"I had money on the swim killing you."
"I practiced," Hotched breathed out before he took another long swig of water.
Emily's stomach did a summersault at the sight of him all wet and panting. Or maybe it was all the drinks from last night. She couldn't be sure which.
"Something greasy please," JJ moaned catching Emily's attention. Her eyes had been tracing the water beading down his biceps while she remembered the last time she was embraced by them.
"Oh yeah, let's," she agreed turning to Reid and JJ.
"Hotchner!" An unfamiliar voice made them all turn. Emily could hear the smile in his voice as he called back to her. She recognized that smile; it had been once directed at her.
For a brief second she was glad she was hung over. Her sunglasses gave her a chance to get a good look at the women he was trotting over to. Emily's eyes took in her warm smiling face and curtain of brown wavy hair. It reminded Emily of when she was Lauren. She was simply dressed but was wearing funky jewelry that showed off her artsy side. Emily turned back to her friends with a shrug when Hotch and who she assumed was Beth hugged; hopping her distain would be read as confusion. As far as everyone else knew Hotch was new to dating and she couldn't give it away that he told her she would be coming.
What he didn't tell her was that he was going to invite Beth to breakfast with them.
The entire time in the car with JJ and Reid she was having silent conversation with JJ through the review mirror about if she could ditch breakfast and go home to wallow in peace. She was already hung over and had only gotten three hours of sleep. It wasn't very restful either as Emily, JJ and Garcia passed out in a tangle in JJ's king size bed.
"So I guess Hotch really is dating. How do you think they met?" Reid asked
JJ tried to run interference. "I'm not sure. What I am sure about is how much bacon I'm going to eat."
"When does he have time between cases and Strauss's paper work and being with Jack? She didn't look like she could be an agent or a lawyer," Reid kept rambling about how Haley and Beth were physically different but both looked artsy. Emily caught JJ's raised eyebrows in the mirror. She hadn't told her everything, just that she had Hotch were taking a break while she got adjusted to the city again. The fact it was because Emily wanted to leave was left out as well.
"Spence," JJ groaned, "please just shut up until we get some food in us. I love you but if you don't stop talking…"
"Ok, I'm done."
Emily was thankful for the silence so she could prepare for what going to be a tortuous experience. When they pulled up to the dinner Rossi, Morgan, Garcia and Jack were waiting for them. Rossi went in to reserve a table while the rest waited on a bench outside for Hotch and Beth.
"Miss Em'ly can I sit by you?"
"Sure Jack. But you need to be really quiet."
"Why?"
"We're hunting wabbits," she said in a cartoon voice with a finger to her lips. Laughter ripped through Jack as JJ and Garcia winced. The others chuckled as the last two of their group joined them.
"You know he told me to watch that tape when I was sad after you stopped coming around." Hotch whispered in her ear as they were heading to their table. Emily tried to hide her shiver at the breath on her neck. "He still watches it when he isn't feeling well."
Thanks to JJ and Rossi's impeccable profiling skills, Emily ended up sitting in the perfect place so she could avoid looking at Hotch and Beth mooning over each other. She could hear Rossi and Morgan giving Beth their nicest interrogation. She laughed and smiled in all the right places and wasn't afraid to tease them back. Either Beth really was charming or they were going easy on her.
"I just love those rings Beth. And that necklace! You must share where you got it," Garcia complimented oblivious to the glare JJ gave her from her seat on the other side of Reid.
Emily didn't listen to Beth's response. She was too lost her thoughts about how anyone can smile as much her. And her voice is so sickly sweet. Emily had started to wonder if Beth was even real given her behavior and what she knows about how she met Hotch.
Emily felt her stomach churn again. This time is was the sight of Beth rubbing Hotch's neck and shoulders that did her in. Once again thankful for a hangover, Emily set her head down on her arms while she waited for her plate of gravy covered carbs. She tried to focus on Reid's stats about hangover cures.
"Best cure for a hangover is to not get one. You should have drank more water and paced yourselves better last night and your body wouldn't be reacting like you poisoned it. Which is what you did as our body's cant process alcohol hence getting a hangover."
"Says the kid who's too young to drink." Emily scoffed. "I still stand by carbs and coffee."
"Mmm…Bacon. Bacon fixes everything," JJ moaned.
"I find that tomato juice works to settle my stomach," Beth added.
JJ and Emily exchanged looks as Garcia turned to Rossi, leaning over Morgan. "You've been doing this longer than the rest of us, how do you do it sir?"
Rossi narrowed his eyes at her, causing Garcia to shrink back behind Morgan for protection. "I've learned to drink the good stuff. Treat it well and it will be kind right back."
"Hey now, little ears," Hotch said in mock outrage, narrowing his eyes at Dave in front of him. "Let's not corrupt my child."
"You should have thought about that before you let the man with a penchant for cigars, scotch and bad taste in women be called 'Uncle Dave.' Didn't you know what you were getting into?" Morgan replied with a smile.
"Hey! Wives one and two were perfectly respectable," Rossi said looking put out.
"So it wasn't your judgment, but there must be something wrong with you to have three ex-wives."
"Jack, do you want your pancakes cut?" Hotch asked trying to change the subject again. The little boy nodded.
"I got it sir," Garcia answered. "Hey Jack-o, let me help you," she said taking his plate from across the table.
"Em'ly, can I come play with Sergio again? I missed him. Daddy won't let me have a cat."
