Who knew standing in line would be so inspiring! It's a little cliché but I couldn't get it out my head.

Chapter 10- A bit of misdirection

'Where's Hotch?' Rossi whispered joining Reid and Morgan in Garcia' deserted workstation.

The empty computer screens looked down at the little group suspiciously, the FBI logo winking in and out of existence as if signaling disapproval.

'In his office' Reid supplied, carefully mixing his chemicals together on a spare work space.

Morgan placed his hands on his hips shaking his head, 'Guys, is this such a good idea?'

The youngest agent head snapped up, 'It's only a bit of misdirection'

Of course the magician in the group would take that approach.

Unimpressed, their doubtful colleague waved a finger at him 'It's misrepresentation!'

All the pieces of the plan were in place. Derek knew that his man Reid would lend a hand but he hadn't expected Rossi to sign up.

'Don't be such a square, Morgan' Reid sneered at the new team leader.

'Gentlemen please' Dave commanded placing a calming hand on Derek's chest, 'What's the problem?'

Morgan shrugged and walked over to play with one of the colorfully decorated pens in a holder. They were meeting in here not only because it was empty as the warm hearted Garcia had cashed in one of her precious vacation days to stay with the sick Prentiss. They had chosen this location to avoid the sharp eyed glance of their communications officer, who Morgan was sure, would want in on the plan. In case it all went to hell, at least she would have deniable plausibility.

Morgan pondered Dave's question seriously for a moment before throwing his hands up in the air, 'I don't want to make a bad situation worse!'

His two colleagues watched the profiler pace up and down weighing a decision that he alone could make. For a second he wondered what Hotch would do in his place.

He turned to look at his co-conspirators, 'Gentlemen, places please!'

In the meantime, Hotch was struggling with his tie in a little mirror he had tacked up on the wall. His reflection frowned back at him, and he realised that the red tie wasn't going to work today.

To say he was irritated would be an understatement. He barely got any sleep as Emily's temperature had skyrocketed to 101F during the night with the wonderful addition of her vomiting up the water she managed to drink almost every two hours. Hotch could work on limited sleep but lack of sleep because you were on a stakeout was a far cry from when someone you cared about was retching hard enough to bring up a kidney. To top it all off she had locked him out of the bathroom. The sounds she made tore at his heart and mind until he felt like he was in pain too. He tried to reason with her through the door stating that he had seen worse. A sharp crash of a thrown blow dryer made him aware what she thought of that sentiment. In the morning he had to take a careful head to toe shower before driving Jack to school which resulted in him only managing to snag the last remaining homemade butter milk biscuit of JJ's reconciliatory breakfast. Now he had a meeting with Strauss in quarter of an hour. Sigh…what an awful day this was turning out to be with no end in sight.

Maybe he should go with the new silvery blue tie. Emily had liked that one. He would never forget the flirtatious glance she had given him while she fingered the edges. She had made his day and he had gone around with an extra pep in his step. He quickly looped the string around his neck preparing to tie it off.

The fever had broken sometime after four o'clock. Garcia, weary but determined had wrapped Emily in a fresh nightgown and placed her in his arms so she could change the sweat stained sheets. It was a relief to have her beautiful brown eyes resting on his face clear and full of life as opposed to unaware and feverish. Only belatedly he realised the computer tech had slipped away while they stared at each other like love sick morons. After that, every time he made an attempt to place her on the bed she made a noise of protest and held on to him a little tighter. How long had it been since he held a woman in his arms? In the beautiful silence of dawn he reveled in the warmth of her, the radiance from her eyes making him forget how broken and lost he was. For that hour he pushed to one side all thoughts of job and duty, doubts and fears, death and heartache.

A sharp rap on his office door woke him from his pleasant memory. Rossi poked his head in with an extra cup of coffee so naturally he was forgiven for his bad timing.

'Looking sharp' Dave commented handing him the cup pleased that his friend now appeared to be calm and collected.

Hotch took the cup quickly and swallowed the hot liquid gratefully. It had more milk than he liked but the caffeine rush was heavenly.

'You know what you are going to say?' the older profiler inquired, smoothing out the back of Aaron's shirt collar.

'Not really' he admitted.

Dave spun him around to check the front, 'You know what your problem is? You're too noble for your own good. Don't volunteer anymore information that you have to.'

Hotch nodded his head agreeing with this advice as the two agents walked side by side along the corridor adjacent to the bull pen. Reid saw them pass and immediately bent his head to send the signal via text message.

'What have people been saying?' the senior agent asked tentatively.

Rossi sighed heavily, if it was anyone else he would have deflected that question with ease but that wouldn't work here, not with this man.

'Reid's been taking the gossip temperature at the water coolers' he began hesitantly, 'There are talking about you and Emily three floors down and two floors up'

'God, it's worst that I thought' Hotch waved his coffee cup in dismay and anger.

His mentor clasped his shoulder bracingly, 'You know as well as I do, that something will happen this weekend and they will all be talking about that on Monday'

Once again, Dave's pragmatic approach and attitude had helped him to refocus, 'Thanks I needed that'

They had turned the corner and it would appear that the Director already had a visitor. Hotch almost dropped his cup when he recognised that it was Morgan but Morgan as he had never seen him before. Next to JJ, Derek was the by far the sharpest dresser in the team but today he had outdone himself. He wore designer dark slacks with matching jacket and his black silk tie accentuated the shirt magnificently. With his shoes buffed to a high polish, he looked like if he had just walked off the cover of GQ and into the building. Morgan stood up on a chair to hang a Christmas wreath for Strauss and Aaron almost swallowed his tongue when he realised that Strauss had moved to enjoy the view of his back.

'Hey, you've got a bit of a milk moustache' Dave absurdly commented in light of what was going on before their eyes. So distracted was he that he didn't protest when his old friend pulled out his handkerchief to wipe away the excess milk.

Of all sudden Hotch desperately needed to sneeze and so he did, loudly and violently. Inexplicably that sneeze was followed by another and then another until he couldn't see or think straight. His head was going to explode!

'Dave?' he managed in between sneezes, 'What?'

'You'll thank me later' Rossi promised removing the coffee mug from his hand and propelling him with a sharp push through the Director's door.

Anote: Thank you mamacrime25 for the heads up about the leadership dynamics and hello to abunnymum and kavi for taking the time to give such detailed reviews. All I can say is in my daydreams/imagination the team doesn't stay in character all the time. Emily is softer than her ballsy persona on the small screen and Reid is still a sweet geek who dresses funny, not this long haired uber agent that the producers are turning him into.