The world's not falling apart because of me... [OTA; multiple threads welcome]

[savesherself]

[Sort of wibbly-dated to whenever the rescue groups got back. ...wibbly-dated is totally a valid term.]

With most of the rescue parties in the barracks and probably on their way to a well-deserved rest, the Doctor has managed to get the stream to himself... and he's glad for that. Cross-legged by the edge of the water, he's trying to clean the

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[didntblink]

He expected as much after everything she did - after everything Doyle did to her. And he was still alive, out there, somewhere. He had gotten past the road blocks in DC, and Hotch had little doubt he was already on his way out of Boston. He wasn't there, with them now, as far as Hotch knew. Honestly with everyone that had been taken, he would not have been surprised if the UnSubs had managed to get a drop on Doyle as well, especially if he had been vulnerable.

But the important aspect was Emily right in front of him, as odd as that sounded, as odd as it was to look at her relatively healthy and whole. "I know your history with him," Aaron stated clearly, "enough of it anyway. And I've talked with Clyde Easter." She had left before they had tracked Easter down, so he knew that was going to be a surprise. That Easter had actually collaborated with them was even more of one. She had lied to them, and she had run. As much as Aaron hated lying, especially about a case, he understood it, and the last thing he felt like doing was laying into her for having done so.

[savesherself]

Emily draws in a long, slow breath at that, and lets it out a little shakily. She swallows hard, and then nods firmly without meeting his eyes.

"Why?" The earlier careful neutrality is slipping away - if he already knows, there's nothing to hide. She's still tense, still nervous, and still trying not to show how much the mention of Doyle set her off balance, but not quite so guarded about it.

The thing is, she's still not any less confused either.

"What does he have to do with anything?"

[didntblink]

Hotch was confused now. Why? That was what had brought so many government agencies together. Doyle had been coming after Emily, and they had all known that. She had known that. She had known they knew that. And it was...it was like with JJ, except that forgetting this was even a bigger deal with Emily.

So he was staring at her a bit, as confused as she was though in a different way. "Ian Doyle came to DC," Aaron spoke slowly, "He tried to kill you." Had her injuries been so extensive she had forgotten?

[savesherself]

"...oh," she says softly, surprised as if this is the first time she's hearing it. Which... it is.

She wraps her arms around herself, jaw clenched tight for a moment while she considers this information. Reid telling her how the team moved on without her - and somehow with her, at the same time - was bad enough. This is...

"I don't remember any of that. None of that ever... happened to me. I was..." She bites her lip for a second, and then changes tacks abruptly. "Do you remember the Dale Shrader case?"

[didntblink]

It was seeing her face that made him think about what was going on - or possibly going on. There was no explanation for why, but Prentiss truly hadn't heard about it before, didn't know that it had happened. And JJ...she too hadn't known about changing jobs. There hadn't been any signs of a concussion or other medical causes of amnesia. And Prentiss...there wasn't any reason for that, that he knew of. Either something here stole some memory or, in a more frightening thought, perhaps it really had never happened to her.

And that made it the second time that he had then told someone something about...their future? His past? Something they forgot? Either way, it seemed he wasn't doing any favors to tell them it. Whether they had their memory repressed or it hadn't happened, it wasn't doing any good to tell them. And if someone were to tell him something from his future, well good or bad, Hotch wasn't sure how he felt about it. He still needed to determine whether or not they were from the...past or...something.

"Yes," Hotch replied, no longer taking it for granted that any of them remembered anything, "That was...a year ago, roughly." He looked at her for a moment, "That is the last thing you remember." JJ had mentioned a case as well, and that had been what was true for her.

[savesherself]

She nods, glad she's getting it, if a little disturbed by the fact that the conversation's happening at all. Fairies. Magic. She'd started to sort of accept it, but when it crashes into her real life, back in the real world...

"Yeah. The truck hit us, knocked me out, and... I don't remember anything after that. Reid's here too, and he told me what you did. That it was months since that case, that I was with the team the whole time, and none of you had any idea I was gone."

She shifts her weight, glancing up at Hotch a little nervously. She sounds crazy. She knows that, and if someone had told her all of this when she first got here, she'd have thought they were crazy too. She can only hope Hotch trusts her enough to consider it - time in this place will take care of the rest.

