Cases that involved children were always hard ─ especially for you. No matter how many weeks, months, or even days passed, the pain of losing your own child would never go away. There was a part of you that'd been stripped away unfairly, a hole in your heart that could never be filled. As much as you tried to grow around it and move on, things like this brought you right back to square one.

The current case involved a string of kidnappings and murders. All of the victims were young children. It hit too close to home for you.

Aaron observed you quietly as you stared at the corkboard, pictures of the victims and clues for the unsub pinned all across it. He noticed how your eyes would linger on the pictures of the children, of the pictures of them with their families. It didn't take a profiler to know that you were struggling. You looked like you were damn near about to break.

You never really talked about your loss, but Aaron knew. You'd come to him not long after it happened, explaining why you needed to take such a long leave from work. While he couldn't even imagine losing Jack, he could understand that you were going through a great deal of emotional turmoil. Feelings you'd thought you'd suppressed were suddenly being dug up all at once.

“Hey,” Aaron spoke softly, approaching you with his arms crossed as he looked at the board as well. He couldn't let you keep going any longer. “You can sit this one out if you need to. Just say the word.”