Matt and Emily were enjoying something they hardly ever got to do- relax. They had woken up late that morning and stayed in bed for a good long while after that, choosing to skip breakfast. After eating a leisurely lunch, they ventured out into the Saturday afternoon sunshine, intent on taking a walk. A quaint idea perhaps, but one that found them enjoying the chance to just feel that blazing sun, and just enjoy spending time together.

Cheryl had promised them the weekend completely off, they wouldn't even be on call. Temple and Binder got to enjoy that this weekend. In fact she put Matt and Emily on the bottom of the on-call list. There wasn't a snowball's chance in an L.A. June that they'd get called in, and neither had any prior engagements. There were no parents visit, no friends to catch up with, no parties they promised to attend, and no FBI shindigs they'd gotten roped into.

It was just the two of them for two whole lazy days.

By two thirty the two were lounging on a park bench, arms wrapped around each, Emily leaning on Matt, in an unusually public display of affection. They were so comfortable with each other, so happy just enjoying a weekend without having to rush to the next unhinged person wielding a gun.

"Do you realize this is the first time we've ever done this?" Matt asked suddenly.

"What?" She asked confused.

"Just spent the day doing nothing, you know we always have something to do. This is the first time we're doing nothing for a whole day together."

"After six months? It can't be?" She replied incredulously.

"Yeah. Think about it, when have we done this before?" He challenged her.

She was quiet for a moment, just thinking, before stating, "That's sad."

He laughed at her expression of distaste at the idea, and asked, "What do you want to do now?"

She thought for a minute and then grinned, "Ducks."

"What?" He clearly had no idea what she was talking about.

"The pond. Let's go and feed the ducks." She told him, getting up, and yanking him with her.

"Are you serious?" He was looking at her as if she lost her mind.

"Yes. Come on." Truth be told Emily had no interest in ducks, she just wanted to see him do it.

"Okay, where do we get food?" He asked still clearly confused with the situation.

"Over here, these machines." She pointed to the candy dispenser-like devices.

"I used to get M&Ms from these things when I was a kid." He said struggling to jam a quarter in the appropriate slot.

Emily watched him amused, as she turned the crank on a second device and was rewarded with a handful of whatever ducks eat. "That one might be broken, use this one."

"Right…why did you want to do this?" He asked, still less than thrilled with the idea.

"Why not?"

"Because their ducks, their dirty, they walk in their own feces." He muttered, as he walked toward the pond, after finally getting his duck food.

"So do you." Emily said, almost stifling her laugher.

"What?"

"Checkout the bottom of your shoe."

"Oh, gross!" He yelped upon seeing a large brown smear on the bottom of his left shoe.

"Stop being such a girl and wipe it on the grass." She teased him.

"A girl huh? You want some of this?" He held his shoe up toward her.

"Don't you dare," she warned, backing away slowly.

"Now who's being a girl?" he taunted as he grabbed at her, but she leapt away, flinging her handful of duck food in the process.

Matt went for her again, tossing his own handful of food to the side. Once again Emily leapt away, this time making a run for it, with Matt chasing her. They ran around the pond like a couple of kids, Matt finally catching up to her on the other side. He reached his arms out grabbing her around the waist, lifting her up before she started giggling and kicking out, knocking him off balance. They both went down hard, though not noticing because they were laughing so hard. And, as they laugh on the ground trying to catch their breath, Matt's phone went off.

With Emily still laughing in the background he answered it, not bothering to look at the caller ID.

"Yeah?" He asked, annoyed at the interruption.

"Hi to you too, Matt." Cheryl greeted him sarcastically.

"Hi, you better not be calling us in." He said, still breathing heavily.

"Are you alright, you're breathing heav- Oh god, I just interrupted you guys…" She let it trail off, suddenly realizing Matt's mood was probably do to her interrupting some rather vigorous sex by the sound of it.

"No, no, not that, I was just chasing her." Matt supplied, before realizing how odd that would sound.

"Uh, why were you- you know what I don't want to know." She was going to end this conversation before she learned more about her friends' sex life than she wanted to.

"What's up Cheryl?" Matt was just going to ignore the awkwardness.

"I need you two to come in."

"Whoa what? We have this weekend off remember? What happened to Temple and Binder?" He demanded.

"Alright relax a minute. I know what I promised you, but I really need you on this one."

