Reconciling the Hotchners | 2

16. Imagining a happy place

⚠️Trigger Warning: Heavy abuse and torture.⚠️

Y/N
You weren't exactly sure how long you had been missing for, but you were in so much pain. You were hanging from a piece of wood connected to the roof. There was maybe an arms-length worth of chains connecting you to the wood, but what kept you from escaping was a pair of metal handcuffs. Your arms were strained and you were sure that one wrong move would end in you dislocating your shoulders.

As for the rest of your body, your toes only just reached the floor. Imagine you were reaching for something high in a cupboard. You were on the tips of your toes. That's how you were held up with no way of getting down.

Your surroundings were bare. The only thing you were sure of was that you were in a basement of some sort. There were no windows, which made it impossible to tell if it was day or night. You were shivering. Between being taken and waking up, your captor had removed 95% of your clothing, leaving you in nothing but a bra and panties.

"Your ring will make a fine addition to my collection." The man chuckled as he slowly removed your wedding ring. After a few hours, your head had started feeling too heavy for you to hold up, so you didn't notice that in the corner of the basement rested a shrine of sorts, 4 wedding rings resting on 4 separate mannequin hands, each hand having the victim's name written on them in black sharpie.

"L- Let me go!" You demanded as you felt a leather belt whip you for the 3rd time. Since you were taken, you've been whipped, slapped, cut with a knife, excessively punched, kicked, and electrocuted with a taser.

"You ruined my life, you bitch. You're going to pay." His eyes were full of anger as he gripped your throat, his voice laced with malice.

With one squeeze, he cut off your airway for a few seconds before using a lot of force to push you from him, which strained your arms even more. The moment you had stopped moving, your head dropped as you tried to breathe normally again.

If you couldn't physically escape from this nightmare, you could at least escape mentally.

"That could've gone better." Spencer exhaled as he put his books away.

"Yeah. Half of the class - all the girls - were admiring the hot professor teaching the class they were auditing. The other half...I don't know." You shrugged your shoulders.

"The other half, all the guys, were eyeing the other - cute - professor." Spencer smiled.

"Don't let my husband catch you calling me cute." You joked, trying to keep up the façade that you and Aaron were happy.

"I seriously don't know how much more I can take of this. You? You're amazing when it comes to teaching. I swear, if you hadn't joined the FBI, you'd be the perfect professor." You chuckled as you and Spencer left the lecture hall, heading to a café for lunch.

"And what about you?" Spencer asked.

"I'd enjoy being a professor more if I wasn't here by force." You exhaled, rolling your eyes at the thought of Barnes.

"At least you're home earlier now. More time to spend with Hotch and your kids." Spencer smiled.

"I guess." You nodded.

"I just...I wonder how everyone else is doing. It's not every day the FBI's most famous unit has its members being reassigned and let go." You exhaled.

"Y'know, I'm not one to swear...but Barnes is a bitch." Spencer noted.

"Wow! Spencer's bringing out the big boy words!" You laughed.