Once again I own nothing, all mistakes are my own and thanks for the reviews.

Enough is Enough

Chapter 4

Prentiss made her way up to the section chiefs office, dreading what she was going to say to her. What do you say to your boss on why you raised your fist to your other boss? God, she wasn't looking forward to this.

As much as she loved her job and unfortunately her unit chief, she didn't want to be in this building.

She couldn't take any more. No more of not being made welcome by her superior, no more accusations and again from her superior. Emily had figured she had proven herself by now. That she could finally settle down in one place long enough to start a family. She was under the illusion that Hotch was, eventually and hopefully, going to be that person she was meant to share the rest of her life with.

After the whole Doyle thing, they did get closer but when it came to work, he was a totally different person. He treated her differently and it wasn't a case of separating work and personnel. He was treating her like he treated Agent Jordan when she was here. She had pulled him up about it but he either, denied it or said that it was just because he was stressed at work. After that Emily decided that she would take a back burner to their social interactions and see how things change from there. And boy, did they change. Hotch started training for an annual FBI triathlon and met a lady friend whist out jogging in the park.

The team was very wary of Hotch's new 'Friend', friend being the operative word. Beth her name was. A few of team thought it was weird how she happened to be in the park at the same time Hotch was, even more strange how she knew that he was an FBI agent and he hadn't even said anything to her.

Stupid Rossi pushing Hotch to start dating again, why couldn't he just leave him alone. Maybe Beth was the reason why Hotch had been off with her. Maybe Beth was jealous of Emily, maybe she was putting things in his head about her. Something to think about.

"Agent Prentiss, step in to my office please" Strauss brought Emily back to the land of the living

God, when did she turn up, this is going to be fun! She thought to herself.

"Chief Strauss" she was not looking forward to this one bit.

Strauss wasn't a morning person. Strauss wasn't in best of moods any time of the day, but mornings she was even worse. If she hadn't of already quit, she would have been fired by Strauss. She could sense it. Strauss was never Emily's biggest fan.

Emily walked in to the office. She was told to take a seat. The hot seat, it was called by her fellow Agents, well, her ex-fellow Agents, as she didn't work here any more.

"Sorry for being so forward Ma'am, but why am I here exactly?"

"Well, I thought you could tell me? And that wasn't a rhetorical question Agent."

"You ordered me here Ma'am"

"Perhaps you could fill me in on the events that took place in your Bullpen when your team arrived back yesterday? There are various rumours going around this building about yourself and Your Unit chief,Agent Hotchner. I would like to hear your events of what happened"

SHIT ,SHIT and DOUBLE SHIT, was all that came to Emily's mind.

"There is nothing going on with myself and Agent Hotchner Ma'am"

"I know that Agent Prentiss, he is with Miss Clemens, isn't he?..."

"unfortunately" Emily muttered under her breath interrupting Strauss

"Excuse me"

"Nothing Ma'am" she could of sworn she saw Strauss smile slightly, but that can't be right, that woman rarely smiles.

"I was referring to the altercation you and Agent Hotchner had. It says here in my report that you assaulted him. Is that true?"

"Wait.. report? You said you wanted to see if the rumours were true, you mentioned nothing of a report."

"I did mention rumours, as that was how I found out that you assaulted Hotchner, but I also was given a report of your gross misconduct".

There was no way that she was telling Agent Prentiss that she actually happen to see it on camera in her office and the fact that she spat her coffee all over her computer when she seen Emily land a right hook to Hotchner and nearly sent him to the floor with it. That would be like her admitting that she enjoyed it and wish she could of done it to him. No that could happen.

" And let me guess, Hotch filed the report on me? So much for sticking together. Last time I do him any favours" Emily was pissed now, but she couldn't but feel more hurt than ever.

"Come on Emily we now that's not true. Everybody knows that you have feelings for him, even I can see it and i'm not a great profiler like Yourself" Emily looked at her like she had two heads

"I'm not a totally heartless woman Emily, I also do fall in love you know, not that that has anything to do with this. I could see the hurt in your eyes when you knew Hotchner filed a report"

Emily just put her chin to her chest, trying to control her breathing. Was she that transparent the even the ice queen could see she was in love with Hotch. What was she to do now? She had no job, lost one of her of closest friends. Well. She thought of Morgan as one of her closest Friends but he obviously didn't. Maybe she could spend some quality time with her Father?

"Emily... Emily"

"mm'mmm" she said lost in thought. "Sorry Ma'am I was was just trying to thing what I was going to do for a job?"

