Derek had watched the scene unfold in front of him, a knot tightening his gut. His own heart had started beating faster as Hotch’s voice leveled and froze, as the young officer tensed in terror. Derek could almost see the flight-or-fight instinct kicking in.
“Your only job was to watch for the son-of-a-bitch,” Hotch snarled, a sound more terrifying than any yelling Derek had ever heard.
“I know, sir.”
“And now another boy is missing!”
Derek physically took a step back at the cold fury that was unleashed in a few simple words. He glanced over to Reid and Morrow, both of them frozen as stock still as the woman in front of their supervisor. Even Strauss looked terrify, though Derek had a feeling she almost felt an obligation to step in.
Then he was moving without the conscious agreement of his brain, putting himself between the two parties. “Hotch.” Cold black stared at him, though Derek could virtually feel the struggle behind his supervisor’s eyes. “Back off.”
It was as if Derek’s words had unleashed the dam. Morrow stepped forward to gently grasp the officer’s arm, pulling her away from Hotch, almost at the same time the letter turned on his heel and stalked off towards an empty office at the back of the floor. Derek braced himself for a loud slam, but it never came.
“Wow,” Reid breathed.
Derek sighed. “Yeah.”
“Where’s Emily when you need her.”
Derek almost winced at the last comment, but pulled out his cell phone. He definitely didn’t want to be the one stepping into the lion’s den if Hotch couldn’t get control of himself.
“Hey Derek.”
“Where are you?”
“Almost back. Pen was right and so was Morrow. Peter Isle lost his seven-year-old son-“
“Faster.” He knew the tone would set her off.
“What happened?”
“Just get here, Em.” He heard her sigh.
“How bad?”
“Bad enough.”
“Strauss?”
“I don’t know. She hasn’t said anything.”
“Derek…”
“Just get here.”
Emily was on a mission. From the moment Derek had told her she needed to get back as fast as she could, she’d known it was Aaron. She’d seen him starting to collapse, watched as his temper shortened and hoped that it would hold out just a little bit longer. She hadn’t been that lucky. Her eyes searched out Derek’s dark head.
No one stepped in her way, seeming to sense that the woman was on a mission. That didn’t mean she wasn’t being observant. It was her job to watch. She saw the shaky officer sitting with Morrow. The woman looked up at Emily and she had her answer clearer than day in the residual guilt, confusion and something akin to terror around the edges of her eyes.
“Em.”
Emily turned to face Derek, allowing all of the questions she wanted to ask to spread across her face.
“We’ve got another body.”
She quirked an eyebrow at him. “I thought we had officers watching the mall.”
Derek nodded. “We did and do. The guy managed to dump the body anyway.” He paused. “And took another kid.”
And the world made sense again. She cursed under her breath, running her hand through the hair she hadn’t bothered to do anything with. “We’ll have to alter the profile.”
Compartmentalize. That was Emily Prentiss to a tee. “Preferential, but opportunistic,” Derek agreed.
“Where’s Aaron?” Her voice was extremely soft.
He waved vaguely to the back. “Cooling down.”
“God,” Emily said swearing again. “In front of Strauss?”
“Yeah.”
The brunette sighed. She wasn’t exactly used to this level of damage control and mentally berated herself for letting it get as bad as it seemed to be. Then, she mentally released a string of every swear word she knew in all of her languages at the woman who had thrown them so completely off kilter.
Morrow chose that moment to approach. “She’ll be fine.”
Derek arched an eyebrow at the comment. “What do you mean by ‘fine’?” he asked warily.
“It’s a child case,” Morrow said with a weary shrug. “We all get a little more passionate.”
“Let’s get into the conference room,” Derek suggested, then turned to Emily. “JJ can tell us about your interview.”
They split, Emily towards the back, Morrow and Derek to the conference room. It was time to get Hotch back on track.
Aaron stared out of the fourth floor window, willing his cold temper back into the box it had escaped from. His hands were clenching and unclenching against the windowsill as he valiantly fought the part of him he hated the most. He hadn’t meant to yell at the poor woman in the slightest. If it had been one of his teammates that had broken the news, it was debatable as to whether he would have exploded like he had.
He hadn’t heard the door open, then close again. His mind was too focused on holding himself together, on not ripping the office apart like he wanted to do. He needed some way to release some of the anger, frustration and even more so, despair that was pumping through his blood.
“No harm, no fowl.”
He didn’t turn at her voice. He should have known she would be the one to come pull him out of his funk. “How did we miss him?”
“He knows these malls,” Emily reminded him quietly from the door. “He was probably watching, gauging the best time to dump the body.”
That didn’t really make him feel better. “It means we were probably minutes away.”
“What if? Not like you at all.” Sympathy wasn’t what he wanted and she knew it. She had the perfect way to deflect his attention. “Melinda Isle hasn’t seen her husband in three days.”
“And she didn’t file a missing persons?” It had slipped his mind that Emily had been out in the field, interviewing based on a list Garcia had generated. They needed to find the next boy alive.
“Apparently, since her six-year-old son’s tragic death six months ago,” Emily began, a smug smile tilting the corners of her mouth, “he’s been absent more and more often. She filed the first three or four times, then discovered he’d bought a ranch in the oh-so-gorgeous Nashville countryside.”