"Jack, do you like cats?" Beth tried to ask Jack, he mumbled an affirmative and turned back around to Emily to wait for her response.
"If your dad says it's ok, sure thing kiddo." She said as Jack gave her a pancake filled smile.
"Only if I don't have to be there," Hotch grinned.
"Do you not like cats Aaron?" Beth way she kept calling him Aaron was grating to Emily's ears, making her head pound even harder.
"More like Sergio doesn't like him," Emily laughed. She quickly turned red and clamped her mouth shut. There would be no reason for her cat to hate him; he shouldn't have met the cat as he had no reason to be at her place.
Reid, having missed the obvious cues the rest of the table had gotten, asked the unspoken question. "When did you ever meet her cat? You only had him for a few months before you died," he trailed off as he noticed everyone staring at him. Hotch's eyes were cutting into Reid and his head was twitching over to Jack. Reid continued slowly, "or umm…before you left?"
"They came over when I helped Jack with some information on life in France for a class project on countries for the upcoming Olympics."
"You lived in France?" Beth asked. "I tried to learn French but I am horrible at the accent."
"On and off, I spent summers there as a child and was recently in Paris for six months," Emily answered in between bites of hash browns.
"I love all the museums in Paris, but my favorite are in Rome. I loved spending a semester there and have been dying to go back for more than a work trip," Beth said to no one in particular.
"To understand Rome, you must be in Rome," quoted Rossi dreamily taking a sip of his coffee.
"Princess, didn't you live in Rome as a teen?" Morgan asked.
"If we're going to talk about all the places I lived, we will be here all day," Emily said quietly. She could feel Beth's stare and noticed Hotch tense slightly.
Without even trying, everyone was pitting Beth and Emily against each other and Emily was clearly the group favorite. She hid her smile behind another bite. Not that Emily usually encourages that kind of thing. Women can be interested in the same things and men without competing with each other. But this whole thing with Beth was making her insecure and it was nice to be told how great you are by your friends.
"Hey Jack, Henry has been asking about seeing you again. How do you feel about the space museum?" JJ said as she shoved her fifth piece of bacon in her mouth.
"Can I go too? We only made it through half of it last time because Emily was too slow."
"What? I like to actually look at things and not have you ramble facts at me."
"I liked Spence's stories," Jack piped up. "They were neat."
"Emily wasn't slow Reid, little boys have short legs. And attention spans." Hotch didn't even look up from his eggs. "JJ, you can take Jack anywhere as long as I don't have to get the Spencer Reid Tour Guide Experience again." He said throwing a pointed look down to the opposite end of the table where those two sat.
"That wasn't my fault. I didn't organize that field trip," Reid pouted.
"Yeah, you agreed to come with Reid and me," Emily stated looking down the table to Hotch. "We could have taken Jack and Henry by ourselves."
Emily thought about that day. She couldn't believe it was only four months ago. She offered to watch Henry for the day so JJ and Will could have some alone time. Reid wanted to go to the museum and Emily suggested they make a trip out of it with Jack. At one point Reid wandered off with Henry leaving her with the Hotchners. It almost felt like a family outing. Something that was pointed out to them by no fewer than five strangers.
"And let you handle three toddlers by alone?" Everyone laughed and Reid looked offended, his mouth was hanging open. Emily was sure Hotch was picking on Reid to draw attention away from the discoveries of how much time outside of work they have spent together. She would have to take Reid to the local Indie theatre or make a trip to a rare book store with him to make it up.
"Jack, what's your favorite part of the space museum?" Beth asked.
"Rockets!" He said excitedly. "Spence makes the best rockets!"
"Physics magic," Reid said shyly as Emily caught him hiding his face with his mug. After years of being awkward around babies, kids and pets, well just about anyone really, Reid was very proud of himself when the boys thought he was cool.
The conversation turned to Reid almost hitting Hotch with a rocket and other team shenanigans. Emily took the chance to have another silent conversation with JJ. A few eye rolls, sighs and head tilts later and they were on the same page about the touching, giggles and high pitch of Beth's voice.
"Ok, I have a little monster to get home to. Spence, Em, you ready to go? Morgan you got Garcia?" JJ asked. There were nods all around and Rossi signaled to the waitress. "Beth it was nice to meet you." Emily could hear the lack of sincerity in JJ's voice.
"Yeah, it was nice that you could join us," Emily added half-heartedly. It earned her a glance from Hotch, one that she didn't return.
"Em'ly when can I see Sergio?"
"Soon kiddo. But not today," Emily ruffled his hair. "Emily needs to sleep." She slung her purse over her shoulder, sent the rest of the team a wave and followed JJ out the door. Once they were out of earshot of the team she turned to Reid. "I swear to god, Reid if you dissect that breakfast, like I know you want to, I will help Garcia paper the office with every embarrassing thing you have ever done."
Reid shot JJ a questioning look only to get a shrug in return.
"Spence, I'm taking you home first." There was no room to argue in JJ's tone.
Emily slid into the backseat and leaned against the headrest closing her eyes. This day was not going how she imagined. She wanted nothing more than to curl up in bed with Sergio and forget the last three hours ever happened.
RMPCMFAN - thanks for all the lovely reviews! Keep in mind chapter two is when Haley and Jack are in protective custody, Hotch was in 'protect my family' mode, hooking up with Emily would be the last thing on his mind. And yeah, I wish someone would have at least attempted to comfort Emily after Demonology. She would have said no, but they could have tried.