Chapter 9: Bad Habit
Her phone rang at an awful two in the morning. Emily groaned, her now even bigger stomach giving her problems with sitting up easily. As she finally managed to sit up, she answered the phone without looking at the bright LCD screen and reading the caller ID.
"Agent Prentiss." She said, groggily and the horrible voice came over the other end, slightly too loud.
"Emily Elizabeth Prentiss, why on earth have you not called me?" She cringed slightly, moving the phone away from her ear.
"Mother. It's two AM." She groaned.
"Yes, and I apologise, but I have a right to be informed about my grandchild!" Letting her head drop back in exhaustion against the wall, she made a thud noise on the bed headboard. She had forgot to try and cal her mother once she got back to US soil.
"Sorry, Mother. I have been trying to call you, but you are so hard to trace! I guess after the last case I was so exhausted, I just forgot to call…" That was all Ambassador Prentiss had to hear.
"You're still doing cases?" She sounded shocked. "How far along are you, I thought you would be about seven months!" She now sounded outraged.
"Almost six months." Emily informed her.
"With such a high risk of injury in your job, I can not believe they still let you go on cases. That is unacceptable, Emily, I want you to keep my grandchild safe!"
"I am, mother, I only go to the station when on a case, never on the field, and I am not allowed around anyone dangerous, alright. Everything is fine. And Hotch has already made me decide that when I reach an unsuitable stage, which is to be decided, I will stay in Quantico and do cases from there. And no, I am not going on maternity leave until the last possible minute."
"Oh come on, Emily, do not be stupid." The conversation tossed back and forth between her and her mother until around three in the morning, before Elizabeth Prentiss decided to make a bank account for the baby which would have money for Emily to get the room sorted and get herself a better home (which of course, Emily took offence too).
She sat at the top corner of the jet, her eyes looking over the file again and again, but she was not taking any of it into her mind. Instead she was thinking back over her mother's words. She knew her place was not very child friendly and that she would need to get a bigger, better place sooner or later. Of course, she still held onto the slight hope that Hotch and her would be a couple by then, but neither her nor Hotch had discussed the situation in a week or so. With the added incident of not knowing if Jack was ready, she was worried about what would happen to her's and Hotch's job. She did not notice but, her eyes drifted up from the words and pictures in front of her for the twentieth time - which was luckily considering non of them wanted her even knowing about the case with these mutilated children. Unfortunately, Rossi noticed the looks, just like he had noticed them all, and Hotch, who had his back to Prentiss, looked at him with a curious look.
"What?" He asked, putting the file down.
"I have no clue what on earth is up with you and Emily…" He was not able to say another word.
"There is nothing up with either of us!" He quietly snapped.
"I'm a profiler, Hotch, and you two have barely said a word to each other that has not been about a case in a week or so! She does not look to great, Hotch, you really should go and talk to her, even if it's a bossly talk, anything to settle her. I have no clue what is up, but I'm guessing by this case file, it has something to do with that." Of course, he was partly right and Hotch made a quiet effort to stand up and go over to her. As Emily's eyes met his, her heart began racing.
"Hi, how are you doing?" He asked as he sat down at a chair opposite her. Carefully dancing around his words, not sure how to go about the hormonal woman.
"I would have been fine if it was not for my mother's call at two in the morning!" She groaned and their quiet words were soon masked by the sounds of Rossi challenging Reid to a game of chess, and the quiet hum of Morgan as he listened to his iPod.
"I'm guessing you never managed to get a hold of her then." She shook her head, placing the file down on the table.
"I knew she was getting back to US soil yesterday, but after the case and everything, I just wanted to sleep." A soft sigh left her mouth.
"And I'm guessing she gave you not a very happy call?" He asked, and another nod came from the raven-haired woman.
"I guess she got my messages and gave up waiting for me to call." She looked down at her lap with another sigh and she knew Hotch was now giving her a concerned look. "She wants me to leave the BAU."
"Until the baby is born?" Asked Hotch. Emily shook her head.
"Permanently." Now he looked shocked.
"Are you going to?" He felt relief wash over him as her head shook.
