Halloween, 2007

Reaching beside her into the bowl of hard candy, Prentiss stuffed another four pieces into her mouth; savouring it's sweet and tangy taste. Seconds later, Morgan strolled past the desk and sneakily grabbed a handful. Emily had watched him out of the corner of her eye for the last hour, and his momentary glances towards the bowl had not gone unnoticed. "I thought you hated Halloween…" Emily mumbled with a full mouth as she swivelled around in the chair. Even those who detested the late October Holiday couldn't resist those hard orange goodies.

"I didn't say I hated it, I said I found the costumes creepy… But I will admit, these hard candies were my favourite as a kid."

"Ditto." Something in the ingredients had Emily addicted, and she physically had to move them to the kitchenette to prevent herself from demolishing all.

"You going trick or treating tonight, Prentiss?" Morgan asked as she returned to the desk.

A smirk escaped her lips as the woman sunk back into her chair. "Bold of you to assume that I dress up and knock on random people's doors asking for candy." After becoming an FBI agent, and realising how many cases were connected simply to Halloween, Emily was more cautious than ever when it came to asking strangers for treats. However, part of Emily missed dressing up as Dracula on the one day of the year where her mother wouldn't judge her hideous fashion choices.

Morgan chuckled to himself, "come on Prentiss… Not even one house?"

"Nope."

In truth, trick and treating had been the last thing on Emily's mind. Devon had invited Emily to his apartment for the night, and the entire time the team had been in Texas, she couldn't stop thinking about it. They'd gone out on their third date last weekend, and Devon formally asked Emily to be his girlfriend, to which she gladly accepted. She felt like she was back in high school again, each time a thought about him popped into her head, the butterflies returned to her stomach, tumbling around like clothes in a washing machine.

This guy… Emily couldn't think of enough words to describe him. Dashing, hot, sexy, intriguing. She felt so darn lucky. An even better bonus was that he had no kids, not that Emily had begun dating him just for that reason. If the guy did have kids, Emily would happily have taken them under her wing. Nowadays, though, at her age, it was difficult finding somebody who didn't have children.

Devon really was the 'perfect' man, and Emily had utterly fallen head over heels for him. They tried calling as much as possible, and it frustrated her, declining the majority of his calls due to work. But now, the entire night was ahead of her, and she could spend however much time she wanted with Devon- which in her eyes would be right up until the last second when she had to leave.

Temptation to kick her computer nearly got the best of her. "Goddamn…" Emily muttered under her breath. Morgan whipped around from his desk, smirking.

"Everything okay, Emily?" He asked sweetly.

She bit down hard on her lip, "Uh! I hate printing so much. Why is it when I want to leave early for once that the printer has to play up?"

Morgan stood up, investigating the matter. After a few moments, he pointed at an icon at the corner of the screen. "The ink is running out."

"Well." She stated sarcastically, "that explains it."

"Your welcome…" Morgan lingered as he strolled back to his desk. Emily muttered a half-hearted thanks in his direction, before rushing over to the printer and replacing the ink. When she returned, Morgan asked, "why you in such a hurry to leave, decided that you wanna go trick or treating with Reid and Garcia?"

Emily had forgotten entirely that Garcia and Reid were both Halloween freaks and the thought of them going around begging for candy in clown and fairy costumes had her amused. Holding the freshly printed reports, she glanced in Morgan's direction, "No. I think they are perfectly capable of begging all on their own." Prentiss concluded, "I, uh… Have some… Stuff… At home, that I need to do."

JJ was the only person on the team whom Emily had entrusted with keeping her relationship with Devon a secret. Not that Emily didn't trust the others, but she really wanted to keep the relationship under wraps. It was still too early in their relationship, and it had every potential for something to go wrong. At least if the whole world didn't know, it would make the aftermath and recovery easier.

He laughed, "you got a date, don't you?" Prentiss stared at a stapler before answering a quiet maybe. She should have known keeping secrets were a terrible idea when world-class profilers surrounded you every second of the day. It didn't help that Emily had never been great with lying.

