Disclaimer: I do not own anything Criminal Minds related. Characters are merely borrowed and will be put back later. ;)

Fair and Foul

Chapter Fourteen- Responsibilities

"A father is a guy who has snapshots in his wallet where his money used to be."

Author Unknown

The BAU was a whirlwind of activity when they arrived, Hotch and Emily following the team to the conference room. Garcia had been informed of the director's intention to speak with them all as soon as they arrived, Emily, Hotch and Strauss included.

The latter looked downcast, shadowed and weary; it had been a rough case and she hadn't been able to keep food down properly since it had begun. Her compartmentalising skills weren't good and she hadn't accepted that it took time to learn to be a part of such a team- not to mind trying to leading it.

The conference room was quiet but for Penelope Garcia, sitting at the table and fidgeting somewhat, unsure of what to do or say, awed by Hotch's response on the plane but otherwise overwhelmed by the disruption of peace at Quantico. She just wanted her team back- all of them, and not Strauss.

Sighing happily when they arrived, she smiled widely at Hotch and Emily. Diana Spencer had called them the Knights of the Round- and their unwavering loyalty to Hotch proved to be more substantial than any myth; the BAU wanted their leader back and they intended to let the director know that.

Without a moment's hesitation before he sat, Rossi pulled over an extra chair and gestured to Strauss to sit down. She did so, though her cheeks flared at the gesture. They all took their seats after her, Morgan next to Garcia, Emily next to Hotch and Reid, Rossi near JJ and Strauss- and they waited.

It wasn't a long wait. The director, Michael Stokes, came in a few seconds later, walking toward them and reaching out to shake Hotch's hand as Hotch stood to greet him.

"Agent Hotchner," Stokes said with an efficient and quick smile, "and Agent Prentiss," he said to Emily, shaking her hand too. There were files in his left hand and he immediately struck Reid as the type who drank too much coffee but was excellent at his job. This would be a fast meeting; Stokes had other places to be.

"First of all, I want to thank you for the work you both did in New York today. Technical Analyst Garcia told me about it on the phone and I also spoke to Agent Morgan and Dr. Reid while they were en route to the hangar. I gather that there were some oddities, however, and I would like you to know that NYPD aren't best pleased with another two bodies."

Hotch nodded, tight lipped again. "Unfortunately Sir, these things happen in the course of this job. The unsub was quickly devolving, it would have been hard to second guess him towards the end," he said sadly.

"Yes, Dr. Reid mentioned that on the phone. Nonetheless, Strauss, can I have a word with you a moment? In your office, perhaps? The rest of the team will wait here until we're done, I'm sure."

Strauss stood and left with Stokes, not saying a word to the BAU team, and led the way to her office. Behind her, no whispers began, but looks did flash back and forth between the members, who knew each others' expressions well enough to know exactly what they were all thinking.

"I didn't know you'd talked to Stokes. Thank you," Hotch said to Morgan and Reid, "I appreciate that."

"Yeah, Garcia connected him to us when we were driving," Reid said matter-of-factly. "Wonder what he's saying to Strauss..."

The talk continued, but it was well out of Erin Strauss' earshot as she sat in her office opposite Michael Stokes.

"Erin, what happened out there?"

"I... I believe that the last two deaths are my fault. I made mistakes, too many of them. I assumed that I could lead the team. I did it once before, albeit not when we were truly down two agents, and it seemed to half work. I had no replacement for Aaron Hotchner at the time-"

"Why did you not ask David Rossi to lead in Hotchner's stead?" Stokes asked curiously.

Strauss had no answer for that. There was simply nothing she could say- She should have put Rossi on the case, and she knew that. Her moment of realisation had come on the plane, after she heard Hotchner saying it had been a privilege to work with the BAU. He had always been their leader, each of them was used to him and the way he worked- she should have expected that they would be entirely less than satisfied to operate properly under her rules.

"I don't know Sir."

Stokes sighed heavily and surveyed her carefully. "Strauss, you do realise that any support you had from the BAU field team, you've lost it now?"

"Yes, I know that."

"I want you to rehire both Prentiss and Hotch. Clean their records Strauss, since they have both proved their worth time and time again."

"I understand Sir," she said, glad that he wasn't interrogating her about her mistakes- and happier still that he wasn't firing her.

"And Erin, please, don't make me come down here again. I have better things to do than settle the trouble you bring on yourself. That team works- and it works well. Splitting them up was a bad move and the people upstairs... well, they think I'm being too nice to you by letting you stay on here."

"I see Sir. I- I'm sorry," she said, defeated.

