10 things I hate about you - Hotchniss

career

Panic (verb)

"to suddenly feel so worried or frightened that you cannot think or behave calmly or reasonably"

"Excuse me?", Aaron choked.

Panic shot through his body in a way he had never experienced it before. Pure panic, making him feel like he was going to throw up right in front of the ambassadress.

"I guess you understood that correctly", the woman replied, her ice-cold voice making him shutter even more.

He had troubles to keep a straight face, but after years of being called 'emotionless', this reputation finally paid off.

"Apart from working with her, I am not involved in any other way with your daughter, Ma'am", he lied.

Elizabeth Prentiss kept staring in his eyes, and he stared back, as well as he could. Internally, he was having serious problems to keep the look straight, but he would never let her know. If she found out that he was in a relationship with Emily, not only he would be in trouble, no, Emily would be as well. And that was the last thing that he wanted, to cause her any more trouble.

"You may have realized that I didn't ask you whether you are in a relationship with her or not, I just asked you to tell me about it", she replied. "I know that you are in a relationship, without any doubt."

"Ma'am, I'm really sorry, but this must be a mistake -"

"I never make mistakes", she cut him off. "You know, I already realized that you were different when you made it through the first few days with her. After the first week, I knew that she had crush on you, obviously. Nobody ever made it through more than a day with her. But I actually believed that you wouldn't fall for her as well, I mean - I thought you were a professional agent with a bright future. Turned out I was wrong."

"You weren't wrong", Aaron replied sternly.

"Really? In your job, it's not professional to help someone who doesn't behave correctly. And before you deny this as well; did you seriously think that I was so stupid and wouldn't realize that Emily was sick nearly every third or fourth appointment ever since you started working with her? I have to admit that I'm still really impressed that you even got her fake medical certificates.", she raised her eyebrows.

"You have no proof for that", he said calmly. "And me getting along well with your daughter doesn't proof anything, apart from the fact that I might be a good agent and the first one that was finally able to handle your daughter."

"I wasn't finished, Mr. Hotchner", Elizabeth sighed. "I had my doubts and asked Wilson to keep an eye on you. He even replaced you with Miller to see what you would do. Turned out that you did a great job as well, but still went to see Emily regularly."

"Maybe she just needed someone to talk to", Aaron furrowed his eyebrows. He hated how long she had already have her doubts and that he didn't realize it earlier. "She has no one to talk to in this house."

"Maybe", the ambassadress shrugged. "But after I saw you two outside the mansion during a very important event, where you were supposed to watch the front doors, I knew that I had been right all the time. I saw it with my own eyes, there is no way to deny it now. Nobody kisses someone 'he gets along well' with like that."

Aaron didn't know how he should reply. She was right, any way of denying was senseless, she had seen them. God, how could have forgotten about the window they had sit in front of?

"I see you're obviously shocked", the ambassadress sighed. "But I didn't take you out here to only tell you how I discovered your relationship. I came here to talk about the future."

"The future?", he asked, confused.

"Well, I guess you know that I can not tolerate this relationship", she replied, her cold voice making him shutter once again. "But I have a deal for you."

"A deal?"

Elizabeth Prentiss nodded: "As you obviously have realized, Emily disappeared some hours ago. You are going to lose your job here anyways, but I can still decide how it's going to look. If you tell me where she went and won't have any contact with her anymore, I'm going to recommend you and say that you are overqualified for a security job in my mansion. I could directly recommend you to the BAU, and I'll forget about this little thing between you and my daughter. You won't get fired, you'll just take the next step in your career. Your career is important to you, isn't it?"

"Emily is sick and went to the hospital with Agent Miller", Hotch replied dryly. She had just told him that he would lose his job here, which made him more than angry.

"She is not", the ambassadress sighed. "We both know that. She would never sneak away on my birthday, unless it's something really, really important she can't tell me about."

Hotch cursed internally. Was this woman a witch or something? She knew practically everything.

"I don't know about anything apart from the hospital", he lied.

"You are her boyfriend, and it wouldn't be the first time you helped her to miss an event", she replied. "You know where she is, Agent Hotchner, and all you to do is tell me and you'll receive a major upgrade in your career. Otherwise, you could not tell me und get fired the dirty way. That wouldn't look good in the future, would it?"

Aaron glared at her. She may thought that she was the one in power here, which she obviously was, but if she thought that she could get him by talking about his career, she was wrong. The old Aaron Hotchner would have listened to her immediately, but the new Aaron Hotchner had higher priorities that his career.

"I won't tell you", he said coldly.

"I expected you to react this way", she smiled. "Which is why I decided to give you some time to think about it. Be in my office at 8 tomorrow and tell me about your decision."

"It won't change."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that", Elizabeth replied. "I was young and in love once, too. But at some point you have to grow up and realize that you have to set priorities. You won't get many chances in your work career, whereas you can find a new love interest every second day if you want to. Open your eyes, Mr. Hotchner. Don't let your love for a young girl get in your future. You'll regret it."