AN: Apologies for taking so long to post this chapter. RL got busy and didn't give much time to write.
When Hotch and his lawyer met at the courthouse even they were shocked with how quickly Haley's lawyer had asked for and been granted a change from arbitration to a decision from a judge. He expected that she was going to try something to undermine him and that was worrying.
The request was made according to them after receiving Hotch's papers stating his cause for filing being adultery which she was disputing.
It didn't take long for them to learn what strategies she was going to try. The first major false statement that she made was to make the claim that when they separated he left her with no money. While the truth could easily be proven, it angered him that she would make the claim that he was negligent in his responsibility to provide for their family.
It was true that he had stopped having his paycheck deposited in their joint account as he was preparing for the separation. However after discussing with his attorney what he should expect to pay in spousal and child support, he made sure that there was enough money in their joint account to cover that amount for 14 months when he filed the separation papers. Enough to cover what he expected to have to pay for another eight months from now. The day after he filed his separation papers, he went to the bank and requested a notarized copy of the statement for account that had the total balance listed.
As she spoke his lawyer put the documents they had from the bank aside for when it was his turn to ask Haley questions.
The second major false statement was that he had a temper that concerned her citing their meeting after he returned from Milwaukee as evidence. She claimed he spoke harshly to her and grabbed her when she tried to walk away. She had gone on to explain that he had come from an abusive home and she was worried for herself and her son which was why they left while he was out of town.
While Hotch could feel his anger rising, he worked to tamp it down noticing from her reaction that she was trying to anger him. Trying to get him to show anger, get upset in court and prove her point. She had known him long enough that she knew exactly what buttons to push. He would need to let the anger out later but not here. His future relationship with his son depended on it.
Again they had the evidence on their side. Right now Hotch was relieved that he had insisted on the location he did for that meeting. After the separation was official, his lawyer had requested and received the video surveillance of their interaction as well as an official statement for the parks manager about its authenticity. That too was put aside for when it was their turn.
When that time came, Hotch's lawyer questioned Haley first about the money. He gave her a couple of outs which she did not take. Then he presented to the judge the statement from the bank about what Hotch had left the balance at when they separated point out the dates on the statement.
The judge agreed that the amount was more than adequate to cover expected support payments during that time. However, in order to determine what happened to the money, the judge ordered that the bank provide another statement about who withdrew the money and when. He stated that he would rule on the issue when that was received.
After more questioning, Hotch's attorney asked her about the meeting. He had her confirm the location and day along with her account of what happened. Then he presented to the judge the video from the parks department along with the letter which was then played in court.
The video showed them conversing with Haley the only one becoming angry. The video was clear and they could all see that Haley gave no signs of being worried about her wellbeing as she claimed as well as it clearly showed that Hotch did not touch her at all let alone grab her arm.
With that evidence Hotch noticed that both Haley and her attorney had deflated somewhat with two of the major points they were using against him debunked. The only one that hadn't been was his work schedule.
With both of those topics addressed for now, Hotch's attorney started to question Haley with the phone evidence of her relationship with Thomas Hannon. When confronted with the call history, Haley balked and accused him of using his FBI influence to get the information.
That accusation was shut down when paperwork was submitted showing the information came from their call carrier. Hotch was able to legally obtain the information because they had a shared phone plan.
After that Hotch could see Haley becoming desperate and going off script. As his attorney questioned her about the calls, she claimed that Thomas was just checking up on her and Jack. Seeing his client becoming increasingly frazzled, Haley's attorney asked for a recess which Haley refused when the judge asked if she needed a break. Right after that she blurted out that Thomas was checking up on them because he was really Jack's father instead of Hotch.
The courtroom was silent after the declaration before the judge stated they were going to the recess. As soon as the judge had left the courtroom, Hotch's attorney had pulled him into a meeting room.
####
Hotch found himself in the Bureau gym later that night. He had come into the office to check on how the day had gone in his absence. However even in his office he couldn't focus on work. His thoughts kept returning to what happened in the courtroom that afternoon. After staring at the same file for an extended period of time without comprehending what was in it, he grabbed his workout bag from under his desk.
Now that he was there he went to work on a punching bag after taping his hands as he had seen Emily do many times after a difficult day. He wished she was here right now.
