Disclaimer: please see 1st chapter

CHAPTER 4

As the door to the conference room behind them, Hotch and Emily looked around the room in front of them before looking at each other. Hotch sat down in one of the leather chairs around the conference table. Emily sat down next to him briefly before standing back up and beginning to pace around the room.

They were at the offices of the Prentiss family lawyer for the reading of the Ambassador's will. There had been a delay after a confrontation with Emily's stepfather when they first arrived.

As had been par for other meetings, he had strenuously objected to Hotch's presence when they reached the lawyer's office. Once again reiterating that he was staying by his wife's side, Hotch and Emily both noticed subtle changes in the behavior of the family attorney, Mr Tate who she knew was a partner in the firm.

After a series of questions about their marriage, Mr Tate told Emily's stepfather that as her husband Hotch was entitled to be there.

Before they went any further, Mr Tate announced a delay. As tensions were high, Hotch and Emily were shown to a separate conference room where they were currently waiting.

After about 5 minutes, a paralegal came into the room and asked if they had a family attorney. Hotch replied that he was a lawyer however yes they did have a lawyer on retainer. She then asked him to call their attorney and ask him to come to the office. Though they had not been told what the problem was, Hotch knew from experience that from the request that was just made something significant and serious was happening.

When their attorney, Neil Anders, arrived 20 minutes later along with his firm's probate expert, Michael Donovan, the four of them were escorted into the larger office of the firm's managing partner, Mr Barton. There waiting for them were the three lead attorneys for the firm who the two profilers noticed all looked nervous.

After introductions were made, Mr Barton turned to Emily, "Mrs Hotchner, when you arrived here today, we were alerted to a significant error that was made in regards to your trust funds."

Emily looked at Aaron before turning back to Mr Barton, "I don't understand, what trust funds?"

Mr Barton nodded and sat back down in his seat and interlacing his fingers in front of him before stating. "As the firm representing the Breckenridge and Prentiss families, in addition to handling your mother's will we have also handled the wills of many other members of those families including your father and mother's father." He stopped and took a deep breath before nodding his head towards Hotch as he continued. "When you came in today and introduced your husband, we realized an error that we made as trustees of your inheritance."

Emily could feel the tears build up in her eyes at the unexpected mention of her father and grandfather. It had been a long time since they passed away however she had been close to both of them. "They both died when I was a young child. What does my marriage have to do with their wills?" Emily said starting to annoyed and wishing that they would get to the point of this meeting.

"Since you were a young child when both of them died, what they left you in their respective wills was held for you in trust. This firm along with your mother and Uncle Andrew until his death were appointed by the court to oversee both trusts until you could access it as outlined in their wills." Mr Stevens, the third lawyer replied.

As he said that, Emily had a sudden recognition about why they were meeting, why it was vital for her lawyer to be there and why all 3 men in front of her had looked nervous since she and Aaron had walked into the room. "So let me guess. I could access them at an earlier age if I was married. Probably 30 since Aaron and were married when I was 28. And my mother somehow interfered."

"Yes." replied Mr Stevens as he moved two documents in front of him. Turning the page of one of the documents, he adjusted his glasses as he looked back up at her. "In the case of your father's will, you and your husband could gain full access to your inheritance at 30 if you were married before your 30th birthday. If not, you would gain access to it at 35. Since you are entitled to full access of that trust, we have a team working right now to turn over everything to you and your husband ASAP. Before you both leave today, we will go through his will item by item so you both know what to expect."

"Can I see a copy of that will now." Mr Donovan said walking up to the trio.

"Of course." Mr Stevens handed a copy of the document to him. Mr Donovan then walked to the other end of the table, sat down and started paging through the will.

Mr Anders looked at his colleague and then went on to ask knowing that as bad as the error that had already been mentioned was, it wasn't the reason that they were asked to attend and would make the men in front of him nervous. "You also mentioned Emily's grandfather. Does his will have the same stipulation?"

"Yes and no. In his will, Emily also needed to be married before her 30th birthday in order for her or her and her husband I should say would receive her inheritance from him. There is a significant difference in his will though which is why we asked for their attorney to also be present at this meeting." Mr Tate replied before looking over at his 2 colleagues.

"What is the difference?" Hotch asked having been quietly observing until that point.

"According to your grandfather's will if you were not married by the age of 30, you would lose the inheritance." Mr Stevens said looking directly at Emily.

Emily took some deep breaths and shook her head before looking back to at lawyers and stating, "And it would go to my mother."

Mr Stevens nodded. "Yes. That is why we have delayed the reading of her will. We need to separate out what is rightfully yours and your husband's before we can proceed with distributing her estate as outlined in her will."

