A/N: Hey lovelies, it's been too long and now I've found another show to become addicted too: Criminal Minds. I'm about 5 years late, but I managed to catch up on it (thanks in large part to A&E). I'm all for the Prentiss/Hotch thing, and I refuse to believe she won't be coming back because CBS, frankly, isn't doing too great, as I believe it is becoming the new FOX, except FOX actually likes their actors to return. (I also noticed a few things in my observations-in the first episode, when they're talking baby names, Hotch says Sergio, which later turns out to be Prentiss' cat's name; and two, does anyone else notice how much Prentiss actually gets kicked around? Seriously—the girl can't catch a break! ) This is immediate post-Lauren, is a prologue of my story, and will be multi-chapter; I'm kind of just winging this on a sudden inspiration. On with my newest obsession…
Lamentation
Benjamin Franklin said, "Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead."
Aaron Hotchner did not expect this. It had stopped him in his tracks when JJ pulled him away from the exit, cornered him with a vice grip he didn't know the petite blonde had. She spoke swiftly, words he wouldn't remember, an odd reassurance in her voice, a whisper of everything will be okay before she slipped the small, folded paper into his lifeless hands.
He couldn't look back at his grieving team. They lost so much of themselves every day to the darkness. They didn't need to lose her too. And as for him? He'd lost all his chances. He'd lost his wife to a mad man; lost Kate, one of his best friends, to homegrown terrorists with something to prove, and now Emily, the one person that he'd found himself slowly opening up to. It had been subtle, but it had started after she'd come to find him after the pig farm case in Canada….after Foyet had attacked him. She'd just…been there, never pushing, always listening, patient with him and his faults.
And now she, too, was gone.
He could feel JJ staring him down, trying to communicate with him. He shook the feeling off, the red glow of the EXIT sign all that kept him going. Shaking with anger and rage and sorrow, Aaron Hotchner walked out of the hospital, into the bitter storm that hung in the air.
It wasn't until hours later, seated on a park bench, that he felt the folded paper still clenched in his hand. Unsure as to why JJ had forced it into his palm in the first place, he finally opened the small, square sheet of notebook paper.
What he read caused his heart to break in two, caused his mind to race a million miles a minute, and stopped his breathing all together. It was something so simple, so small, but it was an acknowledgement of something more altogether. And it was in her perfect script. There was nothing but a poem, no salutation; but as he re read the words he understood their meaning…and that meaning meant everything.
Do not stand at my grave and weep
I am not there; I do not sleep.
I am a thousand winds that blow,
I am the diamond glints on snow,
I am the sun on ripened grain,
I am the gentle autumn rain.
When you awaken in the morning's hush
I am the swift uplifting rush
Of quiet birds in circled flight.
I am the soft stars that shine at night.
Do not stand at my grave and cry,
I am not there
I did not die.
He delicately folded the note back into its former square, tucking it into his suit jacket for safe keeping. He knew it was for no one else to see. He knew, without a doubt, that JJ was in on what was happening-probably had been before he'd even called her. Of the entire team, in all the years they'd worked together, she had wanted him to know. As much as it pained him to keep the secret, he knew he had no choice, as JJ had no choice.
Standing, he felt a renewed purpose start in the pit of his stomach. He lost to Foyet; the man had taken a part of Aaron Hotchner's soul with him the day his wife was murdered, and he would feel that regret and loss for the rest of his life. But Ian Doyle...he would not win. He refused to lose again. He would bring her home.
Emily Prentiss was alive.
(Short beginning I know-and I'm not known for short—but I have an idea of where to take it. So I shall update as immediately as possible.)