"You're not going to believe me right now, and... that's okay, but I've been here for four or five months, and Reid's been here almost as long. I think maybe time's different here, like... Narnia or something - we could spend years here, and back there it's no time at all."

[didntblink]

Hotch liked to believe he had a firm grip on reality, at least when it came to regular reliable aspects. Time was supposed to be one of those aspects. Aaron had read and heard some about physics, but he didn't know anything like these experiences, not on an experimental basis that had actually happened. Of course, if no one knew it had happened, it was hard to report the results. But this...it seemed less and less like amnesia. And Hotch followed logic, what the behavior told him.

As such, he began looking more carefully at Prentiss. He needed to see JJ again, as she had been here a shorter time. There was less time for anything to affect her. And despite the moratorium on profiling each other, Hotch observed each of his team members more carefully than any of them were probably comfortable with.

Reid too? Hotch hadn't seen him yet, and he hadn't any idea that anyone else was going to be here. JJ perhaps could have been an unusual situation. Prentiss made that far less likely. And if the Schrader case were only months old for Reid, then it was the same for him as for them. They were all...somehow past versions of themselves. Prentiss was not the same Prentiss he had last talked with before she left, not the one he had seen on the camera footage when Doyle took her. And if he were to check her stomach, he found himself not expecting to find the scar from getting stabbed.

Hotch had read C.S. Lewis as a child, and he had read some of it to Jack. He had not thought to compare their situation to one thought of in children's books, but the strange creatures, the forest, it was not unlike some of those stories.

"I believe you," Hotch replied slowly, "Three instances is not a coincidence. JJ arrived with me, though she too does not remember everything I do. I do not understand how it is possible." That was, possibly, more Reid's area of expertise. It definitely was not Hotch's. The idea of being in some Narnia was not nearly as jarring as seeing Prentiss alive and well before him. "It's good to see you," Hotch repeated.

[savesherself]

"Trust me, I don't understand it either. Even Reid hasn't come up with a good explanation for it, not that I'd understand most if it if he did..."

Prentiss isn't really invested in understanding the Wood at this point, just in figuring out the rules and the way things work here so she can keep everyone alive long enough for them to make it home.

She smiles slowly again - tired and tense, but full of relief nevertheless. "Honestly, I wouldn't wish this place on anyone, especially not a friend, but... it is really good to see you too."

[didntblink]

There were many aspects of this place that seemed more up Reid's alley than anyone else's on the team. But Hotch wasn't certain any of them were able to explain all of it. Even the aspects that weren't the place himself. Hotch had taken part in a recon mission with a computer program. He had conversed with more than one computer program that looked quite human and physically present and thinking for itself. And they'd had genders, or something like it. And there was the girl Hotch suspected of being a werewolf, among other things.

"Agreed," Hotch smiled a little. Honestly, as long as Ian Doyle was kept out of this place, Emily was actually potentially safer. So far there had been mechanisms of coping with this place to stay alive. Well, not everyone was here, so far, but he wasn't sure how the candles really worked. "How have you fed yourself?" Hotch asked, as it occurred to him when he thought back on the fact she said she had been there for months.

[savesherself]

"Good question," she mutters. "There's a building with supplies that gets restocked once a month - I'm guessing by friendly locals, but I don't think anyone's actually seen whoever's doing it. But no one's gotten sick from it or anything, so I guess it's safe..."

Prentiss shrugs. It's weird, and a little unsettling, but when it comes to weird things in the Wood, mysteriously appearing food is pretty low on the list.

"Have you picked out a cabin yet? I think there's one next to me and Reid that's free..." She grins, and adds, "Or I could trade you Reid for JJ, if you'd rather share with him."

[didntblink]

An unknown food supply was not that trustworthy, but the forest, from what Hotch had seen, didn't exactly seem to be teeming with enough to feed them based off scavenging. And he didn't know what to make of the animals, from his limited interactions. The place was getting stranger and stranger really.

