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emberfrostlovesloki · 6 months

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Demons [Hotch x Reader]

Photo credits: Left and Right (Google) Center (@hotchs-big-hands [my beloved])

Prompt: The team is forced into very close quarters during a case on an offshore oil rig in Alaska. It’s bitterly cold and there’s nowhere to go, and three men have been beaten and stabbed to death. The team must solve the mystery before it’s too late. A mix-up in rooms also has Aaron and the reader closer than ever. It allows him to learn something new about her.

Category: Angst/comfort

Word Count: 15.6K

Content Warnings: Sleep paralysis, canon typical violence, death (of a victim and unsub), beating (with a blunt object), choking (briefly described), mention of death by stabbing, the threat of death by knife/gun, mention of drowning (unsub), mention of abuse (in the past [Hotch]), slight mention of blood, language, hospitals, slight body image issues (Hotch). Please let me know if I missed any.

A/N: Ahhhh, hi loves. Did anyone ask for something this long? No. Did I expect to write this much? No. But the scenes kept coming, and I kept writing them down. I just love the writing process. It’s so cool. But enough of that. This story’s mostly based on a northern gothic vibe and the age-old, ‘only one bed’ trope. I am very happy with how this turned out and I hope you all like it too. You could read this as a stand-alone or as a prequel to my story, Unwanted Attention (linked). A huge thank you to my top hype woman @sadgirlzluvdilfs (ILY) If you like this story as well, likes, comments, and reblogs are appreciated! I hope you all have a great Friday night! - Love Levi.

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_y/n_ = your name

_y/e/c_ = your eye color

Hotch got a call from Strauss in his office. He had hoped that Monday would be a quiet work day for himself and the team. He was currently drowning in paperwork, and as he glanced down at the bullpen. He could see his team trying to do their best to also catch up on the more clerical side of their jobs as FBI agents. Strauss had told him to meet her in her office immediately. He replied, “Yes, Ma’am. I’m on my way.” He hung up the phone, grabbed his shoulder bag, and moved toward the elevator. It was a short ride up to the twentieth floor of their building, and Aaron wondered what he should prepare for when he arrived at Struas’s office. He walked down the long hallway and knocked twice on his boss’s door before opening it. Aaron was not expecting to see The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Frank Ridgewell, seated across from Strauss. Both the Commissioner and Strauss stood when he entered her office. Erin gestured to Ridgewell and said, “Agent Hotchner, I’m sure you know Commissioner Ridgewell.” Aaron nodded. He had never met the man in person before, but he was aware of who he was, and how important he was to the United States. Aaron extended a hand and Mr. Ridgewell took it, giving it a firm shake. Once the quick introduction was done, Strauss said, “Let’s all have a seat.” From Erin’s tone, whatever was happening here was important. Strauss indicated to the other man in the room, and Frank turned toward Aaron asking, “Are you aware of the new offshore drilling operation in Alaska?” Hotch furrowed his brow and replied, “Only tangentially. I understand that the rig was built quickly and there was a land dispute. I’m also aware that there were environmental protests over beginning new drilling so close to a naturally preserved site.” Ridgewell nodded and said, “You’re correct. As of three months ago, the oil rig has been fully operational. The rig employs sixty-seven people in total. Fourty-four of those individuals are employed part-time or have shift work on the operation. The other twenty-three are full-time employees that work one month on-site and three weeks off.” Aaron had his legal pad out and was taking a few notes as the Commissioner spoke. He was waiting for the important information with a bit of impatience. This had to be important if it wasn’t coming from JJ. If it was coming from the top, he needed to be meticulous in his work and the various details being thrown at him.

After another minute of the smaller details about the rig and its crew. Ridgewell’s tone changed. The man said, “Well all that preliminary information is building up to say that within the first three months of operation, three men have been killed. Only one of the twenty-five men working full time on shift could be responsible for the deaths. The three victims were found beaten and stabbed to death at various locations on the job site. The first victim was found by one of the security guards and the next two were found by workmen.” Aaron nodded, finally understanding the gravity of the situation, and asked, “And you believe that the BAU can assist you in finding the unsub on this oil rig?” Frank looked confused as Hotch said, “Unsub,” and Aaron clarified, “The Behavioral Analysis Team calls potential murderers Unknown Subjects, or unsubs for short.” At hearing this, Ridgewell nodded and replied, “Yes, yes I do, but there’s more to it than just the killings.” Aaron raised an eyebrow and Strauss chimed in for the first time during the meeting, saying, “Take a look at these Agent Hotchner.” Strauss pushed a file labeled ‘Classified,” in front of the Unit Chief. Hotch opened the folders and inside found a dozen or so copies of transcripts and pictures of messages that had been unencrypted. The jist of all of them was that the three deaths had been an intentional attack on the U.S. oil and gas industry. After Aaron had carefully examined these pictures, he looked over to Strauss and then Ridgewell. He asked, “So you believe there is credibility to these claims?” Ridgewell gave a half-shrug before answering, “We can’t be sure yet, but if this information got and with the new site already having a negative reputation, there would be dire consequences. The current administration is desperate to keep prices on gas and oil low and even a momentary shutdown of operations would affect the bottom line. And heaven forbid those messages leaked to the public. Half of the States would be in a panic, and there'll be a run on fuel.” Hotch nodded. This case was more complicated than he had first expected. Strauss looked at her Senior Agent and stated, “We need you and the team in Alaska as soon as possible. This is a matter of national security. Agent Hotchner. You and the BAU will need to be extremely careful.” Aaron replied, “Yes, Ma’am.” He then turned to Ridgewell and said, “I’ll need to brief my team. We’ll be headed to the site by the afternoon.” Frank looked relieved and replied, “Thank you, Agent Hotchner. I’ll email you the file with the current crew of the rig and their supervisor. I should warn you that it’s going to be close quarters up there.” Aaron nodded. He didn’t ask for elaboration about the space, he was going to be there by the end of the day anyway, and he didn’t have time to think about it right now. Hotch stood and shook hands with Ridgewell and Strauss before straightening his jacket and moving outside to the hallway again.

Back in the bullpen, he moved to his office, He would need to check his email and do a bit of research before calling the team to the briefing room. He moved toward his office and Rossi passed him. Dave looked over his neutral expression. Though Aaron rarely showed his emotions openly, Rossi knew him well enough to know that something was amiss. David flashed him his, ‘New case?” Look, to which he nodded affirmatively. Aaron could see Rossi’s shoulders fall slightly. Hotch understood that his friend had also wanted a break. The caseload had been extra heavy over the last month and a half, and the team was aching for a break. As the two men passed each other on the stairs, the sound of laughter caught Aaron’s attention. He knew the laugh well. Better than he should. Aaron turned and saw _y/n_ sitting at her desk. She had a file slightly covering her face and her _y/e/c_ eyes were bright and wide. Emily and Derek were standing beside her having made some joke that he hadn’t heard. Looking at her like this, as a casual observer made a small flame in his chest flicker slightly, like a lighter being turned on by an unsteady hand. Aaron had begun to recognize that the small attraction that he had for _y/n_ had grown. Now every time he looked at her, he felt the need to stifle a sigh. For now, he was safe. _y/n_ hadn’t shown any particular interest in him, that he could tell. Or maybe he was just pretending to not notice when _y/n_ looked at him for longer than necessary, or how she checked in on him often, just to make sure he was really doing alright. Hotch turned away as another peal of laughter emerged from the group downstairs. In his office, he turned on his lamps and opened his email inbox for the new information Strauss had CC’d him. It was a good 110 pages of personnel files and maps of the site. More important for the team was when the supply boat schedule which went to the rig in the morning and early evening. It took Hotch a full hour to skim all of the new information. He sent Garcia an SOS to get as much dirt of the Northern Oil and Gas Supply LLC as she could. Particularly the new oil site called Farpoint 52, -153. The name was unassuming, and the first thing Penelope told him was that the numbers were latitude and longitude points in Alaska, but not those of the actual site.

When Aaron was ready, he had seven file folders with all the most important information accumulated including pictures of the victims that the local PD in Anchorage had just sent over. The attacks were brutal. The injuries on the three bodies seemed to be caused by blunt force trauma, and as Ridgewell had said, there were multiple stab wounds on the victims as well. Hotch took a long breath as he got up and moved outside his office. He knocked on JJ and Rossi’s doors and gave them their files. JJ said, “I’ll get Garcia to come and set up the screen in the briefing room.” Aaron thanked her, and she and Rossi moved out of his way. Hotch placed his hands on the railing of the stairs and called out for his agents saying, “BAU team, I need you in the conference room.” As all four members of the team looked up to him, the mood of the room changed, dimming from how lively it had just been. Hotch turned toward the meeting room before he could see their faces fall once more. Sometimes he thought that he couldn’t keep doing this to them. To himself. The isolation he felt when he was home alone left him a breathless aching mess. It was rare when he allowed those feelings to overwhelm him, but sometimes he couldn’t help it. When this happened, he often found himself in a steaming hot shower. So hot that it hurt. When he couldn’t control his emotions, he felt like a kid again after his father had gone on either a verbal or physical diatribe about his perceived shortcomings. The reminders of the abuse he endured for years would flare up and make him feel a different kind of shame and hurt than letting his team down. By the end of the shower, he had normally excised these emotions and feelings of weakness and would fall into a fitful sleep afterward.

_y/n_ watched Aaron turn quickly. She let out a long sigh at the announcement about a new case. Everyone on the team was exhausted, and it seemed that Hotch was the most exhausted of them all. She had watched him closely over the last month. Something about his demeanor had shifted. _y/n_ wondered if it was the two-year anniversary of Hailey leaving him that had initiated the change, or if it was something else personal or professional. She wanted to ask him what was wrong. How she could soothe him from the stress she could sense coming off of him. But she assumed that might be stepping over some personal work line, and she was still relatively new to the team. She didn’t want to risk any consequences for being overly personal. For now, all she could do was watch and wait for a time that seemed appropriate. She was fully aware that that time may never come and would have to be okay with just being near someone as commanding and steady as Aaron.

In the briefing room, everyone but Hotch and JJ sat. Aaron moved to the head of the table and said, “This morning I got a call from Director Strauss. When I got to her office, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner was waiting for me. He has a case for us in Alaska that is a top priority. And…” Hotch paused as seven pairs of eyes waited for more details. Realizing that it might be more efficient to have his agents just read the brief in their files, he said, “Actually, why don’t you just turn to page one in your files and read over the case notes so far? I’ll give you a few moments.” The team opened the files in front of them and read the 1,000-ish word briefing on the first page. They were all aware that this case was different than the rest and that the brief hadn’t been written by JJ. Spencer and _y/n_ could tell it was Hotch’s writing almost immediately. The tense use and wording were very direct and blunt, just as Aaron was. Not that JJ added fluff, just that she took a few more words to make a point than their Unit Chief. Once those seated at the table had read over the first page and taken a look at the victim's pictures, Aaron moved forward and said, “Well as you can see, this latest case doesn’t have a lot of victims, but the timeline is progressing quickly and given that the crew is so small, these deaths have caused issues in the operation of the rig. On top of this, it seems that foreign agents are claiming they are playing a part in these deaths. If this is true or not; we can’t be sure until we find the Unsub.” Rossi tossed in the comment, “If it is foreign agents, they are most likely to come from Russia or the Middle East where much of the oil in the U.S. comes from. We should look at the crew and see if there are any potential ties to those countries.” Hotch inclined his head at the suggestion. It was a good one. With the primary details being said and a long flight ahead of them, Aaron concluded the information session by saying, “I recommend bringing the warmest clothes you have in your go bags, and something waterproof if you have it; I’m sure you can guess that it will be cold and wet where we’re headed.” Aaron looked at his team as they started standing, and he added one last thing that stilled the team and drew their attention to him again. He simply said, “I understand that this team has gone through a lot in the last few cases. I know you’re tired. After this case, I’m going to do my best to find some time for us to be off and recuperate for a bit. Please know that your efforts and work don’t go unnoticed by me. That’s all.” With his mini pep-talk finished, the team moved into action again. Aaron had meant what he said of course, but had also said it for himself too.

As everyone filed out of the room, _y/n_ approached Aaron and just barely touched his forearm to get his attention. Hotch looked down at her and asked, “What is it, _y/n_?” Sometimes when _y/n_ looked at him specifically, intentionally, he thought he saw a flicker of something more in her eyes than just attention and respect. He thought he saw it now, but he cleared his head. Now wasn’t the time for those thoughts. _y/n_ didn’t seem to notice how deeply he was looking at her when she said, “When you spoke to Strauss this morning, did she say anything more about the case? Is there anything else we need to know?” She hoped she wasn’t asking for information he couldn’t give. Hotch continued looking down at her for a moment before replying, “She just said that we needed to be safe. There are a lot of unknowns here. More than usual for a case.” _y/n_ acknowledged his statement and said softly, “Got it. See you in the parking lot.” With that, she quickly left to gather her go-bag and race to get some coffee if she could before the jet left for Anchorage. When _y/n_ had gone, Aaron took another moment to minorly compose himself. Then he moved to catch up with Garcia. He was going to ask her to join the team on this case due to the technical aspects that might be involved. He had a sinking suspicion that getting her on wifi all the way out where they would be might be harder than on the mainland. If foreign assets were involved or there was tampering with the equipment of the rig’s systems, Penelope was the most capable of any of them to lend a hand.

Thirty minutes later, the team piled into the jet with their go bags and files. Garcia was a balm to what seemed to be an already dreary case. As everyone sat, the ideas started flowing about motive and the type of unsub that they were dealing with. Spencer and Morgan were thinking about the physical elements of the unsub. Things like the impact of the wounds, the type of weapon being used to inflict them, and the force that would be needed to cause them. Their top ideas for weapons were a baseball bat or some other blunt object that had lots of fulcrum power. Meanwhile, JJ and Emily were looking through the personnel of the twenty-five full-time employees. Garcia was on every possible legal and illegal site that tracked energy and messages that could possibly correlate with countries like Russia, Iran, or Iraq. Rossi and Aaron were looking deeper into the oil company as a whole. To them, it seemed a little sketchy and the fact that Mr. Ridgewell had asked for the team personally belied that there might be some shady business not only from outside but inside the company as well. Rossi was talking about a possible correlation with BP and their recent legal troubles. As all this was happening, _y/n_ sat and listened to the cacophony of sounds bouncing around the plane. She had her notebook out and was taking her usual annotations on the case and jotting down when someone on the team said something she thought was important. She was feeling a bit overwhelmed with all the chatter happening around her, so she took a moment to grab a coffee from the back of the jet. The team had moved out so quickly that she didn’t get a chance to grab a cup in the office break room. She moved past Hotch and noticed he wasn’t holding a cup either. _y/n_ stopped briefly in front of her boss, and he looked up at her. She made a hand motion to indicate ‘drink?’ Aaron gave her a small, grateful look and nodded his head yes.

At the back of the jet across from the small sink and mirror, was the coffee machine. She put in the water and a capsule for the Keurig. _y/n_ placed a cup under the dispenser and pushed run, on the machine. _y/n_ somehow hated the Keurig coffee more than the office coffee. It managed to always taste burned and flavorless no matter which flavor of pod she picked. But the caffeine was a necessity at the start of a case for her. It was half ritual half desire, and she didn’t fight it. When her cup was finished, she started the process again for Aaron, who no matter what coffee he was drinking, seemed unfazed by the quality of the brew. As Hotch’s cup started filling, _y/n_ doctored her own cup with milk and white sugar. Once both drinks were ready, she placed lids on the cups and moved back to the cabin of the plane. As she passed Hotch, she seamlessly handed his cup to him, as she settled back to her own spot further down the row. Garcia watched as this happened. It was like moving a baton between two runners in a relay. ‘They hardly looked at each other while it happened!’ The technical analyst thought. Penelope hadn’t been on a case since _y/n_ had joined, and this behavior was new and exciting for someone like Hotch. Garcia had taken special care with _y/n_. The newest BAU agent was young, and she knew more about _y/n_’s background than most of the team. Because of this, Garcia had done her best to uplift and support _y/n_But it seems that _y/n_ was supporting the team in small ways too. Penelope knew that _y/n_ was attentive and sharp in her mind and actions if she needed to be. But this was generally hidden beneath her gentle warm exterior. But seeing _y/n_ meet even the smallest needs without even being asked to was such her thing; at least, that was what Penelope thought. Now that she was here seeing this, Garcia was going to have to pay more attention to _y/n_ and Hotch. Because she wanted to know if this was just a them thing, or was _y/n_ acting like this with the whole team?

_y/n_ sat and took a sip of the coffee that was a little too hot. The liquid burned her tongue and she made a small face of pain. Thankfully no one was looking at her at the time. _y/n_ set the cup in the cupholder next to her seat and looked at the picture of the rig itself again. This setting was so bizarre for a crime. Even the photos of the outside of the rig made her feel unnerved. _y/n_ tried to think of any prior cases like this. There had to be some. _y/n_ was fiercely thinking about old cases. Old old cases even. This case was going to require thinking outside the box. Finally, with eyes closed and brows pinched, some ideas started coming to her. With some inspiration, she began writing quickly on a new page of her notepad As this was happening, Aaron looked around the cabin. Everyone was still intensely focused, and he walked around each group to see what they had come up with so far. Spencer and Morgan had surmised that the unsub was probably smaller than they might assume. Given that they used blunt objects to kill the victim. If the unsub had a lot of strength, they should be able to kill their victims without the need for an object. Between JJ and Emily, they had pinpointed a few possible workers who might fit certain profile types and those specifically seemed to be linked to odd organizations or firms that could be linked to terrorist organizations. As Aaron moved to ask Garcia how it was going, she shooed him away with a tut-tut indicating that she was too busy for a check-in at the moment.

The last person he needed to see was _y/n_. As he approached her, she seemed deep in thought, and he sat across from her and sat for a minute or two in silence as he let her wrap up whatever she was writing. When _y/n_’s pen stilled, she looked up at him and he asked, “You seem to be having some ideas overhear. Mind sharing them with me?” _y/n_ nodded, looking down to her notes. She resisted the urge to say, ‘I don’t feel good about this case. I can’t pinpoint it, but something feels off here.’ Instead, she said, “I was thinking about the setting; the rig. Looking at the ariel photographs, the maps of the interior, and the security footage from the main hallways made me think about something. It’s so isolated. If you work there then it’s a tight space, and you work a dangerous job, and you see the same twenty or so people day after day for three to four weeks.” Hotch nodded along, getting a feeling for where she was going. When they made eye contact again, he said, “And?” He was encouraging her to finish her thought. _y/n_ gave a soft sigh as if she was doubting herself. Whether there was doubt or not, _y/n_ continued, saying, “Well those working conditions can’t be good for one’s psyche. I was considering some old cases. I know that Cabin Fever isn’t a diagnosable psychological condition, but there’s a history of those symptoms manifesting in groups of isolated people. I’m thinking as far back as the Donner party in 1846. There was the Highcliff’s in 1980, and more recently the Smith and Wess party in 1992. I know these are ancient cases for the team but it seems to fit to me. I know this case could be way more complex given the terrorism element, but just looking at the brief you wrote, I think this might be a case of insanity due to the location. I could be wrong. I could be totally off here, but it’s what I’ve got so far.” Aaron thought about what _y/n_ had said and replied, “I’m not saying that that train of thought is not out there, but given the novelty of this case, I think we need someone who is thinking with a separate mind frame. Once we’re on site, keep what you have here in the back of your mind. If you see anything that relates to this theory let me know immediately.” _y/n_ nodded at him in agreement as he stood and made his way back to Rossi. Sometimes when Hotch or anyone asked her her thoughts early on, she feared that she sounded unhinged, or worse, stupid. _y/n_was still finding solid footing with the team, but Hotch never dismissed her ideas unless they were fully implausible, and she appreciated that about him.

The flight moved quickly after this. Although there were five hours left, the team regrouped and shared what they knew before touchdown in Anchorage. When the jet landed, the sun was already setting in the West although it was only 5:30 p.m. It only took a few minutes before they arrived in the SUVs at the dock with the resupply boat that would take them to the rig thirty minutes offshore. The team turned in all three sets of keys to the cars to the police officer waiting for them at the dock. Aaron promised to call the local LEO when the team was ready for their return to the small airstrip. The team pulled their go bags from the back of the cars. Derek was kind enough to carry Garcia’s pink and sparkly duffle on top of his small carry-on suitcase. The team had bundled up in their jackets and they were buffeted by the harsh northern winds beating them from all sides. As they boarded the gangway, Hotch momentarily steadied _y/n_ who he was walking next to. Though she seemed okay, it seemed to him that she could use a steadying hand for a moment as she battled the wind. When she felt Aaron approach her and then place a steadying hand just barely against her back she looked at him. He wore that expression that just said, ‘I’m here.’ _y/n_ gave him a nod, indicating that she appreciated the gesture. Aaron kept his hand where it was until they got on deck. Once they were on a more sturdy surface, Hotch removed his hand but moved to take the handle of _y/n’s small wheeled case in his open left hand. Their hands brushed briefly as they exchanged the weight of her luggage. Neither Aaron nor _y/n_ said anything at the exchange, but she gave him a soft smile as he moved toward the stairway that led to the passenger area of the ship. This had become a little pattern of theirs over the past few months. There was a kind of shared understanding of care between them. Aaron told himself that this was him taking care of his newest agent, and _y/n_ told herself that this was her trying to prove that she noticed the small needs of the team; both of them were lying to themselves.

Once the team was downstairs _y/n_ took charge of her case again, as Aaron and JJ moved to the control room to introduce themselves to the captain and get some relevant information. While the team waited to start moving, they all settled into the uncomfortable benches either in the center of the boat or those near the sides of the room that had a few windows looking out onto the choppy Alaskan Sea. After a few minutes, the boat motors started roaring to life and the resupply vessel moved toward the open water. Garcia moved to sit next to _y/n_ who had slumped down on a bench next to one of the windows. The waves were a dark green and blue, and the clouds had turned a charcoal grey as the sun started to dip below the horizon. Penelope looked over to _y/n_ and asked, “How are you holding up, friend?” _y/n_ looked over to Garcia and said, “I don’t like this Penelope. This feels off to me. This case.” Garcia nodded along and said, “Trust your gut _y/n_. You know yourself better than anyone else. If you ever need to talk, I’m here for you.” _y/n_ nodded and both she and the tech whizz turned to look as Hotch and JJ returned from the bridge. Aaron stepped into the center of the room. The boat listed up and down slightly, but he seemed perfectly stable even as the boat took on a large wave. In his smooth voice, Aaron said, “According to the skipper we should be at the rig in around twenty-five minutes. Apparently, the seas are pretty rough tonight. Once we get there, the boat will take a few minutes to dock. A worker on the rig is going to get our luggage for us, so leave it here by the door when we disembark. Once we’re on the rig the first thing we'll do is meet the foreman. As you saw in the file, his man is Mr. Obermann. Once I’ve introduced us all, we’ll get a tour of the rig. Find rooms and then debrief if that sounds alright?” Everyone agreed and said so in some way or another. _y/n_ always found it interesting that he said things like, ‘If that’s alright with you.’ To the team. It’s not exactly like they had a choice on what happened at the start of a case. _y/n_ hypothesized that he did this to give them an allusion of control. Also, if someone did really have a suggestion that the team do something differently -- like asking to go to a crime scene or the hospital or something like that -- then he would consider it. However, Aaron was usually good at predicting the needs of the team and the case. He was their leader after all.

The resupply boat arrived at the rig and the size of the massive object that was being buffeted by the cold waves was more massive than any of them had imagined. The rig wasn’t the only thing being pushed by the harsh wind. As the team got outside and made it to the short ladder they would need to climb to get to the main platform. Derek helped _y/n_ and Garcia get to the ladder while Aaron helped JJ, and Rossi provided Emily a steadying hand. The whole team pulled their jackets tighter around themselves as they made it to the main door. A worker pulled the heavy metal door open for them. The door led directly to the crew’s rec room. Mr. Obermann was waiting for them and stood as the team entered the room. Aaron moved to the front of the pack and introduced himself and the team quickly. Mr. Obermann looked stressed and worn out which was understandable given the circumstances. The man said, “Well I appreciate you all coming so far. If this doesn’t get fixed it will be hell for the company, but more importantly to me twenty-five good hard-working men. Because you’ve all come I’ve sent all the temp workers home until you find our guy. What did you call him again?” Aaron replied, “The unknown subject, or unsub for short.” Obermann nodded and said, “Yeah. That. The men that are still here are freaked. They all think they’re going to be the next victim. It’s not good for the job as they need to pay full attention to what they are doing. Risk of injury on offshore rigs are thirty three percent more likely than those on land.” Obermann stopped to take a breath before continuing, “Now I’ll give you a tour of the place. I need you all to put on hard hats.

The protective headwear was passed out, and the team put the hats on. JJ, Penelope, and _y/n_ struggled not to laugh at the look of all the men on the team wearing the hats. Particularly Rossi, Morgan, and Aaron. Hotch looked like a midwestern politician trying to get votes from the rustbelt to _y/n_, and she actually had to cough to hide her laugh. She was fully aware that she must also look like a fool, but she just couldn’t help but chuckle a bit. Once they were equipped, the team and Mr. Obermann moved through an internal door that led to a long hallway. The foreman moved through each of the rooms on that floor, including his small office, the mess hall, the laundry room, and some of the sleeping quarters. They moved outside, and the team looked at the helipad, and the derrick that brought the oil up to the surface. The team moved back inside and moved down the steps to the first level of the rig. The lower floor was very dark and close to the water level. The sound of the waves could be heard through the thick steel and concrete which spoke to the power of the water surrounding them. Obermann guided through the more mechanical side of the rigs. The communal showers for the crew were also located on the second level. As they walked through the mechanical room, Obermann said, “This room is generally off limits, but as you know, the first victim was found here. I ask that if you need to be in here, let me know and I’ll send someone to open it for you.” The tour took a long time as the space was cramped and a lot of the rooms required them to be careful. Obermann led them back to the rec room where their luggage was waiting for them. Oberman said, “I’ll give you all a few minutes to pick rooms for yourself. The rooms that are free are downstairs. With all of you here, you’ll have to double up. The keys to the rooms are on the table and are labeled with the number that matches the door. Now I have some paperwork to attend to, but I’ll be in my office for any questions you have.”

