Chapter 6: Just Run Away
The silence became too much and she could not bear it, all eyes lay on her and she just wanted someone to say something. She looked forward in a thought process of running away again, but Morgan still stood there. She decided to speak up, knowing that in the state she was in, a scene was bound to be caused.
"Let me do my job." She spoke finally. Admittedly, it did not come out as harsh as she thought it would have.
"No, Princess, you aren't going anywhere." She looked down, hiding the small smile, she had missed being called 'Princess'. Actually, she had missed any interaction with Morgan at all.
"Why? It's not like you were complaining before!" Her voice raised. "And, as you also said, there is no other way of catching this Son Of A Bitch." Each of her words were spoken with spite and a backlash to him.
"Well everything's changed now, and we will find another way to catch him, no matter what!" Morgan glared at her, and made the ever wrong mistake of shifting his weight over to his right foot, allowing Emily access to leave, and she took it and ran. Of course, four of the five other team members began to go after her, but Hotch stopped them.
"She is not that stupid, leave her." All eyes came to him looking as if he were stupid, but they all knew it was the truth.
"Guess so." Morgan sighed, and his phone rang in his pocket, he took the call. "Baby Girl, please say you have something to add hope to this day." He begged.
"You know I do, but what day would that be, Sweetness?" She asked, typing could be heard in the background. Morgan walked away and took the call back in the small room when the station got loud again, and he put her on speaker.
"I will tell you later, just give us a lead, please." Garcia could hear he was desperate so she gave him the information he begged for.
She wondered around, which was never a good idea when you're a woman, alone, pregnant, in a different state, and it is slowly going dark. But Emily knew how to hold her own and she felt quite safe. The park she was walking around was quite empty and the gun on her hip added more security. Unfortunately for her, the cold had started to hit her body and Goosebumps had appeared on her arms and she was shivering slightly, but there was no way she was going to return to the police station, no way in hell; she could not deal with the explanation tonight, and she hoped that by putting it off, someone else had informed them, but she felt her phone ringing in her pocket and she reluctantly answered it seeing the caller ID as JJ.
"Prentiss." She said, in a cold tone.
"God, where the hell are you?" She asked, annoyance evident in her voice.
"Just walking, don't worry, I did not try to find the unsub." She joked.
"Alright, well the guys are going over there now anyway, Garcia got a lead." JJ informed her.
"Ah, good." Emily still sounded distant.
"You should come back to the station, it's all calmed down now anyway." A sigh was sent from Emily to JJ.
"I think I'm going to walk for a while." she ignored the protests and hung up. Walking more and more around the park's pond, leaves rustling around her. Even though she did no know the area, she felt quite safe even if she was slightly lost. But it seemed to pay off, as she got to another gate at the park, she was greeted by the very hotel they were staying in, and her aching body just begged for bed so she succumbed and checked in.
JJ panicked and called Emily for the millionth time.
"No answer?" Rossi asked from behind her and JJ just shook her head.
"She said she was going to walk for a while, what if someone's got her?" She panicked now, taking the phone from her ear and putting it on the table, she paced backwards and forwards.
"She is fine, JJ, Emily can protect herself." Dave tried to reassure her, and JJ gave a small nod. "How about we go back to the hotel, and you can sleep and we will go out and try to find her?" He knew JJ would want to help, so instead he gave her no option. "No, you are going back to the hotel. C'mon."
Hotch, Morgan and Reid all looked around the place, thinking of anywhere Emily could have gotten in that time, which, to be honest, was quite a long way away, but the guys all had cars. JJ, on the other hand was outside her hotel room, protesting that Rossi needed help.
"C'mon, just let me go and look for her, besides, it's not like I'm sleepy now, I just want to make sure she's okay." She reasoned with him, and Rossi had to admit that they could do with the help.
"Fine, let's just go and check, see if she's taken her bag or anything." He suggested and JJ nodded. She slid the card in the door and it beeped and flashed a green colour before she opened the door and switched the light on.
"JJ, what the hell?" Both agents looked shocked to find Emily, groggily, turning over to look at them, it was now obvious that she had been asleep. Rossi let out a small smile and relieved breath.
