Chapter 4

A/N – Alright this is a long one...it was kind of two separate chapters but instead of doing two short ones I just did one nice long one. Hopefully you enjoy! No M in this chapter...sorry!

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Special Agent Derek Morgan was dumbfounded. He couldn't stop staring at the girl, his girls, girl. It was all so crazy, too coincidental to be an actual coincidence it was all just so surreal. He watched her listen to their initial profile, watched how she took in the information almost searching for a way to contradict them to play devil's advocate a trait her mother was good at.

Her mother. Emily.

He shook his head, trying desperately to focus on what Hotch was saying, but it was impossible. She would say something, offer up a clue or an idea and he'd be back to watching her. What would it have been like had Emily kept the girl? Would she have approved of them as a couple? Would Emily have considered her adult daughters opinions before entering into a relationship, secret or not, with him? He was almost certain she would have.

Certain that had he and Rose not gotten along, Emily never would have considered him as a partner for you. On the same note he couldn't imagine not getting along with her daughter, she would have been what 20, 21 when they met the first time? A college student maybe, most likely, if Emily had any say. They would have maybe been introduced in a casual setting, maybe when the team was out for drinks one night, maybe at a grocery store on their day off. Good lord wouldn't it have been awkward to be caught hitting on the young woman by her mother, his co-worker?

He was getting ahead of himself again, imagining a life that would never be. He would never run into Emily and her grown daughter in a grocery store because Emily had given the child up.

Did it bother him that she'd given her own baby up? It hadn't bothered him when she had first told him, he may not have been able to sympathise but he could understand the logic behind the decision and Emily was nothing if not logical.

Rossi commented on something and he snapped back to reality just in time to watch Deputy Lincoln take a bite out of her thumbnail. There was no doubt in his mind that she was Emily's.

He shook his head again and pushed a heavy sigh from his lips drawing the attention of the group around him. "Sorry," the statement falling gruffly from his mouth.

"Morgan, take Deputy Lincoln with you to the Gordie's she might be able to help keep the peace." Hotch's voice rang loudly, easily breaking into his thoughts. He vaguely heard Hotch send Emily and Rossi to the Jordan's before Deputy Lincoln made her presence known.

"Would you like me to drive, or give directions?" She asked patiently, there was something eating away at her; he found he could read her just as easily as he could read her mother.

JJ and Reid grunted behind him, the word "Neither," easily slipping past JJ's lips the entire team, even Hotch cracking a smile.

"Deputy," he motioned to the door in way of reply and she followed him out. When they were alone in the vehicle he felt himself at a complete loss as to what to say. He should have been asking her about the Gordie's, learning as much about them as he could before the interrogation. Instead all he wanted to do was ask her what her favourite color was. Ask her if she liked red wine better than white? If she preferred short satires, to lengthy romantic novels. Was she as much like her mother as he thought she might be?

"You're probably wondering why I didn't take your section chief up on the offer to join the BAU; every other member of your team has already asked me, you know in their own way?" Morgan chuckled under his breath.

"Believe it or not, I was actually wondering what your favourite color was?" Her head snapped to his, the most quizzical dark eyes meeting his.

"It's yellow, and thank you." Maybe she thought he was respecting her privacy, either way her favourite color was different than Emily's.

"How long have you known the Gordie's?" He forced his brain to focus, there was a young woman missing, he really owed it to her to focus on this case. He could deal with everything else after, later.

"I've known of them my entire life, Alex Gordie used to play football with my brother Alan. Alan was a couple years older but they were both star players so they spent a lot of time together. But it wasn't until they adopted Daina that I really spent any time with them. The Gordie's never told Daina she was adopted, none of her brothers were adopted and they didn't want her to feel different. At the same time if she ever did find out they wanted a solid role model in her life, someone who had been adopted to be there in case she had questions. I baby sat for them when she was little, and helped her with her reading when she started in school. She was the same age as my nieces, so she came around the farm to play quite a bit. She was a good girl agent Morgan." Try as she might, she couldn't hide the crack in her voice and Morgan felt the urge to clasp her small hand in his. He withheld the urge.

