Author's Note: Barely a thousand words. It feels a little anti-climactic after the epic posting yesterday but, here we go. It's a one shot for the episode with the hit man and his daughter in witness protection. This is a missing scene as Emily and Hotch are leaving the movie theater.

Episode – 3rd Life

The Rebel and Winona Ryder

Their doors slammed shut and Emily turned to Hotch with her eyebrow raised.

"So what were you like in high school Hotch? Do anything scandalous?"

Quirking up his lip, Hotch slipped the key in the ignition and started the engine, "not that I recall."

Emily knew this was shaping up to be a crap case. The kind that stuck with them for awhile. With that poor girl's final screams . . . and the look on her father's face when he heard them . . . God, the case wasn't even over yet and that was already haunting her. So Emily was desperately trying to find something to lighten the mood. To that end she tried prodding Hotch a little more.

"Oh come on sir, nothing?"

Hearing the pleading tone in her voice, Hotch glanced over, and then he saw the pinched lines around her mouth. This case was taking a toll on her, on all of them really. But after that night in the bathroom he'd made a vow to himself that he'd do whatever he could to be there for her like she'd been there for him. And right now he could see that she needed to not feel like crap. So he tapped his fingers against the steering wheel as he tried to think of something that would amuse her. He pursed his lips as he looked over.

"I once wore my Izod shirt untucked with the collar down," he raised an eyebrow, "does that count as scandalous?"

Rolling her eyes, Emily responded sarcastically, "only if you were at a Young Republicans Club meeting."

Hotch tipped his head slightly and Emily squealed in delight, "you DIDN'T? Wow! You are a rebel Mr. Hotchner! They must have ripped your alligator off for that." A ghost of a smile passed Hotch's lips, but as they pulled into traffic, the silence began to fill the car and he looked for something else to fill it.

"What about you Prentiss? Is there anything else noteworthy from your teen years besides the smoking?"

Emily smiled a little at Hotch's effort to make conversation for her sake. They'd been working together long enough that they could easily sit silently in a car for hours without it being weird or awkward. She pursed her lips as she tried to think back to the late 80s . . . there were plenty of things that happened that were 'noteworthy,' but given the intent of this conversation, lightening the mood, she figured she'd focus in on the extremely superficial.

She bobbed her head, "oh, yeah wait, I do have one." Her eyebrow went up as she cocked her head quizzically at him, "confidential between you and me sir?"

Hotch nodded, "Young Republican Club's honor Prentiss." Looking down, her mouth quivered for a second before she got it under control. He really could be quite amusing when he put his mind to it. She looked back over to him.

"I went through a bit of a 'Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice' phase.'"

Hotch did a mental rundown of what he remembered from that movie, and then he almost rear ended the car in front of them as he cried out in horror, "you tried to KILL yourself?"

Emily had turned to look out the window and whipped her head around in shock, "WHAT? NO, NO! GOD NO! I wasn't suicidal!"

Seeing Hotch relax slightly she clarified, "not that aspect of the character. Just the look. I dyed my hair black, pale makeup," she thought back to how she remembered her high school yearbook picture and nodded firmly, "nothing too dramatic though." Then she recalled some other things that had happened back then, less appropriate for casual conversation, and she added quietly, "I was a bit rebellious."

Hotch glanced over at her tone and then looked back to the road as he exhaled, "well five minutes ago imagining you as Vampira might have been slightly shocking, but that's fairly anti-climactic after putting the image in my head of you slicing your wrists." He added sarcastically, "thanks for giving me one more slide to add to the horror show Prentiss."

Emily winced as they stopped at a red light, "sorry sir. In my defense, it never occurred to me that imagery would make you jump to that conclusion."

Hotch's features softened as he looked over at her, "Prentiss all we deal in is death. That's ALWAYS the first conclusion I jump to." Emily looked sadly back over at him, "I suppose that's true," she bit her lip, "I am sorry Hotch, really."

Glancing over he could see she genuinely felt badly so he softened his features, "it's okay Prentiss. Don't worry about it."

As the light turned green he added drolly, "maybe tomorrow you can think of another way to scare the crap out of me." He tried to think of the least likely thing she'd do, "perhaps something involving you having sex with Reid in the bullpen."

In his peripheral vision Hotch saw Emily shrug and he slammed on the brakes as she yelled out laughing.

"KIDDING!"

He turned to glare at her as she shrugged innocently, "I'm sorry sir, it was just a joke." Shaking his head at her in irritation he again started moving the SUV. He'd be lucky if he didn't get pulled over for a drunk and disorderly.

Emily waited three beats before opening her mouth again, "like I would ever have sex with Reid in the bullpen, that's ridiculous." Leaning back against the seat she rolled her neck, "we did it on your desk." He flicked his eyes over and she gave him a kittenish look, "as YOU know, I like a door that closes."

Hotch slowly inhaled and then exhaled before hitting the directional and pulling over to the side of the road. He flipped the hazards before turning in his seat to give her an imploring look.

"Prentiss, you're killing me."

Quirking up her lip Emily gave him a sly glance out of the corner of her eye.

"I know sir . . . I know."

A/N 2: I only had to add "you" to Emily's last shot at Hotch to make specific reference to the bathroom, but otherwise that whole line already worked. I was pleased.

And if you'll recall Emily's actual high school yearbook picture from Tabula Rasa she was a little off with 'nothing too dramatic.' Rest assured, that lovely picture does make an appearance in the chapter already written for that episode.

Unfortunately I didn't get the next chapter done yet though. Sorry. And it's a busy day tomorrow so I won't have time to finish it. However, I do have one almost ready to post in Life & Such. If I have the time to do a final edit on it then I'll put that up. Otherwise I'll see you on Saturday, hopefully here, if not over there.