Thank you veeery much to rose-lou for beta-reading this story!

David Rossi left his office and headed for the kitchenette adjacent to the bullpen to get a cup of coffee. He was hoping the dark caffeinated beverage would help him deal with the huge stack of reports he still had yet to fill that was piled on his desk. Even though Rossi had started working early that morning, it felt like an interminable task; the tower of paper never seemed to dwindle.

"Who finished the pot of coffee and didn't bother to start another one?" the Italian Agent complained out loud, with the intent to be heard by the other two occupants of the room.

While Ryan McMann had just shaken his head in disdain without taking his eyes off the article he had been reading, it seemed that Derek Morgan had not even heard him speak. He had been too preoccupied in other activity.

Ever since the BAU had lost one of its members back in March, Rossi had noticed that Morgan had started to get protective of her space more and more frequently. It certainly did not take a profiler to interpret the look in his eyes that expressed all the hatred he felt for Doyle, the man responsible for that empty space.

Everyone had missed Prentiss, including Agent Seaver. But it had been harder on Derek who had been her friend and partner in the field for 5 years.

From the moment she had come back, however, the behavior of the black Federal had not changed. On the contrary, Dave had repeatedly surprised his co-worker with his eyes directed to Emily: in the meeting room, on the jet or during the spare moments they spent together.

"You know she is real, right?" David asked, "She's not some hallucination, we can all see her. I don't think she's going to vanish if you lose sight of her for a minute," David whispered to his teammate knowingly.

"What's that?" Morgan deflected, trying to determine just what exactly Rossi was talking about.

"Why don't you just go and sit next to her instead of staring from afar? Talk to her..."

"I really don't understand what you are talking about..."

"Go and ask her out."

"Whoa, man! You're kidding, right?"

"Never been more serious in my life! Look, when Carolyn passed, I was overcome with regrets. I couldn't stop thinking about all those moments I could have made a move to try and win her back. I bet this is more or less what you've been feeling since you found Emily that night in Boston, right?"

"Dave, I thought we had an agreement not to profile each other?" he said in an attempt to escape the question, without fully realizing that by doing so, he had confirmed the other man's theory.

"I will take that as a yes... In any case, I'm gonna tell you what Emily said when I told her about Carolyn. She said that second chances don't happen often in life, and that I should take advantage of the opportunity that I was given. For me it was too late. But for you, my friend, it is not! And allow me to tell you that you would be a fool to let this second chance pass. Remember, To err is human; to persist [in committing such errors] is of the devil".

"Yeah, whatever. B-but...what can I say? She's Emily Prentiss, I can't just ask her out like I would any other woman..."

"And what do you think I'm here for? Alright, guys..." Rossi called out loud to get the attention of the rest of the Unit, "...what do you think about lunch at my place, let's say...Sunday?"

"Fantastic! What will you cook?" asked a cheerful Garcia.

"Oh, wait a minute! It's been two months since I started giving you cooking lessons. I'd like to see how much you learnt..." the Italian Agent informed them, beginning to assign tasks to each one of his colleagues "...and, last but not least, since they are the ones who need more help, no offence, I decided to pair up Morgan and Prentiss. You guys will bake the cake."

"Hey, is there someone who wants to switch with me?" Derek tried to ask, but his idea was rejected by the event organizer who clarified the rules.

"I'm sorry, no swapping allowed," he said looking pointedly at Morgan, making it clear to him the reason behind his choice. "Fine, now I got to go back to my files. If we don't have a case, I'll be waiting for you at my mansion in two days at noon."

Later, that same day, before heading home, Morgan accosted Prentiss in the bullpen to make plans with her about their impending task.

"Glad you're still here -" he started talking, but was cut off by her.

"Listen, if you don't want to do this thing with me, it's okay. I understand, no problem."

"What? No, why... Oh, it is because of what I said before?! No, I didn't mean it that way... It's just that I'm a mess in the kitchen, and I don't want to make you look bad because of me, that's all."

"Well, just in case you didn't notice, I'm not exactly Martha Stewart either…"

"So it is okay with you if we work together?" the man asked, seeming uncharacteristically shy.

"If you don't have anything against it..."

"Of course I don't!"

"Good."

"Great! Would you like to come over at my place tomorrow for dinner? We can eat, and then start on the cake. Who knows how long it will take before we make a good one..."

"Only if you allow me to pay for the dinner."

"Agreed."

"What do you prefer, pizza or Chinese?"

"Umm...pizza is fine. What about 7:30pm, my house?"

"Sounds good. See you tomorrow then."

