Chapter 4: Just Speculations… or not?

A/N: Here is chapter 4, it's more focused on the case, there is less Hotchniss and Jack-Penelope-Henry, more team work. Kevin, Cruz and Anderson play a role too. And some old friends as well, because you know me, I love some old friends reappearing...

Enjoy!

Disclaimer in chapter 1.

Previously

Emily raised her eyes and looked at Robert, his black eyes were soft, a smile was grazing his thin lips. "It was a beautiful story. I really hope things work out with you two. You deserve it."

Chapter 4

As soon as the whole team was in the conference room, Dave nodded to Kevin to shut down the camera feed, the things he wanted to tell them weren't for the bureau's ears, after all his speculations were just that… speculations!

"Kevin?" the younger man raised his left hand and kept typing with his right "Not yet agent Rossi" he murmured under his breath. "Ok now!"

"What's going on Dave? Have you found something?" Tara was sitting across from Dave, she leaned forward to her chair.

"I know they want us to investigate Hotch and find out why he wanted to bomb the building but frankly that makes zero sense to me. We are asking all the wrong questions. It's not why would Hotch bomb the building, it's how he would do it. He wouldn't be a suicide bomber, he had no signs of depression, and we all talked to him, he was over the moon when Emily decided to move back in the country, this is one of his high moment, not his lows. We also know that he wouldn't hurt any of us."

"Not intentionally that is." JJ said. All the heads in the room snapped at her. "That's it!" Tara said "What?" Kevin looked puzzled, he had worked with them but it was seriously difficult to follow their way of thinking

"Hotch wouldn't hurt any of us intentionally, that's the key he wouldn't do it on own accord. You guys had an UnSub last year, Peter Lewis, he drugged Hotch right. What if he planned a trigger in him, a word or a scent, something that would trigger that response from him."

"Sage!" JJ stood up from her chair "When I was in Hotch's apartment it smelled like Sage and he told me about this new neighbor that burned sage the whole day because she would claim that evil spirits possessed the building."

"Wasn't that what you and Hotch had used on one of Lewis' victims?" Dave looked at Tara, something in him clicked. "Yeah, Christine McNeil the drug had such effect on her mind that she snapped, we only got her to break out of it by burning sage, JJ you've been to Hotch's place a few times now, have you noticed anything different? Anything out of place, anything else other than the sage, anything at all to indicate that Hotch might actually was planning on doing so?"

"Of course not! How could you say that?" JJ was furious at Dave, she got up from her chair and turned at the older man with her fist curled.

"Jennifer, I am not saying that I believe that, but IA and Homeland security and the NSA and CIA if I know them well enough do need to know. And before we go on and indulge ourselves in a witch hunt we need to prove to them that Aaron is innocent. They don't know him, they don't know that he would never do that and our word is not enough. Until Aaron comes back I am the leader of this team and you do have to follow what I tell you. So you and Reid go back to Aaron's apartment and try to remember if you saw something unusual, go through his desk, his computer, his phone, his tablet even his DVR and find everything you can to prove either his innocence or his guilt." Reid nodded and took JJ's arm, pulling her gently away from Rossi before she changes her mind and decides to rip his head off. "Tara, I need you to give it another try and talk to Jack, get him to trust you…"

"That's not necessary agent Rossi, Dave, I'll do it. Henry likes me a lot and Jack already didn't talk to Tara, I don't think that's gonna change now." Tara looked at the door; Kevin had shrunk down the chair praying that by some miracle he'll become invisible "Chief Cruz?" Matt walked farther into the room and shut the door behind him, "I don't believe that Hotch would ever do what they think, I do believe that this is some sort of…set up. Officially I can't get involved in the investigation, but unofficially I'll just be Uncle Matt visiting his godson, now the fact that his brother and best friend are there, and they happen to Henry LaMontagne and Jack Hotchner is totally irrelevant." The smile that crossed his features was all Dave and Tara needed to tell them exactly how irrelevant the visit would be.

