Story I – Chapter 26
Rossi stumbled as the pistol that was threatening to snuff the life out of him mere milliseconds before flew across the room; the handcuffed Billy Widmyer, who was still standing in the doorway, screamed in terror; JJ gasped and her hand flew to her mouth; and Morgan's eyes flew open as his jaw dropped. Hotch didn't see any of it, though, because his back was to them, and he was standing over the fallen man as he sucked in air heavily through clenched teeth as his hands fisted and unfisted.
Rossi licked his lips and stepped up to the man he loved as a son. "Hotch?" he asked quietly as he placed a hand on his back.
Hotch turned suddenly and Rossi flinched back. Hotch was in full vampire mode and the anger on his face truly made him look like a death dealing monster.
"Aaron?" Rossi asked again.
Hearing his real name struck a chord in him and Hotch shook his head and he finally realized what he had done. Horror stricken, he looked around at the other people in the room. "Oh my God! I am so sorry!" he yelled and was gone.
Morgan caught Billy as he fell into the room obviously shoved aside by Hotch as he fled and he had screamed again. Morgan ran a hand over his head as shared a look with Rossi. Rossi snorted and moved to Mr. Widmyer and bent down and checked for a pulse. The man had hit the wall with enough force that Rossi wasn't sure if he'd be alive or not, but Rossi sighed in relief and nodded to Morgan and JJ as Widmyer moaned, so Rossi took out his cuffs and quickly cuffed him before he came to completely.
JJ went up to Rossi. "Go to Hotch. I got him."
Rossi nodded, squeezed her shoulder, and went in search of the Unit Chief. He ran into Mack and Reid as they were coming down the stairs from the main level. "Did you all see Hotch?"
Mack frowned as she shook her head. "No, what happened?"
Rossi sighed. "I'll explain later. Have Morgan take the Widmyers to separate rooms and don't let them talk to each other or let any EMTs or anyone talk to them."
"Alright," Reid told him. "Garcia has also contacted the locals to let them know what's going on, should I have her stop them?"
Rossi thought about it for a second and then shook his head. "No. We'll deal with it," he told them and moved passed them. He had an idea where Hotch was.
He was right, of course, and he found Hotch on the roof looking out over the city. As he took in Hotch's normally perfect posture drooping slightly, his heart ached, and he walked up beside him. "You ok?"
Hotch shook his head. "I can't believe. . ."
"It's fine, Aaron," Rossi started.
Hotch turned to him. "No it's not! This is only my second case and I blew it!"
Rossi sighed. "You haven't blown anything, Aaron. You just need to get down there and take care of this."
Hotch's brows shot upwards. "Take care of it?! Sebastian said the most important thing was keeping this a secret and I just showed it to two unsubs!"
"Well, technically, only one saw it because the other was knocked unconscious, but you have the ability to make them forget. You need to do that now, before anyone else shows up. You can fix this."
Hotch shook his head. "But it shouldn't need fixing!"
"Aaron. . ."
"Two cases, Dave! Two cases and I haven't been able to get through either one without problems!"
"Damn, Aaron, cut yourself some slack! You have handled this better than anyone could, but you're not perfect and it will take some getting used to!"
Hotch's eyes slid shut as he turn away from him. "I don't think I'll be able to do this, Dave," he admitted weakly.
Rossi squeezed his shoulder. "Let's talk about this, Aaron. We can analyze what happened exactly so you can figure out how to stop it again if it bothers you that badly, but you really need to go down and take care of Billy before anyone else gets here."
He looked at him. "And what am I supposed to do to him?"
Rossi held out his hands and then shrugged. "I don't know. Tell him he saw you sneak up behind his dad and knock him out or something simple like that, or you could tell him he fainted and didn't see anything. If the dad wants to know what happened, we can tell him Reid snuck in behind him."
Hotch eyes darted around as he considered it and then they both looked toward the street as they heard sirens in the distance.
"Whatever you are going to do, you need to do it now."
Hotch sighed. "Alright. I'll try."
Rossi shoved him towards the door. "Go! Don't wait for me!"
Hotch nodded and was gone.
Rossi sighed and shook his head as he made his way back inside. If that man doesn't let up on himself I'm going to ground him!
XXX
After compelling Billy into thinking he hadn't seen anything except an FBI agent knock his father out, the rest of the night went by without any more problems. It was so late by the time they cleared the scene and processed their unsubs, though, that Hotch had to put a stop to anything else and they went to the hotel.
As they all lumbered out of the SUVs and grabbed their bags, Hotch cleared his throat. "I need to say. . ."
"Shut up, Hotch," JJ started and Hotch looked at her with shock filled eyes. She shook her head. "You're going to apologize, aren't you?"
Hotch licked his lips. "Yes. What I di. . ."
"You saved one of us!" JJ cut him off again and then ran a hand down her face and took a deep breath. "If you didn't have the abilities that you have now, Dave could be dead. Don't you dare apologize for loving us and protecting us. You did what none of us could!"
The rest of the team quickly nodded and murmured their agreements, but Hotch sighed. "But I. . ."
"Your new abilities led to us capturing the unsubs and saving a victim that we didn't even know was out there, Man!" Morgan insisted.
"And even though there was a little hiccough, you handled it and everything is fine," Mack put in.
