Prentiss

I woke yesterday with a massive hangover. I think it was still here today as I got up and ready for work. Monday mornings were always the worst, no matter what you were doing on them. I got ready slowly, trying not to rattle my head too much as it ached. I eventually got to my car and drove to the precinct.

I walked out onto the sixth floor and took a breath, feeling slightly nauseous from the elevator. I made my way through the glass doors and went to my desk. JJ, Garcia, Morgan, Reid and Rossi were all standing by the desks, looking at mine. When I looked at mine, wondering why they were staring at it, I noticed a huge bunch of flowers on it. They were the same as the purple one that was in the box at my door. That one was only signed with the letter D.

I dropped my bag at the side of my desk and saw Hotch walk out of his office and down the steps from the corner of my eye. He joined the others in watching me as I picked up the folded piece of paper sitting in the middle of the bunch. I unfolded it and read the print.

"These flowers don't compare to you, my dear Emily. –D"

My eyebrows furrowed and I lifted my phone. I glanced at the team and saw Garcia and JJ with smiles. I waved to them briefly as a greeting and walked away with the phone to my ear as it rang Dean.

"Hello?"

"Hey Dean, it's Emily."

"…Oh, hey Em…" He said awkwardly. I felt bad now for pretending to be dating Morgan in front of him.

"I was just calling to ask you if it was you leaving me flowers. I've received flowers twice and they're both only signed with the letter D."

"No, I haven't sent anything. Maybe it was your boyfriend."

"I asked him, he didn't send them. Alright, thank you."

"Bye."

I hung up and walked back to my desk. I put my phone down and looked at the note again, looking at the back and front.

"Who are they from?" Garcia asked with an excited smile.

"…D?" I turned the note around to show that it was only signed with the letter, "There was a single flower like these ones left at my door on Saturday night, too."

"You have a secret admirer." JJ smirked.

"Or a murderer." Reid said quietly.

"Are they from Dean?" Morgan asked, saying his name in a mocking tone. He ignored Reid as the others did.

"No, I asked him. On Sunday when I opened the other one, I honestly thought either you or Rossi just decided to be nice and send me a flower." I said to Morgan, glancing at Rossi when I said his name.

"Well we didn't, so who else is there?"

I shook my head, "No one. I don't know anyone. At least not enough for them to know where I live or where I work."

"Once again, I will raise the possibility of danger." Reid said.

"I don't know, but I have a headache and I'm pretty sure I'm still hung over so…" I pushed the flowers back to the corner of my desk and sat down. I picked up a pen and slid the top file off the pile of them and put it in front of me. I opened it and stopped. I spun my chair around and looked at my motionless team, "Guys."

"Em…Reid could be right." JJ said.

I raised my eyebrows, "I'm fine."

"You are right now…but what if it's a little more than we think?" Rossi asked.

"Then you can all look into it when I'm dead. Now I'm alive, so don't worry about it."

They all looked at Hotch and he looked torn. He didn't want to look into something that could simply be an admirer or someone who I knew but just didn't think about when I was considering people, but he didn't want to leave it for it to be something potentially dangerous. This team was too skeptical but I didn't blame them, considering what we had gone through in previous years.

"There's no sign of any danger to her yet so we'll leave it alone. If it continues, we can reconsider," Hotch said to them, "Dave, I need to talk to you." Hotch and Rossi walked up the steps and to Hotch's office.

JJ, Reid and Morgan turned to their desks and Garcia looked lost. "I have nothing to do." She said as she sat on Morgan's desk.

"Okay, my paperwork can wait." He said. I heard his drawer open and Garcia gasped.

"Cards!" She exclaimed excited, "Oh, you're so good to me, hot stuff."

He laughed lightly, "Hey, you guys want in?"

"No thanks, I have a new book to read if I finish the paperwork." Reid declined. I could hear the smile in his voice.

"I've got shit to do, so no thanks." JJ said.

"No thank you." I said quietly to them, "But can you please not speak loud like that again like when you said "cards!" because my head is killing me."

Morgan smirked, "Sure thing, princess."

