Unforgettable Nights, Unforgivable Mistakes
Chapter 13: I Am Not Over You
With Emily in the charge of the BAU, things went from being bad to being terribly bad between her and Hotch. No matter what Emily did it was the wrong thing; at first, she tried to get closer to him and apologized repeatedly, but he still acted like an ass with her. Hotch had managed to convince himself that Emily had purposely aligned herself with Strauss to take him down and to make him fall apart. Hotch had always hated Strauss, and he knew she would do whatever it took to get him out of the BAU, despite him being an excellent agent. Strauss had wanted to eliminate him for a very long time, and Hotch knew that very well, so he wasn't surprised because he knew Strauss was capable of anything, but what he had not expected was that she would use Emily to make that happen, and more importantly, that Emily would agree to it.
Well, he knew that Emily hated him, but he couldn't believe she would actually be willing to align herself against him, and that really hurt. This was officially the second time Emily had hurt him and it broke his heart. He couldn't understand why it hurt him so much...he could have taken this from anyone, but not from her. Hotch wasn't sure why it bothered him so much, but it did, and now, worst of all, he had to see her every day at work and she was in charge so whether he liked it or not, she was the boss and he had to follow her orders. Well...not really, because he had actually challenged her on a few occasions, something the team had been very aware of, they knew Hotch and Emily hated each other, but this was too much...they could see the cold front between their friends and that worried them, they simply couldn't understand why they hated each other so much.
Of course, the fact that Emily was now in charge of the BAU had been a huge surprise to everyone because honestly everyone had expected Morgan to be their leader. Emily had also thought Morgan would also hate her for being placed in that position instead of him, but actually, he had taken it very well; in fact, he was very happy for her, and he knew she deserved the position because of her skills and experience. The truth was everyone was happy for her because she was an excellent agent, and she was probably the perfect person for that job. JJ and Penelope were overjoyed with the news because their friend was back, and they had her closer than before. They had supported Emily in every decision she had made. The same was with Morgan and Reid...they had always thought highly of Emily and simply wanted the best for her. Dave was the one who thought this was the best decision Strauss had ever made. He knew Strauss was trying to take Hotch down, but he also knew that the Bureau would not allow her to do that, and honestly, Emily was the best choice on the team and in his opinion, the perfect person to take over the position. He knew Morgan was a great profiler and excellent human being, but Morgan made many reckless decisions and sometimes let his heart win and let his personal emotions cloud his profiling decisions. Emily, however, was not only a great profiler, but she had lead other international offices, she spoke several languages, she was driven, determined and she had a very strong personality, so in his opinion, she was perfect for the job.
Honestly, he was right, Emily had already far outperformed the Directors' expectations with only three weeks as the Unit Chief; she had already put many aspects in order and managed to resolve five cases in three weeks...something that was considered a record, she was a natural leader, she did her job with professionalism and passion, and she had already been complimented by many detectives in the cases she had helped. Things were running smoother than usual. Strauss was beyond happy, so were the directors, and even Dave was amazed at how well Emily was running the team...in fact, he hated to admit it but she was doing an excellent job, even better Hotch had. Hotch was a great leader, of course, but Emily was just beyond impressive, even Hotch thought so, but obviously, he was never going to admit it. He just acted out of anger against her, and although he knew he was crossing the line with her regarding professionalism, he couldn't stop himself.
Emily had been patient enough in dealing with him; she knew he was angry and he had a rights to be, but she also knew that he owed her some kind of professional respect, and she truly hated to use the "I am the boss" card, but he was beginning to upset her, and she knew she was about to lose all her sense of decorum if he continued with his nasty attitude...and it happened before she expected it to.
The team had been in Pennsylvania on a case for a few days now, on the disappearance of a child. The eight-year-old boy had last been seen at school, his mother had reported him missing when he didn't return from school. Usually, children's cases were very difficult for the team, and they had to be extremely careful. The first few days, the team had been panicked trying to find the boy immediately, so an Amber Alert had been put out to everyone, and several search teams had been organized. But then, their investigation led them to believe that the boy had been kidnapped by his father, who had been considered a threat to the boy and his mother from the beginning. The father was a drug addict diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder, and the judge had given full custody to the mother and had given the unsub very limited visitation with his son, but only with adult supervision.
