Author's Note: Yes, I'm popping up on old stuff all over the place! And really, it's all due to the computer crash. I was forced to look through all my files and here we are! So perhaps there was a silver lining to all my trauma :)

You'll probably need to refresh your memory here :) but we're picking up with them right after we left them in chapter 4. Remember this is part of Universe A, so there are some prior references to events in Girl.

Dinner and a Show

When they got to the bottom of the stairs, Hotch and Emily turned and headed over to the dining room that they had spotted when they first arrived.

But as they stood in the doorway they saw that the place looked empty. Hotch's brow wrinkled as he checked his watch.

Huh . . . they should still have another half hour.

He and Emily exchanged a look, and as she shrugged her shoulders he turned around, spotting a man in a blazer carrying a stack of towels.

Assuming that he worked at the inn, Hotch called out to him, "excuse me, do you know if they're still serving dinner?"

The man shot him a sneer before he responded in a haughty French accent, "if you check the door sir you will see the posted hours for the dining room are right there in front of you."

And then as he turned away he added something in French. Hotch didn't speak French, but from the tone he knew it had to be derogatory. But then he saw the thunderclouds on Emily's face and realized it was probably pretty bad.

Before he'd even blinked, Emily had shot out from his side and was right in the smarmy jerk's face.

"You want to say that again?" She asked frigidly.

Unfortunately for him, Hotch noted that he did indeed utter the same phrase again.

Clearly not only was he a jerk, but also a moron. It was obvious from her reaction that she'd understood him.

She just wanted to see if he'd say it to her face. And now that he had, Hotch watched with no small amount of amusement as Emily swept the guy's knee, knocked him face down on the carpet and pinned his arm behind his back. Then she started yelling at him in French.

As always when he saw her in action, Hotch felt a little surge of pride. And he was more than a little impressed that she was capable of multicultural ass kicking!

Just as that thought came to him, Lorelai came around the corner of the dining room and yelped.

"GAH! WHAT . . . WHAT . . .?!"

For a moment Lorelai was speechless, utterly without speech.

It was a rarity for her.

Finally her eyes snapped up to Agent Hotchner as she asked in horror, "WHAT is she doing!?"

Tipping his head quizzically, Hotch looked down at Emily, "well, I don't speak French so I'm not sure what she's saying exactly, but I'm assuming that she's expressing dissatisfaction with his attitude. I asked him if they were still serving dinner. He responded in French, after which he said something in particular that Agent Prentiss did not care for."

Though clearly, "did not care for," was a bit of an understatement, it was best to "deemphasize" the level of emotional response when speaking to civilians.

Even nice ones that slipped them free bags of donuts.

Lorelai flapped her hand at him in a panic, "well, shouldn't you like do SOMETHING!?"

Why is he just STANDING there?! Isn't this like a B&A or A&B or whatever the hell the federal something something equivalent is?!

His brow rose in confusion as he looked between Emily and Lorelai. Then he shook his head slowly at the brunette that wasn't down on the floor, "uh no, no she's fine by herself."

Wasn't it obvious that Emily had this under control?

With a roll of her eyes Lorelai huffed, "no I mean like STOP her from killing him!"

Hotch shook his head, "she won't kill him, she won't even leave a mark on him. And I know that she's hungry so she'll be done in a minute."

Emily wasn't predisposed to randomly throwing strange men to the ground, so Hotch knew whatever it was that had set her off had to have been pretty bad. Probably bad enough actually that it was best that he himself didn't speak French.

His level of restraint was a bit frayed after this many hours on the clock.

Hearing the front door open, Hotch snapped his eyes over to see Luke standing on the other side of the room. The two men exchanged a nod and then Luke's gaze dropped down to Emily with her knee in Michele's back.

She was still yelling at him in French, and now Michele was starting to cry.

Luke smirked before he looked back up at Hotch, "would you guys like to move here? If she kicks his ass on a regular basis you can eat free at the diner anytime you want."

Hotch's mouth quivered slightly as Lorelai's eyes bugged out and she snapped.

"LUKE!"

He scowled back at her, "what? Somebody should have done this years ago! You know he deserves it."

If he hadn't thought Lorelai would kill him, Luke would have done this HIMSELF years ago!

Her appetite finally getting the better of her, Emily stood up, dusting off her knees as she looked over at Lorelai, "trust me, he did deserve it. He's actually lucky I didn't break his nose for what he said."

Actually Hotch would have probably put him through the window for what he said about his mother.

