The Great Escape

Disclaimer: I, in no way, shape or form own anything related to Criminal Minds. CBS does.

Summary: Who knew things could go bad between Hotch, Emily and a certain brunette?

Timeline: Alternate Universe, Present Day

Written For: Tigereye77 and TigerLily888's Hotly Forum March/April Prompt "Psycho Beth"

A/N: This is what came to mind with this prompt. I hope you all enjoy the story.

Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review.


Oscar Wilde said, "In all matters of opinion, our adversaries are insane."


Walking into her apartment's parking garage, Emily stopped by the hood of her car when she felt a sharp jab to her back making her drop her go bag and briefcase.

"Don't move" a soft spoken but harsh toned voice ordered her, "Hands in the air and slowly move towards the trunk of the car."

Emily lifted her hands, as she slowly made her way to the trunk then asked, "Now what?"

"We're going for a little spin, Agent Prentiss" the feminine voice said, making Emily pause while the trunk lid popped open.

Looking over she gasped, "You?"

A smack to the head made the female agent fall into the back of the trunk while the darkness consumed her.

The trunk slammed shut, while the abductor walked over to the fallen go bag and briefcase picking up the items she opened the door to the back seat and stored the items inside before moving to the driver side of the car and getting behind the wheel of the car.

It may seem like a bad idea, but the abductor knew that to get what she wanted, she'd have to resort to extremes measures and this was as extreme as they could get.


Hotch walked off the elevator lift and headed straight for the break room when he heard the chirp of his cell phone making the male agent stop.

"Hotchner" Hotch answered in a monotone voice, "Excuse me, what?"

Hotch hurried up to his office, with his phone attached to his ear, barking out orders when he paused, "Where is she?"

His eyes shut as he fell down into his office chair, internally groaning when he looked up at the concerned faces of Dave and JJ.

"What's wrong?" JJ mouthed only to notice the defeat in his shoulders while he shook his head.

"Keep me posted with an update" Hotch said slamming his cell phone on his desk.

Resting his hands over his eyes, "You might as well all come in, I've got an important announcement."

"What's wrong, Aaron?" Dave asked taking the empty visitor's chair, "It's obvious that you're beyond pissed off, so out with it."

"Beth Clemmons" Hotch said, taking a deep breath, "She's escaped."

"What?" JJ shouted, standing up from her seat, "How the hell did she escape?"

"She waited until the shift change and slipped out while the guards and staff where preoccupied" Hotch said, rubbing his forehead, "That was the security at Lakewood, they're worried."

"No freaking kidding, Aaron" Dave said, "God, this is bad. Does Emily know?"

"I haven't called her yet" Hotch said reaching for his cell phone, shaking his head, "I don't even know what to think about all this. This is going to piss her off."

JJ rolled her eyes, "No kidding."


Emily groaned in pain as she felt her a bright light shining in her eyes.

Trying with all her might she finally lifted her eyelids open, only to wince as the bright light reflecting in her face.

"Wakey, wakey" a female voice said, moving in Emily's eye line, "Finally, I thought you were going to spend the rest of the day unconscious."

Lifting her head, she muffled over the silver masking tape, glaring at the person before her, "Mph."

The abductor kneeled in front of the brunette agent, "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"Pfltg" Emily repeated again, narrowing her eyes at the smirking face.

"Please, allow me." the voice said, ripping the tape off Emily's lips.

"Son of a bitch" Emily groaned out, "What the fuck is your problem, Beth?"

Beth stood up and smirked at the female agent, "You know I never had anything against you, really" she watched the Emily's eyes narrow, "Well you know except for that one thing."

"Is this about Hotch?" Emily asked slowly, "Beth, you know that you're suppose to be in Lakewood."

The woman scoffed at that, "Please so they can pump me full of pills and tell me that Aaron and I were never together?" shaking her head, "I'm not going away this time, Emily. And you can either get use to that fact or I'll have to take matters into my own hand."

Emily licked her lower lip, "Beth, you know that you're sick, right? It wasn't real, it was never real."

Beth turned around walking over to Emily, "Don't you ever say that to me."

Emily took in a deep breath, "Beth, I'm telling you the truth. You and Hotch were never together..."

Beth screamed, slapping the dark haired agent across the face, preparing to pounce on her only for both to be startled by the sound of Emily's cell phone ringing.

The unstable brunette pulled at Emily's suit jacket reaching into the pocket, looking down at the screen with a smirk.

"Well speak of the devil" Beth said looking at the brunette with a grin, "If you want your friends to live, then you better be smart."


