Note: This is the sequel to Collide ( s/8866387/1/Collide), and I do not own Criminal Minds or any of their characters.

Ali held up a finger to her mouth to try and tell JJ and the team to be quiet as they all leaned over Morgan's desk to get a good look at the sleeping man. Ali held out a long white feather, and tickled his lip. He twitched in his sleep, before naturally scratching his face. Which would have been a brilliant idea except... well... Ali had put whipped cream on his hand, and it was now all over his face.

Emily took her iPhone and snapped a quick picture of Morgan sleeping over his desk with a whipped cream beard on his face and hand and drooling out of the corner of his mouth, with Ali standing above him giving them a cheesy thumbs up. "This is so going on Facebook," Emily said, grinning.

JJ turned to shush her friend, but it was too late. Morgan snapped his head up, and saw his whipped cream covered hand, and groaned. "Not again. Natalie!"

Ali ran up the stairs into Hotch's office. As she opened the door and shut it again, Hotch hung up the phone and said in a monotone voice, "Did you try to prank Morgan again? Natalie, we already knew that this was not a good idea. Don't sink to his level."

Ali was simply silent, and her mouth started to twitch into a smile. She knew Hotch wasn't serious. They had bonded for the last month, as he had been the leader of the case involving the serial killer who was after her... her father. David Madison. But many people knew him simply as the Director of the FBI. Well, actually, ex-director.

A few years ago, her life was very different. She had gone by the name Alison Campbell, and was an A-list celebrity. But she had secrets, like any teenager. Like her father wasn't her real father, and he had always abused her and her baby sister Grace. Or how she had been chronically depressed until a suicide attempt two weeks ago had made her realize what she truly loved about life. She had started to go by a new name, as part of her new life. Special Agent Natalie Montgomery, FBI. Her family had become her team, and that was all Ali really wanted.

"Ali?"

Ali jumped as she realized Hotch was speaking to her. "Yeah? Sorry, I kind of zoned out."

Hotch smiled. "It's fine. Anyway, I was wondering if you wanted to go back down. It looks slightly safer now."

"Ok." Ali said.

She walked down the stairs, and saw JJ speaking to Morgan. She could only catch a few words, but they sounded important. "But try and make a peace treaty for a few days. Strauss has something she wants to announce tomorrow, and I think you may like it."

Ali walked up to them, annoyingly cheerful. "Hola, amigos. So I heard you say something about a surprise...?"

Under his breath, Morgan muttered, "Don't forget about the truce."

Ali smiled and nodded at him, but kept looking eagerly towards JJ. Ali loved surprises. Well, getting them. But not waiting for them.

"Strauss can tell you tomorrow. She wants to tell everyone at the same time," JJ said, reasonably.

Ali tried to give JJ the puppy dog eyes, and said, "Please?".

"Sorry Natalie, that may work on Hotch, but that became significantly less cute after I watched you pass your firearm exam by blowing out the brain on the poster."

Ali fake cursed under her breath, but smiled at her friends. "Fine. But Emily might hate you for it."

And with that, Ali turned around and walked to her desk, leaving JJ and Morgan to wonder why Emily would hate them for it.

The next day, Ali and Emily were the first ones at the office. Emily tried to rub the sleep out of her eyes and said, "Natalie, why did I agree to this?"

Ali batted her eyelashes and said, "Because you love me?" Emily grumbled something in reply, and Ali grinned. She was wide awake. Strauss' surprise had kept her up all night, and she was ready to know what it was. As well, the three cups of caffeinated coffee might have had something to do with it. Ali was firmly against coffee unless it was needed, and she felt this morning it was very much needed.

The next to walk in was Hotch. He had been over for the majority of the previous night, eating dinner with both Emily and Ali and playing board games with them until Ali had wisely decided to go to bed early, although she had heard them for the rest of the night. Wisely deciding not to tease them until after they had talked to Strauss, Ali made a mental note to never forget this. After all, opportunities like this didn't fall into your lap everyday, did they?

