Chapter Eight

A Meeting Of Like Minds

Three Weeks Later


Hotch came out of his office in a mad rush and made a b-line for Rossi's, finding him not inside, he turned from the doorway and looked down at Emily.

"He had his medical this afternoon." She didn't even bother to look up from the document she was typing. Hotch found it telling about the depth of their relationship that she seemed to know where he was and what he was doing at any given time without even having visual confirmation of his movements.

"Damn." Hotch closed his eyes and tipped his head back, uttering another oath under his breath. Emily finally looked up from the report she was working on and raised her eyebrows at that; Aaron was always very reserved in the office.

"He was the last one that had to go." She scrunched up her forehead in concern at the look on Aaron's face. "He told you this morning in the brief."

Hotch sighed and rubbed his brow, trying to figure out what do to next. "I know, I just forgot." His shoulders slumped and Emily moved over till she was standing just below him on the main floor.

She tilted her head to look up at him standing above her on the upper level. "What's wrong? Is there something I can help you with?"

He placed his hands on his hips and heaved a deep sigh. "I have a meeting with Strauss in a couple of hours and Jessica just called, there was an emergency at my niece's school and she can't make it to pick Jack up; his school is in the opposite direction. I had been hoping that Dave could take the meeting with Strauss for me instead."

Emily knew how important this meeting was and chewed on her lip for a moment. She looked up at him with her head tipped to the side, considering what she could do. She didn't know if this would be stepping out of bounds, there relationship was still fairly tentative.

"I could go and pick him up for you."

Hotch's eyes widened, like it never would have even occurred to him to ask her to do so. But it would solve all of his problems. "Would you?" There was a faint hope in his voice.

"Sure." Emily shrugged her shoulders like it was no big deal. "I'll take him back to your place and wait with him till you can get there."

"You, Agent Prentiss, are a blessing." A smile lit up his face at her suggestion.

No sooner had he said that then her face fell and Emily got that distant look in her eyes that she did sometimes. Hotch squatted down so he was closer to her while still being on the walk. "Prentiss stop, I know that look."

Emily looked up at him again and her cheeks flushed with embarrassment that he had caught her out so fast.

Aaron's voice dropped in consideration of where they were standing. "As of three hours ago, he was still in Qatar."

"I know. But it doesn't stop the worry." Emily's head dipped and her voice became soft.

Hotch would have given anything to have been able to reach out and cup her face in his hands. Remove that sad look from her eyes, but he couldn't. While they were more demonstrative in public because of the change in their personal relationship, it wasn't anything that couldn't be brushed off as a gesture between friends, and touching her face would have been too much, especially in a room full of profilers, who by extension, were terrible gossips.

Neither one of them wanted to open the can of worms that would be telling people about the change in their relationship. Because sooner or later someone was going to ask what precipitated it and it was something they couldn't explain and they didn't want to have to outright lie to their family.

Luckily for the both of them it had turned out exactly how Hotch had predicted. As soon as Emily started to look better they had all dropped it entirely. Aaron had received knowing looks from the team but for the most part they had all remained silent on the subject, even Dave.

"Look at me." Aaron's voice was so soft and Emily tipped her head back up to look at the man above her. "Do you believe, for even a moment, that if I thought you were a danger to Jack, I would agree to this?"

Emily just shook her head; she knew he wouldn't, not for a moment. And honestly, if she really believed it, she wouldn't either.

"Then trust me, you don't need to worry."

"Hotch, how long have you known me?" Aaron tipped his head to the side, knowing she didn't expect him to answer. "That's like telling me not to breathe."

Hotch smiled at her and stood back up, making his way to the stairs. He met her by her desk and traded his car keys for hers, so that she would be able to get into the apartment, knowing he could get his spare from the neighbor.

Grasping her hand gently in his for a moment his voice dropped to a slightly more intimate level, "How about I pick up dinner on the way home as a thank you."

