A/N: Greetings! We'll start with breakfast and see where it takes us. Happy reading!


Stalker

A Criminal Minds Fan Fiction

by Sweda


"So, what are you having?" Emily asked the boy as she picked up the menu and began scanning it.

"I want pancakes," he replied with a huge grin directed at his father who was sitting next to him. "With syrup."

"Then pancakes you shall have," Josh said and ruffled his son's hair. "How about you?"

His question was directed at Emily and as she thought about it, she realised she hadn't had pancakes in a very long time. "I think I'll have pancakes too."

"Really? I never typed you for the pancake kind of woman."

"Then you got it all wrong. My mother never let me have pancakes for breakfast when I was a kid so when I finally moved out, pancakes became my everyday breakfast, until I one day realised I had had too much and after that I kind of stayed away from them for quite some time."

Josh chuckled slightly at her story, thinking back to his younger days when his mother always made pancakes for him and his brother in the morning.

"Daddy, can I have a milkshake too?" Danny asked, looking up at his father with puppy dog eyes.

"I think the syrup is enough sugar for you. How about a large glass of milk instead?"

Danny gave a tiny pout before nodding yes to the milk.

"Since Danny and I have both made up our minds, I think it's time for you to decide before we begin to starve." Her words were meant for Josh but as she spoke, she looked at Danny and gave him a wink, causing the blonde boy to break out in a huge grin.

"Yeah, Daddy. Hurry up! I'm starving!"

Josh sent Emily a traitorous glance, realising his son would side with Emily no matter what.

"I'll go with the egg and toast," he decided and waved for the waitress. As the young woman reached their table, he placed their orders and asked for two cups of coffee, one decaf remembering Emily had ordered it whenever they had coffee.

As they waited for their orders to arrive, Emily engaged the boy in a conversation about his new kindergarten. She was asking him questions about his friends, but also what he thought of his new home. When their meals arrived, Danny was still telling her about this impressive story one of the teachers had read the group yesterday.

"And then the dragon flew away because he was scared of the snail."

"Really?" Emily said, smiling at the boy. "It must've been a very scary snail."

"Not really," Danny replied, too excited to remember to finish chewing before he spoke.

"Not with your mouth full," his father reminded him.

The boy chewed as quickly as possible so that he could finish telling the agent about the book. "Sorry," he apologised to his father before turning to Emily. "The snail was just very smart, because he realised the dragon was afraid of spiders so he dressed up as one."

A very interesting book indeed, Emily thought.

"What happened then? After the snail had scared the dragon?"

Danny gulped down some milk, using both his hands to hold the large glass. "He rescued his friend, The Pig."

"His friend, The Pig," Emily repeated, looking at Josh with a small smile.

"Authors do have an interesting imagination nowadays," he commented with an amused grin.

"That they do," she agreed.


Emily had just stepped off the elevator when Garcia came her way, holding out a cup of coffee for her to take. "Morning, Kitten," the blonde greeted her.

"Good morning. Oh, I've already had coffee," Emily replied upon seeing the mug.

"Really? Usually you have your coffee here or you have a cup with you."

"Yes, but today I had breakfast at this café so I had my coffee there," Emily replied as she began walking towards her desk, followed by Garcia who had started drinking from the cup she had offered Emily earlier.

"Is that really a good idea? Being out in the open like that all by yourself?"

"First of all, I still have officers following me. And secondly, I wasn't alone."

The part where Emily had not been alone especially caught Garcia's interest. The team was still away, so who had she spent her morning with?

"Not alone, huh?" A sly grin spread across Garcia's face.

Shit.

Emily sighed, she might as well tell her or otherwise the blonde would probably hack every street camera, ATM footage and every other surveillance videos available, looking for the place she went to and who she met.

"Josh and Danny were with me," Emily replied with a shrug, trying to get Garcia to drop the subject by appearing casual about it.

"Josh and Danny?" The blonde spoke mostly to herself as she tried to remember where she had heard those names before while taking gulps of the drink.

Emily hung her blazer over the back of her chair, sat down and began reading the file on the case they were currently working on.

"Danny is the boy from the barn!" Garcia exclaimed as she finally remembered. "And Josh is his father."

Garcia smiled knowingly at Emily who was pretending not to pay attention to her snooping. "How come those two get to spend time with my Warrior?"

