A/N: Thank you for the very nice reviews. Remember, I said this was a romance so you'll have to hang in there with the story. It is coming soon.

Emily didn't understand why Hotch had been so cold and angry towards her and so dismissive about her birthday. While not the biggest party goer, he had always wished her a happy birthday before, gotten her some small gift and taken her out to lunch. Today he had only shown irritation and anger and she was confused by his treatment. She would have put it down as general frustration with the case and exhaustion, they have been working non-stop for weeks on several consecutive cases, except she had noticed a shift in their relationship since she had been back.

In the weeks leading up to her confrontation with Doyle in Boston, she had avoided Hotch as much as possible. She could tell Derek to butt out of her life and knew he would respect her wishes. She could hide her distress from everyone else. But Hotch would a) notice something was bothering her and b) wouldn't let up until he found out what was wrong. Hence her making sure the two of them were rarely left alone for any amount of time. Before that, they had fallen into an easy friendship where she actually felt he was allowing her to see more of that private Aaron Hotchner and she was beginning to open up to him. Their working relationship had improved by leaps and bounds until they were so in synch, they were almost finishing each other's thoughts, each anticipating the other's next move or needs.

However since her return, he had been distant with her. Aloof. Emily thought it was anger over putting him in a situation where he was forced to lie to the others. She understood and had also held herself back, willing to give him space. But he had never spoken to her as sharply as he had this morning. It reminded her of when she first started at the BAU. She quelled a sigh. It looked like yet another victim to Doyle and her past was whatever friendship she had with Hotch.

These thoughts were running through her head as she absently dunked the fresh tea bag in the hot water-filled mug before her. She felt someone come up to her and saw JJ sidling up. The blonde grabbed an empty mug and poured some coffee into it.

"How are you holding up?" JJ asked, her blue eyes filled with concern.

Emily blinked at her and gave her a puzzled smile. "I'm fine. Well, other than being frustrated in not finding something on this UNSUB. Why do you ask?"

JJ glanced around. "Well, we did all flake on you and forget your birthday and it took Gibbs who's hundreds of miles away to remind us. Really, that was so sweet of him." She gazed significantly at the brunette. "And romantic. So what's going on with him? Birthday dinner tradition?" She waggled her eyebrows.

For the first time that day, Emily felt like laughing. She opted to smile and shake her head. "Gibbs? Sorry JJ, nothing there but good friends. The man might come off as a hard ass, and well, he actually is, but there's a really sweet guy underneath all that. He feels bad that for the last couple of years I've had to deal with serial killers on my birthday so he just makes sure that I have a nice dinner each year to make up for it in some way."

JJ gave her a skeptical look. "He went through all the trouble to find a Marine in town who could hand deliver roses to you and you say it's all because he feels bad about your lousy past birthdays?"

"JJ, we're friends and come on, who on their birthday falls into a container of body parts, the following birthday nearly gets decapitated by a pedophile and the next birthday gets sprayed by a skunk, chased by a bear and has an unsub try to re-enact William Tell on her? After hearing all that, the man felt bad for me."

"Well," JJ acknowledged grudgingly, "I can see where he might want to do something nice for you." She gave her friend a sly look. "I bet if he heard all this, it would probably be a relief to Hotch."

Emily was confused. "Why would it be a relief to Hotch?"

JJ looked at her in surprise. "You're joking, right?" From the look on her friend's face, it was clear Emily had no idea what JJ was talking about. The small blonde laughed. "Em, Hotch is jealous of Gibbs!"

"Jealous about what?" Emily's wrinkled brow and completely perplexed look sent JJ off into another round of laughter.

"You and Gibbs! Hotch thinks you and Gibbs have something going on and he's jealous." JJ shook her head, surprised she had to spell everything out to her usually perceptive friend.

It was Emily's turn to laugh. "JJ, you aren't serious, are you?" Seeing the look on her friend's face, Emily laughed again. "The last thing Hotch is, is jealous. And of Gibbs and me? That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard."

JJ stared at her friend and realization dawned on her. "You don't know, do you? About what Hotch did to protect you?"

"JJ, of course I know. He lied to everyone and I feel terrible for putting him in that position."

"No, Emily, you don't know that it was all his idea. Every single detail of it and he forced everyone, I mean everyone, State, the CIA, even the FBI Director, to go along with it."

The brunette looked at her blonde friend in surprise. "It was Hotch's plan? He convinced all those agencies?"

