And now the conclusion…yes, this story is just about how the team reacts, and especially Morgan which I felt that he was not so cool when he found out what Emily did when she was undercover.

Thank you all who'd followed this story! And HGRHfan35 for her invaluable beta skills in eking out the little 'boo-boos'. So love ya!

Enjoy

…

The Long and Winding Road

Part 3

"Derek Charles Morgan! Don't you dare use that kind of language in my house!" Fran was appalled at her son's attitude; he was always polite and jovial. This behavior was not him.

"Mom! She has no right to be here!" He pointed an accusatory finger at Emily.

"Mrs Morgan, I think I should leave," Emily looked at her hostess with sad eyes.

"No, you're not, Agent Prentiss." Fran countered her.

"Yes, she is." Derek had his hands akimbo on his hips.

"Derek!" Fran shot daggers at her son.

"Mom! This is my home. She is not welcome here!"

"No, son. This is our home. I can have whomever I want here." She insisted.

"Look," Emily looked from Fran to Derek. "I don't want to cause any friction. Obviously this is a bad idea. I will leave." Emily hurriedly rushed for her purse where she left it on the couch in the living room.

"Agent Prentiss, stop please." Fran followed Emily to the living room; she had glared at Derek on her way there.

Emily obliged her and stopped.

"Whatever differences you and Derek had, you need to address it. Obviously that's what you're here to do. The least my son," she turned to look at Derek who was leaning against a wall, "should do is to listen."

"Mrs Morgan, please call me Emily. And yes, I really need to talk to him but if he refuses; I'm not going to force him. Please accept my apologies for the intrusion."

Fran was frustrated. She had never seen her son behaving like this, especially to a woman. She turned to him with sad eyes.

"Derek, you know I have never interfere with your life since you left but I think that this instance, you're going to listen to me and listen good or by God, I'll…I'll…you're not too old for a good ol' spanking!"

Derek was angry and as he listened to his mother and sensing her frustration, he began to feel guilty. He loved his mother very much and would never intentionally hurt her as he was reminded of that time when he was arrested on her birthday. And he remembered Reid's words before he left the BAU; put yourself in Emily's shoes, what would you do. Emily was young at the time of her undercover assignment. Young, impressionable and eager to make a mark and proved to all that she could handle it. She did not have much of a choice.

Derek remembered when he was on a long undercover assignment; the case had not required him to interact with the suspect they were trailing but nevertheless, it was intensive work.

God! What an idiot I am! Who am I to judge her? Everyone had been right. It was not her fault; that was her assignment.

And there was another factor he realized now; she was not authorized to talk about the assignment. It was a need-to-know situation.

The BAU did not have the need-to-know. Only Interpol could release the authorization. No doubt, Hotch had already done so and added a few blasting words to them about his agent. Emily was part of the BAU team, and it gave him the right to know as Doyle had put them all in danger.

Derek realized how atrocious he had behaved, how awful he was to Emily who had gone through hell back then and now. If anything, she needed their support and understanding. She needed his approval that what she had done was okay in his eyes.

No! That was wrong. She did not need his approval. He just needed to understand her position and support her.

What would he do if he was told he could not tell anyone? He would have done the same thing she did.

Shoulders drooping in defeat, he sighed and said, "Momma's right. Prentiss, you can stay here. Better yet, if Momma doesn't mind, we're going somewhere and talk."

Fran smiled at her son, happy that he was beginning to thaw. She shook her head, "Not at all, son. But you will come back with her as soon as you're done. I made a big dinner and you two are helping me with it."

"Don't tell me the two are still on their funky diets?" He referred to his sisters.

Fran rolled her eyes, "Something called South Beach Diet. This is Chicago, not even near a beach. But they swear by it."

Derek shook his head and smiled. He then walked to his mother and asked her for forgiveness on his rudeness.

Fran enfolded him in a hug as she nodded.

"Now go! Don't be late for dinner." She shooed them out.

"Thank you, Ms. Fran." Emily smiled softly, admiring her strength in standing against her very strong son.

…

"Emily…" Derek began awkwardly.

They were in Starbucks, a block from his house. Luckily, there was a corner spot that they could talk without any eavesdroppers.

"Derek…" Emily stopped him. "Please hear me out first?"

"No. I mean, you don't have to justify yourself. I understand…I should have understood what you went through. You did what you had to to survive. You did what you had to because you couldn't afford to fail your assignment."

Emily marveled at the change in him, "I…yes. I'm glad you do. I didn't have a choice. At that time, I was the only one there that was fluent in languages and spoke fluently. They wanted someone Ian Doyle could take in without suspicion. I fit that profile."

Derek nodded as he sipped his black coffee. "I'm sorry for being an ass. I was acting a judge, jury and prosecutor and condemned you right there and there. Reid was right; if I were to be in your shoes, I'd probably do the same thing."

Emily smiled, glad that her friend had understood her at last. "I don't think you're Doyle's type," She teased.

"Emily, I…" He groaned at her poor joke when he realized she was teasing.

They picked up their coffee cups and toasted to each other.

Emily asked, "We're cool?"

Derek looked at her and nodded, "Yeah, we're cool. I guess I'll put you back in my will."

Emily chuckled, "That's okay. Between your family and your multitude of ladylovies…I'd probably ended inheriting your sweaty T-shirts."

Derek laughed, "I thought those items are much sought after?"

"Not in my books."

They spent the next hour talking about things happened when she was 'dead'; catching up on gossips.

"Rossi has been acting mysterious lately. He grins when he thought no one noticed. And he's on the phone a lot."

