Author's Note: The story now picks up on Emily's first day. This chapter is completely from Emily's point of view, the next one will be completely from Hotch's.

And I forgot to mention yesterday that this story, like the last, is once again being beta'd by the lovely Arcadya. Yay!


Episode – The Last Word

Girl Meets Boy, Again

'What the hell was going on around here?'

Emily was standing like an idiot in front of Aaron Hotchner's doorway, watching herself get the evil eye from not only Hotchner himself, but also . . . if her memory served correctly from last year's news coverage . . . the legendary Jason Gideon. It was like she was in Bizarro World. Though her day had started off so well.

And she'd been so excited!

She had woken up early, and when picking out her outfit she'd opted to take the opportunity to wear a skirt (a rarity) given that it was her first day, and therefore unlikely that she'd be in the field. Then she'd very carefully applied her makeup . . . not too much, didn't want anyone thinking the new girl was tarted up . . . before hauling her box of office brick a brack off the coffee table and leaving for the forty plus minute trek to Quantico.

It was her first assignment at the Academy, and given that she'd just moved into her condo over the weekend . . . and had been busy with all of the utility/house setting up stuff . . . she hadn't had a chance to meet her new supervisor yet.

And until this moment of semi-public humiliation, she'd been really looking forward to that meeting.

Because when she'd finished taking all of the behavioral classes, and her transfer had finally gone through, she'd started researching her new colleagues at the BAU. And it had been with some amusement when she'd realized that the unit chief was in fact the same man . . . the same incredibly attractive, married man . . . that she'd met at her mother's house while he was on assignment there so many years ago. Oddly enough, she always flashed on that night when they started running trailers for new James Bond movies.

That Damn Face was burned into her memory.

Either way, she hadn't thought about him in a few years. Maybe because they stopped making Bond films for awhile after 9/11. But then she'd seen that she was going to be working for him . . . and remembering that night again when they'd first met . . . she'd been kind of excited beyond just the huge new career path thing.

And that was because . . . though her transitory physical attraction for him had come and gone by the time she'd left for Egypt . . . he had seemed nice. Okay, granted they hadn't actually spoken . . . and really had only interacted for about thirty seconds . . . but Emily was a good judge of character. And she was convinced that he was a nice man.

Besides, her mother had actually spoken well of him, and if that wasn't a testament to his abilities Emily didn't know what was. Not to mention that there was no way that he'd be running one of the most elite units in the bureau if he wasn't DAMN good at his job. So there were a lot of pluses in the column of being in Aaron Hotchner's unit.

She'd hoped to learn a lot from him.

So she had arrived at Quantico in good spirits. And after getting slightly lost looking for visitor's parking . . . she had no permanent parking permit yet . . . she'd dragged her box into the building and headed directly over to Human Resources to pick up her official first day papers. After that she was off to Operations to make sure her ID was properly coded for access to get her everywhere that her new job was supposed to take her. And then FINALLY . . . with a metaphorical spring in her step . . . she'd headed up to her first day with the BAU. She'd popped her head into Hotchner's office, they'd shaken hands, and overall . . . in retrospect . . . everything had been going quite well with him for the first thirty, perhaps even forty five seconds.

Because to her amazement, he had remembered her too!

And that was really nice. So she had at least felt a little less silly about her brief memories of him still sticking with her after all this time. But then sociable reminiscing turned to incredibly awkward present day as it became apparent that Hotchner actually didn't know why the hell she was standing in his office. And THAT was when Emily had started to feel like she'd just walked into the Twilight Zone.

She had her paperwork, it was signed by the section chief . . . she'd MOVED halfway across the country for God's sake . . . and two minutes in on what she thinks is her first day on this great new job, she's inexplicably getting the bum's rush from a man . . . who may have recalled her fondly from before . . . but clearly wanted absolutely NOTHING to do with her now.

And she had no idea why.

And she watched as Gideon spared her one more suspicious glance, and then she stood there . . . feeling perplexed and stupid . . . wondering what the hell she should do.

Well . . . she took a breath . . . first things first, get out of Hotchner's office before somebody who definitely DID work in this unit asked her to get out of his office. That would just add to the public humiliation of the day thing.

So Emily stepped into the hall and slowly exhaled.

