After a particularly difficult case, the BAU team had headed straight for the nearest bar as soon as the jet landed, everyone needed to relax and try to forget the horrific scenes they had once again witnessed. Nora Kingsley had taken over as the team's communications expert from JJ nearly a year and a half ago, and had come to the resolute conclusion that it never gets easier – you just learn how to deal with it better. And she was starting to, it was crazy how quickly the team had become like a family to her – always supportive, reassuring and most importantly they understood. Amidst the music and the flashing lights the group found a table and settled with their drinks, immediately slipping into easy conversation.

Penelope was grilled on the latest gossip from her relationship with Kevin Lynch by Emily and Nora; Hotch and Rossi were discussing office 'politics' (i.e. poorly disguised gossip about one Erin Strauss); Spencer was commenting amusedly on Derek's already roaming eyes as he began searching the crowd for his flavour of the night, and trying to avoid his friend's attempts at encouraging him to 'work on his game'. 'Same thing, different night,' Nora thought with a smile.

'What about you two beautiful ladies? Got some hunks hidden away in secret?' Garcia had obviously had enough of talking and wanted to dig in their love lives for a change. Immediately a light flush graced Emily's cheeks and a shifty look appeared in her eyes, the alcohol having made her much easier to read.

'Aha! Seems Emily does have some hunk on the side, Pen! Nice work. Now spill!'

The men all chuckled as Penelope and Nora swiftly turned on Emily, firing question after question at the poor agent. Emily pressed a hand against her forehead in exasperation; she should have known that she wouldn't be able to keep it a secret for long. Looking back up at the mix of eager and amused faces she pouted.

'Fine! His name is Greg, he's a consultant paediatrician at the hospital.'

'Very nice!' trilled Penelope, excited at the prospect of hearing more about Emily's mystery man. 'So what's he look like? How serious is it? Should we be offended you haven't told us?!'

'Pen, for God's sake shut up!' Emily interjected with a laugh. 'He's pretty tall, about 6'2, dark brown hair, brown eyes – typical tall, dark and handsome I guess.'

'So he's basically Hotch?' Nora cut in with a smirk, winking at Penelope as she did so.

'What?! No! I.. I mean... What?!' At this point Emily had turned bright red and her two interrogators were falling about in the booth giggling madly. Again the men rolled their eyes at the antics of their teammates, Derek finally managing to convince Spencer to join him in talking to two girls he had spotted by the bar as the table 'descended into madness'. Finally recovering from their fit of laughter the girls composed themselves.

'We were only joking Em, but what a reaction! Ha!' Penelope finished with a teasing look, almost bursting into laughter again at the wholly unimpressed look she received in response.

'Anyway, as I was saying' she sent a second filthy look to her audience as Nora snorted slightly in amusement. 'I've only known Greg about four months and with the way both of our schedules are, we've only met up a few times.' At this she received sympathetic glances from the table; they all knew how difficult it could be to maintain a relationship in their line of work – Hotch and Rossi especially. Emily nodded in acceptance and sighed longingly 'He's such a nice guy though, a real gentleman you know? And he understands the whole on call at all times situation... I think it could really work. If we get through the next month I'll introduce you all.' She finished with a hopeful smile.

'Yes!' Everyone laughed as Penelope fist pumped at the promise - she really was too much sometimes.

Nora's smile faltered slightly as she caught sight of what appeared to be two couples at a table by the bar. She felt her heart sink and her chest tighten as she recognised the men, one in particular causing her somewhat painful reaction. She was startled back from her misery by Penelope's voice. 'Hey, where'd my Chocolate Adonis and Junior G-man go?'

Hotch smirked and pointed them out across the room. 'It seems Derek took advantage of Spencer's distaste for excessive gossip and finally convinced him to go work on his game. Maybe Spencer will be the one you girls are grilling for love-life details next time.'

As everyone looked over to the boys, watching their favourite genius successfully flirt with a beautiful girl, they missed the grimace that crossed Nora's face – all except Dave Rossi. He'd noticed the change for weeks now; saw the subtle glances she sent across the room whenever she entered the bullpen; the added sparkle in her eyes whenever they spoke no matter the subject. She had fallen hard for their young Dr Reid and amazingly, had kept it hidden from a team of expert profilers. He was fairly sure no one else had noticed; their actions in this moment proved that much.

