An--Hey, this is just a general little thing I wanted to work on. There are no pairings, unless you find them, but I don't know where you are looking if you find anything romantic in the least in this story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds, though I do own an awesome t-shirt that says "I'd rather be watching Criminal Minds". But other than that and the DVDs, I don't own it.
Aaron Hotchner awoke with a gasp in the still darkness in the small Maine hotel. The case had been a bad one, brutal and vicious that detailed the worst of the human psyche. He should have expected the dream that followed. Should have expected the nightmares that plagued his dreams in his own home to join him on the case. A case where they were too late, once again.
The dream was always the same. Sure the particulars were different every time, sometimes the unsub was black, other times he was white. Sometimes it was Prentiss who was hurt, other times Morgan. Sometimes JJ got abducted or shot, other times violent unsubs took out their rage on Reid. Garcia and Dave rarely made an appearance, and on rare occasions, it was multiple members of the team. The end result was always the same. He failed. Failed to warn Morgan to duck before a bullet pierced through his vest. Failed to warn Emily of the unsub creeping up behind her until he watched as the life was squeezed from her body. Failed to warn JJ as an unsub attacked her in a press conference. Failed to realize that it was a police officer who was really the unsub and only discovered it too late once all of his team was lying on the ground with blood seeping from their bodies. Failed….
Sighing deeply, Hotch stood, briefly pausing at the window to look out at the stillness of the early morning. He wouldn't be getting much more sleep tonight, of that he was well aware. Coffee seemed to be the only solace that would keep the nightmares temporarily at bay.
He was surprised, but not shocked all together to find Morgan, Garcia, and Prentiss already sitting at the table of a diner across the street. They smirked silently in his direction, knowing what brought him here, but unwilling to breach the code that pushed too closely to "not profiling a member of the team." Sitting in silence, the quartet simply took comfort in each other's company.
JJ muttered softly into the phone, hoping that her soft voice wouldn't wake any of the other people in the small hotel. "That's it, sweetheart." She cooed. "Just go back to sleep." Ever since Henry started teething, he wouldn't settle down for anyone but his mother, and poor Will had borne the brunt of it. Things with Will were tense and complicated; not at all like the fairy tale scenario she had imagined or even wished for. Will was a great father, but each day with him felt like a disappointment. She knew he was annoyed that she wouldn't quit her job, or even transfer to a different department, but the BAU was her life. Even he should appreciate that.
But he didn't. JJ was finding out that he wasn't the type to let work come before family. A good trait to have, just not one she possessed. She loved her son, she did, and she loved him more than she could ever love the BAU, but that wasn't how it was originally. Before she had Henry, she had never wanted to be the mommy role. She'd always believed it not to be in the cards for her, but now he was hers and she couldn't understand her wayward thinking. But before there was Henry, it was her and Will, and before Will, it had been her and the BAU. She tried to fight her addiction to the musty smell of the jet, but it was hard. He established roots, while JJ thrived on her wings. Which was why in the recent months, the time away had become easier. She missed Henry terribly, but she didn't really notice being away from Will.
JJ, looked out the dark window. It was too late at night for anything to be happening other than the stars and moon illuminating the empty street. She stared for a little while, waiting for a change though not expecting one. It was just another nervous tick she had when she was on the road. But something did change. She noticed as a familiar, lanky man slunk onto the street.
"What is Reid doing?" She muttered to herself, grabbing a large sweatshirt and shoving it over her head. She had no idea what she was about to do, but she decided to not think. It was too late at night for common sense.
JJ tried to keep a safe distance from the wandering genius, following him just across the street. To her surprise, she found him walking into a rundown diner, Margie's, where he sat down at a table full of people. Gulping a deep breath, she entered to find something that surprised her.
"JJ." Garcia grumbled. "Lovely night for a walk, eh?"
"What are you all doing up?" She asked, plopping herself down next to Morgan who gave her a playful shove.
"Couldn't sleep." Emily yawned, collapsing her head in her arms. The entire team knew what they were in for, insomniac Emily was everyone's least favorite person to play with. "Grrr." She muttered inaudibly.
