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I do not own Criminal Minds

Garcia woke to the warmth of Hotch behind her. At some point in the night they switched to spooning and the weight of his arm on her hip was just the comfort she needed right now. She slept like a log but woke forty five minutes earlier than they set the clock. She wondered how long she could pretend to be asleep before she woke him up with her little adjustments and wiggles.

One such wiggle landed her rear end rubbing against something long and strong and prodding. Oh god, Hotch. A million thoughts swam through her head at that moment. Is it just a morning thing? Men get those, right? No reason to think it has anything to do with her. She wished she had glasses on to try and peak from the corner of her eye back at him, but that was useless.

He was awake for a few minutes before her, watching her face gently rise from sleep as well. He could see the shock on her as she ground herself into him and felt his reaction to her presence. She hadn't realized, he supposed, that her night shirt had rode up and he had a clear view of her lace-panty clad ass so close to his own regions. She was so rounded and curvy he wanted nothing more than to worship her. And, for once, he wasn't letting the job get in the way. He was lying next to a beautiful woman he was falling for and he had the rest of the appointed hour to try to make the most of it.

Her breath caught when she felt his sneak up behind her ear and across her neck. His nose wound its way into her hair and she could hear him inhale appreciatively. She was still frozen, lost in the sensations coursing through her as she felt his body move closer to her own.

His grip on her hip firmed as his nose trailed small circles in the crook of her neck and she could feel the twinges of desire stir down under as a result. She was panting internally, begging to be pet, her nipples at attention and waiting for their turn in the glory that is Aaron Hotchner's attention.

Was she really going to do this? Here? Now, even with JJ still out there and an unsub on the loose? But they had time together until Rossi and Morgan joined them to go back to the station. The point of coming back was to decompress and renew to me more effective, right? Wouldn't this count? JJ's voice in her head told her it definitely did. But she still couldn't believe that Hotch wanted her, that he was up and ready because of her presence. Only his nuzzling was helping her to think otherwise.

"Good morning Penelope." His whispered so lightly as he allowed his hand to rub in small circles on her hip. He was rewarded when she ground herself into him again.

"Aaron." She nearly moaned as he kissed the juncture of her neck and jaw sweetly, so lightly she almost didn't feel it.

When she reached her legs back to find his own and tangle them together he nearly lost all control right then, the strap of the purple lace panties bunching in his stressed fist. It took a moment to regain his control, a moment he used to trace his lips down her neck and rounding her shoulder.

She shuddered. Hotch was a master at foreplay, this was certain.

Small panic began to set into her even through her arousal as Hotch's hand began to slowly trail upward, tugging the hem of her shirt with it. Two things ran through her head as she felt cold air on her exposed belly. #1. Embarrassment over her body. Generally she was ok with dealing with body image issues but Hotch was so gorgeous and Haley had been a stick. She couldn't compare. And #2. She wasn't sure she was ready for this. Her mind was scrambling, aware that if he got to her breasts she would be powerless to stop him from there on and she really wasn't sure if that was a good idea. She was vulnerable missing JJ, and she didn't want to deal with the after effects of bonding with Hotch just yet. Without knowing how he felt, she was sure it would be torture when she inevitably fell even deeper and fuller into her feelings for him.

Hotch was too busy taking in the sights of her skin bare for him to notice her small panic. But he was distracted and worried on his own. His body was pushing him, begging him to take her. But his mind was forcing him to slow down. Penelope was so beautiful, perfect in her wild imperfections. And his feelings for her were doubling, tripling with each touch, handhold, hug. What would making love to her do to him? Probably make him fully except that he felt just that. This was a lot to deal with right now.

When they got to this eventually (and he would make sure that happened, knowing she was responsive to him) he wanted it to be special. He wanted it to be an expression of his feelings for her. He didn't want her to be guessing at his motives, wondering if he was taking advantage of the situation. He had to stop his progress right before he reached the bulk of her breasts and almost failed in not reaching further… had it not been for the knock on the door.

He had been so lost in his own mind he forgot this was not his room and automatically rose to answer the door.

"Hotch?" Reid asked confused, double checking the room numbers.

Garcia was frozen on the bed, sitting up and staring at the two men in the doorway. Oh bless the young genius for keeping her from making a mistake. And damn all the luck! Now they were caught, and before anything actually happened.

"I-uh-" for once Hotch had no idea what to say. He knew what this looked like and was chastising himself for his carelessness.

Reid was having an internal struggle in whether he should ask them for an alternative to his assumption, offer knowledge of his relationship with JJ to Garcia to make her more comfortable or just ignore it. He wisely chose the latter, shaking the situation from his head in conversation. "We have a break in the case. Another woman was reported missing from her room last night. Hotel staffs have been printing reservations so they can keep track of everything and she was checked out in the system but not on paper."

