sect bound . aaron hotchner

1.2

Aaron Hotchner hadn't expected Jack to ask questions about her for at least a few years; he was under no illusion that – at some point – he would begin to question the woman from his past, Aaron wasn't exactly careful about mentioning her. He wondered if perhaps he could have been more private about the girl he had lost, but without thinking he would always light a second candle for her when they were lighting one for Haley. When Jack would ask, he would explain that it was to guide Annie home and the boy would take those words as his answer.

That was until that morning. Aaron knew he was lucky that Jack hadn't questioned him about the woman already, but - despite the decade he had had to prepare himself for any questions about her – he wasn't prepared for that moment. As Jack showed him the photo of the duo at girls Junior prom, the words stuck in his throat and he just stared at the smiles on both of their face as they laughed at whatever her mother had said to make them relax into the photo.

That was why – on the morning of August 27th – Aaron Hotchner was late for work. There had been a couple of times he had been late in the past – when he had been stabbed by Foyet and the few times Jack had kept him up all night as a newborn – but none of them would be as difficult to explain to his team than that morning. He had spent at least an hour explaining to his son that his friend had gone missing years ago – long before he was born and before him and his mother had been married – he also told him the story of the musical. Both Haley and Aaron had told Jack how they had met, he wasn't old enough to know the significance, but he did know that his dad had walked into rehearsals and fallen for his mother as she performed on the stage. However, in all their previous retellings the duo had left Annie out, neither knew quite how to explain why she didn't visit. Though, as he looked at his son and the photos he had pulled out on the kitchen table, something told Aaron that Jack was ready to hear it.

Of course, he kept out a lot of details not wanting to worry Jack, but, as he answered the boy's questions, he realised that he was feeling oddly hopeful about his friend. In his work he had seen the evidence that not all stories like Annie's ended happily, he had seen the bodies discovered after decades and heard the stories of woman who disappear without any trace. However, that morning he forgot about the hope he had lost as he listed off statistics to police departments. Annie was out there, he knew it.

As he entered the office, he knew that he would be approaching the technical analyst once again to look into the cold case. Then he wasn't going to stop his investigation until he found her, dead or alive he would bring Annie home.

Crossing the workspace, Aaron tried to draw as little attention to himself as possible – he did not want to make a spectacle out of his lateness. However, he was unsuccessful. Before he had even reached the bullpen, he had been stopped by a member of the security team. As he looked past the man and up towards the office, he noticed a figure pacing backwards and forwards. Presuming it was a member of his team or an external law enforcement agency, he tried to signal to the man that he was late, but he was still stopped in his tracks.

"She said she knew you but wouldn't say how." He stated, nodding towards his office. "She seemed paranoid, kept looking over her shoulder."

Aaron knew that it was naïve to hope that it was her, but still he felt a lightness in his chest as he saw the red-haired woman in his office, "Did she give a name?"

"Mabel Stanley." He stated causing Aaron's eyes to become wide.

He muttered a quick thank you and quickened his pace as he crossed the bullpen to his office. He could hear his team calling out but ignored them without any acknowledgement; Aaron had to get to her. In his head, she was still the 25-year-old who had gone missing, he didn't think about the state the woman would be in when he walked into the office. For the last decade he had assumed the worst, but in that moment all he wanted was to see her.

His hand hovered on the handle of the door for a moment, the man trying to push the desperation away from his face. He didn't know what she had been through over the last ten years, but he hoped she had simply changed her name and moved to a different country. He wondered if she would be in the room smiling and slightly sunburnt from having spent the last year in a sunny European country. Reality set in and he knew that it was difficult to change your identity without a paper trail and that there was likely something more that had happened.

As he pushed the door open, Aaron was shocked by the sight he was greeted with. Annabel Brady had been an athletic and healthy woman before she had disappeared, now she was stood before him with barely enough weight to cover her bones. Standing before him, he almost didn't recognise her. However, beyond the obvious signs of her eyes and the scar on her lip, he knew in his heart that it was her. She may have looked like a stranger, but she didn't feel like one.

"Annie." He whispered, his tone less declarative and more questioning. As she let a half smile fill her face, he was unable to believe what his eyes were telling him. "Is that really you?"

She was shaking as she muttered, "I'm sorry Aaron."

Aaron shook his head, closing the gap between them and taking her hand in his in an attempt to steady the shaking. She flinched slightly as he reached for her hand, but within seconds she relaxed herself in to the contact. They stood there for a moment in silence, but before long Annie had begun to sob. Without hesitation, Aaron pulled her towards him and tightened his grip around her. If he held her tight enough, perhaps all the broken pieces would fuse back together.

"You have nothing to worry about," He whispered, resting his chin on the top of her head. "You're safe here Annie, I won't let anything happen to you."

"You can't promise that." She breathed pulling away from him and glancing towards the window into the bullpen. "You never know who is out there, you never know who could be waiting."

He shook his head, "I'm going to close that blind, then we can talk properly. No one will hear us in here."

He watched her tense up before him, turning away as he walked across the room to pull the blinds to, "I can't, it isn't safe Aaron."

"Okay, then we can talk about anything else you want to." He countered taking a seat on the couch and gesturing for her to join him. "I don't want to push you."

She hovered at the desk for a moment, "Is this your son?"

Aaron smiled as she picked up the photo of him and Jack from his desk, "Yes, that is Jack."

"He has Haley's eyes." Annie stated, glancing back towards the man as she placed the photo down. "You aren't wearing a wedding ring."

"Haley passed." Aaron explained, not wanting to discuss the situation in any detail. "Jack reminds me of her more and more each day."

"I'm sorry." She responded. "I'm sorry I missed the wedding."

"It's okay," He lied, taking her hand as she sat beside him. "Haley's dad got drunk and hogged the dance floor at the reception anyway."

"I wanted to go, but I couldn't."

"Why Annie?"

"You didn't deserve to lose Haley," she changed the subject, "But at least you have a beautiful boy to remind you of her."

He let out a breath, knowing that it wouldn't be easy to get the truth about the last decade from Annie, "I had nothing to remind me of you."