Author's Note: Just like in Horses, I am once again getting bogged down in details. But as this is a relationship 'building' story, I figure the details are important so I'm just going with it :) Though that once again does mean this will probably be a smidge longer than it was in my head.

I've decided to ballpark this one in late April. So for canon, that's between 'In Heat' and 'Tabula Rasa.' I was short on eps there so I jumped ahead about three weeks. We'll consider this filler :)

Union Rules

"Oooh! Over there!" Emily started smacking Hotch's arm, "turn there!"

Even though he was driving, Hotch did spare Emily one quick glare.

"I see it, now stop hitting me. My black and blues are just now fading from our last road trip."

Emily had a tendency to get excited. She also had a tendency to 'hit' rather than 'point' when she wanted him to change direction while they were driving.

He wasn't kidding about the bruises.

Seeing the look he was shooting her, Emily sheepishly pulled her hand back.

"Sorry, I just didn't want you to miss it."

He huffed at her as he turned up the long driveway to the inn . . . as though the girlish shrieks wouldn't have caught his attention.

Of course Emily's subdued enthusiasm only lasted until the inn itself came into site and then she exclaimed.

"Aww! It's so cute!"

Hotch's lips twitched as he pulled into one of the parking spots. He put the car in park and turned off the engine before turning to her, "you do realize that is the fourth thing that you have 'awwed' in the last fifteen minutes?"

They'd found their way back to Stars Hollow easily enough but Hotch wanted to do a quick drive through town just to get the layout before they went to the inn. Emily had not at all been disappointed in the delay.

As she spotted the gazebo again, "aww," the pond with the little bridge, "aww," street after street of white picket fences, big "awww."

He couldn't quite understand it. She'd certainly oohed and awwed things in the past, but she wasn't usually quite so . . . girly.

Her eyes crinkled as she unhitched her seat belt, "I like this place. It's . . ."

She twisted her mouth trying to think of the word, "untarnished." She leaned back in the seat, "you know for all the traveling I did as I grew up, mostly I just saw other countries. I didn't start really seeing America until I was with the Bureau." She gave him a sad smile, "and as you know, usually those aren't pleasant visits. I just think it's nice to go somewhere that's not tainted by tragedy. And I guess that's making me a little more excited about things than maybe I would be otherwise."

Then she looked down as she said softly, "but maybe I'm just being silly."

Probably. She had a tendency to get a little too excited sometimes. It's just usually she hid it better.

At least from Hotch.

Seeing the expression on her face, Hotch's own face softened as he looked over at her. Suddenly he felt badly for teasing. Really, he hadn't thought about it that way before.

But she was right, it was rare that they visited anywhere for a benign reason. He couldn't think of a city or a town across the country that he'd visited where he could call up only pleasant memories. Beautiful scenery, historic architecture, friendly people, all of those thoughts were immediately overshadowed by darker images.

The memories of the murders, or the rapes, or the child abductions he'd been there to investigate.

Clearly it was the same for her, probably for all of them. He felt a pang of regret . . . that was an awful way to live their lives.

He reached over and patted her arm. When she brought her eyes up, he looked at her seriously, "it's not silly at all. I'm sorry for teasing," he nodded firmly, "you enjoy this place. Keep a happy memory."

A soft smile touched her lips as she whispered, "thanks." Then they stared at each other for a moment before Hotch shook his head, "come on, I'm hungry so I'm assuming your starving. Let's go see what they made us for dinner."

She smiled as she picked up their laptops from by her feet, passing Hotch's over to him, "I am starving and Lorelai said the chef's food is as good as Luke's."

Hotch tipped his head as he opened his car door, "well then, dinner should be pretty impressive."

Consistently edible food on the road was a rarity.

Emily nodded as she joined him down back at the trunk, "I hope so, lunch was really good so," she quirked her lip up, "there's kind of a high standard set for dinner."

Hotch's eyes crinkled as he turned to get their duffels out, slinging them both over the same shoulder he already had his laptop hanging from. Then he grabbed the larger of the two evidence boxes. Emily was already carrying her own laptop as she leaned over to take the other box of evidence. She almost groaned, God it was heavy. But still she looked over at him questioningly, "you want me to take something else?"

