CHAPTER 20
David Rossi walked through his front door. Taking a few steps forward he unconsciously dropped his keys into a glass dish on the table in the foyer as he did every day before tossing his crumpled up tie on the same table. As he walked further into the house, he placed his jacket and bag haphazardly at the bottom of the stairs before walking towards his home office.
Walking into the room, he immediately headed over to his desk and opened the top drawer, he pulled out a key ring. Walking over to row of wall to ceiling cabinets on the opposite side of the room, he inserted the key into the third cabinet before opening the door.
He stood there staring at the boxes in front of him sorrowfully. He reached in and pulled a box out before turning around and walking over to place it on his desk. After taking the lid off the box, he looked around the room before picking up the box and walking out of his office.
He walked through the living room and briefly looked around before entering the kitchen and placed the box on the island. As he took the files out of the box, he started to place them on the island before moving some files to the stools that were seated at the breakfast bar at the end of the island.
After look over the files, he dropped a pile frustratingly on the counter. As he moved away from the island, he bumped one of the stools which caused the papers to go flying. Turning around when he felt the papers fall, he looked at them before frustratingly waving them off and walked back out of the kitchen.
Back in his office, Dave walked back over to the cabinet and took out a second box. He looked down at the box he was holding and sighed before walking back out of his office towards the kitchen.
With this box, he walked over to the kitchen table and placed the box on it before he slowly started to carefully taking the items out and gently placing them on the table. As he scrutinized the items in front of him, he shook his head, stood up and walked into the dining room where he poured himself a drink.
After finishing his drink, he refilled his glass before turning to go back to the kitchen. After a few steps, he turned around and walked back and picked up the decanter with his another hand to bring back to kitchen with him. He is going to need it if what he suspected is actually true.
As he sat back down at the table, he pulled a stack on letters over towards him. Untying the knot that held the stack together, he started to reread the letters from Emma that he had received while deployed. And then the last one from Mildred telling him of the car accident and Emma's death. No mention of the baby. No letters after that to answer his numerous inquiries about his daughter.
He needed to talk to Hotch.
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Emily slowly walked down the back stairs, looking forward to some quiet time with her husband after the long stressful day. As she reached the bottom of the stairs, she saw him walk into the kitchen holding his phone and coat.
As he approached Emily asked, "did you get a call?" pointing out the phone he was still holding out.
Hotch took a deep breath and nodded before he said regretfully, "Yeah, it was Dave. He asked if I could come over tonight. He sounded upset." Hotch didn't add that it sounded like Dave had been drinking.
After all of the news she had received today, the last thing Hotch wanted to do is leave her. He had planned to keep the evening open and follow Emily's lead.
However both knew how significant this phone call was. For as much as Dave was always first in line to help out anyone on the team, he rarely accepted help.
But tonight, he was going further and asking for help which Hotch could only think of a handful of times in the years that he had known Dave that this had happened.
He didn't want to refuse the request particularly with Dave's uncharacteristic behavior of heavily drinking and walking out of the team meeting earlier in the evening.
Emily nodded having been concerned since they noticed Dave missing from the workroom earlier and said, "I hope everything is OK. He just disappeared earlier. Go."
"Are you sure?" Hotch asked skeptically as he carefully observed her reaction.
Emily rolled her eyes at her husband's less than covert attempt to profile her before she said, "Yes. Dave doesn't just walk out of meetings without a word so something is wrong. Go talk to him." Emily took a deep breath and yawned before continuing, "but I hope you don't mind if I don't stay up until you get back."
Hotch smiled and stepped forward before pulling her into a hug. They stayed in their embrace for several minutes until Hotch turned and whispered in her ear, "of course not. Get some sleep and I'll be back as soon as I can." They pulled back before he moved back towards her as their lips met before he rested his forehead against hers and said, "Goodnight sweetheart. I love you."
"I love you too." Emily said before he walked out of the kitchen towards the door. She took a deep breath and sighed before turning and heading back up the stairs.