"It's not necessary Hotch." Emily smiled softly at the suggestion, but it really wasn't, she just thought that this was the kind of thing she was supposed to do in her role as his 'significant other', not that they had even begun to define what there was between them. It just was, what it was, they didn't feel the need to explain or define it.

"Not necessary perhaps, but I'd like you to stay anyway." His gaze was warm and intimate as his thumb dragged over the back of her hand, telling her without words what he was asking.

It would be a first for them. They always stayed together at her place, never at his. There had been many late night phone calls but she was still slightly reluctant to stay there. The fear that had been dogging her for so long had started to dissipate weeks ago and continued to do so with each passing day so perhaps it was finally time.

Emily dipped her head and smiled slightly, giving a short nod.

How could she say no to that look?

"Thank you again, for this."

"You're welcome. I'll see you at home." The look in Hotch's eyes at her comment had her absolutely enraptured. He was fixated on her for several moments before someone called his name and broke the spell. He gave her a short nod and then headed back up top to his office and the Agent that was waiting for him there.

She knew how important this meeting was, they were replacing two Agents who had been promoted to senior positions and were being transferred to BAU 3 – Children's Cases. She knew that Hotch needed to be the one in the meeting discussing who would replace the 'pool agents' as they were often called. Agents that were shared by all of the BAU teams stationed in Quantico.

Emily quickly closed down her reports and grabbed her things, taking the traded vehicle keys and rushed out to make sure she made it to Jack's school in time to pick him up after his class let out.

It should be an interesting experience. There hadn't been many times she and and Jack had spent time together without the presence of his father. Mostly in the conference room while Hotch grabbed this, or that from his office. She would have to think of something for the two of them to do, cause knowing what these meetings were like; he was going to be awhile.


Hotch walked into the apartment, using his spare key on the lock and reactivated the alarm. He leaned wearily against the wall, grateful to be home. The meeting had taken much longer than he planned and he felt horribly that Emily ended up having to entertain his son all evening.

He heard soft whispering coming from the kitchen and childish giggles coming from both child and woman alike and a smile lit his face. Laughter of any kind was something that had been missing from his and Jack's life for far too long. It was the thought that had gone through his mind when Emily had said that she would meet him at 'home'. It was how much he wanted, in that moment, for it to be a reality instead of a turn of phrase.

Balancing the pizza box in his arm Aaron dropped Emily's car keys in the bowl by the door and placed his briefcase on the floor. He let out a relieved breath at the sight of Emily's go bag resting by the front table. He had honestly thought she would find a reason to back out, as she had every other time he had suggested that she stay the night.

Smiling he followed the sounds to the other room. Walking in to his kitchen, he didn't know how to react at first.

Aaron leaned against the doorframe and took in the scene before him. The room was a total disaster. There was a fine mist of flour covering the counter, parts of the floor and on both Emily and his son. Dishes were stacked in the sink, and pans on the stove.

His brow furrowed. He didn't even own cookie sheets. Then he realized that her and Jack must have gone to get them so that they could do this. Hotch felt a lump in his throat. She was wonderful.

Jack was standing on a chair, poking what appeared to be over baked cookies with his finger. Emily was leaning over him and they were carrying on a whispered conversation.

"Doesn't look like the picture Em'ly."

"Hmmm, you're right. Little too dark maybe?" She tipped her head to look at the boy.

Jack looked very serious as he nodded his head. "Think they'll taste okay?"

"I should think so. We followed the directions exactly." Emily reached out a finger and poked one of the cookies too and a small grimace crossed her face.

Hotch quietly slipped his phone out of his pocket and quickly clicked a picture of the two of them hunched over the counter, looking at each other, whispering softly and smiling. It was a moment he wanted to capture and never let go of, keeping this happy moment with him for as long as he could. When he first confronted Prentiss back in Tulsa, when he realized that their relationship was about to change, it never occurred to him how seemlessly she would fit into his life. Into the life they were building together.