"Alright Chief Cruz, I am sure Michael would love to see you." the two men shake hands and Cruz left after saying goodbye and good luck to all. As soon as the door close a sign of relieve was heard around the room. "Is he always like that?" Tara asked, this was one of the first encounters she had with their 'unique' Section Chief.

"Oh trust me bella, he can be so much worse."

xxx

Tara followed Dave in his office; they shut the door and the blinds and sat down on the couch across from his desk.

"We need to talk to Jessica too." Dave said, they were trying to keep their voices down, they knew from experience that even the walls in this building have ears and eyes. "Yeah, she spends the most time with the Hotchners, but we also need a backup plan in case Cruz fails to get Jack to open up to him" Dave gave her one of his enigmatic smiles "Don't worry our backup plan is landing in about an hour" Tara looked puzzled "Remember Emily Prentiss?" Tara's expression changed to a one saying 'Clearly!' "Well, she is Aaron's wife and Jack's stepmom, he loves her, the little guy had a crush on her when he was younger, even proposed to her with a ring he made at school in art class. It was hilariously sweet. So when Cruz fails, and he will, because Jack is a mini Aaron, Emily will be there to get him to open up, you'll see it… she might even get him to come here. She has him wrapped around her little finger. Well, both of them." Tara laughed; she would never believe that her hard ass of a boss would even be whipped by a woman, but the moment she saw him following Emily Prentiss around like a lost puppy in Morgan's wedding she knew he was beyond whipped. And then of course was the New York case, where he said no, she said yes and they did what she said anyway. She liked seeing that version of him, happier, lighter; he had a different rhythm to his steps since that case. A smile lingered more on his lips, his eyes seemed happier, he went out with them more often, catered Penelope's every whim, let Reid perform Physics-Magic in the bullpen, even asked the young genius to show him some, he even got her flowers for her birthday last week. Not to mention that he was always leaving work on time, when was the last time this ever happened?

"It's not just JJ that needs to remember everything about Hotch's behavior. We need to too. After the copycat case he changed, although it was for the better, we need to know why he was that happy go lucky version of himself."

"Well Aaron told me that Emily decided to move back in the states and he let something slip that she might be coming back to the BAU too, to cover Morgan's position, but after the slip no matter how many times I asked him he wouldn't say a word."

"That would explain his change in behavior in the last weeks" she saw the puzzled look on Dave's face and continued "He would cater Garcia's every whim, he let Reid perform Physics-Magic in the bullpen and asked him to show him some tricks, he brought me flowers in my birthday last week, he started going out with us more often, and last week when we went out for my birthday he even shared stories with us, from his personal life. Not to mention that for the last three weeks we would go home at exactly 5:30 PM, unless we had a case. When was the last time he did that?"

"Bella, you are right. He was happy, he was also losing up. Aaron doesn't do that, at least not on the job. And remember two weeks ago that case in California? On the ride home JJ blasted the music and started dancing in the plane, he wouldn't allow this… last time someone did this was in August of 2009 when we were coming back from probably the worst case we ever had. Back then JJ had tried to cheer up Garcia and the rest of us too. She had also blasted the music and dragged everyone up to dance with her. That was seven years back. He never allowed anything like that since then."

"Hotch changed in the last three weeks, he changed for the better, he was getting a better life, his wife was moving back in the states, his son is healthy, his job was on track… he had so many things to live for, and fight for. The claim that he would throw everything down the drain is ridiculous; we need to see who had a grudge against Hotch. The only reason why he would ever choose that moment is if someone else chose it for him. If you want to destroy someone, when is better than when they are in their best?"

xxx

The rest of the trip to D.C. was quiet for both Emily and Robert, she hated to admit it but he was right, she had so many things piled up inside her that she needed to talk about them. But on the other hand there were some memories that she still wasn't sure how to handle, how you handle losing a child? How you handle finding a crime scene in your apartment? Or finding your husband almost dead in a hospital? Or any of the madness she and Aaron faced daily? Was she ready to go back to the same madness? She always said that her life was her work, the BAU, but that was before she had Aaron and Jack, was the BAU worth losing them? Losing spending time with them? She wasn't that sure she was sure that she wanted to spent time with them, but she wasn't ready to be a housewife. That would defiantly not end well…

They landed in Ronald Reagan airport in exactly five and half hours after leaving London, Emily looked at her watch it said 10:30 PM that meant it was around 5:30PM here.

