A couple of hours and three potential nannies later their plane landed in Houston , TX . They checked in with the local FBI field office and began their 80 mile drive to Livingston . The Polunsky Unit, where death row inmates were housed, was located in West Livingston . They arrived at the Polk County Sheriff's Office about an hour and a half later, tired, hungry and ready to find their hotel and settle in for the night. The county sheriff showed them the small room they'd be using to study the case files, gave them a brief description of the town they'd be calling home for the next nine days and sent them on their way with a stack of the files in their hands and directions to their hotel.
They entered the living area of the extended stay suite and set their bags down. Emily looked around, noticed there were two separate bedrooms, one on each side of the living area and a small kitchen complete with a refrigerator and stove.
"Is this part of the bureau's budget cuts? We have to cook our own meals now?" Emily asked.
"No, but judging by the restaurant choices we passed on the way, it might not be a bad idea." Hotch answered.
"Says the man who's never suffered through an Emily Prentiss meal." Emily laughed lightly.
"How bad could it be?" He asked, slightly amused.
"So bad, I haven't used the stove in my Brownstone yet." She told him.
"Prentiss you've been with the team for four years. You really haven't cooked a meal in four years?" He asked.
"Nope, not once. I'm on a first name basis with the delivery boys though. I think I may have even put one through college." She said forcing a half smile onto his face.
"Well, we don't have to use the kitchen, but I thought this would be a better choice than the usual hotel rooms since it's just the two of us. We're in a small town in Texas and we're the FBI. It's probably best if we stay together at all times." Hotch explained.
"Sounds like a good plan. I'm starving Hotch. Can we please go find something to eat?" She asked.
"Sure. Just let me call Jack and we can go." He said.
"Call him from the car. I'll drive." She said.
He handed her the keys to the SUV and climbed into the passenger seat. She began driving through the town in search of what her stomach might be hungry for and couldn't help but smile as she listened to the soft, kind tone he used when he spoke with his son.
"Is it hard?" She asked as she watched him shove his phone back into his pocket.
"What's that?" He asked.
"It seems like you go to a completely different place when you talk to Jack, a place where the monsters you chase don't exist. Is it hard to turn that side of yourself off?" She asked.
"I don't ever turn it off, not really. Kids are innocent and that innocence comes through when you talk to them. Jack makes me forget about the monsters, if only for a few minutes." He explained.
"Huh, maybe I should start calling Jack before I go to bed every night." She said.
"Nightmares are normal." He said.
"Yeah, that's what I hear, but it doesn't make them any less scary." She told him.
"No, I don't guess it does." He agreed.
"Looks like our choices are BBQ and more BBQ." Emily sighed.
"There's a diner over there." Hotch said and pointed to his left.
Hotch sat on the sofa in the living room of the suite, folders spread out across the small coffee table and so engrossed in what he was doing that he hadn't noticed Emily had fallen asleep until he asked her a question and didn't get a response. He turned his head to direct the inquiry at her once again and stopped himself. She was curled up in the corner of the couch, legs pulled up in front of her chest and her head resting on her knees. He looked at his watch, saw that it was well after midnight and felt a little guilty for turning a quick scan of their killer's files into an all night affair. He reached out and shook her gently.
"I'm awake." She mumbled.
"No you're not. Go to bed. It's late." He said softly and stood.
"Mmm…okay, just give me a minute." She said softly.
He watched her stretch out on the couch and immediately go back to sleep.
"Prentiss!" He said loudly.
"I said in a minute! God! Do you ever relax?" She snapped at him, obviously more asleep than awake.
He watched her for a minute, saw that she was asleep again and chuckled lightly to himself.
"Deep sleeper." He mumbled and entered the bedroom where she was supposed to be sleeping.
He returned to the couch with a pillow and blanket, managed to get the pillow under her head and covered her with the blanket.
"Mmm….good night." She mumbled and rolled onto her side, pulling the blanket tightly around her body.
"Good night." He said softly, turned the lights out and entered the other bedroom.
He was awakened a couple of hours later by Emily's screams. He grabbed his gun from the nightstand and ran into the living room. He turned on a light and could see she wasn't being attacked, at least not in reality, but apparently was fighting something pretty scary in her dreams. He set his gun down and sat beside her, taking hold of her arms and calling out to her.
"Emily wake up." He said repeatedly, her eyes finally shooting open, the look of terror in them startling him.
She sat up quickly and began to struggle and slap at him, her eyes open, but still trapped in whatever nightmare she was having. He took hold of her wrists to get her to stop hitting him and held firm.
