Cameron woke up surprised to find her back pressed into Hotch's stomach as the two lay next to each other on the broken bed, her eyes fluttering open and widening when she realised how close the two were, and when she realised what else her lower back was pressed against of his.
She felt the blush on her cheeks before she threw herself forward, rolling straight off the bed in a panic and landing on the floor with a thump.
"Johnson?" Hotch's sleepy, croaky deep voice spoke from the bed when he was woken up the noise.
"D-down here" she said with a groan, pushing herself to her feet and trying to ignore the thumping in her chest from his husky morning voice that she hated that she wanted to hear again.
"Did you fall off the bed?" He asked with amusement as he sat up on his elbows and met her gaze.
"A little bit" she chuckled awkwardly, face bright red from letting herself be so close to him moments before.
"I apologise, I didn't realise I was taking up so much of the bed" he sat up with a yawn, stretching his arms which made his sleeves tighten around his muscles in a way Cameron couldn't help herself looking at before quickly turning to stop herself, walking straight into the wall.
"Ow,"
Hotch let out a deep, relaxed belly laugh at her that made her fight a smile at how genuine it sounded.
"Are you okay?" He chuckled, getting out of the bed on his side of the small room.
"I'm apparently not very aware of my surroundings today" Cameron replied with a small smile as she walked over to the dresser, pausing when Hotch went there as well.
"After you" he stepped back politely.
"N-no, no, after you" she stepped back as well, he chuckled at her awkwardness and grabbed his clothes, shimmying past her to go get changed in the bathroom.
Cameron watched him leave before letting out a breath of relief.
She had no idea why she was being so strange around him today already, why the butterfly feeling in her stomach around him was so much stronger than usual- trying to figure it out as she put her contacts in.
Maybe it was because he hadn't gone back to his usual cold self yet, maybe it was because he hadn't told her off yet, maybe it was because she had just basically been spooning with him in a broken bed, maybe it was because he was so kind to her yesterday... or maybe it was because of what happened when she woke up in the middle of the night that made a blush appear on her face just from remembering it.
Hotch was fast asleep, something Cameron on the other hand was finding hard to do.
Their bodies were close, backs touching given the broken bed from Hotch's side.
Cameron had spent most of the night clinging onto the side of the bed to hold herself up away from him to not make him uncomfortable but gave up when her arms quickly became tired and was trying not to think about Hotch's strong back against hers when she felt his body tense suddenly.
She looked over her shoulder and saw him wiggling slightly in a deep slumber, having some sort of dream.
Her chuckle was held back at his uncharacteristically relaxed face, a small smile appearing on his sleepy lips that she was embarrassed to admit she kept glancing at.
She went to turn back to her side of the bed after a few moments of letting herself watch him sleep, feeling embarrassed at herself for giving into the feeling in her stomach but as she went to she heard him murmur something.
A small, gravely, low moan that came along with the word he said again breathlessly.
"Cameron"
Her eyes widened in shock and her face immediately went bright red as she fought a surprised giggle at what she just heard.
That did not just happen, did it? No, surely she had just imagined that- right?
But then she heard it again as she noticed a small smile grow on his unconscious lips.
"Cameron..."
There was no mistaking it- Aaron Hotchner was having that kind of dream and had just murmured her name in a deep low moan that had the tone smooth and sultry enough to make a nun blush.
Cameron waited for the skin tingling voice to speak again the rest of the night but it didn't, it seemed like even dreaming Hotch wouldn't let himself say her name more than a few times.
She eventually dozed off, embarrassed and flustered at how she seemed to enjoy his murmurs that she didn't know she wanted to hear, the way he said her name in a way that she didn't know she wanted to hear him say until he did and now she wanted to hear it again.
She wanted to hear her name mumbled out of his mouth with the same unapologetic delight that she heard the night before, she wanted to be the reason his body tensed and relaxed with every syllable of her name, her face turning bright red when she thought about the fact that she wanted to make him say her name like that again not just in his dream.
"Sokolov" Reid's words made Cameron's head snap to the bedroom door as she sat on the bed remising on the night before with a blushed face.
