Title: Monsters
By: realityaskew
Pairing: Hotch/Prentiss
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: I own nothing from CM.
Summary: Hotch and Prentiss have a little chat about humans and monsters.

***

"My baby's dead

"My baby's dead! He's gone! How could you let this happen to my baby? You're monsters, all of you!"

Emily popped three Aspirin from the medicine cabinet knowing it wouldn't do anything to keep her oncoming headache at bay. She looked at her ghostly pale reflection in the mirror and ran her hands through her thick dark hair letting out a long sigh.

"You're monsters! My baby's dead because of you!"

"Are you all right?" Emily felt her body relax as Hotch came up behind her and wrap his arms around her slim waist. He gently pushed her hair to the side and placed a soft kiss on the side of her neck.

"I'm not sure." She answered truthfully. "I can't get what that woman said out of my head."

Hotch inhaled a deep breath taking in the scent of her with it and slowly let it out. "She just lost her little boy Emily she needed someone to vent her anger off of."

"We did everything to find him Hotch, everything. It was too late."

"Emily you can't let this eat away at you."

"Are we monsters?" She asked turning around in his arms to look him straight in the eyes. Hotch thought about her question for a long moment but couldn't answer her. "I mean we think like them what's to stop us from becoming them?"

Hotch pulled her closer and touched his forehead to hers. "Because unlike them Emily we have a conscience. We know the difference between right and wrong, life and death. We aren't like them because we feel."

"But we think like them. Sometimes it scares me."

"It scares me too." Hotch admitted. "But the only way to catch them is to think like them. That doesn't mean we are them."

"Sometimes I think this job is making me go mad." Emily smiled weakly. "When I was a little girl I believed in the boogey man, it's scared the hell out of me when I found out he was actually real."

Hotch gently took her chin in his hand and lifted her face up so she would look at him. He placed a tender kiss on her lips. "I'd never let anything happen to you, you know that."

Emily ran her hands up his lean bare chest and placed a kiss on his collar bone. "When I'm with you that's the only time I think that monsters don't exist. It's the only time I feel truly safe."

Hotch cupped her face in his large hands and kissed her searchingly. "You can't take what that woman said today to heart. She was in a state of extreme distress. We aren't monsters and we never will be. I know it's hard to try and think of everything as just a job but I know that we're human. We aren't monsters like them."

Emily rested her head against Hotch's shoulder and silently let him hold her. She would never be a monster but she would always think like one. It was her job, it was her life.

***