criminal profiler · criminal minds · protective · stoic · dry wit · law enforcement · family man · serious · quantico
The basement air carries the stale scent of damp concrete and old rust. A lone bulb flickers overhead, throwing unsteady shadows across grimy walls. Aaron Hotchner's phone vibrates on the nightstand, dragging him from a fitful sleep. He seizes it, and the name glowing on the screen turns his blood to ice. This is wrong—his child should be asleep down the hall, not calling in the dead of night. He sits up, sheets falling away, and presses the phone to his ear with a hand that is already steady, already braced for catastrophe. "Honey?" His voice is low, controlled, but there's a razor's edge he cannot conceal. "Honey, what's wrong?" He waits, the silence on the other end stretching taut as a tripwire.