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Dave was sitting at his kitchen table looking down at a picture when he heard his doorbell ring. As he stood up, he tenderly placed the picture down on the table. He turned and quickly walked out of the kitchen towards the foyer. When he reached the front door, he opened it immediately seeing the tired yet concerned look of the Unit Chief.
Dave rubbed his face before shaking his head before he said, "Aaron, come in. Sorry to call you out this late. I lost track of the time."
Hotch nodded as he stepped into the house before Dave shut the door behind him. Standing in the entryway, what Hotch saw instantly concerned him as he noticed Dave's disheveled appearance as well as the uncharacteristic clutter in the entryway. Looking over at Dave, he said quietly, "It's OK. You sounded upset. What's going on?"
Dave looked at him then lead the way into the kitchen. When Hotch saw the kitchen, he became more unsettled. The clutter in the foyer had been minor compared to the disarray in the kitchen. The entire island was haphazardly covered with papers and files. More files were stacked on the stools that lined the counter with more papers that appeared to have been abandoned on the floor.
Hotch shook his head, wondering what had happened when Dave just walked into the kitchen, ignoring the mess and stepping over the papers on the floor. Hotch followed him towards the kitchen table.
What Hotch observed there sharply contrasted with the rest of the kitchen. Although the table was covered with papers, it was neatly organized as he would expect from Dave.
As he moved closer, Hotch could see that Dave had brought a crystal decanter that usually was kept in the dining room into the kitchen sitting close to a almost empty glass. Looking at it, Hotch was pleased to see that the decanter was still more than half full so while Dave had been drinking, it did not appear to be an excessive amount.
As they sat down at the table, Hotch noticed that in front of where Dave was sitting was a stack of letters. On one he could see that it was addressed to Dave however couldn't see anything other than the name. From the appearance of the paper, they weren't recently written.
Realizing that Dave hadn't said anything, Hotch looked over at the older man who was staring at what Hotch could see now was a wallet sized picture of what looked like an infant. The picture also appeared to be older, worn with one of the corners creased.
When he realized that Hotch was looking at the picture, Dave looked over at him sadly before gently placing the photo on the other side of him before he said, "I need to tell you something, Aaron and I need you to let me get it all out. Why I'm upset with make sense in a few minutes."
Hotch folded his hands in front of him on the table and nodded, giving Dave his full attention.
Dave took a deep breath and looked down at the table as he started, "I dated the same girl all through high school. I wanted to marry her. We planned to get married but there was a war going on and I was drafted.
Instead of going into the army I joined the Marines. The weekend before I deployed, I had leave and I came home. While I was home, she told me she was pregnant." Hotch silently gasped, now having confirmation that the rumors he had heard about Dave having a child were true.
Dave looked up at him and continued, "We both knew I couldn't stay. When I returned to base, I made changes to my paperwork so she would receive 75% of my paycheck while I was deployed and changed my life insurance so she was the beneficiary if I was killed in action. It wasn't much but it was what I could do at the time."
Dave sighed and ran his hand over the letters as he said, "we traded letters throughout her pregnancy. Because it took awhile for the mail to catch up with us, I received the letter telling me of the birth of our child the same day as the letter telling me of Emma's death. I continued to write, asking about the baby without any response.
When I was discharged after being injured 6 months later, I headed home as soon as possible to go see Mildred."
Dave paused and his voice had an angry tone when he continued, "she had gotten married and moved after Emma's death but when I finally found where she had moved to, she told me my daughter was gone and I just needed to accept it. She refused to even give me any pictures of the baby," he paused again as he picked up the picture off the table and looked at it, giving it his full attention for several seconds before looking back up at Hotch and saying tearfully, "I only have this one because it was in the letter Emma sent me after she was born."
Dave paused again and Hotch watched him as he gently placed the picture back on the table before he said, the anger back in his voice, "she also refused to tell me where Emma was buried.
