It was because he thought his brother got more attention than he did. That was the reason behind Tim Sivill’s killing streak not only in Chicago and Seattle, but across the country. He was acting out his own sick fantasy by killing mothers, fathers and children. Then Leah had come along and survived. So his mission had changed, but only slightly. Kill the one who got away, so she didn’t have to suffer without a family. Still, witness protection had done its duty and he hadn’t been able to find her.
Until he’d, by fluke, shown up at Franklin High School. He and Don Hackney, the janitor they’d looked at, had been long standing friends. Unfortunately for Don, he was the one that had been the unfortunate recipient of a ‘murderer’ tag because they’d looked at him so closely in Chicago. The worst part was, however, that Don Hackney was getting harassed for Tim Sivill’s crimes. Nevertheless, Sivill bided his time, knowing that Leah’s friends had heard him call her by that name. He wanted to make sure it had pretty much been forgotten before he thought about striking out.
And Emily had stood listening to the whole thing. Listened while Hotch buried him in evidence from the latest crime scene. Listened while he told the sorry tale of how his brother was a famous professor and he was a simple gym coach, of how his parents doted on his brother. And the only thing she could think of while standing there was the sixteen-year-old girl asleep in the conference room under JJ’s watchful eye. Had he ever thought about what his actions had done to Leah? Had he ever stopped, just for a moment, to consider that maybe not every family was like that?
Even after Hotch and Derek had left the interrogation room, Emily watched Sivill through the mirror. He’d needed to kill, that was why he’d killed the girls in between. That wasn’t a sick fantasy, that was pure need, plain and simple. He’d fry and they all knew it. She didn’t look up as Hotch settled a hand on her shoulder.
“It’s over.”
“I know.”
“Then why are you still standing in here?”
Emily blew out a breath. “He didn’t think about it. He never stopped to wonder if maybe he was actually helping these kids. He chased Leah for eight years, Hotch.”
“And never laid a hand on her,” he reminded her. He had never seen the woman in front of him so emotional. He’d never thought she was fantastic. He’d watched her battle some pretty spectacular things while working the case, not only an unsub, but herself. As painful as it had been to watch, she’d come out of it now, all in one piece.
“I filed for some days off,” she told him flat out. “I want to make sure Leah’s going to be okay.”
“Are you going to move her back to Washington?”
Commotion drew her attention and both agents moved swiftly out the door. But it was simply Liz and David White reuniting with the daughter. Emily smiled.
“I’d thought about it,” she admitted. “I’ve been there for her for years, but...” She sighed gesturing to the way Liz was squeezing Leah, the way David’s arms were wrapped around them both. “Leah has a family here, a life here, a life she built in spite of Sivill. I can’t take that away from her. I won’t take that away from her.”
Hotch was silent. He hadn’t originally wanted to influence her either way, though he’d been of the opinion that it was hard enough to do their own jobs, let alone do their jobs and raise a teenager. Sure, Leah was almost fully grown and independent, but still.
“And I can’t raise a kid, Hotch,” she said, still watching Leah and the Whites. “The job is so hard and so demanding. I love it, and I’m not sure what I’d do if I wasn’t BAU, but it’s not really conducive to raising a family.”
“You’d find a way to balance both,” he told her honestly. He believed it too. If Emily ever got the chance to be a mother, he was sure she’d be superb at it. His hand went absently to her lower back, pressing against her shirt, stroking gently
“It wouldn’t be fair to Leah, to take her away from all this, and it wouldn’t be fair to Liz and David. She’s been their daughter for eight years when they couldn’t have children of their own. She’s part of their lives and I can still be part of hers without taking her away from all of this.”
He was proud of such a decision. It took a lot of courage to let a loved one go, especially a loved one Emily was so obviously attached to. But she was right. She’d been a part of Leah’s life for eight years without even seeing the girl. She could probably do it better now that they were allowed constant contact. He’d hate to see what their phone bills were about to be. “When are you going to tell Leah?”
“This week,” she replied. “I’ve taken the three days leave and I’ll be back into work on Monday.”
He was surprised the application had gone through that fast, but then again, she’d probably done it through Garcia. “I’ll pick you up from the airport.” It was the least he could do.
“That would be nice,” she agreed, almost nervously.
His arm moved to her hip as she turned to face him and he left it there. “It’s no problem.”
“It’s always nice to have someone there to greet you when you come home,” she said eyes on the top button of his collar.
There were so many responses he could have given her, so many he wanted to give her, but they weren’t in the right place for that. He was going to give her time to settle things here before he addressed what was going on between them. Her kiss still lingered in the back of his mind and had haunted his dreams in the short time he’d managed to sleep the night before. Except the kiss he imagined was quite as chaste.
His thumb stroked in circles on her hip and she could feel warmth spreading through her. His touch had that effect as of late and it made her almost shiver in anticipation. “Especially someone who cares about you.”
And there it was, right out in the open. Emily shivered at the pleasure that swept through her blood stream. “Especially when it’s someone you care about.”
Their moment was unwittingly interrupted by none other than Elizabeth White. “Agent Prentiss, I... I don’t know what to say. Is it really over?”
“It’s really over,” Hotch reassured the woman, knowing this had to be hard enough for Emily. There was always something that went missing when an agent solved a case that haunted them. Hotch wasn’t sure if Leah had become the reason Emily did her job or not, but he suspected that the personal days were as much for her balance as Leah’s.
“I can’t thank you enough for what you’ve done, for what you did,” Liz gushed, tears in her eyes. “We were so afraid when Leah confirmed it was the same person. And being in protective custody, not knowing where she was...”
“Mom, I was fine,” Leah said in exasperation, coming up beside her mother. Though she stood next to the woman, she reached out and took Emily’s hand.
“Until you got a hero complex and flew to Seattle on your own,” Emily reprimanded. “Then no one was sure if you were safe. How did you pay for that flight, anyway?”
Leah looked suitably guilty. “Emergency credit card.”
Liz almost laughed in relief. “Honey. I think that constituted an emergency.”
Emily and Hotch were packing up the last of the BAU’s things later that afternoon when Leah stepped nervously into the room. Emily smiled at her, waving her in, noticing Hotch speed up out of the corner of her eye. He made quick work of the files he was packing and, with a gentle brush to her back, something that seemed to be happening more and more often, especially in the last few hours, left.
“So that’s it?” Leah asked.
“For the case,” Emily agreed. “Looks like it’s just my box.”
“Oh.”
There was silence for a few minutes as Emily made a show of checking the files she was putting away.
“Mom and Daddy are glad to be back. I told them to head home without me.”
“How are you getting home?”
“Agent Spring’s going to drive me to see you guys off, then he’ll drive me home.”
“You’ve got a real friend in Bob, you know,” Emily said, giving up all pretences and turning to face the young woman.
Leah smiled slightly. “He’s been really good to us.”
Silence again.
“Are you going home now?”
The vulnerability was what clued Emily in to the question being the crux of the matter. “Not yet,” she said.
“Can’t you stay just for- What?”
“I’m not going yet, honey. I’m going to stay in Seattle a few days, make sure everything can go back to normal.”
Leah jumped up. “You mean it?” she asked,
“Of course I mean it,” Emily laughed. “I’m here until Sunday, but then I have to go home.”
Leah gave a high-pitched squeal and threw herself into Emily’s arms. “Mom says I don’t have to go back to school until Friday so we have two whole days together!”
Emily laughed.