Hotch didn't usually carry her bag for her. The guys could be chivalrous on occasion, but they weren't generally that chivalrous.

At her inquiry, Hotch just shook his head, "it's fine, but if you could get the trunk though, thanks."

She shifted the box to her thigh so she could slam down the hatch, and then they started across the gravel parking lot. He could see she was struggling a little with the box, and he wanted to take it from her, but with all of their other crap, he was already lugging at least fifty pounds.

And he had given her the lighter of the two evidence boxes. He was carrying the one from the sheriff's department, she had the smaller one from the Fire Marshall. Hotch had almost forgotten it when they were leaving and he'd had to run back inside. It only weighed about twenty five pounds, but it wasn't so much the weight as the awkward lift. It was an odd shape so she couldn't balance it on her hip. So she was carrying it in front of her as a dead weight. And he knew she was in excellent shape, but she still didn't have the same upper body strength that he did.

That was why he'd grabbed her bag.

Beyond just her clothes and toiletries, he knew that she also had extra clips and case files in there. If she'd tried to pick up the bag and the box, she probably would have tipped over. He glanced at her again.

As it was he could see that she was about ready to start cursing. Fortunately they were just getting to the porch anyway.

Emily almost sighed in relief when they got to the steps . . . this freaking box weighed a ton! She could see now why Hotch grabbed her bag though, he had already known how heavy the box was. And this was the little one. Her expression softened slightly as she glanced over.

He was a good guy.

She looked up as the door opened in front of them. And thank you Jesus, the people were being polite and holding the door for them.

With a double thanks, she and Hotch slipped passed them and stepped into the inn.

Eyes crinkling, Emily scoped out the lobby . . . definitely way better than the Econolodge!

Hearing a "hey guys, over here!" she and Hotch both turned to the left.

Lorelai was waving from the check-in desk off to the side.

Emily smiled as they walked over, "hi, thanks so much for accommodating us on short notice."

Lorelai waved her hand breezily.

"Pashaw, always happy to help out the federales. Gives me good karma with the IRS."

Hotch's lip quirked up slightly as he dropped their things down at his feet and started digging around in his wallet for the bureau credit card. Mostly they filed for reimbursement on the smaller expenses. They only used the bureau card for big ticket items like room charges, or the occasional commercial flight. Which they'd taken that morning, so actually the bureau card was getting quite the work out today.

He slid it across the counter and Lorelai stared down at it for a moment and then looked back up seriously.

"I'm sorry Agent Hotchner but I'm going to need two forms of ID."

His eyebrows narrowed dangerously as he snapped his jaw shut. And of course both she and Emily laughed at him.

Great . . . he dropped his head to his chest . . . now he had two of them.

Lorelai was still smiling when she began to enter his credit card info.

"Sorry, couldn't resist getting another shot at seeing that magnificent scowl. Also, I have years of practice irritating Luke but I wanted to try out my skills on someone new. Make sure I wasn't getting rusty."

Hotch raised his eyebrow at her.

"Well feel free to continue practicing on your husband alone," he jerked his head to the side, "because I already have somebody that enjoys busting my balls just because she can."

Emily nodded seriously.

"That's true Lorelai, he does." Then she turned to flutter her eyelashes at him, "but I'm still your favorite sir, right?"

His eyes snapped over to hers.

"You keep telling yourself that Prentiss." Then he looked down to sign the slip Lorelai had put in front of him.

It wasn't until he was making the H in Hotchner that he realized that was actually true. She was kind of his favorite. Well, neck and neck with JJ. His brow wrinkled.

When the hell did that happen?

Then he shook his head slightly . . . didn't matter. He wasn't allowed to have favorites anyway so it wasn't like he needed to justify it to anyone. That would just be his little secret. He sighed.

One of a thousand.

Sighing again, he pushed the paper and pen back across the desk. Then he checked the time . . . only a little after six. He shouldn't be losing energy yet.

That's when he remembered that he actually had gotten up at 4:45.

