I'm working on a sequence of stories that belong together but still stand for themselves.

Thanks to REIDFANATIC for Beta Reading.

Criminal Minds is not mine.

Help with Dating

She hung up the phone; a rather stupid smile was playing on her lips. As she turned she found her son-to-be in the doorway. She took a moment to take control over her face again, but her eyes didn't miss the wide grin that spread on the boy's face.

"What are you grinning about?" He had been home for the last week and would stay for another one, since his school had put him on a rather late spring break. That had required that Emily not join the team for their last case and take her paperwork home, but she found it rather enjoyable to spend time with him.

He shrugged but failed in controlling his face like she had a second ago. He was trying to imitate her abilities but not quite there yet. She also saw that he was about to tell her without her asking again. Therefore she headed back to the stove and put the pot on the cold surface, before she left the kitchen. Her priorities had changed from an early dinner to her wardrobe, since she was pretty sure that it wouldn't hold anything to wear. Halfway up the stairs she could hear a triumphant "Yes" from the kitchen and she stopped dead turning to the sound.

"Declan?" She was pretty sure that she heard some kind of swearing under his breath as he appeared in the hallway. "Spit it." He didn't need her to say more, since she knew that he understood her pretty well. She could basically see the little wheels spinning in his head, as he tried to figure out how to handle the situation.

Finally he took the few stairs up to where she stood and grabbed her hand, tracking her after him.

"You have a date, right?"

"How do you know that?" Not that she was really surprised, the kid had good instincts, but she didn't think that she had made it so obvious. They seemed to have reached his destination as he let go of her in her bedroom and sat on her bed, watching her.

"Well I might have mentioned to Derek that you would enjoy going out."

"You did what?" Shock was written all over her face and she was far from hiding it this time. "What were you thinking? We are not even supposed to date, FBI rules." Declan, of course, was right and she was planning on enjoying it.

"I only tried to help you and you said yes, right?" The innocent look on the boy's face almost got her to smile. She had no idea what he had been thinking. But the small smirk on his lips had her shaking her head. That was probably what you got when you allowed a teenager to move into your life. Emily turned and walked to her closet giving her wardrobe a doubtful look. Taking one dress out, Declan spoke up again.

"JJ is coming over later to help you find an outfit." That left her almost speechless. She put the dress back in the rows before facing him again.

"You have this all planned out, do you?" He smirked, before adding:

"I think Spencer is okay with me coming over so I can learn some more chess." He saw the look on her face and decided it was probably better to leave before she could say anything else. Although she was clearly in some kind of state of shock, she couldn't stop herself from smiling at his attempts. Not only had he set her up for a date, he had also planned his "babysitter". She shook her head and grabbed the phone to dial her young colleague's number.

"Spencer hi, I heard you're willing give Declan another chess lesson tonight?"

"I take it, you were asked out then."

She choked on her answer.

"You were in on this too?" Her voice sounded a little harsher than she had intended to, but now it was too late.

"Well he mentioned that he wanted you to go on a date. But he wouldn't say with whom." She released a breath of relief, just to realize that JJ probably knew and that was only one step away from Garcia and then everyone knowing.

"Okay so can I have JJ drop him off around eight?" She smiled slightly as the genius insured her he'd be looking forward to spending time with the newest member of the BAU family. As she finished on the phone, she called Declan back into the room.

"Okay now, exactly who knows about this?"

"JJ and Spencer."

"Did you say who I was going out with?" He shook his head his young face turning confused.

"See the FBI has rules that don't allow us to date anyone from our team, so please keep it down." He nodded, his face clearly showing guilt over the potential mess he may have brought on his future mom.

"I won't tell."

Emily smiled at him before turning back to the closest. "When did you say JJ would come?"

"At five, so there is enough time for hair, makeup and clothes." The brunette bid her lip to keep from laughing as she looked through her dresses.

"You should wear pants. Dresses are just not you." He said before leaving the room again. If he hadn't already left, she would have kicked him out at that point.

