"I've said it before and I'll say it again: I see you people way too often," Morgan said, plopping down into his swivel chair in the round-table room.

"This is one of those times when I really hate my job," Rossi said, straightening the tie that he had reluctantly put on just minutes before as he sat down. JJ and Blake nodded in agreement.

Emily entered the room last, and abruptly stopped walking when she noticed that Blake was occupying the chair that had been hers for six years. There was no extra chair in the room, nowhere at all for Emily to sit down. She frowned slightly, standing awkwardly behind Reid, whose back was always to the door.

Everyone else, she noticed, sat in their usual places. Reid beside Rossi next to Hotch next to JJ next to Garcia next to Morgan next to... Blake.

She sure wasn't expecting all of this competition when she returned.

Honestly, though, it wasn't really a competition, she tried to reason with herself. She was just making it into a competition. She wanted to prove to the team - to prove to herself - that Alex Blake was not just an alternative version of her, even if they were both brunette, and had replaced one another. They were two completely different people.

And a wave of guilt washed over her as she realized that of course the team realized that they were two different people. They were profilers, for God's sake.

"Oh, Prentiss, we forgot to grab an extra chair -" Rossi began.

"I can run and get one," Garcia offered drunkenly.

"Take my chair," Hotch instructed her.

"No, no, it's fine," Emily reassured them. "I can stand, I'm not a cripple -"

"No, I insist," Hotch said, getting up and pulling the chair out for her. "I have to introduce the case, anyway."

Emily looked at him, unsure.

"Really," he said. "It's fine."

"Okay," she said, taking the place between Rossi and JJ. "Thanks, Hotch."

"Don't worry about it," he said, giving her a weak half-smile. JJ's eyebrow went up slightly as she glanced sideways at Emily. Morgan and Garcia looked at her strangely as well. She shrugged slightly, as unsure as them about the strangeness of Hotch's actions.

Hotch delivered the case with ease and perfection, as he always did. It wasn't an unusual case: prostitutes and drug dealers found shot execution-style in the wilderness outside of Juneau.

"Wheels up in twenty," Hotch added at the end, like always. Emily smiled a bit; some things never changed, and probably never would.

"My lovely ladies," Garcia called to JJ and Emily as they filed out of the round table room, the other agents grabbing their go-bags, leaving Garcia and Emily and JJ standing in the bullpen hallway. "You two can head out now."

"No," Emily said immediately, "No, we have to stay and help with the case."

JJ yawned hugely. "Yeah, I think we should stay, too."

"Nope," Garcia stated boldly. "I will not allow it! Emily, you had an eight hour flight yesterday, and JJ, you are seven months pregnant with my little pseudo nieces or nephews! I will not allow you to stay here. Go home and sleep. Now."

They looked at one another.

"You know, that might not be a bad idea..." JJ said, yawning again.

"Well I'm going to ..." Emily yawned, "Stay."

"Haha, yeah, no. You're going home, too, Gumdrop. It is three AM. Go home, and I don't want you back here until at least eight. Farewell, ta-ta, au revior, TTFN. Shoo!" she said, waving them out. JJ and Emily laughed at Garcia's demands and packed up their things.

JJ insisted on driving Emily home, since she didn't have a car yet and cabs were so expensive. They drove out in time to see the jet take off. JJ sighed as her blue eyes followed it across the sky and out of sight.

"You okay?" Emily asked, concerned.

"Yeah," JJ said, tearing her eyes from the sky and pulling out of the parking lot. "I'm okay. It just makes me nervous when they leave and I'm not with them and I'm not in the action and I don't know about the case right away and I don't know if they're hurt or in danger and... You know what I mean."

Emily nodded. After all, she had experienced the same sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach when they left without her.

"That's not nothing, Emily!" JJ argued, her eyes sparkling with the prospect of finding out about Emily's personal life, as they stepped off of the elevator back into the third floor bullpen, at exactly eight-o'clock on the dot.

"It is, too, JJ. I'm telling you. It was a one-night thing."

"You don't do one night things, Em," JJ argued. "Come on, tell me! We're friends, remember?"

Emily sighed. JJ had arrived at her house at five thirty that morning to help her unpack some of her things, since both of them had been unable to sleep. JJ, who was nearly as snoopy as Garcia when in the right mood, had come across Emily's box of pregnancy tests, and had refused to drop the subject since.

"JJ, honestly. It was an old fling. It's not going to go anywhere, I promise."

