestive dancing, cute Aaron.

word count: 954

The BAU family finally got a weekend off, especially after such a difficult case. The gang wanted to let go for the night. They were all trying to convince Hotch to go out for one night and party with them.

“Come on, Hotch it's just tonight.” Derek persuaded.

“We might not get this time off for a long time. Let’s enjoy it together.” Emily backed Derek up. The group all agreed in their own ways.

“Even the boy genius believes some fun is good for your health. You don’t have to stay long just have two drinks and leave if you want unless you’re enjoying yourself.” Rossi reasoned with him.

“I don’t know guys, I'll think about it,” Aaron said.

“Well….. if you decide to come we'll be at the club, Watering Hole at 10,” Penelope said. Hotch nodded, saying goodbye to his teammates. The decision to go to the club was on his mind the entire journey home. Bright lights and loud noise isn’t what he would call relaxation but by the time he reached home, he decided that a few hours wouldn’t hurt.

The group met up at the Watering Hole after a few hours. They all cheered and celebrated after seeing Hotch walk in. He smiled walking up to their seating area.

“You made it!” Penelope yelled over the upbeat music.

“Yea but I'm here only for 2 hours, so let’s have some fun,” Hotch said, chuckling at the group's drunken cheers.

You and your best friend were sitting and partying across the room when you made brief eye contact with a handsome middle age man. Your first thought was he has such a serious face but one of his friends, a bald black man, said something to him. You noticed his smile, it was so beautiful. You were fixated on him. The crinkle of his sparkly and lively eyes as the corners of his mouth turned upwards baring his white teeth. He has dimples. You smiled looking at him, his own smile contagious and beautiful. You saw him get up and head towards the bar.

“I’ll be right back,” you said to your friend. You rose from your seat, fixing your short dress to show more cleavage. Taking your small mirror out of your purse you ensured that your makeup, edges, and hair were perfect before leaving to approach the man.

Approaching this mystery man at the bar you noticed how tall he is with a lean build.

“Hi,” you said, sparking a conversation. He turns to face you looking down slightly.

“Hello,” he said in a deep vibrating voice.

“I'm guessing this isn’t your usual scene.”

He chuckled,” no, it's not actually. I’m here with friends.”

“Same here. I’m y/n. What should I call you handsome.” you smiled

“Aaron,” he replied, putting his hand out. You shake it. His hand felt strong, firm, and rough. You started fantasizing about his hands all over your body. You guys made small talk until you heard the club play one of your favorite songs. It’s a slow tempo with a sensual feel.

“This is my favorite song! Do you wanna dance with me?” you asked excitedly.

“Uh… I have to carry these drinks to my friends, I'm sure I'm taking too long.” you follow his eyesight to see his group of friends looking at us. They quickly turn away. You giggled.

“I'll be back quickly.” Aaron rushed across the room to his friends. You bought a shot and threw it back instantly waiting for his return.

“We see you, lover boy.” Derek teased. Aaron dropped the drinks onto the table rolling his eyes.

“Go get ‘em Hotch.” Rossi urged. They yelled words of encouragement as he walked back to you.

“You're back.” you smiled

“Of course I am,” he said confidently.

You slowly take his hand leading him to the dark side of the club. You can feel Aaron's heated eyes on your body. Is he looking at my ass?

Your back is facing him as you press your ass as close as humanly possible to Arron’s front. You can hear him breathe in sharply. You took his hands and placed them around your waist. Peeking behind you, Aaron is looking down at you nervously, you smile reassuringly at him.

You intertwine your hands with him at your waist, slowly grinding on him, moving your waist to the rhythm of the slow, breathy music. You can feel his warm breath on your neck as you sway. Aaron is stiffly dancing along with you, giggling to yourself. You plan to quickly loosen him up and entrance him.

You bend your knees, leaning forward to display your ass more to him, gyrating slowly and sultry. You can feel a firm tent pressing on your ass. He stiffen, and unfortunately, your plan backfired. Straightening up, you look back at him to see his face red and stunned.

You asked him what was wrong.

He looks flustered," Isn't this dance a bit suggestive for the public."

You laughed at how cute he sounded.

"It's the club. This is how you dance. It's captivating and sexy." You smiled mischievously at him. "if it's too much for you we can take it slow."

He smiled, nodding at you. "I'm a gentleman. Maybe next time let me buy you dinner before you dance on me like that." He laughed.

"Definitely." you grinned, your face mirroring his.

The song changes into a more upbeat melody. You and Aaron continued to dance together for the rest of the night. You left the club that night with your friend but not without Aaron's number and a date next week. He was happy he made the decision to go out with the team tonight.

#aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotch x you #aaron hotchner #aaron hotch fanfiction #aaron hotchner x reader #criminal minds fanfic #criminal minds #bau family #aaron hotch fic #aaron hotch #aaron hotchner x black!reader

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ketsueki-k · 13 days

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Let’s talk about the real role of BAU agents!

The real dad of the BAU, who without showing his emotions, takes care of his family:

The rebellious big sister with a problem with authority:

the big brother who has trouble managing his emotions :

the youngest child who suffers from his family's mistakes and often finds himself defenseless :

The emotional little sister who looks like a fragile girl:

the aunt loving everyone a little too much to the point of sometimes forgetting to love herself:

the cool "dad" who goes against the laws and rules to protect his family:

Part 2 is coming!

#criminal minds #spencer reid #aaron hotchner #aj cook #bau team #david rossi #derek morgan #emily prentiss #jennifer jareau #paget brewster #esprits criminels #BAU #profilers #mathew gray gubler #shemar moore #joe mantegna #bau family

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skaybrekker · 1 month

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Teenage dream.

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Genius, Fem! Oc(they are not a couple, I wrote this more thinking about them as soulmates, but you can interpret that they are in love), BAU Team x Oc.

Warnings: talks about bloody cases that include rape and abuse. In one part, the reader is kidnapped, but before anything bad happens her team arrives. The only thing the kidnapper does is undo the bottoms of her shirt. There is though violence before that. Nightmares (mentions of them).

Summary: At the age of 20, Aurora Leids was already working at the BAU as part of one of the most important teams there were. However, due to her age, the agents that worked with her (that ended up becoming her family) were really protective of her, aware of how young she was. Here a five situations in which they showed this.

Tags: angst, kidnapping, abuse (explained in the warnings), violence, bloody cases, comfort, fluff, protective team.

Notes: English is not my first language, I’m sorry if there are any mistakes, I tried my best. The team in this fic is formed by Hotch, Reid, Emily, Rossi, JJ, Morgan and Penelope. Rossi and Penelope don’t really appear much, sorry about that. And I’m sorry if there are scenes that end too quickly, it took a lot of energy to write something so long.

Words: 11.1k

Aurora Leids was a genius. As simple as that.

And of course, she realized that her brain worked a little different from the rest when her classmates were learning to multiply numbers and she was, by then, capable of solving a few of the most difficult algebra problems there were out there. It was not just that; at the mere age of eight, the kid had learnt how to speak three languages; Spanish, English and Italian.

Her parents noticed as well and thank God, didn’t doubt it before sending her to a special school for genius kids. There, she graduated at a very young age and went directly to study criminal justice and political science. She knew what she wanted to do since years; becoming an FBI agent was one of her most valuable goals.

Obviously, she managed to accomplish it. At the age of 20, she was already working at the BAU as part of one of the most important teams there were. However, due to her age, the agents that worked with her (that ended up becoming her family) were really protective of her, aware of how young she was.

Here a few situations in which they showed this.

----------------------------------

So, here is a fact; Mandarin was one of the hardest languages to learn. To not say the hardest. There were many things that made this 100% true; the number of characters that it had, as well as the tones, between other things. Nevertheless, Aurora loved challenges. So, she spent four years of her life learning it.

It took time, more than what she would like to admit, a lot of willingness and intelligence. Yet, she managed to dominate it, making it the sixth language she was now fluent with. After that, she also learnt Portuguese and Latin and with that, she gave her ability to learn so many idioms a rest.

Aurora never though that mandarin would be actually useful outside of China since Mandarin Chinese was primarily spoken in that country. That was, until today’s case proved her wrong.

Serial killers weren’t weird to find. Over the years, her team caught a lot of them. But this one, shit. It made her skin crawl. Because this man was uncanny, bizarre and repulsive. It wasn’t just the fact that he killed one woman per day, after raping them several times while cutting their skins; it was also that he left audio recordings of everything that happened in these scenes.

The first time that Penelope heard them, she threw up. Several times. The agent managed to calm down only when Morgan talked her through, as usual. After all, they were each other best friend, just like her and Spencer.

Aurora didn’t throw up, but she felt the bill in her throat and by the looks that the rest of the team had, they were all feeling the same.

The man left the bodies in their houses; he didn’t bother in hiding them or the DNA he left in them. They were waiting for him to make a mistake, to get out of the routine. Today was the day. They caught the man trying to enter one of the houses, after determining his next victim with the victimology and Garcia’s help. However, they discovered that he had already kidnapped the woman in the house. When they finished searching his house and didn’t find anything, the only option they had was to interrogate him.

Yeah, one hour passed since then. Morgan couldn’t get anything out of him. Not even a word. The only thing he did was to look forward and keep his mouth shut.

That was, before they discovered that he was Chinese. They already knew that he was Asian, but it was as if the man was a fucking ghost; Garcia couldn’t find him in any data base, until she did.

“He probably speaks Mandarin, that’s why his accent was so marked and there were many words we couldn’t understand.” as always, Reid stating facts. A fact that made Aurora feel so fucking stupid.

Fuck. Fuck.

How the fuck she didn’t realize before?

“And what the fuck are we going to do now? Mandarin is hell of a language; we are going to have a really hard time trying to find a translator.” Morgan sighed, rubbing his face with his hands. They were all frustrated and in a bad mood; this case had to be one of the hardest and most horrible they ever worked with.

Now, they were all in one of the rooms that the local police left them from a small city in Ohio. Hotch was standing, leaning in one of the walls, with his usual thin lips and eyes burrowed. Rossi was sitting beside him, playing with a pen in his hand. Reid, Morgan and JJ were all sitting around the table, while Aurora choose to just sit in the table.

She bite her lip, clenching and unclenching her hands, until she spoke.

“I know how to speak Mandarin.” that made her the centre of attention immediately. Every head in the office turned around to observe her. Aurora grimaced. She hated having all this attention in herself; it always made her nervous.

“You kiddin.” Morgan said, his face written with disbelief. His eyebrows were raised, and he was looking at her as if she just said that she was the serial killer instead of that man. Aurora rolled her eyes.

“No, I’m not kidding, Morgan. I speak eight languages, Mandarin is one of them,” she glanced at Hotch, “you know that.”

The man clenched his jaw. Besides her, she felt how Spencer tensed up, already realizing of what she was implying.

