Author's Note: This story is a twoshot (possibly a threeshot) and was written in response to Bonus Challenge #8 - Author's First Christmas...I chose the prompt: Geronimo Stilton - A Christmas Catastrophe. Enjoy!

FYI—I have a poll up on my profile asking which 'clichéd' storyline you'd like to read and with which couple. If the storyline/couple you'd like to see doesn't appear there, please feel free to PM me with what you'd be interested in seeing! Some that have been mentioned to me outside of the poll are lacunar amnesia (for Derek w/ a Morgan/Garcia pairing) and a drunken Vegas wedding for Garcia/Morgan. I'm interested in knowing what you'd like to read! Thanks. – Angie

Emily Prentiss reached for her cell phone on the nightstand…all the while cursing her alarm for daring to go off so early in the morning. She yawned before her eyes even opened, then sighed. It really was five-thirty a.m. She started to move to the edge of the mattress, but before she could make it, an arm draped around her waist and pulled her back until she was snug against a solid chest. She shivered from the hot kiss that was placed on her neck.

"Good morning," Aaron said in a gravelly voice.

"Good morning," Emily returned in a much softer tone.

"Trying to sneak out?" he asked.

She laughed throatily. "If I was trying to sneak out, I wouldn't have set my alarm," she informed him.

"Smart girl," he said appreciatively. "You're always thinking, Emily. Always thinking." He pulled her gently onto her back so he could lean down and give her a good morning greeting. His hand clasped her waist as his lips came down to hers in a gentle kiss.

He was soft and gentle most of the time…but the times he wasn't…those were the times Emily liked most. She lifted her arms around his neck and ran her tongue along his lower lip. His mouth opened, his tongue hot and moist as it surged forward in search of hers. One of her hands came to the back of his head in a vice grip, holding him in place as his tongue assaulted hers, dominating and hard at once. Her body lifted off the bed to mold with his, but as soon as her breasts touched his chest, he pushed back, forcing her against the mattress. She moaned lightly and he pulled away, his eyes searching hers. She grinned at him. "If you hadn't kept me up so late, we could go another round," she teased.

"I don't want us to be a secret anymore," he told her.

She pushed him off her with a groan, then scooted to the side of the bed and stood. "We've discussed this," she reminded him.

"I wasn't done," he insisted.

"Well I was," she said firmly. "I'm the ambassador's daughter. I can't be the Unit Chief's girlfriend, too. I'd be such a cliché!" Emily hated herself for it, but she worried about what people thought. She knew that a lot of people had the perception that she'd gotten where she was because of her family name, but the truth was she'd worked hard to get to where she was. And she didn't want to mess that up or give people any reason to doubt it. If she wanted to move up in the F.B.I. one day, and she did, then she wanted to do it on her own. Not on Aaron Hotchner's arm.

"Besides, if they find out about us, I'd almost certainly have to leave the B.A.U.," she pointed out.

"We'd both have to make a lot of changes," he conceded, trying to keep his eyes on her face. She was standing there in a pair of barely there night shorts and a tank top that hugged her breasts in the most delicious way.

"That's the thing. You wouldn't be the one making the changes. I would."

"Emily—"

"There's nothing you can say that's going to change my mind," she said firmly.

"Do you want me to step down as Unit Chief?" he asked softly.

Emily lifted her eyebrows. "Do you want to step down as Unit Chief?" she shot back.

"What I don't want is to make the same mistake twice," he admitted openly.

"What mistake is that?" she asked.

"Letting my career become my life. My career is just a part of my life," he mused. He may have been coming to that revelation a little late, but he was grateful to finally be having it at all.

Emily sighed as she sat down onto the mattress and rested her hand on his lean, t-shirt clad chest. "You're an excellent Unit Chief," she told him. "It would be a shame for the team to lose you."

"It would be a shame for me…to lose you," he replied sincerely. He captured her wrist with his fingers and lifted her hand to his mouth, placing a soft kiss on her palm. "I'm not willing to keep us a secret anymore."

Their morning conversation flickered through Emily's head all day. It wasn't supposed to have been like this. She shouldn't have fallen for her Unit Chief, or anyone, really. She had ambitions, and she'd always thought that a family would get in the way of that. So she'd taken herself out of the dating game, which hadn't been that hard since she'd never dated much anyway.

And she'd never been sorry for that…until she'd been staying late one night a few months ago and was trying to make sense of a particularly heinous case. Hotch had been there…the only one there…and it had all happened so classically. An accidental brush of their hands, a meeting of the eyes…she sighed at the thought. His eyes, those chocolate brown eyes that had always been so guarded were sincere that night.

To this day, she still didn't know what had come over her. She'd gotten up, walked around his desk, and sat down on his lap, lowering her lips to his for their first kiss. She'd half expected him to toss her off his knees, so when he'd lifted his arms and hauled her against him, she'd been stunned. Even more stunning was the fact that it hadn't been their last. It wasn't long before they'd started sleeping together...just a few days, really…and she'd never looked back. Until now.

Now he was pressuring her into going public, and she just didn't feel ready. And as long as they were in the same department, she didn't know if she would be.

"Hey," she heard Penelope's cheerful voice beside her. "What's got you concentrating so hard?"

Emily lifted her head in surprise and looked around. "Where is everyone?" she asked instead of answering.

"Down in the conference room. The Holiday Party started half an hour ago," Penelope informed her friend.

"Oh. Why are you still up here?" Emily asked.

Penelope grinned. "Because a Tech Kittens job is never done," she said. "Want to head down with me?"

"Sure," Emily replied as she stood.

Penelope grabbed the present off the corner of her friends desk and they headed for the elevator. "I am so glad I didn't draw Hotch's name," she said as she wrinkled her nose. "I would have had no idea what to get him."

Emily nodded. "He was hard to shop for," she agreed. For work, anyway. Her personal gift for him had been quite easy to pick out and she'd give it to him on Christmas Eve after Jack had gone to bed and she'd snuck into the house.

"What did you get him?" Penelope asked.

Prentiss smiled teasingly. "You'll have to find out when everyone else does," she informed her friend.

"What do you think it is?" Reid asked as Hotch picked up his present.

He shook it and shrugged. "I have no idea," he answered.

Something was wrong, Emily thought as her entire body went on alert. His box wasn't making any noise. There were loose tootsie rolls in there, along with a few other things, and they should have been making a little thumping sound. "Aaron—" she said urgently. Everyone stopped to look at her; she'd never used Hotch's first name before, so it was a bit of a surprise when it crossed her lips now.

"What?" he asked, not looking up as he opened the present in his hand. She rushed forward, but wasn't quick enough. Hotch pulled the contents of the box out and froze. He was holding a frame in his hand, but it was what was in the frame that captured the attention of everyone around him. It was a dazzling 8 x 10 photograph of Emily, scantily clad in a red sheer Santa suit, lying across a divan in a rather naughty position.

Derek looked at Emily and lifted his eyebrows. "Hot damn," he said appreciatively.

And just like that…the cat was out of the bag.