A/N: This is actually inspired by the weather and traffic situation here in Holland today.. (terribly beautiful though). While I'm realising that I tend to write stories that involve snow a lot, I just had to write this lol! It came to mind and begged to be written!
This will probably be 2 or 3 chapters total.
Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds in any way.
Strangely White
They were on their way back to the hotel after interviewing a witness. The radio clock told her it was 9.17pm at the moment and they were going too slow for her liking. She shifted in her seat a bit, putting her arms around her and lifting her shoulders as to keep warm. Which she knew was a trick of the mind and would only cause her to have a sore neck later. But she did it anyways, deciding to fool her mind into warm thoughts being better than thinking it was cold.
After leaving the witness' house at approximately 08.00pm they'd driven only a couple of miles when the world around them became white. Big snowflakes falling down slowly, covering the road in a thick soft blanket.
She looked at Hotch who was driving. Small puffs of air were leaving his mouth. His eyes focused on the road, concentrating on driving them back safely. The roads were ice and she'd felt the car slip a couple of times earlier. Thank God for Hotch being a skilled driver.
Their SUV was the only vehicle on the road. These types of places never held much traffic, except for some stray farmers who'd lived nearby. A farm was exactly the place they'd left over an hour earlier. Wyoming wasn't a state for a woman named Emily Prentiss. Though she'd enjoyed nature very much, she'd always been more of a city girl. After living in cities all over the world her whole life, she couldn't think of herself living somewhere else.
Looking out the window she sighed and thought back to the lives she had in those foreign countries. The places had made her into the person she was now. That and also the family she lived with in all those places. Or lived less with better to say.
After hearing her sigh Hotch turned to look at her.
"It's strangely peaceful isn't it?"
Being pulled out of her thoughts she looked at him startled.
"What?"
"The snow"
"Oh" Her eyes looked at what she could make out to be a road in front of them. "Yes it is".
She'd always thought of snow to cover what was really there. A nice layer of pure white, covering the bold roughness underneath.
A beautiful mask to cover the horrors if only for a little while.
"It certainly is"
Neither of them spoke again for a couple of minutes. A comfortable silence took over the slightly cold SUV, both of the people inside left to their thoughts. The song "All I Need" from a band called Air could be heard on the radio. The quiet voice of the singer coming out of the speakers.
Then suddenly the car moved to the right, catching both Hotch and Emily of guard. The wheels losing grip on the slippery asphalt, they slid towards a tree a couple of meters from where the road would be if it was visible.
They neared the tree quickly and Hotch was frantically moving the steering wheel to change their direction. Trying the brakes to find more grip, but it was of no avail.
It had all happened in a matter of seconds before they came to a halting stop. Five seconds was all it took for a car to almost slam into a tree. Looking at the tree left from her window Emily realized it had been close. The tree was only an arm away from where they'd ended up.
From the tree she looked back at Hotch. Their gazes meeting at the same time.
"Wow, that was close"
He let out the breath he'd been holding "Exactly my thoughts"
Still feeling the adrenaline running through his veins he turned his gaze back to his hands. The fact that he'd lost total control for a second there had frightened him. He should've focused better on the road. He had been careful , but driving in weather like this was always tricky. They both took a moment to recover from the shock. Emily was the first to speak.
" You okay?"
She looked at him with a questioning expression covering her features.
"Yeah, you?
"Yes. You think it's safe to drive further?"
At that Hotch let his eyes wander the road, looking through the front window. It had started snowing even harder than before. The flakes now coming down fast, making it hard to see anything outside. A big contrast with the way it had snowed earlier.
"I think we should wait until the weather clears out a bit. I don't want a situation like this to happen again". One near death experience was enough for today.
"Strangely peaceful snow, now was it?" came her quiet, sarcastic reply.
A/N2: Do you want to read more? Are you sure? Because there might be more coming up later!