“I didn’t remember that Mandarin was one of them.”

“Let me in. Let me speak with him.” Hotch instantly shocks his head. Of course, he was going to say no, but Aurora could be horrible persistent when it was needed.

“Yeah, no. No chance. I’m waiting for the translator.” Aurora dropped her shoulders, tilting her head.

“Sir, with all the respect, this is the faster and easier way. That woman could be dying out there if she’s not already dead. Please.” Spencer grabbed her arm, glancing at her with his eyebrows raised, questioning her words. Aurora just shook her head; when an idea was put in her head, nothing could stop her until she accomplishes it.

“He’s a serial killer. He raped several women, several times. I’m not letting you go in the same room as him!” his tone indicated that there was not room for arguing, but Aurora was not someone used to keep quiet.

“Hotch, please. I’m begging. Come with me, do whatever you want. But let me speak with him.” her boss got up and massaged his forehead. A few seconds later, he finally nodded. Aurora smiled, relaxing.

“Alright, fine. But me and Morgan are coming with you.”

“It’s too dangerous.” Spencer immediately disagreed and Aurora glared at him.

“I agree.” Emily backed up and the girl sighed.

“He’s in chains, he probably can’t move a lot and I’m pretty sure I’m too far away from his touch. I will be fine, you are all worrying too much.” it seemed that all the team wanted to argue with her; before they could say anything though, she spoke again. “I’m doing this, guys. End of discussion.”

||||||||

It was hard as fuck to glance at this man into his eyes. Those eyes that watched so many women die in his hands, after doing so many disgusting things with them, fuck. It made Aurora sick. Yet, she couldn’t focus on that. She had a job. And she was ready to finally use her ability of speaking Mandarin.

“Hello” that got her an instant reaction. For the first time since they brought the man in, he blinked and moved his head to one side. A ghost of a smile appeared in his lips. Aurora had to shallow the bill that appeared in her throat.

“Good afternoon, Lady.” disgusting man, fuck.

Control yourself.

“You are the first American I hear speaking my language.” he was glancing at her as if she was an animal pray and she knew that Hotch and Morgan could notice it, by how hard they were glaring the man.

“Am I? That’s sad. Even if it’s a really hard language, I’ve always thought that it was really beautiful.” they both stayed silent for some seconds, until Aurora decided to speak once again. “We need to know where the woman you kidnapped is.”

His response was to smirk. To fucking smirk. He probably enjoyed this, as most of the serial killers did. Aurora clenched her fist, thinking about how they could get something out of this attempt of human being. Then, she remembered something; they found a big number of books full of Chinese Proverbs in his house; Aurora always enjoyed reading them, amazed by their meanings. Maybe that could work.

After all, most of the serial killers loved to be entertained with something. They had this idea, that the rest of the people were toys that they could play with. Alright, Aurora was ready to start playing this game. A game she was determinant to win.

“While there are green hills, there will be wood to burn.”

Where there is life, there is hope.

Once again, she got his full attention. This time, he raised his eyebrows, and his smile was even bigger. And creepier. With this, she was trying to say that if they didn’t get proof that the woman was dead, they were assuming that she was still breathing.

“To slap a horse’s back.”

To try to be nice to get something out of someone.

He knew that she was using the proverbs to get something out of him, but she didn’t care. They were working. Why? Due to the fact that with only one, she already knew that the woman was still alive. Serial killers hated to be guilty of something they never did; they only killed the people they killed. So, if he had, in fact, killed the woman, he would have taken the time to deny that she was alive.

Before she could think about how to keep going, he beat her.

“To climb a tree to catch fish.”

A lost cause. No, no. This couldn’t be a lost cause.

“Freezing into three feet depth can’t be done in one day.”

Don’t give up and you’ll see results.

At this, the man fucking laughed. Laughed at her face. Alright, making him laugh was definitely not what she was looking for. Aurora blinked, confused, until he spoke once again.

“Fine, you made me had a good time, agent and indeed, you know really well how to speak my language.” the sudden change of language made Aurora tilt her head. What the fuck? But then, it clicked. The entertainment worked.

The man glanced at Hotch, who seemed to be really close to knock this man up.

“The woman is in an abandoned house in the middle of the North Forest.”

||||||||

“What the fuck happened in there?” Emily immediately questioned her just when they got out of the room. Aurora was still a little bit shaken and dizzy. Mandarin was a language that required a lot of concentration and to go from this to English so damn fast made her headache worsen.

“I-I just talked to him. He was surprised that I could speak Mandarin, said that I was the first American he heard speak it. I quickly realized that I was not going to get anything just with that, so I remembered the number of books full of Chinese proverbs we found in his house. I love Chinese proverbs; they are so interesting and amazing. I used to read about them all the time and-. Sorry, I’m rambling. I just thought about tell him a couple of the ones I know, just to entertain him. We know how serial killers love this. The first one I said, it means ‘where there is life, there is hope´ like saying that if he didn’t deny it, the woman for us was still alive. He answered with something like about doing something to get something out of someone. He knew what I was doing. Then he spoke again, basically telling me that what I was doing was a last cause and I just replied with something about hope. And well then, he just laughed and confessed as y’all saw.” everyone in the room was looking at her as if they were impressed with what she had done. What she didn’t know was that indeed, they were impressed.

“You did a great job, Aurora.” Hotch told her and she widened her eyes, surprised. It was not normal to hear this kind of praise coming from their boss, but it made her feel this warm feeling in her chest. So, she smiled, happy.

“You really surprised us there, pretty girl.” Morgan praised, kissing her in the forehead and Aurora let out a shushed laugh, softly shocking her head. At the beginning she was just like Reid with physical affection; every little touch made her jumpy and uncomfortable. Yet, that ended up changing and now, sometimes, it was her the one that reached out for that comfort.

Emily and Reid also told her the good job she did, and Gideon just smiled to her, but that was enough for her. It was really hard to impress such an agent as the very same Jason Gideon, so that little recognition, it was enough. For her.

||||||||

Aurora loved cooking. It was something that helped calming her down and that made her disconnect from everything. People usually said that she was really good at doing this; receiving compliments about her foods always made her giggly. It was one of the few hobbies she had, something that didn’t require any type of intelligent; that what made it special.

Obtaining compliments about her mental capacity was not something weird; she was already used to. She knew how smart she was and how high her IQ was, Aurora didn’t need anyone telling her that. However, compliments about her cooking were different because of that; it was not something she was used to.

When her team discovered her cooking abilities, they were absolutely amazed. And after insisting, they managed to convince Aurora to cook for one member every day.

Mondays, for Hotch. Tuesdays, Rossi. Wednesday, Emily. Thursday, Reid. Friday, Derek. Saturday, Garcia. Sunday, JJ.

It didn’t take much of an effort to persuade her to do this. Honestly, cooking was one of her favourite ways of expressing her love for the people she cared about.

Today, it was Thursday, the very same day they caught the Chinese man and Aurora interrogated him. They had already come back to Virginia and now, they were all filling the reports. Thinking ahead before leaving to Ohio, she left two lunch boxes with food for when they came back in the fridge.

“Dinner is here!” she exclaimed, giving Reid one of the lunch boxes. He gave her a big smile, probably a little confused based in his quizzical expression, since he was not expecting this. When he noticed the pasta, he laughed, knowing that it was one of her best dishes.

“This is literally the best. Thanks, Rora.”

For this occasion, she cooked an Italian pasta, with a sauce called “Pesto Genovese.” Italian food was always the one that she enjoyed cooking the most, after all, she had loved pasta as long as she remembered.

“You don’t know how much I envy you, Reid.” Morgan commented. Spencer stuck his tongue out in his direction and the older man gasped in fake surprise.

“JJ!” the blonde chuckled watching their interaction; it was as if she was watching two little kids bothering each other. While they started to eat, Morgan and JJ sat closer to them.

“I didn’t know you could speak eight languages, pretty girl.” the older man changed the topic and Aurora grimaced.

“I thought you all did.” she just lifts her shoulders, grabbing another bite of her pasta. She shouldn’t say this, but it was pretty good.

“Which ones do you know?” JJ asked, sounding genuinely curious and Aurora smiled.

“Well English obviously, Spanish, Italian, French, Latin, Japanese, Portuguese and Mandarin.” all of them lifted their heads clearly amazed by her words and the girl blushed. It was something so normal for her to know eight languages that she usually forgot how shocking it could be for others.

“That’s crazy.” Derek huffed out, letting out a loud laugh that cracked a smile in Aurora’s face.

---------------------------

It was the first time that Aurora fitted in the victimology of the serial killer perfectly. At the point in which it was fucking scary. Especially for her. And for the team as well. They were acting a lot more overprotective that usually. They didn’t let her alone for one second.

Reid was always there when she needed coffee or something to eat, not letting her go anywhere and going there to get anything for her. Morgan didn’t let her out of his sight for a second, coming with her to revise every one of the scenes. JJ didn’t make it too obvious, but Aurora always felt her presence when they were in the police department of Florida, where they were working this case. Hotch and Emily kept her, intentionally, always as close to them as they could.

Rossi was not as protective as the rest, but Aurora noticed how unusually angry this case made him, lashing out all the time, due to the stress of not being able to solve it.

Two days later after they arrived, they managed to finally capture the guy they had as a primary suspect. Nevertheless, they had a problem; they didn’t have all the proof needed to show that he was, indeed, the killer. He didn’t leave any DNA in the scenes; they couldn’t get any video of the man or any testimony. All that they had was a drawing from a victim that escaped and a tape of his voice and another victim’s voice they found in one of the houses.

It wasn’t enough and they were running out of time. Hotch, Gideon and Morgan had already tried everything they could. Nothing worked. And of course, Aurora had already thought about a plan. A plan that nobody was going to like, but well, whatever.

“You should let me interrogate him.” after her words, the room fell totally in silent. Once again, they were all looking at her. This was becoming more common that what Aurora would like.

“Are you crazy, woman?”

“No.”

“That’s not happening.”

“Aurora, I love you, but this is a big no.”

“Are you out of your mind?”

She got all the replies in one second.

Morgan. Hotch. Reid. JJ. Emily. In that order.

The girl waved her arms widely, letting out a big sigh. She understood their behaviour, she really did, but fuck it was so frustrating. They were acting as if she was a little girl that needed protection when she was not little and didn’t need protection.

“Fuck’s sake, you guys. I’m not someone who needs protection, I know pretty well how to defend myself. So, thank you, it’s cute, but man. This is the only way. If any of you have a better plan, please! Share it with the class.” silence was all she got as an answer. The girl huffed out, rolling her eyes.

