Back to you - Hotchniss

is she the one?

"Yo, who's down for drinks?", Derek asked as they left the jet, finally back home from Utah. "Garcia said she'll join."

"I'm in, too", Reid nodded and Rossi agreed, as well.

"Let me just call Will, then I'll let you know", JJ smiled and disappeared, taking out her phone on the way.

"I could use some drinks", Emily replied. She had taken down their Unsub solo, earning a lot of stern looks from Hotch, but she hadn't mind at all. However, she needed to wash the thought of what had happened to all these girls off her mind, and nothing would do that better than alcohol.

"I actually have plans for tonight", Hotch furrowed his eyebrows and avoided to look at Emily.

"You? Plans?", Rossi asked, amused.

"Yea, with Beth", the Unit Chief said in a rather low voice, as if he didn't want anyone to hear.

The brunette clenched her jaw; of course he had plans with her. The jealousy in her rose again, but she didn't show it. As long as she never - ever - have to encounter with this woman, everything was fine.

"She can come along", Reid shrugged, earning a stern look from Derek, who exactly knew that this would lead to a lot of awkwardness due to the situation with Emily.

"I'm going to ask her", Hotch nodded and Derek turned his shocked look from Reid to him.

Emily gave her best to not vomit right then; so much for her earlier thought. She could only hope that Beth would decline to that offer, since there was no way out for Emily in that situation without anyone noticing.

As they made their ways to their cars, Derek caught up with her.

"Yo, you okay with that?", he asked in a low voice, which only Emily could hear.

"Sure", she lied but smiled, thankful for having such a good friend. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"You know why", he replied and unlocked his car. "See you later then?"

"Yes, see you."

After a quick shower and changing into fresh clothes, the team found itself in their local bar - well, everyone except from Hotch. Emily hadn't dared to ask whether he was still going to join them or not, but internally, she was begging for him to stay away.

"Look who's here", Rossi then said and she immediately knew that her prayers hadn't been heard. Before she turned around, she quickly downed the shot in front of her. There was no way that this would go smoothly, and the amount of alcohol she already had wouldn't exactly ease the situation.

Turning around, she discovered Aaron approaching to them. Next to him, there was a tall woman - it were only her heels, though -, who was smiling politely. Her hair was light brown, making her seem even more innocent in comparison to Emily's raven hair. She guessed that Beth was probably a few years older than her, and much to Emily's disgust, she literally seemed perfect.

"Hey Man", Derek greeted Hotch, his eyes also scanning Beth.

"Hello", Hotch replied, clenching his jaw in discomfort. It obviously hadn't been his favorite idea to come with Beth. "You still remember Beth, right?"

Everyone nodded in agreement, apart from Emily, who hadn't even listened to Hotch's words. She was busy with trying to keep a straight face, not letting any of her emotions slip.

"Thanks for inviting me", Beth spoke, and her voice made Emily role her eyes internally. "I guess we haven't met yet, right?"

Emily only then realized that Beth was talking to her, and her eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, yea, I'm Emily", she quickly said.

"She re-joined our team a few weeks ago", JJ added, and Beth just nodded politely: "Nice to meet you!"

So Hotch hadn't told her about it, Emily thought, and it made sense. Why would he? However, she kind of wished that he had, so that this woman would at least be a bit intimidated by her. She knew that she was being awfully childish and toxic, but she just couldn't help it.

"Another round?", Rossi asked and they all nodded, and Emily knew that she needed a lot more alcohol if she wanted to survive this night.

About an hour later, Penelope, Derek and Emily were already tipsy; Rossi was able to handle a lot more alcohol than them, so he was fine; and Reid and JJ had slowed down after drink number three. Hotch had just stuck to his beer, and Beth had followed him.

It bothered Emily how open Beth was; she had no difficulties in having conversations with the others as she was pretty outgoing and laughed a lot - or too much, to Emily's mind.

As Penelope and Derek left to the dance floor, Beth smiled wickedly: "Is something going on between these two?"

"Between Morgan and Garcia?", JJ laughed. "Definitely not, that's totally platonic."

"So you're trying to tell me that there isn't a single relationship in this team?", she giggled, and Emily only then realized that Beth was actually tipsy, too.

"No", Reid shrugged. "Not anymore since Emily and Hotch broke up."

All of them froze, and suddenly, even Beth fell silent, turning her look to Hotch, and then to Emily.

God, why was it always Spencer who got them into those situations? Emily would kick his ass for this one day.

"You two were together?", Beth then asked, her voice suddenly in a completely different tone. Neither of them could tell if it was just confusion, or if she was actually mad.

Nobody said a word; Emily just kept staring at her, whereas Hotch had his eyebrows furrowed and his gaze fixed on the beer in his hands.

Emily really wanted to say something, but she wasn't able to think of any words that could've saved this incident. It was a thoughtless reaction, but eventually, she just got up quickly and made her way out of the bar.

She knew that she would have to return to them at some point, in order to get her bag and her jacket, but in that moment, she just needed to get away from the situation. The cold air was filling her lungs and she started to shiver slightly, as it had gotten really cold outside.

The panic faded slowly, and after she had asked a stranger for a cigarette, the smoke filling her lungs gave her the chills, too. She wasn't much of a smoker - she had been at a younger age - but sometimes, when she was really stressed out or really drunk, she just needed it.

Oh, this night had just gone wrong in every way it could've gone wrong, and the worst part was that it still wasn't over.