Author's Note: Season Finale! Yay! Okay, two missing scenes. The first one takes place the night they find out JJ's pregnant. The second, like 2 seconds after they cut away from the crime scene where Detective Cooper got shot.

Don't forget this is the last double posting for awhile folks. Starting tomorrow, back to just daily. Daily will last as long as I can make it last :) Though I am happy to say that now that I've finally finished season three, the muse has broken loose! She lickety split wrote three chapters today, all to fill in more of the summer bits we'll be moving into shortly. So thus far, things are shaping up nicely for a smooth run for the foreseeable future.

Also, I am feeling better, so you'll notice I'm back to my usual random ramblings at the end :)


Episode – Lo Fi

Late May

Pretzels & Prentiss

Seeing the flash of hurt on Hotch's face after hearing the news about JJ's pregnancy, Emily debated following him as he left the lobby. But then her nose scrunched.

No, knowing him, he probably wanted to be alone. So instead she went up to her own room and tried to watch television. She really needed to unwind.

But . . . it just wasn't happening.

Not only was the damn case driving her mad, but she kept seeing Hotch's blink and you miss it flinch of pain. He so rarely allowed his mask to slip, let alone to show he'd been injured in some fashion. It had been obvious that JJ keeping that news from him, had to have really hurt.

Damn it.

With an exaggerated sigh Emily pushed herself off the bedspread and went over to dig into her bag for an item she could use as misdirection.

Yes! Chocolate covered pretzels. He liked those. And after opting not to put her boots back on . . . her gun was on her hip, that was good enough . . . she snatched her key card off the dresser and headed for the door.

So with pretzels in hand, she padded down the hall to disturb a man who probably didn't wish to be disturbed. She knocked once . . . then twice. And then the man himself opened the door with a slightly puzzled expression.

"Prentiss?"

Emily smiled sweetly as she held up the bag.

"Pretzel, sir?"

Hotch looked at the bag of treats, down to Emily's bare feet, and then back up to the cheerful grin his agent was wearing at two in the morning. Either she'd been smoking something illegal, or she'd come to check on him and thought she should bring some armament. And after giving her an amused smirk, he stepped back and gave her a nod to enter.

Neither of them said anything as they walked over and sat down on Hotch's still made bed. There were file folders open on the top half of it.

Of course . . . Emily bit back a sigh . . . he'd still been working.

But she opted not to comment on that fact . . . he was going to work 24/7 whether she approved or not . . . as she crossed her legs underneath her. Then she dumped out the pretzels on a napkin between them. And as Hotch looked over at her, she very carefully did not look back at him.

"Did you know?"

Emily couldn't hide her flinch as she picked up a pretzel.

"What's that sir?"

Answering a question with a question . . . he'd allow that to go on for about nine seconds. But it would give her eight to figure out the correct response.

"About JJ," Hotch raised his eyebrow, "did you know that she was pregnant?"

"Well," Emily swallowed her bite, "of course we'd all figured out about Will," he nodded, and she continued, "and I thought her recurrent 'flu' was a little suspicious, but, no, I didn't actually know for sure."

It wasn't even a conscious suspicion, just more a passing whisper in her brain.

Hotch nodded as he unconsciously played with the twisted chocolate shapes.

"Would you have told me?"

"About JJ," Emily frowned, "uh, I don't know. Probably not," she shrugged, "you know it wouldn't have been my news to tell."

He shook his head, "no, I meant if it was you. Would you have told me if you were pregnant?"

Emily gave him a soft smile as she looked him in the eye, "yes, I would have definitely told you."

At Hotch's slightly crestfallen look that perhaps JJ didn't trust him like he thought she did, Emily quickly clarified.

"But Hotch, that's because I'm always in the field. And if I was going to kick down doors with a mini me expanding my waist line, well, that's going to throw off my center of gravity, and that's information you probably would need to know." She jiggled her head from side to side as she looked at the ceiling, "plus, if I want my kid to be able to count to ten, I should probably take a break from the door kicking and the UNSUB tackling, lest I risk mini me accidentally taking one for Team Prentiss."

"Good call Prentiss," Hotch responded drolly, "those vests are intended to stop bullets, not provide a magical shield of protection for unformed fetuses."

