chapter one / season four episode one.

THE LAST TIME AMELIA HAD BEEN THAT CLOSE TO A BOMB, SOMEONE SHE LOVED HAD DIED. Clara Beaumont had died. Clara had been stood so close to the bomber that on impact her body had been pulled apart, she was unrecognizable and became one of the many whose blood splattered across the glass windows.

Once the bomb had gone off, Amelia had ran straight to the shattered glass, the smoking building and ignored all the shouts for her not to. No doubt the building was on fire, the infrastructure would soon collapse and Amelia couldn't be another casualty.

All the hostages had died. The bombers had died. The emergency responders inside the building had died.

Clara had died.

Amelia knew someone else had died.

It was why she did what she was good at: run straight towards the danger. Her SUV might not have even been locked when she sprinted away from it. She didn't care about the vehicle.

What if it was Derek? What if it was Penelope? Emily? JJ? Rossi? Spencer? Harper?

What if it was Aaron Hotchner?

The thought made her sick to her stomach, it twisted her insides and set her nerves on fire. Not him. Please God not him.

She didn't stop running. Even if her legs burned and the desire to be sick was overwhelming. Amelia couldn't stop. She'd let herself be stopped, by Harper, the last time a bomb had gone off near her. Amelia couldn't let herself be stopped this time.

Whoever it was... she needed to be there.

The police spotted her before Amelia could even get a glance to see who might've been injured, or who might've already been dead. They saw her running and raised their guns. Standing tall and firm as a barricade, their wooden fences to hold back a crowd hadn't gone up yet. The police were the only ones standing in her way.

Amelia tried to walk straight past them. They pushed her back. "Nobody past this point, Ma'am."

Amelia panted, trying to look over their shoulders to see what had happened. "You gotta let me pass. I gotta—"

There was fire. The smoke was filling the air and it felt like she was stood in front of that burning bank all over again. The smoke burned her nostrils and made it even harder to breathe.

"We can't do that, Ma'am. No personnel or member of the public passed this point." The officer reaffirmed. Amelia knew he was doing his job, but she didn't care much for that right now.

Somebody was going to die. And she couldn't just stand here any longer.

Amelia shook her head, "You have to let me past. I don't— I don't care about the rules or anything! Just let me through!" She stepped forward.

The officer grabbed her by her wrists and pushed her back. "If you attempt this one more time I will have no choice but to arrest you."

Amelia exhaled, holding out her badge. "I'm FBI. My team could be in that car. Or, exploded near it." She winced at her own words. She wanted to hope for the best, but knew it was impossible when she'd been here before. "If you don't let me through I will have your asses on the line for not listening to higher ups."

Her threat was filled with gasps of breaths, hard exhales and shallow inhales. The smoke had taken ahold of her lungs, mixed with her panic and made her forget how to breathe.

The officer placed a hand on her shoulder, now concerned for her, "Ma'am, I need you to calm down."

She looked up at him. She made sure her breaths were labored, that her hand clung to his arm like it depended on keeping her upright.

"Let me get you some water, Ma'am. You just sit on the hood of the car, alright?" The officer stepped away, and his partners were busy on crowd control - making sure nobody was running off into the direction of the burning SUV.

A burning SUV. It made Amelia want to crumble into a ball, and cry, maybe even die. It was her family. Someone from the BAU was going to be hurt.

Amelia couldn't crumble into a ball, she couldn't cry. And she couldn't die. Not now. She had to run, even if her legs ached and her lungs felt like they were on fire. She had to run. Run for Derek, Penelope, Emily, JJ, Rossi, Spencer.

Amelia had to run for Aaron.

The cop turned his head in her direction when he heard the footsteps that ran away, "Hey! You can't go back there! Get back!" He held his gun up, but he couldn't exactly shoot a member of the bureau.

Amelia glanced back at him, but didn't stop running.

"We need help over here!" Aaron. Aaron was shouting. His blazer had been discarded and his shirt was covered in blood. Red. Dark red blood. It would never come out of his crisp white shirt. Well, it wasn't crisp white anymore. His face, remorseful and covered in blood. Not as dark, but still blood. It had dried around his ear.

