Do Over

The elevator doors were starting to close when an arm appeared in between them. Aaron Hotchner, lost as he was in thought, barely had time to react before the doors were forced open.

"Sir," Hotch said with a nod.

"Agent Hotchner." Interim Section Chief John Curtis strode in. He turned and faced the doors as they slid shut. "Good job in Philadelphia."

"Thank you."

They barely rode in silence a second before Curtis spoke again. "So what's going to happen to that man now?"

"He's being examined by a court appointed psychologist. I assume that whatever the DA does will be based on his recommendations."

"Lost his son... Now he's about to lose the rest of his life." Curtis shook his head. "Damn shame."

Hotch stole a quick glance at Curtis. One of Hayley's more lighthearted criticisms of him was that he didn't "seem able to shut down the profiler part of your brain." And, he had to admit, it was at least somewhat true. When your job was dealing with people and how they thought, it was difficult, if not impossible, to keep it out of every personal and social interaction.

He knew little about Curtis before he was made interim Section Chief after Strauss's leave of absence — just that the two apparently had some kind of history, that that history was part of the reason he got the Section Chief Job, and that he, like Strauss, was chosen more for his administrative skills than any knowledge of or interest in profiling in particular. So it wasn't like Hotch could claim any personal knowledge of this man or his life, but...

There was just something John Curtis that tickled part of his profiler's brain. He would never say so to anyone, of course — mostly because he had no idea what that tickle was, exactly, or even what it meant. Maybe it was some kind of instinct. Of course, he knew as much as anyone that instinct without fact to back it up was useless at best and misleading at worst. So he kept his counsel.

That didn't change the fact that, again, there was just something about the man that put Hotch on mild alert. Take his reaction to Hotch's answer about Jimmy Hall. It seemed genuine enough; everything about Curtis's manner, voice, and body language indicated empathy. But it still struck Hotch as false somehow, as if Curtis was putting on some kind of act because he knew that was how he was expected to react. The conflict between the cold hard reality of the impulse, and the knowledge that he couldn't articulate a single thing about how or why he felt it, honestly bothered him. He wasn't used to not being able to explain himself, even poorly, never mind being this uncertain about his own thoughts and reactions.

"Have you heard anything from Erin lately?" Curtis's question snapped Hotch out of his reflection, but even there, his instinct prickled again, because this time, he knew that Curtis was 100% genuinely interested, genuinely concerned. Even though he wouldn't have been able to say what the difference was, it was still there, somehow, making the contrast all that more disturbing.

Years of FBI training and field work had sharpened Hotch's mind to the extent that all of these thoughts could run through his head, yet he was still able to answer Curtis quickly enough for the conversation to flow naturally. "Not yet, but I understand she's taking her... next steps very seriously."

"Good. I've reached out myself, but no answer." Curtis grimaced. "I think she's embarrassed to talk to me. Frankly, I'm embarrassed myself, for not realizing what was going on sooner." He fixed Hotch with a serious stare. "I owe her. She had my back when it counted. So if there's anything I can do, anything she needs..."

"I'll let her know," Hotch replied. "I'm sure she'll appreciate it."

The elevator bell rang and the doors ground open, revealing that section of the parking garage reserved for senior officials and bureau bigwigs. Curtis strode out. "Good night, Agent Hotchner," he said without looking back.

"Good night."

For reasons he couldn't even articulate to himself, Aaron Hotchner kept his gaze on the section chief's retreating back until the elevator doors completely shut him off from sight.