Chapter 2

They solved their case and the UNSUB had been arrested. Hotch was getting ready to leave for the night but there was one last conversation that he wanted to have. He needed to apologize to Emily.

When she left the bullpen earlier, he noticed that she pulled out her gym bag. Not entirely surprising after the stress of the last few days.

After grabbing his bags and coat, Hotch closed his office door and made his way down to the training facilities. Walking off the elevator, Hotch wondered what equipment he was going to find that Emily favored to de-stress.

He was surprised when he entered and could not find her anywhere. He must have waited too long and missed her. After looking around one last time, Hotch turn to leave and unexpectedly came face to face with the women whom he had been looking.

"Emily, I was hoping we could talk." Hotch said.

Emily looked up, surprised at who she had just bumped into. Hotch had been the last person she had anticipated running into down here tonight. She had just walked out of the locker room wearing a t-shirt and black athletic capris holding a roll of tape in her hands. As he stood in front of her Hotch noticed that instead of wearing shoes, she had padded protectors on her feet that were used there when training in hand to hand.

"Now? Do we have a new case? My phone didn't ring." Emily said as she pulled her phone out of her waistband to look at the screen.

"Yes, now. And no new case. I want to apologize about the other day." Hotch said quietly.

Hotch had moved to stand on her left side watching as she placed her phone back into the same spot on her pants. As she raised her head to look at him, Hotch got a whiff of chlorine. 'Ah, she had been over at the pool when he came down.' He thinks to himself.

"Why apologize? You were just reiterating that I'm still not wanted or trusted on your team. Fine, I get the message. But I'm here to do a job and I'm going to continue to do my job." Emily replied bitterly.

Hotch watched as she roughly apply the tape around hands as she spoke. There was no question that she was still angry with him.

"Emily, please."

Emily turned and looked him right in the eye, enough fire in her eyes to incinerate him.

"Agent Prentiss. My name is Agent Prentiss or Prentiss while we are working."

"And what about outside of work?" He asked cautiously.

Emily looked up at him. She shook her head and chuckled humorlessly before responding. "Well, Agent Hotchner, I don't see the point of planning for something I don't see happening. And that note, goodnight sir. I have a date."

With that Emily walked away from him and over to the punching bags. After doing a check of the tape on her hands, Hotch watched as Emily started working with the bag. Slowly at first and then gradually increasing the tempo.

After a few minutes his phone rang 'Gideon' and walked out of the gym to take the call. Thankfully Gideon and Morgan had the situation under control and were going to take care of Reid and Garcia.

Hotch decided to head out. He knew from experience that with as angry as she was he wasn't going to get any further with Emily tonight, knowing that tonight the face on her punching bag was his.

Emily had been surprised to run into Hotch in the gym. How in the hell did he know she would be down here?

Aaron Hotchner was really the last person she had wanted to talk to tonight. After they had arrived back at BAU after catching their UNSUB, Emily had uncharacteristically been one of the first on the team to leave for the evening.

After grabbing her gym bag, she went down to the locker room and changed into her swimsuit to take advantage of the Academy pool. After doing countless laps, Emily returned to the locker room finding that while the swim had helped some, but she still had frustration to work off.

Aaron Hotchner, the cause of most of her pent-up frustration, was the last person she had expected to see when she walked out of the locker room. She was glad that it was now instead of 10 minutes before she had still been in her swimsuit. That would have been really awkward.

Emily could still feel his eyes on her for a few minutes after she started to work with the bag. She made sure to keep her back to him, not wanting to engage him anymore tonight. Just when she was beginning to wonder if he was going to wait until she was done to talk to her again, she sensed that he was gone.

After a few more minutes, she rotated around and confirmed that he had actually left. Emily could feel the tears start to fall.

She hated being angry with him. But dammit, she wasn't ready to listen to an apology. And definitely wasn't going to accept one for how he treated her on this case. Not yet.

She was still so angry and hurt by what he said. But he had at least acknowledged what really happened with the leak. At least he knew for sure it hadn't been her.

After a few more minutes, Emily noticed that her shoulders and arms were burning. Looking at the time, she decided to call it a night. She was exhausted.

And she was going to need to be well rested before entering the BAU the next morning. One thing she was certain of was that Aaron wasn't through with her.

And in the office she was his subordinate and wouldn't be able to avoid a conversation if he wanted to push it.

####

The next morning, Aaron Hotchner walked into the BAU with purpose… and a plan. The plan had been formulated the previous evening after he arrived home.

Haley had once again been angry that he had been home 45 minutes later than he had planned. After yelling at him for a half hour, she stormed out saying she was going to visit a friend.

Thus leaving Hotch to bathe and put Jack to bed. Not that he minded at all. His favorite time of day was cuddling with his son in the rocking chair as Jack fell asleep.

After Jack was settled in his crib for the night, he had some time to think.

And before Haley returned home well after 1AM, he knew what he wanted to do the next day. He was hoping that if this plan was successful, it would smooth things over between him and Emily.

And yes, he still thought of her as Emily even if she had requested he only address her as Prentiss.

When reviewing all the cases for consult with JJ, he directed the largest percentage to Emily. It included a variety in the types of the cases the BAU handled and included a couple of complex consults. He wanted to see how she would handle those particular cases.

He had ignored JJ's concerned look at the case assignments. It was clear that JJ did not agree with some of his choices. But he wasn't concern himself with that. It wasn't like he wasn't going to be reviewing all of her profiles carefully before sending them to the appropriate police department.

Before JJ left with the files to distribute, he attached a note to the top of Emily's pile.

####

As Emily arrived at the BAU, she was nervous about the day ahead. The previous evening's workout and sleep had gone a long way to improving her mood. She did still have some residual soreness in her arms and shoulders, however, that was much improved from when she had first woken up. Getting out of bed had been painful.

The atmosphere in the bullpen seemed to indicate that today was going to be a much needed paperwork day. Unless, as always, an urgent case came in.

As she approached her desk, Emily was shocked to see the tall stack of files sitting there. Usually she only had a couple each day and was done by lunchtime. As she reached her desk, certain that it was a mistake, she noticed a note on top in Hotch's handwriting:

Prentiss,

Included in this stack are files representing the various types of cases that BAU handles. Bring what you have completed to my office by 4PM. After I review your work, we will go over each case together. If you have any questions, ask Gideon or myself.

-AH

PS I don't expect this whole stack to be finished today.

Emily smiled and sat down at her desk, anxious to get started on the case files in front of her. Her usual trip to the break room for coffee was quickly forgotten. This was finally her opportunity to show the team what she could do. She wasn't going to waste it. These profiles would have to be her best work.

As Emily started to read over the details in the first file she open, she heard her phone buzz with an incoming text message. She wasn't surprised to see it was from Hotch.

I'm sorry. I said I would give you a chance and so far I've done a lousy job. Here is your promised chance. See you at 4.

-Aaron

After reading the message twice, Emily nodded before sending back a quick reply.

Thank you.

-Prentiss

She placed the phone down on her desk. It wasn't long before she realized that he knew just saying the words of an apology weren't going to be enough for her.

By the action of letting her prove herself, he was showing her that he was sorry. And he was giving her the only thing she had asked of him-a chance to prove herself.