After their investigation, one of the witnesses had testified that they had seen a truck pick up the boy from school, and after the witness met with a sketch artist, the team realized it was, indeed, the father who had kidnapped the child. Now, they were working against the clock and needed to take precautionary movements and be more careful than usual. After more hours of stress and waiting, they had finally located the unsub at an abandoned school, they had surrounded the area and were waiting for enough backup. They knew the unsub was armed and could be a threat to himself and the child. They had to wait for the exact moment to go in, and as the units surrounded the school, the team waited outside for that moment. This was a race against the clock, and they needed to act soon...the longer the child waited inside, the more his life was at risk.
"We have to find a way to go in, we can't wait for backup." Morgan said nervously, pacing around the patrol cars.
"Morgan, I know more than anyone that we need to go in there, but we have to wait until we get enough back up." Emily said firmly. The rest of the team was around, all anxious to go in because they knew there was a small child inside that was terrified and needed help.
"I'm not sure if you're aware of it, but we're running out of time here, there's no time to wait...we need to go in now!" Hotch told Emily, in a harsh voice in front of everyone.
"I'm very aware of the danger Matthew is in, but by going in now, we could also be putting his life at risk. We're not going in." Emily said firmly, and with a tone that left no room for discussion; she was also angry with him right now...he had been challenging her since they had arrived in Pennsylvania.
"We have many units, we have more than enough backup, what the hell are you waiting for!?" Hotch hissed angrily.
"I said, we're not going in, and that's the end of it." She told Hotch rudely, walking away from him...she knew better than anyone they needed to go in and every minute counted, but they also needed to wait for the SWAT team and the proper moment to go in, otherwise, the unsub could kill the boy and himself. Before Emily was aware of it happening, Hotch began running toward the school and many officers followed him.
"Hotch, what the fuck are you doing?" Dave asked, astonished, going after him, and before anyone else could act or respond, chaos started, and they had no other choice but to go in.
"Dammit!" Emily screamed angrily, running after the two profilers.
As soon as she stepped inside the school, she knew this was going to end badly. They had been working on convincing the unsub surrender, and they were getting close when Hotch decided to go in.
"Drop the gun!" She could hear Hotch screaming, so she ran as fast as she could, hearing a gunshot, and her heart started to beat a thousand times a minute.
When she finally arrived at where the rest of the team was, her eyes landed on the scene in front of her, the child was in a corner of the room, terrified and crying, there were at least twenty other officers pointing their guns at whom Emily assumed was the unsub, and the unsub was on the floor dead, supposedly having committed suicide.
"Dammit, Hotch, I told you not to go in!" Emily screamed angrily...she knew she was going to have to be the responsible one for this and explain to the bureau what had happened.
Hotch just walked away from her, glaring at her evilly, and walking out of the school.
The case was over, and although they had saved the child, they had lost the life of the unsub. Yes, he was a bad guy, but this was not how they had wanted to end this case, no life should have been lost, and she was so angry. She knew they could have saved the child and arrested the unsub if they had waited until the SWAT team had gotten there and they had continued to negotiate with him, but Hotch had to screw up just to piss her off and now, someone was dead, and it was all going to be her fault.
Once the LEOs had cleared everything and the coroner had picked taken custody of the body, the team returned to the police station. Emily was talking to Detective Patterson, apologizing for the thousandth time about the outcome of the case; the Detective wasn't as angry as Emily had expected him to be; he was happy the child was alive, even if they had lost the unsub. Of course, for Emily, it was harder now because she had to explain to the Bureau why they had lost a life, since they didn't care if it was a criminal...they just cared about protocol, and this was going to be on her.
The rest of the team was gathering at the small room where they had been discussing the case; they were clearing everything from the room and packing files into boxes to take back to Quantico, and they were very ready to go home. When Emily stepped in, they knew they needed to get out of there and get out of there soon. By the look on her face she was beyond mad, and they didn't want to be there when she ripped Hotch's head off. Everyone stepped out of the room and left her and Hotch alone; she walked in closing the door behind her as Hotch pretended that he was picking up files and avoided looking at her.
"What the hell is the matter with you! I told you not to go in!" Emily hissed angrily, she was so mad she was shaking.
"There was no time Prentiss, we had to save..."
"Don't give me that bullshit!" Emily screamed louder, taking Hotch aback.
"The SWAT was working on making him surrender, they had everything under control." She said, running her hand through her hair, knowing she needed to calm down.
