Author's Note: First, Happy Easter if anyone is so inclined to be celebrating. And if you're not, just Happy Sunday, or Monday, wherever you are on the Gregorian calendar. I need to get over to my folks house but I thought I'd try and be nice and post before I left for a day of 'family fun,' or 'family fighting.' There's usually some alliteration there but it's generally kind of a tossup on which way it's gonna go :)

Post ep for the flashback episode where we saw Reid with some seriously greasy hair. I know that it was all long and stringy because of the writer's strike, but dude, dial down the product!

The title for this one came way back when from Dancer in Disguise. She gave it to me while I was soliciting prompts over in The Hours. I think it worked out well for this chapter, and it helped give me a clear theme when before I just had a fuzzy concept of what I wanted to write. So thanks :)

You can probably guess that it's Latin, and the definition I found that I liked the most was: "something that is to be decided by principles of what is fair and just."


Episode - Tabula Rasa

Early May

Ex Aequo Et Bono

Emily looked up when she heard somebody opening the glass doors to the BAU.

Her brow wrinkled in confusion as she saw her late night visitor walking across the bullpen.

"Hotch," she called out, "what are you doing back here? It's late, I thought you would have just headed straight home."

Christ, was he sleeping here now?

Hotch walked up to her desk and sighed.

"I dropped Reid off but I had some of the evidence from the case and I wanted to secure it tonight." He paused for a second, "you know he pled out?"

"Yeah," Emily nodded, "Dave told me."

For a moment Hotch looked down at Emily. Then he leaned over to place his box on the floor before moving back to sit on the corner of her desk. He bit his lip.

"Can I ask you something Prentiss?"

"Sure."

"Do you believe it?"

At Emily's puzzled look, Hotch clarified his question.

"I mean, do you really believe that we did this to him? That when he hit that pavement his hard drive was wiped, and then when he woke up we reinstalled all of the same defective programs again?"

Ever since she'd said that . . . had posed it that way . . . the idea had been haunting him.

That it was all their fault.

Emily's teeth sunk into her lip as she began to shake her head slowly.

"I don't know," she shifted in her seat, "possibly. But did it really make any difference in the long run? Couldn't the same result have simply come about the first time he watched the horrors on one local television newscast?" She rolled her eyes as she leaned back in her chair, "either way Hotch, Rossi and Morgan were right, those hands, they killed those women."

Hotch started working his jaw as Emily continued, warming to her topic.

"That said, I also think, that it's right and it's proper, that we question ourselves in moments like this." She huffed, "I mean God, our entire careers, our lives, are focused on delving into the minds of these men and women to find the monsters hiding inside of them. So we sure as hell can't one day decide that it just doesn't matter whether or not that monster lives there anymore. If that's going to be our attitude, then what are we even doing here?"

These were hard questions of course, but necessary ones.

At least necessary if they wanted to stay on the right side of the angels.

But as she saw Hotch staring down at the floor, slowly nodding his agreement to her words, Emily could see he was still genuinely bothered. And she also knew that she didn't have an answer that was going to comfort him. She didn't even have one to comfort herself.

There just wasn't a black or white answer to quantify what they had done.

Though . . . she glanced over to her computer . . . even if she couldn't help him navigate this moral quagmire, maybe she could at least cheer him up a little.

Her fingers slid under her keyboard and slipped out the folded piece of paper. Then with an internal rolling of her eyes . . . she couldn't believe she was doing this . . . she opened it and passed it over to him with a little smile.

"I think you might have missed this when it was making the rounds earlier."

It took Hotch a second to realize what he was looking at, but then . . . even though no teeth were displayed . . . both dimples made an appearance. He looked over at Emily. She shrugged her shoulders as she grinned at him.

The Winona Ryder Years.

In that moment, Hotch felt a wave of deep affection for her. She would do these things for him, sometimes big things, sometimes . . . like today . . . they were little things, but they were always things just to make him feel better. And in those moments, he would wonder what he ever did before she came into his life. And after he carefully folded her senior class picture back into a small square, he handed it over to her with a grateful nod.

The incriminating photo was immediately tucked back under her keyboard.

Hotch looked at her for a second before he leaned down to pick up his evidence box again.

"Let me just lock this in my office."

And then . . . seeing that she was shutting down her computer . . . he tipped his head.

"Are you about ready to go?"

At her nod, he stood up, "okay, give me a minute and I'll walk you to your car."

Emily shot him a little smile as she said softly, "kay."

Good . . . she sighed to herself as she turned to pick up her files . . . he did seem better now.

Leaving Emily to finish gathering her paperwork, Hotch ran up and put the box in his office. After he'd grabbed the new files from his in-bin, he stepped back out. And after quickly locking his door, he continued back down the stairs.

Emily was pulling on her suit jacket as he stepped off the last riser.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

They started across the room, and when they got to the glass door, Hotch stepped forward so he that could hold it open for her.

He could be chivalrous off hours . . . she slipped by him with a little smile . . . it just wouldn't do when they were on the clock.

And a second later as they stood waiting for the elevator, Hotch turned to her.

"You know," he stated conversationally, "you might want to put that picture somewhere safe. We're getting new photos taken for our IDs next month, if that's fresh in Garcia's head, she might get some ideas."

Emily quirked up her lip.

"Thanks for the heads up sir."


A/N 2: I thought as far as missing scenes went this was fairly realistic. This was definitely a moral quagmire for Hotch and it was clear that Emily's statements on the subject were the ones that were really hitting home with him. He just listened as the guys were talking but he actually flinched when she was making her points. So I think he might have come to her later and asked if she really did believe what she'd said. And then I just liked the idea of tying that awful picture back in with the story she'd told him about her 'Winona Ryder in Beetlejuice' look, which is really totally what that was!

Also, I wanted to thank everyone for all the great reviews I got yesterday! You know I like to send an individual thanks where I can but I've still been kind of sick so I wasn't really able to do it. But I wanted you to know I still was very appreciative :)

And now, finally, we've reached the season finale! Tonight I will post for 'Lo Fi' and then we will be straight AU from here on out.

Next: "Pretzels & Prentiss"