At The Bar
Disclaimer: CBS owns Criminal Minds...
Summary: All she wants is to drown her sorrows at the bar, but they won't let her...
A/N: Here's the final chapter in the 'Bar' series. I hope you've all enjoyed this little series.
Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review.
"Human beings, like plants, grow in the soil of acceptance, not in the atmosphere of rejection." John Powell
Emily walked out of the bathroom only to be rushed back in by two fast moving blondes.
"What the hell?" she muttered, trying to free herself from the tight grasp.
"We're here to save you" Garcia said, loosening her grip on the brunette's arm, "Sorry, I've been taking my spinach."
"Ha ha" Emily murmured, "Now what do you mean, you're saving me? Saving me from what?"
"A life of single-hood-ism" Garcia paused frowning, "Wait, is that even a word?"
"Does it matter?" JJ shrugged before turning back to Emily, "We're taking you out and going to cheer you up."
"What?" Emily asked, "I'm fine. You guys, I don't need to be cheered up."
Both women snorted at that, making the brunette groan in frustration and try to maneuver her way past them only for Garcia to block the exit.
"Why?" Emily asked.
"We see the way you're hurting, Em" JJ told her, "And look even I'm not able to let this one slide. I know how you feel about him, but we need to help you move on."
The brunette sighed, before blowing a messy strand over hair out of her face, "Fine, I'll do it on one condition."
"What's that?" JJ asked, relieved.
"That you two promise, and I mean promise" Emily emphasized, "That this is the end of it. I don't want you two hassling me to go out just to forget about Ryan again. You got it?"
"I promise" JJ said, nodding.
"Me too" Garcia said, giddy, "See after tonight, you'll be like Ryan who?"
Running her hand over the back of her dark hair, "I just know tonight's going to suck."
The two blondes rolled their eyes, dismissing that idea as they came up with different ideas of how to cheer Emily up and what to dress her up in.
As the three BAU women made their way into the semi-crowded bar, Garcia perused the bar looking for eligible men while the two female agents looked around for an empty space to sit.
"Over there" Garcia pointed out, to an attractive looking blonde man.
"You found an empty table?" Emily asked, fingering her dark coat.
"No, I found a suitable replacement for that douche bag you dated." Garcia said, looking at the brunette, "What?"
"I just want to sit down and have a drink" Emily muttered, moving them to a small table near the back when the two blondes shoved her over to the bar, "Hey, hey, hey watch it. I bruise easily."
"Sorry" JJ quietly replied, "It'll be better to sit at the bar, you know? That way we can watch who comes in and out?"
Emily raised an eyebrow at that, but just took a seat ignoring that searing uncertainty that hit her stomach.
After ordering their drinks, Emily looked over and could see the way the two blondes were scoping the bar that they were checking out the guys.
"All right, what?" Emily asked, "You two are behaving weird, even weirder than usual."
"Uh" Garcia offered, "I'm always weird?"
Emily narrowed her eyes, "You two are up to something and it's starting to bug the hell out of me. If you don't tell me what you two did right now, I'm calling Will and Kevin up and telling them that our usual Friday outings are really nights you go out to men's strip clubs."
Both women's jaws drop at that, making the brunette grin inside at their shocked expressions.
"You wouldn't" Garcia said slowly.
"Oh really?" Emily asked, "I'm not even counting to five."
As Emily reached into her purse, pulling out her cell phone JJ opened her mouth while a man approached Emily.
"We sent your picture to a singles online dating service" JJ quickly said, while Garcia dropped her head on the bar.
"Hi" the man said, startling Emily into shooting a look at him then turning to her two friends with a glare in her eyes that could only be described as deadly.
"What the fuck, did you two do?" she asked.
"I can't believe you two did this to me" Emily said, downing her third beer as she shook her head, "I mean what, do I have the word 'desperate' stamped across my forehead?"
"We just wanted you to be happy" Garcia said, "Ok, so it wasn't done in the best possible way, but can you honestly blame us?"
Emily looked both women in the face, "Yes, I blame you."
"Look, Em" JJ said, "Was it a stupid way to go about it? Yes, but it was done out of love."
"Learn to love me less" Emily muttered, noticing another man approaching her in the bar, "You have to be kidding me?"
