Hi guys! Once again, thank you all so much for your kind words on this story. It really motivates me to get the next chapter up quickly! Even if you're just reading and not reviewing (which is fine!) then just know I appreciate all of you so much. This chapter ended up nearing 8 pages in length because I legitimately could not stop writing! I had every intention of getting the first meeting between Gabby and Hotch/the reunion in this chapter but it would've been way too long. I knew I read a review about the meeting, but I promise you guys it'll be next chapter for sure! I'll stop rambling now so you can read haha. Oh and also this chapter does drop an f-bomb in case that offends anybody, you can be on the lookout for it.
Disclaimer: I do not own CM or any of its characters!
Emily, Gabby, and the man who had come to get them, whose name Emily discovered, was Anthony Fisher, were on their way to DC. The flight would take nearly 7 hours, and in that time Emily hoped Gabrielle would ask her as many questions as she needed to, to understand exactly what was happening.
Just as Emily was about to speak up, Gabrielle lifted her head from her mother's shoulder and looked at her.
"Can I ask you something?" she asked quietly.
"Of course you can," Emily said, brushing some of the child's hair back behind her ears.
"Okay, well… is that bad man going to come find us in America?" Gabrielle asked.
Emily sucked in a breath, how was she supposed to answer this question? She had no idea. She had a slight feeling that he might, that maybe he was waiting for them to come back. "I don't know, sweetheart," Emily said honestly. "But I do know that whatever does happen, I won't let anything bad happen to you, okay? Neither will your dad," Emily confirmed.
"But I'm not worried about me!" Gabrielle said louder than she'd spoken before. "I'm worried about you," she said, Emily could see the tears threatening to fall from her eyes. She had to look away before she too started to cry.
"You said he was after you," Gabrielle continued. "What if he takes you away and I never see you again? Why is he after you anyway, what did you ever do? You're not a bad person!" Gabrielle said, tears falling freely now.
Emily bit her lip, she refused to cry in front of Gabrielle. She would save all her tears for a later date. Instead, she pushed her own hair out of her face and pulled Gabrielle into her lap.
"I'm going to do everything I can to make sure nothing happens to me, okay? And, he's mad at me. You know how I told you I had to pretend like I was dead?" Emily asked, Gabrielle nodded. "Well, my name used to be Emily Prentiss. I worked for the FBI. I helped catch bad guys. But before I joined the FBI, I had another job for something called Interpol. I helped catch bad guys there, too. But I got assigned a case where I had to go undercover as someone else. I had to become good friends with this man to help the people I worked with catch him. So I did, and I had to trick him in all kinds of ways to get him to trust me. Then, I sent his son away so he wouldn't have to grow up to be a bad guy like his daddy wanted him to be. When he found out I lied to him, he wanted to hurt me. So I pretended like I was dead, like I said. And then I had you, my little miracle," Emily said. It pained her to have to disclose this information with her young daughter. She kept the description of her job as Lauren Reynolds as vague as possible, wanting Gabrielle to hang onto as much innocence as possible.
Gabrielle looked at her mother again, her eyebrows scrunched together as she processed the information. God she looks so much like him. Emily thought.
"So he's mad at you because he thought you were his friend, but he was bad, so you told on him? And then you made his son leave because his dad was bad, right?" Gabrielle asked, using her own terminology for the story Emily had told her.
Emily nodded. "Yes, that's it. I guess he's still really mad at me."
Gabrielle still didn't look very comforted. So, Emily decided to keep the conversation going.
"Is there anything else, honey?"
"I'm… I'm allowed to be excited about meeting my dad, right?" Gabrielle asked, looking worried.
Emily smiled a real smile for the first time since she'd discovered she and Gabrielle were in danger.
"Of course you are," Emily said. Gabrielle leaned farther back into Emily.
"Will you tell me stories about him? So I know what to expect?" Gabrielle asked quietly, as if she was afraid of the answer.
"I'll tell you anything you want to know," Emily said, already thinking of stories to share with Gabrielle about her father. Stories she'd always wanted to tell her, but could never bring up.
"Okay," Gabrielle said, relaxing a little. "What does he look like?" Gabrielle asked, starting off with the basic question.
Emily described his facial features in detail, at least the way she remembered them ten years ago. She told Gabrielle of his dark hair, much like Gabrielle's own. She spoke of his brown eyes, his dimples when he smiled. The very dimples Gabrielle had when she smiled. Emily laughed as she told Gabrielle of the ever famous "Hotch glare" known around the BAU, and that when Gabrielle was trying to prove a point, she wore the very same expression.
