Labyrinth

II

 The team was on the jet, talking about the case and whatnot, but Ivy's eyes were on Hotch. As an empath, and someone who had suffered the same problem, she knew how his ears must've hurt quite a bit.

 "They have parachutes on board, right?" Rossi asked, looking between the team. "They should, it's standard in all federal transport." Spencer said with a confused look on his face, but Ivy caught on Rossi's drift.

 "Maybe we should give one to the elephant of the room, get him out of here?"

 Ivy's gaze turned to the man next to her, seeing as he was in obvious pain. "That be the elephant with the dead mans DNA." Derek muttered, looking up from his files and back at Rossi.

 "Obviously someone planted the semen on the victim." Hotch commented, taking a break from rubbing his forehead.

 "In the victim." Ivy corrected, making Hotch look at her with a soft sigh leaving his lips. "That's one theory." Spencer said, taking everyones attention to himself, "There's another theory?" JJ questioned, voicing everyones thoughts once again.

 "Think of someone who shared the exact same DNA as an other person."

 "Reid, you're not seriously floating around the idea of an evil twin, are you?"

 "No, I'm not." As Spencer continued to explain his theory about the unsub, Ivy was looking at Hotch, noticing how he closed his eyes tightly and groaned subtly.

 Jesus.

"Hotch, you have been cleared to fly haven't you?" Ivy asked after a few beats of silence, making Hotch look at her, knowing she was fully aware of his situation with the bombing.

 He just sighed and leaned back on his seat, throwing his head back and closing his eyes as a sigh mixed with a pained groan left his lips.

 Jesus Christ.

 With a sympathetic smile, and a sigh because of the scene in front of her, Ivy leaned back on her seat as well, looking down at the file she had on her legs.

 Hotch assigned where everyone would go and Ivy was paired with Rossi for the morgue, "My favourite." Ivy said sarcastically, "Tell me about it." Rossi agreed, making her chuckle. The rest of the short flight, they talked about past experiences and funny stories, JJ and Ivy sharing stories one about the other.

 "Oh my God... Bella remember when y-" Ivy cut her cousins sentence short, by shaking her head; she knew what JJ was going to say since she loved that story.

 "No I don't."

 "What did she do?" A very curious, and grinning, Emily asked making JJ jump with excitement.

 "JJ no."

 But what JJ heard was "JJ yes" so she told the story Ivy dreaded to hear. "When Ivy was like... five? Three? Four? Or more? I don't know, she was very young anyways." Ivy snorted a laugh at her cousins confusion, hiding her face in her hands.

 "She was in daycare, waiting for her mom to come pick her up, right? And she was hiding under the Goddamn slides just waiting, lurking, when a woman with the same pants as her mom came in, looking for her daughter. Ivy, thinking that it was her mom, ran over to the poor woman, clinging onto her leg for dear life."

 The BAU laughed, while Ivy was hiding her face in her hands, embarrassement written all over her face.

 Hotch couldn't help smiling at her embarrassement as well, finding it kind of sweet how JJ and Ivy always had a nice bond. "My mother still makes fun of me for that." Ivy muttered, laughing softly at herself.