Please Don't Go (The Story of Us Book 3)

Chapter 8- New Arrangements

The day started like normal. The team was working on a case in South Dakota and they had just wrapped it up. A typical case where some guy's wife was having an affair so he started killing people that looked like her while he built up the courage to kill the real thing. For about a month prior, since the day Amanda had come back to work, Hotch had taken it upon himself to show Derek the ropes. It started with him giving him a little bit of extra work until Derek finally snapped.

He accused Hotch of being hard on him for no good reason so when they got back to the office, he pulled him into his office with Amanda following behind to explain things. Derek was opposed at first. Sure he thought that Aaron was a little off and maybe even a bit too focused on Foyet but that didn't mean he wasn't a good leader. He would trust Hotch with his life. Of course, his first question was why they would remove Hotch and not Amanda.

Hotch revealed that Amanda's position was always going to be secured by Director Sharp and Amanda assured that she passed her psych eval with flying colors. She hacked into the therapist's files on her and found that she had written that she believed Amanda had completely recovered, at least mentally, from the incident. This made Derek more comfortable with the idea that favoritism wasn't actually a factor. After that day, Aaron had begun teaching Morgan to do the paperwork that he does.

Derek swore that he would step down for Hotch as soon as the Foyet case was closed and everyone was happy. The three of them knew that the other shoe was going to drop soon but none of them let it show. Until today. Today, they flew back from South Dakota. As soon as they landed and made their way to the 6th floor only to be met by Erin Strauss. "Good luck big bro," Amanda tells him before patting him on the back and patting Derek on the shoulder.

The team watches in surprise as the three agents head to Hotch's office. "What's that about?" Emily wonders as they walk into the bullpen and everybody turns to Amanda. She grins wickedly while taking a seat at her old desk.

"I don't know," she claims, holding her hands up in an innocent gesture. "I've been out for months. I was in a coma for several months, remember?"

"Amy, what do you know?" Spencer asks her sweetly and she grins at him seductively.

"That depends, what do I get for it?" He shoots her a look and she sighs. "Strauss thinks my brother is distracted. She issued an ultimatum. Either he steps down as head Unit Chief and elects someone from the team or she forces him to step down and elects someone outside the team. Aaron decided to elect Derek. He's been showing him the ropes of the paperwork and today is the day."

"They can't just make him step down can they?" Emily questions.

"Actually," Rossi states. "They can. The Bureau controls who are in positions of power and therefore have the power to remove them."

"With probable cause," Amanda adds. "Which they have since Aaron ran into a house with no bulletproof vest and no weapon and allowed the suspect to kill his father. Strauss presented this to the higher-ups and believe it or not, despite being director, Harrison has his bosses too. It went to the senate committee and they decided that someone else needs to be in charge of the team. Just until this Foyet thing is over."

"That seems really unfair," JJ says and Amanda shrugs.

"Aaron doesn't seem to mind much. Out of the three of us, Derek was actually the most upset about having to take his place. He feels like it's a betrayal to Hotch even though it's his idea."

"Hey, what's the director doing here if Strauss has this handled?" Emily points towards the door and everybody turns to face it, missing Aaron's office door opening as the three federal agents walk out until Erin clears her throat.