All of their combined complaining, petitioning and flat out whining had finally got them their goal. The BAU had casual Friday! Except when they were travelling on a case, or if the Director or any higher powers were visiting, and they were given restrictions on exactly what was appropriate to wear. Although, Garcia defied those guidelines on a daily basis. The team were more than happy with this new leniency; the things they say in those case files really did require a comfy pair of pants and a snugly sweater sometimes. In typical Strauss fashion, she had opposed the idea from the very beginning, calling it 'unprofessional' and 'lazy', therefore it was surprising when the memo came that it had been approved. Well, everyone except Dave and Emily were surprised, it turned out that connections higher up weren't completely useless. Hotch had even laughed when he found out that Emily Prentiss, daughter of a US ambassador had used her extensive and highly secretive connections to ensure that her friends and herself could wear sweatpants to the office every once in a while. Garcia had been overjoyed at the development, she was proud of her wardrobe but now she felt like she could blend in more, she also loved how she got to learn how the others dressed outside of the office. Anderson for one had not disappointed her on that point; his unfortunate choice of knee length shorts and a Hawaiian shirt had more than made everyone's day.
However, there was still one person who refused to give in to casual Friday, and although this didn't come as a surprise to anyone it was still disappointing, and it did nothing but fuel the popular belief that he did indeed sleep in those suits of his. Aaron Hotchner was as usual being his stubborn, tightly-laced self.
Despite their supervisor being less than cooperative, the rest of the BAU team had embraced these more liberating Fridays with open arms. Dave wore his usual dark trousers with a t-shirt and a jumper over the top – Morgan had been the most surprised at Dave's jumpers, they were so homey and grandpa-esque and very unlike the bestselling author, ladies man David Rossi.
Spencer's clothes weren't that different, except the tie was automatically lost, but some Fridays he could be seen sporting t-shirts that most hadn't worn or even seen since high school, either showing the title art from a sci-fi film or with a slogan that no one could understand..without Google. His shirts had even become part of a competition between Derek and Emily as to who could understand the shirt first, usually Emily won which led to Derek complaining that she cheated somehow. In other words, Spencer looked like any other college student at ComiCon.
JJ was particularly enjoying the freedom of not having to dress impeccably every day, with a young child at home making herself look good for work was becoming less and less important and therefore more of a burden to her. Friday soon became her favourite day of the working week as she could sit in her black sweatpants and a tank top in her office with her feet on the desk and feel slightly more relaxed while facing the horrors of the job. JJ even felt that it helped her do her job better as she was calmer on the phone and could therefore work more effectively with the media and with talking to local police. Half of the day she even walked around without her shoes on as it was just more comfortable, no one said anything to her; knowing how hard she worked at the BAU and also at home raising her son. As far as the team was concerned, as long as she was happy she could do as she pleased around them.
Emily however was the one that had surprised them, they had expected something classy like slacks and a blouse or sweater, and instead she wore vest tops with either jeans or a short skirt. Emily had always resented the fact that femininity had no place at the FBI, it really wasn't the sort of job where skirt wearing was practical so pant suits were the normal and if she was honest, they made her feel bulky at times. At heart Emily Prentiss was a girly girl who loved wearing skirts and dresses, although she would never admit it.
Derek used these Fridays as opportunities to show off his drool worthy physique to the female inhabitants of Quantico. He chose tight dark jeans to show off his leg muscles and then what can hardly be described as a top as it was simply a piece of material that hung off of him and covered nothing. The first casual Friday he had actually not worn a shirt at all and Hotch had to threaten him into putting one on.
And still Hotch refused to wear anything than his regulation plain suits.
Well, this Friday they had had enough of his suits and were going to do something about it.
It had been Garcia's plan initially but it hadn't been hard for her to get everyone else in on it, well, everyone except for Reid; there was really no way he could help with this. And so it began. The team were lucky that it was the summer and therefore he already had his suit jacket off and hung it around the back of his chair. As Hotch went to grab a coffee from the break room, JJ ran into his office and stole his jacket, stowing it away underneath her desk; there was no way he would look there for it. Everyone saw her running along the catwalk with Hotch's jacket, if they hadn't known the reason for it they would have laughed.
Dave's office phone rang. "Night owl, this is blue bird, phase one is complete. Begin phase two night owl. I repeat, begin phase two."
"JJ, why are you using code names?"
"This is a mission Night Owl, therefore we need code names, it's basically a rule."
"I can see now why you like working for the FBI." He chuckled and hung up the phone. Dave watched through his window until he saw Hotch return to his office and sit down with his fresh coffee. He picked up a pair of scissors from his desk and made his way over to Hotch's office. He didn't knock or even say anything at all when he walked in. He simply walked over to his friend who was sitting in his chair eyeing Dave warily, and so he should, and yanked on his red tie, pulling it forward. Hotch thought he was either planning to strangle him or kiss him and was too shocked to even move an inch. With the tie in his left hand he took the scissors and cut off Hotch's tie, pulling the remainder of it from around Hotch's neck. With the same silent calm that he walked in with, he left again, with the tie. Hotch sat there speechless. 'What had just happened?'
