So this story is kind of different from my other Criminal Minds fic 'Uncovered Nightmares'. If you haven't read it go check it out *Motions with hands*

I'm pretty sure that there aren't any stories like this one, I'm not going to go into detail, so you're going to have to find out for yourself:)

Enjoy reading

Chapter 1

"JJ, can you assemble everyone in my office in five minutes?" Hotch called out to her from his high viewpoint over the bullpen.

"Sure." The blonde agent replied, nodding as she turned to inform the team who were currently refueling on precious coffee at the kitchenette in the corner.

"Guys? Hotch wants us in his office in five." She told them as she walked over.

"Do we have another case?" Prentiss asked with an air of confusion. Doesn't JJ usually arrange them instead of Hotch? JJ shook her head.

"I'm in the dark as much as you guys are on this one." She confirmed.

"Alright, then." Morgan muttered as he sipped his hot drink.

Everyone was standing around in Hotch's office waiting for him to arrive and explain what this was about.

"Is this something about our last case?" Morgan thought out loud. Although the team was successful in finding the killer of twelve women, they weren't able to stop him from committing suicide by cop and taking another woman down with him.

"I don't think so or he would have said something in the de-brief." Reid frowned, but talking ceased immediately as Hotch opened the door and stepped inside, taking a seat at his desk.

"Is this about a case?" Rossi inquired to the steely gaze of their superior, who took a few seconds to respond.

"No, I got an email from Strauss. We are attending a team-building course next week. Mandatory attendance." The team were not pleased.

Actually, from the looks on their faces that was like calling the Grand Canyon a ditch – a major understatement.

"You're kidding, right?" Morgan asked somewhat hopefully.

"No, I'm not." Hotch sighed, running his hand down his face; even he was not too thrilled by the thought.

"What if a case comes up?" Reid asked, suddenly raising the team's spirits a little.

"Then it will be assigned to another team. I expect to see everyone here on Monday morning at 7am for the drive down there and we won't be returning until the following Monday. We will be on desk duty until then." Hotch said, well and truly deflating everyone's mood, before he gave them a sincere nod and left the room.

"Great." Prentiss moaned and everyone agreed dutifully.

Much to the chagrin of the team, Monday rolled around all too quickly. With a lot of tired faces and many a cup of coffee they assembled in the bullpen waiting for further instruction from their unit chief at 7am. Hotch emerged from his office carrying a hold all and rucksack with a grim expression on his usually stoic face.

Everyone looked up expectantly as he walked down the steps before handing out a flyer to each of them. Displayed across the front was:

Rocky Heights: A team building experience to bring you closer to the mountains and each other.

Rossi did a double take at the picture splayed across the front.

"We're going horseback riding?" He asked Hotch in disbelief and Prentiss' eyes widened in surprise.

"What?" She demanded with the same air of astonishment.

"Unfortunately yes," Hotch told them, "However, we have been assigned to this by the bureau and I'm afraid there's nothing-" He was cut short by Agent Prentiss.

"No, I love horseback riding! Thank god! I thought this was going to be terrible, but now…" She trailed off, lost for words to say.

"You horseback ride?" Morgan turned to her and raised an eyebrow.

"Yeah, it was the one thing that my mother forced me to do that I actually enjoyed." She smiled as she answered.

"Anyway," Hotch interrupted before anymore conversation could ensue, "It's a long drive, so we'd best be going." Everyone bar Emily sighed at this notion as they picked up their luggage and headed out towards the two SUV's that were waiting in the parking complex attached to the building. They split off into the two cars, Morgan, Prentiss and JJ in one, with Hotch, Rossi and Reid in the other.

Once they were on the road Derek broke the comfortable silence that had settled in the vehicle.

"So Prentiss, what have we gotten ourselves into?" Morgan asked her and Emily's eyes lit up at the prospect of being able to ride again – She hadn't had the chance since she'd moved back to the city.

"It's amazing. My mother controlled pretty much everything in my life, but when I was riding I was the one in control. You know what I mean?" She looked over to him.

"Yeah, I understand." Morgan knew what it meant to want to control the things that happened in life from a young age, "What do you think, JJ?" He looked towards the back of the vehicle for a second before placing his eyes firmly on the road ahead again.

"Oh, I always wanted to try it when I was younger, but I'm more excited about the prospect of seeing Hotch on a horse." She laughed at this unusual image and the other two joined in.

Meanwhile, in the other SUV, Rossi and Hotch were calmly discussing the benefits this team-building course could have on the team.

"Did you know that a 2002 study suggested that riders received 1 injury per 100 hours for leisure riding, 1 injury per 5 hours for amateur racing with jumps, and 1 injury per 1 hours riding when participating in cross country jumping. " Reid interjected, slightly anxious of the activities ahead.

"As interesting as that prospect is, I'm not sure any of us will be cross country jumping any time soon." Hotch reassured the younger agent.

