No-one had seen Annabel Bradey in a decade, that was until she resurfaced in SSA Aaron Hotchner's office in Quantico. She was carrying scars both physical and mental, but wouldn't share her story. Or at least not until everyone she loved was in dang...
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Annie Bradey couldn't sleep. After her failure to drift off on the plane, she thought she would quickly slip away once she got back to Aaron's apartment. However, Annie was led, staring at the glow in the dark stars stuck to Jack's ceiling - Aaron had insisted she say in his son's room for the night as he wasn't occupying his room. She had tried to argue, knowing she would feel much less intrusive taking her normal position on the couch, but her friend had been persistent.
Though, after what felt like hours staring at the stars, she pushed herself from the bed, still wrapped in a blanket, and made her way to the living room. Her footsteps had been quiet, and her escape would have been successful, had Aaron have been sleeping soundly. Annie was not that lucky.
The man in question had been unable to sleep, his mind repeating her words from earlier that evening. They had been a sucker punch to his perception that they were happy, that they had a functioning existence. Only moments previous he had been defending them to David, but she seemed to have a different opinion. As a profiler, he should have seen the signs, but no matter how much he replayed the last three months in his head he couldn't see them. He had been blinded by his own hope.
He was watching a Brian Cox documentary when Annie entered the living room, the subtitles on in an attempt to keep the volume as low as possible. Despite his desire to talk to her, to understand where her words had arisen from, he didn't want to disturb her rest. From many nights soothing her as she awoke in a cold sweat with silent screams - her daughters' lifeless bodies filling her dreams - Aaron was aware of how difficult it was for her to recharge. After her first case, he was sure she needed it more than ever.
Taking a seat beside him, Annie noticed the tub in his hand a smile filling her face as she asked, "Is that Peanut Butter Cup?"
Aaron laughed slightly as he nodded, the knowledge that she still knew his go to ice cream reminding him that she was still the girl he had known before. He passed the tub to her, watching as she took a mouthful before shoving it back in his direction. Her face cringed slightly as she muttered, "Still can't stand it."
"I guess you can't obtain taste," Aaron joked lightly, turning to face Annie who has since become fixated on the television.
He watched as she was mesmerised by the galaxies that raced across the screen, her eyes wide with awe. Staring at the universes that they could never truly understand, Annie's face had become relaxed with the heaviness that had been a constant occupant for the last three months had becoming non-existent. For the first time, Annie looked as though she had forgot the events of her decade long trauma, and Aaron felt something click in him.
"Annie." He spoke, catching her attention. She let out a soft hum in response, waiting a moment before she looked away from the documentary. The weightlessness remained in her features as she looked at Aaron, and, if he had been able to see that closely, he would have seen her pupils dilate as she smiled at him.
Caution had left Aaron's mind; when his lips collided with Annie's they were deprived of hesitation or remorse. There was a desperation to his movements, his hand moving to the small of her back to pull her closer to him. Perhaps his frustration had grown over the decade that he had been missing her, and this was the way it had manifested. Had he have been thinking rationally, he would have pulled away, but all he felt was pure desire for the woman. He craved to become intertwined with her the way their souls had been since the day they met.
To know Annie was to love her, Aaron knew that, though until he had met her again, he hadn't had any desire to take things further than friendship. He was sure she hadn't either. There was a part of him knew that she would never feel anything beyond the platonic curiosity she had indicated that night. However, he didn't care anymore. Even if it was just the once, he wanted to hold her the way he knew he shouldn't.
He lost track of the reasons he had given himself to pull away before. There was a list in a locked room in his mind of reasons why he should never cross the boundary with Annie, it had been stored away since his teenage years when hormones caused him to become fixated on the curves she was growing into. However, now, the woman had matured, taken her life into her own hands and come back to him. The list seemed pointless, a hurdle in the way in the inevitable finish line.
Annie arched her back as Aaron's lips continued their assault, her defences beginning to fall away like they were made of sand. For a moment she had been stiff, unsure how to react, but after she had come to her senses, she kissed him back. Instinctively, she ran her hands through his hair, gripping in a way that made Aaron pull her closer again. Without either realising, Annie had ended up straddling Aaron's lap and his lips travelled to her collar bone.
The woman knew she shouldn't be doing this, that it would only lead to her being heartbroken. She knew he didn't love her, not how she did him, but she pushed that to the back of her mind. For a moment, she would relish in the fact that for the night she was the only thing on his mind.
There was a danger to their actions that night. The looking glass had smashed as they stepped through it, there was no going back to how they were before they knew the taste of each other's lips. From that moment onwards, there would be madness and awkward encounters. Yet, if they were to stop where they were, there would be a constant curiosity of what hadn't been fulfilled. The two continued to venture into wonderland, not so afraid of what would come next as what they would miss if they remained on the path.
