The car ride was short, silently you sat in the back while Derek drove the car filled with JJ and Reid. The police station was hopping with officers that looked like they didn't know what to do and worried families of kids and aunts to those who were murdered. You all waited outside before the rest of the team showed up and when they did, you introduced yourselves to the one in charge.
You trailed behind the team as Aaron walked in the front, you heard him greet a man in a suit. "Officer Dansby. I'm Agent Aaron Hotchner, I assume you talked on the phone with our technical analyst Penelope Garcia. This is my team, Agents David Rossi, Derek Morgan, Jennifer Jareau, Y/F/N Y/L/N, Emily Prentiss, and Doctor Spencer Reid." You each shook the man's hand as Reid threw up an awkward peace sign to avoid the handshake.
"We will need a separate room and a board to set up the profile," He said as the man guided you all into another room. Aaron turned to you guys separate from the man, "JJ, Reid, and Prentiss go to the mortician's office to look at the bodies. Rossi, you and I will start the profile here with the officers, and Derek and y/n go to the apartment of the crime scene."
You hated every second after you heard that, the cocky grin that formed on his face was sickening. Derek put his arm around your shoulders, "This is going to be a fun day." you walked out of his hold before yelling across the room, "you are driving."
The two of you got into the SUVs and it was a silent drive that settled. Derek kept looking over at you like he wanted to say something, and you could feel his eyes on you. You hated that he knew something that you didn't. You hated how he was such a pain in the ass sometimes.
"What is it, I know you have something you want to tell me," you said laughing slightly, "I can feel your eyes, and the fact that you keep looking back and forth from me and the road is a major give away." you were staring at him now waiting for him to break his grin and speak.
"So you and hotch, huh"
"Oh what the fuck" you said turning completely away from him, he was laughing so hard at his words and your reaction. "How did... oh god how much did Garcia tell you?" you asked him, completely regretting making him do your paperwork earlier.
"Now I had my suspicions, but the baby girl always pulls through." he said chuckling, "and mamas, I don't know what you said to her, but it took a hell of a lot to get it out," he said shaking his head.
"I told her that Emily didn't know, which was a lie but I mean it kept her silent for a while, god I mean at this rate the whole office knows." you sighed at your words.
"Woah Woah Woah, Reid knew before me?" he sounded greatly offended at this proposition.
"Honestly I don't even know, Rossi caught us in an elevator, Emily picked me up from his house, and an odd thing happened at a bar that was too much of a coincidence for it to actually be a coincidence, so I think Reid knows." you didn't really think before speaking but at this rate, there was no point in hiding because you assumed Garcia told him everything.
"Okay so you guys are dating?" he looked shocked to hear what you were saying.
"Uh... no" you were hesitant at your words this time but you decided that you might as well let it out. You sighed kind of loudly out of habit and Derek picked up on it. "Is there something more you want to share?" he knew you needed someone to vent to.
"I uh... I did a bunch of stupid things so there is a bit of a riff between us right now." you hated opening up like this, but you wanted advice and figured Derek could give some.
"Come on, it can't be that bad, if there really is something there it'll figure itself out." he was playing along with your vague sentence, giving even more vague advice because he was confused.
"Well uh, last night I got drunk, like dangerously drunk, I was dealing with family issues, which is something I will not explain," you added, "I called him and he came over and completely took care of me."
"So what's the problem? I think that's actually pretty sweet of him, he clearly cares about you."
"Yeah I know, well I was hunched over the toilet for a while, and he sat and held me, but when I finished I was spewing stupid shit, and I kind of told him that I wanted more. Then he really told me he wanted more like it was really sweet."
"Everything you are telling me is good, I am so confused, what happened?" Derek was making faces at you because the story you were telling was quite nice.
"Yeah I know but I fucked it all up this morning."
"Oh so he was with you this morning... that's why you were late huh" he started to make sexual gestures with his fingers and you hit his arm slightly.
"No, definitely not that." you scoffed, "Uh I was cleaning, and he wanted to talk about last night, but I thought that he wanted to talk about why I was upset so I told him that last night didn't matter and he should forget about it."
"Ouch you're cold," he said taken aback by your abruptness towards Aaron.
"But I didn't realize that he probably meant how he wanted to move further with us. But then I made it worse." you paused for a second
"Oh god, you just keep going,"
"I left something out by accident that I didn't want him to see. and then he saw it and I completely overreacted and got upset about it, like really angry over it and kind of kicked him out." you sighed realizing how stupid your actions were, but you just didn't want Aaron knowing about your family stuff.
"I just feel like an idiot, and I gave him the cold shoulder, and now he's mad at me, I think. I don't know." you face palmed yourself shaking your head in your hand for a second. Derek parked the car outside the apartment of the scene and turned to you, putting his hand on your shoulder.
