"It's said, 'People who are meant to be together will always find their way back. They may take a few detours, but they are never lost.' " ~Aaron Hotchner
Aspen stumbled through the woods. She moved as quickly as she could with a limp in her leg. The adrenalin had masked the pain when she escaped earlier, but now it was taking it's toll on her.
Tripping over a large stump, Aspen fell forward and rolled down the mountain side. She landed on her back facing the beautiful cloudy blue sky. Rubbing her lower back, she stood taking it all in. Only feet in front of her was a gravel road. Aspen ran towards the road best she could, breaking through the tree line.
"Hello?" she yelled. "Is anyone there?" Aspen glanced at the truck quickly before turning a three sixty slowly looking for any sign of life, but she couldn't find any. Walking to the truck slowly, she looked in the window searching for a set of keys. Not finding any, Aspen opened the gas flap to find a scummy spare key. She smiled widely, she thought it might be there, that's where she kept hers.
Looking around one more time, Aspen hopped into the driver's seat and started the ignition. She took a deep breath as she put the truck in drive. Pressing on the gas, Aspen raced down the mountain quickly leaving burn outs in the gravel. She felt almost sick with relief pulling into Quantico. She slammed the door and walked into the office building of the BAU.
Waiting for the elevator, Aspen leaned against the wall letting her head fall with exhaustion. This was the first time she's felt safe and secure in five long days, but every time she saw her reflection she was reminded of her masked kidnapper. A ding rang through the empty lobby when the elevator doors opened quickly. Stumbling inside she hit number six and waited for the doors to close. The ride to the sixth floor was silent beside the faint elevator music.
The doors opened quickly with another famous ding. Aspen stepped out of the elevator and her eyes daring to water at the sight of the double glass BAU doors. She shook her head and let a small laugh escaped her chapped lips. Grabbing the door, Aspen pulled it open and watching the teams backs as they discussed something at her desk only feet in front of her.
Spencer looked up at the noise of the doors and stared at Aspen standing there with a smile on her face.
"Spenc, what are you-" JJ locked eyes with Aspen when she looked up and followed Reid's gaze. "Aspen." She breathed. JJ couldn't believe what she was seeing. They thought that Owen Peterson had murdered her. Tears snuck from JJ's eyes. The rest of the team quickly turned around to stare at their lost agent.
Spencer walked up to Aspen trying to hold back the water building in his eyes. Lifting his hand, he used his index finger to lightly poke Aspen's pink cheek. She laughed at the gesture and quickly she was engulfed in Spencer embrace.
"I missed you too, Spencer." Aspen smiled into his chest letting the water finally fall from her eyes. She couldn't get out of Spencer embrace before she was the center of a large group hug from the team. Breaking free she looked up at Hotchner's door letting more tears stain her face.
"Go." Rossi spoke softly nodding to the door. She climbed the stairs slowly, not sure what to expect. Well, she expected an empty office, but when she looked in his window to the rest of the building she saw Aaron sitting there working on some papers. Covering her face with one hand, couldn't hold back the wave of emotions anymore. All this time and there he was. She lifted her hand slowly and softly knocked on the door.
"Not now." Aaron called from the other side. His voice so lost. So angry. So him. Aspen grabbed the door knob and twisted it open. She stepped into his office and closed the door behind her.
"I said-" Aaron looked up and stopped letting his pen slip through his fingers and fall to the desk. Aspen let a smile creep to her face as she took in his features. Her eyes were red and puffy at the rims, she didn't think she could cry anymore, but sure enough they slowly ran down her face.
"You look pretty good for a dead guy." She choked out a laugh gesturing to his body.
"I thought you were. . ." He trailed off making his way towards her, he just couldn't bring himself to say it.
"I was dead?" She asked. "I saw him shoot you. I watched as you bleed out, Aaron." She choked on her own words. Aaron quickly closed the already small space between them, but with his mind racing, he couldn't speak. "I had to get back. I had to make sure Jack was okay. I thought you died, Aaron. I couldn't let him go through that alone. I know what it's like to lose a parent and so does he, but to lose both of them. I-I just couldn't imagine."Aaron just looked down at her, getting drunk off her presence. "Will you say something?"
"I-It's so good to see you." He finally spoke, but as soon as the words left his mouth he instantly knew that was the wrong thing to say.
"It's good to see me?" Aspen took a step back so she could see his face more clearly. "After everything that just happened, the best you could think of was it's good to see me?" Aaron smiled at her, this, is what he'd missed. "You couldn't say something like, I don't know, charming?" She rolled her eyes slightly smiling up at him. "I've played this scene over and over in my head for 5 long day and in none of them did you say, it's good to see me. I thought I never going to see you again. That, that insane man was going to kill me, like I thought he did to you." She rambled looking up at him with a hurt expression. "Maybe I just over imagined this. I just-"
"Aspen."
"What."
"Shut up." He closed the gap once more bringing her close to him. Aaron smiled before rolling his eyes at her and finally kissing her for the first time since they met.