SSA Hotchniss ~ A Hotchniss story

Wheels Up

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*Ding*

The silver elevator doors seemed to open slower than usual as a frustrated Aaron Hotchner stepped out, his brown shoes stomping on the ground, the sound almost toddler-like. He practically flew into his small office and the door slammed behind him. It was difficult, but you could make out his tall figure as he walked to the blinds and pulled on the string, shutting out any light the office had been producing and only a shadow could be seen.

"What's that about" A big man sat on his desk asked, his coffee cup still steaming as he put it to his lips. Prentiss was sitting at her desk, swarmed with worry and curiosity. Her mess full of work in front of her didn't seem to help her calm down either. "I'm not sure Derek," she responded. Reid's head turned away from the conversation as soon as he figured he wouldn't learn anything valuable for participating. His mind was clouded with worries as he thought about millions of other problems the man faced that were greater than Hotch's temporary fit.

"Hey, pretty boy." Morgan seemed to interrupt Spencer's efforts to ignore the useless problem. "What." He said with a stern tone. Before Derek could return with some stupid remark as he always did, JJ walked up to the group of agents.

"Guys, we have a case. Can someone get Hotch," she spoke, tan files in her hand. Collectively, the three agents sitting at the desks sighed, slowly sitting up from the spot they were sitting at and dragging their feet to the circular room they always met up in. Rossi had just stepped out of his office when he saw the team walking to the room, realizing he didn't see Hotch. Dave turned right, rather than left, and walked to the brownish tan door he was so familiar with.

Knock, Knock

Rossi's face appeared in the doorway. "We got a case." He saw a disheveled man sitting in the desk chair, it was Hotch "I'll be there in a minute." He mumbled, as if he didn't really mean it. "What's up Aaron?" Dave was worried, he knew his co-worker better than himself and Hotch was reading like a book, "Nothing" Hotch lied, it was so painfully obvious that it thew Dave off. Rossi was about the exit the room, figuring he wasn't getting any more information from the stone-faced man when, 

"Jack asked last night if he would ever have a mom again. I don't know what to say to him..." Hotch looked up at Rossi, a look of desperation in his eyes. "Aaron, Haley would want you to move on, find a girlfriend, I trust you'll find someone." Rossi, rather than getting a reaction from Hotch, walked out of the office and to the briefing room.

"There were 3 murders in Minneapolis, Minnesota. All the victims were woman. They h-" JJ was standing in front of the giant TV when Hotch walked into the room, his slight eyeballs notable. "Please continue" he said as he took a seat in one of the comfortable chairs the room had to offer. Reid, Morgan and Garcia all looked over at their boss for only a second, then looked away. But Prentiss kept looking at him, scanning the features of his face. She noticed his dark eyes that seemed to suck her into different universe, and the wrinkles around them. She knew they weren't from smiling, but rather from the stress of life weighing down on him. It got her thinking, how many times have I seen Hotch smile?

"Prentiss?" Morgan caught her attention "You good?" Rossi asked her "Yeah, sorry I got distracted." She opened her file as looked at the disturbing images in held inside, the gruesome horror distracting her in a different sense.

"Each had part of their chest cut out, and their heart was not found." Garcia told the group, looking and sounding even more disturbed throughout the sentence. "I don't think the unsub was medically trained. The hole was off a little bit, and there are hesitation marks. You can also see that the cuts aren't smooth." Reid started spewing, everyone having to keep up.

"Were the cuts postmortem?" Hotch asked, Prentiss had butteries after hearing his deep voice, even though the words that sentence contained were morbid and not something someone should be attracted to, his voice sucked her in. She couldn't say anything about it or make it obvious that she had been staring at her boss for the past minute and a half, it made her uncomfortable to think about how everyone else, including Hotch, would feel about it. "They were pre-mortem. The coroner's office also found ligament marks, so the unsub must have tied them down."

"Did the victims have anything in common, besides the fact they all had colorful hair." Prentiss added something to the morbid and dark conversation that the team was familiar with having.

"They all had over 10,000 followers on social media. Penelope is trying to find people who follow all 3." JJ told them. "Wheels up in 30." Hotch said picking up his files once he found fitting to end the conversation.

He started to leave the room when Prentiss caught up with him "Sir, are you ok?" She asked, looking at his pushed around hair and the slight purple under his eyes, purple that wasn't usually there. "Prentiss I'm fine, you seem to be distracted though. Is anything up with you?" He asked, his eye contact made Prentiss feel much smaller. It reminded her that she is his subordinate, and she shouldn't have feelings for him, but Prentiss couldn't help herself. She stared at his lips, they were dry, but they seemed appetizing to her. Suddenly, she noticed he was trying to read her.

"You're trying to read me! Isn't that a rule, you can't do that!" She walked away before finishing the conversation, not letting Hotchner get in one more word. Her face was bright red with embarrassment as her feet took her to the mess of a desk that she normally sat at, leaving a grin on the man's face.