She's Back

Where We Are

* short and sweet chapter! next few are going to be interesting (cue evil laugh) *

 "Dear god, what happened to your face?" Rossi asked when Hotch entered the conference room. Rossi was seated at the conference table with a million files strewn in front of him and Reid was writing notes on the whiteboard at the front of the room. Both of the agents were looking at Hotch with shocked and slightly concerned faces.

"Nothing important. I think I found our unsub, though," Aaron said. His team turned to listen to him as he explained what he learned from talking to the owner of the Piggly Wig. There was a man who had been coming into the bar 2 or 3 times a week, but never actually ordered any drinks. The owner said all he did was drink Shirley Temples and sit at the bar, smiling creepily at whatever woman even glanced in his direction. The owner thought the man was harmless, but based on the timeline of the disappearances and murders of the women - most of whom were last seen at the Piggly Wig - it made sense to assume that this man was the unsub. His name was Rodney Pierce, and he was a 27 year old white male. He fit the profile perfectly.

"So, what's our plan?" Rossi asked once Aaron finished. Rossi had only half-listened to Aaron; he was too busy looking between Aaron's clearly broken nose and the guilty looks JJ and Morgan were trying to hide. They knew something, and Rossi was going to find out what.

"Spencer, JJ, you are going to ride over with some of Captain Stowe's men to Pierce's house. Dave, Morgan, we're going to make our way through each of the 3 bars. Stowe and the rest of his men will be with us for backup. Anyone have any objections?" Aaron said.

"Um, I do. Where's Emily?" Spencer asked. She was a valuable part of their team and Spencer hadn't seen her since earlier that afternoon; it was now 7:00 at night.

Hotch's face darkened ever so slightly, and JJ and Derek looked at each other for a split second with those same guilty expressions; it was then that Rossi was able to piece together what they were hiding. Emily Prentiss was what happened to Aaron's face. Although Rossi had been sensing some animosity between Hotch and Prentiss ever since she returned, something must have happened for their situation to have deteriorated that quickly.

"She's fine. She won't be joining us tonight. Anything else?" Hotch asked, his tone of voice making it clear that no one else was to ask any other questions. Everyone shook their heads no.

"Alright, let's get a move on then, people. According to our profile, he will try to take another woman tonight," Morgan said as he got up from his seat. Everyone started to leave to get ready, but Rossi grabbed Hotch's arm before he could leave.

Dave looked directly at Hotch. "I don't know what's going on between you and Emily, but you can't let that affect tonight. You two need to deal with that once the case is done, you hear me?" Hotch took a moment before answering. "There's nothing going on, Dave. Thanks for your concern, though. Let's go," Aaron left the room before Dave had a chance to call him out on his very obvious lie. Dave shook his head in exasperation, and then left to follow the rest of his team. They had a killer to catch.