"So you're not pregnant then?"

Emily opened her mouth to say something, and cocked her head slightly to the side. "No."

"Ladies!" Garcia greeted them, coming off of the elevator. "Are we having a gossip hour without me?" she asked, faking hurt.

"No, never, PG," Emily said, laughing. "We wouldn't do that."

"Well, what are we talking about, anyway?" Garcia asked, leading her two best friends down the hallway towards their offices.

"Well, we were just saying how -" Emily began, but JJ cut her off.

"Emily was just lying to me!" JJ said as she realized it, turning around to playfully slap Emily's arm as she finally put two and two together. "You are pregnant, aren't you!"

"What?" Garcia squeaked.

"What makes you think I'm lying?" Emily asked, feigning innocence and summoning a fakely-hurt expression.

"You tilted your head," JJ declared confidently, "You always tilt your head when you lie."

"Well, maybe, but sometimes I tilt my head when I'm not lying, too-" Emily began defensively, but then a wave of nausea overcame her, and she turned quickly and sprinted to the BAU lady's room.

When she finished vomiting, she scowled at herself in the mirror. So much for that secret, she thought, exiting the bathroom with her head hung in defeat.

"Bustedd," Garcia said happily, throwing her arms around Emily. "Congrats, Gumdrop!"

"Congratulations, Em," JJ said, hugging Emily after Garcia finished with her.

Emily smiled weakly at her best friends.

"Oh my God," Garcia stated, "My raven-haired beauty isn't happy. What's wrong, Sugarplum?"

Emily sighed. "It's so complicated that it's hard to even be excited about it."

"Is the baby-daddy in England?" JJ asked gently as they made their way towards the office area.

Emily considered this for a minute, and thought about lying, but decided against it. "I suppose he could be, yeah. I don't really know where he is."

JJ and Garcia looked at her skeptically.

"Do... do you want to talk about it?" Garcia asked hesitantly, sinking into Morgan's chair. JJ sat at her own desk, and Emily sat on top of it, since she no longer had a desk of her own. Her beloved desk was now covered in files and photographs that didn't belong to her. Her heart sunk lower.

"No," Emily said, giving her friends a sad smile. "I'd rather not, actually. Thanks, though. I appreciate that."

"Well... if you ever do want to talk..." Garcia said gently. "My door's always open."

"Mine, too," JJ mumbled.

It took Emily and Garcia about half a second to realize that something was wrong.

After all, Jennifer Jareau did not mumble. Ever. In fact, it was one of her biggest pet peeves.

"Jayje, are you okay?" they asked at the same time.

"Yeah," JJ said, breathing slightly more heavily than normal, "I'm fine. It's probably just false labor. It happened when I was pregnant with Henry, too."

Emily and Garcia watched their friend nervously as she gripped the sides of her chair, grimacing.

"Do you want me to call Rossi?" Garcia asked.

"No!" JJ exclaimed. "No, don't you dare, Garcie. You know how important these cases are. I'm not going to let him come home when people are dying just because of some stupid little contractions."

"Okay, okay, yeesh," Garcia amended, holding her hands up in front of her. "Let me know if I can get you anything, Peaches."

"I'm good for now, thanks, Garcia," JJ said, straightening up. "See? That only lasted, what, thirty seconds? I'm fine now. Really."

"Okey-dokey," Garcia said, pulling out her iPhone, which was ringing. "Hello, you've reached the technological princess of the BAU. Speak and be recognized." She turned to wink at Emily and JJ and then walked off in the direction of her office.

JJ turned to look at Emily and saw that she was pouting.

"What's wrong, Em?" she asked, immediately concerned.

"I don't have a desk," Emily stated, pointing towards Blake's desk.

JJ frowned slightly. "Well, pull up a chair and we'll share for now. I think with all the cases lately Hotch forgot to get your area set back up."

"You've had a lot of cases lately?" Emily asked, grabbing Reid's chair and dragging it over to JJ's desk.

"Yeah," JJ said, "Loads. We've had twenty-three in the past three months."

"Oh my God," Emily said, her eyes widening in surprise. "That's insane!"

JJ nodded her agreement. "Yeah, it's been busy. That's why Hotch and Beth broke up; she couldn't handle all of that."

They sat in a comfortable silence for a moment or two.

"So, how're you and Rossi?" Emily inquired.

"Great," JJ said. "He's such a softy, Em, it's hilarious. He and Henry are so cute together. Henry calls him 'Daddy'."

