INTERPOL Intrigue / Spooks Beguiled – Chapter 10

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Home.

She was back home in London in her apartment. With Sergio.

Surprisingly, Sergio who did not like men being a male cat himself took to Lucas tolerably.

He meowed at him once and sauntered off to his perch and left them alone.

Emily giggled and told Lucas that he should feel privileged as Sergio usually ignore everyone he met.

Lucas grinned as he pulled her to him and showed her he, other hand was the jealous male…

The next day was back to work however. A very busy one as Emily found that on her desk was a mile high stack of files to complete.

Her secretary had numerous messages to answer and the rest of the day meetings with her team.

"So Emily," Sam, her second in command began with a grin. "How was Washington? I heard you got some big fella in big trouble. Cost him his job."

Emily rolled his eyes, "We got the job done."

"Yeah, with the help of MI-5." Robert 'Bob' Newsome added, her marksman expert.

They were in a briefing room with Emily at the head of the table. Her secretary Mrs. Diggs taking notes quietly.

Fanta his laptop as usual up and running, eyes glued on the screen.

Her martial arts experts Michael 'Frankie' Freeman slouching on his chair as he grinned with his colleague, Walter 'Waltie' Dressen who was her team explosive expert.

"Come guys, cut the cute crap and give me the serious stuff. What happened at the surveillance?"

All joking gone, they sat up straight and began briefing seriously. That was what she liked about her team. They knew when to kick back and joke but when it was time to be serious, they could turn off that mode and became serious instantly and acted professionally.

"…It was really an easy take down. Targets didn't know what hit them until we had them cuffed. I don't' think their neighbors knew what was going on either." Sam said as he slid Emily his report.

Emily nodded as she speed read the paper before passing it to Mrs. Diggs. "Please file it to completed mission, Mrs. Diggs. Well done guys. I'm sorry I wasn't there. Missed the fun there."

They grinned, "Not a problem Mamma Bear."

They chuckled as Emily shook her head, "At least it sounded better than Yankee Doll." She mumbled.

"Oh no, we still like Yankee Doll." Sam said. "It's either that or Snow White."

"Snow White?"

"And we're your Dwarves!" They laughed jovially her secretary shook her head but she was smiling too.

"You guys are two dwarves short." Emily chuckled. "No pun intended." They laughed.

"So which dwarves are you guys?" Mrs. Diggs asked, getting in on their fun.

"That's easy; Sam is Doc, Bob is Grumpy…"

"Hey! I'm not Grumpy! Well, not all the time!" Bob said sourly.

"Exactly!" They all said.

Bob threw his hands out, "Bah!"

"Frankie is Happy, cause wifey is expecting his kid…blesss his soul!" Said Sam, his eyes crinkled.

"Okay, I got it, Waltie is… Shy, cause he can't talk to the women still," Sam continued. "Poor sap.

Emily frowned as she was trying to figure out what Sam was talking about..shy…

"Wait...you mean Bashful." She said.

They looked at her, "Huh?"

"One of the dwarves… Bashful, not shy." She shook her head.

"I thought it was Shy."

"Like I said, you guys are killing my childhood." Emily groaned. Mrs. Diggs was laughing quietly.

"Bashful, Shy…what's the difference?" Sam asked as he looked around, they shrugged at him.

"The Seven Dwarves are…Doc, Bashful, Happy, Grumpy, Sleepy, Dopey and Sleepy." Emily said balefully.

Frankie grinned, "Did you say Sleazy?"They all laughed out loud.

Emily shook her head, "I work with idiots."

"So who is Fanta?" Bob eyed Sam.

Sam looked at the youngest member of the team and grinned, they all knew it was coming but yet, they let Sam have his moment, "Fanta…Fanta, Fanta, Fanta…is …" he deliberately dragged on.

"DOPEY!" They all exclaimed finally when Sam dragged on, even Mrs. Diggs!

Fanta's head was buried in his hands while he laughed.

Finally, Emily stood up signifying the conclusion of the meeting as the others also stood up. They left the room shortly.

Emily returned to her office where she stayed there the rest of the afternoon, stuck with her paperwork.

She did however, received a text message from Lucas inviting her to dinner later that evening, if she was not too terribly busy.

Smiling happily, she accepted his invitation and returned to her work.

Emily enjoyed her life at the moment, her relationship with Lucas North was going great. They were getting to know each other very well outside of work. They had even made a pact; when they were outside of work, they tried not to talk about it. They usually talk about their childhood. Emily learned that Lucas' childhood was simpler than hers; he was born and raised in the country to a Methodist father who became a deputy Commissioner and his mother a detective superintendent of Forensics.

Emily knew or gotten to know Lucas and the profiler in her couldn't help but profiled a very private and tortured soul in him.

Although he was beginning to thaw and slowly talked to her but deep down he still had many layers he had not yet trusted her to reveal.