Rossi stood up swiftly, 'Nora? Would you join me at the bar for a moment please? Anyone else need a top up?' After taking everyone's order and ignoring the group's curious glances he led the young woman towards the bar (making sure to take a route away from the flirting agents). Once their order was placed Rossi turned to face his companion, 'How long?' Confusion spread across Nora's face as she considered the man in front of her. Had she finally given it away? Could he really know?

Choosing to err on the side of caution, Nora answered with a probing 'what do you mean?'

Rossi smiled down at the girl and elaborated, watching as her expression turned to shock and defeat. 'Spencer. How long have you been in love with Spencer?'

Nora sighed. 'I didn't think anyone knew...'

'I'm the only one as far as I can tell. You have hidden it exceptionally well.'

At this she let out a small laugh. 'Thanks, I have tried.' She glanced up at Dave shyly then. 'I've had feelings for him from the start; I mean the guy is seriously amazing! Then as I got to know him more and more I've just fallen deeper. I realised I had fallen in love with him around 6 months ago now...' She looked at him and let out a sad laugh, shaking her head in dejection. 'It's not like it matters anyway, he definitely doesn't feel the same way. Tonight proves that, she's all over him and he loves every second of it...' She ended with a wince and turned away from the room to focus on something, anything else.

'Look, I won't say anything to anyone about this but I think you should. You know you're always more than welcome to talk to me anytime, but it might be helpful to have someone else on side. Out of curiosity, have you never considered that he does feel the same way and is hiding it from everyone just like you have been? I'm not saying he does, but it might be worth the risk. That little scene over there might even be to make you jealous or maybe even a way to move on from a perceived unrequited love? You don't know if you don't try.'

Nora looked back at the table once before focusing on Dave again, a desolate look in her eyes. 'Or maybe he's just finally getting the confidence to go after what he wants, and it most certainly is not me. And isn't the agreement that we don't profile each other?' Nora quickly took a shot before plastering a thoroughly convincing smile on her face, grabbing the tray of drinks and making her way back to the group.

'What was that all about?' Emily demanded as they reached the table.

'Oh Dave just wanted to ask me something that's all. So, how's our genius doing?' Nora attempted to divert the attention away from her private conversation quickly.

'No way.' Emily replied, shaking her head with a smirk. 'If you aren't going to dish the dirt on your secret conversation, it's your turn in the spotlight missy.'

'What? Spotlight?'

'And payback is a bitch Nora dearest. What's happening in your love life hmm?'

Nora nearly burst into laughter at the 'subtle' examination of her body language that followed the question. Managing to keep a straight face, she responded coyly 'well now, that is between me and Dave isn't it'. She finished with a wink to the man in question who gave an amused smirk.

'Of course, darling'.

It was at that point, when Emily and Penelope sat gobsmacked and Hotch decided to play along by smiling at the 'couple' and letting them know it was 'about time' they told the team, when Derek and Spencer returned to the table. Drunk as the girls were they completely believed their friends, and immediately began questioning how long they'd been together and how they'd managed to hide it so well. The charade was to last no longer however, as the combination of Dave's '..and we just got engaged, fourth time's the charm don't you think?' with Spencer and Derek's completely confused and somewhat alarmed expressions tipped the trio off the edge. As they burst into laughter at their co-workers expense, the others finally caught on that it was a joke and joined in. Once the team had settled down, Derek spoke up.

'So... how exactly did you end up discussing a fake relationship, sorry engagement, between these two?'

'They tried to turn on me!' exclaimed Nora in indignation, traces of amusement sparkling in her eyes.

'We wanted to talk about her love life, that's all! We'd already gone over mine and uncovered Em's dirty little secret so it's only fair that we had a little chat about Nora's.' Garcia explained with a perfectly wicked glint shining in her eyes.

Rossi had been sure to watch Spencer closely throughout the conversation and was pleased to see his face twitch slightly in a frown as Nora's love life was mentioned. 'There's hope for them yet,' he thought smiling.