JJ was definitely shocked when she and Garcia pulled into the driveway Emily had directed them to. They’d been here before, heck, JJ had been the one to convince Hotch to let them use his house for a team barbeque after a gruelling 3 months of cases.
“Why is Em staying with Hotch?” Garcia asked as she knocked.
JJ didn’t get a chance to reply before Emily pulled open the door and greeted them with a smile. “Give me a minute,” she said, leaving the door open for them to step in if they wanted.
When she returned, Garcia couldn’t hold in her curiosity. “You’re staying here?”
“It was either this or my mother’s.”
“Hotch volunteered? And when did you get out of the hospital?”
“Yesterday,” Emily answered. “And he didn’t give me much of a choice. Neither did Dr Hann.”
“He just came in on the day you were being released?” Garcia asked gleefully.
Emily looked between the two women she considered her closest friends.
“He came by the hospital every day,” she said slowly.
“Every day?” Garcia asked with a gasp.
Emily didn’t understand. “Yeah…”
“I hate that it took you getting stabbed for him to realize you were right under his nose,” Garcia lamented as she climbed into the front seat of JJ’s car.
“I beg your pardon?” Emily blinked. “Right under his nose?”
“Pen’s theory is that we all pair off. Me and Spence, her and Morgan…” JJ explained.
“Hotch and I,” Emily finished.
“Exactly,” Garcia agreed. “And now that he’s seen you in the hospital he’ll wake up and realize you’re right there.”
“Garcia…”
“Not worth it,” JJ interrupted in a sing-song voice.
Emily shut her mouth.
“Why the 911?” JJ asked changing the subject.
Emily sighed. “There’s one thing that’s been drilled into my head in the last 24 hours it’s that Hotch and I have very different tastes in music and movies.”
JJ and Garcia laughed. “No kidding.”
“I was looking for music to listen to while I cleaned up yesterday and there was nothing that jumped out at me. I just need some of my own sanity again.”
“Then by all means,” Garcia said as JJ pulled out of Hotch’s driveway. “Let’s go get you that sanity.”
Two and a half hours later, after stopping by Emily’s apartment and a small café, the three women stepped off the elevator on the BAU floor laughing together. Morgan and Reid looked up from their desks in surprise.
“Em!” Morgan exclaimed hugging her gently. “How are you feeling?”
“Pretty good,” Emily answered, setting the bag she was carrying on her desk.
“What brings you here? You’re not cleared for duty are you?” Morgan asked suspiciously.
“No way, and if Hotch has his way I’ll be out for another month or two,” Emily responded. “But one step at a time. I’m just glad to be out of the hospital.”
“You’re staying with someone then?” Reid asked.
The brunette nodded, but didn’t elaborate. “Is Hotch in?”
“You know him,” Morgan replied. “He’s always in.”
Emily took to the stairs, knocking gently and waiting for his ‘enter’ to open the door.
Hotch was stunned and a little angry to see her in the doorway to his office. “What are you doing here? You should be at home…”
“Finish that sentence and I’ll glue my ass to my desk chair and stay until you leave,” she threatened closing the door. “I just need keys to the house.”
“Why?”
“Because I locked the door when I left,” she answered, carefully lowering herself to one of the chairs in front of his desk. It hadn’t been too difficult to keep Garcia and JJ from realizing that the drugs were wearing off, but she definitely needed to sit down now that they were.
“Left?” he was genuinely confused.
“I had to grab a few things from my apartment,’ Emily said, voice calm and soothing. “Then JJ, Garcia and I went out for lunch.”
“Then you came here-“
“Because I need a key to get back in the house. No stress, I promise.”
Part of his mind registered the terrifying concept that she could read his reactions like that and he vaguely realized she was the only one who could. He reached into his top drawer and pulled out the keys, setting them in her outstretched hand.
“I’ll get JJ to drop them off,” she promised.
Meanwhile, Garcia was filling Morgan in on the rather informative lunch she and JJ had shared with the recovering brunette.
“Any one of us would have offered her room,” Morgan said, reclining in his chair.
“Exactly!” Garcia exclaimed.
“Hotch has a guest room,” Reid argued. “If she stayed with one of us she’d have to sleep on the couch. It makes the most logical sense.”
“He visited her every day in the hospital,” JJ volunteered, leaning against Emily’s desk. “When she called me yesterday I asked if she needed to be picked up and if she needed a place to stay but she said she was good to go.”
Morgan turned to Garcia. “Why the excitement?”
“Why did he go every day? He didn’t send her home, he wasn’t responsible for any part of the attack…”
“Why didn’t he tell you he’d gone to pick Emily up from the hospital when you asked yesterday?” Reid puzzled.
“I do not have horrible taste in music,” Hotch protested.
Emily grinned, happy to have successfully diverted his attention from her leaving the house. “Okay, you have old taste in music,” she retorted smartly. “But I don’t see where there’s a line.”
Hotch looked affronted. “I’m not old.”
“I’m not saying you are, I’m saying your music is.” Her hand rubbed gently over her stomach and she could feel herself getting drowsy. She’d popped her pill once she was seated comfortably.
“That’s not nice.” His eyes watched her carefully.
Emily stuck out her tongue as she pulled herself out of her chair. “Until I’m back here, I can be as mean as I want.”
He chuckled as she left with a little more of a swagger in her still slightly limping step. One thing was for sure, living with her until she recovered was certainly going to be interesting.
Emily looked supremely satisfied as she pulled Hotch’s office door closed behind her. The complete cessation of the conversation between her teammates made her smile widen.
“So?” JJ asked.
Emily rolled her eyes. “Like he’d let me stay until he was ready to head home.” She jangled the keys. “Do you mind driving me back?”