Resilience [Aaron Hotchner]

Lets Start Right Now

I've been at the BAU a little over a month right now, and I have finally mastered the groove of the BAU. The team has had five cases so far, each one improving my skills. This job allowed me to do more, to save more, and I will forever be grateful for the opportunity. Which is what put me in this position.

Right now I am pushing Jason in a wheelchair out of the hospital, with him trying to stop me. He guilt-tripped me into going skydiving with him so he could cross it off his bucket list, and while I have never laughed so hard, I'm still pissed at him. Who goes skydiving without researching the how to manual?

He forgot to land properly and sprained his foot badly, resulting in him needing crutches for a week. Hospital policy however, is that you have to be wheeled out on a wheelchair; this policy is something Jason despises. As a result, he keeps trying to put the brakes of the chair throughout the walk, each time causing me to slam myself against the back.

"Jason, I swear, sit still. I sat in this hospital all night with you, despite how much you know I hate them. You owe me. Sit your ass down so we can limit how late we are." I scolded him with my "dont mess with me" voice, causing him to stop. He's scared of me.

**********

I'm an FBI agent, I can get away with murder. I'm gonna test that theory on Jason at this point. I had just pulled into the parking lot of headquarters and instead of listening to me when I told him not to, he decided to try getting out on his own.

This caused him to fall straight on his ass.

I obviously did the only reasonable thing, which is take a picture. After about ten photos of him yelling at me while on the pavement, I helped him up and we were on our way. I held both of our bags and he went ahead of me. I decided not to mention the large black spot on his butt.

We were now on the sixth floor, where our team was already in the roundtable room. I dropped our bags off at our desks, and we both entered the room.

"I'm so sorry we were late, there was a situation," I stated while glaring at Jason. The team should know it was his fault.

Hotch looked at me, then Jason. "What happened to you?"

"I've got a list of things I want to try before it's too late, '' Jason responded.

"And orthopedic surgery is one of them?" Elle replied snarkily.

I smiled at her, then at Hotch. "Skydiving. This is his karma from forcing me to go with him." I took a seat in my chair that is between Hotch and Morgan.

"Apparently it's all about the landing," Jason added.

I rolled my eyes and leaned over to whisper in Morgan's ear, "I have a video and pics to show you later." We both disguised our resulting laughter as a cough.

Hotch smiled but ultimately ignored our banter and looked at Jason, "Uh, how long on the crutches?"

"Just a couple days."

Elle asked "So you can't go out in the field?," in response.

"Not on crutches, no," Hotch agreed. 

**********

Our case was located in Harringtonville, Tennessee, and we were dealing with a killer who eviscerated his third victim, Annie Stuart, of her liver, kidney, and lungs. The team was still trying to learn the reason why.

At the moment, all we knew was the killer committed the first murder in sixty-four years in this town, meaning tensions to catch the unsub were at an all time high. The victims were well known throughout the small town as well, which only increased the pressure.