Save Me | Aaron Hotchner x Female OC

Chapter 13 - Catharsis

//A/N// I am SO sorry for the delay in updating - I've not been very well. But fear not, things are back to normal now and Hotch and Elena can continue as planned

//x//

Elena

Consulting on a case for the BAU was undoubtedly not on my bingo card for the day, or even the year, but I was pretty excited about it – the murder part notwithstanding, of course.

It would have been easier to focus in my mind wasn't completely out of whack due to Mr Miserable giving me glares from across the table. They weren't nasty glares, however, they were just...glares. Like he was boring in to my very soul, fixated on every single thing I did or said.

He had me all kinds of confused in all honesty. Each time I interacted with him I didn't know what version of him I was going to get. Sometimes he seemed happy to be around me, and other times he acted as though I was an incubator for the bubonic plague.

Still, he hadn't kicked me off the case or demanded I return home, so that was something.

I watched at the BAU team worked on their profile, utterly enthralled by the way in which their minds worked. Some of it seemed like common sense, but when local PD started asking stupid questions, I realised that perhaps it wasn't as obvious as it seemed.

The time came for them to deliver the profile to the whole precinct, so I sat at the back and observed as the team launched in to action, all delivering the profile without a single jumbled word or hint of doubt – it was fascinating. And fuck, Aaron was hot while doing it.

The way he spoke just had such power. He oozed this self-confidence that most people could only dream of, and the best part was, was that he wasn't arrogant while doing it. He was just himself. No need for false arrogance when you have assured respect. Every single person in the room hung on what he said, and I'll admit I got a bit jealous seeing how some of the female, and male, officers were looking at him.

When the profile was delivered, Spencer came over to where I was sitting at the back.

"You don't seem bothered by any of this stuff," he commented.

It was true, I didn't feel overly affected by what I was seeing and hearing in the station.

"It's amazing how desensitised childhood trauma makes you," I joked.

He didn't laugh. I instantly regretted falling in to my usual trap of becoming overly-familiar with people I barely knew.

"Sorry..." I muttered. "I'm used to being around Charlie."

"You don't have to tell me, and I won't ask, but I hope you're okay."

He was giving me one of his thin lipped, half smiles when I looked at him, his big puppy dog eyes searching my face.

"Thanks, Spencer."

He perched on the edge of the desk next to me. "So you and Hotch..."

I groaned aloud. "I thought of all people, you'd be the one I'd be safe from having to have this conversation with."

He gave a light chuckle. "Sorry, but it's pretty obvious."

I scoffed. "That he can't stand the sight of me?"

"We both know that's not true."

I frowned. I hadn't dared let myself consider that Aaron might feel similarly for me as I did for him, because that would send me in to an even deeper state of attraction, no doubt. But every time I hung around with his friends they all seemed to have something to say on the matter – namely that Aaron did in fact have a thing for me.