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Maybe this was always the plan-to end up scared and alone in some weirdo’s dingy basement. Aaron Hotchner couldn’t tell what was real and what wasn’t. He did know that there would absolutely be no more harm done to Y/N. He tried to think of how the hell they ended up in this dark and slimy basement in the first place.
He remembered being at the diner, the fear of seeing a big guy with a hat covering his face grab his girlfriend like she weighed 10 pounds and the white hot pain of being knocked out with a blow to the head. He remembered waking up to find himself sitting upright and tied to the chair and seeing her still slumped in her own chair across from him.
The loud clang of the basement door shutting pulled him back to the present and he found Y/N already greeting their visitor with a glare. Perhaps out of guilt, he made the extra effort to see her brand new blackeye- courtesy of her smart mouth and ‘don’t know when to quit’ mindset. Their captor kept his ski mask on always, at first it freaked Aaron out, but now he finds it easier to pretend that there is no person there, just a faceless void.
The man clears his throat and smiles at the two. He walks up to Y/N and her glare and grabs her jaw forcefully. As he squeezes it her mouth pops open like a fish. The man speaks directly in her face, “Wipe that expression off now, pretty girls shouldn’t look so bitter.” Aaron feels the tension and groans, causing the much taller man to release Y/N's jaw.
“Get it over with, what do you want today?” Aaron asks with a roll of his eyes. It’s all false bravado at this point, born strictly out of fear of hearing her scream and cry again. He had no idea how long he had been here, but he never wanted to hear those sounds again.
The taller man leers at him and walks more towards the center of the room.
“And how are my lovely feds doing?”
“I can’t speak for Aaron but I’m feeling swell, I got a new shiner that will go great with this purple shirt at home.” you taunt.
Aaron would do anything if it meant she would stop talking and let him have the captors attention. Although, Y/N never really liked helping herself out. He had always known this, it's why he made sure to keep an extra eye on her, even before they formed feelings for each other.
The captor laughs and shakes his head, “You are going to let that mouth get into trouble, and you won’t even know what’s happened.”
You suddenly ditch the smirk and go a little pale. Aaron yawns loudly, once again tearing the attention away from you.
“Did the Bureau meet your demands yet?” He asks, reminding himself of the unsub’s true motivation to calm himself down.
Aaron remembered the first day in painfully clear detail.
“Why are we here?”, Y/N had asked the first time they saw Mr.Mask. He had chuckled and told them both to relax.
“We know you two are Feds. We also know that the BAU is really close to catching us. Too close. The Bureau will shell out enough time and money for us to get away .” Mr. Mask had explained.
“Why would they waste funds on two desk-agents?” Aaron had hoped he sounded convincing.
“Oh, Please, Hotch. We know you both are a lot more valuable than that. Especially you, Bossman.” Mr.Mask answered.
"So what's the plan? Did you even contact them yet, or are you just hopeful they’ll answer your call ?” Aaron had asked, he knew Garcia would track it as soon as they did.
Mr. Mask wasn’t friendly nor smiling anymore. “I don’t know what you’re trying to prove or if you’re just acting out because your sweetheart is here, but it ends now.” You and Aaron both noticed the balled up fists at his side. The use of Aaron’s nickname for you made you feel nauseous.
“Don’t you know that damaged goods are no good? You think the BAU is going to let you walk away if you hurt one of their agents? I don't.”, You said using that voice that normally was reserved for interrogating an unsub.
He heard the slap before he felt it. Then, Aaron noticed the sting and heat creeping to his right cheek.
“What the hell? I just said-”, your rant got cut off by Mr. Mask, his unofficial name to you and Aaron.
“You see that? That is what happens when one of you pisses me off.” -He points to you- “If you piss me off, I hurt him.” He turned suddenly glaring at Aaron, “and if you piss me off, I hurt sweetheart over there.” Mr. Mask shortly bid the two goodbye leaving them wondering what the future would hold for them.
