Criminal Minds: Danika

Surprise

We get to the hotel and I head to my room as do the others. I'm about to get changed into my PJ's when a knock on my door interrupts me. I open it up and Hotch pushes his way through the door and into my room, slamming the door behind him.

"Come in I guess, not like I need to get any sleep." I state sarcastically.

"Do you have any idea how stupid you have been today?" He asks and I roll my eyes.

"No, but I'm pretty sure you're going to enlighten me." I mutter.

"You're damn right! We have an active shooter out there, killing people at random on subways! So what do you do? You go on the fucking subway to chat with your pals!" He shouts.

"You're making this a bigger deal-." I start saying.

"You snuck out of the office, against my orders to patronize a detective we're supposed to be working with!" He continues.

"He needed a kick in the ass! He needed to be reminded that we're there to help him! I reminded him!" I shout back.

"You're the one who needs a kick in the ass!" He retorts and I scoff.

"Right back at you!" I shout and he stops in his tracks and gets a dangerous look in his eye.

"That's it! You continue to push, and push me to the brink of insanity. You refuse to show any respect to people above you. You constantly go against my orders and put yourself into situations where you're in danger, over and over again." He rants and I just stand there waiting for him to get it out of his system.

He's gotten like this before when I've pushed him too far. Usually he yells at me in his office at the end of the day once everyone has left. Then he gives me the cold shoulder for a few days afterwards.

It's a cycle between us. I push him until he breaks and he yells at me and tells me that he won't tolerate it anymore. It's sometimes like a game for me, to see how fast I can piss him off, maybe even get him to snap in front of the team. But somehow he always manages to hold it together in front of them.

"What you did today was reckless and stupid." He scolds as he takes his jacket off, placing it on a chair, then starts pacing back and forth.

"I prefer the words unexpected and brilliant." I retort against my better judgement.

"For once in your life, just do yourself a favor and be quiet!" He orders as he takes his tie off and slams it down on the table.

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like me-." I start saying.

But before I can get another word out, my back is slammed against the wall and Hotch has his hand over my mouth and his other hand around my throat.

He has a dangerous look in his eyes and I gulp knowing he's not in a mood to banter. He's gotten angry before multiple times, said things he wished he hadn't. On the rare occasion he's manhandled me as well, but I've never seen him like this before. He's never had this look in his eye. His pupils are blown and his jaw is set along with his eyebrows. This is beyond simple anger. It's rage.

I can see his chest heaving with each labored breath he's taking. As if it's taking everything inside of him not to completely lose it. I try to squirm out from under him but he just squeezes my neck lightly and presses his body against mine, forcing me to stay in place.