“It’s been a long time since I could just... stop,” he murmurs, eyelids heavy from exhaustion. “Since I could trust someone to hold me.”

~

Stranded together in a remote cabin after a sudden blizzard blocks the roads and traps them inside, Hotch let’s his guard down. He’s injured with broken ribs from an earlier incident, leaving him exhausted, in pain, and unable to travel for help. As the storm intensifies, the two of them are forced into close quarters, and Hotch—usually guarded and self‐contained—slowly lets his walls drop.