chapter nine / season three episode five.

TW: mentions of molestation, if you are uncomfortable with this subject, please do skip this chapter and prioritize yourself.

AMELIA WAS HAVING A MUCH BETTER DAY AT WORK THAN SHE WOULD HAVE BEEN HAVING AT HOME.

Even if Derek had been watching her very intensely and realizing that Amelia was not fully herself today, which would no doubt result in him pulling her aside before the end of the day.

Still, she'd ignore that and go ahead with her day.

She could barely go ahead with her paperwork.

Not only was Derek looking up from his own paperwork every five minutes to check if Amelia had face planted into her paperwork from exhaustion but Aaron Hotchner decided to keep looking out of his office window and keep a close eye on his latest agent.

He'd stole her gun. (Within reason) and now he was watching her like a hawk.

He probably thought she was crazy. (He was more concerned for her than anything)

Amelia had deduced that Derek - no, Morgan (he was her co-worker, not her friend) - had looked up at her every five minutes but Agent Hotchner managed to do so every two minutes.

And for the Unit Chief who had a lot of paperwork, he sure didn't seem busy up in his office.

You see, the second that thought crossed Amelia's mind before a phone call came in and bare in mind Amelia had kept the thought inside her mind until at least three o'clock turned. Which meant she had to be some type of ultimate jinx for a call to come in seconds later.

It was not just any call.

It was a heart-wrenching call. A call that no-one, and I mean no-one, liked to receive.

A girl - Katie Jacobs - had gone missing in the mall. That might just seem frightening to any civilian but it was so much worse than that. Katie was another girl, of the same age who had been kidnapped at the same time of the day of a past victim of a public kidnapping.

That victim had not survived.

Child cases were something no-one liked, it was often the cases they fought harder to solve and questioned suspects with more anger because these were children. The most vulnerable in society who have our evils unnecessarily forced onto them.

No child deserves that.

No-one had seen Katie leave via security cameras yet.

That gave the BAU an opportunity to find her before a wickedness is released onto her that is far too evil to fix.

That didn't exactly give Amelia a chance to find her before it was too late. She was stuck on 'Hotch Watch'.

Yes.

Hotch Watch.

Derek had teased her about it from the front seat of the SUV all the way other here, to the mall, whilst Agent Hotchner had tried to deny any evidence of such things existing.

Derek only shut up when his Unit Chief shot him a firm glare. But, it didn't last long before he twisted in his seat and winked at Amelia.

Although they were in a moving vehicle, Amelia kicked the back of Derek's seat. She hadn't seen the harm in it, he wasn't driving.

Agent Hotchner had scolded them both. He claimed he was never getting into a SUV with the two of them again, and that Amelia was lucky to be brought along to this case at all.

(He was lying, he would've brought Amelia anyway)

Being on Hotch Watch not only meant that Derek Morgan didn't shut up about it but also that you had to follow the Unit Chief everywhere.

That meant Amelia had to somehow keep up with every step he made. And that was not some metaphor for his thinking, no, no, no. Amelia meant that every step the Unit Chief took was about six times bigger than the steps she took. And so far, they'd only walked for about five minutes but she found her legs tiring out from just trying to keep up with him.

She was not going to let him see that, though. She did not want to give Hotchner another reason to bench her when she so desperately wanted to find Katie, and cuff the son of a bitch who thinks it's fun to kidnap and kill kids.

"If this animal so much as looks at me wrong." James Franklin, an agent on the case said, as they stepped onto the escalator.

Thank goodness they didn't have to walk anymore.

"I read the Jessica Davis report. I know you found the remains last week." Agent Hotchner said, checking that Amelia was still behind him as he ascended the escalator steps.

Amelia's eyes widened when she realized they were walking up the fully-functioning escalator.

This man's poor wife, she thought. Imagine all the walking he's made that woman do.

"20 years, never seen anything like it. I can't get the images out of my head." Amelia shivered at the Agent's words. She too had seen the pictures and felt her stomach twist when she remembered them.

She couldn't believe people could be so cruel to children.

"I joined the Bureau to rescue people, not to stand over another dead kid today. I couldn't handle it."

"Well, hopefully, you won't have to." It wasn't a promise that fell from Hotchner's lips, no they didn't have the luxury of making those, it was just hope and drive that they all had to see this child, to see Katie, return to her parents.

The Agent with them watched closely as people were escorted down, to clear the floor, "It's all chance, you know. Wrong place at the wrong time. No logic. No sense. How does a parent reconcile that?"