"I hate the night after cases like that." Garcia whined. "It's like watching Freddie versus Jason without the crappy theme music."
"Shut up." Emily moaned. It was well known that she hated all horror films that Garcia and JJ had forced her to watch and there were no exceptions. Garcia was teasing her, she knew it.
"Now Emily, be nice." Morgan scolded playfully. "We wouldn't want anyone thinking you're unpleasant."
"I'll show you unpleasant." She threatened through gritted teeth.
"If you are so tired," Reid piped up. "Then why are you here instead?"
"I told you, I couldn't sleep."
"Why not?" Rossi prodded, if he was going to be here at one in the morning, he was going to have fun doing it.
"I just…." Emily groaned. "I had a nightmare."
"Really?" Garcia squirmed. "I did too."
"Same here." Reid confessed.
Morgan nodded, as did Rossi and Hotch. JJ just shrugged, being the only one who wasn't up because of the terrors of the night, that didn't mean she wasn't often subject to them.
"What was it about?" Reid asked.
"I thought you didn't believe in dream analysis." Garcia interrupted before taking a sip of her black coffee.
"I don't believe that it has a strong correlation to the activities of your daily life." Reid explained. "But it has some merits that can't be over looked."
"So, Emily what was the nightmare about?" Garcia pried.
"I don't remember." Emily lied, pausing just long enough to hint of her dishonesty.
"Oh Sugar, you are so full of it." Garcia accused. "I'm not even trained in the art of lie detecting and I can tell."
"No." Emily countered, the eyes of the team piercing through her armor. "Fine. Its just—I dream—I dream about Matthew. He is always just staring at me, like I was too late to save him and I could've done something."
"Emily---" JJ tried to comfort, leaning over and patting her friend's arm sympathetically. After becoming a mother, her tend or befriend instincts were going like crazy, always looking for someone to help.
"What, you asked." Emily defended. "Its not a big deal. You all said that you had nightmares too."
"Yes, but we aren't dead on our feet." Rossi explained.
"If I said mine, you all have to say yours." Emily decided. "Its only fair."
"My biggest nightmare is that JJ has to drive us around again." Morgan teased after a moment.
Rossi looked confused as the team erupted in laughter while JJ scowled seriously. "It wasn't that bad." She glared at Morgan.
"Not that bad? JJ, I've played video games that drive better than you do...which isn't hard." Garcia teased.
"What was this?" Rossi asked, hating that he was always on the outside of the team's inside jokes.
"Have you ever noticed how JJ never is allowed behind the wheel?" Reid primed, joining in of the festivities.
"Not really, I just assumed she liked everyone else driving." Rossi shrugged.
"Actually, its because there is a moritorium on JJ driving." Reid began to explain. "We were working a case in Dallas, and..."
"He doesn't need to know the story." JJ interjected sweetly, hoping that kindness and good karma would for once put things in her direction.
"For safty reasons--he does." Garcia discredited. "So Reid and Morgan decide once that they are going to be nice and let JJ drive, only to end up in the ER."
"All Reid had was a hairline fracture." JJ defended. "He could get that from tripping down the stairs."
"But he didn't get it from the stairs." Morgan teased. "He got it when you slammed into the back of a bus."
"You ran into a bus?" Rossi spewed at JJ.
"Not just any bus, a school bus carrying kindergarten students." Morgan corrected.
"They all were fine." JJ retorted. "Really tough guy, what was your nightmare about?"
"You just want me to shut up." Morgan chuckled.
"While that may be true as well, I am curious." JJ prodded.
"I'm not telling you." Morgan put his hands in the air.
"Coward." JJ taunted. "I bet even Reid is brave enough to tell me, but no. Derek Morgan is too big of a---"
"Alright." Morgan grumbled. "I dreamt that I didn't get there in time. That our unsub keeps winning and I can't save anyone."
