He'd kissed her.

She's sitting at the back of a bullpen utterly teaming with agents from who knows how many agencies. She should be focused on the profile they're set to deliver, the extra insights she may be able to offer. But she can't. For all intents and purposes, she's still in her bathroom, still pressed against the counter.

"It's not often we know the subject's name, and in this case, knowing Ian Doyle's identity doesn't give us very much."

Emily forces herself to exhale as Morgan steps up beside her. Hotch had been dominating, fierce, possessive. She can still feel it shimmer through her, the broad heat of his palms, the way his hand had curled against hers on his chest.

"He's known to a select few and those who know him well either work beside him or they're on his list."

Look, she's self aware enough to know that the responding emotions are ones that have been simmering carefully since Haley's death. Well, before that, really, but it always makes her feel strange to admit it. Still, she'd never really nurturned those feelings. She's never expected anything to come of the easy rapport and deeply personal turn their relationship had taken over the years.

"Two of three of his victims worked for CWS and were responsible for his transport to North Korea. There were seven operatives on the mission all together and those remaining five have been warned."

She can't wrap her head around it. It had been a claiming, certainly. She can't miss that, nor can she ignore the timing. There's enough on her plate, there's enough on their plate, without adding this personal touch to the mix. It's not the time, but as she bites her lip, she thinks she can still taste him. She can't deny that she wants it, that he's opened the door.

"All the federal and international agents responsible for tracking him down are now on his list of targets."

Her heart flips when he meets her gaze head on. God. God, she does not want Ian to play a role in them, in her and Hotch. Especially since now that Easter's safely tucked away in an interrogation room, she knows what their next step has to be. If they want to even have a chance of catching Ian, swarms of agents won't do it. Ian wants her. He will not stop until he gets her.

"We'll find Doyle the way we find any other offender: by studying his behaviour. We'll dissect his every move since he regained his freedom. When he escaped from North Korea…"

Hotch's voice fades now as her mind finally, finally gets back on track. She catches Morgan's quick glance out of the corner of his eye. Hers flick to Seaver first, young, innocent, still in the beginning stages of her career, then over to Dave, at his watchful, pensive gaze. Garcia's all but bouncing beside a deceptively calm Reid before her gaze is pulled irresistibly to Hotch, to the way he commands the room, the confident way he outlines each of Doyle's movements.

Morgan actually catches her gaze this time, gives her no choice but to acknowledge him.

"You good?" he asks.

Her eyes track to JJ, meet the blonde's where they focus on Hotch, dart to her to offer a nod of acknowledgement, blue eyes fierce and fighting ready. She steels her stomach against what she's going to have to do next, the step she's going to have to convince them all to take. They have to take the power, the control, away from Ian.

She knows just how to do it.

So she meets Morgan's gaze, tilts her mouth up in the first genuine piece of a smile she's been able to manage since greeting JJ. "I'm good."

And oh, oh she is.

Because Emily Prentiss is going hunting.

This ended up being on hiatus longer than I anticipated and I'm sorry for that. I'm hoping to get back on a sort of once a month posting schedule. Life's busy as all anything so I don't want to get your hopes up re: a more frequent posting schedule.

I don't have words for how much it means that you guys have been so patient with me about this. It's made writing this so easy and wonderful and a low-stress genuine pleasure. It's been a while since I've felt that way about this pairing.