"I thought that might catch your attention" he walked over and sat by her.
"W-what?" She stammered.
How did he know that name? How did he know her name?
"The phone call, my Russian is rusty since I only started learning it a little bit ago but I recognised when he said 'Sokolov'- that's the name that was in the inscription of your book, isn't it?"
"T-that's none of your business" she stood up defensively, unable to lie but feeling a rush of fear coarse through her at the thought of Reid finding out who she was- out of everyone she was worried about him being able to figure it out the most considering how smart he was and how scarily fast he could make connections.
"Is your real name Cameron Sokolov?" He asked as she grabbed her clothes from the dresser.
"I have to get changed" she brushed past his question.
"Are you the last remaining descendant of the Sokolov family that I read about? Are you the missing Pri -" he tried to ask but her demeanour snapped and she was in front of him with her hand over his mouth and body close to him staring up at him.
"Do not speak that name" she hushed him with an urgency that made his eyes widen.
"Oh my god- you are?!"
"Be quiet!"
"B-but I read that you died, there's barely anything online about you or the theories about our family but I-"
"I said shut up!" She yelled as the door opened.
"Is everything okay in here?" Hotch stepped in, pausing at how close Cameron was to Reid and how angry she seemed.
"Everything is fine- right Spencer?" Cameron kept her suddenly threatening gaze locked into Reid's eyes as he slowly nodded.
"What's going on?" Hotch asked.
"N-nothing, we were just talking about a book we both read" Reid lied as Cameron stepped back, turning and picking up her clothes as she went to leave.
"What is the book?" Hotch raised an eyebrow knowing that they were both lying.
"A private one" Cameron answered simply and walked out of the room with her shoulders pushed back and head held high to hide her panic that was quickly growing.
"Reid-" Hotch went to prompt but Spencer quickly left the room, down the stairs and out of the house before Hotch could question him. He needed to talk to Cameron about this but he knew she would never tell him the truth if he told Hotch what he knew so he left before Hotch could profile it out of him.
Hotch sighed after a while of waiting for Cameron to come back and quiz her, walking over to the bathroom, tapping on the door and waiting for a response that didn't come.
"Johnson, are you in there?" He asked but heard a male voice- was someone in there with her? Was Reid in there with her?
He felt a pit in his stomach when he heard a woman's giggle that made him push open the door without thinking.
"Woah-" a very much naked Nicholai turned around and faced him.
"Where is she?!" Hotch raised his voice and pulled open the shower curtain but it wasn't who he expected to see, a blonde woman half undressed screaming in shock when she saw him.
"What the hell are you doing man? You're interrupting my time with whatever this girl's name is- who are you even looking for?" Nick sighed with annoyance, more frustrated that the blonde woman grabbed her stuff and ran out of the bathroom with embarrassment.
"Don't act dumb, you know exactly who I was talking about you son of a-"
"Hotch?" Cameron walked down the corridor after hearing yelling and paused in shock seeing the still very naked Nicholai standing in front of her with an angry looking Hotch.
Nick smirked at her as her eyes widened and she quickly turned around.
"Do you like what you see?" He teased her.
"Shut your mouth, put some clothes on and get out" Hotch spat before he could stop himself.
"You don't get to talk to me like that agent" Nick wrapped a towel around his waist and stared up at the considerably taller man who looked like he would punch him any minute.
"I do after your little 'drunken' stunt you pulled to my agent last night- you're lucky I'm not arresting you for sexual assault right now. I won't ask again, get out" Hotch stared down at him.
"I didn't do anything wrong- she was the one who asked me to follow her, she basically begged me to kiss her" Nick lied.
"I did not" Cameron turned around sharply before pausing at his smirk, he knew that would get her to turn around.
"You didn't have to- your clothes did it for you" he smirked at her outfit. She was wearing lingerie styled white silk body suit cami top tucked into a pair of wide legged slack styled yellow corduroy shorts and an oversized light yellow un-buttoned shirt sleeved overshirt since the heat made it almost unbearable for the team to wear their usual work clothes.
