Upon hearing a knock at the door, all conversation within the Prentiss house comes to a halt. Lia makes eye contact with her mother and rushes to greet Hotch. Emily wants to watch the situation at the door, but she quickly changes her mind when she realizes all eyes in the room are on her and not on the man entering her home. It's at times like this when she regrets working with people who are trained to read microexpressions.
Meanwhile, Lia opens the door to see an extremely nervous Aaron Hotchner. When he sees her excited, albeit tentative, expression, he visibly relaxes. He remembers why he's here. For her. She asked him to be there, so he showed up. It's as simple as that. Actually, they both know it isn't as simple as that, but it's easier to think that way for the time being. "Hey! Glad you could make it! Perfect timing, we were just about to start dinner. Come on, I'll give you a tour of the place." He still appears hesitant to leave his comfortable spot in the foyer, but he follows nonetheless. Internally, his mind is running through a constant loop of "You're doing this for Lia. You're not going to let her down again," to drown out all of the reasons he doesn't want to be in this particular house. He nods and follows Lia to the living room as she points out directions to the rest of the rooms he may need. She doesn't want to go too far into detail about the contents of the house because she can easily guess where his mind is based on his expression.
As they enter the living room, Hotch's gaze immediately falls on Emily. When his eyes meet hers, he can't seem to look away. He had seen her in the hospital, but this was the first time he really took the time to look at her. He was so frustrated with all the overwhelming information that night that he hadn't taken a moment to actually process that he was in contact with the love of his life again. As they maintained eye contact, he realized how little time he had felt had passed. Obviously, he knew how much time had passed. He had a sixteen-year-old daughter that served as a daily reminder of that. But, he felt the same things he did when he saw her the day she showed up in his office saying that she was the new addition to his team. She was stunning. He knew that then, and he knew that now. The only difference is there's a lot more anger and sadness in her gaze now. He felt physical pain when he remembered that he was probably the one to put it there. There was a time when he would've killed anyone who hurt her. He remembered how he felt when he heard her getting beat up by Benjamin Cyrus. He felt bile rise in his throat just thinking about the name of the man that caused her so much physical pain.
As they begin to run damage control and make sure they have everyone out of the burning building, Hotch is looking for only one face. His brisk pace speeds to a slight jog as he grows desperate to make sure Emily's okay. His eyes quickly skim through the faces of terrified people grasping onto their loved ones. He has to know that she's okay. When he finally spots her hugging Reid, he immediately stops. She hasn't seen him yet, but he has to take a moment to make sure she's really there. He takes a deep breath that feels like it's the first one he's taken since Morgan called him into the bullpen. As he gathers his thoughts and starts to walk toward her, she meets his gaze.
The past few days had been hell for her. She knew she did the right thing, and she wouldn't have changed any decision she made. As she stands there, talking to Reid, she can't help but think about the face she really wants to see. From the moment she entered Aaron Hotchner's office that first day, she knew she had met someone that was going to change her life. Not even in a crazy, big, I-can't-believe-this-is-happening type of way, but in an everyday this-man-may-be-the-death-of-me type of way. They had been getting closer as the months went on. They'd sit together on the plane, team up in the field, she'd stay late to help him with paperwork, and she would babysit Jack when he occasionally needed it. They were the closest thing the other had to a best friend. So, when she made it out of the situation alive, he was the second person she needed to see. After finishing her moment with Reid, she meets Hotch's gaze. Immediately, she lets out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding and moves toward Hotch.
Without saying a word, Prentiss takes Hotch's hand and leads him away from the chaos. When they reach a point of privacy, she turns to look at him again. She opens her mouth to say something, but no words come out. Before she processes what's coming, she starts to cry. He hesitates briefly, but ultimately wins whatever internal battle he was facing and wraps his arms around her in a loose embrace. They stand like that for a long moment, not worried about anything other than each other. They separate just enough to look at each other, and Emily decides to break the silence.
