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

62.0: Falling Back Into Place

A/N: This story will be based on 7x04 Painless and I said there would be a time jump, but there isn't because I remembered something that's important so it's been like a week since the last chapter

TRIGGER WARNING: THIS CASE IS ABOUT SCHOOL BOMBINGS AND THE BOMBER BASICALLY WAS A S**CIDE BOMBER

"Change almost never fails because it's too early. It almost always fails because it's too late."
― Seth Godin

Things had went back to normal, Hotch would come over or Crystal would go to his place for ice cream, the team would make jokes, JJ and Reid talked again, and things seemed fine....except for the fact that maybe Hotch would press gentle kisses to Crystal's forehead from time-to-time, he would hug her from behind for a bit before they cuddled on the couch with her back against his chest, and they spent more time together if that was even possible.

Crystal had talked to Emily about things and she had been so happy for her, "I can't believe this is happening, I'm going to kill Rossi for interrupting you." Crystal had laughed at this and shook her head, she had also been talking to Reid about it. Lucky for her, because Reid knew Hmong it was easier to talk about it anytime she needed to since the team couldn't understand.

Crystal looked up when she heard footsteps coming to her desk, she smiled at Hotch. "Hi, how was the teacher-conference yesterday?" Hotch moved her hair from her face, "There seems to be a problem at school with Jack and another student."

"Oh no, did he get in a fight and win?"

"Archer," Hotch tried to hide his amused look, "No, there seems to be a student picking on him." Crystal frowned at this, "That's not good, what else did Jack say?"

"Jack didn't tell me, his teacher did." Hotch sighed and Crystal got up to stand next to him, "Well, what're you planning to do?"

"Talk to him and see if there's anyway we can try and solve this problem, I don't want to force him to talk to me." Hotch frowned and Crystal ran her fingers over his forehead, "You shouldn't frown so much Hotch, what if someone's falling in love with your smile?"

Hotch's lips twitched before gently grabbing her hand and bringing her fingers to his lips to press a gently kiss against them, "I've heard that I'm a bit scary."

"I don't see it." Crystal shrugged before smiling at him, "I'm sure he'll talk to you Hotch, don't worry so much or you'll get wrinkles." Hotch gave her an amused look, "I'll keep that in mind Archer, let's head up. We've got a case." 

They walked to the conference room and Hotch pulled her chair, Crystal ignored the team's stares and Garcia smiled before standing up. "Anyone remember this picture?"

Rossi nodded, "Hotch and I were there, that's principal Doug Givens. We had to drag him to safety." Emily looked at the screen, "High school bombing in Boise, right?"

TRIGGER WARNING*

"School shooter and school bomber, a kid named Randy Slade shot 3 students and then set off an I.E.D in the cafeteria via cellphone killing himself and 13 kids in total. He posted all of his plans online." JJ answered and Crystal sighed, "One of those 'where-were-you?' events, I was in my dorm when I saw this on T.V."

TRIGGER WARNING END*

Garcia pressed a button, "Last night principal Givens was killed by a bomb modeled exactly like the old one." Morgan swiped through his tablet, "Feels like the unsub wants to attack the man who kept the school together after the bombing, pretty symbolic target."

"And this week is the 10th anniversary of the massacre." Hotch stated and Garcia nodded, "Today's the first day of a 4-day event to commemorate the bombing at the school."