"What I wear has nothing to do with your behaviour" she defended herself sternly.
"But your delicious body does" he teased.
"That's enough" Hotch barked which made both Nicholai and Cameron jump.
"Is everything okay up here?" Javier ran up the stairs at the commotion before pausing when he saw Nicholai and sighing.
"You know that you're not allowed in the staff quarters anymore- you can't keep bringing the cleaners here to do whatever you like all the time."
"I can do whatever and whoever I like" Nicholai mocked, waltzing past the group to the stairs before pausing and looking back at Cameron, "care to join me by the door again sweetheart?"
"I would rather die" she stood strongly.
"That can be arranged too" he muttered under his breath with a chuckle on his way down the stairs and out of the house.
"What happened-" Javier went to ask but Hotch stormed over to Cameron.
"Where were you? I thought that you went to get changed in the bathroom?!"
"I-I did but it was locked so Javier offered me to get dressed in his room down the hall" she explained, confused by his anger directed at her.
"What?!" Hotch turned sharply with rage at Javier who was just as confused as Cameron by Hotch's misdirected rage.
"What are you so angry?" She asked.
"Because I thought you were in there with him! I thought you-" he caught himself and collected his embarrassing anger.
"I can handle myself agent Hotchner, I don't need you to do it for me and I certainly don't need you yelling at me for something I didn't do and because I was simply because I was getting dressed in another room" she spoke coldly, fed up of his behaviour.
Hotch paused before squaring off his shoulders.
"Then start 'handling yourself' like an agent who doesn't need to be saved every 5 minutes and can't defend herself from men" he regretted his words as soon as he said them, as soon as he saw her hurt face.
"Javier-" she dragged her gaze from Hotch without another word to him, "can you show me to the stables? I think that I'll be staying in there for the remainder of the trip."
"What?" Javier followed her as she grabbed her bag from her room.
"Yes, the bed is broken and I wouldn't want to bother agent Hotchner with my clearly imposing presence" she quickly stuffed her clothes into the bag before Hotch could even make it back over to the room, pushing past him and down the stairs with Javier.
"Johnson, wait-" Hotch called out but she was already gone.
"So... the bed is broken in your room?" Javier broke the silence as the two walked to the stables.
"Yes" Cameron answered simply, not picking up on his implications of his tone.
"And, uh, how did that happen?" He cleared his throat. She paused, looked up at him before letting out a genuine laugh.
"Not in the way you're thinking by any means" she chuckled with a slight blush when she caught onto what he meant.
"Ah, so you and agent Hotchner aren't..."
"No, not at all- I doubt he sees me even as a human person" she chuckled but there was a hint of pain in her voice- she truly believed he didn't think of her as a human or anything other than just his annoying employee who always seemed to get into trouble.
"His loss- you're a very lovely human person" Javier smiled sweetly at her which took her mind of the pain in her chest.
"You don't have to sleep in the stables by the way, I wouldn't want you to be out there alone at night. You can stay in my room, if you're comfortable with that of course- I can stay in the stables or the watch tower" he offered.
"It's okay, I've spent a fair few nights in stables on my own- I find it quite peaceful, thank you though" she smiled.
"Ah yes, because you too were a 'simple farm person?'" He chuckled, she laughed and nodded as they reached the barn.
He drew back the large doors with ease and helped her up the ladder, placing a warm hand on the small of her back to make sure she didn't fall.
"Thank you" she smiled as they reached the upper loft floor of the barn where a small bed was laid out, covered in straw and hay.
"It's surprisingly comfortable when you get over the bugs and hay" he chuckled and shook off the bed for her as she placed down her things.
"The view is beautiful" she turned and smiled out of the large window hole in front of the bed that overlooked the dusty mountains.
"Yeah it is" she heard Javier say from next to her but noticed his gaze not looking out of the window but down at her which made her blush before she cleared her throat and checked the time on her phone.
"I should go get to briefing before I give agent Hotchner another reason to have a grudge against me" she chuckled and followed him down the ladder.
