a beautiful mess

I've been sitting on this one for a while and wrote up a few different ideas for how this adorable shit happens, but finally the other day it came to me. And now we have this...it's a hot mess, a chaotic image and the writing quality isn't nearly as good as the picture it paints. Apologies for that. (2.7k words / warnings: gunshot wounds, dog bites, hospitals, canon typical unsub stuff, some sex talk)

Starts out intense, ends soft and squishy. Thank you for sending this in and I'm sorry it takes me for-fucking-EVER to write anything these days. I'd say it's going to get better, be optimistic about all the time I might have someday soon but...I think this is just my new speed. <3

He told Hotch to stop, to stay behind and wait for back-up and the medics. They couldn’t be that far out by now. He told him that he and Reid could do this part on their own. That it didn’t take three Agents to run down a pudgy middle aged man in the woods.

But Hotch was coursing with adrenaline and pain, running on the fumes of anger at being shot, and telling him to stay behind was like talking to a brick wall. A brick wall with anger management problems and he wasn’t about to argue too hard – he was bleeding too. He didn’t exactly have the logical high ground.

He keeps Hotch in his sights the best he can. They’re running like a pack of wolves, Hotch dead center, Reid flanking to the right and Derek to the left. The terrain is rough but not too dangerous except where they have to cross a ravine with a rocky bed. That’s where Reid and Morgan gain the advantage, they cross at narrow shallow places while Hotch and the unsub plod through knee deep ice water. On the periphery Derek watches Hotch slip on some rocks halfway through and the look of pain that flashes over his features says he probably wrenched his ankle on a rock but he keeps going, doesn’t skip a beat. If he can run with a bullet hole in his side, a twisted ankle isn’t about to stop him. Derek slows a little to let the unsub choose his path when he reaches the shore and he watches Hotch close on his heels. He's still a little dangerous, he's got a loaded weapon and he's got a girl they need to find. They could just shoot him but they might never find the victim that way. Hotch is calling the shots and he wants a clean take down, no weapons unless necessary. Even though he's already taken a hit, he still says clean. By the book. They're not taking any chances.