"Sweetcheeks, just apologize. Listen, I know it can seem like the simplest option but just tell him how you feel, and apologize. You might have acted stupidly this morning but just admit that and say you are sorry." he gave you a smile that was comforting, he genuinely wanted you happy, even if it meant giving you relationship advice about his boss.
"Yeah I know it's that simple, but I just feel like an idiot and now we are on a case and I don't want to cause a problem if I try to talk to him during this. I just don't know" you said as you began to open the car door to leave. You walked around and met Derek on the other side.
"Fine then, I'll kick this unsub's ass as fast as I can, so that you can talk to him. Just play nice for the rest of the case, the team can always tell when something is up, believe me, we notice things," he said giving you crazy eyes as a joke.
"So how long have you 'known things' between Aaron and I.," you said putting air quotes up to emphasize as you two walked up the steps of the apartment building.
"Well first of all you are the only one who calls him Aaron. And to be exact, Garcia saw you two making out at the bar and was attempting to make subtle jokes about it, so I knew something was up, but I wasn't sure what it quite was."
You scoffed at his words, not exactly surprised that Garcia did that, but that was before you had talked to her so it wasn't her fault. "God I hate profilers." you joked as Derek laughed and you two walked into the gross smelling apartment
***
By the end of the day which edged almost 9:00, the team had already delivered the profile to the officers. This led to the team being lost on a couple of dead ends. The closest you had was that it was a male in his late forties, who had been wronged in the restaurant business, specifically in relation to the restaurant La Malinche, in the Silver Spring area.
As the team traced through leads, Garcia landed on a couple and called you guys immediately. She explained they had recently been forced out from owning this restaurant, this all came at the same time His wife filed for divorce. The wife went missing days before the rest of the murders began.
She explained that the unsub, Keith Langley, was spotted on the security cameras following another couple out of the restaurant. Their names were Alice Henderson and Holton Keystone who had just eaten at La Malinche. They live together about ten minutes outside of downtown Silver Spring.
"Thank you, Garcia, can you send us the address of the couple's home." Aaron said into the phone before she responded, "do you think I'm a snail? It's already there kemosabe, so jump on it." she hung up the phone as the team scrambled into four cars.
The quick drive was over before you knew it as the team pulled up in front of the house that you hoped held Alice and Holton unscathed. Aaron ordered him, Rossi, and JJ to take left, Emily and Derek took right, as you and Reid took the front entrance.
The front door was unlocked as you and Reid split up, you going into the kitchen and Reid going upstairs. The house was dark and quiet as you paced through each room shouting clear. The kitchen was a mess as knives covered in blood lay waste on the floor.
You noticed a door with three locks on it that you assumed moved into the basement and you decided best to try and open it, but much to what you had imagined, it was locked. You took a few steps back and in one fell swoop, you kicked the door open. This time, no pain in your leg, really bringing out your inner Derek.
As you carefully crept down the steps, you heard a muffled female voice and you assumed it was Alex. As you paced into the room, there you saw the couple tied to a pole and on a table, there was a knife with a sign that said: "make your choice."
As you reached to go help the couple you felt a strong arms grip around your neck as it tried to hold you in a chokehold. With immediate response, you jabbed him in the gut with your elbow and bent your leg up to kick him in the nuts while he still held you from behind.
The Unsub's grip on you never wavered even with you beating him up. As he held you close he pulled a gun out and pointed it at your head, forcing you to submit to his actions. You were left alone in the basement
is this really how it's gonna end, you thought to yourself.
Keith's grip tightened on you as there was a slight haze that began to override your vision. Stay awake y/n, someone will be here soon, try to breathe. You focused on your breathing as your chest puffed deeply up and down. Your eyes began to forget your haze and you could begin to see straight again
Where the hell is everyone? You felt your eyes begin to water at the thought that nobody is there, and this is where it ends.
"Keith Langley, this is the FBI, drop the gun and the federal agent." Aaron's voice boomed behind you and your eyes fully filled this time knowing he was still there even though it was tense between you two.
Keith's gun moved from your head to the couple that was tied up. "They took it all from me" he screamed out, your eardrum hurting from his words. "Drop the gun." Aaron's stern deep voice bellowed again. "Keith these are not the people who took your wife and restaurant from you." he finished hoping that that would get him to put you and the gun down.
He began to lower the gun almost as if he was going to put it down, but in a swift motion he pointed it back up at you and a shot rang out in the room.
there was silence for a second.
Aaron shot Keith.
As you felt him fall to the ground, he let go and you instinctively felt yourself move immediately into Aaron's arms. The room around you was a blur as the gunshot noise made your ears ring. You noticed the other people running to untie the couple, but all you could feel were Aaron's arms.