As she turned her eyes from the approaching man to her former best friends she heard the distinct throat clearing behind her.
"Excuse me?" the man said, "I was wondering if..."
"No" Emily said going back to her drink ignoring the man and the way her friends gave her a disapproving look.
The two blondes watched as the good looking man walked away from the brunette beauty in defeat.
Emily felt a slight kick to her shin, "Ow, what the hell?"
"He was cute" JJ hissed out, "Why did you turn him down? Give me a plausible reason."
Rolling her eyes, "I can give you three reasons, you idiots."
"Then tell me" JJ said, raising a defiant eyebrow while Garcia nodded.
"One, I don't feel like being picked up" Emily said setting her drink glass down, "Two, I didn't ask for you two to pull this..."
"And the third reason?" JJ asked.
Emily lifted her hand up and wiggled her ring finger, "Tan line."
Garcia and JJ's heads shot over to where the man was, looking him over.
"What a creep" Garcia muttered.
JJ relented, "Fine, but how about anyone in here? Is there anyone that you might be considering?"
"I just broke up with Ryan less than twenty-four hours ago?" Emily reminded the persistent blonde, "How about letting me have some grieving time?"
"Pfft" Garcia said, waving her hand dismissively of that thought, "Please, I know you're so over that two timing loser."
As her hand played with the rim of her glass, she looked around the bar eyeing the patrons and wondered why she had agreed to come out in the first place.
She raised an eyebrow in surprise when she saw him walk in, then turned back to her two friends, "What's he doing here?"
"Who?" Garcia asked reaching for a pretzel, looking over in his direction, "Oh, he's here to hang with the guys, I guess."
"What's the big deal, Em?" JJ asked looking from the man to Emily, "Why would you care that Hotch was here?"
Internally kicking herself she schooled her features, "I just thought he'd be spending more time with Beth now."
"Huh" Garcia huffed, "Obviously you spam my email, Gumdrop. The bossman and that curator are kaput."
That made her heart hope but she stomped it down, "When did this happen? Why? Where the hell was I?"
"To answer your first question, he dropped her like a bad habit a few days ago" Garcia said, "Don't know the details, unfortunately, and to answer your last question I think you were probably with jerk man."
"Thanks" the brunette muttered, she could see another man eyeing her but chose to ignore it, "Look, I did the out scene thing, and now I think I'm going to go home."
Garcia grasped onto her arm, "Stay Emily, please?"
Shaking her head, "I really just want to go..."
"Hi" a sandy hair man said, placing his hand on Emily's shoulder, "I'm Dean..."
"Fuck off, Dean" Emily said, sullenly.
"Wow, you're an angry little girl aren't you?" Dean said, with a smirk, "What would you say if I found you attractive?"
"Take a number pal" the blonde man said, walking passed them, "She's a cold fish."
"Really wish I brought my gun" Emily muttered, getting up, "Scram."
As Emily moved pass the man, she felt a large hand grab her arm, and looked over to see Hotch storm across the bar and punch out Dean.
"I believe the lady rejected your offer now beat it before I have you brought up on assaulting a Federal agent." Hotch growled out shoving the man towards the door.
Emily silently rubbed her arm, before grabbing her bag and moving pass her friends with a raised eyebrow.
"Emily" Hotch said quietly following her to the exit, "Are you alright?"
"Mm hmm" she agreed, but continued on to the door only to feel his hand on her shoulder.
"Look at me" he said insistently causing her to stop and slowly turn while his eyes scanned her smooth and soft skin before landing on the light bruising marks.
"I'm fine Hotch" she told him, "Thanks really, but I just want to go home."
"I'm sorry about you know..." he said before pausing.
"Yeah, that was pretty bad ass how you took care of that creep." she said, smiling.
"No, not about that" he said, "I meant about your break up with Ryan."
He saw her face go from stunned to shock then to a frown before she spoke again.
"How did you know?" she finally managed to ask.
He gave her a disbelieving look, "Garcia's weekly email updates about the team."
She groaned at that, "Damn her."
"Eh, you're really not surprised are you?" Hotch asked moving them to a table, "Look, some men are scum believe me I know."
"Don't tell me, you're the love them and leave them type, right?" she snorted.
"Hardly" Hotch said, then gave her a look, "People aren't always who they seem to be. Sometimes they're great and other times they can..."
