✓ | sick of losing soulmates [SPENCER REID]

7.1

7.1
( high school parties. )

[ This chapter is all over the place I'm sorry idk what I'm doing and I can't write so.... and everyone's probably really tried of me being self-critical... so yeah bye ]

☆ ★ ☆

iris

When they arrive back at Quantico, Iris is allowed to head straight home to sleep, so Hotch only catches her the next day.

He makes sure they're alone, so he only arrives beside her in the late morning when she heads to the coffee machine; he comes up behind her so suddenly and silently, like a stealthy cat, that she jumps at the sound of his low voice and almost throws hot coffee all over herself.

"Oh, Hotch," she cries, placing her mug down and wiping a couple of drops of coffee from the front of her pale pink shirt. She manoeuvres her single crutch, turning to face him. "Sorry. You scared me there."

"Sorry," he says with a polite, small slip-of-a-smile. "I just wanted to speak to you about what I said to you on Saturday."

It takes her a moment to remember. "Oh! Oh, yeah," she says, without really knowing she's speaking, as she recalls his suspicious tone of voice when asking about her and Spencer. "Honestly, Hotch, it's no problem — "

"No, it was rude of me," he interrupts. "Not only did I call you when you specifically asked for leave, but I also . . . Lacked trust in you. Which is unacceptable in a job such as ours."

His eyes never leave hers as he speaks, and she's astounded by his honesty; even if he isn't an emotional man, he doesn't have a problem telling people how feels, which she respects. Admires, even. If only she had the courage to be as honest about her own feelings as Hotch did.

"You're relatively new to the team, and I shouldn't have spoken to you the way I did. I can tell you feel a little out of place here, like you're not a full part of the team and you have to earn our respect, but you earned my respect a long time ago — long before I hired you. I should treat you that way, have full trust in you and your actions. What you did this weekend only reminded me of that. You have sacrificed a lot for this team, more than most people, and I treated you like . . . Like you haven't made those contributions."

Iris tucks a hair behind her ear, blushing a little as she does so, but it fades when her fingers brush across the wounds on her cheekbone and she winces harshly. "Hotch, you had every right to question me about the Spencer thing," she reassures, not fully agreeing with what she's saying, but she's desperate to please the man to she'll say whatever's necessary. "I should have told you he was coming."