Chapter 8: What they don't know…
BAU Jet – Bound for Los Angeles
"Thanks Baby Girl. Keep digging," Morgan spoke quietly into his cell phone before shutting it and returning to his seat.
"Garcia find anything?" Reid asked. He really wanted to know why the team had suddenly fallen apart, and even though he didn't want to admit it to Morgan, he really wanted Hotch and Emily back, and was hoping Garcia might find a way.
"It looks like Hotch is now leading a white collar crime task force. It's a good fit for him with his background as a prosecutor, but it doesn't handle nearly the same caliber of cases as we do. But it is a normal Monday through Friday, nine to five job that doesn't require him to travel."
"So it was Haley's choice, not his," JJ concludes sadly, knowing Hotch would go stir crazy working a job like that.
"That's what Garcia thought too," Morgan returned, "But she did some more digging, and found that Haley filed for divorce yesterday. I don't even know if Hotch has been served with the papers yet or not, but obviously this transfer hasn't saved his marriage."
JJ was shaking her head sadly at the news. Haley had pushed so hard for so long for him to leave the BAU, and now that he'd finally done just that, she was going to leave him anyway. Had likely already left him if divorce papers were already in play. It was wholly unfair to Hotch.
"And Emily?" Reid asked.
"Garcia said it looks like she has dozens of job offers on the table, but so far hasn't accepted any of them," Morgan explained, "In fact, she doesn't seem to have any significant activity of any kind since she left the BAU. She seems to be taking some time for herself before deciding what to do next."
"Which would support the idea that her resignation was not something she wanted or planned, but something that happened rather suddenly, and now she is trying to figure out her next move," JJ finished his train of thought. It was as close as she would come to admitting that Morgan had been right. Clearly something had happened to force their friend to quit, but what? Or who?
"She actually found something on Gideon too," Morgan told them, earning looks of confusion from both his remaining team mates, "Apparently, he had been requesting retirement since the bombing in Boston almost three years ago. The brass didn't want to let him go, so they compromised by having him teach that seminar. Then, when we brought him back into the field, he again pushed for formal retirement, and was denied. Him leaving was something that was a long time coming."
This news didn't really change the situation with regard to Jason Gideon in the slightest. He was gone, and he wasn't coming back, even if anyone could locate him in the first place. But it did ease some of the feelings of hurt and betrayal that all of them had been feeling since his departure. He hadn't wanted to leave for good, without saying goodbye. He had just wanted out of the job that was slowly eating away at his soul, and the brass wouldn't let him go, so he ran. The older man had felt trapped, and they couldn't really blame him for finding a way to escape, knowing how long he had tried to get out.
Reid looked like he was about to say something, but was silenced by the ringing of a cell phone.
"Hello?" JJ answered on the second ring.
"This is she," there was a long pause while someone spoke on the line, and both Reid and Morgan were growing concerned as they watched her eyes grow wide and her mouth fall open in surprise, "Is she going to be ok?"
Both men looked at each other silently questioning, but neither could offer the other any answers.
After another pause, "What do you mean she left?!" and then, "Yes, I understand. No, there's no one else to call. Just let me know immediately if she is brought back in. Thank you," and she hung up the phone.
"What was that about?" Morgan could tell something was wrong, and had a feeling it had nothing to do with the untouched LA case files in front of them.
JJ blew out a long breath before answering him as calmly as she could, "Emily was brought into the hospital last night, or rather early this morning I suppose. She was shot and had been pretty badly beaten. They rushed her into surgery and were able to repair the damage and remove the bullet, but she had no ID on her so they admitted her as a Jane Doe. Evidently, she woke up a couple of hours ago, and immediately signed herself out against medical advice. It took them a while to track down her records to notify me since she was originally admitted as a Jane Doe, but I'm the only emergency contact she has listed so they thought I needed to know, even if she had already checked herself out."
Reid was dialing before she had even finished explaining, suddenly needing to hear his friend's voice himself to confirm that she was alright. After only a few seconds he frowned and spoke into her answering machine, "Emily, it's Spencer. JJ just heard from the hospital and we're worried about you. Call me back as soon as you get this."
"It went straight to voicemail," the young genius stated, attempting to cover his concern.
Quantico, White Collar Crimes
Agent Hotchner sat at his desk in his new office, surrounded by mountains of paperwork, a glass of scotch in his hand. The rest of the office had cleared out some time ago, but he couldn't bring himself to leave, to go home to an empty house. Haley had left just over a week ago, and taken Jack with her.
