Change My Mind ~ Criminal Minds (Aaron Hotchner x OC)

110.0: Sometimes There Is No Happy Ending

A/N: Continuation of 8x12 Zugzwang 

TRIGGER WARNING: STALKING, KIDNAPPING, HOSTAGE SITUATION, SU*CIDE MENTION

"Love is our true destiny. We do not find the meaning of life by ourselves alone - we find it with another."
― Thomas Merton

Crystal sighed as Hotch sat her on the couch in his office, "I'm fine, Aaron. It's just morning sickness." He shook his head and crouched in front of her, "You're stressing yourself out, Crystal. You need to calm down." She shook her head, "I'm not stressed, I'm okay." Hotch stared at her before taking her hand in his, "I want you to stay here with Garcia, can you do that?" She frowned at this, "I can do my job, Hotch."

"I'm not saying you can't, but I'd feel more safe with you here and out of harms way. Crystal, you were shot at last time and you're 5 weeks pregnant. Our baby right now is the size of an orange seed, I need the both of you safe." Hotch reminded her and she relaxed, she reached out to hold his face. "Okay, I'll stay here. Sorry, I don't know why I've been a bit moody." He smiled and leaned to kiss her, he rested his head against hers. "You're carrying our child, you can get moody all you want with me." This did make her smile and she squeezed his hand, "How do you know how big our baby is?"

"Your mom gave me a book." He told her and kissed her again before he left, the team were going to search Bobby's apartment after Reid explained how his girlfriend identified him without anyone saying who he was.

More than anything she wanted to be out in the field to help Reid find Maeve, but the baby in her stomach was very much there and it was her first priority right now. Crystal placed a hand on her stomach and decided to go help Garcia after grabbing another snack, that would give her something to do and distract how she felt useless in this situation. It also didn't help that her conversation with Blake was coming up in her mind again, there were similarities she found with herself and Maeve that made her realize just how lucky she was to be here today. She could've died that night almost a year and a half ago, and she wouldn't have her life right now with Hotch.

Crystal sighed and shook her head, she couldn't think of that right now. She needed to stay focus so that she could help Reid, maybe Hotch was right with her actually stressing herself out by overthinking too much. After grabbing herself an orange juice from the fridge and deciding not to eat anything since she didn't think she could stomach it, she went towards Garcia's office. Garcia turned to face her when she opened the door, "Hey, you okay?" Crystal smiled and nodded, "Yeah, just feel antsy if I'm alone." Garcia nodded and quickly got up to help her sit down, "I'm just looking into Bobby's girlfriend right now."

"And?"

"Diana Huntington is a fake name, and so is her address. All the phone conversations she had with Bobby were from a burner phone, so I'm at a dead end with that." Garcia told her and Crystal sighed, "Our whole profile is wrong, we need to rethink this with the knowledge of a woman stalking another woman. What drove her to do this?"

"Bobby?" Garcia asked and Crystal shook her head, "No, if it was over him then she would've left Maeve alone after making sure she had moved on. She knew about Reid, her endgame would've been Bobby instead of Maeve." Garcia continued typing at her computer, "Well Morgan just called, he said the apartment was empty and it looked like there was a struggle."

"She knows we're onto her, so she went back for the fiancé." Crystal opened her orange juice and sipped it, "Let's just hope that the stalker is satisfied for now, I might go through Maeve's letters to Reid again to see if we missed anything." Garcia stopped typing to look back at her, "You sure you're up to it? You don't look too good." Crystal smiled at her, "I'm just a bit tired, but I'll take a nap after we get Maeve back."