Prentiss

I had spent the night talking with JJ and Hotch. We drank more wine and made JJ laugh as much as we could. She played it off as nothing, like she was fine, but we knew she was hurting; we knew the moment we saw her body language in the gutter when we turned into Will's street. Today, we went out for lunch with the team and then Hotch dropped me back to his house before he went to pick Jack up. I went up to the spare bedroom which had become mine while I was here and when I wasn't with Hotch, and I looked through all my things. I came across several things left from my life with Chris amongst some of my things in the closest, hiding from my view. I emptied one of the small boxes and swapped all of the things I wanted to keep with all the things that would remind me of Chris that I didn't want.

After a while, I heard the front door open and not just Hotch and Jack's voices, but the whole team. I closed the box and walked downstairs with it, meeting them all in the foyer. Hotch hung his coat and turned to me just as Jack saw me. His eyes widened, "Emily!" He exclaimed excitedly. I dropped the box to the ground, hearing a few picture frames break, and opened my arms just in time for him to crash into me. I closed my arms around him tightly and kissed his hair, "I missed you."

"Aw, I missed you too, buddy." I ruffled his hair.

He smiled and looked down at the box, "What's that?"

"That is a box of things that I need your dad to take from me and make sure I never see again." I replied as I picked the box up and looked at Hotch. He gave me a questioning look as he stepped forward and took it from me. "Things associated with Chris." I explained to him and the team quietly. He nodded in understanding and excused himself, leaving the house, presumably to take the box out to the trashcans.

I saw Henry wriggle out of JJ's arms and run to me. I lifted him up when he reached me and hugged him to my tightly. I kissed his hair too and he gripped me tighter, telling me that he didn't want to be put back down anytime soon. "Yeah, he'll hang on for a while. I think I held him for a solid hour and a half this afternoon." JJ nodded.

I smiled and my phone began to ring as Hotch came back inside. I walked to the living room where it sat and the team followed. I sat down on the couch, Henry still clinging around my neck, and held the phone to my ear, "Emily."

"Emily, it's your mother. Normally you answer your phone with Prentiss?"

"Uh…yeah, well I figured that wasn't suitable now that I'm not an agent. How are you?"

"…I'm very good, thank you," Just the tone of her voice told me that she too felt how strange it was for me to speak to her without attitude or any kind of rude comment, "And you?"

"I'm magnificent. What can I do for you?"

"You're not going to like why I'm calling, but I really need this from you…and one of your friends or if you have a boyfriend him…and your team."

"Oh no…" I rolled my eyes.

"That ball I asked you about last year and you declined? Well it's happening this year as well, and I've had six people ask if you're going to be presented this year. Emily, I need you to do this; it will shape the image that your father and I, let alone you, will hold in London for the rest of our lives."

"No, it will shape the image that the rich people of London hold of you and dad. I have nothing to do with it and neither does the majority of London."

"Emily, please? All you have to do is fill out a form with presentable information or I could even do that for you, choose a man to escort you for the night and attend the dance lessons and rehearsals with you, and bring your team to sit at our table because I bought two and I only have filled one."

"You already brought the tables and registered me, didn't you?"

"…Yes…"

I closed my eyes, "Mother, they're agents; they can't just take a few days off to come to London so they can watch me dance in front of a bunch of politicians and snobby rich people that they'll hate."

"Please just ask them? And if they were to come, how many of you would there be? Including you and your escort, of course."

"There are eight of us."

"Perfect, the eight of you can sit with Natalia and Jason on one table, and your father and I will sit on the other table with our friends."

"You invited Natalia and Jason? Don't go planning anything yet, mother. If they can't get the weekend off then they're not coming, and who do you expect me to ask to "escort" me? I don't know anyone."

"…The weekend? Honey this is on a Friday night. I would suggest coming for the week, as there is a rehearsal on the Monday before hand and the last two dance trainings on Wednesday and Thursday."

"Okay, so you want me to ask the best of the best FBI BAU agents to take a whole week off to come to London and do what? Sight see for a week before Friday night? Aaron and JJ have kids, not to mention, oh I don't know, five of them having a full weeks' worth of work and one having shift after shift at a hospital over this week."

"A doctor? Who is that?"

"Savannah, Morgan's other half."

"Oh, he finally settled?"

I laughed at that and looked at Morgan, "Yes mother, Morgan finally settled."

"Just ask and get back to me as soon as you can, please? I've got to go now but I'll be waiting. Good bye, my dear." She hung up and I put my phone back down, shaking my head. I said no last year and I was going to say no this year; why would I want to dress up in a long over the top dress with an over the top corsage, and dance with an equally dressed up guy in front of hundreds of people that I either didn't know or didn't like?

