The Zero Hour

Reid and Prentiss

February 2011

Thank you to everyone who is reading and reviewing this. This story will be my longest Reid and Emily fic yet, which isn't too hard to do since I've only wrote really short ones and one shots before now.

Chapter Seven

She didn't realize how much her behavior was hurting him- practically torturing him, truth be told. The woman he was falling for more every day was acting as if she was being stalked and she wouldn't tell him about it, wouldn't let him try to help her, wouldn't lean on anyone.

Emily could be attacked, even killed, and Spencer would blame himself for the rest of his life because he had sat back and let it happen.

They had a long case that kept them in Washington and Emily unraveled more and more during it. She may look strong but it was in the little things that told him her nerves were fraying to the breaking point.

He wanted to reach out and caress her arm, rub her shoulders, hug her tight and make her feel okay for just a second- Reid knew the agony of never feeling okay for days on end- but he wasn't sure he had the right. Because, really, what were they?

Just co-workers, friends and occasional lovers. They had sex a couple more times- she had asked him if she could go home with him on the two occasions they hooked up- but the physical intimacy seemed to only affect his heart and mind, never hers. She wouldn't even spend a whole night at his home.

They would laugh and joke, kiss and screw, even made eggs together once- which somehow felt really intimate to him, maybe because she was only wearing his shirt while they did so- but all of it stayed in its proper place for her. She didn't let it bleed over into work or ever show that she felt anything for him around their friends.

Not that Spencer could say he knew she felt anything for him other than that he satisfied her in bed, and these days she needed that kind of connection with someone. He was there. He was always available to her. He was what she needed.

But what Emily really needed, Spencer felt, was to admit to their boss whatever trouble was weighing on her, so Hotch could mobilize the team to help Prentiss if there was a real threat to her safety. She wasn't the type to irrationally fear danger around every corner with nothing backing it up.

Reid started to physically manifest his worry for Prentiss. He popped Tums like they were candy and his head ached from thinking so much about how to get her to admit she was scared of somebody coming after her. No matter how many times he asked her she never would tell him a thing.

So he stopped asking. And just did what he had to do.

XXXXXXXXX

"Prentiss," Hotch called from just outside his office early one morning.

Emily looked up at her boss- noting the firm, uncompromising tone of his voice-and then she glanced at Derek and then Reid. Derek gave her a blank look, with raised eyebrows, but Reid's look was only a feigned cluelessness.

She hurried to Hotch's office. "Yes?"

"Close the door, please."

A little more than ten minutes later she stormed out of there and headed straight for the doors of the bullpen, forgetting even about her coat in her efforts to get outside and get some fresh air. She was too jumpy for the elevator so she went to take the stairs.

After she went down a couple of flights, she heard feet rapidly descending above her and placed her hand on her gun. There was no way Ian Doyle or anyone associated with him could be inside a secure federal building and yet her flight or fight instincts kicked in anyway- like they did constantly lately. She couldn't even grocery shop without thinking a killer was somewhere in the building or parking lot, laying in wait for her.

"Emily!" Reid called out, as he caught up to her.

She glared at him. "Believe me you don't want to be around me right now."

"You left me very little choice but to go to Hotch with my suspicions."

"You had no right! This is my problem to deal with! Did you ever think maybe I don't want the whole team to be a target just because I am? Did you consider that I am a grown adult woman and you should respect my wishes? Obviously not! You're just like any other man. You think if a woman doesn't do what you want then she must be wrong because you can't possibly be! You, Reid, are an asshole!" She turned and stormed away.

He called after her. "Maybe so but this asshole happens to care about you and you can't ask me to stand by and wait for you to be attacked! So if that's what you expected then you were sadly mistaken about who I am."

She stopped, still looking away from him.

He added, in a more gentle tone, "Whatever it is you're hiding...its not worth your life."

A long moment passed and then she continued down the stairs, leaving him behind. She needed time to cool off and think. As soon as she was outside, in the frigid air, she felt completely exposed. Emily rushed across the street and into the coffee shop, casting one last look over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching her before she entered the building.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

A couple of hours later there was a briefing in the round table room. Hotch worked the controller for the screen where pictures were displayed.

He started to talk about Doyle and the former case that Emily was involved in. How Ian's wife and kid died during a car accident when Ian was fleeing from the authorities. He explained that Ian had escaped prison, already was a suspect in a recent murder in Russia, and was suspected to have traveled to the United States using forged documents to create a false identity.

Hotch said "In 2004, in London, he killed the wife of an officer to send a message to police to back off and let him continue with his activities. While spending time in prison he has sent letters to members of the team that apprehended him taunting that he would kill each and every last one of them and their families. Now that he is on the loose we need to assume he intends to carry through with his threat."

Morgan looked at Prentiss. "Has he made contact with you recently?"

"A letter each week since his release. That makes three now."

Rossi said "We'll need to see those letters. Reid go over them and look for patterns in his speech."

Emily swallowed hard and tried to keep her face from showing any emotion but inside she felt terrible that the team would be in danger because of her. She didn't want any of them to risk their lives to save hers- even if they did that everyday for strangers.

She prayed that her family didn't die in some sick revenge plot. Her parents were stationed in Africa currently. She didn't think Doyle would go there to go after them because most of the agents who worked on his case were in the United States now, mainly in the Washington area working for other government departments.

If Doyle was going anywhere to get his revenge it would be right here. Now that the team had him in their sights it might put a quick end to all this...but at what cost? Emily had never had an unsub with his sights firmly set on her before.

It shook her to her core. She felt helpless, pissed off and worried sick. Just the way Doyle wanted her to feel.