ALEX | a. hotchner (sequel to BLAKE)

21

Lying next to Aaron felt so good, because he knew all of me and I knew all of him. There was such freedom in that, yet also a powerful sense of being lost for so long and finally coming home, of belonging.

With his arm wrapped around me, his lips in my hair and my head on his chest, listening to every heartbeat. Running my fingers down his other arm, resting my hand in his and squeezing to check that he was really there with me, really there and really real.

"Aaron," I whispered.

He hummed in response.

"Are you sure about this?" I asked. "About us?" The words came out so quietly, I almost thought he hadn't heard me.

But he was frowning, I could feel it in the way he shifted under me. The heaviness in my chest spread to my throat, and then my stomach.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, all our fights this past year," I shrugged, "is it worth it to you?"

He took a deep breath, and I shivered as the cold air hit my neck.

"You see this?" He asked quietly, holding up our intertwined hands in front of me.

And it was my turn to hum in response.

"This is where I blur into you," he whispered.

And it scared me how easy it was to fall in love with him.

But everything from that point went anything but smoothly. The movers lost my bed so I was sleeping on a mattress on the floor, Morgan had yet to say a word to me, Spencer did not take it well when I told the team I was leaving, and Penelope was still upset with me. Just as I gained Aaron, I lost everybody else. And the last week at the BAU was a total disaster.

"We will still talk after you leave, right?" Spencer asked just as he was about to leave for the day.

My breath hitched at the question, my heart beating faster. He looked at me with hopeful eyes, waiting for my answer.

"Yeah, Spence." Pause. "Why wouldn't we?"

I swallowed painfully, the doubt in my answer piercing my throat. Because I knew I couldn't promise that, I couldn't promise that we would be able to talk after I left. I couldn't promise that we would be able to deal with the distance. But he had hope in his eyes, at the hint of a promise. And it would just have to be enough.

It was late when Spencer left, everybody else had already gone home, except for Aaron who I knew was in a meeting with Strauss. I had to stay late to finish the final paperworks before my transfer the next morning. I made my way to the small kitchen by the bullpen and looked in the fridge, of course all the good food was already gone.

I threw a quick glance at Aaron's office and then back into the fridge. I froze. With a raised eyebrow I looked over to Aaron's office once again to confirm that it was, in fact, someone in there. I closed the fridge and walked up the small stairs, the door was open so I stopped in the doorway.

"Excuse me," I said gently. "Agent Hotchner is in a meeting right now, can I help?" The person was wearing a hoodie which covered his face. "Sir?" I walked closer.

He didn't answer me and when I was close enough to see his face, a gun was squeezed into my stomach. I could feel his finger searching for the trigger, but my reflexes were faster. I grabbed the gun with my left hand and hit his wrist with my right. He grunted in pain as I pointed the gun at him and forced him to the wall.

"Who are you?" I asked. He didn't say a word. I pushed him up against the wall and pressed the gun against his throat. "Don't make me ask again," I said like a warning.

A smirk was beginning to form on his face and then I fell to the floor. The son of a bitch had just punched me, right in the goddamn stomach.

I covered the place where his fist had hit with my hand, but something wasn't right. It was wet, and with a handle. My vision started to blur, I could barely make out the man's figure when he picked up the gun from the ground and pointed it at me.

"Well, this went to shit faster than I expected," I whispered to myself.

He looked at me for a while before his finger went down to the trigger. I took a deep breath and looked into his eyes. If I was going to die, I wanted to know what he looked like, so that my ghost could haunt him into his next life. I heard the loud gunshot and expected to feel more pain, but there wasn't any. The guy fell to the ground and behind him, my rescuer.

"Aaron Hotchner, you are just in time," I smirked.

"Just like old times, right?" He gave me a small, but worried, smile.

"Yeah, just like old times."

He stood there for a few seconds before snapping out of his thoughts. He kneeled beside me and looked at the knife.

"The  ambulance is on its way," he said while inspecting the wound.

"Yeah, no rush."

And then I passed out.

*

Timothy let his eyes roll up to the woman that had entered. She was in sweatpants and a hoodie, but that wasn't what grabbed his attention. Before him she held a paper, she was sent by Erin Strauss from the FBI, instructed to be brought in under the wings of Emily Prentiss. He cursed inwardly and moved to stand, but then sank back down. He was lower than her, but sitting was a powerful position as long as he was relaxed enough.

Instead he extended his hand open palmed and invited her to sit. She stopped with no intention of letting him call the shots and proceeded with the formalities and her first insult. Clearly this girl was new, he made a mental note to speak to her during that weekend. He would set her right. Next time she'd sit like a good girl and watch her phrasing.

Timothy was the highest in command at Interpol, and with Timothy it was all about power and respect, he demanded it. However, he was too stupid and too much of a coward to ever betray his country and get away with it. He was five foot nothing and a half, flat-ironed hair cut short and pulled back, the kind of person who never left without his glock and badge.

When Alex got there she was the only one who wasn't a goody two-shoes all the way through, the only one with enough flexibility in their personality to know which rules to bend, how far and when. Timothy despised her, doing everything in his power to break her down and showed her by example what happens when you don't follow procedure.

It would take Alex four years to prove that he was up to his ears in corruption.

*

I blinked once, and then twice, the world slowly coming into focus. Aaron was standing over me, welcoming me back to reality.

"This was an attack," he stated.

"What?" I frowned, couldn't he at least let me wake up properly before coming with his theories.

"It was an attack on the team," he said and sat down on the chair next to the bed. "The guy had a card, he wasn't a visitor, it said he works at the bureau."

"So, what does that mean?" I sighed.

"It means," Aaron paused and took a deep breath, "that someone is targeting us, and we need to find out who it is."

"We?" I asked, eyebrows raised.

"Will you join us?" He took my hand, "on one more case?"

"One more case?"

"One last case."

I almost smiled, almost. "Alright, one last case."