Airing Aaron (HotchxOC)

Sweet Vengeance Turns to Victory.

Twenty fresh faces sat together. At the front of them all, Alessandra stood with Mariah just behind her. 'Now, remember. Be GOOD. Guarded, Offensive, Off-putting and Diligent. You can't let the defendants get comfortable unless you have something up your sleeve that ruins the whole argument. And I swear, Scott, if you object to your own question again, I will have you doing the FBI divorce settlements for the rest of your internship. Do you understand me?' She asked, turning to the Scott in question, who gulped and agreed with her. 'Before we end, however, is there anything anyone would like to ask?'

'I was wondering if you could help me with the Cooler's case. The suggestion you made is starting to come together, but I'm struggling to piece everything together,' James Elliott asked quickly, and Mariah wrote it down before Alessandra needed to tell her.

'And the Intelligence Branch has been getting slower with their responses to me. Could we talk about how to make them get on it again?' Daisy Lock asked, and Alessandra nodded eagerly at the suggestion.

'I've got a troubling case that I think you should know about,' Donald Mitch asked curiously, and he was agreed with as well. His name was on a long list of tasks that needed completing.

When the room fell quiet again, Alessandra waited for a moment, allowing them to speak if they needed to, but when no one tried, she sighed contently and smiled. It wasn't often that so few issues needed resolving. 'If that's all, you can head back to your offices. James, Daisy, and Donald. I want you to hang back, and we can work on them now,' she offered, and the room obeyed.

Everyone spoke kindly, offered goodbyes or see you laters before they left to work again. It was exam season, so Alessandra had a larger load, and they had far less than usual. 'Okay, James. Why don't you start?' She began once the doors were closed and they were in private.

'Yeah. I filed for a dismissal of evidence. On number thirty-seven like you suggested, and the judge granted it, but now I don't know what to do next,' he admitted.

The room was quiet for a moment as the evidence was checked and case details, a few words in, they were recalled, and Alessandra closed the file again. 'The dismissal of evidence means that they can't officially prove the defendant's alibi. So, if they have no evidence he was across town for each of the crimes, what do you need to prove?' She asked pointedly, probing for a correct answer.

'His location during the crimes that is accurate,' he replied uncertainly.

'Bingo. And if you can't find hard evidence, drop in seeds of doubt about his alibi. The defendant and his counsel can't disprove anything. Daisy?' Alessandra quickly moved on. 'Oh, yes. Well, I find threats work best for getting the desired outcome. But stand strong, be persistent and maybe even offer to watch them do the report. If the deadline is near, get their section chief to sit them all down and make everyone file what they need to for the case,' she quickly advised.

Eyes then turned to Donald, who was biting his lip as he glanced down at the document in front of him. Whatever it was, they all knew that it was going to have an explosive response if his anxious eyes were anything to go by. 'Uh, well. One of the teams had a serial case and caught the guy. We have evidence of him keeping the last victim hostage, as well as an audible confession that he later tried to withdraw, and I'm almost certain we can get him on charges of abducting the last one and abusing her,' he answered quickly.

'Where's the problem? Sounds like an open and shut case,' she replied.

'The issue is how they got there. The warrant to search his house was still in progress and later denied. But they searched it anyway, and they never officially admitted to gaining access to his computer. To make it worse, they didn't follow protocol when recovering the last victim. One person went in on his own and took him down, nearly getting shot in the process and shooting the defendant who survived, but excessive force is being filed for,' he admitted, and Alessandra could already feel her headache brewing.