It was well past quitting time, and everyone in the entire building had left for the day. Except three of them; Emily was with Dave in his office and Hotch was still in his office doing paperwork. The cases seemed to just get worse as each one went by for the BAU, and it was showing on the agents' faces. A vacation was definitely long overdue.
"So Emily, how is life outside of the job?"
"What life?" she snorted. "Just the usual I guess, I've got one of my mothers functions this weekend which really won't be fun."
"At least it's something to do. Besides, you could meet a prince who will sweep you off your feet."
"You are spending far too much time with Garcia."
"I agree, I just heard myself." They both laughed at Dave.
"So are you planning another book anytime soon?"
"No, I think I'm going to wait another year or two before the next one, some of our colleagues don't appreciate my books, they think by writing them I am cashing in on serial killers."
"Give me a name and I'll put a bullet in them, make it look accidental."
"That's not necessary Emily."
"I promise I won't kill them, just a little shot in the leg."
"I'll think about it. A little gun happy are we?" He smirked at her.
"I need to get my frustration out somehow, and the paper targets at the firing range aren't really cutting it anymore." She shrugged.
"Don't let Hotch hear you saying that else he'll put you in therapy."
"Dave, just by doing this job, we all clearly need therapy." They were laughing at that when Hotch came into Dave's office in his coat, looking ready to leave for the night.
"I wondered why you hadn't left yet Dave, now I understand. Anyway, I'm heading out now, see you two tomorrow, with hangovers no doubt." Then he left.
"Was that humour I detected there?" Dave asked, surprised.
"I think it was, he does do that sometimes. He's actually quite funny." Dave gave her a look. "You know, I should get going too, it's getting late." Emily put her glass down. "Night Dave." She left his office before he could comment on what she had said.
Dave sat back and took another sip of scotch, thinking over the fact that Emily had just called Hotch funny, a word that he was pretty sure had never been used in connection with the man in his life.
A couple of weeks later Dave and Emily had gone to Hotch's office with the bottle of Scotch and some glasses, informing him that he either drink with them or go home, but paperwork was definitely not allowed. He had chosen the alcohol. Wise man.
They spent some time discussing the new relationship of Garcia and the other technical analyst Kevin Lynch.
"Pen told me you walked in on them in the shower and that you got to see Kevin in his birthday suit." Emily couldn't help but laugh as Dave's face turn red.
"Seriously Dave? I know you are used to ignoring fraternization rules but trying to join another couple is just plain wrong." Hotch deadpanned, shaking his head at Dave. Emily laughed even harder, stopping only to give Dave a pointed look, Hotch had just proved Emily's point she made to Dave a few weeks ago, Dave just rolled his eyes in response. Hotch saw the interaction between the other two but said nothing.
"Let's just say I haven't been able to look at Kevin in the same way since." Dave outwardly cringed at the memory of the man's nakedness, needing another pouring of scotch to dull the memory.
"Well, I think they make a really lovely couple, and Pen deserves to be happy." Emily told them while removing her suit jacket, revealing a short sleeved top underneath. The two men both nodded at her statement before gasping when they saw Emily's forearms. Her arms were covered in long scratches, ranging in deepness.
"Emily what happened? Did someone hurt you?" Hotch asked her, his eyes showing nothing but concern for her. Emily looked at them confused for a second before looking down and realising what they were seeing, and she let out a chuckle.
"Oh no, nothing like that don't worry. It was just Sergio." She shrugged.
"So Garcia isn't the only one with a new man then? And by the looks of it, one that likes it rough." Dave waggled his eyebrows at her. Emily's jaw dropped at him while Hotch choked on air.
"Gross Dave. Sergio is my new cat. I thought I told you I got one."
"Yeah, but you didn't tell me what you named him, I thought you'd go for a typical cat name like 'Miss fluffyfeet' or something not a name like Sergio."
"Miss fluffyfeet?" Emily and Hotch were both looking at Dave like he had just grown an extra head.
"Second ex-wife." He explained.
"Thank god, you worried me there. Exactly, it's funny when I call out for Sergio and people expect a man and in comes this tiny little cat. You should have seen Reid's face when I did that to him, it was hilarious." She laughed at the memory.