Hotch turned immediately to Garcia, instructing her to get dressed and meet them downstairs in ten minutes before he made to leave the room.

"Ah, sir. You may want to put a robe on." Reid informed him, noticing the bare chest and lump in his pants. He tried to not think about what he interrupted.

Hotch grabbed the extra robe in the closet and slung it over him before leaving the room. His room was next to Morgan and Rossi's five floors above so Reid walked with him on the way. Waiting for the elevator Hotch asked the younger agent where Prentiss was.

"She's still at the station. I had to come in person. There is evidence that phone lines in the hotels are being tapped. It might be our unsub, so we thought it best to come here since there's no cell reception."

"Good thinking." They stepped on the elevator and he decided to tackle the topic while they were alone. "About what you just saw—"

Reid cut him off. "Don't worry about it. I have no right to think anything of it."

Hotch sighed in relief, yet he needed to say something. "It's just… well nothing happened."

"Really? You could have fooled me. JJ would be so happy if I could tell her about it, part of her always wanted you two together." He tied his tongue, knowing he should really not talk about this.

"Really?" Hotch thought it would be a shock to the team. Penelope is his pure opposite and he only recently allowed himself to feel all this. That journal had opened up so many doors for him.

"Yes." Reid confirmed as the doors opened to the floor. "I won't say anything, but if you need to talk, I do understand how hard it is to love a woman for years and not be able to be with her."

Hotch gave a non-committal thank you before entering his room. Did he love her for years and even the socially awkward Reid picked up on it? He had no time to think on this. He had a victim to find, an agent and friend to save. It would be a long day ahead of them.

Once Hotch had left with Reid, Garcia ran around frantically gathering her things and her thoughts. She hadn't heard anything Reid said about the second victim, she was far too busy looking at Hotch's tight butt through his plaid pajama bottoms. It was enough to make a woman screme in delight, frustration and finally succumb to the guilt she felt over her apparent lack of priorities this morning.

In the mirror she took a long look at herself, fixing her hair and finally calming to the point of reason. After she dressed and made up her bed she had a few minutes left and decided to call Will's cell. She got no answer but that was just as well, the cell service here was awful.

She took in the time and noted that Henry would be in school right now. Hotch would have informed them of what was going on and have him ready to get a call. Using her calling card to get an outside line she called his school and the main office grabbed him easily.

"Hi Sweetums!" she knew he would recognize her voice, she called a few times a week.

"Hi! Are you going to read me a bed story tonight?" Oh, the concerns of youth. Sometimes when JJ was out in the field or working late she would switch shifts with Reid and call Henry for bed. Thinking about that made her realize he would be a fantastic father to him if things took that route.

"Maybe tomorrow night, its busy right now. I just wanted to remind you that mommy loves you, ok?" She was glad Hotch had talked her out of telling him everything yesterday. A kid shouldn't have to know his mother is in danger or live with the uncertainty.

"OK." To be able accept everything without questioning motive… she wished for that type of innocence again.

"I will call you soon and take you for ice cream when I get back. Take care little man."

"Bye bye."

For the last two minutes she had to herself, Garcia cried almost uncontrollably. In all the time she knew everyone on the team she never felt more desperate or alone. Her best friend was missing and in the hands of a horrible criminal getting God-knows-what done to her and its ruining what she could have otherwise enjoyed of her time with Hotch, and she felt guilty for even thinking about that.

At the moment, what was important was her friend's life and safety and the happiness of her god son. Every part of her wondered how she would handle motherhood if she got her wish in that regard. She just hoped it wouldn't come from having to take the reigns as god mother and replace her favorite blonde.

-Criminal Minds-

Garcia set straight to work once they arrived at the station. Had it not been for Rossi forcing her to eat she would have forgotten all about food's existence. She was allowed to be back at her work and she needed to be there, she had to find JJ.

For the first hour all she was coming across was a bunch of dead ends on property records for the abandoned house. Most documents were removed from the public records, or tampered with. She noticed a twenty five year gap in tax documents, deciding that the unsub is very intelligent, he managed to erase whatever relationship to this house he had. She decided she needed to bring this to the attention of the team.

Hotch looked up, surprised to see Garcia enter their conference room. She had been so focused he thought maybe she was about to collapse but she calmly took a seat next to Reid and listened in.

"Dallas PD have confirmed that our second identified victim was Rachel Morris of Topeka, Kansas." Morgan informed them, reading off an email. "Her father called the front desk looking for her when she hadn't answered in her room."

The team was discussing a few possibilities of why he chose blonde victims in their thirties all the while Garcia couldn't get rid a niggling question until she finally spoke it aloud. "What was her father calling her about?"

They all looked at her a little surprised. It didn't seem to matter to them and she felt stupid for asking until Hotch looked to Morgan for an answer. Derek scanned the email and came to the answer. "He was watching her son while she came on business. He got sick and her father needed his insurance information."

