A/N: Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews! Sorry I'm a little late on tonight's update. Went with my husband to a book signing this evening. It was great fun! Thanks for your patience!


365: Day 53

Characters: Erin Strauss

Rating: K


Respect Is Earned

Erin Strauss sat at her desk delving through case file after case file as she prepared her monthly reports on her BAU teams for the director. Open cases, closed cases, spending reports, injury reports. It was enough paperwork to give anyone a headache.

Once again, Agent Hotchner's team lead the way.

She remembered back to a time when she would have hated this fact. Hotchner's continual success was sure to catch the attention of the director and other top Bureau brass. She was so certain he'd been after her job in the past, that the consummate overachiever was trying to get noticed so that he could supplant her on his way to running the Bureau.

How wrong she had been.

She didn't know it was possible for an agent of Hotchner's caliber to want to stay in his current position with no desire to move above and beyond. But as he had told her years ago, "why would I ever want to leave the BAU?" She didn't necessarily believe his statement then. Why should she? She didn't trust him, and she was certain he sure as hell didn't trust her. How does someone with that much ambition just... settle?

But after watching him more closely over the last five years, she realized something.

The BAU was family.

She'd seen how hard he fought on behalf of Agent Jareau. She'd witnessed what he was willing to do to ensure the safety of Agent Prentiss. She saw how protective he was of Agent Reid.

She witnessed those rare light-hearted moments with his team, like at Agent Jareau's wedding.

She witnessed their fight for survival during the bank heist.

And as in any family, she'd witnessed his team's fierce loyalty and protectiveness of their leader. No time more poignant than the tragedy brought upon them by George Foyet.

If she ever doubted his statement before, she believed every word of it now. He would never leave the BAU. He couldn't. The team was his family. His to guide. His to nurture. His to protect. His to defend.

And he was willing to do each of those things with his life.

Despite that they rarely saw eye to eye on field tactics or bureau politics, there was one thing he'd more than earned from her.

Respect.


02/22/2013