While the whole team knew he was separated from Haley and that he was out of the office as they worked on the divorce this week, Emily was the only one that knew details. She knew Haley had been cheating on him.
But the timing of this court hearing had coincided with a trip she was taking on her annual leave. Given that she hadn't really taken any time off since joining the team over a year earlier, he couldn't bring himself to ask her to stay.
With that there was something about this trip, some sort of urgency that he had picked up on particularly in the few days before she left. Her early departure just reinforced his worry as she didn't want to talk about where she was going on her trip. He also discovered when he tried to call her to say goodbye that she didn't have her phone with her. He sighed. He would just need to wait until Monday to see her.
But on Tuesday his whole world may fall apart. After the court came back from their recess, Hotch's lawyer had pressed Haley on the statement she had made. She had doubled down on the statement though Hotch had noticed that her attorney was frustrated at the turn of events.
Haley admitted to cheating though she said that it was once around the time Jack was conceived. She had said that she and Hotch had dated off and on for many years and even without regular use of birth control, she had never conceived. Then shortly after her one time affair, she suddenly found herself finally pregnant.
Hotch again at that point needed to control his anger at what she was implying. While they had dated on and off for years as far as he knew she had been on the Pill until they decided to try for a baby shortly after they got married. If she had been trying to get pregnant before that, he hadn't been aware of it. While it had taken several months for her to conceive, Haley's doctor had reassured them that it was well within the normal range and not a reason for concern.
At that Hotch's attorney requested DNA testing which the judge immediately ordered. At that Haley tried to step back however the judge stated that the tests were to be done that day and they would reconvene on Tuesday to review the results before moving forward.
He had the court official collect his cheek swab for the DNA test before he left. He listened to his attorney discuss Haley had just unintentionally validated all of their DNA evidence collected from the house the night he came back from Milwaukee. They now had official DNA samples from Haley and Thomas Hannon with which compare that evidence.
However Hotch could not see any good in the situation. While it did strengthen their evidence for his assertion of adultery, he couldn't get past how terrified he was that he was days away from potentially losing Jack. He couldn't imagine never being able to see Jack again.
For the most part he knew Haley had been grasping at straws. It was clear that Haley's attorney didn't want her to make that assertion in court. Hotch could only hope that is because he knew it was untrue.
But how certain was he that it was untrue? Yes he had been told by many people that Jack looked like him but that wasn't enough. It would come down to the lab tests.
With one last punch, he stopped and tried to catch his breath before walking over to get a drink. There was nothing he could do until they discovered the results on Tuesday. And he hated on something as important as his future with his son that there was nothing he could do.
####
As they left the prison, Hotch knew he needed to say something to Reid. Something to explain the anger that was uncharacteristically close to the surface. Anger that had could have ended poorly not only for him but also for Reid. But thanks to Reid's quick thinking the situation had been defused until the guards came.
But the whole visit had essentially been under false presence. When he had finished in the gym the evening before, he had a message waiting for him that Chester Hardwick had agreed to meet with them before his execution in a few days. Due to the set execution date, they had a very narrow window to do the interview. Since the court appearance for today was cancelled as they waited for the DNA evidence to come back, Hotch sent a reply saying he would arrive the next day to do the interview.
Then Hotch considered who from the team did he want to take with him. He needed Rossi in the office and with Harwick's record he wasn't going to ask JJ. That left Morgan and Reid. Ultimately he chose Reid because while both would notice something was bothering him, Reid would be less likely to ask questions. Additionally his eidetic memory would prove useful for recalling details from the interview.
However if Hotch had known that Chester had no intention of cooperating with the interview he wouldn't have agreed to come at all. No once they were all in the room, Chester had revealed his plan of delaying his own execution by killing both of them. The careful timing of this meeting had given Hardwick a window of time when he would be locked in a room with them when the guards were performing over duties.
Hotch had already been annoyed when they arrived. The benefit of his workout the night before had been neutralized as he was getting repeated phone calls from Haley that he hadn't been answering. He was additionally frustrated when JJ called just before Hardwick was brought into the room to tell him that Haley had called her to get a message to him.
Then to have Hardwick come in and repeatedly lie to them had made it clear that they had wasted their time in coming. Then to find out they were trapped in the room and Hardwick revealed his plan had Hotch overcompensating.