"I needed to save the boy...that was my priority." Hotch said coldly.
"And you think ours wasn't? This is why we had to act with more precautions than usual, to save that boy."
"The boy is fine, I don't see the problem." Hotch knew he had made a mistake, but he wasn't going to admit it.
'That's your answer to me, someone is dead because of your freaking ego, and now I have to respond because of your reckless actions." Emily spat back.
Hotch just shook his head...that was what this was about...looking good in front of Strauss.
"So, this is what you care about...looking good in the eyes of the Bureau?" He couldn't stop himself.
"You know what, I'm so tired of your attitude, you can believe whatever the hell you want, but here at work you have to respect me when I give you an order whether you like it or not! You're suspended for a week!" Emily said firmly.
"What? You can't suspend me!" Hotch said incredulously.
"I can and I am, or if you would like, I can let Strauss handle this directly. I'm sure she would be delighted to know why the unsub committed suicide." With that, Emily walked out of the room walking towards the SUV without looking back. Hotch just stood there fuming...he hated her so much. As he watched her say final goodbyes to the Detectives, he couldn't help but notice they were flirting with her and that sent fire through his veins...the question was: did he really hate her?
A few weeks later, the tension between them grew even stronger. Hotch was still pissed off that Emily had dared to suspend him; he was furious, he didn't want to let it show, but it was quite evident, but one thing he had learned was that he had to become more respectful with Emily. Even though he hated her, he knew that his job would be in jeopardy and honestly, deep inside, he knew he had messed up and she had been right to suspend him because he would have done the same thing. He also knew whether he liked it or not, she was in charge and he had no choice but to respect that, so he decided to put his anger aside and act professionally, but it was costing him every single inch of his will.
On top of that, there was something else that had been bothering him, and it wasn't the fact that she had suspended him. As weeks passed by and they took more cases, he became aware of the closeness that had been going on between her and Dave, as the two leaders of the team, they quietly spent a lot of time together, whether it was in meetings, or discussing budgets, or cases, or simply team issues, but the two of them spent a great deal of time together. Hotch knew there were obvious reasons for them to spend more time than usual together, but it really bothered him and he didn't even know why. Thinking about it, maybe he hated the fact that Dave didn't spend as much time with him as they used to...after all, Dave was one of his best friends. Or, maybe it was the fact that Dave supported her in every decision, and that pissed him off. Or, maybe it was the fact that she and Dave had become very close friends, closer than usual.
Emily was very close to everyone on the team...why wouldn't she, she had an amazing personality and everybody looked up to her. She and Morgan had always been great friends, Reid saw her as a big sister, and JJ and Penelope were basically her best friends. With Dave, it had been different...before she returned, hell, before she had even left, she got along well with Dave, and they hung out together every once in awhile, but the majority of those times the whole team was there. It was usually him and Dave that were always together, and now basically Dave spent all his time with her. When they weren't at work, he was visiting her daughter at the hospital; he had basically become an emotional support for her. Emily often came to Dave when she had questions about work; Hotch would have thought it would make more sense to ask Hotch himself since he had been the Unit chief for many years, but no, she went straight to Dave and that bothered him, it bothered him that everyone loved her and thought she was doing great, it bothered him that Dave, out of all people had become closer to her. He hated the way she smiled when she was with him, he hated that it was him who got to take her out for lunch meetings and occasionally coffee and even dinner. He hated that Dave could make her laugh, and he could make her feel better so easily and it bothered him that she seemed to enjoy being around him as much as she did.
That afternoon, the team had been at Quantico with a lot of paper work, and they had been busy all day doing reports. Hotch hated to be sitting all day in a cubicle completing stupid reports, while Emily and Dave had been in the next office all day doing God knows what...he couldn't stop his blood from boiling when he sent glares to the office wondering what the hell they could be doing in there. Didn't she have work to do, wasn't she supposed to be doing reports, too, and evaluating the team's work instead of doing whatever the hell she was doing in there with Dave? A few minutes later, the door opened and Dave came out followed by Emily, they were both laughing in a way that made him uncomfortable as they walked down to the bullpen, and he could hear them talking about some play happening in town this Friday. He knew Emily loved plays especially when they were opera.
"If we're in town that night, I promise you I'll take you to see Rigoletto...it's one of the most famous operas that has ever been performed." Dave chatted while smiling.
