Pairing: Derek/Emily

Date: December 6, 2008

Song: Don't Save It All for Christmas Day by Celine Dion

"Don't talk to me," Emily said as she entered the BAU that morning, shoving past all of her coworkers before reaching the coffee machine, pouring herself a cup and downing half of it before adding anything, even though she hated having coffee black.

"Bad night?" JJ asked cautiously, moving towards her.

"Please do not take this the wrong way, but I did mean it when I said don't talk to me," Emily said, before going to her desk and sitting down, angrily flipping through a case file and then sighing, placing a hand on her forehead.

Reid and JJ discreetly moved farther away from her, but Derek frowned to see her like that, almost moving closer to her, then throwing all caution to the wind and stepping up to her, straddling the chair nearest hers and rolling it over to place a hand on her back.

"Talk to me," he ordered. "What's wrong?"

She jerked away from him when he touched her and his eyes widened.

"I don't want to talk about it," she snapped.

Derek felt the distance she was trying to put between them and it shook him, making him take a step back. "I, sorry, Prentiss."

Her eyes met his, and he saw the red outlining them.

"You should be," she whispered before returning to work, ignoring him as steadily as she could.

"What did you do?" Reid snapped, almost accosting Morgan later in the day when Emily had left for lunch.

"I don't know!" Derek protested. "I didn't do anything intentionally!"

"Did you see how red her eyes were?" Reid demanded. "Or how she drank her coffee black?"

"Yes, I did notice!" Derek said.

"And how she spoke to you in particular?" Reid continued.

"I didn't do anything," he said.

"What happened last night after I left and you and Prentiss were alone in the bullpen?" Reid demanded.

"Nothing," Derek said but even as he spoke, a dull flush crept onto his cheeks. "There was something."

"What?" Reid asked.

"We were talking about Christmas, and silly traditions, and mistletoe," Derek said.

"And?" Reid asked.

Derek moved away, folding his arms. "I guess we fought a little but it was over something really stupid."

"Maybe it wasn't stupid to her," Reid said and swept away from his friend, moving down the hallway at a quick pace.

Derek stared after him, tightening his lips into a frown.

He remembered what exactly had happened and he felt a flush again creeping onto his face.

"Mistletoe is an ancient tradition," Emily spoke. "It stemmed from a Roman custom of the men going out to buy their women gifts when the women were angry. They'd hold out the mistletoe they'd got and if the woman had forgiven them, they kissed underneath it."

"Seriously?" Derek asked.

"Hell no," Emily said, cackling. "I made all of that shit up, sorry, Morgan."

He gently knocked her on the back of the head. "That's not nice, Prentiss."

She shrugged. "What are your big plans for the night? I know Reid left to go to a book store. How about you?" The way she asked the question made him think that there was something else behind her asking it but he disregarded the feeling as he stood up.

"I have a date with a pretty woman," he said, speaking of his sister who was in town for business that day.

Her face shut down completely, all emotion disappearing. "Have fun."

He was in a hurry; he had to pick her up from the airport and he'd lost track of time talking with Emily so he ignored the feeling that he was missing something. "I will. See you, Prentiss."

Did Emily...?

Was she hurt...?

Had she taken that the wrong way?

He turned around to see Emily walking back into the bullpen.

Derek hurried after her, but by the time she reached her desk and he caught up to her, Reid was standing next to her, folding his arms to see Derek advancing.

He fell back.

The afternoon was spent trying to do business and failing completely. At the end of the day, Emily left with Reid, both of them chattering about Indian food, leaving Derek to morosely trudge into Hotch's office.

"What's up, Morgan?" Hotch asked, not looking up from the paperwork heaping his desk.

"I didn't get much done this afternoon, I had my mind on other things," Derek confessed. "I just wanted to give you a heads up that I'll be in the office tomorrow, too."

"Okay," Hotch said. "Thank you for telling me. Don't let yourself get burned out, Morgan. You've been doing a lot lately."

He glanced up from his paperwork as he said this and Derek just shrugged. "It's my job."

"And only that," Hotch said. "There are more important things than the next report."

"I never thought I'd hear you say that," Derek said.

"Go see Prentiss," Hotch said simply. "Tomorrow. Don't bother coming in. I'll cover your report."

Derek opened his mouth to protest.

"That was an order, by the way," Hotch said, returning his gaze to the paperwork.

Derek smiled.

He got to Emily's apartment around noon the next day, feeling stupid as he pressed the buzzer for her apartment, half expecting Reid to answer it.

Instead, no one did. He waited for five minutes, in the cold air, before determining that she wasn't home and turning to leave.

He almost collided with her as she got out of a car the second he turned around.

"Whoa!" He said, reaching out to steady her as they both got a little off kilter.

"What are you doing here?" She asked.

"Where were you?" He questioned.

"I felt like going to Mass," she said. "I do that sometimes. I asked you first!"

She stared at him, her eyes burning into him.

"I'm doing this wrong," he said simply and put his hand in his pocket, pulling it out to reveal a clenched fist.

"What the hell, Derek?" She asked, staring at him.

"It was my sister," he said simply and then opened his fist. A sprig of mistletoe lay in his hand.

She flushed, putting a hand to her mouth. "Was I that obvious?"

"Come on, Em, help a guy out," he urged. "I brought the damn mistletoe."

Emily sighed. "You're kind of going to have to raise it higher," she exhaled, before stepping into his arms and kissing him.

All was forgiven.

Next time:

Pairing: Reid/JJ

Date: December 7, 2006

Song: Undecided