This not exactly my first fanfiction but it's the first CM fanfiction and I plan to come to the end of this one. I do not know how many chapters but there will be a few. It is gonna be Against/Case/Romance, H/P centered.

It is placed in some months time.

The title derives from the song "Streets of London" from Blackmore's Night. ( I DO NOT OWN it.)

I DO NOT OWN, also, Criminal Minds. (If I did, this would have been the episode where Emily would come back after her departure in S7 finale filmed in London!)

I DO OWN, however, the character that is gonna appear in next chapter… You'll see…

Enjoy and review!

Late November 2012

Chapter I

"Tea should be taken in solitude." ~C.S. Lewis

Morgan was passing from the coffee area of the bullpen heading to Rossi's office to give him some files he had asked, when he noticed Hotch was there making some tea that Emily had sent the team from London. He stood stunned for a bit but not much to catch Hotch's attention and continued his way. He entered without knocking, still a little bit distracted, and found Dave standing in his office looking over to the bullpen that was empty at this late hour of the evening. He had some paperwork and that's why he was still there himself, but also because he had some stuff to think about too.

"Here are the files you asked for, Rossi. You owe me! It took me some really long time to dig them up. What are for?", Morgan asked when he noticed that Rossi was now watching Hotch walking up to his office holding the hot cup of tea in his hands.

"Now I know why we have one bag of tea less every morning. Did you even know that he drinks tea at all?", Morgan continued smiling teasingly, "Is he cutting down on caffeine or something?"

"He does it every evening of this month.", Rossi finally answered skeptically taking his attention off the window and went to sit behind his desk.

"Does he spend every single evening here drinking tea and doing paperwork?! Is he alright, man?"

Derek was now really concerned. Rossi didn't answer. Morgan shook his head in disappointment.

"He seemed so ok till early this month.", he added.

"Because he was distracted…"

"The story with Beth went down, didn't it? Oh no… He misses his woman, man. That's the thing!"

"Exactly. And that's why he drinks English tea.", Rossi answered firmly underlining the word 'English' He got up from his chair, took the files Morgan brought and went towards the door.

"Thanks for the files, kiddo!"

And Rossi left the office leaving a far more confused Morgan behind.

"Ok… This is not my cup of tea. Oh God, again with the tea…!", Derek muttered to himself annoyed.

Rossi knocked on Hotch's door . Hotch was staring to the opposite wall in thoughts holding the hot cup in his hands. When David knocked, he left the half emptied cup on the desk and got busy with filling some papers in front of him.

"Come in", he said as normally.

He watched Rossi from the corner of his eye but he didn't lift his head.

"Dave, what's up?"

"I finished my paperwork and I want to tell you something, too."

David sat in the chair in front of Hotch's desk.

"Interpol caught a guy and they think that he is connected with some cases here."

David placed the files on the desk. Hotch stiffened a little at the Interpol mention, not too obviously. He took a sip from the tea. But Dave knew better.

"They need to check it out, because he is an American citizen. If so, they should decide on sending him here to face his sentence."

"Serial killer?", Hotch asked casually. He still hadn't lifted his head.

"He popped up in an organized crime case. They are not sure if he is a serial killer but certainly he follows some patterns known to us from five unsolved cases here."

"How came I was not notified?"

"A friend of mine called me directly."

Hotch lifted his head finally in question.

"She thought I was still in retirement.", Rossi continued quickly so as not to leave Hotch thinking for long that Emily avoid contacting him. Actually that was the truth. His friend in discussion was not Emily and she did not know her director knew Rossi, so she took the initiative to call him.

"She? I didn't know that you had admirers who work for Interpol.", Dave, Hotch joked so as not to show his relief.

"Actually I met her in three or four presentations of my books overseas."

Hotch lifted his eyebrow.

"Oh no, no! The girl is old enough to be my daughter, Aaron!"

"That didn't stop you before…"

"Oh come on! Can't I have females as just friends?"

"You tell me. Obviously I am not an expert.", and at this point Hotch was bitter.

"Have you ever thought why you and Beth did not work?", Rossi became serious jumping into the subject. He knew it wasn't the best move but he wanted to catch his friend off guard.

"'Whenever I can I'll take the chance to come to New York." Who was I kidding?", Hotch muttered to himself.

"Maybe there was different reason why you didn't try harder and why she didn't understand finally.", Dave said eyeing the cup of tea that was almost cold now.

"What did you want to tell me in the first place, Dave?", Hotch said strictly noticing his old friend's move. He took the cup in his hands. As a profiler he knew that this meant that the tea had a meaning for him but at this moment he was annoyed by Rossi's intrusion.

"I was asked to give a lecture to some new agents of Interpol and at the same time to provide any information about the cold cases. And I can't go."

Hotch at any other circumstances would have said something like "So bad with your admirer?" but now he just wanted for David to finish and get out leaving him, his thoughts and his tea alone.

"I was asked to go to London and I can't. Last week when I was ill, I finally had a pretty bad cold in my ears. The doctor doesn't allow me to get on a plane for a month, at least not for so many hours of flight without serious reason.", Rossi lied. It was a lousy lie, he knew, but obviously flying to a case is a serious reason. Sixteen hours of flight go and come for some co-operation that may not have a result weren't considered "for serious reasons".

"I'll send Morgan. He had been there before."

"Morgan is not proficient enough to give a lecture and he has no idea about the cases. Neither does Reid. They need someone with inside eyes not just the facts. We worked on them many years ago. You are the only one qualified enough for both.", Dave continued standing up.

"Dave, I have a son if you are forgetting and also I can't leave the team!"

"You are not gonna miss for ages. It's only a week and as for the team I can hold the strings while you are gone, my friend. I've done this before."

Hotch bent his head and shook it in disagreement. He did not want to go to London, at least not forced like this. David walked to the door.

"It's a good opportunity Aaron! You'll get to get out from here, see if Big Ben is still in its place and get more of this tea you love so much…"

Smiling knowingly Rossi opened the door and got out of the office, leaving a confused and thoughtful Hotch still holding his cup of tea.

Tea is a cup of life. ~Author Unknown

Spoiler: Hotch does go to London. Not really one… The story takes place in London as I said!

Who is he going to meet apart from Emily? How is Emily doing?

Stay tuned and you will find out…

Please Review!