The time until five didn't go very fast and so, to Declan's amusement, she had filled half of her bedroom with possible outfits. When the doorbell rang she could hear him run down the stairs before she even had a chance to react. She shrugged and turned back to her closet. Her hair was still pulled up with a towel and she was back into sweats. She could hear the chatting from downstairs, before the clicking on the stairs indicated that JJ was on her way up.

"Hi beautiful," the blonde entered the room, before taking in the scenario. "Are you nervous or something?"

Emily turned to find her friend grinning as her eyes surveyed the mess.

"I just haven't had a date in a while."

"Who is it anyway? Declan refused to tell me."

"We met a while ago. I just never saw more than a friend in him."

"So you are starting to date a friend after all. At least that part of my profile was right."

Emily shook her head with an amused smile on her lips. As much as she wanted to, she was not going to tell her friend who it was. First they needed to figure things out for themselves; and the more people knew the more complicated it would get.

"You better have a plan for my hair, because it's a mess." Since she hadn't exactly planned on a date, she hadn't cared a lot about her hair in the past few weeks, so her last cut had basically grown out. Who would have thought that she would actually happen to care about this?

The next three hours the girls kept themselves busy experimenting with different hair styles, changing outfits and redoing her make up twice. Finally Emily decided that it didn't matter.

"You should go now."

"Why? I want to meet the lucky guy."

"He is not going to pick me up." It was a lie and she really hoped JJ wouldn't notice.

"What kind of guy doesn't pick the girl up?"

She shrugged leaving the room, determined to change the topic.

"Thanks again for dropping Declan off." If she had turned around she would have seen the suspicious look on JJ's face. The blonde followed her friend downstairs deciding it would be better to agree on the change of topic and try for more information later on.

"No problem, I wanted to ask Reid about Ashley anyway, since you are stealing my first mission."

"And what would that be?"

"Well it was to open yours and Derek's eyes, but apparently you found a different solution." She saw Emily rolling her eyes.

"Declan, you better be packed." The brunette called back upstairs, but to her surprise her boy came out of the living room putting a bag down.

"Never mind," she smiled and walked over to him.

"You look beautiful."

"I thought I wasn't a dress person?"

"That is a skirt."

Emily laughed: "Well you have fun with Reid. And don't forget that trick about chess I showed you." He nodded as a grin spread over his lips.

As soon as they had left she realized her mistake. She now had a full half hour to get nervous about this; and even worse, to question it all. She turned on the TV but that didn't really distract her. After a few minutes of surfing though channels, she turned it off again and started pacing in the living room. Slowly her thoughts went to all the consequences one date could have. Either it would screw up their work dynamics, because if either of them messed up tonight or they didn't mess up, they would have to figure out what to do with a forbidden relationship. Clearly neither of them would be too fond of giving up their jobs for a desk job. So the only reasonable thing would be to keep lying to their friends and stick with the good friend explanation. At least JJ seemed to have given up the thought of them being together, now that she was supposedly seeing someone else. She jumped out of her thoughts as the doorbell rang.

He was early and really hoped that Declan and JJ were already gone. If not he could always make something up and leave again. He hoped that Declan was the only one who knew what was going on, because this was already enough pressure. Half of the time he was technically her superior not to mention that she was one of his closest friends. If he messed this up it would have consequences and he didn't even want to think about the consequences if he didn't mess up. One of them would eventually have to file for transfer.

The door was opened and he gasped. Her black pencil skirt and the colorful blouse were very simple but at the same time beautiful. Besides a few curls her hair was in an up do. A smile played on her lips.

"You can close your mouth. It's nothing really."

"You should stop demeaning yourself. You look gorgeous." He thought he saw her blush, but she had already disappeared inside grasping her purse and slipping on some heels.

"Where are we going?" She asked curiously as he walked her to his car.

"Italian restaurant, I hope that's okay."

"Did Rossi recommend that?" She looked at him with a smirk.

"Rossi? Are you kidding? He wouldn't recommend any Italian restaurant." With that he closed the door behind her, shaking his head as he jogged around the car.