“She’s right.” after hearing Rossi, all of them immediately protested. The man scratched the back of his neck, a clear signal that he was as frustrated as everyone was. “I know, I know. I like it as much as you do. But we are running out of options, and we need his confession. We can’t let this man out, under any circumstances.” Aurora smiled satisfied. Hotch bite his lip a couple of times before nodding. Derek and Spencer both seemed as if they wanted to clearly disagree; Aurora glared at them with all her strength.

“Fine, but-”

“Yes, yes, you and Morgan come with me, I know.”

|||||||||

Just as she stepped in the room, the man instantly looked up and Aurora noticed how his expression quickly changed. Now, he was wearing a confident face, with a what someone would call a flirty smile. He straightened and cleared his throat.

“And who are you, sweetheart?” then, he looked at Morgan and Hotch, “you really brought me a beautiful gift.” they immediately started to walk closer to the man, probably ready to beat him up, but Aurora put her hands up and stopped them.

“It’s okay.” she whispered, smiling to the boys. She heard the man laughing but choose to ignored it and walk directly to the chair in front of him.

“Bossy, eh? I like you.” Aurora didn’t let the man get her. Instead, she glanced firmly at him, staying like that, for about three minutes. The man seemed to get more impatient at every second that went through.

“My name is Agent Leids and I think that both of us know why we are here.” she finally spoke, putting her arms above the table and softly tilting her head. The man, once again, laughed.

“Do we, Agent Leids?” this wasn’t a strange strategy that people choose to use when they were accused. In was weird in serial killers, though. However, there were many options to break the act. And Aurora knew exactly which one to use to make it work this time.

“You know, this case had become really famous. Many women called us, scared of this mysterious man.” his smile was becoming bigger and bigger. “Yet, there is a problem. If we don’t know who this man is, this case is probably going to be forgotten.” it sounded stupid, because it was stupid. That was not true. An absolutely 100% lie. Yet, he would probably believe it. During the case, he demonstrated several times the level of stupidity he had.

So, of course, he fell for the lie. His smile was whipped out of his face and now, he was frowning. It wasn’t common for them to catch serial killers that were not really smart, but it seemed that this time they got lucky.

“What the fuck are you talking about?” Aurora had to resist the smile that was about to adorn her lips.

“Well, if we don’t know who it is, nobody would remember it. After all, it would be just a case that we failed to solve. Why should we let it remain in people’s memories? In some weeks, nobody is going to remember who this man was.” she shuddered, knowing that this was definitely a lie. If they didn’t catch this man, people were probably going to become even more paranoid than they already were. However, this man didn’t need to know that.

Her last comment finally made him exploit; the reaction that Aurora was looking for.

“YOU BITCH!” he hit the table while standing up and Hotch and Morgan reacted right away, stepping in front of her but Aurora stayed in her place, refusing to move, frozen. Now, the killer was glancing at her from above, with a finger signalling directly at her. “Nobody would forgive me. I did every single thing to make this case special. This is going to be legendary. People will always remember me, especially the families of the women’s I killed.” finally.

After hearing this, Aurora stood up, smiling.

“That’s exactly what we needed. Thank you!” when she finally got out of the room, Aurora let out the breath that she was holding. Fuck, fuck. Her heartbeat was too fucking loud, and her hands were now shaking.

She hated herself for that. It wasn’t anything weird, she just talked to the serial killer, something that his colleagues did all the time. She did it all the time. Then, why was she feeling like this? Why this time was any different?

“Hey, hey, Aurora, listen to me.” Reid was the first one to react, walking closer to the girl and softly putting his hands in her shoulders. As a first reaction, she flinched, but when she comprehended that it was Spencer the one that was touching her, she relaxed. “Everything is alright. You are alright.” Aurora nodded, several times.

“I know, I know.” she mumbled, still a little shaken and lost.

Weak, weak. You are weak.

Then, Spencer decided to bring her to his chest, hugging her and there, Aurora finally let her shoulders lose all tense, sighing and putting her arms around his body, feeling finally safe.

“Aurora.” Hotch softly said a few minutes later. She broke the hug, but keep Reid’s warm body close, needing some kind of comfort, and glanced at her boss. Even if he would never admit it, Aurora knew that he had some kind of soft spot for her. Morgan had repeatedly remarked this every time he could. Garcia often told her that it was pure envy. “You are not weak. It’s normal to react like that after noticing how that man was looking at you. You did a good job.” the girl smiled at him, grateful, and nodded.

“Yeah, it’s alright. I’m just a little shaken.”

“A coffee might fix that?” JJ loved to take care of the members of the team. They usually called it her mama spirit.

“Definitely.”

-----------------------------------

Aurora knew that something was wrong the instant she opened the door of her apartment. Morgan brought her, after a case that left all of them tired out. Hotch ordered them to go home and rest, saying that they all deserve it. Nobody complaint, obviously.

She lived a couple of blocks from Derek, so he always took her home after work, since she still didn’t know how to drive. They had already promised with Reid to learn how to the next year. For now, she intended to keep this routine that the pair had gotten used to.

Even if she was totally worn out, the girl noticed straight away that there was another presence in the place. Many ideas crossed her mind, yet the quickest was to go by herself with the gun in her hand. Calling Derek would take too much time and she didn’t know what to expect, so, she preferred to keep only herself in danger for now.

Pointing her gun up, she started to slowly walk to the kitchen. Once she arrived there, she turned on the lights and when she saw who was waiting for her, she growled. Fucking shit, now? Couldn’t this happen tomorrow for Christ’s sake? All Aurora wanted was her bed to sleep for more than four hours. That’s all she asked. However, it seemed that life just hated her.

“Hello little sister.”

Yes, her big brother was the one waiting for her. She had even forgotten that he had a copy of her keys. In which moment did she think that doing that would be a good idea? My God. Even geniuses like her could be really stupid when they wanted.

He was just the same as he was two years ago, the last time she had seen him. Dirty, messed up and probably wasted.

“What the fuck are you doing here? Are you going to ask me for money? Please. Get out of here, Chris. Now.” she demanded, still with her gun in her hand.

They never had a good relationship. Due to the fact that Aurora was what people would classify as a genius, her brother envied her from a young age. She was always the perfect little miss, and she knew that he hated that. The one that made her parents proud, the example.

So, he started to bully her since she was fourteen. Made her go through hell with his friends until she finally decided to abandon the house after her parents died in an accident four years ago. Aurora hated him. She had always wanted the big brother that took care of her, that protected her. Yet, that was not what life had given her. At least, not with blood.

“My, my. That’s how receive your big brother?” he got up and Aurora gave a step back. She didn’t know the type of damage that her brother could cause in this state. He was clearly drunk and probably drugged as well. That image of him made her eyes tear a bit. Why did he have to be like this? Why couldn’t he keep being the sweet big brother he was when she was little?

“Please, Chris. Just get out. Do both of us a favour. I don’t want to make a scene.” she was practically begging. Although, her brother just laughed. Laughed at her face. And kept walking closer and closer, until she had her caged like a pray.

“Little sister, you know I don’t take orders from you.” Tequila. His breath was easy to recognize and due to how dilated his pupils where, he was probably high in marijuana. He had been an addict since their parents died, it was not something weird, but this made him even more dangerous that what he already was when he was sober.

“Get out of my house, Christian. I won’t repeat myself.” she had expected many things. Screams, things throw, but not a punch. In her face.

He punched her straight in her right cheek, making her stumble and fall to the floor. She bite her lip, not letting the cry of pain out and got up right away. It hurt like a bitch, but she was not about to show any type of weaknesses in front of him. Without hesitation, she hit her brother in the face and kicked him, making him fall directly into the sofa. There, he punched the boy a couple more of times, until she could stop considering him as a threat.

“I told you to get out. Now do it if you don’t want me to break your ribs, Christian. You know that I know how to do it and how to do it even more painful.” the boy snorted in her face, but finally got up and left the house, not before breaking some things she had in her house. When he finally got out, closing the door, Aurora let her wobbly legs fail and fell into the floor, becoming a mess of sobs.

She never asked for this. All that she wanted was to have a good family, to be accepted even if she was special. But what she got was death parents and an addicted brother who hated her. Fuck.

|||||||

It was not easy to hide a bruise in her face. It was always easier to hide bruises in literally every place, but in the face. This, sadly, was not the first time that something like that happened. The girl had already hidden her bruises several times.

Damn you Christian Leids.

Even if she was complaining, punches in the face never hurt that much. The worst ones were in the stomach. God if she had broken ribs, so many times she couldn’t even try to count them.

Aurora had to use an insane amount of make up, so she just used a hat and tried to not look at the faces of the team, avoiding them as much as she could and doing everything she could alone. It was easier this way. She knew that they already know that obviously something was wrong, but maybe if she keep going like this, she could brush it later as just exhaustion.

However, she should have known that Derek was too fucking stubborn.

After capturing the UnSub, she didn’t have any other option than driving back to the airport in the same car as Derek. She kept her sight fixed in the window, refusing to look at him in any way. Of course, he got tired of this.

“Would you fucking look at me, Aurora?” he finally demanded when his patience quickly ran out. The girl bite the inside of her cheek, not wanting to talk.

“Why would you want me to look at you?” suddenly, he turned the car around and stopped it in the middle of the street in which they were. Aurora yelped due to the sudden reaction. “What the hell, Derek?”

“Look at me, Aurora. I’m not driving this car until you look at me.” the girl let out a couple of curses, until she finally sighed and decided to fulfil Derek’s demand. After all, she didn’t doubt the man’s words. He was not driving this car until she did that.

When she glanced at him, he softly grabbed her cheeks and the girl let out a groan of pain. Derek’s eyes darkened and he tilted her head to the left, looking straight at the bruise she tried to cover up the best that she could during the day.

“You tell me what happen, now.” He growled, driving the car to one of the sides of the rode, not standing in the middle of it anymore. Aurora rolled her eyes, but felt somehow, grateful with his clear concern. It always felt good to know that they worried about her, it felt as if she had someone in her life. Because outside her team, she truly didn’t have anyone.

“I’m okay.” the man just raised his eyebrows. When the girl refused to talk for a couple more of seconds again, he gritted his teeth.

“Who did this to you, Aurora? Don’t make me go to Hotch.”

“You are going to Hotch anyway.” she knew that it was true. Derek had this instinct of taking care of the younger ones and he never hesitated to go to talk to their boss when the situation demanded this. The man in front of her clenched his jaw.

“Yes, I will. So, either way I’m going to find out what happened. You tell me know or I find out when you tell the rest of the team.” her relationship with her brother was never something that she really wanted to share, even if somehow it was important. It always made her feel so much shame and besides that, she never found the ideal situation to tell her team that her brother was a horrible human being.

Aurora sighed, knowing that she didn’t have much of a choice here.

