VIOLENT DELIGHTS, aaron hotchner

in all my trust

Having a drawer at each other's places feels juvenile to Juliette. Sure, it's logical, but something in their hesitance to take the next step makes her feel silly packing a bag just to spend a weekend with Aaron and Jack.

Aaron's usually the first one up on a Monday morning, showering and getting Jack ready for school before Juliette even stirs, but this morning she wakes with the sun to find him dead asleep, curled in a ball towards the side of his bed.

She rubs her eyes before sitting up to shake him awake, but Aaron only groans and curls into himself more. "Are you alright?" She asks, her concern growing.

"I'm fine, just a stomachache." He answers, but still not moving.

Juliette strokes his arm. "It's after six, I can go wake up Jack if you want to take a shower."

"Okay... yeah. Thanks." He slowly starts to sit up, so she leaves to Jack's room.

His shower takes almost double the time, and Juliette had already finished making Jack breakfast and getting both of them dressed before he left the bathroom. He's pale, skipping breakfast and opting to go straight for the coffee machine.

"You know it's alright to take a sick day." Juliette offers, holding out a piece of toast.

He waves her off, "I'll be fine, really."

Against Aaron's wishes, she drives Jack to school and then them to work. Forcing anti-nausea meds and a cup of tea into his hands, Juliette finally settles at her desk with her mind slightly more at ease.

She's not surprised at how stubborn he is to be taken care of, but that's not a battle she's going to fight when work's involved. She doesn't see him for almost two hours, until Garcia gathers then at the round table with a case.

Aaron's the last to enter the room, beads of sweat forming on his even paler face and a hand gripping his stomach. But he still forces the attention off of himself and asks her to start with the case.

There's a child abduction in Kansas, likely by the armed and dangerous father, but Juliette only listens to the team's conversation as she watches Aaron grip the chair in front of him like his life depends on it.

When Rossi turns around to ask him a question, it's the final breaking point. Hotch holds up his hand, murmuring something inaudible before falling to the floor with a loud crash.

She's not necessarily frozen, but all Juliette can do is stand in the back of the room as Spencer uses his extensive medical knowledge to gauge what's wrong while the others call 911.

She finally speaks when the paramedics start to wheel him out of the room. "I'm going to follow him. Find the girl, I'll keep you updated."

Juliette practically beats the ambulance to the hospital with how fast she's driving, immediately pacing the empty waiting room and staring down any nurse who walk by. It's a long thirty minutes before one of them actually enters, "Family of Aaron Hotchner?"

"That's me. I'm his g- girlfriend." Juliette says, the word feeling foreign in her mouth.

"Mr. Hotchner has torn adhesions from his previous abdominal injuries. He's stable, but we were unable to locate the bleeding on an ultrasound, so the surgeon is taking him back for an exploratory laparotomy." The nurse recites, making Juliette wish she took something past high school biology. "Does he have any other family we could call?"

"Uh- a sister-in-law, I can call her. Thank you."

She finally sits down, taking a breath before calling Jessica. They haven't interacted much outside of in passing with Aaron but exchanged numbers because of Jack, and Juliette's just grateful there are no hard feelings.