Reflection • a. hotchner

sixteen

"So the crimes are years apart and across state lines." Liv breathed out. It was a scary thought, the idea that this unsub had been claiming victims, little boys, for years. And know one even knew to look for him. "No one even knew he existed."

"Exactly." Reid agreed. He placed the map he had been studying down in the middle of the table, allowing everyone to lean over it as he explained more of his theory. "But in the last two years, he's stopped traveling so far. I think something's affected his mobility. For the past two winters, he's returned to this 30 mile radius."

Thirty miles was plenty of ground to cover, but it was better than the entirety of all 2,200 miles of the Appalachian. There wasn't much they could do at the moment considering the setting sun, but luckily for them, there was no one they were on a clock to find. However, they all knew it was just a matter of time before another child disappeared.

Some of the team dispersed to tell the local authorities the same thing Reid had explained to the team, starting the organizing of a search tomorrow morning. If they were lucky, they could find where this guy hid out before another child had to be taken. But considering how long he had been taking children off anyone's radar, it wasn't super likely.

Liv sipped her coffee, pressing her back into the cushions of the padded seat she sat in. They just had to get through the night, and then they could finally start making real progress.

✺✺✺

Hotch paused in the doorway as he turned to walk back into their separate room to work on the case. He was expecting to see a few others scattered about the place, but when got inside, he saw only Liv to be present, head down on her arm against the table with hushed eyelids.

He clung to the door frame as her chest rose and fell, watching a peaceful look washed across her face that he hadn't been seeing recently. He ignored the pang in his chest at the idea that he had contributed to that at all.

Liv was in a daze when his strong hand shook her shoulder, her cheek pressed against her arm that was sprawled across the table. Beneath her were open files and crime scene photographs, all things she had been reviewing before she dosed off. Blinking away her blurry vision, she looked behind her to see Hotch's figure towering over her.

"I see that coffee didn't work for you." he said quickly, continuing before she got the chance to wake up anymore or retort. "We heard news of two more missing kids."

"Two?" She asked, rubbing her eyes at the same time. She felt slightly blushed at the embarrassment that she had fallen asleep, let alone that he had found her that way.

"A boy and a girl." He stated, still towering. She felt uncomfortably small under his height, and his strong gaze.

She straightened her back in attempt to feel bigger, it making little the difference. "Girls aren't his preference." She stated in confusion.

"No, they're not." With that, he started to move towards the door. "Lets go, the rest of the team will meet us at the scene and we can start to organize a search."

She quickly stood, scrambling to tuck things back into their place before just abandoning them all together. Liv grabbed her things and hurried after his retreating figure, noticing too late that everyone else was gone, and she was left to ride to the abduction site with Hotch alone.

Liv sat in the passenger seat of the SUV, awkwardly twiddling her thumbs as Hotch was beside her at the wheel. She tried not to contemplate the silence, overthinking whether it was peaceful or uncomfortable. Hotch pulled out from the station, turning on the the road as she listened to the growling engine, the car growing to feel increasingly smaller with every minute. In a hopeful attempt to offer something besides awkwardness to the drive, she turned the radio up slightly and pretended to be busy listening to the popish tune that it played.