Why did literally everybody have to know about her social life?

It wasn't exactly a date, merely a 'sleepover' sort of date, but she didn't mention that to Morgan. Next thing would be Garcia calling her up and asking for all the juicy deets- Emily was quite surprised that hadn't happened yet. "Don't get into trouble now, will you!" Derek called out as she walked up the stairs.

Emily gave Morgan the most giant eye roll yet, she didn't exactly know what 'getting into trouble' meant, but she replied, "thanks for reminding me."

The brunette dropped her three-page report off to Hotch, tapping lightly on his door. He glanced up, gladly taking them. "Thanks, Prentiss…"

Before she turned on her heel, Hotch asked the woman to take a seat. Emily stood there for a moment, in disbelief that everything and anything was preventing her from leaving the office. Had it not been for the ink debacle- which had taken ten minutes to find where the ink was kept -and whatever Hotch wanted to talk about, Emily could have been halfway to Devon's place by now.

Hotch couldn't place his finger on it, but something about Prentiss' demeanour had changed over the past week. Her cell phone had buzzed constantly on the recent case in Texas and Aaron could have sworn at least every five minutes he heard the space invaders ringtone- not that Emily had answered every call. You could see the passion and happiness swirling in her dark eyes, and the tiny hints of a smile whenever she looked down at her phone.

It was apparent Prentiss had fallen for someone. Hotch recognised the behaviour, he had been the exact same back in high school when he'd fallen for Haley. However, that's not what he wanted to discuss with Prentiss. An opportunity had presented itself for two agents from the unit to talk to a group of students at a university in southern Virginia. Hotch thought Reid and Prentiss could be great candidates for it, considering each had a profound knowledge of the job.

"When would it be?" Emily inquired, taking a seat in the chair. Educating young people about profiling was right up her alley.

"This weekend…"

Her eyes widened, and she bit the inside of her cheek, Emily had already made plans with Devon to visit the aquarium in Washington. But as Hotch had stated, this opportunity didn't present itself often, and she loved nothing more than talking about her career and convincing young people to join the bureau.

Hotch, sensing her hesitation added, "I know it's extremely late notice, and it's okay if you can't attend, I can just send Morgan to tag along with Reid."

The brunette shook her head, "No… I want to, it's just…"

"Just what?" He asked quirking an eyebrow, already knowing what her answer would be.

She stumbled for words, before closing her mouth and refusing to elaborate. Hotch didn't need to know the intimate details of her sex life or what she had planned for the coming weekend. Besides, she wanted to keep the relationship under wraps as long as possible. Morgan had already figured it out, and Hotch probably had too, even though he would never reveal it. "Nothing," Emily finally answered, "I'll do it."

The space-invaders ringtone sounded for the umpteenth time that day. Declining it, she shoved the phone back in the pocket of her trousers before making eye contact with Hotch's light hazel eyes. He simply stared at her with the slightest glint, "You got somewhere you need to be?" Hotch was sure it was a boyfriend, and out of the blue, he suddenly needed to know about this guy who kept calling her.

She slowly nodded, biting the inside of her cheek before standing up. He definitely knew. "I uh… Have a lady's night." Emily quickly lied, "We've been making plans for it all day."

It took all his resistance to keep a poker face and not let his brow twitch. Why would she lie about a relationship to him? It's not like he'd tell anyone. But then again, he was her boss and she his subordinate. Maybe she just felt awkward about it. "With JJ and Garcia?"

"No. Some old friends," she smiled, "They are probably waiting for me…"

He watched as Emily pointed towards the door. Hotch still couldn't fathom why she would lie, but he shrugged it off figuring Prentiss didn't want to talk about it, not to him anyway. So, he simply nodded, "Have a good night then, Prentiss."

Three Days Later…

"Oh, I'm sure that you will do great!" Emily reassured the young woman as she handed her an information booklet about profiling. Glancing over in Spencer's direction, her head shook as Reid performed one of his famous magic tricks. So much for informing students about profiling, they were probably absorbing more information about Reid's magic than the actual seminar.