Mr Donovan looked up and said firmly as he shook his head, "I need to see his will as well" as he walked over and took the offered document before returning to his seat.

Emily watched him paging through her grandfather's will while still shaking his head. She then turned back to the firm's lawyers to ask. "So she did receive my inheritance?"

The three men looked at each other before Mr Barton replied, "Yes, late last year in the middle of November."

Emily chuckled bitterly before rolling her eyes and then said sarcastically, "wow, she waited a whole 4 weeks after my birthday." Emily paused and looked over at Aaron and then Neil Anders before looking back at Aaron. She took a deep breath to help tamp down her anger before continuing, "I'm sorry to ask this but how the hell did this happen? Our wedding was here in Virginia and is a matter of public record."

The three lawyers nodded and then looked at each other. They were all expecting the obvious and understandable question. Mr Tate was the one of the three that spoke having been the one to meet with the ambassador at the time in question. "Late last summer your mother came in to update her will in addition to another matter which we can not discuss due to attorney-client privilege. While she was here we discussed your trusts. She stated that you were not married and that with your lifestyle, she didn't expect you to be any time soon if at all." As he finished the last sentence he looked at Emily pointedly.

Emily confusingly looked over at Aaron before asking, "Lifestyle? I don't understand. What lifestyle?" It had been clear for years that the Ambassador hadn't supported her decision to join the FBI however she wouldn't really call it an unique lifestyle worthy of the reaction that the attorneys were alluding to. Many FBI agents got married and and families. And even with that argument, it wasn't one that could disqualify her from receiving an inheritance, could it?

The men in front of her looked back without expression before Mr Tate shook his head slightly before leaning forward with his hands in the table. Looking at her, he replied with condescension clear in his voice. "Drinking, drugs, smoking, promiscuity. Your father set up a college fund for you that would have completely paid for college yet you dropped out after a semester. Do we need to go on in front of your husband, Emily?" As he finished, he pushed back from the table without taking his eyes off her and crossed his arms in front of him.

Emily looked at him in shock. She knew that her and her mother had issues but couldn't believe that her mother would say such outlandish things about her. "What?! She said all that?"

Mr Barton nodded and replied. "Yes and more. We all knew about how rebellious you were starting in your teens, what you did when you were in Rome. Your mother has kept us updated since then." Mr Tate nodded at his statement taking a similar position was his colleagues.

Emily looked down and started to anxiously play with a thread on her jacket. Aaron reached over and took her hand and squeezed it. He looked over at the lawyers in front of him and glared harshly at them. Everything that they had just stated as fact about Emily was ridiculous and untrue except for something had happened in Rome.

And how dare they bring up what happened in Rome! Did they even know the real story about what Emily had been through?

When their relationship started to become serious, Emily had come to his apartment one night and shakingly recounted for him what had happened in Rome. She had clearly been worried about his reaction to her past but said that she couldn't let their relationship go any further without telling him. If it was going to be an issue, she had explained that night, it was better for it to be then instead of an unpleasant surprise later.

It had not changed Hotch's feelings for her or the trajectory of their relationship though he found he needed to control the urge from the sudden overwhelming desire to protect her. However, he was glad that Emily had trusted him enough to share this difficult experience of her life with him.

And it did come up after they married twice. The first time was during the application process of her adoption of Jack which was how Mr Anders knew and why he was now looking at her with an empathetic and concerned look. The second time had been during her prenatal care with Natalie when the doctor asked for her medical history.

Neil Anders looked over at his clients, noticing the hard glare that Hotch was now sending the firm's lawyers after their judgemental comments and as far as he knew from representing Emily, false information about her. Either way their tone and comments were inappropriate and was causing him to wonder how innocent they really were in denying the Hotchners timely access to her inheritance.

Deciding to try to defuse what was quickly turning into a tense situation, Mr Anders stated, "regardless of Ambassador Prentiss' obviously skewed opinion of Mrs. Hotchner's 'lifestyle', that should not have affected the inheritance," he says using air quotes when he said lifestyle before glancing over to Mr Donovan who looked up from the copies of the wills in front of him and shook his head. "There were no stipulations to her receiving it other than being married before 30 isn't that correct?"

Mr Barton looked at Mr Anders and answered with irritation being clear in his voice. "I never said there was any other criteria other than her marriage."

Mr Donovan, who had mostly been a quiet observer until this point, placed both wills into a neat pile and folded his hands on top of them. He narrowed his gaze at the firm's lawyers as he said, "yet you displayed quite of bit of judgement based off of hearsay from the person who stood to gain substantially from Mr and Mrs Hotchner not receiving her inheritance."

