It was meant to be a simple end to the case. Take custody of the explosives that had been confiscated and wait for them to be taken off their hands by the relevant people. Pretty simple, right? A nice and easy way to finish up a pretty hectic case. It was also an excuse to slow down a bit after wrapping aforementioned case up. Normally they would be rushing back to the office and then off to their next case. No, this time they could slow down.

Or, rather, they were supposed to. But when had things ever gone the way they should with this team? Never. That's when.

They had found the explosive material that their unsub had been planning to use. Thankfully, before the inside got to it and carried out his plan of setting off at a bank. The problem with this was that they had found it late in the evening. Really late. As in nine thirty.

Did you know who worked past nine thirty at night? Very few people. Especially when you were dealing with government employees. It also didn't help that it was a holiday. The Fourth of July to be exact. Well, the night before the Fourth. Same thing, really.

Of course, he tried to make calls and get everything sorted - surely there were always people on call or something to deal with this sort of thing? And there were. Just not for things that weren't considered urgent or were allegedly low risk. And for some reason this was considered low risk. Sure, it was in an extremely secure container, it was in a federal agent's possession and it couldn't easily be set off. But surely there were procedures for this sort of thing? Procedures that didn't involve him and his team?

Which is why Aaron Hotchner found himself awake at two in the morning on the Fourth of July. Because he was responsible for this. And the only reason Hotch was up at two am was because he really didn't want to be asleep when he had custody of explosive material. Even though technically it would be okay because it was under literal lock and key but going to sleep just didn't sit right with him. Darn Strauss and her ability to give him the authority to be responsible for these things. Well, him and the whole team. He was just the one taking this awkward shift of early in the morning. He would swap with Emily at half four.

Well, that's what he thought he was doing. It turned out that going to the toilet in the restroom directly attached to the room the explosives were being stored in was the perfect amount of time for something to happen.

"Why, just why, did you put the fireworks next to the bomb?" Hotch asked, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I wanted it to be pretty."

The fact that it was said with such a straight face was extremely insulting to his intelligence.

Hotch turned his exasperated look into a glare. That excuse was not going to fly. She wasn't Garcia. She was Emily Prentiss and that was a lot more dangerous. Especially around explosive devices. At two o'clock in the morning. That neither of them should even be anywhere near, by the way. That was what the bomb squad was for. Who, apparently were going to have a much bigger job on their hands if they were going to have to deal with fireworks as well as the bomb.

He could feel his temper and took a deep breath to control it. Or at least an attempt to control it. He worked with some of the most intelligent people. Why, just why, did they have to act like this?

"In all seriousness," Emily said, well, more seriously. "I thought if we put fireworks next to the explosives then people would just think they're stuff for the fourth."

"Yes, because adding more explosive devices to a deadly, explosive device is a great decision."

"Well, we can't just have it sitting out in the open," was Emily's argument.

"I say it's a pretty good idea," Morgan said, suddenly appearing in the doorway.

"You helped, didn't you?" Hotch said with a sigh.

Of course, Emily roped someone else in. What was surprising was that it wasn't Spencer. Those two usually partnered up for nonsense like this.

"And it's not out in the open," Hitch added irritably. "It's in a police station," he gestured around them. "In a locked room in a secure box."

Because, despite being a criminal their unsub was surprisingly overly cautious around the explosives be wanted to use.

"Police stations can be broken into," Morgan argued.

"And this one has been three times in the last two years," Reid said, coming into the room.

Ah, there he was.

"It was that fact that made us want to do something about it," Emily said.

"And you had to do this when I wasn't in the room?"

His three agents looked at each other before nodding. At least they didn't think to do this on Emily's shift when he wasn't there. Small mercies. Or would it have been better if he didn't know?

"Anyway, this way it's not so obvious." Emily said with a shrug, obviously not seeing a problem with this.

Hotch ran a hand down his face and slowly counted to ten.

He was working with children, actual children. Rossi wasn't helping. The older (oldest but don't say that around him unless you wanted the man to sulk like a goddamned toddler for the rest of the day) agent was just watching with poorly disguised amusement. He was probably the one that put this idea into their heads. No. That was unfair. The rest of his team were fully capable of coming up with something this idiotic without Rossi's input.

"So, you think putting smaller explosives with a bigger explosive. Make it less obvious?"

"Hey, one of those fireworks is a mortar," Morgan complained. "It's not a small firework. And we should be congratulated here, do you know how hard it is to get fireworks just before the Fourth?"

Hotch glared at him. Now was not the time. Morgan crossed his arms but looked away.

"Fireworks do make the explosives look like fireworks," Reid tried.

"When you're sleep deprived, anything is a good idea. Move them. Now."

"Aw!"