"Emily does." Rossi told them, then looked up to see their surprised faces at the snippet of information that they hadn't heard, "What? She told me on the walk from the elevator." Shaking his head slightly, Hotch refocused his eyes on the SUV on the road ahead of him.

"I think we're here." Morgan announced as they drove under a sign spelling out Rocky Heights, before parking the car outside the little building labeled Reception.

The area wasn't too populated – trees and a couple of mountains filled most of the landscape, although there were a couple of buildings through the trees, but no one was really sure if they were owned by Rocky Heights or not. Everybody got out of the vehicles and stretched their limbs whilst Hotch went inside to inform someone that they had arrived. He soon walked out again and was followed by a smiley brunette woman in her mid-forties.

"Hello, and welcome to Rocky Heights. My name is Rita and me and my husband Ray own the place." She greeted them cheerfully, "I take it you guessed by now that we're all about horseback riding? We'll settle you in tonight and you can all meet your mounts tomorrow morning."

Although Morgan wasn't really too sure of what to think about this horseback riding business, Emily told him how she felt and he trusted her judgment – though he wouldn't care to admit it to her – so he was willing to give it a go.

"Hi, I'm Emily," Prentiss introduced herself, too captivated deal with niceties to introduce the others, "What type of riding do you do here? English or Western?"

"English, although we do use the trails up into the mountains, Ray and I used to compete so we have all of the English facilities such as a dressage arena and cross country course." Reid gulped. "But enough of that now, let me show you to your cabin where you can freshen up." She began walking away from the reception and down a little path surrounded by trees and the team followed.

"Cabin? As in just one?" Morgan asked her.

"Yes, we believe that it helps the team to bond better, sleeping under the same roof." Rita confirmed, and Morgan looked a little downcast, but before he could reply Rita stopped and gestured to the building beside her.

"Here we are. You have about a half hour before dinner. I assume you can find your way back to the reception for then?" After a swift nod from Hotch she left the group looking a little apprehensive outside the log cabin.

"What are we waiting for?" JJ prompted the group into action and they shuffled into the building, each of them racing to get a top bunk. Unfortunately for Reid, he was too slow and got the one right next to the bathroom.

"This is like camp all over again…" He muttered to himself.

"Cheer up, Reid. It'll be great fun tomorrow." Prentiss pointed out to him, but before he could recite his interesting fact from earlier Hotch spoke.

"Why don't we take a look around before dinner? It'll be nice to stretch our legs after the journey." After everyone readily agreed, they stepped out of the cabin.

Around two hours later the group returned to their cabin, eyelids heavy and stomachs full of Rays barbequed hamburgers. Each of them took it in turns to use the bathroom and change before getting into their bunks, some of them more looking forward to the next morning than others.

Although it had been a while, Emily was sure that she would pick up on her riding exactly where she left off. As she lay in her bed she stared up at the ceiling above her as her thoughts wandered to the hours and hours of time she used to spend at various barns across the world as she travelled with her parents. Even though she always moved to a new place where she didn't know anyone or anything, it always comforted her how no matter what country they were in every single barn smelled exactly the same. If she hadn't been able to carry these securities around with her she was pretty sure she wouldn't have handled her situation as well as she had done – well it would have gone a lot worse, anyway.

Most people live under the impression that home is where the heart is, or where their family are at the time, but since she couldn't really call anything her house, even, for more than a coupe of months at a time a young Emily Prentiss hadn't had these luxuries. Sure, she was grateful for the opportunities that she'd had, but it was nice for a young girl to find peace in the only place that she was accepted. It was this thought that she kept with her as she drifted off into a restful sleep.

Each of the profilers awoke to the sound of knocking on the cabin door and Hotch got out of bed to answer in knowing that there was more of a chance of a snowball in hell than one of the others answering the door.

"Hey Rita." He greeted the once again cheerful woman.

Why was she always smiling?

"Morning. Breakfast is in thirty, and I have your riding gear right here." She pointed to the pile of helmets, pants and boots on the porch beside her.

"Erm… Thanks." Hotch replied, eyeing the clothing.

"Great, just get changed and meet us down at reception. See you then." She waved goodbye and walked off, leaving a tired Hotch to lug all of the gear into the cabin.

"What's that?" Morgan mumbled as he rubbed sleep from his eyes and Hotch looked down at him apologetically.

"Our clothing." Morgan's face fell.

"You gotta be kidding me, Hotch? Those look like girl pants." He complained, indicating to the offending clothing.

"They're called jodhpurs." Emily told the team, who were all relatively awake by now.

"Whatever." Derek shook his head as he grabbed a pair and stalked to the bathroom to change.

The team were now changed and ready for the day ahead, having already eaten breakfast. Rita and Ray were leading them towards the barn to meet their horses for the week.