With a scowl she looked back down at the cowering ball on the floor, "and he's such a little weasel that he thought he'd be cute and say it in French like nobody was going to understand him."

Recognizing the look in Emily's eyes . . . he'd last scene it at Smokey's right after she jammed the pool cue in that guy's throat . . . Hotch went over and collected her before she kicked the jackass in the groin.

Luke stepped over Michele still curled up in a ball on the floor as he directed his remarks to Emily, "hey, before you leave, there's this guy called Taylor. I'd really like for the two of you to meet."

Man, he could sell tickets. They could do it as a throw down at Miss Patty's!

Emily's lips twitched as she straightened out her jacket, "we'll see."

God . . . she huffed to herself . . . why couldn't they ever just have a normal dinner like normal people? There isn't even an UNSUB in the place and they still started off the evening with an act of violence.

Hotch huffed to himself as he looked between Luke and Emily . . . great, now she's a gun for hire.

Yojimbo with a manicure.

With his hand ghosting over Emily's back . . . he wanted to be able to snatch her jacket if the dumbass decided to open his mouth again . . . Hotch turned to Lorelai, "actually we were wondering if the kitchen was still open," he flicked his eyes over to the sniveling little jerk on the floor, "that's actually how we met him. As I said, I asked HIM, that question."

Now that she'd heard what had happened, Lorelai winced . . . of course, they'd asked him a question. And he had responded as he always did.

Rudely.

But apparently . . . and unfortunately for Michele . . . Emily spoke French.

A moment later Lorelai's brow furrowed . . . huh, now she was wondering exactly what Michele had been muttering to her all these years.

If it was bad enough for Emily . . . a woman with impeccable taste in boots and thus far supremely civilized manners . . . to knock him to the ground, then it must have been WAY worse than she'd thought it was!

For his real . . . and imagined . . . transgressions Lorelai shot Michele a scowl as he slowly pushed himself up off the floor, "I'll deal with you later."

His jaw dropped before he exclaimed indignantly, "but she was the one that attacked me! I didn't do anything! She's a crazy bi . . ."

Michel's mouth snapped shut as Hotch took a step towards him.

"She's a crazy what?" His voice was frigid.

If this little shithead thought he was going to call Emily a crazy bitch then he was about to be eating carpet again.

Michele shook his head vehemently, "nothing," and with eyes wide in fear, he snapped his head back to Lorelai, "I'm going to take my break now."

And he ran out the front door before she could do more than open her mouth.

Luke muttered to himself, "definitely have to get them to move here."

With a groan, Lorelai looked after the door that just slammed shut. And then her eyes dropped down to the towels all over the floor.

Sometimes she really couldn't remember why it was that she kept Michele around.

Then she looked down in horror as she saw Emily and Agent Hotchner had begun picking up the Egyptian cottong.

What were they doing!?

She started waving her hands as she yelled, "oh guys! Please, please leave them! I'll get them in a minute."

So much for getting a good review in Fodor's.

Come to the Dragonfly, get insulted by a surly Frenchman, then get into a violent altercation and top it all off by bussing the lobby!

Emily looked up at Lorelai with a smile, "it's fine. He dropped them because of me."

After she stood up, she took the other towels from Hotch and walked over to hand them to Lorelai, "here you go."

Always clean up your own mess. Her father had taught her that the first day she accidentally busted a Marine's nose during self defense practice. She had to mop the floor AND wash his uniform. It was a good lesson.

The next time she was much more careful where she threw her elbow.

With a shake of her head Lorelai gave her a slightly exasperated smile, "thanks, but you really didn't need to do that. And I apologize for whatever it was that Michele said to you. I know he's kind of a jerk sometimes but he actually is a very good worker,"

Hearing Luke's snort, Lorelai quickly amended her comment before her husband could contribute any of his peanut gallery remarks to the conversation.

"Well," she tipped her head, "he's good at his job when he chooses to be. He just shouldn't be around . . . uh, well, um people, really."

Yeah Lor . . . she chastised herself . . . that doesn't sound too idiotic!

Hotch raised his eyebrow as he walked up next to Emily, "unusual personality trait given that he was hired to work in the hospitality business."

And the more he thought about the near miss on 'crazy bitch' the more irritated he was. Hotch made a mental note that if he saw Pepe Le Pew again during their visit to make the little skunk piss his pants.

Luke rolled his eyes, "thank you!"

After she shot her husband another look, Lorelai gave Agent Hotchner a sheepish smile, "I know. And again, I apologize for his behavior. Just for all the aggravation, dinner's on the house."

