The Lake House Chapter 9, a criminal minds fanfic

Criminal Minds characters and universe are not mine, but the original characters, storyline and wording are mine.

Back to Hotch POV. And dear god I spend too much time on the internet. I almost wrote 'lol' into a line of dialogue. *facepalm*

Had this song on repeat while writing this chapter; it just seems to speak volumes of Hotch and Lily's connection.

'Cause I'm already there, I'm already there

Wherever there is you, I will be there too

Of Monsters & Men - Silhouettes

The Lake House

Chapter 09

"We probably should have eaten before dredging up all those memories. I'm sorry, I didn't think." Aaron watched Lily eating slowly. She shook her head slightly and smiled.

"I'm eating slowly because you cooked me a beautiful meal and I'm enjoying it, not because talking about what happened made me feel sick. Plus, the longer I take, the longer I have an excuse to just sit and look at you." She winked and he blushed slightly. It was just chicken casserole and potatoes, but he was enormously pleased, and relieved. The fact that she wanted to just look at him did things to his body he couldn't even get his head around.

"You don't need to find excuses to look; I don't." He smirked, loving the light flush that crept slowly up her throat and cheeks. She didn't lower her gaze though, just smiled and carried on eating.

"What else do we need to do before we head out? I don't really know what we'll be doing." She looked curious and a little nervous, but he knew she had no intention of backing out. And he found that he was glad; his mind had gone over too many scenarios where he went looking for the unsubs, leaving her alone, ending in disaster for her and grief for him. As powerful as his desire for her was, it was taking more and more of backseat to his profound need to keep her safe.

"Other than giving the team the rest of your story, not much. Although we should decide on a course of action in case we get separated." She frowned. "It could happen. I know we'll do everything we can to make sure it doesn't, but it's better to have a plan and not need it than need one and not have it." She nodded at that.

He finished eating and, when she was also done, he led her by the hand to the window at the back of the cabin, facing the opposite direction from the one that overlooked the lake. He pointed at a Forest Rangers wooden tower about a mile away.

"I checked that yesterday before the snowball fight. They haven't been near it. If we get separated by accident, or force, or on purpose but the other takes too long coming back, you head there and you lock yourself in. There's a spare shotgun, ammo, food and water in there. Don't open the door for anyone except me, and then only if I give the safe word."

"What's the safe word?" He saw her swallow, the gravity of the situation finally dawning on her.

"Violin." He smiled. "Because I have every intention of hearing you play it when this is over."

"You should have put it in the Ranger tower, too; it'd be a nice loud call for help." She chuckled, leaning close to him as they cleared away and washed the dishes from the table.

"I could have." He laughed. "But you'd probably end up using it to bludgeon someone, so it stays put. She quirked an eyebrow and he knew he was right.

"Just for the record, I vote no to the separating on purpose; that never, ever goes well in the movies. So if at any point it occurs to you to say something like 'I'll look down here, you go look over there and we'll meet back here blah blah'…just go ahead and skip that part and assume I've hit you with something and said 'hell no'."

"I believe you would, at that." Aaron laughed. "You did well earlier. Are you going to be OK to continue? The team need to know as much as you can remember." Suddenly serious, he put away the last dish and turned to face her. He brushed the backs of his fingers across her cheek so gently she almost didn't feel it.

Lily stepped toward him and lifted her arms up, resting her forearms on his shoulders and wrapping her fingers lightly around the back of his neck. She drew him against her until his body was pressing her back against the counter. Aaron put his arms around her, resting his palms against her back, his thumbs smoothing slowly over her skin.

"I'm worried, but not for me. The next parts…Aaron they're bad. What they did, what they said, well, mostly the second guy…how I felt." She moved her hands so that her thumbs brushed over the sensitive spots between his ears and the nape of his neck. He closed his eyes at the touch. "If you feel even a fraction for me of what I feel for you, this is going to be a lot harder on you than it is on me."

He opened his eyes slowly, shaking his head.

"A fraction?" He chuffed in disbelief. "Lily there are no words." He hugged her tightly to him, his lips pressing firmly against her temple and cheek, afraid to kiss any other part of her because his control near her when they were touching was becoming tenuous at best.

"But they didn't break you, and they won't break me. You want to protect me? Protect me from myself so I don't lose it in there, and I'll do the same for you. The two of us together are stronger than the sum of our parts and we're going to come out the other side of this even stronger. If they come out of this at all it will be in pieces, either mentally or physically."

"Just make sure it is only them that happens to. I happen to like all your pieces." She mirrored his earlier action, stroking his cheek with the back of her fingers, the corners of her mouth curling just a little. Her eyes were hungry and they spoke to him more eloquently than any words ever could, of a future, of her heart.

"Have I mentioned that I love that little crooked smile of yours?" Aaron chuckled affectionately.

"Well it's not my best feature." Lily grinned and took his hand. "Come on; let's not keep your team waiting. They must be in the air by now."

They sat back down at the desk and used the satphone link to connect to the BAU jet. Moments later Derek Morgan's voice came over the speakers.

"Hotch, you guys OK?" He sounded nervous beneath his usual smooth professionalism.

"We're good, Morgan. Everyone get boarded OK?" Hotch shifted around until he could pull Lily down onto his lap, the physical proximity calming him, allowing him his usual stoic demeanour.

Lily observed the shift from Aaron to Agent Hotchner, the tightening of his mouth, how his brows closed in, his jaw tightened and his eyes burned with singular purpose. It lit something deep within her and she shivered in pleasure. She liked that he was so strong, so confident in his ability to do his job.