Finally he couldn't resist any longer and cleared his throat, which in all honesty sounded more like a laugh. "What's going on here?"

"Daddy!" Jack launched himself off of the stool and rushed over to grab is father's hand.

Hotch was dragged over to the island counter and Emily let out an embarrassed squeak. She had thought he would be gone longer and she could have the mess cleaned up before he got home from his meeting.

"We baked cookies!" Jack bounced up and down a couple of times before hopping back up on his chair.

"I see that." Hotch was caught between paying attention to Jack and trying not to openly stare at Emily. She looked so adorable covered in flour and trying not to look horrified over the state of his kitchen. Letting out a soft chuckle he brushed a finger down her slightly red cheek, letting her know he was more than happy with the state of things.

"Here. Try one." Jack handed him a cookie and Hotch took it with some trepidation. But he couldn't refuse, Jack looked so proud of himself.

Hotch bit into the cookie and it took all of his self-control not to spit it back out. It was dry, hard as a rock and… salty. Doing his level best to keep his face straight, Hotch ate the cookie and pasted a smile on his face. If there was one thing this experience had taught him, it was that he needed to keep Emily out of the kitchen.

"It's good Buddy." The poor boy looked so eager at that moment that he couldn't stop the lie from leaving his lips.

Emily couldn't stand it anymore. "Hey Jack, you're still all covered in flour. Why don't you and your Dad get you cleaned up before we have dinner?"

She let out a light laugh and grabbed Hotch by the shoulders, turning him to face the doorway. With that Jack dragged his father out of the kitchen and off to the next thing. Hotch wished he had the attention span of a child at that moment cause all he could think about was the bit of flour that was covering Emily's right breast.

Emily turned and surveyed the kitchen, fanning the heat from her face. This time it wasn't caused by the state of Aaron's poor kitchen but at the look that he shot her before leaving the room. She was so getting lucky tonight.


Several hours later found Emily and Jessica standing in the kitchen looking out at the living room and watching father and son talking while finishing off the last slices of pizza. The atmosphere was relaxed and happy and Emily felt a little more of the tension she had been living with float away. Doyle had been quiet for the last couple of weeks and she thought, or hoped, that perhaps their fears were unfounded. That maybe, just maybe, he was cleaning house and wouldn't care about the agents that were involved.

Hotch and Emily had been enjoying dinner with Jack when the doorbell rang and were surprised when Jessica turned up on the other side. As it turned out Melody, Jessica's daughter, had cut the palm of her hand in the playground and needed a couple of stitches, not to mention a tetanus shot.

After the young girl was tucked in and asleep Jessica found her way over to Aaron's apartment, wanting to apologize again and let him know that everything was okay, knowing he would likely worry about his niece.

The scene she found was not one that she had expected. Aaron and Jack were entertaining a woman that she remembered as being a part of his team. The three were sitting around the living room table on the floor eating pizza.

The sight warmed her heart slightly. As much as she loved her sister, she was a little too proper to have allowed something so relaxed in her home.

When Aaron introduced him to the Agent everything became a little clearer. Both who she was and the changes she had noticed in Aaron lately.

Under the guise of getting a drink, Jessica had followed the woman to the kitchen when she left the living room with the dishes. She watched the way that Emily looked at the two of them and felt bad for intruding. She knew her presence was making the other woman uncomfortable.

Deciding to break the ice, as it were, Jessica turned sideways to look at the woman next to her. "He's quiet fond of you."

Emily's head shot up at the comment. "Sorry?"

Jessica lifted a hand and pointed to the living room. "Jack."

Emily mouthed an 'o' and turned back to stacking the plates in the dishwasher. She felt distinctly uncomfortable and didn't know what to say to the woman next to her.

"It's okay. I'm not judging, just making an observation. He speaks of you often; he's quite enamored with you."

"He's a remarkable child; he's easy to be around." Emily cleared her throat, trying to figure out how to say what she wanted to say. "His mother was remarkable too."

