A/N: Me? Posting a chapter on time (ish)? Wow, crazy. I really wish I could post these earlier in the evening instead of 11 at night, but this is just what time I can get them posted :/ I'm sorry. Not much to say here, although I did post my first short-fic/drabble for this story on my tumblr (thestrawberrygirl)! Hotch and Emily stumble upon a haunted house. Fun stuff. Please read and review!
Weep for yourself, my man,
You'll never be what is in your heart
Weep little lion man,
You're not as brave as you were at the start
Rate yourself and rake yourself,
Take all the courage you have left
Wasted on fixing all the problems that you made in your own head
Little Lion Man, Mumford & Sons
One week later
The cool October afternoon was a great change from the strange heat wave the mountain town had been experiencing for the past few days. Their town didn't usually get heat waves; their summers were mild with highs in the mid-eighties. So when the tiny town was suddenly blasted with 90 degree weather, in the middle of October no less, everyone was taken by surprise.
Now the weather was hovering in the comfortable range of 50s-60s. The windows were open, allowing a slight breeze to pass through the shop.
A man of about 30, wearing an unbuttoned flannel with a white t-shirt underneath walked into the store carrying a large box. A couple of the employees rolled their eyes, but other than that no one noticed.
"Excuse me ma'am," he said, talking to Alex. "Is Ms. Prentiss here today?"
"She's in the back, Ben," she answered. After he passed, her and James shared a look. Hotch hadn't met this man yet, but judging by the reaction of everyone in the store, the guy wasn't very well liked.
Emily was in the back of the store, talking to Spencer and Rossi. Ben dropped the large box onto the table they were gathered around with an unceremonious thunk. Emily looked at him with a half-disbelief, half-pissed expression on her face, Spencer's gaze instantly dropped to the floor, and Rossi just raised a single eyebrow as if to say, yes?
"Can I help you, Cyrus?" Emily asked with sarcasm dripping from her words. Cyrus looked down to meet her gaze. "I'm here to sell these books, Emily." He turned to look at Spencer. "How are you, Reid?" He asked, clapping him on the shoulder, making Reid jump. Emily stepped in front of him, drawing the attention back to her. She put her arm around Spencer's shoulders, trying to shield him as much as possible without actually shoving him behind her.
Still looking Cyrus dead in the eyes, she opened the box and glanced inside. Ben stepped closer to her, completely invading her personal space. Rossi stepped forward, "Back up," he said. Cyrus backed up and put his hands in the air as a show of surrender, which they all knew was complete bullshit.
"You've got about 30 books here-"
"32," Spencer corrected her.
"32," Emily repeated. "So I can give you about 7 bucks."
"That's it?"
"If you aren't happy with it, go somewhere else," she said, her tone obviously saying she was annoyed. Cyrus took the 7 dollars she had outstretched and left in a huff.
"Who's that?" Hotch asked.
"Benjamin Cyrus," Alex answered. "He's just one of the super-religious weirdos. It's rumored that he's a pedo. I can see it honestly, he's always had a bit of a thing for Prentiss. He likes to come in here and not-so-subtly try to convert us to Christianity."
Hotch had his own problems with Christianity. His father's words still haunted him at night. He thought that by running away to Colorado, he could escape it, but apparently not.
"I guess I'll call up Matt, he can probably take these," Emily said, pulling out her phone.
"Hey Matt, I've got… 30 bibles here, you want 'em?"
"Cyrus?"
"You know it. Oh, we also have a word search: Bible edition. Lovely."
"They'll definitely sell better here than there, so yeah send them over."
"Cool, I'll be over in about 20 minutes."
"See you soon." She turned to Rossi and Reid. "I'm just gonna ride my bike over there, be back in a bit."
"See you soon kiddo," Rossi said, patting her on the shoulder. "See ya later Em," Reid said.
She grabbed the heavy box of books and started to go outside. "Where you going?" Hotch asked, doing a half-jog to catch up with her.
"Gotta bring these books over to the Christian bookshop in town."
"I'll go with you."
"You got a bike?" Hotch shook his head. She sighed.
"Hand me your jacket," she requested. She tied both her cardigan and Hotch's jacket onto the metal shelf above the back tire. "There, that shouldn't hurt your ass too much." She put the box of books in her large basket in the front of the bike.