As Obermann moved to his office, the team looked at each other. Having to share rooms was never something they enjoyed. Though the team was close, it was an entirely different thing to have to share a room. The team's cases often brought a lot of stress and little sleep, and having the privacy of their own space let them decompress in their own form or fashion was needed. On the rare occasions that the team did share rooms, it was fine, but everyone was far more comfortable alone. But, the work needed to be done, and they needed to start quickly, so no one made a fuss. With that out of the way, the team paired up. Derek, Spencer, and Rossi shared one of the rooms that had three beds, and JJ, Emily, and Garcia took the other room with three beds. Emily offered to share her bed with _y/n_ but _y/n_ said that she was alright being with Hotch in the room with two beds. If it meant having her own bed she would be fine. Aaron overheard _y/n_ and Prentiss’s conversation, and he felt a tug in his chest. He wasn’t sure if the feeling was because _y/n_ seemed so okay with sharing a room with him, or the fact that he was even thinking about it. Hotch had noticed his feelings change toward _y/n_ in the last few months. He wasn’t sure what was pulling him to her, but in some tiny way, things seemed to have shifted in the air for them. And Aaron knew that it wasn’t just him that felt the change. _y/n_ had started to adapt around him. Doing things for him she didn’t need to but that he wanted. He had started reciprocating the gestures and it just kind of clicked in place. Hotch hadn’t given this much thought yet. There hadn’t been time, and he wanted to wait before he did anything more. The fact that he was thinking this now felt like he was breaking some kind of supervisory rule. Even if _y/n_ seemed completely fine with sharing a room with him, he wanted to check in personally. As the rest of the groups moved down the stairs with their suitcases, Hotch stepped toward her.

When Aaron was next to her, he looked down into her eyes and said, “_y/n_, you don’t have to share a room with me. I can make another arraignment or sleep on one of the couches in here if you prefer.” _y/n_ appreciated the gesture, and she looked over what appeared to be the most old, decrepit, and uncomfortable couches she had seen in her life. Not only would Hotch’s sleep be compromised, but he honestly might be unsafe here given that the rec room was open 24/7. With the killings happening, she would never risk him like that. Even if she was uncomfortable with the idea of sleeping in the same room as her boss, she still wouldn’t make him sleep in a space like this. Although _y/n_ didn’t find the idea of sleeping in the same room as Hotch uncomfortable, she did find it a bit awkward. Over the past few months, she had had some less-than-professional thoughts about her Unit Chief. None of them had strayed into the lewd, lurid, or vulgar, but even so, being that close to Aaron made her insides flutter slightly. She told the butterflies just trying to take flight for the first time to slow down. For now, she was just thinking about this situation by internally telling herself, ‘It’s just Hotch.’ _y/n_ didn’t mean this in a demeaning way. Many of her close relationships or intimate moments with men were marred by pain or betrayal. So for her to simply and honestly say, ‘It’s just Hotch,’ meant a great deal. “Alright, but if at any time you feel like you need space during the night, just tell me and I’ll give it to you.” _y/n_ smiled and nodded, saying, “I will, Hotch. Now, maybe we should put our stuff away so we can get to work?” Aaron nodded in agreement and he stood more straight. The pair grabbed the last room key and their cases. The duo moved down the stairs and to the end of the hallway where their room was.

Hotch pulled the door’s key from his pants pocket and fitted it into the lock. There was the pleasant sound of the bolt clicking back. Aaron took the metal handle in his large hand. The door swung outward, and he froze momentarily as he looked into the room. _y/n_ noticed his shift in demeanor and softly asked, “What is it?” She pressed closer to him, and she realized why he had reacted as he had. The room they were supposed to share only had one bed and from the size of it, there was no space for another mattress. Aaron muttered something she couldn’t hear under his breath before he more loudly articulated, “There must be a mistake. I’ll talk to Obermann. Or we can talk to someone on the team. Emily will still let you sleep with her. I’m sure of it.” While he said this, two thoughts were happening simultaneously in _y/n_’s head. The first was that her work phone had vibrated in her pocket about ten times since she and Hotch had been trying to negotiate about the room. _y/n_ took a moment to look through her messages. It seemed the other team members were ready to start building the profile for the unsub and were waiting for her and Hotch. This meant she had little time to think about the second thought running through her head like a fire. Imagining sleeping in the same bed as Aaron, even momentarily pulled a light flush to her face. She pushed the latter thought back for later and said, “Hotch, we can figure it out later. I think the team is waiting for us in the rec room. Em said there’s coffee. Let’s just put our cases inside and you and I can figure this out later.” Aaron turned to _y/n_ with a furrowed brow. For a second he could see the flush on her skin but moved to look away not ready to acknowledge that fact yet. Though he wanted to rectify this situation immediately, _y/n_ was right. He gave a small sigh and said, “You’re right. We can figure it out later." With that Aaron and _y/n_ moved into the small space. Hotch pushed his suitcase under the small space of the bed while _y/n_ placed her smaller case in the only open storage area the room had. When this was done, they both left the room; Aaron switched off the light and locked the door behind him. As they made their way back up to the first floor, Aaron sighed. This wasn’t particularly Obermann’s fault, but it was a unique situation for sure. One that he would resolve to make sure _y/n_ was comfortable. For some reason when he saw her in pain or discomfort, it really ate at him. This had only happened twice, but those were two times he did not want to repeat. And he certainly wasn’t going to be the cause of her discomfort.

The pair moved back to the team and settled into the open spots at one of the tables in the rec room. The darkness outside the windows of the rec room seemed to try and penetrate through and around the lights on the rig, and the howl of the wind crashed with the waves as the team worked late into the night. They bounced ideas off each other and looked at the first three spots where the victims had been found. By 2:40 a.m. the team had a basic profile down. They assumed the unsub was around forty to fifty-five years old, which eliminated a little less than half of the twenty-five workers. They also assumed the man was important and potentially used violence as a substitute for sex and a form of release. _y/n_ kept the idea of cabin fever in the back of her head and suggested acts of hysteria or depression for the profile. She clarified, “We wouldn’t see that behavior here, but while this unsub is not on the rig I think bouts of anger and depression might be a pattern. He might have even lost jobs because of this before.” Rossi agreed and said, “We can ask Mr. Obermann about people with those traits tomorrow morning. We also know the attacks happen at night when most of the crew are asleep and only the night shift workers are awake.” Derek tacked on, “And they happen where there aren’t cameras or the lighting is too dark to see clearly. It’s often near the machinery to drown out any screaming.” Now that the preliminary profile was created, it would give the team a better chance to look over all the workers tomorrow who they were meeting in the morning. They had only met two men officially that night and it was the two security guards. One was a younger man in his thirties named Joe, and the other was in his fifties named Pete. The team had met the two while they changed shifts. Both men had introduced themselves and told the members of the BAU to call them at any time if they needed help. Derek and Aaron both clocked that neither man carried a gun, but did have retractable nightsticks in their belts.

By this point, it was nearly three, and many members of the team decided to call it a night. They needed to wake up at five a.m. to meet the oil workers before their shift started at 6:00 a.m. It was only Rossi, Garcia, Aaron, and _y/n_ left awake. _y/n_ could feel the weight of her exhaustion pulling at her. Her mind was foggy and looking at the files actually hurt her eyes. The lights on the rig at night were a bit dimmed and she longed to get to sleep. She pushed away from the table and Garcia looked up and asked, “Are you going to bed, darling?” _y/n_ nodded. At hearing this, Aaron looked over to her and she approached him. Mr. Obermann had retired hours ago and _y/n_ was sure Emily was out like a light by now. She could see Hotch eyeing the couches again and she just barely touched his shoulder. He looked over to her and she nodded her head toward his phone, which pinged once. Aaron picked up the device and swiped up on _y/n_’s text message. He quickly read it over. The message read: “Hotch. I guarantee that sleeping in the same room, even the same bed as you doesn’t make me uncomfortable. It may be unorthodox by FBI standards, but I’m tired and I don’t to wake JJ or Emily. Please don’t sleep on those couches or stay up all night to try and make tonight better for me. You need rest too. If sleeping with me makes you uncomfortable, I’ll take the couch, just wake me up and let me know.” Hotch turned back to _y/n_ and could see that she was being honest, about all of it. That she wasn’t uncomfortable, and that she would take the couch if he wanted to be alone. Again he had that feeling that he was being cared for by _y/n_. And even though he felt uncertain for some unknown reason, he couldn’t deny he’d rather be on a bed than the couches. Finally, he gave her a small nod letting her know that he would be down at the room later. Silently, _y/n_ mouthed, “Night Aaron.” With that, she slipped into the corridor and out of sight. Garcia had observed whatever that odd interaction was between her two friends and she was sure something was happening. What that was, she couldn’t say yet, but with her snooping and pleading skills, she hoped to find out soon enough.

After another hour, Aaron was the only one still up. He was stalling and he knew it. With a sigh, Hotch put his loose papers in his file. He picked up the manila folder and moved downstairs. The grimy, dim hall lights flickered and the shadows seemed to move as Hotch walked down the small corridor. Hotch stopped outside the showers and considered taking one. Again he was stalling. He didn’t need a shower, he needed sleep. He passed the showers and tried to unlock the door as quietly as he could. It was dark in the room and he felt around the dark space for the edge of the bed. _y/n_’s slow breathing filled the room along with the sound of the wave slapping the sides of the rig. Aaron knelt down and tried to quietly remove his suitcase from under the bed. He stopped once it was out and listened. From her breathing, it seemed that _y/n_ was still asleep. He unzipped the case and at this point, his eyes had adjusted to the darkness. He found his grey sweatpants and a sleeping shirt. He couldn’t tell what color it was in the dark but it didn’t really matter. He wasn’t trying to impress anyone. Once he had the articles of clothing, he pushed his suitcase back under the bed. Once he was standing again, he considered moving back to the showers to change. However, opening the door and letting in the light from the hall might wake _y/n_. He looked over at his agent who was turned away from him facing the wall. She was obviously asleep, and he decided to just quickly change in the room. He placed his pajamas on the empty side of the twin bed. He faced the other direction and quietly undid the buckle of his belt. He slipped it out of his belt loops and when it was free, he silently placed the leather on the bed. With a fast intentional movement, he undid the button and zipper of his pants. He slipped off the fabric and when his legs were free, he grabbed his sweats and slipped them on. Somehow Aaron felt that it would be alright if _y/n_ saw him in his undershirt or even bare-chested, but something about her seeing his legs or worse his groin -- even if it was covered with briefs was too embarrassing to think about.

A tiny voice in his head said mockingly, “And you just thought ‘you weren’t trying to impress someone?’” Hotch grit his teeth, removed his shirt and undershirt, and put on the soft cotton of his sleeping shirt. Aaron folded the clothes that he had put on the bed and set them on top of _y/n_’s case. He would hang them up tomorrow. He slowly sat down on the edge of the mattress and it dipped slightly with his weight. Very slowly he moved his legs onto the bed and it was just long enough to fit his tall frame. He lay on his back. For his sake and _y/n_’s he decided to sleep on top of the covers, while _y/n_ stayed bundled beneath them. This would at least give them a layer of separation between them. Aaron wasn’t sure if it was his was his stirring or even his body heat, but _y/n_ seemed to momentarily wake, and in a sleep-heavy voice asked, “Hotch.” It was hard to tell if she was still asleep or not, but he softly replied, “It’s me.” This answer seemed to soothe her and _y/n_ quickly fell back asleep. The exhaustion Aaron felt nearly made him fall asleep before he turned on his side to face the opposite direction from _y/n_. For once, he was grateful that he was so tired that his mind couldn’t wander to places he shouldn't let it.

An hour or so later Aaron woke when _y/n_ made a small sound in her sleep. It was like a little hum or maybe the softest “yes” he had heard in his life. As he came to a more conscious state he realized that he was warm. Warmer than he had been when he fell asleep. In his sleep, he had managed to get under the covers and he was nestled next to _y/n_. His right arm was around her waist and his face was pressed into the soft smooth skin of her neck. Hotch stilled his body. Apart from the fact that being pressed close to _y/n_ felt good, he realized that he needed to move slowly or he might wake her while he disentangled his body from hers. Hotch pulled his face back first, and in his tired mind, he thought about how he missed _y/n_’s crisp scent. Next, he removed his arm from her waist. _y/n_ made another noise at this retraction but still didn’t wake. Aaron thanked the gods for apparently making _y/n_ a deep sleeper. Finally, Aaron rolled onto his back and then to his original position facing the other wall. He was too drained to try and get out and above the covers again, and anyway the warmth from both the blankets and _y/n_ who was only an inch or so away from him felt good, and he fell back into unconsciousness after a few minutes.

In the morning, neither Aaron nor _y/n_ had the time to reflect that they had ended up in each other's arms again during the night because they were jolted awake by the sound of someone screaming. _y/n_ said, “It’s Garcia.” Both Aaron and _y/n_ quickly put on their shoes and grabbed their guns in case there was any danger. Aaron moved out the door first and _y/n_ followed closely after. The sound had come from the nearby showers. Mr. Obermann had set up for the showers to be open from six to seven a.m. each morning for the BAU women to shower safely and with the guarantee that a man wouldn’t interrupt them. This was something JJ had set up on the flight over to Alaska. JJ had ensured that the same was promised for the men on the team, but their hours were in the evening. As Aaron and _y/n_ arrived outside the showers, Morgan was gently guiding Penelope from outside. The technical analyst was sobbing and Derek sort of passed her over to _y/n_ who put her gun away. Morgan firmly said, “Get her away from here, _y/n_. We have a new victim.” _y/n_ nodded and she tried to comfort Garcia as they moved away from the new scene. Hotch slipped past them and at his point the whole team assembled. Rossi was acting as a guard against the workers who wondered what was going on, and if someone had been killed. As _y/n_ passed JJ, she asked the media liaison to come with her and Garcia to provide another more comforting presence for Penelope. JJ nodded and they moved back to the women’s room.

It was a hectic three hours at the start of the morning as a coroner and the local authorities were called. The oil workers became increasingly restless with all of the authorities and the BAU around. To the men, so far these newcomers hadn’t done anything to protect them yet. Once Penelope had calmed, _y/n_ sat on Emily’s bed and thought to the morning. To Hotch in his sneakers and grey sweatpants and dark blue shirt with his gun drawn. To Rossi in a dressing gown and undershirt, and Morgan in a tank and sweats. In fact, they had all been in sleeping clothes except for Spencer. _y/n_ expected that the young genius had stayed up all night. The sight of all of them with guns in such casual clothing would have been funny if it was in a dream or something. But this wasn’t a dream. They were isolated in the middle of nowhere. So far away from civilization that it took an hour for the coroner to arrive. _y/n_ thought back to her isolation theory. She looked forward to speaking with Obermann when she got the chance to see what he had to say. She could also get JJ to look over the personnel files with her for clues as well. After Emily dropped off a soda for Garcia, _y/n_ asked Garcia if she could describe what had happened in the morning and any clues she might have seen or observed. _y/n_ had her pen and pad ready when her friend began to speak. Finally, the police left, the coroner took the body, and the team changed into their professional clothes and assembled in the rec space. Obermann and all the workers minus the fourth victim were assembled.

Obermann spoke first and said, “Alright, new rule. Teams of three only. No one moves alone, even to piss. No teams of two, teams of three. I’ve called corporate and am waiting for a response. If they tell us to leave today, we will. But until then we can still do our jobs. And if you can’t tell me. Before we get to today’s work, I’ll have Agent Hotchner speak to you. Listen to him and his team without any grumbling or complaints unless you want to be written up.”With that, Oberman stepped aside for Aaron. Hotch tried to make this quick. He could tell the men in front of him were angsty. He cleared his throat and said, “As Mr. Obermann said, I’m Agent Aaron Hotchner. I work for the FBI in the Behavioral Analysis Unit. I and my team are here to find the person who is making this an even more dangerous place to work. I am sincerely sorry for your loss this morning. I and my team standing beside me will do everything we can to try and not allow something like that to happen again while we are here. If any of you see something off or suspicious, don’t hesitate to tell me, our Media Liaison, or anyone on the team. I promise we won’t get in your way. For now, that’s all.” Aaron stepped back and motioned for the team to move further back into the room as Obermann started giving the instructions for the day's labor. Aaron had cut out a lot of the formalities, his title, and the science behind the team's work. It wasn’t needed now. He had been speaking to hardened working men, not cops, and sounding fancy or professional wouldn’t make their opinions of him or the team any higher. As Obermann gave orders, Aaron similarly divvied up tasks for the team. Garcia, who had much recovered from her shocking morning would continue looking at the terror element and online leads. He and Morgan would look at the crime scenes. Rossi volunteered to watch the men at work and see if he saw anything that fit the profile. JJ, _y/n_, and Emily volunteered to look at the files of the employees again, as well as rewatching any relevant footage, and Spencer would work on a geographic profile if that was even possible in a space this small. Hotch, like Obermann, told his team that he wanted them in pairs. The events of the morning were a clear reminder that there was significant danger for everyone on the rig.

The team worked tirelessly through the day. They all even missed breakfast and lunch. They reconvened at mid-day and shared what they had. Rossi had suspicions about two men, Baker and Price. Em, JJ, and _y/n_ had thoughts about three men: Slainfield, Parkins, and Jotenson. _y/n_ also had a bad feeling about Pete. However, Pete was standing by them so she didn’t say anything to the whole team. But once the man was gone, she approached Aaron. He was leaning over his and Rossi’s notes on the table, but he acknowledged her presence by turning his head to her for a moment. _y/n_ said, “I think that there’s something off about Pete. He seems to match the profile well and…” She paused momentarily and Hotch looked at her closely, saying, “And?” _y/n_ swallowed and said, “Maybe this is silly but he gives me a bad feeling.” Hotch nodded and said, “It’s not silly. We’ll keep an eye on him.”

The team worked through the afternoon and into the evening. Every now and then they would update the group as they discovered new things. Morgan and Hotch had looked at the crime scene and the pictures of the victim. It was clear that this murder was faster and more reckless. It had happened in a more public place unlike the last three and there was less bruising which meant the death had been rushed. Hotch and Rossi made two hypotheses: one was that the killer was trying to show dominance to the team. To demonstrate that he could kill even with them watching. The second was that he was getting sloppy. He might be trying to show strength, but it was evident in the victim’s body that he was slipping. In the evening the team met for dinner with the rest of the workers. The BAU members all sat together at a table on the far side of the room. Clear cliques could be seen in the oil men as the group sat and chattered softly. None of the men looked at the team and they clearly didn’t want to be overheard. It was clear that the team's presence and the fact that a killer was among them was altering their behavior. As _y/n_ looked over the group and then to her friends it all suddenly felt like high school. And in a moment that felt like a bad teen romance, _y/n_ thought of the morning, before Garcia had shifted the course of events for the day with her discovery. _y/n_ had woken early. She wanted a shower even if she didn’t really need it. She had not expected to wake up warm and cozily tucked in Aaron’s arms with his face pressed into her hair. The comfort she found in his embrace knocked the senses out of her for a moment before she realized he was her boss and any feeling that might or might not been growing in her would be rejected. Not that she’d ever have the nerve to say or do anything. She liked her job too much to do something stupid. She liked Aaron too. As a colleague and friend, she wouldn’t want to make things awkward between them. _y/n_ came back to herself and wondered how she could navigate out of the small bed and his warm, strong arms to get to the showers. Just then Penelope had screamed and saved her from having to think about it. _y/n_ snapped back to reality as Emily said something to her. _y/n_ looked over at Prentiss and said, “Sorry, come again?” As she picked up her pizza for another bite.

To call the food good would be hyperbole, but the team was so famished the cafeteria-grade food tasted amazing. The workmen moved to finish their tasks for the night before turning in. The team continued working for an hour or so before many members also turned in for the night. Perhaps it was the cramped space or the fact that the daylight faded quickly leaving the rig in darkness much of the time, or just the sounds of the waves that made them all a little more sleepy than usual. Emily, Garcia, _y/n_, and JJ were one of the groups to turn in early. _y/n_ could tell that Garcia was going to start asking her questions about what the night with Aaron had been like. To avoid having that personal conversation right now, _y/n_ faked a yawn to indicate that she was really sleepy, which she was. Her strategy worked and Garcia, who was actively going to ask _y/n_ about her night yesterday stopped herself realizing that her friend was tired. Each of the women moved to their rooms and got ready for bed. When the lights were off and _y/n_ was under the blanket and her breathing was the only sound in the room, she thought she heard a creaking from the corner of the small space. _y/n_ sat up, but there was obviously no one there. She lay back down and pulled the covers over her head like a little girl. The place unnerved her. It was like an isolated haunted British mansion with a vengeful ghost roaming the corridors. Except this ghost was real and would do more than scare you to death. _y/n_ let out a sigh at her silly thoughts. She cleared her head and actually focused on getting some rest.

Aaron was not the last one up this time. That honor went to Derek who was chatting with Garcia about something technical that he wasn’t sure he fully understood. Hotch stood and excused himself. Aaron was smarter the second night, and he had set out a clean pair of pajamas and his toiletries for his shower night. Aaron grabbed the items and moved back to the shower room. Hotch stripped and moved into one of the communal showers. He pulled the frosted plastic curtain back for privacy. He turned on the water and flinched as the ice-cold water hit his skin. It took a moment before the warm water replaced the frigid. When the hot water did come, he let out a little sigh. He didn’t know where it had come from. He assumed it was from being so tired. From the real and present danger his team was in, and also that there had been a dead body in this very space many hours earlier. As he reflected, he thought, ‘These cases certainly make strange bedfellows of places.’ And it was true. Where hadn’t he seen a crime? Churches, dressing rooms, parks, campgrounds, strip clubs, showers, houses, houses, houses… Aaron tried to not focus on the morbidity of his job. He was actually thinking about the ‘bedfellows’ part of his thought. Because this case was making him have a strange bedfellow in _y/n_. In what world would something like this happen? In what twisted world was he so comfortable with it happening? He thought back to when he woke up holding _y/n_. Now Aaron actually stopped himself from groaning. ‘You’re tired,’ Aaron reassured himself. He more quickly worked through his routine of thoroughly cleaning his skin and washing his hair. After drying off with a towel and changing. He moved back into the room and settled into the bed. As he lay down, he looked at the metal ceiling painted an unimaginative hospital beige. He silently said, ‘You won’t hold _y/n_ tonight._’ He repeated it a few times. It was a technique he used with Jack when he had bad dreams. Aaron told his son that if you say something while you’re awake, like, “I won’t have a nightmare tonight,” that it will happen in your sleep too. Hotch softly chuckled at the fact that he was using a comforting technique for his son on himself. As his thoughts shifted to Jack, he slipped into sleep.

It was the middle of the night, Aaron woke when he felt like all the air had been sucked from the room and a heavy weight seemed to press down on him. He shifted up and looked at _y/n_. He was surprised when he saw her eyes wide open apparently looking at the foot of the bed. He could tell something was off. Her body was stiff like a board. Aaron tried to get her to relax by gently shaking her shoulder and calling her name, but this had no response. Hotch swallowed and placed his fingers over her pulse. It was a bit elevated, but he could see her breathing normally. Her condition scared him, and he called her name again. After a moment _y/n_’s eyes shifted from the edge of the bed and up to the ceiling. Aaron knew there was nothing there, but he looked up at the flat surface anyway. He tried shaking her again. He was wondering if she was having a stroke, but the odd symptoms didn’t look like those of a stroke, and _y/n_ was far too young and healthy to have a stroke. He would have seen it in her medical history and not let her on the team. For another agonizing minute, _y/n lay still. _y/n_ seemed to snap out of whatever this episode was. She quite literally collapsed into the mattress, and she took large unsteady breaths like she was panicking or had been unable to breathe over the last few minutes. Aaron’s voice was filled with concern and worry, as he brushed his hand over her arm and said, _y/n_. What was that?” In a strained voice, _y/n_ said, “Lights. Give me a minute.” Hotch nodded, and he felt relieved hearing her voice, even if it did sound distressed. He leaned over to his side of the wall and flipped the light switch on. The low-level fluorescent glow of the overhead made Hotch blink a few times. When his eyes had adjusted, he watched _y/n_. Her eyes were closed and she was clearly doing some breathing techniques to calm herself and her nervous system down. Aaron’s hand briefly ghosted over her upright palm. For a moment he wanted the take it in his own hand, but he stopped himself. He grabbed at the sheets of the bed and made a fist with the fabric instead. After a few minutes, _y/n_ sat up. One of her legs was bent to her chest, and she placed her forehead in her right hand. Aaron cleared his throat and as if she just now remembered he was there, she turned her head to look at him with her forehead still in her hand. She looked so scared. Her eyes shone with it. After a final beat of silence, _y/n_ said, “Do you know what sleep paralysis is?” Her voice was slightly hoarse, lower than its normal register. Hotch thought about what he knew about the condition. He’d heard of it before, but never experienced it himself. Softly, he replied, “I have. Though I don’t know a lot about it.” _y/n_ nodded and then said, “Well now you’ve seen it.” Seeing _y/n_ like this pulled at his insides, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He moved his hand to the small of her back to provide some comfort.

_y/n_ seemed to settle with his touch, and she took her head out of her hand. Aaron wanted, needed some answers. So as kindly as he could, he asked, “What is that like exactly? You were so stiff for about three minutes.” _y/n_’s brow pinched for a moment and she replied, “It’s like locked-in syndrome a bit. You’re aware, awake but there's no moving or being able to snap out of it. You’re trapped until the episode is over. People see, hear, or feel things. One or all of those things can happen.” Hotch’s mind went back to while the episode was happening. She had clearly been looking at something at the foot of the bed and then at the ceiling. He asked, “Do you see things?” _y/n_ nodded and said, “Yeah.” Aaron could see the discomfort as she thought about it. Aaron wasn’t going to press, but he did wonder what she had seen. His unspoken question was answered by _y/n_, who said, “For me, I… I see a man. He’s large and cloaked in a kind of shadow. Like his body is there but not there. He smiles at me but other than his mouth there’s no face.” _y/n_ swallowed thickly and said, “Normally he’s at the foot of my bed, but sometimes he’s near my face. Tonight he crawled up the wall and looked down at me from the ceiling.” While she spoke about the figure, her voice hitched and Aaron noticed the small sob she was trying to hide. Her description of sleep paralysis sounded horrible. His bouts of insomnia felt like nothing compared to what she described. It was an actual living nightmare. Hotch took a breath and started running a gentle circle on her back with his thumb. He wanted to know more. Like how often does this happen? Or if there’s something that causes these events. But right now he was more concerned about making sure _y/n_ was comfortable and felt safe.

