A/N: Again I am sorry that it took me so long to update. Blame it on real life... Anyway – here is the last chapter. Just in time before the next season begins. I'm so excited! When I started to write the story, I didn't intend to end it this way. It was planned as a story about Hotch's revenge and Emily wasn't supposed to actually take part. But as it (always) happens when I write a story – things progress differently all of a sudden. So here is what happens when the characters have their way with me. :)

I am sooo happy that the number of reviews for the last chapter went up a little. So let me thank you for taking the time to leave a review: Black Tulip, greengirl82, Mydnyte Houre, Nena Cero, miaa29, radioactive460, HPforever-after, Rugbygirrl, HGRHfan35.

Disclaimer: I own some things but definitely not Criminal Minds. CBS does. I just borrow the characters from time to time and promise to give them back unharmed.

Three days from now...

Clyde Easter and Aaron Hotchner shake hands. It's a friendly gesture, although they are anything but friends. Colleagues in the broadest sense, rivals in a way. And now, after what happened, two men whose fates are intertwined forever because of an event that has to remain their secret.

They are at an airport again – only that on this occasion they will board different planes. This is where they part company and most likely their paths will never cross another time.

"Thank you," Hotch's words are honest. He wouldn't have been able to get through all this without Easter's help.

"You're welcome," Clyde smiles, always the polite gentleman, even if he's the wolf in sheep's clothing. "Take care," he adds with a nod towards the person standing behind Hotch, albeit with a safe distance, giving the two men a moment in private. He might be a wolf in sheep's clothing, but this wolf has a heart.

"I'll see to that," Hotch responds genuinely. He never has been so confident of anything in his whole life.

Easter grabs his bag and walks away. One man among a crowd and soon Hotch loses sight of him.

What really matters, though, is the person standing behind him. Hotch turns around.

Present day...

It took Clyde Easter not more than one phone call to find out Emily Prentiss' current undercover alias and address. Another reminder for Aaron Hotchner that he might be an alpha male and the unit chief of the BAU, but that his options in this special situation are fairly limited. Probably Garcia would also have been able to trace Prentiss' whereabouts. It would have taken more time though and most likely wouldn't have gone unnoticed, bearing the risk that Emily would have gotten wind of it and left. It's a different world Easter lives in and Hotch has accepted that Clyde is the master of undercover operations and mysteries as well as he is the master of solving crimes and profiling. Even if he has to admit that he utterly failed to profile Emily Prentiss right. The one member of his team who lives in both worlds. He should have read between the lines, should have realized that there had been more to the sudden change in her behavior than mood swings, that her past had been catching up with her so fast that the only way out had been the one way that had led her away from her team, in isolation and – eventually – into hiding. But he had been so used to rely on her that the idea something like that could happen or that she couldn't be there anymore never occurred to him. Even profilers are human and make mistakes.

They are somewhere in Europe. It doesn't matter where they are; they won't stay long anyway. She doesn't know that they are here. They could have called and announced their arrival, but Easter recommended not to do that. Perhaps she would have believed them that it's over. On the other hand there was the residual risk that she would have disappeared for good. Clyde doesn't speak his mind aloud, going into hiding on your own, though, changes some people more than others. Some people become so suspicious of everything that they drop off the radar completely, don't trust anybody anymore.

The road is busy. There is a weekly market nearby. They originally intended to go to her apartment and avoid the public. But when Easter received a call shortly before they arrived that she had left her apartment, they changed their plans. Obviously Clyde had made sure that Prentiss is under surveillance until they meet her when he had found out her whereabouts.

Hotch feels his pulse speed up. He is anxious and eager to see her at the same time and he can't even imagine how it will be for her, because unlike him she didn't have time to prepare in the least.

It's a classical trap. Easter goes ahead and Hotch falls back so that she is somewhere between them, somewhere among the crowd. Clyde detects her first. She doesn't look much different. Her hair is a little shorter with a tinge of red and she has lost some weight, but it's her deliberately altered posture that really does the trick and prevents Hotch from recognizing her at first sight. At a second glance he recognizes her, though, and for the split of a second his stomach cramps when the memories of listening to the recording and killing Doyle flood through him. He has to remind himself that this is not the time to be distracted by the unsolved emotional turmoil that defines their relationship.