"Hold onto me," she said. Hotch looked petrified. "Jesus Christ Hotchner, are you 12?" She huffed, grabbing his hands and putting them on her hips.
They began their ride to town. The awkwardness (mainly from Hotch) about having to hold onto his coworker had passed, and they were smoothly riding through the streets.
About 10 minutes later, Emily stopped the bike in front of a small brick building. She grabbed the box and Hotch stood up and walked in with her.
"Hey Emily!" An 40-something year old Asian man about the same height as Hotch stood up and walked over to give Emily a hug.
"Hey Matt! Here's your 30 Bibles, with a Bible word search for free!" She joked with fake excitement.
"Why does he think that you guys want these?" Matt asked as he took the box and passed it off to another worker.
"I don't think he wants us to sell them, I think he's hoping that we'll pick one up and join his cult," Emily said.
"True." He checked his watch. "Aren't you supposed to still be working?"
"Yeah, Hotch and I probably need to get back," Emily admitted. Hotch stepped forward.
"Aaron Hotchner," he introduced himself.
"Matt Simmons. My wife Kristy and I run the place. Nice seeing you again Em, and nice to meet you Aaron."
"Hotch is fine," Hotch said.
"Nice meeting you Hotch. Bye Emily, have a good day."
"Bye Matt," Emily said as she walked back out and hopped back on the bike. Hotch took his seat once more on the back of the bike as they rode back to the shop. The cool breeze felt nice. They returned to their home base about 13 minutes later (there was a bit of traffic).
As she was putting her bike back into the rack on the side wall of the store, Benjamin Cyrus came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Jesus Christ Cyrus. What do you want?" Hotch was about to go back inside when he heard them. He stood on the corner of the wall, enough to hear without being seen.
"You shouldn't use the Lord's name in vain, Ms. Prentiss."
"Yeah, and you shouldn't sneak up on people, so I guess we're even," she bit back.
"You should be cautious of what you say in front of me, child," he warned, causing Emily to step back warily.
"And you should think about how this looks. 43 year old man intimidates young college student outside her work? Doesn't sound great for you," she pointed out, looking him dead in the eyes.
"God will protect me," he insisted.
"Why do you keep showing up here?" She demanded.
"Watch your tone, woman," he growled at her. Hotch peeked around the corner and saw that Emily was still looking him in the eyes, refusing to back down, but she had crossed her arms in front of her body in a protective motion. Cyrus was completely in her personal space.
"Back. Up." She enunciated powerfully, though he could detect the slightest amount of worry in her words.
It happened in an instant. Before Hotch knew what he was hearing, Cyrus had grabbed Emily around the neck and pinned her against the wall. Hotch came out from around the corner and pulled him off of her. Emily fell to the ground, and Cyrus quickly got up and was in his car before they could stop him.
"You ok?" Hotch asked her as he helped her up off the ground.
"I'm fine. Pissed and bruised, but fine," she said as she rubbed her neck. Hotch could hear the tremor in her words. The adrenaline was probably still coursing through her body. To her credit, she was handling it better than he would have been. Where he would have been upset, she was just mad.
"Guess I'm stuck wearing turtlenecks for the next few days, huh?" She joked as she brushed the pebbles off of her shirt. At the slightly concerned look on Hotch's face, she added, "Gallows humor."
As they walked back into the store, no one realized what had just occurred at first. That is until Elle asked, "What happened to your neck?" Obviously, this drew quite a bit of attention to Emily. They all took note of the quickly forming bruising, prompting a few of them (Derek, Tara, and Elle) to ask who they needed to kill, while some of the others (Alex, JJ, Penelope, and James) to ask if she was ok. Kate, Rossi, Gideon, and Spencer didn't say anything, they just sat there observing.
Rossi could apparently tell that she was uncomfortable being the center of attention, because he softly asked her, "Do you want to talk in private?" She nodded and they walked to the back room together.
"In the meantime, find that asshole. I don't want this bastard getting away with hurting my daughter."
A/N: PAPA PASTAAAAAAAAAAAAA! He's so protective of his kids and I love it. THIS WILL NOT BE THE LAST WE SEE OF CYRUS! He's gonna come back and it's gonna be ANGSTY. I'm trying to lay down the foundation for the angst, it's very hard tho. See you guys next week (hopefully), love you! Please review, they make me happy :)