"I'll hold you to that, although I'm not sure I want to leave Bay alone any more than I already do." She said amiably.
"Come on, just this one time, I promise you the next day we can take Bay to the circus since she has been dying to go." Dave insisted.
"Fine, but only if we're in town that night." Emily agreed.
"Where are you two going?" Morgan asked, getting his head away from the paperwork for a few minutes.
"Lunch, I'm starving, do you want to go?" Emily asked.
"No, thanks, bring me something, will you? I haven't finished my report, and my boss can be a pain in the ass." He teased.
"Very funny, you're lucky I won't make you finish the whole stack today." Emily teased back.
Morgan just laughed, making a mocking action with his hand as if he was shooting himself making both Dave and Emily laugh as they walked toward the doors.
Hotch just stood there looking angrily at them, thinking, 'great, now they were going to have a lunch date, wasn't she supposed to be focusing on paperwork and reports, and here she was running off to have lunch with him', he was so angry he couldn't help himself. 'What the hell was wrong with her, how could she just leave with Dave like that, didn't she not have any respect for the rules. What about the fraternization rules', all of a sudden his head started going somewhere he didn't want, picturing them together as a couple, and he couldn't stop the anger rushing through his veins, damn Emily Prentiss, he hated her. He banged his fist angrily against his desk making Morgan jump.
"What the hell, man, are you okay?" Morgan asked, worried.
"Yeah, I'm sorry, I just messed up my report." Hotch replied, his eyes back on the report.
"Well, be careful, man, you don't want to end up suspended again, now do you?" Morgan teased the ex-Unit Chief.
"You are not funny, Morgan...and mind your own business, will you!" Hotch snapped, and stood up from the desk, walking away. Morgan didn't know what the hell was wrong with Hotch, but he figured he was still mad because of the suspension.
Later that night, Emily was still working on paper work in her office, she was trying to get out of there as soon as possible, because she needed to go see her baby girl at the hospital. Her mother had helped her so much with Bay lately and had stayed with her when Emily had to work and be away, but Emily felt terrible, hating to leave her baby girl alone especially being sick. So, she was working as fast as she could so she could get out of there and go see Bay. She was looking through the last case, when someone knocked on the door.
"Come in." She said, standing up, and to her surprise Hotch walked in.
"I figured you wanted this before you left." Hotch said, showing her the files he had been working on.
"That's great, thank you." Emily's face was solemn.
She walked around the desk and picked up her briefcase; he was the last person she wanted to see and she wanted to get out of there.
"May I speak to you about something?" He asked, without being able to control himself.
"Actually, I'm on my way out, but if this is about the suspension again, I've already said everything I needed to say." Emily said, picking up the files he had given her and placing them in her briefcase; she would go through all the files her team submitted while she was at the hospital.
"It's not about that, I just...think you need to be careful with what you're doing." Hotch knew he didn't have the right to do this, but he couldn't stop himself.
"With what I am doing? What exactly are you referring to?" Emily asked, surprised.
"There are fraternization rules in the office, something that you as the leader of the team should respect." His tone was harsh and cold.
"Excuse me?! What in the hell are you talking about?" Now, she was starting to get pissed off.
Hotch watched as her face turned bright red, her hair down in curls, the black dress suit accenting every one of her curves, her chest barely exposed, her sweet and powdery intoxicating fragrance, her plump lips. Damn, the woman was exquisite. Then, a new feeling overwhelmed his body. The thought of Dave's hands roaming that gorgeous body.
"All I'm saying is that if you're going to be sleeping with Dave, you should be more discreet about it," ...and before he could finish, Emily slapped him hard across the face, taking him totally by surprise.
"What the fuck do you think you're talking about, you can't talk to me like that!" She hissed now, and she was so furious, he could see her hands shaking.
"Come on, just admit that you're dating him." He said, upset.
'Not that I have to give you any explanations about my personal life, but there is nothing going on between Dave and I, and the next time you talk to me like that, you will be suspended indefinitely!" She said, her face inches from him...she wanted to slap him again...no, she wanted to kill him.
Hotch didn't know exactly how it happened, but the next thing he knew, he had grabbed her firmly by the waist and pulled her against him, crushing his lips against her mouth, kissing her fiercely. He didn't know what the hell was he doing or why...all he knew was that he wasn't over her.