JJ snorted. "More like strong-armed. Em, I've never seen him that way. We weren't certain if you were going to make it when we got you to the hospital. Hotch threatened the doctors, saying if they didn't save you, they were going to deal with him and his look meant when he was through with them, they'd likely be needing their own doctors. Then he got on the phone immediately and pitched his plan. He wasn't going to take no for an answer. He used every chit, pulled every string, used every contact he had. Hotch dropped your mother's name, your father's name, I think he even went all the way back to your grandfather and then he started trotting out his family tree. He reminded everyone how much they owed you because they neglected to protect the JTF members in the first place and never bothered to warn you about Doyle."

"Hotch blackmailed them?"

JJ nodded. "He did whatever it took. He wasn't taking no for an answer."

Emily blinked, overwhelmed by this new information. She had assumed it was a joint decision to fake her death and Hotch and JJ just carried out their parts. She had no inkling that Hotch had masterminded the entire thing.

She shook her head. "He must really regret it now," she said softly.

JJ gasped and reached out to touch Emily's arm. "Why are you saying something like that?"

Emily glanced around making sure no one was in earshot. The last she needed was for Hotch to overhear their conversation. "JJ, look at how he's acted around me since I've been back. He's barely spoken three words to me that haven't been related to a case or work." She thought a moment. "Scratch that, he's onlyspoken to me about work items."

"Oh come, on, you're exaggerating," JJ scoffed. She thought back over the nearly two months that have passed since Emily returned to the BAU and frowned as she went over her memories. Surely she saw them at some point talking to each other, just casual conversation? While Hotch was never one for chit-chatting, he did speak to each of them about other things besides work. "He hasn't even asked how you've been adjusting?"

Emily shook her head. "Only in how it relates to the job. 'How are you feeling getting back into the swing of things' type of questions." She shrugged. "I can't blame him. I put him in an uncomfortable position."

Her friend tried to play it off, but JJ could see Emily was upset. JJ's frown deepened. While she couldn't think of a time she saw Hotch and Emily speaking to each other, she just somehow knew Hotch wasn't upset with her friend. But why was that?

It hit her then. The reason she thought everything was fine from Hotch's end was because he hadn't been acting like he was upset with Emily. JJ saw the smiles, the long glances. She saw how he focused on her friend and always seemed to be aware of where Emily was at all times. It also hadn't escaped her attention that when it was clear Luke Dolan had penetrated the FBI and was heading straight for the BAU bullpen, it was Emily Hotch made sure was securely and safely tucked away with Dolan's family. Granted, Emily had been the agent most in contact with Mrs. Dolan and her daughter, but Hotch actually did not need her with him. He was the one who had coached Mrs. Dolan through that tense time, not Emily.

All the little things Hotch did appeared different in this new light. The intense stares, the reluctance to leave Prentiss' side, the just slightly softer tone he took when speaking to her friend. For Hotch, that was kid glove treatment. He still paired Emily often with Morgan, but JJ had a sneaking suspicion it was because aside from himself, Morgan was the only other person Hotch trusted to look out for Emily's safety. Beyond the physical strength and skill of the other man that only the unit leader could match, Hotch knew that after nearly, and believing for several months, that he had lost Emily, Morgan would do whatever it took to make sure the woman stayed safe. Hotch was possibly using Morgan's own guilt for his personal purposes: protect Emily at all costs.

This wasn't about you. Or me. It was about saving Emily's life.

The two men hadn't known she had overheard their conversation, but she saw the impact Hotch's words had on Derek. Yes, hearing those words, not only dissipated Morgan's anger at Hotch, JJ, and Emily, it was almost an agreement between the two men of what was important, protecting the lovely brunette. Both JJ and Hotch knew that Derek would do whatever was needed to make sure they would never lose Emily Prentiss again. And that suited Hotch just fine.

But why then, was he avoiding Emily? It was something that was obvious enough to cause her friend distress. JJ felt terrible that she couldn't alleviate the other woman's anxiety in any way, especially given the way Hotch had reacted this morning. While JJ believed it was a sign of jealousy, Emily saw it as evidence of a rift between them. JJ started to say something, an effort to make Emily believe that Hotch wasn't truly angry with her when they were interrupted.

"Prentiss! JJ!" Morgan leaned his head into the small kitchen the women were standing in. "Come on, we've caught a break."

A/N 2: Don't forget that the 2nd Annual Profilers Choice Award for Criminal Minds fiction is now open for nominations. I think this weekend is the last day you can send in a nomination ballot. The ballots are found in the discussion forum (when in the list of stories for the CM fan fiction section, look to the top right hand corner of your screen and you'll see a link for "Discussion Forums"), Chit Chat on Authors Corner, 2011 Profilers Choice CM Awards - Nomination Ballot.

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