Authors Note- I added a bit of light hearted humour into the last chapter with Sergio. I hope you enjoyed it. I had kept writing and I wasn't sure what Emily's spontaneous surprise for Hotch was going to be so I consulted the amazing CM_APOCALYPSE and she gave me the idea to include Emily's cat so thank you rhian!

Chapter 3

Having had the weekend to recover Emily was back into work on Monday morning. She assessed her surroundings before walking through the glass doors leading into the bullpen. She couldn't see anyone apart from JJ at the coffee machine. She thought back to what Hotch had said last week about coffee consumption…maybe she should cut back too.

"Morning JJ." Emily called from across the room.

"Morning Em, feeling better?"

"Yeah much better thanks, um is Hotch in?" She could see the light was off so unless he had fallen asleep in there, which wouldn't be surprising to Emily, she highly doubted it.

"I know he had a meeting this morning with Strauss but that should have been over by now" explained JJ.

"They had a meeting before 7.30?" asked Emily

JJ sighed "what can I say Em?" Emily smiled.

She would just have to wait until Hotch arrived to talk to him. Emily gladly took the hot cup of coffee JJ had just given her. So much for cutting back. With that she picked up a stack of files and got to work, not before slipping a few onto Reid's pile. What the young profiler didn't know couldn't hurt him.

By 8 o'clock everyone had arrived and were now situated at their respective work areas. Everyone but Hotch. Where could he be? It was not like Hotch to be late, well it was not like Hotch to be on time either. Always early. So where was he? As she thought about calling him a gush of wind blew through the bullpen. As Emily turned her head to see where the draft had come from she was met with a disgruntled looking Hotch who had just barged through the glass doors. She wanted to laugh. Never before had their usually put together unit chief looked so…annoyed. Oh no. Annoyed Hotch was not someone you would want to make an acquaintance with. By the look of him he was not in the mood to talk at the moment so she supressed her urge to laugh and let him walk past their desks in silence. He slammed the door to his office and Reid jumped. The poor genius was so engrossed in his work he hadn't even registered Hotch's arrival.

Ten minutes had passed since Hotch had arrived and Emily was driving herself mad. She tried to wait it out because she knew that getting on the wrong side of Hotch was not in her best interests. She thought for a moment then decided she should take a plunge into the pool of life. Herself being the person plunging and Hotch's office being the pool. With that somewhat strange mantra in mind she stood up from her chair and walked up the stairs to Hotch's office. She knocked twice before hearing a mumble from the other side of the door. She took a gamble and assumed he had told her to come in. She plunged.

Hotch looked up to find Prentiss standing in his doorway. He contemplated whether or not he was in the mood to talk. She obviously wanted to know why he was in such a bad mood.

Hotch motioned to the chairs opposite him "take a seat Prentiss."

He was inviting her in. She was a little taken aback but she decided to not ponder on it and walked towards the chairs he was motioning to.

"Hotch I don't mean to intrude but I just wanted to check you were ok, you look…well you looked annoyed when you came in and I wanted to make sure-''

Emily's rambling was cut off by Hotch silently raising his hand in the air. She stopped talking.

"Thank you for your concern Prentiss but I'm fine."

Emily eyed him cautiously, she wasn't convinced but she also knew that Hotch wouldn't let his stoic demeanour slip so she didn't even try. "Ok, if you want to talk I'm right here, well not here you know what I mean I'll be down there" she motioned down to the bullpen.

Hotch chuckled lightly at her rambling and thanked her. Just as Emily turned to leave she spoke up once again. "Oh I almost forgot, dinner. When are you free?"

Hotch thought for a moment "well I guess I'm free tonight but if that's too short notice we could-"

"Tonight sounds great, I know a great place I've been wanting to try for a while now. I'll be at yours for 7.30?"

"I look forward it." Hotch smiled.

Emily nodded and exited his office. She sensed by Hotch's small sigh that when he said he was free tonight he had previously had plans but they had obviously been cancelled. She couldn't help but wonder what they might be. She sighed as she sat down. Now she just had to figure out what to wear.

Authors Note- I realised I went off on a bit of a tangent but I wanted to include more team interaction. Not a lot I know…Anyway I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as I have writing. I never knew I could feel so at ease by just writing about something or rather someone I love! Next…Dinner!