Author's Note: This is a post-ep for the episode in the desert, where Frank makes his first appearance. I'm not a Gideon hater, but I'm not a big fan either. Because let's face it, the man could be a real ass sometimes. Remember he called Garcia stupid earlier in that season? Yes, she'd screwed up royally but his response was really just "uncalled for."

So given how this case played out, I thought this was a fairly realistic run-in.

Episode – No Way Out (1)

Acrimony

Hotch walked into the lobby of the motel just in time to catch the tail end of Gideon ripping into Prentiss.

"It wasn't your decision to MAKE Agent! So it's not really your place to be Monday morning quarterbacking! UNDERSTOOD!"

As he felt his own brow darken . . . he didn't approve of public dressing downs no matter the circumstances . . . Hotch saw Prentiss' eyes flash black for a moment. But she held her temper while responding with a clipped, "understood, sir."

And then Gideon gave her another withering look before stalking out. He was smashing through the front doors as Hotch looked around the crowded entryway.

The rest of the team was scattered in the corners trying to look as though they weren't listening. Derek in particular was not so subtly sending a worried eye in Prentiss' direction.

Hotch looked back and forth . . . what the hell had just happened here?

His jaw tightened as he shifted his bag back on his shoulder. Then he crossed over to Prentiss where she was still standing alone.

Her head was down.

"What was that about?"

As her eyes snapped up to his, Hotch could see the flush to her cheeks and the rigor in her muscles. Then she began slowly working her jaw.

"Nothing sir," she ground out tightly.

Hotch raised his eyebrow . . . she's got to be kidding. So he slowly shook his head.

Uh, uh, try again.

Emily looked at Hotch for a moment . . . realized that he definitely was not going to let this go . . . and exhaled slowly. The action relaxed her stance slightly. Then she tried to quietly explain the fiasco that he'd just walked into.

"Gideon thought that I was criticizing his handling of the situation with Jane," she explained softly, "that somehow I was saying that her being taken was his fault."

She paused, and when she came back her tone had changed to one of indignation.

Because seriously, she was pretty pissed!

"But Hotch, I was NOT doing that! I was having a quiet, private, conversation with Morgan about the events of the past few days and wondering if there was anything that WE the team could have done differently." She shook her head, "Gideon walked up, misinterpreted what was going on and he got . . ."

Her jaw fell open for a moment before she settled on a diplomatic term.

"'Upset.'"

Hotch, having just seen the parting shot Jason threw, knew that 'upset' was clearly an understatement. But good for her, trying to be polite about it.

Most people who had been publicly berated wouldn't make the effort.

Emily rubbed her hand on her neck, trying to loosen the muscles.

"He asked Morgan to step away for a moment," she rolled her eyes, "not that it mattered given the volume of Gideon's voice."

God she was too tired for this garbage, and too damn old for it too. Her jaw twitched faintly . . . maybe she should just tell Hotch what was on her mind.

It sure as hell couldn't make things any worse.

"May I speak frankly sir?" She whispered as she took a step closer.

Hotch's brow wrinkled slightly as he crossed his arms at his chest.

"Of course. Always."

Emily narrowed her gaze.

"I didn't deserve that," she whispered, "what he said to me, I absolutely did not deserve it. I wasn't criticizing anybody, and I wasn't being disrespectful in any way."

When she paused momentarily, Hotch flashed on the last time that she'd said words to that effect, and he felt a small twinge of guilt for this happening to her again. But he tried to shake that off as she continued with her point.

He couldn't change the past.

"I didn't deserve that," she continued softly, "but I can take it. But . . ." then her voice dropped even lower though the others were giving them a wide berth, "I know that I'm not the only one that he's spoken to that way when he gets stressed out. And it's beyond just simply snapping at someone impersonally. He, like the rest of us, knows what buttons to push. And he can be . . . cruel." She gave Hotch an impassioned look. "I like Jason, I really do. I know that he's a good man, he's not mean spirited generally, and I understand that this was a particularly bad case. But it was hard for me too sir, I liked Jane," she bit her lip, "I liked her quite a bit."

