Undercover | a. hotchner |

Chapter 9

The next day

I touched on the Reid subject yesterday but I didn't want him to worry so I decided to drop it. I brought It back up and Hotch called Reid while we were driving into the office early.

"Hello."

"Can you come down to the office for a few? There's some paperwork I need you to look over."

Hotch doesn't mention me but I sit in on the call. "Yeah I'll be there in ten", Reid hangs up.

"Haven't you noticed", Aaron focuses on the road.

"Noticed what?", I keep my eyes on him.

"Okay so I saw Reid in the elevator one day and I assume I've been around Reid enough to know when he's not himself." He hummed in agreement.

"And he was avoiding eye contact, he was shuffling towards the door like he was trying to get away from me." I take a breath then resume. "I've been noticing on cases he's not talking as much, he's avoiding everyone in general. I think something's up."

We pull into the garage and make our way upstairs. I walk into the building first Aaron coming in a few minutes later.

I waited for him in the office.

Reid arrives minutes later into Hotch's office, "Take a seat."

He gestures to Reid, "We need to talk." His brows furrow and he pouts. Reid sits down and Aaron takes a seat on the couch.

"About?" I watch his body language and listen to his speech from the side of the room.

There's a single bead of sweat going down his forehead. His hands are trembling in his pockets; he's shuddering more than he usually does. Is he withdrawing?

I step in, "Hotch I think I know what's happening." He looks behind Reid and at me. I walk and lean on the arm of the couch, crossing my arms.

"So... how long has it been?" Reid slowly turns up at me then Hotch.

He lets out a sigh, "Three days." Hotch watches him closely.

"What are you back on dilaudid? Since when?"

Reid stands up, "Two months." I stand in a bit of a shock. Nobody realized, two months he'd been high off his ass on cases and we didn't know.

"Why?", I asked. It hurt that he couldn't have told us he was hurting enough to relapse.

"My mom's been getting worse, the meds aren't helping as much as they were before. I wanna visit her but there's been so much going on here that I didn't wanna leave."

Hotch's face softens, "You can take some personal time you know that right. I don't wanna see you in the office for the next two weeks. Go visit your mom."

"But there's--"

"It wasn't a request."

I walk out of his office going to my desk and JJ walks up to me, "What are they talking about?" She nods to the window. Morgan and Emily approach.

"Reid's... back on dilaudid. His moms worse, he's not handling it well obviously." I say in a hushed tone to not attract attention.

"I had no idea", Emily said.

"Emily none of us knew, I'm the one that told Hotch something was wrong."

Morgan smirked, "You told Hotch huh."

I scoffed and glared at him, "We're not switching the subject to that."

Spencer almost stumbled out of Hotch's office before he also came out and called me in; Morgan winked at me and I rolled my eyes.

I shut the door and walked up to him. "What's the plan?"

"He told me he was gonna go to some meetings but... I don't know if that's going to work."

"So he's gonna go to rehab?", he nodded. I let out a sigh and sat on the edge of his desk.

"At least we figured it out now, I don't know what I'd do if something happened to him." I said and Aaron came up to me.

"Reid's gonna be fine", he reassured.

Switching the topic to something lighter.

"Hey I wanna ask you something", I hummed.

"Jack's been asking for you, how do you feel about spending a weekend with us sometime."

My eyes widened and I smiled, "Of course why would I say no to my two favorite Hotchners... when?"

"Maybe in a week it depends on when Hayley will let me see him."

____

I was at Aarons for the night and was woken up by the sound of a phone. I reached over without checking the ID.

"Hotch", I didn't say anything when I realized It wasn't my phone. JJ was on the other line and I didn't plan on anyone finding out this soon.

I rolled over and shook Aaron awake and whispered, "It's JJ." He sat up and took the phone from me, running a hand through his hair.

"What is it?" I could hear JJ say there was a case so I got up and into the shower.

I feel hands snake around my waist and kisses being placed on my jaw. I turn around and peck his lips.

The water going in his hair and down his back. He tosses his head back and I wash his hair massaging his scalp.

He washes it out and does the same to me. He takes the body wash and runs it over my skin.

The movements are slow as he washes around my legs and back. I moan softly and he stops.

Leaning to my ear whispering, "Only if we had time."

"We can make time." I go to kiss him but he pulls back.

"There's fun in waiting."

We step out of the shower getting changed for work at four in the morning.

I try to be more comfortable wearing a turtleneck and black pants. Aaron was about to put on his tie but I interrupt him, "Let me." He watches me carefully wanting to know what I was up to.

I just wanted to tease the hell out of him for fun. He wants to wait fine. I'll just make him wait till he's begging for it. I thought to myself.

Getting into the car he drove to headquarters; his hand on my thigh tracing patterns.

We go in holding hands until we get to the bullpen then we pull away. Nobody was around to even notice what we were doing.

The team looks tired, irritated and sluggish. "Let's go over the case." Hotch says walking up the ramp to the round table.

Garcia walked in, "Okay you are going to Seattle, there have been five murders in the area all married mothers with a single child. Each victim was found with multiple stab wounds in the abdomen. Each in different parks"

"The mothers could represent their own, taking out their anger building confidence till he can take out the original source", Morgan States

Emily looks at the crime scene photos, "The victims were cleaned up, their hands by their side and hair combed. Maybe the unsub knows them."

Hotch takes a look and flips the page. "The unsub could be punishing the mothers for being terrible to their children."

I put my hand on Aarons thigh as he was talking. His breathing hitches but continues.

"So he sees himself as a protector." I say and everyone nods.

"Wheels up in thirty, take some time to wake up."

I stand up and walk over to Garcia, "You got straight to the point this morning."

She smiles and puts the remote down, "Honey it is way too early to be excited about anything."

"You're not wrong."

__________________

A/N

I've decided I wanted to touch on Reids addiction cause we never really got a story in the show.