Oxytocin [aaron hotchner]

twenty three

It was about 8:30 in the morning when you walked into work the next morning. You noticed that none of your colleagues were at their desks, so you grabbed a pot of coffee and a mug and put it on your own before sitting down in your chair and taking a couple of more files from your drawer. When you were drinking from your cup, you then noticed that everyone was in the conference room, probably for a new case. You slightly rolled your eyes at the sight of it. You weren't even being included in that? Nobody let you know that there was a new case! Desk duty, okay. You slept on it last night and fine, you could deal with it. But no even being involved in the ongoing cases at all? Not cool.

It was about twenty minutes later when everyone stepped out of the room and scattered around you. Garcia started walking over to you but your eyes were secretly on Aaron, he was walking towards his office, his eyes fixated on the floor as he walked. He was doing that anxiety induced rubbing thing with his fingers. His eyes looked tired, his hair was kinda messy but he looked so beautiful to you. He didn't even look up from the floor and just walked straight into his office. Because your desk was facing his, you had perfect view of him. Which was a pain in the ass right now, because you did not want to spend your whole week looking at him right now.

"Good morning my dove" Garcia said with a wide smile. You barely returned it, "morning."

"Oh, I'm sensing some negative energy here." She stopped herself in her tracks and started picking in the air, 'cleansing' your aura. You didn't reply to her and focused your attention on your file. "Honey, what's wrong?"

"Nothing. Just thought that I was gonna be involved in ongoing cases but I guess that was wrong of me to assume." You dryly explained, feeling yourself grow more irritated by the second. You really needed to blow some steam off, this whole situation got under your skin so badly.

"Oh sweet, we thought you overslept. You didn't respond to my texts and calls. I was relieved when I saw you sitting here!" Garcia explained, setting her iPad and case file down on your desk. "Go through it and you'll assist the team from here. So we're kind of working together this week. Love it!" She nearly shrieked out of excitement at the end.

You gave her a puzzled look and grabbed your phone out of your bag, suddenly seeing that it was dead. "Oh shoot, I must've forgotten to charge it last night when I got home. After work I went to a bar with a friend and I met someone and we got to talking, so." You explained, using your hands probably more than you needed to, to express yourself.

Garcia gasped, "met someone? What am I supposed to make of that?"

You chuckled at her response, "oh well. I don't know. But he was cute!" You said, plugging your phone into your character that was connected to your computer. "He even gave me his number." You said, scrolling through last texts to show it to her. Penelope cocked an eyebrow as she studied the number, probably memorising it for easy tracking and hacking purposes later.

"Oh my god, Y/N, you better tell me everything about him and please, and I say this with much passion," she took a deep breath, put her hand on your head and held it there "I encourage you to not leave any juicy details out."

You laughed at your friends words and noticed that Emily joined you two. "Juicy details? I was summoned?"

Garcia turned to her and explained what you had just told her. Emily's eyes widened and you could immediately feel what she was thinking. "Someone? Oh." She said, not even pretending she was enthusiastic about this. Not that she needed to be, but she would've been if she didn't know what she knew.

Garcia narrowed her eyes, looking back and forth at you and Emily. With every second passing you felt your cheeks getting warmer at the attention you were receiving and couldn't help but look down at your hands that were on your desk. "Wa-am I-" she mumbled, "am I missing something?"

It felt like your lips were stitched shut and your throat was closing. "Anyway, wheels up." Emily said as she smiled back at Penelope and then walked off to her desk to grab her go-bag and headed to the jet, you assumed.

"Agent Y/N, Y/L/N you better tell me what's going on right this second. What have you not told me?"

"Penelope" you said, kind of shushing her, your eyes involuntarily went to Hotch's office and back to your hands, Garcia must've noticed this and she gasped. "Why did you just look at Sir Hotch? Y/N?"

"Okay" you took a deep breath, "I'm kinda..."

Garcia's eyes slowly started widening at the possible words that could come out of your mouth. "He- I... I'm kinda into him?" You mumbled out, your voice quietening as your sentence went on.

"Oh" she said, "into him like into him? You like him?" You weren't gonna rep another word about anything else. You haven't talked to Hotch since your dispute yesterday and you felt a shift between the two of you. It was never gonna work out anyway.

You slowly nodded your head and looked down again. "Oh sweet thing" she said, placing her hand on your cheek. You kind of leaned into it and gave her a light smile, "it's fine."

"Does he know?"

"God no" you nervously chuckled, "can't even look him in the eyes. He's so... intimidating you know?" You looked back at his office, he had just gotten up from his chair and had his ready bag in his hands. He looked at Jack and Hailey's picture placed on his desk before turning towards the door. On his way out of his office, your eyes locked. You wanted to pull away but it was like you were being held in position by external forces. His gaze softened as he looked into your eyes, feeling his shoulders finally relax because she had finally made some form of contact with him. He wondered why Garcia's hand was on her cheek.

"Agent Y/L/N," he spoke suddenly, coming closer to you both but keeping a distance. "Glad to see that you aren't in fact-" and he looked at Garcia "dead." You could already imagine the thoughts that ran through Garcia's head when you weren't reachable. "I suggest you read into the case and we'll keep you updated from the field. If you have any thoughts or comments please don't hesitate to call me." He explained with a tight lipped smile. Your eyes trailed down his body and you saw his fingers still doing that rubbing thing. "O-okay" you managed to say in a weak voice.

"Garcia, you keep a close eye on her for me?" He asked, looking at the tech analyst who had a slight smirk on her face by now.

"Of course sir, you can count on me sir."

"Thank you. Bye." He nodded his head before walking off.

"Oh my god" Garcia said in disbelief "he is so into you as well. Knowing what I know about you now and knowing how he has been acting for a while..." she seemed to be connecting some dots in her head. "Girl, if you don't do something about it, I will!"

"I can't-" you interrupted

"Wha- of course you can! Is it because he's your boss? You know it doesn't have to be a big thing, as long as it stays out of the office and-"

"No" you interrupted again, "Garcia. You are reading this wrong. He is not into me." You felt kind of bad talking to her like this but she couldn't go around thinking that this was the situation. Even though she wasn't even entirely wrong. "And besides," you sighed

"I'm going on a date with the bar guy tonight."