Once they got back to the BAU, he stayed in his office for the rest of the day, interacting with the team as little as possible. There was only one of them that he would have wanted to talk to right now and she was currently in an unknown location.
####
Emily groaned as her alarm went off Monday morning. Due to flight delays, she had only arrived back at her apartment hours before she had been expected back at BAU. Thankfully today was supposed to be a quiet paperwork day as Hotch was again out of the office.
Getting up before she had the chance to fall back to sleep, Emily got ready to go.
When she arrived at the office, her teammates greeted her with compliments about her new bangs. She had the bangs done during a lengthy layover in Paris a couple of days earlier.
She could feel the difference in herself after they faked Declan's death. With working with profilers she knew she needed to deflect their attention away from the difference in her. The easier way to do that was to make a change in her appearance. For practical purposes, adding bangs was the least drastic option.
Once in the bullpen, she discovered that Hotch was off that day and Reid was teaching at the Academy that morning. Disappointment set in immediately as she had been hoping to check in with both of them.
Their whereabouts were quickly set aside as the team noticed the condition of Rossi's office. Their new teammate who generally kept his office immaculate had left with his office in complete disarray. After finding out what case he was looking into, they made plans to join him in Indianapolis with more questions than answers.
####
As he drove away from the Galen house, Dave felt lighter than he had in over 20 years. This case had haunted him, kept him up at night. One of his goals when he came back to the team was to finally solve this case. And now he had. Well he had with the help of most of his new team.
As he adapted to his return to the BAU, he had been struggling to embrace the team structure having always worked semi-independently. He had come by himself however when the others had heard, they came to help.
Given the rocky start all of them had had he couldn't help but ask them why. And the answer he had received 'because it's important to you' had him immediately reevaluating his mindset about the members of the team, the team structure and how it now functions.
As he stopped at a traffic light, he saw in a shopping center ahead a shop that sold smoothies. Shaking his head, he turned into it when he reached the entrance before going into the shop and ordering smoothies for the three of them, grateful that he remembered their preferences from Montana.
When he arrived at the airstrip he noticed that the others were already waiting for him. After gathering his bags and the holder with the smoothies, he climbed onto the jet. As he stepped into the jet, the others looked at him silently, shocked as they saw him holding the drinks. He walked over to where they were sitting and passed out the cups as he thanked them for coming and for their help solving the case before walking to the other end of the jet and taking a seat by himself.
About an hour into the flight, he noted that the jet was quiet. As he got up to go get a cup of coffee, he noticed that Emily was sitting by herself staring out the window. He looked at her curiously as he passed. She had just returned from her annual leave and seemed more tired now than when she left. He had also noticed that she generally had something on her mind when she was distracted on the jet like this.
As he exited the galley, he took a chance and took the seat across from her.
When she looked up at him surprised, he asked, "how are you doing?"
Emily nodded before saying, "I should be asking you that."
Dave looked at her carefully, not missing that not only had she not answered his question but had also turned attention back to him. Deciding to let it go for the moment, he answered, "glad to have that case finally solved. Thanks to the three of you."
Emily nodded before saying, "happy we could help even if you didn't want us there."
Dave sighed as he realized he still had some work to do with the team. They had all gotten off on the wrong foot. He shook his head as he replied, "it's not that exactly. It's just how I learned to work on cases."
Emily cocked her her as she observed him. She hadn't missed over the course of their time in Indianapolis how much this case had affected him. Looking over at him, she commented absentmindedly, "cases with kids are always the hardest." as she thought about what she had just done on her week off to protect a child from a previous case. But none of them knew about that case or could know about that case. But part of her wondered after watching Dave during this case if he would understand her desire to protect Declan.
Dave nodded as he answered, "yes, you started with Crimes Against Children."
"Yeah." Emily answered.
"Have you ever met Katie Cole?" Dave asked.
Emily smiled at the mention of a previous professional contact that she could talk about as she answered, "yes, we even work on some cases together. She wrote one of my recommendations for the BAU."
Dave smiled at her reaction and answer. He knew from her file that Katie had written one of her recommendations. It was one of the reasons he had mentioned his former colleague to her before he answered, "well she was on the team in the early days so she would have an idea about who would be a good fit for the unit and the work."
