Classified light- a criminal minds fan fiction

Protector

"-He's running down to 5th avenue market!" Hotch yelled down his radio as he jumped over the fence down an alleyway to avoid the busy city street.

"We're on it" Morgan spoke back as he and the team drove through the city.

"He's dropped his gun but approach with caution, I repeat approach with-" Hotch ran through the pop up market place where the unsub ran into, his sentence being interrupted by a glimpse of something between the hanging rugs that made him stop in his tracks, something had been waiting to see for months, something he spent endless weeks searching for.

He shook his head as he did a double take and it was gone- it was surely just his mind playing tricks on him again.

He had to focus on the case, on the unsub who was a few feet in front of him holding a knife out at him.

"Stay back!" The shaky man spat and brought Hotch back to the situation.

"Put the knife down Patrick, put your hands up and lower to the ground- I don't want to hurt you" Hotch couldn't pull out his gun given the busy market place and chaos it would cause.

The man laughed but it was shaky, a false cocky confidence he was trying to put on.

"I-I think I'll be the one hurting you."

"We both know that you don't want to do that Patrick" Hotch was losing his patience, not that he had much to begin with, but he had grown sterner and more distant within the last few months had had very little understanding for wanting to try to coddle unsubs into an arrest.

"Yes I do!" The man yelled and grabbed a street seller, holding a blade to her neck as the poor old woman screamed.

Hotch hid an eye roll, now he really couldn't pull out his gun or throw hands with the man.

"I-I'll kill her!" He yelled, Hotch thought for a second.

"Do it."

"W-what?"

"No! P-please don't do it!" The woman cried, tears streaming down her face that seemed to have no effect on Hotch on the outside.

"If you want to prove yourself as a killer so much, kill her" Hotch stepped forward.

"Y-you can't trick me!"

"This isn't a trick. You've spent the last week trying to prove to the FBI that you're a killer, you made us come all this way and are wasting our time. You wrote to us yourself describing your murders that were in reality pathetic and juvenile. We deal with serious serial killers, not fools like you who are just mad their father didn't hug them tight enough as a child. If you want to be taken seriously, if you want me to take notice of you then kill her- do something, prove yourself."

Hotch's cold words shocked the man and made the woman sob.

"A-are you insane?!" She screamed at Hotch who looked unbothered by her, his eyes fixed on Patrick as he got closer to him- now noticing his tears down his face.

"F-fuck you!" He stammered, Hotch saw him hesitate before lifting the blade to slice the woman's neck.

That moment of hesitation was all Hotch needed.

In one swift motion Hotch had grabbed the blade, chucked it out of the man's hands, pushed the screaming woman to safety and punched Patrick square in the jaw before grabbing his arm and twisting it behind him to make his arrest.

"Patrick Kendrick you are under arrest for the murders of-" Hotch began reading the man his rights as he detained him but paused when his eyes flickered up and looked through the hanging fabrics of the sellers stalls.