Mini Nano Day 13

Courtesy of my rewatch of Criminal Minds, particularly Faceless, Nameless (season 5, episode 1). Since several episodes have had me thinking about how Tages would fit in around things before he's revealed to exist.

Criminal Minds/Stargate SG-1: Children of Fire AU

/We almost lost him./ Tages sounds as shaken as Rossi feels, though he does his best to hide it while he watches Aaron resting on his hospital bed. /He would have been dead too long, if that piece of fin-rot hadn't brought him here./

/I know./ Rossi keeps his reply internal, even though he would prefer to speak aloud, and knows Tages wants to pace. It takes a moment to lock down that urge again, and by the time they're no longer half a second from exploding into movement, Aaron is watching him in return.

"Did you hear what happened this morning?" Anything to keep himself from blurting out something that would reveal Tages, would make Aaron suspicious of what might be going on beyond Rossi being worried.

"No." Aaron's voice is quiet, and a little rough. Tears, Rossi would wager, that he refuses to admit or shed.

"We had a situation." One which had dragged them from sleep, though fortunately not from a session with the sarcophagus. He'd been planning to do that after he woke up.

/We can use it tonight, before bed. Sleeping after should be enough to let the worst of the side-effects dissapate. The rest we can pass off as the stress of the last case, and this./

"Unsub had already killed two people; said he was going to keep killing, unless a man used his son as bait." Rossi watches Aaron's face, and can feel Tages watching with him. Observing reaction, and judging how well he's getting through to Aaron.

"What happened?" Aaron doesn't break his gaze, only blinks a little, holding so still Rossi worries a little.

"We kept the boy safe." As if there had been any other option. "Worked the profile. It was a happy ending."

/Only because we didn't have to argue with paramedics about Reid./

/There was a doctor right there, and the paramedics weren't far away. He would have been fine even if the wound were a bit worse./

Tages gives a mental snort that Rossi ignores in favor of paying attention to Aaron's reaction to the news. Looking away, his eyes shining a little brighter with unshed tears, not quite what Rossi's looking for.

"Do you know why I'm telling you this?"

Aaron's reply is almost inaudible, but at least it's a yes.

"No other group in the world could have pulled off what your team did in a matter of hours."

Aaron closes his eyes, and Rossi hears Tages begin to curse quietly in the back of his mind.

"I appreciate what you're trying to do, Dave."

"We'll get Foyet."

/And I will eat his.../

/Tages. Remember that I would rather not eat parts of other human beings? No matter how richly they might deserve having parts of them being consumed by a predator in front of their eyes./

/Hmph. I still want to./

There are times when Rossi still is disconcerted by Tages, by the utterly alien mind that has been his companion for so long.

Aaron finally opens his eyes again, but he won't look at Rossi, gaze darting over the ceiling panels instead.

"I promised Haley we would get him, but the truth is if he stops killing, we have no way of tracking him." There's a creeping despair in Aaron's voice that Rossi does not like hearing. "He stopped killing for ten years just for the pleasure of watching Shaunessy's life fall apart."

Aaron stops, letting out a sharp breath, and Rossi has to bite back a promise that there's nowhere Foyet can go on the planet - or anywhere else - that he and Tages can't find him, even if he stops killing. Even if the team fails. It's technology beyond what he should have access to, and no matter how much he wants to protect his team, and his planet, he can't do that if he tips his hand now.

"What's Jack going to remember about me in ten years?" Aaron's voice doesn't quite wobble, but Rossi can hear the break beginning, the fear that Aaron had hidden until now.

He takes a step forward, Tages whispering vicious promises of destruction in his ears. "Hotch, look at me." Rossi waits until Aaron does look back at him to add, "I'm telling you. We'll get him."

/And he will not kill again, even if I have to take him apart with my bare hands./

/You know that will end our career, and make it hard to keep living, if we don't have an exit plan./

/We always have an exit plan, Dave. We'll be fine. So long as the team is alive and in one piece, we'll be fine./