Off the Map- Chapter four
Rating: K+
A/N : Anyone else thrilled for season 7? Can't for it to start! The gang is back together!
A/N 2 : I'm glad, that you're still reading.
Hotch was sitting in the passenger seat of a rental car, studying the landscape. Easter was driving and Meunier was sitting in the back. No one was talking. They had arrived in Italy around 10 a.m. Spending most of his days in his office, he felt that even with his sunglasses on the sun light was extremely bright. They were heading in the direction of the province of Siena. Easter had explained that they would set up their operation base in a village south of Siena, in the Val d'Orcia. Hotch remembered being to Siena with Haley. They had both been in college when they had spent a summer backpacking trough Europe. Haley had loved the large Gothic cathedral.
"Here we go" Easter announced after a while and turned right into a small lane that led to a big dusty yard that was surrounded by Cypress trees on the one side and an old building and a large barn on the other side. Easter parked close to the wooden entrance door and all three men climbed out of the car. They were immediately reminded of how hot it was. Hotch was glad he was wearing jeans and a t-shirt instead of a dark suit. He looked around. The next house was some miles away. The property was nicely settled on top of a hill. It was encircled by olive groves and meadows.
Easter and Meunier had started unloading the car when, Easter cried out:
"Ah! Here she is! Hey Hotchner! Didn't I tell you one of yours would be working with us?"
Hotch turned around. Three people had come out of the building, a man and two women. The woman on the right was around 65 years old and had gray hair. She carried herself with pride and natural self confidence. The man was about her age and his appearance was that of man who had spent lots of hours outside. Hotch took this in without processing it. He's mind was set on the second woman.
There in the bright light of the sun stood Emily Prentiss.
On the outside he kept his stoic face, but on the inside he was quite moved to see her. He was overwhelmed to see with his own eyes, that she was indeed alive and healthy. He noticed that she had lost some weight and that her hair was longer than it used to be, but all in all she looked just like he remembered her. Her clothes were irritating him a bit. She was wearing a black skirt and sandals topped by an emerald tank top. Not a sight he was used to, but he admitted to himself, that she looked good in it.
Emily looked at him with her dark eyes and he could tell she was as tense as he was. There were lots of unresolved issues between them, but for now they had to wait. He made a step towards her and as he did so did Emily.
They were standing in front of each other with still a good distance between them.
"Hello Hotch."
"Emily."
"Did you have a good flight."
"Yes. Fine."
"That's good."
Out of words, they just starred at each other.
"Oh come on! " Easter blurt out. "That's it? No hugging, kissing, screaming? How bloody boring is that?"
"Sorry to disappoint you." Emily said dryly.
"That man threatened to kill me if anything happened to you, I think you owe him at least a hug."
Another man might have blushed by Easters words, but not Hotch. He didn't show any reaction.
Emily let that new information sink in. Then she gave Hotch a shy smile.
"It's good to see you again."
Hotch thought how much he had missed that smile. And how much he had missed her.
Then it was time to get acquainted with the rest of their little group. The old woman's name was Rosa and the man's was Giovanni. They owned the house and the olive grove and rented rooms to tourists for some extra money when their children weren't visiting. Rosa liked to have a full house, but her two daughters were living in Florence with their families and her son owned a carpentry in Pisa. She was happy to have four people staying with her now and had been very exited to find out that Emily was fluent in Italian, when she had arrived two days earlier. It made communication a lot easier because Rosa only knew a bit of English. Giovanni's English wasn't much better. For their visitors it had the advantage that they could talk openly and not worry about Rosa and Giovanni hearing anything they shouldn't.
The three men grabbed their luggage and the whole party went inside. In contrast to the heat outside it was quite cool inside. Giovanni showed the men to their rooms. They were all on the second floor, where Emily had already moved into another room. Rosa's and Giovanni's private rooms were located on the first floor. The rooms were decorated with old wooden furniture and Hotch guessed that they were family heirlooms. Rosa had put a vase with orange and yellow flowers in every room and there was a smell of freshly washed linen in the air.
After they settled in they met outside on the patio. There were lots of comfortable chairs around a big iron table. Rosa had put a jar with water and some glasses in the middle of the table, then she had gone back to the kitchen to prepare dinner.
Hotch sat down in one of the chairs and filled a glass with water. After the long journey he was thirsty. He watched how Emily and Clyde talked at the far end of the patio and wondered what they were discussing. Meunier came and sat next to him.
"Agent Hotchner."
"It's Aaron."
"Okay, Aaron. Nice place, huh?"
"Yes, indeed."
They leaned back in their chairs and enjoyed the scenery around them.
"So tell me, what's the thing between you and Clyde? It doesn't look as if you were best buds." Paul asked curious.
"He is testing me. He tries to push my buttons, to see if I can hold my own against him. It's his way to find out if I'm worth his time."
"In other words: He provokes you, to see if you two could be friends."
"I doubt that he and I will ever be friends, so it's more a question if he can accept me as equal."
"Man, you profilers are complicated."
Hotch chuckled.
"No, not really."
"What about Emily?"
"Emily?"
"Yes. What's the story with her?"
