The Element of Surprise

Truth Serum

3rd POV

The team arrive at the BAU around closing time. Around them, the agents are packing up their belongings and tidying their desks to prepare for heading home. It's Friday, which means half of them don't have to work tomorrow, unlike the profilers who have tons of paperwork to fill out regarding the Charlie Wilkinson case.

"Who's up for drinks?" Derek asks once they're all in the bullpen.

"Who's up for five?" Emily echoes, already keen on hitting a bar.

Estella drops her bag on her desk and suppress the urge to slump down in her chair and take a ten minute nap. She's been mulling over what Sheriff John said throughout the entire flight. Did he really think she and Rossi are married? Are they that compatible? Of course, then that Italian mothernutter had to open his mouth and use the 'C-word' - colleagues. She can handle the F-word, but the fact that even he accepts that they're nothing but co-workers left an empty hole in her heart. Friends can become more, colleagues can't.

Perhaps a drink would make things better.

"Just buy me the whole bottle," she reserves her spot at the bar which certainly seems to satisfy Prentiss.

"Count me in," Rossi says next and Estella curses internally. Secretly, she hoped he would sit this one out and leave her heart to catch its breath.

"I don't know," Spencer says doubtfully.

"Stop it with the 'I don't know'," Derek rolls his eyes and throws an arm around the young doctor's shoulder, "You're in, kid."

"JJ?" Estella looks at the blonde.

"I'd love to, but I'm gonna have to take a rain check."

Oh, that's right, it's Friday. Which means in about half an hour she's heading for the airport to visit that detective she's secretly been seeing. That doesn't make her feel better about her messed up love life at all.

"Hotch, you up for a beer?" Rossi asks the Unit Chief.

Aaron frowns in contemplation before realizing he doesn't exactly have a family to come home to. That seems to decide for him, "Sure." At that moment, a man in a suit enters the bullpen and hands him a large brown envelope. The team witness the change in Hotch's features, how he recognizes what that envelope contains, how his shoulders fall, and how the frown around his mouth deepens. Silently, he signs the form and give it back to the man.

"What's that?" Emily breaks the ice to ask.

Shifting his eyes from the envelope to the team, Hotch sighs, "Haley's filing for divorce. I've been served."

Although Estella expected this to happen for some time now, it still leaves her cold and heartbroken for the man she grew to respect so much. And she's not the only one who's eye betray her sympathy towards her boss. The entire profiling team is stunned. Gone is the good mood that comes after closing a case, and gone is the mood for hitting the bar.

"I think you can have my bottle instead," Estella mutters and takes a step towards Aaron, "You obviously need it more. Do you need a hug or something?"

Smiling weakly, Hotch hangs his head and breathes a humorless laugh, "I'm fine."

"I'm gonna hug you anyway." She goes right in and wraps her arms around the stoic man's waist. Hotch tenses at the contact within their work area, but at the same time doesn't reject the gesture. Something about her warmth and sincerity makes processing this whole situation easier. It reminds him he's not alone, that he has a family at the BAU who would go to the expanse of the earth to support him. And he got that all from one hug. Stepping back, Estella smooths down the wrinkles in his blazer and offers him a smile, "If you're going for drinks, so am I."