I decided I wouldn't ask the team now; I'd ask them over dinner, to which I assumed Hotch was cooking for everyone by their presence here tonight. We'd probably be eating outside where the larger table was that would fit all of us on it. Henry took his hands away from the back of my neck and climbed down slowly. I assisted him down and he ran back over to JJ. She helped him climb up beside her and he crawled into her lap, sitting close to her and hugging her. I smiled as I watched, and she smiled down at him as she kissed his forehead.

Hotch had made a large feast with much of Rossi's and JJ's help. Once the three of them were all in there at once at some point and I was left with the rest of them in the living room, I was questioned as to why I had referred to him as Aaron on the phone instead of Hotch like I always tried my hardest to do when the men of the team were present. I played it off as my mother knowing him as Aaron better than Hotch and I think they bought it. The only one that would have suspected anything would have been Rossi, but thankfully he remained in the kitchen.

We sat around the table outside now, having just finished eating and now we were just drinking wine or scotch while Jack and Henry went to play inside. Rossi had made a toast for our return home to them happy and healthy, and now there were a few discussions between members going around the table. I was sitting between Hotch and Garcia and I tried my hardest not to look at Hotch for the majority of our time out here because I didn't want to ruin it for him and blow our secret.

"So what was that call with you mother about before?" JJ asked me from the other side of the table. The others went silent and listened.

"Oh, there's this annual presentation ball thing in London that she wants me to go and represent the Prentiss name at. I was supposed to go last year but I refused, so now she's begging me to do it this year. Apparently it will set the image the rich people of London will have on her and my father. It's stupid; I hate these things but I think I actually have to go because she already paid registration – which is very high up there in price – and two tables for guests. I'm supposed to find a partner to dance with me and show myself off." I rolled my eyes.

"And she wants us to come?" Garcia asked.

"Yeah, she asked if I could ask if you could all take that whole week off and come," I shook my head, "I'll call her tomorrow and say you can't."

"No, we can." Rossi smiled.

"…No. Dancing in front of people I hate is bad enough; I'm not dancing in front of people I actually like. You all have work, anyway."

"I don't! Can I come?" JJ smirked.

"No, no one is coming."

"Yes we are. I'll get the week off for us." Hotch said.

"I'll put in for leave." Savannah smiled.

I shook my head, "No, and I'm not going to tell you when it's on so you can't do that anyway."

"I'll just call your mother in the morning. Not a problem." Hotch said before sipping his scotch and looking at me.

"I hate you all."

"Who will escort you?" Savannah asked curiously.

I shrugged my shoulders, "I don't know. I'll tell my mother that I don't have anyone and she'll set me up with some disgusting pervert of a guy that I'll have to do it with."

"…I can do it." Reid offered.

I looked at him and raised my eyebrows, "You want to "escort" me in a London presentation ball and dance and wear a tux?"

He shrugged his shoulders, "It sounds fun."

I laughed humourlessly, "Oh Reid, there is no such thing as fun when my mother is involved in anything, especially if it's a ball."

He rolled his eyes, "It cannot be that bad."

"Okay, but you'd have to come to London every weekend between, I don't even know, next weekend up to the weekend before the week we'd have to be there for all I know..."

He nodded, "I'll find a way to pay for all the flights."

"Oh no, my mother would be paying for absolutely everything. Um…are you really offering this right now?"

He nodded, "Yeah, let's do it."

I smiled, "Okay, thanks Reid," I looked at Hotch without thinking at all, "Wait, do you mind?" My eyes widened when he raised his eyebrows and I noticed what I had just done.

"…Why would he mind?" Morgan asked.

"Yes!" Savannah exclaimed, "You both owe me twenty. Pay up, bitches." She said, motioning for Garcia to pay her from across the table and JJ from a few seats down the table. The both groaned at the same time and got the wallets out from their pockets. I watched as JJ and Garcia both handed her a twenty dollar note each and I gave her a questioning look. "Oh…we had a bet going. JJ bet that Hotch would tell the guys on Monday at work, Garcia bet that they'd find out on our next night out for drinks and you'd make out in the corner or something and they'd see, and I bet that one of you would blow it tonight."

"Wait…blow what? Why are they making out? What's going on?" Morgan looked from Savannah to Hotch and I.

I turned my head and looked at Hotch, "I am so sorry."

"I knew it!" Rossi sat up straight, "I knew there was something going on. I asked JJ if she thought anything was and she was certain there wasn't but she was lying and I knew it!"

"For how long?" Reid asked.

"Well…I think the first time was the second week of me living with Hotch since I had gotten back from Medstar and I left Rossi's." I said, looking at Hotch for confirmation. He nodded in agreement.

"Wait…the first time?" Morgan questioned, "So you're sleeping together, but you're not dating? You're not actually together together."

I bit my lip and looked at Hotch, "No, we're not "actually" together."

"Wow…Emily and Hotch sleeping together. Crazy." Reid shook his head with a smirk. I sipped my wine and looked at the table in front of me, ignoring the eyes and smirks on us.

I couldn't find a quote I liked tonight.