"He is a strange man" Javier joined in her chuckle, purposely placing his hands around her waist and helping her off the end of the ladder casually since she was in her work heeled booties.
"O-oh, thank you" she smiled before he nodded and placed his hands in his pocket, walking along with her to the main estate house.
"Does agent Hotchner often talk to you like that?" Javier asked as they walked.
"Like what? Telling me off? Yes, a lot" she chuckled.
"No, no, I meant with such a care in his voice for you."
She paused and looked at him with genuine confusion.
"What?"
"He seems to worry about you a lot, that type of worry only comes from a friend who cares a lot about someone" Javier explained.
"I-I don't think he thinks of me as a friend, he's just very focused on work so he wouldn't want a member of the team getting into trouble that could disrupt the case is all."
"I think it's a very big mistake if he only thinks of someone like you as only a member of the team, you're much more than that" Javier complimented which made her blush under his gaze.
"T-thank you" she smiled as he held open the back door for her and led her through the back of the building into the formal living room again.
Reid was sat reading the files whilst Rossi and Morgan chatted about the case, Emily and JJ were drinking coffee and chatting about JJ's son Henry, Hotch was stood by the other entrance to the formal living room with his arms crossed and slightly tapping his foot with impatience.
"Hey- there you are" Morgan smiled as Cameron walked in with Javier, Hotch quickly turned with a mixture of expressions at her.
"You're late" is all he said.
"No I'm not" she held up her phone showing that there was 1 minute until the time the team had arranged to meet. He paused and hid a glimmer of a smirk at her standoffish attitude as she brushed past him and sat on the sofa next to Rossi, thanking Javier for walking her to the house before he left, avoiding Hotch's glares at him.
"You've got hay in your hair" Morgan laughed at her, "did you and Javier go for a roll in the field together?" He teased.
"W-what? No, not at all" she shook her head through an embarrassed expression as she brushed away the hay that had blown into her hair from the wind.
"I wouldn't blame you if you did- he's hot" Emily winked.
"We are on a case, I would like if you all acted professionally" Hotch reminded the team, clearing his throat and wanting to brush past the conversation that made his jaw clench.
Cameron read the file as best as she could, Morgan quietly offering to help her understand some of the more complex profiler words like he usually did but she brushed him off, standing up and walking to the other side of the room away from him which confused him.
Hotch continued outlining the briefing of what they would be doing the rest of the day and week.
"A storm is coming today" a voice broke the conversation at the door, a rugged, built older man with a Russian accent who was carrying boxes of food stood staring at the team through his one good eye.
"Hello?" Emily greeted him.
"A bad storm is rolling in, the winds are already picking up- you won't be able to get around the estate easily let alone leave before Friday like you should" the man continued.
"And who are you?" Rossi asked.
"The names Billy, I'm the butcher they bring in on Friday to cut up the fresh meat they collect, I had to come up early this year so I could make it here before the storm struck- I wouldn't want to miss out on this job, it's my favourite" the man's expression was empty but his voice was somehow threatening.
"So the family go hunting for the food tomorrow for Friday? Do they get animals delivered here since there isn't much wildlife around here?" Hotch asked, the man tilted his head- obviously something getting lost in the language barrier or he just didn't want to answer.
"Охотится ли семья на животных, которых они едят в пятницу?" Cameron repeated Hotch's question in Russian which caught everyone's attention, surprised at how she took the initiative and how confident she sounded in Russian compared to her usual demeanour.
"В каком-то смысле да" The man answered cryptidly.
"What did he say?" Hotch asked her to translate.
"He said 'in a way, yes'" Cameron tilted her head with confusion.
"Ask him how they are planning to hunt if the storm is bad" Reid prompted, she did.
"Шторм - их друг, страх перед мясом, бегущим от них в шторм, заставляет их" a creepy smile placed on the man's face that unnerved Cameron.
"What did he say?" Hotch prompted her.
"He said that... that 'the storm is their friend, the fear of the meat running in the storm from them makes them tastier to celebrate'- what does that mean?" She turned to the man who let out a low chuckle and spoke only to her before he left.
"Вы скоро узнаете."