He had never wanted to leave the BAU in the first place, but after Strauss suspended him and began her 'investigation', he knew the writing was on the wall. The Section Chief clearly believed she had enough on him to have him fired, not that that was all that surprising at this point.
Gideon had made a real mess of things before he left, and that didn't reflect well on Hotch as a leader. Elle's questionable shooting and subsequent resignation alone were enough to make the higher ups question the BAU's practices. Not to mention, Reid's struggle with addiction which the whole team had kept out of reports, and purposefully hidden from Strauss.
If any of that had gotten back to his former boss, she would have had more than enough cause to send him packing. And she was behaving as if she had an informant who would give her just that. He didn't know who she was expecting to whisper in her ear, at least he didn't have any proof, but he had his suspicions…
Emily Prentiss.
He didn't really want to believe it, even now, but the woman was a diplomat's daughter. She had been placed with his unit without his knowledge or acceptance, and more than once he had concerns about her pushing a political agenda. She had always denied it and there had been no obvious signs that she was lying, but he couldn't think of anyone else that could have ratted him out.
She was the newest member of the team, with the most to gain by exposing their secrets, and no one outside the team knew about Reid or Elle in enough detail to really cause any damage.
So, operating under the assumption that if he didn't transfer out of the unit, he would be forcefully removed, Hotch had left the BAU in order to salvage some semblance of a career in the Bureau. And, of course, he had secretly hoped that the move to a more stable job that would have him home more would be enough to salvage his marriage as well.
That had not been the case. For as much as Haley had begged and pleaded, even demanded, that he quit his job, she didn't really want him home at all. He discovered rather quickly that she had in fact been having an affair for over a year, and was planning on leaving him no matter what he did. Taking Jack with her was just the kicker to the whole messed up situation.
So, here he was, sitting in his office long after the sun had set and everyone else had gone home to their families, drowning his sorrows in scotch, and missing his old team.
And that was when his cell phone rang. He reached for it, prepared to answer immediately, but stopped in his tracks when he saw who was calling him. Emily. What the hell did she want? She had betrayed him, and forced him to leave his job and his team behind. With Jack and Haley gone, that team was the closest thing he had to family, and she was the reason he wasn't with them right now. And he hated her for it.
He quickly declined the call, sending his former agent, and former friend, to voicemail, and tossed his cell phone into his bag without another thought. He didn't want to think about her any more tonight, or ever for that matter…
Tony's SUV – Bound for his Apartment
"So," his voice broke the comfortable silence in the car as they turned onto the main road outside the Navy Yard gates, "This Hotch? Is he your boyfriend?"
Emily looked at him like he had just grown three heads, completely shocked silent for a moment, before she burst out laughing like a hyena. "No," she gasped out her answer between her hysterical laughter, "Not at all. Hotch is Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, my former Unit Chief from the bureau. He's a friend, sort of, but we're not especially close. He was my boss."
While Tony felt properly chastised for his assumption, he covered it well, joking, "Workplace romance? Nice…"
If someone else had implied that she had been sleeping with her boss, Emily probably would have throttled them, but this was Tony Dinozzo, and even though she had known him less than a day, it was fairly obvious to her that he was an eternal joker and an incessant flirt. So he meant no disrespect, and wasn't serious in the slightest.
She punched him lightly in the shoulder, but gave him a wide grin so he knew she wasn't offended. When her silence dragged on for a few minutes he had to ask, "Former? So he isn't with the unit anymore?"
"Oh, no, um," Emily had completely forgotten that the NCIS agent didn't know she had resigned from the Bureau. She had of course told Leon and Gibbs both during their meeting earlier. It was necessary since they thought the FBI might want to take over the case, or at least handle her security, and she had needed to explain why that wouldn't be the case. Tony was a great investigator, he wouldn't be working for Leon if he wasn't, so he likely had already pieced this all together, but she had told him he could ask her anything…
"I left the unit, not him," she explained, "I resigned from my position at the BAU a few weeks ago."
"BAU?" Tony asked, confused, but also clearly avoiding his real question.
"Behavioral Analysis Unit," she explained patiently, after all they did get that question a lot, "We, uh, they are profilers. They get inside the heads of criminals and try to predict their next move in order to catch them. They usually deal with high profile cases, serial killings, child abductions, that sort of thing, and they're usually called in when the local PD hits a wall, or there isn't enough tangible evidence for a traditional investigation. It's a lot of travel, and the cases they handle are the worst of the worst, so it's pretty rough sometimes, but they put away offenders that no one else can catch, so it's also incredibly fulfilling."