Garcia pulled up her laptop and began finding everything she could on the victim and her son. She found the call logged and a suspicious file attached. "Her call was being monitored. I have seen this before, a system attacking for key words."

"Can you find what those words are? It might be helpful in building to the unsub's motivations if he is looking for something in particular." Rossi suggested, taking the other seat next to Pen.

"Ok, I have something, part of the file at least. Son, care, breast, mommy and sweat pea were all tagged as keys."

Hotch was impressed yet again at his love interest's abilities and had to repress the urge to say as much, in so many words. Thank goodness repressing and composure where second nature to him.

"So our unsub is looking for mothers. How old is our latest victim's son?"

"He's eleven months. And our other victim was a mother too. The coroner said both victims were still lactating, her son is five months."

"You know," Derek cut in. "He could have just been targeting JJ for her role in this. Ritualistic killers do not take kindly to their territory being trampled on. It might have been a bonus that she fit his victimology so closely."

"Yes, but that makes me worry more. If he is devolving, taking her in anger over her position, he might treat her differently than his other victims, perhaps adopting a punitive approach for betraying his territory." Reid had fully shut down his emotions on the case. He couldn't think of JJ in name right now.

"Sir," Garcia looked up from her rapid typing with an idea. "if I can confirm the type of port he was using to connect his power source I might be able to track those who have purchased one recently, the machinery is fairly new."

"Do you have to see it in person or would a picture from the local PD that is still locking down the scene be enough?"

"Picture is fine."

Detective Murphy, the homicide detective they had been networking with walked into the room just in time for Hotch to explain what he needed from the house. Murphy paled some. "We didn't think we still needed anyone on scene since the CSU processed it all."

Morgan was getting angry but Hotch was almost furious. "That house is his killing ground, leaving it open let him have a safe place to return."

Emily had to almost hold Hotch back while Garcia pleaded with them to get a move on, shoving jackets in everyone's hands. They had to see, just see if the unsub might have brought JJ there. With all luck JJ would still be alive and unharmed.

-Criminal Minds-

JJ woke as Ted pried her eyes open, depositing eye drops in each. "Shhsh. There, there sweat pea. Your baby will take care of you now." It was all she could do to not vomit on herself.

The room was bright now, a little warmer so she assumed it was likely midday. She had no idea how long she had been out, no concept of time. It could be an hour, a day, a week. She was lost. But she did recognize where she was, who she was with, what she last witnessed before he had put her out.

She made the effort to turn her head to where Evelyn once was but nothing was there other than the caked up blood in a pool beside her. Her mind kept racing to try to fit all this into a profile. He was devolving, that was for sure. But she was almost positive this was the same house the others were murdered in. Why was this not protected by the Dallas PD as it should have been? Something was wrong, and she had to pray her team would find it before this man got his way with her.

She was overwhelmed thinking of leaving the team in a most final way. She was going to miss Morgan's jokes, Rossi's cooking, Emily's strength. She thought about Hotch, how much she owed him for not firing her on the spot about Reid, and how only sunny Garcia could put a smile on his face. Inside, she had always wished they would see they had been hiding from the truth of their relationship just as she had with Reid. When she thought about him she nearly collapsed. For so long she avoided anything real with him because she was afraid. He was younger, innocent, unaware of the complexities of relationships. And yet, despite her best efforts to move on and try to be happy with Will, she had loved the genius through it all. Thinking back to her jokes to Garcia over the years she remembered how true she meant it, she really did hope it was Reid that fathered Henry, no matter what she would have something permanent with him.

She vowed to herself then and there that when she got out of this, if she did, she would tell Will right away that it was over. She knew he had been cheating on her forever as well, so they could just settle the divorce lickety-split. And her last phone call before all this had revealed that Reid was in fact Henry's real father, so there would be no custody issues. She could just be with Reid, give him time to adjust to a real relationship and in time maybe they could move further along.

"Now there sweatpea. Don't you worry." He was disgusting. He actually looked at her like he cared how she was feeling. He sat next to her, the side not covered in blood and stroked her hair.

"How is your little boy Agent Jareau? I heard you call him over the line last night. I do so love a new momma." The last part was less taunting more—desperate. It was as if he was looking for a mother himself.

She racked her brain, thinking about what he was implying. The DNA tests would certainly seem like her son was a lot younger. Most people don't wait years. So then, wait… did he think she was still..?

His knife cut through her layers and snapped her bra open to spill her breast out and he instantly latched on, mimicking a baby. She was struggling internally to block this out but she couldn't. He was growing frustrated, not getting any milk from her. She thought it over, why he would treat his victims as mother, then lover, then kill them painlessly. A few options came to mind, the most prevalent having something to do with incestuous relationships with his own mother.

