Chapter 2 : long story short

The doors swung shut behind Fincher. Inside the bullpen you could have heard a pin drop. The tension was thick, almost suffocating. Emily's eyes were on the floor as just the notion of having to look at them again tied her stomach up in knots.

Especially facing one person in particular.

"Foyet?" Hotch's voice was low, almost pained.

Alex had only learned a few days earlier who George Foyet was and that he'd killed Hotch's ex-wife Hayley, the mother of his young son Jack. It was one of the worst times of Hotch's life when Foyet came after him and his family. But Emily had left just after Foyet attacked Hotch in his apartment.

She'd not been in the search that followed so what could Fincher have meant?

"You weren't here." Morgan said struggling to make sense of it. "You'd already gone to L.A."

Emily slowly looked up and her eyes met Hotch. In that moment he knew. He knew what Fincher had said was right. Something had happened between Emily and Foyet.

"I don't understand." Hotch stepped closer so he was standing right in front of her.

"He has to be wrong Hotch." J.J said

"You weren't here. We had broken up." Hotch continued as if J.J hadn't spoken. "Foyet had no reason to go after you."

Hotch was oblivious to the looks of utter shock that passed between his teammates as he spoke.

"Did he say…" Reid murmured.

Broken up? But that would mean they'd been a couple. Garcia looked to Morgan and J.J but they both looked just as surprised as she felt. Was it possible Hotch and Emily had been romantically involved before she'd left?

"No way." J.J said

Emily wished she was anywhere else in the world other than standing before him and having to have this conversation. She'd hoped it was something that he would never ever find out because honestly, going through it was easier than this. The slice of the blade hurt but nowhere near as much as seeing the pain on Hotch's face right now.

"Foyet didn't come after me. I went after him."

Hotch thought he was already facing his worst nightmare. Foyet targeting Emily and him being oblivious to the danger she'd been in was one thing but this was something else. Aas was the habit with Emily, she surprised him. She had always surprised him. Emily went after Foyet and that was worse. So much worse because Hotch knew it was his fault.

"You what?"

It was Morgan who spoke because Hotch couldn't. She'd rendered him speechless.

"I didn't leave the BAU and move to California. I went to Boston and I dug up every scrap of information on Foyet that I could."

If Emily was going to tell him, tell all of them what happened then she was going to do it once and do it properly.

"I talked to former co-workers, neighbours, friends. I worked with that journalist Roy and he showed me everything he'd gathered from his investigation. I must have read his book a dozen times. I even spoke to Foyet's eight grade English teacher, nice lady though not surprised he turned out to be a killer. She always felt there was something off about him."

Realising she was getting a little off track she took a breath and refocused her train of thought.

"My plan was working though because Foyet found out someone was digging and he came back. The whole thing would have worked if the Boston P.D hadn't fucked up." Emily shook her head remembering that night and how badly it had gone. "I nearly had him."

Hotch closed his eyes.

How could this have happened and he have no idea whatsoever about it? He'd been running the search for Foyet or at least he thought he had been. Roy Coulson? The Boston police? This had been a serious operation and it had been kept secret for nearly two years.

"You really went after him." Rossi said his voice laced with complete wonderment.

"You could have died." Hotch half growled. "What you did was insane. How could you do that?"

"Because it's my job." She snapped. "I didn't want to wait to see what he did to you next so I did my job and went after him."

"You knew how dangerous he was. He'd nearly killed me; he went after Hayley and Jack." Hotch said unable to keep the pain from his voice as he remembered that time. "He could have killed you."

"Better me than Hayley or Jack."

Hearing that was like a knife to the gut. Again. Hotch stepped back and Emily did the same, as if shocked at what had come out of her own mouth. It was only then they remembered they weren't alone. She could imagine how the others were reacting. Their shock and confusion to what they'd just learnt.

Thankfully, Emily was saved by her phone. Taking it from her pocket she looked at the text message.

"I have to go." Emily said clutching the phone like a lifeline.

Hotch held her gaze for a moment then turned and walked to his office without saying a word.

xxxxxx

Thank you for reading.