The plane ride to Chicago was the quietest one the jet had ever had, all passengers had too much on their minds. As soon as it was allowed, Hotch got up and when to sit with Rossi on the isolated seats in the front.

"Dave, what the hell is going on?" He tried to keep quiet and not to get the attention of the team that were mostly on the back of the plane.

"You tell me. From what I hear you have had multiple meetings with the director. And let's not forget a sudden decision to not involved all team members on your come home messages." Hotch could tell Dave was had a formed opinion on all those subjects.

"Look, I just did what I thought was best. I didn't exclude anyone." Rossi looks at Hotch as if he is the most stupid human on the planet.

"Are you actually insane, or just plain stupid?" Hotch could tell Rossi was becoming agitated.

"Dave, Emily didn't want to be involved in my coming back." And now Rossi is sure Hotch is completely crazy.

"Aaron, what does that even mean? She dropped her whole life the moment you asked her to come help with Scratch. Why would you think she didn't care about getting you home?"

"Dave, this doesn't matter anymore, but you have to know that I kept my distance because I knew this was what she wanted." Rossi could see that something else was happening here, something he didn't quite yet understand. "You need to tell me what is going on. Because the Emily that spoke at that roundtable today, at least what I heard, it's not the same that won't even acknowledge my presence when I tried talking to her."

"I'm not surprised, but I also promised her I wouldn't say anything." Rossi could see Hotch already shaking his head in protest. "At least while we are on the case. I need your head in the game, I need this case to go well." Rossi tried to make him understand without breaking his promise. "I need you to focus and keep your head, we will handle this problem when we get back home."

"Will she be fine until then?" The worry in his voice was clear.

"She is strong, and we will be there for her." Hotch nodded but Rossi's words did little to calm him.

Four days later they still didn't have a name, the whole team was frustrated and no closer to find what or where those women could be linked. Hotch and Luke had gone back to the crime scenes, Reid was going over the routines, and JJ and Tara were talking to the families. Matt and Rossi had been trying to go over their victims' statements again to see what they could find. But so far nothing. Matt closes the file in front of him and gets up to stretch.

"I need to take 5 minutes. We've been over those files so many times I don't know if the words are sinking in or if I'm just remembering what I've read so many times." Rossi nods as Matt leaves the room

"Yes, let's take 5." Rossi pushes his chair and heads into the window with his phone already in his ear. Her cellphone went straight to voicemail, he tried again and got the same results. He decides to call her office.

"Prentiss."

"Some has decided to stop answering her cellphone."

"Someone was asked to give her phone for analyzes…" Both of their silences said a lot about how much both of them were worried.

"Can they even do that? Couldn't they just get your calls and texts history?"

"They did, but apparently there is something else there they are interested in. And when I declined a separate one specifically for work, they made me sign a waiver that they can request it, if needed." Rossi immediately got worried, the investigation is going fast and to a very weird direction.

"That is awfully quick, they came to you today and requested it?" This seemed like much more than just a simple death investigation that happened on an active case.

"Yesterday. The director called me in his office and requested it himself, when I asked if Johnson's team was the one handling the investigation he said no, but that he couldn't give me more details." He could hear the tiredness in her voice. "How is the case?" Emily deflected and he let her.

"Not good, we've gone over everything twice and nothing matches, nothing substantial at least. We know they are blitz attacks, but we can't find where the victims crossed paths." He needs her to know that the team is missing her, that they are feeling the empty space she left. Just like they did when Hotch was gone. "And as you can imagine the whole team is tense."

"Time to go over the under the radar stuff now."

"We've looked at things they might have wanted to hide drug dealers, doctors, lovers… nothing."

"What about the things we don't actually know we are hiding?"

"What do you mean?"

"You know, coffee shop that we pay in cash and ends up being routine. Laundromat that maybe we get distracted… You know, things that end up fitting on our routines but aren't important enough that we mention." Rossi headed back inside the conference room and started writing on the whiteboard.

"Okay, what else? Maybe movie theater." He wrote it down.

"Pharmacies, women tend to browse and usually they have a favorite one. But you will have to go over your victims' styles to see all the places they could have gone without leaving a trace."

"That is already very helpful, places where they could blend in plain sight." He heard someone coming up behind him and he turns to see Hotch walk in. "Here let me put you in speaker and you can tell Hotch what you just told me." He says without a second thought already putting her on speaker.

"Is that Garcia?" Hotch says while Emily's reply can be heard by both of them.

"Rossi take me off speaker." The silence in the room becomes loud, and looking at Hotch, Rossi can see his face dropped for a second before its gone. He rushes to get her off speaker and puts the phone back in his ear. "You know you shouldn't be talking to me about this case, and you can't involve me on it. I already did more than I should by speaking to you while you are there, and you know it."

He knew that, if they had asked for her cellphone, it was a given that her office calls were also being monitored. Damn it.

"I know. I'm sorry." He can feel Hotch's gaze burning holes in his back.

"I need to go anyway. I'm packing up the office so Hotch can move in as soon as you guys are back."

"Is that necessary? Where are you going to stay?" Rossi knew that as soon as Hotch knew about this, things would become even more awkward than they already were between those two.

"I'm basically filling paperwork and pushing paper around, Rossi. Nothing says I can't do it from home… or maybe the bullpen? Garcia's office? At this point I don't think they care where I end up doing the fake import job, they gave me."

He knows he needs to hang up, but everything she mentioned is still worrying him and the fact that they can't catch a break makes him even more frustrated. But at least she isn't talking about leaving. "I'll let you go, and you can also use my office."

"I'll start warming up the seat." She jokes and hangs up.

"Well, that was direct." Hotch says to Rossi's back.

"No, Aaron it's not like that." He tries to explain, but how can he do that when she asked him not to say anything?

"Dave, you don't have to make up excuses. It's been perfectly clear since I've gotten out of the program."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Dave can't imagine what Hotch could possibly be talking about.

"When the assistant director came to let me know about Scratch's death, she gave me an update on how things were around here. And to be fair Dave, I don't blame Emily for her decision." Hotch stopped talking and exhaled as the door opened and Luke, Matt and JJ entered the room. "Update us on what you wrote down on the board."

Rossi was move confused then ever. Assistant director? Why would the FBI send an assistant director to get Hotch from witness program? He needed to sit down with both Hotch and Emily as soon as they got back.

They needed to fucking close this case.