A/N Thank you to those who reviewed the last chapter! The next four chapters are already written, and do include some smut. I was writing the smut sections on the train on the way back from Cornwall, and a woman diagonally behind me was doing her very best to see! That however is in a few chapters time.

Please enjoy and review – delurk yourselves and let me know what you think – it doesn't take very long!

Thank you to Criminal Musings for the beta!

Tread Softly

Chapter 11

"Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave."
- Rainer Maria Rilke

Quantico, July 2011

Something, certainly not his common sense, had led him to invite the rest of the team to his house for dinner and the chance to work together to build a profile of Doyle and the two associates Garcia had identified as being his almost conjoined bodyguards. He had left the melee of the dining room to grab some quiet time to think while he loaded the dishwasher and bemoaned the fact that Morgan's appetite meant there wasn't enough moussaka left for the following day. That day had been a long one; no one had slept much the previous night and everyone was full of questions that weren't going to be answered any time soon. Rossi had a few of his own, different ones to those of Reid and Morgan and Garcia.

"Escaping, Dave?" JJ entered the kitchen with a couple more plates.

"Just about," he said, glancing at the doorway from where he could hear Morgan and Reid entering yet another disagreement about Doyle. "You spoken much to Hotch since they landed in Florence?"

JJ put the plates down with a slight bang and gave him a look containing more concern that usual. "I spoke briefly to him this afternoon. He called to ask for some details on Emily to be sent to him; specifically information held by Interpol and her role for them."

"He's profiling her?" Rossi said.

"I guess so," JJ said. "I suppose he has to. He will need to plan her reaction to Doyle, considering what state of mind she's in now after so many months on the run. Emily could put him – Hotch – in danger."

Rossi stopped what he was doing for a second and thought, weighing up what he knew about Hotch more than Emily. "He's double checking himself," he said finally.

"What do you mean?"

"Something I've thought for a while." He looked at JJ, wondering whether to share his musings. "I've wondered if Hotch felt something more for Emily than besides just being her friend and colleague. His behavior over the past few months has reinforced what was a vague theory; especially with him leaving like this to go to her. If Hotch was being Hotch-like, he would have taken the whole team with him. Although I think we should plan to go there anyway."

"Seriously?" JJ said. "On the latter I mean? I've figured the same about Hotch and Emily, although I doubt she will accept any feelings he has for her."

"You've spoken to her since she's been away," Rossi said, using the team's euphemism for Emily's feigned death. "What's her state of mind like?"

"Low," JJ said. "But she's a born survivor. She's cocooned herself in this idea that she can only rely on herself and no one else."

"That's a spy's mentality. You live on your wits and no one else's. But Emily is highly intelligent, intellectually and emotionally. She will know when she can give in a little. Whether she wants anything more with Hotch is something else, though she's clearly attracted to alpha males – we know that because of Doyle." Rossi closed the dishwasher and switched it on, the minimal noise proof of the unreasonable amount of cash he had paid for it. It was cheaper than a fourth divorce though.

"She's always had an eye for him," JJ said. She looked uncomfortable having this conversation and Rossi figured she was on the verge of breaking a confidence. "How much of an eye I don't know because their relationship has always been friendly-professional."

"So she's commented on what he'd be like in bed?" Rossi said. He saw no reason to beat around the bush. Life was too short as they knew.

JJ raised her eyebrows and gave a slight nod. "I guess that sums it up."

"He would have gone there if she had given him a sign," Rossi said. "Hotch is fastidious when it comes to the rules but he's broken that one before."

"Kate Joyner wasn't a member of the team," JJ said.

"True, but if Hotch wants something enough, and there are more positives than negatives, then he will go with that. You know, JJ, he effectively chose his job over his son having parents who were together. That's a big choice. He does see the overall picture. If he thought a relationship between him and Emily would make them happier than not having one he would have gone for it, should she have shown her interest," Rossi said. "But he would never have broached the subject with her unless she had given him cause to."

JJ leaned back against the kitchen cabinets. There was no hint of a smile about her face and Rossi knew the toll the past few months had taken on her. "He may have gone looking for something he's not going to get," she said. "Emily will not be in any frame of mind to be involved with someone; she'll want to reassert her own sense of identity. If something happens between them while they are in Italy then it might not have a happy ending for either of them personally."

"But they would both get over that. I know Emily was – still is – going through the wringer, but she's resilient JJ. She spent over a year playing the part of Doyle's lover and survived. We have to remember that. Remember Colorado?"

JJ nodded. Rossi knew none of them would forget that.

"She took the beating knowing that if Reid confessed to being the FBI agent he would most likely have been killed. Her concern wasn't for herself then, not because she doesn't value herself, but because she knows who she is. Emily's tough, JJ, maybe even tougher than Hotch."

There was another nod, JJ's eyes staring at one of Rossi's dogs who was running about outside. "She was the one who looked after Hotch after Foyet's attack, and continued to do so after Haley's death. She's always been the one to find that little bit extra."

