Lost In Japan // Aaron Hotchner

VIII

That night Arden was unable to sleep. She saw ghosts in the hallways. Flickers of her childhood. Memories. It was too much for her. She didn't want to remember. Not now. JJ was sleeping on the bed next to her.

Pierce was sleeping downstairs in the common area. He was guarding the door. Making sure no one left or entered the building. The rest of their team was still searching. The clock was ticking. Time was not on their side.

Hotch was texting her updates on the case. It seemed that Reid, Morgan, and Garcia would be working all night trying to locate their unsub. Arden was unable to sleep. Her eyes refused to close. She stared at the ceiling then allowed her eyes to wander and scan the room. It was big with six twin bed lining the room. All the beds were full. The orphanage was only able to house roughly thirty children. Arden was used to sleeping on the floor. She had given the bed to JJ who was probably more used to sleeping on a mattress than the hardwood floors. 

The orphanage was close to being over crowded and Arden knew the nuns did what they could to get by. Gideon always wondered where her extra money went every month. Why she didn't have enough to get by. Well it went back to the orphanage. Arden Carter helped them pay for monthly expenses like groceries and part of the rent. It wasn't much by any means but it was something. She could have bought a car along time ago, but she didn't. First off, she didn't know how to drive. Second, insurance was a hassle and third, traffic. But what she made the argument strongest of all was, if she wasn't driving then there wouldn't be the expense of gas in her monthly budget. 

Arden Carter wasn't as broke as she made herself out to be. She was just as financially off as most people her age. Except she funneled most of her monthly paycheck to paying off debt and expenses, and a decent percentage to retirement and savings. While she had her issues with the whole orphanage thing and her upbringing it general. It didn't mean she didn't want to help Sister Catherine out in some way. Sister Catherine had been the one to take her in. Raise her as her own. It was the least she could do especially after how she had broken her heart.

It was a weird feeling watching the others as they slept. The looks on their faces were peaceful and angelic. A perfect illusion that everything was fine. She missed that. The innocence of childhood. Deciding that she would be unable to sleep Arden tiptoed her way out of the room and down to the common room where Pierce was sitting at the bay window. He was looking through the curtains to the street. Even in the middle of the night there were people out and about. San Francisco was a tourist city with an active night life. It was a city that never sleeps. 

"Can't sleep?" Pierce's voice was like a soft piece of comfort. A sliver of home. 

"No," she replied as she took a seat on the other side of the bay window. "You either?"

He softly chuckled, "I'm supposed to be standing guard."

"I doubt anyone will try and break in." The profile didn't say that he would be bold enough for that.