Unshed Blood | Criminal Minds

chapter twenty-four - the morning after

- CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR -

THE MORNING AFTER

SILENCE GREETED both Derek and Soren that morning after they had spent the previous day looking after Catalina. Thankfully, the baby had been good all morning and when Sybil came to pick her up early in the morning after Soren had called her.

For the remainder of the day, which just so happened to be the day before Soren was supposed to be seeing Hotch. But with the thoughts of what happened between her and Derek running through her mind, and them now not speaking she didn't know if she could speak to anyone else.

On the other hand, Derek had been doing everything possible to ignore Soren. He didn't want to catch feelings for the girl he was supposed to be watching over until they caught Arlo Hale, and now he was putting his feelings in the way.

That morning that she was supposed to be meeting Hotch, she had gotten up extra early and got herself ready before waiting for Derek to arrive back from the gym. She was hoping that he would at least acknowledge her, but there was a very low chance of that even happening.

The sound of the door opening caused her to turn her head around, watching as Derek stepped through the doors with his gym bag in his hand and sweat running down his face and chest, another reminder that she had touched him the previous night.

Derek felt eyes on him as he looked up, dropping his keys into the bowl as he made eye contact with Soren. "I'm going to shower and then we will go and see Hotch."

"Okay, hey, could we talk for a second?" Soren took the opportunity to ask him before he disappeared upstairs, she only hoped he was in a better mood. "About last night."

"There's nothing to talk about, it was a mistake." Derek suddenly blurted out, regretting what he had said the second he saw Soren's face drop, he knew he had hurt her and he never wanted to do that. "Shit. I didn't mean it like that-"

"No, it's fine. I'm going to drive myself to see Hotch until you get out of your pissy mood and quit lying to yourself for once." Soren scoffed as she stood up, grabbing his keys off him before he had the chance to stop her, getting into his black SUV and then driving off with Derek shouting for her to stop.

*

"Agent Hotchner." Soren said as she knocked onto his door, he allowed her to come in as she sat down in front off him, her leg crossed over the other. She had walked past the rest of her team on the way who were spending their day off finishing up paperwork that Derek had already done. "I was told you needed to speak with me."

"You heard correctly." Hotch nodded sternly, his eyes refusing to move away from hers, he passed her over a case file that had her fathers name written on the top along with his picture. "We need your help. You know better than anyone about Arlo's M.O, you know who he targets and how he targets them, but you are hiding it. We need to know so we can catch him before it's too late."

Soren listened to him and she was already feeling exhausted by the entire situation. She just wanted to be free. "If I help you, do you promise that this will all be over once you catch him?"

"I can't promise you that, Soren." Hotch said apologetically. "Read over the file, the list of his victims and see if you remember anything. JJ and Reid are going to stay with you in the conference room. Did you arrive with Agent Morgan?"

"No." Soren shook her head. "I may or may not off took his car and drove myself here."

"Soren, you know you aren't allowed anywhere alone." Hotch told her sternly, as though he was scolding a child.

She sighed, already knowing that's what he was going to say. "I'm well aware of this, Agent Hotchner. When can I look over this file?"

"Right now." Hotch announced, standing from his seat when the door suddenly burst open revealing a sweating Derek Morgan with Emily Prentiss on his tail. Hotch and Soren both turned around in shock, watching as Derek panted.

"We'll leave you two for a moment." Hotch excused him and Emily as they stepped out of the room, closing the door behind them to give the pair some privacy.

Derek walked into the room, anger radiating off him as he stood opposite her, his eyes dark as Soren smirked at him, willing to push him over the edge. "Fancy seeing you here, Agent Morgan."

"Don't try it, Soren. Give me my keys, now." He demanded, holding out his palm as she reluctantly gave them over to him, slapping them into his hand. "Don't ever do something like that again."

"It was a mistake." Soren mocked what he had said earlier, reminding him of how disrespectful he had been to her. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to find Reid and JJ."

She shoved him out of her way, walking out of the door as she came face to face with the two people she had been looking for. JJ offered her a reassuring smile whilst Reid had his eye brows furrowed as though he was analyzing her which she automatically didn't like, and stayed close beside JJ instead.

They headed into the conference room where they spent the next hour and a half digging through case files and trying to figure out Arlo Hale end game.