"They don't." Amelia spoke for the first time behind the two men.

The Agent looked at her with remorse already clear in his eyes.

He would not lose Katie Jacobs. Katie would not be another child he has to stand over and swallow his own sick at the thought of telling her parents that their baby was unrecognizable.

Agent Franklin went to speak, but Amelia's phone ringing cut him off.

Amelia furrowed her eyebrows and apologized to her Unit Chief and the agent before stepping a few paces away to answer the phone - not having checking the number beforehand.

"Levine." She answered in her casual, boring agent voice.

"Sweetheart?"

Amelia pulled the phone away from her ear to sigh when she heard her Father's voice over the phone. The name was only ever something he called her when Martha was around, just so they could keep up the appearance of perfect daughter, perfect father.

"What? I'm kinda busy."

Amelia wasn't sure if she cared that she was being rude.

Thomas sighed over the phone (at least Amelia had had the decency to pull the phone away), "We're at the mall right now and there's all this police and they're trying to escort us out. What's going on?"

"Confidential. I can't tell you." Amelia just lied to her father over the phone. She thought it would've felt more rewarding.

Thomas ignored her lie, "There was some talk about a missing girl, Katie? Was that her name, Martha?"

"Put it on speaker, Tom,"

"I'm worried, Amelia," Martha's panicked voice came over the phone, "What if they can't find her? I can't imagine what those parents are going through." Amelia had noticed a lack of empathy in her Mom's voice, and she couldn't quite figure out why.

"Are you going to find her?"

Amelia pinched her brow, "I'd like to try to, but you calling me doesn't exactly help."

Martha immediately gasped, realizing she was holding an investigation up.

Thomas scoffed, "Yes, get back to your important job, Amelia. Because you of all people are going to find this girl."

Amelia exhaled deeply.

She hung up the phone and shoved it in her back pocket.

Agent Hotchner watched her every move before she came back over to him and Jenkins.

Amelia now felt even more compelled to put the bastard who did this in cuffs.

✺

"What do you want to know?" Mr Jenkins asked Amelia and Agent Hotchner after the parents had been informed that separate briefings were more efficient.

"Did Katie have any connection at all to Jessica Davis?" Hotchner queried.

Amelia didn't listen to the father's response. Her mind was elsewhere, not in her typical sense of focusing on something that didn't matter to the case but something she believed might be vital to the case.

Katie Jacobs was a little girl who was taken from the arcade.

Amelia didn't quite know if taken was the right word.

Katie had asthma, she knew of her condition, she was a little girl aware that she had to be more careful than other kids. She had to have an inhaler with her at all times, just incase.

It made her chances of survival a lot lower.

And not only that, Katie knew her offender. She would've willingly walked off with them.

So, who did Katie and Jessica both trust? Who could they both walk off with and feel safe?

Neither Mrs or Mr Jacobs had any idea who that could be. Their girl wouldn't do that.

Agent Hotchner led Amelia out of the private room, opening the door for her and hearing her quiet thanks as her eyebrow furrowed and even he had to admit that the crease in her brow was cute.

But, he quickly relinquished that thought and focused on the fact that Amelia had barely spoken ten words since entering the mall.

"Levine," It was good that they were dropping the agent now. "I know I've got you glued to my hip for the rest of the case, but I promise you, you can talk."

Amelia nodded her head.

He looked at her with the corners of his lips downturned.

She looked up at him, "I know," she mumbled.

Even if Amelia was sure that Agent Hotchner hated her guts and didn't have the smallest bit of trust for her (he wouldn't be the first Unit Chief to do so) she felt herself compelled to talk to him.

"I just," she sighed and ran a hand through her hair, "It doesn't make sense to me. And I know I don't have a kid or anything like that but I've studied kids cases to the point my brain hurts."

The Unit Chief didn't know that.

He wondered why.

"And Katie was with her cousin, in the arcade. There's hundreds of things for her to do there. Her cousin is there. Yet, she walks away and no-one notices. She walks away to someone she trusts, someone she knows." Amelia shrugged, "It doesn't make sense."

"We see it all the time." He told her.

She pulled a face. "But, not like this. Offenders take and they entice kids. Katie just walks out."

Agent Hotchner opened his mouth, but heavy footsteps in the distance prevented him from speaking.

"Hotch!" Derek acknowledged Amelia with a nod, as she was not the one he had to speak to, "My guess is Jeremy either heard or saw something that could be useful. But the guilt has manifested itself into an acute stress disorder."

"The kid can't remember a thing."

That was helpful.

