HOW You Remind Me

Disclaimer I don't own nor have I ever owned Criminal Minds I also don't own Nickleback's how you remind me. The only thing I own is a 70lbs lap dog.

As Aaron Hotchner sat in his darkened living room with his glass of bourbon sitting on the table in front of him, he was reflecting on the last few months of his life.

Never made it as a wise man

I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing

Tired of living like a blind man

I am sick of sight without the sense of feeling

And this is how you remind me

This is how you remind me

Of what I really am

Hotch's thoughts take him back to the last fight he and Hayley had before she took Jack and left. He had just walked in the house getting back from a Serial Rapist case in Boston, to find Hayley waiting for him in the living room.' I can't take this anymore Aaron" she said "I can't take you always putting someone else's family before ours. Always putting our family last and never first, you missed Jack's first steps because you were in Ohio; you missed his first word because you were in Dallas."

"Hayley, Hotch said in an exhausted voice, that's not true, why do you think that? Our family was the reason I do what I do, to make the world a safer place for Jack. So that we don't ever have to feel like the victim's families do" "No Aaron Hayley interrupted you do it for the rush. When you are home, you keep looking at the phone wanting to be called in.

It's not like you to say sorry

I was waiting for a different story

This time I am mistaken for handing you a heart worth breaking and I've been wrong

I've been down, been to the bottom of every bottle these five words screaming in my head screaming are we having fun yet?

"I'm sorry you feel that way Hayley, that was never my intention" "No Aaron, don't say sorry, we both know your not. It the same old story, you won't or can't be what I need and what Jack needs, so I am going to make it simple for you, for me and for Jack, Aaron, I want a divorce." Hayley said.

That night, after Hayley packed hers and Jacks stuff up and went to her sister's house, Aaron, went to the bar in the living room and drank his way to the bottom of his bourbon bottle hoping to numb the pain of both the last case and the pain of his failed marriage.

It's not like you didn't know that

I said I love you and I swear I still do

And it must have been so bad

Cause living with me must have damn near killed you

Hotch finished his glass of Bourbon and his final remembrances of that last fight." Hayley, you know I love you and Jack, how can you just leave and take my son with you? You mean the world to me" Hotched tried to explain. Hayley looked at him with pity and hurt in her eyes and explained for the last time, "Aaron, who you are now and who you were the when we first married are not the same person anymore, I married a lawyer that would be home every night for dinner, who would mow the lawn every Saturday and take the kids on outings on Sunday, not some Serial Killer chaser, that is hardly ever home and never has time to see the one child he has," Hayley, I understand how hard it is to live with me. You have to realize, what I do makes a difference maybe a small one but a difference. Please Hayley, don't do this" Hotched ask in a sad voice.

'I'm sorry Aaron, she said in a small voice, I have already retained a lawyer, you should be served at anytime now." Hayley left after saying that and walked out the door without looking back.

Hotch shook himself out of the memories and walked to the kitchen and washed out his glass and put it away. He looked at all the packed boxes and sighed deeply, re-reading the letter Hayley left reminding him to send the signed divorce papers and return them to her lawyer.

Never made it as a wise man

I couldn't cut it as a poor man stealing

And this is how you remind me, this is how you remind me of what I really am.

Hotched turned off the lights and walked out of the home he had shared with Hayley and Jack for the last time as a married man.