SECT BOUND . aaron hotchner

3.15

Annie Bradey stood frozen as she heard his voice, gripping the phone tighter as he continued to talk at her. Behind her Aaron knew that something had happened, her eyes were wide and she was routed to the ground in fear. It was this phone call that Aaron would always blame himself for, he should have listened to her concerns about the press briefing. If he'd have known the full truth, maybe he would have been more cautious but he hadn't known the abuse she had been subject to until after he had made her stand before cameras.

The possibilities ran through his head as he watched her mouth move without words – the low hum and mumbling of the man on the other side of the phone still present in the air. He could be calling to rub in the fact that he had found her, or he could be calling because he thought she was still his. Gabriel could be calling to tell the mother the fate of her child, to rub salt in the wound that he had created. Worst of all, he could be calling to bring her home to him, and Aaron knew that Annie was strong but – after learning the love and comfort she had felt for the man – he wasn't sure that she would be able to say no.

"How did you find this number?" She questioned, fear sticking her words to the back of her throat. Each syllable felt like sandpaper scraping against her vocal chords; his slight outburst of mirth making the tears briming in her eyes to fall. "There is no Annie Hotchner."

"No, but there is an Aaron Hotchner, Annie Bradey's old school yard friend." He reiterated, still speaking slowly and calm. "I take it he's there with you, my Mary, along with his son, Jack."

She grit her teeth, holding back the waterfall of tears as she tried to convince the leader that he had no effect on her, "You've done your research, but if you go anywhere near them I swear to god-"

"You swear what Mary? You can't hurt me; you can't hurt anyone." Aaron had stood beside Annie at this point, his hand holding hers as he listened to half the conversation. "You never could, you knew it was what we had been sent to do, it's why our paths were crossed."

Taking a steading breath, Annie met Aaron's eyes using his relative calmness to centre herself. She would not be giving Gabriel Martyr the satisfaction of knowing she was falling apart at just the sound of his voice, "No, Gabriel, our paths crossed because I was drunk, and you were looking for someone easy to pull into your fantasy. There was no divine intervention."

"Our paths crossed long before then, Mary, you were still Annie back then." He explained, Aaron holding his phone close to the speaker documenting the man's words. "You probably don't remember it, but I do. The same devil who destroyed my family, he destroyed yours, it was divine intervention that saved us both."

"Where's Eden?" Annie quickly asked, having remembered that she wasn't the only person to fear Gabriel. "If we were saved by divine intervention – to meet each other – then she is the child of divine intervention; you can't have hurt her."

He chuckled, "I would never hurt our daughter, Mary, she means far too much to us and to our saviour. She will lead us one day to freedom, both of us Mary, you need to come home."

"Where is home Gabriel?" She queried, letting go of Aarons hand and pulling a notebook out from beside the phone. "Home was empty."

"I left a map, for you if you ever returned." There was rummaging on the other side of the conversation, he was moving around tapping on a keyboard. "But you didn't return, you sent someone else in your place. I gave you your freedom, Mary, to understand that your only place was with me."

She screwed up her face, sandpaper once more coating her words as she choked, "What if I am ready to go home now? What if I know that we are supposed to lead the lost to the place they can finally be at peace?"

"The we will welcome you with open arms." The line went dead when he had finished his sentence, the adrenaline and spite that had been fuelling her just moments before dropped as quickly as she did. Her knees hit the floor – unable to hold the woman upright – and she let the sobs leave her mouth.

Nausea hit her just as quickly, her stomach churning as she thought about the man and the words he had said to her. She had called it home; without second thought she had called the compound home. Of course, it had been that for quite a while, but it was now just the place where she had lived with Gabriel and her daughters. It was the place she had lived with her family, but now Aaron and Jack were her family. They were home. No matter the love she felt – had felt – for Gabriel he wasn't her home. But for a moment, she had forgotten that fact.

Aaron took her hand, "She's alive, that's what he told you."

"He also told me that I need to come home, Aaron." She muttered, through deep breaths. "He told me that Eden would lead us to freedom, you know what freedom means to him Aaron. The only way he thinks people are free is in death."

"But he sees your lives as being protected by divine intervention Annie, he wouldn't harm what he deems holy." Aaron reassured her. "What did he mean, he left a map for only you?"

"I don't know."

Taking a breath to calm himself, Aaron questioned, "Was there a space in the compound only you new about, somewhere he could have left the location of the new church?"

"I don't know, I don't know anything anymore."

"Lets go back to the office, I'll call in the team and we can listen to the call maybe we can get something out of what he says." He was silent for a second. "Annie, we'll protect you. I promise."

"But who will protect Eden? Or Jack?"

"We'll put a uniform on Jack and the quicker we find Gabriel the quicker we can find Eden." Aaron pulled her from the floor, noticing the blank look on her face. "Annie, we'll bring Eden home."

Home, the two sides of her heart had completely different ideas of where that was. Where would she bring her daughter to? Emily's apartment or Aaron's couch? Either way, she would be abandoning her daughter every time they got a new case, so Annie wasn't even sure she could be a mother to Eden. Maybe Eden was better with a family who were present in her life.