She Didn't Suffer Much
My very short take on what may have been running through Hotch's mind during the end of 100- sorry it wouldn't get out of my head. This is my first fanfic EVER (a very short debut, I know), so please review and be kind.
Disclaimer: I guess I have to put one of these so this is gonna be real easy- I do not own Criminal Minds. There, all done.
"She died fairly quickly. One of the wounds severed her aorta, and they don't think that she...and they don't think she suffered much" he heard Strauss say mournfully.
She did not suffer much-perhaps not physically, he thought. Mentally, he knew she suffered greatly. She was tortured knowing that monster was going to take her life, going to take her away from her son so she would never see him again, hear his childish laughter again, hold him again. She knew he was taking her away from her son forever.
Foyet tortured her by telling her her ex-husband, the love of her life, was dead, only to find out later- too late- that he was alive and she was now the one who had to face death. And she faced it not knowing if that monster would find her son and do the same to him or if their son would be saved in time. She suffered knowing she was going to die and would not be able to protect her son once gone.
She stood strong on her own even before he demanded her to do so on the phone, despite knowing her time was already at an end. She knew the moment there was no chance of cheating it, the moment she demanded something of him as the final, agonizing seconds of her life ticked by. She knew and because she knew, she suffered.
But Strauss would not know this, would not understand this, so he answered her final question and sat a moment longer before dismissing himself, not willing to tell her the inaccuracy of the medical examiner's report. He would not allow her to see his eyes and the torture he now suffered at his inability to keep his love from the suffering he knew she endured. Perhaps they did not think she suffered much, but he knew different. That day she suffered greatly before the trigger was pulled...