HER FIRST CASE
Hotch stood, waiting for the kettle to boil and watched JJ stare blankly out the window, sitting in the back, away from the other men, hugging her knees close to her. Hotch grabbed another cup and threw another teabag into in and poured hot water into them both. He took the two and brought them to where JJ sat. He handed one to JJ. He sat o the arm of the chair across from her, looking into his own cup. " Are you aright?" he asked, looking up.
She barely nodded. Hotch didn't know what to say to her. It had been a tough case but he had had so many tough cases they all just seemed to be as bad as the last and he had grown used to that. He remembered his first case. Nine five-year-old boys, all beaten to death. It had brought back memories of his childhood abuse. Maybe this case had brought back memories for JJ. All the victims had been attractive females, blonde. college students. Surely she related with them. But that hadn't stopped her from doing her job perfectly.
She turned her head and smiled sadly. " How long have you been doing this job?"
Hotch thought for a moment. " About thirteen years, give or take..."
" Doesn't it affect you at all?" Has this job made you become so heartless and so immune to pain that you don't flinch when you see a dead body or a broken family or a motherless child?"
He saw pain in her beautiful eyes and wanted nothing more then to make it better. He placed his cup don and sat across the table from her. " It's not that I'm immune... There's just been SO much and it taught me to compartmentalise."
" At least you have someone to vent to when you get home!" Hotch looked at her confused. " A wife?.. Your ring. I just assumed that what they say isn't true..."
" What do they say?"
" That, this job... It takes over everything. It's your life and there's no way of having a family... But, you, I mean, you have a wife... What did you do right, or different... What's your secret??"
He chuckled. " Honestly... I have no idea. I mean, I try to be two separate people: Aaron Hotchner there and Agent Hotchner here."
" Well, at least you can have a life and family outside the job, right?"
He chuckled again. " Sure... If endless fights and awful dinners is a life-" He stopped, realising what he was saying.
They were silent for a few minutes, both looking out the window. Then Hotch looked at her. " Think you'll ever want to be a profiler?"
She looked at him and smiled slightly. " Never know... Anything can happen!" She turned her head back out the window.
Hotch smiled and minutes later as he watched Jennifer Jareau sleeping, all he could think about was that anything can happen...