Good Christ this was shaping up to be a long day!

He glanced over to Emily . . . for both of them. She was trying to stifle a yawn.

For a moment his jaw twisted back and forth.

Maybe they should take a little break before they started working. Just eat dinner like regular people do, at a table.

He looked back to Lorelai.

"Is your dining room still open?"

"Yep," she nodded while stapling their receipts together, "until 7:30," then she looked up quizzically, "but I thought you guys wanted to eat in your room so you could work?"

He took the keys out of Lorelai's hand, directing his answer to Emily as he passed her the other key.

"Well, we're going to be working until after midnight so I was thinking maybe it would be nice to take a little break first and eat dinner downstairs."

Emily flashed him a grateful smile as she pocketed her key.

Yay! They were taking a fifteen minute break! It was almost like being in a union. Plus, they didn't have to be shut-ins, she could actually see a little bit of the inn before they locked themselves away to look at pictures of dead house pets. She frowned as a sense of melancholy tried to creep back, but she pushed it off, she could wallow in the horrors of this case a little later. Hotch called a break.

It was a rarity that she was going to enjoy.

Lorelai started to call over a bellboy to help them with their bags but both Emily and Hotch shook their heads before she had the sentence out. Hotch began slipping the various straps back over his shoulders.

"No it's fine thanks. It's mostly case materials and we prefer to carry them."

He saw Emily nod her agreement, but then he looked over at her as she bit her lip. She was looking down at the box at her feet and then she glanced towards the stairs.

His expression softened . . . that was going to kill her.

Without a word, he slipped his laptop off of his shoulder, placing it onto hers. She was looking at him quizzically until he dropped her box onto his and picked them both up together.

JESUS THAT WAS HEAVY!

But he was standing in front of two women . . . so for his ego, he made sure not to groan.

Emily watched him effortlessly heft over fifty pounds of paperwork up from a dead weight on the ground. She gave him a soft smile, "thanks."

He rolled his eyes slightly, "yeah, well, just don't drop my laptop."

Being nice was terrible for his reputation as a hard ass.

Her lips twitched, "yes sir."

Yes, God forbid he get caught doing something nice.

Lorelai watched them for a moment with a smile on her face.

They were cute together. And God, if he didn't remind her of Luke! Cranky and ill tempered, but with a good heart. Luke would have carried the box for her too, and he would have blown it off completely just like her boss did.

Her lips pursed slightly . . . she'd assumed Luke was one of a kind, but apparently there were some variations on his model. And they came with other accessories like guns and badges. Hers only came with a coffee pot. She didn't care for guns, but maybe she could get Luke a badge? A badge and a coffee pot. Now THAT would be hot!

She was interrupted from her musings when she noticed Emily and Hotch looking over at her.

Duh Lorelai! They've got bad guys to catch!

She slapped on a bright smile.

"'Kay guys, let's go see your rooms!"

A/N 2: I wasn't really planning on telling any of this from GG standpoints but I decided it would add another layer if I included Lorelai's thoughts on occasion. Just from an observational standpoint. I might add a bit of Luke's too but both shall be minimal. It's hard enough keeping a smooth rhythm when I'm just juggling multiple CM team members, and I at least have a fairly good handle on the characters. L&L are new toys and I'm not really used to playing with them.

It was a coincidence that Emily's 'tendency to get excited' turned up back to back with the last Girl chapter. But it was actually good because this was an earlier point where she was getting more relaxed with him so Hotch was just getting used to that aspect of her personality. And clearly here he wasn't quite so 'enamored' with it as he would later become :)

As an aside, I've decided I like this idea of going back to season three and adding in a new 'adventure' for them. It's just that in terms of relationship building I was stuck within the confines of what we saw in canon spread out, generally, week to week. Though clearly I moved outside the box on occasion, something like this, where they're alone and just seeing how they work together does add a new dimension to things. Especially because the end of three was where I was jumping forward in time a bit because of the timing of divorce and the season finale. If this one turns out well I might do this Offshoot thing again at some other point in Girl. That is if I ever finish any of my other epic stories :)