Emily shrugged nonchalantly.

"You're seeing him? Josh I mean, not Danny because that would have been all kinds of wrong."

"Garcia!"

"Sorry," she quickly apologised. "But seriously Em, are you?"

Emily exhaled loudly and dropped the pen she had in her hand on top of the open file. She then turned to look at Garcia. "I don't know," she replied honestly. They had agreed on taking things slow and Emily was still second guessing her decision to not back away from them. Not because she didn't like spending time with them, but because a small voice in the back of her head kept insisting that Josh would get hurt if she didn't.

"You don't know?" Garcia said and looked at her friend with a confused expression.

"We've met up for lunch and sometimes just a coffee during my leave, but we've never gone on a real date." She intentionally left out the part where they had been kissing rather enthusiastically in Josh's kitchen.

"So, you're friends that might become more than just friends?"

Emily smiled at Garcia's way of putting it. "I guess you can call us that."

"Do you like him?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Yes, but my life is so messy right now that I don't know what to do," Emily sighed and sagged back in her chair.

Garcia smiled at her and patted her knee. "Don't worry about it. We'll catch Dylan in no time and then you can sort out your feelings for Josh."

With that, she left Emily and headed back to her lair to do some work.


Two days later, the rest of the BAU returned home, having solved the case. Unfortunately, both Hotch and Morgan had been forced to fire at the man since he refused to surrender. One shot had been fatal and the UnSub had died at the scene.

Both Garcia and Emily were seated in the bullpen, waiting for their teammates' arrival. Emily was leaning against her desk while Garcia was pacing nearby.

"I don't understand how you do this," Emily said.

"Do what?"

"The waiting."

"Well, think of it like this. When you do the waiting, you know everyone is coming back to you, that you're all in one piece. The worst part is when you're all away and I don't know which one of you that might not come back."

Emily didn't get a chance to reply before Garcia was walking rapidly across the room, having spotted the team.

"Are you sure you're both okay?" Emily heard Garcia ask Hotch and Morgan.

"We're fine, Baby Girl," Morgan replied and put down his bag to give her a hug.

"Welcome back," Emily said and pushed herself off her desk. She then went to join the group standing by the glass doors separating the bullpen from the corridor.

"Thanks," JJ replied and smiled at her friend, feeling relived that she looked somewhat more rested since the last time she saw her.

"How much of a pain in the ass has this one been during our time away?" Morgan asked, teasingly grinning at his partner.

"Oh, come on," Emily said and gave his shoulder a light punch.

"I'm just kidding," he grinned and put one of his arms around her shoulders while the other rested over Garcia's.

"You've been good?" Rossi asked Emily as his eyes met hers after she had untangled herself from Morgan.

"Yeah," she replied with a small smile.

"Glad to hear." Emily appreciated his concern. She also appreciated him not having mentioned the nightmares she knew he was aware of, instead trusting her to come to him if she felt the need.

"I don't know about you guys, but I would like to get some paperwork done before the evening. So if you don't mind, I'll retire to my desk," JJ said and began moving towards her chair.

"I'll think I'll do the same," Rossi said and walked off to his office.

A few more words were exchanged among the agents before they all sat down at their respective desks, all but Morgan who had followed Garcia to her lair to chat some more before digging into the task at hand.


JJ was the first to leave that evening, soon followed by Rossi. Then Reid left too, leaving only the partners and the Unit Chief.

Emily had just finishing up on her report when she felt a presence next to her. She completed her sentence before looking up, only to find Morgan leaning against her desk. "Something on your mind, partner?" Emily questioned.

"Not much, really. Just wondering about when you were going to tell me about that new friend of yours?"

"Who?" Emily looked at him in confusion.

"The one with the kid we saved a few months ago."

That's when Emily realised who he was talking about. "Garcia told you?" she asked with a slight edge to her voice. She always found in a challenge talking about her personal life and the few times she did, she didn't like the things she said passed on to everyone else on the team.

"She mentioned you've been spending some time with him lately."

"Of course she did."

"He seems like a good guy. A good father. I didn't know he used to coach a swimming team back in Utah, though."

"Neither does she," Emily said and rapidly rose from her chair.


