"You're not supposed to earn love, Cait."
"Well, neither are you, Aaron."
°•°•°
After Haley's death, Aaron believed he was never supposed to find love again. Finding and losing Beth seemed to only prove that theory.
Caitlin had given up on the idea...
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All I needed was for this case to go smoothly. All I needed was for us to find some leads that actually took us somewhere. Hopefully the footage Thompson and Dave had found would give us something to work with, and hopefully this friend of Thompson's would be good at her job.
A knock echoed from my office door, so I gave a mumbled 'come in' in response. Thankfully it was Reid with the analyst from counter-terrorism.
The first thing I noticed about her was the abundance of things that she had. A flask, keys, phone, lip balm, all held in one of her small hands. The second was the way her deep, chocolate eyes seemed to take in the entire room around her before she focused on me.
"You must be Ms Vasquez," I said as I walked straight to her. She hardly reached my chin, but height difference wasn't something I worried about, not when it could be so beneficial.
No, what I was worried about was just how... how beautiful she was. It wasn't something I should be thinking, especially since she was Thompson's age, but she had those gorgeous eyes that I'm sure would look like pools of honey if they caught the sun right. But I had to be professional, and fraternisation between agents was frowned upon, and I was a unit chief... not her unit chief, but one nonetheless.
"You can call me Cait." Cait shuffled the last of the things she held in her hands to shake mine, and gave me a smile that was far too kind for what I deserved. "Sir."
Was it that obvious I found her attractive? Was it that... or was I reading too far into it? The way her voice changed was hardly noticeable, so maybe it was a trick of the mind or simply hopeful thinking. Or maybe it wasn't, I guess I hadn't really done this for a little while now. Not since Beth.
Her hand was swallowed in mine as I held onto her soft skin for too long, and I risked a look to her gentle smile. She noticed the look, she had to. I could tell from the way the light in her eyes changed.
I guess Jessica had told me to try dating again, and Jack was old enough now to tell me the same thing. What was the worst that could happen if I just...
"Aaron, please." Well, I guess I just did that. "Kory speaks very highly of you." And I guess I just called Thompson by her nickname instead of her last name too. This was going well.
"You too," Cait replied and it made me remember that I was still holding onto her hand.
I should really let go. I didn't want to, but I had to, especially since Reid was standing in the room with us and would likely pick up on everything going on. Not straight away, but he would figure it out, and he would tell Thompson and the others and then I would never live it down.
So I let go of her hand, but couldn't stop myself from looking at the rest of her. A cinnamon sugar brown work shirt, made of some kind of soft material I wanted to touch, black work pants... she looked to be in a little bit of disarray, but it's not like I could blame her. Today had been a mess from the minute I woke up to this current second in time.