"No, I love this job, she just doesn't think it is a stable environment for me to raise my baby in, especially with all of the disappearing, it's going to cost me a fortune in babysitters. But I will make it work" It was now Hotch's turn to nod.
"Alright then." He saw how upset she was and just wanted to hold her, comfort her, tell her everything was going to be fine, that he would fix it all, but he could not. That would not be appropriate. So instead he settled for some simple words: "If you ever need some help, or support, or anything, I am here. Well, my office here." He tried to lighten the mood and saw Emily crack the tiniest smile.
"It's alright, you know, I understand about Jack and 'our situation' and if things don't work out you're still a great friend." She gave him a sad smile which assured Hotch that she was not actually okay with it.
"Is that what is on your mind? Oh, Em, don't worry about that Jack's views of you wont change my feelings for you, and I know for a fact that Jack loves you and I'm certain you love him." He flashed her his dimples.
"That is not what I mean. What if he isn't ready for another mother figure in his life? And there's two babies involved here. I think we need to rethink things." The words broke his heart.
"Emily Prentiss, I love you, I love your baby and I love my son. That is all that matters." Subtly, under the table, his hand stroke her leg, not in a flirty way, but in a soothing way, trying to rid her of her worries. "And besides, I promise that if we do take this further, Jack will know and if he is not happy, then we will think if that time comes, but it's not going to." Emily gave another nod before giving a yawn. "Now get some sleep before we land, we need Agent Prentiss on top form!" She smiled at him, but felt unsure about going to sleep; she knew it was one thing to fall asleep after a long case, but falling asleep on the journey out to a case, at only eleven in the morning was pretty unacceptable. But she was too tired, and before she could protest, she felt her head lean against the back of the seat and her eyes close. Sitting still for a moment, Hotch waited until she had fell into a deep sleep, before standing and pulling a blanket down, covering her up with it. He then returned back to his seat, amused to watch Rossi and Reid playing chess.
"I think we should brief." JJ stood up, her file in her hand and she sat next to Reid. The chess set was put away, and Morgan pulled his headphones out of his ears, stopping the music, and of course, all eyes drifted to Emily. "Shall we wake her?" JJ did not even have to look up to know she was asleep; the whole time she had stayed silent, listening, with utter glee and happiness, to their conversation, which she knew was wrong.
"No, she's just fallen asleep. Let her rest a little longer, I'm sure you can fill her in when you get to the station." JJ nodded and all of their files opened, and everyone was witnessed to the horrifying images of slaughtered children, all of the details in a simple box, and a sweet picture of a blonde girl, with a big smile on a school photo: Emma Wilson, their latest missing child. "Oh, and everyone, I think it would be good if we did not go into too much horrifying detail when we talk to Em." Hotch saw them all give him a stupid look.
"She has the file herself, Hotch, she's saw all the pictures, she's read all of the words." Rossi informed him.
"I know, but please." All of the team understood and gave a nod before a chorus of 'fine' filled the jet.
The case was hard on all of them, and Emily was kept as far away from the case as Hotch could find possible, but sooner or later, he had no choice but to accept her full help. Of course, she found it horrible when they revealed everything they had found out whilst they were there, but he was happy to have let her in in the end as, it seemed, without her help a lot more children could have been killed. Two days after they had taken off, they returned back to Quantico, and Emily's first order was to sleep. The rest of the team had headed home to, being that it was only seven in the evening. JJ had offered to drive Emily home, and when they pulled up to her flats, just like Hotch had made Rossi check, she had to make sure she was safe there.
"See, everything's fine. No one is here." Emily laughed slightly and JJ looked around, still unsatisfied. "What's wrong now?" Emily chewed her lip, not really liking the look on the blonde's face.
"I know the amount of shopping me, you and Garcia have done… yet I see nothing around the house, so where are you hiding the baby stuff?" She asked and Emily stopped biting her lip, happy that she did not just see a murderer in her home.
"Oh, it's all up in the 'nursery'. Well, I say 'nursery' I mean painted box room, but for now it will be fine, until I can find a bigger home." She smiled.
