Criminal Minds One Shots

*You're Late (HotchxReader)

WARNING: mentions of torture | Requested by sentrywriter

You ran down the street and into the coffee shop. Frantically, you catch your breath in the doorway. Scanning the room, your gaze falls on the top of Hotch's head; he's hunched over his tablet, undoubtedly reading a new case file.

Sighing, you walked over and took a seat across the table.

"Sorry I'm—"

"You're late," Hotch interrupted without looking up. A small smile was playing at his lips.

"I know, I know. But give me a break. It's only 10:04. Not even five minutes."

Hotch let out a soft chuckle.

"Hey! We can't all be 15 minutes early to everything!"

Hotch playfully shook his head. "Well, unfortunately, we'll have to reschedule... again."

You rolled your eyes. "How did I guess?" you sarcastically mumbled.

"This is the life you signed up for, y/n," he gently reminded as he stood up.

"Right. Right. Damn. Just as I paid the parking meter too."

. . .

The case was in Oklahoma. Someone, most likely a sexual sadist, was kidnapping people and torturing them to death.

"You know," Reid suddenly said, pulling you from your book, "I think this might be a team."

"What makes you say that?" JJ asked, getting up from her seat and walking over to Reid.

"Look at the wounds on Harold Carswell and Sam Hassock." Reid placed the pictures on the table.

"Okay," you said, flicking your eyebrows up in confusion.

"Now look at the wounds on Janette Wolby. They're more superficial and there's a clear pattern. There's no way one person did this."

"How do you know the unsub isn't just trying to throw us off?" Morgan reasoned.

"No Reid's right," you commented, the pieces slowly coming together. "The wounds look like they were made with different intents. The punctures on Harold are forceful. Purposeful. But on Janette, they're..." you hesitated, "al- almost like an art," you mumbled.

"But what about—"

"It's not one person trying to throw us off. Sam and Harold have nearly identical wounds. If the goal was to throw us off, why repeat a style?"

"I see your—"

"We've got a team," Hotch interjected, hanging up his phone.

You scoffed playfully. "Yeah. Bit late to that."

Hotch almost let a smile slip at that. "Local PD just brought in a suspect. He's admitted to having a partner. A woman."

You and Reid looked at each other mildly triumphantly.

"When we hit the ground we're splitting up. Reid, Morgan, JJ. You go to the field office. Set up a geographic profile and interrogate the suspect. Rossi, Emily, you go to the dump site." Hotch looked at you for a moment. "Y/l/n you're with me. We'll check the abduction sites."

. . .

"There's a lot of ground we gotta cover," you said with dismay. "12 miles."

"We'll split up," Hotch said casually.

You whipped around quickly. "You sure that's a good idea?"

"No, but it's all we can do. We'll meet here," Hotch pointed to a fountain on the map at the other end of the park. "We'll check in every half hour. Sound good?"