Acceptable Risk -
.Chapter 3.
It was after 4pm when Hotch and Reid arrived in London. They were glad to be able to stretch their bodies finally.
Going through customs took a while but luckily for them, with their special passes and credentials they were able to go through without any problem.
As they were at the basement claiming their luggage, they saw Emily. The reunion was a happy one. They had not seen each other for over a year. Aside from the occasional phone calls, there was much to be discussed.
The current case was put aside as it was too sensitive to talk in public. The agents held back till they were in a safer environment.
"Wow, Reid, you really need to eat! If you turn sideways you could slip through a one inch opening." Emily teased her friend as she slipped her hand through his elbow.
Reid blushed as he tried to come up with a smart retort but failed to do so, so he clammed up and began to look about him; he had never been to London before; he had never traveled outside the country before till now.
Looking at Hotch, she said, "How was the flight? Any problem?"
Hotch shook his head as he watched for their luggages to come through the carousel. "It was long. But otherwise not unpleasant. Reid slept most of the ways, fortunately for me." He gave her his famous Hotchner dimple.
Finally, he spotted the behemoth. With a sigh, he stepped forward and picked it up.
Emily's eyes widened. "What is in that? A dead body?" They were receiving plenty of curious stares from other people.
Hotch glared at her as he huffed the heavy bag down on the carrier with wheels. "This… thing is actually yours. It came from Garcia, Morgan, JJ, and Rossi."
Emily's eyes lit up, "They didn't actually send it, did they?" She asked.
Reid shrugged, "We don't even know what's in it. So, what is in it, Em?"
Emily shook her head, "You'll find out when we get home."
"I thought we're going straight to your office?" Hotch asked.
"It's after 5pm now. Too late to start anything, most of the agents have gone home. Besides, you guys must be tired from the trip, and want to settle down." Then she faced Hotch and said, "The manifestoes are almost complete and the contents are really interesting. We'll start first thing in the morning."
Hotch nodded, his curiosity was spiked sky high now.
Twenty minutes later, all their luggages claimed and stowed in her SUV, they left the airport.
The drive out took almost an hour. By the time they reached Emily's house, it was near dark.
Hotch was admiring the house when he got out of the car. "Did you buy this house?"
Emily was opening the boot when she shook her head, "Gosh no, I can't afford such a big house. It belongs to my godfather's. I'm actually house-sitting for him; he is on an extended Shakespearian tour."
Hotch glance from the house to Emily, his eyebrow arched, "Shakespeare?"
"He's playing Henry III as well as Richard I. He's gone for almost a year and will be for another two years."
"Godfather? Wait, I thought you lived in an apartment?" Hotch had remembered Morgan and Garcia helping her moved last year.
"You would not believe what happened… termites." She said simply.
"Termites?" Reid frowned and repeated.
Emily nodded, "The guest bedroom in the apartment building collapsed one evening while I was home, Sergio had a fit trying to catch and eat them." She shivered as she recalled the incident.
The two men winced as they tried not to picture the scenario. "Are they going to redo the building or something?" Hotch asked again.
Emily shook her head, "No, the residents were given a good compensation from the insurance, the building was condemned and had to be torn down. We had to find another place to live. Luckily my godfather was able to offer his house to me to house-sit. My stuff is in storage."
Hotch nodded, "Lucky you, nice house."
Emily smile, "You haven't seen anything yet until you've been inside," then she turned to Reid. "You should check the library. I hope you like Shakespeare, he is a fanatic."
Reid smiled, "I have read all his works. Although I don't mind taking a look again." He said eagerly.
She looked at Hotch and smiled. Hotch nodded as he lifted his bags and began to take them into the house.
As soon as they entered within, the smell of roast wafted throughout. Hotch stopped for a moment as he closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "That smells good. I hope that's what we're having for dinner."
Emily chuckled, "Mrs. Johnson must be putting out all stop. Come on, let me show you your rooms and the kitchen."
The upstairs were all bedrooms and each bedroom has its own bathroom. Downstairs Emily showed them the kitchen as well as the dining room, living room and the library. As Emily had predicted, Reid was instantly drawn to the room, he ran his long fingers to the books neatly arrange in the shelves against the walls. All the books were read at one time or another. A couple of cozy chairs situated across the shelves next to the fireplace, certainly made for comfortable reading. There was a deep rug in front of the fireplace where two cats currently lying fast asleep.
As Emily entered the room, Sergio got up, stretched and sauntered lazily before he rubbed against her in greeting.
"Hello, handsome, I see you've been lazing all day." She bent down to pat her cat. In response, he purred for her.
Hotch was looking around and watched her greet the black cat affectionately and smiled, "I see this is the one and only Sergio."
Emily picked him up for Hotch closer look, "Yup, my perfect guy." She smiled at him. Hotch reach up and rubbed the cat's head. Emily felt Hotch's knuckles grazed slightly against her chin; she held her breath as she stared at him. He returned her stare. It was an intimate moment, and Emily didn't want to break that moment.
Hotch seemed to notice it too as he kept stroking Sergio and through Sergio, he was stroking Emily's smooth skin. It certainly was an erotic movement. If she could purr, she would be doing it right this moment.
Sergio purred deeper, "Hmmm…he likes you." Emily said. She almost told him that she liked him, and that she liked his stroking.
Then the moment was broken when Reid came holding Thelonious, "Who's this, Emily?"
Turning her head to look at Reid, she smiled, "That's Thelonious." She explained to them how the tiny but newest addition came to be adopted by her.
"And two is the max for me. I don't want to turn into the proverbial cat lady." She added.
Hotch was still watching her, "You are too young and beau…well, young to be that cat lady."
