Aaron Hotchner X OC

Horseplay.

Since Cecile had snapped at him, Hotch took the day to think before realising that he needed to get over himself. Days of pondering also failed, but after just over a week, he knew that all he could do was to try and talk to her again, but then Rossi swaggered into his office and spewed some logical facts that were intentionally disguised. Once Hotch sat and thought about what Rossi was actually saying behind the convoluted statements and theoretical situations about a "friend", Hotch realised that talk was cheap. Cecile was about the moment and actions. She found joy through the little jokes and gestures, and she made that clear because she spent her life making jokes with everyone around her, and laughing like she didn't have a problem in the world.

But it wasn't until Hotch sat and watched Pride and Prejudice, only because Cecile loved it so much, that he realised why he had attacked her. She had become a safe space for him, she had become someone he could rely on, and then work got stressful. More than that, he had moved to kiss her in the morning, Jack could have seen. And though he knew he didn't find romantic chemistry between them, she fulfilled something in him when she teased him, when she laughed at something he tutted at. The sweet way she woke him up every night that he worked up a sweat would distract him until he could get back to sleep.

Watching her figure as Cecile rode away quickly, he was reminded of the night he walked in on an intimate moment between her and a man she refused to name. But he had heard her call his name from downstairs. Matthew. And then he recalled the bite on her shoulder, and his eyes trailed down to the floor. He knew what happened, well, he could figure out the basics of what had happened, but nothing more than a general idea. At first he suspected it was a scruffy tattoo, but her shame wasn't adding up. It had to be a scar.

'You can keep staring, she won't get back any quicker,' Rossi commented as he stood beside Hotch, looking through the field.

'If she's allergic to nature, why is she riding a horse through fields like this?' Hotch asked as he scoffed at the thought.

Rossi turned to Hotch and furrowed his brows while letting a confused smirk cross his features. 'Sallow doesn't have hay fever. She doesn't have any allergies, I checked before arranging this,' he muttered with a chuckle.

'But Jack got her flowers and she was sneezing for a week. Sallow was ill until she eventually binned them,' Hotch admitted, quietly thinking.

'You mean when she was sleeping in your bed without ever admitting to us that she was even staying at your house? Well, there was a week where she got an infection from getting shot. And in the end she took a week off,' Rossi replied nonchalantly as he waved at Cecile who was walking into the field.

Hotch's dark eyes focused on Rossi. 'She got shot? But I saw her almost every day, unless you guys were on a case. Where was she shot?' He asked incredulously.

'It was a graze on her shoulder. It only got infected because she refused to let the paramedics see to it. But we were only away for one case, the other case was local. Erin didn't have us working too many cases while you were gone so that we could regroup and focus on paperwork,' Rossi confessed. 'When did Jack get her flowers?'

Sighing, Hotch shook his head as he pieced the evidence together. 'After she was away for a few days. CeCe claimed it was a case, but now I think it was something else that took her away. How sick was she?' He asked curiously, not hearing his accidental use of her nickname.

Rossi raised an eyebrow and glanced at Hotch. 'CeCe? Jack wasn't lying. But she was really sick. The doctors could only give her enough medication for a few hours a day. I think she slept most of the time. I dropped some food over and she looked straight out of a horror movie,' he joked before offering a hand to Cecile who took it gratefully as she was led to the food.