Chapter 3

AN:Thanks for the reviews; now for more work from my fairy Godparents...

"That sucked."

Emily was pouting, big time. She felt horrible, like she was torturing Garcia instead of helping her. It was not a good thing...

"It's a good thing," Dave responded, smiling. "In fact, it's fantastic."

She looked up at him from her spot on his chest. "You wouldn't say that if you saw Garcie's face."

"There's a chink in the armor around that surrounds them," he said diplomatically. "Now we need to get in there and widen it."

"Okay," she said, sighing and ruffling the hair on his chest. She traced a pattern slowly. "Any luck with Morgan?"

"No," Dave grunted dispassionately. "He clammed up like a criminal under interrogation."

She continued twirling hairs as she was thinking.

He placed his hand on hers and winced. "Ouch, Emmy, that pulls!"

Ignoring his complaint, she sat straight up and said, "I got it!"

He chuckled and rubbed the center of his chest. "Good. What?"

"They need to describe what their perfect mate is. We can take them out drinking, and start talking about our perfect-"

"Mine. Redhead, short, calm, placid..."

She narrowed her eyes. "Mine. Tall, blonde, blue eyed... young."

He chuckled and rolled her under him. "I can't believe you went there."

"Kiss me, Grandpa," she murmured, her eyes lighting devilishly, "and show me what those whippersnappers are missing..."

"I don't know if I can say that a perfect man exists," Garcia said, taking a sip of her fuzzy navel. "I mean, I like tall, dark, and handsome, like most women do."

"That's good!" Emily said, nearly giddy with gleeful delight. That described Morgan to a tee!

"Ooh, and blue eyes," Penelope added.

Emily scowled fiercely. "What's wrong with brown eyes?"

Pen blinked. "N-nothing. I am just saying I always liked blue eyes."

Emily glared at her again.

Pen tossed her hands up and backpedaled, "But brown are nice, too! I can do without blue."

"I didn't need tall," JJ said, taking a sip of her rum and coke. "Will is rather short, and I still like him. In fact, I'd say he's my ideal."

"Kevin is short, too," Pen mentioned conversationally.

Emily snorted. "Come on, PG. Kevin is your ideal man?"

"He's fine," she answered less than emphatically, taking a sip of her fuzzy navel.

"You're telling me when you were a little girl, when you dreamed about a knight riding up to your castle to save you...and he pulled off his helmet...Kevin Lynch was in there?"

JJ choked on her drink, trying hard not to laugh. She shot Prentiss a chastizing look. "Oh, Emily!"

Penelope pursed her lips together in anger, and her eyes flashed. "What is your problem with my boyfriend lately, Emily Prentiss? First, you question his sexual prowess, and now you insult his looks?"

Emily immediately backed down. Oh, boy. This was not good. She didn't want Garcia defending Lynch. That would make her think more highly of him, and really screw up the matter at hand.

She sighed. "I'm sorry. That was uncalled for."

"Thank you." Pen sat back, and took a sip of her drink. Despite her outwrd calm, she was obviously still miffed.

She noticed the hurt look on Penelope's face and felt like horseshit again. She needed to make this better, and sort of explain what was going on, without giving too much away. "Garcie, I didn't mean to be disrespectful; I just always pictured you with someone else."

"Em, you need to lay off of that," she answered.

"But-"

Penelope's warm and sad brown eyes pleaded with her. "Please. For me."

Emily swallowed a big sip of her vodka cranberry. She bit her tongue, not wanting to make things worse. She couldn't answer the way Garcia wanted her to. It was one promise she was sure she couldn't keep.

"Now there goes a fine specimen of womanhood," Rossi said, holding up his glass at a cute redhead who walked past their table. He was seriously just joking, thinking about how he'd teased Em last night.

"Yeah, she's pretty cute, for a baby. Girl's barely twenty-one." Derek elbowed Reid with a big grin. "Hey, Romeo. She's about your age, then."

"I'm much older than that!" he remarked, causing the other two men to groan in disbelief. Reid ignored them, took a sip of his beer and shook his head. "Besides, she had a wedding ring on."

Both Rossi and Morgan looked around the table to where she was sitting. Sure enough, a gem sparkled on her left hand.

"I didn't think you were paying attention!" Morgan said, laughing.

Reid beamed. "I always pay attention. Now if you'll excuse me, there is a very non-married blonde at the end of the bar who looks like she is just reading the menu, but has smiled at me twice now. I think I will try my luck."

Both men sat staring at Reid as he walked up to the bar.

"Damn. Boy is learning skills," Derek said.

"He sure is!" Rossi added with a chuckle. "I suppose...he's twenty-eight. Been on the scene for awhile and knows what he wants."

"Yeah," Derek remarked, quirking a grin, barely suppressing a laugh. "Our BAU baby grew up."

That brought on a whole new slew of laughter.

Rossi sat back and took a sip. "So...you know what you want in a woman, Derek?"

Derek nodded. "Yeah...Someone nice."

Rossi narrowed his right eye at him. "That's all?"

He shrugged. "No, but it starts with that. Someone nice I can talk to." He took a sip of his beer. "Dated way too many women in my life I couldn't talk to. Not doing that anymore."

"So, she'd be a friend," Rossi said, gently leading.

"Yeah, I guess." He paused, and to Rossi's surprise, continued again. "She'd have to understand the job, too. I work sixteen hour days a lot, sometimes more than that. Maybe be in law enforcement herself."

Rossi nodded. "Yeah. That would be a plus for sure. I had the opposite, and it ended in divorce times three."

Derek gave a halfhearted grin at Rossi. "Not a whole lot of those kind of women around, is there?"

"I don't know, Derek." He gave him a serious look. "Sometimes that kind of woman is right in your back yard."

"Prentiss?" Derek asked, absolutely appalled.

"Oh, for God's sake!" Rossi growled. Derek was well aware he was dating Emily!

Derek shot him a grin, then continued. "Well, the other two are taken, too, so-"

"Neither of them are married."

God, the man was thick headed. Dave thought Derek would probably go the wrong direction just to spite him! He hoped JJ would forgive him if Morgan started sniffing around her...

Derek narrowed his eyes at him. "I know you don't mean JJ, so if you mean my Baby Girl...it ain't happening. We're just friends, and she's stuck on Lynch."

"I don't know about-"

"Dave," Derek said, giving him a look like he'd never seen before. "Trust me. We're just friends."

Morgan got up, and walked away towards the men's room.

Rossi puzzled that look Morgan gave him in his head, thinking about what it could mean, what it was. About ten seconds later, it almost knocked him on his ass when it hit him.

That look was brokenhearted defeat.