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“No no.” Stilinski steers Ried away from his usual spot on the couch in the plane. “Hotch sits here today.”
Baffled and amused, Reid helps Stilinski seat a protesting Hotch on the couch. “Why the change in seating arrangements?”
Stilinski doesn’t answer immediately, too busy searching the plane and his luggage for blankets, sweaters and other soft, warm things, all of which he piles on top of Hotch.
“You do know the doctor said I only had a very mild case of hypothermia, one that didn’t need much treatment, one that I’m recovered from now, right?” Hotch asks slightly amused by Stilinski’s actions as the newest team members start making hot chocolate.
This is only Stilinski’s third case with them, and already he feels like a member of the team. He has an almost manic energy about him, which, along with his quick wit and sarcasm makes the team smile much more than before he joined them. He’s quite young, younger even than Reid when he joined the team, something that initially concerned all the members of the team. But they quickly learn that while he may appear young and immature at first glance, he has an old soul, when he thinks no one is looking, he has the thousand yard stare that people who have been through things that no one ever should have.
“Just because it was a minor case, doesn’t mean you are completely well already.” Stilinski says as he puts a cup of hot chocolate in Hotch’s hand and starts sorting through the blankets and things he tossed on him.
“I’ve had minor hypothermia before, more than once in fact, and I know that while you may say you are fine hours afterwards, and while your body temperature may be back to normal, that doesn’t mean everything is all good. That chill likes to cling to your bones for hours or even days afterwards.” Stilinski pauses what he is doing. “Or maybe that’s just me. Regardless, it can’t hurt to take care of you, you do a good job as the boss taking care of us, let us return the favour.”
Stilinski sits down next to Hotch, so close that there is practically no space between them and Rossi can’t help but chuckle. “He’s right Aaron, let us take care of you for once.”
Hotch uncomfortably sips his hot chocolate. He’s not all that surprised that Stilinski is sitting so close to him, the young man made it clear as soon as he joined the team that he really likes physical contact, he explained that his friend group is really close, always touching, and so he is used to being close to people. He often hugs the other members of the team, leans against them, touches their arms and shoulders, stuff like that, but always stops immediately if whoever he is touching appears the slightest bit uncomfortable.
This time he ignores Hotch’s discomfort as he arranges the blankets and sweaters on top of them, at least until Hotch moves away a fraction of an inch. “Look man, if this really is making you uncomfortable, I will stop, but if you are just unsure because you’re the boss and an alpha male and all that jazz, then let me warn you, it is impossible to escape my mother henning. If Scott, and Derek Hale, and Chris Argent can’t escape me, then you have no chance.”
“Derek Hale as in suspected mass murder Derek Hale?” Reid asks.
“Suspected, as in he didn’t actually kill those people, they just thought he did.” Stilinski replies as he scoots closer to Hotch again, leaving no space between them.
“Chris Argent as in the Argents who supply weapons to law enforcement across the country?” Rossi asks.
“That’s the one. He’s pretty scary when you first meet him, but deep down he is just a teddy bear, and he would do anything to protect innocent people.” Stilinski says.
“Wasn’t he suspected of killing a high ranking member of the Yakuza along with Derek Hale?” JJ asks.
“Again, suspected. He obviously didn’t do it. Now are you all going to continue to interrogate me, or will you join us? There is plenty of room here.” Stilinski says as he lifts a blanket to make it easier for others to join.
Rossi is the first to join, taking the seat on the opposite side of Hotch. After some hesitation, Reid sits beside Stilinski. JJ, Morgan, and Prentiss don’t join, but they do sit down across from them with amused looks on their faces. Morgan even snaps a few pics of Hotch all bundled up, no doubt to send to Garcia.
“I didn’t know you’ve had hypothermia before.” Morgan says to Stilinski. “How did that happen?”
Stilinski takes a deep breath and gets comfortable. “Sleepwalking, would you believe it?” He chuckles, but the sound falls flat, no true mirth in it. “It was the coldest night of the year and asleep me decided that it was a perfect time to go for a hike wearing just thin cotton pjs. I was out for hours, didn’t actually wake up until I was rescued, but thankfully asleep me also decided to bring my phone with me and use it to call my best friend all while asleep. If I hadn’t, I’d be dead.”
“How did the cold not wake you up?” Prentiss asks.
Stilinski shrugs uncomfortably. “It just didn’t I guess.”
“You said you have had hypothermia more than once?” Reid asks.
“Yeah.” Stilinski replies softly, a far away look in his eyes. “Let’s not talk about the second time. That was not a good time.”
"It's okay, Kid," Rossi said, "let's just focus on, how did you say, mother henning? Aaron, instead of talk about that."
The agents smile and start piling more blankets of their boss.
Stilinski sinks further into the couch, soaking in the warmth of Hotch and Reid beside him. The agents can tell that Stilinski feels right at home in the middle of the group.
There is some casual, quiet conversation, and soon everyone is relaxed or, in the case of Reid and Stilinski, fast asleep.
Stilinski's quiet snores fill the silence of the plane.
"I wonder how he met Derek Hale?" JJ asks the group.
"Yeah, he doesn't seem like the type of person to hang out with suspects." Morgan adds.
Hotch shrugs, being careful of Stilinski, who is resting his head on Hotch's shoulder.
"I’m sure he has his reasons, but if we want to know, we should ask him ourselves, not talk about it. The No profiling rule also extends to gossiping.” Hotch says.
