Title: The BreakUp Fic

By: Deathandallherfriends

Pairing: Hotch/Prentiss

Rating: PG

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.

AN: I've never read a fic with the ending that I wrote... so I decided to write it.

Summary: Prentiss and Hotch have always fought over whether to keep their relationship secret or not. Prentiss gets sick of it and breaks up with him. This' what he does because of it... changing their lives forever.

***

"Fine!" Prentiss screamed, her eyes livid and her arms waving.

She looked wild- irate being an inadequate word to describe how she felt. And then she swallowed and poked the desk roughly with her finger, the other hand on her hip. Hotch was just sitting at his desk. There was a pure look of venom in those brown eyes, but other than that he was completely calm.

Prentiss shook her head. "We're through. I'm done. I'm sick of pretending. I'm sick of being some little sock puppet you think you can control."

"Emily," Hotch said, his whole facial expression showing complete hurt.

"Don't 'Emily' me," Prentiss told him.

She turned around, pulled the door open roughly so that it slammed into the wall, and walked brusquely from the room. It took her a few deep breaths to calm down. But then her eyes betrayed her, tears ejecting themselves from her tear ducts. She supported herself by leaning on a wall with one hand. Using the other, she wiped the tears away. The quick thought appeared in her head on how she wished her mascara were waterproof.

A familiar voice spoke behind her, "Prentiss, are you all right?"

Prentiss turned around to see Jareau standing there. She nodded, but could not make any sound come out of her throat when she opened her mouth to speak. Instead she closed her mouth, pursed her lips, and nodded her head.

"Don't tell me you're all right, because you're obviously not. C'mon, tell me what's wrong," Jareau requested, putting an arm around Prentiss.

Prentiss began to speak. "Hotch and I have been sneaking around. He didn't want me telling anybody because of Strauss and the board and Haley… and now it's over. I don't know why I'm crying so much. It was hard sneaking around like that. To tell you the truth it was terrible."

"But he's your boss and you'll miss it, because it was fun for your to sneak around since it was against the rules," Jareau explained for Prentiss, watching her think about it in her head.

Prentiss took a deep breath and shivered from the tears. "That makes more sense than anything I've heard all day… and that barely made sense at all."

There was a long silence. Prentiss wiped her eyes with her left hand. She stood there, looking at the floor- at her and Jareau's shoes. The tile was white with a red diamond in the middle of each one. Prentiss looked back up at Jareau, who was obviously thinking.

"What made you two break up?" Jareau inquired.

Their eyes met for a moment and Prentiss explained, "He wanted to keep it a secret."

"And you couldn't do that anymore?"

Prentiss shook her head. "I didn't want to… I-"

"You love so much that you just want to share it with the world- like Will and I, except you and Hotch work together," Jareau finished, as she was beginning to understand.

Prentiss nodded and took another deep breath. She watched as Reid walked toward them. By the way his gaze was focused on them, she knew Reid had something to tell them.

So before he got to them, she asked exasperatedly, "What is it, Reid?"

"Hotch wants us all in the conference room," Reid said, raising his eyebrows as he spoke.

"We'll be right there," Jareau answered for Prentiss.

Reid walked away. And as his blue sweater vest brusquely moved away from Prentiss and Jareau, Prentiss could not help but smile. There must be a case to get her mind off of all this. Hotch was about to announce it. But first, Prentiss had to talk to Jareau a little more.

"Thank you, JJ," Prentiss said.

Jareau nodded. "No prob. You ready?"

Prentiss gave a small smile. The two began walking to the conference room. Walking up the stairs, they could see through the window Hotch standing up in front of the table, explaining something. Everyone else was eagerly listening. Rossi leaned back in his chair, with his hands folded across his stomach. Reid had his ankle on his opposite knee, and was constantly bouncing that leg. And Morgan and Garcia were sitting beside each other with their eyebrows raised as though they were watching some sort of unbelievable movie. Jareau entered the room first, followed by Prentiss.

"There's the girl of the hour!" Morgan said with a grin.

Prentiss stopped in her tracks, looking at Hotch, "What?"

"You said you wanted them to know," Hotch said, turning to her.

Prentiss eyed him in disbelief. A whole year had gone by with him telling her that they had to keep all of this a secret, and here he was, standing here, telling them all that they had been dating. It was… unbelievable. She let out a small laugh. There was a part of her that was so mad she did not know what to do with herself, but that other part of her was screaming at her to do something. And so she walked to Hotch and kissed him. She threw her arms around his neck and allowed her tongue to roam around his mouth. By now she was so comfortable with him that she left her eyes open and grinned through their kiss.

This was exactly what she wanted.

Eventually, she pulled away from him.

"I didn't want you to feel uncomfortable," Hotch said. "And I couldn't let you go."

"Thank you," Prentiss practically whispered.

Fully aware that the team was watching, Hotch pulled a small black velvet box out of his suit pocket and knelt on one knee. Prentiss raised her eyebrows and one hand to her mouth.

"Don't tell me that isn't what I think it is," Prentiss breathed out a grin.

In the back next to Morgan, Garcia began clapping and gave a huge grin. The blonde watched as Hotch opened the top of the box, revealing a diamond ring surrounded by small sapphires. Prentiss' eyes practically bugged out of her head. She stuck her arm out to allow him to put the ring on her finger. He took her hand in his after taking the ring from the box and slipped it up her ring finger. Once he stood up, she pulled him into a hug.

"I love you," Prentiss whispered into his ear.

For the first time in a long time, Hotch smiled, "I love you too."

"We're going to have a kickass wedding."