Rossi nodded, indicating that this was his nightmare as well, not that it surprised anyone. It was blatantly transparent. Morgan was always out to save the one that no could. He never let victims fall through the cracks.
"You're going to lose victims." Emily reasoned. "That's nothing..."
"I didn't justify your nightmares away." Morgan reminded testily.
"Why are you awake Garcia?" Reid said, trying to divert the conversation away from a sleep deprived, angry Emily and a just normally agressive, alpha male Morgan.
"Nightmare." Garcia admitted, smiling wearily at the irony of the situation. As Emily often said it, there job really did suck.
"Do tell." Emily turned intrestedly, amazed that even Garcia was suffering from the fruits of crime fighting. It was always easy to forget that Garcia wasn't immune to the hardships of the job. So Emily was very curious at what could possibly frighten the brave tech analyst.
"Well, it scares me." Garcia began slowly, serious for maybe the fourth time in her life. "I'm afraid that someday, one of my pussycats won't come home. I dream about getting the call that one of you is gone or having to watch the footage of your death and look for clues. Its all out paralyzing."
"You worry about us?" Reid quivered, seemingly touched. Deep down he knew that Garcia worried about him, but at two o'clock in the morning, he was feeling strangely sentimental.
"You know I do." Garcia said sweetly, enough so that even Emily's slightly annoyed exterior softened. At the slightly serene moment, Garcia disrupted the calm by adding "With the way that Emily drinks, I have to worry about all of you--especially when you're away on cases." She teased with a light glint in her eye.
"What?" Emily cried incredulously, semi offended.
"Oh, hush it Sugar Crumb. What about that time in Vegas where you--"
"I think I get your point, Garcia." Emily said, the last word coming out warningly.
"Oh, don't be ashamed, everyone here has already seen your table dancing abilities. It's nothing to be ashamed of." Rossi said, surprising everyone as Emily blushed furiously and the rest of the team erupted in laughter.
"What about you, Rossi?" Emily turned the tables on her older colleague.
"I'm used to the nightmares." Rossi admitted, "actually they've gotten better in my old age."
"Then what are you doing up?" Reid questioned.
"I'm a light sleeper, and with youcalling out in your sleep at all hours of the night, I decided that breakfast was more welcoming than trying to drown out your sorry voice at the early hours of the morning." Rossi said, his smile betraying the underlying truth to his words.
"Kid, what were your---" Morgan began.
"It's nothing." Reid interrupted.
"Spence" JJ said, in a tone only a mother could muster. "What was your nightmare about?"
"I---uh---" Reid stuttered as the entire table of FBI Agents sat in anticipation.
"Come on, Mr. Genius Pants. What is your big bad nightmare about?" Garcia insisted.
"Henry." Reid admitted somewhat sheepishly. "I dream that he gets hurt, and our team has fought to save so many kids, but we can't save him. I don't want the child we lose to be one of the few children I care about on a personal basis."
JJ sat there stunned for a moment. She felt some small tears swell in her eyes but she fought hard to keep them in check. It just meant so much to her that Spence cared for her son as he did, it made her glad that she chose him as Henry's Godfather. "Oh Spence."
"Fine. You can laugh." He stammered, sure that the entire team was going to mock him for his parental worries for a child that wasn't his. But none of them did, truthfully, it reminded them of what the had always known, whether they liked it or not, whether for good or for ill, they were a family. Not one of flesh and blood, but of spirit. And the looked after their own.
"That was deep." Garcia said in awe, her voice quivering. She turned to the genius sitting next to her and pulled him into a tight hug. "I don't want Henry to get hurt either."
"I can't breathe." Reid choked out as Garcia squeezed him tighter.
"You don't need to." Garcia sniffed, now visibly crying.
"Oh baby girl, that is nothing to sob over." Morgan teased lightly, unsure of how he felt about public displays of emotion.
"What ever Morgan, I saw you during 'Marley and Me'." She defended stubbornly. "In fact, I saw you during that time we watched 'Old Yeller', and 'Because of Winn Dixie" and..."
