Helpless (Aaron Hotchner Fanfic)

Chapter Thirteen

Omg I am soooooooooooo incredibly sorry for not updating this book since Christmas! Ugh, I feel so bad! My schedule has been crazy busy with finals the third week of January, trying to finish off a semester and now starting a new one. Blech. Anyways, my apologies. This will be an exciting chapter full of action and a little bit of sad. Who knows? Keep reading to find out!

~~~~~

Doors. Barriers to the other side.

The other side.

Not knowing what lies there is one of our greatest fears. I knew it was mine. It could hold a psychotic Unsub, a bloodstained floor, my child ... Nothing can stop fear. It comes to us quicker than we can think and haunts us. But whether or not we chose to keep it as a companion is our choice. 

I know I kicked it out on the side of the road. 

Fear was my companion, confusion was my company and despair held me for ransom. Everything in my body felt choked as I stared intently into the musty wooden shack door, rain thudding around me and the wind howling through my ears. But unlike my son in there, I could break free of these chains with a simple choice. My face contorted with determination and I whispered in my mic--

"Now."

~~~~~

I slid down the sand bunker with the jacket/blanket bundle tucked under my arm and my Glock held down at my hip. The team had no idea what they were dealing with. They were so clouded by getting a loved one back that they had no time to research victimology or analyze behavior. I knew that this guy was dangerous and extremely manipulative and would do whatever it takes to keep his prey. 

My feet touched level ground and my boots pounded their way across the sand. Hotch's mood changed then ... Through the rain, I saw him move his mouth and bust through the door. Oh god. Huge mistake. Morgan ran from the back of the shed and ducked in behind Hotch. The sand kicked up furiously behind me as I ran faster and faster towards the haunted shed. He said that I could make a mistake when he could make a bigger mistake than he realizes. There's one thing that Hotch and the team didn't know about this Unsub. 

Violent outrage isn't part of his victimology but it sure is in his personality. 

*Gunshot*

~~~~~

I kicked the door open and saw Jack sitting in the corner JJ and Reid came in through the back door with Prentiss and Morgan snuck around the front and was standing by my side. In the center of the dark, murky shed sat Lafayette in an unsteady wooden chair. Reid, JJ, Prentiss along with Morgan and I, stood all around him in a circle, staring at him and trying to read his face through the dark shadows of early morning downpour. All of our Glocks were pointed at him but he made no movement. 

"Daddy ..."

In that moment, I made brief eye-contact with my son, alone in the corner with a giant handprint across his face. My outside composure never changed but on the inside, my gut and organs twisted together at the sight. This was never supposed to happen to my child. It was never supposed to happen to my wife. JJ stepped out of the circle while Morgan and Prentiss attempted to quickly close it but Lafayette raised a gun and shot a round right past JJ's ear. She quickly stopped all movement. My gun and finger tightened, ready to pull the trigger.

"Don't touch the child," he said, his words mocking and dripping satisfaction from playing this sick, twisted game. "I swear if one of you attempts to either shoot me or grab the child, I take this semi-automatic shotgun right here beside me," he grabbed a large rifle from the shadows and held it up, the fore-end sliding back and making that dreadful loading noise, "and shoot not just the advancing person, but every member of this team and the kid."