Hello, everyone.
This popped in my head as I was watching 25 to life. It inserts right into the first scene. And, I must add, this is because I have this other story going on in my head that is being written at the moment in another fic of mine.
For the record, I don't like Seaver. Not one bit.
Disclaimer: CM not mine. If it were, would I be writing here?
She had just walked in and asked. As if she knew he'd be in charge. And she hadn't looked concerned at his answer. She hadn't run to call him, hadn't insisted on checking on him. She had just accepted it, throwing something like he really needs to rest in. Right then, he knew. Right then, the thing he had been suspecting for over a year was confirmed.
Everyone in the BAU had someone that was theirs. Theirs to look after, to take care of. Often, more than one person. In his case, bar from Garcia –who really didn't need him- and Morgan –to whom he was sort of the voice of authority above even Hotch's-, everyone was his. Reid, Hotch, Emily, JJ when she was still around.
However, from them all, he had a particular thing for Emily. Emily was truly only his. She never asked for guidance, but she never turned him down when he offered. She never lied to him. She never hid from him. The grown woman she was still needed, every now and then, that other's presence, the significant adult in her life to be there, as if she was still a teenager. Yes, Emily was his niece, his daughter. Emily was his.
If she hadn't continued talking, he would have done something. He wouldn't have asked, though, but he would have let her know he knew. He wouldn't have been able to decide how he would let her know. He didn't know if he wanted to grin at her in approval, smile his support, or raise a brow as a warning. Probably all three.
But then she offered to supervise Seaver. In the BAU. He didn't doubt she was capable of training someone new, that was not the source of his skepticism. It was that underlying tang in her voice, the tenuous veil of something positive over her face. This was not Prentiss going gender supportive as she often did. This was not about replacing JJ. This was something else.
It didn't take long to put two and two together. Her behavior over the past several weeks, his newly acquired knowledge and now her willingness to bring someone new even if temporarily, something that not only Hotch knew but had approved.
Their conversation wasn't even over when he made up his mind. He wasn't going to talk to her. He could not confront her when it came to this particular aspect of her life. For some reason, he could not sit his daughter down and talk about this.
But he could, and he was going to, have a little chat with the groom. As the friend he was to him, and as the father of the bride. Because, pass the mess this could unleash within the Bureau, which didn't really concerned him, and regardless of how much he loved Hotch, Emily was still his to look after.
I think the reason to list it under Hotchner/Prentiss is obvious, even when it's all in Rossi's head.
Hope you liked it. Please review.
allthatisevil