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

59.0: Fragile Hearts

A/N: Continuation of 7x01 It Takes a Village and the title is a reference to a song that will be played later in the chapter~
*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*

TRIGGER WARNING: HUMAN TRAFFICKING IS MENTIONED (PROSTITUTION)

"We first make our habits, then our habits make us."
― John Dryden

Crystal walked out of the courtroom and walked over to Reid, she felt someone looking at her and she knew if was Hotch. Crystal ignored his stare as she sat down beside Reid, Strauss walked around the corner to join them. She took out a mint and offered one to Crystal and Reid who shook their heads.

Reid looked over to see that Emily had finally arrived, Strauss looked over too. "At least you've got her back."

"Did we?" Reid asked softly and Crystal ruffled his hair, "We did..."

At a price.

___

Emily hugged Reid tightly, "I'm so sorry," She let go and looked at the faces around her, "Not a day went by that I didn't want to call or see you guys." Emily looked over at Morgan who stood shocked, Emily gulped before walking over to him. "You didn't deserve that, I'm sorry." Emily hugged him and he hugged her back, Emily looked at the team.

"There's so much I want to tell you guys and I promise I will, but right now I really need to know what's going on with Declan."

"Emily, was there a man living at the house?" Reid asked and Emily nodded, "My friend Tom Koehler, he was raising Declan as his own."

Garcia frowned, "I never saw him go in or out of the house."

"He's on assignment overseas." 

JJ looked worried, "He's alright?"

"Yes, he's on his way back right now. He got a call from Declan, he called me, and when I landed Hotch told me that you had Doyle in custody." Emily answered and Hotch looked over at her, "And because of Tom's work, you enrolled Declan in a boarding school."

"I made sure that he, Louise, and I were the only ones to take him off campus." 

"Louise," Crystal cleared her throat after it broke, "Sorry, Louise took him home last night because he got sick."

"Food poisoning." Reid stated, "A few of the kids got it apparently, so whoever did this to him on campus knew this was their only chance." JJ nodded, "Current suspect is Richard Gerace, he's the most recent to arrive in the states and we've been tacking his progress through the city but came up empty."

"But we know it's him because of his scar." Garcia assured and Emily hummed, "That doesn't make sense, Gerace gave up on Doyle a long time ago." Rossi raised an eyebrow, "He said you were the only one who knew Gerace."

"Which is why I'm pretty sure he doesn't have the balls to pull this off." Emily stated and Crystal gave her a small smile, "Doyle said the same thing." Emily sighed at this, "Was there any forced entry at the house?"

Morgan shook his head, "I had two agents working security." Reid cleared his throat, 'We think Gerace and his partner posed as the next shift, and one of the agents was a woman."

Emily nodded, "She's the alpha." JJ tilted her head, "So we're looking for a woman who's getting back at Doyle."

"And our suspect list just got a whole lot longer."