No doubt that would stain too.

"Aaron!" She called to him. Aaron. He was knelt over a body, a woman. Blonde and bloodied. "Aaron, what happened? What—?"

Amelia stopped her running as she stood before the blonde, bloodied woman. Kate. All this time she'd been praying that it wasn't a member of her family and in doing so, Amelia had failed to realized someone else had been condemned to a brutal death. "Oh, no." She muttered. "What—"

Amelia knelt down beside Kate's head, Aaron being knelt opposite her blocking the view of her dislocated leg. And the blood. There was so much blood. Cuts littered across Kate's face but they were barely visible due to her blood that had splattered across her face. And her shirt. Much like Aaron's. Crisp white no longer. Even bloodier than his. Amelia imagined that Kate's blood was seeping through the back of her shirt too.

"Aaron." Amelia whimpered.

He looked up from the bloodied torso of his friend, whose breaths labored, staggered and clearly painful. His friend. Who was going to die beneath him. And he couldn't do anything about it.

The arrival of Amelia was surprising to him, he needed it, but she couldn't do anything either.

"She's bleeding." Aaron informed her, "A lot. And I pinched the bleeding on her back and I—"

His hands never moved from holding on tightly to Kate's shoulders. Amelia's eyes never left him.

"That's good. That's good." Amelia said, "You did good. Do you—" She kept stuttering, and cutting herself off. She'd forgotten how to react in a situation like this. So bloody and brutal. It was so much harder a second time around. "Are there wounds we need to apply pressure on? Is she responsive—"

A boy peered over Aaron's shoulder, "I can get help."

Amelia's head snapped up to meet his, "Who are you?"

"Sam. I was nearby—"

"Stop talking and go up there and get the ambulance down here." Amelia cut him off, not wasting any more time or thought on the boy who had seemingly appeared out of thin air. "Is she responsive, Aaron?"

"Kate." He was soft spoken. So scared. "I need you to wake up, stay with me. Stay with me."

Kate winced before she started laughing, looking between the two agents who knelt beside her, "I feel cold."

"What?" Aaron asked.

"It's such a cliché, isn't it? 'I feel cold'." She laughed again. And Amelia wondered if Kate knew she was laughing, or she knew of her end which was coming. Feeling cold at this moment was a cliché, but it was also a sign.

Things were going to end. And Aaron and Amelia could do nothing about it.

"Like in the cinema."

Aaron ignored her quips, "You've lost a lot of blood, but I think I've got it stopped." He told her.

It wasn't like she was listening. She didn't want to die hearing about the blood she'd lost. "Wait, that's not right. It's the movies. You say movies, not cinema. Why would you have a different word for it?" Her words were slurred, and nearly incoherent.

She grunted, her body stiffened as if she was fighting a wave of pain that had come over her.

"Alright, if they can't come down here, I'm going to try to lift you and..."

Sam came running back interrupting Aaron's plan, "They just told me to get behind the barricades."

Aaron didn't care much, he grabbed onto Kate's legs, and Amelia supported Kate's head and upper torso. Sam, loosely held onto Kate's hands.

Kate seized in pain at the movement, and her eyes fluttered shut when Aaron lost his grip. Amelia pulled her hand away from Kate's body to see the dark red that now stained her hand. "Aaron."

"She's bleeding." Sam exclaimed.

Amelia shot him a look to shut up as Aaron pinched at Kate's back. This time she did not move, she didn't seize in pain and she did not grunt at the ache in her back. Kate lay still.

"She's not gonna die is she?" Sam asked.

Amelia wished he'd shut up.

Aaron looked up at him for a second, before glancing back down at Kate, "Please we're here! Someone!" He shouted, hoping someone at the barricades listened.

He kept shouting. Begging for someone to come.

And like an angel from above Derek Morgan came running down the road Amelia had not long ago, "Hotch! Hotch!" His eyes widened upon seeing both Aaron and Amelia coated in Kate Joyner's blood, "Amelia, Hotch. Oh, my—"

"Morgan, we gotta get her out of here." Aaron pleaded.