"Suck" Emily told him, "So what did Beth do?"
"Nothing" Hotch told her, not wanting to dredge up the worst moment since returning to the singles scene.
"Hey" Emily said, placing a hand on his, "You can talk to me about her and I'll tell you about him."
He contemplated that for a moment, he did want to know what idiotic thing Ryan did but could he tell her about Beth?
"Ok, you go first" Hotch told her finding an empty seat at the bar.
Emily picked up the beer bottle, "I'm going to need a lot more of this after telling you about Ryan."
He watched, impressed, as she downed the bottle before setting it back on the table before taking a deep breath.
"Ok" Emily said, "So we just came back from that case on Monday. You know the Green case?"
"Yeah?" Hotch said, sipping on his own beer.
"So I came back from the BAU" she said, taking a deep breath, "Instead of going to my apartment, I decided it would be better to stop by his place. You know, surprise him?"
"And?" he asked.
"I used my key and well, lets just say I wasn't the only one surprised" Emily muttered, finishing off her beer, "But I am the only one to walk out without a black eye and my hair intact."
Frowning at that, he raised an eyebrow, "You mean...?"
"Ryan got the black eye and his blonde needs a better dye job" Emily said, "I could practically see the black roots after I ripped her hair out of her head."
Hotch doubled over in laughter, "Oh, my."
"Yeah, laugh it up" Emily said, toying with the beer, "It's what I live for. So now your turn."
That got his attention and the joyous look soon was replaced with another one, one that appeared melancholy.
She gave him a small smile, while placing her soft hand on his, "Hey, if you don't want to talk about it, that's ok. Besides I'm sure yours couldn't be anymore worst than mine."
Hotch's eyes shot up to her, and he felt a wave of sympathy for the brunette. He mentally contemplated tracking down Ryan and beating the crap out of the other man for even thinking of cheating on Emily.
As his eyes scanned over her small frame, he couldn't imagine any man wanting to cheat on her with anyone else. Not with someone as beautiful and smart as Emily.
"Hotch?" she called out, tapping on their connected hand and he realized how perfect hers fit with his own, "Hotch, are you ok?"
Clearing his throat, he watched as she tried to pull her hand from his but he kept a firm grasp on it, "I'm fine. I'll be fine."
"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked.
He took a deep breath, and looked up in her warm and kind eyes, "It just didn't work out. We weren't really compatible."
She raised an eyebrow but nodded, "Sorry. Hey but don't worry, you just got back out in the dating world and sometimes you've got to kiss a few toads before you find your perfect match."
He gave her a wry chuckle, "Well I'm not so sure about that, at least not for me."
"Oh don't say that" Emily said, "Your perfect girl is out there, you'll know it when you find her."
Hotch felt his heart beat, he wanted to tell her that he did find her and that she was it but before he could even think of opening his mouth JJ rushed over.
"Did I tell you that I was sorry yet?" she asked Emily, "Because it turns out there are a few more of those guys from that site looking for you."
"JJ" Emily hissed out, looking over the blonde's shoulder to a man who was waving at her, "Crap, I need a quick exit."
Hotch took that as his opportunity, "You need a lift? I'm actually not in the mood and my friend seems to have found a better source of entertainment."
Emily looked over to see Dave chatting with a red-headed cocktail waitress, "You've got a car?"
"Yes" Hotch said, "Now get your coat and we can make a smooth exit."
Emily grabbed her coat, and as she was about to slip it on, Hotch helped her startling her but making her smile.
"See, you're one in a million catch, Hotch" Emily told him, "Anyone would be lucky to spend time with you."
"Really?" he asked, giving her a quick glance before the two hit the street, "So would you like to come back to my place and maybe watch a movie or something?"
Emily slid into the passenger seat of his SUV, "Sure, I'd like that."
Hotch walked over to the driver side feeling a spark of hope he hadn't felt in a long time, maybe sometimes they had to kiss a few toads to find their real match.
And for him, maybe it was always Emily.
"The beginning of love is to let those we love be perfectly themselves, and not to twist them to fit our own image. Otherwise we love only the reflection of ourselves we find in them." Thomas Merton
THE END
I hope you all enjoyed this, remember to leave a review.