"I'm doing you a favour here Strauss. Your father worked here a long time ago and I did him a favour to give you a job here. I really don't want any more trouble from this department. Understood?"

"Absolutely," she said quietly, ashamedly.

And she still had to go and tell them that they had their jobs back, which was going to be even worse.

***

For their part, the team were sitting around the table, talking in hushed voices with neither assurance nor hope spreading among them. They were sure that Strauss would get her way- she wasn't the type to accept defeat easily. Hotch cleared his throat mildly when she approached the room again. He could see that Stokes had gone in the opposite direction, toward the elevator, and he wondered what she might be coming to say.

She walked into the room and sighed, tired and fairly upset- not to mention still angry. Nonetheless, she had to do what she had to do. "Stokes has asked me to reconsider. So I'm going to rehire you both," she said to Hotch and Emily. "You'll both have clean records with no insubordination charges against you. You'll both start work again tomorrow."

She turned to leave, but Hotch stood up and called her back, "Ma'am?"

She looked at him, still embarrassed but willing to listen to him.

"Those deaths, they weren't your fault. I shouldn't have said that," he noted, "I'm sorry."

She nodded at him and walked from the room. Hotch sat down in his chair again, a wave of relief rolling over him as a smile broke across his face. He looked at Emily who was already grinning widely, delighted that she was back in her job.

"I think it might be time for a group dinner," Rossi said, "I'm starving- Italian would be nice."

Laughing and joking as though nothing had changed, the team moved from the table and toward the bullpen. As Emily walked past her desk, she saw that her name plate was still on it; and she thought how weird it was that in just a few days, everything had changed so much, only to return to a semblance of normality she wasn't totally used to.

The team split up to get to the restaurant- Emily, Rossi and Morgan jumped into Morgan's jeep, while Hotch, Reid and JJ took Reid's car into the centre of town, to the place Rossi called "the best Italian in Virginia".

Dinner was a raucous affair; there were stories about Strauss to swap and past cases to talk about- inevitably the more gruesome and famous ones came up for discussion- and there was laughter as Rossi and Hotch recounted some of their earliest mistakes- and indeed, each others mistakes. There were some funny stories about Morgan's earliest cases and Gideon came up in conversation too; the team were back together and it seemed that with the director on their side, Erin Strauss would no longer be a problem.

The topic of Emily and Hotch "acting the couple" outside the unsub's house came up during dessert- something both Emily and Aaron had been dreading. They both knew that Rossi and JJ were unlikely to say anything outright, but nonetheless they felt strange because Reid, Morgan and Garcia were the only ones who were unaware of the deeper feelings involved.

They passed jokes about it, chatted and laughed about the tactical benefit of it, and overall passed it off as a story that would go down in history for the BAU as one of the best ways of catching a serial killer. Emily was happy to breathe a sigh of relief when dessert was over; it wasn't that she wanted to keep it a secret, it was more that it had only been two days- she didn't want people asking her questions and crawling all over her life for answers. They would know in time.

When dinner was finished (and paid for by a good humoured Rossi, who noted drily that he might have to write another book to make up the cost), the team departed and went their separate ways. All of them having drank at least one glass of wine, they hailed taxis and said their goodbyes. Garcia and Morgan got in the same car- they were going to go to the movies, and JJ headed home to Will. Reid was going home to his research and his books and so Rossi was the last to leave, shaking Hotch's hand and nodding happily at Emily, "It's good you two are back."

They both smiled widely at him and breathed a sigh of relief when he was gone. Romance in the BAU qualified as salacious gossip, and everybody loved a good bit of gossip every now and again. When Kevin and Garcia had started going out, there had been a lot of "oohing" and "aahing" at every available opportunity- it had mortified Garcia but eventually it had died out. It was something Emily wasn't looking forward to, when the team found out the truth about New York.

"I think I might have to go talk to Haley. She needs to know that my job is firmly still in my hands and that I won't be leaving it any time soon. I want to see my son," Aaron said softly.

"Go," she said, "Don't let me stop you. Jack is more important Aaron, go and work things out with Haley so that you can see him. You'd never forgive yourself otherwise."

"I know," he finished with a sigh. He pulled her close to him and wrapped his arms around her, kissing her cheek and then her lips, stroking her hair gently as people sped past them on the street. It was late now- he could hardly believe that just that morning he was heading to New York and now he was back- it seemed absurd that dinner had been served and he was getting ready to go home again. It had been only a few days since he spoke to Haley last, but he knew her anger would not have been assuaged in the meantime.

