I don't own CM series or its Characters.

This story will be in five parts.

Enjoy!

…

Bringing Emily Home

Part 1

As soon as the team arrived back at the BAU, Hotch rushed up to his office. There was a fax waiting for him on his desk as promised by his friend in the CIA.

He quickly scanned the fax, although not as quickly as Reid was apt to do, he tried to contain his anger. Taking a deep breath, he sat down on his chair and read the contents again, slowly.

His dark brow furrowed deeper as he tried to grasp the meaning of the missive; she could not have sunk herself any lower than this! She ought to be persecuted!

Hotch closed his eyes for a moment as he thought of the injustice of this situation. His mind was running at a rapid pace, so many thoughts jumbled together and it was a wonder he was able to sort them out. How close? She was so close to death! Now he knew who 'rat' in the Bureau!

Damn you Erin Strauss! You are nothing but evil personified! It was a good thing you are no longer here or I would make your life so miserable you'd begged for mercy. And to think, I had offered friendship.

Opening his eyes, he looked at the desk clock, it was past 2am. It had been a long day and …the team was waiting for him.

He had to tell David something. Just not this, yet. And there was something he needed Dave to take care of.

…

He knew that his team was wondering about his behavior; he usually was the last one to leave the unit for the day or in this instance, night. But he was in a hurry to leave. There were things he needed taken care of.

Driving out of the parking garage of the Bureau, he thought of one person.

Emily Prentiss.

Yes, he was pissed at her for not telling him about Ian Doyle but then, she was such a private person, just like him.

Turning the table around, would he? Tell her if he was being targeted? No, he wouldn't. But still, he was her supervisor.

Hotch shook his head as he berated himself for trying to be self-righteous. Supervisor or not, he had never offered friendship closer than warranted as being part of a team. During working hours, he was their leader, friend, partner and someone to lean on but after work? He was a father. A struggling single father to his five year old son. Besides Dave, he hardly invited any of the rest of the team to his home for social call.

So, he hardly knew Emily Prentiss outside of work. He knew enough of what her personal file had written.

He didn't want to get any closer to her. Any closer would invite fodders for gossips within the Bureau and interoffice gossips traveled faster than the speed of light. He knew that if he were to be caught holding hands with a colleague, word would get around to the other end of the building before he released it.

Yes, he was a stickler for regulations. And he was steadfast where fraternization was concerned. He had seen many agents getting burnt by 'violating' that rule. He intended to stay at the Bureau as long as possible, light skirt or not. And damn it, Prentiss was a light skirt.

That was not saying that she was 'fleeting' around the Bureau, enticing the male agents. No, she was discreet as well and he knew that she did not mix business with pleasure with the fellas at the Bureau no matter how much they tried.

Oh yes, he had seen the male agents eyeing her appreciatively but she had paid them no mind at all.

He was glad about that as it would fall on him to lecture her about improprieties with male colleagues. He could imagine having one of those 'talks' with her in his office. He knew she would glare at him and tell him that it was none of his business and he would rebuff her, telling her that as her supervisor, he was obligated. And he could imagine her snorting unlady-like and rolled her pretty eyes up…

Hang on, since when did he regarded her eyes pretty? He must be objective. She was his subordinate.

Yeah right.

Back to the scene; she would be telling him that what she did outside of work was certainly not up to her supervisor to intrude, emphasizing sarcastically 'her supervisor' as she glared at him.

Damn, what a scene.

He hated lecturing her as she never took it as it was and nod in defeat. No, she would argue her points until she made him felt like a shit-head. He had to put on his most severe expression but then, she had been here long enough to know that that was just surface look. And she was right; he couldn't be angry with her for long. It would ended up being another hopeless lecture with her waving her hands at him, telling him that she would see him in the conference room for some case or another.

Damn. She was good.

And he missed her tremendously.

But now, he was able to get her back safely; maybe…hopefully.

Let's be positive about it, okay Aaron? He thought to himself darkly.

Five minutes later, he was home. As it was too late to pick Jack up from Jessica, he left his son in the more than capable hands of his ex-sister-in-law. And thankfully, Jack adored his aunt and cousins.

Switching on the Banker's Desk Lamp on his desk, he unlocked the bottom right drawer that contained classified materials and a cell phone.

As Unit Chief, and now, interim Section Chief, he had certain privileges and one of them was the use of secure lines encoded into his cell phones.

This particular phone was the most secure, if Garcia ever got her hands on it…

Dialing a series of numbers etched in his memory, he waited for the clicks and tones before the ringing tone.

As soon as the recipient picked up, Hotch began to talk. There was no time for warm greetings as he launched directly his intentions.

Two minutes later, he ended the call. And as soon as he did, he pressed the send button and a second later, the entire conversation was deleted, never to be traced to this number or phone at all.

Placing the cell phone back into the drawer, he opened his briefcase and picking up the faxed sheet, he placed it into the drawer and after closing it, he locked it again.

He had memorized the letter already; Reid may have an eidetic memory, Hotch had a decent memory for such situation as well.

Flicking his right hand, he glanced at his watch; it was three in the morning already and he had been up 24 hours. He was tired but yet he was still slightly stoked at this news and … would she call?