Though Emily's attempt at levity helped him, he sobered quickly. He wasn't sure how to handle this situation. It hadn't come up before.

He looked back to her.

"So if you were in JJ's position, you'd be okay with me taking you out of the field? You wouldn't fight me?"

Shaking her head Emily slowly chewed her pretzel, "no sir, I wouldn't fight you," then she snorted slightly, "not that you have to worry about me being in JJ's position. Not unless somebody writes a sequel to that Baby in a Manger story anyway."

Hotch's jaw quivered at her disclosure, "well if they're looking to cast a Joseph for part two let me know," he finally stopped playing with his food and threw one of the pretzels in his mouth, "he seemed to get the raw end of the deal there too."

It wasn't until after the words were out of his mouth, that he realized that in context with their near dalliance five months ago, that it might appear he was asking her to keep him in mind if she wanted to have sex. He gave an internal eye roll . . . idiot. Well, knowing her, she was either going to mercilessly bust his balls right now, or let it go completely. He sent up a silent prayer.

Please God, let it be the second one.

Emily raised an eyebrow.

That statement definitely required further exploration. Contrary to team gossip, it appeared that Hotch was not boffing the chick from the BBC. Interesting. Of course Hotch had also just implied that he wanted to have sex with her . . . which was also kind of interesting . . . but she figured that was more likely just an unfortunate choice of phrasing on his part, so she decided to let it go. Instead she simply pursed her lips.

"Really? I assumed you'd be 'liasing' with Agent Joyner?" At the narrowing of his eyes, Emily quickly tacked on a "sir." She'd found she could get away with saying almost anything if she did it half assed respectfully.

Hotch hid his amusement at Emily's old standby method of screwing with him, and decided to answer her anyway. It was the middle of the night, and really, what the hell did he care?

He was just grateful that she decided to let the other thing go.

"No, I am not," still holding a pretzel he made an air quote to mock her insinuation "'liasing,' with Kate. She and I are just old friends." He made a face, "besides that would be kind of creepy Prentiss. Don't you think she looks exactly like my ex-wife?"

Emily swallowed her last bit of pretzel with a gulp, "does she? I hadn't noticed."

She had noticed, it was creepy, and though her boss' sex life . . . with the exception of one super near miss in a public bathroom . . . was generally none of her business, she was VERY relieved to know that he was self aware enough not to have wandered down the road to set up camp in Doppelganger'ville.

Doppelganger'ville was was just a short ride to Crazy Town.

Nothing good was ever going to come out of the choice to sleep with a person who looked exactly like your ex. Well, he'd get laid, but there would then be a whole self loathing thing that would come later that would pretty much completely negate any positive effects from the prior exertion.

Not that Emily had an experience in this area.

Certainly not.

And after that last little exchange, they polished off the last of the snack bag of pretzels in complete silence. Once they were done . . . Hotch dropped the last one into her hand . . . Emily brushed the crumbs off her fingers.

"Okay, well I should probably get going, murderers to catch and all."

Hotch nodded as she stood up and followed her to the door. And then he leaned on the jamb as he watched to make sure that she got safely back to her room. His eyes crinkled slightly as she cursed her key card after the second unsuccessful swipe. After she'd run it through a third time, the little green light came on and heard her mutter, "thank you God."

Emily had just put her hand on the knob, when she heard Hotch call out, "Prentiss, thanks." When she turned back, and he gave her a little smile and a wink.

". . . for the pretzels."

Her lip quirked up.

"Anytime sir."

They both nodded a good night and stepped back into their respective hotel rooms. Emily noted that their doors made simultaneous clicks as they fell shut.

She flipped the deadbolt.

/*/*/*/*/*/*

Hotch's head whipped around as a flash of dark hair caught his eye.

Emily.

Thank Christ.

And after quickly excusing himself from his conversation with Kate and Dave, he hurriedly exited the alley.

As he got closer to where Emily was standing Hotch could see that she looked pretty shaken up. And he was hard pressed to recall ever seeing Emily Prentiss look like that on duty before. He'd seen her upset off duty . . . they'd shared a moment or ten . . . but she was never rattled on the job. This was unsettling. Of course this whole damn situation was unsettling.

