A/N: Okay guys, to be honest I'm not sure whether to leave this as a one-shot, or to extend it on and develop it more. So, if you have any ideas for a follow up, I'm fairly open to ideas right now! Plus, let me know what you think about extending it/ leaving it!
Only other thing I can say, this is my first Hotch/Emily fic, so don't be mean! Happy reading!
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SSA Emily Prentiss dropped her head into her hands with a long sigh. She was in one of the black state issued SUV's, as her boss, SSAIC Aaron Hotchner, drove. As she closed her eyes and rubbed her face tiredly, he risked a glance over at the younger agent. The case was technically over, but they both knew that this case would haunt all of them for an awfully long time. The team was headed back to the St Mary police precinct, in a small town in Montana. They had to clear up the paperwork, then they could head home in the jet to try and get some much needed rest. Their Unsub had chosen the worst possible victims – children. Babies, actually, seeing as all sixteen of them had been under one year old. They had each been snatched from baby seats sitting in the front passenger seats of their fathers' cars while the cars were sitting stationary at traffic lights. Although each grab had been made in heavy traffic, the Unsub – who they now knew to be Amanda Jinks - had been careful to wear a head scarf, baggy, shapeless clothing, and she had even covered her visible skin in face paint so witnesses couldn't identify the skin color. Then, the babies had been taken to Bowman's lake in the Glacier National Park, where the 37 year old woman strangled them, and finally dropped them into the centre of the lake out of the side of a National Park service boat that was being used for an ecological survey of the lakes. Hotch could feel his grip on the wheel tightening as he thought about it. The stressor had come when her husband had lost control of the car, plunging into a river while her baby daughter had been in the front seat, and while he had survived, the baby had not been so lucky. She had used her job in the Park to get he children in without being noticed, and it was only after the team had been able to give a rudimentary profile on the Unsub's character to the press that they had struck gold in the shape of a tip on the phone line they had set up. Someone who had worked with Jinks had heard the sound of a crying baby, and had called it in. An underwater search was being carried out in the lake, in an attempt to recover the bodies, but so far only nine had turned up. Hotch knew that they would probably never find all of the bodies, not now Jinks was dead.
He glanced over at Emily again, watching as she leaned her head against the car window. She had been strong, the strongest of them all. With JJ being so far along in her pregnancy, the summer heat and the horrific case had coupled to make it a wracking eight days for the blond. She had struggled to keep it together, hating the tears that had seemed to come so easily to her. Even worse, Hotch suspected, were the nightmares. The thin papery walls of the dreary hotel they had been staying in had done very little to muffle the sounds of her screams each night. But, every time she began to crack, Emily had been at her side, whether literally, rocking her back to sleep each night and sleeping by her side, or figuratively, calming her on the phone when she was out in the field. After the first few days, Aaron had made a point of keeping the two women together in the precinct, knowing that however much he would have liked Emily at his side, JJ needed her more.
Morgan had struggled with anger issues – he couldn't understand why someone could hurt babies like that – but Emily had been going running with him at night, helping him calm down so he could get rest. She had even been caring for Reid, David and himself. Emily knew Reid, probably even more so than the rest of the team members, and they seemed to share a special bond. When they were together, she allowed Reid to relax, to be himself. She also acted as a wall that he could bounce ideas off of, letting him spout ideas of without comment, helping him sieve through the mass of knowledge to the little important details that helped the team inch forward through the case. It was something Aaron was pleased about, even if he found himself having to suppress a tiny tinge of jealousy when he thought about how close the two were. As for himself and Rossi, she had been using tiny gestures that spoke much louder than words. It was the early morning coffee that they had found waiting for them as they strode into their conference room in the precinct each morning. It was the brief touches on Aaron's arm, that helped ground him and get him focused. It was the sad smile sent their way that helped them to keep looking through the pictures of the missing children in a vain attempt to find the link between them. It was the sandwiches, made exactly how they liked them, that had mysteriously ended up on their desks each time they skipped lunch to follow a lead. The best thing that she had done for Aaron though, came after the fourteenth child had been reported missing. The two of them had just been visiting the parents of the boy, trying to gleam what little information they could, and were on their way back to the precinct, with Emily driving. Aaron had had his eyes closed, trying to force the image of his son's face out of his head. It was not the first time he had been assaulted by that image, and he knew it wouldn't be the last. However, he had been trying to use it to his advantage, to help him force his way to the key that would solve this horrendous case. He hadn't even realized that they had arrived at the precinct until she had timidly placed a hand on his arm, and quietly suggested that he call his son, have a chat with him. He had glanced up at her in surprise.
"Is it that obvious?" God, he hoped not. He hoped he hadn't showed his team just how weak he felt in this case. He looked at her, almost pleadingly.
"No, it's not. Although you might find that if you opened up to someone on the team. It could make things that little bit easier." She gave his arm a gentle squeeze, before slipping out of the car to tell the other's what they had got.
Glancing back at Emily as they pulled up outside the precinct, he couldn't stop the words from blurting out of his mouth.
"Could... do you think we could go for coffee after we get home... talk..." He trailed off, already mentally cursing himself. He lowered his head, mentally and physically shielding himself from her reply.
"Em, yeah. Sure, that sounds good." She couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe that out of them all, he had chosen to talk to her. Certainly, something inside her had hoped, despite her certainty that the hope was unfounded. She felt a smile slip accross her face, and, getting out of the car, she quipped quietly.
"In that case, it seems we have an even better reason to get packed up quickly." With a smile, she closed the door and headed into the station. As he watched her saunter off with what he could swear was a slightly more pronounced sway to her hips, he couldn't stop the warmth that spread through his body at the knowledge that somebody out there cared.
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