"And, not to mention, you also led us to four other bodies so those families will now have the closure they may not have received otherwise," Reid offered.
Hotch looked at all of them slowly and then focused on JJ and Morgan. "You can't tell me that it didn't bother you to see that. I saw your faces."
JJ sighed, step to him, and squeezed his arm. "What you saw was shock and disbelief, not horror or disgust. It surprised us, but I'm sorry, Hotch, we're not used to you being so fast that we can't see you move." She gave him a small smile. "You'll have to give us a little more time to adjust."
Morgan moved and put a supportive hand on Hotch's back. "Yeah, Man. We may have been shocked but we're glad you did it. I saw Widmyer's eyes." He glanced at Rossi for a second and then locked eyes with Hotch. "He was going to pull that trigger, I'm sure of it."
They could all tell that Morgan was being completely serious, and Rossi sighed. "It's late. I say we get our sorry asses to bed."
Hotch looked at all of them again and then nodded as he gestured to the hotel entrance. "Let's go."
They all walked silently to their rooms, told each other goodnight, and then went in seeking showers or baths and a bed. Rossi, though, hung back with Hotch at Hotch's door and Hotch sighed. It was obvious Rossi was not going to let him go to bed without discussing what happened further, so Hotch opened the door and motioned for the older man to go in first. As soon as Hotch had shut the door, Rossi turned to him. "It's not what you did, or how the team's handling it that's bothering you so much, so what is?"
Hotch dropped his bag to the floor and sank into one of the chairs. "It's how it happened."
Rossi took a deep breath and sat down across from him. "I'm sorry Widmyer got the jump on me. I was looking around those bookshelves and he was suddenly behind me." He sighed. "I didn't know he was there until I felt him put his arm around my neck."
Hotch shook his head. "No. You didn't do anything wrong. It's just. . ." He dropped his head into his hands and shook it.
Rossi moved his chair closer and put a supportive hand on Hotch's back. "It's what?" he led quietly as his hand rubbed up and down the man's back to try and get him to relax a little.
Hotch took a deep breath, sat back up, and looked him in the eyes. "I lost control."
Rossi frowned. "What do you mean? You didn't want to save me?"
Hotch shook his head. "No. Of course I wanted to save you, but. . ." He got up as he sighed and took a couple steps away from the table. "I didn't do it," he confessed weakly and turned back to him. "The vampire did."
Rossi smiled. "Well, thank him for me."
Hotch shook his head. "It's not funny, Dave. When I saw Widmyer cock that pistol, everything. . . kind of blurred and I didn't even know what I was doing!" He snorted. "And I didn't become aware again until you called my name." He shook his head. "It took complete control of me!"
Rossi studied him and sighed deeply. He knew Hotch would think losing control was a thousand times worse than what he actually did or the fact that anyone saw anything. He licked his lips. "And why do you think that happened?"
Hotch shrugged. "I don't know." He turned away from him again and shook his head slowly. "I felt this. . ." His hands flung out in exasperation. "This horrible anger and I lost it." He turned back to the man he loved as a father. "It's like it fuels my worst emotion."
Rossi studied him, tisked, and then shook his head. "You're looking at this all the wrong way, Aaron."
Hotch frowned at him. "What do you mean?"
Rossi pat the table. "Sit."
Hotch frowned even more, but he sat.
Rossi shook his head at him again. "It's not using your worst emotion, Aaron. It was using your best."
Hotch's face scrunched up in disgust. "Anger is not. . ."
Rossi put a hand on his cheek to silence him. "Do you love me, Aaron?"
Hotch's face went blank with shock and he locked eyes with the older man. "You know I love you like a father, Dave. I love you a thousand times more than I ever did him."
Rossi smiled and nodded. "And you would do anything for me including saving my life if you could."
Hotch's eyes dampened as he nodded again. "Of course."
Rossi took his hand away and leaned back in the chair with a big grin on his face. "It wasn't anger that fueled the vampire in you to go against Widmyer, Aaron. It was love, and the vampire took over because he knew he could save me when you couldn't."
Hotch's eyes darted around as he considered it.
"You heard Morgan; Widmyer was committed to killing me. Maybe your vampire instincts are so strong that you could tell that and you reacted without thinking because the vampire knew you had to act fast."
Hotch ran a hand along the back of his neck. "But I was so mad. . . even when I became aware." His cheeks heated in embarrassment. "I wanted to kill that son of a bitch even then."
Rossi chuckled. "He tried to kill me, Aaron. There's nothing wrong with you feeling that way, but you didn't act on those feelings." He took Hotch's face in fatherly hands and locked eyes with him. "You are not a killer, Aaron, and being a vampire hasn't turned you into one, it has just enhanced an already great man."
Hotch searched his eyes as his own watered. "You really think so?"
Rossi nodded as he smiled. "I do!" he pulled Hotch's face closer as he stood up and kissed him on the top of the head. "Thank you for saving me."
Hotch stood up and pulled him into a hug. "It's just a small payment for everything you've done for me."
Rossi squeezed him and then sat back down and smiled. "Cause I may be an old man, but I'm not ready to leave this world just yet."
Hotch chuckled as he wiped his face. "You better not. I don't know what I'd do without you."
