I haven't really been following Criminal Minds since Prentiss left, but I was feeling a little nostalgic today. Just something quick I wrote about a pairing I used to love.

They meet in a hotel bar in Tokyo. He was on a conference and she was just there.

"How have you been, Emily?" Despite their history they remained two seats apart.

"Good... Good." She says, though he's always been able to read her, and she's always been able to tell when he's profiling her. She get's it though. It's hard not to now. 'How's the team?"

They had all promised to stay in touch when she left. But work had gotten in the way like it always does. Communication was a two way street and Emily guessed that no one really had the energy anymore.

"Well, Reid is doing well. He likes not being the youngest on the team anymore. But as for everyone else I wouldn't know." He took a sip from his glass. Emily didn't have to ask why. Three months ago she had received an email from JJ, it was the last she ever heard from any of them. JJ finally decided to quit the bureau and raise her kids the way she wanted; Rossi had retired, and was on his way to wife number five; Morgan was still at the bureau but was leading his own team; and Garcia was lecturing at several universities. The thought of Garcia speaking in front of a group of students clad in pink skirts and feathery hair ties made Emily smile. But then she remembered how she never replied to JJ's email. She didn't have the courage to – and that smile drifted.

Hotch broke Emily's train of thought at the right moment. "What have you been doing, Emily?"

She fiddled with the straw in her drink. "I'm not sure."

Hotch furrowed his eyebrows. "How's Interpol?"

"I don't know." She didn't know, truly. She had quit the job almost as soon as it began. She didn't want anyone to get their hopes up so she didn't tell them. She's been traveling around the world trying to find something that would lead her to the next chapter in her life but there was nothing. Just old memories of a lonely childhood spent in foreign lands.

They sat in silence for a little while, soft jazz lingering in the background. Emily could tell by the way he didn't look at her and the way he didn't ask too many questions that he was still bitter.

"What room are you staying in?" He finally asked, swigging the last of his drink.

They fucked that night.

It was strangely intimate. It wasn't the hard, rough sex she had imagined she would have with Hotch. He took care of her and took his time with her. He called her Prentiss. That was when she realized he was probably the one person from her past she missed the most. She wondered if she was his.
~*~

"What happened with Beth?" she asked because she knew Hotch wasn't a cheater. Sitting at the edge of the bed, she clasped her bra in place and watched the muscles in his back tense. Last she knew they were still in their 'honeymoon' phase and happier than ever. At least that's what JJ had described.

"It just didn't work out." He replied. JJ did always see everything through rose-colored glasses. Emily wondered if Beth was a cheater.

"Are you…" She felt vulnerable. "Going to stay?"

"Do you want me to?" His voice was steady and layered. He didn't turn around to see her eyes, her flushed face. If he had he wouldn't have had to ask.

"I… I don't know." She hated herself for how indecisive she had gotten. How childish and unsure. Her compartmentalizing skills were rusty and she felt like the college-bound kid she was when she first met him. He nodded and picked the shirt that Emily had been using as a point of focus off the floor. Her eyes watered but she let him go.