Undercover Lovers |Aaron Hotchner|

Chapter Two: Making Friends

"These are for you, my beautiful bride." Hotch greeted as he put a bouquet of flowers in my hand.

"Thank you, but you really didn't have to." I went to the kitchen to get a vase, so he followed.

"I, uh, might've told someone from work that we'd go over there today and watch the game."

"It's January, which means it's football season. You hate football."

"I know, but I felt too bad saying no. I can call over there and say you have the stomach bug." He offered.

"Who is it?"

"Craig and Melissa Ayton from down the street."

"Oh, with the German shepherd? I just saw her 20 minutes ago, so she'd know we're lying." I shook my head. "We have to go."

"Ugh. What time does a football game start?"

"Probably 1:00, and it's almost 12:30 now. I'll go find something to wear." I ran for the closet and combed through all of the clothes. I had looked through all of them since we moved in, but I never actually tried them on. I picked out a sweater to compliment Hotch's, put jeans on, brushed my hair and teeth, and shoved my feet into shoes downstairs.

"12 minutes." He murmured as he helped me into my jacket. "That's basically a record."

"I would've picked it up if I knew I was being timed. Okay, tell me about these people. Good, bad, boring? What do you know?"

"His name is Craig and he chose to be an accountant, so I'd guess boring. I don't know much about him and I know nothing about Melissa."

"So we're going in blind?"

"Pretty much, but you always do your best work under pressure." He smiled, but I could tell he was anxious.

"Are you trying to sweeten me up? First the flowers..." I motioned to my jacket and narrowed my eyes. "Did you think I would be mad at you?"

"A little bit, yeah. Are you?"

"Not at all. We have to make connections with these people in order to make progress on the case. I'm glad you agreed to go, absolutely not mad." I said softly, imagining what life was like when he was married to Haley. It couldn't have been good.

He grabbed a bottle of wine, took my hand, and we marched down the street. They lived on the corner, which made me happy for the dog. Everyone stopped to pet her as they walked by, myself included.

"Hi, puppy." I whispered before Hotch knocked on the door.

"Hi, Olivia. Oh, and you must be Graham. Come on in." Melissa greeted. Hotch took both of our coats and hung them up on the coatrack, so I gave her the bottle of wine. "Thank you. The guys are all downstairs already, Graham. Olivia, the rest of the girls, and I will be in the dining room if you need us, okay?"

Hotch shot me an apologetic look that I sent right back. Neither of us considered the fact that we'd be separated. I figured everyone would be watching the game, but I forgot that women couldn't do anything in this town.

"Ladies, this is Olivia Jones. Her husband works with Craig." She introduced me to the group of women sat around the table and the room went silent. It felt like they'd just been talking about me, but I didn't want to get self conscious.

One woman actually smiled at me, so I decided to sit next to her. She was young— maybe even a few years younger than me— and dressed like a preschool teacher. Her youth set her apart from the rest of the group and it was clear that she wasn't as involved as everyone else. She reminded me of Garcia, who expressed herself the way she did to distract herself from the terrible things around her. Was this woman trying to distract herself or others?