Pairings: Aaron Hotchner x fem!Reader
Characters: Aaron Hotchner, Mr. Ricardo (OC), Derek Morgan, Jeffery Reilly (OC), Emily Prentiss, Spencer Reid, Lorraine Barnes (OC), Liz Hotchner (OC-ish)
Words: 3K
Chapter Summary: After finding out who the police's number-one suspect is, Hotch is determined to do some digging to get to the truth
Warnings: None :)
--
Mr. Ricardo's chemistry class, notoriously difficult and the class Aaron was most determined to get an A in.
The walls were adorned with periodic tables and quotes from Einstein. Mr. Ricardo's handwriting was messy on the board, but Aaron had practice reading such things after helping his brother every day after school with his homework.
First day of the semester, the leftover sun was shining from the summer, trees lightly blowing in the Virginian wind and he couldn't believe he was already being tortured with a partner project, great.
He listened carefully as his teacher listed the names in pairs until he reached his own saying,
"Aaron Hotchner and (Y/N) (L/N),"
There was a scrape of a seat against the ground as you pushed your chair back, grabbing your bag and tossing it down under the desk across from your partner, pulling up and chair and sitting in it.
He wasn't going to help you get a good grade, you knew that much for sure.
Funny, he was thinking the same thing about you.
Mr. Ricardo explained the project and you both avidly listened, taking notes when needed and highlighting important things in the rubric.
After he finished, he gave you the rest of the class to complete the project, it should have been handed in by the end of the day.
"Alright so clearly we need to start with the acids on this side," you stated plainly and the boy in front of you frowned.
"No, I'm pretty sure we're supposed to start with this equation here," he motioned to his paper.
"I don't think so," you shook your head. "Look in the instructions Hotchner or do you have difficulty reading? I heard you're a few levels below average for sophomore year,"
Ouch, that stung.
"Really? Cause I heard you failed the critical thinking portion of your standard assessment so maybe you really shouldn't be the one calling the shots," he fired back.
"You know what, why don't we just do the project ourselves, then we can really see who's right," you said cooly.
"With pleasure," he nodded and you both refused to even speak a single word to each other throughout the rest of the class.
In the end, you both confidently handed in your papers and went your separate ways thinking you'd never have to interact with one another again.
Oh how terribly wrong you were.
The next day after class before the bell rang Mr. Ricardo pulled you both aside.
"Aaron, (Y/N), look," he sighed your assignments placed in front of him. "I honestly don't know what to tell you but you both missed the point of the assignment completely, I can't give these passing grades,"
That made you both freeze.
"But," he added quickly. "I know you're both amazing students and you're both also very intelligent, so I want to give you one more chance to work together," he emphasized. "So? What will it be?"
You looked at the teenager standing next to you and sighed, you both knew what you needed to do.
"We'll do it," he nodded and you agreed with him.
"Great. I have a staff meeting until 4:30 that should give you enough time to get it done,"
You both nodded, taking new sheets of paper from him and heading back to one of the desks, pulling out your pencils.
There was silence between you both for a good while before you decided to speak up.
"Look, like Mr, Ric said we're not dumb, m-maybe if we work together we can figure this out,"
"Yeah okay," he nodded and your first step was to lay out the instructions, reading them carefully.
"And um...I'm sorry for what I said the other day," you apologized. "Everyone's always questioning me so I just react sometimes," you mumbled.
He paused for a minute and turned to look at you.
"I'm sorry too," he said. "Dad' s a pain in the ass for me, I guess I do the same," he said quietly. "Looks like we've both got our crap,"
"Yeah but for now we've got to put it behind us and get this done because I don't want that F on my report card,"
You both shuddered at the thought then shared a laugh before discussing some ideas and coming up with a plan, each carrying out separate potions and putting it together.
By 4:30 when Mr. Ricardo re-entered his classroom. There was a small stack of papers and drawings on his desk and the two students were nowhere in sight until he turned his head out to the window and saw them walking side by side down the same street, their arms brushing slightly against each other as they talked and laughed together.
He smiled knowingly to himself, knowing all along that those two would make a fine pair.
—
You sat in front of Hotch, with no knowledge that he was looking at you, your hands cuffed to the table desperately trying to keep the emotion out of your features. A defence he was all too familiar with.
It seemed like after he was pulled out of a flashback his expression visibly changed and became more sombre as he came back to reality realizing why she was sitting in front of him.
One thing was for certain, he had that Hotchner look of determination in his eyes, he wanted to believe she was innocent, at least if that's what she told him.
"Hotch, you know her?" Morgan asked, walking into the room and seeing the way his boss was carefully studying you.