He wasn't sure what exactly was going on having just been asked as his firm's probate expert to attend this meeting without first meeting his partner's clients. Mr Anders had quickly summarized the Hotchners for him on the drive. Regardless from the tone of the meeting, the attitude of the attorneys in front of them and the wills he had read through it was very clear to him that something fishy had happened. How fishy remained to be seen. He had already texted his assistant to get them on a judge's docket ASAP.

Hotch squeezed Emily's hand again before saying, "In our line of work that is called motive," while still glaring at the men in front of him.

"What type of work would that be Mr Hotchner?" Mr Barton asked dismissively.

Hotch turned his head slightly and made eye contact with Emily. He raised his brow slightly. She bit her lip, tilted her head and gave him a barely noticeable nod. Hotch gave her hand a squeeze. Turning back to the lawyers sitting on the other side of the table and from what he could see looked too smug for the situation. Still holding on to Emily's hand, he said confidently,

"Actually it is FBI Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner, BAU."

The 3 lawyers turned pale as they realized who was sitting in front of them. An FBI agent would bring a lot more scrutiny on the error their firm had made. This wasn't the ignorant couple that they had expected. When they had verified earlier that Emily was indeed married to the man who was accompanying her, they had never expected her husband to be an FBI agent from the stories that the Ambassador had told them over the years about how Emily lived her life.

Taking in the stunned expression of the men sitting in front of him, Hotch smirked while gesturing towards his wife as he said, "please let me introduce you to my wife Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss, also of the FBI's BAU."

"BAU?" Mr Stevens asked hesitantly, unable to keep the guilt out of his voice.

Hotch looked down and adjusted in his seat to sit up completely straight. Looking back up, he glared at the men in front of him as he answered, "Behavioral Analysis Unit. We're both profilers."

The color completely drained out of the faces of the three lawyers as they looked at Hotch and Emily with stunned looks on their faces. This is not at all what they had expected from this meeting.

Then Mr Barton looks up and makes eye contact with his 2 colleagues. Then all 3 make eye contact with Hotch. Hotch returned their looks with a death glare. The 3 lawyers glance back to each other with a look of recognition and fear.

They were now placing where they had heard about an FBI profiler named Hotchner. They along with most of the legal community in Virginia had been paying close attention to the Brian Matloff trial a couple of years earlier. Judicial decisions based off the unique specifics of the case such as the years long coma of the serial killer and the complete amnesia when he woke up had to potential to change precedent for other defendants.

What had also buzzed around the legal community was what had happened during the defense attorney's cross examination. The defense attorney had questioned all the way through about the validity of profiling. Just as the cross examination was ending, the defense attorney had foolishly given the profiler on the stand an opening to profile him which Hotch had taken full advantage. Over the next couple of minutes, Hotch had profiled in open court the defense attorney revealing several embarrassing facts that the defense attorney couldn't refute.

And that had been for questioning the validity of his professional field. The three of them had just insulted his wife who everyone could clearly see he adored. They had also failed in their duty to give her timely access to her inheritance. They were so screwed. And then their glances turned to Emily Hotchner who was a profiler in her own right. Doubly screwed.

Before anyone could break the tense silence in the room there was a knock on the door. Mr Stevens stood up and walked over to the door. After opening it, he spoke to the person on the other side in a low voice so that no one in the room could hear what was being said. After a couple of minutes, he returned to the room followed by a woman in her 30s who was carrying several files. She was followed by a younger man who was carrying 2 boxes.

Mr Stevens said gesturing to the two new people beside him, "This is Sarah Hill, one of the firm's associates and this is Noah Wilkins, her assistant. They are prepared go over Sebastian Prentiss' will with all of you and hand over the items we are holding." When he finished, Emily and Hotch both stood up to shake hands with the newcomers who also greeted and introduced themselves to the Hotchners' attorneys.

As the greetings were happening, Hotch noticed that Mr. Tate, Mr Stevens and Mr Barton quietly slipped out of the office. He shook his head promising himself that he would deal with them later.

As they all sat down at the table to get started, Ms Hill looked at the side of the table where the attorney's had been sitting, looking momentarily stunned that they were no longer there.

"Is there a problem Ms Hill?" Mr Donovan asked concerned. She shook her head bluntly before answered, "No no problems. Noah, could you hand me the top box?" After taking the top box from him, Ms Hill handed him several files that he took and walked around the table handing out.

After Noah returned to his seat, she said looking around the table, "Ok, let's get started. If you open the file and look at page 1, I have highlighted…."

AN: Brian Matloff was a character in episode 3.19(Tabula Rasa)

I plan to upload chapter 5 on Monday.