She then went on to explain that everyone thought Hotch was a serious man who never knew how to laugh. But Emily saw the side of him that not many people got to see. She got to see the fun-loving, non-professional side of Aaron Hotchner. She heard his laugh. His real laugh. The kind of laugh that came from deep inside his belly, the kind of laugh that caused tears. Emily had always found it quite endearing, even when he was laughing at her.
"Why did he laugh at you?" Gabrielle questioned, interested in hearing this story.
Emily laughed softly, and began the story that took place eleven years ago…
December 2010
It had been two months since the first time Hotch and Emily kissed. It had been a month and a half since they declared themselves "official." Neither of them could have possibly been more happy with the way things had panned out. They'd told the team, but held off on telling Strauss until the beginning of the new year. Jack was happy, because he got to see Emily all the time, and Emily had to admit she certainly loved seeing the sandy haired boy.
However today, Hotch and Emily had Hotch's apartment all to themselves. It was Sunday, and Jack had spent the previous night with Jessica. He rarely stayed over night with Jessica on the weekends, but Jack had actually requested to spend Saturday night with her, because it was supposed to rain that night, and he had declared long ago that rainy days were the best at Jessica's. Jessica made a fort out of dining room chairs and blankets, filling the homemade fort with fluffy pillows, blankets and the like. She brought an old TV down from her attic, and plugged that up and sat it in the fort too. They watched movies in the fort for hours, and then Jessica made him chocolate chip cookies. If Jack got to spend the night, Jessica let him sleep in the fort. So, when the young boy had heard of the high chance of rain, he practically begged Hotch to let him stay.
Emily had come over the previous night, the two of them stayed awake into the early morning acting like two teenage girls at a sleepover. They talked, they watched movies, Hotch made a pizza, and they'd even played poker a couple of times.
By now, it was well into the afternoon and neither of them had yet to muster up the energy to get out of bed.
"Ugh," Emily groaned, stretching her tired muscles. "We're too old to stay up that late," she commented.
"Who are you calling old?" Hotch asked, taking his hand in hers, playing with her fingers.
"Shut up," she said playfully, breaking free of his grasp and rolling over so they were no longer facing each other.
"Come back here," Hotch said, pulling her towards him by her shoulder, leaning down to kiss her.
"No, no, no, no," Emily said quickly, burying her face into the comforter. "Neither of us have gotten out of bed yet, which means neither of us have brushed our teeth, which means we don't kiss until that happens!" She said into the fabric, though it sounded more like a series of mumbles to Hotch.
"What was that?" Hotch asked, sliding the covers away from her face, placing his hand on her chin.
"Kiss you, even though we haven't brushed our teeth?" he said. "Okay," and he did just that, though Emily persisted by trying to squirm away with no success.
"God," she complained as she sat up when they broke apart. "I don't mind kissing you but that is just gross. Really, really gross," she muttered to herself as she finally got out of bed for the first time that day to brush her teeth. Hotch chuckled at her, and followed her into the bathroom to do the very same thing.
Once they'd finished that task, Hotch glanced at the clock. "I need to go pick up Jack soon. I want a little bit of time with him before the weekend ends," Hotch told her.
Though she was slightly disappointed their lazy day had to end, she understood and nodded her head. "At least let me make you lunch or something before you go," she told him.
"You? Cooking? I didn't know you could do that," He joked.
"Hey! We all made perfectly good spaghetti, remember?" she said, crossing her arms. "Plus, you made pizza last night. It's only fair," she added.
"But you were helping Jack. I gave you the easy job," he smirked at her.
"Okay, you're on. It doesn't take too long to make spaghetti. I'll bet you right now that I can make the best spaghetti you've ever eaten in your life,"
Hotch raised an eyebrow at her. "What're we betting for? Money? Paying on the next date? Sexual favors?" he wiggled his eyebrows at the last suggestion.
Emily snorted. "Yeah, uh-huh. That last one," she said sarcastically, smacking him lightly on the arm. "No! Loser has to pay on the next date," she confirmed. "And," she added. "Winner gets to pick the place," she added slyly.
"Okay, you're on, Prentiss," he said, and the two shook hands.
Emily went straight to the kitchen, retrieving all the necessary items she would need for the dish. She got out the noodles, spaghetti sauce, and the various vegetables she planned to add to the tomato sauce for flavor. She filled the pot with water, and set it to boil. As the water bubbled up at the heat, she set out the other ingredients, ready to start on the sauce. She poured the tomato flavored sauce into a separate pot.
Quickly, Emily realized her first mistake. She set the burner too high, and water began boiling out of the pot rapidly.
"Damn it," she muttered, quickly picking the pot up and setting it aside, burning her hand on the overflowing water as she did so. She cursed again at the pain, turning the burner down a few notches and running her hand under cold water from the faucet.