Hotchner nodded his head slowly, "Take him back to the scene and do a cognitive interview."

Derek nodded and ruffled Amelia's hair before leaving.

"Levine—"

"I can handle this, I swear." She cut him off, fearful that he was going to take her off the case, "I don't need to be taken off the case."

Hotchner frowned when he realized that's what she thought was going to happen.

"I'm not going to take you off this case." It sounded like a promise, "I think you're right to be confused, there's a missing child with no evidence to tell you what way she's gone. And I think that's why you're going to be important and vital to this case, Levine."

"I don't doubt your confusion." Any other Unit Chief would've called her crazy. Why wasn't he calling her crazy? "I want you by my side with this case, not just because I want to keep an eye on you but because I think you're going to be incredibly helpful. But, I need you to communicate with me, Levine."

Oh. That might be a dealbreaker for Amelia.

She was good at communicating. Maybe. Probably not. She was actually pretty terrible at it.

When Amelia realized something she usually kept it to herself in fear of being incorrect and fear of being benched.

The first time she'd realized something in the BAU she'd been too slow and a murder and suicide had happened because of it. And the most recent time she'd figured something out she'd actually been correct and helped the case make a massive step forward in the finding the unsub.

Those were 50/50 results.

Amelia believed that meant she wasn't good at communicating.

"I can do that." She nodded her head, she can try to do that.

✺

It takes seven seconds for a child to disappear.

It was a frightening fact that had fallen from Agent Hotchner's lips.

It might've just seemed like a simple statement but it had in fact revealed that Katie had been led away from her cousin by something.

The something hadn't been figured out.

But Katie's necklace had been found in a trash can. A 24 carrot gold necklace with real diamonds, ripped from Katie's neck from anger. A necklace she had just so happened to of found in the school playground.

No kid loses a 24 carrot gold necklace with diamonds and doesn't come searching for it.

Amelia wasn't sure if kids wore 24 carrot gold necklaces with diamonds in the playground in the first place.

Amelia examined the evidence bag in her hands as the male agents spoke about the torn clasp around her.

It was personal. Rage.

Amelia's head tilted to the side, "Do you think it's jealousy?"

The men all turned to look at her.

Agent Jenkins was shocked she spoke more than two words.

Agent Hotchner was surprised she was actually communicating with other people.

And Morgan was confused by how she meant jealousy.

"No kid wears a 24 carrot gold necklace with real diamonds on the playground and doesn't report it missing." Amelia said, the men nodded in agreement, "This wasn't found on the playground, this was gifted to Katie. And whoever gifted it to her had somebody out there who would be jealous of a little girl receiving that attention."

"That makes me think that," Amelia's face contorted with disgust at the idea, "it makes me think that Katie is a victim of molestation."

Derek tensed. Amelia pretended not to notice.

Hotchner looked down at the necklace in her hands, "We need proof with that before we even start—"

"If Katie is being molested there will be signs of it in her bedroom." She cut him off, "Sorry."

Agent Hotchner nodded his head, accepting her apology and speaking, "It's a theory."

"That we can't prove." Derek pointed out, clearing his throat before speaking. "How can you be sure of that from one necklace."

"I can't," Amelia admitted, "It's just something I can explore while the rest of the team searches for a real connection between the cases."

"I don't think there is one." Hotchner admitted, "This may not be related to last week's abduction after all. The necklace was personal, it was an unnecessary step but one the kidnapper had to take because it was personal."

Derek would go to the Jacob's house and his stomach would sink when he sees the wet bed and destroyed doll that hid in Katie's room.

✺

Amelia heard shouting in the background that came from Mr Jacobs. But, she wasn't focused on his rejection of an affair in his marriage.

She was more focused on the Jacobs family as a whole.

More specifically the Aunt and Uncle, who sat a fair distance away from one another and neither one of them particularly engaged in consoling their son after he failed to reveal the truth to the federal agents who had been questioning him earlier.

There was something about them that Amelia couldn't quite put her finger on yet.

Their family dynamic was off. That wasn't hard to see through the sheer façade they had been putting on for the hundreds of officers and agents that surrounded them in the mall - and who would know it better than Amelia?

But it couldn't of just been a disconnected family. That wasn't enough. There was a secret keeping husband and wife apart, there was something that kept their son so far and closed off from them.

What was it?

Hotchner's hand came into contact with her shoulder and had made her jump at first but she calmed down when she saw it was just him.

"There was evidence of molestation at the Jacobs' house." Agent Hotchner's gaze fell onto the father, who ruffled his nephew's hair.

