Airing Aaron (HotchxOC)

Hunting Hotch.

The FBI offices never did close. There was always one unit or another who was pulling an all-nighter or someone going through stuff at home that worked away the pain rather than face it like a real adult. That was Alessandra. She was at work, avoiding something she didn't want to deal with. 'Hey, I am going to be here until the early hours, so you should get going. Do you want me to drive you home, or is Clarence taking you?' Alessandra asked Mariah, who stifled a yawn and checked the time.

'Clarence leaves in ten minutes. Is everything okay?' Mariah asked curiously as she started to pack her things away.

'Yeah. I made a promise and don't want to go back on it,' she mumbled in reply before yawning obnoxiously and finishing it off with a groan.

'A promise to go crazy due to lack of sleep again?' Mariah joked as she pulled her coat on.

'Don't make me put you into a narcoleptic episode. It might have been an accident last time, but I will make you regret ever insulting me,' she quipped before waving her friend off and returning back to her desk.

A knock came to the door before Alessandra could even sit again. Hotch peered his head in when Mariah called for them to enter. 'Oh, has Ali left already?' Hotch asked curiously.

'No. She's here for the long run tonight. I've got a ride home that leaves soon. She's alone if you need to talk to her. But be warned, she's been in a foul mood all day, and she looks miserable now,' Mariah informed him before she stepped out of her office and walked down the hall to meet her friend.

Hotch stood, perplexed. She hadn't been in a foul mood that morning; she was down, sure, but nothing that suggested anger. His eyebrows creased in thought before he decided to address the matter. Hotch walked in without knocking, returning the favour since she did it to him regularly. 'Let's get going. Ella and Jack need to get to bed early tonight if Jess' report is anything to go by since it sounds like they've been naughty from the moment she picked them up,' he mentioned, but Alessandra didn't budge.

'I've got work to do. The Manson case came through, and I need to do a lot of planning,' she confessed tiredly.

'You work better when you're alert,' he muttered, but she didn't even bother looking up when he spoke. 'Manson will be in cuffs, and there will be police and guards. I heard they granted the presence of heavily armed individuals and extra security. Nothing to be scared of,' he mentioned.

'That's easy for you to say. He raped and shredded twenty women with his bare hands,' she retorted fretfully.

'Don't let him get into your head. And if this is about your parents last night, I know it's tough, but not going home isn't an answer,' he spoke softly, and Alessandra suddenly felt her heart rate double.

'If you don't want to look after Ella, then you'll have to drop her off at the childminder. Should I give them a call?' Alessandra asked, changing the topic.

'Ella needs a good night of sleep. She sleeps best when you put her to bed,' Hotch said.

Alessandra wanted to fight him on what he said. While it was true, she slept better when she put her to bed. It was because Hotch didn't follow the bedtime routine. But she couldn't argue with him. Not only was she too tired, but she knew that fighting led to fucking, and she needed him to be desperate. He did what she wanted when he was hungry. Was it manipulative? Yes. Did she care? A little. Was that going to stop her? No. 'Head home. I'm going to work. We've got a new wave of employees that I'm managing, and work's always busier when they've never actually led before,' she informed him hastily while checking through more crime scene pictures.

When she first worked a murder case, she got to look at a few pictures, and it almost didn't seem real. The sight of a mangled body crushed under a bed had still haunted her, but after a while, she stopped imagining the scene; after a while, she didn't have to look under her mattress every night, and soon, it almost didn't bother her. And then she joined the FBI, and suddenly, she had come across a body in real life. She was present at the crime scene, she was the lead in court, and she watched as the bastard was sentenced to eight consecutive life sentences and one hundred and eighty years. He was killed on his second day in general population. But even after his death, her mind couldn't forget the sight of a woman, terrified for her life, while trying to scratch her way out of the prison he had built for her. But the worst part of it all, was the eyes. The pictures showed the victim with closed eyes, but the body she saw had open eyes, and it was enough to make her throw up. Flynn, her training boss, had mentioned that she would need to take something to be sick into, and she took his advice, thankfully.