"Why won't you feed me momma?" he nearly cried in a scream. He was being rejected, and it was throwing his MO off.

He jumped and began pacing the room when he realized his mistake. He had intended to only show the agent his right as the hunter of these grounds, keep her away. But when he found she was a mother as well he adopted her to be another victim, an early prize for work well done. But she was dry, her son might be older, abandoned by his mother as well.

Throwing his hands in his hair he stopped his pace in favor of angrily marching out the house and to the woods, attempting to find his safe place in the trees to regroup and figure out where to go from there. It left JJ cold, exposed and scared how he might take this out on her.

-Criminal Minds-

Reid and Rossi's car pulled up just a minute before everyone else in the SUV. Immediately everyone set to work, piling out and readying their weapons.

Garcia began to exit as well but Hotch rounded to her open door and stopped her. "I need you to stay out here. I can't handle thinking of you seeing something that could scar you."

She was touched at his concern for her, and concerned that he always takes the world on his shoulders. If he really is interested in her, maybe even in dating her as she was slowly allowing herself to believe, she would be sure to take care of the man with every worry in the world. Before he could pull away she reached up and planted a kiss at the corner of his mouth. "Just be safe."

Morgan decided he would file that sight for later. JJ could be inside and he had to instruct everyone to their places. Emily and Hotch were to take the perimeter and he and the detective would go right in the house, Rossi and Reid left.

Guns drawn, they entered none daring to get their hopes up on what they may find.

Rossi and Reid were about to give up hope with only one room left on their side to check. But it held everything they could wish to see. Rossi called out on their coms to team "We found her!"

Reid hurriedly covered JJ's exposed chest with his jacket and examined her. She was looking up at him, blinking but not responding to his pleas for her to answer.

"Is she alright?" Morgan rushed in, holstering his weapon.

"Her heart rate is accelerating rapidly. I think she is still drugged, she can only blink." He looked down at her. "Can you feel this? blink once for no and twice for yes?" he pinched her arm. She blinked twice.

"And you can't move?" Another two blinks.

Rossi called for an ambulance and informed them it would be there in a few minutes before he and Hotch turned their attention to the pool of blood next to JJ.

"This is fresh." Rossi whispered so Reid wouldn't hear. "Do you think he forced her to watch it?"

"I hope to God he didn't." Hotch responded, only now holstering his gun too.

Garcia sat in the SUV worried about what was taking so long and wasn't sure if she should be relieved or worried when she saw the lights of the ambulance. She ran out of the SUV and to the house as Hotch was exiting. He grabbed her by the upper arms to keep her from running in.

"She's alive. But she needs medical attention. We will follow with everyone but please don't go in there."

She nodded and allowed him to guide her back to the SUV with everyone else following, the EMT's now taking JJ on a gurney and loading her into the ambulance.

On their way to the hospital Emily reached over her seat and around Garcia to snap her laptop shut. The blonde was rapidly typing away and Hotch was trying to convince her it was alright to relax now. Emily couldn't stand to see her friend still worked up. Yes, the unsub was still out there but they could work on that later. Right now they needed to see to their friend.

Hotch didn't care anymore what anyone thought, he reached over for her hand unashamed. "It will be alright, she will be alright."

The gesture in front of their friends surprised her to no end. "You keep saying that." She snapped even though wasn't mad, she wasn't depressed. She was almost unfeeling.

Morgan didn't want to see this situation get between them. "Baby girl, he's right. She is getting cared for. She has us all around and her pulse was strong. She could even communicate through blinking."

"You mean she couldn't talk?" she was weak and Hotch didn't want to hear that sadness anymore. He massaged her palm with his thumb as he took over explaining it all to her.

Emily leaned into Morgan to ask what was up with all that. Surely he would know. He shrugged. "Something changed. I don't know, but I'm not going to stand in the way of it."

She whispered back to him. "I had given up hope on them long ago."

Morgan looked at her askance. "After Haley and that whole mess she was the one to get to him, true. But there's more?"

"Remember the night we all got drunk after the case in Seattle? Well he and I split a cab because we live fairly close. He told me to keep it to myself but he said he was jealous over Kevin." she took a moment to watch Hotch's concerned glances at Garcia. "I don't know if he even remembers saying or feeling it."

Morgan had a lot to think about as kept watching them the rest of the ride. Surely things were starting with them. Something had changed and he wanted to know what the trigger for this was, but he wasn't complaining. He loved baby girl with all his heart and wanted her to find the man she needed. Judging by how uncharacteristically tender Hotch was being with her lately; stroking her hair, calming her when she was scared, comforting her now, that near kiss earlier... this could really be something. When Hotch parked and rounded to open Pen's door he knew for sure a line had been crossed in the last few days and he was only happy to see it.