Aaron removed his hand from her back, and this made her look at him more intently. He first acknowledged how frightening that sounded, and he said, “I’m sorry you’ve gone through this. It sounds, scary. Is there anything you do that helps you calm down? Is there anything I can do to help? I could grab you a coffee, or give you space if you need.” _y/n_ gave Hotch one of those small half smiles that she flashed him when he was doing something for her that he didn’t need to exactly. She replied, with a more stable voice, “I, um actually think that coffee might make it worse. Trying to stay up and outlast the feelings doesn’t normally help with anything. But maybe some water would be nice.” Hotch nodded and turned toward the small nightstand on his side of the bed. He grabbed the water bottle that he had taken from dinner. He had only taken a sip or two, and he offered it over to _y/n_ saying, “Is this okay? I just had a sip, but I can get you a new one if you prefer.” _y/n_ chuckled lightly as she unscrewed the cap and took a drink. She really wasn’t worried about germs from Aaron. After a few sips, she put the cap back on and Aaron placed it back on the table. Aaron then asked, “Is there anything else?” _y/n_ continued looking at him and said, “Normally I just grab a weighted blanket and and try and get back to sleep and pray it doesn’t happen again.” The idea that something like this would happen more than once in a night was abhorrent to Hotch. He looked around the room for anything that might act like a weighted blanket even though there wasn’t anything of the kind around. Aaron’s brain came up with an idea and his mouth voiced the thought before he could stop himself. He said, “Maybe I can hold you? It’s not a weighted blanket, but maybe it could help?” There was a silence after the offer was out there. Both Aaron and _y/n_ were a bit surprised. Aaron bit the inside of his mouth at what he had said. He feared that he had crossed a line, and _y/n_ looked at him like she was surprised that he had offered. However, much to Hotch’s relief, she said, “I’d like that, actually.” Aaron nodded and softly replied, “Okay. Do you want me to turn off the lights?” _y/n_ nodded and laid back on the mattress.

Aaron switched off the light and lay flush with the mattress as well. He wasn’t exactly sure how to start what he had offered without it being awkward or uncomfortable. So he started by just taking _y/n_’s hand in the darkness. He gave it a gentle squeeze, and she let out a breath at his touch. His hand trailed up her arm to her bicep where he ran his pointer and middle fingers up and down the area gently. He wanted to ensure that she was okay with this. After a minute of this, _y/n_ softly said, “Aaron, please.” Maybe it was the way he said his first name or the fact that he wanted to provide the comfort that gave him the courage to move his body close to hers. He placed a hand on her hip and asked, “Do you want to face my chest or face the wall?” Her comfort was most important to him. _y/n_ thought for a moment and said, “I’d like the face the wall.” Aaron hummed and positioned himself so his chest was against her back as she turned on her side. With his left arm, he wrapped his arm over her. It rested on her waistline. He didn’t add any pressure, but let the weight of his arm rest on the side of her body. _y/n_ could feel that he was tense; he might even be flexing. She didn’t mention this and after a few minutes, he relaxed like her. When he did this she could fully feel him pressed against her. The soft area of this stomach pressed against her lower back. Before she fell asleep she said, “Thanks Hotch.” With that, she slipped into oblivion.

In the morning it wasn’t odd as they got up. Aaron checked in to see how she was, and _y/n_ said, “I’m alright. I rested pretty well thanks to you. I really appreciate it, Hotch.” Aaron nodded and more nonchalantly than he really felt he said, “I’m just happy that I could help.” _y/n_moved to grab her towel, her work clothes, and her toiletries bag. She stepped into the shower and told JJ good morning. The media liaison was humming some county song behind her privacy curtain and told _y/n_ “Good morning,” as well. _y/n_ and JJ moved to the rec room together. The rest of the team was grabbing breakfast. As soon as Garcia saw _y/n_, she knew something had happened the previous night. The technical analyst and Emily approached _y/n_, and Penelope asked her, “Baby, did something happen? You don’t look well.” _y/n_ shook her head and quietly told her friends, “I had another episode last night. It was a lot worse than the recent ones.” Garcia looked at _y/n_ sympathetically and pulled her into a hug saying, “I’m so sorry, _y/n_. It’s gotta be this place. It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies too.” Aaron watched on as Em, Garcia, and _y/n_ had a quiet conversation near the serving table. He could just hear some of their conversation, and for a moment, he felt left out because _y/n_ hadn’t told him about her sleep paralysis but had clearly let Penelope and Prentiss in on the secret. Aaron realized that immediately that was stupid because the conversation about her sleeping habits didn’t normally just pop up around him. What would she possibly say, “Oh yeah, every now and then a literal sleep demon shows up by my bed, and he doesn’t have a face. Also, I can’t move when it happens. And it could happen anytime I sleep.” Aaron chastised himself and stabbed another bite of eggs onto his fork. At least now he knew about one of the challenges that seemed to haunt _y/n_ outside the job, and he now would do what he could to make her life easier while they were on cases.

The day moved quickly as some leads dropped cold and the pressure was on to get results. There hadn’t been a new attack which indicated that either the unsub was getting scared, or the fact that the team and the workmen being in teams of two and three had stopped them from being able to act. If the pattern of the last two killings heald, the unsub was likely to attack again today. During the afternoon, Spencer and _y/n_ were discussing her theory and the idea that the unsub was impotent. Spencer said, “What if he’s not important at all, but has a pain fetish or something?” _y/n_ looked at Spencer with apprehension, and she replied, “But the impotence matches with the profile. The bat or blunt object is clearly a replacement for the phallus. If the unsub has a pain fetish I think he would take much more time with the victim. Granted in a place like this, there can’t be a lot of time spent on each victim. I’m not sure, now it feels off.” Spencer leaned against the wall and said, “Let’s re-examine that part of the profile in a bit. I have some thoughts about your cabin fever theory.” _y/n_ gave the genius a small smile and said, “Shot. I’m all ears.” What both agents were missing about the first subject of discussion was that it was possible that more than one person was influencing the way the victims were being killed.

It was late, again and Em and _y/n_ were calling it a night. _y/n_ had tried to get to bed before Hotch while they shared the bed. She hoped that if she was asleep when he got back, he would be more comfortable because they wouldn’t have to have any potential awkward ‘good nights’ or shifting around in the bed to try and get comfortable. _y/n_ for one, took what felt like half an hour to find a comfy position and actually get to sleep. The hallway to their room was cloaked in oddly long shadows. For a second Emily thought she heard a dripping sound and looked around for the source of the noise, but she couldn’t see anything from the darkened hall. Emily looked over to _y/n_ and said, “I don’t know about you, but I want to get the fuck off this rig.” _y/n_ nodded in agreement and said, “That gets an Amen from me.” As Prentiss approached her door, she fished for her keys and muttered, “Shit,” under her breath. _y/n_ looked over to Emily and asked, “What is it?” Emily said, “I left my keys on the table.” _y/n_ looked to her friend and then to her own door. It was only ten or so feet away and Em said, “You go to bed. I’ll be fine by myself getting my keys. JJ was planning on heading to bed soon too, so I’ll just walk back with her.” _y/n_ said, “You’re sure?” Prentiss nodded and both women headed their separate ways. Emily moved with determination, wanting to get to bed as quickly as possible.

_y/n_ moved down the hallway and passed the showers. Once she was past the site of the latest victim, a figure emerged from the entrance behind her. _y/n_ wasn’t aware of the man’s presence until he spoke, saying, “Ma’am, you shouldn’t be walking alone.” _y/n_ whipped around and saw the security guard, Joe. _y/n_ suddenly felt a dread build in her stomach, and Joe stepped toward her saying, “Let me walk you to your room at least.” Just as _y/n_ was about to say something, the man lunged at her. His strong hands found their grip on her neck and she choked as he restricted her airway and pushed her harshly against the metal wall. _y/n_ tried to fight the unsub, but her lack of air was making it hard. In an act of desperation, she used her right hand to find the man’s groin and she took his manhood in her hand squeezing the area tightly. Joe removed his hands from her body and said, “Bitch,” as he moved back covering his groin with his hands. _y/n_ tried to catch her breath. She pulled for the gun in her holster with shaking fingers, but Joe was quicker with his nightstick. As he extended the weapon it gave a little swishing sound. Before _y/n_ could fully protect her face with her hands the nightstick made painful contact on the side of her head. _y/n_ reeled, and she saw stars for a second. _y/n_ tried to stay upright, but the pain and confusion had her collapse against the wall. As she crumpled, she could hear Joe say, “How fucking dare you say I’m impotent. You’re going to regret that comment you little bitch.” _y/n_ closed her eyes as she saw the man’s hand holding the weapon raise and lower with considerable force.

Hotch moved down the hallway and stairs that led to the first level of the rig. He was in desperate need of a shower and a distraction. The day had been rough on him. He had had to speak to Obermann about the men suddenly acting different, even with hostility toward the team. They were obviously all on edge, but that didn’t give them a right to badmouth his team. He had also had a very choppy call with Strauss and Mr. Ridgewell. Both were disappointed that he hadn’t found anything yet. Aaron had to explain to Ridgewell specifically how unique a case this was. Aaron wondered why Erin hadn’t told the Commissioner this information before. Was his boss angry with him as well? Making him do this sort of soft groveling as a sort of punishment? To prove that he and the team were valuable? Aaron had also had a long conversation with Garcia about more messages that had been shared from the alleged foreign agents. Hotch was beginning to think that this part of the case was all a ruse by the unsub to distract the team’s time and energy. As Hotch got lower on the stairs, he heard a snapping sound and the small moan of pain that came after a particularly loud cracking sound had his hand on his gun in an instant. Aaron quietly moved down the final steps and he saw the younger security guard leaning over a prone figure that he recognized as _y/n_. Aaron authoritatively said, “I have a gun pointed at the back of your skull. Unless you want your brains decorating these walls, I’d put your hands behind your head and slowly stand.” Unfortunately for Aaron, Joe had heard Hotch’s footsteps and had grabbed his knife, which he kept hidden in his back pocket, and pressed it close to _y/n_’s neck. Joe called back, “I wouldn’t if I were you, Agent Hotchner. I have my knife pressed to your agent's neck. So unless you want her bleeding out from her carotid artery, I’d put down your gun, and kick it toward me.” Aaron clenched his jaw but replied, “Alright. I’m doing it now.” Hotch would never jeopardize a member of his team. The fact that he couldn’t see how hurt _y/n_ was and the fact that she wasn’t moving almost made him sick. He slowly moved his center of gravity down and set his handgun on the cold smooth floor. Aaron pushed the weapon toward Joe. The unsub felt behind himself until his hands found the gun. Joe moved to face Aaron, dropped the knife, and grabbed his nightstick instead. Joe commanded Aaron to raise his hands and put them behind his head. Hotch did as told and when the unsub was a foot away from Aaron, Joe quickly raised his nightstick and hit Aaron on the side of the face. The blow wasn’t well aimed, and it didn’t have as much power as he had used with _y/n_, but it was still enough to incapacitate the FBI agent for a moment. As Hotch slumped against the wall, Joe pushed past him and ran to an external door at the end of the hallway.

After a second, Aaron came back to himself and he clicked on his open communication channel with the team and he said, “The unsub is Joe Pabst. He just attacked _y/n_. He exited the southwest door. The channel came to life as Aaron moved toward _y/n_ on unsteady feet. He collapsed next to _y/n_ and checked her breathing and pulse. It was clear that she was unconscious and battered, but her pulse seemed alright. She seemed to be struggling to breathe due to the trauma on her nose. Aaron couldn’t tell if it was broken or not, but the blood leaking from it and the bruising already there told him that it was hard for her to breathe through it. Thankfully Rossi and Garcia came to his side in a second. Rossi motioned that he would stay with _y/n_ and at seeing this, Aaron got to his feet to pursue the unsub. He listened as Derek, Spencer, and Emily approached the man who had harmed _y/n_. Outside on the slick side of the rig, Aaron fought the wind. He moved up to the top platform and saw Derek and Spencer in a stand-off with the unsub who was on the rigging of the derrick itself. A light shone out, highlighting the unsubs form standing high above the waves. Hotch lined up a shot with the second gun he wore on his left ankle. Just as he was preparing to fire an incapacitating shot, Joe moved to the edge of the small platform, and by some twist of fate, or a simple design flaw, the chain railing slipped from one of its posts, and because Joe was leaning his weight on the barrier, he flailed wildly before plummeting into the choppy sea below. Aaron called Morgan on the secure channel and said, “Go see if you can find Joe. I’ll wake Obermann and let him know what’s just happened.” Derek confirmed Hotch’s directions. As much as Aaron would like the unsub to drown, it was still his job to make sure monsters like Joe faced the full weight of justice if possible.

A half-hour later Aaron was back by _y/n_’s side. Rossi had moved _y/n_ to the rec room and the travel medical evacuation team was en route. _y/n_ hadn’t woken yet and Aaron feared a bad concussion or worse, something like a brain bleed from the head trauma she had received. Aaron also couldn’t deny that he was feeling unwell. The lights were a bit bright for him, but he ignored his own pain to be seated next to _y/n_. When the helicopter came, Rossi insisted that Aaron ride with _y/n_ to the nearest hospital because he might also need medical care. Hotch acquiesced and boarded the helicopter with the paramedics and pilot. The sun was just rising above the horizon line as the chopper moved up and over where the Alaskan sea met the cold, hard land. At the hospital Aaron reluctantly submitted himself to an exam, but he only had thoughts for _y/n_ who was seen a few rooms down.

When _y/n_ woke a few hours later, her head pounded in pain. Even though she was hurting, she could sense that she was somewhere new. Her last memories were of Joe approaching her. As someone near her shifted, she opened her eyes and tried to see through the glare of her blurry vision. Aaron sat up as _y/n_ stirred. His head was lightly bandaged to stop the bleeding from his temple. _y/n_ struggled to say, “It was Joe.” Aaron nodded and said, “Yeah. Joe and Pete, but we can talk about that later. I’m going to call the doctor for you.” As Aaron waited for Dr. Ramirez to come and check in on _y/n_ he looked her over again. Her face was deeply bruised. There were other sites of trauma on her body including a fractured wrist and some bruised ribs. The doctors assumed that she had a grade III concussion due to the fact that she had been unconscious for as long as she had. Hotch could see the pain in her eyes, but even so, she said, “It’s nice to have someone one I really like be beside my bad instead of shadow man.” _y/n_ cringed slightly from the pain and how stupid ‘shadow man,’ sounded to her. She had never named her sleep paralysis demon. She refused to give it an identity. She looked at Aaron who was also a bit damaged. She wanted him to hold her again, but due to the fact that they were in a hospital, and he was her boss, that seemed a bit implausable. So she extended her hand out to him. Aaron took it in both of his hands, and his calloused fingers moved gently over her knuckles and palm. Before she closed her eyes against the brightness of the room, she saw a ghost of a smile on Hotch’s face. It always showed up in the crow's feet by his eyes.

A day and a half later, the team was headed back home. Joe’s body still hadn’t been found in the rough sea. It was possible that it may never be recovered. Aaron was fine with this. Pete, who had influenced Joe had been taken into custody and was awaiting a hearing. The doctors had recommended a three-day leave of absence for Aaron and a week-long recovery period for _y/n_ for both of their healing. Aaron was going to insist on a longer break for _y/n_. And if he was medically forced from the office, that should give the team a bit of a reprieve as well. As the team settled on the jet, Aaron found himself seated next to _y/n_. Discretely, his left hand found its place close to her thigh. The tips of his fingers softly touching _y/n_’s upper leg. _y/n_ seemed to be asleep, and Aaron looked over her face which was bandaging on her nose, crown, and temple. At his touch, _y/n_ shifted her body towards his in her sleep. The part of Aaron that was growing fonder and fonder for _y/n_ contentedly filled his chest. He would have to do some self-reflection once he was home about these feelings. Once his hand was a bit more firmly planted on _y/n_’s leg, Hotch thought about how demons really were real. Either those who showed up unwanted in horrifying waking nightmares, or people like Joe, who had been influenced by the older, isolated, and impotent Pete, who had told his protege to enact violence for him. But as Aaron looked over the dimmed jet cabin at his team --all of whom were asleep except for Garcia and Rossi. Aaron thought of them as his gaze returned to _y/n_. Yes, demons were real, but he was there to take care of them, whatever form they took. And that gave him the strength to keep going.

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darkomoth · 10 months

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Insomniacs

Chapter 1: Violets

Aaron Hotchner x reader

Summary: You and Hotch are both workaholics, but when you start showing up earlier and staying later, he starts getting concerned. A case will give you something to preoccupy yourself with, but something goes severely wrong.

Cause when doesn't it?

Notes: I recommend getting the InteractiveFics extension for chrome! It's really good and will replace the y/n and l/n with your name :)

Also uploaded on Ao3 under the same title

Word count: 9.7K

Ch. 2 Ch.3

It was another night of not being able to sleep at all. Not that you hadn’t tried. After the plane touched back down in Quantico, you should’ve felt relief at the thought of home and a comfortable bed to lie your head, but you felt nothing other than anxiety at the thought of nothing to do.

You got to your apartment, dumped your used go-bag clothes into the washing machine, showered, cleaned up the dishes that cluttered in your kitchen, even vacuumed up a bit in the living room. You looked over at the clock on the end table by your couch, it read 3:33 am. With a sigh, you decided to give rest a shot.

Your bed was made perfectly already, not wanting to mess it up, you decided the couch was good. You grabbed a blanket and pillow and turned on the TV, volume all the way down. The time passed achingly slowly. Seconds crawled by and the silence was unbelievably deafening. You looked at the clock once again, 3:39 am. Another attempt to close your eyes and you were met with 20 minutes of tossing and turning.

“That’s enough.” You mumbled to yourself before throwing the warm blanket off your body and getting up. You made a pot of coffee, moved your clothes to the dryer, and packed a new go-bag. 4:05 am. It was agonizing, every second you waited for your phone to ring. You watched it, the dark screen with no new notifications taunting you. You sat on your couch, watching the characters on your screen move and laugh silently, your eyes drifted closed once or twice, but never long enough for it to be called sleep.

You sipped your coffee, hot and caffeinated and perfect. 4:17 am. When the drink went cold you decided it would be a good time to get ready for the day. You got dressed, black slacks and a dark blue long-sleeved button-down. You brushed your hair and did your makeup. 4:29 am. You considered whether to just go straight to the office, ultimately deciding it best to grab some food first.

You arrived at the building at 5:02 am. It wasn’t too early, you decided. After all, there have been nights that you’ve seen your boss not leave until past 5:00 in the morning. Hotch’s car wasn’t in the parking lot this morning, however. That was good, it meant he was getting sleep and time with his son.

The bullpen was dark, you decided to only turn on one light, enough for you to see. The case report on your desk was already finished since you worked on it during your team's flight back home, but there would be no harm in going over it. You wouldn’t classify yourself as a perfectionist or even a workaholic, though you presented that way to others. You just didn’t enjoy doing nothing like other people.

Footsteps coming from your left made you pause what you were doing and look up.

“Good morning.” You said as Hotch came walking into the bullpen with that perfectly pressed suit of his. The time on your watch read 5:30 am, he was very punctual.

“Good morning.” He said, with that usual furrow of his brow and the tight-lipped look that meant a question was coming. “You’re here early.”

Okay, not really a question.

“So are you.” You say, too tired to engage in your typical banter.

Hotch only nodded once in response, then took a few steps towards his office before stopping in his tracks and turning back around. “Did you actually go home last night?”

“Yes.” You said, fidgeting with your fingers beneath your desk. “I couldn’t sleep.”

“Mm.” He hummed in response. “Don’t burn yourself out, we need you alert.”

“Do we have a case?” You asked, maybe a little too quickly.

“Not until the rest of the team gets here... but yes.”

You nodded and any trace of tiredness from the night dissipated. Blood pumped in your veins and your anxiety disappeared, anticipation for the new work ahead of you completely replacing it.

“Okay, would you mind if I got the case file now? I have nothing else to do.” You asked.

Hotch studied you for a moment with that serious frown of his, “I’ll make copies now.”

“Thank you.”

Sometimes you felt like Hotch was the only one that understood you. Maybe it was because he was the resident workaholic in the department before you showed up, and he still is, but it feels deeper than that. Most days you come in at the same time, leave at the same time... honestly the only time you don’t see your Unit Chief is when you’re home. You hated being home.

In the very late hours when the whole building was quiet and not a soul lingered, you would see that one light from Hotch’s office and feel comfort. His blinds would be open, and you could see him reading and writing, looking like the weight of the world is on his shoulders. Since the death of his ex-wife, Haley, he’s stayed later and later, coming in earlier, only departing when he knows Jack needs him. It’s a heartbreaking thing to watch.

But often you would be sitting at your desk, getting lost in the paperwork as your eyes strained to read every bit of information in the dim lighting, when a warm hand would land on your shoulder. Hotch’s soft, tired voice telling you to take a break, rest your eyes. It made your chest warm, and body relax if only for a few minutes. He knew better than to try to get you to go home, it never works out. Unless of course, he leaves at the same time. It was a very rare occurrence, to say the least.

Right now, Hotch is in his office making enough copies of the case files to be passed around to the team when they get in. You tap impatiently on your desk, drumming your fingers along to a song that only exists in your head. When you can’t stand it anymore, you get up and make your way over to him.

You knock once on the open door, “What is it?”

Hotch turns to you with a serious look. “You’re very impatient this morning.”

“I know. So?”

With a sigh, he hands over a manila folder with the FBI logo.

“Three women in three weeks, all were strangled and beaten to death, abducted from their homes. Last victim was found 4 days ago.”

“That’s a strict timeline... and they’re just calling us in now?” You ask.

“Local sheriff thinks it could be even more and I’m inclined to agree. So far, this presents as organized. No one starts out like this, there are no hesitation marks on the bodies and no DNA was left behind on the scenes.”

You nodded along as he spoke, already going over the possibilities of this unsub in your mind. Organized means older, that rules out teenagers and younger. No hesitation could mean psychopathy, lack of remorse, etc. Most likely white given the victims were, possibly sexually frustrated.

“Any sign of sexual assault?”

“We’ll go over everything when the team arrives.” Hotch states firmly.

“When were they called in?” You asked.

“If you check your voice mail, you’ll see.” He says with a small smile. “Look, go to the conference room and read over the files some more, I’ll make some more coffee.”

You want to argue, but you know he’s right. You were definitely getting ahead of yourself here. With a grateful nod, you head to the conference room.

The pictures were gruesome, but when aren’t they? The girls were pretty when they were alive, their faces were mutilated during the attacks. Could have something to do with the unsub’s view of women. You turned over theory after theory in your head and before you knew it, Hotch was back and sliding over a mug filled to the brim with coffee, just the way you like it.

“Thank you, Hotch.” You say, taking a sip. He nods and sips his own cup.

“How long were you here before I came in?” He asks you, glancing up from the file in his hands.

You shrug and say, “Not long... half an hour?”

“You need to rest.” He says, in his usual commanding tone. It makes you smile a bit, though you try to suppress it.

“I know, and I will.” You look him in the eyes to try and convince him, but he looks doubtful. “Promise.”

Hotch nods, seemingly satisfied for the time being. You knew he was just checking in on you out of concern for a team member, but you hoped it was just a little more than that. Anytime he looked at you, it made your heart rate pick up a little. You weren’t as sure of yourself as usual when you were around him.

Five minutes later the team starts filtering in, first is JJ, then Morgan, Prentiss, and Reid. Then it’s Garcia, who did not seem very happy to be awake at 6:30 am, followed by Rossi. When everyone finally gathered into the conference room, you could feel your body relax. Your work could finally start for real.

After the initial ‘good mornings’ and bantering, Hotch started to present the case to everyone. You suggested the same preliminary profile traits from earlier and most everyone agreed.

“Well, if this unsub has killed before, it will most likely not be in the exact same spot.” Reid says. “We should widen the range to a fifty-mile radius to see if there were any similar murders in the past couple years or so.”

“I’m so on it.” Penelope says.

“What else did the unsub do?” Prentiss asks, looking at the photos of the victims’ neck wounds.

“A call was placed to each of the victim’s significant others, a voice modifier was used but the message remained the same. ‘Don’t bother looking, you will never see her again.’” Hotch says. “He keeps them for at least a day, given the various stages of healing with the victims bruises.”

“Well, that’s definitely sadistic, torturing not only the victims but those close to them as well.” You add.

“Was the call placed before or after their deaths?” Rossi asks.

Hotch’s eyebrows knit further together, “Before, according to the coroner's report.”

“Which gives the victim’s family hope only for that to be snuffed out almost immediately.” Reid says.

“If this guy’s seasoned in his kills, why risk dumping the bodies in such a public way?” Morgan asks. “All of the victims, Susanne Yearly, Brenda James and Larissa Buckly were all found in public parks, somewhere he could’ve easily been seen even at night while disposing of them.”

“Maybe there’s a part of him that wants to get caught? Wants people to know that this was his work.” You say.

“If that’s the case, we’re dealing with a narcissist.” Rossi adds.

Prentiss jumps in again, “Yeah, but this level of body mutilation feels personal. Their faces were left nearly unrecognizable, I’m willing to bet his stressor involves a woman that has similar features.”

“The families are distraught.” JJ says. “They confirmed in the police reports that all the girls lived alone, having just moved into new places weeks or even days before their abductions took place.”

“Well, that’s certainly a connection.” Hotch states. “Chicago PD will be expecting us when we arrive, wheels up in 30.”

Arriving less than three hours later, Hotch orders you and Reid to establish a timeline in the precinct while Morgan and Rossi take the newest crime scene where Larissa’s body was found. Hotch has JJ speaking to family members and Prentiss goes with him to the morgue.

Garcia’s on the speaker with Reid, “I did what you asked and widened the range for possible attacks fitting this creeps M.O., however absolutely nothing came up. Soooo, I changed the parameters. Hotch and L/N mentioned that most likely this guy wouldn’t have been as confident as he is now, meaning the kills may not have been as brutal. I included any and all deaths as a result of suffocation from the last ten years surrounding the Chicago area and wouldn’t-ya-know-it I got a hit. Well, hits.”

Garcia explains that there were at least 5 possible victims, all of them died of various forms of suffocation. You and Reid went through the past reports of the deceased women and ruled out two of them since they both drowned, which didn’t fit this unsub’s specific fantasy. That left you with three girls, one found in an alley behind her work with a bag around her head, no other injuries except a hit on the head with a blunt object. The other two were covered in bruises and strangled with rope. Since then, the unsub’s gotten smarter, switched from rope to wire making it less bulky and conspicuous. He’s also leveled up his damage to their face and body, becoming more intense with each kill.

You and Reid explain your findings to Hotch and Prentiss when they return from the morgue. They corroborate the theory with their own findings, since each body was more disfigured than the last. The thin lines on the necks of the victims were so deep, you wondered if that’s what the unsub focused on the most.

“There was no sexual assault present on the bodies.” Prentiss states. “But there were marks on their wrists and ankles, they were most likely tied to something while the unsub beat them.”

“Which means the act of killing is more than enough for him,” Hotch adds. “He derives all of his pleasure from brutalizing the women, then watching them die in front of him.”

“The bag around the head on the very first victim, Miranda Jall, along with the hit on her head suggests a sort of de-personalization.” Reid says. “He didn’t make a call to her fiancé and there was no abduction. He hit her over the head as she walked out of her workplace, and the bag obscured his view of her face, he couldn’t have gotten off on it.” He says.