I walked up to my apartment and unlocked the door. My headache had eased since I took some aspirin. I put all my things in the places they always went and I sat down on the couch, sighing. I looked at the singular flower on the coffee table in front of me. It was still in the box. I picked up the small tag and looked at the hand written letter. I picked my phone up from beside me and opened the contacts, reading through every single one. None of the people on my phone with their first or last name starting with 'D' knew both where I lived and worked. They knew one or the other or neither, apart from Dean, Morgan and Rossi.

I turned the TV on and the news played as I went to the kitchen and looked in the refrigerator for something to make for dinner. I wasn't feeling extremely hungry for anything big so I just made a small salad.

A knock on the door interrupted my thoughts as I ate. I stood up and walked to the door. When I looked out the peep hole in the door, there was no one there. I unlocked the door and took the chain off, opening it. There was a box lying at the door. I walked out and down the hall. I looked over the railing and down the stairs to see if the person was still in the building. I didn't see any movement or hear anything so I walked back to the apartment and stopped Sergio from running out into the hall. I picked the box up and walked inside, doing the chain back up and locking the door again. The sound of the click seemed comforting and restricting at the same time.

I put the box beside my plate and sat back at the dining table. I took another bite of the salad and opened the box. More purple flowers. As much as I didn't want to admit it to anyone, not my team and not myself, this was starting to seem very strange to me, familiar almost. It scared me, knowing the fact that an unknown person had returned to my apartment and sent me flowers at work too. It was signed with the single letter again.

I sighed and closed the box again. I picked my phone up and opened Hotch's contact. Do I call him or am I overreacting? Why didn't the person wait for me to answer the door? Why didn't they want me to see them? I put my phone back down without calling my boss. He didn't need to worry about something that has been harmless so far.

I decided to go to bed early, feeling tired and anxious. I had a quick shower first being lying in bed. I picked my book up and started reading from the bookmarked page. My phone made the familiar 'ding' noise and I picked it up, looking at the text from Morgan.

"Everything okay?" He had asked.

"It's fine. You don't have to check up on me, Morgan. It's just a few flowers." I replied.

"I know" was his answer. I didn't text back after that. I plugged my phone in and just decided to go to sleep. I didn't really feel like reading.

I got to the office earlier than Morgan and JJ this morning. Garcia and Reid were standing at his desk; Rossi and Hotch were talking in between their offices.

"Hey." I smiled at Reid and Garcia as I reached my desk. I waved to Hotch and Rossi and they both nodded in return of the greeting.

"How are you, my love?" Garcia asked me.

"Good, you?"

"Magnificent. I had a date last night."

I turned my chair around quickly and smirked at her, "So that's why you ran out of here so fast. Who was it?"

"Some guy I met at the bar the other night while you were busy dancing with Derek. Don't get your hopes up, it was a total miss. We had almost nothing in common and he was so boring."

"Then why was it magnificent?" Reid asked her, looking confused.

"Because a guy asked me out on a date. That never happens to me."

I smiled and listened as they talked about it and I greeted JJ and Morgan when they arrived. They sat at their desks and JJ sighed when she did. She looked exhausted.

"You okay?" I asked her, trying not to catch the attention of the others. I stood from my desk and walked to her side casually.

"Will and I were arguing again last night and then Henry wasn't sleeping because he felt unwell and he was crying and I got very little sleep in the end." She explained to me, resting her head in her hand and her elbow on the desk as she scribbled circles on a piece of paper with her pen.

"Garcia had a date last night." I said to her. I knew it would cheer her up. Her back straightened and she spun her chair around quickly before batting her eyelashes and looking at Garcia, waiting for a story. Garcia told her the same thing she had been telling the rest of us and the four of them started talking about something different. I went back to sit at my desk and looked at the flowers still in the corner. Do I say something or do I forget about it?

"Agent Prentiss?" I heard someone ask. I looked up and saw a man from the ground floor holding three boxes, "These were dropped off for you."

"Thank you." I said quietly as he put them on my desk and walked away. I looked at them for a second before looking at JJ watching from her desk to my left and I knew Morgan, Garcia and Reid were looking too. I looked behind us where Hotch and Rossi previously were. I heard Rossi laugh from Hotch's office. I stood up and walked up the few steps and knocked on Hotch's open door.

