Disclaimer: I own nothing but my mistakes.

CHAPTER 14

As Derek Morgan stepped off the elevator, he slowly walked across the foyer and entered the bullpen through the glass doors. As he headed towards his desk, he took in the mostly empty bullpen.

Looking up at Hotch's office, he could see that the light was still off. He smiled since there was a time when Hotch would be in the office before everyone else and still be there when the rest of the team left for the night.

But today, he would be the last one into the office. Hotch had asked him on Friday afternoon to be the contact person for the team until he arrived from his off site meeting. Hotch's estimate had been he would arrive in time for conferencing with the team. Being the team's contact person was the reason Morgan was in this early. He didn't know the whole story about where Hotch was this morning but from the tone of that conversation, he was sure it had something to do with Emily.

As he smiled as he thought of Emily and their gym session the day before. When Emily had been on the team, they had worked out together on a regular basis.

Once she announced she was pregnant with Natalie, they changed how they approached their workout sessions and he had suggested a workout routine for her that he had designed when JJ was pregnant with Henry.

After Caitlin and Natalie were born, Morgan had worked with both Emily and JJ to get them back in shape. However, as the time got closer to them returning from their respective leaves, Morgan had needed to prioritize working with JJ so she could be cleared to return to the field with the rest of the team.

He had regretted needing to make the choice but Emily had waved off his concern and reassured him that she was keeping up with his recommended program.

And it had become clear as they worked through their workout the day before that Emily had been diligent in getting herself back into shape. After a awkward start, their session closely matched what their workouts were like before Emily's pregnancy.

When they got to the hand to hand portion of their workout, Morgan did not hold back on riling her up. One of his motivations for this session was to get her out of her head. After throwing her a few times, he taunted her, it resulted in Emily reacting and then refocusing on the task at hand. By the time they finished, he had found himself on the mat and even pinned which is not something that he happened very often.

His other motivation was having heard the details from Hotch on Saturday, he knew if he wanted to maintain the dynamic of their friendship, he couldn't start treating her differently. They had been partners. They had always challenged each other. He respected her as a strong capable badass agent in the field and in the office. If he changed that, there was no doubt in his mind that Emily would notice and it would fundamental change their friendship, perhap ending it as they knew it.

He was also concerned if he started to treat her differently, it would have her questioning herself even more than he could see she already was. She needed him to remain someone who was going to push her and challenge her.

And challenge her is something he was going to do again today. What he had in mind would hopefully goad her into coming over to the bullpen again and socialize with all of them. He had missed his friend over the last couple of weeks.

A short time later, the rest of the team had arrived and were working quietly at their desks while Dave was in his office doing whatever it was that Dave did in his office. None of them were exactly sure what he did in there though each of them had a theory.

Taking in the group, Morgan grinned. He knew as soon as he said what he planned one of his colleagues would be texting Emily to let her know what he bet. Once she heard, he knew that it would only be a matter of time before she came over to prove him wrong and he said,

"Fifty bucks that when Prentiss comes in today, she whines about being sore and is limping." he looked over and took in the looks he was getting from his colleagues.

Seeing the confused look on Blake's face having not been there on Saturday. "What happened to her Derek?"

"We went to the gym yesterday." As he said it, he could see Spencer trying to type inconspicuously on his phone.

Bingo.

He had predicted that it would be Spencer or JJ that would let her know.

"Oh yes you did. How did it go? Were you nice to my gumdrop?" Garcia inquired.

"Of course I nice to her. It's not my fault how many times she landed on her ass," he said chuckling. As he turned around in his chair he saw a warning look from JJ.

Morgan had noticed that Hotch had stopped her from interrupting on Saturday and she wasn't immediately objecting to the bet. He could only assume that Hotch had filled her in on what he was doing or JJ would be bristling at his comments about her friend. Though he knew from experience that understanding would also get him so much latitude. Taking in the narrowing of her eye, Morgan could see that maybe the last part was too much.

After a few minutes, the others had given their bets. He laughed to himself when Spencer's bet was Emily would be fine when she came over to the bullpen. Since he was the one to contact her, he took that bet as evidence that Emily was going to be making an appearance and that she was going to be trying her best to act like she was completely fine.

Success.

####

As Hotch was driving them to the office, Emily still felt uneasy about his sudden preoccupation the previous evening. All she knew is that whatever it was started in their office and seemed to involve a document. She wished at this point that she had gotten a look at the document before he placed it in his briefcase after she came into the room.

