She was curled up beneath her warm quilt with a steaming hot mug of coffee and a good book, internally debating just how early was too early to go to bed, when she got a call from him.

"What?" she snapped, a little more harshly than she had intended. She certainly hoped he wasn't about to try to convince her to go out to some bar or something ridiculous like that; she had been looking forward to the rare calm day presented by the snowstorm that had interrupted the workday. She planned on making a dent in the backlog of books she had been meaning to read, watch some trash TV, and fall asleep at eight; she certainly wasn't about to discard those plans for a night of alcohol, no matter how good the company.

"My battery died."

"What?"

He gave a short laugh, then elaborated, "My car battery. It just quit on me."

She glanced at the TV where she had the weather channel muted, watching the storm coverage. "The blizzard's coming in pretty quickly," she remarked.

"I realize that," he deadpanned. He sighed, "I've got a huge favour to beg of you... I'm about five minutes away from your place and, seeing as there's no way I'm going to be able to get out here any time soon and I'd rather not have to spend the night in my car, would you mind putting up with me for a few hours?"

She glanced at the TV again, then relented; it didn't sit right with her that her best friend had to spend a long, cold night in his car when he was only about a block away from her place. "One condition: if you piss me off, I'm gonna kick your sorry ass out into the cold," she said firmly, but she knew he could hear the smile in her voice.

They always enjoyed each other's company and this was the perfect opportunity to spend some quality time with her good friend with the knowledge that they wouldn't be interrupted by work.

He laughed, "I promise I'll be a good boy."

******

When she opened the door about five minutes later, she got the shock of her life. Morgan was shivering, his ears were all red, snow covered his shoulders; it was strange to see him in such a sorry state. Emily knew he was only human and he would be affected by the weather, just like everyone else, but there was a part of her that thought Derek Morgan would be immune to everything that affected normal human beings; he was, after all, Derek Morgan.

"Can I come in?"

"Yes." She snapped out of her reverie and pulled him into her warm apartment. She helped him remove his jacket and wrapped her quilt around his shoulders. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine," he mumbled. "Thanks for not making me spend the night in my car."

"I'll still kick you out if you piss me off," she joked.

"You're meaner than I thought," he teased. Looking around her apartment, he commented, "Nice place you've got. The view would be great if not for the blizzard."

"Well, it doesn't make any difference when you spend five out of seven days every week in another state." Emily gave him a sad smile. "Do you want coffee?"

"Are you going to make it for me?"

"Is that a 'yes'?" she asked, moving towards the kitchen.

"Yes, please," he smiled brightly. "Thanks, Em."

"Sugar?"

"Yes, honey?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "I meant, do you want sugar in your coffee?"

"Awww... You didn't mean to call me 'sugar', Princess?" Morgan said, holding his hand over his heart in mock hurt.

"You're such a child," she commented, sighing dramatically. "So, one spoonful or two?"

"One's fine," he replied, standing up from the couch, "I don't like my coffee too sweet. Hey, would you mind if I snooped around your DVD collection?"

"Not at all," Emily called out from the kitchen.

There was nothing but the sound of shuffling of DVDs and the sound of the coffee maker working for a couple of minutes. She came out of the kitchen carrying two piping hot mugs of coffee and set them down before moving to stand next to Morgan, who was currently engrossed in her impressive collection of DVDs.

"Find anything you like?" she asked, nonchalantly.

"I never expected you to have something like this," he commented, grinning brightly as he held up a two-disc platinum edition of the Beauty and the Beast DVD.

Emily stared at him, looking horrified for a full minute before stuttering, "That... That was a Christmas gift...from someone."

Morgan smiled at her adoringly, "Awww... You look so cute when you're blushing, sweetheart." She tried to glare at him, but failed because she was too embarrassed to look him in the eye. "Tell me," he continued, pulling out a receipt hidden in the case, "Did that someone make you pay for your Christmas gift?"

"Give that back," she huffed, snatching the DVD from him.

