#i wrote the majority of this in 45 minutes after playing minecraft for 3 hours
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The Phoenix And The Rocket
Chapter 2
Chapter 1 Here.
Thank you all for the love on the first chapter <3 makes me excited to write. Hoping for weekly updates as I finish 2nd year Uni off but we’ll see. Atm I think there is roughly 8 chapters so very short and sweet but I have a habit of extending things so we’ll see!
Emily Prentiss, at the insistent of her therapist, signs up for a trauma ‘dumping’ site. She never expected that her Dump would connect her back to her old boss and the man she’s been in love with for over ten years.
Also the man she’s absolutely furious at for leaving.
As always : Credit goes to @lonelychicagos for the prompt :)
Edit : Since publishing I have been made aware that the term ‘Trauma Bonding’ is actually an abuse tactic and doesn’t mean ‘bonding over shared trauma’. Would like to make it clear that was a very strong mistake on my part and I apologise deeply for any offence.
Chapter 2
It was week and a case later that Emily realised her laptop had a notification sitting on it, a reply lie in waiting 20 minutes after her initial contact. Feeling guilty but overpowered by intrigue, the woman settled down on the jet, the laptop balancing on her knee and excitement in her chest.
Her seat partner, the insufferable David Rossi, eyes her with sneaky, glinting eyes. "Something you wanna share with the class, Prentiss?" He goades, smirking.
Emily glances up, scowling, as the rest of the team all turned attention onto her. "Excuse me?" She frowns.
"Oh she avoided the question" Tara pipes up.
"Now she's rolling her eyes" Spencer joins in. "That implies that she's hiding something"
Memories of Spencer and herself teasing Morgan a lifetime ago took Emily by surprise. Her jaw clenched and her laptop shut.
"I want everyone's paperwork on my desk on Thursday" She snaps, irritated to high heaven. Her eyes rolled again at the sound of Luke's childish indignation and JJ's proclamation of "I'm innocent!." Briefly, she wondered how the hell Hotch coped. Her irritation flared up at the thought of that man. Her anger at his abandonment still ever present.
Logically, She knew she had no right to be pissed especially after two years. There was an argument for the fact that she had abandoned this team twice. And she has a habit of walking away when she doesn't get her way, a fact that both Strauss and Barnes had to find out the hard way.
But she was so angry. She had a comfortable life in London, a boyfriend that was nice enough and a job she enjoyed and that paid well, yet she packed it all up in a moments notice for him.
And she didn't even get a fucking thank you.
No, he just thrust all this responsibility on her shoulders and left, expecting her to pick up the pieces.
He expected her to soothe Penelope's anguish at losing another family member, be Dave's drinking buddy again, be Spencer's parental figure that no one addresses, be JJ's sister, and control two practical strangers in Tara and Luke.
God, he was a bastard.
Emily muses over that all on the drive home, fingers tight on the steering wheel, from the jet. Thankfully, the case drew to a close on a Friday giving her leeway to leave. She's still seething as she enters her apartment and re-boots her laptop.
'Meow'
"Hey Serg" Emily mumbles, pouring a generous glass of red wine.
The feline trots out of his hiding spot, happily. Emily and Penelope share custody of the pet now, He had recognised her during a girls night at Penelope's and threw a hissy fit as much as a cat could and had refused to leave her side. She physically melted and her friend gave her permission to take her cat back.
As it turns out, her little shit was a huge shit for other people.
But Emily couldn't do that to her so now they trade off whenever there's a case and she has to leave town.
"Pen drop you off, buddy?" She smirks, stroking his head. The cat purrs happily at her attention, making her laugh. He jumps to her lap before she can place the laptop on her so she awkwardly types with one hand. She loads up her conversation, cringing at the date left below RocketRacoon's sentences, and sighs. The poor man was probably waiting on her reply for ages before giving up.
Sergio suddenly freaks and hisses at the laptop, batting the screen angrily.
"Woah!" She exclaims, moving him away. He hisses again, eyes narrow, before hauling off with a feral screech. She stares after him as he bounces up on his scratching post. "Freak" Emily states at him, confused. She shakes her head and takes a gulp of liquid courage before typing again.
On the other side of the country, in Lakewood, Colorado, Aaron Hotchner slams down a cardboard box. His forehead was slick with sweat and his chest heaves with heavy breathes.
"You know, You could help" He mutters absentmindedly to his son. Jack sat playing video games in the living room tv.
"I could" Jack nodded. "I don't wanna though."
"Max"
"...."
"Max!"
"....."
"JACK"
"Yes dad?"
Jack turns, an expression on his face that mirrors his fathers. Since they got the word that Scratch was gone, Jack had reverted back from Max Hortenal. He refused to answer to his false name from his father, only reluctantly accepting it from school and friends. It was hard on Aaron to accept this change, habitually calling him Max.
Aaron glares at his son, jaw clenched. "Go and get the bait from the truck please." He orders authoritatively.
They'd just come back from a fishing expedition. In his retirement, Aaron had picked up Golfing, Running and Fishing as hobbies.
He loves the mundanity but sometimes he finds himself imagining he's chasing after an UNSUB while running. Or fishing out evidence to help a case rather than a sea bass he lets go after a picture.
The golfing is just fun.