"Look at you getting all motherly!" She smiled, "So, can I take a look?" She asked and Emily nodded, leading her up the stairs and opening the door.
The box room was bigger than JJ had thought it would be, after all, calling it a box room made her think it was tiny, but no, it seemed to be quite big. Big enough for the baby anyway. It also felt warm and sweet as she looked around at the beige and cream walls, lined in a teddy bear banner. The room was no longer cluttered with bags and bags of stuff, as Emily had seemed to have gotten someone to put everything together. The crib sat in the corner with the matching blankets that also matched the walls. The wardrobes were muted in colour, but when opened (just like the chest of drawers) was full with unisex clothes of a same neutral colour. All of it looked really sweet and perfectly set up and she could not help but expand her smile as she saw the giraffe teddy bear sitting in the corner of the crib.
"So, who put everything together?" She asked, curiously. A cunning smile on her face as she thought the answer would be Hotch. Hopefully, she wished she had caught Emily out, but the answer was not what she expected.
"I did it all." Emily had a look of pride.
"What? Emily at six months pregnant you should not be doing anything like that!" She looked at her in a serious look.
"I know, but it's too late now, I've done it all and now it's all set up and I don't have to do anything when I'm heavily pregnant." JJ nodded, it was good reasoning after all. There was a sudden awful buzzing noise which both women recognised as the door bell and JJ looked away from the crib to meet Emily's eyes in a protective manner.
"Are you expecting someone?" She asked and Emily shook her head. "Then let me get it." Emily managed to stop her halfway down the stairs.
"No, JJ, it is not a murderer!" She informed her.
"How do you know?" She asked. Emily ignored her questioning and walked to the door. She was tempted to look through the eye hole, but she knew better than to do that, so, instead, she just opened the door and there stood her mother.
"For goodness sake, Emily, are you just going to leave me to freeze out here?" Ambassador Prentiss looked far from pissed off.
"Mother, it is a hallway, not outside." She said in a patronising, informative tone.
"It's cold enough to be outside!" She moaned again, "Now let me in before I catch hypothermia!" Cautiously, fully aware of her bump, she barged past her daughter and entered the house, ignoring JJ's presence completely. She breezed right through to the couch and sat down. JJ shuffled closer to Emily who was still frozen at the open doorway.
"Do you want me to stay?" She cut to the point and Emily shook her head.
"Alright, but call me if you need me, and please get some sleep. Hotch would kill me if I brought you home and you got none." There was that name again, and Emily's heart fluttered a beat.
"Sure, JJ, I promise. Now, good bye, thanks for driving me home! Give Henry a hug and kiss from me." She seemed to get louder as JJ walked down the hall way, but she soon saw the blonde wave goodbye and closed her own front door. Delaying for a second, her hand on the door handle, her face still turning away from her mother, her heavy head rested against the cold wood, she took a deep breath, hoping this was going to be quick as she turned around, and put on her fake smile, the one that had been fooling her mother since she had been a child. "Hello, Mother." The words sounded cold, too cold. She had not meant it to be like that, but with her annoyance, and tiredness, she could not have helped it.
"Oh my goodness, Em, sit down, you look exhausted!" She helped her daughter to the couch and Emily sat in a state of shock, unsure what on earth was going on with her mother, but she soon realised as the woman's hands lingered on her bump, carefully. She waited a minute or two, before speaking.
"Mother, what are you doing here?" She asked, the question sounded stupid now though.
"Can I not come and see how my pregnant daughter and her boyfriend are doing?" She asked, a look of shock on her face, but it was nothing compared to the look of shock on Emily's face. Boyfriend. She thought she had a boyfriend. What on earth was she going to tell her? Emily knew it was kind of the truth, but since she barely knew if her and Hotch were a couple, she was not telling her mother anything about him yet, so she settled for a part lie.
"He's out… at work." Her lip was bitten by her teeth and she began taking perfectly fine pieces of skin off of her bottom lip.
"I know when you are lying to me, Emily, now where is he?" Emily could not help but scoff slightly. She knew when she was lying? Fat chance. She had been lying to her parents since she was six, hiding things since she was twelve and that perfect fake smile, she had been giving them that since she was three. See, it did take years for her to perfect the lies, but all would be risked when her teeth went behind her back and gave her away. Darn things.
