A/N: Hi everyone! :) So this is the first chapter of a series I was thinking of writing. I'm posting the first chapter now to see if you guys like the idea or not. If you want me to continue it, I definitely will. This story takes place after the events of "The Instincts" and "Memoriam", but for convenience purposes regarding the plot, the date is sometime in August 2008; different from when the episode actually aired. But anyway, if you guys like this one I'll continue it. Thanks so much to everybody for reading and reviewing. Enjoy!

September 2008

A mix of emotions rushed through Emily Prentiss' head as she walked reluctantly to the office of her superior, Aaron Hotchner. Clearly, he wasn't an idiot. She knew that he would notice the changes in their behavior eventually; especially in her case. There was no way that the team could do their best job possible when two of the members could barely speak to each other. Hotch wanted answers – and that was what he was going to get. She had no other options. She had to tell him everything that had happened, no matter how embarrassed or how ashamed she felt about it. And if she didn't, it could cost her her job. That couldn't happen, because now she would need it more than ever.

Four weeks earlier... August 2008

Emily awoke with a groan, trying to escape the rays of sunlight pouring through the windows by burying her face deeper into her pillow. It wasn't working. Unwillingly, she rolled over onto her back, just noticing that she had a splitting headache. She sat up and looked around the room hazily, realizing that this wasn't her bedroom. None of this was familiar to her. At all.

Where am I...?

It was then, that she noticed the figure lying down next to her, sleeping soundly. Confused, she then realized that she wasn't wearing any clothing. Not a stitch of it.

Oh no.

No, no, no.

She sunk back into the bed, feeling humiliated. She remembered it all now.

Just a few days earlier, Emily had noticed that Reid had looked really stressed out during the case they had just finished. She knew that it had been really hard on him... so she had decided to invite him out for drinks – as friends, of course – to try to help him get his mind off of work for a little bit.

Little had she known, that things would not go quite as she expected.

Who knows how many drinks later, all she could remember was that she had called a cab for both of them to go back to Reid's place... and now there she was – lying in his bed, naked and hung-over as all hell.

How could I have been so fucking irresponsible?

Being extra careful not to wake him up, she crawled out of his bed silently. She found her clothes on the floor, put them on, and slipped out of the apartment making as little noise as possible. She called a cab to take her home while she waited outside of the building, hoping that by the time he woke up, she would be long gone.

About an hour or so later, Reid awoke feeling the same way that Emily had – tired, drowsy, splitting headache – except that he immediately remembered everything. Every last detail.

Before even trying to make sense of what had happened, he got out of bed and went straight into the shower. Of course, she had left already. Reid couldn't help but think that he had completely screwed things up between them; possibly for good. After all, coming back to his place had been his idea.

Emily had invited him out for drinks because she thought that he was too stressed out – which he had been. But there was another reason why he had accepted her invitation.

Ever since they had gone undercover together in Colorado, Reid had started to feel a little bit more than friendship towards her. There were a lot of things that he liked about Emily – her intelligence, her sense of humor, her smile... but there was just something about her that made her different. Perhaps it was the fact that she could read his feelings just as well as he could read other people's. Or maybe because she was one of the few people in his life that didn't make him feel like a little kid. He could tell her anything, and he took comfort in that fact.

But, pushing all feelings aside, this was not something that Reid would have agreed to while he was sober. Although he did have a slight crush on Emily, he knew the effects of too much alcohol at one time – that included a shortened attention span and impaired judgement. Even if he may have wanted to sleep with her at the back of his mind, he knew that alcohol often takes away one's ability to think and judge decisions properly, therefore, not being able to fully comprehend the consequences of certain situations. He knew that alcohol had the capability to create uncomfortable circumstances, such as his current one.

So much for trying to stop stressing out...