"Hey, there's nothing to be embarrassed about," he said gently, resting his hands on her shoulders. "I'll tell you a secret, if you promise to never tell another soul..." She looked at him with raised brows, but remained silent, obviously encouraging him to continue. "I'm a huge fan of Disney myself. I really liked Finding Nemo."

"You? Finding Nemo?" Emily asked incredulously.

He sighed and decided that there was only one way to convince her. "Just keep swimming, just keep swimming..." he sang softly, loving the way Emily's eyes lit up as he did. "What do we do? We swim, swim, swim."

"Oh...wow."

"Believe me now?"

"You're full of surprises," she laughed.

"I don't think it's all that surprising," he insisted, "When there's as much darkness as we face, I think you can't help but look for levity wherever you can find it." He shrugged and added off-handedly, "Nothing says light-hearted like an animated forgetful fish..."

She smiled, "You've got a point there..."

He studied her in silence for a moment, then asked, "You want to watch it, don't you?"

She pursed her lips, trying to maintain a 'could care less' facade. After a minute, she visibly deflated, put on a pleading face, and begged, "Can we please? I haven't watched it in forever and it's my favourite..."

He laughed, then sighed dramatically, "Well, okay... Just this once. But you owe me..." She rolled her eyes and punched his arm lightly. "You're just lucky I'm so chivalrous," he added.

******

Morgan smiled to himself when he heard Emily sigh as Belle and the Beast danced while Tale As Old As Time played in the background. Sometime over the course of the movie, she'd come to lean against him, cuddling up under the blanket he'd claimed. He hadn't said anything, merely wrapping an arm around her, keeping her close.

"Wish you were her?" he asked lightly, referring to Belle.

"I wish I had that library..." she said wistfully.

He laughed, silently agreeing with the sentiment. "Come on, Princess," he pressed, "Don't tell me you never dreamed of being her..."

"Why?" she challenged, "Why would you assume I wanted to be a princess?"

"Because you're just like her," he pointed out, "And every little girl wants to have their fairytale ending."

"Fine," she conceded, "Maybe at one point when I was little I wanted that. But I know life isn't like that... Prince Charming doesn't suddenly out of the blue come to sweep you off your feet. Life isn't a fairytale.

He looked at her with a raised brow. "That's an awfully bleak outlook..."

"Is it?" she persisted, "Do you know anyone who does what we do who has a happy marriage? I mean, come on...I haven't been on a date in like six months. I don't even have time to have a one-night stand. I haven't had..." She stopped herself before she said too much, her cheeks colouring the slightest shade of red.

He smiled tenderly. "I'm sure things aren't that bad...

"Oh, really?" she started. She paused, then shook her head. "You know what, never mind. Just watch the movie."

"Hey, now," he said gently, "It's not too late for you to have your fairytale ending..." She gave him a skeptical look and seemed to be using great effort to avoid rolling her eyes. "You're a great catch," he insisted, "Any man would be lucky to have you and it's only a matter of time until your Prince Charming realizes what he's been missing out on..."

She scoffed, "I never would have pegged you for the hopeless romantic."

"I'm being serious," he said gently, "The right guy is just around the corner..." He read her disbelief written across her face as she settled back against him to watch the movie, though she didn't say anything. He let a few moments pass in relative silence, before working up the courage to continue, murmuring quietly, "Or maybe he's sitting right next to you..."

"What?"

"I'm hungry," he said quickly and made a beeline for the kitchen, changing the subject.

It was the perfect time to finally confess his feelings for her, but he chickened out at the last minute when she shifted in her seat to look him in the eye. He was so worried that she wouldn't feel the same way about him and their friendship would be ruined; he couldn't let that happen, their friendship meant too much to him.

"Well, it's almost dinner time," she replied, biting her lip as she followed him to the kitchen.

She studied him carefully; she was almost sure she'd heard him correctly before, but when he didn't confirm her suspicions, she thought she might have imagined it. Yet, his body language told her that he was hiding something. She decided to let it slide for now, since he was obviously quite uncomfortable with it, but she made a mental note to ask him again later.

