AN: Trying something new! I thought this would be a cool plot line… maybe for a better writer though! I couldn't remember if Hotch mentioned where he went to college… so just bear with me here! Enjoy.
Disclaimer: Any recognizable characters belong to Jerry Bruckheimer and Yale belongs to… well someone else!
"Remind me why I let you talk me into this again" Aaron asked in a slightly annoyed tone. He really hadn't wanted to go to his college reunion, but Emily had insisted on it. Emily smiled as she looked around the hotel room. It was a lot better than the ones they were given for their cases. Emily smiled as she jumped on the king sized bed. Aaron smiled at his wife's demeanor.
"Because you love me and you want to introduce me to some of your old friends" Emily answered. Aaron sighed and plopped down next to his wife. They had been married almost four years and shortly after the wedding, Emily signed the adoption papers for Jack. It had taken him awhile to start calling her 'mom', but that was fine with Emily. She was just happy that the little boy was ok with the adoption after his mother's brutal murder.
Aaron looked around the room and noticed the desk sitting in the corner.
"Don't even think about pulling your laptop out. I will call Garcia to hack into it if I have to" Emily said with her eyes closed. Aaron chuckled and turned to stroke his wife's hair. It still amazed him how well they knew each other after four years, but it helped a lot during cases to keep each other in check.
"Alright babe, what do you want to do for the whole three hours we have before you want to start getting ready for tonight?" Emily smiled and snuggled into her husband's side.
"Well we did promise Jack we would bring him back something cool" Emily said. Aaron nodded and stood.
"Would you like a tour of the campus?" Aaron asked jokingly, knowing full well that Emily had graduated from Yale too, only a few years later. Emily stood and smoothed her sweater out.
"Can you see it?" Emily asked hoping her small baby bump could go unnoticed. They were both thrilled that Em was pregnant, but neither one wanted a criminal to use that against them. Emily had been trying to make sure the bump was invisible whenever she went out.
"It looks fine babe. I doubt anyone is going to think twice about a pregnant woman with her husband" Aaron responded gently. He didn't want to upset her, but she had even worn her rings out of the house. That was another thing they did. They both had silver chains to keep their rings on. Similar to Emily's pregnancy, they did that so criminals wouldn't use them against each other.
"Alright, let's go before we disappoint our son" Emily replied grabbing Aaron's hand and following him out of the hotel.
After spending a little over an hour wondering around the campus, Emily and Aaron entered the bookstore to get some things for Jack and themselves. Emily got a navy long sleeved shirt with Yale across the front and Yale University down the left sleeve. Aaron picked up a navy blue t-shirt with Yale across the front and the school logo underneath it for himself. They then ventured over to the children's section to pick up some things for Jack. They agreed on a navy blue shirt that had Yale across the front, a teddy bear wearing a Yale varsity jacket, and a new game for his Nintendo DS.
"Do you think we got him enough?" Aaron teased as they waited for the cashier to finish their transaction.
"Do you think Dave has bought Henry and Jack new toys yet?" Emily asked. Aaron shook his head and laughed.
"They're going to have to stay there if Jack wants to come home. We have no more room for toys" Aaron said. Emily nodded and leaned heavily against Aaron's side for comfort. After the cashier handed them their change and said a quick 'thank you', Aaron led Emily back to the hotel room for a quiet time before heading out later.
Emily looked around at the corny decorations around the ball room of the hotel they were staying at. Across the temporary stage was a navy blue banner that said 'Welcome Back Class of 1998!' and underneath that said '15 Year Reunion'.
Emily looked around the room in awe and pulled self consciously at the hem of her knee length, strapless, silk, cream colored dress. Her matching silk pumps were feeling a little tighter than they had been before. The ring handles of her cream satin purse was clutched tightly in her hands, hoping her service weapon would serve as some sort of comfort, besides Aaron's hand resting gently on her lower back.
"Do you want something to drink?" Aaron asked guiding her to an empty seat. Emily turned and smiled gently.
"Yes please, just test it first" she replied. Aaron smiled and kissed the top of her head before turning and making his way to the buffet table where a bowl of punch was sitting. Emily watched him as he ran into a few people he knew and politely said hello before pointing to where she was sitting and continuing back on his journey to get her a drink. She had lost sight of him, but quickly found him again when she saw his black dress shirt, black dress slacks, black dress work shoes, and a cream tie that matched Emily's purse, shoes, and dress.