"I'm okay. I promise. It just caught up to me for a second." In direct contradiction with her words, she tightens her grip on her friend.
"Emily, I heard you. We were listening when you were— When he was— Well, we were listening. It's understandable if you aren't okay right now. You don't have to pretend. It's just you and me, okay?" His voice is soothing to her, but she can hear the strain behind his words.
"You were— Okay. Maybe I'm not okay. But I will be." At first, she's shocked that her team heard what she was going through, but she almost immediately concedes.
"I wanted to go in. You have to know that I was this close to saying 'To hell with the protocol' and going in. I'm sure everyone on our team would have gladly beat Cyrus ten times harder than he was— Well, I know I would have. I just… I'm glad you're okay, Prentiss. Or, I'm glad that you will be." He can't pretend to understand what she's going through, but he knows he has to be there for her while she experiences it.
They have an unspoken understanding that no more words are necessary, so they stand in comfortable silence for another few moments. For the time being, it's enough for them to just support each other.
At some point during the unnerving eye contact, the rest of the people in the living room vacated. Garcia and Morgan were reluctant to leave the two without supervision, just in case they reacted poorly to the other's presence, but with one look from Rossi, they followed J.J. and Reid out of the room. Lia was last to exit with a tentative smile as she let herself imagine the possible outcomes of her parents' reconciliation.
Both Emily and Aaron opened their mouths several times to speak, but they couldn't seem to do anything other than stare at each other in silence. Eventually, Hotch cracked and let out a breath. "I'm sorry." Letting the meek apology hang in the air, he moved to sit opposite Emily on the couch. Taking a deep breath to gather his courage, he moved to take her hand but thought better of it before he made contact. "There are so many things to apologize for, Emily. I wouldn't even know where to begin." She felt a few stray tears leak out of her eyes as she tried to gather the strength to be angry with him.
"Well, it's a little too late for apologies, isn't it?" It pained her to say it, but part of her wanted to hurt him a little. Even if she'd never admit it, part of her wanted him to feel a fraction of the pain he'd put her through. She knew that wasn't fair, and she wasn't proud of it, but it was true. Seeing his face fall, she sighed. "If it makes you feel better, we can discuss everything after Lia goes to bed. In the meantime, our daughter and our closest friends are standing in the next room waiting for us to get over our little fight so we can start dinner. That's my priority right now." She didn't give him a chance to respond before she got up and moved toward the kitchen. When she was gone, he hung his head into his hands and took a few deep breaths before standing.
—
Dinner ran as smoothly as possible with Garcia and J.J. carrying most of the conversation at times. They all worked to keep the conversation as light as possible until Rossi noted how nice it was to have the whole team together again. There were hushed words of agreement, but the conversation was brought to a crashing halt. Lia asked Morgan how Clooney was doing, and he proudly told a funny story about the dog. As they all laughed together, Rossi took a deep breath of relief that he hadn't ruined the remainder of the evening.
At around 8, everyone started to leave. Garcia and J.J. wanted to stay longer than Hotch so they could talk to Emily about him, but they decided maybe it wasn't such a good idea when they saw the heated glances between the two. They could tell there was more to be said between Emily and Aaron, so they decided it was probably a good time to make themselves scarce. They dragged the men out the door as well, just for good measure.
After everyone left, Lia could feel the tension in the air as the three of them sat in the living room. "Well, Dad, thanks so much for coming! I'm really glad you were able to be here. I'm going to head to bed because social gatherings are more exhausting than I remember, but I'll call you tomorrow, okay?" At his smile and nod, she went to give him a hug, hugged Emily as well, and retired to her bedroom.
Emily and Aaron were avoiding eye contact with each other as they were engulfed in the silence. They both knew they needed to talk, but neither had enough nerve to start the conversation. Emily decided it was best to jump right in. "Why didn't you come back?" She didn't need to say more than that for him to know what she meant. The hard part was knowing how to answer without lying and without her throwing him out on the spot.