Honestly, Hotch hadn't thought about where he was going to sleep. Traveling on the road for jobs, he had sometimes had to sleep in his car. And really, when he needed to, Hotch was able to sleep anywhere. Sleep, oh, he was exhausted but really hadn't thought about it. "I'm fine sharing with any of you," Hotch replied, "Whichever makes everyone most comfortable." Two people per cabin was safer, and Hotch trusted all three of them. He didn't have Morgan's problem of sharing with Reid, but he was also fine with sharing with a female agent.

He smiled a little, as he remembered how the BAU used to be. "Back when the BAU was starting, we all shared one desk," Hotch told her.

[savesherself]

"That many alpha males in such a small space, I'm surprised you all survived," she answers with a teasing grin, some of her earlier tension slipping away. Nothing's changed, not really. They're still lost, and the forest is still full of strange monsters and magic and things none of them have any way to understand... but having Hotch and JJ here makes it feel like they've got the team, if incomplete, rather than just a pair of lost agents out on their own.

Emily pauses, and then turns a little, beckoning for Hotch to follow her. "C'mon, I'll show you where we are. We can ask the other two where they want to be - I don't mind sharing with any of you guys."

[didntblink]

Survival was a relative term, Hotch thought, as he remembered how many lives had been ruined working in the BAU. It wasn't an easy place to work, though Hotch was determined that everyone on his team got through it, as much as that was under his control. "We worked more cases on our own," Hotch pointed out, "Eased the tensions." And they were so determined to simply work the cases, to show it was possible. None of them had been willing to give up the BAU to get a desk, or an office, of their own in another department.

It felt a little like when they were on the road, to have a place to be together, as a team. Unless they were cramped for some reason, they all had their own rooms, but he didn't want his own place here. Seeing her FBI windbreaker, Hotch was impressed with how instantaneous their kidnappings were. "I'll guess Reid didn't have his go bag in hand either," he commented as he walked with her. His hadn't made it that far. They had been working nonstop to find Emily, and here she was.

[savesherself]

"Unfortunately, no," she sighs. "I think he was in the office when he was... taken."

Prentiss hates the way that sounds. It makes them into victims, but she doesn't know of another way to look at it. She shakes it off, and keeps walking until she reaches the cabin she shares with Reid, and the empty one next to it, where she stops, and gives Hotch a quick once-over. It's not really ever easy to tell when he's tired or drained or anything, but if he was wandering in the woods before he found his way here...

"How long have you and Jaje been here? If you need to sleep, you can take my bed for now - the other cabin's empty, but it's probably going to need a little cleaning before you can actually sleep in there."

[didntblink]

The office in Quantico was a bold place to take an FBI agent. But honestly, with how many people and...other beings or...such had been taken, Hotch supposed it probably had not been a terrible challenge. The whole team had been within fifteen feet when Hotch had been taken. He had thought both he and JJ were take together until determining her memory was okay and everything Emily was now saying.

"It's been," Hotch glanced down at his watch and realized that it truly had been far longer than was typically safe to go without sleep. There hadn't been time, hadn't been safety. "Quite some time now." Generally, Hotch was fairly good at taking care of himself, as much as he needed it. But what the human body needed and Hotch demanded of it didn't always meet up.

"That would be good," Hotch decided to accept the offer. There seemed to be no immediate threat, and he supposed that was the best they got in this place. And he did need to sleep. "But wake me if you need anything," Aaron looked over at her, serious. He had no doubts there were depths of dangers that a mildly fortified residence supplied limited protection from.

[savesherself]

"If anything comes up, you'll be the first to know," Emily promises with a quick smile. "Reid might come in, but I'll try to make sure he knows you're here so he's quiet about it." She doubts he'd sleep through anyone coming into the room he's sleeping in - she certainly doesn't, and she has a hell of a lot less reason to be paranoid than Hotch - but a warning might make sure he's not too disturbed by the interruption.

For a moment, she wavers, some small part of her reluctant to let him out of her sight. It's silly, but things in the Wood are so rarely certain, and so often illusions or tricks, and in the back of her mind she can't help but wonder if he might not disappear as soon as she leaves him alone.

She shakes it off after a moment, and smiles again, this time gentle and fond and so very relieved just to have him here. "Sleep well, Hotch."