Prentiss
I walked into the bullpen at the same time as I always did. I put my bag down at my desk and greeted Morgan and Reid with a smile. JJ and Garcia walked out of Garcia's office as Hotch and Rossi walked down the few steps from the catwalk.
"You're late." JJ said to me.
I looked at my watch, "Oh, by three minutes. I live an hour away, give me a break here."
"It takes less than three minutes to murder someone." Reid said.
"Do we have a case?"
"No." Garcia shook her head.
"Then why does three minutes matter?"
"Because you were supposed to come in early!" JJ said, "I can't believe you forgot. Now, instead of eating during your lunch break, you're going to have to tell us everything then."
"Tell you everything about what?" I asked with a confused look.
Garcia dropped her head to the side, "Your date last night, pumpkin. Do you have photos of the outfit? Did you get lucky? Of course you got lucky; you forgot you were supposed to meet us early. Was it fun? Are you going to go again?"
"Jesus Garcia, calm down. Yes, I have a photo and I'll show it to you later. It was fun and I would go again." I nodded.
"Was this with the booty call guy?" Morgan sat forwards in his chair, intrigued.
"I wasn't a booty call." I denied as I shook my head.
"Well you're not now. So what'd you do, where'd you go?"
"Dinner and dancing." I told him easily, smiling.
"Sounds like a great night," Hotch said, "Garcia, you're office." He motioned for her to walk back and she obeyed him. He followed behind her and JJ sat on the side of my desk. I glanced at Rossi and we smirked at each other.
"What are you two smiling about?" Reid asked, looking between us, "Please tell me you're not the booty call guy." He said to Rossi.
Rossi and I both laughed and he shook his head. "Do you even know what a booty call is, kiddo?" Rossi asked him.
"Yes." Reid nodded, answering the question seriously. I laughed again.
"Reid, no…" I shook my head.
"Does he know?" Morgan asked.
I didn't see any harm in them knowing that Rossi was aware of who I was dating. It wouldn't give it away or anything; he might have just known him previously or I introduced them. Maybe I ran into him while I was out with "the guy" or he was just a mutual friend. They wouldn't know and they wouldn't have a reason to doubt any of these options.
"Yeah, he does." I nodded.
"How?" JJ asked.
"Mutual friend." I shrugged my shoulders. It technically wasn't a lie; Hotch was a mutual friend. This was the closet lie to the truth.
"A sugardaddy?" JJ smirked, "I hope he's younger than Rossi."
I smirked and nodded, "He is."
"By how many years?"
"Over ten."
"Is he older than you?" Reid asked. I nodded. "How much older?"
"…A few years."
"Do we know him?" Morgan asked, "Or would we have seen him somewhere?"
"I don't know." I shook my head.
"No, you wouldn't." Rossi lied for me.
"Okay, turns out we do have a case." Garcia said as she walked over. I stood from my chair at the same time as Morgan and Reid. JJ jumped down from my desk and followed us up towards the round table room.
Garcia cleared her throat when we were all sitting with the files in front of us, "This is a big one."
She presented the case to us. There were seven young brunette men murdered in their homes within the last three days. There was not yet a link found between them and we were being called in by the desperate cops in Brookings, South Dakota. There city was in panic and the press had gotten out of hand with false information over the past two days.
We discussed it for a short while before my phone rang and interrupted JJ.
"Sorry." I said quietly as I took it from my pocket. I went to decline the call but I saw "dad" on the caller ID. He never called me. I hadn't seen him in over a year; he and my mother were somewhere in Europe at the moment. Spain, I think. "Oh…I have to get this. Sorry; I'll catch up." I said as I stood up and walked towards the door quickly.
I walked down the catwalk far enough so they wouldn't hear me as I accepted the call and held the phone to my ear, "Hey dad."
"Emily, how are you?"
"I'm kind of busy. Is this important?"
"…Extremely. Emily, your mother's sick."
I felt my stomach drop, "Sick? What kind of sick?"
"Too sick. We're in Spain right now. The doctor doesn't think she'll make it to the end of the week." He managed to choke out. He was trying desperately to hold his sobs back.
"Oh my god…" I breathed. I put my hand over my mouth, "Is there anything that can be done? Why didn't you call me earlier?"
"It wasn't this bad before, but it got a lot worse yesterday. They don't think anything can help her. She wants to see you before she goes." I knew he was crying.
Tears filled my eyes and as much as I disliked my mother, of course I loved her. They fell onto my cheeks and I kept my back to the team so they wouldn't see. "I have a case, dad. A serious one."