When she saw the look on Agent Hotchner's face after her offer, Lorelai immediately had a horrible thought.

Oh God! Had she just tried to bribe a federal agent?!

Man . . . she started to panic . . . she could get sent to the hoosegow for that! Wait, do they still call it the hoosegow? And how did that become a synonym for prison? Those words sounded nothing alike and she was pretty sure the Latin prefix suffix thing was going to fail her on this one. Where the hell was Rory when she . . .

Her instantaneous internal ramblings about prison and the genesis of the word hoosegow were cut off as Agent Hotchner protested, "no, no that's not necessary at all," he added drolly, "we get treated much worse than that on a regular basis."

If only she knew what they actually did for a living. He'd take two dozen snotty little Frenchmen over a cannibal any day.

Emily cut in with a smirk, "yeah, he didn't even try to kill us, so really," she shrugged, "no harm done," then she tipped her head to Hotch, "and actually he owes me dinner so you'd totally be messing up our equilibrium if you don't let him pay."

That was sweet of Lorelai to offer, but the dinner/breakfast tradeoff thing was vitally important for her and Hotch to maintain good karma.

And apparently she wasn't the only one who knew that. Because her eyes crinkled slightly as she saw Hotch nod as he said seriously, "it's true, I do her dinner."

Emily very subtly bumped his shoulder with her own . . . good man.

Feeling Emily's shoulder bump, Hotch's lips twitched almost imperceptibly. But he quickly schooled his features again as he remembered where they were.

In public and on duty.

His amusement at Emily's, well . . . Emily, was something that he kept strictly under his hat unless they were alone. And even then, he tried to keep it from her as well.

God knows she didn't need any encouragement!

Though . . . his mouth started to quiver again as he heard her stomach growl beside him . . . occasionally it was just HER and nothing she actually did consciously that brought a spark of amusement to his day.

Him NOT hiring her two years ago, was one of the best things that had ever happened to him.

But he knew that the stomach growling would make her uncomfortable. Like him, Emily didn't like to appear weak . . . in other words, "human" . . . in front of people they didn't know.

So he cleared his throat and said loudly, "well, Lorelai if the dining room is still open do you think we could please get some dinner now?"

At Hotch's sudden outburst, Emily's eyes dropped to the ground to hide her little smile. He'd heard the growl, he knew that she got embarrassed over things like that, and he was covering. It was sweet.

Really though, it WAS embarrassing!

Like Hotch, she didn't like to be perceived as mere mortal in front of the general public. The personas they projected were carefully crafted.

They were cool and in control at all times.

Luke and Lorelai seemed nice, but they didn't need to know that she had self esteem issues. Or that she was occasionally a complete spaz in her personal life.

And they certainly had no business knowing that Hotch . . . her eyes shifted over to him . . . was still suffering a severe depression from the loss of his family.

Those things were private.

And as Lorelai gave them an embarrassed smile, "sure guys, sorry," she extended her arm, "right this way," Emily also slipped back into cool, professional mode as she tipped her head.

"Thanks Lorelai. We'll be quick, I'm sure the kitchen's closing soon."

"Oh, don't worry about that," Lorelai brushed off her concern, "Sookie's always here late."

After everything that had just happened, Lorelai would stick around and bring them a midnight snack if that's what they wanted.

Okay, the snack would have to consist of pop tarts and coffee but still, the principle was the same.

Whatever they wanted they were getting.

"Nonetheless," Hotch's hand glided over Emily's shoulder as they entered the dining room, "we have work to do so we won't be long."

"Right," Lorelai smiled tightly as she suddenly remembered the reason for their visit, "we'll get you in and out in a jiff."

She started to plop menus down in front of them but then she raised her eyebrow, "if you guys aren't fussy," she tipped her head, "or allergic, I can just have Sookie send out tonight's special. It would probably be quicker."

For a moment there was silence, and Lorelai's lips twitched as she watched the two FBI agents have an unspoken conversation across the table.

Even after everything that just happened, they were still funny to watch.

Finally Agent Hotchner looked up and spoke for both of them, "that sounds fine, thanks, but Agent Prentiss would also like a cup of whatever today's soup is."

Lorelai smiled, "sure guys, two specials and a soup du jour. Though," she looked questioningly at Agent Hotchner, "if you don't mind my asking, um, how did you know she wanted soup?"

In their silent exchange neither one of them had so much as mouthed something to the other.

"She's cold," Hotch responded flatly as Emily immediately nodded her agreement, "I am."

Her brow wrinkled quizzically as Lorelai looked over at Emily . . . she wasn't shivering or rubbing her arms.

