When Allie woke it took her a good couple minutes to adjust to her surroundings and remember where she was. She found herself in a large and very comfortable bed, strangely all to herself. The faint scent of cologne brought back memories of dinner with Hotch the night before, and lying comfortably in his arms in front of the T.V. And that was the last thing she remembered.

Clearly she had been brought into the bed once she was asleep. Man, she thought to herself, I must really have been fast asleep. Then the ramifications of it all started to dawn on her. She had spent the night at her boss' place.

This was something she could not tell Reid. This was something she could not tell anyone. She looked over with a small amount of panic and checked the clock. It was 10:30 a.m. Which meant Hotch took off for work hours ago (Allie had been given an indefinite amount of time off.) She took a few deep breaths to calm herself down.

She slipped out of bed, gladly seeing the same clothes on her body from the night before. As she crept into the kitchen she saw a white paper bag with a note beside it. 'Some bagels for you,' the note read, 'Call if you need anything – Aaron.' The use of his first name again struck a chord with Allie. Something different was going on here, and eventually there would be consequences.

She did, however, take a bagel. Then she got her stuff ready to leave. When she got to her purse and found her cell phone she realized more than one person had been trying to get a hold of her. Two missed calls from Reid, one from her brother, and, surprisingly, a text message from Hotch which read, 'Please let me know when you wake up…' Her heart started to race slightly. The only one she decided to respond to at that time was Reid's call. She dialed his number and after about four rings figured it would go to voice mail, until to her relief she heard his voice, "This is Reid."

"Hey…you," Allie stammered. "It's Allie."

Reid's tone of voice instantly softened. "Hey," he replied. "I've been trying to get a hold of you since yesterday, is everything okay?"

"Yeah," Allie replied. "I've just been, you know, sleeping. A lot."

"Well that's good," Reid said. "Are you at home right now? I could stop by on my lunch…"

"Oh, no," Allie responded quickly. "I'm…ah…out. To get a bagel."

"Okay," Reid replied. "Well as long as you are doing okay. I've been worried. Ever since the incident Hotch has been kind of crazy overprotective about you, it's weird."

"Yeah, well," Allie replied, "I think he just felt really guilty," she rationalized, glad that she was on the phone so no one could see how red her face was getting. "I'm going to let you go, though," Allie said hastily. "Just call me tonight if you feel like stopping by. But really, I'm fine."

"Ok, Reid replied. "I'll call you later." He hung up the phone but felt no better. Something was off with her. He wasn't surprised, after the week's events, but he still didn't like it.

Hotch, however, was somewhere else completely today. Rossi entered his office with a simple question on some paperwork and filing to find him staring out the window, a look on his face Rossi had never seen before.

"Hotch… Hotch? Agent Hotchner?" He asked. It was on the third repetition of his name that Hotch finally looked up. His confused eyes took a moment to focus but when he finally did he apologized for seeming so distracted.

Rossi took his apology easily enough, but wasn't afraid to question. "You really don't need to be here, you know," Rossi said bluntly. "Allie wasn't the only one injured. You could use some time off to relax and recover.

Hotch simply shrugged his shoulders. "I'm fine," he replied.

"I know you are, but seriously, just take the afternoon," Dave persuaded. "Get out of the office."

Hotch slowly absorbed the advice. If it had been any other day, he would have stayed at the office. But his focus was too far gone today, taken up by a certain blue-eyed agent, and he decided to take Rossi's advice.

He took his sweet time taking a walk home. It was overcast, but still a somewhat pleasant day. He checked his phone often for a text reply from Allie that never came. He knew a line had been crossed. It was probably better that no reply come. But that didn't stop him from checking. And it certainly didn't stop him from thinking of her and how it felt to be near her last night. For the first time in a long time he hadn't felt guilt, hadn't been lonely. He had been amazingly close to happiness.