Fifty Ways to Love You - Emily Prentiss x OC

21. bureau resources

(trigger warnings: mentions of drugs and murder)

The entire ride back to DC, Dmitri insisted the Russian mob was after him. It was getting irritating, to be frank.

I showed him to the guest bedroom and told him that I had to go to work, I was already late. Emily drove us there, as I'd driven home from Dover while she slept.

"Hey, gorgeous. When you take your lunch, you should eat quick and try and sleep, yeah? You look tired, baby,"

"Mm, that'd be because I am,"

"Fair," she laughed, "That is fair, pretty girl. You're still the cutest, though. Don't you doubt that for a second, honey. I love you,"

"Love you, too," I responded. "You must be tired too,"

"Mm, I'm alright. Slept on the drive. You're so good for driving home, Galya, thank you, sweetie." She put her right hand on my shoulder while keeping her left on the steering wheel. I took her hand and kissed its back.

I didn't speak much the rest of the way to the office. I mostly stared out the window and zoned out. When she were stuck at a light, she put her hand on my leg and shot me a smile.

We got to work and went up together. Hotch knew why we were late and together: I had a family emergency in Delaware, Emily drove me up there. It didn't exactly check out, but I was so insistent and feigned strong emotions about my family situation that no one dared to ask me questions.

I couldn't stop thinking about what he'd said. Three weeks clean, and he claimed somebody was chasing him. The mob? Seriously?

I finally bit the bullet and went to talk to Garcia. "Hey, Lina, how are you?" she asked brightly.

"Uh, alright. You?"

"I'm good! Uh, how was your family doing?" I put on a little smile to hide the hurt. "Oh. I'm sorry,"

"No, it's fine. It's my brother. Can you, actually...can you look into something for me, Garcia?"

"Yeah, of course, honey! What do you need?" I bit my lip, sighed, and looked around. "Galina?"

"Yeah. Uh...my brother says he's being chased by the Russian mob. Can you look into any disappearances or deaths of Russians on the east coast north of here? Focusing on drug addicts?" Garcia nodded and started to write down the parameters I'd given her. "Thanks so much, Penelope. Hey, uh, one more thing,"

"What's up?"

"Could you not mention this to anybody?"

"'Course,"

"Thank you, Garcia. Let me know what you find." I left her office and stood outside the door with a sigh. Emily and I had agreed to meet in the car, and she was already down there when I talked to Garcia.

I went down to the car and got in the back with a sigh. Emily smiled and, without a word, I put my head in her lap. She stroked my hair and hummed a little before she realized I was weeping.

"Oh, sweet girl..." I let out a little cry, it broke Emily's heart. "Honey, it's okay. I know you're stressed out, sweet girl, but try and sleep, I've got you, angel,"

"I love you," I mumbled. "I love you,"

"I love you, angel. Go to sleep, I've got you."

I got almost 40 minutes of sleep with my head in her lap. Emily's fingers tangled in my hair, and she whispered sweet nothings as I slept. Lunch was nearly over, so she woke me up in the most gentle way.

"My love, my sweet Galina, angel, it's time to get up. Did you sleep well, my love? We've gotta get back to work, sweet girl, alright?"

"Mhm...do I look okay, darling?" She examined my face and hair and messed with my hair. "Better?"

"You look beautiful, angel."

-

It was probably a miracle we didn't get caught that day. Before I left for the day, when Emily was already down in the car as we'd driven together, Garcia caught me on my way to the elevator.

"Hey, Pen, what's up?"

"So, you remember how you asked me to—"

"Yeah, I know,"

"Okay. So. It turns out there have been four Russian immigrant drug addicts who have overdosed on the East Coast over the past two months,"

"Okay..." Shit.

"And there are known Russian mob members who were in town for all of them, but no law enforcement agency has been able to locate them since they left New Haven, Connecticut, the last death." My eyes widened. "Why did you want me to look into this?"

"Can you stay here for a little bit longer? I'm sorry, I just really need to talk to Hotch about this,"

"Yeah, I've got nowhere to be, what's going on, Karimova?"

I thanked her and ran off to find Hotch. "Karimova, come in,"

"Sir, I think there's a serial crime and my brother is the latest victim." He furrowed his brow and motioned for me to close the door.

"What's going on?"

"I had Garcia look into crimes similar to the one my brother says he's a victim of. I didn't believe him but I had to be sure, I had to protect my family,"

"So you used Bureau resources to protect him?"

"Like you've never done the same? Sir, I could argue all night, but now is not the time. Do you want my justification or do you want the explanation of the crimes being committed?"

I watched as he fought with himself, debating whether to reprimand me or shut up and listen. I stared him down. Don't mess with my family.

"Fine," he conceded. "What's happening?"

I explained it to him, and he listened and finally responded, "This may be a serial crime, but it's not our jurisdiction. It's for organized crime, it's not for the BAU. Our specific skills aren't required,"

"Then give the case to organized crime. But there is a case there."