Emily woke slowly, warmly cocooned between blanket and comfortable-smelling fabric. Her mind flashed back to her time in Aaron’s house, even as her body protested sleeping on a much harder mattress. She wasn’t in his home, her body was screaming. It took her absolutely exhausted mind a few minutes to catch up.
Work.
Six missing girls.
Dead body of Stephanie Lite.
Her nightmare.
Aaron’s comforting arms.
Her eyes opened, her body surprisingly alert for the lack of sleep she’d gotten the previous night. Her sleep since she’d climbed into bed with Aaron “ against her better judgment; they were on a case after all “ had been extremely restful. There hadn’t been another nightmare, hadn’t been so much as a murky picture, though she was sure it wouldn’t last long. She didn’t want to get up in the slightest, but if she was careful, she could probably get up, get back to her room and set the alarm to wake him at his usual time. She felt guilty enough that he’d felt obligated to help her, to hold her while the fear abated. The least she could do was let him get the extra fifteen minutes of sleep he would have been sacrificing for the alarm.
The fact that it meant she didn’t have to face him and talk about the nightmares, was a pretty good reason to skip out early too.
He was on his back, his left arm curled around her body to hug her shoulders. His other arm was flung across his stomach. No problem there. Her leg was thrown over his and she knew it wouldn’t take much effort to slide it back to it’s mate so she could gain more leverage to slide herself out of his embrace. It didn’t take long. She’d had a few scares along the way, but when Aaron was comfortable, he slept like the dead.
Emily felt the guilt return as she stood beside the bed, looking down at him. She’d have to leave a note in addition to resetting the alarm. It took some digging but eventually she found the hotel’s pad of paper and a pen in the slew of folders on the table. She rolled her eyes affectionately at the notes he’d made before ripping off a fresh page and jotting down not only her apology, but her extreme gratitude in the best way she knew how. Then she left.
It was only when she was standing outside of the room she shared with JJ that she remembered she’d forgotten her key. With a sigh and the knowledge that she was in for some serious questions, she knocked on the door.
JJ looked confused, but only slightly rumpled when she opened the door not a moment later.
“I forgot my key,” Emily offered. “You’re up early.”
“I could say the same for you,” JJ answered as she stepped aside to let the brunette through. “Where did you go?”
Chronic blushing would give her away, Emily was almost sure of it, but it didn’t meant she couldn’t try for the lie. “Out.”
JJ simply raised an eyebrow.
“Can we not talk about it?”
The incredulity turned to concern. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes. No.” Emily sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Is this about Stephanie Lite?”
Emily shook her head. “Thirteen stab wounds.” It was part of what was haunting her. She’d known her first case back was going to be a rough one, even wondered if she’d see herself in the victims they were supposed to help, but she’d never expected it to be stabbing victims.
JJ watched her friend hug her midsection. She hadn’t seen Stephanie’s body, but she could imagine what it looked like. They’d seen enough brutal stabbing victims on the job that one almost blended into another these days. It was a callous way of looking at it, but sometimes it made it easier. “Nightmare?”
Emily knew she didn’t have to answer the question. JJ hadn’t seen the body, hadn’t had the opportunity to see how angry their unsub had been when he finally killed her. She sighed and sat down on the edge of ‘her’ bed. “It’s hard.”
“It’s always hard,” JJ pointed out, her arms crossed under her breasts. “I can understand that this one could be harder.”
Emily nodded. “It’s stupid.”
“Of course not,” JJ contradicted, sitting across from Emily on the bed she’d claimed. “We all have the nightmares, you know that.”
“Doesn’t mean I have to like it,” Emily responded with a small smile. “You want first shower?”
JJ shook her head. She had an inkling of where Emily had disappeared to and would bet her job that she’d been there more than an hour or two. “Go ahead.”
JJ sighed when Emily closed the bathroom door behind her and made her way down to the lobby for a quick check of the morning papers. Sure enough, splashed across the front page was the death of Stephanie Lite. That she could deal with. Her mind was already churning with the possibilities of what she could do. Any details would have to be kept top secret, but the fact that the media ran with the story wasn’t exactly a surprise. She jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder.
“Jesus, Morgan.”