You'll soon find out.
The team stared in shared confusion at the interaction.
"As if this place couldn't get any weirder with all the dynasty family bullshit, now we've got a creepy butcher lurking around? Great" Emily shook her head.
"Wow he wasn't kidding- look outside" Morgan gestured to the window where dark clouds rolled in and the wind shook the perfectly kept trees intensely.
"My phone says it's not going to get too bad until tomorrow but Garcia text me and said we should keep an eye on it and try to leave in the morning before it gets too bad or we'll be stuck here past when we're meant to leave tomorrow night. Erin says that we can leave early given the storm" JJ nodded.
"The family seem keen on us staying for this dinner party thing, the dad kept saying how he wants to thank us for keeping them 'safer than we could ever know'" Morgan said, "I don't get it though, we've not done anything- we're literally just waiting around doing nothing."
"The family won't even tell us about what the threat is that we're meant to be keeping them safe from" Rossi added.
"It seems to be some kind of yearly family tradition" Reid noted.
"A weird tradition they seem to be terrified of- it's not exactly Christmas is it" Morgan responded.
Cameron watched the storm blowing in outside as the team continued to theorise about the family and what the threat could be.
She felt a memory wash over her of a storm blowing in one particularly bad winter when she was a young child. It was early in the winter months so the family weren't as prepared as they should have been- Cameron herself was out playing in the fresh snow a few miles from the house with her mother when it hit.
She had begged her mother for days to take her to the peak of the falls near their house so she could see the fresh snow fall. She waited for her father to be out working in the field to ask her so he wouldn't tell her off. He was a paranoid man when it came to the winter, even if it was still warm and clear during the beginning months, he would still insist the family take all the precautions.
Cameron's mother was a lot less worried about all of that stuff than him, laughing at her little girl as she snuck her out into the fresh snowy glacier whilst the rest of the family went to their fighting training with the father.
The other two sisters were keen to fight, Cameron was not.
She sobbed for days the first time her father forced a sword in her hand, she cried every time he made her wield a dagger.
"I-I don't want to hurt anyone!" She would whisper.
"But they want to hurt you- everyone does in some way, know how to stop them before they get too close. Push them away before they have a chance to snuff out your light" he would remind her with a sigh as her sisters taunted her, mocking her tears and inability to kill the animals they practiced fighting on.
Cameron hated hurting animals most of all, she refused to do it, she refused to look into their little eyes and inflict pain on them merely so she could 'train' to kill real humans.
The only time she had ever killed one was when her father was trying to make her learn how to shoot a bow and arrow at a lone dear so they could eat it for dinner.
"I-I won't do it" she lowered the arrow but he grabbed her arm and lifted it back up with frustration.
"You are pathetic child" he couldn't help his cruel Russian words as he pulled back her arm and aimed.
"No!" She cried and tried to throw herself to the side so the arrow would miss the dear when her father forced the arrow to swirl out of her bow, striking the dear in the ribs and sending a cry from its poor little mouth.
She sobbed as her father cursed her for moving and messing up the shot, dragging her over to the slowly dying, terrified creature.
"Kill it" he commanded, looking down at how scared Cameron was and for a moment feeling sorry for her. He knew that he shouldn't have shouted at her, that he shouldn't blame her or call her pathetic but they had been out in the cold for hours with her refusing to learn to hunt like she was supposed to and he couldn't help it.
The Sokolov's were known for their hunting, for their attacks, for their ability to kill.
But not Cameron.
She wanted nothing to do with death, with pain, with the murder her family were known for generations for.
"You have to put it out of its misery or you are no better than the monsters of the woods that threaten to hunt us and leave us dying in our own blood" he placed a dagger in her hands.
"I-I don't want to kill" she sobbed.
"You caused this Cameron, you owe it to the animal to take his pain away- do it or live with his pained soul following you around for eternity. Don't be the reason this creature sees more pain. Don't dangle death over it with your foolish actions and then not help it when it needs you most. We owe animals more than that, kill it, let it complete the circle that is life, let it go."