"I was hoping you weren't serious about tending your resignation? Even though we have had our rough patches and your start to the BAU, wasn't on best footing, I feel we have all come along way since then"

"Ma'am? I'm not quite following where this is going? Are you serious about me keeping my job? I was sure that if I didn't quit, that I would have been fired for what happened with Hotch" Emily could of swore she was in a parallel universe.

"Can I ask you a personal question Emily?"

"Go on, but I might not answer it as I'm kinda finding this whole situation a bit strange ma'am"

"I can understand that. But I have been where you are now and I can understand your situation to a degree, not meaning to over step the mark and this is strictly off the record, but... what why did you punch Aaron? I know you are very loyal to your team, so when I seen you strike him, I was shocked to say the least."

Strauss was getting excited and nervous. She had been waiting for Hotch to get a jolt back to reality. The past few months he has been off hand with some of his team but mainly with Prentiss. She was hoping it was just a passing faze and he would snap out of it and didn't really want to intervene unless it got to far and it just had.. she was kinda happy that someone gave him what for but she wasn't happy that it had to be a member of his, because that had caused problems which she was fighting very hard to not send the report upstairs to the director. In all fairness she did like Aaron but she didn't like the fact that he was more qualified to do her job and was liked more by the director, she was always in fear of her job, which in turn, made her ride his arse all the time. But because of personnel reason's that she didn't really want to discuss, she had called Emily to her office to try and resolve the situation. She had a sinking feeling that she knew the whole cause of this situation. Why Hotch was being of hand, why he was treating the team, Emily mainly, the way he was, but, she wasn't one to speculate until she had the facts straight from the horses mouth.

Emily was sat there pondering whether she should say why she did it. Deep down, she loved him and couldn't betray him even though he had treated her like shit.

"I'm sorry ma'am...

Strauss interrupted her before she could finish. " Erin, please, this conversation is off the books."

"Erin... I can't go into detail,as much as I... dare I say it... hate him and love him, I can't betray him. It took me long enough to get the trust off him when I first joined the team and this will just open a whole can if worms that i'm not sure I can deal with right now. All I can say is that I had enough of being the one on the team that seemed to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when he choice to vent."

Strauss' inkling was right. It was personal between them. She was going for broke now and finally said what she thought was the main issue.

"Is this about Beth Clemmons?"

To say Emily was stunned was an understatement. "Who Hotch is having a relationship with is none of my business and has nothing to do with me. I might have hoped it would have been me but there are rules and that doesn't mean I would let it affect my work,. Besides it would never happen even If there was no rule about fraternisation."

This was going to be more difficult then Strauss thought trying to get to the bottom of things. She was going to have to push harder other wise when she got home tonight she would be in the bad books with her better half.

"I know you wouldn't bring your personnel life into work, which is why i'm assuming you haven't spoken to Aaron about it already"

"What exactly do you think you know about Beth, Hotch and myself?" Emily was nervous and very curious to find out what she thought she knew. There was no way that Strauss would know what she knew, or could she?

"That Beth is cheating on Hotch, you and your father have both witnessed it on numerous occasions, you yourself have confronted Beth about it, you haven't told Hotch because she said that she will make your work life Hell,Beth said Aaron wouldn't believe you because they are in love and for the big finish... Beth is going to tell Aaron she is having his baby. And I think after that comment, that was when you launched at her and got you both arrested and your father had to bail you out".

Emily just sat there, mouth wide open and in shock.

"So... how did I do? Was that a correct assumption as to what has really been going on?" Strauss just sat there with a slight smirk on her face waiting for Emily to come out of shock.

"Erm... Erm.. yeah, you hit the nail on the Head. How did you find out?"

"You know how I said i'm not totally heartless ? Well, your father and myself are in a relationship and he told me."

What the fuck was her dad doing seeing Strauss? She thought he was single. And why did he tell her. She needed answers.

"So how long have you been seeing my dad?"

"About a year and half, give or take"

"But he never told me. I know he is a private person but i'm his Daughter, he could if told me."

"I think he didn't want you getting treated differently if people found out, and nobody does know, this is still private and hoping to keep it that way if you don't mind"

"Er.. yeah sure" Emily was slowly coming out of her shock, but something didn't add up.

"Wait my Father hasn't been back in the country that long. How have you start the relationship a year and half ago?"

"Sorry, little misunderstanding, i'm in a relationship with Agent Rossi, your surrogate Father not your Biological father, Gideon".