"I'm sure she was, you'll have to be able to keep a clear head in there Deputy Lincoln. I know it seems like lunacy to you but the fact is there weren't many people who knew Daina Gordie was adopted, her killer could be a member of her family," she gasped at that possibility seeing nothing but delusion in the idea, "you need to watch them, you need to be aware of their body language, their attitudes if anything is off you're the best person to pick up on it."

She bit her tongue, fighting with herself to listen to him and do what he needed. He admired her for that because he knew from experience that it wasn't easy.

"Have you always known you were adopted?" He found himself asking, not able to control it.

"Pretty much, it's not like they were screaming it from the rooftops but it was common knowledge my parents had never been able to have children of their own. Both of my older brothers were adopted it was never hidden from me, but they didn't sit me down to explain it until I was 5 but by then I hadn't ever known anything else and it, I don't know it was just such a non-issue in my house." She shrugged her shoulders.

"Do you ever wonder about your birth parents?" She turned slowly, not surprised like she'd been when he'd asked the color question. Her eyes took him in and he couldn't help trying to see what she saw when she looked at him. Her head dipped to her lap, but she re-adjusted her shoulders and sat a little taller in her seat.

"There were times, mostly when something biologic was happening to me. The first time I got my period, when I started developing I kept wondering if these were the same ways my mother had felt. When we started biology and they taught us about genes, about how if both parents had blue eyes chances were their kid did too. I'd lay awake in my bed and wonder if I had my mother's hair, or my father's smile. Did I have the same nose passed down generation after generation? When the Gordie's asked me to be there for Daina, I kept thinking how nice it would have been to have someone to share those questions with, even if they couldn't answer them." She paused and he didn't know whether to speak or let her continue. The car pulled to a stop in front of the Gordie's and he thought that would be the end of it. That she would collect herself that he would collect himself and they would work this case.

She turned to him again and when he met her gaze he saw only her mother, "My parents loved me, they loved me just as much as any biological parent would have and even with all of those questions there wasn't a moment in my life I didn't trust that. I was loved every day of my life and though I believe my biological parents would have loved me just as much, they did what they thought was best for me in probably one of the most difficult situations and I hold no blame or anger simply sadness for not having the pleasure of meeting them."Morgan sat stunned by the profession, how long had it taken her to come to these conclusions? Was she really as selfless as she appeared?

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Aaron Hotchner had a hard exterior. He dealt with horrible things, saw horrible things every day of his life. The only thing that kept him from going insane himself, was detaching. He'd gotten really good at detaching. He'd always taken the job seriously, he'd always taken protocol and rules seriously, rules were there for a reason, rules were a huge part of the reason his team was so successful. Rules also had their limitations, that was something else he had learned over the years; especially since he'd joined the BAU.

When Morgan walked into his office it had surprised him, when Prentiss had made the same entrance it had cemented his notion that sometimes, when the situation called for it the rules could be broken.

He knew he loved her the moment they told him she was dead. He knew it would be serious the moment she told him that she'd missed him. He knew he wouldn't be able to live without her the first morning he woke up and she wasn't there. Most importantly, he knew that if he wanted anything more with Emily he would have to make this work. That morning he got to work a full hour before he was due in because like he knew he loved Emily Prentiss, Derek knew his unit chief would be in his office.

He knocked lightly on the door and then pushed it open at Hotch's call to enter.

"What can I help you with Morgan?"Hotch set his pen down and took in the dishevelled appearance of his long time co-worker and hopefully friend.

"I was hoping we could talk, there's something I really need to tell you." Morgan didn't sit, he paced and Hotch let a twinge of worry creep into his gut.

"Of course, have a seat," Hotch motioned to the chair but Morgan looked at the seat like he was going to be sick.

"You know how much I love this job," He started and then saw the panic slip through his unit chief's stoic exterior.

"Morgan,"

"Thing is Hotch, I love her more." Aaron Hotchner froze at that, and looked up. He'd been afraid of this moment since he had introduced them. He wasn't an idiot he knew exactly who Morgan was talking about. Part of him wanted to tear a strip off the senior agent, the other part of him wanted to congratulate the man for finally confronting his fears of commitment and taking the plunge.

He settled on silence.

"We haven't been seeing each other that long; I wanted to be sure that this was really what I had hoped it could be before I said anything."

"How long?" Hotch found himself asking, though it wasn't really all that important it didn't change that it was happening.