He smiled at me and motioned for me to come in. I closed the door behind me to stop the rest of the team overhearing anything and looked at the two men in front of me.

"What's going on?" Rossi asked. His eyes that previously seemed happy and showed his good mood changed to those of concern.

"A box of flowers was left at my door last night. I heard the knock but they were gone by the time I reached the door. Three more boxes were just brought to my desk."

"Three more boxes of flowers?" Hotch asked.

"I don't know if it's flowers; I didn't open them."

"This is a bit strange for an admirer, don't you think?" Rossi asked. I nodded in reply.

"Do you want to open the boxes?" Hotch asked. I nodded again and opened the door, walking back out. The two of them followed behind me and I ignored the eyes of my team as I returned to my desk.

I opened the box on top. It was full of the same purple flowers as the others. I moved it out of the way and open the next box that contained the same flowers. I sighed and moved that on top of the other, freeing the one on the bottom. The team was standing around me, waiting for me to open it.

"Ten bucks it's flowers?" Morgan said quietly to Garcia.

"You're on." She whispered.

"Shh." JJ hissed at them.

I glared at Morgan, "I'm glad this is fun for you."

"Just trying to lighten this up a bit."

"Well don't?"

"Okay…sorry."

I looked back at the box and lifted the lid off it. My mouth fell open slightly when I saw the piles upon piles of printed photos of me and the team, Henry, Jack and Will included. "Morgan, you owe her ten bucks." I said quietly. I sat down and lifted a handful photos. I picked up the box while inspecting some of the photos I was holding and held it out to Hotch. He took it and his face hardened when he saw what was inside.

They all took out a handful of photos as I had to look at. The one I looked at the longest was of JJ, Will and Henry at the park. JJ had a big smile, Henry was on her lap and Will was kissing her cheek from his seat beside her.

"This is definitely dangerous…" Rossi said quietly.

"This photo of you would be really nice if it weren't taken by your stalker." JJ said, showing me a photo. I was standing outside a coffee shop with a coffee in my hand and a phone to my ear. I was wearing the new dress I bought last week with my hair out and my sunglasses on. I was smiling and I think I was laughing. "How often do you wear that dress? You were wearing it Saturday night."

"It's new; I only got it last week. I only wore it on Saturday."

"Wow…so this photo is really recent." She said quietly, sitting back up straighter on my desk.

"What do we do?" Garcia asked Hotch, "There are photos of Jack and Henry."

"We keep it quiet because we don't want anyone else working this case and we work it now. We need to find out who this is before any harm is done. Has anyone else received or seen anything out of the ordinary?"

They all thought about it and shook their heads. "Oh, wait," JJ said, remembering something, "There's been this car I've never seen before at the end of my street. It has a straight view of my place."

"How long has it been there?" Morgan asked.

"I've been seeing it about three times a week for a month. I just assumed someone had moved in but neither Will nor I had heard of anyone moving."

"Call Will." Hotch said to her. She nodded and walked away from us as she got her phone out. "Garcia, look at the cameras downstairs and see if you can get the person who dropped the boxes in. Everyone else, round table."

Garcia's phone buzzed as she walked away quickly. Morgan, Reid and Rossi walked towards the round table room and Hotch went to follow them before he realised that I hadn't moved.

"Prentiss?"

"This was only this morning…" I said quietly, showing the photo of me, "And this one was about five months ago." I said as I showed him another one of Dean and I.

"Whoever this is, we'll get to them before they get to you."

"Hotch, they already got to me." I stood up and stepped away from him instinctively. This was all on me. I was clearly the main target and I was pulling the team into it unintentionally. My eyes widened as I looked at another photo in the box. I lifted it up and showed him, "That is inside my apartment!"

I decided I couldn't be around them at the moment. I needed to take myself away from them so the danger would follow me away from them. I lifted my bag quickly and picked my phone up from my desk.

"Prentiss, where are you going?"

"Away. If I'm not near any of you, then the danger shouldn't be." He tried to stop me as I turned around but I wasn't staying in the precinct with my team and so many other innocent people. I shook his hand from my arm and walked away quickly.