Either her enthusiasm was infectious, he was in dire need of a break in the case or he could actually see where she was going. “How far out?”
“Far enough that the neighbours wouldn’t know or suspect anything,” Emily replied. “Melinda Isle says her husband’s barely home for dinner every two or three days, then he’s gone again.”
“That gives him time with the boys, isolation.”
“That’s not even the best part.”
He had a hard time believing it could get any better than the case she’d essentially just presented to him on a silver platter. He raised an eyebrow in anticipation.
“Peter Isle worked as a security guard in all four malls where the boys went missing.”
The talk of the case, the focus on the new breakthrough, had restored his equilibrium. The fact that it came from the woman who didn’t care whether or not he could hold onto his control and temper meant and proved he was now part of the family he’d once watched from afar. He reached out and squeezed her hand, the only affection he’d even risk showing.
“Let’s go get our unsub,” she said with a predatory smile.
He couldn’t agree more.
Erin had to admit, the Aaron Hotchner that entered the conference room was a completely different one from the one that had left a half an hour before. Agent Jareau had been filling them in on the rather fruitful interview with Melinda Isle when both seasoned agents had returned, Hotchner looking much calmer. Whatever Prentiss had said must have done the trick.
There were other things Erin had noticed about the duo since starting on the case. It wasn’t surprising to see agents bond, but the bond that seemed to exist between Prentiss and Hotchner seemed to run deeper. She’d watched them finish each other’s thoughts and sentences without regard to anything or anyone around them. She’d watched them have their own little conversations in a glance, watched her dial his ex-wife one afternoon and kick her boss out to talk to his son.
Prentiss understood Hotchner in a way Erin hadn’t seen before. It was obvious from the way they handled each other that they spent a lot of time together and while it could often be a result of the job, Hotchner didn’t seem to have the same relationship with the rest of his team. It led Erin to one conclusion and one conclusion only, even as she watched them suit up for the upcoming capture of Peter Isle.
There had to be something more between them.
The question for her now was how that was going to affect what she was planning to do. Or, in this case, what she wasn’t planning to do. The fraternization policy within the FBI was strict, especially on subordinate-supervisor relationships. There had been too much damage done by relationships that ripped teams apart for the Bureau to take any chances.
On the other hand, Hotchner had no higher aspirations. Prentiss had seemed perfectly content to stick to the BAU too. In fact, since her resignation “ and Erin wouldn’t admit how perfectly timed it was to Hotchner’s potential transfer “ Prentiss had seemed much more content. Since she’d been back from her injury almost two years ago, she seemed to settle in much better. It didn’t seem like she had aspirations to move any time soon.
Erin knew she had a few choices. She could split them up without acknowledging the relationship and allow them to carry on, bitter at her as they may end up being. Hotchner had made it very clear that his team was his family and he wouldn’t take well to them being divided. On the other hand, Erin could wait a few months until the posting for D Team chief came out. If Prentiss applied, well, there was a good chance she would be the best candidate for the job anyway. It would get her out of Hotchner’s command while keeping her sharp mind within the BAU.
Or, Erin could leave them be. It was hard enough for the agents working in the unit to have a life outside of the Bureau and though she didn’t know firsthand, seeing some of these cases clued her in to how difficult it was for the BAU agents to leave their work at the office. It was a difficult thing to do when the work followed you home as the gruesome cases were likely to do. If Hotchner found solace in another agent, even if it was under his own command, who was Erin to step on that? Their job was hard enough and Erin knew Hotchner was the noble type. If it wasn’t for Prentiss’ prior knowledge of the job they did, the stress they endured and the priority it was in their lives, he probably would be hiding it all from her anyway. And if it didn’t come into the office…
Who was she to split up a team that had made the BAU’s reputation almost single handedly?
Penelope more than willingly closed down the crime scene photos of the children wrapped in blankets. She dropped her head forward, chin down, eyes closed. She knew the team would be landing soon, if they hadn’t already and she wouldn’t put it past her girls to simply head home. Even Derek, calling to tell her they were on their way, sounded utterly exhausted and completely spent.
For the first time since the pregnancy test had come out positive, Penelope found herself wishing she’d just told Derek immediately. These were the cases where it was nice to have someone to lean on and if Derek sounded that dejected, she could only imagine how Emily and JJ felt. She wasn’t going to burden them anymore. At least not this time.
“Hey Baby Girl.”
And this was the number one reason she wished she’d let the cat out of the bag. She had been starting to feel incredibly guilty, especially as they began to mend the burned bridges. “Hey Sugar.”
Derek’s footsteps were heavy as he walked into the room, resting his hands on her shoulders. “We got him.”
“So you said on the phone,” Penelope replied with a touch of a smile.
“Let’s go get some ice cream. The chocolate mocha kind you love.”
The thought made her sick and gave her one heck of an opening. She barely gave herself time to think twice about what she was about to say. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Why not?” Derek asked in confusion. Chocolate had always been Penelope’s thing, the same way apples were Emily’s.
Penelope closed her eyes, willing her courage back to her. She’d started this and she’d be damned if she wasn’t going to just tell him, once and for all. “I’m six months pregnant. Chocolate makes me sick.”
“What?”
She knew he wasn’t talking about the chocolate. Her eyes opened to lock on his shocked face. “I’m pregnant.”