“It was practice. He was figuring out how he was going to incapacitate his victims.” You say. “He probably felt a rush after the initial hit, and realized he wanted more of that aspect.”

“So, he amps up the beatings.” Hotch adds. “He isn’t satisfied with just the kill, he wants more time.”

“And then he switches to rope so he can see their faces.” Prentiss says.

“The two victims that were strangled with rope still have yet to be identified. He started out by blitz-attacking his victims in isolated areas, where-as now he targets newly independent women inside their homes.” Reid says.

JJ walks up with a look on her face that you all know means bad news, “The victims' families have no idea who the caller could be, all the young women appeared to be well-liked, in stable relationships. They can’t think of a single person that would want to do this to their daughters.”

Just then, a call comes through to Hotch’s phone. “Hotchner.” He listens for a moment and then nods, “Okay.” He hangs up. “Morgan and Rossi found violets at the crime scene.”

“The flower?” Prentiss asks.

“Yes.”

“Was that present at the other dump sites?” You ask.

“If it was, it wasn’t mentioned in the files.” Hotch answers.

“If he’s leaving flowers for his victims, it could potentially be a sign of remorse.” Reid says.

“This guy isn’t capable, he’s narcissistic and psychopathic, the flowers have to mean something else.” You say, frustrated now.

So far all you’ve really gotten is the confirmation that this guy has killed at least six women, and not a whole lot else. You decide to call Garcia.

“Speak and be heard by residing genius PG.”

“Hey Garcia, can you get me everything on the early victims? I think the unsub knew one of them personally.” You say.

“What makes you think that?” Prentiss asks.

“Well, if the first kill was a trial, maybe he was practicing for a specific target. He could have already gotten who he wanted and now he’s chasing the same high.” You reply. “While you’re at it Garcia, see if you can find any mention of violets being present at the crime scenes.”

Everyone had converged back to the precinct nearly an hour ago. The last victim, Larissa Buckly, was found 4 days ago. If the unsub is continuing at a consistent rate with no sign of slowing down, the police will be finding a new body in 3 days.

You all knew this, the stakes were high and given the profile of the unsub, he wasn’t someone that was going to stop unless he was behind bars. Still, the team needed sleep.

“Alright, we’ve done all that we can for the night. The profile is out there, the press conference warned women of Chicago to remain vigilant, you all can head to the hotel.” Hotch says.

Hotch could tell that the team wasn’t in high spirits and exhaustion wasn’t going to make it any better. It’s usually a good idea to take a step back, take a break, and come back with fresh eyes. And yet, as the profilers filed out of the precinct, still talking back and forth about victimology and M.O., he noticed not all of them were leaving.

Y/N stayed planted where she was at the round table, eyebrows knit together in frustration or confusion. She tapped her fingers the way that she does when she's nervous or focused, or both. Hotch takes a step towards her, his arms crossed, and a frown set on his face.

“I said you all can head to the hotel.” He says pointedly.

“Yes, I heard you. I’m not tired.” Y/N says, still not meeting his eyes.

Hotch’s jaw tenses a bit. She can be incredibly stubborn and, in some cases, it was an asset. Not right now, though.

“It wasn’t a suggestion, L/N. Go get some sleep, come back tomorrow morning with everyone else.”

“Are you going to sleep?” She asks, finally snapping her head up and meeting his stoic gaze with her own.

“Yes. I have to do a few more things here, and then I will be heading back to the hotel.”

“I’ll leave when you do.” She says. It was a challenge, he knew. He was used to it. It was also extremely frustrating.

Hotch swipes a hand across his face tiredly, “Y/N. You haven't slept since our last case. It’s been over 48 hours, and our judgement is severely impaired after 24 hours without sleep. You can become drowsy and irritable, your memory is affected, your coordination will be off-”

“You think my judgement is impaired?” She asks, sounding offended. That would be the part that she focuses on, Hotch thinks. “Hotch, I have been trying to put all of these puzzle pieces together for over 12 hours now and nothing is going to get done if I’m knocked out.”

Hotch understands where she’s coming from, truly, but right now, he doesn’t care. “L/N I am giving you a direct order, leave the precinct. Go to the hotel. Do not come back until at least 6:00.”

She huffs out a frustrated breath, and it’s hard to not find that a little bit cute. The thought makes Hotch feel guilty, that’s definitely not what he should be thinking about right now. Before he can dwell on it though, Y/N is gathering up all of the papers that were scattered around the table.

“No- leave it.” Hotch commands with his hand coming down on top of the file so she can’t take it, brushing her hand in the process. It spreads a warmth through him, but he thinks he does a good job at not showing it. “I know you won’t sleep if you take these with you.”

Y/N’s angry, he knows by the way she doesn’t even respond, just shoots him a look and grabs her bag to leave. It’s fine though, if that’s what it takes to get her to finally rest. Hotch lets out a long sigh once she’s out of sight, taking a seat at the table and finishing collecting all of the papers on the table. That’s when he notices an image of one of the Jane Doe victims, she’s wearing a necklace, gold and dainty around her slim, pale neck. It was blurry, hard to make out, but certainly a cursive “V” pendant hung in the middle.

“Violet?”

Hotch ordered you to leave the precinct, so you did. But he didn’t say you couldn’t make a detour on your way to the hotel. A yawn overcame you as you drove towards Grant Park, where Larissa’s body was found. You knew that if Hotch found out about this you would be in a lot of trouble, but the thought didn’t really faze you when faced with the alternative. How could you sleep when there was a serial killer out there hunting for his newest victim? A young woman was going to be dead in less than 72 hours, who were you to sleep at a time like this?

At the same time, you can’t condemn your friends for needing that sleep. You wished you functioned like they did. You wished you could take a step back and rest and come back refreshed with a whole new outlook. But the truth was that you just couldn’t handle the nightmares.

They started not long after joining the BAU. It was only natural; you were assured by Morgan as he noticed how off you’d been after a few months with the team. He also suffered from nightmares. They were fewer and further between now, which was good. You weren’t so lucky. For some reason they came in waves. Each case you worked on added to your memory storage of gruesome death and horrific imagery that was reflected back at you anytime you closed your eyes.

It’s true that you hated the nothingness of your home life, the boredom of being alone with nothing but your thoughts, but that was only part of it. You figured, the longer you could stay awake, the less you’d have to worry about the nightmares bleeding into your reality.

When you arrived at the spot where Larissa was found, you saw yellow crime scene tape wrapped around trees and some blood on the floor where the body had laid in the center of it. She was positioned laying face up, arms at her sides, clothes intact. No overtly sexual displays, no attempt to cover her up, just a corpse.

Without the files to work off of, you only had your memory of the crime scene photos. You closed your eyes and imagined you were the one dumping Larissa’s body.

“I would scope out the area first, without the body.” You say to yourself. “Take note of how many people were here during the day, how many at night... but I’d have to seem inconspicuous. Can’t be in a black hoodie standing still and staring at people. Someone would notice.”

“So, I don’t cover my face... people saw me, interacted even. I’m not standing out, I’m moving. Maybe running?” You sigh and open your eyes. All that means is that this guy will be harder to catch than most. “What was with the violets...” You walk in circles around the scene, looking from every angle possible. You take note of the shrubbery, all green grass and occasional daffodils, nothing even resembling violets in the area, so the unsub definitely brought it with him.

Before you had a chance to continue, you heard some movement from behind you. You quickly spun around but saw no one.

You moved carefully from where you stood, a hand resting on your hip where your gun was. Taking careful steps towards the parking lot, you glance at your watch. 1:34 am. Anyone out here at this time is either a stoner or a serial killer, you found yourself almost hoping for the latter.

Once you reached your car, you still saw nothing. “FBI, if someone is there come out now and show me your hands.” You said as loud and clear as possible.

Nothing, only crickets sounded in the night. With a sigh, you thought maybe Hotch was right, your judgement was seriously impaired, and you needed some sleep.

As you reached for the handle of the driver's side door, you felt a sharp pain at the back of your head, and everything went black.

Hotch felt confident in his theory that the third victim, Jane Doe #2, was the unsub’s intended target from the beginning. The first kill was fast and sloppy, he didn’t move the body and her face was practically untouched. The second, Jane Doe #1, was also blitz-attacked, but it was in a grocery store parking lot at night, somewhere higher-risk where he could have been caught. So he was getting bolder, he hit her more, but still didn’t take her anywhere new. Just left her body where she was strangled. The third though, that’s when things shifted.

Jane Doe #2 who wore the ‘V’ necklace, was found in a public park, but that isn’t where she died. Hotch has been referring to her as violet for the time-being, since he didn’t know her actual name. No “Violet” was ever reported missing in the area, which means it could most likely be a nickname. Her real name would potentially still start with a V, he thought.

On the phone with Garcia, he relayed all of this information and was waiting for something to turn up on her end. “I did what L/N asked and tried to find everything I could on the first three victims. Miranda Jall, like you said, was a victim of opportunity and a trial-run. Jane Doe #1 though, while similar to the first, was beaten more and found more quickly. Jane Doe #2 was unrecognizable, I mean like, her face was so swollen from being beaten it’s surprising she was found in one piece.” Her voice was tight and rushed, like the words in her mouth made her feel physically sick.

“I know,” Hotch says. “Which is why I need everything you can find on her, search for missing persons from the past few years again, but narrow it down to only women whose first name started with a V. She would’ve been in a relationship, either long-term boyfriend, fiancé, or new husband.”

“Okay, stay on the line aaaandd.... there are four women, Venessa Traer, Veronica May, Victoria Jennings, and Valerie Hill. None of them look like the other victims.” Garcia says, clearly frustrated. “Traer was an elementary school teacher in her late forties, May had gone missing during a boating trip out-of-state and presumed dead, Jennings was reported missing but turned up a few weeks later, apparently on a spontaneous vacation with her friends, and Hill was an elderly woman who was suspected to have left her care-facility of her own free will.”

Hotch sighed and closed his eyes for a moment, until a thought struck him. “What about middle-names that start with V?” It was a long shot, he knew it, but he would try anything at this point.

A few seconds passed as he heard Garcia’s furious typing on the other end, “Aha! Sir, you are in fact a genius. Samantha Vivienne Garner, reported missing only eight weeks ago. She’s a spitting image of the other women, her name shows up on a lease for a newly remodeled home with one Riley Perkins, her soon-to-be husband.”

“Garcia, I’ll need an address for Perkins.”

“Already being sent.”

“Oh...” She said, sadly.

Hotch’s frown deepened, “What is it?”

“Perkins had posted an image of Samantha saying yes to his proposal, it was in the middle of Millenium Park.”

“Where Jane Doe #2’s body was found.” Hotch said, now 100% convinced that his theory was correct.

Hotch knew that he would be at the precinct all night, the irony of his situation with Y/N not lost on him. She was dedicated, maybe too dedicated, but the same could be said of him.

“Good work, Garcia. We’ll call you when there’s another update.”

“Oh, just one more thing, sir.”

“What is it?”

“L/N had asked me to look into whether there were violets at the other crime scenes and the answer is yes and no. It wasn’t reported or even see as a connection because the first Jane Doe had bought a bouquet of violets from the grocery store, which seems like a coincidence, but Susanne, Brenda, and Larissa all had violets show up on their doorsteps after they were found dead. They were presumed to be condolence gifts from friends, but now...”

“Alright, we’ll look into this further, thank you.”

Hotch ended the call and checked the time. 3:00 am. Three more hours before the rest of the team would show up. He was already setting up in his mind where everyone would be assigned once they got here. Hotch wanted JJ to get in contact with Samantha Garner’s parents, Morgan and Reid would pull the missing person's report and find out the details of that. He would keep Rossi and Prentiss in the precinct to dig into Garner and Perkin’s lives with Garcia. He wanted L/N with him to interview Perkins himself, if he had gotten the very first phone call from the unsub about Samantha, why didn’t he identify her?

5:58 am, Hotch read his watch as everyone started walking in. They were tired, but still looking better than they did the previous night. There were only two days before the next body would be found, and if he’s keeping them for one day, he may have already taken someone.

Hotch was half-expecting (half-hoping) that Y/N would show up early. She usually did, even when it was against orders. Still, he was glad that this meant she may have actually gotten a few hours of rest. 6:00 am and no Y/N, Hotch shrugged off the pit-like feeling in his stomach.

“Good morning.” He says to the other members, who’ve taken their spots at the table. Hotch speed-dials Garcia and puts her on speaker so that the two of them can go over what they discovered last night.

“Well, then if this Samantha girl was the real target and he’s still going, there’s no telling when or if he’ll stop.” Rossi says once they’re finished.

“Exactly,” Hotch replies. He assigns them to their designated tasks and just before he can dismiss everyone, Prentiss speaks up.

“Has anyone seen L/N?” She asks.

“I called her when we got here but didn’t get an answer.” JJ says.

The group of FBI agents share some looks but no one says anything. That feeling in Hotch’s stomach has doubled.

“She wasn’t at the hotel this morning?” He asks. His eyebrows furrow together and jaw tenses when no one answers immediately.

“I didn’t see her.” Morgan speaks up.

“Me neither.” Reid says.

Everyone else only shakes their head in agreement.

“I sent her back with all of you, she tried to stay late but I wouldn’t let her.” Hotch says, fists clenched in the position at his sides. “She didn’t take the files with her so she wouldn’t have had anything to work on.”

“Well...” JJ starts.

“What?” Hotch asks.

“If she couldn’t be at the precinct and she didn’t want to sleep, she could’ve gone to one of the dump sites.” She replies.

Hotch’s chest feels tight, his breathing is shallow and can’t think straight at the moment. If that is what she did, it was very, very stupid. They had profiled this unsub as a psychotic narcissist with sadistic tendencies, there’s a good chance he would visit the crime scenes afterwards. Of course she would go straight there, he thought, what else would she do?

“Alright, the plan hasn’t changed. All of you know your assignments, go.” Hotch says, before he turns to stride away.

“Wait a second, if Y/N’s in danger, we need to find her.” Prentiss says, clearly upset and standing up from her chair.

“That’s exactly what we’re doing.” Hotch shoots back, unable to keep the anger and worry from showing in his voice.

He didn’t give anyone else a chance to argue as he stormed out of the precinct, heading towards the car. One of the cars was gone, which means Y/N definitely left here last night, it was just a matter of which scene she ended up at.

With Garcia still on the phone, Hotch has a thought, “Garcia, send me the last location registered on the GPS of the rental car that Y/N used last night.”

“Y-yes sir.” Penelope typed quickly and Hotch’s anxieties grew with each passing second. “Uh, the-the last pinned location was Grant Park, which was where-”

“The last victim was found. Thank you, Garcia.” Hotch hung up the phone and pulled quickly out of the parking lot, heart beating out of his chest.

You were pretty sure you could feel your heart beating in your head. The back of your skull hurt very badly, but when you tried to feel for an injury you found that you couldn’t. Both your wrists and ankles were tied to a chair, which was bolted to the floor.

Your mouth felt dry, all you could think about was water. That was, before someone came walking towards you from the corner of the room.

“How are you feeling?” The man’s rough voice was too close to your ear, making you jerk back. The sudden movement didn’t help your head injury at all. “Ah ah ah...” He said, gripping your face with one large hand. “Stay still.”

He was ugly. That was honestly your first thought while looking at him. Maybe he hated women cause he couldn’t get a date.

His face was scruffy with a patchy beard, his brunette wavy hair receded away from his face revealing forehead wrinkles. He must’ve only been in his late 30’s early 40’s, but his strung-out appearance aged him.

“Where am I?” You ask as levelly as you could in your state. Looking around, the only thing you noticed was a concrete floor and barren white walls, which hung some wire. A house? Maybe a basement, given the musty smell of the air in the cramped space. It was dark, the only light source coming from a small lamp to your right.

“I thought you were the profiler.”

So, this guy knows exactly who he took. You weren’t just a victim of opportunity, but a target. “You’re right, I am. Which is why I know that you are an extremely...” You take a steadying breath in preparation, “weak individual with no genuine real-world skills who overcompensates for his lack of personality with a massive ego.” You say, staring him in the eyes. “Am I getting warm?”

The unsub pulls his fist back before it lands across your left cheek. You knew this would be the response, though. It’s why you did it. The punch snapped your head all the way to the right, where you spit out the small amount of blood that formed in your mouth. You can’t pretend it didn’t hurt; your eyes squeezed shut against the pain.

Challenging a narcissist usually incurs some type of violence or retribution, but that makes them emotional which can make them sloppy and prone to mistakes. Maybe those mistakes would reveal to you where you were, or even lead your team right to you. You hoped you were right.

The stranger in front of you takes in a rattling breath and exhales in your face, making you recoil. He grips you by the chin once more, putting some extra pressure on the bruise that was sure to form soon. “You are going to die here. But first, I have to make a call.”

The man reaches into your front pocket, digging around until he finds what he’s looking for and pulls it out. Your phone isn’t locked, it never is since you never leave it behind, ever. That of course means the unsub has full access to each number in your contact list. Your heart rate picks up at the thought of who he was about to call.

You didn’t have a significant other, maybe that meant he wouldn’t call anyone? No such luck, though. The man scrolled through your most recent calls and only one name showed up the most consistently.

SSA Aaron Hotchner.

His name made your head light and your stomach churn. This really was a waking nightmare. You pulled yourself roughly against your restraints, feeling the thick rope cut deep into your bare skin. It burned and you kept going until you received a punch to the stomach for your efforts.

“Shut the fuck up.” The ugly man said. Then with a finger raised to his lips as if to demonstrate to you that you need to keep quiet, he presses the call button and raises the phone to his ear. You scream at him and that irritates him enough to punch you once more in the face, harder than the last time.

You groan at the sensation, the pain from your skull and your cheek and your stomach combining to make you feel ill.

“Y/N?” You could hear Hotch’s voice faintly from your phone that the unsub still had in his hand.

“Don’t bother looking, you will never see her again.” Is all that the unsub said, before ending the call and tossing the phone away. It lands several feet behind him on the floor, and you know there’s no chance of you getting it. Not when you’re still bound to the chair.

Your eyes remain fixed on the unsub, watching as he stares you down. He was predictably irrational, moving around you like a wild animal, as if trying to decide what to do with you first.

You may not know where you are exactly, but you know that this unsub likes to keep his victims alive for at least 24 hours after kidnapping them. If he does stick to that pattern, that leaves you with about 20ish hours for your team to come find you. And while you did have complete faith in them, it didn’t stop your heart from pounding faster the closer he came.

Hotch saw the call with your caller ID, and he felt like he could breathe again. He had just stopped in the lot of Grant Park and was walking towards the yellow taped scene when he paused and answered.

“Y/N?” He asked as soon as he hit accept.

“Don’t bother looking, you will never see her again.”

Hotch felt ice in his veins as the line went dead immediately after. The worst thing that could have happened, did. And Hotch felt helpless. His jaw was tense, and his hand curled into a white-knuckled fist around the cell phone. He dropped it to his side, not able to think for a moment.

Then he took a deep breath and dialed Garcia.

“Sir?”

“Can you track L/N’s phone right now?” Hotch asks, feeling the weight of what was happening in his throat as it closed around his words.

“Um, yeah, yes if it’s turned on and if it’s near cell phone towers I should-I should be able to triangulate its location...” While she spoke, she typed. Another few seconds passed without words.

“Garcia?” Hotch said as firmly as he could.

“I’m sorry sir, I can’t- if the phone was turned off or destroyed, I won’t be able to get even an approximation, nothing is coming up at all-”

“Get into contact with the rest of the team, tell them Y/N’s been taken by the unsub.”

“Oh, God. Oh my God, okay.”

Hotch hung up and pocketed his phone. He wipes his hands down his face, frustrated and so fucking angry. With himself, with this case... he doesn’t know what he’ll do if he doesn’t get you back. Now was the worst time to dwell on it, though. You needed the team's help, and he was going to find you.

Looking around at the scene, he noticed that the rental car wasn’t here either. That means the unsub took it with you inside. He must’ve disabled the GPS, either broke it or threw it away before leaving. Hotch immediately contacted the local Police Department’s office to put out an APB on the black SUV.

Think, think... “Okay, he had a personal connection to Samantha. Not only knew her, he loved her or thought he did. He was angry that she was getting married.”

Hotch drives as fast as he can back to the precinct where he finds everyone else, back from their assignments and looking at him for answers.

“When was she taken?” Prentiss asks first.

“And from where?” Reid adds.

“Between 1:00 and 4:00 am, from the park where Larissa’s body was found.” Hotch says, trying to remain in his usual stoic façade. “He wouldn’t have risked taking her while it was light out. This unsub is bold but he’s still a coward like the rest of them.”

“Did you find anything at the scene?” Morgan asks.

“The car was missing, the unsub had to have taken L/N in it.” Hotch took a deep breath. “He called me from her phone.”

That made everyone stiffen.

Rossi speaks now, “Same message?”

Hotch nods once, which is all he can manage. The team speaks in hushed tones as anxiety takes over. “Right now, we have to assume that she’s alive. This unsub keeps his victims so that he can... torture them so let’s get to work.”

“Yeah, but Hotch... if he knows that L/N’s an FBI agent, there’s no telling if he’ll remain on schedule.” Morgan says, obviously troubled by the thought himself if his face is any indication.

Hotch had considered it, of course. But he refused to accept it. Until there was a body, Y/N was not dead. She couldn’t be.

“What did you find out about Samantha Garner from the missing person's report?” Hotch asks, ignoring the implication of Morgan’s words.

“It was called in by her Fiancé, Riley Perkins.” He replies. “He called the police once he noticed she didn’t come home from work.”

Hotch nods, thinking that the unsub wouldn’t be stupid enough to call in the missing person’s report himself. As much of a narcissist as he is, he wanted to keep pursuing his fantasies.

“And JJ, what’d you get from her parents?” Hotch asks, fingers curled into fists as his arms cross in front of his chest.

“It’s the same story as the other parents, everybody loved her, there was no one who held any grudges.” JJ says. “Her mother did mention an admirer, though.”

“An admirer?” Prentiss repeats.

“Yeah, I guess Sam was getting love letters. Innocuous enough to not raise alarm, but still out of the ordinary.”

“Did she say who they were from?” Hotch says hurriedly.

JJ shakes her head, “No, she had no idea.”

“Prentiss and I got Garcia to dig into Sam and Riley’s relationship,” Rossi says. “They were together only one year before deciding to tie the knot.”

“They seemed to love each other.” Prentiss adds.

“Well looks can be deceiving.” Hotch says. “Garcia got his address, Morgan and Prentiss, with me. The rest of you stay and find out absolutely everything you can about this secret admirer, he’s our unsub.”

When Hotch, Morgan and Prentiss arrived at the suburban home at the end of a cul-de-sac, all three stepped out and quickly made their way to the front door.

Three loud knocks on the front door from Morgan and a few seconds later Riley came out.

“Yes?”

“Are you Riley Perkins?” Hotch asked, though he knew the answer.

“Yes, I am. What is this about?”

“I’m SSA Aaron Hotchner, these are special agents Morgan and Prentiss, may we come in?” He didn’t leave room for Perkins to answer, as he was already stepping inside.

“Um, what-what is this about?” He asks again nervously, stepping aside to let the three of them into his living room.

The house was a mess, laundry and trash littered most of the surfaces. The man himself didn’t look too good, like he hasn’t slept in a week.

“We’re here about your fiancé, Samantha Garner.” Morgan says.

Perkins shifts his weight from one foot to another uncomfortably, not making eye contact. “Did you, um, did you find her?”

“Yes, sir we did.” Morgan responds.

The man's nodding, fidgeting where he stands. “And?”

“Sir, I’m afraid she’s dead.” Morgan explains as calmly as he can.

Hotch notices the way Perkins handles the news, the tenseness of his shoulders dissipating. Not necessarily relieved by the news but accepting. Like he already knew that she was dead.

“Oh my God...” He lifts a palm up to his face and sobs for a moment.

“Mr. Perkins, I’m going to ask you once and if you’re not honest with me, trust that I will know.” Hotch states after he finally stops. The man looks him up and down and nods. “Did you receive a phone call the day your fiancé went missing?”

“I uh- I don’t remember...” Perkins says, again breaking eye contact.

“Yes, you do.” Hotch says, now invading his personal space. “It was the day your fiancé went missing, you knew something was wrong when she didn’t come home from work, you called the police. And then someone called you, didn’t they?”

“I- I mean no I don’t...” Perkins finally looks up and then sighs. “I don’t know who it was, I really, really don’t.”

“What did he say, exactly.” Prentiss asks.

Perkins looks at her and shakes his head a little, “He said... that I shouldn’t look for her, that I- I'll never see her again.” He starts crying again after that.

“Anything else at all? Was he calm, erratic?” Morgan asks.

“He was like, mumbling, I don’t know.”

“There’s something you’re not telling us, if you’re withholding essential information to interfere with a federal investigation, I will see to it that you are charged with obstruction of justice.” Hotch says, angrier by the second.

Perkins looks like he’s going to throw up and his legs give out. He slumps down onto the couch before he can speak. “He said... he said that he would kill me too if I spoke to the police again.” His head is in his hands as he talks. “I knew, I knew the second the news said they discovered a body in Millenium Park.” He was almost incomprehensible through his sobs. “They couldn’t identify her, but I knew.”

“Mr. Perkins... Riley.” Prentiss takes a seat next to him and speaks softly, trying to establish trust. “This man has killed at least five other women.” His cries stopped for a moment when he turned to look at her, a shocked expression on his face. “We need your help in order to stop him.”

“I told you, I swear, I don’t know who it is.”

“We think that you do, you just don’t know it.” Morgan says.

Hotch jumps in, “Samantha was his target from the beginning, he knew her. He may have even known you. Think, was there anyone new in your lives? Someone who seemed a little too friendly too quickly? He would have made you uncomfortable, he was domineering and egotistical.”

“Well, um I didn’t know him, I mean, I never met him,” Perkins says, “but there was a guy. Sam would complain about how annoying he was at work, a new hire. She said he talked her ear off about his life, asked too many personal questions...” He trails off for a minute looking between the three agents. “Do you think this man killed my fiancé?”

“Possibly.” Hotch replies. “I have one more question and then we’ll leave.” Perkins nods, tight-lipped. “Did she mention that this man called her by a different name, maybe her middle name?”

His face changed completely, mouth dropping open and blinking, “Yes! Yeah, she mentioned that he would call her ‘my Violet’ like every day, it bugged her.”

“Thank you for your time.”

Hours had gone by while you stayed strapped to this god damned chair. The torture felt never-ending. The unsub landed blow after blow to your face and stomach, only offering a reprieve when you had temporarily passed out from the pain. You couldn’t see very well out of your left eye and your fingers were involuntarily twitching. The blood in your mouth was metallic and awful, adding to your nausea.

