Title: Appreciated
Category: Criminal Minds
Genre: Friendship
Ship: Penelope Garcia/Aaron Hotchner
Rating: PG
Prompt: #03 - Friends
Word Count: 410
Summary: Surrounded by profilers, what's a unique person to think?

Appreciated

He's staring at her, in that searching, knowing way of his, and she feels like he can read her soul. She purses her lips, forces her eyes elsewhere; she will not let him profile her. But then she thinks forcing her eyes away is saying something, so she tries not to. And then she thinks her fisted hands are sending the wrong message, or any message, and she doesn't know how to stop so he won't know how to read her.

He smiles suddenly and she glares back.

With a laugh, he crosses the space of her tech office and kneels next to her. "I'm not profiling you."

She frowns. "If you weren't how do you know that's what I thought you were doing?" she argues.

With a chuckle, he shakes his head. "We're friends, right?"

Suspicious, she nods. "Co-workers, friends, and in a weird way, kinda like family." She shrugs.

"Right… So you have to know that I won't do anything you don't want me to… I don't profile you because I like you, Penelope. I like who you are and what you do and I don't believe that everybody needs profiling. And I also wouldn't want you to change who you are based on something I profiled."

Softening, she smiled. "Really?"

"Yes." He grinned. "Really."

She tipped her head, flushing with appreciation. "That's nice to hear…"

Nodding, he stood. "Anytime you need me to say it, you know where to find me." As he turned to leave, she reached out, grabbing the sleeve of his shirt to stop him.

"I just want you to know… I may not be a profiler but I'm pretty good with reading people… And I like who you are too, Hotch. You're not always the easiest to get along with and you definitely need to loosen up, but… I wouldn't change you."

Squeezing her hand overtop his arm, he nodded. "Thank you, Penelope."

"And anytime you need to hear that…"

He chuckled. "I know where to find you."

"Exactly."

With a warm grin, he left her in her lair of unique and Penelope was content. So maybe not everybody got her and maybe she was surrounded by entirely too many profilers, but at least there was one person, one man, one profiler, out there who liked her just the way she was. And damn if it wasn't nice to know that the sometimes weird and quirky way of hers was appreciated as is.