Author's Note: Songfic to Paradise by Coldplay. Once again, Coldplay is amazing! This will be my first A/U fic… Don't hate! R&R please!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything but my stories.
When she was just a girl
She expected the world
Emily Prentiss sat at her cluttered desk late on Friday night. It was about ten o'clock, and nobody but Hotch was there. Then again, he was always there, it seemed. She stared off into her mess of a desk, remembering times from when she was young, times when her mother and father still appreciated her as a child. A specific memory came back to her as she leaned back in her swivel chair.
"Emily? Emily, come here, please", Ambassador Prentiss called. Emily sensed the tone in her mother's voice, put down her dolls, and quietly approached the banister of the staircase.
"Yes, mother?" Emily questioned pleasantly.
"I'll be leaving for Italy soon. Come", her mother gestured. Emily's father stood statue-like at the door, holding Mrs. Prentiss's bags in each hand. Emily obediently came down the stairs and walked up to her mother. Her head was down.
"Emily, why must you look so sad?" her mother asked, lifting the teenage Emily's chin gently with her fingers.
"I-I don't want you to leave, mother", she choked. A wave of softness overcame Ambassador Prentiss's face.
"Emily, retrieve your things. You are coming with me", Ambassador Prentiss blurted out. Emily looked up, eyes filled with happiness. Ambassador Prentiss wrapped her arms awkwardly around Emily. Emily tore away from her to pack her bags for Italy.
But it flew away from her reach
And the bullets catch in her teeth
The memory made tears threaten to spill over her lower eyelids. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and tried desperately to ignore a memory that was pushing out from the back of her mind.
"Emilia Sophia Isabelle Prentiss, bring yourself here NOW", Ambassador Prentiss thundered from the room across the hall. Emily rolled her eyes and dragged herself up from her chair where she was on the computer.
"What, Mother?" she asked, drawing out a sigh and sticking her hip out to the side, crossing he arms.
Ambassador Prentiss's eyes widened at the sight of her daughter. Emily was wearing a deep blue navel-length tube-top with laced sleeves running up her arm. She was also donning tight-(don't even question the tightness), black jeans. A new accessory was being showcased as well: A small stud nose ring.
"Emilia Sophia, I cannot BELIEVE what you're wearing!" Ambassador Prentiss exploded. Emily boredly looked at her black nails.
"What do you want?" Emily asked. Ambassador Prentiss shook her head, dismissing her daughter's new outfit.
Ambassador Prentiss held up an empty bottle of pills. Emily's eyes dilated.
"Um, what about it?" she asked nervously.
The rest of the memory consisted of Ambassador Prentiss droning on about drugs and whatnot. Emily opened her eyes once more.
Life goes on, it gets so heavy
The wheel breaks the butterfly
Emily remembered when she was a little girl. Instead of black clothes and nose rings, she'd wear pink dresses and bows in her hair. After her abortion, everything sort of fell apart. Until she found Criminal Justice at Yale. That was her happy place, the only place where she felt needed…
Every tear a waterfall
Remembering her disrupted past, tears trickled down her smooth skin.
In the night, the stormy night, she'll close her eyes
In the night, the stormy night, away she'll fly
Thunder crashed outside the windows of Quantico, accompanied with streaks of lightening. She curled up in her chair, closing her eyes, crying.
And dream of para-para-paradise
Para-para-paradise
She thought of what it would be like if Hotch walked in on her crying. She quickly brushed the tears away from her eyes as she saw him walking towards her. Unfurling herself from the chair, she quickly assembled herself in a professional position and tried to stop her tears.
"Emily? What's wrong?" he asked softly. His fatherly side was showing through at the moment.
"Um, nothing", she stuttered.
"That", he said, gesturing to her tears, "Is not nothing", he said.
"No, really, I'm fine", she said, her voice trailing off.
"Emily, I know. I know what it's like", he said. She shook her head.
"No, Hotch, no you don't. You don't know what my past was like", she replied.
"I know I don't. I just know what it's like to have… Er… Different parents", he offered.
"Oh. Okay", she mumbled, not sure what to say. Hotch looked around and suddenly pulled Emily up from her chair.
"Hotch, wh-what?" she asked, flustered. He stood her up in front of him.
"Emily, you shouldn't be sad. I'm sure your parents would be proud of you right now", he said truthfully. She rolled her eyes.
"Remember when my mother was here with the Russian woman?" she asked, waiting for Hotch to remember the case.
"Oh, yes", he said.
"She didn't seem too happy then", she groaned. Hotch shook his head.
"No, she didn't. But that doesn't mean I'm not proud of you", he said quietly.
"What?" she asked, utterly confused.
"I'm proud of you Emily. Very, very proud", he said, taking her in his arms. Tears broke out onto her face as they stood there, hugging. Hotch pulled away, looking her deep in the eye. Suddenly, he pressed a kiss to her lips, claiming her right away.
And so lying underneath those stormy skies
She said "Oh, ohohohoh, I know the sun must set to rise"
This could be para-para-paradise
Para-para-paradise
And there, in that moment kissing Aaron Hotchner, she was truly and irrevocably in paradise.
The End.