Authors note: This chapter contains major spoilers for early season seven. Timeline when exact things happened may be a little off. There are some quotes directly from the TV show. I do not own Criminal minds, but I borrow from them from time to time.

Enjoy

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Lorelai left the conference room. She was completely and totally heartbroken. Emily had faked her death, and no one bothered to tell her. She went to the shooting range. She needed to let out the anger that was inside her.

Spencer was hurt too. The people he trusted the most lied to him. Emily tried to talk to him, but he ignored it and walked away too.

Derek was surprised as well. Emily was one of his best-friends and he knew nothing of the situation either.

Hotch had told them all that if they needed to be angry at anyone be angry with him because he made the decision not to tell anyone.

JJ felt some guilt about the whole situation. She knew she had done what she needed to in order to protect Emily and ultimately it wasn't her decision not to tell everyone, but she still knew she had hurt a lot of the people who trusted her and whom she cared about.

Rossi wasn't all that surprised he kind of had a feeling that there might have been more going on with that situation than he was being told.

All in all, the team was in shock and hurting with the way things were handled.

Emily knew she would have to work to gain the trust back of her team. She had never meant for them to be hurting but she did what she had to. She tried to talk to everyone. Morgan and Rossi talked to her. They understood even if Morgan was somewhat hurt he understood why things happened the way they did. Rossi had kind of had a feeling this was going on, so it was easy for him to just move on.

The real problem was Spencer and Lorelai. They seemed to be the most hurt. Emily tried to find them. She had a feeling she knew where Lorelai would be. She went to the shooting range and saw her shooting. She could tell she was angry. She went over and waited for her to empty her gun clip.

"Lorelai. Can we please talk." She said to the younger agent.

Lorelai looked behind her tears in her eyes.

"Lorelai. Please." Emily said

Lorelai looked away from her and reloaded her gun going back to shooting. She emptied that clip as well.

Emily sighed. "I can wait."

Lorelai put her gun down hard and turned around. "You made your choice. I don't blame you given the situation however I spent the last several months trying to move past my grief. And when I finally get to the point where I can move on, that's when you decide to show up. I suggest you fuck off." Lorelai told her.

Emily nodded and went to try and find Spencer but like Lorelai she realized he needed space and time.

JJ tried to talk to Spencer as well and even accused him of being angry only because he hadn't been able to read their micro expressions and been able to tell that they had been lying. JJ felt a knife to her gut when Spencer called her Jennifer and told him the only reason he couldn't read them was because he trusted them and how he had spent weeks at her place trying to understand and how close he had come to using again. "I came to you not Lorelai because I thought you would understand more than her. And seemed to be handling it better. But clearly that was because you knew she wasn't actually dead, and you were just lying to me. Would you have told me if I had started using again?" He asked her

"Spencer you didn't." JJ said

"But I almost did." He said walking away from her. He went off to try and find Lorelai. He found her at the shooting range. She was getting ready to leave.

"Hey. You okay?" Spencer asked her

Lorelai shook her head. "No."

Spencer led her away. They were at work after all and needed to show professionalism. He led her to an empty office before wrapping her in a hug.

Lorelai hugged him back. She knew he was hurting too.

"I love you Spence. And I am here for you too." She told him.

Spencer smiled. "I love you too Lor."

"She try to talk to you too?" Lorelai asked

"Yup. Jennifer did too." Spencer told her

Lorelai looked at him. "Jennifer…Wow. You're pissed."

"Yeah. Thought you are too." Spencer said

"Oh I am. But less with JJ more with Aaron." Lorelai told him

"I guess that makes sense." Spencer said

"I get why you would be with JJ more than Hotch though." Lorelai told him

Spencer nodded.

Spencer and Lorelai's phones both went off with a text and they both headed to the round table to get to work on their newest case.

A few days passed as they worked on the case. Emily was readjusting to her old life. She was happy to be back but could still see how much her choices had affected the team.