One of them was Elizabeta. She was still curious to know who she was but it was not in her nature to prod, rather, she would let him opened up first if ever he would. Since the first time he had uttered her name in his sleep, he had never done so anymore

And another thing, he always came to her apartment, oh, it never bothered her at all as her apartment was a warm and homey place and if he felt comfortable to hang around, so be it.

She was not the clingy type anyways. Her job couldn't afford her to be so at all. There would be days she would be out of town for a while but then, so would he.

It was almost an open relationship. If he was in town, he would come by and see her. If he was not, she had plenty other things to do.

And she still skyped with her BAU friends.

"So…."Garcia grinned when she was on the video chat online with Emily. JJ had yet to sign on, she was giving Henry a bath, she had texted that she would be on in a few minutes. "How is our gorgeous Brit?"

"Our?" Emily laughed. "Wanna rephrase that, PG? You must have forgotten, you are still with Kevin?"

Garcia pooh-poohed her, "Kevin and I are history, so three months ago Em. Get with the program, dear. I am with Michael, however as a friend capacity only."

"A friend capacity? What the heck is that? Either a friend or girlfriend, there is no such thing as in between, Garcia. It's called, I'm-taking-an-advantage-of-you,-girl-until-I-find- another-sucker-and-then-its-goodbye-chickie!"

"God! Emily, why can't you be more impractical and cheer me on." She said depressingly.

Emily laughed, "Because, my friend, I love you too much and care for you too and don't want to see you hurt. You goof ball."

She sigh, "If only your Lucas has a brother, he does, doesn't he?"

"I don't know. I'll be sure to ask him when I see him."

"Where is he?"

"Work. He works too."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, story of our lives."

"You know it." Emily said as she took a drink of her wine glass.

Garcia held hers up too.

It was their tradition; when they were online, they would be having a glass or two of white wine, depending on how long they would chat.

"Where is JJ? How long does it take for her to put my godson to bed?" Garcia groused.

"Did you have a bad day at work, PG?" Emily frowned.

"That my brunette friend is an understatement of the year."

"Why? What happen?" Emily became protective over her best friend instantly.

"Hotch is on his regular war path."

"Oh…regular warpath? What is going on?" Emily asked.

"I don't know…but all I know is that since you left a couple of days ago, he had been in a bad mood, I mean a really bad mood. I have never seen him like this before. Even Rossi got his head bitten off by him."

"Ouch!" Emily remarked.

"I know. It was absolute hell these past couple of days. We finished our work and got out fast now."

At this point, Emily saw Lucas had came into her apartment, she smiled at him as he sat down on the chair away from her laptop, Garcia could not see him or was she aware of his presence in Emily's apartment as he waited for her to be done so they could go out for dinner.

Eager to end her online chat but didn't want to be rude to Garcia, Emily tried to smoothly talk her way out when Garcia spoke out.

"Em, you could talk to Hotch. You two used to be close. I mean not close-close, but good friends close."

"Garcia, Hotch and I are just friends…"Emily hesitated.

"I know! But still you used to have this big crush on him and he knew it too. I don't know why he didn't connect with you."

Emily almost groaned out loud, she saw Lucas stiffened visibly as he stared at her as she began to shake her head at Garcia.

"Don't shake your head, girlfriend!" Garcia admonished her. "Remember all your conversations we had of him? How you used to tell JJ and I about your feelings for Hotch and what you wanted to do to him if you ever get a chance with him?" Garcia grinned. "You used to drool over Hotch when he wears that black shirt under that dark suit!" her friend was laughing openly.

Lucas stood up and went to the door and opened it, and left.

Garcia heard the click and asked, "What was that?"

Emily sighed and shook her head, "It's nothing." Just my future…walking out the door…possibly forever.

"Oh."

"Pen, Hotch and I are not an item. He chose Beth. And I've learned to accept it. I think we all should. Okay?"

Garcia slumped her shoulders and nodded, "I know but she is..I don't know…so hard to accept."

"Try. She is good for Hotch. He likes her. Be happy for him. Be supportive for him. He really deserves the happiness and Jack, too."

Garcia leaned into the screen, making her head really big, "Wow! You're a saint. I think I see that halo above your head."

Emily smiled sadly. "Hey, I gotta go. Sergio is making a stinky in his litter box and it's a whopper!"

Garcia laughed, "Okay…I need to call my so call friend anyways. Stay well my friend!"

"You too PG! All the love to you." Emily shut her laptop and leaned back on her couch.

Crap! She knew things were going way too good! Good bye Lucas.

She looked out of the window and saw that it had gotten dark, well past dinner but she was not hungry anymore…she was to go to dinner with Lucas. But not after Garcia's revelation.

Remembering his reactions, she really couldn't blame him at all. She should be truthful and honest with him but really it was not his business and they didn't even had a relationship anyways…thank goodness.

Oh well…she smiled as Sergio jumped and sat on her lap, she stroked her faithful cat.

Here's one man she could relied on, Sergio had not cheated on her nor had gotten angry with her so far.

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Chapter 10