"What? I'm a man with a dog. I can't help that I feel for..." He began to rant but was cut off by Emily's loud giggles.
"You're one of those guys who cries during dog movies." She laughed at the revelation. This was almost too much to handle.
"What is wrong with a man crying during a dog movie?" Rossi asked, being a fellow dog owner and sympathizer.
"Oh not you too." JJ cackled, not believing her ears.
"I just maintain that there is something..." Rossi began but Reid interupted.
"But Morgan, 'Because of Winn Dixie?' The dog lives in that one." He said deftly, as though he didn't understand.
"Oh, Spence, didn't you know? The dog doesn't have to die in order for it to be a work of art." JJ mocked as Emily chortled uncontrollably. The pair of them were having too much fun with this to let it go.
"Lucky you aren't here because of nightmares, JJ." Morgan said in an obvious attempt to change the subject.
"That doesn't mean I don't have them." JJ shrugged shortly.
"You have nightmares?" Reid asked. "But you're tough."
"Excuse me?" JJ laughed. "How did I get the reputation for being tough?"
"I think its the fact that you are the only one of team that can be in a room with a spider without crying or quivering with fear." Garcia teased pertly, as the rest of them threw her a nasty look. "So what does the unbreakable miss JJ dream about?"
"Dogs." JJ said as the rest of the team looked at her in confusion.
"You're just saying that because of the conversation we just had." Morgan accused.
"No, really, the dogs. I've dreamt about them ever since the case with Tobias Henkle and his rabid canines." JJ explained. "Now, I'm just not a dog lover."
"So that explains why whenever you see my dog you cringe." Rossi said as if he was having an epiphany.
"That would explain it." JJ said, trying to get the attention off of her. While one would think because she chose to work with Televised news all day that she enjoyed being the center of attention, truthfully, she thrived on blending in.
"We should get you aclimated to them. We could do a sort of desensitization..." Reid began excitedly but saw the glaring looks of his coworkers. "What?"
"That's sweet of you Spence, but I think I'll be alright." JJ said, shaking her head. She would rather live with her phobia of dogs than try to get over it. It wasn't really hurting her life that badly.
"But JJ, it could even help further the cause of science..." He stammered.
"Lets not forget the last time Reid tried to use one of us 'to further the cause of science'." Garcia scoffed.
"That was one time..." Reid defended.
"One time that ended with an entire week hospital stay." Morgan said angrily, recalling the memory. He turned to look at Hotch. "What about you? Why you up?"
Hotch sighed, going to speak for the first time since he walked in here. Even being with the team made his nightmares more tolerable. "It wasn't anything."
"Seriously, after you heard all of our nightmare stories you aren't going to say anything?" Garcia questioned. "That's stupid."
"I didn't press you guys to say anything, you turned on each other." He mused, secretly hoping he didn't have to share.
"Come on." JJ insisted, not wanting to let any one team member slide. There was to be justice!
"Fine." He grumbled, looking down at the table so he wouldn't have to meet their eyes. "I dream...I..Uh...I dream that one of you dies and that its my fault."
"Really?" Emily asked, a little surprised. While she knew Hotch didn't exactly want them dead, she didn't really ever realize that he cared about their general safety.
"Yes. Really." Hotch said, trying to avoid everyone's gaze.
JJ, picking up on his discomfort, decided to drop him a line. "What's going to be funny is when we do this again, and it will be "Hey, remember the time that we stayed up all night talking about our nightmares and Garcia started to cry."
"Hey." Garcia shouted, albeit a little too loudly for the moment. "I cried for like, half a second, you say it in that context and you will all remember it wrong and think I was just an emotional mess."
"Well, if the shoe fits..." Morgan began only to be interrupted by Emily.
"Says the man who cried during 'Because of Winn Dixie'. Face it, Morgan, you have no room to talk." She smiled wickedly, becoming the tougher of the two of them. He could always tease her about table dancing, but at least her tissue was dry at the end of dog movies.
An2--I hope you liked it. This has been my baby for a while but I suddenly decided to finish it. Let me know what you thought.