A Theory of the Obvious
Summary: Emily and Hotch are making a big deal out of a simple affectionate gesture. But nothing is ever simple when it comes to Hotch, is it?
Rated K+ (very slight innuendos)
Set season 5 of later, no spoilers
Author's notes: Well, I'm back, and with yet another one of those UST/straightforward conversation stories! Apparently I can't make Hotch and Emily go past that stage even in my mind just yet, but don't worry, I'm sure it'll come soon enough :-) This was supposed to be a light and funny story about Emily being completely clueless and JJ making her see the light, but at one point the story got a mind of its own and demanded that I return a little closer to canon. In any case, I hope you enjoy it!
Disclaimer: I don't own Prentiss, JJ or Hotch, I don't own CM, basically I don't own anything and this is for entertainment only.
On a side note, my stories so far have not been betaread (I apologize for that!), but I'd like to have someone do it for my future stories since English is not my first language, so if you like my stories and would like to betaread, feel free to contact me! Thanks! :-)
Now, on with the story...
A Theory of the Obvious
Emily decided that going out for food and drinks was the best idea that JJ had ever had. At first it was supposed to be a team thing, but then Hotch desisted himself respectfully, Morgan decided instead to call that woman who had left him a number a few days before, Reid got caught up in a call from his mother, and then seeing that the boys were chickening out, Dave made up some excuse that Emily couldn't remember. That left Garcia, who after getting back at the BAU found that Kevin was waiting for her with a big surprise apparently waiting for her at home.
So that left JJ and Emily, for a girls' night out. They opted for a small, cozy Irish pub where guys would be too distracted watching soccer or whatever to pay too much attention to them. Because after the last few days, the last thing Emily needed was complicated male attention.
JJ was speaking quietly on the phone as they found a booth in a corner and picked up their menus. She hung up and threw her phone in her purse just as Emily picked her choice of beer. "So Em, what's up with you and Hotch? Did you fight or something?"
Emily fought a quick moment of panic at the realization that the others had noticed. Of course they had noticed, how could she ever have imagined that they wouldn't? She tried to school her surprise into a more neutral expression as she scanned her menu. "What do you mean?"
"Come on, there's so much tension between the two of you, you could short-circuit the Hoover building."
Emily smiled. "Oh please, it's not that bad." It really wasn't.
"Ah ha! So you do admit that there's tension!"
Emily sighed and leaned back against the back of her seat. "It's nothing… It's just-"
Her confession was happily delayed as a waitress materialized at their side. They both ordered, but Emily could feel JJ's intrigued gaze on her. It's not that she didn't want to tell her about what happened; if she was honest with herself she was dying to tell someone and get an objective second opinion, but it was still kind of a delicate matter. She would have to thread carefully. So once they were alone again, Emily leaned closer over the table.
"Okay. Something really strange happened yesterday," she said in a low voice, so that JJ had to lean over as well to hear over the pub's background noise.
"Strange?"
"Extremely strange, as in, parallel universe kind of strange."
At that precise moment, Emily knew that JJ was hooked. "What happened?"
"Right after we caught Brandon yesterday, Hotch, he um… he … touched my hair."
Emily almost laughed at JJ's expression, it was clear that she had not been expecting that, but she was still too confused by the situation to find it funny.
"He touched your hair?" JJ repeated, as if to make sure that she'd heard her right.
Emily nodded. "Well, not so much touched as… actually stroked my hair."
"What?"
"I know! It was so uncharacteristic of him that sometimes I think I must have imagined it, or got stung by a bee on crack or something."
"Oh no, I've felt the tension, Em. It definitely happened."
Emily shook her head in complete befuddlement. "But why?"
"You have no idea? You're a behavior analyst, you didn't look for clues in his demeanor?"
"No! He completely took me by surprise, I didn't even think to ask. I mean, Hotch is definitely not a tactile person, especially not when it comes to his emotions, right? How often have you seen him impulsively touch someone to show his affection, except for his son?"
"Or his wife?"
"JJ, you're not helping!" She so did not want to go there.
The annoying little blonde chuckled, and raised her hands in defense. "Okay, maybe you're reading too much into this. Why don't you tell me the whole story?"
"And now it comes out, you just want to hear the gory details, don't you?" Emily teased, and JJ was quick to retort.
"What can I say, I'm a sucker for romance."
"Romance? JJ I hardly think this qualifies as romance."
"Let me be the judge of that. Come on, spill it out."
The sun was hot and bright and relentless. Emily had to swipe the sweat off her forehead as she exited the UNSUB's barn, closely tailing Morgan and Dave who had the said UNSUB in handcuffs and reluctantly walking, kicking and screaming, between the two. It had been a close call, but at last, at last, they had got him, and had managed to save his latest victim. The terrified but (in all appearance) physically healthy young woman was surrounded by Hotch, JJ and Reid, and Emily smiled at the picture they were forming; the fierce protector who made anyone around him feel utterly safe or utterly intimidated, the innocent woman who appeared at once motherly and childlike so that everyone trusted her at first glance, and the strange young man who charmed everybody with his gentle awkwardness.