Restraining himself, he stood up and turning off the lamp, he moved towards the bedroom when he heard his cell phone buzzed twice and silent.

He turned to look at his desk where he had left his primary phone when he sat down, even though it was dark he could make out the desk and walking to it, he picked up his phone and saw that there was no missed call at all.

Good, she was still safe.

Then he remembered; she usually called around midnight, Eastern Time zone but this was after 3am, three hours passed the usual check-in time.

She must have found out something that caused her this delay. Well, he had forgotten her check-in time as well.

He felt guilty for a moment; he should have remembered. He should have been concerned when she had not called at midnight. He had forgotten. He was preoccupied with the fax on his way home with the team.

Damn! What if something happened to her? And he just remembered, three hours later? That could be three hours too late!

Damn! He ought to be more careful, more aware, more…caring.

As he prepared for bed, he stopped in front of the mirror over the sink in his bathroom. The five o'clock stubble had doubled, his face looking scruffy and the bags under his eyes? Well, he couldn't help that. And he saw that there were some silver hair growing on both sides of his head, just above his ears; he couldn't help that either. This past year had been rough and this was the consequences. And he was not vain enough to contemplate about coloring his hair. It adds character, a feminine voice whispered in his head.

Frowning at his reflection he shook his head; talking to himself was okay but hearing voices, much less her voice, yeah soon he would be committed.

Lately he had been thinking about her a lot more than before. Of course he would worry!

Goodness, the woman was facing a fiend by herself and from the injuries he had inflicted on her just before Morgan found her, Hotch shuddered as he tried not to think of what would happen if they were late.

No, she would figure a way to survive. She was that tough.

It made him admire her more. That admiration had grown gradually shortly after she had joined the team. Of course he didn't accept her readily but time and time again, she had proven to him that she was part of the team, that she belonged to the team, she was a profiler. Her skills matched that of Morgan, Reid and even himself, he admitted grudgingly.

She was tenacious. She was intense. She was dedicated.

Above all, she was loyal.

Recalling the debacle with Strauss, where that bitch had threatened to replace him with Emily, and to her credit, she stayed true to her team.

That was where it had started.

Hotch left the bathroom and settled down in his bed. Despite the fact that he was tired, he couldn't sleep. Not without imagining where she was and what she was doing.

Okay, he admitted to himself, he liked her.

No, that was not true; he liked her more than like. He was falling in love with her.

And she was not here to know. Thankfully she was not here; she would be a distraction for him. Then again, he wished she was back with the team so he could observe her, ensuring himself that she was all right, she was safe, and she was still single.

Oh hell, where did that come from?

Hotch groaned as he turned over, facing the other side of the wall. Closing his eyes, he pictured Emily's smiling face. She was sunny, happiness, and fun. Sometimes, she could be geeky funny but most times, her insights to the cases were balls on. Yes, she made up a very crucial part of the team. She was like another limb, the team a body. Her 'death' was like an amputation, the whole team aware of that missing appendage and trying hard to recover and moved on.

What made it harder was her picture on the wall of fallen agents. Her picture was slightly below than eye level and her brightness was glaring. He knew that Garcia never fail to stop whenever she passed the wall, her eyes sad and depressive. Only Morgan was able to pull smiles from her when he caught her staring at the photograph of Emily.

His mind wandered back to the present.

He sat up, giving up any attempt to sleep; his mind was full of unanswered questions and the one foremost in his head was Erin Strauss.

He couldn't understand the animosity from her, especially towards Emily. It seemed she had not forgotten or forgiven Emily for rejecting her offer to be the new Unit Chief, to take that position from Hotch. She had not forgotten or forgiven Emily for not 'ratting' on Hotch. She wanted to burn Hotch and the only weapon she thought she had had let her down.

So, what she had done now, what Strauss had done, was that revenge?

If Aaron could prove beyond a doubt that she did, he would burn her so hot that no one would want to touch her, much less hire her. In fact she would be spending the rest of her life in prison for such heinous crime.

She sold Emily out.

Aaron knew now, thanks to that letter from CIA, that Strauss was the so-call mole in the Bureau. She had released information to that murderer Ian Doyle. Even though she had not known it yet but she had inadvertently given information about his team whereabouts. She even provided video feed of the entire fifth floor of the BAU unit.

Hotch took a deep breath and let it out slowly. The implication was running in his head and begged to be released.

If he told the team, Morgan would be the first one to hunt Strauss down and goodness knew what he would do to her. Admittedly, he would not held Morgan back.

But no, ethically, he would not do it. He would turn her in, only if he had irrefutable proof. The letter from his CIA friend was not proof enough.

Dave would agree with him but Hotch was sure that Dave certainly wanted to her sink to the bottom pit.

As of now, this was out of his hand as CIA and DoD continued with the investigation.

Finally, Hotch was able to fall asleep; once again, his last thoughts were of Emily.

…End of Part 1…

So…let me know what you think…like it? Or not?

I wanted to tell my version of how Emily came back to the team, or especially to Hotch before Season 7 began!

Thank you!

Lizzie