"Yes, we were friends in high school," he nodded. "I haven't seen or spoken to her since I left though,"
The door to the interrogation room opened and Captain Reilly stepped inside. You quickly straightened yourself up and looked up at him, almost pleading to let you go. You hadn't done anything wrong.
"We can't let you go," he said. "The physical evidence doesn't lie. I'm sorry,"
"Are you?" you asked.
It was the first time you had spoken up in the entire interrogation. As a lawyer, you knew it was best to keep your mouth shut until you could get someone else here that you trusted to be your legal representative. No words concerning the case would be spoken until then. Even if you were innocent.
"Cause if you were sorry you'd take off these cuffs and actually do your job,"
You didn't know what it was with these people. You had lived in this town since you were thirteen years old and yet whenever anything went wrong, despite the fact that your family was a group of outstanding community members all eyes immediately went to you. Plus, if you had killed someone you would have done a considerably better job doing it too, you wouldn't be sitting here for it, that was for sure.
"Don't get mouthy with me (Y/N)," the Captain sneered and you rolled your eyes.
"You don't get to call me that," you shook your head. "It's Miss (L/N) to you,"
"I don't give a damn what you think I should be calling you, you killed three people!"
And there it was, your cue to stay silent, looking directly at the glass, your frustration bottled up in your throat.
Hotch's frustration boiled deep inside him as he watched the scene unfold. He knew the physical evidence was piling up against you, but that didn't stop the feelings from rising in the pit of his stomach. He wanted to go in there and get captain Reilly to ease up, she hadn't given any information, probably because she didn't trust him to help her in any way.
"You had motive, means, and opportunity," the officer said. "Everyone knew you and Vanessa were friends but never got along. She's the one who your fiance left you for isn't that right?"
You balled your fists tighter, he had no right to be speaking of that.
"And Allison Montgomery? She never liked you and I think the feeling was quite mutual," he said, leaning forward on the table, "Didn't she report you for theft?"
"Which I was cleared of all charges because it was a false, baseless, and incorrect accusation. You of all people should know she had it out for me. It seems you're more alike than you think Captain,"
"And Caroline Davidson,"
That's where your heart clenched. Caroline Davidson was like a sister to you. One of the only goddamned good things this town had to offer in the first place. And now she was dead.
You knew if she was alive she would have vouched for you, come to your aid, but no. Now it was just you, alone.
"I think she was the one who found out what you did,"
"Shut up," you grumbled, jaw becoming locked. You avoided looking into his eyes, instead choosing to look at the cold metal table.
"And when she told you, you couldn't risk anyone finding out,"
"Shut up," you raised your voice slightly.
"So you offed her like the rest of them,"
"I said shut up!" you shot up out of your seat, the only thing keeping you near the table being the cuffs. Your chair clattered behind you and Captain Reilly looked satisfied. Coming up behind you, he picked up the chair and shoved it underneath you, forcing you to sit down.
"Don't move," he spat and walked away out of the room, slamming the door.
You cursed quietly under your breath for losing it, your feet instinctively making their way up on your chair, curled into your chest.
Your mind tried to distract itself, looking into the past instead of the present, trying to see how you got here, in this mess of all messes.
Moving to Manassas when you were thirteen years old was no walk in the park. Everyone already had their established relationships in the slowly growing town and your family was like a thorn in the side of the otherwise 'perfect' rose.
You weren't sure why your family wanted to move there in the first place. Maybe it was your father's work, or your mother's need to be in a smaller town, but either way, that's where you were.
However, it didn't stop you from dreaming of leaving ever since you arrived. And you had opportunities to do so, multiple times. You just wished you had taken the first one because after that there were roadblocks following all the others. Your mother's illness had prevented you from going to college out of state. Somehow after getting accepted to work as a part of a legal team for a government branch, the offer was rescinded for some reason or another.
Before you knew it, you were stuck in a rut, a local lawyer, working outside of her area of expertise, just cruising by on trying to help folks who wanted to sue each other.
A part of you wished you could say there were only bad reasons for why you stayed, but that would be a lie. There were some good things about this godforsaken town whether you liked it or not.
For one, all your friends from high school were still here. At times it seemed like you all hadn't grown up and you were just seventeen-year-olds looking for fun and trouble. But that was far from the truth, most of them were married with children and the ones who weren't worked as if it was their whole life, not unlike you. The only difference was, they wanted to stay here, the town had treated them well and they had no reason to wonder what it would be like to live elsewhere.
Your family was also here, your father, your siblings, and the resting place of your mother. You couldn't go too far from them even if you tried.