She sighed and turned so she was facing the stage where a local cover band was playing old songs from the nineties. Her hand automatically reached to play with her necklace. It was a present from Jack last Christmas as well as the matching earrings and ring. On a plain silver chain, there was a large hand crafted turquoise rose pendant. The ring and earrings was the same hand crafted rose, both in turquoise as well. Emily had only ever taken them off while sleeping and in the shower. Her left ring finger adorned her simple engagement ring and matching wedding band.
Aaron made his way back to where he left Emily with two glasses of nonalcoholic punch. His wedding band glistened in the dimmed lights, attracting Emily's attention from the band back to her husband. Aaron smiled as he set the glasses down and pushed some of her lose hair away from her face. Emily had decided to leave her hair in loose ringlets around her shoulders and only put on natural colored makeup, what she normally wore to work.
"Who were you talking to?" Emily asked quietly as she clutched her purse tightly to her stomach. He set his hand on the back of her chair.
"Just some old friends. They're going to come say hello in a little bit" Aaron responded. Emily was going to ask him something else when she felt her phone vibrating in her lap. She cast Aaron a worried glance before pulling out her ruby red blackberry pearl and seeing that it was only a text message from JJ. "What does JJ want?" Aaron asked in complete surprise. The whole team knew that he and Emily couldn't be available this weekend. Emily shrugged before she opened her phone and read the message.
"It's Jack actually. He texted us to say good night, he loves us, and he wants us to bring him home lots of presents" Emily said laughing. Aaron smiled and watched as Emily typed back a quick reply, most likely saying they would call him in the morning. Aaron checked the time on his black blackberry bold to see that they had only been there for ten minutes.
"At least it's not a case. I think Dave might blow a gasket if we have to do another emergency case when we're supposed to have the time off" Aaron laughed. Emily pulled a face and pretend gagged.
"I received more information those cases about JJ and Dave's love life than I ever wanted to know" Emily responded remembering asking her best friend why she was so grumpy on the flight. Aaron laughed and nodded in sympathy. Aaron watched as Emily checked another text from JJ and put her phone back in her purse. A slight glimmer caught his eye.
"Did you bring your weapon?" Aaron asked in an amused tone. Emily's face turned a bright red and she nodded before pointing to his.
"You brought yours!" she cried indignantly. Aaron nodded.
"You have your off duty weapon on too then I suppose" Aaron said playfully. Emily smiled and pat her thigh before pointing at his left ankle.
"I know you have yours too so don't even start!" she laughed. Aaron leaned over and kissed her temple, chuckling slightly.
"Touché" Aaron laughed. They made other small talk for a few minutes before a shadow appeared over their table. Aaron looked up and locked his jaw. Emily had seen this many times during their cases and she knew that a locked jaw was never a good thing.
"Hey Aaron, who is this fine specimen with the hot body?" Emily now understood why Aaron was upset. This jerk was degrading to women.
"Brady this is my wife, Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss Hotchner. Em this is Brady Grey" Aaron introduced. Emily smiled politely, her years of political training kicking in.
"Hello Brady, it's nice to meet you" Emily said politely. Brady didn't hide the fact that he was only looking at her chest. Emily had the strong urge to scream 'My eyes are up here asshole!', but she controlled herself. Aaron had the urge to punch his 'friend' in the face for looking at Emily like that.
"Nice to meet you too, Mrs. Hotchner. Now what was all that about a special super agent?" Emily smirked and took a sip of her punch.
"It's actually Supervisory Special Agent, which is a rank in the FBI. I work at the Behavioral Analysis Unit with Aaron." Brady smiled and sat on the other side of Emily. Aaron rolled his eyes and pulled himself closer to Emily.
"So…what do you do there?"
"We investigate the country's most notorious, and brutal crimes. We create profiles to catch these criminals. Most of our cases are serial killers, but we also profile sociopaths, psychopaths, murderers, rapists, and arsonists" Emily replied. Brady's eyes almost bugged out of his head.
"Well… I've got to be… somewhere else" he responded as he scrambled away from the couple. Aaron and Emily laughed as soon as Brady was out of hearing range.
"What a jerk" Emily giggled. Aaron nodded, knowing he had less polite words to say about Brady.
"Aaron!" a female voice yelled from behind. Aaron and Emily both turned around to see a blonde, skinny woman and a tall, muscular man made their way over. Aaron helped Emily stand and greeted both new comers with a smile. The woman leaped forward and pulled Aaron into a hug, which he returned hesitantly.
"Hi Beth, Andy" Aaron greeted. Emily stood slightly behind him, waiting for Aaron to introduce her to his friends. "Guys this is my wife, Emily. Em this is Beth and Andy, old friends of mine. Andy and I went to law school together."