Emily nodded as she answered, "true."
They sat quietly for a few minutes before Dave asked, "can I ask you something?"
Emily could feel her nerves rise not sure what he was going to ask was going to touch on the part of her life that she couldn't talk about. She took a deep breath and answered as calmly as she could, "of course."
Dave nodded before he started, "when I started with the team, I was able to look through each of your files."
Emily nodded then said nervously, "yes"
Dave didn't miss her sudden nervousness before he continued hoping he wasn't going to step into something unpleasant, "when I looked at yours I noticed that I knew your grandfather years ago."
His fears diminished when she smiled before saying, "Gideon mentioned that he had mentored both of you."
Dave smiled as the question if Gideon had spoken to her about her grandfather was answered. He nodded as he replied, "he did before he transferred away from the FBI. We didn't talk much after that and then lost touch completely a couple of years later. If you don't mind, I was wondering if you could share what happened to him."
Emily nodded, seeing that her grandfather had been as important to Dave as he had been to Gideon who had described her grandfather's influence in his life. It was reassuring to see how important he had been in the lives of her now colleagues.
Looking over at him, she answered, "sure. He didn't talk much about his career once he left the FBI. All I know is there were some cases that ended poorly and his work was being dismissed. At some point when I was little, under 10, my grandparents moved to France. He died when I was in grad school at Yale."
She held back the few additional details she had shared with the team on the way to Idaho the previous year. That cabin was her last stand safe place and if things went wrong when she handed over the pictures of Declan, she didn't want her location to be fresh in any of their minds.
Dave looked down before looking back over at her and saying sadly, "I'm sorry." While it had been years since he had died, he was just finding out about it.
Emily nodded before answering, "me too. I still miss him."
####
It wasn't long after she returned to the bullpen from Indianapolis that Reid shared with Emily what had happened Friday at the prison in CT. As he continued with his description of events, she was shocked that Hotch would react that way given the situation. With all of his experience in hostage negotiation, it would seem that it would have been instinctual for him to deescalate the situation not intensify it.
No something else was going on for him to react like that. And with being out of town for over a week, she wasn't quite sure what it was. However just as she was leaving she remembered him mentioning the upcoming arbitration for his divorce.
Wondering what had happened, she climbed the stairs and knocked on his office door. When she heard enter, she stepped into the office and closed the door before walking over and sitting at a chair in front of his desk.
When he looked up at her, she could see the range of emotions on his face. Emily sighed and asked him, "is there anything that you need to finish tonight?"
Hotch looked down at the paperwork in front of him. He was working on reports however given that he was supposed to be off today, none of it was due. When he shook his head, Emily responded, "grab your workout bag and let's get out of here."
####
Three hours later, they walked into Emily's apartment with their takeout for dinner. After an intense workout, they had stopped to pick up food before coming back to her apartment to eat. As they sat down to eat neither was anxious to start a conversation.
Emily didn't want him to ask about her trip. She was gone for over a week however she hadn't gone anywhere. She had barely been out of airports in that time. Her answer to any questions he would ask would raise suspicions because there was so much she couldn't say about what she had done.
As much as Hotch had wanted to talk to Emily when she was away now that she was sitting across from him he didn't have anything that he wanted to say.
How did he tell her what was really upsetting him? What he was really worried about?
He didn't want to talk about the claims Haley had made. It was bad enough that a courtroom full of people had heard Haley's claims. She had not only publicly questioned whether he had fathered Jack but also his virility in being able to father a child at all. It was a tough pill to swallow for alpha male.
Did he really want more people to know? But Emily wasn't most people. He had already shared to her more details about his marriage and separation than he had anyone else. And if he received bad news tomorrow about Jack then he was going to need her support. He didn't know what he would do if he lost being part of Jack's life.
####
Emily stood in front of the mirror in her bathroom as she prepared for bed after her shower. A bed that she would be sharing once again with Hotch. After they finished dinner, he had opened up about what had happened in court including Haley's claims.
As he spoke she could hear the anger and devastation in his voice. Now his reaction at the prison in CT made more sense, she expressed being upset with him for putting himself and Reid into that situation when he was in that mindset. Hotch nodded knowing that the apology and weak explanation he had given Reid wasn't sufficient as he didn't want the experience to affect the younger agent's trust in him in the field.
