"Thank you, so much, Mom. I really appreciate this. I'm sorry I can't give you a day we'll be back yet. Tell Ava I'm sorry, too. I'll call you tonight before she goes to bed. Love you too, bye." Emily hung up the phone, hitting her palm with it out of frustration. Elizabeth was used to getting phone calls, requests to babysit her granddaughter for an unpredictable amount of time, and since she didn't work and had keys to Emily's house, it meant that neither Elizabeth nor Ava's schedules would be interrupted. But that didn't mean Emily didn't resent having to rely on having her mother there to look after Ava, no matter how much both parties enjoyed each others company. It had shocked everyone how close Elizabeth and Emily had grown since Ava's birth; the ex-Ambassador had showed up shortly before Ava was born and insisted on being in the delivery room. At first, Emily had protested, insisting that she would have JJ and Aaron there and that would be enough. As it turned out, though, having her mother there was the greatest comfort and they had had a much better relationship since.
"Elizabeth is having Ava?" Aaron asked, walking over to her. She turned around, slipping her phone into her back pocket.
Emily nodded. "Yeah, she said it's not a problem. I told her we'll phone before Ava goes to bed, to say goodnight."
Now Aaron was nodding. It appeared as if nodding would be their main method of communication from now on. "Thank you." He said, formally. It made Emily tense when he spoke to her like that, but it was how she had asked him to treat her. Like a colleague. Not even as a friend, but as a subordinate colleague. He, she supposed, was working through this as best he knew how, just like she was.
"What are you thinking about this case?" He asked her, and she was immediately grateful for the distraction.
"I think it's too early to start speculating," Emily said, then continued, "But if I was going too..I'd say we're dealing with a loner; the way the bodies were all dumped in one place suggests an accelerated timeline that is less common in teams. Psychopath, obviously, we already established that. Has to be strong, not only to have mutilated the body's the way they did, but to have blitz attacked the victims, so I would say male and he's probably a labourer of some sort."
"What makes you think it was a blitz attack?" Hotch asked, with the slight tilt of his head that she was so familiar with.
"You don't think they are?" She questioned him right back. She hadn't considered that the unsub could be luring his victims. That, she reminded herself, was a side effect of being away from their line of work for a few weeks.
"I don't think we should rule it out. I see where you're coming from; the way he mangled the bodies makes it obvious that he's psychologically deranged so we have to assume he's not comfortable talking to people and interacting with them, so he definitely wouldn't have the charisma to lure them...but look at back at some of the psychopaths we've dealt with, namely Foyet and Doyle, just a few examples. They were charming in their own rights."
Emily was nodding in agreement, "Right. So don't rule anything out."
"That's all I'm saying." He confirmed, with a slight smile, before walking away. She watched him and after a few steps, he looked over his shoulder. "Maybe this will work, after all."
Emily smiled, but all she could think was how much it pained her to have him so close, but for him to be so emotionally distant, and how she didn't have the right to be upset about that since she had helped him slide the wedge in between them.
"I think you guys should know," Garcia said, when they were all comfortably sitting on the jet, "That we're entering Mariposa on the back of a hurricane, so weather conditions are kind of severe at the minute. Hope you all packed your waterproofs."
"I hope you didn't." Morgan commented, with a nod at the blonde's white dress. She smacked him on the back of the head with the closed laptop she was holding - gently, of course. There was scattered laughter, before the images from earlier popped up on everyone's tablet screens and the tone fell into a sombre one.
Emily felt as though she had spent more of her life on this plane than she had anywhere else, in the past fourteen years. They had been out of Virginia more than they had been in it and she had spent more time with the team than she had with anyone else. They really were her family. She was agitatedly tapping her pen on the notebook she had been jotting notes on, while she daydreamed and internally stressed about the situation she was in when JJ put her hand over hers.
"What is with you, today?" She asked,, "It's like you've come back a completely different person."
Hotch, in the seat opposite JJ, glanced up at the pair, and Emily caught his eye. JJ looked between them, confused, but Emily just shook her head.
"Nothing, I'm sorry. Just trying to get back into the swing of things. I shouldn't have taken that time off."
"But I thought you were sick?" Reid noted, from beside Hotch, "So the time off wasn't optional."
"Yes, thank you, Reid." Emily agreed, a slight note of annoyance in her voice. "I worded that badly. I wish I hadn't had to have that time off. Better?"
Reid nodded, looking a little meek and shocked by the way she had snapped at him. Emily took pity on him, shaking her head with a sigh. "I'm sorry, Reid. I'm not feeling myself today."
"Maybe you're still a little sick?" JJ said, reaching up to put a hand to her forehead. Emily waved her hand away and stood up, setting the notebook down on the table. They were all looking at her now. She knew she was behaving oddly and that she had to pull it together.
"Yeah, maybe. I'm going to..." Her sentence trailed off and she walked down the plane towards the bathroom. She went inside and closed the door behind her, leaning her forehead against it for a few moments before turning to look at herself in the mirror. She really needed to sort herself out, not even for the team but for the case. She didn't want the team to know what was going on between her and Aaron yet, but that meant having to behave as though everything was normal, when everything wasn't normal and wouldn't be ever again. Or, at least, it wouldn't be what it used to be. She would have to find a new normal. Turning on the tap, she splashed her face with water a few times, why she didn't know, but it made her feel a little better. She did feel a little hot; being in a confined space whilst under such duress as she was wasn't helping any, not at all, especially since the source of her duress was sitting diagonally across from her. God knew why Aaron had chosen to sit with her and JJ, as oppose to on the other table.
He's trying to be inconspicuous, you idiot. The exact opposite of what you're doing. A voice in her head said. She looked at herself in the mirror, her flushed, now wet face, and rolled her eyes at herself. Pull yourself together, Emily. You're not this mopey, tragic little girl. You never were and you don't have to be now.
She stood up straight, pulled her jacket into place and it was at that very moment that the plane gave a violent jolt upwards. She felt herself being flung backwards and lost her footing. Another jolt and she was flung forwards. There was a searing pain in her forehead as she collided with something she realised, in a dazed state, was the sink. The ceiling was dancing as she looked up at it, feeling the plane jolt around some more, throwing her body around the bathroom like a rag doll. Her world quickly faded to black and she couldn't feel the turbulence anymore.