"I'll be back." He told them and walked back into the hallway, his phone out in his hand. "Hotch, yeah, we've found her… Asleep, in the hotel room. Yeah. Call the rest of the team. Alright, night." Re-entering the room, he found Emily and JJ sitting on the bed, Emily with an amused look on her face.
"What did Hotch say?" JJ asked, a smirk also on her face.
"Just that we probably should have checked here first and that he will get the team back soon." He smiled.
"Alright." JJ looked at Emily and gave her a small smile, "They got the killer, but Hotch figured we should rest and get the plane in the morning. After we found you of course." Emily rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm sorry about before, Em, I just didn't know another way to stop you from going." He reasoned with her and Emily nodded.
"I know and thanks." The small smile she passed him was not missed by JJ.
"Maybe you should sleep, yeah. It'll only take me a second to change anyway."
"Alright, remember, just call, I'm down the hall." Rossi gave a nod to JJ as she went to the bathroom to get changed before looking at Emily and giving her an awkward smile.
"I really do understand why you did it, Rossi. Thanks." His eyes showed surprise and then a smile grew on his face as she yawned.
"Now get back in bed and sleep, you have yourself and that baby to look after." He gave her a reassuring smile. "Good night, Em, and goodnight little one!" The door shut and Emily cursed slightly, realising she had fallen asleep in her work clothes. She stood up and went over to her go bag finding a green pair of bottoms and a clean white top, she knew JJ might be a while and quickly got herself changed. Pulling the top over her head, she rolled it over her bra, and her hand lingered slightly as it reached her stomach. Her baby was in there. She could barely believe it. She smiled softly, realising that her bump was now slightly visible to those who knew, and she thanked Rossi mentally for telling everyone, because lying about that obvious thing was going to be hell. She had became so engrossed in her newly found bump, that she had not saw JJ leave the bathroom until she heard the woman's soft 'awh's'. Her hand snapped away, and she looked up at JJ as if she was a deer caught in the headlights.
"You don't have to be ashamed, Em. It's quite adorable anyway." She gave her a small smile. "Besides, it's adorable when your bump is that small, wait until it is massive!" Emily laughed slightly, but her hand stayed far away from her stomach. "I also managed to bring this, from the car for you." After a second of searching, and a rustling bag, JJ pulled the teddy bear from before out of her go-bag and handed it to Emily, who's eyes slightly lit up.
"Thanks, you didn't have to bring that anyway." She took the bear and smiled slightly.
"I know, but you seemed so attached." She teased back and Emily smiled bigger at her in amusement. "Now get to sleep, I don't want my little niece or nephew to be stressed!" She waited a moment while Emily climbed and got herself comfortable in the bed before turning the light off and feeling her way to her own bed.
"Night." Emily quietly mumbled and hugged the giraffe to her stomach as she rolled and turned away from JJ's own bed just as the blonde also mumble her goodnight.
Emily was unsure what had happened, but she knew she was being woken from the best sleep she had had in a few weeks by a familiar shaking of her shoulder. Her smile came first, then her eyes opened to see his; how she missed those eyes. Ever since she had told JJ and Rossi, she had barely seen Hotch. No late night drives home or stays on his office couch. She guessed telling the others was just the end off of a massive weight on his shoulders.
"Hotch?" She asked, just to confirm it was him.
"Hi." He said, coldly… well, more of in a rush. "You and JJ overslept, I was going to wake you up slightly earlier, but I figured you would just want to go to the jet in your pyjamas." She opened her mouth to protest something about getting changed for work. "No, you are having the day off to rest after this case, whether you like it or not. And yes, before you ask, this will now be a regular occurrence." He informed her, and Emily sat up groggily. "Also, nice giraffe." He flashed her his dimples.
"Oh, yeah." Both of her cheeks turned a shade of red as she fumbled with the teddy. "I got it when JJ took me baby shopping, I figured it could do with something to cuddle, or sleep on, depending if I ever get a cot." She smiled slightly.
"You know what would have been better would to give 'it' a name. Calling the baby 'It' is just a bit too distant, and also reminds me of Stephen King." He shuddered as if having a horrible memory of the book.
