a second chance - Hotchniss

Finale [Alaska]

One year later...

"Happy Birthday Girl, you're growing so damn fast!", Penelope cheered as she hugged me.

It was my 18th birthday and my parents had taken me to the BAU to celebrate a bit. I had to admit that I was a bit tired since my friends and I had met yesterday evening and had stayed up until midnight, which was only the beginning of the party.

"Happy Birthday, you're getting old!", JJ laughed and handed me a little present. I was about to thank her, but Reid cut me off: "Actually, she has only reached a-", but JJ's look made him shut up immediately.

I let out a laugh and hugged her: "Thank you."

A lot had happened in the past year. My parents had officially gotten back together again and my dad had moved in with us again. I think the whole divorce stuff had made their love for each other even stronger, unexpectedly.

Concerning me and my recovery, I can only say that I am so thankful for everyone who had helped me through it. I was officially 'recovered' but I knew that there would always be moments where I might feel weaker again. In those cases, I always called Dr. Adams. I was still going to his consultation-hours once a week. It was really easy to talk to him and he had become a good friend of mine during the past year.

My phone buzzed and I took it out of my pocket. It was a text from Brooke, which made me really happy, but I was still expecting a text from Jonas. Jonas and I had to agree on a long-distance-relationship since we were both going to college now and he had been offered a scholar-ship on a renowned sports college in London. I had told him to take it, because I knew how much he wanted this and that he had only been hesitating because of me. Nevertheless, I missed him. More than anything. I trusted him, no matter what, still it was hard to see him only twice a month since the flights from or to London were quite expensive. Thanks to my parents I could sometimes even use the BAU's jet, but of course it was not available all the time and we were both really busy with college.

"Maybe he is still asleep", my mother tried to cheer me up as she discovered me looking at my phone.

"Still", I mumbled. "I miss him."

"I know, honey", she gave me a sad smile. "But I am sure he has a good reason why he has not texted yet. This is Jonas, he would never forget you."

I just nodded, I hoped she was right.

The next few hours, I was busy with unwrapping gifts and a lot of talking. Time went by way too quick. To be honest, I felt kinda exhausted when I had finished the gifts, and I felt bad as well. The members of my parents' team treated me like I was their child, they had always been so nice and sweet to me. I felt a bit like I was owing them something.

"There is one more thing", my father said and I looked up to him. "Another one?", I chuckled.

"Close your eyes", my mother smiled. I gave her a confused look before closing my eyes. How old was I? 7?

The whole room filled with silence and I felt how tensed they all got. What the hell was going on? I heard how a door was opened, but there weren't any footsteps.

"Open them", my father said and I carefully opened them, a bit scared about what was to come.

"Oh my god!", I whispered as I discovered my boyfriend standing in front of the door, holding flowers in his hands.

My eyes filled with tears as I jumped and ran into his arms. He picked me off the ground and swirled me around while hugging me back.

"You're here", I whispered as he let me go.

"It's my girlfriend's birthday, of course I am", he smiled and kissed me. "Happy birthday, Alaska."

I was so happy that tears started to run down my cheeks. As we broke apart for catching our breaths, I wrapped my arms around him and rested my head on his chest. "I missed you so much", I sobbed.

"Oh, I missed you, too", he smiled, softly rubbing my back and placing a kiss on my hair. "I brought you something", he then said and pulled a little box out of his pocket. It was obviously from Tiffany & Co.

"Thank you", I smiled and gently opened it. It was a beautiful necklace, with a J engraved in the clinger. "So I can always be with you, even though I'm in London.", he explained and I teared up again.

"I love you so much", I sobbed and kissed him.

"I love you, too", he grinned and took my hand. "Let's go join the other's again. I think they are watching us."

I turned around to find everyone looking at us, Penelope close to crying because she was so moved. I let out a chuckle: "I guess you're right." And with these words, we walked back to them, hand in hand.

A lot had happened the past two years. We all the changed, we all learned a lot and got stronger. But what the most important thing was that we finally had found happiness. I had no idea for long it would last, but in moment, I did not care. Life was about enjoying the moment, about collecting memories. For me, this was working perfectly fine at the moment.

The End.

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Note from the author:

THANK YOU so much for reading this story. I hope you enjoyed it. This was my first real story to write and I am still flashed by the amount of views it has gotten. Thank you all so much! I still cannot believe that this story is now over, I never thought that it would actually end one day, but here we are! I'm going to miss this family, especially Alaska! I hope you liked the ending, and if there are any open questions, let me know! I will answer all of them :)

I'm already working on another Hotchniss Story which is going to be published very soon, so stay tuned! :)

Thank you all so much once again!

See y'all soon :)