"We're married now Aaron" Beth announced as she hugged Emily. Andy shook Emily's hand. After a few minutes of small talk, Beth brought up a touchy subject. "So what happened to Hailey?" Aaron and Emily both froze.
"Excuse me for a moment" Aaron said, moving towards the exit. Emily watched him helplessly.
"I'm sorry, I didn't realize…" Beth started. Emily waved off her apology.
"It's not your fault. You didn't know that it was a sore subject." Emily watched the door for any sign of Aaron coming back. She sighed before turning back to Beth and Andy. "She was… brutally murdered, for lack of a better term, about five years ago and Aaron still blames himself for her death" she explained. Beth and Andy nodded sympathetically, moving to sit at the table.
"You can go after him you know, we'll wait here" Andy said, rubbing circles in Beth's back. Emily shook her head.
"He needs some time, but would you mind if I called his friend?" When both people shook their heads, Emily pulled out her cell phone and dialed Rossi's number.
"Rossi" the gruff voice said.
"Dave, you need to call Aaron. He may need to talk with Jack too. When you wake him up, don't mention that daddy's upset, just tell him that daddy's worried about him" Emily said without stopping. She heard Dave sigh before moving from his position and moving towards Henry's room.
"Someone brought up Hailey" Dave said as a statement, not a question. Emily sighed and almost broke down crying.
"Yeah, some of their old friends. He just… he needs you and Jack right now." Dave sighed and she could almost see Dave looking towards the ceiling for help in this situation.
"Alright, Em, I'll go get Jack and we'll talk to Aaron. I'll call you if we run into any problems. Just relax honey, stressing isn't good for the baby" Dave responded. Emily chuckled and nodded to herself.
"I know Dave. You're a lifesaver. Thank you" Emily said before hanging up. She threw her phone back into her purse and turned back to the others. "Sorry about that. Our son's the only thing that might help Aaron right now."
"How old is he?" Beth asked, glad for the subject change. Emily smiled.
"He just turned nine" she replied. Beth and Andy looked at her in shock. "He was Hailey's son. I've adopted him since Aaron and I got married. We're going to have our own in a few months though" she said rubbing her small stomach. Beth stood up and hugged Emily cautiously from behind.
"Congratulations" Andy said. Emily smiled and jumped as Aaron sat back down in his chair. Emily noticed that he had been crying, but it was only visible to the profiler. He smiled his thanks at Emily for always knowing just what he needed. Emily smiled and intertwined their hands.
"Jack wants you to call him later. Dave was grousing, telling him it would be late, but Jack doesn't listen to Uncle Dave and wants you to call him when we get back to the hotel room. The only thing is you have to call JJ's phone" Aaron laughed. Emily and the others laughed.
"That sounds like the David Rossi we know, and some times love!" Andy stopped laughing and looked at Emily and Aaron.
"You know David Rossi? The David Rossi? The legendary profiler and book writer?" Emily and Aaron rolled their eyes. If JJ heard him, she would have pounced. She hated groupies who wanted to monopolize her husband's time.
"Unfortunately yes, we do know that David Rossi. Kind of a scary man when it comes to his family" Emily replied.
"Well tell us more about this son of yours!" Beth exclaimed. They spent the rest of the night catching up and talking about their lives after college.
"…Alright baby I love you too. Daddy and I will be home tomorrow. We're getting up early so we can spend most of the afternoon together, ok?"
"Alright mommy, good night" Jack replied in a tired voice. Emily thought about not calling, but she realized that Jack was just like his father. He wouldn't sleep until she called when she promised to.
"Good night baby, get some sleep" Emily replied before hanging up. She tossed the phone next to her purse and climbed in between the sheets. Aaron had decided to take his shower now instead of in the morning. Emily had changed into her shorts and tank top and was ready to sleep now that she talked to her little boy.
"Sleep honey, both you and the baby need it" Aaron said as he climbed in behind her. Emily sighed and turned so she buried herself into his chest.
"Love you baby and thank you for bringing me. I know you didn't want to come, but I think it was good for us to get out without the team" Emily reasoned. Aaron nodded.
"I'm glad you enjoyed yourself" he said. Emily laughed.
"I did have fun, but your friends are weird!" Emily exclaimed. Aaron laughed and kissed the top of her head.
"Just wait until your reunion!"
AN: Well I hope you enjoyed it… and don't hate me too badly! If anyone knows where Hotch actually went to college (or knows anything about reunions) feel free to PM me! I accept reviews too.