After they had gone to bed he had held her as he usually did as they slept, she could still feel his distance. As tired as she was, she couldn't get her mind to slow down enough to sleep for hours. As she laid there, she could tell he was also having difficulty falling asleep.

Generally, when they both couldn't sleep, Aaron would encourage them to get up and talk through whatever it was though most times it was a case. But last night he hadn't and they both just stay in bed ignoring that the other was also awake. It was clear that whatever was going on, he didn't want to talk to her about it.

Yet.

Last night he mentioned it was about a case and that he needed to talk to others today. It had been late and they were both tired. Not really the best time to start a conversation about work topics. But then why not talk when neither of them were sleeping?

Glancing over at him, Emily could see the fatigue and worry on his face and internally chastised herself. She was overthinking the situation.

She sighed and shook her head. It wasn't like her to be insecure in her relationship with Aaron. It was just that finding out she was adopted and then to hear about the lies that the Ambassador had been sharing about her under the guise of being her mother had shook her to her foundation.

She had never been close with the Ambassador and in recent years had only seen her when absolutely necessary. Initially Emily's reaction to her death had been full of what-ifs and what-could-have-beens and regrets at having not being able to be the daughter the Ambassador could be proud of.

Then over the next few days with her stepfather's attitude and then the revelations in the lawyers' office, it had become clear to her that no matter what she did, the Ambassador wouldn't have been proud of her. And out of everything, that had been the hardest realization and a bitter pill to swallow.

As she had come to accept it, the Ambassador's death had been upsetting in the same way as that of an acquaintance. Being a parent was not a role that the Ambassador had really ever filled and as she had recently learned, did not want, at least where Emily was concerned.

But the betrayal that Emily felt made her question everyone and everything in her life, at least briefly. If the person she had considered a mother for 31 years could say all those things, where did that leave her relationships with everyone else in her life?

Aaron hadn't given her any reason to doubt what he said about what he was working on last night. He had been so supportive with everything that had been happening the last few weeks. Hell, even today he was dropping her off at the office for her meeting and then going to meet with their lawyers about the estates.

She needed to trust that he would explain what the case was about when he was ready. It was just hard because she couldn't get past the feeling that it was personal.

As she was considering starting a conversation, her phone buzzed with an incoming text message. Taking out her phone, she pulled up the message and huffed.

"What is it?" Hotch said as he looked over at her concerned.

Emily shakes her head and says, "a message from Spencer. Apparently Derek is in the bullpen accepting bets that when I come into to visit them today, I will complain about being sore and be limping. He is telling them how he kept taking me down in training yesterday."

Hotch smiles slightly. Even if she couldn't see it, he recognized this bet was Morgan's way of building on his attempts to bring Emily out of the fog she had been surrounded by over the last few weeks. Their friendship of bets and challenges concerned him at times, however right now, he was appreciative of Morgan's efforts and the positive affect it was having on Emily so far, "So what are going to do? You are sore and do have a slight limp."

Emily sighed before answering as she continued to type on her phone, "I know. I know. But I can't let Morgan win."

Hotch smiled and shook his head at her rationale though not surprised at all by it. "Are you going to stay out of the bullpen today?" he asked however he was already sure that she would go over as soon as she could.

"Can't or he'll use it as proof that he's right. No I think I'll wait until ibuprofen has taken effect and then go over to drop off their cases acting as if nothing happened. And if I just happen to slap him on the shoulder that he landed hard on yesterday when I flipped him, then he should be OK being the tough guy that he is." Emily said, shrugging her shoulders.

Hotch smiled and looked over briefly at his wife who looked more relaxed then when they had left home. "Try not to hurt him too much. I may need him in the field if we get a case."

"I'll try but no promises."

####

It was late morning and Emily was heading back to her office after taking files over to the bullpen and visiting the team. As expected everyone was watching her closely to see if there was any substance behind Morgan's bet.

After handing over the files, she sat on the edge of Spencer's desk as she was sure she would wince when standing back up if she had sat on one of the chairs offered. She stayed for a few minutes to talk as she had frequently done until a couple of weeks earlier and happily accepted the cup of coffee Garcia offered.

As she was getting ready to head back to her office, she responded to another of Morgan's taunts with a quick playful swat and squeeze of his shoulder. He shook his head as the team openly laughed at him when he winced because the shoulder was a bit sore.