"Okay, so I'll read out what your horses names are and you can go find them." Rita instructed, "David – Prince, Derek – Drummer, Jennifer – Scooby, Aaron – Bobby, Spencer – Freddie and Emily – Ping. Emily, your horse is a little more advanced due to you experience, but the rest of you have very quiet mounts." She added as they filed off into the rustic farm building to find their horses.

"Hey Reid, do you have a spare body brush?" Prentiss asked before looking into his horses stall, "Reid..." She looked at him who was standing next to the door, not touching his horse and eyeing it as if it could attack him at any given moment.

"He's really big." He squeaked and Emily took pity on him.

"Come here." She stepped into the stall and took his hand and nudged him forwards until he was touching Freddie, "See, he's not that bad."

"I guess he's kinda cute." Reid admitted as Prentiss walked out with one of his brushes chuckling to herself. This was the most relaxed she had been in a while and she was going to enjoy this time while she had it.

"And this is the bit." Ray pointed out the metal part of the bridle that went in the horse's mouth to the team, who had to learn how to tack up their own horses. Although Prentiss already knew how to do this it couldn't hurt to have a refresher and help her team if they got stuck, Rita had pointed out, "You slot in in their mouth like this and do up all of these straps." He showed them how it was done and the team tried to soak in as much info as possible, although Ray had told them it usually took a couple of tries to get right.

"And that's how it's done." Rita clapped her hands together once, and then gestured to the room behind her, "All of the saddles and bridles are in there marked clearly with your horse's name. If you need any help do not hesitate to ask me, Ray or Emily."

As the team spread out to their respective stalls Rita watched the team interact with each other. She was surprised that the seasoned profilers were not aware of the physical attraction between two of their team members, however it was clear by the lack of friendly conversation between the two that they rarely spoke about anything other than work related subjects. Just then, JJ called out to her for help as she'd somehow managed to put the saddle on backwards and Scooby didn't seem too pleased about that.

After Emily had successfully sorted out the mess that Rossi had made with his horse's bridle she finally got around to tacking up her own horse, Ping. As she placed the bridle over the horses head it was clear that he was definitely not as docile as the other team member's horses, however Emily wasn't phased by his behavior because she was used to riding the more excitable ones. Just as she led him out to the arena where they were going to have their first lesson and get to know their horses a little Emily inspected her team member's faces. Obviously some were more happy to be here than others.

"Wow, Prentiss, you got your hands full over there." Morgan exclaimed under his breath as Ping skittered to the side every couple of steps, his eyes rolling, clearly ready to go. Emily gave him a grin as she tightened the safety strap of her helmet.

"Don't worry about it, he'll settle down soon enough." She reassured him, however she was clearly as excited and ready to go as her chestnut mount was.

"Rather you than me." Morgan countered as Ray helped him up onto his brown horse, Drummer. Now that everyone was mounted Rita ran through the basics to steering and handling the horses and they were soon circling the arena in a line, with Prentiss at the front.

"Okay everybody, I want you to all watch Emily tell Ping to trot and circle round to the back. It may look simple, but it is much harder than it looks on your first turn. Okay, Emily, off you go." She instructed and Ping responded immediately, picking up trot, but jumped to the side a little when a bird came across his path. JJ gasped, concerned for her friends safety as the horse began to shake it head around, but Emily had seen it all before and soon had him in control.

"Well done. Don't worry everyone, the horses you are on are bombproof compared to Ping, so you'll be fine." She assured them as one look at Reid's face showed her how much he was dreading his turn.

"Okay, Derek. Off you go." Ray encouraged Morgan, who immediately picked up the pace, but began to wobble a little as he underestimated the difficulty of simply not bouncing out of the saddle. He looked slightly relieved when he finally came back to a walk behind Prentiss, but the other team members were too caught up in riding their horses right before taking into account anyone else.

The others also managed to get around the arena without any casualties, just as Rita had promised and looked pleased with themselves.

Emily thought that Hotch and Bobby made a good team, granted that this was Hotch's first time on a horse.

That she knew of…

Come to think of it he seemed to be doing really well for someone who had never ridden before. He hadn't needed any help with tacking up or anything… In fact, he managed to ride Bobby around the arena with more dignity than the other team members put together. Emily pushed these thoughts aside as Rita started to speak, but made a mental note to bring it up with him later on.

"That was great, everyone. We'll practice our trotting a little more, but if it's okay with you, Emily will progress to canter." The team nodded, seemingly pleased that they weren't going to try anything faster just for the time being, "Okay, Emily. The arena isn't quite big enough to canter for a long enough period of time to settle Ping into his rhythm, so if everyone just stops for a second, you can circle at the end a couple of times."