“Fine, okay, you win.” Derek was still looking directly at her, expecting the answer he wanted. She bite her lip, nervous. What would his reaction be? She had never told anyone about this. He was going to be the first to find out about the little problems she had with her family. “I had a small fight with my brother. You should see him, really.” she tried to joke, yet Derek’s expression was anything but happy.

“Did you just say that your brother hit you?” he raised his eyebrows, his face twitching and Aurora just nodded, not knowing really how to handle the situation.

“We, obviously, don’t have the best relationship and well, let’s say that we had a disagreement, and it didn’t end well.” I mean, she knew that the situation was not normal, but for her it was.

“Aurora, you are telling me this as if this was a diary thing.” Aurora scratched her neck, grimacing. It wasn’t exactly a diary thing, but it wasn’t the first time that this happened.

“It’s not a diary thing, but I’m, I just I don’t have a good relationship with him. That’s it. We hate each other and it have always been like that.” the girl was brushing off the problem making it pretty obvious. It was so uncomfortable to talk about this and thank God, Morgan noticed. He just huffed out.

“This conversation is not over.”

|||||||

Aurora had hoped that Morgan would magically forget about this. Of course, he didn’t. After arriving to the airport and boarding the plane, the first thing that he did was asking for a first-aid kit.

“What? Why do you need it?” JJ asked him, frowning. Derek just raised his eyebrows and pointed his finger in Aurora’s direction. She rolled her eyes, showing him the middle finger. The blonde ignored the whole scene and walked in her direction, grabbing her face and noticing right away the ugly bruise in her cheek. “What the hell, Aurora?”

At her words, everyone turned around. The girl knew that the makeup had already disappear and her bruise could already be seen, so, she wasn’t surprised when they all got up at the same time, concern written in their faces.

Spencer was the one closer to her, as usual, so he was the first one that carefully grabbed her chin with one of his hands and tilted her head to the left, leaving the bruise at everyone’s sight.

“It seems pretty recent. Last night if I’m not mistaken.” his face was furrowed deeply in concern. He was looking at her with those puppy eyes that usually charmed people to do anything he wanted. Doing this, he managed to get Aurora to apologize.

“Sorry.” she mumbled. From the start she knew that it would be stupid to hid this from the team, but old habits hardly die. Spencer shook slowly his head, smiling at her, rubbing her left cheek softly. At his actions, her heartbeat increased, and she felt the blush covering her face.

“Who did this to you?” Hotch asked; he had his lip tight, and his eyebrows furrowed, glancing directly at her without moving his sight. Aurora swallowed, suddenly feeling more nervous than before. It was one thing to tell one person about her problems and it was another thing to tell the whole team. Noticing her feelings, Spencer angled her face to look at him.

“It’s okay, Aurora. We are not angry. You can trust all of us.” deep inside, she knew that they weren’t angry, but fuck. It was a difficult situation, alright? She had never been confronted with this topic and the girl didn’t know how to deal with it.

“Let’s just say that I, um, I have a big brother. And well, I never had a good relationship with him, we basically hate each other. He is a drug addicted since my parents died a couple of years ago and well, last night, he suddenly showed up at my apartment. He was, indeed, wasted and drunk. We had a little argument in which I tried to kick him out and out of the blue he hit me. Obviously, I hit him too after that a couple of times and I managed to get him out of my house.” when she finished talking, Spencer immediately grabbed her hands and he noticed how they were bruised as well. Nothing major, but they might need to be disinfected.

“Your brother?” Aaron asked with his eyebrows raised and Aurora just shuddered. Trying to make her problems seem less than what they were was something she got used to since a really young age. After some seconds more of pure silence, without saying anything JJ grabbed the quit and took out some cotton and the antiseptic.

“Emily, please bring the ice pack that’s in the fridge.” the woman softly took her hands and put the antiseptic in the bruises. Aurora had to hold a groan of pain, fuck, she had forgotten how much it burn. Observing her reaction, JJ bite her lip. “Sorry.”

Aurora chuckled, shaking her head.

“It’s nothing.” she mumbled, giving her a small smile.

“Is this something normal?” Reid asked after some time, while Aurora was applying herself the ice in the cheek, trying to make the swelling go down. Aurora blinked, confused. Then, she remembered the topic they were talking about. Oh.

In what sense normal? I mean, it didn’t happen every week, but it wasn’t the first time that she had to go through this. Rough childhood.

“I don’t think so.” stupid answer, she knew it from the moment it came out of her mouth.

“You don’t think so?!” Derek replied, widening his eyes and standing up.

“No, no, I mean, fuck.” she grumbled, rubbing her face. Once again, Reid started to pat slowly her arm, looking at her with that cute smile and those shining eyes.

“It’s okay.” he whispered, trying to calm her down. It worked, obviously. At the end of the day, Spencer was her anchor to earth.

“It’s not something that happens weekly if that’s the question. The last time I saw him was two years ago. It did happen more often that I would like to admit when I was younger, but well. Nothing I can do for that now.”

“You shouldn’t have gone through that, Aurora.” Hotch softly replied to her, his gaze full of empathy and, thank God, not pity.

“I know.” she whispered, forming a small smile in her face, trying to calm the rest of the team.

----------------

When Aurora started to work for the BAU, getting kidnapped was not part of her list of to do things. Due to the risks of her work, she knew that it could happen, yet it was something that seemed so impossible.

Well, sometimes the impossible could be, instead, the improbable.

The case they were working was one in a million.

It started when woman began to disappear in LGBT clubs in New Jersey and then appeared in the forest dead, with clear marks of rape and violence. After it happened with four women, they decided to finally call the FBI.

The profile they gave was like this; a woman, probably between her 20s and 30s, extroverted and charming, good at talking and that could probably go unnoticed, lesbian but probably the people around her didn’t know.

They were right about everything, by the way.

When she was taken, they were investigating one of the forests they had found one of the victims. Aurora walked away a little from the rest, getting quickly lost. While she was trying to get some signal to call her team, something hit her in the head making her black out.

She woke up in what it seemed to be some kind of basement. During the pleasant trip her kidnapper took her, she remembered some pieces here and there. If she could focus enough, she could probably get the address of this house. It wasn’t a big town and they had already driven around the place for different motives. She knew her way.

Yet, it wasn’t easy. The concussion the woman left her didn’t help in the slightest. It was probably light, based in her symptoms. Feeling tired, foggy vision, the headache that felt as if her head was about to be split open, doziness, between other things. And, as if that wasn’t enough, she also felt a strong pain in her chest area every time she fucking breathed.

Broken rib. Concussion. Great. This couldn’t get any better, really.

“Well, hello there, love. You finally woke up!” holy fucking shit, what was the need of speaking that loud? She could feel her head literally beat, making her clench her jaw to resist the groan of pain. When her vision finally became cleared, she saw the woman for the first time.

Tall, probably twenty-five years old, brunette, blue eyes, sharp jaw, honestly if Aurora came across this woman in the street, she would probably think that she was a supermodel, not a fucking serial killer. She had this smirk in her face that showed clear superiority, standing 100% straight and looking down at Aurora.

She didn’t react. Instead, she choose to glare at the woman and then carefully inspect her surroundings. Clearly, she was tied up, sat in a chair in the middle of the room. Moving her wrists and toes was impossible based in how hard she had tied the knots of a thick brown rope. There were three computers in front of her and a camera was pointing directly at her, with the red light that indicated that it was on.

“Oh, you already noticed the camera. Of course, I didn’t expect anything less from an FBI agent. Say hello to your friends!” Aurora whipped her head around to observe the woman, her eyes widened, and eyebrows raised. Yet, she regretted moving too fast, action that made her whole-body tremble in pain. She hissed (thing that also hurt), but still looked directly at the woman.

“My friends?” her voice was raspy and the thirst she felt immediately became a problem. Based in her voice, her hunger and the light that came through the small windows, about ten hours happened between this moment and the moment she was kidnapped.

The woman, that she was about to nickname as Maniac, let out a laud laugh (that made her headache once again).

“Yes! Your friends! I’m broadcasting this to them! I’m sure that they are loving it.”

Stupid fucking mistake.

A plan was already forming quickly in her head, after finally being able to locate the house, she was in. Based in the number of turns, directions, how she could look at the sun, the trees she managed to observe and the house in front of this one, she got it. It was about twenty minutes away from the police station, and the street was Franklin, 291.

So, Reid and she had been best friends from the very first moment she entered the BAU; most of the times, they felt that the only ones that could understand them were each other. Trying to find a way of communicating that only them would interpret, the obvious idea was Morse Code.

Aurora, as the fanatic of languages she was, already knew how to speak it. It didn’t take too much for Reid to learn it and it became, somehow, their secret language. It could be a little bit childish, but God, how much she thanked that they had taken the time to do this.

After glancing at the camera and quickly looking away, she started to slowly and quietly, press her finger to the chair, praying that Reid would be capable of understanding was she was doing. It couldn’t be this easy, though.

“So, Aurora, that’s your name, right?” she just nodded, guessing that answering her would be the better option, still focused on the Morse Code. “As I guess that you already know, I enjoy a lot of hurting people. Are you ready to give a little show for your people?”

She finished. Franklin 291. Those were the words she spoke.

Please, please, let this work.

A sudden slap in her face made her gasp. She should have seen this coming, fuck.

|||||||||

“FUCK!” Derek hit the wall in front of him, rage shining through his eyes. The whole team was on edge; their youngest agent was kidnapped. One of their biggest fears became finally real. Garcia was doing everything she could to try to get the fucking address, but it was as if nothing was working for them.

It hurt to observe Aurora it such a weak state and it made them feel a desperation that horrified them; it was a sensation that they never wanted to feel again.

Spencer had tears in his eyes. His chest was close, and it hurt to breath. However, that was not important. Not right now. Not when his girl was about to be tortured in front of them and none could do absolutely anything.

That was, until he noticed how Aurora quickly glanced at the camera and then glanced back at the woman. Blinking, he observed how she started to move silently her fingers and when he understood what she was doing, he let out a yelp.

“GIVE ME SOMETHING TO WRITE!” the team jumped at the sudden scream, but Emily reacted and gave him some paper with a pencil she had at hand from Penelope.

.._. / ._. / ._ / _. / _._ / ._.. /.. / _.

.._ _ _ / _ _ _ _ . / . _ _ _ _

“Franklin 292. That’s the address. THAT’S THE ADDRESS!” they didn’t question him. Right away, Hotch started to yell instructions and they all ran.

||||||||||

“ANSWER ME” Maniac yelled, spitting in her face and she nodded.

“YES! Yes, yes.” the fear was starting to grow inside her, suddenly getting how dangerous this situation was. Focusing so much in analysing the whole scenario, she didn’t realize that the worst part was right in front of her. Maniac had killed woman, raped them getting off in hurting them.

And she was probably about to do the same with her.