"I'll think about it." She looked amused and left the bed, packing everything away in her go-bag. Hotch did not know where to put his eyes when she suddenly took her bottoms off to reveal a pair of short style knickers. Of course, he thought she looked amazing in them, but out of respect he looked to the doorway until she put her work pants back on.
"Prentiss, what the hell are you doing?" It took Emily a second or two to figure out what he was on about… the sudden flashing of her knickers or getting into her work clothes? She figured he meant both, but probably was asking about the work clothes considering he was too much of a prude to mention the other thing.
"I am getting into my clothes, what the hell does it look like, Hotch?" She watched as he turned away again when she changed her top.
"I told you, you're having the day off." He repeated himself.
"No I'm not." Emily protested.
"Prentiss, it's four in the morning, and I have woken you up. There is no way in hell I am letting you, wide awake or exhausted, come into work, and now the whole team knows, I know they will not let you be there either." He now turned back and looked her dead in the eyes.
"I'll catch the few hours sleep on the flight back, I've been asleep since nine, Hotch, I am pretty sure a few more hours and I would be well rested." She tried again to convince him.
"No, and that's final, Prentiss." He groaned and left the bed, picking up her go-bag, he turned back to her. "Is that everything packed?" He asked and Emily looked around to see if everything was, the only thing left out was the giraffe, which she took advantage of by throwing the giraffe at Hotch, who, obviously, was hit in the torso with it and it fell to the floor. Bending down to pick it up, he put the bag on the bed and packed the bear inside it. "You stay here and tell JJ we're down in the lobby. See you in a few." He once again gave her a flash of those addictive dimples before leaving the room with her bag in his hand. Emily, too, smiled and sighed slightly; she could start to get used to this.
The jet was quiet, and Emily knew exactly why. The rest of the group seemed to sit in silence as she was asleep. Well, they thought she was. Emily, on the other hand, was wide awake, she just had her eyes closed, pretending. She felt something cover her up, a soft blanket or something, and a lingering hand on her arm.
"Night." She head the quietest voice of Aaron Hotchner, and she longed to smile, but knew it would give her away so she carried on with the faking, not wanting to have to talk to any of the team. After a while, quiet mumblings started to cloud in her mind, not that she could separate one from the other and it became evident after another minute or two as she began to fall back asleep.
She was quite relieved when she realised that Hotch had left her to drive back to the BAU with Rossi and JJ, but, of course, they tried to convince her to go home, which, obviously, she never did. Now, she walked into the bull-pen to find Garcia talking to Morgan and Reid, and, of course, in true Garcia style, the second Emily entered her eye line, she was over to her, offering her congratulations and asking how she was.
"Why didn't you tell me?" She asked, and pulled Emily over to her seat. "How far along are you? Is the baby okay? Are you okay?" She bombarded her with questions.
"Whoa, slow down, Garcia." Morgan chuckled slightly, seeing Emily's startled face.
"Sorry." She looked down and apologised.
"It's alright." Emily looked up and gave her a soft smile.
"I know I never got to say it before, but congratulations, Princess." Morgan gave her a small hug and Emily squeezed him back.
"So, how far along are you?" Garcia perched herself on the edge of Emily's desk.
"About four months." She said, sort of quietly as she looked down to the floor.
"What? Four months!" Garcia looked in shock, "Why on earth did you not tell us sooner?" Emily looked more ashamed now.
"I was scared of losing it." She informed them. Now it was Reid's turn to throw in a fact or two.
"Statistically speaking, the point of miscarriage is three months, but losing a baby can be up to six months, any point after that is premature labour." Emily glared at him.
"Not helpful, Reid." She gave him a small smile seeing his awkwardness.
"Sorry, congratulations anyway." He gave her a nod and Emily smiled back at him.
"Thanks." Hotch walked out onto the balcony, not finding it amusing that Emily was actually still in work.
"Prentiss, home, now." He walked down the stairs, keys in his hands.
"Hotch, I'm fine." She looked around at everyone else for back up, which was not there. "Fine." She sighed and stood up, taking her stuff with her.