criminal minds | one-shots ✓

4. basil

it had been a bad case.

three kidnappings in the same town, all connected - smart, young blondes, all in their freshmen year of highschool, taken by the same pedofilic creep.

it'd been bad from the beginning, and they all had a feeling it'd end that way.

local pd had been riding them from the moment they got there, and the only person who seemed to really trust them was the sheriff - who'd only called because his boss was tired of the bad publicity, and who'd been the unsub all along.

it was always worse when it was the good guys who turned out to be the ones commiting the crimes, because if you couldn't trust them, who was left?

they hadn't saved any of the girls - jaylee had turned up dead within the first 48 hours, her throat slit and body bruised, with lila following two days later. that was the pattern; frank otis had kidnapped them all at the same time at around seven at night, and he'd killed one off every two days.

they'd gotten the unsub, his location, and had all the hope they could muster that they'd be able to save may, but when they showed up, frank had a knife to her throat and a sick smile on his face.

he didn't waste anytime; may was dead before anyone could pull the trigger.

she didn't have any next of kin or family, no boyfriend or girlfriend, or anyone, really - the only reason she'd been reported missing in the first place was because her boss said she hadn't come in that morning, and she fit the victimology.

the only thing she had was her cat, basil.

emily didn't know what else to do with him, and she sure as hell wasn't leaving him alone, not with sergio at home. what kind of mother would she be if she just left him? and it wasn't like it took very much convincing to let him on the plane.

the ride back was silent, with morgan listening to his music, and jj and spencer dozing, and rossi and hotch talking quietly. emily mostly watched basil, who stayed in a kennel, meowing rather sadly every time turbulence disrupted his sleep.

when they'd gotten back, none of them had gone home immediately. there was typically two ways cases ended - with the scum and dirt and exhaustion from another life taken still clinging to them, the feeling of failure keeping them from leaving the offices and taking bad with them back home, to the only places they could leave the terrible behind, or with a feeling of victory that, after maybe a little bit of celebrating, brought their spirits high enough for them to he confident to walk through doorways without taking anything too awful with. today was the former, unspokenly.

emily sets the kettle down at her desk and opens it, watches as basil crawls across, clumsily but cautiously. he's a baby - smaller than the size of emily's palm, grey and white, with wide green eyes. where the name basil came from, emily doesn't know, but it fits in an odd sort of way.

basil is spindly and itty bitty and emily thinks he is too pure for this world.

the rest of the team is hanging around, lingering in the bullpen.

she's also glad such a pure thing is in this world.

basil teeters and totters, but eventually makes it across her table to what seems to be his destination; a pile of files on spencer's desk. he sits down, looks up at him like a dog, and tilts his head, which causes emily to snort.

"the reid effect," hotch says, not as quietly as he pretends, and she hears morgan laugh from behind her.

spencer holds his hand out and basil takes a step forward, curling into him and causing him to smile a little.

there are four bracelets with beads that twist and are made of rubber and strings and different textures around reid's wrist - he stole them from garcia who owns about eight hundred, since he fiddles with everything and they don't feel awful.

basil darts past his hand and starts chewing on them, rolling onto his back with paws in the air and the strings in his mouth, like it's a toy.

"ah, see, i knew he didn't really like you." emily says, and he glares at her when she stifles a laugh.

spencer skirts his hand across the surface and the cat chases it, catching it with a pounce and climbing up his arm. he balances precariously on spencer's ceaselessly fidgety limbs and topples up and over his shoulder.

there's a snap and emily glances up at garcia who winks, camera in her hand.

emily feels impossibly soft here, watching this baby cat curl up and fall asleep on spencer's shoulders while morgan teases him for getting the men, now let me show you how to get the ladies.

watching them. her family - and, god, despite the years, she's still figuring that out. it's still weird to her to look at these people and know they love her as much as she loves them. that she can trust them. and does she ever.

this cat has, impossibly, brought a peace to the space in these walls. a space where they'd seen horror and crime and where they'd suffered at the hands of those they put away.

they needed something good.

like basil.

spencer is still smiling softly, and jj is laughing along with morgan at some stupid joke, and garcia is sneaking photos, and hotch and rossi are being the responsible parents they're not and watching over it all.

emily has an idea, looking at these people, and this dumb, dumb, lovable cat, and she knows she will not give it up until it happens.

"hotch," she says, and everyone glances up at her. she motions to his office and he raises an eyebrow, but follows her nonetheless. she can feel everyone's eyes on them as she shuts the door.

"we need to keep this cat."

"i'm sorry?" he asks, deliberately, and she looks out the window wall to their team.

"look. look how good he is. we need something good, hotch, we need to keep this cat."

he follows her gaze and she watches as his eyes soften, just the slightest bit. watching; she's been doing that a lot lately.

"emily...," he trails off, and his lips press together, eyes crinkling at the edges, and not in the smiley way.

"you're doing that thing, hotch." she sighs, and he turns back to her.

"what thing?"

"the thing where you want to say yes, but there's all kinds of if's and but's and so's coming."

now it's his turn to sigh, "even if we could keep him, where we would he put him when we weren't here? and who'll watch over him? make sure he's fed? emily -,"

"i will!" she says, her plan expanding in her head as she speaks. this has to work. she has to let them have this cat - just one win, please, she thinks. "or penelope will, or - look, spence loves him. we could even take turns. you wouldn't even have to worry about him. he wouldn't even have to go out in the field, hotch, he could just stay here."

"alone?" he prompts, but emily knows, she knows he has him.

"anderson's always here." she shrugs, then grins. "or, we could get another cat."

hotch let's out a startled laugh and she let's her grin grow with him. "let's take care of this one, first, and maybe i'll consider it."

she gasps, excitement buzzing in her chest, and - wow, she hasn't felt like this since christmas when she was eleven -, "is that a yes?"

he eyes her, trying, and failing, to look serious and threatening, before nodding. "i suppose." he says, faux reluctantly.

maybe she would've believed his reluctance if she hadn't seen him smiling when she left the room.