Derek nodded, "They're not letting any ambulances down here until they clear the scene." He tapped Sam on the arm, "Kid, you gotta get behind the barricades. Let's go. Go!"

"Go, Sam." Aaron weakly told him, not breaking away from looking at Kate.

"Talk to me. Can we carry her?" Derek observed their bloodied hands on Kate's body. So gentle for the dying woman. "Hotch, can we carry her?" With no response he turned to Amelia, "Amelia, can we carry her?"

"No. But if we don't carry her she'll bleed to death."

Aaron looked up, frantically, at his agents, "We've got to do something."

Derek's phone rang, "Garcia, I got Hotch and Amelia, but listen to me, you gotta get somebody down here right away. You hear me? Right away!"

Derek was suddenly told something that tore his gaze away from the bloodied, and dying Kate, and to Sam, who had still not left the area. "What? You're absolutely sure?"

Sam held his hands out.

Derek snapped his phone closed, "Hotch. The kid. He's the bomber!"

"Go." Aaron told him. Derek set off. He expected Amelia to chase after the bomber with her best friend but instead Amelia stayed put. Kate's head cradled in her hands. "Please, stay."

He begged her.

Amelia wiped away some of the blood that stained Kate's face, "Wasn't going anywhere."

She needed to be here. Aaron needed her here.

An ambulance siren sounded, a paramedic approached them, his red bag placed on the floor as Aaron spoke to him of Kate's condition, "She's got an arterial bleed in her back and I'm doing my best to hold it closed."

"You guys okay?" The paramedic questioned, searching for a pulse.

"We just want to get her out of here." Amelia said, removing one hand so the paramedic could search for the pulse.

"Her pulse is weak and thready. I'm going to need your help, okay?" He looked between the two agents, who nodded.

"Is the area clear?" Aaron asked.

"You were calling for help and I couldn't listen anymore." Amelia eyed him. "My partner was too afraid to come in here with me."

"Kate, we're gonna get you out of here." Aaron didn't know if she could hear him. He hoped she could.

✺

The bus. The paramedic called the ambulance 'The bus'. It was something Amelia hadn't quite stopped thinking about since Aaron and her had entered the front seats of the ambulance.

The bus.

Why would a paramedic ever call an ambulance the bus?

The paramedic was performing CPR once they arrived into the hospital, Aaron and Amelia watched as she was led away straight to an OR. They just watched because there was nothing else for them to do. They couldn't help Kate anymore, they'd done all that they could.

And, God, did they hate that feeling of helplessness.

Aaron stumbled backwards.

Amelia's eyes widened as she caught onto him. He was heavy. Taller than her, more muscle. A lot more weight than she was used to carrying, but she held onto Aaron. Grabbed onto his elbows with great strength and gently lowered him onto the floor, and then her bloodied hands cradled his head. "Hey!" She shouted, covering his bloodied ears so that she didn't worsen the condition they were already in.

"I need some help, please!" Amelia shouted, "Aaron, Aaron." She muttered to him and only him as a nurse shouted to gather a crowd of doctors, "Not you too, Aaron. C'mon."

Her thumbs traced delicately along his cheekbone. The doctors crowded round them, shouting orders. But, Amelia couldn't hear them. Couldn't listen to them. Couldn't understand them.

All she cared about was the man that she held in her hands. The softness of his skin and how she couldn't bare to lose it.

She felt so useless watching him being wheeled away on a gurney. A nurse grabbed onto her bloodied hands, "Ma'am? Is that your husband?"

Amelia wanted to laugh. But, she also wanted to scream. She wanted to scream this building down, because maybe that would fix everything. Maybe that would mean Kate would live, and Aaron would be perfectly fine. And no blood would be on their hands at all.

But, that wasn't the case. And this was all very real. And everything was so incredibly fucked up.

✺

"Hey, Amelia." Somebody nudged her with their shoe.

Due to not being Aaron's wife she'd been forced into the waiting room, until she was allowed to visit. That had been a long time ago. No nurse had dared approach her due to her cradled head in her hands, and the blood that spread to her hair.