Emily waited for the rest of the team to stop their horses before picking up the reins and asking Ping to trot forwards. They soon came to a corner and she asked Ping to canter and he did exactly that, raring to go. Emily had him in control, but when they neared Hotch's horse, Bobby, Ping let out an almighty buck, then another, then another. Everyone in the arena held their breath as Ping seemed to explode into action.

"Holy crap." Rossi whispered to himself. At first Emily was taken by surprise, but she soon regained her balanced and managed to stop the horse.

"God, Prentiss, it's like you have Velcro on your ass." Morgan chuckled, surprised at how easily Emily managed to stay in the saddle.

"It all comes with experience." Rita told the group after hearing Derek's comment.

It seemed too soon when Ray was telling them to dismount their horses and give them a pat. Soon the team were left alone to care for their horses.

"God, Em, did that not freak you out even a little?" Rossi asked her and everyone else listened in for her answer.

"No way!" Emily exclaimed, chuckling, "When I was fourteen I was jumping a horse over a fence and he bailed at the last minute. I flipped over his shoulder and landed on the fence. Ping was nothing, trust me."

"Ouch!" JJ said, "Did that not hurt?"

"My mother insisted I was fine and blamed the instructor, but she finally took me to the hospital and three cracked ribs begged to differ." She laughed when Reid cringed.

"How come we never knew you liked this kind of stuff?" Morgan asked her as they all began walking their horses back to the stables.

"It never came up I guess." She shrugged noncommittally, "Good luck for tomorrow, by the way." This time she spoke to the whole group.

"Why?" JJ questioned, confused.

"It takes some getting used to. You won't even be able to get out of bed in the morning." She chuckled at the mock faces of annoyance that spread across the team's features.

"You wait and see, Prentiss." Morgan teased before leading Drummer into his stall.

"My legs feel like Jell-O." JJ complained as she took a seat at the worn oak table with her colleagues for lunch.

"Join the club." Rossi mumbled into his drink.

"Guys, come on. It's not that bad." Emily encouraged them.

"As much as I hate to admit it, I did enjoy myself this morning." Hotch said and the others nodded in agreement. Emily's smile brightened.

"Good to hear it." Rita had walked into the room without anyone realizing, "We'll have another lesson in the school today to make sure you've got everything and then we'll do some team building tomorrow." She finished before setting down a bowl of bread rolls on the table.

"Thank you." Hotch said, his words laced with double meaning. Sure, the rolls were nice, but the team, including himself, hadn't acted too grateful to the woman and her husband for their hospitality – well, except Emily. He mentally rolled his eyes.

Wait. When did he start calling Agent Prentiss by her first name? Was it just a one time thing or had he been doing it a while without realizing? Shaking his head slightly at his thoughts he carried on eating his food, only half listening to the teasing of Dr. Reid that was going on around him.

"What about you Morgan?" Emily tipped her heard towards him, "What do you think of the 'girl pants'?" She chuckled at Morgan's mock irritation as he drained his mug of coffee.

"Okay, they're pretty comfortable, but don't expect me to turn up at the office in them." Even Hotch chuckled at this mental image.

"Hey, well you're lucky yours are black – I have a hot pink pair somewhere at home." Emily pointed out, and although the team laughed at her joke, it was actually true, granted that they'd never seen daylight and never will. It's quite safe to say that she'd rather be boiled alive in a vat of turkey fat than wear those out in public.

"I think you can keep those." He teased. She saw that Hotch was listening to their banter and the edges of his eyes crinkled as he smiled.

Since when was she so aware of her boss?

"So, Hotch, you did pretty good out there, care to share?" Emily hinted at him, smiling.

"I've ridden before if that's what you mean." He admitted to the group who looked surprisingly at him, all of them apart from Emily.

"I thought so!" She shot at him jokingly. No way could someone learn that quickly, "How long?"

"How long what?" His eyebrows knitted together in confusion.

"Have you been riding?" She answered with a question.

"Since I was younger. I used to compete in Eventing." Emily's eyes widened.

"No way! That's what I do too!" huh, Emily thought. What are the chances of that happening? Small world.

Since when did she have so much in common with her boss?

Shrugging off her concerns, she stood up ready to prepare herself to go to the barn and the rest of the team followed her lead as they finished up.

There was one thing that Emily was sure of as she began to groom Ping in his stall – now that she'd reconnected with this part of her life she sure as hell wasn't letting go of it again.

Let me know what you think! What you did like / what you didn't like / what you would like to see - anything helps.It may not seem like it, but this does have a plot developing, so stick with it. I hope I got all of the typo's, but forgive me if I didn't, because I don't have a beta. I didn't add too much detail about the actual horseback riding (well i tried not to anyway) so it's easy to understand even if you are a non-equestrian:) Any reviews really do make my entire week, they really do, they only take about a minute of your lifetime, and lets face it, if you couldn't waste a minute to review you wouldn't be here, would you? I didn't think so;)

Until next time (Maybe)