When I got understandably upset, her husband got involved. He was a judge. Next thing I know they had a restraining order against me. I couldn't find out from anyone about what happened with the baby after Emma's death.
After I joined the FBI, I tried to find information about what happened with my daughter. I couldn't even find her birth certificate for a long time though I did eventually get a copy from the Vital Statistics office." Dave paused again as she picked up a piece of paper from the table that Hotch had seen had 'Certificate of Live Birth' typed along the top as Dave lifted it. As Dave focused on the document, Hotch could only see the back though he couldn't miss the indentions from the seal at the bottom of the page.
Dave shook his head as he carefully placed the document back on the table and when he made eye contact, Hotch could see the tears welling in his eyes as he said wistfully, "it was like she was gone without a trace and the only people who knew what happened I couldn't talk to."
Dave stopped and took a deep breath before he clasped his hand in front of him on the table and looked directly at Hotch as said unwaveringly, "Emma Louise Taylor was my girlfriend. Mildred Jane Taylor was her mother."
Hotch just sat in his seat, his jaw dropping as he heard what Dave said. After a few seconds, he shook his head before saying quietly with astonishment in his voice, "Dave."
Dave took a deep breath before saying after wiping tears away from his eyes, "What do I say to her Aaron? I didn't give her up. I wanted to be part of my child's life. I came out of the Marines expecting to raised her on my own."
He stopped and took a deep breath before continuing, "Mildred had never approved of our relationship. She didn't like me or want us to get married. That was one of the reason we didn't get married earlier. But I never suspected that she had sold our daughter. As much as I didn't want to believe it, I was led to believe that my child had died."
Hotch took a deep breath and said calmer than he felt, "Tell her the truth Dave. Tell her what you told me. Show her the letters and documents you have."
He paused looking at the items on the table in front of them before continuing, "but whatever you are going to do, if you want the news to come on your terms, you need to talk to Emily soon because the team is really close to pulling everything together.
Garcia is starting to run searches based on the information Reid found in the files. You know that she is going to be on this completely until they have answers. You don't want Emily to find out that way."
Dave was looking down at the picture as he nodded before looking up at Hotch to say quietly, "you're right. When?"
Hotch thought before answering, "come by the house tomorrow morning around 7. I'll take the kids over to the nanny at JJ's and then come back. I'll send Morgan a text moving conferencing until after lunch and have Blake check over any new cases that come to Emily's team until we arrive." He wanted to have Dave talk to Emily before Emily went to the office again. With Garcia's determined attitude the probability of Emily finding out inadvertently was too high if she was at the BAU. This was one discussion Dave and Emily deserved to have outside the scrutiny of the FBI.
Dave sighed and said, "OK."
After one last look at the table, Hotch stood up and said, "well, I'm going to head out. I'll see you in the morning."
Dave stood up as well and walked him to the front door. As he opened the door, he said, "in the morning. Thanks Aaron." After he shut the door behind Hotch, Dave turned and walked back to the kitchen.
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Hotch quietly slipped into his bedroom after checking on the kids to see Emily sleeping peacefully in their bed. After undressing, he climbed into bed. Sensing his presence, Emily moved to cuddle up next to him without waking. Hotch wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight before placing a kiss on her forehead.
As he settled, Hotch found he couldn't sleep. He regretted that in just a few hours he was going to be turning Emily's world upside down. Disturbing the peace she currently was finding. He honestly didn't know how Emily was going to react to this news.
Hotch had been stunned tonight at the raw emotion, insecurity, and vulnerability that was atypical of the elder profiler. However, after hearing Dave's story, it was understandable.
This revelation was not at all what Hotch had been expecting when he had left his house tonight.
While he had heard the rumors of Dave having had a child, he had never imagined what had happened was what Dave described to him tonight.
Realizing he needed to get some sleep before this talk in the morning, Hotch turned closer to Emily and closed his eyes, letting the sleep pull him under.
AN: I'll post the next chapter as soon as it is ready. In chapter 21- Dave and Emily talk