So how did he know that she was cold?

Seeing that Lorelai was perplexed, Hotch added quietly, "her fingertips are blue and she keeps touching her nose."

"Ah," Lorelai was silent for a second before her lip quirked up slightly, "gotcha. Okay, well," she hooked her thumb over her shoulder, "I'll just go put in your order."

Emily watched as Lorelai hurried away, then she turned to Hotch with a grin, "you and your magical powers."

New people were always freaked out by behavioral reading. It was kind of like a parlor trick.

Hotch's lips twitched slightly as he shook out his napkin.

"Yes, well, you don't need to be Kreskin to know that you have a body temperature on par with a Komodo dragon," he responded drolly.

Emily's eyebrow rose in amusement as she took a sip of her water. Then her mouth quivered slightly as she looked across the table, "a dragon? I remind you of a KOMODO dragon?"

She wasn't sure if she should be flattered or insulted.

Feeling the slight warmth on his face, Hotch dropped his eyes down to the place setting for a moment.

Damn National Geographic!

Once he was sure his complexion was its normal hue, he looked up, clearing his throat before he explained awkwardly, "I was watching something on TV last night . . . apparently it made an impression."

He really couldn't believe he just likened Emily to a Komodo dragon though.

"Oooh, ooh!" Emily suddenly exclaimed in excitement, "was that Dangerous Encounters with Brady Barr?"

Brady was no Mike Rowe but he'd do in a pinch.

"Yes," Hotch's lip quirked up, "as a matter of fact it was. Did you see it?"

He'd forgotten that he'd turned her on to nature videos last year.

She grinned, "I did! I loved that one! Did you see Jurassic Shark?"

This was great! She didn't know anybody else that watched these shows. But of course Hotch was the one that first suggested them as a good way to de-stress. And at her inquiry, Hotch's eyes lit up as he leaned forward and started talking about the search for the prehistoric shark.

Her burst of happiness faded a bit when she was suddenly struck by a pang of sadness that they couldn't do this more often.

She and Hotch hardly ever just talked about regular stuff. Usually he was so closed off that there was no entry point for her to even broach normal conversational topics.

That was too bad.

Not only did she really like Hotch as a person . . . his sweet qualities definitely outweighed the cranky bastard tendencies . . . but she'd been worried about him since the divorce. And really she was convinced that he'd be happier if he'd just open up a little more.

But as she looked over at him now, she realized if she brought that up now, it would probably ruin the moment.

So instead she smiled brightly as she passed him one of the rolls the waiter had just put on the table.

"Did you see the one on the most venomous creatures in Australia?"

Hotch slowly pulled the roll back to his plate as he stared at her for a moment.

Wait, a minute. What were they doing here?

As he saw her sparkling eyes, and expectant look, his lip quirked up . . . they were talking about something besides work.

It was nice.

And they had the whole rest of the night to look over mutilated animal remains and review the details of the autopsy report, so he decided he'd just go with it.

A half a dimple slipped out as he nodded, "yeah, that was a good one."

He slid the butter over to her as he smiled.

"Which episode's your favorite?"

A/N 2: A little groundwork for their later friendship. Though Hotch of late season 3 generally strikes me as a 'work through dinner' kind of guy, I figured they'd had a pretty long day so he might be open to being normal for ten minutes.

And I always HATED Michele and could not for the life of me understand why they kept him around! He was a total schmuck! Snotty, ill tempered, lazy, I just didn't get it. I could get that Lorelai was stuck with him when it was the Independence, but she took him with her to the Dragon Fly! So I saw this as a good opportunity for him to have some come uppance. Because really, anyone with a pair who had ever run into him would have given him a fat lip. And trust me, what he said about Hotch's mom was worth way worse than what Emily did to him. Which was really just scare the crap out of him. I thought it best though to leave both his insult and her responding threats (she did make him cry) to your imagination. Basically though, the worst thing you could think.

I would LOVE to get this wrapped up soon. I really never intended for it to be longer than like three chapters. We're now at five. As I'm wrapping Girl I'm going to try to simultaneously figure out the ending for this one. Honestly, I put this up last spring, and I do NOT want it to still be ongoing by the time the one year anniversary rolls around!

What do you think? I added a bit more Lorelai thoughts to this one, did they work? It's weird writing outside CM. Which reminds me, I ordered the first two seasons of Third Watch and I am planning on writing a Bosco Yokas "finale fix" for the two of them. I hated how the producers F'd up their friendship again and didn't give them time to fix things before they ended the show.