When he looked over at her, Emily smirked at him before they clinked their coffee mugs as she gave him a knowing look. She was letting him know that she knew about his bet. He smiled back at her and gave her a hug because her finding out had always been his goal.

As she headed back to her office with her share of Reid's winnings from the bet, she wondering what was keeping Aaron. When she had arrived in the bullpen she immediately noticed that his office light was still off and the door was closed. When she saw where Emily gaze was, Blake had mentioned that he had not been in yet.

Now Emily was concerned. The meeting with the lawyer was suppose to be brief. All Aaron was suppose to have needed to do is hand over to Mr Donovan the envelope of originals and be briefed on the status of the court proceedings.

They had estimated that the whole meeting should have lasted 45 minutes maximum. Now here it was 2 hours later and he still wasn't at the office. He would have called or texted if the delay was something urgent and he hadn't. She would just need to check in with him that evening.

She sighed as she suddenly felt guilty that he had gone to this meeting for her and it was taking longer than expected. She remembered that he needed to talk to multiple people about this case that he was stressing over the previous night. He had anticipated he would get back in enough time for his scheduled meetings as well.

When she got back to her office, she had no sooner sat down at her desk when there was a knock at the door. When the door opened at her greeting, she noticed it was Steven Walker.

"Do you have a minute?" Walker asked nervously.

Emily smiled and waved him into her office. "For you, of course." She then waited for him to settle in a chair across from her desk, curious about why her agent was acting nervous.

As he settled in his chair, he took a deep breath and then said, "I just want to give you a heads up. Agent Wills approached me this morning and offered me a place on his team. Apparently one of his agents is taking the open spot on the New York City team which has left them with an opening."

Emily nodded and then said, "Is this the team that you want?"

Steven took a deep breath and then nodded, "Yes. As you know I wanted my next assignment to be in counterterrorism. I have worked on cases with his team during my training and have been impressed with how they work. I hope to add to their team with my profiler training. And his team doesn't regularly travel which will keep me in Monica's good graces."

Emily laughed having met his wife and kids. Throughout his training this was one of the teams that she had been hoping Steven would find a spot. It was a solid team within CTU with a strong leader. She felt that he would mesh well with the other members of the team.

She hated to lose him however that was how her team worked in that agents were only temporarily assigned to it. At least she knew he was going where he wanted and would have room to grow as a CTU analyst and a profiler. It was a win-win as far as she was concerned.

"He does have a great team and he is a solid leader. That is why I had you work with them whenever the opportunity arose. I'll work with him on your transition and getting the paperwork done. Congratulations Steven." Emily said as she signed the transfer papers he had handed her. As she held them out for him, she said, "please don't be a stranger." She stood up and walked over to him to give him a hug.

Steven had come to her team at the end of her pregnancy. Something that she had always appreciated about him was his flexibility. As she and then JJ went out on leave, he had been instrumental is working with each of the agents who were covering the various responsibilities of her team. He was also able to help with smoothing out some of the ruffled feathers that Callahan had caused and giving her a heads up that Marshall was struggling.

As she slowly transitioned back to duty, she had made sure that he had opportunities with Cooper's team and various team within CTU once he had completed the profiling basics in the BAU. With CTU being his goal, he was with her team longer than average since he needed to learn the basics of profiling along with the various differences that needed to be considered within the CTU realm. Now she was certain that he had the tools to be successful in his new position. While she was sad to see him go, she thought this was the best outcome for what he wanted to do.

"I won't. It's been an honor and privilege to work with you Emily. Take care and I hope everything works out for you. There are a couple of great agents out there who are ready to step up even if they aren't quite sure yet about being ready." Steven said as he gestured towards the door where Alvez and Lewis were working.

She nodded at his accurate assessment of her two newest agents who were steadily moving along in their training and would shortly start working with the other BAU teams more often.

"I know. They are both strong agents and will be great profilers. I actually just met with the instructor of the profiling courses at the Academy this morning. I have a couple of names of agents who are ready to come over to the team so your spot won't be empty for long. Don't worry about us. You go to CTU and amaze them." With Walker transferring and Alvez and Lewis moving along in their training, Emily was hoping she could convince Strauss to have both agents she had discussed with the instructor come over to her team at the same time.

"Thanks Emily." Walker said as he walked out the door.

AN: I will get the next chapter up as soon as I can. I have already started writing it. In that chapter Hotch talks to a few people about his suspicions and a disturbing picture starts to emerge.