It was a Saturday. It was only 3 in the morning but Emily Prentiss was still awake, sitting at the table in her new kitchen drinking some wine and watching the typical rain in England slide down the glass of the windows. To act as a background to her thoughts, there were sounds coming from the TV on the living room, which was playing the replica of an old series of the last' 90s, and the sounds of the London night life.
She didn't really care about what was surrounding her, she was compiling a mental list of all the reasons why that would be one of the most depressing weekend in her whole life.
Probably, the fact that the day before it was her birthday and no one remembered that has the best chance to win the imaginary prize. Of course, she didn't expect any birthday wishes from her parents. They barely remembered how much it would have been special October 12 to her when they lived in the same house, let alone now that they were living in two different Continents.
But her team...well, actually her former team... They kinda disappointed her. In the past 6 years they always remembered her birthday, even last year when they organized a little surprise party at Garcia's place, even if they were just came back in DC after a long and enervating case...to not talking about her fake death. She didn't ask for a phone call or a video chat on Skype, just a simple text or mail it would make her a very happy woman.
But, evidently, the new Agent has replaced her in everything.
All these thoughts were doing her more harm than good; luckily her mental auto torture was interrupted by someone who was knocking on the door.
"Who could he be? Who knocks on someones door in the middle of the night?" she whispered to herself "Someone who needs some help...or Arthur Dale. If you wanna get drunk every fucking night it's okay, it's your life, but you can't bother the whole condo, I could arrest you for that!" Prentiss raised her voice ready to overthrow all her personal frustrations on her drunk neighbor as soon as she opened the door.
When she reached the doorway and opened it, the 14 balloons, with the written 'HAPPY BIRTHDAY!', a letter on each balloon, that stood in front of her, made change the woman's previous mind.
"I'm late, I know and I'm so sorry for that!" a voice said behind the balloons
"Morgan? Is it you?"
"Yeah!" he replied showing his face "I planned everything to be here yesterday, but there was a little security issue on the plane so we had to land in Portugal. I wanted to get you at least one call, but in all the confusion it came out of my mind. It wasn't nothing serious, useless talking to you about how many crazy people are around! Anyway, I'm sorry again for the delay, but look at the good side, according to DC time is still the 12th so...happy birthday, Emily!"
"Derek, what a beautiful surprise! Thanks a lot" she happily said hugging, with a slight embarrassment, her friend "You don't need to be sorry for no reason. Oh, please, come in"
"Em, is so beautiful to see you again! And your place is better than I remembered" he declared entering the house
"Maybe because it is a little less messy that when you see it last time, and in any case I would not have ever made this without your and Garcia's help. By the way, where are you staying?"
"Actually...I came right now from the airport and my hotel canceled my reservation because of the flight delay so I need to find a place nearby"
"You've already find it, stay here!"
"Are you sure?"
"Of course! How many days will you stay?"
"I've 5 days off...well, 4 now. But if you'll be sick of me before, you've my permission to kick me out of your place!"
"Please, don't be silly"
"Oh, I've not even ask...did I bother you? Probably you wanted to go to bed..."
"Nope, don't worry, I'm not tired at all"
"That's great, because I'm on the jet lag and I can't spend all the night up to listen all you have to tell me fate-to-face, without a laptop screen between us" taking a seat on the couch, next to her.
During those months, not a day passed without the two former field partners talked to each other. It was surprisingly easy talking to him about her new life in Europe.
"Oh, before I forget it..." Derek began to speak again "...the guys have forgotten you and they have instructed me to bring you their greetings"
"Thank you" voiced the woman looking for a place where to lie the balloons to keep them from flying up to the ceiling
"Listen, in my opinion there is nothing more sad that the balloons in deflating. What about some noise?"
"Are you asking me to blow them up?" she questioned
"Em, believe me...maybe in some of them you can find something..."
"In this case..." she asserted, taking the first pointed thing at hand and blowing up a balloon
"Sorry Princess, no lucky there" Morgan spoke when the balloon with the exclamation mark on it not revealed any content.
The next choices gave more results. When her little was done, she grabbed all her presents from the floor. There were 5 greeting cards, one for each of her ex colleagues.
"Wow, thank you all for this beautiful present"
"You are welcome. We are missing you and this a little way to prove you that. Oh, the new Agent, Blake, told me to wish you a happy birthday, despite the fact that you've ever known"
"Kind of her. How do you feel with Blake on work?"
"Do you mean besides the fact that she is certainly not you?"
"Ehm...yep" she replied with a whisper, hoping not to be blushed
"She is a good Agent"
"That's all?"
"Sorry, I can't describe her without comparing her with you...".
At this point, no one of them knew exactly how to continue their talking. Luckily, the black Federal saved the moment before that the embarrassment became too cumbersome:
"So, come on! We stay hours on phone or Skype to talk and now that I'm here, you don't say a world? If you feel embarrassed to see me in person I go into another room and we can chat on laptop as if I was still in Virginia"
"Is the jet lag effect that makes you say this bullshits?" she laughed "Ok, what do you want to know?"
"Everything you want to tell me...".
Then she began to talk. The words came out from her mouth so easily that she didn't even look like the same Emily Prentiss who has always had difficulties to talk about herself.
And soon, after what had seemed to them a dozen minutes, the first rays of a pale sun crept through the windows to let them notice that a new morning has started.
"What the..." Derek exclaimed unable to reconcile the time that he seemed to be past with what was actually spent "What the time is it?" a quick look at his wristwatch "What? It's already 7.20? How can it be possible?"
"I really don't know, it seems like we started talking few minutes ago"
"I sincerely hope that you do not have to work"
"Nope, I've got the weekend off"
"That's great! You see, this is one of the thing I love most of spending time with you"
"Which thing?"
"To lose completely track of time"
"I talked almost always only me, I hope you did not get bored"
"Are you joking, right? Spending just few minutes with you, even only to look at you, automatically excludes the boredom. And now I think I'm looking like a maniac or something like thata maniac or something like that to you eyes, don't I?"
"Derek, we worked side by side so you should know that I came in contact with maniacs or something like that...and you don't even come close to the least depraved of them. And now I'm the one who said the wrong thing..."
"It's okay, I got what you mean. Hope that it's not my turn now, because there's a thing that I'd love very much to do and I really hope to not fail here" he spoke neutralizing the gap between them to put his lips on hers, waiting for Emily to do the next step.
His waiting lasted less than a while. Immediately Prentiss kissed him back exploring with her tongue his mouth.
It was another of the moments that Morgan had spoken just before, that moments in which several minutes seemed to last only a very short second.
"Happy birthday, Em!" he whispered against her lips not wanting to take further distances
"It is October 13th even in DC now" the brunette corrected him, tickling his lips
"Oh! Therefore...happy birthday to me!"
"What are you saying?" she asked, cannot help but kissing him again "Are you very late or extremely beforehand?"
"Does it matter? The fact is that this is the best gift I've ever received in my life" the man exclaimed getting another taste of his not-birthday present.
Thanks for reading, hope you liked it...and R&R if you want! ;))
