A/N – My story for the Future Fic Challenge on CCOAC, the year is 2022 and the characters are Emily Prentiss and David Rossi...

8456 Mulberry Avenue -

Emily closed the bedroom door and walked down the stairs, a broad smile on her face, a nice relaxing feeling passing through her body after she had read to her son who was now sucking his thumb and drifting off into a deep sleep. This was the life she had once dreamt about but never thought that it would be possible especially given the nomadic existence she had lived throughout her work with Interpol and then the FBI. It was ten years ago to the day that she had left that life and it had taken her a further six to adjust to a quieter life. The house in D.C had been nice but after she left the BAU it had felt too close and she had to take off, travelling endlessly and through that she slowly lost contact with her old friends one by one. Then six years ago she had stumbled on the city of Rutland in Vermont and she had fallen in love, not with anyone in particular but with the place, the surrounding environment, by then she was only in contact with one member of her old BAU team.

Four years ago Emily had been out hiking, she had thought that she was out of cell phone range but somehow it rang and even more surprisingly it was JJ who was calling her. It was sitting on a rock overlooking the valley below that she listened to the story of Max, the five year old boy JJ had just rescued, one week later Max was settling into the spare bedroom.

The smile was still on Emily's face as she walked into the kitchen and poured herself a glass of red wine, she picked up the local paper that Max had been reading whilst he had been eating his dinner circling several events that he would like to do over the coming weekend. It was a warm summer's evening so Emily decided to take her drink and paper out onto the back deck, at the last minute she remembered her reading glasses, one of the small things that reminded her that she was now into her fiftieth decade. Finally she found that she could relax as Emily refolded the paper and started from the beginning, quickly skimming through the pages until her eyes caught the red pen that had circled an advert in the paper.

Former FBI Special Agent & Best Selling Author

David Rossi in Rutland Bookstore

Saturday 21st May 3pm

Emily felt her heart rate increase as she read the advert that her son wanted to go to the following day but she knew that no matter how painful it would be for her they would go.

Dave sat in the bookshop, he had lost count of how many small town bookstores he had sat in these last two months as he travelled around the country. The smile was now engrained on his face as he nodded politely and signed endless copies of his new book, The history of profiling in the FBI, it was basically his life story and now, after 8 years away from the BAU it was time to tell it. His eyes hadn't even looked up for the next customer, he had just reached out and taken a hold of the book.

"So who's it for then?"

"Max Prentiss please Mr Rossi."

The young boy's voice didn't have much impact on Dave but the words did, his heart almost stopped for a second and immediately he brought his eyes up to look at the small brown haired, brown eyed boy in front of him but then he caught sight of the tall slender female figure standing behind the boy.

"Emily?"

A slight smile crossed her face as she felt all eyes in the bookshop suddenly fall onto her.

"Hello Dave."

"Mom?"

The confusion only grew in Dave's head as he looked at the boy then Emily who smiled and ruffled the boy's hair.

"It's ok Max, Mr Rossi and I are old friends."

"Yeah it's certainly been a while Emily, about ten years right?"

"About that, come Dave sign the book, we're causing a backlog here!"

Dave shook his head slightly as Emily grinned once again, his hand shaking as he signed the book in front of him.

"Thank you Mr Rossi."

"A pleasure son."

"Here's my address Dave, why don't you come around after you've finished here?"

Dave just nodded his head as he took hold of the piece of paper Emily laid on the table before she put her arm around the boy's shoulders and they turned to leave the bookstore.

Dave stood on the steps of the townhouse, it was three stories tall but from the outside he could gain no sense of how big it was. He took a deep breath and knocked on the door, wondering how the evening was going to go.

"Evening Dave, come on in."

Dave smiled and nodded his head, taking a quick glance at Emily's left hand as he walked past, noticing the lack of any ring he couldn't help but bring his gaze up to Emily who failed to suppress her laughter.

"I suppose there's a lot we need to catch up on Dave!"

"Max?"

Dave raised an eyebrow as the two of them stopped in the hall, knowing what had happened between the two of them several times.

"Don't worry Dave you're clear on that front, I suppose I should warn you, his name was Max Campbell."

"Oh."

"I'll fill you in when he's gone to bed but first of all he wants to play chess with you."

"Oh great, how good is he?"

Emily just laughed out loud as she turned and led the way up the hall, knowing that Dave would need a strong drink after Max had gone to bed.

Dave sat on the back deck and took a long sip of red wine, glad that Emily had left the bottle on the table, but he didn't have to wait long until Emily rejoined him.

"Wow that was easier than I thought."

"So Max?"

"I take it you know the case?"

Emily waited as Dave nodded his head, even though he had retired from the BAU he still kept tabs on their cases and well any cases that involved the abuse, torture of children were always well covered in the media.

"JJ got in contact with me after she had found him, she thought that it would help Max's recovery to live with someone who would understand what he had gone through."

"Well it obviously had, he's lovely Emily."

"Thanks that means a lot."

"So how did you end up here?"

Emily smiled as she poured herself a large glass of wine.

"By accident really, I never took the Interpol job, after coming back from Paris I don't know, I suppose I just found it difficult to settle anywhere, so I took off again, and again, and again until six years ago I fell in love."

"Well it had to happen sometime!"

"Not with someone Dave, here, the place!"

"Yeah it is lovely, I just pictured you in London heading up Interpol by now."

"And you're on wife number...?"

The two of them laughed out loud as Dave shook his head firmly.

"On no, no more marriages. I left the BAU eight years ago, thought that it was time to finally slow down."

"Really?"

Emily raised an eyebrow with a wide grin on her face.

"Yeah well maybe the fight with Strauss was a factor too."

Emily laughed again as she reached for the bottle of wine, quickly refilling both of their glasses.

"It's really good to see you Dave."

"You too Emily, I missed you."

Dave looked over at Emily, a small smile on his face as the two of them looked deep into each other's eyes.

"So how far have you got to go on your book tour?"

Emily sighed as she broke the silence, she could feel where the evening was going, back to the nights they had spent together after tough cases but she couldn't let that happen, not yet, not with Max asleep upstairs.

"Phhffftt don't really know, it can't be much longer I think I have visited every bookstore in the whole country!"

"Your agent is good!"

"She may well be but I'm going to need a long holiday afterwards."

"I can recommend a good place, quiet, great countryside, maybe some friendly company?"

Emily smiled as she put her glass down on the table and leant back in her chair.

"That sounds good, I could certainly use some company."

Dave smiled as he looked across at Emily who laughed.

"Let me know when you need me to make up the spare room then!"

"You have a spare room?"

"Two actually!"

"It's a date then."

"I missed you Dave."

Emily smiled as Dave leant over and kissed her softly on the lips, maybe her quiet life wouldn't be so quiet from now on.

Finis.