Jack comes back in, gingerly gripping the bucket of worms in his hands. "Here." He snaps, holding it out. With an eyeroll, his father takes the bait and deposits it in the garage. "By the way, your laptop just pinged." Jack tells him, closing down his game. "I'm gonna go shower."
Aaron nods, wishes him a goodnight because he knows Jack will conk out straight afterwards, and heads towards the device. He figured after two days of no reply from Phoenix that he wasn't going to get one, chalking it up to intimidation and so he was confused as to what notification he had received. He grabs his glasses from his pocket, resenting that time certainly wasn’t on his side, and settles them on his face as he squints at the screen.
Surely by now his trauma dump would have been buried by others; He even saw Katie Jacob’s at one point when he checked for Phoenix’s question. He wished the girl well before blocking her so she didn’t question him anymore.
So imagine his surprise when the message was indeed Phoenix, apologising for the late reply.
PhoenixPren : So sorry! I didn’t see this reply, I travel a lot for work and was out of town!
Aaron breaths out a sigh, raising his eyebrows in acknowledgement.
RocketRacoon: I’ve been there, it’s okay.
Emily smiles and quirks an eyebrow of her own at the fast reply. With a purse of her lips, she types again.
PhoenixPren : You travel for work too?
RocketRacoon : Used too, Retired now.
PhoenixPren : Ah. Lucky. I gotta pay the bills somehow.
Aaron lets out a tiny laugh while Emily cringes at herself.
PhoenixPren : Anyway, you said you’re up for questions? Is that still on the table or have I ruined my chances?
“Fucks sake Emily, you’re not flirting with him.” Emily scolds herself, putting down her wine. Sergio mewls angrily at her as she speaks, still pissed at the laptop for some reason. “Weirdo” She insults her cat, swinging her legs to rest on her couch.
Aaron thinks about it for a moment, casting his mind to the day he’s had. He pulled Jack out of school, his son having a bad day the day before, and whisked him off to go fishing. At first, Jack seemed to hate life because he was forced out on a canoe in the lake but soon found himself laughing and enjoying time with his dad. He had forgotten about the day before entirely as he watched Aaron fight with a Bass and nearly go overboard. Aaron enjoyed it too, getting his son out without the worry that there was a serial killer lurking around the corner, ready to finish was Foyet started all those years ago.
He shrugs as he types.
RocketRacoon : Sure, Why not? What would you like to know?
Emily grins in excitement before it fades and she swallows, typing out what she wanted the answer to for weeks.
PhoenixPren : I guess there’s just one question really. How do you do it?
Aaron breathes out again, pulling back from his computer. He frowns and clicks on her profile, finding no story to tell. The only information he can see is that the person he was speaking to was a woman in her early 50’s. She had actually wrote ‘fuck off’ in the age section but then imputed in the ‘fun fact’ section that she went and saw Siouxie and The Banshees for her 18th birthday in 1987, placing her in her early 50s.
Phoenix had a story, one that she wasn’t willing to share. If he had to profile her (and boy was he almost giddy at the opportunity) he’d guess she was coerced into the website like himself, and searching for courage to write her own story.
RocketRacoon : One day at a Time. There’s high points and low points, you’ll have Good days and Bad days.
Emily blinked as the advice came through.
“You’re gonna go weeks, months even” Hotch tells her softly as she sits across from him on the plane. It was only those two, he duped her into entering early. Just to check on her. “Feeling fine and then you’re going to have a bad day. “ He stared at her with such intensity that she almost finds herself being pulled in. “Just let me know when you do.”
Shaking her head out of that memory, Emily blinks back water and sighs.
It takes her a while to type out the response, so long in fact that Aaron begins to exit the conversation, deciding that he’s in a good enough mood to read a few tales of the site. Phoenix catches him last second though.
PhoenixPren : Thank you.
He sighs again, reading the little two words over a few times.
RocketRacoon : You seem like you need more than advice
Emily tilts her head now, scrunching her face up.
PhoenixPren: Excuse me.
RocketRacoon : Sorry for the bluntness. Most people are on this site as a form of therapy- to share stories and make connections. I checked out your profile, What’s your story?
He didn’t know where that boldness comes from but something in his gut told him to keep that conversation going. Should Spencer be here, he’d probably rattle off a factoid about natural instincts. He grew nervous when Phoenix didn’t reply, or the little typing bubble didn’t pop up and was about to apologise again when she simply sent a shrugging emote.
PhoenixPren: Too much to tell, sorry Rocky.
RocketRacoon : RockET and mine wasn’t? I’m always here to talk if you need, Phoenix.
Emily licks her lips and picks up her wine again.
PhoenixPren : Does this mean we are TraumaBuddies now?
Aaron smirks, shrugging as if Phoenix could see him.
RocketRacoon : If you would like that. I’m very intrigued by you.
Emily swigs the last of her wine.
PhoenixPren : Buckle Up, Rocky. You’re in for a ride.
Word count :1834
Tag list : @lonelychicagos @84hotpockets @serqueljisbon @loriprentiss @velvetblackness
If you would like to be added or removed from the tag list just shoot me a dm!
#criminal minds#emily prentiss#aaron hotchner#hotchniss#hotchniss fanfiction#criminal minds fanfiction#emily x aaron#emily x hotch#agent prentiss#The Phoenix and the Rocket#i wrote the majority of this in 45 minutes after playing minecraft for 3 hours
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