After Hotch came JJ and Reid, albeit separately so as not to arouse suspicion from Strauss. Finally, Morgan and Garcia strolled in with Strauss and Rossi following them. Looking at the couples, Ali wondered if there was something going on between Rossi and Strauss. It would make sense, as they were both around the same age and worked together and... Ali shook herself out of her fantasy. That would make everything so much easier, but people did not just date because everyone else did. Especially in a workplace where dating was forbidden.

Finally, Strauss started to speak. "Hello, Agents." All of the agents mumbled some excuse of a greeting to her, and she sighed, knowing that was as good as it would get. "As you know, I have been in touch with several other agencies, and we decided that we need to re stress the values of teamwork and agency cooperation. So, we've decided to assign each team to a corresponding team in different agencies, and we will have a friendly competition to strengthen team bonds."

Ali leaned forward excitedly. "So we get to show them that we're the best?"

Strauss shook her head. "Not quite. To stress the teamwork aspect, we've decided to turn it into a weeklong bonding activity, and the FBI training camp in New York is hosting it. After your work on a few of the cases up there, they were hoping if you would participate. Originally, I declined, but after... recent events, I decided that maybe a little bit of bonding time could be what this team needs."

Ali looked at each of her teammates in growing horror. "Oh no. We are not doing this. I'm... ummm... I'm suicidal! I need to see a shrink like... often?" She directed the last question to JJ, but Emily answered for her. "At least once a day, starting soon. The equivalent of a psych hospital care."

Strauss smiled like that of an executioner at the block. "As it turns out, they have a live in counselor with the proper credentials there, and the doctor thinks that this would be excellent for you to live in a way similar to a halfway house for a week and evaluate you. But they want to talk with you a rather lot. I told them that was okay."

Ali wanted to glare at her, but she knew that would get her nowhere. She had tried it before, but the Dragon Lady was not easy to argue with. Humbly, she bowed her head, and said, "How often?" Strauss smiled once more, and Ali thought that some day, if they could ever become friends, then she would tell Strauss to stop trying so hard. It just looked weird. But until then, it was very entertaining for her to watch.

"Twice a day for a week. And I will be staying on the grounds and getting reports of your progress."

Ali gritted her teeth and said, "As you wish. When do we leave?"

"Since we're hosting, we will leave later today and fly to New York."

Under her breath, Ali muttered, "Great."

"Come on Ali! It will be fun. Haven't you ever been to summer camp?" Emily exclaimed from the drivers side of the car.

Ali frowned. "No, as I was busy doing valuable things with my life. This is stupid."

"Why?"

"Because we will learn nothing, try (and fail) to get to know other agencies, and keep our secrets under Strauss' nose. Think that will work out well?"

Emily pulled into the airstrip that they were meeting the team at, and stopped the car. Turning to face Ali, she said, "If we manage to survive this week, then I promise we'll tell her the truth somehow. But only if you behave. Deal?"

Ali nodded. "Deal. But - " Emily raised an eyebrow at her, but Ali continued to speak. "But, we better beat those CIA jerks in whatever contest Strauss was talking about. After all, we can't have them mistakenly believing that they're the best, can we?" She smiled at Emily, and Emily nodded.

"Yeah, but we better hurry or we won't even be able to get there!"

They got out of the car and grabbed their bags from the back. Running, they caught up to the plane right after JJ. Her and Reid had come separately, because Strauss was flying out with them.

They boarded, and realized that they were the last ones to get on. The captain yelled something intelligible, and the engines flipped on with a rumble. Ali settled back as they took off. They always sat for the first 10 minutes, both for safety reasons and for Rossi ( because although he would never admit it, the whole team had seen him turn green and run to the bathroom on numerous occasions.) Needless to say, his issue with his stomach was the worst kept secret since... well... ever.

Ali shut her eyes for a few minutes, knowing that she would wake up when they landed much more well rested and sharp. After all, she and Morgan did have a war they needed to finish, and Ali would need to be on the top of her game to defeat him and show the other agencies who was the best.

A/N So what did you think?