After some time of Emily standing around with an eyebrow raised and a hand on her hip, Reid finally finished up with the trick and said his goodbyes to the students. "Wow…" Emily muttered, "I'm eager to learn how the questions went from 'How can I become a profiler?' to 'can you show me a magic trick?'"

Spencer, thirsty, took a swig of water, "Actually, we got on to the topic of how profiling can be used to predict certain behaviours and reactions. I was using the coin behind the ear trick to demonstrate."

Emily would give Reid credit where credit was due. That was a genius way to teach students. She could see why Hotch wanted Reid to come down; he seemed to get along well with young students considering his 'social awkwardness'. "Where did you learn that trick?"

"When I grew up in Vegas, there would be people on the street all the time performing sleight of hand tricks, card tricks, and physical challenges. After some time watching, you start to see patterns. It really wasn't that difficult to figure out the sleight of hand ones at all, and the card ones essentially are based on mathematical formulas."

Nodding, the brunette pursed her lips, "yep… I think it's incredibly easy for a genius with an I.Q. of 187 to learn a magic trick."

"You want me to demonstrate?"

Wanting to get back to D.C. as soon as possible, Emily pursed her lips together and said, "Maybe some other time." Glancing down at her watch, the brunette noted that it was nearly two in the afternoon and it would take another three hours to get back to Devon's place.

"I'll call Hotch and let him know that we're all done," Spencer said, pulling out his cell-phone.

Emily took the opportune moment to dial her boyfriend's number. After a couple of rings, he picked up. "Hey, my sweet honeydew melon. How did the seminar go? Good turnout?"

Hearing his soothing voice put a smile on her face, "yeah… It was good. More people showed up than I was expecting."

"But?... I know that tone of voice. What's the matter?" Devon inquired. The brunette shrugged her shoulders, feeling hopeless.

"I just wish that I could have spent today with you… We had plans, and once again, work gets in the way of them." Some students were walking past, so Emily moved to a quiet part of the hall.

"Sweets… We have so many weekends ahead of us that I'm not even bothered we didn't get to spend today together, and not to mention, there is always tonight and tomorrow…" Emily nodded, momentarily forgetting what she should be grateful for.

"You're right… I'm sorry, I just- "

"Don't apologise, Em… I'll see you tonight when you get back?" The woman hummed yes, "don't worry about dinner, I'm making something you're guaranteed to like."

"I can't wait to try it…" Emily said, imagining the possibilities, "I don't get any hints?"

"You're the profiler… I'm sure you'll figure it out in no time." Emily chuckled to herself before noticing Spencer had finished up the call with Hotch and was awkwardly standing a few feet away, obviously trying not to intrude on her personal conversation.

"I've got to go… See you later. Love you." Emily shut the cell phone and gave her full attention to Spencer, "what did Hotch say?"

The young genius fiddled with the strap on his shoulder bag, and his expression was less than pleasing, "he wants us at the BAU as soon as we get back. Apparently, we are needed urgently in Montana."

Emily could have curled up right there and then into a ball; Her heart sank as she realised, she would have to call Devon one last time explaining that she wouldn't see him for another few days. God, romance really sucked when it came to working in the FBI.

Spencer, still standing there watching the brunette's reaction, could tell that the sudden news had hit a nerve. "Can't we wait until tomorrow morning to fly out? What's the rush in getting there tonight?" Emily questioned. She admired Hotch and had every respect for him, but when it came to weekend jobs, sometimes she just couldn't understand the man's reasoning.

"He didn't exactly say..." Spencer clarified.

The brunette made eye contact with her reflection off the mundane grey tiles and shook her head. Sighing, she grabbed the car keys out of her pocket and passed them to Spencer, "I guess we better make it back to D.C. then. Go ahead and start the car, I just have to use the ladies' room before we go."

After making a harried call to her boyfriend and using the ladies' room, Emily slouched her way back to the car with a deep scowl on her face. Even though she knew Hotch had no choice in determining when a new case came through, any anger she had was directed towards him. It was more the fact that they were flying out later tonight when they could have easily taken an early morning flight. At least with the morning flight, she would have been able to spend the night with Devon. With each day, she seemed to become more and more attached to him, and Emily was trying with all her might to not let it affect her job, but it was becoming a difficult task.