He was distracted out of his thoughts as Emily pulled away from him. "Go see your son," she said.

"Where are you going to go?" he asked her, pulling her hand and dragging her closer to him again.

"Home. I need to curl up on my sofa after having a long bath," she said, dreamily thinking of her warm apartment. He smiled a small smile and drily noted, "I bet my night won't be that comfortable."

She smiled sympathetically, "Aaron, she's your ex-wife. She was worried. I'm sure she'll let you see him. But if you leave it much later..."

"I know," he said, "I know. I'm going now."

He had to admit that he was reluctant to leave her. Things felt a whole lot calmer when she was around and he missed that sense of calm already. He felt as though he was wandering toward doom- Haley was not going to be happy to see him or talk to him, and he hated it when they fought in front of Jack.

He kissed Emily longingly one last time, kissed her forehead and turned away, hailing a taxi. "Goodnight," she said softly, and then he was gone.

She hailed the next taxi she saw and sat in, giving her address and talking to the driver along the way about nothing in particular. She was happy that the next day when she went to work, she would have her credentials and her gun back with her- thinking about not working had bored her intensely.

The driver dropped her off and she paid her fare before stepping inside her home. She plonked down on the couch for a few minutes, lolling her head against the edge of the chair, the lights from Washington shining through her window. The house was quiet as usual and before long she got up and headed for the bathroom, closing curtains and blinds as she went, preparing the house for the night.

***

Aaron pulled up at the door of Haley's sisters and sighed as he turned the ignition off. This was the last place he wanted to be and at the worst possible time. He still had burns and cuts on his face and arms- he would never want Jack to see him like that- but selfishness inside him made him need Jack at right that moment.

He stepped out of the car and walked the short path to the house, ignoring the twinge in his side as he knocked on the door softly. Within seconds, Haley's sister had answered, "She's on her way," she assured him. For some reason, Haley's sister had always been somewhat sympathetic to Aaron- he was never sure why; but he was always grateful that she gave his son a home.

Haley came to the door literally seconds later. "I told you, I don't want to see you."

"I don't want to fight. It's been a bad few days; I don't want to fight," he said quietly, looking right into her eyes. "I don't think I can fight, even if I wanted to," he finished, weary.

"Aaron, I made it perfectly clear. Quit your job and you can see your son."

"I was fired two days ago. And because I was off the job, two more people died. I feel responsible for them. I can't leave the job- but I won't leave my son. If I have to take this through the courts I will Haley. I swear I made it easy for you the first time. It won't be so simple the second time."

"Aaron, you have a responsibility to your son. I can't say that you're ready to take that onboard," Haley said, sighing as his shoulders slumped.

"How can I prove it to you?" he asked, knowing that her demand would be the same as always.

"Leave the BAU."

"I can't do that. It would destroy me, I would never be able to look Jack in the eye and tell him that I tried to make the world a better place for him."

Haley looked at him, straight at him, for the first time in a long while. He looked tired, upset, lost. In truth, she knew that she needed Aaron's help. She couldn't- and wouldn't- raise Jack alone. But she also knew that Aaron was inextricably linked to the BAU- his background wasn't a good one, it rubbed off on Aaron and he had always taken his responsibilities seriously- Jack and the BAU, they were the biggest parts of him.

But she was angry too. There was no way she would let him choose his job over his son, as he so often did.

"I'll think about it Aaron. But at the moment, seeing you only makes Jack unstable. He needs stability. He needs you to be there for him consistently- and you're not. I don't know if he can handle any more disappointment."

"So I can't see him?" Aaron said, resting his arm against the doorframe and laying his head on it.

"I'm sorry. Not tonight. But I'll call," she said.

Utterly dejected, Aaron turned away, but before she closed the door he looked back- "I want to do right by him Haley. That's all I want. I want my son to know that I did the very best I could and that I love him, unconditionally and without surrender. I want him to know that because-"

"Because that's the assurance that you never had when you were a kid," she said softly. He nodded, his eyes blurring over as he blinked.

"Aaron, I'll call," she assured him gently.

***

Five minutes had passed and the tears weren't letting up. He was angry, upset, confused and betrayed. Eventually he had to pull the car over and he slumped over the wheel, trying to stop his anger and his guilt from rushing out. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop.

He pulled out his wallet and opened it, looking at the picture, an exact replica of the one on his coffee table at home. He touched it gently and took it out, tossing the wallet onto the seat beside him, holding the picture up to the light in the car so that he could see it better. After a minute, he shoved the key back into the ignition and drove. He wasn't even sure where he was going.