"I can't begin to tell you how so—"
"I didn't ask for an apology, I asked why you did it." The coldness in her voice sent shivers down his spine. He didn't know if he was prepared to have this conversation anymore.
"In all honesty? For Jack. When I heard Foyet was gone, I was in a very different place in my life than I thought I'd be. It took years. I had built a life for Jack, and I didn't want to have to uproot him again. I also thought you'd be there to tell me that you had found him, that he was gone, but when you weren't, I thought you had moved on too. I couldn't tell Jack we'd have to leave his school and his friends for something I was so unsure of. He was happy, Emily. I was back with Haley in some sense, he made friends, and he got comfortable in his new school. I couldn't take that away from him even if I wanted to." He could see the pain in her eyes as she understood. Regardless of the reason, their daughter still grew up without a father. Emily waited for him, and he never returned. "But, regardless, I will regret that decision until the day I die. I should have been here. Not just for Lia, but for you. I promised you that I would come back, and I should've kept that promise. But, I genuinely believed that you had moved on. I'm not making excuses, just explaining my thought process."
"I was there."
"What do you mean?"
"I was there. That day that you found out about Foyet's death. I saw you three sitting down for dinner. I saw you kiss her… I saw how happy you were. I decided you had made your decision before I gave you a chance to make it. I didn't want you to come home out of obligation and end up resenting Lia or me for forcing you to come back. That's why I 'wasn't there' that day. I asked J.J. to drive away and let the rest of the team handle it." Her voice broke during the last sentence, but she tried to remain strong as she outlined the facts of years prior.
"Emily, I'm so sorry," he saw her rush to open her mouth in protest, but he shut her up by grabbing her hand, "I'm sorry for what you saw, and I'm sorry for the lack of communication on my part. It wasn't fair, and I know you don't want to hear apologies, but I need you to hear me apologize just this once. I don't know if it matters, but I wasn't happy with Haley. I tried to make it work for Jack, and it was for no other reason. I still… I just, I'm sorry." The possibilities of what he was going to say were hanging in the air as Emily tightened her grip on his hand.
She was letting the tears run down her face as they sat there holding hands. "It's okay." A few more moments of comfortable silence passed before either of them spoke again. "We have one hell of a daughter, don't we?" Emily chuckled at Hotch's random statement but immediately agreed.
"She's fantastic. She has been since day one. Very low-maintenance and completely fearless. I remember one day, Lia was about four, and, rather than being scared of the monsters under the bed, she was convinced she would profile them and catch them just like all of her aunts and uncles do. Even at that age, she wasn't scared of anything. She idolized all of us since the second she could stand. She used to say that she wanted to be a superhero just like one of us. The name she'd use would change depending on who bought her the most toys that week, but it was always the same sentiment." As she got lost in her memories, Hotch began to tear up. He saw how in love with their daughter Emily was. This was the happiest he had seen Emily since he showed back up. It was difficult for him to process that they had a daughter together. A whole person. A part of each of them together in one human being.
"I hope you know that I think you did an amazing job with her. I'm so proud of you both. I should've been here, but I can tell you're an amazing mother even in the short time I've been here. You should've seen how broken she was when she showed up at my office that day. She kept repeating that you forgot to call one night, which was apparently out of character. Compared to the Lia I'm getting to know, the person I met was an empty shell. You are a huge part of who she is. And she's a phenomenal young woman. I look at her and all I see is you, Emily. She's perfect. I hate that I missed so much time, but I want to be a part of her life. I have to be a part of her life. I've wasted so much time, Emily." They both felt much lighter now that they had broken the ice between them. They felt like they were going to be okay for the first time in a really long time. They spent the rest of the evening holding hands on the couch while talking about everything they could. Emily shared stories from Lia's childhood, and Hotch told her about Jack and his time in protective custody. He didn't end up leaving the Prentiss household until they saw sunlight. They parted with promises to spend more time together… to discuss Lia, of course. No other reason.