She heard Hotch trying to contain laughter from the chair he sat at behind her.
"Not a word from you, Mister," she said seriously, wiping her hand on a towel and resuming her task. She set the pot back on the burner after it cooled a bit, pleased to see that no water decided to leave the pot.
Emily's second mistake had been handling the knife to cute up vegetables. As the spaghetti noodles boiled, she started the sauce. She cut up the tomatoes and peppers without a hitch. Proud of herself, she started on cutting up the mushrooms. She distracted herself for one second to glance over at Hotch to see if he was still watching her, and in that second, she managed to cut the tip of her index finger instead of the mushroom.
"Shit," she cursed loudly, quickly dropping the knife to the counter, bringing her hand to the infected finger. She inspected it, it wasn't bad. It wasn't even bleeding too badly, but it hurt. She got a paper towel from the rack and put it over the finger, applying pressure to the wound.
Hotch was laughing at her, a little louder than the previous time.
"Shut your mouth and fix it!" she demanded, though they both knew she was kidding.
He stood from the chair and walked over to her. He took the hand with the wounded finger in his hands and inspected it. "Looks like you'll live," he confirmed, leaving her in the kitchen long enough to retrieve the First-Aid kit from the bathroom.
He came back and bandaged her all up, laughing the entire time he did so.
"I hate you," she told him, pulling her now nicely bandaged finger away from his grasp.
"That's a lie,"
"No, it's not. Now if you'll excuse me, I have a meal to finish,"
"You sure you can handle it?" he asked.
"Ha, ha, very funny," she said, picking up the knife she had been using before her little incident. She thoroughly cleaned it and turned to start finishing the job she'd started.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Hotch said, grabbing her arm. "No, you're not using this anymore,"
"I am winning this damn bet, Aaron Hotchner. Let me go," she said, smiling wildly at him.
"No," he said, keeping his hold on her arm.
She tried her jerk away slowly, but instead she ended up slipping a bit on some water on the floor. Hotch had the knife in his hands as Emily let it go to grasp the counter top to break her fall. She succeeded in not falling, but instead, she knocked the already chopped tomatoes and peppers fall in the floor.
"You have got to be fucking kidding me," Emily groaned.
"Well," Hotch said, setting the knife in the sink. "You've still got plain sauce and noodles!"
Emily sighed, and went over to the pot that housed the boiling noodles. She turned the burner off and went to test the noodles out, soon discovering they were well over cooked. They were mushy and disgusting.
"Of course," Emily rolled her eyes.
"Okay… we still have sauce," Hotch said, laughing.
"Do we?" Emily said, ripping the pot up that had the sauce in it. She turned the pot over, expecting it all to come out on the floor, but it was stuck. It, too, had cooked too long and was stuck to the pain.
"Ugh!" Emily cried, throwing the pot into the sink. "You win, I surrender," she said in defeat.
Instead of giving her a verbal answer, he glanced around the kitchen. She had managed to make a bigger mess than Jack had ever made. He laughed, like she'd only heard a handful of times. This was the first time that laugh was directed at her, specifically. She should have been angry at him for laughing at her in her distraught state, but instead she laughed too. They laughed like they hadn't laughed in ages. They laughed until they were grabbing at their stomachs, until tears threatened to fall, until they'd laughed for so long they barely remembered what had started the whole thing.
"Okay, we'll just… clean this up and we'll go get something on the way to Jessica's to pick up Jack," Hotch said in between outbreaks, gasping for air as he did so.
Emily, also trying to catch her breath, just nodded in response. She was quite certain that in that moment, she truly fell in love with Aaron Hotchner. Sure, she'd believed it to be true. She'd never felt the way she felt about him about anyone else before. But looking around, seeing the mess she'd make of his kitchen, seeing him laugh like nobody else got to see him laugh, she knew. This was the man she'd waited for her whole life, though she'd never admit it. She might be a secret hopeless romantic on the inside, but she had too much pride to let just anyone know that. So instead of kissing him, or telling him how much she loved him like one might see in a romance movie, she smacked him on the arm and hurriedly began picking up the scattered chopped vegetables on the floor.
"I'll do this, you clean that God awful sauce pot," she said, flashing him a smile.
March 2021
By the time Emily had finished the story, she found herself laughing at the memory. Gabrielle was laughing at the images of her mother failing her cooking task. The story even had Anthony laughing from a few seats away.
When the laughter died down, Gabrielle spoke up. "I can't believe you messed up spaghetti! I mean come on, Mom! That's the easiest thing ever!" Gabrielle said matter-of-factly.
"I know! I know!" Emily agreed. While she still wasn't the greatest cook, she had managed to brush up on her skills a bit, so she and Gabrielle wouldn't starve.
