𝙰𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗𝚜𝚝 𝙰𝚕𝚕 𝙾𝚍𝚍𝚜 | 𝚂𝚙𝚎𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚁𝚎𝚒𝚍

Baby Steps

Aitana had come in a little earlier today. It was the first day Hotch was back from his short break and she felt like she couldn't just get back to work like nothing. She might have learned something she shouldn't have and so she wanted to make it right however she could. And what she had at her fingertips were sweet pastries to hopefully push things in the right direction.

"Morning," she gave a light tap against Hotch's office door. He looked up from his desk that held a decent amount of paperwork from his absence. "Welcome back." Aitana raised the pink box in her hands.

Whatever he actually felt, Hotch still smiled at her and welcomed her inside. "Those aren't all for me, are they?"

"I don't know, how good are you with sugar?" Hotch bobbed his head for a short second, making her chuckle. She set the box down on the desk. "It's good to have you back, sir. It's been a doozy without you."

"I heard the case you all had to handle," Hotch said, head shaking slightly.

"Well, technically, most of us handled it." Aitana's wry look now made him smile.

"I know Strauss can be a lot, but—"

Aitana waved it off. "It's fine. I'm...let's just say that I followed Rossi's advice about some wine..."

Hotch raised his eyebrows at her. "Good to hear."

"I, um, I just wanted to see how you were doing?" Aitana pursed her lips together, bracing herself for his reaction. "Emily told me what happened with, uh, with your wife. I don't know if I was supposed to find out but I don't know all the details of what happened and I won't know it of course. I just..." Aitana exhaled deeply, "I just wanted to tell you that I know and I'm sorry for everything that happened."

Hotch stared at her long and hard and while she thought he was considering his next words, he was actually waiting to see if she was finished. When she didn't say anything else, he finally started to speak, "I never expected you to be in the dark about. At some point, you would find out."

"I'm sorry," Aitana felt the urge to say again, possibly a hundred more times. "I...I thought I had a bad experience but turns out that everyone has something and some people have very, very bad things happen to them. I'm really sorry."

"Serrano, thank you, really," Hotch said. "I'm not upset at all that you know."

Aitana pushed the box towards him. "You get first choice."

Hotch smiled at it. "You know you really don't want to get them used to this stuff..."

Aitana shrugged. "I can handle it. My parents are just happy that I'm coming by more often. They'll bake as many things as I want."

Hotch nodded. "It's good that you're reintegrating."

"Baby steps," Aitana repeated what got her through most of it. "Just baby steps."

"And the will," Hotch pointed out. "Because it's your own will that'll let you do that."

Aitana agreed. Things were very different for now than they were when she first came out of Witness Protection. For the first time now, she had a job that she liked, a job that she was progressively getting better at, and a group of people she was liking more by the day. She didn't want to let it go. She knew that for a fact.

~ 0 ~

"You're kidding right?" Penelope was ecstatic with the fresh round of pastries Aitana brought the team that morning. The pink box was full of delicious smelling bread. Penelope reached for her piece before anybody else around the conference table could. "Oh, oh, you're not kidding!"