After the paperwork was done and they had spoken to everyone they needed to and closed the case they all headed back to the jet. Lorelai knew getting on this jet meant she would be trapped for two hours with no where to go. With no one on the plane not knowing what had come out of her mouth less than 24hours before.
She got on and sat in the back where she usually sat. Usually, Reid and JJ would sit with her but instead this time Hotch sat with her. She closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat hoping that she could just pretend to sleep. It wasn't that she wasn't tried. She was physically and emotionally more exhausted than she could ever remember. But she was not going to be able to sleep, there was to much on her mind. But she could lay there with her eyes closed and maybe she would be able to get away with not talking about it. For now, anyways.
Hotch was not a stupid man. He could see through her fake sleep ploy however he understood. They all had baggage. He had known she had some secrets but nothing quite like what she had reveled. He had thought for a second that maybe she made it up but her reaction since tells him that everything she said was 100% the truth. He was angry that there was someone out there probably hurting children. He was angry that this young lady that had been brought onto his team had been through hell and he didn't know. He however was not angry with Lorelai. She was just a kid. Yes, technically an adult but barely and in his eyes, she was still a kid. He decided that he wasn't going to push things right now. He knew that even thought she wasn't sleeping, she like the rest of the team had to be exhausted.
"I know your not sleeping. But I'm not going to make you talk about it right now. Just want you to know your not in any trouble. In fact. I am very impressed with your work on this case. You did something no one else on this team could have done. You talked down a young man who could have hurt you or himself and made sure he could get the help he clearly needed. Sometimes when we find criminals, we forget that they are humans too and sometimes they are just good people in a bad situation. You got the bad guy. His father. And you helped three young women and a young man get the help they needed. I'm proud of you." He told her. Knowing what he knew now about her past he knew she would benefit from a male parental figure reminding her how good she was at her job. Any doubts he might have had about her. About her abilities about her person were gone. He firmly believed that this young lady was well on her way to being whatever she wanted to be. Even director of the FBI some day if that's what she was shooting for.
Lorelai listened to him. She kept her eyes shut even if he knew she was faking she couldn't bring herself to look him in the eyes right now. When he told her how impressed he was, and how proud his was she had to fight back tears. She would never admit it, but she let the words of adults in her past get to her and she still had those comments running through her head when she was feeling bad about herself. So, when an older man, someone who could fit the age of her father, a man she looked up to telling her those things it made her fell something she never felt before, and that was capable. Capable of being more than just a stupid, useless foster kid who nobody wanted. As they were landing Hotch told the team to take a couple days off that this case had taken atoll on everyone and that they all needed time to decompress so he would see them in a couple days.