"You did a background check on Josh?!" the words leaving her mouth as Emily slammed the door open to Garcia's Bat Cave, fixing the blonde with an angry glare.

The technical analyst jumped at the sudden intrusion, placing her right hand over her heart. It didn't take long for her to recover though, once she realised who had scared the living daylights out of her. Once she had, she immediately began defending her actions, blurting out the first thought that came to her mind.

"Your latest boyfriend put you in a hospital!"

Emily stepped further into the room and slammed the door shut behind her. "And that gives you the right to interfere?" She didn't even bother correcting her that Josh wasn't technically her boyfriend.

"No! That's not... What I'm saying..." the blonde took a deep breath while she gathered her thoughts. "I did this because I don't want to see you hurt like Dylan," she practically spit his name out, "made you hurt, ever again."

After a quick intake of breath, she continued before Emily could begin to argue against her. "It was torture watching you all bruised and banged up. And it's even worse knowing that he is still out there, slipping through our fingers each time we try to catch him. It's so frustrating seeing you in pain and not be able to find the person responsible for causing you that pain. Though, as soon as we do find him, because we will, I'm going to give him what he deserves."

The corner of Emily's lips turned upward at Garcia's declaration of revenge, but regardless of the blonde's eagerness to do Emily right, she still felt the need to argue her case. "I can handle a few bruises and cuts. Sure, it's not the most comfortable thing, but I wasn't hurt."

''Sweetie, Morgan found you crying in your hotel room with a bottle of vodka acting as your best friend."

Emily was about to start arguing again, but Garcia cut her off.

"And that's okay. It's okay to feel hurt when someone you care for turns on you. If that ever happened to me, I would be upset too. I would send an emergency call for all of you to get to my place and then I would force you to hug me and listen to me bawling my eyes out until I would question if dying from dehydration due to massive crying was possible. And I would probably not seek comfort in a bottle of alcohol, indulging in some ice cream is more my thing," Garcia continued with a smile.

The anger left Emily as she listened to Garcia's caring words, but she still felt somewhat annoyed that she had looked into Josh's life. She decided to let that be though, feeling that she had already made it clear that it had been a major invasion of privacy. Instead, she made it her task to ease the tension that had settled between the two.

"Indulging in ice cream doesn't sound too bad. Though, Jack Daniel is a very reliable friend you know," she pointed out with a wink.

The tension left the room instantly as they shared a laugh. As they did, Emily grabbed the chair placed against the wall and turned it so that it was facing her friend. She then sat down and took one of Garcia's hands in her own.

"I'm sorry I snapped at you. I get that you're trying to look out for me, even though I don't need it," Emily apologised. "But still, thank you."

"You'll always need looking after. And I always knows what's best for you, Kitty, I'm the all knowing Oracle of Quantico, remember?" Garcia said with a huge grin.

"How could I forget?" Emily laughed.

Garcia joined in and Emily felt good. She missed Garcia and JJ and their Girls' Night Out. She found herself hoping that work would be slow for a while so that they could get together soon and catch up.

When their laughter died down, Garcia turned serious again. "Emily it's okay to feel sad and hurt sometimes, you know. It's what makes us human. Showing emotions doesn't make you weak, it makes you strong. Letting others see you at your weakest requires more strength than keeping a straight face. We're there for you, no matter what."


It was friday night and Emily, dressed in heels and a black, form fitting dress cut high enough to cover her clover leaf brand, was on her way to a restaurant, the place located close enough for her to be able to walk there from home. Despite the closeness to her home, she had never dined there.

Josh had called the day before, asking her if she would let him take her out the following evening. Once she had agreed, he had told her to wear something suiting for a non too fancy restaurant. Later that night, she had ransacked her wardrobe and found the dress she considered fitting.

She pulled the door open and stepped inside, the cold blow from the air conditioner and the smell of food greeting her. She scanned the place, looking for her dinner date, and found him in the middle of the room, sitting at a table decorated with two burning candles. She smiled at the place he had picked. It was just the way she liked it, not too elegant and romantic in a way that was fitting their current relationship.

She spoke briefly with the woman behind the host stand before making her way towards the table. The waiter was pouring wine into the two glasses placed on the table and her dinner date was too busy chatting away with him to notice her approaching.