Emily tilted her head, this was something no one had mentioned, not even Garcia; the Queen of Gossips had been slacking. Time for a talk, either that or Emily might abscond her beloved trolls.

"Could be another book in the makings?" Emily speculated.

"Nah, he had not been writing like he used to. That old man has something up his sleeves and we're gonna get to the bottom of it."

Emily smiled when she heard him said 'we' instead of a singular pronoun. He had finally forgiven her.

As they made their way back to his mother's house, Emily's cell phone buzzed.

It was Hotch.

She answered immediately, "Hey."

"Hey, everything going good?"

Emily looked at Morgan and smiled, "Yeah, we're cool."

"I'm glad. I thought I was going to get a call that one of my agents was arrested and another in the body bag."

Emily chuckled, "They would need an extra long body bag to fit him."

Hotch laughed, "That's my girl."

"What else would I be?" Emily replied, her grin was wide.

Hotch ended his call to Emily after a few more inquiries.

"Hotch?" Derek inquired.

Emily, still smiling, nodded.

Seeing her smiling as if she was mooning over somebody, he stopped walking.

Emily walked on before she realized that Derek was not beside her. She turned around and saw the shocked look in his face.

She realized she had omitted something to Derek; her relationship with Hotch.

"Derek," she walked to him.

"No. You mean…you and Hotch?" His expression of incredulity was so different from his normal frowns that Emily began to laugh.

"Yes, Hotch and I."

"I never thought…I mean back a year ago before Foyet and Haley…you two seemed close?" Now he was spotting a very confused look.

Emily shook her head, "I think we really had a yo-yo type relationship at that time but never too personal. I mean I know he respected me and my part with the team and there was some resentment with it, I can't really explain it and I did asked him about it and he was confused about his feelings for me all those times. I think it was not until this Ian Doyle case did that he realized how much he was affected by it and by me.

We really began to get close when I came back, when you guys were in Connecticut, I was there too."

Again, the puzzled expression on his face.

Quickly, she told him about her indirect involvement in the case but omitted several incidents that were more personal.

But Derek obviously made the connections as he began to smile, his pearly whites gleaming.

"Oh no, you two didn't…when we were there?"

"Derek, you know I consider you one of my best mates but that was a need-to-know situation and you don't have the need-to-know." She smiled back.

"Actually, I don't want to know. I can't see Hotch getting down to the down and nasty…"

"Derek!" Emily smacked him on his arm.

They then shared a good laugh.

"You don't mind?" She asked when they sobered.

"Mind? What do you mean?" Derek asked.

"I mean, you know, Bureau rules…"

Derek rolled his eyes up, "Please, I don't care for that rule anyways. As long as you two don't do it in the office…"

"Derek!" She punched him harder this time.

He laughed as he tried to dodge her, "Okay, okay…but seriously, if you two can separate personal and business, it's not my business. If you only knew about Agent Karina…"

"Moss?" Emily finished his sentence, earning two eyebrows shooting up high on his forehead. "Oh yeah. She was not shy in describing your exploits. JJ and I had to restrain Garcia from trying to dig the poor girl's eyes out!"

"I didn't know that!"Derek marveled; Penelope, huh…

"That happened last year, before JJ was transferred out. But you didn't know all about those female agents in the Bureau…you were fodder for water cooler chats!"

"Was I?" He smiled as he tried to think of all the female agents at the Bureau.

Emily saw the looks and grinned. "Don't even think of it, Garcia will maim you so fast you'd not be able to walk for a while."

"Garcia? I thought she and Kevin…"

"Not anymore. He decided to apply to another country. This time she didn't stop him."

"Now, how did you know about all this when you just returned?" Derek asked.

"Garcia and I had a long, very long overnight chat. In fact, I spent an evening with her that turned into a sleep over."

Derek shook his head, "Hotch didn't mind?" He teased.

"Derek, I'm not you. I don't spend every minute with him. He had to work late that evening because the director piled more workload on him but you know Hotch, he's a sucker for more work." Emily smiled softly.

Derek stared at her and really laughed out loud, "Girl, you got it really bad, don't you?"

Emily returned his look with a deep blush, "Yeah, he's it."

Derek put up his hand, "I don't want to know the details…"

"Derek Charles Morgan! Dinner was ready ten minutes ago!" They both looked towards the house and saw Fran standing outside the door with her hands on her hips.

"Yes, Momma. Right away!" Derek tried to look chastised but chuckled when he saw his mother shaking her head, indicating that she did not believe him.

"We better get going, momma's boy!" Emily teased him.

"You are right on I'm a momma's boy!" He laughed as he picked up his paces and without warning, picked up his surprised mother and hugged her hard.

"Put me down, you silly boy!" She was laughing hard.

Emily watched the interaction and felt a pang of lost, comparing their close relationship with her parents and her.

Sighing, she shook her head; it was no use wishing for what you couldn't get.

But, she argued with herself, there was someone now in her life that she swore to herself that she would never do what her parents did to each other.

"Let's go, Emily! Chicken's getting cold!" Derek beckoned her as he held the door opened for her.

"That's all you think about, food!" She teased him.

Derek shook his head, "No, I think of other things like…"

"NO!" Emily stopped him hastily. "I don't want to know! Please!"

Frowning slightly, he watched her go in the house and followed her and thought; I was going to tell her that making fun of Reid was another thing I liked to do as well…

…The End…

Well…what do you think of it? Please, please let me know!

As for the suspicious and mysterious Rossi? Well, that's going to be a whole new story…branching out! It's going to be a Rossi and someone we knew story…look out for it!

Thank you to all who've stuck out with me on this story! I had fun with this!

Lizzie

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