A/N: Hello all, sorry for the long wait. I've been dealing with a major cold that just didn't want to go away. On top of that, my sister was totally sick too with a major flu/food poisoning, not sure which it was. So, I haven't had much time to get this out. But, I'm back now, so I hope you do enjoy this chapter. Let me know what you think with a review! Thanks!
Disclaimer: If I owned Criminal Minds, don't ya think JJ and Hotch would be having their second kid by now?
Chapter 4: Suspicion:
Emily poured herself a cup of coffee in the break room, not really eager to return back to her desk. Because her desk meant more paperwork and paperwork equalled zero fun. She had to muse, though, that if she had this many files to finish with, how much did Hotch have to contend with? Or JJ for that matter? Every single file went across JJ's desk first; she must have a whole load of work to do. Coupled with the fact that JJ'd been out for the past three months, it would be much worse. Emily made a mental note to offer her assistance to the blonde on her first day back the next day.
"Hey Emily," Morgan greeted, as he slid in by her to refill his own mug. "What are you doing in here? Hiding?"
"Thinking," she informed him. "And yeah, I guess I am hiding. Did you see the piles on my desk?"
"Yeah," he chuckled. "We're going to be doing paperwork till the end of next month! What were you thinking about?"
"Oh, uh…" she said quickly. "Just, JJ coming back tomorrow. She's going to have a massive amount of work. And I was thinking of helping her out."
He raised an eyebrow at her. "Even with the vast amounts of files you need to work on?"
"Well, yeah," she answered, shrugging her shoulders. "My piles are like the flat planes of Canada, compared to her Mount Everest of a pile."
The raised eyebrow lowered and Morgan said, "You really are a sweetheart aren't you?"
He leaned in and gave her a kiss, a kiss that was interrupted by the sound of throat clearing. They pulled apart quickly to see probably the last person they wanted to know that they were dating.
"Hotch, man!" Morgan exclaimed.
"What?" The stoic unit chief replied, as he poured himself his own cup of coffee.
"Sir," Emily said in a panic. "This isn't… it's not…"
She didn't know how to finish that sentence. She was just so nervous, wondering if her worst fears were about to be realized.
Hotch stared them down for a good second before speaking up. "Come on guys, you two have been dating for what, two months now? You think I didn't notice? What kind of profiler do you think I am?"
Both his fellow profilers stared at their boss in turn.
Hotch moved to leave. He stopped at the door, looking back at his friends and colleagues. "Relax guys, these things happen."
And then he did something strange. He smiled at them.
The two looked at each other for a moment until they couldn't hold it back anymore, they burst out laughing.
"How does it feel to be back, JJ?" Reid asked innocently.
"Uh… good," JJ answered, truthfully. "Feels like life is going back to normal… uh, kind of."
Everyone went silent at that. Morgan and the entire team, minus Hotch—he had some conference meeting with some higher ups, he couldn't get out of—had decided to take JJ out for lunch on her first day back. Instead of the happy celebration it was supposed to be, so far, it was just brimming over in sadness and awkwardness. Morgan wanted to relieve the tension but just didn't know how.
Besides, that was Garcia's job, as far as he was concerned. And that was why he was shooting his rambunctious blonde friend constant looks in hopes she'd get his meaning.
She didn't.
"Morgan, hun, are you ok? You're not choking are you?" she asked him concernedly.
Well, that wasn't exactly what he was aiming for, but at least all the attention was on him and off of JJ.
Emily touched his back. "What's wrong?" she asked worriedly.
He took her hand in his giving his girlfriend a kiss on the back of her hand before answering, "I'm fine, don't worry. Not exactly sure what's up with Penelope, though?"
"But you… you did… you were…" she sputtered. "Never mind."
They all shared a laugh at the moment.
"Uh… I see Hotch wasn't lying to me," JJ commented, smiling at them from across the table.
"About?" Rossi questioned.
JJ gestured towards him and Emily. "About those two. It's nice to finally see you two together."
Morgan raised an eyebrow at his friend. "Finally?"
"Oh, come on," JJ scoffed. "We all saw this coming from the moment Emily joined the BAU."
"Really?" it was Rossi to wonder out loud.
"Yeah," Reid answered. "They would constantly be at each others side, always talking and whispering, pretty much inseparable."
"We were too," Emily laughed.
"Nope, Reid may have been the first one to befriend you, Em," Garcia went on. "But we all know that it was Morgan you first opened up too."
"Opened up to?" Rossi inquired.
"She had this 'I'm a professional,' outlook on things. She didn't' believe in mixing her personal life with her professional one, so she kept to herself for a bit," Morgan informed.
"I see," Rossi said simply. "But not anymore."
Morgan wasn't sure what the agent meant by that but he was ready to bite the guys head off. Only Emily was quick to cut in.
"Yes but we know where the line is," she told the table. And then she turned to Rossi, addressing only him. "I thought we already talked about this…"
There was a moment's silence where everyone's attention was riveted to Emily and Rossi.
Finally, Dave put his hands up. "Hey, I didn't mean anything by that. I know you two are great at your jobs. You wouldn't do anything to jeopardize a case. Like I said before Em, relax."
The team desperately wanted a change of subject. But, Morgan was way too immersed in the confused/unconvinced look Emily was shooting Rossi. And he wondered if there was anything he should know about.
