Emily woke up to her phone ringing loudly the next morning. It was so early, why was it so impossible to sleep in when it came to staying here? She quickly picked up her phone and barked a "Prentiss" into it.
"Morning Princess, is everything alright?"
"What time is it?" she groggily questioned.
"6:45."
She rolled over onto her stomach and felt the need to punch Morgan in the face. "Why are you calling me so early? It's a Sunday! Last time I checked that was a day of rest."
She listened to Morgan laugh on the other end of the phone. "I'm sorry, I just wanted to let you know what we found out about Arnold."
This caused Emily to pay attention. Her eyes opened quickly and she tried desperately to focus on her friend's voice. "What do you know? Should I go get Hotch?" Morgan let her go wake up Hotch and he let out another laugh as he heard the groan coming from his boss. He realized that Sundays were not to be messed with. He'd have to remember that.
Emily sat down on the bed beside a semi sleeping Hotch, and she couldn't help but stare at him when he wasn't looking. "What do you have Morgan?" she asked finally pulling her eyes away from Hotch and putting Morgan on speakerphone.
"So Garcia and I spent the entire day yesterday trying to find out information. It became clear that one of the guards helped Arnold escape. We can't be sure which one, but there is no other possible way he could have gotten out of there without help. You guys were there, no one could escape. Also, we were thinking that since the picture that was taken of Emily was a candid one someone must be following you. Or at least followed you to get that one shot. We're pretty positive that only one picture of you was taken because that was the only thing in his cell."
"Maybe he took some with him," Emily chimed in after she was officially creeped out that someone might have been following her to take her picture without her knowing.
"We also thought of that, but we are just hoping that that wasn't the case. So he escaped Thursday and it's now Sunday which means that if he is coming after you, he might already be around. So Hotch?"
"Yes?" Hotch answered as he stared at the phone sternly trying to keep all of his focus on what Morgan was saying and not on Emily.
They heard Morgan take a deep breath, "You are responsible for her, you know that right? Wherever you go, she goes. Don't leave her alone for any reason. If Karl is really lurking around somewhere out there, he's going to try to find her, no matter what. And if Emily can't be with me, you're the next best thing. Okay?"
Hotch agreed with Morgan. He wasn't letting Emily out of his sight. If Arnold had someone to help him escape from prison then who's to say if he has someone to help him here as well? It was a Sunday and there was really no reason for them to leave the house. He had no doubt that Emily was going to hate the idea, but they had everything they needed here, and he wasn't going to put her into any more danger than she might already be.
"Princess?" Morgan's voice interrupted Hotch's thoughts.
"I'm still here," Emily said sadly and Hotch couldn't resist the urge to reach other and grab a hold of Emily's hand and squeeze gently.
"I know you don't like the idea of any of this, but you have to promise me that you won't go all badass on me and ditch Hotch, because not only will he be pissed off but I will be too. We care about you too much to have you running around searching for this guy. We need you to stay safe. Can you do that for me please?"
Emily nodded then realized he couldn't see her. "I'll stay with Hotch, I promise."
"Good. Now I'm going to try to figure out some more stuff, maybe get a location on him and I'll see you guys at work tomorrow. Be safe," Morgan finished and they all exchanged their goodbyes and thank you's before Emily hung up the phone and dramatically threw herself back onto the bed.
"Are you alright?" Hotch asked from his seated position as he stared down at her in worry.
"Yeah," she mumbled as she ran a hand over her face. She looked up at Hotch and saw that he was about to say something, and she knew that he would try to tell her not to worry and that everything would be okay, but in all honesty she didn't want to hear it. She was tired of getting the same old speech from everyone when they didn't know if everything was going to be okay, so she quickly rolled over onto her side facing Hotch and changed the subject. "What are we going to do today?"
Hotch was thrown for a loop, but he knew what she was doing. She wanted to talk about something else, and if that is what she wanted, that is what he would do for her. "Whatever you want to do. Jessica is picking up Jack in a few hours so it'll be just us," he told her as he laid down on his side next to her.
"I feel like we've been doing things that I want to do. I want to do something that you want to do."
"On Sundays when I don't have Jack, I usually work on case files and that's never very entertaining so trust me when I say I'm completely fine with doing whatever you want to do. In fact, I insist that you pick something to do."
Emily chuckled as she shoved Hotch's shoulder playfully. "Do you want to have a movie day? I saw some classic movies in your collection that I would love to watch while I'm here. Would that be okay?" she asked shyly. She didn't know where her shyness was coming from, it was just Hotch, but he had a way of making her feel like a teenager with just one single look.
"A movie day would be great. I haven't watched a movie that wasn't animated or full of little children in a very long time."
"Are you sure that's what you want to do?"
"Yes Emily that is what I want to do. Do you want to go back to sleep or are you up for the day?"
Emily tried unsuccessful to stifle a yawn which caused Hotch to smile. "Sleep it is." Emily started to get up to head back to her room, when Hotch's hand wrapped around her arm and pulled her back down into a horizontal position. "You can lay in here. I promise I don't bite," he mumbled as he pulled the covers up around them and closed his eyes trying desperately to get back to sleep instead of thinking that he just asked Emily to stay in his bed. What was he doing? He knew better than to head down this road, it's not like Emily was staying at his place because she wanted to. She was here because someone was after her and he knew she wasn't fond of being a prisoner. Hotch breathed a sigh of relief when he felt Emily relax next to him, and he drifted off to sleep surrounded by the strawberry scent that he always associated with Emily.