"They check you over?" He asked, helping her stand and feeling the dried blood on his hands. He hated it. He hated how bloodied they all were. Derek hated how this was going to stick with Aaron forever.

Amelia shook her head, finding her footing after having sat down for so long without moving. She wasn't even sure she'd been breathing during that period. Breathing felt wrong. "Said they didn't need to."

Derek nodded, intertwining their hands as they approached the room Aaron was in. Derek was afraid that if he let go of Amelia, he wouldn't know where she'd disappeared too. He'd been the first to find the whereabouts of Aaron and Amelia, he'd breathed a sigh of relief before seeing the blood that came from Kate Joyner.

He thought they were dead. The rest of the unit hadn't quite jumped to that scenario but it definitely had lingered in the back of their minds. All of them so frightened of the fact it could've been one of them bleeding out on the road, with no access to help.

Derek couldn't put into words how sick it made him feel.

"Docs said Hotch has acute acoustic trauma in his right ear, with shrapnel in his leg—"

The sound of Aaron's shouting prohibited Derek from informing her further, "I don't need this! I just need my clothes." A doctor approached the room as he pulled out all his wires and told him to sit down, "Doctor, 'm alright."

Derek tugged Amelia closer to the room, standing before Aaron and holding his hand out, "Hotch? Stop it. Just calm down."

"Morgan? Amelia? Where's Kate?"

"In surgery." Derek told him.

"Where are my clothes, please?" He requested.

Amelia placed a hand on his shoulder, guiding him to sit down on the hospital bed. (Something no-one else had been able to get him to do) "Aaron, your go bag is on its way. But, you need to sit down."

She worried he would collapse again. She worried she'd have to cradle his head in her hands, and she run her thumb along his cheekbones and he wouldn't wake up this time. It was scary.

Being in a hospital made your mind spring instantly to death. And now, Amelia felt like everyone around her could just die.

It was a horrid feeling.

Amelia kept her hand placed on his shoulder, rubbing comfortingly at the skin that poked out of his hospital gown, "Has anything happened since the first blast?" Aaron asked, ignoring the goosebumps that ignited on his skin from her touch.

"Nothing."

"Sam?" Aaron hoped that sick bastard was dead.

"He's dead."

Good. He wanted to say it, but Aaron knew no matter the circumstance it was wrong.

"Morgan, the profile's wrong." He declared. He couldn't look at Amelia, because then she'd see the pink of his cheeks.

The rest of the team soon arrived, and the warmth of Amelia's hand had to pull away so that he could change. He couldn't admit how much he missed it.

Amelia stepped out of the room, walking straight over to Emily who handed her an FBI jacket and vest so that she could cover up the bloodied mess that was her shirt. Kate's blood. She sighed as she tugged the jacket on, it was far too large as she rolled the sleeves up.

She glanced up at Emily, who just stared back at her.

"What?" Amelia asked, rubbing her hands together in an attempt to wipe away some of the blood on her hands. In her panic of Aaron falling onto the floor she'd neglected herself, how crazy she looked. So much blood all over her. Aaron was lucky in one aspect that he'd collapsed, at least then they'd clean him up and his go bag had been brought.

Nobody had thought Amelia would be so bloody. She zipped the jacket up, knowing it was better to not see her shirt at all.

"Just glad you're okay." Emily said, squeezing the woman's shoulder as she moved to stand next to Rossi, who smiled at her.

"Hold on." He muttered, spinning her by her shoulders to have her back to him. He plucked something out of her hair, and tossed it on the floor.

The dried chunk of blood glaringly obvious against the white tiled floor of the hospital.

Amelia wished he'd just left it in her hair.

Derek handed her a hair tie.

Her hair was knotted, in parts matted with blood from when she'd ran her bloodied hands through the blonde strands. It was hard to put it up. And it no doubt looked messy, but she was far too exhausted to care.

"We think the idea was to maim, not to kill." Spencer said, once Aaron had joined them in fresh clothes.

Aaron pulled on his FBI vest, and winced as he did so. "Did you identify Sam, the bomber?"

