Disclaimer: I don't own anything you recognize.

Word Count: 927 (not counting Disclaimer, Note and Author's Note.)

Note: This is my contribution to the BAU Challenge on the Criminal Minds Weekly Prompts forum. My prompts were helping a friend and alcohol.

Teasing, Late Night Phone Calls and Alcohol

"You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only option left." - Unknown

"That's it, I'm done," I exclaimed as I signed my last piece of paperwork.

"No, there's no way that you could be finished before me, it's not possible!" Morgan ranted in disbelief.

I was going to say something but Reid interjected. "Actually, you slowed down from approximately four and a half files to three files every ten minutes. Emily sped up from approximately three to five files every ten minutes."

Morgan stared at Reid. "You count how long, never mind, of course you do."

"Morgan, you should know by now that Reid is an extraordinary individual." I told him seriously.

"That's one way to say it," I heard Morgan mutter.

"See you all tomorrow," I said with laughter evident in my voice as I collected my things and left.

When I got home, I tossed my go bag on the floor. Sighing in relief that the day was over I sat down in front of the TV, something that I hadn't been able to do in a while and flipped mindless through a bunch of channels before settling on a cooking channel.

I heard the phone ring and I snapped out of the trance I'd been in. "Hello,"

"Emily," the deep male voice almost sang.

"Pablo, I can't believe it's you, it's been forever!" I exclaimed, as I checked the clock my wall that said it was 1:30.

"Yes, it has been too long," he trailed off and we were left with an uncomfortable silence.

"What's wrong?" I asked when the silence became too much.

I knew that he was going to say something so I explained. "No I didn't use my incredible profiler skills to figure that out. Whenever something's wrong you get quiet. "

"Am I really that easy to figure out?" He questioned, confused and even without being beside him, I could see his eyebrows knitting together.

"Oh, I'm sorry did you think that you were like one of those cool, macho and unreadable agents you see on TV. If you did then you're sadly mistaken, "I teased

"Ha-ha, hilarious," his words were dripping in sarcasm.

"Yes, I know, I'm considering quitting the FBI and doing stand up comedy," I quipped, even if I couldn't see it; I knew that he was rolling his eyes.

"Nothing's wrong, I just needed to hear your voice." I knew that he was lying.

I sighed, "You know I don't believe that but I'm not going to push."

"Thank you," he sounded relieved.

"You know that you can call me any time, no matter what, right?" It was more a statement than a question.

"Yes, I know," he told me.

There was a knock at my door. "Pablo, I've got to go," I said quickly, not having expected company.

"Someone else needs time with the magnificent Emily Prentiss, I assume." He tried to lighten the mood but it didn't work.

"Are you sure you'll be alright?" I asked even though I knew what his answer would be.

Sure enough, he didn't surprise me. "I'll be fine. Now, don't keep the person at the door waiting."

"Talk to you soon, Pablo." I was reluctant to let him go but if he didn't want to tell me what was going on than there wasn't much more I could do for him.

"Definitely, and thank you again Emily, for just being there," He said then hung up which left me with a hundred thoughts swarming around in my mind.

I put the phone back on the cradle and opened the door. "Michaela,"

"He left, he left me," She whispered before collapsing in my arms.

Ten minutes later I was pouring the water into two mugs for tea. "Alright, what happened?"

She took a deep breath. "I came home today from a two month assignment in Saudi Arabia and Joseph was gone, so were all of his things."

She saw the look on my face and continued. "He said that he couldn't deal with me being away like this, that my job came before him, so he packed and left. The thing is we got engaged before I left for this assignment. I went to his old apartment to try and work things out. When I saw him he was with Julie, his assistant and she was certainly *assisting* him with something."

She laughed but there was no humour in her voice. "You know what the worst part is; he still had the engagement ring on."

"What are you doing?" She asked when I removed the cups from the table and went to the kitchen.

"I realize now that we're going to need something stronger than tea," I said as I came back with a few different bottles of alcohol and two shot glasses.

"Remember when I spiked the drinks at one of your mom's Gala's." Her words were slurred.

I chuckled hysterically. "Yeah, how could I forget the sight of my mother, the U.S ambassador so drunk that she fell on a European government official? Besides, afterwards she thought that it was me who did it. I think that she still does."

"Sorry," she said sounding not sorry at all.

"You better be I was grounded for two months." I giggled, giddy from the effects of the alcohol.

We stayed laughing and swapping old memories until the early morning. I knew that I'd wake up with one killer hangover headache but looking at Michaela I knew that it was worth it if I could provide happiness and a temporary escape from the cruel world, even for only a moment or two.

"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow."
― William Shakespeare

A.N It's done! Hopefully you enjoyed this oneshot. Anyways, thanks for reading and please click that button to tell me what you think.