I don't feel well when I exit the interrogation room. Sofia's rant destroyed me. I just stood there and listened to her, watched her list every single one of her victims -if I can even call them that- and why they deserved what happened. And, honestly, I am so close to passing her my ID card so she can get out.
"Are you ok?" Dave asks
"No" I answer. "Can you take the footage of her confession to Garcia and tell her I need a copy?"
"Sure"
"Thanks" I walk away before I do something I'll regret.
A few minutes later, he brings me a flashdrive in my office with the copy of the confession. I take it and go to the Sex Crimes Unit in the 4th floor. I enter the bullpen and knock on Greenaway's door.
"Come in" I hear from the other side. "Hotch! How are you?"
"Been better" I sigh. "Elle, I need a favor if you're not too busy"
"Tell me"
"We caught..." it almost makes me choke, "We found the Black Widow, and she confessed. But she gave us more than we thought. She listed all 27 victims and their sexual crimes while their records are clean. She claims that's because they have money and influence. I need someone to look into them and confirm her accusations. I hope that those victims will come forward now that the 27 are dead" I explain
"I'll get right to it" she agrees
"Thank you".
I give her the flashdrive and we shake hands. I return to the BAU and mentally prepare myself to face my own team. How are they going to look at me after finding out I've been tricked like this? How are they going to trust me again? I'm supposed to lead the team, not bring it down.
"Hotch..." JJ spots me first, and then the rest turn
"I'm sorry" is the only thing that comes out of my mouth.
"You didn't know, man" Morgan says
"I should have seen the signs, I should have paid more attention--"
"No" Dave cuts me off. "You're not going to blame yourself for this"
"I had 3 months with her", my fists tighten inside my pockets as I let myself feel that these were some of the best 3 months of my life probably.
"3 months where she showed you only the side she wanted you to see" Prentiss reminds me.
I know they're right, but something in me doesn't let me quite believe it.
"Either way, thank you all for your excellent work on this case, as always. You can go home for the evening" I say and retire in my office.
I sit down and rub my template. I take my wallet out of my pocket and I pull out the red napkin.
Sofia Wade legally states that she is not too drunk to consent to having meaningless sexual intercourse tonight with Aaron Hotchner
Sofia Wade
Aaron Hotchner
Meaningless...
Dave comes after me. "What do you need?" he asks as he closes the door
"What I need I'm not going to get" I sigh as I put the napkin back in its place
"What are you thinking?"
"How I missed this..."
"Because you weren't looking for anything" he tells me and I agree.
"I wanted to not think about this job for once. I needed to meet someone and not have to profile them. I wanted something for me that had nothing to do with all this" I confess
"She probably knew that, and that's why she went for you out of everyone else in the team. But she wasn't expecting to find herself tangled too by the end" he mentions.
"You believe that she actually felt something?" I ask desperate
"I think she did" he answers.
His words echoed in my head all night. I tried to force my own feelings out of the situation and see it from an outside perspective. How much can a person take until they just snap?
I couldn't stop picturing Sofia crying and being thrown around in her own childhood home -this was her normal growing up-, or in that dorm room. As much as I tried to push those thoughts away, they came back like a punch in my gut.
I rub my eyes as I try to relax against the couch of my office. It's past 1am but I haven't been able to get up and leave yet. It's so quiet here at this hour and I don't want to go home... without her. Does that make me a bad person?
I pour myself another glass of whiskey. But, for some reason, I can't bring myself to lift the glass from the table. My sight blurs with tears again.
"You believe that she actually felt something for me?".
Most psychopaths are incapable of loving others in the true sense of the word. And a sociopaths' version of love is often superficial, centered around manipulation and personal gain.
"I love you. I know you don't believe anything that's coming out of my mouth, but I mean it. I love you so much and I never wanted to hurt you. You are an incredible person and you deserve better than what you went through".
She sounded so genuine in that moment, it was heartbreaking. Could she be that good of a manipulator?
Instead of lifting the glass, I lift myself from the couch. I rush downstairs, because I need to ask her. I need to know if she meant those words. Not that it would make any difference now...
But when I make it to the holding cells, I find her space empty. I run back to the 6th floor and confirm that the interrogation rooms are also empty.
No. No. No.
I get the log records of the holding cells and look through every ID scanned in and out of this fucking door. And I notice it immediately...
In SSA Greenaway 11:30 pm.
Out SSA Greenaway 11:32 pm.
Out SSA Greenaway 12:24 am.
Fuck me...
I call Sofia's cellphone immediately. My phone goes straight to voicemail. I don't care about the situation right now. I just want to know she's safe and not about to do something stupid. I text her as I run to the garage to take my car. Where am I even going?
"Your father was right" I told her, which made her snap earlier.
I race to the airport as I call everyone in. Naturally, it will take them longer to get to the airport and the jet can't be ready by the time I get there. So I take the first available commercial flight to Louisiana by myself.
YOU ARE READING
Mastermind || Aaron Hotchner
FanfictionA homicide in Louisiana makes the BAU revisit a series of old murders in the area that follow the same MO. And soon they discover that the case is much bigger than they originally thought. During the investigation, Agent Hotchner comes in contact wi...