As Dave stepped out of the office he waved the destroyed tie at Morgan and Emily in the bullpen, Morgan then phoned Garcia who came running as fast as she could waving something blue. She grabbed Morgan by the arm as she flew through the bullpen and dragged him up to Hotch. As soon as the door was opened, Hotch stood out of fear, which was in fact well founded considering what was about to happen.
"Sorry about this Hotch." Derek said as he tackled Hotch to the ground, making sure he couldn't get up yet his arms were free. Garcia came over and ripped open Hotch's white shirt, completely destroying the buttons and threw it across the room before forcing the blue onto Hotch. The poor man had given in and refusing to let Garcia manhandle him, he pulled the t-shirt on himself; he did have some dignity left. Once the new shirt was on, Derek and Garcia let him up and ran out of the office. They were terrified of Hotch's reaction to what they had done to him; he was definitely going to be furious. Hotch looked down at the shirt which was in fact not a plain blue one but one with the superman logo on the front. He shook his head; he was completely confused and scared now. What was going on today with his team, had they lost their minds?
Hotch was still standing in the middle of his office looking bewildered when he heard a knock on his doorframe and looked up to find Emily leaning against it with a smirk on her face and a pair of jeans in her hand.
"The shirt looks good on you, Garcia was right in saying she had the perfect one for you. Now, put these on." She said throwing the blue jeans at him.
"You aren't going to manhandle me and destroy my clothes like the others did?" They could both detect the hint of fear in his voice.
"Would you like me to?" Hotch couldn't be sure if she was serious or not, today had completely thrown him. "No, I'm not. I'm asking you nicely. Please change your pants Hotch, for me?"
"I have no idea what is going on here, why are you doing this to me? I should report you all for conspiring and attacking your supervisor."
"Its casual Friday Aaron, but every Friday you still come into the office in your suit. We just wanted you to join in with the fun." She smiled at him. He looked at the jeans. 'Would it be so bad?' He thought. She wasn't going to force him into changing; she was leaving it as his choice.
"Close the blinds, I don't want to be flashing anyone." She quickly pulled the blinds closed and then stepped forward and gave him a tiny peck on the lips. He was pleasantly surprised at the feeling of her lips on his. As she stepped backwards again he stopped her and pulled her back to him.
"So all I had to do was wear jeans to get you to kiss me?" he teased her.
"I figured that after being tackled by Morgan and Garcia me kissing you would be less memorable and I could avoid the whole rejection speech." She confessed shyly.
"Less memorable?" He shook his head at her. "Emily Prentiss, there is nothing more memorable than you." He smiled widely at her, showing off his dimples, she couldn't resist smiling back at him. "So do I get another kiss?"
"Only if you put those jeans on." She smirked at him before leaving his office.
He changed into the jeans, which were surprisingly in his size. He looked himself up and down. 'I definitely don't look like an agent any more' he thought, but decided that if Emily liked it, he could live with it one day a week.
Hotch stepped out onto the catwalk, to see his team all gathered in the bullpen waiting for his reaction as well as the entire room staring at him in his new attire. He sent a glare at the entire room, causing most people to look away and return to their own business, or at least pretend to. He kept his angry face on as he walked down to his now scared team. He directed his glare towards Garcia, guessing that she had been the evil mastermind behind this charade. "Garcia." He paused and Pen gasped in fear. "You forgot about the shoes." He said seriously before smiling at her. When she realised that he wasn't actually angry with her she let out a sigh and laughed, along with the rest of the team.
"And the cape." JJ giggled, the allusion that Hotch was indeed secretly Superman was not lost on anyone.
"Just please don't try the whole underpants over the top look, I don't think my eyes could handle it." Dave joked.
"How did you get him into the jeans Em? I literally had to pin him down to get the shirt on him." Derek asked, looking at Emily, which everyone else copied, also intrigued by the incredible feat. She just smiled at him in return, not giving anything away.
"That reminds me. I believe I was promised something Prentiss." Hotch said smirking knowingly at Emily.
"Indeed you were."Emily said, getting up off her chair and walking over to Hotch. She grabbed the front of his t-shirt and pulled him down so she could plant a kiss on his lips. She began to pull away from him when he slid his arm around her waist, holding him to her as he deepened the kiss, allowing their tongues into the mix. Hotch finally broke them apart, smiling at her as he untangled them. "So, what would it cost me to get you to wear a pair of sweatpants next week?" Emily asked mischievously. Which made them both, and the team surrounding them laugh.