Disclaimer – I own nothing.
A/N – I'm not American, so there will be factual errors in this fic. Please be forgiving. Thanks!
There were times when Emily Prentiss just wanted to hang up on the media liaison. It was 7am. On a Sunday. It was bad enough that the perky blonde was in the office working, but did she have to find a case at 7am? They were just back from a grueling case in Miami at 11pm last night. She had gone to sleep 2am. Five hours of sleep was just not done.
She got out of bed and went to the loo to brush her teeth and have a quick shower. A look in the mirror told her she looked worse than she felt, which was not done. Since she had no clue where they were off to, she packed a shirt and wore her favourite purple polo-neck sweater and pulled on her jacket. She looked passably presentable. She sighed as she made her way to her car lugging her go bag.
She made a frustrated noise when her car refused to start. She peered into the gas meter which blinked red. She almost cursed and pulled out her phone and dialed quickly.
"Morgan! Are you on your way already?" Emily asked, crossing the fingers on her left hand.
"Oh brilliant! Can you please pick me up? My car has no gas. Not even enough to go to the station and I refuse to push the car in heels." Emily explained, making a joke in the end. She knew it was lame, but she always had this urge to make him laugh, even if it was at her, when she spoke to him.
She hung up and crawled out of her car and made her way to the street from the basement of the Apartment building. It was actually quite warm, even though it was only May. She figured the polo-neck and the jacket may have something to do with it. Her face broke into a grin when she saw Morgan pull up beside her, looking quite good in his studly sunglasses. He was the only one who could pull them off.
"Good Morning! Isn't it a bit warm?" Morgan asked, snickering as he took in what his friend was wearing.
Emily punched him lightly on the arm and buckled in. "It's cold on the plane." She said and put on her own sunglasses.
The ride to the office was pleasant, neither of them feeling the need to make conversation. It gave Emily the time to fully wake up and be ready to function. Derek Morgan was the best looking FBI agent she had ever seen. He belonged on TV and in magazines, with his smile, his easy charm and definitely his body. For a very long while, she thought that Morgan and the technical analyst, Penelope Garcia had something going on, until she had introduced Emily to her boyfriend, Kevin, who reminded her of Xander on Buffy. Emily grinned at the thought. She must share this observation with Penelope.
"Why the smile?" Derek asked the pretty agent sitting next to him.
'Oh. Don't you think that Kevin looks like Xander?" Emily asked, turning to look at Derek.
"Who?" Derek asked her, frowning in confusion.
"Derek! Kevin, Penelope's boyfriend!" Emily said, a little shocked that he didn't remember him.
"No not him Emily! I know Kevin! The other dude." Derek said.
"Oh, Xander. He's from Buffy… Buffy, the vampire slayer?" Emily explained as Derek's frown deepened.
"You watch that stuff? Emily Prentiss. Who would have thought you would watch a tiny teenager kick ass." Derek said, smirking.
"I hope you realise that by saying "tiny teenager" you've just proven that you watch it too." Emily said, looking smug.
"I watched one episode. I just know that girl. You watch it like you're a fan." Derek said, turning into the parking lot.
"Whatever. You watched it." Emily said, unbuckling her seatbelt. She got out of the car, picked up her go bag that she had stashed in the trunk and headed to the elevators grinning at Derek.
Spencer Reid thrust his bag as the elevator doors closed and got in.
"Hey Reid" Emily said, smiling at the young man.
"Reid my man! What's up?" Morgan said exuberantly and put an arm around the smaller man, making him very uncomfortable.
"Um, nothing. Did… did you come together?" Reid said, trying to get away from Derek, without insulting the bigger man. Emily came to Reid's rescue when she jabbed Derek in the side telling him to pick on people his own size.
The elevator doors opened and Reid quickly escaped to his desk.
"My own size huh? You're about my size wouldn't you say?" He said, wagging his eyebrows at Emily.
"You're such a clown!" Emily said, ducking and dumping her stuff at her desk, just as JJ asked them to assemble in the conference room.
*****
"This is from Basking Ridge in New Jersey. Each of the victims is between 30 and 40, but that is where the similarity ends. They are both men and women of different races. The population is mostly Asian and White. It's an up-scale town, mostly people who work on Wall Street." Jennifer Jereau or JJ said, looking at the team.
"How many victims?" David Rossi, a senior profiler, asked.
"So far, 7. The reason the NJPD is convinced that it's the same killer is that he carves the victim's initials on their foreheads. The MO is different for each kill." JJ explained.
"Is it post mortem? The initial carving?" Reid, the resident genius, asked.
"Um, I'm not sure. But it's carved so that it's etched into the bone. It's definitely not superficial." JJ said and began gathering the files.
"We'll know more when we get there. Take off in two hours. See you on the plane." Aaron Hotchner, the team leader, said.
"Wow. That's bizarre. Why their initials?" Derek asked, not addressing it to anyone.
"I haven't heard of any ritual that does this. I'll research some more." Reid said, hurrying to his desk.
Emily looked at JJ and gave her a small smile. "How's Henry?" she asked.
"He's good. He's become so big! He's walking now." JJ answered, a proud smile on her face.
"That's great JJ. Maybe we can hang out after we're back?" Emily asked JJ.
"Absolutely. Should be fun. Anyway, I'll see you on the plane?" JJ said and went to her office leaving Emily and Derek alone.
"You want to hang out with JJ?" Derek asked Emily. The whole interaction had been awkward.
"I don't socialise with anyone! I just feel… guilty. I don't know why!" Emily said, frowning as she realised this.
"We hang out!!! I cannot imagine another person I'd rather watch football with!" Derek said giving his friend a one arm hug.
Emily felt instantly better. A hug from a good friend was just what she needed. She's been feeling blue lately and only Derek seemed to be able to cheer her up! She was glad he was her friend. She was glad Reid was her friend too as she crept up behind him and scaring him. He shrieked like a girl. All high pitched and squeaky! She loved it!
A/N – I wrote this chapter with Derek and Emily friendship. I will see where it goes and probably make them a pair! Please let me know what you think!