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“I really think you should at least be checked out by a doctor.” Hotch said instead of hello when Emily opened her hotel room door.
“Stop it, I'm fine. I didn’t notice you letting the EMTs poke all over you. You took some licks as well.”
“I didn’t touch a poison dress.” He walked into the room
“Did someone just say poison? Emily, hello?”
She put the phone up to her ear. “Don’t listen to anything he says. I'm fine.”
“Are you sure?” Stephen asked. “Did you come in contact with poison?”
“It was just a small amount; traces really. It’s not enough for you to worry about. I'm fine, we were having a normal conversation and nothing seemed off.”
“I didn’t know you were on the phone.” Hotch said. “Should I…?”
“You should sit down.” Emily replied.
“Why?” Stephen asked. “What are you about to tell me?”
“What?” she was back on the phone.
“You told me to sit down.”
“Oh no, I wasn’t talking to you.” Emily sighed. “I hate having two conversations at once. We’re all getting confused here. Stephen, I'm fine and I don’t need to see a doctor. We’re flying out of Oregon tomorrow. I’ll call when I've safely landed.”
“I'm going to want to put my arms around you.” he said.
“I'm not going to make that difficult for you.”
Emily went to the mini-fridge, grabbed two beers and gave one to her boss. Hotch thanked her.
“You won't make it difficult if I come to Quantico and do it in front of all of your teammates?” Stephen asked.
The playfulness in his voice despite the late hour and the recent worry about her health made Emily smile. It really would've been nice if they were together tonight. This was the first time she had someone waiting at her home for her. It was wonderful and agonizing all in the same breath. But they would be together soon.
“You can embarrass me there if you want; it’s been done before. But I bet your State Department homies would get a bigger kick out of someone embarrassing you.”
“I guess you're going to have to try and see if your theory holds water. Goodnight, Dulcinea, I love you.”
“I love you too.”
Hotch looked up when he heard that. Emily loved someone? He could only assume she was talking to Stephen Thorne, who he’d heard about third hand from Penelope. It wasn’t really his place to ask her a bunch of questions.
She’d been good with not asking too much about Beth. It wasn’t as if Hotch couldn’t talk to her but they were still keeping personal things personal. Their relationship had evolved over the years but it was rare to discuss intimate relationships, unless under duress or joking around. It was nice to have something away from all of this.
“Sweet dreams.” Emily said into the phone.
“Say something that will make them sweeter.” Stephen replied.
Emily said something in French and then said goodnight again. She looked at Hotch as she opened her beer.
“I don’t speak French.” He said.
“Good because if you did you'd probably be blushing.”
“Really?”
“Really, really.” She nodded and sat on the bed.
“Are you sure you're alright?” Hotch asked.
“I'm fine. I felt a little dizzy earlier but it was better after a hot shower and something to eat. That was some case, huh?”
“It was unique and we've seen a lot of unique cases over the years.”
“The sins of the mother befall the children.” Emily said.
“The sins of the father will do the same. There’s still hope for Lara Heathridge.”
“Do you really think so? She’s spent her entire life mired in the destructive fantasy lives of the two people closest to her. Just because she seems more normal than they were doesn’t make her normal. Not that being normal, whatever the hell that is, is so awesome.”
“Maybe we should talk about something positive.” Hotch replied sipping his beer.
“You can go first. This is your party.”
“I can never tell, well I can almost never tell, when you're being Emily and when you're being Prentiss.”
“That’s your idea of positive?” Emily raised an eyebrow.
“I was just going to say that I hear Emily when you're talking to Stephen.”
“So you know about Stephen too?”
“All Penelope said to me was that you were seeing a wonderful guy who looked like someone or other from Ugly Betty. I don’t know who that person is.”
“Its not important.” Emily shook her head. “How's Beth?”
If Stephen and her life were going to be fair game he better know Beth and his were too. But Emily didn’t want him to talk to her just because she pushed and pressed. Friends talked. And everyone said she and Hotch were friends.
She and Hotch said they were friends. They would have these moments, off duty, when she really thought they might be. Those moments didn’t seem to last very long. It was as if Hotch had short term memory issues and Emily’s problem was she couldn’t forget anything.
“She's fine.” He said.
“I think she's lovely, Hotch.”
“Yes,” he nodded. “She is.”
“Are you smitten?” Emily asked, nudging his shoulder with hers.
“Smitten might be the wrong word. I just…I like her and being with someone again has been very refreshing. Being with her is refreshing.”
“You deserve that kind of happiness. All of us deserve a little happiness.”
“Does Stephen make you happy?”
“Yes. He's a good guy and I've enjoyed the time we've spent together.”
“That’s a Prentiss answer.” Hotch said.
“Shut up.” She laughed and then punched his arm.
“Ow Emily, be gentle.”
“Oh shit,” now she was rubbing his arm. “I forget about that. I'm so sorry.”
“It’s OK.”
They were quiet and relaxed after that, finishing their beers and opening another. Sometimes it was hard to come down after a case. Every agent had their own way; many involved breaking the fraternization rule. It had a couple of times for Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss as well. Tonight they were doing something different.
“Is there something wrong?” Emily asked.
“What? No.” He shook his head.
“You said you can't tell when I'm being Emily and when I'm being Prentiss. Well I can't tell when you're being Hotch and when you're being Hotch.”