"Prentiss!" He shouted repeatedly.
She finally came around, stopped fighting him and immediately felt humiliated.
"Hotch, I'm sorry. I was…." She stumbled.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Yeah, you can let go of my wrists." She sighed.
"Do you want to talk about it?" He asked with genuine concern.
"No." She said quietly, her head down, refusing to look at him.
"We all have them Emily." He said softly.
"I bet you don't. Nothing gets to you." She accused.
"I could say the same thing about you." He shot back.
"You could, but after what you just witnessed, you'd be lying. I'm sorry I woke you." She said, grabbing her pillow and blanket and disappearing into her bedroom.
They were up and dressed early the next morning, neither interested in anything more than coffee for breakfast. Their first interview with LeJohn didn't go well. He wasn't interested in sharing information with them, but it was clear that he was interested in Agent Prentiss, too interested. As soon as Hotch saw the way LeJohn was reacting to her, he ended the interview.
"Why did you do that?" Emily asked as she made herself comfortable in the passenger seat and slammed the door, obviously put out with her supervisor.
"He was entirely too into you Prentiss. I appreciate that you and JJ are willing to put yourselves out there on occasion to help us gain useful information, but this guy…I just think it's dangerous to play that game with this guy." Hotch explained.
"Hotch, my exceptional skills aside, you know that one of the reasons I am with you is to get LeJohn's attention and it was working. All you had to do is follow the plan and leave us alone. He's shackled, he can't hurt me." Emily argued.
"Prentiss, I've been doing this job a long time. You need to trust me when I tell you it's not a good idea, not this time. We'll interview the witnesses and the families, go over the case files some more. We'll figure out who his partner was." Hotch stood firm.
"I'm sorry, but I don't agree…sir. Give me another shot at him tomorrow, alone. If I can't get him to open up then…..." She continued to argue.
"I said no." He shut her down.
"Well you're wrong! I can handle myself Hotch. You wouldn't hesitate to send Morgan or Rossi in there and I resent that you're actually pulling this macho shit on me!" She yelled.
"Don't yell at me Prentiss and drop the feminist rhetoric. If LeJohn had looked at Morgan or Rossi the way that he was looking at you, I wouldn't send them in alone either. There's something going on with him Emily. I saw it." Hotch told her.
"Fine Hotch, there's something going on with him, but what's he going to do? He's shackled and you'll be right behind the glass and I trust you not to let anything happen to me. Please. Let me do this." She pleaded with him.
Hotch studied her for a moment. He did trust her to do her job and do it well and she was right in that he would be right there if anything should go wrong.
"Okay, we'll give it a try tomorrow, but the moment you start to feel even the slightest bit uncomfortable I want you out of there. Are we clear?" He asked.
" Crystal ." She said, biting back the grin that wanted to surface. She loved it when she won an argument with him.
They spent the remainder of the day interviewing witnesses and family members and pouring over the case files at the Sheriff's office. Hotch looked up from the file he was studying and across the table at Emily. She looked exhausted and though he'd never admit it, he was feeling the same way.
"Let's call it day." He said.
"Really? It's only six o'clock." She said.
"We've been at it since six AM and neither one of us had much sleep last night. Leave the files here. No more work today." He said.
"But Hotch, it's only six o'clock. What are we going to do for the rest of the evening?" She asked.
"We're going to eat dinner somewhere and rent a movie. There's a DVD player in the suite." He said.
"What are the odds that you and I have the same taste in movies?" She asked, laughing lightly.
"As long as you limit your choice to something light, I'm agreeable." He said.
"Why something light? I had you pegged for an intense, no such thing as a happy ending type of guy." She said.
"I've found that the best cure for nightmares is to not expose yourself to the things that keep those thoughts stirred up. I shouldn't have kept you up so late looking at those horrific images and I apologize." He said in his typical, calm, emotionless tone.
"Hotch, we were working, that's why we're here, to work." She argued.
"There's no need to work through the night. We aren't working against a clock. As far as we know there haven't been any new victims since LeJohn went to prison so there's not an unsub on the loose and if we can't solve this thing in nine normal working days, odds are we can't solve it at all." He said.
"You're the boss. Can you do me a favor though?" She asked.
"What's that?" He asked.
"If we're going to be relaxing and watching a movie, will you at least take your tie off?" She asked, forcing a smile onto his face.
"As long as you promise to keep it between us. I think the team is convinced I sleep in a tie and I'd like to keep it that way." He said, holding the door open for her.