"Thank you." Jessica turned back to the counter and played with her glass, waiting for the other woman to continue.

Emily gave up on what she was doing and gave the conversation, and woman, the attention deserved. "I didn't know Haley very well. I only met her only a couple of times. They separated shortly after I joined the team."

"I know. She mentioned you a couple of times. She said you were someone that she said she could have called a friend, given time."

Emily gave a soft smile at the thought of the blond woman and the night they all spent out together just after she joined the team. She had been feeling like an intruder in a place that she didn't really fit and Haley had gone out of her way to make her feel welcome and wanted.

"I thought so too." She got a far away and slightly sad look on her face.

Jessica was now the one that looked uncomfortable. She wasn't at all sure if this was appropriate or if it was even her place to say anything to the other woman. "She would have approved of this." Her voice was tentative when she finally spoke.

Emily gave her a quizzical look. "Approved of what? Jack?"

"No… Aaron." Emily blushed slightly; she didn't think they had been that obvious.

Jessica got a pensive look on her face, trying to decide how to say what needed to be said, because she wanted to see this relationship work. The change she had noticed in Aaron over the last couple of weeks was remarkable. He was more relaxed, less intense, and generally happier than she had seen him in several years.

"She still loved him in the end and if he could have found someone who made him happy, who understood who he was and what he needed, she would have been happy for him. At the end of their marriage, it might not have seemed that way but she was my sister, she told me things that she didn't tell anyone else."

Jessica turned back to look at Aaron, her brother and dearest friend, "She knew that no matter how hard she tried, she wouldn't understand the man he had become and that they couldn't make each other happy anymore."

Emily turned and leaned against the counter next to the other woman. They both looked over at Jack and Hotch chattering together at the low table, both thinking the same thing, that for the first time in a long time, he looked happy, they both did. And Jessica knew that it had a lot to do with Emily.

"I just wanted you to know. And I think Haley was right."

"About?"

"This is a good thing and you are someone I could call a friend."

Jessica left and moved back over to Hotch and Jack; leaving Emily standing in the kitchen pondering her words.


An hour later, Jack had gone to bed and Jessica had left for home. Hotch finally got the nerve to ask about the conversation he had seen them having in the kitchen. Emily had been quiet since then. He knew it was nothing bad; she just seemed to be lost in though.

Curled up on the couch together, Emily confided in him what Jessica had said. She smiled softly at having made a friend out of someone that was so important to him and Jack. More than his sister-in-law, she could tell, Jessica was his friend.

"She always seemed to understand me better than Haley."

Emily looked surprised at that. "I wouldn't have expected that? She seems much younger than you. Isn't she?"

"Yes, she's the same age as my brother, 15 years younger than both Haley and I." Emily turned and swung her legs over Aaron's lap, turning to face him. It was so rare that he shared anything of himself; she wasn't going to miss a moment.

"I think it was because she was on the outside of the relationship. She never really had any idea about who I should be, didn't really know me before the FBI. I was just her big brother Aaron. I was already in the FBI and the BAU by the time she was old enough to form opinions, so she didn't really remember the man that I was, the one Haley married."

Hotch got a distant look on his face as he thought back over the years. "She seemed to know how important the BAU was to me. That, in the end, it was as much a part of who I was as it was what I did. I know she tried to talk to Haley about it and honestly if not for her we probably would have been divorce long before we finally did."

Emily rested her chin on her knees, closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of Aaron's fingers running through her hair. "She sounds like she's been a good friend."

"She has been and I don't think I could have done this without her. I couldn't have stayed with the BAU if she hadn't offered to help me with Jack and I'm not sure who I would have been then." He did know that if it hadn't been for that decision to stay, he wouldn't be where he was now, with Emily. And for that alone he owed Jessica a debt that he would never be able to repay. Their relationship, while still undefined meant more to him than he could say and he could say without a doubt that it was for life.

"I'm glad she's been there for you and I'm glad that she seems to not have a problem with us. I was a little afraid of her reaction to me, although, it did surprise me that she seemed to know."