"Wow," Emily said, leaning back in her chair. "That's serious."

"Yeah," JJ agreed, a small frown appearing on her face as though she was deep in thought. "But it's good, we're good. Are there any... men in your life?"

Emily sighed, knowing that JJ was hoping to get the scoop on her baby-daddy now that Garcia was no longer around. That wasn't going to work, however, because they both knew if Emily hadn't said something in front of Garcia, she wouldn't say it behind her back, either. JJ was thinking wishfully.

"Nope," Emily said plainly, putting an extra pop on the 'p'. "I'm forever alone."

"You are not," JJ said, laughing lightly. "Your problem is that you're too good for everyone. Or maybe it's that they're all afraid you're going to kick their asses."

Emily laughed. "Yeah, that's the problem. I'm too scary."

"How far along are you?" JJ asked, her gaze dropping to Emily's abdomen. "You're not really showing that much."

"Fifteen weeks," Emily said, her hand resting on her stomach as if she was protecting the little bump from her best friend's gaze.

JJ gasped and clutched the chair again as she had another contraction. Emily raised her eyebrows questioningly, which went without notice until JJ's eyes popped back open a minute later and she again relaxed in her chair.

"Okay, I'm no expert here, but that doesn't seem normal," Emily said worriedly. "Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine!"

"How many weeks are you?"

"Thirty four," JJ responded immediately.

"When did your contractions start?"

"Last night, when the dog jumped on me-"

"-How far apart?"

"Look, Em, I'm not trying to be rude, here, but you're a first time mother and I don't think you really know everything -"

"JJ, answer the damn question, because it's pretty obvious that you don't actually think this is false labor. You just don't want to go to the hospital because the team isn't here."

"Don't profile me while I'm in labor, Emily!" JJ said defensively. "That must be in violation of the BAU Girl-Code!"

The BAU Girl-Code were the laws that all female members of the BAU must follow at all times, without exception. To the men of the BAU, it was somewhat of a legend, something they had heard of countless times but had never actually laid eyes on, something that, when it was mentioned, someone was seriously in danger. When it was mentioned, one of the girls was most certainly pissed off, and as a result, the men avoided all of them until further notice.

To the females of the BAU, the code was... well, it was law. You couldn't break the code. It simply wasn't done. It was 47 pages of 146 rules written by Emily, JJ, and Garcia on scented purple paper for their eyes only, and it was stored in a pink binder in a secret hiding place that only the three of them knew the location of, a place which cannot be written here because of its top-secrecy.

Emily gasped in mock horror. "Jennifer Jareau, are you accusing me of breaking the code?"

Suddenly, Garcia appeared out of nowhere with the familiar pink binder in her hands.

"WHO BROKE THE CODE?" she roared.

"Emily!" JJ shouted, at the same time that Emily squealed "Not me!"

"Now, now, Sugarplum," Garcia said, as though trying to keep them both calm, "Let's just open up the book and see what the issue is, okay?"

Each rule had a punishment. The person that had not broken the code or had the code broken against them was always the judge, and issued punishment as they saw fit.

Garcia flipped open the binder to the index. "What seems to be the issue, my pretties?"

Agent Anderson happened to be walking through the bullpen at that exact moment. Garcia shrieked and snapped the binder shut, gave him a look that could kill, and tossed her hair over her shoulder, and stomped off towards the girl's bathroom.

Emily and JJ looked at each other and stood up, ready to follow her.

It was probably wrong, but they used the handicapped stall as their secret meeting room.

"Fuck," JJ squeaked, clutching her stomach and sinking back into the chair as her water broke.

"Garcia!" Emily shouted, and Garcia's blonde head popped out of the bathroom. When she saw JJ's face crumpled in pain she came running out of the bathroom.

"Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod!" Garcia squealed. "Are you okay? I'm calling Rossi -"

"Where are your keys?" Emily demanded, jerking JJ's desk drawer open to find her purse. She dug through it and found the car keys. "Alright, let's go! Garcia, hurry, call him on the way -"

Garcia scowled. "I can't come, someone has to hold down the fort! They'll be landing in two hours -"

"-Tell Dave not to come back!" JJ demanded. "He'd better stay on that case, I can take care of this myself -"

"Call me immediately when something happens!" Garcia demanded as Emily used JJ's swivel desk chair as a wheelchair, pushing her best friend into the elevator.