SECRET LOVE, hotchniss

7

(SEASON TWO, EPISODE ELEVEN)

Today sucked already.

Hayley had been giving him the cold shoulder again, barely able to mumble out a response when he told her he loved her and walked out the door to work.

Then before he could even leave the driveway he got a call from Jason that Reid had been contacted by a potential unsub, and he needed to head straight to the local morgue instead of the office.

And finally once he returned to his office he was met with The Congresswoman. She had verbally spewed politics all over him, and as she left his office he watched her walk right up to Emily Prentiss. He watched them hug and suddenly fury was filling his veins.

It was in that moment that his suspicions were confirmed. Emily was here on a political agenda. She was trickling back information from inside the team to those wishing for his downfall.

He sat in his office for a while longer, stewing in his anger before calling the team into the conference room. Emily came in behaving as normal and this just pissed him off more. She was a fake, and this whole friendly performance was just a show. He could barely look at her.

When she spoke to throw an idea out to the group he dismissed her instantly and even he felt a little bad about it, until Derek came to her defence agreeing with her. What little regret he felt was now completely taken over by his returning anger. Anger that his team had already built such a rapport with this traitor, meaning when he inevitably exiled her not only was he going to look like the bad guy, but it would cause his team genuine pain.

When he turned around to argue against Emily he could see the team glancing between each other awkwardly, a silent conversation playing out. When even Jason spoke up to stop the bickering he knew he had taken it too far. He had been unprofessional and dismissive of her in a room full of profilers and he had no doubt that this would be a topic of discussion later.

He decided he would speak to her later, but for now he had to put it aside and work the case before he was brought up on bullying charges. Though the rest of the meeting went well, he could still barely look at Emily despite the well fitting contributions she was making. She was fitting in great and her skills were definitely thriving within the team, it took everything he had not to call her out then and there. To remove her on the spot protecting his team from any further harm, preventing any progression of the already seemingly established bonding.

He shook the thought. Not now.

He didn't want her to have any more dirt on him than she already did.

When she suggested heading back into the streets first thing in the morning he couldn't have been happier, the less her saw of her the better. He had almost been able to push his feelings aside when he suggested they all went home for the night, he could forget about this until the morning - all he wanted now was to go home and see Jack before he went to bed.

However when JJ brought up a press release he shot his eyes towards Emily and studied her reaction. When he declined the press release both JJ and Emily looked confused. He expected the confusion from JJ, she had no clue about his conversation with the Congresswoman, but Emily? If she had been involved he was expecting to see guilt, indifference, or maybe even slight fear at having been caught, but she didn't show any of those things.