"No sweeping exits or off stage lines could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind. Wild horses couldn't drag me away…"
Sitting in his office quietly, Aaron Hotcher, arrived a couple of hours ago hoping to get a head start before his team arrived. It is his first day back from a self-imposed two weeks vacation he spent with his son, Jack after they took Foyet down and killed him. Jack and Haley flew back to Virginia the next morning.
The whole team couldn't be happier for Hotch. They knew how much Haley and Jack means to him. The last few months have been hard on all of them. But they hung on and supported him especially Emily Prentiss. They all cared for Hotch but each had their own way of dealing with him. Surprisingly, it was Emily who stepped up to the plate and looked out for Hotch. It was her who volunteered to pick him up on his first day back at work. The whole time, she kept her eyes on him but gave him enough room to do his job. Morgan had approached her on their next case to confront Hotch and suggest that he takes more time to recover. She knew Morgan meant well, but his team doubting him is what Foyet wants and it's the last thing Hotch needed after losing Haley and Jack to Protective Custody. Emily was caught in the middle but she told Morgan to let her handle things the best way she knows how. And she did.
Case after case things got better until Emily felt that she no longer had to keep an eye on Hotch. But they have established a comfort and friendship that both didn't expect. The relationship between them wasn't easy. When she first came to BAU, Emily felt she needed to prove herself especially to their Boss who doubted her from the very start. It didn't help that it was Erin Strauss who put her in the team, which she later found out was because Erin Strauss wanted her to be a spy. She hated politics and she made that very clear to Hotch. Slowly, the tension between them dissipated but Emily never wanted to have any personal relationship with Hotch. As long as he respected her at work, that's all that mattered to her. She had the rest of the team to call her friends.
But all that changed a few months ago when Foyet stabbed Hotch and almost left him for dead. Up to this day, she still couldn't get the sight of the blood in his apartment out of her head. During his recovery, she came to visit him and made sure he had food to eat. She never mentioned cases that they were working on to him. Hotch didn't talk much at her so she did all the talking. She talked mostly about her Mom's postings and what it was like growing up in different places. She told him that she was always the new kid on the block but she always managed to fit in. Each visit, Hotch started to open up more. Surprisingly, he told her how he was feeling, his struggles and the nightmares. She just sat there and listened. It wasn't long before she started spending her weekends free with him with pizza in her hands. Or he would invite her over and he would cook. It became a routine for them and that routine was only broken recently when Jack and Haley came back into his life.
Although he enjoyed the time he spent with his son, but he couldn't help but miss the most constant person in his life during their absence. He missed her tremendously but he wasn't sure what he was feeling for her was more than friendship. Or maybe she was just filling in the void.
This morning, when he woke up, he couldn't wait to get to work so he could see her. Jack and Haley had moved back to their place and he stayed in his place. He and Haley would never work, he knew that much. They tried too many times to make it work and they both knew that trying again would only hurt their son.
He was pulled out of his reverie when he heard a very familiar voice. He instantly looked out the window to see who it was she was talking to. In the months that he had come to know Emily Prentiss, he had noticed how her voice changes when she's sad, mad or excited. And she is definitely excited.
He saw a man, maybe in his 40's, tall and built walking towards her.
"Michael. Oh my God, what are you doing here?"
The man walked up to her and gave her a hug. He felt a pang of jealousy creep in his body.
"Hi Emily. I was wondering if we could talk."
"About what Michael?"
"Well, I'm here on behalf of the St. Louis Police Department. Remember Captain Steve Crane?"
"Oh I remember him Michael. Nice man."
"Well, they have this case and he said that he wrote the BAU over a week ago and it can't wait."
"We actually just got back last night from another case. So I'm sure JJ, our BAU Liaison haven't had time to look through the new ones that came in the last week.
"Let see. Let me call JJ. Oh, here she is. JJ."
"Let me introduce you to a former colleague of mine, Michael Smith, this is Jennifer Jereau or JJ for short. She's the one in charge of deciding which case we work on. JJ, I worked with Michael in St. Louis."
Hotch continued to watch the scene before him. He watched the way the man stared at Emily. He watched the way Emily would touch his arm or his elbow every now and then. He noticed that even though he was talking to JJ, he would glance at Emily and he could see the twinkle in his eyes when he does this. He could feel his jaw tightened at the sight before him.