He watches her slide through the crowd with a seeming effortlessness and then... freeze. Easter has approached her, intentionally blown his cover, and blocks her way now. He says something to her Hotch isn't able to hear because of the variety of sounds around him. However when Clyde puts out his hand to touch Emily, she recoils and attempts an escape. Perhaps Easter was right and she has become so distrustful that she can't even trust someone she knows, someone who would never approach her in the open if it meant any harm for her or innocent bystanders. Prentiss is a trained agent and therefore avoids the classical escape any amateur would choose by instinct. So she doesn't just turn around and run. Instead she makes a move at one side and since they chose the place to confront her on purpose, there is a block of houses to her right so that the only escape route is to go left. What she does and what causes her to almost bump into her former superior. Hotch couldn't see her face when she saw Clyde Easter. He is pretty sure, though, that the surprise and shock he could have witnessed moments ago was nothing compared to what he sees now.

This time it's her who puts out her hand and touches his chest reluctantly as if he is an apparition and will disappear again any moment. Her eyes jump back and forth, scanning the crowd for possible threats, while she tries to understand what it means that he is here. Then she rivets on her hand that is still on his chest and she pulls it back, suddenly reminded of their old roles as superior and agent and aware that such an almost intimate gesture isn't appropriate. All the more she is surprised when he holds her hand in place and covers it with his own.

"It's over, Emily," Hotch says and notices the flicker of emotion in her eyes when he says her name, her real name, not one of the many aliases she had to use during the last months. "He's dead. Doyle's dead."

This time Prentiss pulls back her hand so fast that he releases it, as if she burned herself. She takes a step back and he realizes that she is afraid to believe it, can't imagine what it must mean to her to finally hear these words after all this time. It's over.

"How can you be sure," she asks hesitantly and Hotch can tell by the way her body is tensed up that she still is ready to run, uncertain whether the threat really is gone, uncertain whether she got him right, apprehending that he will say something any moment that will destroy what little hope she allows herself to feel.

Clyde has reached them by now and heard her question.

"I saw Doyle die and we both saw his dead body," he answers it. No lie, but neither the truth. Hotch never told Easter why he changed his mind, why he eventually decided that killing Doyle was a necessary task. And frankly Clyde doesn't care. He knows, though, that Hotch still is a man of principles, even if he broke his own rules, that he didn't pull the trigger easily. He witnessed Hotch's emotional struggle with his own eyes and respects him even more. So this is his farewell gift. Prentiss doesn't have to know, if Hotch doesn't want her to. And Hotch doesn't have to decide want he wants her to know right now.

Emily's posture relaxes visibly. She allows herself to believe it. If Hotch saw the dead body, it's true and it's really over. Ian Doyle is dead. Then a devastating thought crosses her mind.

"What about his men?" she asks. "Won't they take revenge?"

"No," Hotch assures her. "Doyle has no minions anymore. His empire fell apart."

Emily closes her eyes briefly, her limbs slackening when she eventually internalizes what they told her. Hotch is about to grab her shoulders to steady her when Clyde puts his arm around her. This time she doesn't recoil and Hotch envies how Clyde is able to touch her casually, their laid-back physical closeness obviously a remainder of their time together. Then Hotch reminds himself that this is something he doesn't have with any of his team members because that's just not the way he is.

When Emily opens her eyes again, there is the slightest smile on her face. "You have a three-day stubble," she states.

Hotch didn't see the need to shave. His regular rituals have somehow become dispensable in a world that consists of threats and breaking rules. For a man like him who is so disciplined and controlled, this is a major change though and Prentiss knows him well enough to realize that.

"Are you ok?" she asks sympathetically and Clyde gives her a short hug and then pulls back his arm that he put around her. His job is done. She has overcome the surprise and shock. She will neither faint nor run away and – most important of all – she believes them, hasn't turned into a paranoid version of herself that can't trust anybody ever again. He found her and now it's Hotch's turn to bring her home.

Hotch almost has to laugh. Prentiss almost died and had to go into hiding alone and still she asks whether he is ok. Perhaps he didn't profile her wrong at all. Perhaps he knows her inside out as he thought he did before all this happened. To ask something like this is just so like the woman he knew.

