A/N: All I can say about "Painless", last night's Criminal Minds episode is "eeeeee!" However, that episode sort of messes up my little story here. So for the purposes of this story, those lovely scenes last night, didn't happen. This story is in honor of Emily Prentiss' birthday which was yesterday, October 12th. I thought I would have it done last night, but I'm not satisfied with the last part of it. It was supposed to be a one shot, but it's running just a tad long, so it'll be about a three, maybe four shot depending on where I make the breaks. This story isn't also directly connected with my NCIS/CM crossover, but for the sake of one part of the story, Team Hotch knows Team Gibbs, some better than others. And yes, it is a romance, so keep that in mind when reading this part and the next one. It's a romance. Enjoy!

There were many reasons to hate certain days. The day you found out Santa Claus wasn't real. The day you were humiliated before the entire school when Billy Wagner broke up with you because he had finally gotten into your pants and no longer wanted anything else from you. The day your parents divorced. The day your grandfather died. Certain days that you had no desire to remember, but couldn't forget because the scars were so deep. This was one of those days.

It wasn't that this day in particular had been always been bad. Some years have been quite good, but the last few years had been downright disasters. For some unknown reason, the gods had conspired to make Emily Prentiss' birthday coincide with a case. For three years running she found herself on the road chasing the dregs of humanity through their manmade house of horrors on her birthday.

Her friends had tried to make it up to her. Her BAU teammates always felt bad that they were on the road when it was her birthday and they could provide neither party nor presents. So each time they tried to scrounge up something special for her, but the pickings were usually slim. They would offer to throw her a party once they were back home, but the last thing Emily wanted to do was celebrate after a long grueling case and as the weeks slipped by, the idea of a party would typically fade. They would try to make things up to her individually. JJ and Garcia always took her out for a girls, whatever, spa treatment, lunch, shopping trip, one year all three over a Saturday. Rossi would offer her a personally home cooked meal. With Derek and Reid there would be dinner and maybe a movie. Hotch would offer to take her to lunch, an enormous gesture on his part since he often skipped that meal himself or would eat something convenient like yogurt or a granola bar at his desk. While all these gestures were nice, they lacked a certain specialness about them. They would have likely done these things anyway had it not been her birthday. But Emily never complained. It was nice that some effort had been made.

This year was different and not in a good way. She had just recently returned to the unit and the majority of the team was still adjusting to her being "alive". Emily expected nothing, not even an acknowledgement of her birthday because of the still simmering and uncertain feelings between herself and some of the others. While things appeared to be okay, she knew there were still some questions, some doubts, some mistrust between herself and Derek and Reid. Add to that the yet to be fully repaired relationship between Hotch and Morgan, celebrating her birthday was probably the last thing on anyone's mind.

It also didn't help that they had been slammed with back-to-back-to-back cases for the past month. They have had almost no downtime between their cases and were once again on the road, this time in Cincinnati, Ohio. They had been there for nearly a week, so long that the conference room the local police had given them to use as their base of operations was becoming comfortably familiar. No one had mentioned her birthday, not in the days leading up to it, nor today, the actual day itself.

If asked if she minded, Emily would have laughed and shook her head. Of course not, who wants to be reminded that they were getting older? But a part of her was a little bothered by it. They forgot her birthday. Coupled with all that had happened in the past year, she couldn't help but feel the gnawing insecurity in her stomach. Maybe when she was "dead", they were starting to forget about her, the pain was leaving them. Was it a good idea to come back? Maybe she should have stayed gone. Logically, she couldn't have done that given Declan's kidnapping, but where her team was concerned, perhaps they were better off without her.

No one would have guessed by looking at her placid, pretty face that these dark thoughts were swirling around Emily Prentiss' head. None of her team members had because, like many of their cases, the one on hand had consumed all of their attention and thoughts. It wasn't until there was a knock on the doorway of the conference room they were all gathered in, pouring over once again the background information on the victims that anyone had an inkling that today might hold a bit of significance.

They looked up and were surprised to see the detective they had been working with, Detective John Stanford, standing with a young marine who was holding a large vase filled with two dozen yellow roses.

"Excuse me, Agent Prentiss?" Stanford said as he addressed the pretty FBI agent he had been admiring all week with a grin. "This is Sergeant Wilson and he has a special delivery for you." He stepped aside to let the young man into the room.

"Ma'am," the Marine said in a respectful tone. "Gunnery Sergeant, Special Agent Gibbs requested that I make this delivery to you and to wish you a Happy Birthday. He said that as soon as you get back let him know and you'll have your traditional birthday dinner."

Emily's lips tilted up into a soft smile listening to the speech given by the young soldier who Gibbs had somehow managed to convince to make this delivery. "Thank you, Sergeant. It was very kind of you to make this effort."

The Marine blushed. "It was no trouble at all, ma'am. Agent Gibbs simply asked and I was happy to be of service. Agent Gibbs served with my father in the Gulf War and saved my dad's life. This was the least I could do for him." He nodded his head. "Happy Birthday, ma'am. I guess it means it'll be legal for you to drink now." He gave her a saucy look before nodding again and leaving the room.

Emily chuckled as Detective Stanford came forward to admire the roses and the birthday girl.

"You should have let us know it was your birthday, Emily," Stanford said. At some time during the week he had started to call her by her first name, much to the annoyance of a certain team leader who had been watching everything with sharp eyes. "We would have brought in a cake for you."

She waved her had dismissively. "Don't worry about it. I almost forgot it was my birthday."

"Oh Em," JJ cried out apologetically. "I'm so sorry! I should have remembered. I know it's not an excuse, but with all these cases coming at us the last few weeks…"

Emily laughed it off and patted her friend's arm. "JJ, don't worry about it. Who wants to be reminded they're getting older?" She playfully grimaced. "It's alright."

"No it's not," Rossi declared. "It was thoughtless of us. We'll make it up to you tonight. Stanford, let me know what's the best restaurant in town. I'll make a reservation. My treat tonight."

"Really, you guys don't have to-," Prentiss began to protest, suddenly embarrassed to find herself the center of attention. She may have felt a little hurt that they forgot her birthday, but she was over it now.

"Oh no, Princess," Morgan broke in. "We have to have at least a birthday dinner, complete with a cake."

"Guys, its sweet, but the case-"

"We have to celebrate, Emily," Spencer said earnestly.

"Prentiss has made it clear that she doesn't want go out tonight and I agree with her that we need to work on the case. That is why we're here."

They all stared at Hotch, his cool, authoritative voice throwing a bucket of ice water over everyone. Even Rossi was looking at him in surprise and a hint of anger in his eyes. Emily simply felt her face growing warmer with each passing second as Hotch looked at her with his cold, flat eyes as though it was her fault for causing a disruption. She dropped her head in embarrassment and began to blindly shift through the files on the table to give her something to do.

The others noted her discomfort and with looks ranging from anger to disbelief hurled at Hotch, followed her lead and returned to the case.