The Story of Us

Chapter 28- Fury

Have you ever been so completely angry that your vision narrows and you can barely see the things that are right in front of you? Amanda had been angry many times, pissed even, but never had she ever felt fury until these last few weeks. It had all started when Frank had come back. He had killed an old friend of Gideon's and Gideon had never fully recovered. He went back to work but he wasn't the same Jason Gideon that she had met when she arrived at the BAU at 17. Next came the news from Emily.

Apparently, she had been admitted into the BAU by Strauss to spy on Aaron so that Strauss could end his career, or at least his career at the BAU. Hotch had been more focused on doing his job than the politics that being one of the Unit Chiefs of the BAU comes with.

Jason had never played politics so it was up to Hotch to play ball and ever since the case with the prostitutes, the one that the team had worked just before Amanda arrived, the one that would stick with Reid and Garcia for a long time to come, when Hotch had refused to keep the case quiet even with the threat of DC's councilwoman, Strauss knew that Aaron had stopped playing ball as well.

This is what prompted her to ask Emily to help her end his career and that conversation was what prompted Emily to inform her best friend who had snuck up on her without realizing it. Once Amanda received the news, she told Emily to be honest. She knew that Aaron would never step a foot out of line for any reason whatsoever. He wasn't like her. He was clean-cut and proper, always obeying the rules so Strauss would never get anything on him. Or so she thought.

Then came the killings on a college campus. Three brunettes killed by a man named Nathan Tubbs who had lost all visitation rights to his daughter to that of his brunette ex-wife. This case didn't go as planned. A copycat had killed another girl to convince the police that they had the wrong man, a college student who admitted to the crime on camera when confronting the unsub to attempt to get him to kill her as well.

He had refused, noticing the cameras she did not and believing it to be a setup. When he refused, she was blinded with anger, anger Amanda had not yet felt, and stabbed him. Morgan and Prentiss attempted to subdue her but she turned the knife on herself, evidently killing two people had given her the courage she felt she needed to kill herself. That moment is what led to Amanda's rage. To her fury.

Fury is an interesting word. In Greek Mythology they were the three goddesses who swore to punish those of humanity that swore false oaths. This was a fitting definition for Amanda's rage as every man and woman who enters the FBI swears an oath to the US government to serve and protect the people within this country to their utmost ability, leaving out things like petty grievances or bias which may cloud their judgment. Erin Strauss swore this oath just like everyone else in the FBI and yet she forsook it.

She suspended Aaron Hotchner for what she viewed as an innocent college student taking her own life, going as far as to say that if it were up to her, Hotch would never get his credentials back, and that was what unleashed Amanda's fury. What happened was not Aaron's fault. In fact, it wasn't anyone's fault. The team had followed protocol and had no way of knowing that the girl would kill herself or the suspect until it had already happened. Aaron had made the right call and everyone knew it.

But Strauss disagreed because she wanted him gone and Jason took the blame upon himself. He loved Spencer and had been more of a father to him than to his own son which is how he knew he couldn't say a proper goodbye face to face but he knew Amanda would respect his decision, which is why he told her goodbye and not the rest of the team. He told her almost all of what he would write in his letter to Spencer later that night in his cabin about how he didn't feel he could do his job anymore after Sarah and how it was his fault that Hotch was suspended.

Amanda wished him the best, telling him that she disagreed but who was she to tell someone not to run away from their problems and hardships when that was all she had ever done. She ran away from her father's abuse, her brother's hatred, everything that happened to her in Massachusettes, her unrequited love for Spencer.