"Emily, your mother is dying."
I swallowed hard and took in a few deep breaths, "I'll get on the next flight. Where in Spain?"
"We're in Granada."
I nodded to myself, "Okay…okay I'll be there as soon as I can."
"Emily, when you get here, I need you to be strong for her. She's scared, but she needs you not to be."
"Okay." I sobbed.
"I love you."
I hesitated, "Love you too. See you soon." I hung up and stared at the ground for a few seconds as I tried to calm myself down and stop the tears. I wiped my eyes and took a deep breath before turning around and walking back towards the round table room. "Hotch." I said quietly. He turned and I motioned for him to come out so I could talk to him privately. He stood up and followed me out, giving me questioning eyes when I turned around at the end of the catwalk to look at him.
"You're holding tears back. What happened?" He went to grab my hand, but he remembered where we were and stopped himself.
"I need this week off." I said quietly, looking down.
"Sure, as long as you need," He nodded, "But what happened?" He asked again.
"I—I don't want to talk about it right now, but I'll call you when I feel fine enough to."
"Are you in danger?"
"No," I shook my head and forced a small smile. He was concerned and suspicious but he wasn't going to push it, "No, I'm okay."
I saw his eyes glance over my lips but he decided against kissing me right now, no matter how much both of us knew I needed it. "Well, let me know as soon as you feel fit to, and let me know if there is anything I can do."
I nodded, "Thanks Aaron."
"Do you need to leave right now?"
"Yeah, it's kind of urgent. Um…it'll cost a lot for you to call me, I need to leave the country…so you can text me and I'll call you or you can call me and hang up straight away and I'll call you back. That way you're not paying a fortune."
"Or I can just call you because you're more important than a few extra dollars on my phone bill."
I smiled, "Well I've got to go, but thank you for this."
He nodded and I looked into his eyes for a few seconds before letting the breath I was holding out and looking down to the ground.
"Have a safe flight. Let me know you landed okay." He said quietly.
I nodded, "Bye." I took a step back and turned around when he nodded. I grabbed my bag as I walked past my desk and went to the glass doors quickly.
Hotch
I watched Emily walk out of the bullpen and I made my way back to the conference room.
"What's going on?" Morgan asked.
"Emergency. We're an agent down. Wheels up in 20." I picked up the file that was in front of me and took Emily's too. I walked down the catwalk to my office and turned the sound up on my phone. I wouldn't have it on silent at all until I knew what was going on with her.
I looked out the window to the bullpen and saw the rest of my team getting the things they needed. I saw Rossi walk past my window and heard the knock on my door. "Yes." I allowed entry.
He walked in and closed the door behind him, "What's going on with Emily?"
I shook my head, "I don't know, but she was upset. Really upset. She's leaving the country for something but she wouldn't tell me what. She wouldn't have been able to without crying; I could see it in her eyes. She said she'd call when she felt okay to tell me."
He nodded, "Well let her know that we're all available if she needs anything."
"I will." I assured.
He walked back out and I grabbed my phone from my pocket. I called Jessica and told her than I had a case, and she confirmed that she was okay to pick Jack up after school and look after him until I got back like she was always able to do.
I sat down and did a bit more paperwork before I grabbed my go bag and made my way to the airstrip.
On the plane, we discussed the case some more before they decided to occupy themselves on the rest of the flight with cards. I kept checking my phone every few minutes and they all had noticed.
"Hotch, relax," Morgan said quietly, "Whatever she's doing, she'll be fine doing."
"He's right. She wouldn't have told you anything if she was in any kind of danger." Reid said.
"Come play; I'll deal you in." JJ offered.
"No, thank you." I said before lifting the file back up and reading through it for what felt like the hundredth time. I kept hoping I'd cross something new that would give me something to work on when we landed, but not much was revealed that we hadn't already talked about amongst us.
Our third day here, I was sitting in the room of the police station that we were set up in with the rest of the team. My phone started to ring and I picked it up on the second, seeing "Prentiss" flash across the caller ID.
"Prentiss?" I spoke as soon as it met my ear.
I heard her sniff quietly and let out a breath that she tried to calm herself with, "Hey Hotch."
I stood up and walked out of the room where the other four watched me. I branched off into a small room near the one we were based in. It was quiet and empty. I closed the door behind me and sat down on the chair closest to the door. "What's going on? You're crying."
"Yeah…" She took another breath.
"You're allowed to cry sometimes, Emily. You're only human. Please tell me what is going on?"
"Just…are you finished with the case?"