"He's…" She was really nervous now and her knew she had no control over anything her body was doing, even the stammering, so she told the truth. "He was a one night stand." She confessed. Her eyes fell to her lap in awkwardness. She had not even told the team that yet! And it was one thing telling your close friends/work mates and another to have to tell your mother. To add to the awkwardness, Ambassador Prentiss fumed.
"What? You're a Prentiss! You do not have one night stands! I will not let you raise that child as a single mother! I will not stand for it!" Her mother shouted and Emily felt some courage bubble inside of herself, the same courage she had had in her teenage years.
"Shut up." The first time it was practically a whisper, and as her mother carried on her ramblings she shot up from the couch and raised her voice even louder. "I said shut the hell up, Mother!" The silence that filled the next ten seconds was priceless. Emily loved reading the expression of rage, confusion, disgust and utter shock on her mother's face.
"What?" The tone had shocked her mother so much that now she actually sounded timid.
"If you are not happy with my decisions, then stay the hell out of my life and stay out of the baby's life!" Her mother looked over at her, and Emily could have sworn she saw a look of disappointment on her mothers face.
"Fine then." She dumped an envelope on the table. "I just hope that baby has some sense and leaves you the second it can. The poor thing." Emily looked in more shock, unable to believe that her mother had just said that, but she watched in more shock as the Ambassador Prentiss walked to the door and then she watched as it shut. Dropping her exhausted body against the couch with a groan, she rubbed her stomach where, she could have sworn a soft kick had just been, she smiled lightly. The first kick.
"Sshh, it's alright, she will never get her hands on you, I promise." Another strong kick told her that the last kick was the first of many and she sighed. "Yeah, let's get some food and then bed." Her hand rubbed tenderly in circles on the patch where the baby had just kicked, and she felt another. A smile played on her lips, "You already know how to cheer your mother up."
Placing her empty bowl on the table, she gave a satisfied smile as she felt another, lighter kick.
"God, you're active in there!" She smiled widely. "Definitely have the Prentiss genes." She gave an even bigger smile as her hand rubbed at her stomach, and her eyes fell back on the pointless soap opera on TV. She jumped slightly as a vibrating filled her pocket and she laughed to herself as she realised what it was. "Prentiss." She flipped the phone open and pressed it to her ear, once again not checking the caller ID.
"How the hell did I know you'd still be awake." She smiled to herself, hearing the very familiar and comforting voice on the other end.
"Hey, Hotch. I was actually just going up to bed, I only just finished dinner… and the chat with my mum." Her eyes rolled and she had a bad tone in her voice that Hotch did not like.
"What did she say? Are you okay?" He asked in panic. Emily nodded but noticed he could not see her.
"Yeah, everything is fine… it was eventful to say the least. Look, I'm tired, can I tell you tomorrow?" She asked.
"Sure, good night, Prentiss." She smiled.
"Good night, Sir." She did not wait for his protests or comment as she hung up and put her phone on the table. That's when here eyes locked on the envelope. The one clearly marked with her name in her mother's neat handwriting. She reached for it with reluctance and stared at it in her hands for a minute, studying it. Trying to see if she could see through the envelope which obviously was not possible unless she had invented superpowers in the last hour… but no, she had not. And she found herself sliding her finger in under the only open part of the envelope and she pulled her finger carefully along, as not to paper cut herself, and finally got to the end. Her fingers dipped into the white envelope and pulled out a heavy piece of paper. Two pieces of paper she corrected herself, as she pulled it open. Her eyes were drawn firstly to the blue card at the bottom and she skim read the letter. 'Emily… blah blah blah… house money… blah blah.' She groaned. There was her mother's promise and there was the card with apparently… (she double checked the letter) $100,000, she had no clue where or how her mother had that money and right now she did not care as she opened the second letter. Once again, there was a second blue card. 'Emily… Baby… more rubbish… £100 a week.' She groaned and put both letters back in their envelope before tucking that and her phone in her hand and going to bed for a long, well deserved sleep.