VIOLENT DELIGHTS, aaron hotchner

who fights for you?

Two weeks pass without a case, and unlike the rest of the team, Hotch and Juliette aren't bored at the office. Much to the amusement of the others, Juliette spends most of her day filling out paperwork from Hotch's office couch. They explain it off as easier if Juliette has a question about what to write, but the team knows something's up when JJ finds the pair sharing a muffin one morning, and Emily spots them running together at the park.

Their morning runs are a daily occurrence without cases, and both of them have come to find their conversations therapeutic. They bond over working in the court system, albeit on opposite sides, and share stories of high-profile cases they've helped to solve.

Dancing around the topic of their spouses is difficult, especially when they're telling a story and suddenly realize how involved their partner was to it, but neither of them are ready to share that part of their lives.

Today starts like any other, running one lap around the base as the sun rises before Hotch leaves to take Jack to school and Juliette to pick up coffee from her favorite spot. She started picking up a black coffee for Hotch after she noticed him eyeing her's one morning, it's been a routine ever since.

She's filling out a transfer form for another team while Hotch reviews potential cases when his phone rings. Normally she would ignore his calls, but Morgan was in Chicago visiting his sister after a car accident, and she wants to know how he's doing. The conversation started like any other, but catches Juliette's attention when Hotch says, "Falsely. You deduced he'd never met her."

Morgan speaks for another minute, and they hang up after Hotch says, "We're on our way."

He ignores Juliette's concerned expression, instead calling another number. "Gather the team at the round table."

At the table, Garcia's set Morgan up on a video call while Hotch fills in the team on the situation. He explains the case they worked a year prior to Emily and Juliette, and how Morgan told his family the UnSub killed his cousin when he knew he didn't. Now Morgan has reason to believe she's alive, and since they don't have any urgent cases, the team's going to help.

When Morgan joins the call, JJ's the first one to speak. "So your cousin fled Chicago eight years ago because a coworker was stalking her?"

"Yeah, a guy named John Hitchens." He nods. "Cindi and Yvonne came to me and asked if they should be worried. Her email and phone logs showed classic stalker behavior."

"Multiple messages every hour, gifts he sent which she later returned. That would enrage a stalker. But until they become violent, they're smart enough to skirt the law." Spencer adds, obviously familer with her case.

"Human resources at the investment bank wouldn't do anything, and Chicago PD couldn't, so Yvonne and I convinced Cindi to move."

He exhales. "She contacted us from Charleston on her way to Savannah, and then she was gone. Hitchens blew his brains out two weeks later in Chicago, and that was good enough for local PD to conclude that he'd killed her. Expect for one major detail, we never found the body. If his endgame was suicide, he wouldn't have been organized enough to dispose of the body that permanently. That's why I never stopped looking. I just didn't think that she would surface right back here in Chicago."

"We need to reopen both cases, Cindi's disappearance and Hitchens' suicide. The discrepancies in each's behavior would explain her current behavior." Hotch concludes. "Wheels up in 20."

The jet ride is awkward, more for Juliette than anyone else. She's sitting next to Hotch and across from Rossi, and she feels out of place not being closer with the team members her age. Her gut twists when their elbows accidentally touch, and she feels the need to kick Rossi when he raises his eyebrows after Hotch sets a coffee down in front of her, along with his own.