"No, story. We worked together."
Hotchs eyes wandered back to Emily and Doyle.
"Really? That's it?" Meunier wasn't buying it. The odd welcoming between Emily and Hotch and Hotchs body language right now told him there was more.
When Hotch didn't answer he let the subject go. If the other man didn't want to talk about it, then it was fine with him. As opposed to Clyde he could accept, that whatever happened or not happened between Emily and Aaron was non of his business.
Easter and Emily walked over to them and sat in the chairs on the other side of the table.
"Now that everybody feels at home we can talk business." Easter started.
"We have three locations we consider possible hiding places for Dolye."
"I'm not a profiler, so I have to ask this: What made you think that Doyle is in Italy?" Meunier asked.
"When Doyle came looking for me, he was driven by revenge for his son. Now that he knows that the boy is alive, he will do everything that he can to find him." Emily answered.
"Yes, but as far as I know the boy is not in Italy. So wouldn't Doyle rather hide in the country where his son is?"
"Doyle is on every most wanted list in Europe, Canada and the US. He has to be very careful about his moves. So far he only knows that his son is alive and that only Emily knows where he is." Easter said.
"That's why she had to die." Hotch remarked matter-of-factly. "For him she is the only one between him and his son. He's a psychopath. He would do absolutely everything to make her talk. From killing and torturing the people closest to her to killing random people. He would not stop before he would find his son." Hotch stared at Emily intensely. Saying the words out lout, assured him once more that it had been the right decision. Dolye would have used all means to break Emily if she had been alive. It wasn't just a question of protecting her, the team or her mother. They had agreed, that if Doyle couldn't get to them he would kill others, probably families and would make sure Emily would know it was because of her.
There was a silent pause for a moment, where everyone pondered what man they were dealing with.
"So why Italy?" Meunier got back to the original topic.
"If Doyle can't be with his son, it's most likely he will hide at a place where he feels close to him. His Tuscan estate is the place he would most associate with Declan, because that's where they spend their last happy days together." Emily explained.
"He can't go back to the estate itself, so he would choose a place close to it."
"Doyle had some friends in the area. We believe he is staying with one of them" Easter continued.
"We narrowed it down to four men: Guido Fiore, Matteo Aretino, Luigi Montale and Benito Gadda."
"Fiore owns a winery. Aretino comes from a wealthy family and has his hands in a lot of ventures, most of them on the other side of legal. His family has a large estate near Siena. Montale makes his money with exporting olives, but occasionally it's not just olives you can find in the shipping containers. Gadda owns a restaurant with a very busy back room."
"The thing is we don't know for sure if Doyle is staying with anyone of them." Emily pointed out.
"What's the plan? Hotch asked.
"We split into two teams and start observing." Easter answered.
"We start with Fiore and and Aretino, because they are the ones, we think Doyle most likely will turn to for help."
"Sounds good." Meunier said.
"I have files for you which contain pictures, information about their back round, their habits, the places they work and live and so on."
Suddenly a loud clangor came from inside the house followed by some loud cursing by Rosa.
Emily rose to her feet. "I'll go check, if Rosa needs some help."
When she was gone, Hotch asked:
"What do they think we are doing here?"
"Sightseeing. Look like you're having fun. Or at least not like it's the end of the world." Easter replied.
Emily came back and announced :
"Everything is under control. Dinner is ready in twenty minutes."
"Just enough time to stretch our legs." Easter got up from his chair and turned to the left, where the patio ended and the grass began.
"How will we partner up?" Meunier called.
"Well, if Agent Hotchner doesn't mind, I will work with Emily while you will be his side kick"
Hotch stared at him like he was ready to kill him, but stayed silent. Emily wasn't so cool about it.
"You're such an ass!" she cried.
"Thanks darling. Now that's settled – see you later!" With that he walked off.
"I think I will follow his lead" Paul said with a smile and went off.
Hotch became aware that it was only Emily and him now. His body tensed and every little sound around them suddenly underlined the heavy silence between them. He wanted to ask how she had been, if she had fully recovered from her injuries, what she's been up to, but he found it hard to find the right words when he remembered how he had pretended to bury her.
"I..." Emily began.
"Yes?" Hotch looked her right in the eyes. It made him stop breathing. There were so many emotions in her eyes: hurt, loneliness, fear, hope, yearning.
Emily quickly dropped her head. She hadn't intended to show him so much of what was going on inside her. She pressed her lips together and got herself back under control before she faced him again.
"I wanted to thank you, for coming here."
Hotch could tell she had put up her defenses and wondered what she was protecting herself from.
"It was the right thing to do."
"Did you have any problems...?"
"No. JJ took care of everything. And Jack is staying with Jessica."
"How is he?"
"He is good. Loves to play soccer."
They both had to smile.
Before they could say more, Rosa came outside with a pile of dishes. She said something in Italian and Hotch understood so much as that she had asked Emily to help her set up the table.
"Con piacere! Emily answered and moved to the door to go inside to get more flatware. Hotch had had the same idea and they almost bumped into each other.
"Sorry" he apologized.
"No problem."
They looked at each other and made a silent deal to continue their talk another time.