Aaron forced himself to go back to the present.
“Yes and no. We have reason to believe they’re stupid enough to lie to me. It's a shame, we might have to send them a video for motivation.” Mr. Mask did not look sorry in the least, if anything his eyes glimmered with excitement.
You didn’t say anything and Aaron absentmindedly ran his tongue over his split lip. Both of you had acquired injuries. The beatings had been the result of Mr. Mask’s rage, not some strategic way to scare your team. Aaron peered back up to your black eye and felt his stomach churn at the thought of either of you facing a planned out attack. He tried to think about how long they had been here, but he had no luck. With no clocks anywhere and constantly going in and out of consciousness, it was impossible to tell time.
“What? No witty remark? Have I finally snuffed out the blatant disrespect?” Mr. Mask taunted.
You laughed and Aaron wanted to shout, but he stayed silent.
“What?” Mr. Mask asked, mostly talking to you.
“Sorry, I know you want to be scary, I just have always found the word snuffed funny. It's like sniffed or fluffed.” She answered in-between chuckles.
Okay so she’s losing it, Aaron thought privately.
Mr. Mask didn’t look so upset, but rather amused. He then started humming, causing Aaron to tense up and narrow his eyes; his heart plummeted when Mr. Mask made his way towards you.
“Thank you for volunteering to be our model, Agent”, the man patted your head.
Suddenly two men that neither of you had seen before entered. These guys made NFL linemen look scrawny. The pair of giants were easily 6 feet and clearly 200 pounds of pure muscle. Mr. Mask snapped his fingers and they immediately jumped towards you.
“Stop it! Get off of me! Let me go!”, your cries echoed off the basement’s walls.
Aaron couldn’t tell what was happening because the two men blocked his view. He thrashed around and yelled incoherently towards the men. As much as he fought to be free he felt Mr. Mask’s hand trying to force him to settle. He easily shrugged out of the man’s hold. He was prepared to knock himself and his chair over, when finally the men moved. They each had a meaty arm wrapped around your arms. They held you on each side. While Aaron’s brain struggled to grasp the fact that they had been stupid enough to untie you, he saw your red face and the new tears shining on it. He had gone still.
You began kicking out your feet and thrashing wildly. Aaron paled at the feeling of a cold metallic cylinder at his temple. You also paled once you caught sight of what was being pressed to him.
Mr. Mask chuckled, “Stop fighting back, or you’re going to decorate this room with his brains.”
You instantly stopped and stood so still, Aaron couldn’t tell if you were still breathing, he didn’t know if he was either. He watched the two men take you out of the room.
Just then a loud bang caused his heart to skip a beat and a deafening ringing in his ears. Out of pure instinct, he closed his eyes.
Was he dead? Would he ever see you again? What would you do without him? He never even got the chance to tell you that he loved you.
Somehow the ringing in his ears faded enough to register your distant sobs. He peeked open an eye and saw Mr. Mask grinning sadistically. It took too long for his brain to comprehend what happened. He shot a blank and now she thinks I’m dead.
“That will teach the brat.” Mr. Mask chuckled as he slammed the door shut.
Aaron swore as he felt the guilt consume him entirely. He couldn’t stop himself from imagining you being beaten and forced to act as a pawn in this psycho's demand and worst of all, you thought he was dead. He had no way to tell you that he was alive and he didn’t leave you in this place alone. He surveyed the room and found himself to be alone for the first time since they were taken. He suddenly felt overwhelmed and felt tears forming. He refused to cry in front of Mr. Mask or you. However he was alone, he let himself cry. All he could do was let the tears flow until they brought her back.
After what felt like a millennium, the two giants walked in dragging along an unconscious Y/N. Aaron felt his heart stop beating for the second time that day. The men said nothing as they dropped her back into the chair and tied her up.
He couldn’t tell the extent of her injuries because of the way her head slumped forward and concealed her face.
