Falling In Love With My Boss

Clues

"Just comfortable that way." I replied, but never the less I pulled them down I crossed them across my stomach.

The rest of the ride was speechless.

When we got to the house, we realized the extent of the damage.

The roof of the porch was sagging and the front door was charred so badly I couldn't tell you what color it actually was. The roof had completely burned away in some places to show heavily singed rooms.

"Golly..." I muttered.

A man in uniform walked up to us and introduced himself. "Hello I'm Officer Caldwell, Head Chief at the local police station."

"Hello, I am SSA Hotchner and this is SSA Avi." He said shaking hands with the officer. "Do you have any leads so far?"

"Nothing at all. We haven't gone in yet so not to spoil the crime scene. Everything is untouched."

"Thank you, sir, we're going in right now to check it out." He responded and walked in with me following.

As we walked in, I realized I really had no idea where to go first. I didn't want to ask him because, well, he's him. I ended up settling on creepily following him around.

We went to the living room first, I looked at the burnt up magazines on the charred coffee table. They were all magazines a middle aged mother would buy; things like "Update Your Kitchen In 3 Simple Steps!" Or "Easy Home Renovations That'll Change Your Everyday Life!"

Moving on, we went to the kitchen. Everything in here seemed in tact, and thank god for that because I don't know what this house would've been if it had reached the gas line leading to the stove.

I looked at the picture hung on the fridge. Just a happy, family, one blonde girl who couldn't have been older than 13 and her parents.

The whole fridge was filled with these types of photos; at the science fair, in Washington D.C., swimming in the ocean, etc.

I turned away, not wanting to see this family so happy, knowing that I'd see their dead bodies soon.

Hotchner proceeded to the dining room, still with me following him when he turned around.

"You don't have to follow me." He said, his cold eyes staring through my soul.

"I-I was not following you." I replied, lying through my teeth.

"We need to spread out to look over the rooms faster." He said, calling me out.

"Yes sir." I blushed and walked to the last room on the main floor.

"It's Hotch." He called after me.

Stupid! Stupid, stupid, stupid!!!!

I looked up and saw a ghastly sight.

There were three people, charred beyond recognition, though I already knew it was the resident family.

They were all tied up to three chairs, the daughter in between in two parents.

I got closer and realized there were cuts on the parents necks, deep enough to kill, and cuts on the mouth and eyes of the daughter.

The daughter was who the unsub was after I realized, that's why the murder was so personal.

But why? What have these kids done?

I went behind them to examine the knots to see that the ropes had nails threaded into it, cutting deep gashes into the wrist of the family.

But why?

There was a noise behind me that made me jump out of my skin. I looked back expecting the killer, coming for me, I'm going to die and no one wi--

It's Hotch.

"I'm sorry, did I scare you?" He said in such a way that let me know he could care less if he scared me.

That's it! I'm done! I've given him to many chances; time to fight fire with fire.

"You couldn't scare me." I said, shooting him a look in the eye, seeing a flash of surprise.

"Have you studied M.O?" He asked.

"Yes, they slit the throats of the parents, but they cut the eyes and mouth of the daughter. All three were tied up with nails in the rope." I responded.

"Good job." He said, giving me a congratulatory look.

I met it with pure anger. Do not try to win me over now.

I turned my back to him and went up the stairs. I don't need him. Except for paychecks. But I still don't need him.

I missed a step going up the stairs and tripped. I reached out for the railing, but as that was charred away, it broke away, leaving me in a free fall down a few steps.

I hit the ground hard, but nothing thankfully nothing was hurt too badly.

Hotch heard the ruckus and followed me in.

"What happened?" He asked.

"Obviously I got down here to get a better view of the floor." I replied, picking myself up.

Giving him no time to respond, I walked up the stairs, making sure not to fall down again.

I could feel his stare on my back, but I didn't care.

Stare at me all you want, Hotch, I am not deterred by you anymore.

Once on the top floor, I went to the child's room. It was an average teenage girl's room; many books, a mirror, posters of various bands.

Luckily the room I went in still had a roof; I don't exactly want bugs flying around right now.

I walked over to the desk to study the picture pinned up on the wall. There were many of her friends and her doing fun activities or simply being together.

I spotted a diary next to her bookshelf and picked it up. I leafed through the last few entries.

"September 3rd- I miss her. She was always there for me when we were younger but now she's gone. She's my other half and I can't see her and she can't see me. I miss her and I hate this."

Gosh, at 13 how bad can things get?

"September 5th-It's been years since we saw eachother, but I see her everyday. I hate what Mom and Dad did to her. I hate them. I hate myself. Why bother living? The only person who mattered to me is being kept."

I can't take this anymore.

I picked up the diary and went to move downstairs to see Hotchner in the parents' room.

I said nothing and proceeded to the bottom floor. I waited for Hotch to finish looking through the rooms upstairs.

"Anything unusual?" I asked when he came down.

"Nothing." he replied.

"Ready to go?"

"If you are."

And that was our conversation. We hopped in the car and drove to the police station to meet up with the others.

The entire ride was silent.

As we got out to enter the building, I couldn't help but think I really, really hope Hotchner isn't like this the entire time I work for this team, but time will only tell.