“You know,” The man said, pushing a strand of hair behind your ear. “I appreciate the way you’re hanging on. It will make the ending a lot more fun.”

If you had the energy, you would recoil from his closeness to your face. His breath repulsed you, but you stayed completely still, barely blinking, shallow breaths lifting and lowering your chest.

“Mm, you really need to wake up.” He pushes your head back so that you’re forced to look at him. With his grip in your hair, he strikes you in the face with the back of his hand. “Nothin.”

You couldn’t say with any real accuracy how much time had actually gone by since you were first taken, but you had a feeling that your time was running out. Your thoughts wandered to your team.

You missed talking and joking with Prentiss and JJ, you missed Garcia’s cheery voice over the speaker phone. You wanted to hear Morgan’s stories about picking up women and Rossi’s input that made everyone laugh. You wanted to hear Reid ramble about nothing and everything. Mostly, you find yourself thinking about Hotch.

You missed walking into the BAU and knowing you would find him in his office. You thought about his stern face and wanted to know what it would be like to reach your hands out and touch him, wipe away his anger and guilt. You wanted another silent morning where the two of you would sit in the conference room and drink your coffees, enjoying the comfortable silence of the early hours.

You wanted to see his rare, but beautiful smile. The kind of thing that had to be earned; it was the best. As you thought more about him, the sadder you got. You should’ve told him, even just once, how much you liked his company... how much you liked him.

When Hotch, Morgan, and Prentiss get back to the precinct, Reid’s discovered something. He and the rest of the team have been working the secret admirer angle, which they now knew was a coworker at Samantha’s law office.

“All of the bouquets of violets left at the victim’s families homes came with a note, they all said the same thing. ‘My condolences, -K.M.’” Reid explains quickly.

Hotch knows they’re running out of time, it was already past noon, and the team was restless, but this gave him a spur of hope that they were getting close. He pulled out his phone and dialed Garcia’s number.

“Ready and waiting.” She said.

“Garcia,” Hotch’s voice was stern if not a little shaky with anxiety, “was there anyone in Samantha Garner’s workplace with the initials K.M.?”

“Uhhhh, nine.”

“Cross-check those names with anyone arrested for minor charges, assault or something similar, he would be in his 30’s or 40’s now, white.”

“Only one, a Kyle Mazdin, arrested four years ago for breaking into an ex-girlfriend's home and burglarizing it, then arrested again for a bar fight where he nearly killed a man.”

“We’ll need his address immediately.”

“You’ve got it.”

20 minutes later Rossi and JJ were at Mazdin’s office, and the rest of the team was at Mazdin’s home.

Hotch screeched to a stop in the front of the seemingly normal house, “Prentiss with me, Morgan, take the back of the house, Reid through the garage.”

All of them nodded in silent acknowledgment. Morgan and Reid broke off, headed to the side gate, while Hotch and Prentiss entered through the front.

“FBI! Kyle Mazdin, open up!” Hotch yelled. They only waited a few seconds before bursting inside.

The door was unlocked, and they quickly moved from room to room on the first floor with their guns out and ready, yelling “Clear!” before heading upstairs. There was nothing on the second floor either, making Hotch exhale a frustrated breath.

“Hold on.” Prentiss said, stopping Hotch. “You hear that?”

Hotch furrowed his brows and listened. “No, I don’t-”

Just then, a creaking noise from below. Like light footsteps, moving carefully.

Prentiss and Hotch shared a look before running back down the stairs, but there was still nothing. Morgan and Reid were inside, also trying to find the source of the noise.

“The rental car is in the garage.” Reid said quickly and quietly.

“Anything out back?” Prentiss asked Morgan, who shook his head.

Another noise came from behind the team as they stood in the living space, next to the staircase. Hotch moves silently over to the cabinet door that’s connected to the wall under the stairs. It swings open and his gun and flashlight point at nothing. It’s empty save for a few coats hanging on a rack. But looking down, he sees a square-shaped covering with a latch.

Hotch motions for Morgan, who stands ready to open it. As soon as he does, Hotch points his flashlight and gun down, where he sees another set of stairs leading to a hidden basement. Hotch’s jaw tenses and his grip of the glock tightens as he makes his way down, hearing the footsteps of his team behind him.

As he gets halfway down, he sees a lamp illuminating your figure which is tied to a chair in the center of the room. Mazdin is behind you, the metal wire already wrapped around your neck, not tight enough to kill you, but forceful enough to threaten.

“Let her go now.” Hotch’s voice is strained, his anger making it hard to remain still. He can hear the rest of the team coming down the stairs and stopping by his side, also training their guns on the man. “You have nowhere to go, it ends here.”

“Yes, it does.” Mazdin says, pulling the wire tighter against your throat, making you jerk back a little in your chair.

Hotch dared to look at your face, bloody and bruised, and it made his stomach churn. You were conscious, making eye contact with him and taking shallow breaths. Hotch’s heart was beating out of his chest, unable to stop when he took a step closer to you.

“Another step and she’s dead.” The man said, keeping his grip on the wire.

Hotch’s gun was burning in his hand as it was aimed at the unsub’s head, finger twitching on the trigger. “Drop your weapon and no one else dies today.” Mazdin was taking deep, shaking breaths, debating his next move. Hotch knew the man didn’t want to die, but he most certainly didn’t want to go to jail either. “Everyone will know what you did, and why. How the love of your life betrayed you, how you got your payback... even how you managed to abduct a Federal Agent. But only if you let her go.”

Hotch could tell the words were at least getting through to him. His grip slackened, his back straightening a bit. Morgan and Prentiss took the opportunity and rushed him, immediately tacking Mazdin to the floor. He struggled and yelled, but Morgan kept him still enough for Prentiss to cuff him. At the same time, Hotch rushed to Y/N, holstering his gun.

“Get him out of here.” Hotch told Morgan, who roughly dragged Mazdin up to his feet and forced him up the staircase and out of the house where the local police had finally shown up. Reid and Prentiss followed, holstering their guns as well, only after Hotch informed them to grab paramedics for you.

“It’s okay.” Hotch was saying as he knelt down to your level, all anger dissipating and worry replacing it. “It’s okay, I’m here.” He holds Y/N’s head in his hands gently, trying to gauge the damage to her face and body. The blood coming from her nose was extensive, and the blood on his hand indicated a serious head injury. He couldn’t tell if anything was broken just yet.

“Okay, I’m going to get these off of you, alright?” Hotch asks you while tugging on the ropes, but your eyes were drifting closed. “No, Y/N, no you have to stay awake for me, you may have a concussion, the paramedics are on their way, okay?” She met his eyes finally and then smiled a little bit. It made his chest tighten in response.

“Okay.” Her voice was uneven, probably because of lack of hydration and near strangulation. It made his frown deepen, but he made sure to work quickly at untying the restraints. “Aaron.”

He stopped at the sound of his first name on your lips. It was very rare that you called him Aaron, it made his breath catch for a moment as he removed the last bit of rope from her ankles and looked up at her. Y/N was staring at him with an indescribable look on her face, exhaustion and relief but also pain. “Thank you for finding me... I knew that you would.”

Hotch didn’t know what to say. He had sent her away- their last interaction wasn’t a very good one, but she was here, alive and thanking him. It made that warmth from the other night in the precinct return. “Let's get you out of here.” Hotch gently slipped his arms up underneath Y/N so that he could lift her to her feet as the paramedics came down. Her groan of pain made his jaw tense, but he didn’t stop.

The EMT’s asked if she could walk and Y/N nodded, though she leaned most of her weight onto Hotch. He didn’t mind, keeping his arm wrapped around her waist and helping her up the stairs, into the living room. Once the two of you had made it outside, Hotch allowed the EMT’s to take her. She lay on the cot in the ambulance, and Hotch kept his hand in hers the whole ride to the hospital.

He watched as you drifted off, thinking just how much trouble they had gone through just to get you to sleep.

#aaron hotchner #hotch x reader #reader insert #criminal minds #aaron hotchner x reader #hotch fic #angst #hurt comfort #kidnapping #mutual pining #insomnia #protective hotch #concerned hotch #penelope garcia #emily prentiss #david rossi #spencer reid #derek morgan #jennifer jareau

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hookechoes · 4 months

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i am kind of loving the bizarre mirrored blocking here. morgan and reid hovering over emily and hotch feels weirdly ?protective? of them

#i doubt it Means Something but still! interesting. protective morganandreid is very good as a concept #criminal minds #derek morgan #spencer reid #aaron hotchner #emily prentiss

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supercriminalbean · 1 year

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Born this way

Spencer Reid x Trans male Reader.

Summary: Reid wants to introduce his trans boyfriend to the team, but first he has to deal with some family issues first.

Words: 21.8k

Warning: Transphobia. Homophobia. Swearing. Crying. Fluff. A Lot of Angst. Depression. Many mental breaks down. Panic attacks. Transphobe Gideon mentioned. Abusive family. Drug addiction mentioned. Alcohol consumed. If I have missed anything let me know.

A/N: This one-shot means a lot to me by the way. But I’m sorry because this gets deep at points, yes I may have started projecting at certain points my bad. Reader is Gideon's son, Rossi Godson. There are a lot of cute Uncle Rossi moments in this. I love it. (I have many daddy issues he fixes them) I might write a part two where Jason and the reader fix their relationship. Also flashbacks of how Reader grew up and how Rossi and Aaron became protective of him. But that won’t be for awhile if I do, let me know If you would like that though. Thank you for your time.

1989

“No, I wanna dress like a Prince, don't wanna be a Princess” You whine as he holds up the brand new Cinderella dress he has just bought you.

“You want to be a prince” He sighs softly. He hates seeing you look so hurt at the sight of the new dress, he sets it back down. “Why do you want to be a prince huh, you just want to copy your older brother?” He already knew that wasn’t the real answer but he needed to know how you really feel, without him profiling you.

“Because I’m a boy, and boys are meant to be Prince's not Princess” You stubbornly cross your arms looking up at him. A small mad looking smile on your face, one that looks crazily similar to your fathers.

“You're a boy huh, so now there's two little Gideon boys running around, Lord help us” He chuckles softly watching as your face lights up.

“I'm gonna be a better brother than my brother” You laugh squeaky, excited by his reaction. Your little child mind is already used to abuse and bullying, when expressing how you feel about your gender. So seeing how happy your uncle is for you, just makes your little heart flutter with happiness.

“Have you told your dad yet?” He asks as he sits down on the couch beside you, trying his hardest to keep his smile on his face. He already knows how your parents feel about these types of ‘situations’.

“I told him the other day, he told me I’ll always be his daughter, I don’t understand why he won’t listen to me, him and mummy don’t get it” You sigh heavily leaning your head on his arm, you know your uncle will always listen to you.

“I’ll talk to them Tesoro, we will get them to listen to you” He smiles sadly, knowing this is going to be a difficult road for you. “In the meantime, shall I go find your brother's old Prince’s costume” He looks down at you, seeing a big grin spreading across your face as you jump back up.

“Yessss, I'm going to be the best Prince Charming”

“Well Prince Charming, one day you are going to find your own Princess” He smiles as he gets up.

“Ew no way girls have cooties, I'm going to marry another Prince, Uncle Dave” You screw your face up at him which makes Rossi chuckle as he walks out.

Growing up.

While growing up your dad seemed to always be working and was never around while you and your older brother grew up. You never had a good relationship with him or your mum, they never respect your pronouns or your chosen name. Your dad only started coming around to your gender identity once you moved out and started cutting him and your mum out of your life at age 18, (9 years ago.) But due to everything that happened when you were growing up, the relationship never healed between you and your parents. You haven't spoken to them in over 4 years now. You and your brother aren’t close but still talk occasionally, Stephen was always by your side growing up. He tried to be the overprotective brother you need in your life growing up.

Your Uncle Dave tried his best to stay in your life, but after he finished working with your Dad it became difficult. Their relationship was strained due to the fact he never liked the way your parents treated you. He always sent you postcards and letters whenever he went on his trips and even copies of his books. You were so proud of him when he became an author, your dad said he was full of himself. But you didn’t care, he was your Uncle and you told everyone about his books. You were barely able to catch up with him due to your parents but when you did he always bought you gifts, and even helped you with things that helped ease your gender and body dysmorphia. When you turn 20 he even gave you enough money to get top surgery. You remember crying in his arms and telling him how you wish he was your dad instead of Jason.

When Dave got back into the FBI, 5 years ago. You had gotten angry with him, and your relationships with him started becoming strained. You were slowly losing touch but you knew deep down that the fatherly love he has for you could never die.

2012.

You had been dating Spencer Reid for five months now, and the last five months had been amazing. It had taken a while to get used to his work schedule but it just made you value the time you spent with him more. Spencer treats you like a prince, when he spends time with you he makes sure he is focusing on you. He always tries to not bring work with him on dates, the occasional times when he would get called away he always made sure to make it for it. He would buy you coffees and books, then turn up at your workplace to surprise you when he gets home early from a case. Spencer loves surprising you, seeing the way your face lights up when he would just walk into your job.

You always tell Spencer that he spoils you too much, but he disagrees. He doesnt think he spoils you enough. He knows you deserve to be showered with more gifts and when he's with you, he wants to show you how much he cares about everything you have to say. He loves hearing you rambling about your days, he knows you never got that type of attention beforehand. It breaks his heart when you apologise for talking too much, especially about the things you love. He understands what it can feel like when people say talking too much is a bad thing, but that is something he strongly disagrees with. The joy and excitement he feels when you talk, warms him up like nothing ever has before.

~~~

Spencer Reid loves being your Boyfriend because of how sweet and adorable you are with him, making sure he always knows how much you care for him. You might not be the type of guy to send texts, telling him how much you love and miss him when he's away. Instead you send him texts asking him if he has eaten yet, asking him how much sleep he has had that day. Telling him off gently, if you don’t get the response you like, which results in him smiling and blushing, specially when you praise him for doing his best during tough cases. He remembers the time the team had finally figured out he was dating, only due to the fact he wouldn't stop smiling at one of your texts.

Flashback.

The team had been away on a case for four days and they were close to finding the identity of the unsub, and tracking down the whereabouts of him. Currently Hotch and Rossi were on their way back from the morgue, stopping to get dinner on the way back. JJ, Emily, and Morgan were sitting at the table discussing the profile and victimaliz. All of them glance over at Reid occasionally, who's standing in front of the map, but he is seemingly more interested in his phone. Spencer's face is covered in the biggest grin the three profilers have ever seen from him. His eyes having this different sparkle in them, as he types away quickly. Emily smirks at the other two, raising her eyebrow, the other two give her the knowing look. Everyone has noticed how happy Reid had been the last few weeks, making everyone talk in between themself. They had all come to the conclusion that he was indeed dating. Morgan and Emily were certain it was a girl he was talking to, but JJ and Garcia had disagree they were pretty sure he was hiding the fact it was a boy. Hotch and Rossi weren’t getting into that part of the conversation, just shaking their heads at the childish argument their team were having. Reid had come out years ago about being bisexual, but no one had ever met any of his dates before. He liked keeping that part of himself private until he was sure it was serious.

~~~

“So pretty boy, who's got you smiling like that?” Morgan smirks, calling out to him, pulling Reid away from his thoughts. Blushing as he looks up at the three profilers who are spread around the table, all gawking at him.

“Shut it Morgan” Reid clears his throat awkwardly, shoving his phone into his pocket.

“Aw come on Reid that's not polite” Emily teases him, her elbows resting on the table, her chin resting in her hands lending towards the poor boy. “You should apologise by telling us why you were smiling at your phone like that” Emily smirks as Morgan and JJ snigger quietly. Reid cheeks burn lightly as he sits back down, allowing himself to smile at the thought of telling his friends all about you.

“Wait wait, hold up, look at that little smile on his face” Morgan teases him, leaning over pinching his cheeks quickly. Only to get swatted away.

“You normally tell us to back off Spence, this person must be special huh?” JJ smiles softly at Reid, as Morgan sits back at his seat chuckling as Reid nods at her smiling softly.

~~~

Hotch and Rossi arrive, with Garcia on the phone. Making the team put their conversation on hold and back onto the case. Garcia gives them more information on their victims and could be unsub. Reid could feel his phone vibrating, holding back a small smile knowing that it's you. Once Garcia has ended the phone call, the team finally starts getting into their dinner, giving Reid the chance to check the texts you had sent him. It took all his strength not to let out a small chuckle.

Bean: You better have had you dinner by now Spency, cos Bubbles sure is digging in.

The photo you had sent finally loading on his phone. It was you snuggled up on the couch, under your comfort blanket trying to eat your favourite takeaway, with your cat trying to steal it from the container.

~~~

Spencer couldn't stop the small laugh that escaped the laugh that leaves his lips, staring at the photo. He couldn’t believe how much joy he could feel, from just seeing a small glimpse of you on his phone. Deciding he would also send a photo back of himself with his dinner, picking up his food quietly, not paying attention to the rest of the team. If Reid was paying attention he would have noticed how quiet the room has gotten after his small laugh, how everyone kept giving each other the look. How Morgan has now gotten up and is making his way over to stand behind Reid, crouching down so he can look at his phone thinking he can go without being noticed. The team having to suppress their laughter watching Morgan trying to be sneaky, the big grin across his face quickly fades to an ‘Oh shit I’ve been caught’ look. When he realises Reid's front camera is open, and that he's just photobombed Reids selfie.

“Morgan you ruined my photo” Reid groans, putting his phone down, turning around to glare at the man, while the team laughs at them. Morgan chuckles awkwardly, giving him his best older brother face.

“Hey it's not my fault, if you would just tell us who's got you being so secretive, I wouldn’t need to be looking over your shoulder” Morgan smirks as he sits down beside him, playfully pretending to pick up Reid's phone. Reid quickly swats his hand away, moving his phone away.

“Can’t me and my boyfriend have some privacy around here” Reid smirks softly. Unlocking his phone again, sending you the photo of him and Morgan to you.

~~~

“Ha, you two owe me and Garcia drinks next night out” JJ cheers happily. Smirking at Emily as she groans.

“Wait, you guys bet on me being in a relationship?” Reid asks looking up, giving them a pointed look.

“Oh no it was clear you were in a relationship” Hotch smirks, shaking his head.

“They betted on whether or not it was with a girl or a guy” Rossi adds in, chuckling.

“Speaking about bets, how long have you two been dating for?” Morgan asks, wiggling his eyebrows at the kid who blushes lightly.

“Can you guys stop betting on my lovelife please, and officially we’ve been dating 12 weeks and 2 days”

“Atta boy, that means I win” Rossi raises his drink up at Reid, making the team break out in laughter once more.

“So Spence, when do we get to meet this mystery boy of yours?” JJ asks, smiling at him, even if he's been trying to hide it. She hasn’t seen him this happy in years, and wants to meet and check out whoever this new person is in her best friend's life.

“Oh uh I don’t know maybe in a few weeks” Reid shrugs “It's still all new, but trust me when you guys meet him, you will all love him, he's amazing” A smile creeps across his face, one that's full of love and hope. One the team hasn't seen him wear before, they can’t wait to watch Reid on the road of love.

End flashback.

You’re laying on the couch reading one of David Rossi books, it’s one of your comfort books when you’re having a bad day. You keep glancing at the clock, time seems to be passing by slowly tonight, just waiting for your boyfriend to turn up. Getting tired of waiting, you pick up your phone, rereading the last text saying he had land and he would be leaving the office in 15. That was 40 minutes ago, would you seem too clingy if you rang him, asking where he was? You probably would, but seeing as you haven't seen him in almost a week you didn’t really care anymore. Pressing the call button beside his name, moving the phone beside your ear, waiting for him to answer.

“Hello this is Dr Reid” His voice rings out, sounding so professional. But you could just tell how exhausted he is, not even looking at the caller ID.

“Well hello Dr Reid, mm you almost sound like a professional, Amore” You tease him softly, hearing his soft laugh escape him.

“Hey (Y/n), I'm sorry I'm running a little behind with this paperwork, If Morgan didn’t keep distracting me I would be done by now” He sighs dramatically, hearing some voices in the background, and what sounds like some struggling. Laughing at the childish behaviour, you could just imagine what was happening. That being your boyfriend and his best friend joking with each other again. Spencer has told you many, many stories of their pranking wars before, and you could only feel sorry for their team.

“Hey no no no Morgan, get off me Derek get off” Spencer grunt out at the man, trying to shove him away. But he's too late as Morgan manages to snatch the phone out of his hand and rushes away from the boy.

~~~

“So this must be Spencer's boyfriend, (Y/n) right” Derek's cheekily voice breaks through the phone as you laugh, guessing what has just happened.

“That's me, Derek right, did you steal my boyfriend's phone just to talk to me?” You laugh, albe to put his voice to his face. Remembering the photo Spencer sent you a couple months ago that Derek had accidentally photobombed.

“Oh that I did, I need to know who keeps distracting and making my pretty boy blush all the time” Derek chuckles softly, and you could hear Spence protesting in the background.

“Aw I make him blush, guess I'm just that special” Laughing quietly, shaking your head, “I guess I just have the effect on men, just wait until you meet me in person Derek”

“Ohh that I can not wait to do baby, trust me Reid can not shut up about you we all are dying to meet you so we better be meeting you soon or Garcia is going to die from not being able to gossip away with you” Derek explains dramatically, you thought.

“Well I'm sure I can meet you all soon, Just once I can get our schedules all organised for once” You promise him, smiling. Enjoying the idea of meeting the team that your boyfriend never seems to be able to stop talking about.

“Okay, Finally” Derek cheers happily, as you hear a few Reid nosies, before Morgan yells a quick bye.

“Im back” Reid huffs laughing, earning a soft chuckle from you.

“So that was Derek Morgan huh?”

“Oh that it was, looking if it's too soon, we don’t need to worry about all this” Spencer's words start rushing and mumbling together, like they do when he gets too nervous. Quick to calm his nerves down, you cut him off.

“Spence, I would love to meet your team one day soon, but right now I just miss you, when are you leaving, because I really want cuddles and so we can talk about our week and just relax” You smile slightly, hearing his breathing relax. Knowing his shoulder would have just rolled backwards in the same motions.

“I’m putting my files away right now then I’m on my way to your place, I’ll be there in 15” Spencer tries to relax from your words, but something in your tone just doesn't sit right with him. He still doesn’t know why you rang him, normally you would just wait for him to turn up even an hour late.“Hey so why did you ring before, is everything alright?”

“Yeah I'm fine bambino, I’ll see you soon, I love you” Your voice comes off trying to sound strong, forcefully.

“Okay, I love you too (Y/n)” A chorus of Awws and cheers ring through the phone before Spencer hangs up.

~~~

You were in the Kitchen cleaning the bench when you heard the door open, hearing Spencer footsteps and his quiet voice talking to the cat. Who ran straight over to him, meowing happily to see her second favourite human.

“Hey (Y/N), where are you?” Spencer calls out, quickly giving Bubbles a small pat. His smile fading as his eyes scan across the living room, hearing you call back from the kitchen. He couldn’t help but profile the room, even if he didn’t do it as a job it would be hard to miss that something was wrong. One of your comfort movies is playing, the one you watch on repeat when you're feeling low and anxious. You never like leaving your dishes or trash around, worried it would attract mice and rats. But today, there are empty cans of soda and energy drinks and packets of snacks, shoved behind the couch. Your weighted blankets laid careless on the ground, covered in crumbles. Something you hate, due to the fact it normally makes you feel even more dirty and itchy. Otherwise the room looks spotless like you had done a deep clean of the whole room the day early. Placing his bag down on the couch, as he makes his way over to the kitchen, he can't help but notice how the house looks and smells completely cleaned. As if you have deep clean every surface you could, which he knows you like to do when you're feeling powerless.

~~~

You're standing in front of the fridge, staring absently into it, not even noticing Spencer approaching. You're looking exhausted, with dark bags underneath your eyes. Your face is paler than normal, your body looking sluggish. Letting out a soft irritated sigh, as you close the fridge with a bit more force than you meant to.

“Hey Beanie” Spencer speaks your nickname softly. He walks over slowly, watching you worried. You flinch at the noise, flinging around to look at where those words came from.

“Oh hey, um sorry, I must have been distracted” You smile weakly, turning around to give him a welcome home hug. That he happily embraces, wrapping his arms around you. Resting his head on your shoulder, as you hide your head in his chest. His eyes roam around the kitchen seeing a large pile of dishes just been recently washed, still drying. He could feel how tired your body is in his arms, the way your breathing is more deep and controlled. Almost as if you're focusing on matching your breathing to his. Something you do when your anxiety plays up in public, or when you’re having trouble trying to sleep.

~~~

When you slowly pull away from his warm arms, looking up at him. His concerned eyes staring down into yours, his hand gently cups your check.

“Are you alright, love?” His voice stays soft, not wanting to overwhelm you.

“Im fine, you're the one who just came back from a week long case” You brush off his question, breaking eye contact with him as you lie. You're not ready to tell him how you're feeling inside, scared you would fall apart right there in his arms. It wouldn’t be the first time he would see you cry, but that doesn’t mean you like letting your boyfriend watch you break apart.

“Don’t do that” He sighs, as you step back refusing to look at him. “Don’t avoid the question, you now I can tell something isn’t right, I'm here when your ready to tell me about it”

Nodding in response, still refusing to look at him again. “I know” Taking a deep breath, slowly glancing back at him, taking him in properly this time. His eyes have small bags underneath, the clothing he's wearing have small marks and stains on the tops. Knowing his clothes usually get dirty when he's been rushing to finish cases. Taking in his body langues seeing how stress and tired he looks. Starting to feel guilty for adding to his pile of stress, hating how you can’t just handle your own emotions and personal issues without him noticing.

~~~

“Spence, why don’t you go have a shower and I’ll make us some dinner, then we can watch some tv” You smile weakly at him, he watches you carefully as he thinks about it.

“You don’t need to cook, it's getting late you know”

“I know, but you probably have been living off takeaways all week”

“And one more day won’t kill me” He smirks lightly, making you laugh quietly.

“You know what, I think I have Pizza in the freezer, think that will do?” You smirk, shaking your head lightly, as you walk over opening the freezer door. Spencer walks over wrapping his arms around your waist. Resting his head on your shoulder hiding his face in the crock of your neck.

“Frozen pizza and cuddles sounds perfect to me” He exhales, kissing your neck gently. You smile softly, relaxing into his touch.