He looks over to Stilinski who is peacefully asleep. They really don’t know much about the youngest and newest member of the team, Hotch knows the most as he has access to information like past cases he’s been involved in and his medical history as he is the boss, but even with all that information, there is much he doesn’t know. He knows there are sealed files about cases Stilinski was involved in as teen that not even he can open, and some part of his medical history are vague or incomplete, giving more questions than answers, like the hypothermia, there is one instance of it in his medical history, not two.
It will be interesting to learn more about the young man, but they will do so properly, not behind his back, he is part of the team now and they have to trust him.
As they get closer back to home, Reid wakes up, leaving Stilinski as the last person still sleeping. The team considers waking him up but decides against it, it was a long case, he needs all the rest he can get. They can wake him up when they land if he doesn’t wake up on his own before then.
Stilinski starts moving around a bit and mumbling. His snores cut off and turned into a deep inhale and the team assumes he might wake up, but he doesn’t.
He moves some more, obviously getting comfortable, and the movement causes the blanket on top of him to shift, nearly falling off. He takes his head off Hotch’s shoulder and leans against Reid's instead, but at an awkward angle, one that looks uncomfortable. They expect Stilinski to start snoring again. Instead he flinches and winces, as if in pain.
"Think his neck hurts?" Morgan asks, looking at the awkward angle Stilinski has his neck. He then looks closer at the skin of the neck that wasn’t previously exposed. “What’s that?”
There is a scar on his neck, it looks like a red veins starting at a spot on the back of his neck and extending across part of his neck and disappearing under his shirt.
“That’s a Lichtenberg figure.” Reid says. “Usually caused by being struck by lightning.”
Stilinski mumbles something in his sleep and flinches.
“Stilinski was hit by lightning?” JJ asks. “He’s had an interesting life, lighting and hypothermia.”
Stilinski wiggles around some more. The movement causes his arms to come out of his blanket and his sleeves to roll up a little bit revealing ligature scars.
“And he’s been kidnapped.” Rossi says, his voice exposing some of the pain that the thought brings him.
Stilinski whines in his sleep and his movements become more erratic, as if fighting an invisible foe.
“He’s having a nightmare, we should wake him up.” Prentiss says.
He starts breathing heavily as Reid tries to gently shake him awake. “Wake up Stilinski, it’s ok.”
It takes a little bit, Stilinski’s whines becoming whimpers before he opens his eyes. He appears terrified, obviously still in the throes of his nightmare, and when he sees how close he is to Reid and Hotch, he throws himself off the couch, landing on the floor with a terrified yelp.
Morgan approaches him slowly, hands up in an effort to show he means no harm, and Stilinski flinches away from him, his already fast breathing increasing speed.
“Hey, it’s ok, you just had a nightmare, it’s ok buddy.” Morgan speaks soothingly and Stilinski stops backing away from him, but doesn’t slow his breathing.
“Breath, buddy, breathe.” Morgan tries, but Stilinski doesn’t seem to register his words, his eyes flicking rapidly around the plane.
Morgan reaches out a hand, and Stilinski’s attention focuses on it. “Take a breath, in, out, in, out.”
Morgan moves a little closer and Stilinski grabs his hand, the grip so tight it’s almost painful.
“One, two, three, four, five.” Stilinski shakily counts the fingers on Morgan’s hand, then grabs his other hand and continues. “Six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”
When he finishes counting, his breathing slows a little bit. He raises his own hands to his face and starts counting. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”
His breathing slows more and he repeats the action. “One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten.”
“Are you alright?” Morgan asks and Stilinski looks up from his hands.
“I’m ok.” His fingers are trembling and his breathing is still too fast. “I’m ok, I’m ok.”
He abruptly stands and makes his way to the bathroom, tripping over his feet on the way there. Once there he locks himself in.
"Should we go get him?" Morgan asks.
"Leave him.” Hotch says. “He probably needs the space right now.”
They all sit in silence and can’t help but glance at the bathroom door, wondering how their youngest member is doing, if he is alright.
Their attention is pulled away from the door when Stilinski's phone, which he left face up on the floor, lights up with a text. They can’t help their curiosity, and before they can stop themselves, they all read the text. It is sent by someone named SourWolf, and says: ‘What the fuck did you do? Scott's freaking out saying something isn't right.’
"That seems unnecessarily aggressive.” Prentiss can’t help but say. “I wonder what it’s about?”
The others silently agree, but don’t say anything as Hotch’s recent words about respecting privacy rung in their heads.
Some time passes, about ten minutes or so, and the team starts to slowly turn their attention away from the closed bathroom door onto other things, books and quiet conversations.
When Stilinski finally exits the bathroom, they don’t give him more attention than a few glances, not wanting to overwhelm him.
Only Morgan speaks to him. "Are you ok buddy?”
"I’m fine." Stilinski says halfheartedly.
“If you ever want to talk, we are here for you.” Morgan tells Stilinski seriously.
Stilinski smiles at that, not a bright smile, but a genuine one. “I appreciate that.”
He then shoves past Morgan and grabs his phone. Reading the text to himself, Stilinski lets out a laugh.
"Typical Sour Wolf, only bugging me when he thinks something is wrong.” Stilinski mumbles and gets a glint in his eyes as he texts back. “I am so taking advantage of this. Hey Reid, know some annoying fun facts I can bother this guy with?”
Stilinski plops down beside Reid and soon the two of them are happily chatting away about things the rest of the team can barely understand.
The rest of the team smiles at the sight. Stilinski may have his demons, just like the rest of them, but that doesn’t interfere with him being a loved and valued member of the team.