"Almost. We have two suspects and Garcia is looking into them as we speak. Do you—" I stopped when the door opened.
"Thomas Herd," JJ said, "We've got an address."
I nodded, "Uh Em…"
"Go; call me when you have a few minutes to spare." I could hear the sadness in her voice.
"Okay, I'll call as soon as we get him. Talk to you soon." I hung up and ran out, following Rossi out of the station. I got in the SUV and sat impatiently as I waited for Morgan to reach the residence.
Eventually, Morgan had tackled the murderer down while he ran and he put the cuffs on him. A local cop took him away and I stood with my team, looking around the area we were in.
"So many men in so little time," JJ shook her head, "This was kind of crazy."
"Well we got him now," Rossi put his arm around her comfortingly and rubbed her shoulder, "Come on; it's cold. Let's go home." He took his jacket off and hung it around her shoulders before walking to the car with her. Reid followed them.
"You ready to go?" Morgan asked me as I looked around. We only brought one car this time with only five of us. I nodded and followed him to the car. I sat in the passenger seat and Morgan drove.
JJ's phone rang and she sighed before she answered it, "Hey."
"No Will, I have no idea."
"No, I'm not lying to you. Why do you keep doing this?"
"Look, we're kind of busy. Can I call you when I have more time to talk?"
"Okay, bye." She hung up and let out a deep breath.
"Trouble in paradise?" Morgan asked, looking at her through the rear-view mirror.
She snickered, "Trouble everywhere."
"Well you're not going to fix anything if you keep putting it off and lying to him." Rossi said quietly.
"I was not going to talk about it with you all in such close proximity. I'll handle it when we get home; it'll be fine."
"Don't be so sure," I said quietly. I realised how insensitive that may have sounded. I looked at her over my shoulder, "Sorry."
She shook her head, "It's okay."
"No it's not, JJ. Not every marriage ends up like mine. I'm sorry."
"Apology accepted?" She wasn't sure whether that's what I wanted to hear. I nodded and silence filled the car momentarily.
"I have to call Prentiss." I said as I took my phone out. I dialled her number and waited for her to pick up. She did almost immediately.
"Hey." She greeted. She sounded exhausted and upset.
"You sound terrible; have you slept?"
She sighed, "Not much. Where are you?"
"In the car with the team."
"Well, apparently things just continuously go wrong in my life now."
"What happened?" I asked quietly, despite the team being so close that they'd hear my whisper. If Emily was even talking at a normal volume, they might have been able to hear her.
"Well, I'm in Spain. Uh… my mother got sick, my father was lost on what else to do, and now I'm here."
"Is she okay?"
I heard her take an unsteady breath, "No. She's gone." She sobbed when she said it but she tried to hold it back.
"I am so sorry, Emily." I stared at the road in front of us but I felt the team's eyes on me.
She sobbed a few times, "I don't know what to do. My father won't be fit enough to plan a funeral, I have no idea of the first thing she'd want for it. I don't know how to make sure my father is okay, or myself, or what to tell people who ask. I had three family members that I've never spoken to in my life, call me and ask how she is."
"Calm down, Em. Ask your father about where she'd want the funeral and how she'd want it. Write it all down and give it to me; I'll handle it. Your father will be okay, he just needs to grieve for now and you do too. Don't answer calls unless you know who they're from if you don't want to be asked about her; just keep it within who you trust at the moment. It doesn't need to be shared around the world yet."
She took a few breaths and I waited patiently, "Thanks Aaron."
"Anything you need, just give me a call. Or Rossi or JJ or anyone."
"Okay, I'll keep it in mind. I've got to go, my father is arguing with someone."
"Be kind to yourself. Give yourself some room to breathe and think."
"Bye."
"See you when you get back." I hung up and shook my head. I locked my phone and put it back in my pocket.
"Someone died?" Reid asked quietly.
I nodded, "The ambassador."
Silence filled the car for a few seconds as they all took in that information. "Is there anything she needs us to do?" Rossi asked.
"I offered to plan the funeral; she and her father are a little too preoccupied to do it themselves at the moment. That's all I've gotten so far. She probably would just appreciate some support."
"Where is she?" JJ asked.
"Spain."
Morgan looked at me, "Does she want us to come out there?"
I shook my head, "She needs some time to grieve. She's too busy trying to take care of her father that I don't think it's really all sunken in yet." I knew her and I knew that she wouldn't want the sympathy that we would offer. She wouldn't want the comfort yet; she'd just want to be alone right now. I'd call her and ask if she wanted us to come out in a few days.