The African American smiled. “A little wrapped up in the job?”
JJ smiled. “Something like that.”
He cocked his head to the side. He wanted to ask her what was up. Really, this case was the opposite of a media circus.
The blond didn’t even need him to ask. “Em forgot her key this morning?”
Derek’s eyebrow arched. “Seriously?”
“Since when does she get up before the alarm on a case? Since when do any of us get up before the alarm on a case.”
Derek narrowed his eyes. “You think she’s hiding something.”
“Nothing particularly scandalous,” JJ contradicted. And I wouldn’t exactly call a relationship that was long-coming scandalous. “Just something she wouldn’t want any of us to know.” Just yet.
“It’s not exactly a surprise.”
“No,” JJ agreed. Then she sighed. “We’re all on edge with her.”
“True.” There was no use in denying it. “And with good reason.”
“I don’t know,” she admitted, not looking at him. “She made a good point, she’s not Elle. She had someone to stay with while she recovered. She knows we need her.”
“Hey,” Derek said, gently knocking his elbow against hers. “It’s natural to worry. She’s like our sister, we all know that.” JJ took a deep breath and Derek grinned as he watched the blond’s game face wash over her striking features. “That’s a girl.”
JJ actually chuckled. “I’m off for my shower.”
Derek nodded toward the restaurant again. “I’ll grab a big table.”
JJ passed Reid coming out of the elevator as she was going in and smiled briefly. Reid watched the doors close in confusion before he saw Derek. “What was that about?”
“Em.”
Reid’s mouth opened in understanding. “Oh.”
Morrow was just stepping out of her room as Emily did and the latter felt a little guilty about the feeling of relief that washed over her. “Good morning.”
Morrow jumped. “Morning,” she said tentatively.
Emily was glad to see she was waiting. “Sleep okay?”
“As good as could be expected.”
Emily was not a fan of these guarded answers. “It’s hard.”
“BAU’s supposed to be hard.”
“Not what I meant.”
Morrow’s shoulders slumped.
“Look, I’m going to say this straight out. We’re a family. You’re either with us, or against us, and it is all for one and one for all. We protect our own, no matter what.” Emily wanted to make her see what she was getting herself into. If they had a mole in the team, there was no way they’d be able to do much of anything. They’d be too busy looking over their shoulders.
“Director Strauss put me here because she thought I was good.”
Emily raised an eyebrow. The girl was young, but not stupid. She couldn’t be to be part of their unit. “Me too.” She made the implication clear.
The widening of her eyes meant Morrow understood.
“It almost made me quit.” It was her parting shot and she sped up her pace. She could avoid the elevator and take the stairs. She had her purse with her pills so if the ache started she could pop one at the bottom and no one would be the wiser.
“Agent Prentiss?”
Emily stopped and turned. Morrow looked strong, but the twitching in her fingertips told her the opposite.
“Would you like to join me for breakfast?”
Emily smiled. It was a no brainer really, more because the team often had breakfast together, quiet time before the hectic day began. “JJ said Morgan was already down there. I’ll even buy you a cup of coffee.”
Aaron had been surprised to wake up alone. It sounded stupid, but when Emily had been having nightmares while on sick leave, he’d always been the first to wake. She didn’t know that, of course, mostly because he had a tendency to wake five minutes before his alarm in the morning. His internal alarm was good like that.
And he did wake up five minutes before his alarm went off, but as he rolled over to look at the time he realized that it was the five minutes before his usual wake up time, not the time he’d set the alarm for so he and Emily could get up with enough time for her to safely make her way back to her room. He pushed himself up and out of bed, going about his usual morning routine on autopilot. It wasn’t until he was double checking to make sure he had everything that the loud ringing sounded. Out of habit, he picked it up, not bothering to look at the caller.
“Hotchner.”
“Sir?”
“Garcia.”
“I found something, sir, on those girls.”
“Oh.”
“Um… Emily was looking for it. Uh…”
He heard her sigh.
“Sir, you know I respect you and so this won’t go any further than me, I swear, but…”
“Spit it out Garcia.”
“Sir, why are you answering Emily’s phone?”
Aaron’s eyes widened.
Crap.