And despite what you might have told yourself, just like your mother, you appreciated the quiet life of a quiet town. No drama besides the gossip (that one would get used to) and just that sense of solitude that you had slowly come to love.
But the town wasn't quiet anymore. Oh, it was getting louder and louder and the ringing in your ears just did not want to stop. You were no stranger to death, but this was something else.
Three people who had connections with you, a friend, a rival, an enemy. All taken before it was their time.
Now that you thought of it, you weren't entirely sure you blamed the police for suspecting you. It probably was all in front of their faces. A life sentence that could just be dished out and you would rot away the rest of your days in prison.
You knew you were stuck here, but that really wasn't the way you wanted it to go.
—
Hotch continued to watch you carefully through the glass while the interrogation went on, his lips were pursed and he couldn't tell why you weren't defending yourself. The only thing that seemed to have you stuck being Caroline. One arm was wrapped around his waist while his chin rested in the other, looking straight ahead.
His mind tried to travel back, but it was foggy, he could barely remember half of high school, let alone the relationships people had with one another.
"Morgan," he said, turning his head and getting the attention of the younger profiler. "Can you call my mom and ask her to see if she can run down my brother's freshman year yearbook down here, I need to go talk to the team,"
"Sure," Morgan said and took Hotch's phone from him once again when the number was dialled.
Hotch went out of the backroom and came into the small conference area that had been prepared for them so they could do their work.
If the police were so adamant that you were their killer, why were they called in?
It just didn't make any sense.
Morgan came back and joined them soon after, and Hotch began instructing them to build a profile regardless of the incarcerated suspect.
"Hotch, I don't know, she seemed a little skimpy on the details," Morgan jumped in but Hotch shook his head.
"We were called to make a profile so that's what we're going to do,"
The team nodded and proceeded to unbiasedly look at the case files, pulling details on the unsub.
"I'd say this killer has sociopathic tendencies, they've rationalized what they're doing to make it seem like it's the right thing and that's why they're continuing," Emily said.
"The unsub also most likely has had some sort of connection with the victims or a person connected in each of their lives. They always have a reason for targeting, it's not random," Reid added.
"The unsub is most likely someone people know, someone they're comfortable with because I don't see any defensive wounds on any of these," Morgan pointed to the images pinned on the board.
"So we're going with a revenge killing," Hotch nodded, the gears turning in his head just as the precinct door opened and there was a familiar chatter among two women. "Just give me a minute, I'll be right back," he assured and walked off to the front door.
"Thanks for running this by," he said to his mother. "And I'm sorry I didn't make the call myself it's just things are-,"
He stopped himself, seeing the disapproving look in her eyes and he straightened up, quickly leaning in to press a kiss on her cheek.
"Hi, mom,"
"Better," she nodded and handed him the book. "And this is for you and the rest of them over there," she peeked behind him and waved her hand, specifically to Morgan who blew her a kiss back. "I'll see you at home?"
"Yeah," he nodded. "Alright, be safe mom, Lorraine, do you mind taking her home?" he asked and the woman nodded. Mrs. Hotchner knew there was no point in fighting her son, especially under these circumstances so she let it happen.
"Come here," she said before leaving, opening her arms and Hotch obliged, he could never say no to his mother. He hugged her tightly, while she pressed a smacking kiss to his cheek, ruffling his hair before allowing him to go back to work.
Before he had even come back to the group he was already flipping through the book, nodding when he came to the spot he was looking for.
"I knew something was off," he noted, placing the food on the table. They stared at him quizzically a moment and he explained the containers first. "It's from my mom, she says hi,"
They all nodded with smiles while Hotch continued, placing the yearbook on the table for all of them to see, pointing to a specific image.
It was one of those candid shots they used as fillers for some pages in the yearbook. Caroline had her arms wrapped around you, both laughing, probably at the student photographer who, as Hotch remembered it, would do the most ridiculous things to get people to smile.
He tried not to get distracted by a similar photo of him and Haley in the top right corner of the page. But it proved difficult as his eyes kept flicking up there.
"This is Caroline, and this right next to her, that's the person they have in custody, (Y/N) (L/N)," Hotch explained. "They were best friends in high school, I'm assuming it held up. They used to do almost everything together,"
"So what are you saying?" JJ asked, tapping her pen against her notepad.
"I'm saying it doesn't hold up," Hotch sighed. "If this is a revenge killing, why would she kill her best friend?" he shook his head. "I need to talk to her myself,"
"Hotch are we sure that's a good idea?" Morgan asked.
"Who better to do it than me?"