And If I Fall, Let Me Part I: At Your Service - A. Hotchner x OC & Jemily

Friends don't look at friends that way

"So you're already coming in together?" the brunette teased with a grin, looking up from the file in front of her.

"We met outside," was the best thing he could come up with. Reid raised his eyebrow, his eyes wandering automatically to Alex when she came back out of her office.

"Hey Agent Evans, does Hotch's car still has that one specific spot in the back of his seat that looks like a rose, from when Jack spilled his cherry soda?" his team member asked, all while looking as innocently as possible. Alex's irritated gaze drifted to Hotch for a second before she slowly shook her head. Then she grinned at Reid.

"Dr. Reid, we met in the parking lot, I have no idea what you're talking about."

Hotch bit back his smirk when Reid squinted her eyes at the blonde. "Your car was already here."

The Secret Service agent cocked her head at him.

"That's very observant. It was," she gave back, not explaining anything else. While Reid fidgeted for something else to say, Alex turned to Hotch, handing him a paper.

"This is what we usually send to the services we vet for any event. Maybe we can use this."

He scanned the paper. It could work, he thought to himself. Maybe it would get them closer to figuring out who the Unsub was, before another body could drop tomorrow night. That was if all the responsible people would oblige, which was almost impossible. He was starting to feel uncomfortable with the frustrating fact they didn't have a suspect. Nodding, he handed her back the paper.

"This could work. The rest of the team will be here in a few minutes," Hotch said, earning himself an absent humming as an acknowledgment from Alex. She was staring at her phone, a deep crease on her forehead.

"Call me if they are," she mumbled. When she looked up, the apologetic smile was back. "Sorry, I have to care of something important. Scream if you need me."

With that, she hurried back into her office, already dialing something. "Is she okay?" Reid asked, looking at him. A sigh escaped his lips, Hotch raised his eyebrows.

"I don't know."

****

Alex nibbled on her lips while listening. She shouldn't be doing this, she thought. It told other people she was stressed, and right now, she couldn't really use that.

"How long do I have?" she asked, keeping back everything she wanted to say. What she wanted to do was make accusations, be angry, be dismissive. She wouldn't. She swore herself that.

"Two hours maybe," the voice on the other end said, the swallowed tears audible.

"Hold a little tight, alright? I'll do what I can."

The girl on the other end promised, like she always did. "I love you, Katie," Alex ended the call, gulping away the lump in her throat. The knock on her glass came to early. Shaking herself out of her state, the blonde turned to the door of her office, fighting to keep her face neutral. She was not going to let anyone see how miserable and helpless she felt right now. When two dark eyes under thick lashes looked at her, she realized this was going to be harder than anticipated.

"Is everything okay?" Emily Prentiss asked, and Alex did her best to nod. "Peachy," she muttered. All she earned was a low chuckle from the brunette, and suddenly, Alex had the urge to thank her just for that little noise. Instead, she gave her an honest smile. Emily responded with a nod, telling her she knew exactly what was happening.

Tyler, who she known had watched her on the phone, walked up to her, softly nudging her shoulder.

"One of the small offices will be free all day," he said under his breath. Nodding slowly, she locked eyes with him.

"I have two hours," she gave back quietly, "I'll have to make it work."

Her deputy shrugged as if it was the easiest task in the universe. "We will."

The deep voice of Aaron Hotchner interrupted their little exchange, and both their heads snapped around to look at him.

"As we just discussed, the probability is high that the Unsub is not necessarily inside the venues, but rather waiting outside. It is possible that it's someone posing as a chauffeur. We will check first if the three victims might've used the same chauffeur. If not, we will come up with a way to monitor who is on chauffeur services for that night. See if something fits. Agent Evans?"

She stepped a little forward, holding up the piece of paper she had printed out before.

"We will try our best to contact the offices of the registered politicians like we always do. We will send them a last-minute request to register the chauffeur services they use. Should we attach the profile?" she turned back to Hotch. He nodded.

"We will attach the profile, and see if someone already recognizes someone. If not, we hope to have a database at the end of the day. Expect some angry calls from our usual friends higher up. No one will want to vet someone last minute."

Her team chuckled, and she couldn't help but grin at them. Annie Edwards, her third in command, raised her hand for a second. Alex nodded towards her.

"What about strategy? We should include the exits now, maybe we can include the pick-up in our perimeter. Make it our problem, so to speak. That could hinder at least some discussion around jurisdiction."

Alex saw Morgan raise his eyebrows in approval, and she was more than inclined to agree.

"Good point. We will alter the strategy. Please start with that, we can discuss this around noon, so we have a working strategy before our briefing tonight. Thank you everyone!" she answered, waving Annie over. The redhead, an iPad in her hand, looked up to her expectantly.

"Hotch, do you want to give input before we alter our strategy for tomorrow night?" Alex asked in his direction, watching as the wheels started turning in his head. He turned to his team as well, gesturing towards the other blonde.

"JJ, do you mind working with Agent Edwards on that?"

Without any hesitation, JJ moved in Annie's direction. "Consider it done," Annie winked at Alex, taking JJ with her towards her desk.

"My three favorite words," Alex muttered towards herself. She didn't miss the grin on the redhead's face when she heard that.

"Garcia needs the information from us to set up a database," Hotch said next to her said. Turning to him, she found him already looking at her. Right, Alex thought to herself. Before she could open her mouth to agree, Tyler jumped in from the side.

"I can make sure the setup is done. I'm usually responsible for our vetting process," he interjected. She saw Hotch's gaze shift to irritated and to Tyler, but the other man didn't flinch. With a smile, he turned to her. "So you can take care of the thing you said earlier? And informing Henley, getting the approval?"

Shit, Katie, Alex thought to herself. She had almost forgotten with anything. Before she couldn't resist, guilt crept in.

"You're a saint," she said to Tyler, meaning it, "Does that work for you, Hotch? Tyler is the expert on it after all. I will be back in an hour, and hopefully, have Henley off our back."

Aaron wanted to ask something, she could feel it. The intensity of his gaze bore into her, but no words left his mouth. After what felt like minutes, he nodded.

"Of course."

With a thankful smile in Tyler's direction, she grabbed her car keys and walked out, before someone could ask her what was going on.