Emily sat at her desk that afternoon, not being very productive. She couldn't stop staring at the closed office door of a certain agent's. Ever since lunch time she couldn't stop wondering what David Rossi was actually thinking.
That was that, she had a ton of work to do--on top of her own, she'd taken on some of JJ's--and if she was going to get any work done she was going to have this out. So, she stood up, a determined look on her face.
"Where you going, Emily?" she heard Morgan ask.
"Be right back," she replied distractedly.
She made her way up the few stairs to the offices above and knocked on one in particular. Waiting, she heard the pronouncement to come in. And she swung the door open and shut it right behind her.
"Emily?" Rossi gave her a quizzical look.
"Dave," she answered, taking the seat that was in front of his desk. "Are we good?"
"Us two?" Rossi shot back, pointing between them.
"Yeah," she said assuredly. "Are we ok? Because I'm getting the vibe that we aren't."
Dave shrugged. "I thought I already said, twice, that you didn't have to worry about me."
She nodded. "Yeah, but, I'm not so convinced. So, can you please tell me what's wrong?"
She waited for him to say something, anything, but he remained silent. And just when she was about to give up on him relating what his beef was, she heard him let out a sigh.
"Look Emily, I'm just worried," he admitted.
Surprised, she told him exactly that. "Worried, about me? How come?"
"I was there a few months ago, remember? You were constantly stressed, nervous, and on edge. I did not enjoy watching you like that Emily. You're my friend, and I care about you."
That was the first she'd heard that. She knew they were friends, they'd even gotten closer the past five months or so, but he'd never told her he cared about her. It was… touching to hear.
"Aww… thanks Dave, I care about you too," she replied sincerely. "But you don't have to worry. I told you that Morgan and I are doing great. And all that before was just a misunderstanding."
"I just don't want to see you get hurt," he confessed.
She was touched by his caring, but it was unnecessary. She and Derek had worked out their issues. They would be fine in the foreseeable future.
"I won't," she reassured. She got up to leave and Dave stood up to see her out. "But, thanks for your concern. It's really nice to know you care."
"I'm here for you if you need me," he reminded.
"I'm sure I'll need to talk your ear off sooner or later," she conceded, laughing.
He nodded. "My ear is waiting."
She gave his shoulder a brief pat and was gone.
Emily made her way back to her desk, feeling better. She could see Morgan talking with Reid. But approaching her desk she could see that Morgan's eyes were following her.
Emily sat down only to be questioned.
"Everything ok, Emily?" Morgan asked, abruptly ending his conversation with Reid.
Emily exchanged a puzzled look with Reid.
"Um… yeah…" she replied slowly.
"Because Rossi was acting strange at lunch and now you went to talk to him?" Morgan inquired.
"We were just talking," she informed, wondering why he was acting the strange one, now.
"About?"
"Morgan, come on, you're starting to sound like a jealous boyfriend," Reid commented, still by Derek's desk, listening to the awkward conversation.
All three went silent at Reid's astute observation. But a second later Emily watched Reid walk away, bumping into a pretty brunette agent.
"Derek," Emily started. "Is everything all right?"
Derek nodded his head and then shook it. "He wasn't chewing you out for dating me, was he? Because he'd be a complete hypocrite if he was. The FBI rules were instated because of him."
"No, no, he wasn't," Emily said, caught of guard by his hostility. "Why would you think that?"
"Because of what he said at lunch," Derek explained.
"He said he hadn't meant it that way," she elaborated. "Besides, he just told me he was worried about me. He doesn't want to see me get hurt."
"He thinks I'm going to hurt you?"
She let out a frustrated sigh. "No Derek. He just cares, you know, in a friendly, big brother kind of way. Now can we just drop this please?"
Emily could tell he wanted to say more but because he did care about her, he did as she asked and both turned back to work.
'Yeah right, big brother kind of way my ass,' Morgan thought as he stared down at his file. 'More like the I want you kind of way.'
He'd been fuming silently over the past twenty minutes. He knew he was acting exactly like a jealous boyfriend, as Reid had mentioned, but he couldn't help it. There was something strange going on with David Rossi.
He could tell that the man held an obvious attraction for his girlfriend. Rossi seemed to confide in Emily a lot, talk to her. Other than Hotch, she was the only other team member he spent so much time with. And Derek didn't think he liked it.
But he did trust Emily. Morgan knew that she really did care about him. Their relationship was where it was at because she had trusted in him and took the plunge. So he had no doubt in his mind as to whether or not Emily wanted him. And he knew because of that she would never hurt him.
But why did he still have a sick feeling in his stomach. Even though he knew that any feelings Rossi had were truly one-sided.
He looked up to steal a glance at the woman he was becoming to deeply care about and got caught.
She gave him that bright smile that he knew now only belonged to him and he felt infinitesimally better.
He gave her a smile back and returned back to the work he could now do.
Well that's it. Hope you enjoyed. I'll try to get the next chapter out a bit sooner.
Thanks for the reviews: b9je (I see that you're a big time David Rossi fan, me too, for some reason I just love him these days. I think I'll be writing one more in this series but this time from Rossi's point of view. So look forward to that); kdzl (Thanks, I probably could have did them all together, but I thought that would be way too many people to focus on in one story. So I split them up. I'm thinking of doing a Rossi one, and maybe a Reid one too); and Bobban (thanks for the review!).
See ya!