More than anything she felt safer than she'd thought possible, but she mourned what he must have been through in order to, at a moment's notice, be able to filter his heart and soul out of his work and leave only his mind.

"Everyone's here, Hotch. We have some new information on the identity of one of the men, but we'd like to hear the rest of the story from Lily before we get to that."

Lily saw in Morgan's voice what he managed to hide from his chief; they were afraid of Hotch's reaction to the identity of the man. She wasn't sure whether that was good or bad news but let it slide as Hotch seemed to have no objection.

"Lily, we want to conduct something called a cognitive interview to help get as much of what you remember as possible. Is that something you've come across before?" Rossi spoke calmly.

"Yes, I've conducted my fair share, also; I understand the benefits." Hotch felt her fingers tighten imperceptibly on his shoulder. He looked up at her.

"Do you understand the downside, too? You'll be back in that place inside your own mind, much more so than a standard interview." His jaw was tight; he was torn between getting the information necessary and hurting her to do it.

"It's worth it; my feelings are secondary here. I have no idea if these guys have another woman, but this is a small price to find out." Her small, flat smile said it all. And he couldn't disagree with her. He squeezed her hand in thanks, admiring the strength it must be taking to do this.

"Rossi, would you do the honours?" Being her guide through it was more than he could ask of himself, and if Rossi was surprised to be asked his voice gave away nothing.

"If you're ready, Lily, I'd like you to pick up the story from when the car stops. What happens then, do they leave you in it, or take you with them immediately?" Rossi's voice was almost comforting as Lily closed her eyes to see the scene play out behind in the theatre of her mind.

"Immediately, even as the engine is stopping the second man is dragging me out of the back seat. He's not in a hurry to take me somewhere, but…almost giddy to touch me again. He knows how much I don't like it."

"What can you tell me about the place where they stopped the car? Don't worry about him for now. Tell me what the closest sounds to you are, then the next closest and the next closest."

"Something's squeaking; there's a door swinging open and closed in the wind. When it's open, I can hear the hum of a generator behind it. It sounds lower than us though, I think the door leads to a basement and the generator is down there. The landscape is so still and quiet, the only other sound other than the surrounding forest is traffic on the road, but it's very far away. They've brought me somewhere very isolated." Her voice reflects the loss of hope she had felt in that moment.

"Can you smell anything?" Rossi kept her in the moment, trying to get her to engage as many senses as possible.

"The smell from the car is pretty thick around me, stale takeaway food. I can smell the leaf mould from the fallen leaves that are everywhere; the trees are almost bare. But the building smells…mouldy. It doesn't look too bad, but it has this weird smell halfway between clean and rotting." Lily's voice spiked. "Then I can smell him. He's put a hand over my mouth to stop me crying. He smells like the forest, like earth. Like a grave."

"What kind of building is it? Big, small, old, new?" Rossi's voice stays flat and calm.

"It's huge. There's so many windows. It looks old, at least a hundred years, maybe more. Lots of stonework. I thought maybe it was an old school, but there were bars on all the windows. Why would there be bars on the windows of a school?" Lily sounded puzzled.

"Did they take you inside straight away?"

"Yes. Well he did, the first one just followed. He didn't seem happy but he was afraid of the second guy. His voice was higher than normal the few times he answered him. They took me in a side door, not the front door. He had a key. There was a long corridor with lots of doors either side. They looked like classroom doors, a window in a wooden door, but the window was higher than I thought was normal." Aaron watched as her eyes moved beneath her closed lids as she walked down the hallway in her mind, one hand clutched tight in his.

"Could it have been a hospital, or a psychiatric institute? Those sound like viewing panes." Rossi asked gently.

"Yes. Yes it could; that makes sense. He put me in one of them eventually. But not until he'd led me through about six corridors just like that, we went up and down stairs to different levels. I don't know why. Every few hundred yards he'd chain me to a radiator or a water fountain and just stand watching me."

"He wanted you confused, not knowing what part of the building you were in. And he wanted you intimidated." Rossi sounded angry.

"It worked." She whispered softly. "I tried to look at as much as I could, though. I turned my head so my hair hid my face from him, and looked as far as I could without turning my head more. I couldn't see much though, mostly the floor. There was one door, though, that had a normal sized window in it. I think it used to have lettering on it, but all I could see was a small r, then a space, then capital H and small o and f." Her face was screwed up in concentration as she tried to remember.

Something was niggling in the back of Hotch's mind. Something she'd said, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Everything about this was messed up, but she'd said…what had she said? Something about the leaves…

"Lily, you mentioned fallen leaves." Rossi's voice echoed his own thoughts. "Was there snow?"

"N-no. But…but there's snow now. I…I was there a long time wasn't I?" She was trembling. "I didn't keep track."

"When did they take you?" Hotch's voice was hoarse as he tried to stay in control.

"Ah…I flew into Ohio at the end of September and stayed a few days before I hired a car. I guess it was maybe the third or fourth of October when my car broke down." There was a hushed collective gasp from the members of the BAU team.

"Lily, it's February. Tomorrow is Valentine's Day." It was JJ who spoke.

"I…I…" Lily couldn't find any words to describe the hundred and one things spinning out of control in her head. She heard Aaron groan and felt his head fall forward onto her stomach. She could feel his whole body shuddering but it took a moment to make out what he was mumbling against her skin.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry." His hands gripped her sides almost too hard.

"It's…it's OK, Aaron. There's nothing you could have done." She winced as his grip tightened.

"Yes there was." He looked up at her, his eyes guilty and pained. "This is the third time I've been here in the last four months."