#aaron hotchner fan fic

A/N: Here it is! The final installment! Your patience through the days has been nothing short of amazing. I hope you all enjoy the last part! Without further adieu

Trigger Warning: Domestic Violence

Now I gotta wake it up
The devil in me
Gotta wake up, come back to life

It had been six months since Josh had been found, and his parole hearing would be coming up in a week. Technically the only thing he’d done wrong was the leave his holding house. He hadn’t come within a 500 feet of Elizabeth, there was no proof that he’d contacted her at all. All signs pointed he’d be paroled again, and Elizabeth would continue to live in fear.

“Hey baby.” She felt Aaron kiss the top of her head and sit in the chair next to her.

“Hi.” ELizabeth smiled, setting her steaming cup of coffee on the table in front of them. “I want to speak at Josh’s hearing.”

The statement caught Aaron by surprise and he stared at Elizabeth in wonder. He’d been trying to convince her to speak at the hearing for the past two months.

~
“How am I supposed to look that man in the face, Aaron! He broke my arm, he bloodied my face, he damn near broke my jaw. How, tell me how, am I supposed to be in the same room as that man.”
~

Aaron knew she should speak at the hearing, but he also knew that it would be nearly impossible to convince her of that. So the fact that she was bringing it up was a bit of a shock to him. He took a sip of his coffee and gently set it down.

“What made you change your mind?”

“You did.” Her voice was sheepish. “Aaron, not once have you given up on me. Never once have you questioned me, berated me, made me feel like I was less than you. You are the one who made me believe that I am worth something. He needs to know that he didn’t take that from me.”

Aaron studied her face for a moment before leaning forward and kissing her as deeply as he could, so that she would know just how much her cared, and just how much he loved her.

~
With shaky hands Elizabeth smoothed her skirt, while looking at herself in the mirror. Her wildly curly black hair was hanging at her shoulders. A simple dark green blouse tucked into a black pencil skirt. Black flats adorning her feet, she felt too imbalanced to even attempt a pair of heels.

“You’re going to be fantastic.” Elizabeth looked at Aaron’s reflection in the mirror. He was leaning against the door frame, arms folded in front of his chest in his usual suit attired, looking dapper as always.

“Where’s Jack?” Elizabeth turned around now, still smoothing her outfit nervously.

“He’s with Jessica, she just left with him. She says you’re gonna be great as well.” Elizabeth just smiled and walked forward, resting her head on Aaron’s chest, finding comfort in the sound of his steady beating heart. Where she had always, and will continue to find that comfort.

“We should probably get going.” She looked up and pressed a quick kiss to Aaron’s lips and he just nodded his head. Lacing his fingers through hers they walked down the stairs to the garage.

The ride was quiet, but not awkward. Aaron kept giving Elizabeth’s hand gentle squeezes as a reminder that he was by her side. Pulling to a stop Elizabeth felt the tears spring to her eyes at the small crowd of people waiting for her.

“Why is your team here?” Her voice cracked.

“They love you too, they want to be here to support you.”

Stepping out of the SUV she was greeted with hugs, and kisses on the cheek from each of the members of the team, even Spencer. With tears in her eyes, Elizabeth squeezed each of the team members as hard as she could, hoping to convey even a tiny percentage of how thankful she was for their support.

“Are you ready?” Garcia asked, holding her at arms length.

“Not at all, but I have all the support I need.”

~
“We call to the stand, Miss Elizabeth Carter.”

The ringing in Elizabeths ears was so loud she could barely hear Aaron telling her to get up and go. It was as if everything was moving in slow motion, her body moving up and out of the chair. Her feet stepping across the floor to the witness stand. After saying the oath Elizabeth took a deep shuttering breath.

“Miss Carter, can you please recount the events of the evening that put Mr. Stanis in prison.”

~
“What is this?” Josh’s voice was filled with rage as he entered the kitchen. 

Eyebrows furrowed together Elizabeth turned to face him, his fist connecting with her face. Elizabeth tried not to show fear or anger, as that only taunted him more. She could tasted the blood in her mouth but she tried to ignore it.

“What is what?” She kept her voice as calm as she could.

“Don’t play dumb with me bitch, what is this.” He thrust her phone into her face, a text message with a friend from school displayed on the screen.

“It’s nothing, we’re working in a group for a school project, I told you this.”

“Are you fucking him?” His voice was seething.

“Excuse me?” Elizabeth couldn’t hide the bite in her voice.

“The voice says meet in the library tomorrow? For what, Lizzy? FOR WHAT?” His face was cetimeters from her own, his voice echoing in her ear.

“For the school project!” Elizabeth couldn’t help but scream back. “What do you think for? Jesus, Josh I’m so fucking sick of this shit.”

Elizabeth pushed passed Josh, which she knew was a mistake, but at the time she didn’t care. He’d been violent but never more so than a smack to the face, a push to the wall, but this time…this time it was different. 

She felt Josh grab a fist full of her hair and bash her head into the door from of the kitchen. She felt the blood trickling down from her forehead, and the room started to spin. Grabbing her wrist, Josh pulled it behind her back until a loud crack was heard and Elizabeth cried out in pain.

“What did you say bitch?” Josh’s voice was a whisper now, just barely heard in her ear.

“I said, I’m fucking sick of this shit.” Elizabeth couldn’t back down now.

Josh threw her to the ground and kicked her repeatedly in the stomach, cracking a few ribs in the process and delivering one final swift kick to her face before walking out the door, slamming it behind him.

~
“I stayed on the ground for a few minutes, waiting for him to come back, and when he didn’t, I called the police.” Elizabeth finished, staring at her hands.

The silence throughout the courtroom was deafening. Elizabeth took a breath and pulled her eyes away from her lap to look around the room. Josh’s head was hung down, in an attempt to show shame. Penelope and JJ were openly weeping, she could even see a few tear stains on Aaron’s cheeks.

“Is that all?” The judge questioned.

“Um… no, one more thing.” The Judge nodded, giving her permission to continue. “I’ve spent every night since then afraid of myself, afraid of the person he made me become. He smothered the person that I was and snuffed out my flame. He has sent his friends to harrass me, he has sent me letters thinking I’d be too afraid to talk about them but I’m not afraid anymore." 

Elizabeth’s eyes locked with Josh’s who were now looking at her with surprise. Elizabeth had found her voice, and found her conficence. "I’m waking up from a sleep I’ve been stuck in for five years and I came here to say it would be a colossal mistake to let Josh go because if he has a chance to get at me it’s not a matter of if, it’s when.”

Elizabeth pulled her eyes away from Josh’s to look at Aaron’s whos eyes were shining with pride. He couldn’t have been more proud of the woman she had become. The journey she had taken to get here. Elizabeth liked to give him the credit for getting her to this point but it was her, it was the power inside of her all along.

“I love you.” Aaron mouthed to Elizabeth and she smiled at him with a nod, to tell him the same. Her eyes darted back to Josh’s, who now realized there was no way he was getting out of this, his eyes were now filled with anger.

“The devil’s back bitch… and you lose.”