Classified light- a criminal minds fan fiction

'I still recall...'

Cameron sat in the silence of the filing room alone.

The tears building up throughout the day threatened to pour from the lack of noise, they burnt her eyes and stung as she held them back. 

She wouldn't cry, she couldn't let herself cry or she feared that she wouldn't stop.

The door opened a few minutes after she sat down with a stack of boxes on the one desk in the room, Hotch walking in and watching her for a moment before shutting the door behind him and grabbing a stack of files to search through- waiting for her to start a conversation like usual, but she didn't this time.

He felt his frustration growing with her silence, the way she painted her usually expressionful face with a blank demeanour as she read the files, the way his irritating feeling of jealousy grew from earlier.

"Can you pass me a pen?" He broke the silence, not that he needed a pen, he just couldn't bare the silence he usually enjoyed, but she didn't even look up from the file as she handed a pen out to him.

Hotch paused before taking it, shaking his head at her, although she didn't see because she still wouldn't look at him.

"Why are you ignoring me?" He let the words come out before he could stop them.

"I'm not ignoring you" she replied simply.

"You haven't said a word since I've come in here."

"Because I'm working."

"You always talk whilst you work."

"If you want to talk then you can start a conversation" she replied but there was no bitterness to her voice, no coldness- but no warmth either; just indifference.

Hotch rolled his eyes and turned to his files but he wasn't able to concentrate, his anger, his jealousy building more and more until he couldn't take it anymore.

"Did something happen with you and Spencer?" He asked coldly, a fake bout of disinterest to how he needed to know.

"Excuse me?" She asked with genuine confusion, looking up from the file to look at him for the first time- maybe she just misheard him.

"Last night, when I left- did something happen with you and Reid?" He turned to her, a bitterness to his voice- nope, she didn't mishear him at all.

"What are you insinuating?" She folded her arms, not liking his accusatory tone.

"Answer my question."

"You answer mine."

"Fine; I am 'insinuating' what I've been 'insinuating' for months and you've been to oblivious to notice. I'm 'insinuating' that maybe Reid finally told you about his crush, and based on your late arrival to work maybe I'm 'insinuating' that something more happened and maybe I'm 'insinuating' that you need to tell me the truth about what really happened to your knuckles" he couldn't help his quiet anger rambling out.

He watched her face move from her quiet indifference to pure anger as she stood up.

"You're saying that you think I, what Aaron? Cheated on you?"

"I'm saying that whether you intended to or not, your kindness might have taken over. Given how you've been acting with Reid today it's not outlandish to think-"

"It is outlandish to think that!" She suddenly yelled to his surprise before trying to collect herself, "when have I ever given you any valid reason to think I would do anything like that?"