" People hurt people all the time Aaron, and sometimes when your life is filled to the brim with hurt, you can't help but wait for things to start fall apart again. "
~ a women should never invest in a relationship she wouldn't want for her daughter ~
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I chuckle freely, moving my feet around in a circle so Eve could spin along with me. Smiling down at her, I can't believe she was named after me, I bend down to her eye level, "I'm going to go talk to your momma okay?" I mumble tucking a piece of hair behind her ear, "How about you go dance with Spencer?"
She nods at me enthusiastically and runs over to Spencer, jumping up into his arms. I shake my head in amusement and nod at Spencer when he glances at me. He sends me a quick smile and I turn away looking around in search for Francesca. I catch sight of her figure clad in the red satin dress she decided to wear for the night. She looked gorgeous as usual. I note that phone in her hand and that seemed to be talking to someone so I made my way over to Emily and JJ instead since they were the closest to her.
"They were perfect." Emily mutters causing me to stop in my tracks.
Was she talking about Dani and I? JJ nods, smiling fondly, "They tried so hard to seem like they weren't dating one another at work but remember when Dani got that paper cut and Hotch was by her side 2 seconds flat. How was that not suspicious I mean it was a papercut."
Emily nods, chuckling lightly, "Or movie nights after a long case when he'd always bring her favorite blanket."
"Or when Hotch got shot and she wouldn't leave the hospital."
"I mean she named her kid after him. She was so broke in that interrogation room and when she found him it was like everything was going to be okay." Why are they talking about this? Why was it important. They were acting as if one of us were dead, or worse, married.
JJ leans her head on Emily's shoulder with a sigh, "He made her better and her him. I mean like Pen said, they were the cliché love story that everyone pretended to hate but ultimately wanted." She pauses for a second, "Aaron Hotchner was her safe. I just- I can't see her with anyone else."
Emily shakes her head, leaning it on JJ's, "I just wish she knew she deserves more than an asshole as a boyfriend." Asshole boyfriend? She had a boyfriend. Emily scoffs to herself, "Fiancé." she corrects in annoyance. Fiancé? Didn't she specifically tell me she didn't have a fiancé?
JJ sighs, glancing over at Dani, "I've never seen two people be so in love but so against it. You can see it on her face, she physically fights herself to stay away from him."
Emily shakes her head, "I know. Hotch has to physically fight not holding her. I just wish they'd realize how much they need each other."
"I-" JJ cuts herself off when she notices me, "Hotch." Her voice was filled with surprise, "I-I'm sorry we-"
"No its fine." I mumble. They were the love story everybody wanted. Were. Fiancé. She had a fiancé. Glancing up at Dani I sigh, she was yelling at someone over the phone and I could only assume that was the 'asshole boyfriend' or 'fiancé' that Emily had mentioned.
It grew silent and when I glanced up I realized that everyone was starring at Dani yell into her phone as her voice got louder and more annoyed.
"No!"
"I am not being unreasonable."
Pause.
"Everett wanted to see her father and I promised her the moment she told me she wanted to I would drop everything and take her. That was two weeks ago it was time."
Pause.
"It has nothing to do with him."
Pause.
"It was one phone call that you should have no idea happened unless I told you which I didn't."
Pause.
"Evan, you have no right to-"
You could hear faint yelling from him through the phone and the fact that Dani didn't even flinch told me she was used to it.
"They are my family!"
Pause.
"Ya well they care more than you obviously."
Pause.
"I just wish you would trust me."
Pause.
"Evan!"
Pause.
"At this point I am never going to bring her around you."
Pause.
"How do I know that? I have bruises around my neck that I had to cover up with concealer just to come to a stupid dinner party so my baby girl could meet her father, something you will never be to her."
Is he abusing her?
"Ya I have an attitude, what you going to do smack it out of me, I'm across the fucking world Evan so unless you plan on-"
Pause.
"Do you maybe wonder why that is?"
Pause.
"Hey he may have betrayed me but at least he never laid a fucking hand on me."
He laid his hands on her? He definitely abused her.
"No. That is not love okay. I spent my whole fucking life with guys like you who convinced me that this is what love is. That this is what I deserved. And then I met this really amazing guy who taught me that I am worth so much more than the shit that you give me, show me. And ya, he may have broken my heart but I loved him- love him. He's game plan. End game. At least he was. And he fucked that up just like you fucked us up. I guess it's a learning experience, had to have a kid to realize that I don't deserve this shit. That I never want her to go through what you put me through. You are an i-"
Short pause.
"Do not fucking interrupt me!" Dani paused, taking a deep breath, "As your superior I am filing a report against you well also suggesting a lengthy stay in one of the lovely prisons we have around the world. As your fiancé I am breaking up with you. And as a caller, I am hanging up the phone." And she did. Shoving her phone in her back pocket she leans her head against Rossi's fence. Her body shakes very slightly but I knew it was from ragged breaths and not tears. Dani was stronger then that. She wouldn't cry over him and I knew that.
Running a hand through her hair, she turns around. Meeting my eyes she visibly pales but once she realizes everyone was starring at her a tear fell down her cheek. And it wasn't because I was a profiler that I knew it wasn't for the man she just broke up with. I had loved Dani for a long time, I knew her. She wasn't crying for her asshole ex fiancé. She was crying because she just admitted something that she had been trying to pretend didn't exist not only to herself but to her ex and everyone in Rossi's back yard.
And it wasn't that she loved me.
It was that she had finally learned to love herself.