“Good, now go shower”

~~~

You're laying on the couch, the food waiting on the table beside you as you scroll through the tv channel, looking for something new to watch. Getting lost in the cooking show that is playing, patting Bubbles who's happily snuggled down in your lap. Spencer walks out seeing you cuddled up on the couch smiling a little, the worry for you still hasn't eased up.

“Hey, what are you watching?” He calls out quietly so as to not startle you, walking over to the couch. Settling down beside you, giving Bubbles a few pats when she meows for attention, again.

“Some cooking show, they are meant to be making pasta but they are doing it all wrong” You sigh, shaking your head at the contents on the television. “Do they not know your not suppose to burn the onions before you add them to the dish, also the way they are handling the pasta is horrible they need to be delicate with it, not ruthless like come on” Huffing lightly, as you move yourself to cuddle into Spencer shoulder, being carefully to not disturb Bubbles to much. Leaning into his touch as he wraps his arm around your shoulders, relaxing slowly into his touch. The heat from the shower rationing off his body, his light chuckle being the exact combination you need for your body to be able to relax and know that you're safe.

“Someone knows their pasta” He smirks softly, feeling a bit more confident feeling you relax in his arms.

“Oh I do, I was taught from a young age all the correct things to do if you want to make the perfect pasta, If you don’t feel like doing it right then stay out of the kitchen I use to be told” Laughing lightly, reaching over to grab the plate of pizza seating beside you. “I told him I would just order pizza instead”

“So you have always been sassy since a young age?” Spence's laugh is light as air and full of joy and sweetness. Reaching for a slice of the pizza watching you as he eats.

“Oh definitely, I blame my Uncle. He may have taught me how to make amazing pasta but that means he also taught me his Italian sarcasm as well” Your laughter starts dying off after you mention your Uncle. Glancing down quickly trying to avoid Spencer stares as you grab a piece of pizza. Starting to eat and turn back to the tv, letting the conversation drop out.

~~~

You keep trying to get back into the show but you can’t seem to focus, your mind keeps wandering back to your family. The text message you had received the other day having just hurt you more than you really think it would. The one guy who was suppose to still be by your side, was once again choosing your parents over you. Fuck the pain in your chest feeling just like it had when you were in high school. Sniffling quietly, not even noticing the tears sliding down your cheeks as you will yourself to pay more attention to the people on the television. Spencer glances down at you, feeling you move closer into his side. His face dropping instantly as he notices the tears sliding down your face. The hopeless look in your eyes going straight to his heart. His hand slides across your shoulder, cupping your face gently wiping away at the tears softly.

“Love, what's wrong?” He whispers lovingly, his hand staying firmly on your face as you look up at him.

“N nothing bambino, it's the Tv show, it's just so sad” You laugh fakely knowing how bad the lie is, sighing as you shrug your shoulders.

“That's crap, I know you love pasta, but crying because they add the wrong cheese to the dishes” Spencer half laughs giving you a look, pulling his hand away, as you pull away from him, sitting up straightly. Bubbles meows angrily as she jumps off your lap, running away, Spencer leans over, placing the empty dinner plate and turning the T.V off with the remote.

~~~

“That's it talk to me” Spencer turns to face you properly, watching you closely, picking up on your body langues. The way it tenses as you straighten up more, turning to look at him, your eyes spinning with emotions. Crossing your legs underneath you, you're trying everything you can to try and seem smaller.

“It's just been a hard week, works been so busy this week, all the shipment for the bookshop is behind and we are so under staff at the moment, it's just getting to me I guess” You exhale deeply, avoiding his stare, instead you focus on the small scratch on the wall behind him. “Also I ran into someone the other day, which brought up some unwelcome memories from years ago I guess, I know I should just get over it because it wasn’t even that big of a deal but somehow they just won’t leave my brain alone” Letting out an mentally exhausted breath, feeling the walls you built up slowly come down. Your hands playing with each other in your lap, helping with your anxiety. “I thought I worked through my issues. I told myself once I was done with them I would never think of them again, but just seeing him again it” Your voice trails off slowly as it begins to waver with sadness and anger, blinking back a few tears that start to appear. Your eyes flick over to Spencers as you feel his hand gently take yours in his. His eyes send a warm, soft feeling into your heart, making you feel safe. His hazel eyes having always had that effect on you since the moment you met him. Smiling softly as you feel the love and affect he can give you with no words. Actions always meant more to you than words ever did.

“Love, did you really work through your trauma or did you just bury it away and pretend it never existed?” He kept his voice soft and careful of the way he worded it. Studying you closer, watching as the realisation and devastation hits, the light in your eyes slowly disappears.

“Your right, I thought hiding from my problems would fix it” Taking a deep breath as you feel a sharp pain hitting your chest, suddenly a painfully wrenching cry pushes its way out of you. With such a powerful force that shoves you forward, almost off the couch. Spencer moves swiftly, wrapping you up in his arms before you could fall.

~~~

“I'm sorry I’m so sorry, I shouldn't be crying others have It worse” You ramble through the crying. Trying so hard to fight the breakdown your body is compelling you to have.

“Stop it, stop it, you need to let it out, it's healthy to let your emotions process and I'm right here I'm not going anywhere” He whispers firmly, his lips pressing against your forehead. His arms around your waist securely, pulling you even further into his chest. Your hands grab ahold of his hoodie, needing something to hold as you break down in his arms. The flashbacks of everything your parents used to say to you growing up, fresh in your mind. The way they use to make you feel, the empty feeling when they wouldn’t show up to your important events. Your brother is always more important than you, to both of your parents. Your father always ignored him as well, work to him was always his number one purpose. But he would still openly love him more than you.

~~~

Trying to shake those memories and feelings out of your mind, taking a deep breath calming yourself down steadily. Listening to your boyfriend's heartbeat and never noticing that something so quiet could be so loud and make the most beautiful pattern in times of need. Slowly you loosen your grip on his hoodie, pulling your hands away to wipe your face.

“Thank you” Mumbling under your breath as you take a small breath trying to find the strength to face him.

“Don’t need to thank me, I'm alway here for you” Spencer smiles lovingly down at you, as he moves your hair out of your face carefully.

“I know but still I’ve never had someone stay with me when I’ve cried the way I do, It means alot not having to hide my feelings” Smiling lightly, as you move more into a comfortable cuddling position.

“Well I’m glad you can do that with me now” He smiles back, kissing your forehead, his arms wrapping around you.

~~~

“So do you want to tell me who you ran into the other day?”

Sighing softly as you lean your head into his lap, closing your eyes.

“I saw my brother out and about with his girlfriend and my niece. So I was going to go over and say hi, but then I saw my dad was walking over to them. He was catching up to have coffee with them” Opening your eyes as you spit the last piece out with venom. Spencer stares down at you with pity and understanding. “Don’t look at me like that” Sighing as you cross your arms.

“Okay I'm sorry you know i'm just worried about you, but why would your brother be catching up with your dad I thought he didn’t like him either”

“Well he reached up to Stephen a couple years ago, they’ve been trying to mend their relationship ever since then apparently. I just don't get why he would want him back in his life or even in his kids life, why would he want to do that” Shaking your head in frustration.

“Maybe he's changed?” He shrugs, throwing out some suggestions. Stupid suggestions in your opinion.

“No way, he's not capable of change”

“Everyone is capable of changing you just need to allow them time to change”

“He had my whole life, I think that was enough time don’t you?” You retort back, rolling your eyes at him.

“Okay okay, I'm just trying to give ideas here.” Spencer defines himself, running his hand through your hair, calmly.

“Your right, I’m sorry I just thought Stephen would always be on my side when it came to our parents guess I was wrong, oh did I tell you what he said to me once I comfort him in text messages yesterday” Scoffing out, leaning your head further into his hand just like a cat does getting head scratches.

“What did he say?”

“He told me that they had been meeting up behind my back for years and when I was told that my Nieces birthday party was cancelled last month, well it wasn’t cancelled I was just uninvited because our parents were going to be there and they didn’t want ME to start an argument” Huffing feeling emotionally drained. “I never start the arguments Spence I just stand up for myself, defend myself when I have to but apparently that's not allowed” Whimpering softly as you close your eyes, allowing yourself to sink evenfurther into his body.

“I know baby, family isn't everything you know that right, I accept you and so will my family as well as my team. Garcia will demand we go to pride parades with her, you're going to love her” Spencer speaks bubbly, trying to lift your mood. Smiling softly as he watches the anger and sadness wash away from your face.

“Thank you, I can’t wait to meet your team and also your mum one day” you smile up at him hopefully.

“Oh she has been begging me to bring you to meet her everytime I call her, I don't know how much longer we can hold off for” He laughs softly.

~~~

The next morning you were half surprised to wake up with your boyfriend's arms still wrapped around your waist. Normally he always gets called away for a case, so being able to sleep in with your boyfriend is definitely a treat. Smiling softly as you tilt your head up which is resting comfortable on his chest. Watching how peacefully he looks as he sleeps, all the worries and the concerns gone from his mind for a few hours. His messy wavy hair covering half his face, his lips a little swollen from the activities from the night before. The light hickeys on his neck make your chest burn with pride as you take them. Rubbing small circular patterns on his chest, taking deep breaths, breathing in his scent. The weight of all the stress from the last few days having been taken off. All by just having your boyfriend to listen to you and love you without judgement.

~~~

“Morning love” Spencer's raspy morning voice breaks the silence of the room, smiling down at you on his chest.

“Mm good morning bambino” You smile up at him, leaning up to kiss him gently. His hands resting softly against your naked back. “How did you sleep?” You ask after you break the kissing snuggling back down.

“Pretty well, better than I have in weeks” He smiles softly, running his hands down your back, leaving a trail of goosebumps. “How was your sleep, beans?”

“It was great, someone tired me out great last night” You tease him, your hand slows down rubbing circle patterns on his chest.

“Mmm oh did I now?” He smirks down at you, a knowing look in his eyes. His hand slides down from your hair, sliding on to your neck tracing the hickeys he left the night before. Feeling the blood rush to your checks, biting your lips to stop the groan from slipping through your lips.

“Oh yeah you did Spence” Pulling away from the touch on your neck as you roll yourself on top of him. Your hands resting on the bed frame above his head, smirking down at him. He gazes up at you, need and lust in his eyes, licking his lips slowly as he takes you in. His hands come to slide up your back, holding you still as he pulls himself up to sit up properly.

Letting out a small whimper as you grind against him lightly, he laughs quietly as he brings you into another kiss. One of his hands slides up from your back to run through your hair. Yanking at it slightly, because you’re teasing him, grinding against him, smiling cheekily at him.

“Oh no you don’t Amora” Smirking as your hand slides down to his neck. Both of you jumping lightly at the sudden knocking at the door.

“Just ignored it, it's properly the neighbours asking for something” You whisper leaning back down, kissing him harder as your hand wraps gently around his throat. His hand drops from your hair to slide down your body. Groaning softly into your mouth, letting you regain control over him.

“(Y/n) I know your home, open your door!” A familiar voice yells out banging even louder on the door, making you groan frustratedly as you pull away from your boyfriend.

“Oh for fucksake” Huffing as you look down at the confused look on Spencer's face.

“Ah who is that?” Spencer asks, his eyebrows raising as he releases his grip on you as you regrettably get off him.

“My brother, please stay in here, this is not how you two are meant to meet” You sigh as you walk out quickly, pulling on some pants.

~~~

The banging and yelling continues at the door as you rush around quickly. Throwing one of your shirts on not having time to button it up as you're opening up the door.

“Hold on Stephen Im coming” You yell as you yank the door open. Staring up at him irritated, crossing your arms. “Why the hell are you here so early on a saturday morning Stephen seriously”

“It's not that early, it's 9:30, you should be up by now” Stephen sighs, taking in your appearance as he walks in shutting the door behind him.

“Well I had a bit of a late night, and it was suppose to be a bit of a fun morning before you turned up” You smirk, glaring at him. Earning a disgusting gagging noise in return, along with an eye roll.

“I did not need to know that you have someone in the bedroom right now (Y/n), that's disgusting come on I don’t want to know how many one night stands you have” He shakes his head, disgusted at the thought of his brothers sex life.

“Oh shush It's just my boyfriend, I told you about him, remember?”

“Oh right sorry, I didn’t realise you two were still serious.”

“Okay well Stephen why the hell are you here, I thought I already told you to fuck off the other day” You sigh allowing your anger to simmer down, leaning against the wall.

“Oh can you just chill out for a little while please, I know what I did was wrong and I already apologised I'm actually here about something else” Stephen exhales already regretting how this conversation is going. He wanted you to be in a more relaxed, forgiving mood before giving you this letter but it was too late to start again.

“Okay what is it, what's going on you have that look on your face” Your eyes narrow watching him closely, curiously.

“It's about dad, he wants to talk to you he's sor—”

“No, no I don't want to talk about him” Standing up straight, your body becoming more tensen. The concern you have now fading back into the anger that is still fresh in your veins.

“(Y/n) please he's changed hes—”

“Has he changed, or has he only changed for you?” Scoffing lightly as you glare at him, trying to stop your voice from getting too loud. “How many times did you need to correct him on my pronouns or my name huh, he might spend time with you but that doesn’t mean he's changed enough to accept me” Your voice starts breaking a little at the end. Breaking eye contact with your brother as you feel the anger turning into tears.

“I didn’t have to, Dad respected you the other week at the birthday party. He even corrected other people about your pronouns, just give him one more chance” Stephen begs you softly, pulling something out of his pocket, staring at you when you don't respond. “He wrote you a letter, wanted me to give it to you” He held it out to you, but you didn't move to grab it. Your arms shaking mildly, your heart pounding away. The panic rises higher in your chest, making it feel like you're drowning.

~~~

“Get out” You manage to mumble out, looking over at him finally. Stephen staring at you looking defeated.

“No, (Y/n) please you need to understand how he has changed please” Stephen begs, knowing its falling on empty ears.

“I think it's best you leave now” A voice appears behind you both. None of you had noticed that Spencer had entered the living room.

“I just wanted to explain everything to him” Stephen tries to explain to Spencer, almost begging him to understand.

“And you did that, but now it's time you go, He will text you later” Spencer speaks with a neutral tone. Trying his best to keep calm as he walks towards the door opening it wide for Stephen. Stephen sighs giving up, giving you one final look, as he walks out the door only stopping as he gets to Spencer. Holding the letter out to him with one last pleading look, Spencer takes it with a small nod closing the door behind him.

~~~

You're lying down on the couch after taking a long hot shower. Calming down after the altercation with your brother early, playing on your phone as you do so. Sighing softly, feeling frustrated, why does your family have to be so complicated. The only family member who was always there for you, you haven't spoken to in months. After having a stupid, pointless argument with.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” Spencer asks softly, as he sits near you, looking at you closely, with concern. The argument he had overheard early was wretching to hear. The pain in your voice, the tears and pain on your face hitting straight into his heart. He knows how much you value your brother's opinions, and knowing how much it must hurt you to think he betrayed you by taking your fathers side.

“Im okay, Im sorry he ruined our morning early” You smile weakly trying to make a joke out of it all.

“It's okay, do you want to talk about” He places a comforting hand in your hair. You move closer to him, lifting your head into his lap.

“Don’t want to talk about them any more” You shake your head, thinking about your Uncle instead. About how supportive he always is when it comes to family problems, no matter how old you are.

~~~

“I’ve told you stories about my Uncle Dave right?” You look up at Spences, a small smile tugging at your lips.

“The one who also works for the FBI right?” He questions, looking down at you. Confused at the change of subject.

“Yeah him. He was my rock growing up, the only one who ever accepted me for me” You smile lightly, staring up at the ceiling. “He was the best guy I ever had in my life, when my parents let me down he was always there picking up the pieces, he made sure he came to every single one of my events. He knew my parents were never there, he would get so mad at my dad. They used to be best friends, technically Daves my Godfather but I call him my Uncle” You smile increases as you talk about him.

“He sounds like a great man, he's the one who gave you money to get top surgery right, the one who supported you through university when you wanted to become a writer” Spencer smiles as he sees you become more relaxed, lighting up as you speak about your Uncle.

“Yes him, dad always thought it was stupid but not Dave, he thought it was awesome, he's actually a writer as well” You take a breath as you feel your words leaving too quickly. “Once he retired from the FBI the first time around, he wrote his first book and became a famous author, I guess he inspired me a little bit to follow my dreams”

“You know you still haven’t let me read any of your writing” Spencer teases you, running his hand through your hair.

“And you never will my love” You laugh, rolling your eyes playfully at him.

“Oh no you will show me one day” He smirks, “Okay, so your Uncle he's back in the FBI now, so what does he do?”

“Oh I think he's in a similar field to you actually he's a profiler” You stand up, stretching a little feeling Spencer eyes ranking over your body, smirking to yourself. Walking over to your bookshelf that sits by the tv, pulling out one of David Rossi books.

~~~

“Actually he is one of the co-founders of the Behavioural analysis unit, back then it was known as behavioural science unit though, him and my dad found it together” You smile at Spencer as you sit back down but it quickly fades as you meet Spencer's eyes. His eyes fill with shock horror as he takes in the information you have just presented to him. “Spence, are you okay?” Your voice comes out quietly. Thinking or more likely hoping, that maybe he might just be surprised that you're related to famous FBI agents.

“David Rossi, your uncle?” Spencer's voice comes out slowly, barely above a whisper, his eyes bouncing down to the book in your hand. “That would make Gideon your dad?” He gulps, his eyes widen as he puts the pieces together. Wondering to himself how he never noticed this beforehand, how could he be dating his mentor's son?

“Yeah Gideon, legally my last name” Taking a deep breath trying to decipher what his reaction is meant to mean. “Do you know them?”

“Jason Gideon was my mentor that I’ve told you about”

“Wait wait wait, the one who got you into the FBI and the BAU unit at such a young age, that one?”

“Yeah him, he never mentioned that he had another child” Spencer's words come out with a mix of surprise and disgust at everything that he is learning about his old mentor and friend.

“I'm not surprised he tried not to mention me unless he had to” Taking his hand as you see it squeeze into a tight fist of anger. “I'm sorry Amore if I realised I wouldn’t have told you the way I did, I didn't put two and two together when you were saying Jason I just assumed it was a different Jason from the FBI” You sigh feeling guilty, upset that you may have just ruined your lovers view of his mentor. You know how much he idolises him and looks up to him.

~~~

“It's okay, how did I not know your last name Gideon?” Spencer looks at you confused, raising an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side like a lost puppy does

“I normally go by my Mum maiden last name, it was better that why when I was going through university I just kept it that way” you shrug, it wasn’t something you meant to keep from him.

“That makes sense” He nods, still trying to wrap his head around it.

“So um, do you also know my Uncle, well Godfather David Rossi?”

“Um yeah yeah I know him” Spencer half laughs nervously, looking at you guilty. “I work with him, that's the Dave I refer to, I spend more time with him than I do with you”

You can't help the laugh that leaves you, clapping a hand over your mouth quickly. “No fucking way, seriously?”

“Yeah seriously, Rossi teases me all the time about you, wait until he finds out I'm dating his godson” Spencer rubs his temple feeling the stress arise, grinning wide at you.

“Oh no no no, We are not telling him anytime soon Spencer no way” Shaking your head, laughing. “Hell no, he will kill you, he might love you but he will kill you, he's way too overprotective some days. He doesn’t even know I’m dating right now”

“What, no you can’t expect me to hide this from him”

“Um yes I do, not forever just for now” You smile at him knowing you will win. “I’ll tell him I'm dating someone and we will break it to him slowly okay, but I love you and he is not breaking anymore of my relationships up”

“Anymore?” His eyebrow raising in concern and fear. “Do I want to know?”

“Probably not Amore Mio” Chuckling softly as you lean in kissing him.

~~~

As the morning moves on, Spencer leaves to go home, having chorus he needs to get done before he gets called away on a case again. Hopefully if he doesn’t get a case that means another movie night with you tonight. But to fill in the gap of him being gone this saturday afternoon you decided it's time to fix a bridge you broke. Picking up your phone and clicking on his icon, listening to the rings. Waiting with anxiety as he takes his time to answer.

“Uh hey (Y/n) ” Dave answer, completely surprise when he sees your name pop up on his phone. Happiness filling him at once when he saw it, only to be quickly replaced with dread. Hoping that you're not injured or hurt, holding his breath as he waits for your reply.

“Ah hey Dave, um sorry I hope you're not busy, are you?” You ask, biting your lip nervous, trying to stop your words from stumbling.

“Busy no, I'm free, what's up” Dave's eyes narrow, worry filling up inside of him. It's been months since you two have last spoken.

“Do you fancy a cup of coffee, or maybe milkshakes, so we can catch up” Taking a deep breath “I need to apologise to you, I was unfair the last time we spoke and then avoiding you for months was not cool of me”

A small chuckle is heard on the other side of the line. “Caro its okay, milkshakes sound great”

“Okay good” You smile, letting out a deep breath of air “So our cafe in town, say in an hour?”

“Perfect I’ll see you then kiddo” Dave smiles with relief as he hangs up.

~~~

You’re already sitting at the table in front of the cafe. Waiting in the sunlight sipping on your milkshake that has already arrived. You had ordered your favourite, along with Daves favourite which is salted caramel with chocolate. Sighing softly as you wait, having arrived early, you knew he wouldn’t be much longer. Your nervousness grew as you waited, wondering how you could explain why you have been ghosting him the last couple months. Deep down you know he's already forgiven you and was giving you space, it’s what he has always done when you two argue.

~~~

“Ooh you got me my favourite, Angelo” Dave smiles interrupting your thoughts, standing up quickly as you see him approach you. Smiling as you feel your nervousness disappear as your eyes meet his, nothing but love and happiness present in him.

“Davey Of course I did” You smile as he pulls you into a hug. Relaxing softly as you feel his arms wrap around you. Taking a deep breath, allowing yourself to accept the father hug you've been carving the last few weeks, but too scared to ask for.

“I'm surprised you rang me” Dave says after you both have sat down, sipping his drink.

“Yeah, I know it's been awhile since we last spoke, or really since I screamed at you, I'm really sorry Dave” You sigh, playing with your drink as you look up at him. Feeling his eyes studying you closely, a small smile growing on his face.

“Its okay caro, I should of told you the truth when it all happened but I didn’t want to worry you”

“Dave you got stabbed of course I'm going to worry about you. Hell you're practically my only family, I can’t lose you” Exhaulling as you take a second to calm yourself feeling the rage you felt from the previous argument from months ago returning. “You could have died Dave and you hid that from me just like Dad used to and that scares me. I hated the fact of you went back to the FBI, because I was scared I would lose you, that we would lose touch or you would die, I know that sounds unreasonable but when you didn’t tell me you got stabbed it just felt like we were drifting apart, after all these years” Gulping as you look at him. Finally admitting everything you have been feeling. His eyes soften, his hands unwrapping around his drink leaning over to take yours, that's tapping the table repeatedly, a nervous tic you developed growing up.

“(Y/n) I’m okay, I know my job is dangerous but I know how to handle myself and I am careful when I'm in the field, my team always has my back”

“I know that, and I’m okay with the fact that your back on the team I get it now but I guess at first it was just hard to think why you would want to go back, but after all the stories you have told me, all the good ones I get it” Smiling a little, nodding at him. “Its apart of who you are”

“That it is, but I promise you we will never drift apart, I will always be here for you, no matter how many arguments we have okay, I see you as my son that's never going to change okay” His smile is full of love, giving your hand a small squeeze.

“Thank you, I mean you helped raise me, always being my number one supporter thanks Papà Pasta” You smile, chuckling softly, feeling the conversation getting too emotional. Dave shakes his head laughing at that choice of nickname.

“Is that nickname ever going to stop?”

“Oh never” You smirk cheekily at him as you sip your drink.

~~~

You two sit there drinking your milkshakes, catching up for almost an hour. Him telling you about the recent cases he has been on and your favourite part, the drama in his team. One thing about David Rossi is that he loves to gossip, he can keep so many secrets. But the ones that roam free, he will happily spill to you as long as you listen.

“We are still trying to convince Reid to introduce us to his boyfriend, I’ve never seen him so happy before, It's great to see the kid giving love a proper chance” Dave smiles, he alway gets excited talking about his team. He sees them like family, especially the younger ones, taking them under his wings like they're his own kids. You couldn’t believe you never connected the dots that his Reid is your own Spencer Reid. Half of you wanted to tell him right now that you're dating his co-worker, but he can get too protective when it comes to your love life. He has enough reason to, you have never been good at picking them, and he's had to point it out way too many times. This time you were hoping if you keep it quiet it might work out for once.

“Aw well, I get him wanting to keep it quiet for now” Smiling softly, thinking about the words Dave has just used. How Spencer is so much happier with you, which just warms your heart. You sip on your drink trying to distract your brain from thinking about him, not needing your Uncle to pick up on anything right now.

“So is that why you haven't said anything about those hickeys on your neck” Dave smirks, sipping his milkshake. He’s been waiting for a moment to tease you about it. You choke lightly on your drink, splattering as you look back up, feeling the blood rush to your cheeks.

“Excuse me, I have no idea what the fuck your on about” Shaking your head quickly, cursing yourself for not hiding it better.

“Hey language” Dave laughs, loving how shy you're going. He had noticed that you had tried to hide the hickey under bad makeup but it is just so easy to see.

“Fanculo” You smirk at him. “Anyway we are not going to talk about my hickeys or who gave them to me because that's weird talking my sex life”

“Okay okay fine, I’ll let it go, only because I'm not like my team and sticking my nose into other people's love life can get annoying” He smirks a little, shaking his head.

“Wait, do you have a love life David?” You wiggle your eyebrows up at him, swallowing down a laugh.

‘Hey hey hey, we aren’t talking about me here” He shakes his hands in front of him dramatically, making you laugh.

“Fine fine”

~~~

“So what's happening in your life?”

“Oh nothing, just work at the bookstore, I’ve had the last couple days off cos I haven’t really been feeling well but Im feeling better now, so back to work monday” Your smile flickers for a few seconds, trying hard to keep it up. But he doesn’t miss it, he already picked up that something wasn’t right, he was waiting for the right time to ask about it.

“Okay that's it, tell me what's bothering you” Dave sighs, leaning back giving you that pointed look of his, one he’s used many times to get you to spill your secrets.

“It's not a big deal, I don’t want to bother you with this stuff again” Shrugging your shoulders, your voice trailing off as you glance down at the floor.

“Hey its me, Its Uncle Davey, you can tell me anything it's never a bother” Dave speaks firmly, already having an idea about what this was about.

“Did you know Jason back in town, He's been having coffee and reconnecting with Stephen and not only that but the other week for his daughter birthday he uninvited me so Dad and Mum could be there with no arguments” You huff out, wishing the anger would return to you but instead your just being hit with feelings of betrayal and despair. “I was looking forward to it for weeks and he lied to me about it being cancelled just so our asshole parents could be there, Mum I could on with for the sake of him but why the hell did dad have to be there, he was never there for us growing up”

“(Y/n)” Dave starts, his tone soft, careful as he knew you were on the edge. Watching your body tensing up, the way your jaw clenches as your eyes widen holding back the tears.

“No no, I get it he was working but he always picked work over us Dave always. You were there more often than he was” Spitting out the words, as you take a deep breath wiping your eyes hard enough to dry them up.

“I can’t excuse his past behaviours, nothing can, he should have done better, Stephen had no right to lie to you about it either but” He takes a breath watching your face hardens at his ‘but’.

“But maybe he's trying now for Stephen and for his kid isn't that a good thing for him?” Dave says, he knows you don’t want to hear it, but it is a good thing for Stephen.

“I don’t want to see him get hurt again Dave, he's been through enough” Shaking your head as you cross your arms, not meeting his eyes.

