Against Protocol (Aaron Hotchner X Reader)

chapter twenty four: second first dates

well, this is it. the last chapter. hope it lives up to your expectations <3

The crackle of the campfire — its warmth mocking the sun — illuminates the team's face, their smiles, their laughs like honey glossing over film. Contentment falls on the lilt of their voices, and the calmness that surrounds you is foreign.

It had been so long since you felt like this, like you didn't have to look over your shoulder every waking moment with the fear it would cost someone's life.

The case had taken an emotional toll on you; it still did. The phone calls, the letters, the interrogations. Even sitting in Rossi's backyard, sitting with a team that worked with you tirelessly to catch Vera and Alice, you couldn't help shake the macabre feeling of death. Of guilt.

You don't know how Hotch did it, jumping from case to case, never taking a break. It was easy to forget what he went through throughout his career as his stoic face dissolved any notion of worry, but you knew it had to gnaw at him endlessly.

Every single waking moment dedicated to catching killers, yet he managed to break off a piece of himself and surrender it to you, just you.

And maybe that was comforting enough, or at least as close to comfortable this job would allow you: the idea that you weren't alone in this.

The team, particularly used to the unexpected, had quickly grown accustomed to your relationship with Hotch. Garcia had even made a show of comparing your astrological charts, a conviction Hotch had no intention of believing, only indulging in it for Garcia's sake.

Though the slight smile that grew on his face at your compatibility was the type that couldn't be fabricated.

Spencer, on the other hand, had brought his own date to Rossi's which was an oddity in and of itself. You had never seen her before, her brown hair just bordering her shoulders and an all too familiar look of the burdens of your career stained on her face.

Frankly, you weren't quite sure how Spencer and his date had come to fruition, but the uncharacteristic relationship was oddly compatible. All Spencer needed was someone who would complement his otherwise delicate composure, and she seemed to be the perfect match.

The rest of the team welcomed her with familiarity, and the name quickly came to recognition.

Elle Greenaway.

While she didn't make much mention of her past with the team, compliments to her did not fall short. Spencer seemed to be greatly fond of her in the same nostalgia childhood friends had, and the rest of the team caught up with her after all these years.

After dinner, she comes up to you, noticing you drifting from the conversation as you spiraled back into everything that happened the last few weeks. People had died; well, people would always die, but this time, it hit particularly deep into your psyche.

Alice and Vera, people who might have had otherwise normal lives, had their futures scrambled away. As much as you tried to understand it, you don't think you ever could and maybe, for now, that was for the better.

"You must be Agent Greenaway. I've heard great things," you say, putting your drink down to face her.

"Call me Elle, please. You must be Y/N," she greets, the amicable upswing of her tone meeting your ears. "Hotch has not stopped talking about you since I've arrived."

"Hopefully not too much."

She lets out a loose laugh, the weariness that stained the corner of her eyes lifting. "Well, it's not often you get to see Hotch ramble on about something he loves like that. It's not something you see happen all the time at the BAU. I mean, this job is . . . it's draining, and it's easy to forget that," she advises.