Change My Mind ~ Criminal Minds (Aaron Hotchner x OC)

58.0: The Truth Behind Sweet Lies

A/N: This story is based on 7x01 It Takes a Village
*Please note that this chapter is very long and will be dealing with flashbacks in the story, the flashbacks will be in italics and there are a lot of jump scenes*

"Give me but a firm spot on which to stand, and I shall move the earth."
― Archimedes

The Senator looked down at JJ from the stand, "How long have you been back with the bureau?"

"3 and half months sir."

"A lot has happened since then. Sabbaticals, transfers, reassignments. Five of you remained in the unit?"

"Agents Rossi, Morgan, Archer, and I were there with our technical analyst Penelope Garcia."

"You had 14 cases during this time."

"17, sir."

"Oh yes, in 14 weeks. That's impressive."

"Thank you."

"What's more impressive is the fact that you were reinstated, promoted, and suspended in that short-time. I believe that's a record Agent Jareau."

___

Reid was pacing outside the room, "Why aren't we all in there?" Rossi sighed, "They're trying to intimidate us." Morgan scoffed, "That's not about to happen."

Garcia looked nervous, "I'm not okay with this." Rossi smiled at her, "You might not even be a witness."

"Sir, I'm not worried about me." Garcia stated softly and Crystal patted her arm. "This is just what they do Penelope." 

Strauss walked over to them and Rossi stood up, "Anything?" Strauss sighed, "It doesn't look good." Crystal looked behind her and saw Hotch, they held eye-contact for a second before Crystal looked away before he could see the hurt in them.

Don't do it Chris, don't do this to yourself again.

___

"Two days?"

"Correct."

"You found and tracked an international criminal in two days? How can an investigation be active for two days when the intel took months to collect? There's surveillance and hundreds of man-hours to prove it." The Senator asked sternly and JJ sat up taller, "Yes that's true, but-"

"How often do you spend months on a case, Agent?"

"We don't, but this one was-"

"Personal?"

"Different." JJ answered confidently, "It required a lot of detail." The Senator shook his head, "This was to big for your team, why wasn't it a joint taskforce?"

"We didn't have time, sir. Once the subject was confirmed, we had to act quickly." JJ answered and the Senator narrowed his eyes, "Do you realize what you've done?"

"Yes, we put an international criminal with terrorist connections in federal custody." JJ stated firmly and the Senator shook his head, "You may consider this a victory, but you used government funds for a personal vendetta, never called Homeland Security, and now 6 people are dead including 2 of your agents."

JJ didn't know how to respond to that, the Senator sighed his head as he put down the file. "Interpol, Europol, the CIA. No one could find Ian Doyle, except Agent Morgan."

"It wasn't easy, Doyle disappeared underground."

"Looks like Agent Morgan spent the first few months following Doyle's arms-dealing contacts but came up empty, so how did he find him?" The Senator asked and JJ cleared her throat, "After hitting dead ends, Agent Morgan put himself in Doyle's shoes and knew that he would look for his son Declan."