"Hello?" Emily said into the phone, while Hotch let out a collective sigh of relief.

"Thank God you're all right" Hotch murmured, looking at his two friends, "Emily, there's something you need to know."

"What's that, Hotch?" she said, eyeing the brunette staring at her while on the speaker phone, "Hotch?"

"Beth escaped" Hotch said, taking a deep breath, "You need to come in, for your own protection."

Emily bit her lip, looking over at Beth who raised an eyebrow shaking her head, while Hotch said, "Emily?"

"I'm fine, Hotch" Emily said, not trusting her own voice, "There's no reason to worry about me..."

"Emily" Hotch barked out, "You'd be the first person other then me that Beth would go after."

"Hotch, I'm fine" she repeated explicitly, "Trust me, I can handle Beth if she comes after me."

The unstable brunette rolled her eyes, shaking her head but motioned for Emily to continue.

"I'm going to take a few days though" Emily told him, "You know take those vacation days that Strauss offered? I just need some alone time for now."

"But, Emily..." Hotch started only for Beth to hang up.

"Very good, Agent Prentiss" Beth said clapping, "I nearly believed you myself."

Emily glared at the woman, "I did what you asked, now what?"

Beth rubbed her chin, reaching over on the table for Emily's service weapon, "Now we talk."

Emily watched as the woman fingered the service weapon and turned to tied up woman, "About Aaron."

Trying hard to not bit her lower lip, "Beth, you know that what your doctor said about you and Hotch..." taking a deep breath, "You two were never together, it wasn't real."

Beth glared at the woman, "If you know what's good for you, Emily, you won't ever say that to me again."


"What did she say?" JJ asked, picking at her manicured nails.

"Emily said that she was taking Strauss' advice and taking a few days..." Hotch said setting his cell phone down and looking up at his two friends who were frowning, "What?"

JJ shook her head, "Strauss never told her that, believe me, Em would have told me."

Dave nodded in agreement, "How did she sound?"

"Weird and off" Hotch paused, "Maybe like she had been coached."

"Do you think..." JJ started, "That Beth has her?"

Hotch picked up his office phone, "I don't know, but we need to find... Garcia, track Prentiss' cell phones. I need the fix location on where she's at. I don't know if she's all right, Beth Clemmons escaped the mental hospital."

Hotch listened to the blonde on the other end of the phone, then stood up grabbing his suit jacket, "Thanks."

"Where are they?" Dave asked as he and JJ followed their Unit Chief.

"An abandoned gallery on the upper west side." Hotch told the two, heading towards the bullpen, "Reid, Morgan come on, Prentiss has been abducted."

"What?" Morgan asked, "Who?"

"Beth" JJ muttered, hating the unstable brunette as the team walked into the elevator.

"We're going to find her, right?" Reid asked worried for his friend.

"Yes, we will" Hotch said more confidently then he ever felt before, turning to Dave, "You need to make the call."

Dave nodded, pulling out his cell phone.


"He doesn't love you" Emily told Beth, "He never loved you, this is all a part of your disease, Beth. It's not real."

Beth glowered down at the woman, "You don't know what we have, Emily" glaring at the confined woman, "We kept our love a secret because Aaron wants to tell his son the right way, not just spring it on the little boy."

Emily inhaled sharply at hearing the woman's claim, "You two only met once in the park."

The unstable brunette shook her head, "But we fell in love right away. Aaron loves me, Emily and you're just jealous."

"Oh my God" Emily mumbled to herself watching the woman spiral apart in front of her, "Beth, I'm not jealous because there's nothing to be jealous of."

Snarling at Emily, Beth stormed over with the intent to prove her feelings for Hotch when lights blared through the gallery's windows.

"Beth Clemmons" Hotch said, "This is Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner. Pick up the phone so we can talk, alright?"

Beth giggled, "See? I told you he loves me. This is proof."

Emily turned her head away from the woman, internally rolling her eyes at the ludicrous rantings.

Hotch's voice came back on, "Beth, pick up the phone."

Beth walked across the gallery, moving towards the cordless phone on the wall, "Aaron? Aaron is that you?"

Emily worked on the taped bindings on her wrist, twisting and tugging at them and exhaled when she felt the tape rip a little.

While the woman was distracted by the phone call, Emily continued to pull at the bindings on her wrists while keep face neutral in case Beth turned around.


"No, Aaron you told me you loved me." Beth shouted kicking at the wall, "You love me, I know it!"

Emily's eyes stayed trained on the woman, as she tugged a few more times on the tape, while trying to control her breathing.

