Criminal Minds x Reader

I'll Come and Find You [A.H] pt. 1

"I've got her!"

He had seen something shimmering in the barren ground and rushed to pick it up. It was your ring for sure, signaling that you were there.

It was the first thing they taught you in the academy: in case of abduction, leave as many clues as possible about your presence in the place, whether it was footprints or personal items. You had dropped it before entering the barrel, then dumped it into a pit and covered it with dirt by the man you had just gone out on a date with.

You had forced yourself to go out with him. You had forced yourself to move on, not to stop your life for someone you knew would never reciprocate your feelings. Or at least you were convinced that your boss didn't feel the way you felt. Now well, that situation was what you had gained because of your choice ─ you had become the target of a killer.

Aaron began to move the dirt in front of him with his hands. "I've got her!" he shouted again.

"Right there. Go, go, go" Derek's voice instructed the agents scattered around the area, then ran along with Emily to where Hotch was kneeling. "Right here"

"Guys right here"

By then half the Phoenix division was standing around the scene, some helping your colleagues dig with their hands or with the aid of two shovels, others silently praying that you had not become yet another victim of a deranged pair of murderers.

"Here" Aaron warned. He had found the lid of the barrel. Metal clangs as he desperately tried to open it. He groaned. "Come on" he yelled, the lid clattering as he got the only thing that separated him from you out of the way.

Your head was down, possibly unconscious. He was pleading to a God he didn't even believe in that you were just unconscious.

"Here she is. Help me. Let's get her"

They pulled you out. Some held your legs, some held your waist, but in the end the only one who held you as if his own life depended on it was him.

"Give her some room" the man mumbled, his voice by then utterly gone because of worry.

Don't get him wrong, Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner cared about his entire team. All of them. But there was something about you, something that had always attracted him. At first he didn't understand what it was but then over time, when realization hit him right in the heart, like the pole of two magnets of opposite strength when in close proximity, he pushed you away.

"Is she breathing?" asked Spencer, his line of sight almost completely blocked by Derek's body. The two of you had become best friends at some point in your careers. Maybe it had been because of the closeness of your desks, perhaps the coffees brewed in unison early in the morning, or maybe because of the evenings spent in your apartment watching documentaries, you couldn't really tell. But the thought of seeing you there on the floor was destroying him, so much so that he couldn't even turn his eyes toward you.

Aaron didn't answer, it was as if his head was in another place. He probably hadn't even heard the young agent. All his focus was on you. He put his ear close to your mouth and held his breath. You were not breathing. He was sure his heart would have stopped any minute.

He tried to compose himself, not for him, but for you. "Alright" he whispered and brought his lips close to yours.

He had dreamed of that moment for months, of how it would have felt to have your soft lips on his. In the empty Bullpen or maybe in the privacy of his own home. Surely he never imagined he would be able to give you a kiss just because you were on the edge of death.

Seconds felt like hours, and you still weren't breathing. So he sat back on his knees and began CPR.

People watched the scene standing quietly in a circle. The head of the Police Department looked at his officers, reassuring them with his eyes. Of what, she didn't know either.

You broke the deafening silence by gasping for air. At first, you didn't understand where you were or how you got there. But after a moment you began to sob. You were alive.

The shadow of a smile appeared on Aaron's face just before he put a hand behind your neck and pulled you closer to his chest. He held you tight, his chin resting gently on your temple and his fingers stroking your hair. Your bodies were so close, closer than what was professionally allowed. But in that moment the rules didn't matter, because you were fine.