"About 6 weeks, after the case in Toledo, I'm absolutely crazy about her man. I've gone through the open positions in other units and their looking for a unit chief in..."

"You're leaving, have you spoken to Emily about this?" Hotch couldn't hide his shock

"It's against the rules, I know how you are about rules I just wanted to make it easier on everyone"

"I'll take that as a no on telling Emily,"

"Em's... this team is everything to her, this is her family besides I'm not sure I should be in the field with her," Hotch startled at this admission, he understood what it took for Morgan to acknowledge something like that and it made Hotch wonder if his senior Behavioural analyst would be able to handle it better than the man gave himself credit for. If he'd walked in declaring that things could stay the same, Hotch would have questioned his judgement more than the admission he'd just heard.

"You've done very well this far, you were fine in Kentucky,"

"I was a wreck in Kentucky, I just hid it well," Emily had been kidnapped and beaten in Kentucky, taken hostage in a small bookstore. It had been the most painful 4 hours of his entire life. Okay maybe not as bad as hearing of her death, but damn close, especially now that he knew what he would be missing with her. He hadn't let her sleep alone the entire following week.

"If you hadn't been there you would have been just as much of a mess, the fact that you didn't act recklessly speaks highly for the situation." He answered and Morgan fixed him with the oddest look.

"Are you saying you'd be alright with us working in the team as a couple?" the shock was so clear in Morgan's voice that Hotch almost smiled, almost.

"I'm not, but before you go and transfer to another unit you should let me look into what we can do about this. You're both vital members of this team and I don't want to lose either of you, but I won't put any member of this team in danger. Keep things between you and Emily quiet for as long as you can," and his head was back in his paper work.

That certainly hadn't gone how Derek had expected.

It was a week later when Emily followed him into his office after a particularly trying case in Mississippi. Derek had rushed the unsub not knowing the man held a knife, he'd spent several hours in the hospital. Thankfully the blade hadn't gone deep enough for severe damage. He'd spent the entire case watching them and had he not had the conversation with Morgan the week before he wouldn't have noticed anything different between the two agents. He couldn't deny they were doing their jobs flawlessly, even under his constant scrutiny and he was scrutinising. He was analyzing every move they made, trying to find fault before Strauss did. Cataloguing every move, to be certain that should this come abreast in a negative light he would have his counter-arguments ready.

"Emily?" he asked as he set the paperwork on his desk, she let her eyes drift over the bull pen and then shut the door behind her.

"I'm requesting a transfer to counterintelligence," she stated matter of factly and he had to hide the smile that was threatening to come out.

"I've been sleeping with Derek and I don't think I can be level headed about this anymore. I'm sorry for keeping this from you," she was tense, waiting for the outburst. When it didn't come she stepped forward, when she caught his smile she startled.

"Do you love him?" Agent Hotchner asked, his eyes meeting hers for the first time.

"Very much," she answered quietly a tear sliding down her porcelain cheek. For a moment he wondered what it would be like to have the love of a woman like Emily Prentiss, someone so strong and passionate, someone that would quite literally walk through fire for you.

"Do you really want to leave the team, or do you think it's what has to be done?" he found himself thinking of Hayley, he found himself rooting for Love in a way he never had before.

"I just, I want to do what's best for the team," she answered and he nodded.

"Then I suggest you stop at the grocery store on the way home and pick up some soup, then do whatever you have to do, to keep Agent Morgan from coming into work tomorrow."

He settled into his chair signalling that the conversation was over.

The next time he saw them, they were seated opposite each other on the jet reading over the case like nothing had happened. He smiled at each of them and then found his own seat. He was breaking the rules, he was putting the entire team at risk, but he knew deep down that it wasn't much of a risk at all because like it or not this team had become a family. Morgan would run into a burning house for any member of that team regardless of if he were sleeping with them. And Emily had already died to prove her devotion to them.

Besides he couldn't remember that last time he had found himself smiling so much.

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A/N – So I know that it's unlikely Hotch would let them be together within the team, but I'm just so tired of seeing grumpy stern Hotch and I feel like since Hayley died he would have a softer view on these things. So try to suspend your disbelief and go with it ;) Besides where else can we have the implausible if not in fanfiction!

Thanks so much for reading, your reviews are always appreciated and they spurn my creative juices