Amelia's fell onto the uncle who sat on a completely different table.

"Most likely by somebody under the same roof." He said, speaking the same words he'd spoken to Derek just moments ago.

Hotchner followed her gaze.

"Derek thought her father bought her that necklace, she wouldn't have to lie."

"Her father didn't buy her that necklace." They both nodded in agreement and called Emily over.

✺

"What's going on here?" The uncle of Katie Jacobs asked as he was led into a makeshift interrogation room by Amelia as Hotchner stood by the door to make sure it was closed.

"Your son is being questioned in another room," Amelia informed him and sat down calmly in the chair opposite his. "I'm Agent Levine, I don't think we've had the pleasure of meeting."

He nodded his head and extended his hand out to her.

Amelia looked up him up and down. It was bad enough she had to sit opposite this bastard, she wasn't going to shake his hand.

"Sorry," She smiled tightly, "germaphobe."

He nodded and took the seat opposite her, "Why do you need to question us separately?"

"We suspect that he might know something." Agent Hotchner told him, standing behind Amelia's chair and resting his hands on the back of it.

"About Katie?"

Amelia almost laughed.

"From you, Mr Jacobs, we'd like to know more about your son." The son he knew nothing about, the son he couldn't console and the son he didn't love.

He nervously shoved his hands into his pockets and asked; "What would you like to know?"

Amelia doubted he knew anything at all.

"Do you know what Jeremy's interests are?" Amelia hadn't meant to be condescending, it just so happened to be the tone of her voice when talking to molesters.

Agent Hotchner furrowed his eyebrows, he believed they were going into the makeshift interrogation room to run the angle that the cousin had taken Katie but Amelia seemed to be running with a completely different angle.

She hadn't communicated that.

"Computers. He likes to be on the computer. He spends hours at a time." He gulped, "What's going on?"

"Who does he socialize with?" Agent Hotchner asked from behind Amelia.

She seemed to sink the tiniest bit in her chair as she realized she'd ran her angle and not the team's angle.

"I don't know, kids at school, I suppose."

Amelia believed a parent should be able to tell you the name's of the children your own child hangs out with, or at least be honest in the fact that your child was a loner.

All the uncle could offer was a weak, 'I suppose'.

He looked frantically between the agents.

Amelia ran her angle again, "You live with your son, don't you?" He nodded in confusion, "Yet you can't name any of his friends? If he's more of the loner type, we'll understand, but we just need you to be honest."

Oh, no. He might've been a loner, it was just that the uncle was far too busy with his niece than even spending five seconds learning if his son was a loner or the name of his friends.

"He spends hours in his room, listening to metal music that I don't understand." He used his hands to signal his confusion.

"Has he always been this distant with you, or is this something new?"

"No, I guess," he rubbed his chin in thought, "I guess it's always been like this. That's why I don't find it odd."

"Well, we did some checking and we found out that Jeremy, at the ripe age of 13, has a record." Hotchner said.

"For stealing, six months ago. We knew that." The uncle nodded.

"And you didn't find that odd?" Amelia tilted her head slightly.

"He stole earrings for a girl he liked." Oh, how romantic!

"When I was his age, I probably did the same thing."

Amelia furrowed her eyebrows.

"He must've really wanted to make an impression on her." Agent Hotchner said. "Make her feel special. So, we checked the record and they were very valuable."

"We reprimanded him."

"What was her name?" The Unit Chief inquired.

"Who?"

"The girl Jeremy liked so much he stole for her." He elaborated.

The man's eyebrows furrowed as he stumbled over his words, "I... I don't know. We're his parents. He's thirteen years old. If he hadn't been arrested, we probably wouldn't have even known he was into girls."

Agent Hotchner left the room which caused Mr Jacobs (the uncle) to pace.

"You look stressed." Amelia pointed out the obvious, hoping to get under his skin.

He looked at her in disbelief, "You work for the FBI, I'm sure you figured out that I'm stressed a long time ago."

Amelia shrugged. "You also don't know your son very well."

She rested her head in the palm of her hand, "I get that he might be secretive but all parents have a way of finding stuff out, if they really wanted to."

"Are you trying to say I don't care about my son?" He asked, raising his voice slightly.

"Did I say that?" Amelia asked, causing him to shake his head. "No. I never said that you didn't care about your son."

I just implied it.

Agent Hotchner soon came back into the room, "Please, sit down, Mr Jacobs."

Amelia looked up at him and pointed at the chair she was sat in, he shook his head with what looked like the closest thing Amelia would encounter as a smile from him.