The following evening, the brunette rang his partner's villa's doorbell a few minutes late.
When Morgan opened the door, he found himself in front of his friend who was wearing a simple pair of black yoga pants and a sweatshirt that had seen better days. Her outfit wasn't the most flattering, but to him, she still was the most beautiful woman in the whole world. Emily smiled awkwardly at him, slightly uncomfortable under Morgan's scrutinizing eyes. Realizing he was actually staring at her, he instantly shook himself, and moved out of the way.

"Hey! Come on in," he invited, taking the pizza box from her.

"Hey. I'm sorry, I'm late. I realized I didn't know which toppings you'd prefer on the pizza..."

"Emily, it's only by 10 minutes. Plus, I don't have any specific preference about pizza, did you really forget?"

"I'm lucky then. Anyway, I also brought beer, to apologize for the delay."

"Em, you didn't have to..."

"But I wanted to."

The two of them settled on the couch, eating their dinner while watching a movie. When the film was over, and a couple of slices were all that remained of the pizza, as scheduled, the two co-workers moved to the kitchen to start working on the chocolate cake Morgan had chosen to impress and please Emily.

"I don't know about you, but I find it's easier to profile a sociopath than doing this..." Emily commented as she stirred the flour and the eggs to create a smooth batter.

"My mother tried more than once to teach me how to cook when I was younger... she gave up after a while, though. She always said that if cooking was a way to get to the girls' heart, it would be better for me to start working on other ways." he told her laughing; laughs that became louder when hers joined his.

"Haven't you learned anything that'd be useful in the kitchen from all that traveling around the world you did?" the man asked after a while.

"I'd have liked to, but my mother kept repeating that I shouldn't socialize with the help, except for my nanny, of course."

These few words started a conversation which was almost as awkward as the silence that often surrounded them. It didn't take long to the dialogue to slip onto the topics of 'Doyle' and 'Paris'. If Derek was not a profiler, he probably would never have noticed the veil of sadness that obscured her eyes while addressing these subjects; that was when he decided he had to do something...

"Hey, Prentiss!" the African-American Agent called to get her attention.

As soon as she raised her eyes, he gently threw some flour at her. That was the beginning of a playful war, a playful war that brought them closer and closer, until she ended up in his arms while both of them tried to catch their breath.

"I'm sorry." he apologized.

"Don't be, it was fun!" she reassured him.

"You have flour...well, everywhere."

"So do you."

"Emily...I...I..." Derek tried to say something, but realized that if he started talking he would not be able to express his feelings properly. He really wasn't that good with words. That's why he decided that taking action would be better than a thousand words. Morgan brought his hands up to her cheeks, framing her face, and with a quick but tender movement, he brought her face near his, so their lips could touch. He began the kiss, softly and it took Emily a few seconds before realizing what was really happening, and to kiss him back. Encouraged by her response, the man lifted her up to sit her on the kitchen counter, while his hands caressed her body; hers started working on the buttons of his shirt, unbuttoning them clumsily. The adrenaline coursing through her veins prevented her to do it faster; the buttons were too small for her shaking fingers.
Derek was already shirtless when he moved his hands under her sweater.

"Wait..." she said, getting some self-control back, "...I don't want you to see...them. I don't want you to see my scars..." Emily whispered softly, so softly that Morgan barely heard her.

"Hey, Em, what are you afraid of? Do you think I'm gonna run away from you? This ain't going to happen...after all this is my house" he affirmed, joking a bit on the last part to reassure her. "Okay, seriously now. You have nothing to be ashamed of, nothing! You still are Emily Prentiss, the smart, funny, beautiful and nerdy woman I fell in love with long time ago. These scars make me even more proud of you, because they prove you fought, fought for your life, to protect us...to protect...me. I would never stop loving you for that!"

'He loves me?' she thought, looking him in the eyes. He stared back at her; the look in his dark eyes seemed to answer her silent question. 'Yes.'

She didn't need any more confirmation. Sure, she would like to know more about his feelings, where they stood, what they were going to do, but in that moment, words could wait; she had other priorities. Emily put her hands on his and, guiding him, she started to pull off her top. Immediately after, they began to kiss again, as if that brief pause had been too long to bear.

"Are you sure?" the man asked, when Emily started to undo his belt.

"Mm-hmm" she confirmed.

"Come with me..." Derek spoke, giving her a quick peck on her lips, and taking her hand, guiding her to his bedroom where they resumed what they had started in the kitchen. They made love passionately. They both had waited this magical moment for so long.

The following morning, Emily woke up confused at first, not recognizing her surroundings, but as soon as the memories came back to her, she smiled shyly, and turned on her right side to see if the man she spent the night with was still asleep.

She was surprise when she discovered herself in bed alone. Uncertainty assailed her as a multitude of scenarios crossed her mind. She was so focused on them that she didn't even hear the bedroom door opening.

