Saving Agent Hotchner | 1

23. Back to work

The team collectively sighed and silently cheered when they realised that Hotch and Y/N were returning. Of course, they had successfully closed a lot of cases in the weeks that Hotch and Y/N were away, but they had to admit that trying to split tasks between 6 people wasn't easy. Derek basically had his job, plus the job of Unit Chief. This left Emily, JJ, Rossi and Spencer to split the rest of the jobs between them, considering no one could do Penelope's job quite as well as she could.

Now that Hotch and Y/N were going to be back, there was hopefully going to be less stress within the team, and Derek hoped that the job of Unit Chief would be rightfully returned to Hotch.

On Monday morning at 9 AM, Hotch and Y/N walked into the bullpen and were graced to the sight of everyone waiting for them. Rossi shook Hotch's hand, while everyone gave Y/N lots of hugs.

"How's Jack?" Spencer asked, curious.

"He's back at school now, and Jessica has agreed to pick him up every afternoon and take care of him until me and Y/N get home." Hotch smiled.

"How are you two?" Rossi exhaled, crossing his arms.

"Surviving...day by day. It's hard to be away from him." Y/N held Hotch's hand.

"Well, we thought that as a little welcome back, here's a coffee for each of you, from us." Emily smiled as she handed one coffee to Y/N and one coffee to Hotch.

"Thank you. In the rush of getting Jack to school and having him nearly melt down as we drove, coffee was the last thing on our minds." Hotch smiled, exhaling.

As Hotch was about to walk to his office, he pulled out his phone and exhaled, turning to the team.

"Case?" Y/N asked, earning a nod from Hotch.

"I'm heading to Ashburn. Rossi, I want you and Y/N with me. The rest of you, stay here and wait for further instructions." Hotch ordered as he, Rossi and Y/N left the bullpen and headed to their intended destination. On the way, Rossi and Y/N got updated on the case while Hotch drove. By the time they reached Ashburn, they had been caught up.

"Mrs. Lynch?" Hotch, Rossi and Y/N walked up to the woman who looked around with panic in her eyes. She drew her attention to the three Agents, all of whom showed their badges.

"We're with the FBI. Is this the most recent photo you have of Aimee?" Y/N asked, holding up a small picture of the girl who had been taken.

"Yes." The woman nodded, trying not to cry.

Back at Quantico, JJ stood with Penelope, Derek, Emily and Spencer, all of them having been given the case updates through their tablets.

"Aimee Lynch, 8 years old, was taken an hour ago from a winter festival in Ashburn." JJ spoke as Penelope put up a photo of the girl on the screen behind JJ.

"Any witnesses?" Emily asked, concern on her face.

"Her mom Barbara was right next to her when she vanished." JJ noted.

"There must have been hundreds of people there. No one saw anything?" Derek questioned, furrowing his eyebrows.

"It's a temporary gathering, with little to no security." Spencer exhaled.

"Alright, Reid, you and I are going to head to the family's house. Emily, JJ, I want the two of you to work with Garcia. We need to look at every local abduction or attempted one in the past year, see if there's any overlap. Of course, we'll keep in touch with Hotch, Rossi and Y/N." Derek insisted.

"Good news is that we're barely into the second hour." JJ exhaled.

"Yeah, well, odds are we've only got 22 hours to find Aimee alive, so let's do this." Derek nodded.

"Aimee Lynch of Ashburn was last seen at the Winter Festival this morning at 10:00 AM. She's 4'8", has blonde hair and green eyes. With temperatures below freezing and a chance of snow, the pressure is on to find her. Anyone with information about Aimee, please contact the hotline." Emily watched the TV just outside the conference room.

"Uh, excuse me. I'd like to talk to Agent Jareau." A brunette woman with a Visitor's badge walked up to Emily, who turned around.

"Can I help you?" Emily asked, curious.

"Whoever took Aimee Lynch took my son too." The woman explained.

"Ashburn has a Winter Festival every year, not a single attempt at kidnapping." JJ exhaled. Emily walked up to the conference room, having left the woman nearby while she got JJ's attention.

"Hey, JJ, there's a woman here who says her son was abducted by the same offender." Emily looked at JJ, who sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose briefly.

"Has she been drinking?" JJ asked.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure. How'd you know that?" Emily raised her eyebrow in confusion.

"Sarah Hillridge. She lost her son Charlie 8 years ago. She comes in every time a child around his age goes missing. She thinks her son is still alive." JJ explained to Emily, who nodded, now understanding.

"I remember her. She stays for the first 24 hours, right?" Penelope noted.

"Yeah." JJ nodded, looking beyond Emily to see Sarah.

"Need more coffee?" JJ asked as she walked Sarah outside the bullpen.

"Oh, no, no. I'm fine, thanks." Sarah shook her head.

"Uh, how's your daughter?" JJ asked, looking at Sarah who tightly held her bag close.

"Uh, Jake took her away." Sarah admitted. JJ could see the tears forming in her eyes.

"What?" JJ questioned, confused.

"Well, he got remarried, and, uh, thought it was best for Emily to get a fresh start." Sarah nodded.

"Sorry." JJ exhaled.

"Well, I can't really blame him. I mean, look at me." Sarah rolled her eyes.

"Sarah, I really need-" JJ started, but Sarah shook her head.

"This little girl Aimee was 8, just like Charlie. They were taken almost 8 years apart. Now, I have been doing a lot of reading about sexual attraction and know that prepubescence has the greatest range and also a really huge crossover gender-wise." Sarah ranted, trying to convince JJ that she was telling the truth.

"I'm sorry you know all of that." JJ put her hand on Sarah's shoulder as she exhaled.

"I could have gone my whole life without knowing, but then someone took my son." Sarah shrugged her shoulders.