Once, before
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Summary
There had been a brief standoff at the front desk when they arrived. Too few rooms. A high school basketball team passing through. A plumbing issue that had taken out two bathrooms. By the time the dust settled, agents were doubled up in configurations that would have made a college dorm supervisor nervous.
Hotch stood just inside the doorway of their assigned room, jacket folded neatly over his arm, expression neutral as he took in the single bed and the couch that looked more decorative than functional.
Rossi set his overnight bag down with a quiet thud. "Well," he said, surveying the scene, "this brings back memories."
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Or, Dave and Hotch have to bunk together on a case—and it brings up memories.Series
- Part 1 of Once, before
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Summary
The quiet between Hotch and Rossi wasn’t strained. If anything, it was remarkably ordinary.
Nothing had changed. Why would it?
Hotch didn’t wake up alone in his own bed back in D.C. feeling like something was missing. He didn’t lie there thinking about the steady weight of another person at his back or the grounding rhythm of shared breathing.
Rossi didn’t sit in his kitchen late at night replaying the moment he’d reached out and pulled Aaron closer in that narrow motel bed. He didn’t wonder if it meant something that Aaron had relaxed almost immediately, like muscle memory.
They were fine.
Perfectly fine.
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Or, Hotch and Rossi’s night in Montana had somehow lit a fuse neither of them is willing to acknowledge.Series
- Part 2 of Once, before