Aaron could see also and knew he needed to do something to get the team back to their old self and only one thing came to mind and that was a bonding experience. He talked to Dave about it suggesting a cooking lesson.

Rossi was less than enthused "Is that an order?" Rossi asked

"No. Just a very tempered suggestion." Hotch told him a smirk emerging from his lips

"Yeah. A tempered suggested." Rossi muttered as he walked away from his boss.

When the case was finished they all headed to the Jet. While on the jet Rossi knew that his boss was right. They needed a team bonding experience

"Dinner at my place tomorrow night. I will teach you all how to make pasta." Rossi told the group

They all looked up at him with questioning faces.

"Be there." Rossi told them also giving them a time

After Emily went and sat with Spencer and Lorelai telling them that she was sorry they were upset but that she, JJ & Hotch didn't have a choice. They had to do things the way they did. That they both had to mourn the loss of one friend while she had to mourn the loss of a lot more. "You two going to be at Rossi's tomorrow?" She asked them.

"We'll see." Spencer told her

Lorelai didn't bother to answer. She didn't want to go. She knew what was going on. She wasn't going to cave that easily.

Emily looked at Lorelai. "I know you were dealing with the fact that you didn't know if we were back to what we once were before I 'died.' I'm sorry I didn't make sure you knew. That was and is forgiven. 100 precent. I know its going to take some time again for us to get back to what we were. Please come to Rossi's." She told her before she got up and left the two of them alone.

Spencer looked at Lorelai. "You okay?"

Lorelai shrugged.

"I wont go if you don't." Spencer said

"No. If you want to go you can go. I don't know if I'm going to go. But if you want to you should" Lorelai told him.

"You on the road to forgiving them?" Spencer asked

"I don't know." Lorelai answered

Spencer nodded. "Me either."

Hotch came and sat with them. "Everyone else is going to be there. I don't want to make this an order, but I will if I have to." He told them

"This isn't a work thing you can not order us to do it. And I know how to make pasta." Davies told him

"Lorelai." He said

"Nope. And keep pushing it and I will most definitely not go." She said

Aaron sighed and looked at Spencer.

"I'm still deciding." Spencer told him

Aaron nodded. "This is really important. Please come." He said getting up and leaving them alone.

Lorelai went back to reading or pretending to read. She had a lot on her mind.

The next night the team went to Rossi's even Spencer & Lorelai showed up. They were a bit late, but they were there.

They all made the pasta and drank the wine. Rossi let Lorelai have some too knowing that Aaron was okay with it, and they were all there and could keep her from over doing it if she tried.

As the night died down Lorelai went for another glass of wine when she thought no one was watching. She wasn't over doing it, but she did want a second glass. Emily came in.

"Any left for me?" Emily asked

Lorelai looked up and smiled a bit. "Plenty." She said holding up the half empty bottle.

Emily took it and poured herself another glass.

They both sat at the island in the kitchen and sipped their wine.

"How was living in Paris?" Lorelai asked

Emily smiled. "Good wine, good food. It was great." She told her

Lorelai chuckled. "Definitely want to visit sometime."

"Maybe we can convince the girls and have a girls trip sometime." Emily suggested

Lorelai smiled and nodded. "Maybe."

"Are we okay?" Emily asked her

Lorelai shrugged. "I think I just need time to readjust to the fact that my friend didn't actually die."

Emily nodded. "I get that."

Dave came into the kitchen and saw the two ladies talking and drinking wine. "Not drinking to much are we ladies?"

Emily smirked. "No such thing."

"I think that was more directed at me. And no. I promise." Lorelai said smiling at the older man

Dave nodded and smiled. He filled a couple of glasses and brough them back to the other room. Lorelai and Emily grabbed their own glasses and headed back to join the group.

Aaron looked over the group and saw that he had been right. This was just what the team needed to get back to the place they were before Emily left.