Panic started to fill her chest and her breath became quicker, thing that made her pain in the chest became even worst.

The slap made her dizzy, her sight whiting out. When she came back, the woman already had a knife with her, and the psychopath smile she wore made Aurora gulp. She was strong as fuck and she was pretty sure she could take her out in a fight, but like this? Weak was a small word to describe how she felt.

“So, let’s begin.”

Aurora already knew how this was going to go. The woman kept the same MO for very victim, and she doubted that this was going to be any different. The first wounds were always the same; two large cuts in the thighs, one in each one. Neither of them was too deep, avoiding the risk of the victim bleeding out.

When she finished, she made some cuts in the face of the victim and then, the next step was the rape. They had found some random haematomas, probably a result of making the UnSub angry. It wouldn’t be really smart to anger the woman, but now, Aurora understood the victims.

The first cut made her grunt in pain, yet she refused to show any sign of pain. She kept a straight face, looking directly at the woman, with her jaw clench. That seemed too unsatisfied her since the next cut was a little bit deeper and she dragged the knife slower, searching to have a better reaction.

Aurora wasn’t planning on giving her that. And she knew that doing this, she was starting to make Maniac losing her patience.

The punch should come at any time now.

“Fuck you.” she gasped, refusing to look anywhere that it wasn’t her kidnapper’s eyes.

And, yes, she was right. Eight seconds after (blame Spencer for sticking to her the mania of always keeping the exact track of time), the woman hit her straight in the face. This time, she couldn’t hold the moan of pain.

Her breath inched and fucking shit, she didn’t know that a broken nose could hurt this much. Her eyes were teary and her whole body was shaking. Even though she felt weaker than never, Aurora gather the saliva with the blood in the mouth and spite in the face of the woman, thing that made her laugh.

“Oh, how much I love when they are nasty.”

Then, she proceeded to grab her jaw and slowly started to cut her left cheek. Without being able to hold it, she let out a cry, tears falling from her eyes. When she finished with the cut, after looking directly at it for one or two minutes, still with a creepy smile in her face, she left the knife in the floor and Aurora gulped, the need to throw up increasing every moment it went through.

Maniac took the buttons of her shirt and started to slowly undo them.

“NO!” she screamed and kept screaming the same word, probably hurting her vocal cords, moving her whole body as much as she could, desperation totally filling her instincts. This couldn’t happen, no. Please. “PLEASE, STOP!” her sobs were totally broken and hearing her, the only reaction she got was a laugh.

Before she could keep actually going with this torture, they both heard some noise upstairs. At first, Aurora didn’t notice, until she saw how the smile in the woman’s face was whipped out.

“IN HERE!” she couldn’t remember a time in her life in which she had screamed so fucking loud. The woman didn’t have any time to react; one second, she was panicking and the next, they were throwing her door down.

“FBI! GET AWAY FROM HER AND PUT YOUR HANDS BEHIND YOU HEAD!” surprisingly, she did it immediately. Aurora couldn’t hold the low laugh that left her. So, after all, she was actually just a fucking coward.

“Coward.” she gasped out, regretting it quickly after feeling how much it hurt to fucking talk. She coughed, spitting blood.

“Aurora.” Morgan was the first one that looked at her. His face made Aurora felt sick; he gave the impression that he didn’t get any sleep any time soon, dark bags decorated his eyes. Hotch didn’t seem to be any different, just like Emily and Spencer. She couldn’t blame them, knowing how the situation was looking. Aurora probably had her face full of blood, her thigs the same.

They unleashed her and for the first time in hours, she felt the blood rushing through her wrist and toes. Sighing, she tried to get up. However, her legs failed, and she almost fell down, if it wasn’t for Derek; not a surprise, he had the quickies reflexes between all of them. However, when he grabbed her, she fell into an immediate panic.

“NO! DON’T TOUCH ME!” she tried to get away from the hold, cries leaving her mouth.

“AURORA! Please, it’s me. Derek, Derek Morgan! You’re okay, you’re safe.” when she finally recognized the voice, she relaxed after letting out a sob out of relief.

“WE NEED AN AMBULANCE!”

“Aurora, hey, hey.” now that the adrenaline was going down, she started to actually feel the consequences of the wounds and her light concussion. Yet, when she heard how worried Spencer’s sounded, she tried her best to focus on the boy. “Rora, we need to know your wounds.” she didn’t really understand him, all she could think about was that they found her thanked to him.

“You understood.” she said with her raspy and trembling voice. Trying what he could to calm her down, Spencer took her hands in his and smiled in her direction.

“Yes, yes, of course I did, love. But I need you to focus for me, alright?” blinking, she just nodded. “Okay, that’s good. What hurts, Aurora? What’s wrong?”

Everything hurt. She couldn’t answer that, obviously, so doing the best she could, she tried to find the worst wounds and remember which ones hurt the most.

“I think I have a slight concussion, probably a broken rib. She punched me in the face, broken nose and lip. Two cuts in my thighs, large but neither of them deep. And one in the cheek-” before she could keep going, she let out a gasp and grabbed her stomach, yelping in pain. Her sobs made everything worst.

The following moments were pretty unclear for her. She probably blacked out and back several times. When she finally woke up, Aurora noticed that she was, thank God, in a fucking hospital instead of that goddamn basement. And the whole team was sleeping in the same room as here.

She smiled, feeling a warm sensation spread through her chest. Knowing them, this was probably the first time they actually slept in days. The team had already gone through this with Spencer once, even remembering those days hurt; she couldn’t imagine the desperation they had to go through.

“Aurora, you are awake.” Hotch was the first one to notice, opening his eyes some minutes later probably hearing her move. Aurora grimaced.

“Sorry for waking you up.” he immediately shook his head. After she talked, all of them woke up; hearing her must be the thing that made them react. They all jolted up, getting up from the places they were sleeping, Hotch, Emily and Spencer in a coach, Derek from the floor.

“Pretty girl.” he mumbled, sprinting in her direction and taking her hands in his. She smiled, trying to make him feel less worried.

“You all saved my life. Thank you.” it still bothered her to speak. However, she couldn’t hold this. She needed to thank them.

“Don’t talk. We know it hurts. You were right, you have a broken rib.” Spencer replied right away.

||||||

Hotch let her take some days off after the event. When she went back, everything felt normal once again. Or at least, she was trying her best to making it look normal. But her nightmares and panic was becoming worse over the days and her ability to hide it had a limit, as everything did.

It was the third day in a row that she only got hours to sleep. She was barely surviving on a basis of coffee and the sleep she could get in the plane. Every day it became more difficult to close her eyes and fall in sleep; every time she fucking tried, she woke up screaming, feeling the woman’s hands all over her body.

And the team was begging to notice. She had it coming, after all she worked with fucking profilers. It was impossible for them to not notice, even with that promise of not profiling each other.

“Aurora.” Spencer spoke and she turned around. He was glancing at her with a face full of concern and probably slightly judging the fact that this was her, fourth? Or fifth coffee, she couldn’t really remember.

“Spencer! Hi! Do you need something?” even if she tried to mask her weariness, she was probably doing a disaster of a job because fuck, she was even tired by the mere thought of keeping this act going on.

And her theory was confirmed by the look on Spencer’s face.

“Can we talk for a little bit?”

Aurora wanted to say no. She wanted to refuse, to answer him that there was nothing they needed to talk about, but she knew that those things were lies.

“Fine.”

She followed him until they arrived in one room, where the whole team was, probably waiting for them. Aurora frowned, tensing her shoulders. She didn’t like how this seemed, as if they were planning to do this without her knowledge.

“Aurora, we are going to be straightly blunt here. We know that you are not sleeping well. Let us help you to find a solution.” As always, Hotch went directly to the point, as expected. Aurora liked that; like that, she didn’t become so nervous before somebody finally talked.

She sighed, sitting down in one of the chairs and stayed in silence for a few minutes.

They waited.

“Alright, yes. I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see her, and I wake up screaming. After that, I usually can’t fall sleep again, terrified that if I do, I will have to see her face again.” Aurora finally admitted aloud what was happening to her. Their eyes showed a mix of pity and sadness.

Derek was the first one to get up, kneeling in front of her, taking the girl’s hands.

“Why didn’t you tell us?” he softly asked, with his eyebrows raised. She sighed, shaking her head.

“I didn’t want to bother anyone.”

“You could never bother us, Aurora.” Emily immediately replied and everyone in the room quickly agreed. Her eyes became teary, asking herself what she did to deserve such a warm and welcoming family.

Growing up, it was always hard to fall apart since everyone always expected her to be perfectly fine, since she was indeed, the perfect girl. Yet, the number of breakdowns she had were countless. Aurora always had to suffered them alone, so, she became used to be comforted only by herself. And it was hard to admit that maybe, only maybe, she didn’t have to keep suffering these kinds of things alone.

“You didn’t have them while we were staying with you, right?” Hotch asked. The first week after they realised her from the hospital, everyone on the teams took turns to help her with simple things she couldn’t do and to keep her company, due to the fact that Aurora seemed terrified by the thought of being alone.

After she returned to work though, she told them that she would be fine and that they had already done enough for her. A clear mistake.

“No, I didn’t.” Aurora murmured, blushing. Hotch nodded and got up.

“Alright, we will do this; we are going to take turns to go to Aurora’s house every night.” Before she could talk, Hotch shook his head. “I will not take a no as an answer, Aurora. We are going to do this; you like it or not.” The tone of his voice didn’t let anything up to discussion, so Aurora sighed, knowing that she didn’t have any other option.

“Fine. Thank you, guys, really. I don’t know what I would do without you.”

-------------------------------

Comments about her age weren’t exactly uncommon. There were a lot of people who absolutely hated (or envied) the fact that at such a young age, she was a successful agent working for the FBI. It was something that they always complaint about with Spencer.

Today, the comment made went too far.

They were working in a case about kidnappings, in which none of the ten victims were found; they had a few leads and the only thing they had to confirm that this was actually happening was a series of videos left from the UnSub, where all the victims appeared in some dark room, all of them blindfolded, repeating the exact same words.

The problem was that they weren’t greatly received by the local police in Alexandria, Washington DC. Glares were always thrown in their direction; even the Head Police doubted every fucking word they said, questioning with the typical “Profiles just guess.” Ridiculous behaviour, if they asked Aurora, but whatever.

The worst part was while they were giving the profile.

“You’re looking for a man, probably in his early thirties, white, introverted, usually terrified of the action of talking to people. You will never find him in big events, he hates big crowds.” as usual, Hotch started, with his serious face.

“He loves watching his victims suffer and enjoys noticing how much power he has over them, yet he doesn’t want them to see him, afraid that they would probably laugh if they saw who kidnapped them.” Emily went on. Aurora could already see a few police men looking at each other, disbelief writing all over their faces and she rolled her eyes.

