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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Annabel Bradey defined home as somewhere that love was in abundance and there was never a discomfort or burden to be felt; she hadn't felt like that about anywhere since she was 15. When Liam become her guardian, she had felt as though she had been pulling him away from his potential and her childhood home became four walls that she just so happened to live. The home she had once had no longer existed. The closest she had come to the feeling was the first few years with Gabriel, where he had convinced her that what he felt towards her was more than an ill guided obsession.
It had been those few years that she had learnt to see herself as a person, not as a mistake and inconvenience to everyone around her. That was why, no matter what he had put her through, the earlier version of Gabriel would always have a place in her heart. It was once he had become controlling that the compound had lost the relative feeling of home. It was then that Annie had begun to wonder if she would ever find the same feeling she had when she was living with her mother, father and little sister.
Yet, as Annie walked through the door of Aaron's apartment, being tackled by the youngest Hotchner as he called her name, she realised that, maybe, she had found an alternative definition for home. Dropping her go back to floor, she lifted the boy in a playful way that left him laughing as she twisted him onto her back, and he hugged her tightly. His father shook his head, sharing a look of surprise with Jessica as she bid them all a good rest of their day and giving her nephew a kiss goodbye.
Watching as Jessica pulled door closed behind her, Annie readjusted Jack on her back before telling Aaron, "If you want to go and do some of your paperwork, I can spend some time with this one while you do it."
"You sure?" Aaron asked, looking at the woman - who had appeared exhausted since their conversation on the jet earlier that day. "I can just go in earlier tomorrow to do it."
There was a slight audible sigh from Jack following Aaron's comment, the boy always finding that he missed his father in the morning. When he was at school, the other kids would talk about Sunday mornings with their parents where they would cook pancakes together and then spend the morning lazing around together. Jack couldn't tell any stories like that, instead he told them about how his daddy was a real-life superhero - who saved people for real. Sometimes, the other kids were amazed and asked him more questions that he could answer, other times they just laughed and said he was making up stories. But that didn't matter to Jack, he knew that his dad was a superhero and, now, so was his Annie.
Annie had heard the sigh from Jack, telling Aaron, "I've got this. What do you say we make some cookies, Jack?"
The boy nodded his head quickly causing Aaron to laugh, "Do I get some when they're done?"
"I don't know, let me consult with my boss." Annie mused, turning her back to the father as she whispered with the boy who was still on her back. The boy giggled just moments before they turned to face him again, Annie sucking air through her teeth as she added, "My boss says no, not unless you finish your homework."
