moon struck • a. hotchner

i. dave sucks

CHAPTER ONE | PRE-04.03

•••

after hotch's three day long break from work, he walked back into the office feeling like a new man. he got to spend time with jack, his ears were in slightly less pain than before, and he finally got a good nights sleep.

unfortunately, the second he went to step into his office, strauss came around the corner saying that she needed to talk to him in her office asap.

that never meant anything good.

he quickly follows the women to her office and shuts the door behind him. he turns around and stands in front of erin's desk.

"what is this about erin?"

"why don't you take a seat aaron."

"i'd rather not." aaron says and erin simply sighs.

"it was brought to my attention-"

"by who?"

"i have no obligation to tell you that. as i was saying, it was brought to my attention that your ear pain has greatly increased and you have been disobeying your doctor's orders to stay away from loud sounds and flying on the jet with the rest of your team."

"so dave told you."

"aaron." strauss sighs again but continues "it hurts me say this but you are an asset to this team and i need to you to be healthy. your team
needs you to be healthy."

"you're telling me things i'm already aware of erin. what is the point of this?"

"i'm assigning you a sign language interpreter for cases. indefinitely until i say otherwise."

"erin, you can't be serious. i do not need a babysitter on cases. i don't even know sign language for god's sake. i am not going to let you go through with this."

"aaron you can and you will. i signed you up for asl classes 2 times a week for 4 weeks with agent samantha quinn. the sessions are only an hour long. she will also be your interpreter on cases. you will be kind to her. you will show her respect. you will not project your anger towards me onto her. do you understand?"

hotch sits in silence.

"aaron, do you understand?"

"yes, i understand. can i get back to my job now or do i need to be chaperoned to my own office?"

"you're free to go."

hotch angrily walks out of strauss' office and heads right to rossi's.

"dave, i am going to kill you."

rossi doesn't even look up from his paperwork as he responds "i did it for your own good."

"that was not your decision to make dave. you had no right to go to her like that. now i have to take asl classes and then have a babysitter on every single case. i'm perfectly fine."

"you absolutely are not fine. you were doubled over in pain from a single gunshot that was a quarter of a mile away from you. you are in pain and you are stubborn which only makes things worse. you need help and i'm getting you that help before you destroy yourself. everyone is worried about you."

hotch walks out without another word and slams his office door shut.

it's official...dave sucks.

•••

burn out can be a real bitch. don't get sam wrong, she loved teaching but she needed a change of pace. she almost cried tears of joy when strauss asked her to transfer to the bau for the time being and tears of joy are not common after conversations with erin strauss.

she's always envied the bau. not their cases by any means but how close they are. they've worked together for so long that they're like a well oiled machine. even more than that though. they're a family. sam has never once experienced that while working at the fbi. sure, she was super close with her students but she never felt like her coworkers were her family.

she is of course feeling cautious though because what if they don't like her? they all might totally hate her or dr. reid will think she's stupid and totally inferior to the rest of them but she's worried the most about hotch. it's no secret that aaron hotchner is a very closed off man who never smiles. she's want him to like her the most. especially because she's really only there for him and she has to give him asl lessons twice a week for a month.

she'll be doing it during the work day though as hotch didn't want to lose any more time with his son than he already has to which sam immediately agreed with when strauss suggested the idea to her. she's open to doing whatever will make hotch the most comfortable and open to learn and if that means during her lunch break so he can actually be a father then so be it.

since the bau team just got back from a case and it's friday, they'll be starting the lessons on monday. sam can't wait but she knows that hotch is less than inclined to do this so she'll just have to push through and remember that he's angry at the situation, not her. knowing her though, she'll probably end up in tears before they're even half way through. aaron hotchner is known to be quite cruel.

•••

once sam finishes up her office hours for a couple of the trainees that need extra help, she decides to send the grumpy unit chief an email introducing herself.

can't blame a woman for trying to make a good impression. although he's a profiler so he'll probably know exactly what she's doing as soon as he reads the email.

the email reads:

hi agent hotchner,

i'm agent samantha quinn and i will be your asl teacher as well as your interpreter on future cases. i know we won't be seeing each other until monday afternoon but i just wanted to send this email beforehand to introduce myself and lend you some information about me before we're thrown into spending all of our time together in the future.

i'm not sure how much strauss has told you but i used to work for the counter terrorism unit before i switched to being an asl professor for the trainees at quantico. i know that this is something new and traumatic so i won't push you too hard in our month together of learning. i want you to know that i'm only here to support you and even though strauss was the one who set this up, i would've been happy to help even if she didn't.

i'll come by monday morning just to say hi and to put a name to a face if that's okay with you. i know the bau team is always busy saving lives so i won't take too much of your time, don't worry :)

have a good weekend,

samantha quinn

she thinks this is good. she wasn't too forward but she still got her poor across and let him know that she's not ill intentioned. strauss has a history of trying to sabotage hotch and the bau team.

she shuts her computer and heads to her car, finally going home after a long day at work.

all she wants to do is curl up on the couch with her dog and a bottle of wine.