“Based in the little we heard from him, he’s from here, local. He knows his way and the victims, probably lived in Alexandria his whole life.” in cases like this, when they said that the UnSub was local, they never believed them. And obviously, this couldn’t be the expetion.

“Impossible. I’ve known this people my whole life, this man can’t be from here.” Mike, the Head of the Police, immediately disagreed. He had been acting pretty rude to them since they arrived, to the point in which Derek asked Hotch ´Why the hell did he ask for our help if he doesn’t believe a word that we say? ´

Needless to say, Aurora totally agreed with him.

“We heard his accent; we are totally sure that he’s from here. Besides, it’s impossible for an outsider to know these streets so well.” Aurora calmly answered him. Nevertheless, Mike didn’t take her input nicely.

“And what the hell would you know about? You should be in fucking college, I asked for the FBI, no for a teenager that dares to tell my business and question how my people are.” for a moment, the girl stayed silent, too stoned to even react to his words. What the fuck?

It was the first time in her whole life that someone talked so bluntly at her in front of her collages. I mean, yes, some officers made comments when they were alone because they were cowards who didn’t dare to say anything in front of Hotch, but in front of so many people? Never.

Before anyone from her squad could react, she stood up and walked in his direction, stopping when she was in front of him. She glanced at him from head to toes and smiled.

“You’re divorced. Recently. Probably not more than two weeks. You have two children, a daughter, and a son. Right now, the kids are probably with the mother, since you look at your phone every five minutes waiting for updates. Your son probably plays football, and you are always supporting him, because it’s your frustrated dream. You had to stop due to some kind of major injure, something with your leg based in how you limp when you’re too tired. You love control, that’s why you know every little detail about your employees; you always want to know how they are, where they are. Lately, you are not having your best performance here and you’re probably under a threat of being suspended. I suspect it is due to your divorce. You were born in Texas, but moved out when you were a kid. Still have a light accent. You wear more clothes to appear bigger and more intimidating and a fake gold necklace to appear richer.” he was glancing at her with wide eyes and Aurora smirked, getting a little bit closer to the man. “I gathered all that information with a few looks at you and your office. Don’t ever doubt our job again, this is what we’re the best at.”

After a few seconds of silence, the man gave a step forward, probably ready to get a little bit handier with her based in his balling fists, heavy breathing and jaw tensed in pure rage. Before he could make it too far, Hotch immediately put himself in front of her and putting a hand in the man’s chest, he made him back up. Meanwhile, Spencer grabbed her by the arm and put her behind him, with Derek and Emily at their side with their arms crossed.

“You don’t ever talk to one of my agents like that again, Mr. Bruins. I am clear?” the anger was clear in Hotch’s voices. There weren’t many times in which the man got this angry, even if it seemed weird with his strict personality. He actually had a lot of patience. Yet, with that patience disappear, you better run.

“Yes, sir.” the man huffed out, almost trembling and Aurora couldn’t resist the smile that formed in her face. How much she loved making men get crazy over a few words.

"When am I gonna stop being wise beyond my years and just start being wise? When am I gonna stop being a pretty young thing to guys? When am I gonna stop being great for my age and just start being good? When will it stop being cool to be quietly misunderstood?"

#criminal minds #bau family #found family #Protective team #criminal minds x oc #spencer reid x oc #criminal minds fic

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wardengrill · 4 months

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♪♪ come in, i'll give you shelter from the storm ♪♪

#hotch smile alert #bau family #derek morgan #aaron hotchner #sir hotch #jennifer jareau #emily prentiss #david rossi #criminal minds #criminalmindsedit #**#bau family*

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demonicbaby666 · 1 year

Text

Nap Time

one shot | Criminal Minds Masterlist | Masterlists

Fandom: Criminal Minds

Pairing: BAU family x Reader

Genre: drabble/office fun

Words: 651

A/N- I legit hate the title for this but my brain is not working and I cannot think of anything else. Anyways enjoy!

It was already 7pm and you still had work to do, knowing exhaustion was already subduing your body you decided the best course of action would be to take a nap in your secret napping area. You were certain no one knew you’d often creep under your desk during long workdays and sneak in a little rest bite. You did a quick scan of the room to check if anyone could see you before ducking under your desk and draping a shawl over you.

Setting a timer for 30 minutes, you let sleep steadily wash over your body, curled up nice and secure in your napping nook. When your eyes fluttered open, it was not by your alarm going off, the absence of the sound was reassuring as you had yet to feel fully rejuvenated. Though your head perked up when there was a flash right before your eyes and you squinted at the assaulting bright light.

Laughing in front on you was Morgan holding up his phone, your chair was pushed to the side and realisation dawned on you that you had been discovered. The moment Morgan saw you becoming alert, he went into action mode and tried to run off. You grabbed his ankle trying to hoist yourself up and simultaneously stop him from running off with the embarrassing evidence he had just obtained. Hitting your head on the desk you still manged to trip Morgan, but he was quick on his feet to recover and threw his phone to Rossi unexpectedly.

When he looked at the phone and back to your disgruntled state a burst of laughter erupted from his lips. “Now that’s a keeper. Look you can see the pool of dribble!” He teased.

“Rossi delete that!” You called out, finally emerging fully from the once peaceful sanctuary of your desk. You power walked over to the older man trying to reach for the pesky device in his hand, but he didn’t give you the opportunity to grab the phone as he threw it to Emily. Who in turn bit her bottom lip trying not to laugh, her attempt was very unsuccessful.

With the phone seeming to continuously be out of reach you felt like you were prey in a den of lions, they had you playing a game of cat and mouse. You darted from agent to agent, losing more and more of your dignity as they all beheld the image of you sleeping peacefully.

“Reid come on!” you shouted as the phone was once again thrown, this time to JJ. Out of everyone in the team you believed JJ was the most sensible and considerate. So, what came next was a complete shock.

“I’m sorry.” She said with a tight-lipped smile looking sympathetically at you. Everyone’s phone in the office dinged and you threw her head back in frustration. Guess there was no more desk naps for you.

“I hate you guys.” you huffed, pulling out your own phone to look at the monstrous photo you’d yet to have the privilege of seeing.

Beyond pissed off you made your way to JJ and whispered in her ear, “I’m going to get you back for this later. Sleep with one eye open you beautiful monster.” A chill ran down the blonde’s spine and when she turned to look at you wide eyed you couldn’t help but cackle at the fear plastered on her face.

Yanking the phone from her hand, you walked over and shoved it into Morgan’s chest, “You’re going to pay for this baldy. Big time.”

Morgan burst out laughing and pulled you in, draping his arm around your shoulder, he ruffled your hair, “Whatever you say tiny.”

When you sat back at your desk Hotch appeared above you sporting his signature smirk, “Good nap?”

Your reply came in the form of a groan as you defeatedly smacked your head against the desk.

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potsandpains · 2 years

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practically perfect in every way part 4

hotch x fem!reader

AN: ooookay im still alive!! let me know what y'all think of this!!!

jack is 6 at the beginning of this, haley is,,, not living (rip) and hotch is aorund 40ish in this! reader is 25-26ish.

summary: aaron is feelin real angsty over how much he likes his son's nanny, and his angst is made worse by said nanny having a boyfriend he is NOT a fan of

plus a little action in this one wink wink

CW: asshole boyfriend??? i think that's it???

part 1:

part 2:

part 3:

/ / /

“Garcia do we have an address for the suspect’s parents?” Hotch said into his phone.

“Yes sir,” she replied, “looks like Kurt and Cheryl are at 1312 y/n Drive. Sending you the address now!”

“Thank you.” He hung up.

How funny, he thought, what are the odds a tiny town with a population of less than 20,000 people would have a street with her name on it?

When he and Morgan rounded the corner to the address, he took a picture of the street sign and sent y/n a text.

AH: Saw your name on a street sign in the middle of nowhere. Funny, right?

She responded almost immediately.

YN: Oh that’s way funny! Any way you could pull some FBI strings and steal the sign for me? It would make for a great wall decoration lol

AH: Something tells me theft of city property might be an abuse of my position. Sorry.

YN: All good, boss man. Only joking lol.

It had been a few weeks since the black eye incident. Their moment in the kitchen (so rudely interrupted by Jack. Aaron loved his son but he didn’t know if he’d ever been so exasperated with him than in that very moment) lingered in Aaron’s memory. His dynamic with y/n hadn’t changed dramatically, but it didn’t necessarily feel like it had never happened either.

She was still her bubbly self, he the stoic grouch she claimed he was. She teased him and he teased back with enough encouragement. But something was different.

He caught her looking at him with the same tender expression he had caught that night more and more, and he wasn’t sure if it was because it was occurring with greater frequency or because she wasn’t hiding it.

He found himself more apt to be close to her. They had never been physically affectionate, but she now gave him a hug goodbye before she left every night, and when he got home from cases he hugged both Jack and her.

He felt like he was back in middle school, losing his mind over hugging her. But he loved being able to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight, even if it was just for a second or two.

Those seconds were precious to him, as she now was spending more and more time with Braden.

Y/n and Braden had met while in line at the grocery store. Y/n was picking up groceries for the Hotchners when she realized she had forgotten goldfish crackers for Jack. So, turning to the person behind her, she asked if he could hold her space in line while she went to grab them.

He said he would, in exchange for her phone number and a coffee date.

At least, that’s how y/n explained it to Aaron. She and Braden went on the coffee date and had gotten along quite well, and had been texting ever since.

Aaron, having never met him, obviously hated him.

He was sure he was fine, really, but he hated that Braden apparently had more guts than he did.

Aaron Hotchner, unit chief of the BAU, an FBI agent who chased psychopaths for a living, had been too scared to act on how he felt, and as a result had to listen to y/n talk about whoever Braden was, heart wincing every time.

He found out who Braden was, naturally.

Besides y/n’s description, he had Garcia run a very thorough background check the minute he got a last name from Y/n. Braden Casey; a high school math teacher who enjoyed dogs, hiking, and reading in his free time. Besides having an odd fixation with self-help podcasts (who listens to 4 different podcasts on how to become ‘the man’?) no red flags arose from the report he received from Garcia, but there was something about him that Aaron simply did not trust.

Y/n didn’t talk about him much. He assumed it was because she was trying to be somewhat professional around him. He hoped it was to spare his feelings.

He tried to be encouraging and supportive. “What’s Braden like?” He had asked her.

“He’s great,” She had said. “I don’t know, he’s always working towards being a better version of himself, and he really wants to be the best person he can. It’s something I really admire about him.”

He hoped that was true.

They dated slowly, he thought. Apparently Braden did a lot of after school tutoring and wasn’t free many evenings and heaven knows y/n was busy with Jack, so they didn’t go out often.