"So no boyfriend at the moment?"
"Not that it's any of your business Dave, but no, not currently. How about you, any sign of Mrs Dave Rossi number four?"
"I'm looking. Unless you've changed your mind about refusing me Emily?" He lightly flirted with her, he had told the three BAU ladies that the offer of marriage was always open ended to them.
"Haha, sorry Dave I haven't. Although ask me again when I'm up to five cats and I may be tempted." She teased him back.
"It's my loss." He smiled at her then turned to Hotch. "What about you Aaron, anything we should know about?" Emily kept her ears wide open whilst becoming very interested in her glass.
"No Dave. I'm going to go now, see if I can catch Jack before he goes to sleep. Goodnight." He hurried out of his office, leaving behind Dave and Emily, minutes passed by without either of them saying anything.
"Haley was, and always will be, the love of his life." Emily said without looking at Dave. She then placed her empty glass down on Hotch's desk and left the office too to head home.
It was only the next day that Dave yet again opened the bottom drawer to his desk to get out his bottle of scotch, it was becoming his trademark he thought, he decided it could have been worse. He entered Hotch's office without knocking, sat down and poured out two glasses of scotch, handing one to Hotch who had just watched the other man silently.
"Emily not joining us tonight?" Hotch asked, breaking the silence.
"No, she decided to go out and get hammered with Garcia and Morgan. They tried to drag Reid along too but he ran too fast." Dave smiled at how Reid had literally run away from the two women before they set Morgan on him. When he watched them act like that he truly saw what they meant when they said that they were a family, and it made him happy, he had never had children but with the team he got to play the role of dad. Because of that, they meant more to him than he could ever tell them.
"It's so nice to know that my team are all alcoholics."Hotch said casually, pulling Dave away from his thoughts.
"Huh, there it is again."
"What is?" Hotch was confused, he glanced at his desk thinking that something was on it.
"Your sense of humour, I didn't believe Emily when she said you had one, neither did the rest of the team when I asked them actually, yet here you are proving me wrong."
"You just don't appreciate my humour." Feeling slightly put out that they thought he really was too serious to have a sense of humour.
"Emily does though. Funny that, she understands you better than anyone else, your ex-wife included, and myself and I've known you for twenty years and I'm the greatest profiler there is." Dave laughed as Hotch muttered something about 'greatest profiler' before taking a sip of scotch.
"Do you have a point here Dave? Or are you still sulking at the fact that she won't agree to become your fourth ex-wife?"
"No point, merely an observation. Besides, who wouldn't want to marry Emily, she's fantastic." Dave was watching Hotch's face intently for his response.
"She is amazing." Hotch sighed quietly, hoping Dave wouldn't hear, but from the smirk on his face he knew that he had heard. "What Dave?" Now glaring at his old friend.
"Nothing at all." They went back to drinking in silence, both of them thinking about Emily Prentiss, although in two very different ways.
It was a Wednesday night and the case they had just finished had drained them completely, the unsub had a vendetta against law enforcement which really wasn't good news for the BAU. The unsub had only been stopped when he had blown himself up, unfortunately Hotch had been too close and was currently being stitched up in hospital. Luckily none of the larger pieces of metal had him, but it was pure luck, to put it bluntly, Hotch could have died that day.
Dave had driven Emily back in his car to the office, stopping on the way to buy a fresh bottle of scotch and she had bought a bottle of vodka herself. Hotch may have been the one injured but she was the one who had been scared to death when she saw the explosion right after he had entered that warehouse. She would have sworn to scientists that her heart had actually stopped in her chest.
When they finally got back to the safety of Dave's office, they unscrewed the lids of the bottles and didn't even bother with glasses this time. It had been a really bad day. Neither of them spoke, there was nothing to be said. They were the two people closest to Hotch on the team, probably in his life apart from Jessica and Jack, and they doubted he spoke to either of them in too much depth. And they could have lost him today.
Dave happened to glance at Emily as she wiped her hand across her cheek, cursing herself for letting herself cry. She also blamed the vodka, it wasn't her usual choice of drink as it made her an emotional drunk, the present being proof of that.
