The whole team was sitting around the conference table, Hotch noticeably absent despite calling them here. Everyone looked confused and on edge, they weren't meant to be 'in the field' today. A couple of, for lack of a word, spectacular cases (and accompanying political hiccups) had ensured that they were only doing consults for the foreseeable future. That had only been passed down two days ago, only one working day in really. A meeting being called this soon was not a good thing. Very much not a good thing. They all looked expectantly at Garcia who looked just a curious and even more worried about this than they were.

"No idea, my sweets," she said, shaking her head and sending her earrings jangling. "It didn't come through me."

Their, admittedly low, hopes of getting out of the office were quickly dashed and their hearts sank. That could only mean-

"Somebody's in trou-bul," Rossi sang.

"My bet's on Prentiss," Morgan said quickly with an easy grin, trying to get the same out of everyone else.

The woman in question shot him a look that would have most men cowering but slid right off Morgan's back. He'd had worse from her and anyway it quickly slipped into a sheepish grin.

"What did you do, Emily?" JJ queried in a long-suffering tone. Sometimes she really did feel like the only adult on this team (not including Hotch - he was above even adult).

The blonde only got a mysterious look in response. JJ forced her curiosity to stop there. She really did not want to know what her friend had done. It meant that she would have to get involved, it was too early for that. Better to remain in blissful innocence. Plausible deniability and all that.

Nest to her, Reid twitched and blinked rapidly, she didn't think that he'd had his second cup of coffee yet. "Early morning meetings have never signified anything good for this team."

"Preaching to the choir, Kid," Morgan responded seemingly easily but there was a tenseness around his jaw.

Garcia bit her lip and looked around the room anxiously, as if the answer would pop out from behind the screen or something.

"None of you are leaving, right?" she demanded.

Everyone quickly dispelled that notion before quickly returning to their previous silence. The ticking of the clock the only noise. Emily soon grew bored and flicked Reid's ear, causing the following series of event to occur. Reid jerked backwards in an attempt to get away, falling onto Morgan who threw a file at Prentiss before hauling Reid upright and in front of him. Papers were fluttering across the table, some aided by Emily throwing them back at their owner. JJ, exasperated, tugged Reid away from being an ineffective human shield (he tended to scrunch himself up small in these situations) and was about to be the voice of reason before everything descended into chaos when Hotch came through the door. All action ceased almost comically in its tracks. Emily leaning halfway across the table, Morgan half out of his chair, Spencer leaning against her and JJ with her hands flat of the table. His face was drawn tight and his expression was unreadable. He glared at the two agents who were very obviously causing the problems, making them slide back guiltily into their seats like a pair of unruly schoolchildren.

"Did something happen?" Garcia asked wide-eyed, clutching her tablet - her anxiety levels noticeably rising.

"No," Hotch replied in a clipped tone, leaning over and setting his hands flat on the table, mirroring JJ's earlier position only with more authority.

Everyone looked curiously at him, no one wanting to be the one to break the silence. Garcia did audibly breathe a sigh of relief but that was to be expected. Instead, they did the thing they did best. They profiled.

So, no one they knew was dead or injured, he didn't look like he had been hit by some bureaucratic nonsense from Strauss (his eye was twitching enough for that) and he didn't come across as being emotionally disturbed by a possibly gruesome case. He almost looked nervous.

"Then, what's up?" Morgan asked, unable to resist breaking the silence after Hotch didn't say anything further.

"Why do you look like someone's strung up your puppy?" Rossi queried at the same time.

Everyone gave the eldest profiler an incredulous look. Really? That was what he went with? Dead puppies?

"He doesn't have a-" began Reid only to be cut off by Morgan.

"Dude, strung up?" he repeated, a disgusted expression on his face. Rossi shrugged in response.

Hotch cleared his throat to regain control of the situation.

"Is someone being sent away again?" Garcia burst out. "Because I swear, I can do this thing where there's -" she trailed off at Hotch's glare. "Sorry, sir."

Taking a deep breath, which screamed 'Why me?', Hotch finally explained, "The Director is coming today."

You could have heard a pin drop in the conference room as Hotch paused for the inevitable explosion. He didn't have to wait long.

"What?"

"Why?"

"Are we under review?"

"Is it because of that last case?"

"Second to last case."

"Not the time, kid."

"You need to be accurate."

"Have we done something wrong?"

"Has someone complained?"

"Has someone complained about something we did in the case before last?"

The Director rarely made unscheduled trips to the BAU and when he did it was never for anything good.

"I don't know, no, probably not, no, not that I'm aware of and possibly," Hotch answered each question in turn. "But if he doesn't like what we are doing-"

Hotch didn't have to finish that thought. They all knew what could happen. They all gulped at the possibility of the BAU being dissolved. Bureaucracy never really understood how they operated, not seeing the same amount of action as from other Units. Sure, the higher ups were happy enough when they got good results - positive media attention to be exact. But they would always be a little controversial in the FBI which was never a good thing.

"Ok," Emily announced, standing up like she was about to take action. "I'll set a trap for him."

Morgan and Rossi straightened up at this thought.

"Can we make him disappear?" Rossi asked eagerly, he'd had a few too many run ins with the guy.

Emily's eyes glittered in anticipation of all the possibilities for chaos.

"You can't just make the Director disappear," Reid protested as if they were actually contemplating on doing it. "He's extremely visible and has regular check ins with subordinates and superiors."

"I can fix that little problem," Garcia offered. "Just give me a voice sample and-"

Hotch cleared his throat and gave them all a stern look, quieting all ridiculous planning in its tracks. He shook his head as they looked at him hopefully.

"No." he said with finality.

Everyone's shoulders slumped. Children. He was working with children.