Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

CHAPTER FOUR

The Light Bulb Went 'Click'

God, she wasn't ready for this. She wasn't ready for Hotch to be on death's doorstep. Superman could outrun bullets, why hadn't Hotch? She rolled her eyes at herself. Because Hotch wasn't Superman. They had a bad tendency of forgetting that little tidbit. Underneath that invincible suit, he was just a man, a man that hurt, and that got lonely. And, apparently, got shot. But it didn't make it any easier to swallow the fact that he was currently in another room of the hospital fighting for his life.

Emily had never been more thankful for Cami in her life. Cami, a woman who had hated Hotch in the beginning because he had been so completely against her mother without ever actually giving her a chance to prove herself, had just offered up her arm to donate blood to that same man. It made her heart warm in ways that were totally necessary considering the outcome she could be seriously facing. She and Matthew had raised Cami well and raised her right if she was willing to do something for a man she'd never met.

She didn't know how much time had passed before she felt a hand on her shoulder. Cami was there, looking a little tired, and a little worse for wear. She had a cotton ball on her arm, covered by surgical tape to hold it in place. There was no way Emily could stop the flood of hope from reaching her eyes.

"I'm a match," she said quietly, just for her mother to hear. "They took my blood. He'll be fine."

She sagged against the back of the seat in relief, then reached out for her daughter's hand. "Thank you, Gracie."

Cami's mouth tilted in that affectionate way it did at her nickname. "No thanks necessary," she said honestly. "He's important to you, so he's important to me."

The words struck a chord in Emily. Of course, she was aware that Hotch was important to her. Very important to her. For the last little while he'd been in serious competition with Derek for the title of 'best friend'. But there was something different about Hotch that kept him in second place and Emily had never been able to put her finger on it. She heard Cami sigh as the younger Prentiss took a seat.

"You're just figuring it out now, huh?" she asked quietly.

Emily tilted her head to the side, her question obvious.

Cami smiled. "Come on. Let's tell everyone the news, then we're going to get something to eat. I'm starving."

And, after they relayed the good news of Cami's blood match, both Prentiss women wandered away, Emily more reluctantly than her daughter, from the rest of the little BAU family.

"He'll be in surgery for a while yet, Mom. We'll be back long before he's even out of surgery, let alone conscious," Cami reassured.

Emily's lips managed to twist in a smile. "Remind me again which one of us is the mind reader?"

"Would that be because you're the parent or the supposed profiler?" Cami asked saucily in reply.

Emily graced her daughter with a genuine smile. Cami was doing her best to cheer her up, to try and keep her focused on something other than Hotch's surgery. She was being Cami and it was a true comfort. "When was the last time you called your dad?"

Cami shrugged. "Before I came here. And two things, before you lecture me, one, you're not off the hook yet, and two, I wanted a bit to settle in and now we're at the hospital. He'll call soon and leave me this long worried message and I'll have to explain that one of Mom's coworkers was a little more important."

"Cami, you have to call Matt." Matthew was probably the only person who could rival her in worrying about the twenty-two-year-old currently keeping pace with her.

"I know, Mom!" Cami said with a little bit of a laugh.

Emily shook her head, her mind drifting slightly. Matthew had been pretty torn up at John's death and even Emily had felt something slip away from her. Cami had never known her biological father, and part of Emily felt terrible that she'd never really given Cami the chance to find him or get to know him. Sure, she had the complete ability if she felt like it, but they'd never really talked about John until he'd died and Emily had broken the news to her daughter. Beyond that, Cami's relationship with Matthew was the only paternal one she had with maybe the exception of Emily's own father.

Both Prentiss women made their way through the halls of the hospital, Emily subconsciously following Cami's lead. Emily, honestly, still felt a bit catatonic about the entire experience, the majority of her hospital memories to draw on being negative ones and all. It was hard to teach an old dog new tricks, and even with Cami's reassurance, a big part of Emily still wondered if Hotch really was going to make it up off of that table.

After they'd both bought their sustenance, Emily a coffee, Cami a coffee and a muffin, both women found a small table in a corner. Unobtrusive, out of the way, perfect. Cami very deliberately set the muffin down in the center of the table.