"Whoa, Em," he said when he opened the cupboard, "Your pantry could feed a whole army." He continued snooping around her kitchen, mumbling to himself as he took out a couple of items from the shelves and then moved on to check out the stuff she had in her refrigerator.

"How about I make us dinner?" he asked. "It's my way to thank you for not letting my sorry ass freeze in the cold."

"Why not?" she shrugged, "It's not like they deliver pizza in this weather."

Emily smiled softly as she watched him move about her kitchen comfortably, looking for all intents and purposes like he belonged there. What she thought might be missing was a few kids running around him, maybe the littlest would be in his arms. He'd be making them laugh as he tried to prepare dinner, amidst all that chaos.

She was sure she had the goofiest smile in the world when he turned around to look at her. She did, but he let it slide and she was more than thankful for that.

"Why don't you go take a nap or something?" he suggested, "I'll wake you up when I'm done."

She contemplated for a moment, but decided against it. "Nah, sleeping now will just mess up my body clock. I'll be up all night..."

"So, you're gonna keep me up all night?" he grinned, waggling his brows suggestively.

"Get your mind out of the gutter." She rolled her eyes, but smiled. "I'll help. I'm no Gordon Ramsay, but I know my way around the kitchen."

"Sure," Morgan smiled. Working in the kitchen was always more fun when there were more people around, at least in his family; besides, he would love to see the 'I'm not afraid to use my gun' Emily Prentiss in the kitchen, figuring she'd look cute in an apron.

"So, what are we making?"

"Since you're no Gordon Ramsay and I'm no Rachael Ray," he joked, "Let's make something simple. How does pasta sounds?"

Emily smiled and nodded. "Great. Actually, anything sounds great. It's been far too long since I've had a home-cooked meal."

******

"Thanks for dinner," Emily smiled as she settled close to Morgan on the couch, with her bowl of pasta and a glass of wine.

"No problem." He smiled brightly, liking the way she snuggled closer to him to share the quilt. "I like cooking and I didn't really do much since you did most of the work. I didn't know you could slice like that."

She laughed. "I went to Le Cordon Bleu for a little bit when I was in France. One of the programmes for the Ambassadors' children. I didn't know you could cook like that."

"Looks like we're learning a lot about each other today," he smiled. "I didn't attend any classes at Le Cordon Bleu, but Mama's a great cook. I learnt everything from her. Seriously, she could kick the iron chefs' butts if she wanted too," he added proudly.

"Well, if she's ever on Iron Chef America, my money's on her," Emily joked.

They settled back into a comfortable silence, enjoying their dinner for two while watching another movie. More than once, Emily had turned her attention to Morgan and what he said earlier. She was still wondering if she had imagined it, maybe he hadn't said anything...

"Is there pasta sauce on my face?"

"What?"

"You're staring at me," Morgan said matter-of-factly, grinning. "It's either I have something on my face or you're checking me out."

"There's nothing on your face; I'm just thinking."

"About me, Princess?" he asked smugly, almost challengingly.

Never one to back down from a fight, she countered, "As a matter of fact, yes. I thought I might have heard you say something earlier. Something like 'Maybe the right guy's sitting next to you...'" She knew she had won when his face paled. "Tell me, Morgan, was it just my imagination or were you actually trying to tell me something?"

"Umm..."

"'Umm?' Is that a yes? Did you mean it?" she asked seriously, in a low voice, holding her breath as she waited for an answer.

"Emily," he began, "You can pretend you never heard that if..."

"It's a yes or no question, Derek. Answer it," she cut him off sharply, "Did you mean it?"

After what seemed like a lifetime of silence, Morgan finally mustered up enough courage to confess his feelings for her. "Yes. I meant every word," he replied firmly, looking deep into her eyes to let her see that he wasn't joking around or trying to mess with her head. "I think – no – I know I'm the right guy for you. I may not be Prince Charming on a white horse, but I am the right guy for you because I already know that I love you."

"When?" Emily eventually managed to choke out. Frankly, she was rather taken aback by his confession; she hadn't been expecting him to tell her that he loved her.