"What is it, some politician or blue blood involved?" He said angrily.

"No Matt, the HT has over eighty kids hostage." She said it harsher than she needed to, but he was giving her a headache.

"What?" Now Matt was concerned, did he hear her right?"

"A guy took a class of nine year-olds hostage at the Natural History Museum. I'd really like you and Emily on this. You're my best and there is a lot of kids at stake."

"Okay, we're on our way." He said still in shell shock as he closed his phone.

"On our way where Matt?" Emily asked, having stopped laughing as she heard snippets of the conversation, and was clearly not happy, they were supposed to have the weekend.


The lights and sirens were flashing in the SUV as Emily continued pressing the gas, pushing the vehicle as fast as it would go. Matt was in the passenger seat talking on his cell to Cheryl trying to find out even a modicum more of information on today's HT. All they knew so far was that the man was very, very pissed about something, and had almost a hundred hostages.

A brown haired man, age estimated early forties, had taken a museum theatre. There were just under 100 people in the huge Imax theatre, which was completely isolated from the rest of the museum, there was only three doors in or out from the museum, and he'd locked both with chains. To make matters worse, there was a class trip from a local elementary school occupying the better part of the theatre.

Third and Fourth graders had come from Sunny Fields Elementary to tour the museum and see a 3D film on frogs. The third graders had already seen the film, but the fourth graders accounted for over half their hostages. The HT had an assault rifle, as well as a duffel bag full of explosives, which he claimed he was more than prepared to use.

Emily tore through a light, and barely slowed down to turn into the museum, aiming the car in a shockingly accurate fashion, and skating almost perfectly into a parking space. Matt clicked his phone shut, and the duo grabbed their bags, heading toward their boss at the command post.

"Nice driving Lehman." Frank popped out of nowhere.

"Thanks. Did we get an accurate hostage count yet?" She asked them.

"Yeah, they say there's 84 kids in that class, plus five adult chaperones, two ushers are also inside, and they also sold 11 other tickets to that show. Which makes it 102 hostages." Frank added in his head.

"102, I thought you said it was less than a hundred?" Matt addressed Cheryl.

"Just found out about the 11 other tickets. What does it matter anyway?"

"Right, anything new on this guy?"

"Lia is still trying to ID him. Who's primary?"

"I am." Matt said, while Emily distractedly pointed to him, busy studying something on her computer screen.

"Alright, make the call." Cheryl told the people in the command post who'd already patched the call through to Matt's earpiece.

"Yeah?" The HT picked up the emergency phone on the wall of the theatre.

"Hi, this is Matt. I'm with the FBI."

"Hi Matt." The HT snarled condescendingly.

"What should I call you?"

"How about Boss."

"Alright Boss, how is everyone in there?" Matt said the name with distaste.

"Their fine, the kiddies have their lunch boxes, so no need to send food." He anticipated one of their possible moves.

"Alright, tell me Boss, what do you want to get out of this?"

"Revenge." He said the word with glee.

"Revenge against who?"

The HT was silent for a short time. "Tell me your last name Matt."

"Flannery."

"Hmm…" The HT sounded like he was thinking, trying to remember something. "Who's your secondary?"

"What?" Matt was surprised to say the least, and looked to Cheryl for explanation, how the did HT know that?"

"You're called so you're primary, so who is your secondary, what's his name?"

"My secondary is actually a her." Matt looked to Cheryl for guidance, and tried to buy time. What the hell was this?

"Okay then, what is her name?"

"Emily." Cheryl held up her hands saying she hand nothing, and mouthed that she was looking into it. Emily looked as confused as he was.

"Emily what, Flannery, I'm losing patience with you."

"Lehman."

"Ha! Her I know."

"What?" Now Matt was concerned and everybody looked completely bewildered.

"Yeah, she wrote the training manual right? Smart broad."

"Yeah, she is, very smart." Matt was at a loss, this was completely new.

"She's hot too if I'm remembering correctly. She's a redhead right?"

Cheryl looked worried, Matt was clearly disturbed, and Emily's mouth had fallen open, as she tried to wrap her mind around this new information. This guy knew her?

"Yeah, Boss, she's a redhead. Do you want to tell me how you know so much about her?"

"No, I don't think so." He laughed lightly and hung up.


This is a teaser for a full length, negotiation centered fic. If you like it let me know, and I'll write more. Thanks for reading and reviewing!