He listened to her explanation with a growing sense of confusion. She clearly felt great pride in the work her team had done, and she was more than qualified for the position with her background. And after the things she had undoubtedly seen and done in the CIA, it wasn't likely she had burnt out working those sorts of cases. If anything, she was more equipped than most to handle that sort of violence. So why had she left?
"It's complicated," she spoke softly, seeming to answer his unspoken question. He realized she was doing her profiling magic on him right now, and could tell he was confused and curious. It was actually kind of spooky how she knew what he was going to ask before he did, but he was glad she did, because he didn't know how to ask without sounding like an ass. And he really did want to know.
"I think I can keep up," he countered, urging her to explain.
Emily had never really considered talking to anyone about what Strauss had done or why she had left. It had ultimately been her decision and she didn't regret it in the slightest, even if she did miss her team terribly. She hadn't even given Gibbs or Leon any real answers when they'd pushed earlier. But she felt like she could trust Tony, not that she didn't trust Leon, or any of his people for that matter, but Tony was different. He already felt like a playful older brother, even after only one day, really only a few hours. Maybe it was because he reminded her so much of Ronan, maybe it was just that Gibbs and Leon both trusted him implicitly. Whatever the reason, she decided she really could talk to him about this.
"Hotch and I knew each other a long time ago," she began, "He ran security for my mother when I was a teenager, and stayed on with her team when I left for college. He had been a prosecutor, and was branching out into the field for the first time. He didn't like me much since I was sort of a trouble maker back then, but I respected him, looked up to him even."
Tony was thoroughly confused about how this pertained to her leaving a job she loved and a team she trusted, but kept his mouth shut. The last thing he wanted was for her to clam up. She was trusting him an awful lot tonight, and he felt like these were things she really needed to talk about.
"Then, almost two decades later, I land myself a position at the BAU. I was beyond thrilled. It was the perfect transition from CIA to domestic law enforcement I was looking for, and honestly the BAU had been my dream job before the Agency had recruited me. I felt like my life was finally getting back on track, like I was where I was meant to be. And I hadn't felt like that in a long time," she struggled to keep her voice even as all those emotions ran through her once again. After Doyle, she had been so lost, and the CIA just didn't feel like home anymore. She had wanted out so bad, so when the offer came from the FBI she had jumped at the opportunity without a moment's hesitation.
"But then I walk into my Unit Chief's office, a box of my stuff in hand, and find none other than Aaron Hotchner waiting for me," she continued with a forced chuckle, "He didn't even recognize me at first, and when I introduced myself, all he said was 'Ah, Ambassador Prentiss' daughter. How do you do?'. I was so frustrated in that moment. It had taken me years to earn the level of respect and trust that I had with my old team, and there I was, suddenly reduced to a nameless, faceless, politician's daughter all over again."
Tony was beginning to understand why she would resent her upbringing, but he was still confused as to why she quit. She didn't seem like the type to just give up on her dreams because some jerk didn't take her seriously.
"As it turns out, Hotch hadn't known I was coming. He hadn't approved my transfer, and hadn't even been informed that the Bureau brass had been looking to replace his last agent. He basically told me it was a mistake and I didn't belong there, and then he and the team left town for a case. I, of course, didn't take that lying down, and four days later when they got back to DC I confronted him and convinced him to give me a shot on the team."
Now that sounded more like what he would expect from her. She fought for her spot and didn't take any of this guy's crap. But that stilled begged the question, why the hell did she leave?
"It took a long time for me to gain their respect, and even longer to gain their trust, but eventually I really became a part of the team, and our team was like a family. But then, my rocky introduction came back to bite me. As it so happens, Hotch's boss, Section Chief Erin Strauss was the one initially responsible for approving my transfer. And she felt threatened by Hotch, concerned that he might be a contender to replace her or even continue beyond her position towards top brass at the Bureau.
The whole thing was a political nightmare, but the gist of it was she wanted dirt on Hotch so she could demote or fire him, and since she got me the job, she wanted to use me to get it. And basically threatened to fire me if I didn't comply. So stuck between a rock and a hard place, I found the only way out that didn't tarnish my career or involve betraying a friend and colleague. I quit before she could fire me, and began looking for a position elsewhere."
As she finished her story, and they pulled up to his building, Tony couldn't help but feel his admiration for her growing even further. It was no wonder the Director respected her so much. She had left behind a job she loved, and a team of people that she loved, to protect her boss, even though he had been a total ass to her from day one. She was loyal to a fault, and didn't play political games. He couldn't help but think that in that moment, she reminded him quite a bit of Gibbs…
