Hotch didn't know if he'd won the conversation with Prentiss or lost it. She'd yanked the box from his hands, grabbed her bag and keys and basically marched him straight out the hotel room door. His mind just couldn't get around it.

Emily Prentiss thought she was pregnant, and if he'd profiled her mannerisms correctly than she was. Wow. Emily Prentiss pregnant. That was really going to screw with his team. Much more than JJ's pregnancy ever had.

As he walked beside her, he tried to keep one eye on her expressions. He knew for a fact that to see the real Emily Prentiss one had to look quickly, and secretly, as she hid her deep beneath that cool façade that had slipped ever so slightly in recent days.

It was then he realized the truth—she was terrified. Her eyes were wide, soft, slightly panicked, slightly damp. She was chewing her lip, and occasionally one hand would run across her mouth and she's proceed to chew on a nail. He'd noticed early on that Prentiss was a nail biter in her weakest of weak moments. Her right hand had been chewed ragged.

He remembered the moment Hailey had told him they were expecting Jack. How he'd been both thrilled and petrified. And half convinced it was the riskiest thing he'd ever done. And he and Hailey had been together for over a decade at that point.

Prentiss was alone. He thought. When would she have had time to date someone? They all pulled sixty, seventy, even eighty hour weeks, traveled four days out of five. Rarely saw family, friends, or even the other teams in their own division. So when would she have had time to meet someone?

Unless it was someone she already knew. Like someone she worked with, for example. No—she wasn't the type. Any more than he himself was. And the only men he could recall her socializing with on a frequent basis was him and the team. And he would have known if that had been the case.

So unless she'd met some random guy in a bar, it was someone she'd known outside of the BAU. Someone she knew and trusted. Someone like that John Cooley. She'd loved him, he'd seen that in how she'd hovered over him. How she'd touched him. How he'd touched her.

Hotch had to admit something about the guy bothered him. He had seemed to be so demanding of Emily even though he'd rarely seen the two of them together. It was obvious Emily was the stronger one of their group. Obvious she protected him in many ways.

And even though Hotch fully appreciated the contributions made by the various female members of his team he wasn't blind to his own faults. Hotch was, deep-down, a bit chauvinistic. Men should protect women. Period. It was why he rarely assigned Emily and JJ to work together on the streets. They were just flat out more vulnerable than the male members of the team. It just was. Hotch had no intention of changing that.

Except this would change things, he realized. She couldn't go out into the field. Well, JJ had, but JJ was younger. Emily's pregnancy would be more complicated just because of her age. And Emily was never comfortable being pampered, protected, or coddled. Or the center of attention. She'd be much worse pregnant that JJ ever had. She'd be fiercely independent, daring, stubborn. She'd give them all heart-attacks. Hotch fought the urge to groan.

And then there would be a replacement agent while she was out on maternity leave with the baby. Hotch hated to admit it, but JJ was technically easier to replace than Emily. Profilers were a bit harder to come by than media liaisons. Still, JJ had the skills, maybe he could get her to go ahead and take the profiler exams, then they could get a second media liaison for the few months JJ would need to cover for Emily.

But that was still quite a few months down the road. They had to get through the next little while before he needed to be thinking that far ahead. They merged with the rest of the team, and everyone must have sensed that now wouldn't have been a good time to question Emily as they all remained relatively silent on the short trip to the vehicles. Dave took one set of keys and both blondes. Derek and Reid took the second set. That left Hotch and Emily in the final vehicle. He waited until she'd fastened herself in tightly before starting the vehicle before he spoke. "Why don't you sit back and close your eyes for a bit, it's a thirty minute drive to the precinct. I'll go easy on the curves and hills."

"Thank you. I'd appreciate it." Her words were husky, soft. Her eyes closed before he'd even left the parking lot. "I'm sorry I snapped at you, Hotch. It was rude and mean."

And Hailey had said so much worse to him during her pregnancy. Hotch thought, as he glanced at the thin hand she had covering her stomach. "It's ok. I know you didn't mean it. Even if there might have been a few words of truth in there somewhere."

Her dark eyes popped open, worried and remorseful. "No..Hotch…I…"

"Relax." Hotch smiled at her minutely, dropping one hand to cover hers—the one not resting on her stomach. "I know our start was a bit rocky. Entirely my own fault. But I'm here. If you need anything. I wanted to tell you that earlier, back when your friend…but I know it didn't seem like I was doing anything to help you. I certainly didn't feel like I did much good."

"You did. You honestly did." Hotch almost smiled at the earnest tone in her slightly husky voice. The way she leaned in closer to him was sweet as well. He'd seen her be sweet before, with Reid, JJ, Garcia, Dave—even Morgan. She honestly cared about her friends. "I knew what position I had put you in, Hotch, I did. And what you did, getting him out of this country—well, no one else could have done that. And we found John, we found him, and that's all that matters, isn't it?"

At the man's name her hand tightened on her stomach confirming what Hotch had already suspected.

He had a strong suspicion, and from what he'd seen of the man, Hotch doubted the journalist would be much help to Emily in the long months ahead. Cooley was the father. And since Hotch had seen him on the news covering the world from the middle of Pakistan, Hotch knew he wasn't around right now, either. And probably wouldn't be for a long, long time.

Dammit, Emily Prentiss was pregnant. Pregnant and all alone. Except for the team…and him.