Authors Note and Disclaimer: This is a fan-made work of fiction: I don't own Criminal Minds or any of the main characters.

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Chapter Seven: The Distractions

Emily had arrived to work exhausted.

On a normal day; even sleep-deprived, she could keep herself together. But today, she felt like an absolute zombie. She didn't even acknowledge a hello to anyone before stumbling into her office to hide-away.

She thought she could lose herself in her paperwork, but she found herself gazing out the office window deep in thought, instead.

It was one thing to have a crush on a subordinate – but this was getting too close to comfort.

She firmly believed that dreams didn't mean anything – but she knew Luke was less that a mile away from where she was sitting and she could replay her dream in her head without much effort at all.

She'd hadn't been with anyone in a while… but that wasn't the point; this was just distracting.

Distracting.

Time was passing and nothing was getting done.

This was completely unlike her. Normally she could easily push a crush to be the back of her mind, so why was this one different?

Thankfully, no one else was bothered by her absence. Everyone had their own paperwork to work on.

JJ, however, was a tiny bit curious about her odd behavior. At the very least – Emily always came over to say hi, and today she didn't even look in her direction.

Or Reid's. Or Matt's. Or Luke's.

JJ thought that whenever Prentiss was free to talk today, she certainly wanted to check up on her.

When half of the mid-morning had rolled around and they didn't have a case – JJ decided to knock on the door of Emily's office.

She made the suggestion that the two of them should slip away and have some breakfast.

Just around the corner from headquarters was a small pop-up café called "Oats".

At first, Emily hesitated, because she knew that: firstly, it was tad inappropriate to leave work, and secondly, she knew that whatever JJ wanted to discuss; she wasn't in the mood for talking.

"Come on, you look like you could use a little pick-me-up" JJ convinced, before practically culling Emily out of her chair and dragging her out the door.

Emily stammered her mouth to argue back but nothing would come out. She dreaded walking through the bullpen past the rest of the team, but thankfully, they barely even looked up.

"We're just getting some more caffeine" JJ announced before practically pushing Emily out through the glass doors. But it was quick and barely enough time for anyone to reply.

The two ended up at in a small booth in the corner of the coffee shop, and JJ simply ordered two cappuccinos and two chocolate pastries from the cabinet.

"So…" she asked.

Prentiss had a glass of cold water to her temple as if she had a headache.

"Hungover, are we?" JJ finished with a smile.

"No"

"Then… what's up with you today, you don't seem yourself?"

"Tired, I guess" Emily shrugged with a yawn.

"I've seen tired and this isn't it, Emily".

The two sipped from their cups in unison and Prentiss knew she had two choices: to tell her best friend the truth, or to lie through her teeth and hope JJ fell for it.

So, she opted for the truth – or at least half of it anyway.

"How do you get rid of feelings for someone? Don't ask who. Just any advice you've got for me right now, I'll take on board".

"Have you known this person for a while?"

"Say…a few years" Emily shrugged again.

JJ played with her pastry between her fingertips, "Look, Em – I don't think attraction really goes away. Honestly, I've felt something for Spence for years now… he doesn't know yet … but that doesn't change the way that I feel for Will or the boys".

Em.

She didn't particularly like that name coming from JJ's mouth; it didn't sound as nice as it did when it came out all sultry and smooth from the Luke-dream; but she chose to not get frazzled by it.

Maybe if people actually did call her "Em" more often, it wouldn't affect her as much.

"So... you're saying, just go with it?" Emily sipped from her cup again.

"Depends on the crush. Depends if you actually want a relationship or not. But, also, I'm married. You're not".

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing – I'm just saying" JJ munched on her pastry.

They sipped from their cups again.

"In this job especially – I find that life is too short" JJ said simply, "Life is full of these little moments, and if we don't act on them when they're present…they'll pass you by".

"Okay…"

JJ tried to guess, "So, who is it? Are you getting back with Andrew, or Mark? Mick Rawson? Or someone new?"

"No" Emily stammered, "Yeah, this is someone new. But, even then… I'm not really sure how I feel".

"I hope he treats you right" JJ swallowed her last bite of pastry, "You deserve to be happy, Emily".