You looked up at him locking your eyes in his hazel ones that appeared to have watered slightly. As his arms squeezed you tightly, you only had one thing on your mind, and that was him.
"Don't ever do that again." he pulled you close and whispered in your ear, lighting the quite somber mood of death with a joke to break what loomed in the air. You loved how he made everything better, you wanted to apologize right then and there but it just didn't feel right.
You left his arms and walked back upstairs with the rest of the team when you felt Emily wrap her arm around you. She walked with her arm around you the whole way up and once you were outside she turned to you, "I don't know what I would do without you." she said.
"you would not have survived," you laughed at her "you know you can always clone me."
"Yeah and then I'll have the hunchback of BAU to deal with."
"Would that be such a bad thing? I feel like I would give good back massages as a hunchback."
"Yeah but you would be a mutant"
"If i-" you went to speak but she pointed behind you where Aaron stood in front of one of the SUVs waiting to take you home. "I think you need to talk to him.."
"Oh my god did Derek tell you?" she laughed at your words "God nobody here can keep a secret." You walked away from her approaching Aaron who stood leaned against the car with a stern look, but you could see his smile start to form.
"You want a ride back to the BAU?" he said opening the car door for you.
"Of course." and when you two finally sat in the car and began driving off thoughts of this morning came back and it suddenly was silent in the car again. The 10 minute drive was going to be painful if it was all silent.
You looked at him and then looked back at the road where he drove. And when he thought you wouldn't notice, he would look at you quickly before his eyes went back to the road. You decided to break the silence and say what you needed to
"I'm sorry." you peeped out
Immediately he turned to look at you.
"I'm sorry," you said again
His eyes widened at you saying sorry again.
"Oh come on don't make me say it a third time." you huffed out, breathing a laugh through your nose and so did Aaron.
"What I said this morning, I didn't mean it, I- last night meant so much to me, and I hope you know that." you paused thinking choicely with your words. "Thank you for taking care of me, I don't really know how I would be today if you weren't there," you said again trying to get him to forgive you for giving him the cold shoulder.
But the car ride was still silent, the evident cold shoulder rang back through this car. You had it coming, but you thought he would be a bit more lenient considering you almost just got shot. Yet silent was all you heard.
"Aaron I don't kn-"
"You look really cute, even when throwing up on the toilet" he cracked another joke giving you the biggest grin on his face.
"Oh so you are a comedian now?" you looked back at him shoving his arm slightly. He parked the car in the parking lot of the BAU as he walked you to your car. You stood, back against yours as he stood in front of you like he needed to say something.
"Last night, I really meant it you know... All of it," he said stepping a bit closer to you. You looked around the parking lot to make sure nobody was there before you let him closer to you, he wrapped his hands around your waist pulling you in. You nodded to his words
"I want us to be something more, and even though you were drunk, you admitted it too," he said again, smiling at you. "Hey they say drunk words are sober thoughts." you smiled back at him and he pulled you in for a close hug.
"Thank you for being there last night, and this morning, and when the guy was trying to kill me," you said to him once you began to break from his touch slightly. "I uh... I need to get home, and I bet Jack is waiting for you." he nodded scooting back and turning to walk away, as you began to get into your car.
But the short distance he had walked was quickly interrupted when he turned around and came back to you. You stood back up out of your car at his abruptness. His arm spun you around and pulled you close again.
"Do you want to go out with me tomorrow night?" he said as his body was close to yours filled with the adrenalin rush his body decided to give him.
This wasn't what you expected, but it was completely what you wanted right now. "Yes, i- uh... I would love that." with a smile beaming from ear to ear on both of you just stood there for a moment. Then Aaron's hand snaked up onto your chin and pulled you in for a quick kiss.
You felt the spark in that quick hesitant kiss and when you pulled away your lips tingled from the separation of his not being there. You gripped his shirt, fisting it into your hand, and pulled him in again, this time the kiss was passionate. His lips entangled with yours as his hand held your chin carefully.
"Get a room you two" you heard Emily's voice behind you followed by a few other voices that giggled at her words. It was the rest of the team standing there gawking and making fun. While you still kissed him you threw up a middle finger in their direction which just aided the teasing.
"I'll see you tomorrow, party boy" You pulled away from the kiss and looked straight into his eyes that were hazel and beautiful. "Good night princess" he whispered to you not wanting the team to hear.
And when he did turn away, the death look he gave the rest of the team could kill someone. "I expect to see all of you bright and early for paperwork tomorrow." you both got into your separate cars and drove off, hopeful for tomorrow.
___
3341 words
And this is where the going gets good.... Or does it