“No, she’s not dead.” One of the men huffed, while on his way out of the room. The other man followed and slammed the door, you didn’t stir. Aaron sat there watching in horror. He could see her barely breathing, his eyes threatened to fill with tears again. He let them fall, but didn’t dare make a sound.
Aaron found he let himself drift to sleep, when he woke up to coughing. His head snapped up and met your eyes.
“Are you real?” She asked with a slight tremor in her voice.
“Yes, sweet girl, I’m real,it was a blank.” Aaron takes in her appearance; a split eyebrow and a fresh bruise blossoms across her cheek, accompanying her already existing black eye.
“No you’re dead!” you cried out, sounding hysteric.
“No,Y/N. I’m here. I’m okay, they lied.” Aaron yells, pleading with her over her cries.
“They tricked me?” you asked, voice impossibly small.
Aaron feels a surge of hate for the men and Mr. Mask, a sense of protectiveness flows through him, “Yes, just a trick. Just try to calm down.”
The pair sat in silence until your breathing was consistent and your cries were reduced to small hiccups. Aaron was going out of his mind with worry, his mind ran a hundred miles an hour trying to come up with a way to escape.
“I was so scared.”
He jumped at her stuttering voice, but he let her go on, lifting her eyes to meet hers.
“He kept telling me how you were dead and that I was all alone in there. In between hits, those gigantic mountains didn’t say a word. It was that psycho in the mask. He told the team that he wouldn’t be ignored anymore. Then he went and grabbed my face and snapped his fingers and those guys were on me. I couldn’t breathe, they hit me wherever they could,but I guess Mr. Mask didn’t like that because you couldn’t see the damage.”
She had to take a deep breath and Aaron felt like someone had his throat and heart in a vice grip.
You continued, “Then they only hit my face, after I couldn’t scream I just cried and next thing I knew, they were done and Mr. Mask was in front of me talking, but I couldn’t focus on it. Something about’ they had 2 more days before he sent them another video’. Then he kissed my cheek and cut the camera. I passed out and woke up here.”
Aaron didn’t even know where to begin, his mind raced.
“Y/N, Garcia’s going to trace that feed. You know that, they aren't going to win. The team is probably already on their way.” , Aaron said, hoping he sounded comforting. Truthfully, he didn’t know. You two could be anywhere.
“I love you.”, you said in the darkness.
“What?”, Aaron asked, panicking.
“I know we haven’t said it, but I don’t know how long we have. I love you, Aaron.”
“I love you, too, Y/N. So much, just hold on.”, Aaron said. You were giving up and he wouldn’t have that.
You two were leaving, either the team was going to get you both out or he was.
The next day, he was blinded by a light shining in his face.
He instinctively looked for you and couldn’t see past the light.
“Hotch? Aaron?”
Who was calling him?
“Can you hear me? Hotch?”
He jerked away when someone touched his arm.
“It’s me, it’s Spencer. I’m just untying you.”
His eyes finally focused and he saw Morgan standing in front of him, with a flashlight.
So that was the light.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”, Morgan asked as Spencer moved to the other arm.
“No, where’s Y/N?”he asked, struggling to see past Morgan.
He saw your empty chair.
“No, He took her. Morgan- He took her!”, Aaron felt panic, he couldn’t lose you now.
“No, Hotch. She’s outside in the ambulance. Emily and Rossi are with her. I’ll take her to you.” Spencer said as he cut the final rope. Aaron tried to stand, but stumbled.
“Let me help you, man.”, Morgan said, wrapping one of Aaron’s arms around his shoulder.
Aaron made it outside and saw you laying on the gurney.
He made his way to you.
“Aaron!”, you sat up to wrap him a hug.
“I love you, Y/N. I told you they would find us.”
He gave you one last kiss before Morgan dragged him to his own ambulance.
You felt a tear leak out to have Emily wipe it away.
“It’s done, Y/N.”, she brushed your hair back and said in a soothing voice.
You tried to believe her.