Hotch closed his eyes for a second.

For a moment he had forgotten just how disturbed Prentiss had been when she'd arrived in the desert to hear that Jane had been taken and they had no tracks to follow. She had taken that loss personally.

He rubbed his hand across his mouth . . . yeah, she really didn't deserve Gideon's crap today.

Emily sighed.

"This is obviously a hard job Hotch." Her features softened as she thought back on the events in Boston, "and I do understand that Gideon has suffered personally because of that fact more than most of us, hopefully, ever will. But all that said . . ."

And she stopped. And as Hotch looked her square in the eyes, he knew that she wouldn't finish that sentence.

He held her gaze for a moment before nodding. "I understand what you're saying Prentiss. I'll take care of it," he took a deep breath, exhaling slowly, "I'll take care of it now."

"Thank you sir," Emily gave him a tense smile as she leaned down to up her bag. And then he watched as she went over to sit on one of the benches to wait for that conversation to be done.

Hotch stared at her for a moment . . . noticing that nobody on the team made any move to go sit with her . . . and then he shook his head and turned to go find Jason.

/*/*/*/*/*

Hotch caught up with Gideon out in the corner of the parking lot. He was throwing his duffel into the back of one of the SUVs.

"So what was that with Prentiss?" Hotch called out as he approached. And he could see the face that Jason made as he slammed the hatch shut.

"She was out of line."

At the clear dismissal in his tone, Hotch's gaze narrowed dangerously.

"Was she?"

His words were hard and clipped. And Gideon's head snapped back, ready to start in on her again.

But then he caught the anger on the other man's face, and he realized what he was doing. His shoulders slumped and he dropped his head.

"We shouldn't have let her go," he replied softly, "we should have found another way."

Feeling his own anger begin to drain, Hotch shook his head wearily.

"Possibly, but we didn't have time for another way, Jason. That was the best decision that we could make at that time, given the facts as we knew them."

Hotch stopped for a second, trying to think of a way to make his point in a way that would really get through to Gideon. Sometimes he was so pigheaded.

"That said, you know how important it is to review these types of situations when they're over, to see if there was another way. So that next time," God help them if there was a next time, "we can maybe find a different way."

Jason looked up at him in confusion.

"Of course I know that Hotch."

"Then WHY," Hotch continued slowly, "did you just RIP Prentiss' head off?"

Something shifted then in Gideon's eyes.

"Because she was standing there."

Hotch closed his eyes, "Jason . . ."

But Gideon cut him off, "I know Hotch. I'll fix it." Hotch opened his eyes again and shot him a hard look, "and Jason you can't . . ."

This time Gideon raised his hand. "I KNOW!" He yelled back. And then he sighed as he lowered his voice, "I know. I think I'll take a few days and go up to the cabin."

At that, the lines around Hotch's brow finally softened.

"I think that's a very good idea."

It was either that, or Hotch had him sent out on involuntary leave. And that wasn't going to work to anyone's advantage. But either way, he needed to get him away from the rest of the team. He wasn't going to have Jason use them as recuperative punching bags any longer.

That was stopping today.

The two men exchanged a look before Gideon turned and headed to the driver's side door. Hotch went the other way, crossing to the SUV parked directly opposite the one they'd talking in front of.

He tossed his bag into the rear before he went around front.

/*/*/*/*/*

Morgan had been watching out the lodge window to see when it looked like Hotch and Gideon were done talking. And as the senior members of the team split up, he made a gesture to the group. Then he pushed his bag back on his shoulder and walked over to push the door open.

The junior members of the team stepped outside. And then by unspoken agreement, they split into two factions, JJ and Emily opting to go with Hotch, and Morgan and Reid traveling with Gideon.

Hotch was the lead car, and while JJ settled into the back with her headphones and her laptop . . . she was adding her notes to the after action report . . . Emily slumped quietly in the front passenger seat.

She wasn't even pretending to try and keep busy.