The emotional conversation after the exhausting day had Emily asking Hotch to stay the night before she remembered that she hadn't set the guest room up yet. Given that his acceptance had come with the first relaxed look of the day, she didn't have the heart to withdraw the offer.
However before he got too comfortable, she explained her oversight and said that if he was OK with it he could share the bed with her. He agreed expressing that with going back to court in the morning, he really didn't want to go back to the house that he had shared with Haley.
Stepping out of the bathroom in her robe, she let him know that the bathroom was free before walking into her closet. Once the bathroom door closed, she shook her head before pulling underwear and pajamas out before putting them on. After walking out of the closet, she walked over to her dresser and brushed out her hair before loosely pulling it back.
Then after checking that everything was ready for work the next day, she climbed into her bed. As she laid there, she remembered with apprehension the last time they had shared a bed and later miscommunications that had upset both of them.
It had taken days for them to talk and find out what really happened that morning. But after talking it through they were in a better place. At least she hoped things were better between them. Though she couldn't help but feel that this proposal was unintentionally sending mixed messages at a time where Hotch really didn't need them.
As Emily rolled onto her side, she attempted to push intimate thoughts about Hotch aside. She hadn't been able to get their last time out of her head and after the stress of the last couple of weeks, she would welcome an encore of that night. Definitely not the next morning but that night was wonderful.
But she wasn't going to act on it. If Hotch initiated contact then she would of course welcome it and reciprocate. However given what he expressed earlier about what he was going through right now, she didn't want to become another stressor in his life. She was pulled out of her thoughts when the bathroom door opened and he walked into her room in just pajama pants.
####
Hotch quietly finished getting ready for the day. He was still tired but unable to sleep anymore so he had gotten up before he woke Emily. Since he was up, he had started coffee and made breakfast for both of them after taking his shower. He had just returned to her room to finish getting dressed before preparing to leave.
After their miscommunication a few weeks earlier, he was going to wake her before he left however he was waiting for the last minute as he didn't want to wake her before absolutely necessary. For someone who had just had a week off, he was confused about why Emily looked so stressed and tired. Their conversation last night had been completely focused on him that he hadn't gotten the chance to ask about her trip.
After checking the bathroom for any of his stuff, he turned back to the bed. In her sleep, Emily had turned onto her stomach shifting the bedcovers which had exposed her bare torso. As he moved over to the bed to wake her, he noticed several scars on her back. Scars that he was certain weren't there years earlier. However as FBI agents, scars were not unusual.
As he moved closer, he was horrified as he recognized the pattern of the scars. These weren't scars from the jobs, the pattern indicated that they were from someone beating her. Additionally, as he looked closer there were many more marks in a similar pattern just lighter and hadn't scarred.
He stood back as he thought about what he had just seen. What had happened to her in the time they were apart? He knew that she had mentioned not having good luck with dating but this was at a different level of bad. He thought he had felt something on her back but he had moved his hand away from it when she had angled herself away from him when he touched it.
From the placement of these scars, this had to have been done by someone else. It wasn't like all of the small scars that she had on her upper legs and hips. He knew those were from cutting.
But those weren't completely new. They had had a conversation about them the summer they were dating when he had first noticed them. And while there were more now than that summer, both times they had been together now there was no indication that she was cutting recently.
He was pulled out of his thoughts as he noticed Emily move in her sleep. Walking over to the bed, he straightened the blanket so she was completely covered again as he gently woke her.
When she opened her eyes, he said, "I'm going to go. There is coffee and food for you downstairs."
Emily sleepily looked around the room taking in that it was still dark before asking, "how long have you been up?
Hotch sighed as he answered, "about 45 minutes. I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. I didn't want any confusion this time so I wanted to wake you to say goodbye." He gently rubbed her hand as he talked.
"What time is it?" Emily quietly asked.
Hotch looked over at her clock before responding, "early. Your alarm will be going off in about 15 minutes. Thanks Emily. For everything."
Emily smiled up at him before answering, "thanks to you too. I'll be thinking about you today. Please let me know how things go today. You are welcome to come back over if you'd like."
"Thanks." Hotch said as he gently kissed her forehead before standing up and walking out of the room.