~~~

“Okay, has he tried to reach out to you at all, is that why you're really upset at him?”

“You know I don’t really like profilers” Scoffing lightly as you let your arms fall to your side.

“So this is what it's really about huh, he didn’t reach out to you and you want him to?” Dave smiles slightly watching you. You laugh coldly at him.

“No, at first maybe, It's always Stephen before me, I get it he's the better son, the ‘real’ son as they say. At first I was pissed that they had been having coffee for a while without reaching out to me, but then this morning Stephen showed up to my house after our argument the other day and” Exhaling letting yourself calm down, allowing your brain to gather your next words. “And this morning he showed up I thought he wanted to re-explain himself but no turns out, he was there on behalf of our father, he had a letter written for me, I didn’t want to deal with it so I told him to get out, he wouldn't listen, he finally left after my boyfriend opened the door and kicked him out” Groaning with frustration as you tell the story, not even noticing that you slipped up.

Dave sighs annoyed, shaking his head. “He doesn't know when to quit and give you a little bit of space does he, so your boyfriend dealt with him huh?” His lips twitch into a small smirk, raising an eyebrow.

“Oh crap, I let the cat out of the bag didn’t I?” Sighing, smiling a little. “Yes boyfriend, but yeah he had to come in this morning and ruin a perfectly good moment to I will add, with a stupid letter”

“I get this isn’t great but maybe it's time you talk to him maybe he's changed maybe he—” He cut off as his phone rings again. He checks it quickly before declining, placing it on the table, screen down.

“That's the fourth time your phone rang this afternoon. If you need to go Dave it's okay” You reassure him.

“No no it's fine, it's just an old friend, I’ll ring him back later” His smile falters a little, distracted.

“Okay, is everything okay?” You watch him feeling concerned.

“Im fine, we are talking about you, maybe you need to give Jason a chance, he might just miss you, it's been years since you have talked” He forced a small smile, avoiding eye contact, a little guilt in his eyes. You study him for a little bit thinking, the whole time you’ve been talking he hasn’t been surprised about anything at all. Normally he isn’t trying to get you to talk and forgive your dad like he is today. It's almost as if he’s already talked to him.

~~~

“You spoke to him, that's who's ringing you isn't it?” You accuse him, eyes widen as everything clicks into place. His face drops as he looks at you guilty, his eyes soften as he sighs lightly.

“I'm sorry Tesoro, he got in contact with me a couple weeks ago. He knew we still talk and wanted to know the best way to get back in contact with you. I told him not to but after we caught up for a drink last week I noticed he changed. He wants you in his life, he knows how much he has messed up but he wants to make amends” Dave almost begs you to understand as he speaks. Staring at you, his eyes begging you for forgiveness as he studies you closely.

“I, I can’t, no” Shaking your head as you struggle to string words together, staring at him in disbelief.

“(Y/n) please, I know it can be scary letting him back in your life, but he's changed all we talked about was you and Stephen. It was the first time I have ever talked to him and never had to correct him on your pronouns or names, he even referred to you as his son multiply times”

“That doesn’t make up for anything Dave, not with everything that has happened between us” Shaking your head as you feel the sharp pains stabbing you in the chest.

“I know but it's a start, isn't it?”

“I guess it could be but–”

“No more buts, answer me honestly, do you want a relationship with him?” He stares at you seriously. You look over at the road and watch a few cars drive pass by, thinking. You always dream of having him back in your life. Him calling you his son, spending quality time with him again.

“Yeah, I think I do” Speaking quietly, looking back over at him.

“Then you need to let him in to allow it to happen, you know that” Dave smiles encouragingly at you.

“I know, I'm just over him hurting me, but I guess I can risk it one more time” You sigh, smiling weakly.

“Good, and if he does hurt you I will deal with him, happily” He smirks at you, tapping his drink with yours.

~~~

“So what's this about a boyfriend huh?” Dave smirks, leaning forward, his elbows perched up on the table resting his chin on his hands.

“Oh him!” You groan playfully, biting your lip trying to stop the smile from growing too much.

“Yes him, why haven’t I heard about him before, how long has it been going on for?”

“Over five months now, coming up to six months soon, he is amazing, he is so cute he also–” You stop yourself shaking your head. Not needing to tell him anything more about him to your uncle, because he would figure it out Immediately.

“Almost six months and you never told me?” Dave glares slightly “Why are you hiding him?”

“Um well, you know how my relationship are they always go to fast so we wanted to take it slow, plus you always scare them off, not to mention what happened to Jimmy”

“That's because I worry about you and the ones you pick weren’t good for you, if this guy is the right one then he has nothing to worry about” He smiles gently, before his eyes narrow. “But Jimmy, I didn’t do anything to Jimmy I was just there when his arm broke, that's what happens when he lays a hand on you” He shrugs his shoulders and glances at his phone before his eyes are back at you.

“Right right, you always say you just went to talk to him with Aaron when he merely tripped over” Rolling your eyes smiling a little.

“Exactly, so does this boyfriend of yours have a name?”

“Nope he does not, because I know if he did you would do a background search on him, but I can tell you he works for the FBI as well, so that's a good thing right?” Smirking at him as you see the gears turning in his head.

“Yes good thing so far, maybe I’ve worked with him”

“Maybe you have, you never know. I’ll introduce you one day just a couple more weeks, I just want to get through the family issues first then you two can meet”

“Perfect, then I can have you two over for pasta. He better knows how to cook” You both laugh at that. Shaking your head at the thought of Dave trying to teach Spencer how to cook.

~~~

You're cooking dinner when Spencer walks into your apartment, entering your kitchen.

“Hey Beans, what are you cooking?” Spencer asks, taking a strong sniff of the air smiling at the delicious smell.

“Spaghetti bolognese with fake pasta according to my Uncle” You laugh lightly, placing the dried pasta in the boiling pot of water.

“Only he would say that, wouldn’t he?” Spencer laughs quietly, leaning against the counter beside you. His eyes move over your body, studying you closely, before he left this morning you were a ball of nerves but now you seem completely different. You're more relaxed and joyful instead of stressed and anxiety filled. A grin spreads across your face as you sway along to the music playing in the background as you cook.

“So how was your day, Bambino?” You smile at him, feeling his eyes stuck on you, once more profiling you. It can get annoying most days but you know he doesn't mean to, most of the time and after the last few days events it makes sense for him to be a little worried.

“It was great, I caught up with Ethan at the coffee shop. He's just passing through town but it was great being able to catch up with him properly” He smiles happily, a little guilt in his eyes as he thinks back to the last time he saw him. “You know it's been 5 years since I last saw him, almost two years since we really spoke. I was surprised when he asked to catch up but it was great seeing where he is now with his career,” Spencer smiles, feeling proud of his friend.

“5 years wow that's a long time, he's the one who lives in New Orleans right?” You glances at him slightly as you stir the dish.

“Yep, last time I saw him was on a case, that case was actually the case that my co-worker JJ met her boyfriend Will, they have a kid now too” He smiles weakly thinking back to that case. “It was also the case that finally pushed me to ask for help with my drug problem, Ethan pushed me to get helped” He looks up at you slowly meeting your eyes. His eyes are full of valuability, he doesn’t like talking about that part of his past. You already knew about his drug addiction, he's opened up a little bit about it but he still feels shamefully when he speaks about it.

~~~

“I'm glad he did, It takes a lot of strength to ask for help and now you're 4 years sober” You smile proudly at him, serving up dinner.

“Almost 5 years In a month actually” Spencer sighs, smiling forcefully. A part of him is still feeling guilty about it all, the memories of Tobias Hankel popping into his mind. His hand rubbing his arms where he was poked with the needle, the feeling fresh on his body. Your eyes catch this movement setting down the pot, taking his hand gently in his.

“We should celebrate, 5 years is amazing, everyday is an achievement so we should do something to celebrate this” You smile up at him, looking at him proudly.

“Oh I don’t know it's not a big thing” His words trail off when he catches that stubborn look in your eyes, sighing as he smiles softly. “What would we even do?”

“Why don’t we go away for the weekend or we take a day or two off to make a long weekend and go see your Mum, maybe it's time I finally meet her” Shrugging as you think about it, smiling at the idea of finally meeting Diana Reid. Spencer's face lights up, as he nods energetically.

“That is a great idea, I haven’t seen my mum in ages and I really want you to meet her”

“Then It's settled, we will go and see her and have our first vacation away together” You chuckle leaning forward kissing him lightly.

~~~

After you two have finished eating your cuddle up on the couch watching a nature documentary. Spencer's head resting in your lap, as your hand strokes through his hair as your mind fading away from what's on the screen in front of you. Your mind travels to your father and what could possibly be in that letter, regret setting in that you never took it from Stephen when he was offering it to you. Now you're going to have to ask him for it, is this something you truly want to do, could you really deal with his cockynes right now. Spencer rolls his head over to look up at you, feeling your hand come to a stop in his hair. He was wondering why you have been quiet tonight, normally you like adding small comments throughout it but not tonight.

“Okay Beans what's on your mind?” He asks, frowning softly as you don't respond, not even looking like you heard him as he calls out to you again. He moves his head off his lap sitting up properly, the movement is what pulls you out of your deep thought looking at him.

“Where are you going?” Looking at him confused as you meet a concerned stare.

“You were so zone out, you didn’t hear anything I was saying”

“I'm so sorry I was just thinking about something” Smiling weakly as you glance down at the ground.

“What was it about, if you don’t mind me asking”

“The letter, a part of me wants to know what Jason wrote but the other part of me is scared to know what my father may have written in the letter” Sighing softly looking back up at the tv. “I also really don’t want to have to ask Stepehen for it, not after this morning.” Feeling the couch beside you move, glancing at him as you see him get up, watching him walk towards your bookshelf.

“Um Spence what are you doing?” Feeling confused as you raise an eyebrow watching his movements. He smirks lightly as he picks up the letter he had placed down there after taking it from your brother earlier. Turning back towards you, sitting beside you holding the letter out towards you without uttering a word, just giving you a soft reassuring smile.

“He gave it to you before he left?” You're stunned as you take it from him. Staring down at your name written on the envelope, having not seen his hand writing in so many years.

“I thought you would want to read it later, even if you didn’t you still you had the option just in case” His voice is soft as he rubs your lap gently, smiling softly watching you.

“Thank you” You whisper, glancing at him as you place it down on the side.

“Always” he smiles, wrapping his arm around you.

~~~

It's been two weeks since you received the letter. It took you about a week to finally find the courage to read it, which had torn straight into your heart. Deciding you would reach out to Jason you just needed time to figure out how you would go about fixing your relationship with him. You and Stephen had made up, agreeing that you both were out of line and would try harder to be better siblings. Dave has been asking to meet your boyfriend everytime you two talk, which you know you have to tell him about Spencer sooner rather than later. You haven’t seen Spencer in awhile seeing as he's been working longer cases lately. In the last two weeks you've seen him possibly three times, before he gets called away. You know it's his job, so you don’t mind too much, it just makes you cherish the time you get with him alot more. It was your six month anniversary the other day, but he was away on a case. He felt so guilty for missing it but you reassured him it was okay and that it can be made up when he gets back.

~~~

The Bau team was finally on the Jet back to D.C after a tough case, they were gone for nine days. They had decided to stay an extra day just to help get some paperwork done after catching the Unsub. As they fly back home, the team is in higher spirits than they normally are after a hard case. It could be because they managed to rescue five girls that the unsub had kidnapped or the fact that they had all managed to get a full night's rest last night for the first time in weeks. Or maybe it was the fact that they know when they land they have the next three days mandated off. As they fly back, Hotch is sitting in the back of the plane doing some paperwork, Rossi is sitting opposite him, having a playful argument on his phone. As the other four are playing cards, laughing about something stupid that Reids is trying to tell them, distracting them as he manages to crush them in the game.

~~~

“Alright listen up” Rossi gets up, walking over towards the agents playing games, all their eyes quickly flick up towards him.

“Rossi I swear, If you're about to tell us that we have another case I will push you off this plane” Emily points her finger threateningly at him.

“I will happily help you with that Prentiss” Morgan agrees nodding his head as he places his cards down.

“Hey hey hey, that's a bit dramatic don’t you think” Rossi gasps, shaking his head.

“Okay, we’re sorry, what's up Rossi?” JJ smiles softly, as the team chuckles.

“I am inviting you all to my place for a family dinner and drinks at my mansion tonight, Garcia is already getting things organised after begging me on the phone to host it” He chuckles lightly, smiling.

“Ohh if you're cooking I am definitely in” Morgan laughs smiling. Enjoying the idea of having a relaxing night with the people he cares for.

“Can I bring Will and Henry?” JJ asks, smiling, liking the idea of a family event.

“Of course it's not family without them, plus Jack is going to be there, he is going to need some entertainment” Rossi shakes his head faintly, always having to reassure JJ that her boyfriend and kid can always come to family events.

“Oh I won’t be able to make it toning, I’m sorry guys” Reid shrugs, sipping his coffee. Hotch turns around at this news to watch, wanting to know what's going on.

~~~

“And why not?” The older man sighs, turning to give Spencer a pointed look.

“Well tonight me and (Y/n) are supposed to be celebrating our 6 months, I missed it the other day so I was going to make it up to him tonight” Spencer explains, avoiding Rossi's look. Recently it has been so difficult to not tell him who he's dating. He's been trying to avoid Rossi at every moment he can, even when they are in the field together. The team quickly noticed something was up, but Spencer managed to come up with a lie about being tired that's why he's been off, no one bought it of course. Maybe that's why Rossi is throwing this dinner tonight trying to fix this weird thing between him and Spencer.

“Serieoly Reid, you have the next three days off, can't you make it up to him on one of those days?” Morgan asks, narrowing his eyes. His behaviour has been worrying the whole team lately.

“I mean I could but I really miss him so I just—” His voice trails off at the look his whole team is giving him.

“Then invite him” Emily states, giving him a look.

“We want you to come, and we have been begging you to introduce us to him for ages so please Spencer” JJ begs him, giving him her best puppy face, knowing he's a sucker for it.

“I uh” Spencer glances at Rossi quickly catching a confused, hurt look from the man.

“Okay fine, I’ll ask him if he wants to come, but if he says no can you all back off, please” Spencer sighs, not wanting to put you into a bad spot.

“Of course” Hotch jumps into the conversation giving the team his best over protective dad look.

“Ring him now and ask” Morgan encourages him, smirking a little. Excited to finally get the chance to meet this mystery man of Reids.

“Fine” Spencer huffs, smiling slightly as he stands up making his way to the back of the Plane for privacy.

~~~

“Hello Amora” You answer the phone happily. Having excused yourself from work, for a break as you see Spencer name pop up on your phone.

“Hey Beans, uh how are you” Spencer clears his throat as he speaks. Feeling nervous as he talks to you, which you quickly pick up on.

“I'm fine, what's up?” You ask carefully, feeling your eyes narrow with worry.

“Uh I know we have plan tonight, but um”

“Another case really, do you guys never rest?” You ask in disbelief, mouth gaping open.

“No no, no more cases” Spencer is quick to reassure you, knowing how you worry when he and his team work too hard.

“Good, because you need rest, so does your team, your boss works you guys too hard” You let out a sigh of relief. “Okay then what's wrong?”

“Nothing wrong, I just, uh we have been invited over to Rossi tonight for team dinner and drinks”

“Oh, both of us?”

“Yeah they want to meet you, they want take no as an answer any longer, I know it's awkward because he will be there but–”

“Bambino it's fine” You cut him off before he can start rambling, smiling softly, hearing the worry in his voice. “I think it's time I finally met the famous BAU team, Plus I think it's time we told Dave he said you’ve been acting weird the last couple weeks” Smirking lightly, knowing just how awkward he can get when trying to keep secrets from those he cares for.

“Are you sure?” Spencer smiles letting out a breath, feeling at ease.

“Yes I’m sure, why don’t you come and get ready with me at my place before we go over to his mansion, yeah?”

“Okay, I will meet you at yours after you finish work then” Spencer smiles happily. “Bye baby, I love you”

“I Love you to Spence, wow can’t believe i'm going to meet the famous David Rossi tonight” You both laugh, feeling relaxed as you hang up.

~~~

Spencer walks back towards his team. Hotch and Rossi have now joined the rest of the team at cards. Rossi having stolen Spencer's seat, he now has to sit down beside Hotch, smiling gently as he watches the team play.

“So Reid, are you two joining us tonight?” Morgan asks, glancing at him, smirking lightly.

“Uh yes we will be, they have work but after that we should be able to make it” Spencer smiles at them all.

“Fucking finally we get to meet this guy who makes you all squishy” Emily sniggers, placing her card down.

“Oh Garcia is going to love this” JJ laughs as she notices Morgan pulling out his phone.

“Already on it, Babygirl is going to flip” He winks at Reid, noticing the kid go red in the face, shaking his head at Morgan. Spencer turns his attention to Rossi who's leaning over Morgan's shoulder reading his texts to Garcia.

“You two concern me sometimes, chocolate thunder” Rossi glances away with playfully disgust on his face as Morgan laughs at him.

“Don’t worry about it old man” Morgan winks putting his phone back down.

“So Reid are you going to tell us how you meet this man of yours or do we have to wait for tonight?” Rossi asks, smirking at him.

“Oh uh” Reid blushes at that memory. “I don’t think that needs to be brought up at all”

“Oh okay, there has to be a good story behind that” JJ smirks, holding back a laugh.

“One that you guys will never know,” Reid shakes his head.

‘Oh don’t worry Garcia will manage to get it from (Y/n) I'm sure she will mange” Hotch laughs knowing when it comes to gossip she is unstoppable. Reid groans, hanging his head knowing it's true.

“Oh I can not wait to hear that story” Emily laughs, watching the dread on Reid's face.

“Okay I'm regretting this already” Spencer shakes his head, picking up the cards that Rossi hands him for the new game. “Oh um by the way Rossi, just as I was getting off the phone with him before he may have said he was excited to meet the ‘famous David Rossi’ he's a little bit of a fan” Spencer laughs along with the team as they watch his face slowly drop.

“Oh no”

~~~

As you stand in the mirror contemplating on how you wanted to dress for tonight. Should you be more casual and just throw something random keeping it lowkey or wear something that makes you feel more comfortable, more yourself. You knew deep down the team wouldn’t judge you on what you wear, Spencer had reassured you of that, many times. Rossi has even told you that his team is the most welcoming type of people, he's tried to get you to meet them a few times in the past. But you know that they have all met your father so that has always thrown you off a little, but not tonight. Tonight is just going to be about you and Spencer and, of course, your overprotective Uncle. Sighing softly running your hand through your hair, taking a deep breathing to calm your heart that just seems to be having a race with itselfs.

“Hey beans, are you almost ready?” Spencer asks as he walks out of the bathroom, brushing his hair. Coming to stand behind you in the mirror, tilting his head to the side in confusion as he sees you holding three different tops in your hands.

“I don’t know what to wear” Sighing softly as you throw them on the bed, turning around to face him looking defeated.

“What's going on?” Spencer asks as he places his hands on your waist, looking down at you.

“I’m just, Im worried about what your teams going to think about me” You sigh looking down, not needing him to stare into your eyes right now. Because if he does, you would easily spill all your worries to him so easily.

“Baby, why's that? You know my team is going to love you”

“It's just.. It's just what if I'm not what they're expecting?” You whisper out the words, ashamed of the way you're thinking.

“You are exactly what they are expecting, they are expecting someone who makes me feel happy and loved and that is you” He smiles softly, tilting your head up to look at him. Feeling your cheeks burn under his touch, smiling gently as you feel the stress fading from your body.

“Thank you” You mutter softly as you kiss him lightly, he pulls away slowly smiling.

“Always, now do you need a hand figuring out what to wear?”

“Please” You smirk lightly, “Do you think they will care if I wear a little bit of makeup, It just, it normally makes me feel comfortable in my skin”

“Baby they won’t mind at all, Men wear makeup, It's normal. Garcia just might fall more in love with you though” He smirks softly, “And Morgan might be a little jealous of your piercings, he's only allowed his ear pierced at work, but he wants to get his nose pierced but it goes against our uniform” Spencer informs you, hoping it will help calm your anxiety of dressing how you like. The smile and the exhale informs him that he said the right things, giving you a quick peek on the cheek as he steps back.

“Just relax, wear what makes you happy, I’ll feed Bubbles while you get ready” He smiles as he walks off, letting you get ready. Smiling to himself as he hears you turn your music on as he walks to the kitchen.

~~~

About 30 minutes later, you're both finally in the car, on the way to Rossi places. The rest of the team was already there, Garcia texting him to hurry up, apparently her and Morgan went straight into the tequila. Glancing at Spencer smiling softly as you see him texting them back, he always looks so relaxed and at ease when you drive. Car rides are one of his favourite things to do, he likes listening to the music and audiobooks as he stares out the windows and watches the world goes by. Mainly he only likes it because you're the one driving, it makes him feel safe.

“Oh God, apparently Garica just found Jaguar but Rossi took it off her to save it for later on in the night” Spencer groans softly which turns into low chuckle, which you join in on.

“Oh I think this Garica person owns my heart already” You chuckle gently as you pull into Dave's driveway, parking in your normal spot by the big tree that hangs over his yard. It's the best place to park seeing as you can stay out of other people's way and no one can park in front of you, making a quick getaway.

~~~

Deciding to quickly check yourself in the car mirror before getting out, taking a deep breath as you take in your reflection. You had decided to go with your normal makeup routine but adding a little more mascara and blue smokey eyes. Which made your blue lip piercing pop, along with your nose ring. Smiling softly as you take in your makeup feeling confident as you run your hand through your short hair. Glancing over at your boyfriend who is waiting patiently for you, smiling softly at you. His eyes full of love and admiration as he takes you in, the way you always end up being yourself, unapologetically, makes his heart melt.

“Are you ready (Y/n)?” Spencer asks as he sees you take a deep breath.

“Shouldn’t I be asking you that, you're about to meet my uncle slash father figure” You joke lightly as you climb out.

“Oh I think I’ll survive” Spencer laughs as he gets out walking over to you to take your hand. You intwine your fingers in with his as you make your way towards the front food.

“Maybe, I mean he hasn’t killed any of my dates yet, only broken an arm” Exhaling, smirking slightly.

“Im sorry he what” Spence eyes widen in frighten as he comes to standstill, turning to look at you in shock and fear.

“Oh relax, that was only because Jimmy was an abusive dick, you will be fine Amore Mio” Squeezing his hand in reassurance as he takes a deep breath, calming down.

~~~

As they reach the front door, it suddenly flies open and they’re met with two people in the doorway.

“What the.. Morgan seriously?” Spencer laughs easily. Raising his eyebrow at his best friend who's standing there, with a massive grin on his face.

“That was babygirl not me,” Morgan laughs, indicating at the blond woman in front of him, who's dressed in warm pastel colours. Who's staring up at you with love and fixation on her face, a glass of alcohol in her hand as she makes her way to you.

“No way it's you, you, I love your makeup so much” She screeches with excitement as she finally gets in front of you, pulling you into a hug.

“Hi, I’m guessing this is Garica” Laughing softly as you hug back tightly.

“Oh my god you know me” Garica giggles pulling away as she smiles wide up at you. “Ahh I have been dying to meet you for months, but the boy genius has been insisting on keeping you to himself which sucks” She blabbers on excitedly. The man beside her who you had reconsigned instantly as Derek Morgan, places his hand on her shoulders calmly.

“Baby girl, take a breath we have all night to integrate him for information on his and Spencer relationship just let him settle in first” Derek laughs happily as he looks up at you.

“It's great to finally meet you (Y/n) I dig the piercing, by the way” He smirks, shooting Spencer a look which is received with a glare and a soft blush from your boyfriend.

“Thanks Derek, Trust me I'm happy I finally get to meet the famous BAU team” Chuckling softly as you hear voices and laughter coming from inside.

“Yeah I heard you're a fan of David Rossi, you like his books?” Morgan asks, smirking at the idea of embracing the old man. You glance over at Spencer giving him a weird look, being met with his cheeky grin instead.

“I thought telling him you were a fan would completely throw him off” Spencer smirks. Garica narrows her eyes at you both, before meeting Morgan's eyes, who's looking just as confused as she feels.

“Okay, you two have completely lost us” Garica starts, which earns a light shake of the head from you.

“Oh it's okay you guys will understand soon, anyway can I meet the rest of the team now or?” You smirk, raising your eyebrow as they are still blocking the entrance.

“Oooh yesss the rest of the team is dying to meet you” Garica lights up once again.

~~~

She grabs your hand, your other hand automatically reaches out grabbing Spencer's, dragging him behind you. Laughing happily as you allow Garcia to drag you both into the house, Morgan follows behind you both, chuckling at the look of horror on Reid's face. She first leads you to the living room where the large glass doors have been open to give more access to the outside area. As you enter the living room you are met with a couple of women and a man who has his arm wrapped around a blonde woman's waist who's smiling happily as they chat away. Their conversation is quickly broken up as they look up hearing people enter the room.

“Oh finally you two show up, I was starting to think Reid got cold feet” The dark haired woman is the first to speak laughing as she teases your boyfriend.

“Oh I think he was definitely close to bailing on the way here” You joke back, as you slide your hand out of Garcia's grip as you reach the small group of people.

“Hey no I wasn’t” Spencer stumbles over his words, looking at you playfully offended.

“Aw sure sure bambino” Teasing him softly as you squeeze his hand softly, smiling lovingly up at him. You feel more comfortable around his team than you originally thought you would, a part of you still feels like a jumbo mess of nervousness as you wonder where your Uncle is.

“Ooh that's Italian, Rossi is going to love you” The blonde lady smiles, giving you a small once over before glancing at the other woman smirking, trying her best to be subtle. But Spencer catches the look going red in the face as he realises the team is giving their approval on his partner, making him feeling all nervous and hot.

“Oh the Italian man, he will love me” You smirk to yourself, earning a few laughs from the team.

“Im Emily by the way” The dark haired woman introduced herself. “I already know your name, Reid loves to mention you every chance he has”

“Okay can we maybe try to not embarrass me tonight please” Spencer begs as he rubs his temples laughing awkwardly, the rest of the team shaking their heads laughing at his expression.