"Prentiss," he called out softly, "are you okay?"

Emily turned slightly to give Hotch a tight smile.

"Yes sir."

In actuality it was very much a "no sir, absolutely not, sir, no fucking WAY, sir," but they were on duty. And on duty, they did not discuss such trivialities as their 'real' feelings.

Hotch's mouth tightened as took note that her "yes, sir," was very much belied by the fact that she was frantically rubbing her hands up and down her arms. It was like she was cold. He hoped that wasn't shock. But then he noted that she was missing half of the suit that she'd had on earlier.

Maybe she really was cold.

So with a gesture of his head and a raised arm, he guided her over to a doorway of one of the now empty storefronts.

"Where's your jacket?" He asked quietly. And her her eyes immediately snapped up to his.

"Hopefully still staunching the flow of Detective Cooper's blood."

"Right," he slowly exhaled, "how is he?"

Good one Aaron. Way to be an insensitive ass.

Emily's eyes glazed over slightly as she whispered back, "not good."

At that moment, Hotch flashed on her as she was the night before, when she'd shown up barefoot at his door, just wanting to make sure he was okay. His expression softened as he lowered his voice further.

"You did good work Prentiss," he reached out to quickly pat her wrist, "and I'm very glad you're okay."

That had, of course, been his main concern when he'd heard what happened . . . at least she wasn't the one that had been hurt. Was that a selfish response? Absolutely. Did he give a shit one or the other if that made him bad person.

Not even a little.

Feeling her eyes start to burn . . . sweet Hotch was terrible for her emotional control . . . Emily croaked out a husky, "thanks Hotch." And then she took a deep breath as she quickly pulled herself back together. When she faced him again she knew that her eyes were clear . . . as was her voice when she spoke.

"Morgan told you what happened with the shooting?"

Seeing that she had fully encased herself in her armament once more, Hotch nodded as he turned back towards the alley. She immediately stepped in beside him.

"We need to get back to the office and hash this out."

Now working her jaw Emily nodded her agreement as they rejoined the others. They only stayed together for a moment before they dispersed to go back to their respective vehicles for the drive back to the federal building.

After Emily climbed into the Tahoe, she paused before turning the starting the SUV. She was thinking about the group assembled for this case. They had the knowledge, they had the experience, and she was confident that they could figure this out before anyone else had to die.

And with that final thought, she slid in the key and turned the ignition.


A/N 2: And now you have to be wondering, did I blow up Emily too? I mean we are in the AU, I can technically do any damn thing I please. I could leave you hanging but . . . I won't.

No, I didn't blow up Emily. That was just a little literary device we like to call 'foreshadowing' :) I was going to continue the scene and then I thought eh, we'll just stop there and make it a real season finale cliffhanger. I'm sure it was incredibly frightening :)

I will say if canon Emily didn't check on Hotch, I seriously hope somebody did! He looked so hurt! Poor thing. I'd also like to believe that Hotch, with all his behavioral/psych training would be self aware enough NOT to hook up with a cold hearted chick that looks just like the one that just broke his heart. Because that's just F'D UP! And beyond that, if they were together and then she died, that just makes Hotch a character worthy of his own Greek tragedy. Which I suppose would explain why he's still so screwed up a year later . . . No, no, I can't go there. They did NOT sleep together, even in canon. I have decreed it.

I also wholeheartedly believe my missing scene from the shooting actually happened. Because if you look at it closely, in the 12 seconds they run the scene after Hotch gets there, they don't see each other. Every other time one of them has been involved in an 'incident', as soon as Hotch spots them, he runs over. So I have no doubt he did that here too, we just didn't get to see it. Between that and Colorado that's TWO missed opportunities for H/P love in the canonverse. I did address both instances in this story, but they need to work on that for next year. Seriously, I think every other ship has had their little 'aw' moment, and the H/P'ers are still just mostly working off subtext (locker room scene notwithstanding). We're totally due for some payoff next year! Though if you haven't seen the cast photo for next season, you should check it out. That does seem to indicate that TPTB understand there's now an H/P contingency out there!

Next: "Maelstrom"