His words would have been devastating to any other 13 year old sat over a dying, bloodied dear who screamed in pain, but Cameron had heard much harsher words about the world from her father's mouth before.
She knew that he was right, leaving the poor creature to bleed out scared and alone was cruel but she didn't want to do it, she didn't want to kill.
She stared into his petrified eyes and whispered an apology as she lifted the blade in her shaking hands to her father's surprise.
That was the first and last time that she killed an animal.
It was the first time she refused to eat the animal the family had hunted that day, she hadn't eaten meat since.
Her mother knew this, she saw the pain in her daughters' eyes when she came back from that hunting trip that day covered in blood.
"She's not like you! She's not a killer!" She screamed in a hushed tone at her husband later that night.
"She's a Sokolov, she's my daughter, she must learn to kill or they will kill her- you know this, you know how the world is, you know why we have to hide out here" he responded simply, he never raised his voice in his house especially not at his wife, he never would.
"She is a child! She didn't ask to be born into this family name, she didn't ask for your debts and vendettas from people trying to kill your family name- she's a pure soul! She's such a beautiful light that I will not let be snuffed out just because she was given this name!"
"I know that!" He snapped his head back to her, "that's why she out of all of them needs to learn to protect herself. She is too kind, she is too pure and good of heart- this world is cruel and will rip her apart more than the others simply because she is too good, it will eat her up because she is too naive to realise how wicked people are. I know that she didn't ask for this family name but it is hers now and the sooner she learns what that means the sooner she can wipe that hope of being able to remain kind and gentle away. The Sokolov family name isn't a curse, it's a pride to take- a privileged to kill with its name behind you."
"I will not let you destroy her hope like yours was. She may be a Sokolov but she is Cameron first and I will not let you take what is best about her and call it weakness" Cameron watched from the stairs as her mother turn her back on her father and storm out to the nursing room to collect a bucket and water to wash the blood off Cameron in silence.
That's why she decided to let Cameron go out into the snow a few months later, that's why they took the small trek into the snow, laughing and enjoying the weather- that's when the accident happened.
That was what led to Cameron's mother dying in her father's arms in agony whilst Cameron watched. That was what led Cameron's father to utter those heart-breaking words to Cameron when he was unable to put his wife out of her misery himself.
"Y-you have to do it, please."
Please
That was what led to Cameron being the one to push the dagger into her mother's heart just as she did the dear.
That was what led Cameron to vow never to take another life again if she could help it; no matter how much she got hurt, no matter how many people tried to make her kill- she always had a choice even if that choice was to be the one with a dagger in her own heart.
She would take it a thousand times over having to see the life drain from her mother's eyes, of seeing the fear when she saw her daughter have to kill, the pain of seeing Cameron's hope destroyed as she had to put her own mother out of the pain she thought that she caused during that wicked storm.
"Johnson?" Hotch's voice brought her back to the formal lounge where most of the group had now dispersed to their various time-wasting tasks.
She cleared her throat to stop her tears from the memory and turned to him with a polite smile.
"Are you okay?" He asked seeing her hint of a pained expression.
"I-I just don't much like storms" she spoke simply.
"It won't get too bad until tomorrow, hopefully we'll be gone by then" Hotch tried to comfort which was strange considering how he last spoke to her.
She just nodded and went to leave.
"However-" his voice made her pause, "-I don't think you should be staying in the stables in this weather."
"I'll be fine, I've slept in worse places" she gave a small smile and went to leave again but his hand caught her wrist gently.
"I'll stay in the barn and you can have the room- I wouldn't want to make you uncomfortable but I don't want you staying out there alone- not that I don't think that you can handle yourself of course."
She let herself smile and give a small nod at his attempt to apologise without saying the words 'I'm sorry' which seemed like a common thing for Hotch.
"And Cameron-" He let go of her wrist but couldn't seem to get the words 'I'm sorry' out as she stared up at him with her warm eyes.
"It's okay" she said knowingly with a soft smile before turning and leaving Hotch with an annoying warmth in his chest that she always seemed to be able to put in there.
