BLAKE | a. hotchner

4

"Why didn't you just go back to the car?!" Aaron was furious.

"How about; thank you Alex, I am very grateful that you saved my life." I said, his screaming was tiring.

"Thank you, Alex, for showing the team how to not follow orders," he said sarcastically.

I rolled my eyes, "will you calm down? It's not like I was killed."

"No, but if you were, that would have been on me," and with those words he left the room.

I sighed and sat up in the hospital bed. I tried not to move my arm, even though they had given me painkillers, it hurt like hell.

Dave entered, "so, how you doing?" He asked and I gave out a quiet laugh. 

"Great," I answered, "Aaron is pissed though, so I might go back to jail." I rested my head on the pillow.

"Just let him blow off some steam, he'll get over it," Dave smiled. "We're all just glad that you're okay"

"Yeah, sure."

Dave raised his eyebrows, I sighed. 

"They don't really seem.. excited about having me here," I looked out the corridor where the rest of the team was.

"Well, next time, maybe you shouldn't disobey orders on your first day," Dave smirked.

"Noted," I gave him a small smile before he went out the door.

My shoulder was itching so bad and I couldn't resist.

"You know what the doctor said!" Garcia walked into the room. "No itching!" She slapped my hand.

I gave her an angry look which she returned.

"Alright, alright, what's in the bag?" I looked curiously  at the bag in her hand.

"This, my friendly bowl with an extra hole, is a very washed, very clean green jacket!" Garcia pulled my jacket out of the bag and held it up in triumph.

"No," I whispered and sat up straighter. "You washed it?" I took the jacket and held the jacket against my nose, it smelled just like she said it was, clean.

"Yeah, it had a lot of blood on it an-"

I cut her off, "it doesn't even smell like him anymore!" I threw the jacket on the floor in rage.

"Sorry, I didn't mean.."

"Forget it, Garcia, just leave," I said and glared at her.

"I'm sorry.."

"Please.. just.. leave," I could hear the ice in my own voice but I didn't care.

"Alex, I was just-"

"GET OUT!" I hadn't screamed in years and it almost felt like knives passed my throat as the words left my mouth.

Garcia finally listened and left the room in a hurry.

Fuck.

***

A few hours passed before the next visitor entered. This time it was JJ.

"You okay?" She asked.

I stared at the ceiling, "yeah." I was so tired, but couldn't bring myself to sleep.

"Penelope's sorry," she said gently.

"I know," I whispered.

JJ picked up the green jacket which was still on the floor, she put it down beside me.

"It's not her fault, it's just-"

"A sensitive topic, I get it," JJ gave me a comforting smile.

"Can you ask her to come in here?" I met JJ's eyes.

"Of course," she gently squeezed my hand before leaving to find Garcia.

Moments later her familiar face appeared in the doorway.

"I just want to say that I am so sorry, you clearly didn't want me touching your stuff and I did it anyway-"

I cut off the fast talking rainbow who stood in front of me, "I shouldn't have screamed at you, it's just a jacket and I know you wanted to help."

"Oh.." Shock filled her face. "Well, I'm still sorry," Garcia placed her butt on one of the chairs. "You want to tell me why it's so important to you?" She asked nicely.

I hesitated.

"You don't have to if you don't want to," she added.

"No, it's fine," I took a deep breath. "It was my brothers," I started.

"Really? It doesn't say anything about a brother in your files."

I smirked, "you looked me up?"

"Of course! I want to know who I would be working with," Garcia said as if it was obvious.

"So, you know a lot about me then?" Gosh, please say she doesn't.

"God no, your files doesn't say very much, just that your mother died when you were fourteen and that your dad is in jail."

"Well, I had a brother too," I picked up the jacket from the bed.

"How was he?" She asked, very intrigued to know.

"Oh, he was the best," I smiled. "He was my best friend, he was a troublemaker though."

"I see it runs in the family," Morgan stepped in the room.

I gave out a quiet laugh.

"Am I interrupting?" He asked.

"Nope, just telling Garcia about my brother."

Morgan raised his eyebrows, "mind if I join you?"

"Not at all," I held my hand out as a gesture for him to sit down.

Soon, the whole team, including Aaron, was sitting in the hospital room and listening to me talking about how my brother always got himself into trouble.

"Where is your brother now?" Reid asked.

My smile faded, "one day when I was eleven, I was coming home from playing with a friend."

"But I noticed a number of police cars outside the house, an ambulance had also showed up. I was intrigued to know what was going on so went in. A policeman was talking to my mom who sat on a chair, she looked broken.

"I followed a stream of paramedics into the living room, everyone was standing in a circle. I pushed myself through and for a second I couldn't believe what was in front of me. My brother had hung himself in the middle of the living room.

"And that's when everything went downhill, but that is a story for another time," I laid my head on my pillow, waiting for everyone's reaction.

But they didn't say anything, they just sat there, with faces full of sympathy. That's when I couldn't hold my eyes up anymore, I fell fast asleep with the whole team staring at me.