Emily gave him a grateful smile while Reid, not getting the full meaning of Hotch's almost slip, was confused, again.
"Do you fellas need some time to freshen up or are you ready for dinner?" Emily asked, her face was slightly flushed.
Hotch replied, "Give me ten? I do need to call Jack and Jessica and let them know I've arrived here and safe."
She nodded. "Okay, you know the way to the kitchen. I'll see you in ten."
…
Later, after a delicious dinner of pot roast, potatoes and carrots that melted in your mouth, freshly baked loaf bread, peach cobbler and vanilla ice cream, and for Hotch a pint of Stout, for Reid, a bottle of Riesling. Emily had her usual beer to go with her beer.
Dinner was a hearty meal and with such excellent companions, it was very much enjoyable.
Mrs. Johnson was praised again for her cooking skills. She left them when dinner was over and dishes were cleaned.
When the three adjourned to the living room, they enjoyed a light port, courtesy of her godfather's bar. As soon as they sat down, they began to talk business.
Hotch began, "Emily, can we talk safely here?" He looked about the room; it was large and it was made of bricks and old wood pillars and arches. Hotch ever conscience of wire tapping and such, he was not taking any chances of the house being tapped.
The cats had come sauntering and settled on the humans' laps. Thelonious seemed to have taken a liking to Reid as he took up residence on his lap and promptly fell asleep there.
Sergio was lying on Emily's lap as she was running her hand absently on his fur while he purred more; Hotch was sitting next to her on the sofa.
Emily nodded, "Yes, I can't imagine a safer place here." She said as she took another sip of her drink.
"Tell me about the manifesto, how much have you translated. And what is this trip you're talking about?"
The next couple of hours they talked about her discovery. Hotch had many questions.
Emily brought her notes out. While the two men read her notes, she logged into her laptop, checking her emails.
Hotch leaned next to her and said quietly, "Can you tell me what this means? 'The sun sets on in the green fields in a small body of water before our time of fast. Soon our victories will be our martyrdom."
Emily read it again, shook her head, "I'm not sure 'The green fields in a small body of water...' It must refer to a geographical location."
Hotch looked at her and nodded, "Yes, that's what I think so too." He brushed lightly against her hand, she watched him, mesmerized by his slow actions.
Suddenly, Reid interrupted their actions, "Hey! I think I figured it out."
Emily jumped slightly out of her seat, Sergio as well, looking about him, trying to see what the commotion was about. Then he decided that the humans moved about too much, so he hopped down and cantered off to the library where it was warmer, cozier and a whole lot quieter.
"What is it?" Hotch asked.
"It's in Afghanistan."
"Afghanistan!" They both said at the same time, looking at each other. "Don't tell me the trip you're talking about it's there?"
She nodded.
Hotch shook his head, "You're not going."
Emily stood up, setting her laptop on the coffee table. "What do you mean?" Her hands on both sides of her hips.
He stood up, towering her, "Afghanistan is no place for a female so you're not going."
She snorted, "Please, we're in the 21st century, Hotch. Stop with the chauvinism. Besides, who's going to translate Pashto and Dari?"
Hotch turned to look at her slowly, "What?"
"You know, the languages spoken in Afghanistan." She grinned.
His shoulders slummed, "Don't tell me, you do."
She shrugged, "a little of both, passable."
Reid was watching the two of them in fascination. It was like a tennis game, back and forth, left to right, right to left. It was actually exciting.
Hotch thought for a moment, "Okay, but you're sure we'll find what we're looking for there? I don't' want this to be a wild goose chase."
Emily smiled, "Don't worry, Hotch it's me you're talking. I don't usually make a mistake. If we could eliminate them it's not going to be easy. It'll involve a lot of negotiations. We will have to find them and flush them out of their cells."
Emily turned to Reid, "Reid?"
For a moment, he stared at her blankly.
"Reid? Hello?"
Reid blinked and he was back to the present, "yeah I'm here. Um what're we talking about?"
Emily frowned as she looked at him and then to Hotch, he shrugged. Hotch had noticed Reid spacing out for that instance.
"Going to Afghanistan, Reid, are you all right?" She asked again,
Reid frowned as he nodded, "Yeah, what's wrong?"
"Um, you spaced out for a moment. Thought you saw a ghost or something."
Reid shook his head as he combed his hair with his hand, "No, not at all, I guess I'm getting jet lag or something."
Emily nodded, "Yeah, you guys must have been up for a while, why don't we call it a night and start again tomorrow. I'll take you guys to my work in the morning. The notebooks are on their way there as we speak."
Hotch stood up, "What do you mean?"
"They were not exactly sure if Reid was able to do it and they did not want to move them till they have confirmation."
Hotch nodded, "That makes sense." Then he tried to cover his yawn but failed as Emily caught him, she smile as he tried to apologized, "jet lag."
"Yeah, so it would seem.
Emily led the men upstairs to their bedrooms and bade them a good night before she turned to hers which was the first door to the right side of the hall way. Hotch was to next to hers while Reid was across from her.
As she changed to her night wear which was her favorite FBI Tee that was worn and washed many times over that it was a faded navy blue and white baggy PJ bottom. It took a while for her to fall asleep as she was well aware of Hotch being in the next room to hers. She tried to tell herself that nothing was going happen. He was not going to come into her room and ravish her. She had stopped reading those trashy romance books a long time ago! The naive virginal heroines rescued by the handsome rippling muscular heroes, carrying her away and they lived happily ever after, well, after a few mishaps and misadventures in betweens…
"STOP!"
Emily though she heard someone calling out as her eyes was drooping…
"NO! DON'T SHOOT HER. PLEASE! TAKE ME INSTEAD. ME FOR HER!"
…
End of Chapter 3