Would It Be So Bad?
Everyone froze as Hotch made his way to the bathroom at the back of the plane. He paused to pull the curtain closed that separates the seating area from the rear of the plane. As the curtain closed J.J. smirked at Derek and jabbed her thumb over her shoulder at the now closed curtain as if to say, 'See! What now!'
Derek frowned at his friend and said, "Give it a rest Jayje. What has gotten into you today? You just embarrassed the piss out of your best friend! You know she tries to hide her crush on the bossman. And you know that there is nothing going on. He would never risk HER career like that, IF he even felt that way about her."
J.J. stopped smiling and nodded. "I'll apologize, if she ever speaks to me again."
Dave finally spoke up, "She will, and yes, he does. But you are right, her would leave it entirely up to her. He wouldn't risk her career to see where a relationship might go."
Reid, who had been trying to pick his jaw up off the floor spoke up, "Guys you do realized how small this plane is? They probably heard every word you just said even though your voices were relatively quiet. Dave sat back down and winked at Reid to let him know that Hotch was probably listening. Derek Laid back down and put the headphones back on but left the music off just in case there would be anything else to hear. J.J. put her face in her hands and prayed that she didn't just hurt her friend so badly that it ruined their friendship.
Hotch, unknown to everyone, was still standing directly behind the curtain. A hint of a smile played on his lips. His mind was spinning. 'Emily Prentiss has a crush on me?' he thought. He knew that what Rossi had said was to push him toward Emily, and that Rossi knew he was still rooted to this spot. He was pulled from his musing by the sound of Emily pacing, as much as possible, in the tiny bathroom. He went over and tapped lightly on the door.
"Go away Jayje. I don't want to talk about it now." Emily whispered. It was barely audible through the door. Hotch looked down to see that the door wasn't locked. Now all he had to do was figure out what to say.
Hotch thought back to a conversation with Dave several months ago.
FLASHBACK
"Hey Aaron. Earth to Hotch!" Dave raised his voice a little as he leaned slightly closer to Hotch's good ear. Hotch jumped a bit, slowly coming back from his own little world. His own little world had been centered around one, SSA Emily Prentiss. The same just happened to be his subordinate. He realized her had just been caught staring at her through his office window. Apparently staring a little too hard, he hadn't heard Dave come in. Hotch shook his head slightly to clear his thoughts and regain his composure as he looked back down at the file on his desk.
Dave moved to stand beside his friend looking out to see what his friend had been staring at. Shocked, Dave glanced back down at Hotch and then back out the window into the bull pen. Hotch had a completely clear view of Emily Prentiss where she sat at her desk working on some files. Dave moved back to the front of the desk and took a seat in one of the chairs. "Something wrong with our girl Prentiss today Aaron?" Dave probed.
"No, nothing is wrong that I know of." Hotch glanced back out the window to see that Emily was still working on the files in front of her. "Dave, is there something I should know about?"
Dave chuckled and said, "No, I was just wondering if there was something I should know." He gave his friend a scrutinizing look.
Hotch looked at Dave and then back down at his file before saying, "What is it that you are asking? It must be a personal matter seeing as you closed my office door when you came in."
"How long are you going to wait before you tell Emily that you have feelings for her?" Seeing Hotch's frown he continued, "Don't bother denying it Aaron. I'm the worlds greatest profiler and I just caught you staring at a very beautiful woman for the last thirty minutes. The last woman you looked at like that was Hayley."
"No I'm not going to deny it. You are right, except the worlds greatest profiler part. But I don't plan to ever act on it Dave. Her career means everything to her. I won't put her job at risk over my feelings that she may or may not ever reciprocate. End of discussion." Hotch had made his speech with his calm but stern voice. Dave knew he had just been silently sworn to secrecy.
BACK TO THE PRESENT…:)
Hotch turned the door knob and slowly entered the tiny bathroom.
Emily jumped back across the small space as far as she could without falling over the toilet, as far from him as possible. Sadly this still only left about a foot of space between them. "Hotch! What are you doing?" she whispered frantically. "You coming in here is not going to be helping anything!" 'Weird,' she thought, 'he looks almost embarrassed.'
"I'm sorry. I just wanted to make sure you were ok. I know what she asked you" Hotch glanced down at his shoes before he looked back at her face.
"She told you! I'm gonna kill her!" Emily hadn't bothered to whisper that time.
Hotch grabbed her shoulders to steady her as the plane hit a patch of turbulence. He chuckled, "No, I eavesdropped on them after I followed you back here and deduced."
Emily gave a small nod and muttered, "Oh." She could barely form a coherent thought with him holding on to her shoulders and standing so closely.
Hotch looked down into her face, thinking how beautiful she is, he asked, "Would it be so bad?"
