Crying Lighting (Hotch x Reader)// ✔

17. I Want You

Summary:

Hotch visits you at the condo - but you're not ready to confront him yet

Notes:

TW: ~spice ! (and a short chapter bcs i thought let's leave this kinda happy for once and also give them some peace lmao hence the length)

(also yes ive listened to this Mitski song in repeat lmao u already know)

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Hotch looks at you like he's seen a ghost.

"What happened?" he asks, worried eyes fixed over your neck, his voice husky and low - an after-effect of your heated make out. "Who did this?"

There was a reason why you'd wanted the lights off. You'd have to thank Lucille again for being a major cockblocker.

"Lucille" you reply.

Hotch maneuvers you around, walking the distance to the bed and sitting you down gently. Your arms leave his neck and he notes the bruises too. The door had bit into a particularly big bruise over your elbow causing you to whine in pain – it's what presses pause to your motions.

Hotch crouches before you, taking your hands in his as he inspects your arms.

"In Seattle?" he asks.

You shake your head, more pissed off than anything, feeling strange and warm at the way he's looking at you, to make sure you're healthy.

"After the hospital. She picked me up in front of the building here. Well – more like snatched me up. Told me my time to invest is running out, apparently. I have until tomorrow to hand her 1 million. "

He frowns, squeezing your hands clasped in his, the worried lines over his forehead and between his eyebrows piling up.

"We still don't know what she intends to do with Clover."

You pull him up, guiding him gently over the bed at your side.

"I know and I'm not thrilled to just give her money. The funny thing is – I told her to contest the will. That I would do it myself too. But she didn't want the money either."

Hotch watches you in silence.

Oh, right. You'd forgotten for a split second – man who's investigating you.

"The will?"

You inhale – he'd probably found out either way through Penelope so there's no way to escape this.

"Yes, my husband apparently left me his fortune."

He nods, his expression turning serious.

"Before you say anything – no I didn't know about it until Lucille confronted me about it at the firing range. And you can check through Penelope-"

He reaches over, his knuckles brushing lightly over your neck, seeing the band-aid you'd put for the small poke that man had done with the knife. It makes you hold your breath. His gentle touch, so different from how he'd been handling you a second ago, and his worried eyes – they both make your heart beat louder inside your ribcage.

You'd always thought he'd be stuck between agent-mode and the rare zone where he wants to kiss and make-up.

This one is new.

"I'll have Garcia look into her expenses and the will too –" he pauses, then adds "if that's okay."

And maybe it's his gentle tone and the fact he seems to be considering how his actions make you feel – but you have the strangest urge to tell him about your theory over Clover. Even if it is still extremely superficial.