Airing Aaron (HotchxOC)

Undermining My Authority.

A month of nothing. The BAU hadn't heard from or seen Alessandra for a month. And it was starting to worry them. No report or confirmation came through, and even Strauss had been badgering Rossi for answers when she hadn't heard anything. Rossi had, in turn, begun badgering Hotch to see what was going on. After some thought, he tracked her office location and one afternoon, after a particularly difficult fight with Haley, and more aggressive messages sent from her to him, and a few from him to her, he stood suddenly. If nothing else, the report was something he could justifiably lose his temper over.

Taking the lift down suddenly, the BAU members watched as he casually walked from the room with a vein growing on his forehead as he refused to even nod in greeting for them. He emerged on the floor below a moment later and slowly followed directions to find her office door. Knocking carefully on the open door, a soft female voice welcomed him in, and he pushed the door further before walking in and looking at the desk. She met him with a large smile. Short, petite and blonde, she was like Haley and Hotch stopped in his tracks at the shock. Caught in the moment, he didn't even speak for a long while until she cleared her throat. 'Hello, My name is Mariah Scott. Can I help you?' Mariah asked 

'My name is Aaron Hotchner. I needed to talk to Noble,' Hotch informed her quickly.

'She wasn't meant to be in today, but she has come in anyway. If you wait in her office, I will send her through when she's back. She just stepped out for a moment. Just don't touch anything. She'll know, trust me,' she warned with the same smile as she had before.

He nodded his thanks and shook the thought of Haley out of his head for a moment as he stepped through the door he'd just opened to find a desk sitting in the middle with two chairs on the other side of it. Much to his disgust, her office was actually warm and welcoming. It had some tissues, on the table, and a tub of mostly eaten chicken with vegetables was left seemingly forgotten.

Jolting his attention from the scene before him, Hotch took a chair in the corner of the room when the door to Mariah's office was slammed shut. 'Who the fuck posts naked pictures of dead women online? Why would an FBI agent do that?' Alessandra called as she walked in, frustration leaking from her voice. 'And the men on the panel all sat ogling at me like a piece of meat while they presented the details to me. I was the only woman in there.'

'That good a day?' Mariah asked, her tone suddenly sad.

'Even in death, we're not safe. Men are pigs,' she complained while loudly pacing around the room beside where Hotch sat.

'I don't want to break more bad news, Ali, but Matthew called, and you will need to stand in for him in the Forster case. He's sick,' she mentioned shyly. 'If you leave now, then you'll have ten minutes to get used to the courtroom,' she finished even quieter. Matthew was a trainee who had recently joined. The problem? Well, he wasn't ill. Everyone knew it. He did it every week at least once after a night out. He was too drunk or hung over to work. Matthew was already on his last straw, and Alessandra was already trying to word how she would tell him that his contract was terminated. She did feel a bit bad, it was only his first time missing a court date, but they had spent hours on that project together. Alessandra thought he was finally changing.

She didn't respond; instead, her office door was pushed further, and in her rush, she didn't see him in the corner. Files were locked away in a cabinet, and with great determination, the cabinet was rifled through for the case mentioned. Hotch silently waited, noticing her maroon and navy short skirt with a pretty, rustic pattern on it and her perfectly colour-matched maroon top and navy boots. 'You'll need to brief me on the drive there. I thought David would have this covered, but he's got the luxury of a week in Tenerife. When we get back, you'll need to draft his dismissal papers and a committee meeting tomorrow for the social justice warriors who are opposing oil use outside Mcdonald's,' Alessandra called through. When she stopped talking, she leant across her desk in search of an appropriate court outfit. No one would take her seriously in the skirt she was wearing.