“That doesn’t make sense.”
“It does to me.”
“I'm glad to hear that.” he grinned.
“I appreciate you checking on me, as a friend. But if you have concerns as a Unit Chief please just approach me professionally. I don’t need to be stroked into opening up only to have it used against me at another time.”
“I would never do that to you.” Hotch looked at her. “Do you think I would do that to you? I'm not trying to check up on you in that way. You came into close contact tonight with a poison that killed multiple people. I know you're strong and I know you hide things that you perceive that others will perceive as weak. Don’t hide symptoms you might have from me.”
“I don’t have any symptoms.” Emily said and meant it. “Thank you for your concern though. Overprotective Hotch is kinda sweet and adorable.”
“I'm not being overprotective. I'm looking out for my team; for my family.”
“Does Beth really know what we do? I mean, the Crisco story aside how much of this do you share with her?”
“We don’t talk about my work. Reluctantly, she knows I'm in the FBI. She’s a modern woman so she may have used the internet to look me up. But this job is not a sharing job. I don’t want the darkness swallowing anymore of the light. I've been there, done that, and I don’t want to go back.”
“So feeling sometimes as if you have multiple personalities is normal?” Emily asked.
“In the beginning you do feel fractured, but then it becomes the norm. I wouldn’t want to be Hotch at home just as I'm sure you wouldn’t want to be Prentiss.”
“Well, sometimes Stephen likes to play this game…”
“I really hope that’s the cheeky Emily sense of humor kicking in.” Hotch said.
“It was.” she nodded.
“Good.” He managed a small smile. “I just wanted to check and see that you were OK.”
“I'm OK.”
“And you don’t mind if I ask you from time to time.”
“You told me to come to you if I wasn’t. I will, you don’t have to ask me all the time.”
“I worry about you, Emily.” He actually managed to look at her when he said it. “You’ve been through hell and back. I know a little of that experience.”
“You know a lot of it as a matter of fact.” She replied.
“There were times, when you were there for me, and I didn’t accept your help. I wanted to Emily but…”
“Stop.” Emily held up her hand. “Lets not and say we did, OK? That’s the past and it can stay there. You think I don’t know you sometimes have a tendency to be a hypocrite? I've known you for a while now Hotch. That doesn’t mean you're not a good guy and I trust you to have my back at all times when we’re out there. Even those times I want to punch you I still know that.”
“You punched me earlier.” Hotch said.
“Get out of my room.” she replied laughing. “We probably both need to get some sleep. It was a long night and we’ve got a long flight ahead of us in the morning.”
“Goodnight, Emily.” Hotch stood up from the bed. He grabbed their beer bottles and put them in the recycling can. He walked to the door, Emily was close behind. “I’ll see you in the morning. Thanks for talking to me.”
“I never mind talking to you, Hotch. Goodnight.”
This time when he smiled his dimples showed. And then he was gone. Emily closed her door, putting on the night latch. There was no point in trying to call Stephen back. The three hour time difference meant that it was seriously nighttime in DC.
She sighed and lay on the bed. Emily felt too wired to sleep. Sure there was nothing on TV, she turned it on anyway. Maybe it would bore her to sleep. Her cell phone ringing on the nightstand surprised her. The Tina Turner ring tone made Emily answer quicker than normal.
“Are you alright?” she asked.
“I'm alright. I just wanted to talk. We were interrupted earlier and that’s OK, but I wanted to talk.” Stephen said.
“I'm sorry about that. Hotch feels the need to check up on me sometimes and make sure I'm really OK even though I tell him I'm OK a hundred times. I don’t know if it’s endearing or infuriating. Shouldn’t you be asleep, Mister?”
“I have the luxury of sleeping in tomorrow. I've always been a night owl and you don’t have to be sorry. Your work is important and there are times when it has to come before my neediness. I just…”
“You want to be important too.” Emily finished his thought.
“I just want to help you come down.” Stephen replied. “I could tell from your tone earlier that you needed that.”
“It was a tough case.” Emily said.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” she shook her head. “It’s over now and I have to absorb it and move on. That’s the best way to do this job.”
“Well, what do you want to talk about?”
“Mmm,” she smiled as she relaxed against the pillows and closed her eyes. “I want you to take me away, Stephen. Take me wherever you want to go.”
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had a train ride.” He said. “We could get a sleep car on the train from London to Bratislava. Its 600 beautiful miles ahead; just you and I.”
“Oh that sounds amazing. Those sleep cars can be tight quarters though.”
“Love, I think the space will be just right for two. Let my voice, let my touch rock you to sleep.”
“Keep talking.” Emily sighed. “I definitely want you to keep touching…you have a PhD in touch.”
She relaxed and just let Stephen love her. He was far away but tonight it didn’t feel like a million miles. Emily could feel his arms around her, his lips on her skin, and the sound of the train rolling along the track. Maybe someday soon they would get to take that time off and just be together. Tonight this would be as good as they could get.
Emily would make sure to return the favor as soon as she could. It was always better when the lovin was mutual. She wasn’t lying earlier when she told Hotch that she was OK. The thing was that Emily wanted to be better than OK. As Stephen’s lush, soft voice came across the phone lines she knew she was well on her way.
***