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Mar. 9th, 2009 07:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
helsinkibabyI knew sooner or later I would write fic to go with this icon. Not that it does really, because it's not ship fic as such... despite my tag!
Title: An Uncommon Man
Author: helsinkibaby
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Characters: Garcia, Hotch
Word Count: 503
Spoilers: Pleasure is my Business post ep
Rating: G
Notes: For the smallfandomflsh challenge 23 “promise”
“Is it true?”
Until he heard those words, Hotch had thought that he was the only one left in the office. He certainly hadn’t expected to find Garcia still there, standing in his office doorway, holding a bundle of files to her chest like a shield. He’d have thought that she’d be off with Kevin at this hour of the night. Certainly, since getting home from Dallas, the rest of the team have gone off to do whatever it is they do when they leave the office, and he thinks to himself that if he had anywhere else to be, he wouldn’t be here either.
Unfortunately, this case reminded him of just how much his work has cost him.
“Sir?”
Garcia’s question, and the quiet, tentative voice in which it is uttered, drag him back to reality, and he focuses on her, narrows his eyes. “I’m sorry, Garcia… is what true?”
“Morgan told me…” She takes a step into his office, then another, and he gets the impression that she’s keeping her options open for a quick getaway. “She said that when you found Megan Kane… when you were in the hotel room with her… that you kept talking to her… that you held her hand until… until it was all over.” The last is said in a rush, as if she wants to get it out before she loses her nerve. “Is it true?”
Hotch nods once, the look in Megan’s eyes as she spoke to him making his throat tighten momentarily. “Yes,” is all he says.
Garcia blinks, takes another step towards him. “Why would you do that?” she asks, and he can tell from the tone of her voice that she really doesn’t understand. “She was a serial killer… she shot a man in cold blood.” Too late he remembers that she was on the other end of the phone listening in, and that barely a year previous, she’d been fighting for her life after a gunshot wound. “Why would you do that?”
Hotch is silent for a moment, trying to formulate an explanation that doesn’t feature a Reid-like monologue on Megan’s profile. What he settles on is this – “She wasn’t a threat to me… I didn’t walk out on my family… I see my son.” Garcia opens her mouth as if to interject, and he shrugs, continues anyway. “Besides,” he tells her, “I made a promise that I would stay with her. So I did.”
Garcia’s mouth closes with an almost audible snap, and he can tell that she’s taken aback by that. Her mouth opens and closes one more time, then she nods, grips the files she’s holding more tightly to her chest. “Well then…” she says, and he finds himself fighting back a smile at the rare sight of Penelope Garcia speechless. “You are an uncommon man, Aaron Hotchner.”
The words make his cheeks redden, and he looks down with a half-smile, shakes his head. When he looks up to deflect her words, she is already gone.
Title: An Uncommon Man
Author: helsinkibaby
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Characters: Garcia, Hotch
Word Count: 503
Spoilers: Pleasure is my Business post ep
Rating: G
Notes: For the smallfandomflsh challenge 23 “promise”
“Is it true?”
Until he heard those words, Hotch had thought that he was the only one left in the office. He certainly hadn’t expected to find Garcia still there, standing in his office doorway, holding a bundle of files to her chest like a shield. He’d have thought that she’d be off with Kevin at this hour of the night. Certainly, since getting home from Dallas, the rest of the team have gone off to do whatever it is they do when they leave the office, and he thinks to himself that if he had anywhere else to be, he wouldn’t be here either.
Unfortunately, this case reminded him of just how much his work has cost him.
“Sir?”
Garcia’s question, and the quiet, tentative voice in which it is uttered, drag him back to reality, and he focuses on her, narrows his eyes. “I’m sorry, Garcia… is what true?”
“Morgan told me…” She takes a step into his office, then another, and he gets the impression that she’s keeping her options open for a quick getaway. “She said that when you found Megan Kane… when you were in the hotel room with her… that you kept talking to her… that you held her hand until… until it was all over.” The last is said in a rush, as if she wants to get it out before she loses her nerve. “Is it true?”
Hotch nods once, the look in Megan’s eyes as she spoke to him making his throat tighten momentarily. “Yes,” is all he says.
Garcia blinks, takes another step towards him. “Why would you do that?” she asks, and he can tell from the tone of her voice that she really doesn’t understand. “She was a serial killer… she shot a man in cold blood.” Too late he remembers that she was on the other end of the phone listening in, and that barely a year previous, she’d been fighting for her life after a gunshot wound. “Why would you do that?”
Hotch is silent for a moment, trying to formulate an explanation that doesn’t feature a Reid-like monologue on Megan’s profile. What he settles on is this – “She wasn’t a threat to me… I didn’t walk out on my family… I see my son.” Garcia opens her mouth as if to interject, and he shrugs, continues anyway. “Besides,” he tells her, “I made a promise that I would stay with her. So I did.”
Garcia’s mouth closes with an almost audible snap, and he can tell that she’s taken aback by that. Her mouth opens and closes one more time, then she nods, grips the files she’s holding more tightly to her chest. “Well then…” she says, and he finds himself fighting back a smile at the rare sight of Penelope Garcia speechless. “You are an uncommon man, Aaron Hotchner.”
The words make his cheeks redden, and he looks down with a half-smile, shakes his head. When he looks up to deflect her words, she is already gone.