He learned from y/n this was called the “talking stage,” where they weren’t strictly dating each other but were still communicating and maintaining interest.

Thus, another reason he thought Braden an idiot. Y/n wasn’t the kind of person with whom you had a talking stage, he had thought. Aaron thought if he were smart Braden would snap y/n up as quickly as he could. Although, he wished he wouldn’t.

That’s what he would have done, if hadn’t psyched himself out. He tried to convince himself to own up to what he felt and to simply tell her. It would be much easier to have it out in the open if she wasn’t in a committed relationship, right?

But somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. She seemed happy, and he didn’t want to ruin that by saying “hey, i know you’re my son’s nanny and i'm technically your boss but just a heads up I wanted to tell you I’m so in love with you I can hardly function!”

He didn’t think that would end well.

So he was quiet. And patient. And frustrated as hell.

/ / /

Around two months into their “talking stage,” y/n had mentioned to him that she and Braden were officially dating.

“Really?” he asked, feigning excitement. “That’s exciting. Congrats.”

“Thanks!” She replied. “I’m excited.”

“So how is that going to work? He seems pretty busy, and heaven knows we keep you busy enough around here-”

“Oh,” she interrupted. “Braden mapped out a schedule of things so we have an idea of when we’re both free. He says he wants to ‘optimize on any free time so this will work’,” She said, using air quotes with a laugh on her lips.

Aaron briefly considered completely chaning every aspect of Jack’s and y/n’s schedule to throw a wrench in Braden’s plans. Deciding to save his pettiness for another day, he simply nodded.

“That sounds very… organized.” He said.

“Yeah he’s kind of funny about that kind of stuff. Blames it on his math brain, apparently. Everything has a system and a place and he likes things done as neatly as possible.”

What was she, his girlfriend or a calculus problem? He thought to himself.

“Well great. Sounds like he’s thought of everything then.” He said.

She shrugged. “Sure seems like it.”

/ / /

“No, I still can’t make it tonight. Yeah, Jack has a big history project due tomorrow and I really want to be here in case he needs help… No, I can’t just call Jess. Look, I’m sorry you bought tickets for that orchestra concert I told you I couldn’t go to weeks ago but I- Yes, I put it on the google calendar and everything. This project is really important to Jack and I’m not missing it... I really am so sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

Aaron was at his desk in his office, listening (while simultaneously trying not to listen) to y/n pace up and down the upstairs hallway on the phone with whom he could only presume to be Braden.

They had been officially dating for three months, and Aaron couldn’t help but notice that things felt off between the two. He didn’t know what exactly, but something had shifted between y/n and Braden and things weren’t as neat and tidy as before.

He sat at his desk, trying (and failing) to read his book as he listened to y/n and Jack work on his history project downstairs. He was supposed to do a report on a person in history he admired. Aaron had assumed he would pick Abraham Lincoln or the Wright brothers or any other historical figure, but Jack had apparently decided that the most influential person in his world was Dr. John Harvey Keller, who had invented the process of making peanut butter.

An odd choice, but Aaron understood the appeal.

After spending an indeterminate amount of time reading and rereading the same page, he called it quits. Closing his book, he placed it on the desk and began walking downstairs. Maybe at least he could help Jack glue pictures to his poster. He was halfway down the stairs when he heard a knock on the door.

“I’ll get it,” he said, “I’m halfway there anyway.”

“Okay!” Jack and y/n chorused from the kitchen.

Years at the BAU had made him cautious of unexpected visitors. He double checked for the small revolver he had stashed in the bookcase next to the door. He had always made sure it was nearly above his own reach so Jack could never get to it. Clicking the lock open and taking it from its hiding place in the fake book, he tucked it into the waistband of his jeans, keeping a hand on it as he opened the door.

Much to his surprise, it wasn’t a maniacal psychopath at his doorstep.

It was worse.

It was Braden.

His button down shirt and tie had a defeated look about them with his tie loosened and top button undone.Aaron noticed his slacks were wrinkled. He cocked his head to the side and looked Aaron up and down.

Aaron’s eyes narrowed.

Braden pushed his wavy hair out of his eyes and stuck his hands in his pockets.

“Is y/n here?” He asked.

Aaron decided to play dumb, pretending that he hadn’t done a background search so thorough he knew exactly what was on Braden’s web browser history.

“I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Oh, I’m sorry. Braden Casey. I’m y/n’s boyfriend. You must be Aaron?” He extended a hand to Aaron.

“It’s Mr. Hotchner, thank you.” Aaron nodded. He reached forward and reciprocated his handshake. It was firmer than he anticipated it to be, but still weaker than his own.

Braden swallowed.

“Come in,” He said, “I know she’s pretty busy with Jack, but let me see if she can come to the door.”

Braden didn’t move from his spot on the porch.

God He really needed to quit being so antagonistic.

“You really work her hard, don’t you?” Braden said.

“I’m sorry?”

“Can’t even give her a night off to go to a concert with her boyfriend?” Braden said it as if he was trying to be funny, saying it almost jokingly, but there was bitterness to his words.

“Y/n sets her own hours.” Aaron responded sharply. “Maybe you should ask yourself why she wanted to be here instead of with you.”

“Easy old man, I-”

“Braden?” y/n appeared behind him, looking at Braden over Aaron’s shoulder. “What are you doing here? I gave you the address to the house for emergencies, you aren’t supposed to come here when I’m working.”

“I think it’s an emergency when my girlfriend cancels our date to hang out with a 7 year old.” Braden said, crossing his arm.

Aaron saw anger flash in y/n’s eyes. “Okay, you come with me. If you have something to say to me, we’re going to talk about this like adults.” She pushed past Aaron, meeting Braden on the porch and grabbing him by the arm and pulling him down the steps of the porch. She looked over her shoulder to Aaron. “Tell Jack I’ll be right back.”

He nodded as she closed the door behind her, placing the gun back to its hiding place and walking into the kitchen to find Jack with a glue stick in hand and paper cutouts of peanuts and Dr. John Harvey Keller stuck to his face. He turned to face Aaron, paper crinkling. “Hey dad! Do you like my pictures?”

Aaron sighed. “They’re great, buddy. I’d like them more if they were on your poster, though.”

Jack rubbed his sticky hands together, grinning at the sound it made. “Do you think I could glue my lips shut?”

Aaron pulled the glue stick from his son’s hand. “Glue is for paper, Jack, not for your skin. I know it’s fun to play with, but you need to use it properly or we can’t use it at all. Do you want to take those pictures off yourself or do you want me to help you?”

Jack began pulling them off one by one. “I can do it. Who was at the door?”

Aaron resisted the urge to sigh once again. “Y/n’s friend, Braden.”

“You mean her boooooyfriend?” Jack said.

“Yes, her boyfriend.” He replied.

“I don’t like him.” Jack winced after a piece of paper that was stuck to his eyebrow came off.

“Why not, buddy?”

“Y/n says he’s really nice but if he’s nice he wouldn’t come to our house and stop y/n from helping me with my homework.” He said matter-of-factly.

Aaron thought about that for a second before nodding in agreement. “I guess that’s fair.”

Jack shrugged. “I wish y/n didn’t have a boyfriend, then she could be here all the time.”

“Jack she’s already here pretty much all the time.”

“She doesn’t sleep here all the time.” Jack said defiantly. “She has a different house she sleeps at. The one where she doesn’t have a bathtub.”

“I guess you’re right. I’m sorry, I know you really like her.”

“I love her.” Jack said, smoothing out the pieces of paper he had glued to his face. They were wrinkly, but hopefully would still work.

Aaron just nodded.

“Dad?”

“Yeah buddy.”

“Do you love y/n?” He asked.

Aaron paused, swallowing. His heart ached as he replied, “Yeah Jack, I do.”

He and Jack were working in silence when y/n reappeared, cheeks flushed and eyes watery. Jack was putting the finishing touches on his poster board and was focused on it when Aaron caught y/n’s attention. Are you okay? He mouthed.

She shook her head, looking down.

Aaron cocked his head towards the doorway. Go head upstairs. I’ll get Jack, he mouthed.

She nodded, leaving the kitchen quickly.

“Jack, that looks great,” Aaron said. “I think y/n is super tired and went to bed. Let’s get you to bed too and then we’ll finish it up tomorrow morning.”

Aaron was thankful that Jack went to bed quickly and quietly. He was a smart kid, and clued into the tension that was lingering in the air. After Aaron helped him with scrubbing glue from his face, arms, and hands, he fell asleep right as his head the pillow.

After closing Jack’s door, Aaron found his way in front of y/n’s. He knocked on the door. “Y/n?”

“Come in.”

He eased open the door and found her sitting cross-legged on the bed, clutching a pillow.

“Hey.” He said.

“Hi.” She said.

“Are you okay?” He asked.

“Yes? No? I’m not sure.”

“Can I ask what happened? You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but if it would help-”

“I think that would be good. I should talk to someone about all this, I think.” She said.

He didn’t move from his spot by the door. Y/n glanced up towards him. “You can sit down. I won’t make you stand through this.” She sniffed as she patted a spot next to her on the bed. Aaron sat, making sure to keep ample distance between the two of them.

“Have I ever told you that Braden is on a new kick of listening exclusively to classical music?”

He shook his head.

She laughed. There was bitterness in it. “He said that classical and instrumental music makes him feel good. Read about it in some book that it doesn’t distract you like other genres and allows you to focus on being your “best self.” Anything loud and rambunctious sounds like radio static now, apparently.”

Aaron snorted, but said nothing

“I like classical music fine, I just don’t want it to be the only thing I listen to. I am also a hundred percent sure he still listens to all his normal stuff too but he has this weird thing with me where I think he needs to appear like he’s the smartest guy in the room. Classical music really is fine and there are plenty of pieces I like but when I’m with him, that’s all we listen to. Which is fine because he’s comfortable and just fine but what if I said one day that I hate classical music and it sounds like radio static to me? Would he change? Would he listen to the music that I like? Would he drop the stupid act?”

She clutched the pillow tighter, shaking her head. “I like him, I really do, and we get along well, temperament wise. It’s just that our interests are so different and I-” her voice broke and buried her face in the pillow.

“Y/n.” He said.

“What.” she said, her voice muffled by the pillow.

“Is this really about classical music?”

She lifted her head, wiping her nose on her sleeve. “No, I guess it isn’t.

He remained silent, staring at his hands resting in his lap.

“I think-” She started, “I think it’s about more than that. I just- he cancels things all the time because a student needs help tutoring or he has a math club meeting or something like that and I am so chill about it. I never lose it and I’m super understanding. But the one time I took a rain check on an orchestra concert I told him I had no interest in going to he comes to your house

and makes me feel like I’m the worst person in the world because I apparently didn’t “consider his feelings” when I consider his feelings all the damn time.” She cringed. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

“I just- I don’t think he thinks my work is as important as his and that he somehow needs to prove he’s better than me in some way, even though we literally have the same amount of education and I literally have a published research study on- it doesn’t matter. I- I just - ugh.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Well. That’s another stupid thing.” She tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. “He doesn’t want to end things but he wants some time.”