"Garcia put Sam and the other dead unsub into every known database. Nothing." Spencer informed the Unit Chief.

"We know how terror cells evolve." Rossi stated, glancing between Aaron and Amelia. "They learn from one campaign to the next. How to stay off radar like the London bombers."

"Yeah, but they hit at 8:50 in the morning with a series of coordinated blasts aimed at London's transportation system. And this cell targeted a lone SUV where the only people on the street are two federal agents." Aaron said.

"It's one target." Amelia spoke. "One target, one bomb. Everything else has been a distraction, to confuse us, so that we think they'll do what any other terror group would."

"Garcia, said the device was placed under Kate's SUV."

"It was likely made using oxidizing agents, including chlorates, peroxides, perchlorates and red mercury," Aaron pressed a tissue to his ear as Reid spoke. "All jammed into a device no larger than a cell phone."

"Imagine what a bomb the size of an oil drum could do." No, Derek, Amelia didn't want to imagine that.

"Yeah, but to make something that big you'd need to make a chemical engineer." Aaron pulled the tissue away, frowning at his own blood that stained the tissue.

Rossi frowned, "Like the recently deceased Dr Azahari Husin. Asia's most wanted bomb maker." That would be a good place to start. "Authorities dubbed him the 'Demolition Man'. Treated each bomb like a work of art. One wrong move and he becomes a victim of his own creation."

"He'll be more revered than all of the people who died as a result of his devices."

"Stop the bomber. Stop the bomb." Emily made it sound easy. Amelia wished it would be. But, nothing on this case had been easy. Everything had been hard, bloodied and harmful.

"To do that we need to know how they would deploy something that big."

Amelia frowned. Something big. Amelia glanced at the footage they were discussing. It was the moment the bomb went off. The phone in Sam's hand, the number he called six times. The paramedic arrived.

The bus.

"The ambulance."

She always muttered her realizations and this time was no different because this one hurt to admit. They'd been right there. Her and Aaron had sat in the carrier for the bomb.

The fucking bus.

"The ambulance has the bomb in." She looked up, both her and Aaron wore the same mournful expression. "And we had to come here. Even with the Secret Service outside."

"The Secret Service have a bypass order on this hospital." Aaron said aloud, having just remembered the moment.

"Secret Service? Who are they protecting?" Rossi asked.

"Sam called the paramedic, so that we would bring the ambulance here. This hospital is the target."

"Let's go." Aaron forced himself not to dwell on Amelia's use of 'we'. He'd driven the ambulance here, but she was still sticking by him.

Even after they'd driven a bomb straight to its target.

✺

Derek was running after the ambulance. Amelia wanted to strangle him with her own hands. The team had spilt up to track Derek or at least ambush him from different directions.

Amelia had ran off on her own, her gun raised as she ran down a flight of stairs. "P." She panted into her comms, "Where the fuck is Derek?"

"Amelia—" Penelope's voice was frightened over their line, "He made me give him a place to drive the ambulance to, where it would just explode—"

Amelia came to the area where the ambulances were all parked, she saw the bomb maker. He hadn't heard her enter the room, his back was turned to her and he was crying.

Crying that his bomb, that would've killed everyone in this building, had been taken from him.

Amelia shot him. Straight in the back of the head. No remorse. No regrets.

"What was that, Amelia? What was that?"

Amelia nudged his dead body with her heeled boot, "The bomber. I shot him."

"Put Derek on this line, right now, Penelope."

"I don't think I should—" Penelope spoke.

"Penelope do it. Do it right now."

"Okay. Connecting."

Amelia exhaled, doubling over as she felt bile rise in her throat.

Derek Morgan was going to die.

And there was nothing she could do it about it.

There was sound made over the line, Derek's pants being the only sound heard for a second. "Derek Morgan, you listen to me—"

"No, you two listen to me—"

"Get out of that God damn ambulance, Derek." Amelia warned, the bomb was going to go off even when the bomber was dead. It was rigged to go off without his button press. He'd wanted maximum destruction, even in death.

Amelia sat herself down against a cold, cobbled wall, in the basement of this hospital. Where she was going to listen to her best friend die. Again.

