Emily Prentiss One-Shots

Emily/Tara **

Title: Motivation - woot4ewam (AO3)

Summary: The team is reeling after Mr. Scratch ambushed their SUV convoy, killing Agent Walker. Emily is struggling with her abduction and her guilt — but maybe a familiar face could help her unwind.

Rating: Explicit 

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Unit Chief Emily Prentiss sat alone in her office. Her office. Hotch wasn't coming back so it was no longer a temporary assignment; Emily was officially the BAU Unit Chief. She knew it would take some getting used to but processing her permanent promotion was the last thing on her mind. Stephen Walker was dead. Emily had been lucky to escape Mr Scratch relatively unharmed. Not to mention the fact he had made her re-live the darkest moments in her life. Other than JJ and Rossi, Emily had never really talked to her team about the fact she had coded in the ambulance after Ian Doyle staked her through the abdomen. She had flatlined and all she had experienced was cold, darkness. Of course, Scratch hadn't know Emily's previous experience so it was easy for her to see through the hallucination when she saw a beautiful version of an afterlife. She wasn't sure what hurt more, the reason why she had seen through the hallucination or the fact that she had felt so much peace in that moment. Peace in the fact that even though it wasn't real, at least now she had that mental image of warmth and safety.

Emily had just sent the team home after the Director had ordered mandatory time off after Walker's death, Emily's abduction, and Reid's...everything. She knew the team needed the time to decompress. They needed time with their families and time to grieve. The thing about being Unit Chief was that it was a lonely job. Emily hadn't felt that lonely in a job since her years undercover as Lauren Reynolds. She had the team, of course, but when they left to go home to their families or even to go out with each other — Emily's new role made it more difficult for her to have the same social time she once enjoyed with her found family. Not to mention ever since she had been back, she couldn't help but feel like she hadn't quite found her footing at the BAU.

There was a knock on her door and Emily looked up for the first time in probably half an hour. She tried to pull her mind back from all the dangerous places it was trying to take her. "Come in," she announced, proud of how steady her voice seemed.

Tara poked her head in, "Hey Chief, I saw you still in here so I thought I'd check in before I head out."

Dr Tara Lewis was stunning, even though she had been through so much in the last few days, she still looked absolutely stunning. Emily smiled with a small laugh, "Tara, don't call me 'Chief' it feels like I'm heading up some gritty police procedural show."

Tara decided to not point out the obvious fact that Emily did head up a team who chased serial killers for a living. Tara could tell Emily had something on her mind. Her years of forensic psychology had made it easy for Tara to get to know the teams' tells when they were struggling with something. Reid rubbed his eyes and got short tempered, JJ became over protective of everyone else, Rossi used humour to mask his pain, Luke would go on long runs before work and Emily? Emily chewed her nails. As soon as Tara had entered the doorway, she noticed Emily pull her hand from her mouth. Which was a red flag because Tara knew how well Emily had been doing to quit her habit lately. There had even been times in recent memory where Emily's nails had been long enough to be manicured and painted. Not tonight though.

Tara came to sit on the edge of Emily's desk, eyeing that Emily's nails were, in fact, a wreck. "Are you okay?"

"Me? I'm fine. I mean — I'm not fine. Stephen was ..." Emily's eyes welled with tears just saying his name. It was all too fresh and she couldn't continue her thought. "I'll be okay. Why are you still here?"