"So how do you know how to play cards so well?" Rossi sat with Cameron and Emily in the security den that they had spent the majority of the day stationed in since there wasn't much to do and the family were all hiding in the safe room in the basement since the Grandfather swore that the day before the hunting was the most dangerous for them and they all needed to hide out from the 'evil'- Cameron was just thankful that all of the family were locked away down there.
"My father taught me" she smiled and played her next card which won her the hand yet again.
"Was he like a mafia boss or something?" Rossi joked, shuffling out the deck.
"He just was very good at studying people. He didn't understand people much, he didn't want to. He didn't like to talk to them and didn't express many emotions- didn't have time to- but he was very good at observing people and knowing exactly what they were thinking, it made him a very skilled cards man" Cameron let herself reminisce with a small smile at her evenings around the table drinking and playing cards in silence with her father in the years after her mother's death.
The cards became a way for them to talk without words like he preferred.
He wasn't like Cameron, he did not enjoy filling the silence with chit chat.
He simply played the card game, of course won it every time but always reshuffled it and started the game again, only speaking to tell her what she did wrong during the last round- occasionally somehow accidentally letting some profound fatherly knowledge slip through if he managed to get through 3 of the large bottles of homebrewed alcohol he drank to himself as Cameron drank beside him with her own alcohol to try to drink like him.
"He must have been good if he could beat you- I don't think you've even come close to losing a single hand" Emily chuckled and folded within the first round.
"He was the best; I never won a game against him" Cameron nodded.
"You observe people much like him, you always seem to know what everyone's thinking- even people like Hotch who are unreadable" Rossi pointed out.
"The amount of money I'd pay to be able to understand that man's brain- he's truly a mystery" Emily laughed.
"He's definitely a confusing man" Cameron nodded and played yet another winning hand.
"Okay I give up; tell me how you won that one, I thought for sure I had it in the bag" Rossi laughed.
"You played your king too early. It told me that you were confident in your stack so I was able to undermine you since you are a man who likes to beat the odds of losing 9 games already- you have hope that you would be able to win if you just played one more game, I was the same as a child" Cameron explained which made him shake his head with amusement.
Rossi chuckled, "are you telling me I shouldn't have hope?"
"Not at all, hope is a beautiful thing- it's cruel and is the thing that destroys us most but if you have it you should never let it go, ever, because once you do you can never get it back" she spoke certainly as she neatly tapped the cards away.
Rossi and Emily exchanged glances, concerned at the hint of pain in Cameron's voice when she spoke about hope.
"Hey kid, about that phone call on the jet-"
"How long do we have until our shift ends?" Cameron stood up quickly to brush past the conversation as she checked the time that read '9;15pm.'
"Uh, about 5 minutes I think" Rossi responded, confused and concerned by her sudden subject change.
"I'm going to go if that's okay since it's a bit of a trek back to my room from here, see you later" she quickly walked out into the night before they could stop her.
"She's hiding something" Emily said.
"Absolutely, I just can't figure out what" Rossi shook his head.
"Reid seems to know something, he kept looking at her all day."
"Maybe he just likes her" Rossi teased Reid who wasn't even there.
"Could be both" Emily laughed, "come on- we should get back to the estate before the winds pick up. Hotch said if we're up early enough we can leave tomorrow morning so we miss the storm and don't get trapped here with this wackjob family for any longer."
Hotch said goodnight to JJ and Morgan who he had been helping watch the vault door and made his way across the estate to the barn he wasn't too happy to be spending his night in given the smell of the animals in it however he would prefer it be him than Cameron.
He opened the large barn doors with ease and paused when he smelt something other than the manure before he climbed the rickety ladder and raised an eyebrow at the candles lining the upper loft room.
"Hey there you- oh" Javier turned around with a smile after lighting a candle, pausing when he saw Hotch instead of who he thought it would be.
"Javier, I see you weren't expecting me- or at least I hope you weren't" Hotch looked around at the romantic candles surrounding the makeshift bed.
"I'm sorry agent, I thought-"
"You thought Cameron was staying here tonight, right?" Hotch placed down his bag, his tone disinterested and expression unreadable to hide his mixture of frustrating emotions.