He merely put his lips in a straight line instead of his usual frown.

Mr Jacobs complied, sitting back opposite Amelia who watched his every move.

"Did Jeremy and Katie spend a lot of time together?" Agent Hotchner asked, moving to his preferred place of standing behind Amelia's chair.

Wrong suspect.

"Our families spend a lot of time together. He likes his cousin."

Amelia rested her elbows on the table, "Does that make you jealous, Mr Jacobs?"

"What? Why would it?"

Amelia ignored his question, "Do you get to spend as much time with Katie as your son does?"

Mr Jacobs looked up at Agent Hotchner as if to ask if he was seeing this.

Agent Hotchner only placed Katie's necklace on the table.

Mr Jacobs gulped.

"A 24 carrot gold necklace just thrown in the trash. A shame. I'm sure Katie loved this necklace you got her."

"I... I didn't." He stuttered.

"You know your six year old niece better than you know your thirteen year old son. How does that happen?"

Agent Hotchner moved to walk around the table, as if Mr Jacobs was some prey and the Unit Chief was his predator. "Typically molesters only pay attention to the children that they're grooming, ignoring even their own."

"Katie wore that necklace because you told her to, because you told her she was special. As if your sexual abuse wasn't enough." Every-time she said the pronoun she hoped it felt painful for Mr Jacobs.

Scum. He was total and utter scum, he deserved to be treated like it too.

Mr Jacobs' head shot up at Amelia.

"Is that when it started?"

"When what started?" The bastard's face twisted into fake shock.

"When you gave Katie the necklace, when she started wetting the bed, when her parents came to you and Susan wondering why their daughter locked herself in her room." Hotchner listed, "Was that when it started?"

"Is that when the molestation started?" With each word you could see the Unit Chief become more angry.

Whether that was to rile up or create fear within Mr Jacobs, Amelia didn't know.

"This is ridiculous." Mr Jacobs shook his head, avoiding the questions.

"You couldn't help yourself, could you?" Mr Jacobs stood up from his chair and Hotchner followed him with questions.

"You're crazy!"

Amelia stood from her chair as Mr Jacobs tried to walk past her but she stood and blocked his way out.

"Like so many little girls before."

"I want to get out of here!" His wishes were ignored.

"You started spending more time with her and telling her she was special."

"I'm not listening to you." Mr Jacobs looked to Amelia, as if she would help him out of this.

She knew what he was. She knew what a sick bastard he was.

"You knew it was sick. Your brother's own daughter!" The Unit Chief raised his voice, "Did she outgrow you preference?"

"Shut up!" Mr Jacobs shouted louder than Hotchner did.

"Did she get too old for you?" The Unit Chief shouted in Mr Jacobs' face.

"No!"

The shouting stopped but Mr Jacobs exhaled. "No."

"So, where is she Mr Jacobs?" Amelia stepped forward, as the two agents essentially cornered the molester - because Hotchner didn't seem to be stepping back any time soon. "Where is the little girl who you stole the girlhood of? Where is the little girl who you disgustingly love more than anyone!"

"Where is the little girl you molested?"

"I may have done some things that you couldn't possibly understand," Amelia scoffed at his words. In what world could anyone understand this? "But I would never hurt Katie."

He cried. There were tears in his eyes.

He cried for Katie.

The little girl, who was missing. The little girl, who he had molested.

He cried for her.

It made Amelia sick.

She pulled out his chair for him but said no words to him as her and Hotchner moved to stand by the door to talk privately.

"Whoever ripped the necklace off Katie did it in rage." Hotchner whispered, "And he just seems broken."

He looked like he was about to leave the room but Amelia grabbed onto his arm, "I don't think it was his son. He was preoccupied with the girls in the arcade."

"There's only one person left who I can think of who would act out in rage towards Katie."

He nodded his head.

Hotchner then looked down at the small hand that wrapped around his arm.

When Amelia realized she immediately pulled her hand away, "Sorry."

"It's alright." He whispered before leaving the room.

Hotchner left the door open after he told Emily their latest theory.

Emily walked into the room with furrowed eyebrows, "You know, for probably the most stressful day of your life, I haven't seen you light one cigarette."

Amelia looked to her in confusion, having clearly missed something there.

"I quit over a month ago."

Emily stormed out the room, not in anger but in realization.

It must've been the Aunt.

The realization made Amelia's stomach sink.

Sick, sick people.

