serendipity | aaron hotchner⁰

I

'white sands

The quiet roar of the jet kept me awake. I was seconds from drifting off into a deep, deep, deep, deep sleep. We had already been briefed on the beach murders. 4 in the past 3 weeks. All the same M.O.

"You okay Roni?" Morgan asked sitting infront of me.

"Hm, yeah just tired."

"You'll be able to sleep comfortably when we get to Clearwater."

I smiled closing my eyes again.

The murders took place on Clearwater Beach in Florida. The victims were buried neck down close to the tide. A slow melodic death. Reid thinks the killings might be done by a mob boss. The torture aspect of them does lead us down that road. Garcia is looking into possible debts the victims owed.

I, in the meantime, tried to get more sleep.

____________

I woke up to someone shaking me. Morgan. I sat up rubbing my eyes, taking in the fact it was still dark outside. That when I noticed it. The black suit jacket draped over my shoulder.

I pulled it slowly looking up to Morgan.

"Rossi gave me his jacket?" I said hanging it over my arm.

"Hotch," Morgan chuckled.

Hotch? I mouthed.

The Hotch gave me his jacket? Brooding, straight faced, no fun Hotch gave me his jacket.

I smiled.

Me and Morgan walked off the jet. I took in the smell of salty water and sand. The wind blew my hair across my face.

I never understood what authors meant when they said the air smelt sweet, I think I understand now.

"Everyone's ready on the way to the hotel." Morgan opened the SUV door. "Only 3 rooms though, so we'll have to share."

"Are you kidding me?" I sighed. "What time is it anyways."

"I dunno, 3am maybe?"

"Geez, who are you sharing with?" The lights in the car dimmed as he drove away.

"Not sure, Rossi got his own room, I might as well go with Reid."

I smiled holding in a laugh. "Boy wonder?"

He looked at me in a joking "Shut uo before I punch you" way.

My guess was that JJ and Emily were sharing, which left me and Hotch.

You see, there are a few ups and downs to this, pros and cons if you will.

Pros: I can give him his jacket without it being awkward, he's decently quiet and not a distraction, work oriented.

Cons: Four years ago we "had something between us" and things have been awkward ever since, being with him is awkward, I hate being in awkward situations.

After what felt like the shortest car ride ever we pulled into the hotel parking lot.

With out go bags in hand we walked into the lobby. We were greeted by the rest of the team. All of their eyes shot at the jacket in my arms then at the jacket-less Hotch next to them.

If you put 2 and 2 together there are several different outcomes.

Logical: He let me borrow it cause I was cold, platonic

Rational: I asked for it because I like the comforting feeling, platonic

Irrational: we had some kind of romantic relations in the back room of the jet and I forgot to give him his jacket back, romantic (and dumb)

Everybody got up passing around keys, little murmurs of which one was which. Then Hotch walked up to me.

"Here you go," He handed me the key.

"Thanks," I pressed my finger against the sharp bits on the side.

We walked in silence towards the elevator. Floor 4 room 435.

Everything after that we did in silence, put are things down, ate, brushed our teeth, sat down and worked.

I ate a Kit-Kat while typing up some email I wasn't paying attention to. After a while I grew tired, my eyelids were heavy. I layed down and rolled over. I wasn't going to fall asleep. Not until the feeling of Hotch digging his eyes into my back went away.

Finally after what felt like an eternity he layed down and turned of the lights.

I guess thats when it hit me.

"Aaron," I whispered.

No answer.

"You know I didn't leave because of you right?"

No answer.

"But I also didn't come back because of you."

No answer.

I expected the silence from him. It was his thing after all. I just wish it wasn't.

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