"I-I... uh, yeah" Javier said awkwardly, "but listen it's really not what you think."
"I'm quite sure it is" Hotch blew out one of the candles coldly so he could hang his coat on the banister.
"Not that it's any of my business sir but why did you make Cameron go back to the room? She seemed quite happy to sleep out here alone."
Hotch turned to him, "we both know that if you had it your way Javier, she wouldn't be sleeping alone- or were you planning on just lighting these candles and leaving once she arrived?"
"I really wish you hadn't come up here sir" Javier sighed and walked over to the ladder.
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt your plans to sleep with my agent but-" Hotch went to say sarcastically but paused when he saw something red under the freshly poured hay on the floor. He brushed it with his foot and looked confused at the circular pattern before realising what it was and being even more confused.
He turned back to where Javier was stood, now with what looked like an animal mask covering the top half of his face, gloves on his hands and a steel bat in his hands.
"Like I said sir, I really wish you hadn't come up here" his voice wasn't apologetic but mocking as he stepped towards Hotch, "I'm sorry for this but a job's a job- Cameron was meant to be the first one."
"The first what?" Hotch stepped back, trying to get closer to his bag where he put gun in to climb the ladder.
"The first to be hunted of course, you start with the weakest and next the strongest- it makes the chase that much more enjoyable for the family when they get to warm up with her tomorrow."
All of Javier's charm and kind demeanour was completely gone, a charm and kind tone that Hotch would clench his jaw knowing that it made Cameron blush. But now it was replaced with a sinister kind of cockiness as he spouted information like a jester loyal to the king so he didn't get his head chopped off.
Javier dusted the hay away with his foot to reveal the pentagram.
"As for all the weird stuff on the floors, the family are very traditional and think that if I paint a few lines around the place it will somehow keep off this 'evil' they think is real- I personally just think it's their way of being able to hunt without guilt but to each their own" Javier twisted the bat in his hand and smiled at Hotch casually as if he wasn't talking about a family trying to hunt people for some kind of traditional sport or ritual- Hotch was piecing everything together fast but it still didn't make a lot of sense to him.
"And they think that 'hunting' FBI agents is really going to work in their favour?" Hotch raised a mocking eyebrow.
"I've had 8 years of dealing with the police who show up to this thing- I know how to deal with people who treat the law like it's the bible like you instead of minding your business and letting family handle family" Javier swivelled the bat in his hand.
"Now, shall we do this the hard way or easy way? I'm not allowed to kill you, that's the unfortunately a part of the family's tradition and I made the mistake of messing that up once, but I am allowed to take you to them in whatever way I want- that was why I chose little miss Cameron to take in whatever way I wanted first" she spoke in a way that made Hotch's jaw clench.
"It's a good thing I'm here instead then since I'm not a 5 foot woman who is too polite to knock that smirk off your face" Hotch readied himself for a fight, Javier smiled in response.
"I guess it is, although I must say I think I would have enjoyed rolling her in the hay much more than you."
That was it, that comment brought the intense rage boiling over Hotch and made him throw the first punch- he unfortunately did not throw the last one.
As Hotch led on the floor covered in both his and Javier's blood from the fight dipping in and out of consciousness he looked up at the limping man.
"Maybe I'll go get her after all- she can't be any harder to take down than you, especially now she doesn't have you led next to her all night stopping me taking her like I was meant to do yesterday."
Hotch tried to throw his slowly blacking out body at the man who just laughed.
"Oh don't worry agent, I'll be sure you're reunited with her again on the hunting field- that's if you make it through the night of prep first. We'll have to change the tradition a bit since I don't think you'll quite fit into the first sacrificee dress."
The darkness came before Hotch could even protest it. A deep darkness that suffocated him and forced his eyes shut as he tried to call out for her and the team, tried to warn them, tried to protect her.
But it was too late, the darkness came and he blacked out before he could help himself let alone anyone else- his finale thought was the one thing he clung onto for some kind of comfort from the moment he saw Javier's demeanour shift.
Better me be here than her.