His family were the first they encountered. Emily breathed a sigh of relief. Other families, she could handle. Her mother, on the other hand, would inevitably be disapproving if only because she was his subordinate. Emily had a feeling Elizabeth Prentiss wouldn’t mind so much. Aaron was a Hotchner after all, and they had considerable political pull. She really did hate politics.
“Mother, Father,” Aaron greeted as he and Emily made their way over. He was hoping to get this particular meeting over with. “Sean.”
“Hey,” Sean said with a nod, taking a sip of whatever he had in his tumbler.
Aaron would guess scotch. “Emily, meet my parents, Gabrielle and Liam Hotchner. And Sean, my brother. Mother, Father, Emily Prentiss.”
Sean immediately held out his hand. “Can’t say I’ve heard much about you, but a pleasure to meet you nonetheless.”
Emily almost grinned. She could tell this was the last place Sean wanted to be. “Likewise.”
“Prentiss? As in the Ambassador’s daughter?” Mrs Hotchner said almost gleefully.
“Yes ma’am,” Emily agreed, playing demure. She seemed almost ecstatic that her son was here with the daughter of the ambassador.
“Well it’s a pleasure to meet you! Elizabeth talks about you constantly.”
Emily had a seriously hard time believing that. Unless it was to prove that she’d raised her daughter with the right morals and values of their family’s political beliefs. She shook Mr. Hotchner’s hand. “All good things I hope.”
Out came the society laugh. “Naturally.”
“Mr and Mrs Hotchner, pleasure to see you here.”
Emily turned, smiling at her brother. Three years younger and six inches taller than Emily, Christopher Prentiss was his sister’s closest confident, other than JJ and Penelope. He was her personal therapist and best friend, a side “effect of their constantly migrating family. There were many times Chris and Emily had been left to play by themselves because their mother needed the maternal image that came with seeing her children. They had systems built upon system on how to deal with these kinds of situations.
“Christopher, how are you?” Mr Hotchner greeted enthusiastically, shaking the dark-haired man’s hand firmly.
“As good as to be expected,” Chris replied. “Would you mind if I stole my sister?” Then he looked at how close Emily and Aaron were standing and raised an eyebrow at his sister.
Emily knew she was busted. “You know Aaron Hotchner, don’t you Chris?” she said sweetly.
“We’ve met once or twice,” Chris affirmed. “You two are here together?”
Mrs Hotchner almost squealed. “It is fantastic, isn’t it? Haley was a sweet girl, but this is a much better match.”
Aaron almost fell over himself at those words. Haley had always gotten along with his mother. He’d always thought his mother adored Haley, even if she was a little condescending to Haley’s lack of society knowledge. She’d flip her lid if she knew her son was the boss of the ambassador’s daughter.
“Then I’ll steal them both, if it’s alright? Emily and I haven’t had a chance to catch up in ages.”
“Why of course, go on. Liam and Aaron can talk shop later.”
Emily had the feeling when it came to her sons, Mrs Hotchner had more of a say in their lives than their father. “I’m sure we’ll have the opportunity to talk later,” she said graciously.
Emily took Aaron’s hand as they walked off, flashing smiles back at the family behind them. Part of Emily felt terrible for Sean who was left with his parents, but she figured it wouldn’t be long before some woman took advantage of the opportunity.
“Are you insane?” Chris asked, a smile plastered on his face. “No offence, Aaron, but seriously?”
“Chris,” Emily warned.
“He’s your boss,” Chris hissed through clenched teeth. “At the FBI.”
“I know,” she replied, squeezing Aaron’s hand and rolling her eyes at her brother. “I do work there.”
“This is your boss, you thickhead!”
“It wasn’t a whim.” Aaron’s calm voice stopped the bickering siblings as Chris’ attention shifted.
The other man blinked. “I’m sorry?”
Aaron’s hand went around Emily’s back, prepared to defend their developing relationship. “Emily and I didn’t make this decision lightly.”
“Chris, look,” Emily picked up. “Neither of us were going into this without thinking about it all. We lived together for five months before this became everything. This was not a whim, this was not just something we thought ‘maybe this will work’. I’m not that insane.”
Chris looked between them, at the way Emily turned into Aaron’s side. He wasn’t a behaviouralist, but he knew his sister. It certainly looked like Emily was seriously about her relationship with Aaron. “How long?”
“Officially?” Emily asked as she thought about it. “Four months.”
Chris sighed. “Come on, Em.”
She shot Aaron an apologetic look as she pulled away from him. He nodded, making his way to the crowd. She looked Chris dead in the eye. “I didn’t make this decision lightly. I know what’s at stake if something happens. But I’d rather get the chance at this and have it fail then to watch the opportunity to go by. I like him, Chris, I really do. And I know him, he’s in this for real too. This isn’t something that we thought would work so we thought we’d try it.”
“So long as you’re sure. What happens if it ends?”
Emily blushed. “I don’t see it ending any time soon,” she promised.
Chris hugged Emily tight. “I’m glad,” he promised. “You look happy.”
“It’s stupid,” she said. “I shouldn’t be as happy as I feel.”
“And work?” He had to admit, he felt so much better knowing this wasn’t a decision Emily had made lightly. Not that he didn’t trust his sister, but Emily had always said that there was no way she’d ever get involved with anyone she worked with let alone her boss.
Emily shrugged. “We make it work. Most of the team knows, which is helpful. We don’t have to hide, per se.”
“But you’re careful? You worked too hard to get into that unit to have it turn around and bite you.”
“We are careful,” Emily replied, starting to get exasperated. “Chris, I’m old enough to make these decisions by myself.”