"You're a sick bastard, you know that right?" Amelia didn't want him to answer. She shouldn't have even said anything, but she couldn't just sit in this room with this... evil, evil person.

Was he even a person?

"You..." he pointed at her, "You wouldn't understand."

Amelia looked at him in shock, he'd said it once already but she really listened to him this time. "Understand? What is there to understand about you? That you're sick! That you feed off of a little girl's fear and mistake it for pleasure?"

"You want me to understand that?" Amelia put both her hands on the table and stared at him. "I am grateful that I will never, never understand a sick bastard like you."

He chuckled.

He actually chuckled.

"You say that—"

"I say it because I mean it. You are sick and twisted. You prey on the most vulnerable. You think they love you." Amelia shook her head, "I am nothing like you."

She rounded the table and roughly pulled him up from his chair, "You are scum. And do you know what they do to scum, like you, in prison?"

Amelia forced his hands behind his back.

"I'm not sure you wanna know." She laughed at him and what he'd have to endure, "Because they'll make your life a living hell, they will ruin your life."

"Like you ruined Katie's childhood." She whispered into his ear and she forced him into the metal handcuffs. "They will rip you to shreds and you deserve every second of it."

Amelia led him out of the room they had been in, and out of the mall's front doors.

Her heeled boot was stood on the back of his shoes, pressing into his heels as they descended down the stairs.

She had to yank the back of his collared shirt to stop him from falling down the stairs.

"Whoops." She unapologetically murmured as she made her way towards the cop car waiting for him.

There were two parked out front: one for him, and one for his wife.

Amelia's hand was on the back of his neck, causing his head to be bumped on the car, "Oh! I hope that didn't hurt!"

She didn't mean that.

Not one bit.

Mr Jacobs looked back to his brother, with Katie being wheeled into an ambulance behind him.

"In you go, Mr Molester." Amelia essentially threw him into the car and slammed the door shut behind her.

It took everything in her to not wipe her hands clean.

She did feel dirty.

Amelia made her way towards Spencer, who stood with the kid, "Have you got any hand sanitizer?"

Spencer thought that was the silliest thing Amelia had ever asked him. "Of course I do."

"Be discreet about it," Amelia murmured, "Agent Hotchner's been watching me since I nearly tripped him down the stairs."

Spencer glanced down at the boy, before looking back up at Amelia and whispering, "He deserved it."

"Levine!" The Unit Chief's voice called out for her, and she so hoped she'd dreamed it.

But she hadn't.

And Aaron Hotchner was watching her rub the sanitizer into her hands.

Amelia's eyes widened.

She looked behind her to check if Spencer, Derek and the boy had remained.

They had not.

Those traitors.

"Agent Hotchner—" Amelia was more than ready to defend herself against her Unit Chief for the actions she had made against the child molester.

"Well done today."

Amelia blinked.

She swore he'd spoken in a language she didn't understand.

"Sorry?"

He let out a bit of air. Amelia concluded that was a laugh. She'd made him laugh. "Well done today. You were on 'Hotch Watch' and proved yourself today. You earned my trust today."

"Which means you should have this back." He handed her her gun back.

Amelia had been so pissed off about it at first, for the first thirty minutes she hadn't stopped complaining about the gun Hotchner had 'stolen' from her.

After the thirty minutes she'd completely forgotten she was without her gun.

"Oh, thank you." She tucked it away, safely. "And, thank you, for trusting me today. I don't exactly make it the easiest thing in the world. But, I'm working on it, I promise, I swear. I'm gonna be better in the next few days."

She won't.

Her and Hotchner both knew that.

He doubted Amelia would be 'better' for as long as her parents were around.

Amelia shook her head, "You probably need to get going, go home. Give your son a big hug."

She smiled.

He fought the urge to smile.

He wasn't going home, not literally. He was going to his son, and that was close enough.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Agent Hotchner." She saluted him and turned on her heel, running in her boots to catch up to JJ and Emily.

"Hotch." He whispered, wishing he'd spoke fast enough.

They'd work on that tomorrow.

For now, he had to go home. He had to go hug his son.

And Amelia would return back to her apartment.

That was home, wasn't it?

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
there was supposed to be amelia and her parents arguing but i cba

iris by the goo goo dolls is sooooo amelia's and aaron's song, i'm soooo sick

this chapter took a lot more effort than necessary considering it had amelia and hotch moments (THE SMALLEST AMOUNT 😭)

i also have like 20 chapters prewritten and yesterday i started writing a new one, and it was so hard but i'm in the flow now, i missed my babies (i havent wrote for them in 4 months)