WORKING WITH TOP BEHAVIOURAL MINDS

PROMPT: One Nation Under Surveillance (Las Vegas)

David Rossi had been watching them.

After Emily's strict refusal that there was anything between her and her supervisor, Dave had taken to watching them. And he'd come to one conclusion, and one conclusion only.

Emily had been lying.

Emily wasn't the type of person to lie. It, quite simply, wasn't her style. She'd proven that in the way she'd simply opened up to him when he asked her about her friend's death, about why she was so attached to the case. That same case really should have been the ultimate tip-off on Hotch's side too. Sure, he'd been worried in Colorado when Emily was beaten by Cyrus, but the abject helplessness on the man's face throughout all of Emily's ordeal with the priest should have been a giveaway.

But, Dave had to give them credit. They were good. Emily had seemed genuinely horrified that Hotch had walked in on their conversation at lunch almost two weeks ago and she'd been understandably reluctant to talk about anything to do with their supervisor outside of work since. He hadn't thought anything of it. Well, that wasn't totally true. He'd continued watching both of his colleagues, almost closer than he had before and now he was sure.

They were more than just friends.

To a non-behaviouralist, he was sure that everything would seem normal. They'd been friends before he'd started watching them, so the two of them going for lunch or coffee really wasn't something to write home about. It was in the other things. Like the way she didn't have to ask him for coffee. It was in the obvious way they fed off of each other. It was in the way Dave had noticed Emily's eyes floating up to Hotch's office when she was dealing with one of her less productive distracted days. It was in the looks Hotch snuck glances at Emily when they were in their briefings. It was the way they followed each other around almost like lost puppies. Okay, that was a little overdramatic, but they did make sure they were almost always sitting beside each other on the plane and during briefings.

He caught Emily's eyes as she stole Hotch's pen to make a note in her file and almost grinned at the way she virtually started, but smiled back.

Yeah. There was definitely something more between them.

"Dave's onto us."

Hotch blinked. He'd literally just opened the door to her condo and that was what she was greeting him with? He was tempted to exercise his generally dry humour, but the look on her face was so adorably confused he managed to refrain. "Okay."

"That's it?" she asked turning to him with wide eyes. "I just told you Dave knows about our relationship and all you can say is okay?"

He sighed. He was most definitely not ready for this. It felt like he'd been in the office since 4am, and though that wasn't true, the day had crawled by. Usually he didn't mind the tedium of the BAU if only because it meant that the regular brutality of cases was put on hold for at least a time. Emily, however, seemed to have a completely different plan for his originally intended relaxing evening. "Sweetheart, what do you want me to say?"

She was quiet for a moment as he shed his coat and laid his suit jacket over the kitchen counter. "Everything okay?" she asked, quietly, standing from where she'd been sitting on the couch to come to his side.

"Fine," he promised with a small smile. "I'm just tired."

"We don't have to talk about Dave," Emily offered, sighing contentedly as his arms wrapped around her. "I was picking a fight."

She was, but the fact that she admitted it meant he didn't have to acknowledge it. "We'll talk about Dave if you want to talk about Dave," he replied, kissing her head. "And I mean that. I know you want to talk about it."

"It's just.... I don't know. This was ours. Untainted by the BAU. I'm not sure I'm ready for the team to know just yet," she said, cutting to the chase. He really did look exhausted and she should have taken that into consideration before. It was selfish of her to want to talk about something that was bothering her when he seemed so out of it.

"We work with behaviouralists," he murmured against her hair. "We're good, we're not that good."

She snorted in amusement at the way he'd just thrown her words back in her face. She'd said something along those same lines not long ago when a case had been rough and she'd snuck into his room. They were good at compartmentalizing, but not that good. She'd needed a hug and she really wasn't willing to ask that of Dave or Derek. And plus, it never was quite the same as an Aaron Hug.

"I did notice he's been watching us much more," he offered, slowly starting to rock back and forth. For some odd reason, it calmed her and he could feel her relaxing in his grip.

"Like we're a science experiment. We don't live under a microscope. I got out of politics for that."

He actually laughed at that. The line was so Emily that he couldn't have stopped it if he tried. Slowly, he sobered. "It's just Dave," he pointed out.

"Right," she replied, with an arched eyebrow as she looked up at him. "Just Dave. Soon it'll be 'just the Bureau'. You know how Dave is."

He raised a responding eyebrow. "I didn't take you as the drama queen type."

"You think I'm being overdramatic? This is David Rossi we're talking about. The man who is more of a gossip than Penelope Garcia!"

He was treading on thin ice and he knew it. She was being irrational, a seldom experienced phenomena, but a difficult one nonetheless. "Would you like to talk to Dave about it?"

"And confirm his suspicions? No thanks."

"Then what do you want to do?"

Emily sighed. "Nothing."

"Nothing," he repeated.

She nodded. "If we say something, whether we're confirming or denying it, he's going to know. I'm not sure I'm ready for this to be anyone else's knowledge just yet."

Hotch nodded slowly. There were so many things he wanted to ask, so many things he wanted to say. Part of him agreed. It was nice to have something that was just theirs. No team to tease them or send them knowing looks. No Bureau to worry about. He'd seen personal slipping into professional more and more as of late, and he knew he was just as guilty of it as she was. But he wasn't quite ready to rock the boat. He'd just gotten home for Pete's sake.

He tilted her head back to give her a proper 'hello' kiss. "Can I come inside now?"

"Oh, yeah," she said sheepishly, reluctantly removing herself from his embrace. She knew he had a routine when he got home and it included taking off his Hotch uniform and becoming her Aaron. She smiled up at him brightly. "How was your day, dear?"

He shook his head affectionately as he headed out of the room.

I did this in reverse order... But Dave's part came to me first, so I wrote it first.

Which leaves only poor Penelope in the dark! And me with about 2 more chapters. Maybe 3 depending on whether I do a team chapter before the confrontation chapter.