Hotch smirked at that. Out of the two sisters, she was the more reserved, probably why Hotch got along with her as well as he did. Jessica liked to sit back and watch the people around her, didn't like to be the center of attention. As a result she often saw more than other people.

"Jessica doesn't miss much, especially when it comes to her family."

Aaron pulled Emily forward and pressed his lips to hers. Feeling her smiling against his own he felt light in a way that had been missing for so long, for years really, if he was honest with himself. Pulling back from her lips he pulled her head to his chest and asked a question that had been nagging at the back of his brain since the first time he saw it.

"Emily, the picture on your fridge, what is it for?"

She looked up into his eyes and felt a blush stain her cheeks. She didn't know how to explain it to him and it almost felt more personal than all they had shared so far. And Aaron was so stable that she didn't think he would understand, not really.

"It's a wish, a daydream." Her voice was so soft he almost missed the answer.

"What was it a wish for?" Hotch lay back on the couch and pulled her up onto his chest. This was by far one of his favorite positions to be in with her, and the physical intimacy seemed to help her open up.

"I love my apartment but it's just that. It's not really a home, a place where I can see myself living out my days. Home is something that I've never really had and as I get older I find myself craving it more and more. A couple of months ago I saw the house on the market, as I was leaving the academy. I called the listing agent and asked for the information."

"But in Quantico? I would have expected something in Washington."

"It's close to the office and honestly, I have never really wanted to be anywhere else."

Hotch's eyes clearly showed his surprise at that. "I know what everyone thinks, that I'm a ladder climber, looking at the upper levels of the FBI, but I can't stand the politics. I don't have the patience for it and what we do is so important."

He nodded his head in understanding; it was often the way that he felt. At one time he had looked at moving up but as the years passed he found that he was more than content with the role that he played. He didn't know how long that would last but as long as it did he would stay there.

"So how come you never did anything about it?"

"When I found out about Doyle it just seemed so stupid. Just a daydream that I was never meant to have." Emily laid her head back on his chest and tried not to think about it. It wasn't something she could consider as long as he was still out there, until she knew he was gone for good.

Aaron played with the tips of her hair and felt so unbelievably sad for her. If there was anyone he knew who deserved a little bit of happiness, it was this woman. She gave, over and over, to the team, to the victims, to the job and never asked for anything in return, except for a little house in Quantico, Virginia.

He gave her a little push so that she lifted off of him; once he was standing he held his hand out to her. Emily reach out and laced her fingers with his, allowing him to lead her to his bedroom at the end of the hall.

"Well, perhaps I can give you something else to daydream about." With that he gave her a sly smile and closed the door.


COVER YOUR EYES IF YOU'RE AVOIDING "TRAGEDIES" TILL THE END!


Author's Note: I know this chapter might feel disjointed from the rest of the story and that nothing pivotal happened, but it's a lot of little tie-ins to the later sequels, just small snippets to explain things that happened later, like how the friendship between Jessica and Emily began. How the little house in Quantico came into being and Emily's reasons for wanting it.

In cannon I don't think they ever establish Jessica's age and this was the one I wanted for this story. Sean Hotchner's age was established in "The Tribe" and it had him as 25 at the time, significantly younger than Hotch.

I also had someone PM me t ask if I was going to include the cookie baking scene in this story. What I had written was so long and drawn out that I ended up leaving out everything but the end result, which to me was the most important part, but I liked it and couldn't make myself take it out too. It gave a lighter side to the relationship between the two of them, which with all of the angst in this story was kind of the point of this chapter, to show that there was a basis for their relationship that had nothing to do with Doyle and the threat that she faced. That this would have come about anyway, given enough time.

There is only one more chapter to go in this story and I should have it up by Saturday. Once again, thank you for reading and feel free to leave a comment.

Bless, BW

TBC in Chapter Nine – Death Lurking In Dark Corners