Here is the next chapter, more fluff than action I guess, but after this chapter you will see what it's like to go through a night of abuse with Emily Prentiss. Hope you enjoy this one.
As one of my lovely reviewers reminded me, Hotch is a smart man and it definately wouldn't take him long to pick up on abuse.
Hotch was waiting anxiously at his desk the next morning. He kept staring out his office window waiting for Rossi to walk through the doors. Finally he saw the older man and jumped to his feet. Opening his office door he said, "Dave I need to speak to you for a minute."
Rossi changed direction and headed for Hotch's office. He walked through the door and shut it behind him. "So did you ask her out?" There was no response from Hotch, only a glare. Rossi took a seat and said, "Oh I see you had too much paperwork."
Hotch looked at his desk and said, "Dave." in a serious tone, alerting Rossi that there was more important things to discuss.
Rossi immediately knew by the sound of Hotch's voice something was wrong, "What is it?"
"I think I know what's wrong with Emily. I hate I didn't notice it sooner, but last night I went to her apartment and all the signs were there." Hotch was quiet.
"And…" Rossi said for him to continue on.
"I think she's being abused."
Rossi thought a moment and said, "Your right, I can't believe we didn't notice it before."
Just then Emily walked into the bull pen, "Look." Hotch said nodding towards his window. "Long sleeves again and notice how she's walking. She's even overcompensating for how she's feeling, the forced smile and cheerful good mornings."
Rossi nodded and leaned back in his seat, "So what happened last night?"
Hotch sighed and leaned back in his chair, "I went to her apartment, taking your advice, to casually ask her out. When I got there I heard two loud thuds coming from inside. I knocked on the door and when it opened Emily was not standing on the other side."
"Who was it?"
"Agent Harvey Buchannan. I asked about Emily. When he moved so I could see her she was getting off the floor. Her excuse for the loud noise was that she fell trying to ride down the banister on her staircase."
"I bet you could see right through that." Rossi said.
"Actually I didn't. I was so disappointed she had another man that I didn't think more logically till I got home. Anyways Agent Buchannan had all the typical signs of an abuser, he pulled Emily tightly into his side and now that I think about it, she winced when he did. He made himself seem better than her by saying he rode the banister farther down than she did before he fell. He belittled her by making it blatantly aware that she challenged she could go farther than him and when she didn't it was as if she deserved falling for trying to outdo him."
"And this was all on the story about who could go down the banister the farthest?" Rossi was making sure he understood.
"Yes, and I don't think she wanted me to leave. She asked me why I was there and I made up a lie that I'm going to have to follow through with this morning. Despite all this my choices of words last night were not exactly the best when I called my meeting with Emily this morning, a date."
Rossi knew what Hotch was thinking as he observed him sitting back in his chair, feeling defeated. With his appearance at her apartment last night, and the word date, Emily probably was accused by Harvey for dating Hotch and got beat for it. Hotch was feeling guilty and there was nothing Rossi knew he could do about it. Rossi sighed and said, "So what do we do?"
"I don't know. Is there anything we can do? She won't admit to the abuse and she's obviously hiding it." Hotch was quiet, "She doesn't deserve this."
"No one does." Rossi finished.
Emily could barely move when she got out of the car, in the parking garage. She arrived alone as demanded by Harvey. They were never to be obvious that they were dating and that's how he wanted it. Emily was actually pleased with that rule, but now Hotch knew, but maybe he could help me? No, wait, bad idea, if you tell someone then that idiot might get put away for a little while but he'll be right back out then he could kill me. So I guess I have to live in fear the rest of my life. Emily nodded, agreeing with her thoughts. She put on her happy face and walked through the soreness and bruises as best as she could.
By the time Emily made it to the Bureau door she was walking in a way that she considered normal. When she saw her reflection she was taken back a little. They'll for sure notice my face. I look like I have fat cheeks. She was about to turn and walk away then she thought, I can't leave they will for sure know something's wrong then. Okay just use the story you used with Hotch last night. It's a believable story. Finally after she convinced herself that her story was believable, she entered the building.
When she walked through the glass doors, into the bull she warmly greeted JJ, Morgan and Reid. When she set her stuff on her desk, she noticed Reid had a sullen look on his face. "What's wrong?"
"I have gingivitis."