"Thanks"

Emily stared at her wristwatch, and checked the clock. JJ did the same.

"We've been gone for a while; we should get back".

She sipped the last of her coffee, grabbed her purse and stood up to leave.

JJ did the same, and stacked their plates together to make it neater for the wait staff to tidy up.

"You feeling better?"

"Yeah" Emily nodded, "A little. Thankyou".

The two headed back to the Bureau.

-0-

When Emily walked back into the BAU, she was ready to take on nothing but ignorance when it came to Luke Alvez.

If she didn't want to have a proper relationship - which she didn't think she did - the best thing was to push everything to the side. Exactly like she intended.

She had to go back to a time before this crush even began:

Before they held hands.

Before Dina Carter's case.

Before Alvin Phillips' bank blow-up.

Before those one-on-one talks.

Before they hugged at O'Keefe's.

Before he made her shiver every time that he looked at her.

JJ's reminder of how life will pass you by, really gave her a small clarity.

She couldn't let something so pathetic as attraction consume her thoughts the way it was.

Besides - she was Unit Chief – if she wanted to give Luke some space for a while, she could totally make it happen.

-0-

There was a case of a double homicide in Trenton, New Jersey.

Couples were being stabbed to death in their cars.

The team left for Trenton, but Emily directed Tara and Luke to stay behind.

She had given Luke a break before: after his suspension and demotion from the Jeremy Grant case, he wasn't allowed to enter the field and he didn't have his full SSA status.

He had a month and a half of cases this way before he was properly reinstated.

In the meantime, Emily had Andrew Mendoza popping in and out of her life again, which was a distraction but not necessary the one she wanted.

This was months later.

Now that things had changed – Emily didn't feel right about dismissing Luke again, not in the same exact way; so, she opted for Tara to stay behind too.

-0-

When the case ended, quite well, (they had caught the Unsub before he hurt anyone else); the team returned to the Bureau.

Curtesy of Garcia's new cosmopolitan shaker mix, they had drinks waiting for them.

They all grabbed a glass and clinked their glasses together in a 'cheers'.

Luke was oblivious; however, Tara was not.

"Hey, Emily, can we talk in private?"

"Sure"

They popped their drinks down onto someone's desk, and the two headed into Emily's office for privacy.

"I just wanted to know why you kept me behind on this case" Tara folded her arms across her chest.

"Are you mad?"

"Never mad, Emily. Just a bit confused".

Emily leaned back against her desk with the weight of her body on her hands.

"I thought you could get some more of your research done if you were close to home" Emily stammered.

Tara smirked, "Try again".

"I don't know what you want me to say" Emily blurted.

"I think you got me to stay behind, because you're worried about Alvez and you wanted me to keep an eye on him" Tara said, "In case we had another Jeremy Grant incident where he was disobeying you".

"Jeremy Grant's case was bullshit and we all knew it. I was just doing the right thing because god-forbid if we had another Linda Barnes team rip-apart, I don't think we would've survived another split".

"I didn't pull you in here to attack you" Tara explained, kindly.

She reached for the door handle, ready to leave.

"I just thought you should know that Luke is doing fine" Tara continued, "We're not distracted".

"I am" Emily's words stopped her and Tara's hand froze on the doorknob.

Emily's head fell in her hands for just a moment, before she raised them again and looked Lewis in the eyes.

"Tara…I don't know what I'm doing".

"How can I help?"

Emily paused for a moment and stared at her floor.

"Emily? How can I help?" Tara repeated.

"Can you … send Luke in here for me?".

"Certainly, of course" Tara nodded, and left the room; closing the door behind her.

Emily played with some of the things on her desk; she had little FBI awards made of glass, a framed photo of the whole team taken at Rossi's most recent birthday, a wrapper from a bar of chocolate that she had hidden in her top drawer.

Remembering her dream, she popped her files and books off to the side.

Then, realized she was being completely silly and she quickly moved them back to their original places.

There was a knock at the door, but she knew who it was.

"Tara sent me in, you wanted to see me?" Luke rushed inside, a glass of Penelope's pink drink still in his hand.

The door closed behind him.

"Yeah" she stammered, "I wanted to tell you something".