"I'm fine," he says. And then, as if he has to clarify something, he adds after a brief pause, "Now, I'm fine."

He doesn't know whether she caught the emphasis that now he is fine and – in case she did – whether she took it in the way he meant it. Most likely not. How could she? But now that he is here with her, everything is all right. For more than one reason. There is no more threat to her or the team. And even if he always knew that he wanted her back on the team whenever there would be the chance, he never realized how much it actually matters to him to be near her, to be able to reach out and touch her, to make sure that they both are fine.

Three days from now...

They watch Clyde Easter disappear among the crowd. Emily had a moment alone with him to say goodbye before Hotch did. There had been times when she had been suspicious of him, but he proved her wrong and she is thankful for that.

What they don't know is that at the same time Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss are waiting at the airport to board their plane, in another country two men in a dark alley declare their mission closed. Mr. X and Mr. Y did their job, are satisfied with the result and won't have to meet again. Ian Doyle is dead and that's all that counts. That Clyde Easter and Aaron Hotchner managed to find Emily Prentiss was an irrelevant sideshow.

Eventually there is the loudspeaker announcement that their plane is about to take off. Just before they board, Hotch calls JJ. Of course he called her before. She was the only one he contacted while he was absent, even if he didn't tell her anything, just let her know in between that he was all right and that there was no need to worry. And of course she suspected that his absence had something to do with Doyle or Emily, but she never asked. By now she knows, and that's all she knows, that Doyle is dead and that Prentiss is coming back. It was her task to inform the team.

So there's no actual need for calling JJ again. Yet Hotch wants to confirm what they are doing, as if reality could slip away otherwise, even if it is redundant, even if he states the obvious.

"The plane will depart on schedule," he tells her when JJ picks up the phone.

This is not what he really wants to say, but he needed a reason to call. And then he tells her what's really on his mind, what his call really is about. His gaze rests on Emily who stands in the line with him, holding her ticket and her passport.

"We're coming home," Hotch says.

Sometime in the future...

They are still adjusting. Some team members took the news that Emily Prentiss is not dead, well let's say, more positive than others, but they are all, of course, glad that she's alive and that she's back.

It's silent on the jet. It was a gruesome case and Hotch doesn't seem to be the only one who appreciates the comfortable calm. Morgan listens to the music, JJ and Reid have fallen asleep and Emily and Rossi talk quietly.

Hotch's thoughts drift. Prentiss doesn't know about the recording and he intends to leave it that way. She also doesn't know that he was the one who killed Doyle. He is not sure whether he will tell her one day. Perhaps he will, even if it will be difficult to explain his motives without telling her about the recording. He closes his eyes, listening to Emily's voice in the background. He can't make out the single words, but her tone of voice soothes him.

He went through hell listening to the recording and killing a man contrary to his belief. Hotch is neither proud of what he did nor does he want to share the burden. He can't deny, though, that what happened, changed him. As the saying goes – on a journey of revenge, dig two graves. Hotch wouldn't go so far as to say that his old self lies dead and buried in the desert next to Doyle's body. But although the man he is these days might not be that different on the surface from the man he was before, inside he has experienced that in a world where you are constantly confronted with evil, sometimes the lines blur. He isn't looking for a justification, let alone absolution; he just collects the facts, aware that he has to deal with them for the rest of his life.

Then again maybe the hard times eventually have brought forth something good at least. Without them Hotch wouldn't have been forced to come to terms with himself and his feelings. He knows that Emily has noticed the slight changes in his behavior towards her – subtle changes, but changes nonetheless. He also knows that she is uncertain what to do with that. And there are days Hotch feels the same.

There is a hesitant touch, a warm hand prodding him gently and when he opens his eyes Emily stands beside him. "I miss your stubble," she says and smiles.

Perhaps he just has to take it one step at a time.

The end

Phew! So what do you think? Appropriate ending?

I wanted to lift the mood a little bit and I hope it's not sappy, because that wasn't the intention and wouldn't suit the story.

Thank you so much for reading and please leave a review. Otherwise I'll never know if you liked it or not! :)