"Morgan." Penelope whimpered.

"Just listen to me."

"Derek, please." Amelia begged. Not again. It was all happening again.

Derek's body would be an intangible mess, no doubt his body parts would be scrambled all around the park he was going to and it would be charred. He would be cremated in this ambulance. Up in flames. Up in smoke. His family, and his friends, would have nothing of him to come back to.

It was just like Clara.

Amelia clenched her fist at her side, "You are not doing this to us, you hear me? You are not becoming another Clara. Get the hell out of there now."

"You know what you are, Garcia? Levine?"

"I don't give a damn!" Amelia exclaimed, "Get out of there!"

"Morgan!"

The doors to the bay slammed open, Amelia couldn't dare turn around to face her team. Her eyes were red, she knew they were. They were a watery mess.

But Derek Morgan was dead.

And she couldn't do anything about it but let the tears form in her eyes.

"Amelia?" Aaron exclaimed, limping down the stairs with his gun pointed at the bomber's dead body, "What—"

Amelia sniffled, "Derek took the ambulance with the bomb. It just went off."

It was a big cloud of smoke, that followed. The ambulance up in flames and Derek's unrecognizable body left inside. They knew it was Derek.

But, nobody else would. They'd take him to the morgue, or what was left of him, and the mortician would tag him as a John Doe. He wouldn't have any fingerprints, his hands probably weren't attached anymore. The beautiful color of his eyes would just be a memory, and his voice would be something they forget with time.

And Derek Morgan would just be another haunting best friend Amelia had.

"Derek?" Penelope's timid voice could be heard from Amelia's mic.

There was a silence that followed, it felt like the whole team was awaiting the mixed sobs of Amelia Levine and Penelope Garcia.

"Garcia. Levine."

Amelia sat up straighter against the bay's wall, rubbing at the ache that had formed in her chest. She felt like the air had been taken from her chest. Derek must've been haunting them. She'd heard him.

He wasn't dead.

"I'll tell you what you are to me, both of you, my God-given solace."

✺

"Strauss will want to talk to you." Aaron muttered as they rested against the SUV they were taking home. Due to Aaron's ear trauma, he couldn't fly home. Amelia had immediately offered to drive him home.

She didn't know if she could face Derek Morgan right now.

"Doesn't matter." Amelia shrugged, "Two week suspension at the worst. I shot him because of all he'd done, I didn't want to bring him back alive."

"I know." Aaron whispered.

Amelia glanced up at him, "I've got bigger things to worry about, anyway."

Aaron looked down at his shoes. "'m fine."

"That's my favorite line for when I lie." She smiled, sadly, "What you went through on this case isn't something I plan on avoiding."

"You are the first victim of 'Levine Watch'." She smiled, softly this time. And it made Aaron weak in the knees. "D'ya like it? I got some inspiration for this guy who stole my gun once—"

Aaron rolled his eyes, "I didn't steal it."

"No, you just made me hand it over." Amelia reminded him.

"Yes, and I have the ability to do that as your Unit Chief."

Amelia picked his bag up from the floor, "Don't think I won't go over your head now, Hotchner."

Aaron frowned, "I liked it when you called me Aaron a lot more."

Amelia shrugged, holding open the passenger door for him, "Well, if you don't obey Levine Watch then we'll go back to Hotchner, understand?"

"Loud and clear." Amelia felt the corners of her lips curve upwards as Aaron paused getting into the car. Amelia thought it might be too earlier to make the joke that he couldn't exactly hear loud and clear out of his right ear.

Aaron's lips twitched, and he pointed a finger at her. "Don't. Don't even think about it."

Amelia smiled as he got into the car, and chucked his go bag into the back seats and just as she was about to round the car she saw a woman running towards them.

"Amelia!" Harper shouted, doubling over and catching her breath. She'd been running a long way to catch up to Amelia. They hadn't crossed paths late last night and early this morning due to Harper having to watch over Cooper in the hospital.

She was glad to have caught Amelia now.

"Harper," Amelia smiled, her hands on her back pockets as she watched the woman catch her breath, "You run all the way here?"

