𝗕𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗰𝗿𝘆 || 𝗗𝗲𝗿𝗲𝗸 𝗠𝗼𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗻

𝗙𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻

"𝗜𝗳 𝗜 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀, 𝗜 𝗺𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁 𝗯𝗲 𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗮𝗹𝗸 𝗮𝗯𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝘁 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲"
-𝗝𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗔𝘂𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗻

-----

𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗽𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗙𝗶𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗲𝗻 - 𝗕𝗮𝗿𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴

It had been four months since the death of Noah and four months since Valentina had step foot in the FBI building. She had still been meeting up with her co workers and it was nice to talk about something else than just work. Now it was back to working as a profiler but the things had changed since she left.

Gideon wasn't there anymore, he had resigned. Apparently the last case was too much for him and being a profiler wasn't what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. Erin Strauss was the biggest problem at the BAU after forcing Hotch to step down from his position as Unit Chief and transfer to a normal 9-5 desk job.

She also hired Emily just for the purpose of spying on Hotch to find any excuse to fire him. Emily then resigned after that because that wasn't what she signed up to when she took the job. In the end, Strauss gave up and gave both of them their jobs back after one of the cases fell apart because of her and when the rest of the team called in Hotch and Emily, the case was solved and they were all going home. So yeah, a lot had happened while she was gone.

But what had changed most of all, was her. Valentina hadn't realised how precious life was until she lost one of her own. Something she would never comprehend because no matter how much she tried to forget, his face was still there. Almost like he was haunting her every time she closed her eyes.

"When's Valentina getting here?" Spencer asked the team when he walked into the conference room for another case and saw she wasn't sat at the round table.

"I'm about to go pick her up now" Hotch was just putting on his coat in the corner of the room "Thought I'd drop Jack off at school on the way"

"I can't believe she's coming back so soon" Emily sighed "Four months really isn't that long to grieve"

"She's made of much tougher stuff than that, Prentiss. We'll see you on the plane in thirty" And with that, Hotch was out the door and leaving the team to dwell on their thoughts.

-----

After dropping Jack off at school, Val and Hotch were now on their way to the BAU "You ready to get back to work?" Hotch asked Valentina who seemed to be sat there in a daze.

She nodded slowly "Four months of not touching one case file and actually having time to plan things was torture and you know it"

Aaron chuckled, taking a right at the traffic lights "Don't know how you survived" He joked.

"It did give me time to heal though and I know I needed that. But anyway, I'm back now and I won't let you down" Hotch nodded with a smile before referring to the case file that sat on the middle console. Valentina looked him with her eyebrow raised, her eyes scanning the words of the new case they had been assigned to.

"The Halbert family murdered in their own home last night in the Denver suburb of Cherry Creek. The third home invasion like this in the last month" She read, looking back over at Hotch "What could possibly go wrong?" She made the joke this time making them both chuckle.