As Morgan and Rossi placed the reluctant criminal at the back of the police car, Emily walked to their SUV and pulled out a water bottle out of their supply.
"Alison is going to be okay," Hotch said at her side and Emily startled at the sound of his voice; she didn't hear him coming. She recovered quickly and, after noticing the tiny beads of sweat that covered his forehead, handed him a bottle as well. No wonder he was hot with that sun and that tie around his neck. He nodded his thanks.
"That's good. I'm glad. Her family on the way?"
He nodded, his dark sunglasses directed down at her. "They're going to meet her at the hospital. JJ and Reid are going to ride with her on the ambulance."
Emily nodded as she took another swig. "Where do you want the rest of us?"
"Back at the station, to finish the reports and gather statements."
Emily nodded, starting to undo the Velcro ties at the bottom of her vest, but as she pulled it over her head, she must have done something weird, because her ponytail got stuck somewhere in there, and she couldn't pull the vest completely over her head without some real painful tugging. For an embarrassing moment she just stood there, her head hidden into the vest, unmoving except for trying to pull sharply enough at the damn thing to free her hair. A second later, gentle fingers were carefully disentangling the mess and finally Emily was able to totally get the vest completely over her head. And that's when it happened. Just as she was straightening up, she realized that his fingers were still in her hair, and she could swear that he looked right at her face through his sunglasses as his fingers lingered and slowly stroked their way down her ponytail, barely brushing against the back of her neck in the process.
Everything seemed to freeze for two interminable seconds, but then the time dilation fluke passed and everything returned to normal. Including the location of Hotch's fingers around his water bottle, his conversation about the case and the hot and bright and relentless sun.
But not before she had seen the guilt on his face.
"Wow."
Emily stopped her fork mid-way between her plate and her mouth and stared at JJ incredulously. "That's it? Wow?"
"I can't believe I was standing only a few feet away and didn't see anything!"
Emily smiled at JJ's highschool-ish petulance. "Well, it happened kind of fast, but as embarrassing as it was, I half wish you'd seen, then you could help me figure that undecipherable man out."
JJ took a sip of her drink, then nodded with new determination. "Alright. So had it been anyone else, I wouldn't make anything of it, but like you said, Hotch doesn't just do that sort of thing."
Emily nodded in agreement. "So what do you think it meant?"
JJ raised her shoulders in a helpless move. "You know what? You do have beautiful hair, maybe he just wondered what it felt like and when the opportunity to find out presented itself, he just… took it?"
"Maybe if you sounded a tiny bit more convinced yourself I'd actually buy it," Emily retorted sarcastically, then gave her a look. "Come on, let's hear it. What do you really think?"
JJ smiled, and after a long sigh put down her fork and rested her forearms on the table in a posture Emily knew meant business. "The obvious."
"Which is?"
"You really don't see it, do you? God, how do I say this?" She asked to no one in particular, before purposefully returning her gaze to Emily's. "I think… I think you two definitely had a moment there, and maybe you should start thinking about how it made you feel, instead of why Hotch did it. Because, teasing aside, I don't think Hotch does anything on impulse. Emily, you'll just have to see what's been staring you right in the face: he's attracted to you, and he finally decided to let himself show it to you."
Emily shook her head. "JJ, I've worked with the man for years, and in all that time I've never seen anything that could lead me to believe that-"
"That's my point. Hotch has more control on his emotions and his impulses than anybody I know, and around you he tends to restrain himself even more."
"So you're saying he's distant around me because he's attracted to me?"
"Yes, and because he doesn't know how to deal with it."
"But now he's figured it out?"
"So it would seem."
"But if that's the case, why the guilt? Why give me the cold shoulder afterwards?'
JJ shrugged as her fingers returned to her fork. "And you're supposed to be a profiler?" Emily just stared, so JJ went on. "I don't know. Maybe he's feeling unsecure, if you think about it, and if I'm right about this, you're one of the first women he showed an interest to besides Haley in like 20 years. He's got to have insecurities and doubts. Especially after what happened to them."
Emily smiled. "For some reasons the words 'Hotch' and 'insecure' don't sound right in the same sentence."
"Yeah well, he has doubts and emotions just like the rest of us, he just doesn't show them as much," JJ replied, the protective tone not escaping Emily's notice. She softened her smile.
"I know, JJ. I'm sorry, I care about him too, I'm just trying to make sense of a situation that I had never expected to happen." Emily had always considered Hotch as unreachable, as the one man she admired and trusted with her life but who was so far out there that she had never really considered him within her reach beyond meaningless fantasies.
"Emily", JJ said, pulling her out of her reverie, "I gave you my opinion, but if you want real answers, you're going to have to ask him about it. I don't know how this makes you feel, but you're going to have to clear things up, because as much as I love the two of you, the team can't function when there's so much tension. So you tell Hotch that his actions were inappropriate and you're not interested, or that it's not a big deal since you touch your friends' hair everyday, or whatever, but sooner or later you're gonna have to talk to him about it."
JJ's gaze suddenly shifted from Emily's face to somewhere over her shoulder, but Emily didn't register her friend's expression until it was too late and JJ said: "And here comes your chance. Good luck."
Continued in chapter 2