THE ARCHER || A.HOTCHNER

After years of loss, betrayal, and rebuilding what's left of the BAU, Aaron Hotchner lives behind walls of routine and restraint-protecting his son, his team, and the version of himself that still has something left to give.

When a case demands the precision of a forensic pathologist with a profiler's mind, the team is assigned Dr. Reese Quinn-brilliant, disarmingly warm, and quietly haunted in all the same ways Aaron is.

She isn't supposed to stay. She isn't supposed to matter.

But in between autopsy reports and late-night briefings, something begins to shift.
She's not just solving murders-she's slipping past Aaron's carefully constructed distance.

And in the silence between them, a second chance begins to take shape-not in grand gestures, but in long looks, soft questions, and the terrifying possibility of being seen.

Because she's spent her life studying what breaks people. And he's never let anyone close enough to understand what broke him.