“Oh no that's the whole point of meeting the team Amore, I need more stories of you” Smirking softly, as you turn to the team. “Please tell me you guys have a lot of embarrassing stories of him you can tell me tonight”

“Oh plenty,” Emily laughs.

“Ohh where do we start?” Garcia giggles evilly as sips her drink.

“How far back do you want us to go?” The blonde woman joins in, smirking. “Im Jennifer by the way but everyone calls me JJ, this is my partner Will”

“Hey there” Will smiles lightly as he nods.

~~~

You smile softly as you look around, taking them all, relaxing. Your boyfriend was right, Everyone here seems so friendly and judgement free. Making you feel so at ease as you relax into the environment.

“It's great to meet you all, I feel like I already know you guys with the amount of stories I have heard” you smirking, knowing half the stories are mostly from Dave who still hasn't made an appearance yet.

“Oh is that a good thing?” Derek asks, his face is pulling into a silly terrified face making you and Garica laugh.

“Maybe, maybe not” You tease him, smirking. Soon your conversation is interrupted by a little boy, around the age 4, running in towards the group of adults.

“Mummy!!” The boys yell excitedly running towards JJ smiling widely, as she looks down watching him run in from the outside area. Where you can see another boy and another grown man out there.

“Henry inside voice baby” JJ smiles, picking up the young blond boy as he reaches her. “What's up baby?” She smiles down lovingly at the boy in her arms.

“I wanna show you and daddy what me and Jack made” The boy giggles happily, glancing between his mum and dad.

“Alright buddy, why don’t you lead the way and show us yeah” JJ smiles more, her face lightening up as she speaks to her boy. Henry nods, wiggling his way out of her arms, making his way to the ground.

“Come on mummy and daddy come on” He giggles and goes to run back outside when the group's soft laughter gets Henry's attention.

“Auntie Penelope join us” He gasps softly as he grabs her hand, pulling her out of the room, not allowing her to answer.

You laugh softly with the others as you watch the small boy boss the three adults around, making their way outside.

“He's such a little bossy little thing” You smirk watching them, noticing just how close this team truly is.

“Just like his mum” Derek laughs

“Just like his Dad” Emily laughs harder, realising how in sync she is with Derek.

“I do wonder what those kids are up to though” Derek wonders out loud as he wanders over to join them on the patio.

~~~

Suddenly it's just you, Spencer and Emily standing there looking over at the place the group has moved to.

“So where is David Rossi hiding?” You ask, smirking, looking up at Emily.

“Well he went down to his wine cellar earlier just before you two walked in so he should return soon” She smiles lightly sipping her drink. “I heard you're a fan of his?” You couldn’t help but laugh at her, shaking your head slightly.

“Oh Dave is my favourite profiler and one of the best true crime novels” You chuckle lightly, sarcasm sipping into your words as you speak. Spencer laughs, shaking his head at you glancing down at the ground. Emily stares at you confused, about to ask a question when she's interrupted.

“This is a surprise” A shocked excited voice greets you from behind. Turning around quickly to meet with your uncle smiling happily at you.

“Hey Davey” You smile lightly, all your nerves coming to the surface.

He brings you into a light fatherly hug, kissing your cheek lightly. “What are you doing here (Y/n)” Dave asks as he pulls away. You smile softly, gulping lightly as you glance over at Spencer, quickly your eyes back on your Uncle.

“My boyfriend invited me to meet his team” You smile nervously, biting your lip to help calm yourself down. Spencer tenses up forcing his smile to stay put, but it slowly fades as he watches Dave's reactions. The speed at which Spencer's heart is racing makes him reconsider whether it could be possible that a heart can explode out of someone's chest.

Dave's eyes have narrowed so far down, once he had registered the words you had uttered out. His face hardens instantly, turning his attention to Spencer. His mouth parting slightly, but no sound leaves as he tries to find the right words to say to the young boy looking terrified at him.

“Boyfriend?” is the only word Rossi says, but it's enough to double the tension in the room.

“I uh.. Well y yeah we are together” Reid struggles to form a sentence under the death glare of Rossi.

“Dave um.. Look we” Your words die in your throat as the glare moves onto you for a short second. There's something hiding in his eyes as he glances back at Reid, something you are struggling to read.

“Your dating him?” Rossi speaks lowly, almost threatening as he stares danger at Reid, making the hair on the back of his neck stand up. Seeing Rossi smirk a little, when sending a shiver down your spine remembering the last time you saw that look in his face.

“Run, Spencer run” You turn to look at your boyfriend, slapping his arms lightly.

~~~

Spencer's eyes widen like a deer caught in a headlight and in a split second he's turning around and sprinting towards the door leading to the backyard where everyone is. Spencer jumps clear over the coffee table trying his hardest to get outside the quickest way possible. You can’t help the laugh that escapes you as you see Dave chase after him, with the biggest smirk on his face.

“Morgannn” Spencer squeaks out, as he rushes towards Morgan who's in the middle of the backyard. His yell captures the attention of Morgan and Garcia who are dancing playfully together entertaining the two children and the adults standing on the patio. Who are now staring in confusion at Rossi as they see him chase after Reid catching up to him quickly.

You're barely able to hold it together trying to control your laughter as you watch the scene play out in front of you. Emily laughing along with you sipping her wine, having put the pieces together of who you could be to Rossi, and she was living for this drama.

Spencer, having reached Morgan, is now hiding behind him, holding on to his shoulders to keep him in front of him a shield. Morgan is holding up his hands in a “I surrender’ or more like a ‘Keep me the fuck out of this’ type of way. Morgan is just a sack of confusement and almost at a lack of words for this strange situation as he has Rossi in front of him. Who seems to be staring and wanting to scream at Reid for some unknown reason, but Morgan can easily read the amusement in Rossi's eyes.

~~~

“What the hell is going on here” Morgan asks, staring at Rossi, rolling his shoulder back trying to get Reid to loosen his tight grip. Glancing over at Garica who just has the same confused look on her face but she can’t stop giggling at the scaredly confused look on her Chocolate thunder's face.

“He's trying to kill me!” Reid exclaims dramatically, popping his head up over Morgan's shoulders.

“I'm not going to kill you Reid, not yet at least now come here” Rossi huffs annoyed, smirking at the look on Reid's face. Reid looks scared but there's a soft relaxed almost amused look on the kids face as well. Reid would always know that Rossi would never hurt him badly.

“Never thank you, I’m choosing life” Reid grins terrified.

“So am I” Morgan sighs, grabbing Reid by the wrist pulling him to the front of him, getting tired of being a human shield. “What did you even do, pretty boy?”

“More like who” Reid grumbles, his eyes widens even more as he realises that Rossi is walking even closer towards him so he quickly takes off running again.

“Reid!!!” Rossi yells annoyed and starts chasing the younger boy again, they start running around in a circle. Morgan and Garica shake their heads in confusion as they walk over to where JJ and Will are, hoping that they might have a clue as to what is going on.

~~~

Your laughter slowly dies down as you sip on your drink. You and Emily finally decided to join the rest of the group outside on the patio. Everyone watches as your boyfriend and Uncle run around in a circle, occasionally stopping to yell words at each that no one seems to be able to hear being so far away.

“Um, why is Dave trying to kill Reid?” A confused voice interrupts everyones watching time. You turn around to see who the new voice belongs to, breaking out in a new giant smile as you see Aaron standing there staring at the scene with a bemused look on his face.

“Oh my gosh Aaron?” You grin up at him, his eyes quickly shots over to you. The confusion quickly clearing up, grinning widely as he sees you.

“(Y/n), now that makes sense” He laughs lightly as he pulls you into a quick hug, which you return happily. “How have you been, kid?” He asks you as you two pull away, the team watching you two closely. Everyone's confusion just keeps getting higher as they watch their normally up tight unaffectionate unit chief, pull Reid's Boyfriend into a hug as if he's known you for years.

“I'm doing great Aaron, how are you going, how's Jack been?” Your thoughts automatically go to his son, who you use to babysit a lot and only stopped a couple years ago.

“He's great he should be around here somewhere” As if on queue Jack quickly runs from where he was playing in front of the group and towards his father.

“Dad guess what” Jack giggles and quickly stops as he spots you “(Y/N)!! It's you” He squeals, as he turns from his father and jumps up at you for a hug. Which you quickly accept, picking him up into your arms.

“Hey Jackie” You grin at him “I’ve missed you”

“I missed you too (Y/n/n) oohh I have so much to tell you” Jack grins up at you. Oh how you forgot how much the kid owns your heart.

“Well kid looks like you have all night to catch me up yeah?”

“Yesss” He grins at you as you place him back down.

~~~

The conversation is broken up by Spencer and Rossi walking back over to the group laughing like complete idiots.

“Who's ready for pasta?” Rossi asks, ignoring everyone's questioning looks.

“Uh are we not going to get any answer as to whatever that was first?” Morgan asks, staring at them like the idiots they are.

“Nope food and more alcohol first” You speak up laughing at them as Spencer walks over to you wrapping his arm around you, leaning down to kiss you softly. A chorus of awws and cheers breakout through the group making you laugh as you pull away from him.

“Ew please don't do that in my house” Rossi groans as he walks to the kitchen. Making you break out in laughter once more as you follow him in leaving the group of confused people to follow in after you.

As the group makes its way to the kitchen where Dave has the pasta all ready to be served, taking a seat at the bench on one of the stalls closer to the end of the island. The team slowly comes to surround the kitchen, Spencer passes you a new drink as he stands behind you, his arms coming to wrap lovingly around your shoulders, allowing you to lean back into him.

“Aww you two are just the cutest” Penelope exclaims as she sits beside you smiling brightly at you two. You turnt her with a big grin on your face.

“Oh we know but thank you” You chuckle softly, sipping on your drink looking over to Dave who's shaking his head. A soft loving smile on his face as he walks around the kitchen grabbing the utensils and plates for dinner. As the team surrounds the bench all taking a seat or standing at the end of the bench, all with a drink in their hands. The two little boys settled on the table in the corner of the room, colouring in as they wait for their food. The room is buzzing with chatter and laughter from the group, you don’t find it hard at all to slip into the rhythm of the group of people around you.

~~~

“So Rossi, what's on the menu for tonight?” Emily asks as the attention is soon brought to the pasta set down in front of them. The warm smell of pepper and cheesy pasta starts filling the room.

“Spaghetti alla carbonara” Dave smiles proudly, as he starts putting some onto plates and walks over to the kids setting it down in front of them, who start cheering happily.

“Ohhh wait thats my favourite” You pipe up licking your lips as your mouth starts to water.

“Oh I know” Rossi smirks at you, his eyes full of mischief, chuckling softly as he sees the realisation settle on your face.

“You flipping knew didn’t you” It wasn't a question as you stare at him in disbelief only for him to chuckle more at you.

“Wait, how did you figure it out?” Spencer asks him, staring at him clueless.

“Oh come on it wasn’t hard” Dave laughs, shaking his head at them. “Oh come on, you two have been dating for the exact same time, both a lot happier recently. Your boyfriend works at the FBI and whenever I mentioned Reid you would avoid eye contact or your smile would grow” He looks at you pointedly, you want to argue with him but being at a loss of words you just close your mouth in retreat “And you” Rossi starts, turning to look at Reid. “Your boyfriend has the same name as my Godson, seriously, you’ve been avoiding me the last couple weeks Reid and then today on the Jet it wasn’t hard to put together” Dave can’t help but laugh at the look of surprise on both the boys face.

“I thought we were hiding it well” You argue weakly, pouting softly.

“Not at all,” Rossi smirks, passing plates of food around the group.

~~~

“Wait Godson, that makes so much sense” JJ laughs softly, staring at you three along with the rest of the team.

“Oh right I guess no one had told you guys yet” Aaron chuckles, shaking his head at you lot, taking his plate from Rossi.

“Wait, you knew he had a godson?” Morgan questions turning his attention to his boss.

“Oh yeah I knew who (Y/n) is, he’s also Jack's favourite babysitter” Aaron smirks looking at everyones confused little faces.

“Wait so you seem to be quite close yet we are only just finding out about you now, why is that?” Emily asks, leaning forward sipping her wine.

“Oh I'm really good at being kept a secret, it all started with my parents” You laugh quietly to yourself trying your hardest to keep the bitterness out of your voice. Even if the room wasn’t filled with profilers, it wouldn’t take much to figure out what you said had made Rossi, Hotch and your boyfriend all tense up.

“Right, well on the cherry topic here's your dinner Angelo” Rossi clears his throat handing over your plate of dinner.

“Thank you Papa Pasta” You smirk cheekily at him as you reach over to grab it from him, only to be given a disapproving look.

“Papa pasta?” Garcia burst out laughing alongside the rest of the room, who couldn't contain themselves after seeing the look on Rossi's face.

Rossi takes the plate away from you and passes it to Morgan instead who is the last to get his food.

“Hey!!” You exclaim, staring at him trying your best to keep a straight face.

“I told you to never use that nickname again”

“Oops my bad!” You laugh lightly, smiling brightly at him. “Can I please get my dinner please?” The room seems to be holding back their laughter now as Rossi rolls his eyes passing you a new plate of pasta.

~~~

As the night goes on with laughter and funny borderline embarrassing stories of the team, it may have only been hours but you're already starting to feel like a part of the gang already. Soon the group has made its way to the living room, spreading over the couches, Will had left not long after dinner taking both boys home for a sleepover. You're sipping your drink leaning your head into Spencer’s shoulder, allowing yourself to feel happy and enjoy the night. Your face was burning with how much you have been smiling and laughing throughout the night.

“And that is why we never let Reid and Morgan go alone together to get food on a case” JJ finishes telling the story, no one in the room could contain their laughter anymore. Spencer tries hiding his bright red face behind your neck, laughing softly as he does so.

“Hey hey it was not our fault how were we supposed to know we would accidentally order 2 bags full of ketchup” Morgan argues playfully loudly, the alcohol running through his system making his voice louder than usual.

“Oh come on sugar what did you expect?” Penelope giggles, resting her head on Morgan's shoulder. Her cheeks are bright red due to the alcohol, smiling widely as she stares up at Morgan.

“There is a story I would like to know” Emily speaks smirking, turning to look at you and Spencer.

“Oh no Emily, I told you not to ask, '' Spencer groans as he brings his face back out from behind your neck.

“Fine I won't then” Emily wiggles her eyebrows giggling softly. Staring at her in confusion you glance at your boyfriend feeling the whole room watching you two silent laughing at your reaction.

“I will then. So (Y/n) how did you two meet?” JJ giggles tipsy, sipping on her drink as she leans into the couch staring at you.

You couldn't hold back the groan of regret that slips through your lips as you hang your head backwards. Why did they have to ask that question, that night you meet Spencer had been full of regret at the time.

“Oh I know that look” Dave chuckles, shaking his head in amusement. “Tequila or vodka?”

“Both, and way too much of it” You groan, closing your eyes, hearing the room start laughing at you once more.

“You were so drunk” Spencer teases you lightly, thinking back to the night.

“At least I didn’t vomit all over my shoes” You shoot back. Opening your eyes to glare jokingly at him.

“No you were classy and vomited into a bush after walking straight into a pole” Spencer laughs harder, smiling lovingly at you. You shake your head at him as you look at him getting lost in his eyes, smiling more as you take in all his beautiful features.

“Awww you two are so in love” Penelope giggles drunkenly, her voice pulling you out of your drunken glaze. Turning your attention back to the room, blushing deeply as you notice everyone staring at you.

“Yes they are” Dave rolls his eyes standing up. “Who needs another drink, I know if I do if I'm going to hear this story”

“Ohh I do” Emily smiles more

“Me to” You agree, smiling. “I believe I heard someone found a Jaguar earlier” You smile cheekily up at your Uncle, just hoping he would bring it out.

“Fine” Dave sighs but then smirks at Reid. “Only because your boyfriend here is sober and is going to have to be the one to deal with you once you start drinking that shit” Dave chuckles at the look of fear on Reid's face.

“Oh please no” Spencer groans. Earning a soft slap on the thigh, followed by a kiss on the cheek.

~~~

Once everyone has fresh drinks, and is all settled back down again the story of how you and Spencer meet is brought up once more.

“So you two were drunk when you two met?” Morgan smirks looking at Reid. “When do you ever drink Reid?”

“For one I wasn’t drunk at the beginning, and two we first meet about two years ago through some mutual friends, it was a special occasion”

“You just kept doing shot after shot trying to impress the cute blonde with blue eyes” You laugh as your boyfriend turns as red as a rose.

“Yeah but then it turns out she was a bitch” Spencer shrugs smiling down at you in his arms, it almost feels like it's just you two in the room when you stare into his eyes.

“Woah did Spencer just call someone a bitch?” JJ gasps dramatically, placing her hand over her chest.

“I think our boy genius did, ooh someone was being bad huh?” Emily chuckles lightly leaning into JJ side. The alcohol makes her tired and turns her into a cuddling mood.

“She was being a homophobic, transphobic fuck so my knight in shining armor decided to stand up for me” You smile happily, not even realzing you had just outed your self. You wouldn’t have known except the room went quiet for a few brief seconds.

“Wait your trans” Penelope breaks the silence. Her voice radiating excitement, looking at you with a huge grin on her face.

“Trans and proud of it” You smile back at her. You never notice the proud smiles and looks that Rossi and Hotch share with each other, as they see just how far you come with your self acceptance journey.

“My brother’s also transgender” Penelope shares excitedly.

“Really that's so cool” You smile more, relaxing more into Spencer's arms.

“Hey you never told us that babygirl” Morgan smiles softly, before turning his attention back to you and Spencer.

~~~

“So what Spencer, you decided that someone was hurting your boy, so you had to rescue him huh?” Morgan smirking teasingly at Reid.

Spencer clears his throat, his face heating up again. “Oh uh something like that”

“Oh no what happened?” Aaron asks, keeping his laughter at bay as he recognises that look of embarrassment and regret slipping on to the younger boy's face.

“Oh well…” Spencer trails off.

“He decided that he would, while drunk spout off some statistics about how homophobic people end up and alone and proceed to call her a slut in front of the whole bar and then she throw her drink at him and we both got escorted out of the bar after that” You laugh loudly as you remember the look of shock on his face that night. The alcohol that slipped down his lost puppy dog face, as the bouncer grabbed his arm and pushed you both out of the bar.

“You two got kicked out of the bar?” Emily asks between her laughter, because of course Reid would be the one to get kicked out for starting a bar fight by talking statistics.

“Attaboy Reid” Dave cheers, smiling proudly at the kid. Dave already approved of you dating Spencer but the fact that the kid stood up for you only hours after meeting you, made him realise that he is the one for you.

“It was a hell of night, after that we went to another bar just us two and did shots for the rest of the night until it closed” You grin sipping on your drink, finishing it again. Spencer is quick to get you a refile, picking up the bottle that lays beside you topping up your glass.

~~~

“So if that all happened two years ago why did it take you two ages to start dating” JJ questions curiously.

“Well I had just broken up with my ex and went through a bit of a rebound sex for a few months after that”

“Was that after you broke up with Caleb?” Rossi interrupts you, giving you a disgusted look.

“Yes Caleb, I know you didn’t like him” You sigh rolling your eyes.

“You did have shit taste in men (Y/n)” Aaron adds in, defending Rossi.

“Hey! I expect this from Dave but you Aaron that just mean” You pout at him earning a soft laugh from the man.

“I feel like there is so much we don’t know about you (Y/n)” Emily stares at in awe.

“You need to get more alcohol in me then you will know everything” Chuckling softly as you smile at the girl.

“Okay wait I still haven't gotten my whole story yet” JJ complains, her words smushing together lightly, due to the alcohol.

“Oh right right sorry JJ’ Emly quickly apologies encouraging you to continue.

“Okay well after that night out me and Spence decided to keep in contact soon we became pretty good friends, hanging out when we could with our busy schedules, after about a year I started releasing I was falling for him, so well..”

��He decided to ghost me for weeks on end instead of just adamant how he felt, it took months for me to finally get him to admit he was heads over heels for me” Spencer smiles proudly as he finishes telling the story.

“I should have realised earlier that you felt the same way seeing as you've been pining after me for the last two years” Teasing him softly. Closing your eyes slowly, tiredness running through your body. Spencer presses his soft lips to your head as he sees your eyes drifting close, knowing how exhausted you can get after drinking.

“Aw that is adorable” JJ giggles, nudging Emily lightly grinning at her.

“Who knew Spencer would look so cute being used as a pillow” Emily laughs at him. Only for Spencer to glare at her, trying his hardest not to smile at how cute you look in his arms.

“He's also a really comfy pillow” You laugh quietly, smiling widely. Opening your eyes in a haze.

~~~

“Hey uh guys” Aaron calls out trying his best to stop his laughter, which is slipping throughout his words. Everyones turns their attention to look at what Aaron seems to be pointing at. Which is a sleeping Derek and Penelope curled up together on the couch snoring softly. The team has to try to control their laughter when they see them, just sleeping peacefully doing their best not to wake them.

“Oh someone please take a picture of that so I can tease them tomorrow” Spencer whispers giggling softly.

“On it” Rossi smirks, pulling his phone out, taking a few photos of their tangled bodies on the couch.

“Hey, does anyone have a marker?” Emily grins up at the room.

“Prentiss, no” Aaron sighs, shaking his head with a playfully smile.

“Prentiss yes, I know where they are” Laughing quietly as you stand up wobbly, walking out quickly your legs shaking under you. You know the amount of alcohol you have consumed tonight you might regret in the morning. You return quickly with a handful of markers handing a couple to Emily as you walk past her and over to the sleeping bodies.

“Did you go into my study?” Dave stares at you in shock, noticing that you have the good quality markers.

“I did, that's where the nice stuff is” Smirking at Emily who's kneeling beside you, who giggles quietly glancing back at Dave instantly recognizing the unimpressed look on his face.

“(Y/n) I think you're my spirit animal” She whispers quietly as she starts drawing a moustache carefully on Morgan's face.

“Well thank you” Smiling brightly as you go and drawing kitten whiskers on Penelope cautiously, so as to not wake her.

Soon JJ has joined you both and is drawing on Morgan's arms grinning as you all come up with silly things to draw on them.

“Okay that's enough” Dave sighs standing above you five, holding a pile of blankets. “Give me the markers and you three can stay the night in the spare bedrooms”

“But Uncle Daveee we aren’t finished yet” You whine softly, staring up at him pouting.

“Yes you are now up, I’ve already made sure your bedroom is ready for you (Y/n) now come on” He sighs, placing the blanket down, taking the markers off you and the two girls. Which results in all three of you pouting and whining for them back.

“They're like children” Dave huffs looking over at Hotch for support but he just laughs at the poor man's looks.

“They are your responsibility tonight Dave, I'm off duty” He chuckles while sipping on his drink.

~~~

“Fine we will get up” JJ sighs, standing up grabbing Emily hand pulling her up with her.

“Fineee I'm up” Emily mumbles, walking back over to where the alcohol was. “Wait where's the alcohol go?”

“I put it away, it is bedtime” Reid laughs, shaking his head at his coworkers drunken state, his eyes coming to land on you. Seeing you swaying on the spot as you stare at the wall past everyone, you were now growing quiet which was starting to worry him. He knows how you get when you are tired and drunk, your emotional side tends to slide out. He walks over to you, slowly wrapping his arms around your waist resting his head on your shoulder.

“You ready for bed darling?” He whispers softly into your ear.

“Yeah” You breath out, leaning into his touch. He lets go of your waist, taking your hand in his as he walks back over to the group of people. The blankets are now covering the sleeping Penelope and Derek who haven't even woken once yet. Emily and JJ are holding onto each other giggling softly in their drunken hazy having a hard time trying to stand still.

“You two are going to need help getting up those stairs” Aaron repates smiling softly, shaking his head at JJ.

“Nooo Hotch we got this” JJ giggles turning around taking Emily's hand trying her hardest to walk straight to the staircase but they both end up stumbling and almost tripping over, again. If it wasn’t for Aaron who managed to grab her arms stabilise her.

“Okay maybe we need help” JJ laughs more, her eyes fluttering close.

“Okay JJ I gotcha ya” Hotch laughs lightly, wrapping his arm around her back. He has been enjoying tonight, watching his team having a night of relaxation. They need it after all the trauma and hard cases they have to deal with.

“Dave, do me and Spence get my old bedroom?” Muttering softly as you watch him try to stop Emily from falling over she lets go of JJ.

“Yeah Kiddo, that room will always be yours” Dave smiles softly, notices the secure grip Spencer has on you. Dave couldn’t be more happy that the two of you finally found each other.

“Wait, you used to live here” Spencer asks softly.

“Nah, well kind of, I use to crash here weekly when I grew up, to get away from my transphobic fuck called parents” Grumbling loudly as you let Spencer help pull you past his team and up the stairs to your bedroom.

~~~

Yor bedroom hasn't changed much since you were a teenager. The draws still have pictures of you and a few old friends on it, along with photos of you and Dave, even some including Stephen as well. Smiling softly as you sit down on the bed kicking your shoes off, watching as Spencer walks over the draws, looking at the photos you have on them.

“I haven't seen many photos of you as a kid” Spencer smiles softly as he looks at them. Noticing that in every photo you always have tilted your head to the side slightly, it's his favourite thing about how you look in photos.

“I don’t like photos of me, but these ones are special to me” You smile, your heart filling with love as he turns back towards you smiling more at you.

“But you're so adorable in every photo” He smiles more as he sits on the bed beside you, wrapping his arms around you pulling you into his chest.

“Gosh I love you Spencer” You whisper closer to your eyes, feeling safe in his arms.

“I love you to (Y/n), Let's get some sleep, yeah?” He whispers back, laying you both down.

“I never thought I would bring a guy I truly love back here you know” Speaking into the silence of the room. “This is my safe place, I never bring anyone here because I knew they weren’t the right fit for me you know, but you're different Spence. I think you're the one” Speaking slowly, your words fill with love and affiliation, tears swarming in your eyes. The room falls silent again, thinking you might have overstepped a boundary. Opening up your heart too much, telling him he's the one for you might have been too much, especially while drunk.

“Thank you.. For telling me I know that's hard opening up, I feel the same way with my team it's why I’ve never intrude them to anyone I’ve dated before because when I did, I wanted it to be the right one” He smiles softly, squeezing you gently as he had felt your body tense up as he took his time thinking of the right words to speak.

“I'm so glad we have each other Spence” Smiling gently, leaning over to kiss him softly. “Goodnight Amore Mio”

“Gooodnight love”

#criminal minds #criminal minds fic #spencer reid one shot #david rossi kid #david rossi is over protective i love it #spencer reid x trans reader #spencer reid x trans boyfriend #spencer reid bisexual #spencer reid is bi #spencer reid boyfriend #spencer reid x gideon reader #spencer reid x rossi reader

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skaybrekker · 1 month

Text

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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