"When did I realize? Or when did I fall?"

"Both," she replied after another moment of thought.

"I honestly don't know when I fell, Em. I knew I was attracted to you since you first walked into the BAU room almost four years ago," he smiled. "I realized that I loved you when Cyrus had you. You have no idea how much I wanted to run in and save you, how much I wished I could take away all your pain. I couldn't care less about the other people in the building, you were the only thing that mattered."

"Why didn't you tell me this sooner?"

"I didn't know how you felt about me. I didn't want to ruin our friendship by being the bleeding heart... Actually, I still don't know how you feel about me," he said softly. "If your feelings for me are nothing more than platonic, you can tell me. I want to be more than just friends with you, but if you just wanna be friends, I can live with that. At least, I'd still have you in my life...but I'd like to know which would it be."

Morgan held his breath as he waited for an answer. "I... I need to think."

He smiled and leaned in to kiss her forehead gently. "Take all the time you need, Em." This wasn't the answer he wanted, but it better than her rejecting him outright. This meant that he had something to hope for...

******

They decided to sleep shortly thereafter, rather than draw out the already rather uncomfortable situation, but rest was eluding them. They both had far too much on their minds.

For Morgan, his hopeful anticipation of getting the answer he wanted from Emily was invaded with negative thoughts. She had seen his dating history, what if she decided that she couldn't trust him in the love department? What if she decided that he wasn't her type? She was, after all, a special girl who needed that one special guy...

For Emily, she just hadn't expected such an enormous confession like that from Morgan. He had told her that he was in love with her. He was willing to risk his life to save her. She obviously liked him too, maybe she even loved him... What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she just give him an answer right away?

She knew the answer to that question. She was scared. But she couldn't let fear ruin potentially the best thing that might ever happen to her. Realizing that, she made a decision. She was still terrified, but that seemed to be the nature of love...

Getting up from her bed, she made her way to the guest room where Morgan was.

******

He heard the door open and he knew it was her. Not knowing what she wanted, he kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep.

He sensed her coming closer to his bed, her scent getting stronger as she walked closer to him. Finally, she spoke as she turned on the lamp on the side-table. "I know you're not sleeping."

It took his eyes a second to adjust to the sudden bright light and when he finally stopped seeing spots, he found her standing beside the bed in only an oversized Yale sweater. As he took in the sight, his mind wandered down a dangerous path; he began to wonder if she was wearing anything beneath her sweater and what would she look if he took that sweater off her. He groaned inwardly, silently cursing himself...like he didn't have enough dreams about her already.

"Sit up," she commanded, sitting on the bed next to him. "I need to talk to you." He did as she told him to and waited for her to continue. "I've thought about what you said..."

"And?" he managed, his heart simultaneously feeling like it was pounding furiously against his ribcage while managing to stop beating altogether.

"I think I can love you...maybe I'm already in love with you and I just don't know it yet. Whatever it is, I know I can love you; you make it easy for me," she said. "I just need to know whether you're serious or if this just a fling... I'm not interested in flings, I don't want to be just another notch on your bedpost."

"I'm serious," he said, taking her hands into his, "I'm really in love with you. I want more than just sex with you. Give me a chance, I can prove to you that I can be a one-woman man."

She smiled softly and before he could comprehend what was going to happen, she leaned forward and kissed him. Her arms slipped around his shoulders and she hummed into the kiss.

He stroked one hand up to bury his fingers in her hair and pulled her closer to kiss her hungrily. She leaned into him and before he knew it, she was already in his lap, his hand instinctively resting on her hip.

He broke the kiss and looked at her seriously. "I promise you, I'll never hurt you," he said breathlessly.

"That's good enough for now," she smiled, "We can figure out the rest later."

"Yes, we can." Smiling brightly, he pulled her close for another needy kiss. As her tongue flickered out to meet his, he couldn't help but think that having his car break down in the middle of a blizzard was the best thing that had ever happened to him. After Emily, of course.