The Stars | Aaron Hotchner

Chapter 35: The Little Dipper

The end of January rolled around quickly as you were back to being in the taskforce. It had been over a week since you had retrieved Bobby's corpse with Dean and helped set up a pyre fitting of Bobby's status in the hunting community. The boys caught a case a few days ago, and you had to return to DC, so you parted ways with the Winchesters and prayed to whoever was listening that they were alive the next time you got to see them.

With everything resuming at its previous pace, you had little time to adjust back to being so busy. You were able to eventually get all of your duties sorted out, and settled in nicely among the chaos that life threw at you. There wasn't much down time, but after another day well done, you got to go home early. It was early enough that Aaron should be awake, and hopefully off of work if he didn't have a case.

You sent a text, asking if he would be free in half an hour, or if he could make some time around then to call. He agreed to the time and promised he would phone you as soon as he was done with filling out the report he had on his desk. You had no doubts that he still had a whole stack to get through, but he was willing to put them off for you, so you eagerly packed up your things and went to the hotel you had been staying at during your time in the taskforce.

Aaron's call came thirty-seven minutes after you had first texted, but who was keeping track?

You had had enough time to order room service and take a shower, but he called as you were getting dressed. It wasn't as much as a surprise as it should have been that he was trying to do a video call. You grinned and adjusted the towel that wrapped around your body so more of your cleavage showed. You used the preview screen to quickly unwrap the towel from your hair and fix it into a semi presentable mess. After giving yourself an air kiss on the screen-- because you loved yourself after a long and hard journey of thinking otherwise, you accepted his call.

You yelped as his screen showed Aaron.

...And the rest of the BAU.

He quickly turned his phone to his chest, but you could still hear the others whooping with cheer, profusely apologizing, or choking on their own spit in surprise. You weren't ashamed of your body as much as before, but damn, that was an awkward way for them to see you half naked.

You started laughing as you imagined how red your boyfriend must be right now, and it settled some of the anxiety that crept up on you. You fixed yourself up as much as you could, covering up a decent amount of skin-- but still leaving a peek of your cleavage, because the towel just wouldn't cooperate-- and relaxing your face from the sexy smize you had tried to surprise Aaron with.

"Sorry, Y/N," the black screen called before opening back up to just Hotch, "I should have given you a warning that the team wanted to say hello."

"Ah it's no problem," you grinned, "Nothing they haven't seen before, but yeah, a warning would be good for everyone next time."

Aaron chuckled, despite the blush you saw creeping up onto his cheeks. "Definitely. Again, I'm sorry, I just-- I know this paperwork's going to take a while, so I figured pushing it back to talk to you would be worth it."

"I am totally worth it," you rolled your eyes playfully, choosing to be self aggrandizing than self deprecating. "But if you want to work and get home earlier, I'm completely fine just chilling here with you on call. I just like being with you, even if we're miles apart right now."

You watched as your boyfriend's lips pressed together, and you smiled in response as you detected his half smile he did, with his eyes going soft and the slightest uptick of his brow. He didn't have to say anything as your view of him shifted further away until it was still, with his upper body and part of the desk now in the frame. You had been in a similar position when he called you when you were late to a date he was supposed to pick you up at work for, unaware you had to stay overtime to finish up a presentation. He stayed in the call for the half hour it took you to finish, encouraging you all the while.