She knew that Hotch had spoken to Gideon on her behalf, so she was trying to let that incident go. She'd said her peace, he had listened to her, and he had done something about it.

It was done.

But what wasn't done . . . what she absolutely could NOT get past . . . was the damn rib bone that she'd been holding!

Jane's "whistle."

A freaking HUMAN rib bone, ripped out of a murder victim who was possibly still alive at the time, and she had touched it with her bare hands! It had given her nightmares last night, and she shuddered again just thinking back on it now.

And apparently (unfortunately) it wasn't just a metaphorical shudder, because Hotch glanced over and gave her a funny look. But She didn't want him to know how much the rib thing was bothering her . . . she was still too new to be showing any weaknesses like that . . . so she rubbed her hands together and told him that she was just a little cold.

He nodded and cranked the heat up a notch.

So she smiled and thanked him, and then felt a shot of guilt when he gave her a faint smile in return before turning his attention back to the road.

God . . . she bit her lip . . . she's lying to him and he's being NICE to her! Why God? Why me? Why do you hate me so?

Emily rolled her eyes as she flopped back against the seat.

Airport . . . jet . . . home. Airport . . . jet . . . home. Airport . . . jet . . . home.

She was hoping maybe that if she kept saying it, those three things would magically come faster.

But no, it still took an hour and a half to get out of the middle of nowhere.

The whole ride sucked.

/*/*/*/*/*/*/

As they started walking across the tarmac, Hotch could see that Prentiss was angling to get on the plane first.

Obviously she wanted to have some control over her seating arrangements on the jet.

So he made a point of letting her step in front of him, and then he caught Reid's sleeve so that she could get in front of him as well. Hotch figured that it was the least he could do for her after the run-in with Jason. This way she could grab one of the single seats and sit by herself.

Then she wouldn't have to deal with anyone.

Emily jogged up the stair car, bounded through the door and headed straight down to a single seat in the corner of the plane.

She was hoping to read her new book . . . in peace . . . while she put these crap couple of days out of her head.

But then thirty seconds later she had to put a pin in that plan. Gideon was walking up.

He was looking very apologetic.

And though she tried to ignore him . . . she didn't feel like getting into any of that again now . . . then he leaned down to tape his fingers lightly on the back of her seat.

"Prentiss," he cleared his throat, "I was wondering if you'd like to, uh, play chess?"

Emily froze for a moment. She may have been trying to let it go . . . but she was still pissed, and she SO badly wanted to tell him to go screw. He deserved it. That and more.

But she knew that wouldn't accomplish anything.

They still had to work together.

Pausing for a moment as he was about to store his ready bag, Hotch watched the exchange between Prentiss and Gideon from the other end of the aisle. He could see Prentiss' jaw twitch, and he knew in his bones that she wanted nothing more than to say, "go to hell . . . sir."

And Hotch would have let her do it too, and without so much as a token look of reproach.

She'd earned that much.

But she didn't say that. Instead, she looked hard at Gideon, who bowed his head slightly in a show of remorse. It seemed to be enough for her. Because then she took a deep breath and seemed to come to her decision.

She nodded and closed her book.

"Thank you sir," she responded politely, "a game of chess sounds nice."

A shadow of a smile passed over Hotch's lips . . . good for her. And with that, he turned to click the overhead cabinet shut.

Time to find his own seat for the long flight home.

A/N 2: All of the H/P growing pains had been addressed as of the last episode, so starting here I felt like I had free reign to start doing whatever I wanted to with them off-screen to build up trust and 'general affection' by the time we get to the season finale, which is covered in this story on chapter 20. Basically I have ten chapters for Emily to become attached enough to Hotch that she quits her job, and for Hotch to become attached enough to Emily to go drag her back.

FYI: I'm far enough ahead that I can post an extra chapter this weekend, so three instead of just two. As always you know the drill, they go up daily regardless but EXTRA chapters go up faster when people review. That way I know at least somebody has read them before the next one goes up :)

Next: "The Wife Meets the New Girl"