There was a loud shout from the dining room, followed by what sounded like a wail from Reid. "We'd best sort the children out," Rossi said. "And I need to call Hotch."

"You want the whole team in this one?" JJ said. "Garcia can fix it up."

"No, not this time. I'm hoping to speak with Hotch without Emily there for part as well. I imagine we'll speak again later on in the night," Rossi pulled a bottle of whisky from a top cupboard and studied the label. "This was an expensive gift to myself a few years back. Now might be a good time to sample it."

His phone ringing before he was expecting it to startled Hotch and caused a brief wave of panic. He answered as soon he mind registered that this friend not foe, and more or less safe to converse.

"Hotch," he heard as soon as he'd answered. "Is Emily about?"

"She's in the shower, Dave," Hotch said. "She does want to speak to you though, so you may have to hang on a while if we run out of things to say."

"Was that humour?"

Hotch laughed quietly, sitting down near the window, looking out over the city that was sinking into sunset. "You called early.""I was hoping to get you on your own. I want to know why you absconded like you did. It was out of character. What is it you're hoping to achieve?"

Hotch wished he hadn't answered, although he had expected this from Dave at some point. "To bring Prentiss back home safe and resolve Doyle."

"Prentiss – not Emily?"

"What are you getting at, Dave?" Hotch sighed, hoping that Rossi would pick up on his impatience.

"You haven't followed your usual protocol, which would have been to have involved the team from the start and gone out there together. I think you want to be her knight in shining armour and save her the way you couldn't save Haley."

"That's not true. Emily is nothing like Haley, and if she thought I'd come out here to save her as you put it, she'd sooner be on her own. I figured it was time this was ended," Hotch said, the words ringing hollow even to himself.

There was a brief silence, followed by a deep sigh. "So are you telling me, Aaron, that this isn't personal?"

"Of course it's personal. Prentiss is one of my team members and someone I consider to be a friend. If you're asking me if it goes beyond friendship then the answer's no, of course it doesn't," Hotch said, the words still without substance.

"Be careful, Hotch, because I'm not sure you know exactly what you're getting yourself into here," Rossi said.

Hotch turned around, not listening to his next sentence, suddenly aware that Emily was standing behind him, her hair damp from the shower she'd just taken, wrapped in a white bathrobe. He couldn't stop the thought that suggested she wore nothing underneath, followed by the realisation that she had probably heard the last thing he had said. There was an odd expression on her face, one he couldn't read, but one he knew would haunt his thoughts for the next few hours, days maybe, trying to analyze it. "It's Rossi," he said. "I'll pass him to you."

He gave her the phone, then returned to the window, keeping himself occupied by watching the people walking around beneath the hotel. He listened into to Emily's half of the conversation, wishing he could switch his hearing off so he didn't feel so intrusive. She told Dave nothing he didn't know already, but she sounded lighter, pleased to hear from him, more pleased than she had been when she'd spoken to him. He recognized what he was feeling as jealousy and tried to dampen it. That wasn't why he was here.

"I'll put you on speaker," Emily said, signifying the end of their catch-up. Hotch joined her on the sofa, keeping an appropriate distance.

"What have you managed so far?" Hotch said, wanting to get this out of the way as soon as possible so that he and Emily could get some proper food. She looked as if she had more colour in her cheeks now that she had slept and showered; less pale.

"I've managed to not kill Reid, although by the sounds of things Morgan's struggling to do the same," Rossi said, a loud shout in the background proving his story. "Doyle's been using three different aliases, or so we think: Laurie Smalley, Patrick McKinsey and Dean Stowers. Laurie is the newest alias – he appears to have a minion who is able to create online histories, fake financial records etcetera..."

"The other two names are combinations of his team that died in his service," Emily interrupted. "Patrick Mulliner, Sean McKinsey, Dean Jeffries and Seamus Stowers. They were all killed by agents."

"So he's hiding himself, but making sure if Prentiss saw any of those names she'd know he was on her case," Hotch said, purposely using her surname. "He's wanting to torture her."

"We think that's the case. A few other details: he's spent at least four months in County Derrybut we don't know why. He's been flying out to several of the ex USSR countries, which we assume is to do with arms trading, but that's ceased in the past two months –since he's found out that Emily was still alive," Rossi said. "Garcia's found out information on the two guys who are with him. We're hanging round at my place trying to profile them so we know what we're up against."

Hotch glanced at Emily as Rossi said 'we're' to gage her reaction. He knew that she had been adamant about the team not being involved in the past, but he thought that may have changed with the realization of her own exhaustion.

"Thanks Dave," Hotch said. "We'll call you later. I'm not even going to ask how you've all escaped to work at your place this afternoon. I think I'd better not know."

"JJ's sorting things. We'll talk to you later." The line went dead.

Hotch looked at Emily, burying any emotions he had felt during the last fifteen minutes. "We should go to dinner. If you're done in the bathroom I'll get ready myself."

She nodded and smiled weakly, before heading towards her bedroom, without so much of a word.