"You can cry if you want to, it's just me here." Dave told her kindly.
"God, he could have died Dave. What if he had? We would have had to tell Jack that his Daddy isn't coming home again, he already lost his mom, he can't lose Hotch too. What about us? The team, we can't lose him. I can't lose him." She put her head in her hands and sobbed her heart out, Dave went and put his arms around her and held her like he would to his own daughter, if he had one.
It was very late, or should that be early, by the time the two of them were ready to leave the office, and sober enough to drive again.
"Don't tell him, or anyone, that I cried please." Emily asked Dave shyly, she was already embarrassed.
"I promise hon." Dave smiled at her and put an arm around her shoulders in comfort as they walked out of the building to their cars.
As Dave pulled open the desk drawer to get out the bottle of scotch, the second bottle in the drawer clanged against the other.
"More than one bottle in there Dave? Any more of these after hours meetings and we'll both be needing alcoholics anonymous. What else do you have in there?" His curiousity was peaked, was there a better drink Dave was hiding from him?
"Vodka, you want that instead?" Dave said holding the bottle up as proof.
"Since when did you drink vodka?" Hotch had never in his memory seen Dave drinking something as youthful as vodka. Maybe he really did have an alcohol problem.
"I don't, it was Emily's." He said, putting it back in his drawer, just in case it was needed again in the future.
"How often do you two drink? Enough that I should be concerned about this?"
"No, the vodka was a one time thing, you had almost died, it was completely justified. Besides, would you prefer her to drink here with me where she is safe, or in a bar surrounded by complete strangers." It was a rhetorical question.
"The warehouse explosion, she was affected?" Hotch tried to sound as nonchalant as possible, while inside his mind was whirling a hundred miles an hour.
"Duh!" Dave said in a very un-Dave-like manner. Hotch raised an eyebrow at him. "Yeah, I think I'm just going to stop talking to Garcia for a few days, I sound like a thirteen year old." He winced visibly at that.
"Maybe that's for the best Dave." Hotch said sympathetically, Garcia seemed to bring the teenager out in anybody.
"Let me just put it this way, I don't think you should ever run into a warehouse where there is an unsub with a tendency to blow things up, things being law enforcement agents, ever again."
"Got it."
Emily opened up the door to her apartment to find Hotch on the other side, holding up a bottle of scotch.
"Dave may have left his office unlocked this evening and there is a possibility that this is his." He smiled mischievously, she liked this more playful side to him.
"He's going to kill you, and when he asks, I knew nothing of your deviousness." She shut the door behind him, laughing at him.
"You know, I'm starting to think Dave actually owns a share in alcohol sales or something, he's such a huge promoter of it." Emily told him as he poured out two glasses.
"Knowing him he probably knew the guy who owns the company and he's owed a favour."
"Sticking with the Italian-American mafia theory I see."
"He just looks the part and he would definitely use the whole 'sleep with the fishes' line."
"We should use quotes from the Godfather trilogy whenever we speak to him and see if he notices!"
"I'm pretty sure that if I did that I wouldn't be seeing the inside of his alcohol drawer for a while."
"You know, if you actually left the office you would find there are bars which sell alcohol, quite willingly in fact."
"I'm not going to sit in a bar by myself."
"We always ask you to come with the team whenever we go out and you always say no. So you do want to go out, just not with us?" Her face fell a little at that.
"That's not it, really. I love our team. I feel guilty watching them having fun and laughing and smiling because I know that it will end and the next day I'll be dragging them back down with another killer, another victim, and more often than not another casualty for one of them."
"You do realize that like you, the rest of us choose to do this job and come in every day ready for the next case, you aren't dragging us down anywhere. You really do feel guilt for just about anything don't you?" She tilted her head to the side, reading this new and more vulnerable side of him. "Besides, I'd gladly follow you just about anywhere." She gave him a reassuring smile.
"That just makes you as crazy as me then."
"Well, us crazies have to stick together." They laughed together at that; she liked it when he laughed and he liked it when she made him laugh.