Harper glared at her friend as she stood up straight, "Clearly." She remarked, "I wanted to see you before you left. It's been so hectic I haven't had a chance to give you my number, or anything."

Amelia would've rejected this a year ago. Contact with her old friends. Contact with the people she thought hated her.

But, now, now, Amelia happily reached out for the strip of paper with Harper's contact details on and put it safely in her pocket. "I'll call you when I get back." Amelia promised, Harper was surprised the woman was jumping straight to call.

It was a happy surprise. A well-welcomed surprise.

"We've got a lot to catch up on, ey?" Harper nudged Amelia, and winked in the direction of Aaron Hotchner who watched the interaction.

Amelia laughed, quietly, under her breath before engulfing Harper in a hug. "I'm sorry about Kate."

Harper patted Amelia's back, "We're gonna have a memorial in a weeks time, it would be good if you and bossman came. You were the last people with her, I think she'd want you there."

Amelia smiled at the invitation, "We'll be there."

"Take care, Ami." Harper kissed her cheek as a goodbye before walking away.

Ami. Nobody had called her that in so long. It was Clara's nickname for her.

It was a nickname for Amelia that had died with Clara.

She wished someone would call her it again.

"Hey! Hold it!" Derek whistled, him now approaching Amelia who just wanted to round the SUV and get in the vehicle.

Amelia glared at him, "What?"

"Sunshine, can we have a civilized conversation?" He asked, opening the back doors to the car and throwing his go bag on-top of Aaron's.

"I don't remember inviting you on the road trip home." Amelia snarked, crossing her arms over her chest as she stood opposite Derek.

"No, you didn't." Derek smiled, "I invited myself because you weren't talking to me."

"For good reason."

"You don't think I know that?" Derek asked with a sigh, "I did what I had to, to save lives, Amelia. And I don't regret it. Do I wish there was a different way for me to have saved lives? Yeah! The fire was hot, and my shoulder hurts."

"What you did was idiotic—"

"Sometimes you have to be idiotic to save lives."

Amelia rolled her eyes, "Don't interrupt me."

He held his hands up apologetically, "Sorry."

"What you did was scary, Derek. Do you understand that? Penelope and I... we thought you were dead. I can't go through that again, I wouldn't even know how to help Penelope through that." Amelia sighed. "Stop doing idiotic things that Clara did."

"Will that make you forgive me?" Derek asked, tilting his head to the side.

Amelia laughed, "That and a lot of groveling. You ain't getting off the hook that easy."

Derek groaned, rounding the car to sit in the backseats. "Hey, bossman."

The man kept a stoic face. "Morgan."

The two had clearly had a conversation beforehand due to the tension that nearly floated in Amelia's SUV.

Amelia sighed, running a hand down her face, and opening the glove cabinet, she searched through her CDs. She thought about playing her favorite: the Fleetwood Mac, super deluxe Rumours, remastered in 2004. Signed by Stevie Nicks as Amelia had just ran into her in the park one day.

But, she knew that Aaron with his traumatized ear might not want to hear her belting out the lyrics to The Chain. And she knew in her pile of CDs she had the Beatles nestled in there somewhere.

She'd gotten it just for him.

She knew it was his favorite band.

And Aaron felt butterflies in his stomach at the thought she'd gone out of her way to buy his favorite Beatle's album.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
can we please put forward our guesses to who we think i've decided will call amelia, 'Ami'. because what ive done and what ive decided is painstakingly heartwarming. like it fills me with so much joy i can't describe it

and the amelia and aaron ball has started. and yes, emily handed amelia hotch's fbi jacket. what about it? and yes, i'm sure amelia would also get suspended for a week for shooting an unsub unprovoked even if he had just put a bomb in the back of ambulance.

i also have no clue how their communications works and we're putting out the theory that p's so smart she can put two people on the same wire. NO LOOPHOLES HERE!

i've had this tweet saved since june of last year and i need you all to know this is the theme of act two, like just REMEMBER this. this is at the heart and soul of this act and you can't stop me and we also need to keep kendall roy in the back of our minds.