“Like… a break?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“What kind of break?”

“He wants to go no contact for a month. In that month we can date other people and do whatever we like, but if in a month we come back together and we still work, we keep dating.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Aaron couldn’t contain his surprise. “That’s ridiculous.”

“He said it’s to see if we really like each other or if we just haven’t known any different the past few months.”

“Did you agree to it?”

“...I did.”

“Oh.”

“If a month goes by and I still feel the same we can try again. It’s not like we’ll lose our minds and elope if it works out.”

Aaron’s heart dropped into his stomach. He felt a little sick. That was not an image he liked.

“He's-Hotch he is the first guy in ages to treat me decently. He is decent and smart and really good, just a little on the quirky side.”

“Quirky?” Aaron raised his eyebrows. “Is that how you’d describe it?”

“Okay he’s odd and a bit judgemental but I think I should at least try. Don’t you?” She looked exasperated.

“Y/n.” He said, turning to face her. He moved closer.

“What, Hotch?’ She sounded exhausted. She turned to face him.

“You deserve much more than decent.”

She shook her head. “I know. I- I really do know. I'm-”

Aaron interrupted her by wrapping his arms around her and pulling her to him. She stilled, but didn’t pull away.

“You really deserve the best.” Which is definitely not me, he thought cynically. Or your asshole boyfriend.

Her arms found their way around his waist and she squeezed him tight. “Thank you.”

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “It’ll be okay. You’re smart and capable and lovely, and if he doesn’t see that then I’ll make his life hell.”

“Don’t go all FBI on his ass.”

“I will if I have to.”

She laughed at that, and drew back. “Thanks, Hotch. You’re the best.”

He shook his head. “Just trying to help.”

/ / /

Two weeks after Y/n and Braden started their “break,” Jack got sick. Not just a little sick with a runny nose, he was seriously sick. Fever, vomit, the whole nine yards, all of it.

And y/n was a wreck.

She wasn’t sick herself. She had told Hotch that years of nannying had fortified her immune system so much she rarely got sick anymore, but she was a wreck in trying to help Jack.

He had missed school that day and y/n had stayed home with him. He had been throwing up anything she tried to feed him, and had a fever so high he was sweating through his pajamas. Even worse, Jack was the most ornery sick kid known to mankind. He was stubborn (a trait y/n claimed he got from his dad) and despite how miserable he felt he didn’t like being coddled or being made to feel like a baby. He fought y/n’s attempts to comfort him and screamed with how achy the fever made him.

She had been sending Hotch updates throughout the day. They had just come off a massive case and he had a boatload of paperwork so huge he couldn’t fathom missing a day, even if it broke his heart to do so. He called Jack during his lunch, and was only met with him being furious that his dad wasn’t home to take care of him. Hotch’s heart equally ached that y/n was alone in the ordeal.

She had carted Jack to the doctor the minute he had thrown up (and he had thrown up all over his bed, to top it off) and had come back with no other instructions than “eh it’s just a stomach bug. Let him ride it out and he’ll be fine.”

He had been forced to work late. It was evening when he drove home. On his drive he received a text. Pulling into the driveway, he glanced at his phone.

YN: I think he’s getting better. Still hates my guts, but it seems like his fever is on its way out.

He thought walking in blind was a bad idea, so he sent her a text from the garage.

AH: I just pulled in. Anything in particular you want me to be aware of?

YN: He’s going to be so happy to see you and also probably wants to kill you. Simultaneously. I think he’d kill moving thing right about now.

AN: Noted.

He walked in the house, setting his things on the counter. Making his way through the living room and up the stairs, he found y/n sitting on the edge of Jack’ bed, with Jack clutching his blankets and looking downright murderous.

“Hey buddy.” Aaron started.

“I don’t want to talk to you.” Jack said, folding his arms and turning away from his dad.

He cast a glance at y/n, who gave him an exhausted look. Talk him through what he’s feeling, she mouthed.

“Hey Jack. I’m sorry you’re sick. I know you don’t feel good and that’s never fun.”

Jack shuffled in his bed, folding his arms again with more emphasis, clearly conveying his dissatisfaction.

“And I’m sorry I wasn’t here today. It’s hard being sick at home without your dad here.”

Jack said nothing. Aaron laid his hand on his shoulder and Jack shrugged him off. “Do you want to read a book together? Will that help you feel better?”

Jack shook his head, still keeping quiet. Aaron sighed.

“Jack,” said y/n gently, “you’ve been asking for your dad all day, he’s here now. Are you sure you don’t want to read a story with him?”

Jack threw his covers over his head and burrowed himself into the couch.

Y/n met Aaron’s eyes and gave him a sad smile. “I’m sorry. He’ll lighten up as soon as he’s better.”

Aaron nodding, standing to leave. He was at the door when he heard Jack whisper to y/n.

“Kids are supposed to have moms to take care of them when they’re sick.”

Aaron stilled for a moment, but stepped out of the room, lingering just outside of it. Listening.

The pain was evident in y/n’s voice when she replied. “Jack, honey I’m so sorry. I know you miss your mom.”

“I miss my mom a lot,” Jack said. “but I wish I had a mom now. Y/n, why can’t you be my mom?”

“Oh honey, I love you so much, but I can’t.”

Jack wasn’t whispering now. “Why not? Don’t you love my dad? Why can’t you just be my mom then you don’t have to leave?”

Aaron’s breath caught in his throat.

“Jack- I love you and your dad so so much. But I can’t be your mom. You need to sleep sweetheart, that’s what will help you feel better tomorrow.”

“I want to go to sleep by myself.”

“Okay buddy,” she said. “I’ll let you do that. Call for me if you need me, okay.”

Aaron didn’t hear Jack’s reply as he was quickly making his way downstairs, trying to make his way to the couch without y/n figuring out that he had heard everything.

He hadn’t needed to rush, as it was a few minutes before y/n came down the stairs, looking exhausted. She made her way into the living room and wrapped herself in a blanket as she laid down on the couch. Aaron pretended not to notice how glassy her eyes were, as if she were near tears.

“Hotch, do you… do you think it means something?”

He looked at her, a confused look in his eyes. “What do you mean?”

He saw her eyes well up with tears as she shook her head. He rushed to her side, kneeling beside the couch. “Hey- hey it’s okay. Does what mean something?”

“I just… I don’t think it was an accident Jack hit me with that frisbee.”

Hotch raised his eyebrows, but said nothing.

“Not that he did it on purpose. It just seems like too big of a coincidence that I found you guys.”

Hotch smiled softly, reaching up to stroke her hair. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.

“What makes you say that?” He asked, reaching down to wipe her tears from her eyes.

“You’re looking for a nanny and then your son nails one in the head with a frisbee. Seems too perfect.”

He was quiet for a beat. “I guess you could say that. One could say that you’re too perfect.”

She smiled, shaking her head.

“I mean,” he said, “I did see your name on a street sign in the middle of nowhere. That does seem a little too coincidental.”

She let out a tired laugh. “This is all your fault, you know.”

“How?”

“You’re a scorpio. I always get along great with scorpios.”

It was his turn to laugh. “What does that have to do with anything?”

She sat up, saying nothing, and unwrapped herself from the blanket. She patted the spot next to her on the couch. Against his better judgment, he rose from the ground and joined her on the couch. He draped his arm around the back of the couch, and y/n leaned into his side.

They sat like that for a while. He didn’t know how long. Somewhere along the way his arm left the back of the couch and found its way around y/n’s shoulders. Her hands, previously twisting in her lap, had ended up wrapped around his waist and her head resting on his chest.

He knew this about y/n, but once she started crying it was difficult for her to stop. Even if things were just fine and everything was figured out, if tears had been shed they would keep being shed. Weirdly enough, it was one of the things Aaron really liked about her. She had a tender heart that had a hard time turning off. He wished he could relate.

Slow tears continued to roll down her cheeks as they sat together in the silence.

"I can't really explain why i think this all has to mean something" y/n said quietly after a while, "Maybe I'm thinking too much about it, but i can't seem to not think about you."

he paused before replying, thumb rubbing circles on the arm he still had wrapped around her. "I don't know if I ever told you this, but the first time I met you I had a really good feeling about you. Call it a gut feeling, I guess. I don't trust my gut to make decisions for me very often because things usually end up crazy, but I've never doubted, even for a second that you were meant to be here."

A thick quiet coated the room. Too many things he wished he could do, too many things he wished she would say.

“Hotch?” she eventually said.

He hummed in response. She lifted her head to look at him, tears still in her eyes. “I’m really glad you found me.”

Aaron was sure his heart was about to burst. His mouth opened to form a response when he saw y/n’s eyes drop to his lips. His eyes dropped to hers.

When his eyes found their way up to hers, they met him with a look he recognized in himself. It was a look of achingly delicate longing, painted clearly on her expression.

Slowly, painfully slowly, he lowered his mouth to hers. He wanted to give her as much time as possible to back off or push him away or tell him off if he was so desperately in love with her he had misread the look on her face.

She did quite the opposite, tilting her chin upward and meeting him halfway. His hand came up to cup her face as hers found its way to grip his forearm as his lips found hers.

It was different than he thought it would be. When he thought about (and he thought about it often) he had always imagined his first kiss with her would be fast, desperate, or so undeniably passionate that he would immediately lose all control of himself.

This was infinitely better, he decided. It was soft and slow and tender and achingly sweet. As her lips slanted over his, he found himself turning towards her, guiding her legs over his lap as his arms found his way around her waist. Her hands came up to rest on both sides of his face as she sighed into his mouth.

Yes, much better. He concluded that this kind of kissing was his favorite. He wasn’t rushed or frantic. They were both exhausted, and had fallen together slowly, comfortably, and he had such a warm, cozy feeling in his chest and in his head and he didn’t know how he had gone this long without kissing her. Hell, he wasn’t sure how he was ever going to stop.

When he did eventually stop, he pulled away gently, y/n’s hands still framing his face. He tightened his arms around her waist, pulling her into a close embrace. Her head found its way into the crook of his neck.

“I’m even more glad you found us,” He said.

He felt y/n smile as she pressed a chaste kiss to his neck. They sat like that for awhile until he felt her relax against him and her breathing slowed. She had fallen asleep.

Aaron sat up from the couch, y/n still in his arms. He carried her up to the guest room and laid her gently in the bed, pressing a kiss to her cheek as he tucked her in the blankets.

“Practically perfect in every way. Garcia was right.”

@hotch-meeeeeuppppp

@strangunddurm

@realdirectionx

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