Sensing the tension, Spencer asked, "everything okay?"

The brunette stuck the car into reverse before answering the question, "not really. But thanks for asking." She practically snapped back. The response didn't seem to faze Spencer though.

"You want to talk about it?" Emily wanted to hug Spencer and pull his long hair out at the same time. He could be so sweet and concerned asking if she was okay, but at the same time, she didn't want to be receiving relationship advice from a person who'd never settled down with someone. What did Reid know about love? The best answer she'd probably get from him would be about the hormones and chemicals that made people fall in love.

She sighed, restlessly tapping her hands on the steering wheel. "Can you keep a secret?" The young man nodded like a child being asked if they wanted a treat. "Okay… You can't tell the others though. Especially not Morgan, Garcia or Hotch."

"Why not?"

The brunette bit down hard on her bottom lip, "Because… Okay listen, if I had any choice, I wouldn't have wanted to tell you this in the first place, but since I'm not in a great mood and we are about to spend the next three hours cramped next to each other in a car, I thought you deserved to know." She glanced over to the genius in the passenger seat with confusion all over his face. "Just… Keep this between us, okay?" Emily trusted Reid enough to know that he wouldn't parade around the office telling everybody about her love life.

"Sure. Seems easy enough."

Emily struggled for words, wondering how to begin. It felt weird knowing she was about to describe a vulnerable part of herself to Spencer, "I've… Just started dating this amazing guy. And we've only been going out since last weekend. But… I feel like with this job and our relationship, we just aren't spending enough time together." Emily paused for a moment, gathering her thoughts. "I guess my fear is, I don't want him to run away… Because it's happened so much in the past."

Spencer stayed silent, acknowledging, and listening as Emily continued, "and it doesn't help when you make all these wonderful plans, and they have to be put on hold because of some stupid job."

"What's this guys name?" Spencer inquired. Great, she'd just ranted to Reid the insecurities about her relationship, and he wants to know what the guy's name is.

Not wanting to snap Spencer's head off, Emily replied, "Devon. His name is Devon."

"A cop?"

"Journalist."

"American?"

"What's with all the questions?" Emily asked, genuinely confused.

"Just getting a feel for what this guy is like."

Out of the corner of her eye, Emily squinted at the genius before laughing, "Trust me, Reid, I think I'd know being a world-class profiler and all if I was dating some psychopath."

"Technically, when one falls in love, they are so blinded by how attractive their partner is that they fail to take notice of the 'red flags' that are so blindingly obvious to those around them. Psychopaths can manipulate their partners to an almost hypnotic level if they really wanted to. Even if you were a world-class profiler, it's practically impossible for you to be able to tell if you were dating a psychopath or not based purely on what you know of your partner."

No words passed through Emily's head for a full sixty seconds as she processed what Reid had mentioned to her. How he could recite jargon about everything, and anything would fascinate the brunette for centuries to come. "Thanks…" She muttered awkwardly, "when you finally get yourself a girlfriend some million years into the future, I'll be sure to recite that passage."

"It sounds like to me that Devon is a decent guy," Spencer continued, "I'll take your word that he isn't a psycho." As if they hadn't just had a deep conversation, Reid pulled out a packet of pretzels from his over the shoulder bag, "pretzels?" He asked, holding them out in front of the brunette.

"Sure… Why not." Emily muttered back, "you're a strange one, Dr Reid."

Reid smirks and pulls out one of his famous textbooks about philosophy, while Emily turns the radio near max volume and drowns herself in the sombre mood of heavy metal rock.

To be continued…

A/N: I decided I wanted to do a little crossover between episode 3x06 and 3x07, so the next chapter will take place right after this one and include 3x07. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, was quite fun writing some bonding time between Spencer and Emily. Also, I know that Rossi appeared in this episode, and eventually, I will write some prompts involving him and Hotch because those two are awesome friends.