They were quiet for a minute, when Gabrielle spoke up again.
"Mama, do you think… do you think he'll like me?" she asked softly.
"Oh, Gabby," Emily breathed. "I know he's going to love you. He already loves you so much, sweetie. I told him about you very briefly when we spoke earlier. He's so excited to meet you," Emily said, smiling happily.
Gabrielle returned the smile. "Really?"
"Really," Emily confirmed.
"You said he has a son, Jack, right? Does that make him my brother?" Gabrielle questioned.
"You and Jack have different mothers, so you're half-siblings, but yes. He's your big brother," Emily said. She couldn't believe she was talking about Jack with Gabrielle. As she watched Gabrielle grow and change from an infant to the child she was now, she'd always thought Jack would have loved her, always knew they would have gotten along wonderfully. Now Gabrielle was about to meet him. She shook her head in disbelief.
"Okay, I only have one more question," Gabrielle stated.
"Shoot, Emily said.
"Are we there yet?"
Emily laughed at the child, at how typical a question it was for a child to ask.
"No, not yet ma chere, we still have awhile to go. You'll be tired when we get there from the time change, why don't you try to take a little nap if you're all questioned out?"
"Kay," Gabrielle readily agreed, sitting back into the seat next to her mother, using Emily's shoulder for a pillow. Using her free arm, she lightly placed her jacket over Gabrielle's small form. She laid her head back into the seat, feeling waves of emotions wash over her. She was still terrified of Doyle, she was scared of somehow being separated from Gabrielle. But, her heart swelled with joy just thinking about Hotch meeting their daughter. She was anxious to land back in DC, hoping they could all have time to be a family before the planning and preparing for Doyle began.
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Hotch was busy preparing himself for the arrival of Emily and Gabrielle. He had made sure the house was spotless. He made sure he had a room ready for Gabby. He was about to check the house over for any sign of imperfection, when JJ informed him they needed to head to the airport.
Jack had come home from his time out with his soccer team, and Hotch had had to break the news to his son. He sat with him on the couch and told him the entire story.
"You mean- this entire time, you let me believe she was dead? You weren't ever going to tell me that you lied?" Jack had questioned harshly.
"I would have told you, Jack. I just… I don't know when I would have told you," he said honestly. Telling him had been on Hotch's mind for awhile, but he wasn't sure if it was for the best.
"Whatever, Dad," Jack said, standing from the table. "And I can't believe you're letting them come here, with that crazy guy after her! What if something happens to you? Or me? What then, Dad? Have you even considered that?"
Hotch had considered that. But what other choice did they have? This would all end soon, he was sure. Doyle wouldn't win this time.
"Jack," Hotch said calmly. "Everything's going to be fine, Buddy. I promise. You just need to trust me,"
Jack rolled his eyes, and stormed off to his room. Hotch hadn't seen him since.
Now that he and JJ had to leave to pick up Emily and Gabrielle, Hotch faced a tough decision. Jack was seventeen, he was more than capable of staying home alone for a couple of hours. But with this Doyle scare, he wasn't sure leaving his teenage son home alone was the best choice right now.
So, he knocked on Jack's door, where he was granted permission to enter with a grunt.
"JJ and I are going to go pick up Em and Gabby. I'd appreciate it if you came with us, please."
'Why?" Jack scoffed, taking one of the ear buds he had in his ears out, leaving the other where it was.
"Because," Hotch said, pinching the bridge of his nose. "I don't feel comfortable leaving you here alone right now. Okay? Can you please cooperate with me?" he asked.
Though Jack rolled his eyes and muttered something under his breath, Jack agreed and marched out of his room to ride along with JJ, and Hotch to the airport.
He hoped, as he followed Jack out to the car that he was right about everything being fine. He also hoped Jack would warm up to the idea of seeing Emily again, and meeting his little sister. Jack had every right to be angry and confused, Hotch knew, but he just hoped the initial reuniting would go smoothly.
So, the three of them made their way to the airport. JJ had called Will on the way to check up on Henry, as she had left Henry with his father while she dealt with the situation. Once she confirmed they were both okay, she relaxed a little more into her seat.
"Are you excited?" JJ asked Hotch, who was driving.
"I am," Hotch confirmed. "It's a bit surreal, actually," he told her.
"I know," JJ agreed. "I wish they weren't in danger still, but it'll be good to see Em again, and meet your guys' little girl." she said, then to Jack, "What about you?
"Whatever," Jack responded, turning towards the window to avoid eye contact as he popped the ear buds to his iPod back into his ears.
Hotch sighed. Reuniting with Emily and their daughter might be a bit more difficult than he'd thought initially, but he was determined to make the best of it while he could, not knowing what was awaiting them in their immediate future.