"Good morning." Derek greeted, kissing her head and sitting on the bed next to her. "I was hoping you wouldn't wake up 'till I was back..."

"Morning." she mumbled, covering herself with the sheets. She sat up, and tilted her head to look him in the eyes.

"It's quite late, but I went out to get you breakfast anyways."

Derek caught her eying the four cups he was carrying.

"Don't worry we don't have company," he smiled. "Well, I know you like decaf coffee now, but I don't know if you still have some with breakfast, so I also got hot chocolate, tea and milk. I also have some treats," he added, jostling the plastic bag looped around his arm. "So, what do you prefer?"

"Umm...I'll go with the hot chocolate, thanks."

"Good, and I take the milk".

The two federal Agents had their breakfast in comfortable silence, but the air was heavy with unspoken words.

"Alright, I can't take it any longer..." Derek exclaimed out of the blue. "I'm feeling like I owe you an explanation."

"You don't hav-"

"No, you deserve it, you should know the truth..." He took her hands, "...what I said last night...I'm not going to deny it, I finally spoke my heart out about how I feel about you. I love you, Emily. My God, I love you so much...I kept this inside for so long it almost killed me! And it felt so good to finally admit it to you!" Once he confessed how he felt, Morgan was finally able to breathe again.

"Can I ask you just one question?"

"Sure"

"What made you decide to tell me?"

"When I found you that night in Boston... I know you don't like to go back on this topic, but I said, I wanna tell you all the truth... When I found you that night, and later when we were at the hospital, I kept thinking that if only I had one more day with you, I would tell you how I felt about you. I just wanted another chance...and I was granted it. But if it weren't for Rossi, I probably would have let it go to waste. He pushed me towards you… "

"He pushed you?"

"Yeah, seems like my feelings for you were easily detected by the legendary David Rossi."
Prentiss smiled, averting her gaze. She had noticed something too, but she always thought it wasn't anything more than friendship.

"Look, I'm not expecting you to reciprocate my feelings or anything. I'm just asking you to give me a shot, so I can show you what I'm sure can grow in something really big. But if that was just a thing for a night...I can understand. Well, I'm not sure I'll be able to, but I'll try."

"Has anyone ever told you that sometimes you think too much?" she replied, grabbing his shirt to put him closer to be able to kiss him. Emily was never good with words; she preferred letting her actions speak for her.

"I wish I could stay here all day with you and take you out on a first date..." he let her know, pulling the brunette into his arms to cuddle her, "...but we have that thing at Rossi's."

"Crap, Rossi!" they said in unison.

Prentiss quickly got out of bed and began to put on her clothes; at least the ones that were upstairs. She stopped when she felt eyes watching her; Morgan was standing beside the bed doing nothing but stare at her, realizing that what he had dreamt since they met had finally come true.

"Derek, please close your mouth and stop staring, we're already late...and we still have a lot of things to do."

"Oh, yeah, sorry!" he apologized, following her downstairs.

"Damn! This kitchen is a disaster..." Emily said facing for the first time the mess they made in there hours before.

"Yeah, pretty much. But I don't wanna clean it. It's a good reminder of how last night started..." the man affirmed, closing the distance between them and kissing her. The heated kiss nearly got them back upstairs, but Emily broke it up reluctantly.

"Derek, as much as I would like this to continue, we really don't have time now. I should go back home, and change my outfit."

"Not to mention that we need a cake..."

"Right... Okay, there's a bakery a couple of blocks away from my condo, you could check what they have while I get ready."

"Good idea. But nobody is gonna believe that we made it."

"True... What if we say we burnt the cake because we weren't paying attention?"

"Sounds good, at least part of it isn't entirely a lie!" he winked. "Fine, let's get going or we'll be late," he continued, entwining his fingers with hers as they headed outside.

"There they are. It was about time!" Rossi welcomed the couple when they entered their colleague's backyard.

"We are so sorry, here is our contribution to lunch," Prentiss spoke for both of them.

"When I said that you had to work together on that, I didn't mean that you had to compromise on which cake to buy..."

"Yep, you're right. The thing is we've had a little kitchen incident," Morgan explained.

"Yeah, of course... I figured you two got sidetracked by other activities," the older profiler said, lowering his voice so only Morgan and Prentiss could hear him.

Derek and Emily exchanged a quick look, and then they joined the rest of the group, counting on their colleague to keep quiet on the recent relationship development.

The team had a good time, happy to spend some time together without the serial killers. When it was time to eat Morgan and Prentiss' dessert, a few of them protested lightly that it was cheating. The two of them didn't care though: if only the others knew what that baking session meant to them...

Hey you! Yes, you who have just read my story, how about letting me know your opinion? Many thanks! :)