They sat in silence for a moment, drinking coffee, picking at the muffin, before Cami spoke, "You're in love with him, Mom."

Emily's head shot up, meeting her daughter's eyes. "What?"

"Hotch. The guy who's in surgery? You're in love with him."

"You're crazy."

"I'm right," Cami argued. "Come on, Mom, give me at least a little bit of credit."

"He and I are close, Cami, that's it," Emily contradicted, her fingers tapping on the Styrofoam cup that held her coffee. "We're friends."

Cami rolled her eyes. "I know you, Mom. And if I can see it, you damned well better believe your team can see it. Denial isn't pretty on anyone."

Emily looked away, taking in the people walking around the cafeteria. There was a weathered and exhausted looking woman, probably here to see an ailing husband. A man sat twisting his wedding ring and Emily figured he could be there for a birth, or a loved one, probably his wife. The anxious tapping of his foot didn't really give her a clue either way. A family sat morosely in another corner, and Emily's heart clenched. Definitely for a loved one, and it didn't look like happy news.

"Hey, Mom."

Emily turned back to Cami. "I'm not in love with him."

"No? That's why you basically shut down when you heard he'd been shot?"

This time, Emily winced at it being said out loud. "Cami…"

"Or what about the look of panic on your face when you heard there may not be enough blood for him to make it through the surgery and no one was a match?"

"Camille…"

Usually her full name slowed her down. Not this time. "Or what about your relief when we found out I was a match and he'd probably make it through the surgery okay? You can't be that blind, Mom, or that stupid."

"Camille Hannah Prentiss, that is enough!" Emily hissed.

Cami sighed and sat back, her fingers drumming on the table. "Why is it enough?" she asked. "You work with people who have spent their whole lives studying behaviour. You have got to be kidding me or deluding yourself if you think that they haven't noticed it."

Emily knew that there was no one in the world she trusted more than she did Cami. She also knew that Cami only had the best of her mother at heart. Cami loved her, there was no doubt about that, and Cami knew her. Knew her better than Hotch, than Derek, than even Penelope and JJ. Cami was her sole confidante.

"I can't," she whispered. "I can't be in love with him."

She couldn't. It was that easy. As friends, there were no hidden agendas, no threats. He was safe as a friend. She didn't have to deal with his divorce, she didn't have to deal with the Bureau… she didn't have to deal with sexual tension or the need for comfort and affection beyond what they had now. She didn't have to worry about domestic squabbles coming into the office or any sort of damage happening in their happy little family if things broke up. He needed to stay a friend.

"Mom don't. Please don't do this to yourself," Cami begged. "Don't look for excuses."

"They're not excuses, Cami. They're reasons."

"But you don't deny you have feelings for the man. Excellent."

Emily found her irritation rising at her daughter's own annoyance. "Damnit, Cami, you're missing every point here!"

"No. The only thing I see is a woman who is too busy protecting herself to go out on a limb for what she feels. And seriously, Mom, I'm not surprised. You've been talking about him, defending him… everything but jumping him."

"Camille!"

Cami rolled her eyes. "I'm not a prude, Mom, I'm way past the age of puberty, okay? And I go to college. Look... I just... I want to see you happy and by the look on your face when Agent Morgan told you Agent Hotchner had been shot... well, let's just say my heart broke."

Emily wouldn't meet Cami's gaze, even when her daughter reached out and rested a hand on her arm. "I can't Gracie."

"You're miserable here," Cami replied, just as soft as Emily's words had been. "Whether you realized it before now or not, that man holds your whole world in his hands. Well, most of it."

Emily managed a tight smile, well aware that Cami was withholding judgment until she could actually meet the man. In many ways Cami was Emily's whole world. But even Emily had to admit that Hotch was weaselling his way further and further into her life and she wasn't totally sure either one of them had realized it. Now that she'd had the time to go back and think about it, she realized that they spent a healthy portion of their spare time, a precious commodity in itself, with each other.

"Just..." Cami began, breaking into her mother's thoughts. "Just think about it, okay?"

Emily managed a tight smile. She had a feeling that now that she'd talked about it with her daughter, there was little else she'd be thinking about during Hotch's recovery. That was, if he ever made it out of the operating room.