"No, if you come in here, Emily Prentiss will die." Beth shouted into the phone, hitting speaker then turning around to the female agent, "Fine, then tell her goodbye."

Beth trained the gun on Emily, "Do you want to tell him goodbye, Emily?"

"No, no Beth" Hotch shouted, "Prentiss, Prentiss can you hear me?"

"I'm fine, Hotch" Emily said in her standard calm manner, "I'm ok."

"See, Aaron" Beth stated, "I am calm, and collected. Now tell her, tell her that you love me and not her."

Hotch took a deep breath, "Beth, you're not well. You need to let Prentiss go, and go back to the hospital."

Turning to look at the phone, "Why? I'm not sick, I'm perfectly sane."

Emily resisted the urge to snort as she finally freed herself but knew she had to wait for the right moment to move.

"I get rid of her and everything can go back to the way it was" Beth said, "We can work on the next triathlon together, I can meet Jack and we can go back on our dates..."

"We never went out Beth" Hotch said losing his cool, "You're suffering from an erotomania."

Beth glared at the phone raising the gun while Emily silently got up from the chair charging at the brunette and slamming them into the wall while the gun went off causing the team to worry for their friend.


"Prentiss? Prentiss?" Hotch shouted into the phone, looking up at the team who wore similar looks of fear, "Beth? Somebody?"

"We've got to move in" JJ said, her pulse racing for her friend, "Hotch we've got to go in."

The BAU and S.W.A.T raced up to the door, and Morgan kicked open the the wooden door while the team went off in different directions.

"Beth Clemmons, FBI." Morgan called out, "Come out with your hands up."

Hotch and Dave hear struggling coming from the back room, "In here."

Racing towards the room, Hotch and Dave lowered their weapons at the sight of Emily sitting on top of while restraining the violent brunette.

"Get off me!" Beth shouted, "Aaron, get her off of me."

Morgan rushed in with JJ and Reid who moved to help Emily stand up, while Morgan and Dave took the former curator into custody.

"Beth Clemmons, you're under arrest for kidnapping, assault and the attempted murder of a Federal Agent" Morgan read off.

"I barely touched her" Beth protested as she was handcuffed by Dave, looking over at Hotch, "Aaron, you still love me don't you?"

Hotch walked over to Emily, placing a warm hand on her bruising cheek, choosing to ignore the screaming woman, "Are you all right?"

Leaning into his touch, "Barely have a scratch."

"You love me, I know it!" Beth shouted, "Aaron. Aaron? Aaron!"

Hotch looked over at her, while pulling Emily into his arms despite her protests at the public display, "I never loved you. I don't know you."

Reid walked over smiling at Emily, "You know most erotomaniacs suffer from a delusion which affects the belief that someone is in love with them."

"I know" Emily said, the effect of the fight weighing through her body, "She kept telling me over and over that Hotch was in love with her and that he was denying it to protect their privacy and Jack's feelings."

Hotch tensed at the idea that someone so unstable could mention his son's name in such a horrific way.

Not to mention the fact that he was already in a relationship with Emily.


"Did she know about us?" Hotch asked her, dropping a kiss to her forehead.

Shaking her head, "She thought that I had a crush on you but she didn't know about us. I know she would have killed me if she did."

Hotch pulled her closer to him, fear that he could lose another woman he love due to an unstable unsub, "Who knew one meeting could cause all this."

"You met that woman in the park?" Reid asked, "It can be anything as simple as that. Complex minds like these that are in one of those episodes believe that you can send secret signals of your love through looks, signals, even messages in the media."

Emily groaned, "Well that woman had been stalking Hotch ever since their first meeting, she kept calling him and showing up everywhere he was."

"Was she even in the triathlon?" JJ asked furrowing her eyebrows as the team moved out towards the Bureau issued SUV, "Isn't that how she approached you?"

Hotch sighed, "Yeah, but she said she had seen me around earlier, at the 'Y' or something along those lines."

Wrapping a protective arm around her, "At least now its over."

Resting her head against his shoulder, "Is it?"

The two turn to get into the back of the SUV, both looking at the back of a police cruiser where the local LEOs were taking the unstable brunette to the county lock up.

"Yes, it is." Hotch reassured her, "After this incident no judge in there right mind will reject a protective order for us against Beth."

The two got into the car, turning to watch the angry dark haired woman drive off to her own personal hell, while they drove off into a future one that didn't include Beth.


"The insane, on occasion, are not without their charm." Kurt Vonnegut


THE END

I hope you all enjoyed this, don't forget to leave a review.