Okay, so now what was the best approach to resolving this fiasco. Clearly this was just some kind of mix-up and when Hotchner got back from wherever he had just run off to, she'd have it all sorted out.

Right . . . she nodded to herself . . . just a mix-up. But she needed a 'base' to work this mix-up out. So she started by asking someone in the Unit where the cafeteria was.

And then she settled in down there with a coffee, her box and her cell phone.

It took about an hour on the phone, but finally she was able to get a live person to speak with her at the main Personnel office in Washington. And Mrs. Janetti confirmed that yes, indeed, there was no question whatsoever that Supervisory Special Agent Emily Rose Prentiss had been officially transferred to the Behavioral Analysis Unit located at the main academy campus.

She had them check that last part twice just in case she'd completely lost her mind and there was some other satellite unit that she hadn't known existed.

But once she was assured that a) she wasn't nuts, and b) that whatever the mixup was, it was totally on Hotchner's side, Emily tossed out her cold coffee and marched back up to the BAU. The wind was taken slightly out of her sails when she was intercepted in Hotchner's doorway by a blonde in a rather colorful outfit, telling her that he . . . and his team . . . were gone. And not just gone, but long gone. Two or three days at least.

UNFLIPPINGBELIEVABLE!

The blonde . . . Penelope Garcia, as she identified herself . . . took note of her reaction to that news (crestfallen didn't begin to cover it) and seemed to take pity on her. And once Emily gave her a brief rundown of the situation, the Garcia woman had eyed her up and down before muttering, "I suppose you'll do." And then she told her to scribble down her cell number and she'd call her when they were on their way home.

Then she'd grinned as Emily was digging out her pen, telling her it was best to, "ambush 'Hotch' . . ." (nickname for Hotchner presumably) "when he first arrived back from the joust and there were possibly chinks in his otherwise unchinkable armor."

And Emily had smiled to herself as she scribbled down her number . . . she liked this woman. Which was a good thing, because she was running pretty short on allies so far. So she'd handed over her number, dragged her box back out to her car, and driven off for a three hours early dinner of a half bottle of cheap wine, and two pounds of comfort Chinese food.

And that was her first day on the job.

A rather inauspicious one if she did say so herself. But she resolved to make day two plus whatever date she was no longer a BAU orphan, at least slightly more productive.

So every day after that, she came in with her box and settled into a corner of the cafeteria with a coffee, a little pack of Famous Amos chocolate chip cookies, and her laptop. And there she reviewed all of the BAU case files that her access level would allow her. Hotchner may not have yet considered her as a member of his unit, but the paperwork WAS official, so she didn't feel guilty about reviewing their cases.

Well, not too guilty anyway.

Of course she'd have felt better about it if she knew that she actually had his blessing . . . the Catholic guilt did hit a the oddest times . . . but hopefully that would be coming in a few days.

And the days were passing quickly. Though by day four she was getting a bit desperate for anything else to do. She'd spent at least forty of the prior seventy-two hours doing nothing but sit alone as she looked over at crime scene photos, autopsy reports and case evals. And with essentially no other human interaction . . . the twice daily polite nod with the janitor who swept the cafeteria didn't really count . . . she was getting pretty emotionally drained. But that was fortunately the day that she received the call from Garcia.

The team was due back that night.

So Emily loaded up on extra coffee and cookies to ensure that she could put in a full fifteen hour day. And when she felt that the time was getting close for their arrival, she went back up to wait in Hotchner's office.

It was the first time that she'd been in there since he'd left. And at that point, everyone else in their bullpen had gone for the day, so when one of the overnight people from the mail room came looking for Hotchner, she ended up taking custody of an urgent file that had just arrived for him.

After the kid had gone, she held the folder in her hand for a moment as she debated with herself.

And then she said screw it, and took a quick peek.

Oh . . . her eyes lit up as she slipped the paperwork out . . . a new referral! This was EXACTLY the break that she needed! Before the folder showed up, Emily had just been nervously pacing around the office. But now that she had a file . . . and a real plan to prove herself . . . she settled in on Hotchner's couch. And that's when started putting together a profile on her first NON-official case.

And that was her fourth day on the job.


A/N 2: You'll notice there's a boy/girl theme to the first few chapter titles. That continues until I get their relationship on an even keel :)

Tomorrow: "Boy Meets Girl, Again"