Emily looks at Morgan and JJ who are stifling their laughs. Emily herself almost let out a little giggle. She looked at Hotch's office and noticed his door was shut, when she looked through the window she saw Rossi was there, so she decided not to interrupt whatever conversation was going on with Rossi. It was best if she waited her turn to talk about the case Hotch had mentioned last night. She went back to putting away her personal items and sitting down.
Reid looked at her funny, "Your cheeks are visibly swelled. What happened?"
Well that comment drew the kind of attention she didn't want. She told of the banister story and where she hit her face and how it was no big deal. Morgan didn't really believe her and was about to rebuttal when there was an interruption.
Garcia came into the bull pen, "There's another body."
"Oh Baby Girl, that's definitely not how I wanted to start out my morning."
"Sorry sugar lips." Garcia handed him a case file, "Here's all you'll need to know and I've already contacted her family and asked them to come in."
"Thanks Garcia." JJ said.
"Wow, what happened to your cheeks?" Garcia asked.
Emily smiled, "Long story, I'll tell you later."
When Morgan flipped open the file he looked away then looked back.
"How bad is it?" Emily asked.
"It's bad." Morgan handed the file to Emily.
When she looked she saw the disfiguration of her face, that could be me. Shaking off that sickening feeling she said, "There is definitely a lot more rage with this victim, you think this is the woman he was after all along?"
"If it is we may never catch him." Reid stated.
JJ took a quick look and looked away, "I'm no profiler but from the looks of what these women have gone through he is probably a big man."
Just then Emily heard her name being called from Hotch's office. She turned around and nodded towards Rossi, saying good morning as she passed him on the stairs. When she entered Hotch's office she immediately said, "Sir we have another body. A lot more rage was displayed on this victim than the others." She was trying to avoid any conversation about last night and she knew that Hotch would want to get to work right away with a new victim.
Hotch instinctively noticed swelling on her cheeks. The guilt he was feeling was so immense that he felt he could throw up, It's my fault. He thought. That was from no hard landing, she had been hit in the face. His anger was building the more he looked at her beaten body, even though he couldn't see the bruises. As a matter of fact she did an excellent job of covering up the bruising on her cheek, but there was no hiding the swelling. Avoiding the abuse conversation he replied, "Okay, well we can talk about this other case later." Whoo, glad I didn't have to sit here and lie to her about some off the wall case.
Emily turned to walk out the door.
Don't let her walk out the door you idiot, "Emily." She turned around. "If you ever need to talk to anybody, or need anything, my door is always open. If you are not comfortable talking with me, Dave and I'm sure anyone else will listen."
Emily felt like she was caught red handed, "Are you implying something sir?"
"No. Since you've joined the team I haven't made you feel very welcome and we see and do a lot of stuff that can mess us up sometimes. I just want to let you know that you are a part of this team and we are here if you ever need us."
"Thank you sir." Emily couldn't quite take her eyes off him as she stood in the doorway. There was an attraction that ignited in her and for the first time, yep he's a handsome one and he has a heart. She watched as he got up from his chair and walked towards her. Tell him, tell him and he can help you.
"You and Morgan go to the dump site and do some comparisons with what you noticed yesterday." Why is she still standing here, maybe she's going to tell me.
Emily never said a word but nodded her head at his request. Just as she turned to walk away, Emily could see out of the corner of her eye, Hotch was bringing his arm up in her direction. Un able to control what she did next, she winced away from him.
Hotch immediately saw her reaction and was extremely concerned. It was typical behavior of an abused woman. Hotch was only going to tenderly guide her out of his office, just as he would his ex-wife through a restaurant door. Maybe it was out of habit maybe it wasn't so he recovered by saying, "I'm sorry, it's a habit. I always guided Haley out of a door or into a restaurant, I didn't mean it personally. It was an unconcious gesture."
Emily laughed, "I'm sorry, I'm just a spaz today." He was guiding you out a door; he wasn't going to pummel you. Hotch is a real man not like the dumbo your with.
The next few days went by fairly quickly and Emily's behavior started getting back to normal and her un-seen bruises started to heal. There was no more odd conversation between her and Hotch, but one evening as she was leaving Harvey spotted her enjoying a friendly and comfortable conversation with him. She was laughing and being a little too friendly for Harvey.
Harvey moved to where he was unseen and observed. Emily was a little too comfortable around him. They were both standing a little too close and from his perspective they were hitting it off. She was flirting with him. "You're gonna pay." He mumbled to himself. He left the building and would be waiting for her when she got home.
Next chapter should be up soon!