He could tell his sister was getting annoyed at his line of questioning, but he was just trying to make sure that everything was exactly what she wanted. He glanced around, leaning close. “So you’re banging your boss?”
Emily looked at him, straight-faced. “Not yet.”
“Yet?”
Emily gave a sly smile. “Yet.”
“Emily, darling, why didn’t you find me immediately?”
Emily looked up from her conversation with old family friends to meet her mother’s eyes. She plastered a smile on her face as she exchanged air kisses with the woman. “I’m sorry, Mother, you looked busy.”
“Nonsense,” Elizabeth Prentiss waved off. “Now come, I have someone I want you to meet.”
Emily looked over at Aaron. They both knew what that meant. “Mother, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not? You’re here by yourself, Martin is here by himself.”
Emily tried not to wince. ‘Martin’? Really? “I brought a date.”
Elizabeth looked completely shocked. “You did?”
“You remember Aaron Hotchner, don’t you?”
The ambassador’s fingernails dug into her daughter’s arm. “Of course I do. Can I have a word?”
Emily knew she was in for a lecture at the least. It wasn’t a surprise. Elizabeth Prentiss would always put reputation before happiness. It didn’t matter that he was a Hotchner, didn’t matter that he and his family had their own substantial political pull and, as Emily had discovered, his family seemed to be happy with the connection. Leave it to her mother to see something completely different.
“Your supervisor Emily? I taught you better?”
The younger Prentiss woman resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “No one knows he’s my unit chief,” Emily pointed out.
“You are putting yourself in a dangerous position,” Elizabeth scolded. “Think of what would happen to this family if that were to come out.”
“No one knows,” Emily repeated. She loved her mother like any daughter did, but sometimes she wished that the ambassador would think of something outside of politics. “And it’s not like we’re making a big deal of it.”
“So you’re in a relationship,” Elizabeth Prentiss asked, crossing her arms over her chest.
“Yes,” Emily replied strongly.
“Bunny!”
Emily had never been so happy to hear her childhood nickname. No one called her that, except her brother when he was teasing and the one family member she loved, adored and admired to the end of the earth. “Daddy!”
Jonathan Prentiss wrapped his daughter in a tight hug. He’d been watching from a few steps away, well aware that the combination of his very adult daughter and her mother could get volatile fast. From the look on his wife’s face, he had come in at the perfect moment. “How have you been? You haven’t been by the office in a while.”
“My job keeps me busy,” she answered with a smile.
“And your side? Everything healed alright?”
Emily nodded. Her father had tried to make it to the hospital while she was injured, but between her mother, her brother’s firm and her father’s own job, he really hadn’t gotten the chance. They had talked on the phone and he’d known his baby girl had been staying with her boss. “All healed,” she promised.
“So you’re back to work?”
“We finished a case about a week and a half ago. That makes my fourth case since being back at work,” Emily answered, leading his father away from his mother and towards where Aaron was still standing, talking to the group her mother had pulled her from.
“And you still like it?” Jonathan asked.
“I still love it,” she replied, smiling up at him. “I missed it.”
Jonathan raised his eyebrows. “You missed all the blood and gore?” he inquired softly.
Emily laughed. “No, I can’t say I missed that,” she admitted. “But I did miss the people and I did miss the challenge.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re back to it.”
“I am. And there’s someone I want you to meet. Well, meet again.”
“Again?”
“Mmhmm,” Emily replied with a smile. “Dad, meet Aaron Hotchner.”
Jonathan knew the last name. “The prosecutor?”
Emily almost breathed out a sigh of relief.
Aaron took Jonathan’s hand in a strong grip. “I was sir.”
“Please, Jonathan.” Then he turned to Emily. “This is why your mother was hissing at you?”
Emily blushed. “Not exactly,” she replied. “Um… Aaron works with the FBI now.”
Jonathan was a smart man and he nodded. His daughter worked with the man she’d brought as a date. Suddenly he could see Elizabeth’s problem, even if he didn’t agree with it. The way Emily was reacting to the entire situation told Jonathan that his baby girl was a little more than simply crushing on the man.
“And he worked Mother’s security detail when I was starting Yale,” the younger Prentiss rushed out.
That made even more sense. That put Aaron at a solid ten years older than Emily, minimum. He only had four years on his wife. “I see.”
But he wouldn’t do anything. His daughter’s happiness came above his wife’s opinions and he was pretty sure he could get Elizabeth to see the light. Plus, he trusted his daughter and her decisions. He always had. Emily was a smart girl, a girl that had learned the ropes of politics at an age that he never would have wanted her to learn them. He had regrets about his life and one of them, for the longest time, had been that he wasn’t there for his little girl
Emily was chewing on her lip, even as she grasped Aaron’s hand. She didn’t much care what her mother thought, but she did care about what her father’s opinion was. She’d be crushed if he didn’t like the idea. That didn’t mean that she’d end things with Aaron “ she was old enough to make decisions without her parents and starting to date Aaron had been one decision she had yet to regret “ but it would make things difficult.
“Tell me, son, how is your father doing?”
“Well, sir,” Aaron answered, taking reassurance from Emily’s grip. He had that clichéd feeling that as long as they were together they could do anything.
“I take it Peter Marshall took over the firm?”
Aaron nodded his agreement, feeling a little bit more at ease with the situation. Jonathan Prentiss had always been a jovial man, though he gave off the air of family such that Aaron was sure should Emily’s heart ever be broken because of him, no one would be able to find his body.
Good thing he didn’t have too many plans to break Emily’s heart.