The waiter then left the table with a polite wish for him to enjoy the evening. After having wished the man the same, Josh looked up just as she came to a stop next to the table. Upon seeing her, he smiled widely.

"Wow," he said, looking her up and down. "You look stunning." He got up from his seat to greet her.

Emily smiled at his compliment. "Thank you," she replied as she greeted him with a hug that he returned.

When they released each other she had the opportunity to look at what he was wearing. Just like her, he had chosen something a little more elegant than everyday clothes, but hadn't gone as far as putting on a suit. Instead he had picked out a pair of dark blue jeans and a black, perfectly ironed shirt. "You don't look too bad either," she commented with a small smirk.

He mirrored her expression while reaching for the chair he hadn't occupied earlier, pulling it out for her. Emily smiled her thanks and sat down, shrugging off her coat and placing it over the back of the chair.

As she had taken her seat, Josh moved to the other end of the table and made himself comfortable. The menus had already been placed on the table and as they both had settled in their seats, they each reached for one.

Emily made up her mind first, putting the menu down on the table as she waited for her date do the same. She didn't have to wait long though. When he had made up his mind and assured that Emily had decided too, he called for the waiter and placed their orders. The man hosting their table for the evening then disappeared, leaving the two to engage in some small talk while waiting for their meals to arrive.

"So, how was your day?" Josh began.

"Not too bad, I'm still on desk duty though," Emily replied with a grimace and reached for her glass of wine.

Josh smiled sympathetically at her dislike of not being allowed in the field, having heard her complain about it more than once before. "And that doesn't suit you very well," he said knowingly while taking a sip from his own glass.

Emily flashed him a smile and shook her head, "Not at all."

The conversation carried on, the topics light and comfortable, until their orders arrived.

"How about a toast to our first, official date?" Josh suggested before either of them had started eating, raising his glass of wine while talking.

Emily reached for her glass and moved hers toward his. "To our first, official date," she said as their glasses clinked.


The night progressed much quicker than either of them had anticipated and soon they were nearing Emily's place, Josh having insisted of walking her home to make sure she made it back safely. The night was dark and the light from the street lamps created shadows on the ground as they walked.

"I had a really good time tonight," Emily said as they stepped onto her porch. She then turned to face Josh, smiling, when they came to a stop just outside her door.

"Me too." Josh returned her smile. "How about we do this some other time. Soon?" he asked, leaning in closer.

Emily's smile grew wider as he neared her, her eyes looking into his blue ones. He then slowly reached to cup her face and as they connected, Emily leaned in to his touch. He then gently brushed his thumb over her cheek.

The caress was broken when Emily reached for his hand, lacing her fingers with his and letting their joined hands fall down to sway between them. She kept their fingers intertwined as she gently tugged him towards her, closing the distance between them. She then closed her eyes and gently pressed her lips to his. A small smiled formed on her face as she felt him kiss her back, just as softly.

The kiss was careful and loving and, unlike their latest kiss, it stayed like that until they both pulled away simultaneously. Looking up at the man smiling down at her, Emily knew she was falling for him. But despite coming to this beautiful realisation, her treacherous mind wouldn't let her be just happy for a moment, no, it had to remind her that the complicated situation still remained. She wanted nothing more than to let herself be happy, to spend as much time as possible with Josh and his son, to see where time will take their relationship. But on the other hand, she was afraid it would end as it always did, with the ones she cared about getting hurt because of her. Right now though, with Josh looking down at her with affection in his eyes, everything felt so right that she was beginning to wonder if it might be possible to overcome it. Maybe developing a relationship despite living in fear that Dylan would hurt them could be exactly what she needs to do, to not let him have control over her life. He already knew of them, and maybe they would be stronger together than apart. No matter what the future held, Emily decided to enjoy and make the most of the moment she had with Josh right now.

"I'll take that as a yes," the man in question said as he ran his hand that wasn't holding hers through her hair, the sensation creation goosebumps on Emily's skin. "Goodnight, Emily."

She put her free hand on his chest and barely brushed her lips against his as she gave him a final kiss. "Night, Josh."

She then took a step back from him and turned to unlock her door. Before going inside, she glanced at him over her shoulder, watching as he walk back to his car, and for a few short moments, she was just simply happy.


A/N: Once again, not a lot of action. Although, you've probably all heard of the calm before the storm...