"Emily!" she turned and saw Robert calling her.

"Robert."

"I hope everything works out; if you need any help, don't hesitate." He gave her a card with his cell phone written in the back "Thank you."

She turned on her heel and started walking fast to the front of the airport where she knew the cabs would be. She needed to go to Garcia's and fast, her friend was reaching her breaking point with three kids there, and out of them the two wouldn't even talk to her honestly. She also needed to see Aaron but she knew that wouldn't happen as easily and after all, seeing and talking with Jack will be far more beneficial for everyone.

XXX

Matt had tried everything, he tried talking to them kindly, tried the official, tried the friendly, he tried every fucking route he could think of. Not only Jack but Henry too wouldn't say a word to him. He even went home first to change out of his suit. He even got Penelope to call him Matt… well he was at his fucking wits end.

"There you go Matt." He took the glass Penelope was offering, the cup was steaming and he brought the brown liquid to his nose and smelled the aroma "What the fff…frack is that?" he was about to swear but caught himself, apparently Penelope Garcia threatening to wash his mouth with soap was far more scary than JJ doing it.

"Herbal tea, you need it, too tense!" he didn't bother arguing with her, he took the mug in his hands again and took a sip from the dark liquid. It tasted like mud to him and there was nothing calming about it. It was scalding hot and it burned his tongue, and the muddy texture stuck on his throat "scheisse" he swore, he couldn't stop it, but at least he hoped that if the kids didn't know what he was saying his mouth would stay untouched by the crazy blonde.

"Did you just swear in German?" she asked him "sikme" he said under his breath.

"What was that?"

"Fuck in Turkish."

"How many languages do you know?"

"Swearing in? Too many…"

xxx

He watched Dr. Lewis and Agent Rossi walk into the second's office; he saw them closing the door and the blinds. He knew that they would go through everything Agent Hotchner went through in the last three weeks and find exactly zero, nada, zilch that would indicate his "need" to blow up the building. Oh he knew that…after all who in their right mind would ever think that SSAIC Aaron Hotchner, sticker for rules extraordinaire would ever do that. He seriously started to question the intelligence of the people who were supposed to protect them, if these morons protected the U.S.A. no wonder everything went to hell at least once a week.

He let the Alpha team handle on their profiles and interviews and whatever and he took the more practical route. Everyone might think that he wasn't that attached to them but he would never forget that Aaron Hotchner, not only got him in the BAU, but saved his job after the incident with Agent Greenaway's shooting. Any other Unit Chief would have his head in a silver platter, not Hotchner though. He was grateful to the man and really liked him too.

He went through his contacts and found the names he was looking for, the alpha team was short handed and they needed more people.

And Grant Anderson was going to give them just that…

XXX

A/N: Much shorter this one, but I'm not that good at writing the whole case thing. I'll try but still…

Next we have the talk between Emily and Jack, what has the little boy seen? We'll see the help Anderson called for the team and a shocker from Emily…

As always let me know if you liked it or not.

Till next time, Bye!

A small sneak peak? Yes?

Alright here it is!

The door bell startled Matt awake, he looked around him and saw that he was lying on a purple couch, but he didn't own a fucking purple couch! Where the fuck was he? The person on the door kept ringing and he thought they were drilling his brain out. He got up and walked to the door, since when his fucking apartment had a pink door? When he saw the angry face of the brunet on the other side of the door he realized just how not at home he was…

"E… agent Prentiss?"