The Most Life Changing Thing

Reid and Prentiss

Note- I know Emily was kinda cruel last chapter but it was a self protection method on her part. If she doesn't expect Spencer to want her if she has a baby, then she figures she won't be hurt if he says its too much for him. She has it in her mind that she has to do it alone and imagining anything else would be dreaming so big that it scares her, so she refuses to do it.

Chapter Seven

November 2010

Emily confused the hell out of Reid.

After their conversation at lunch, where they decided to date with the understanding it would just be a short term thing, she acted more touchy and feely than she ever had before during the rest of the meal.

Her eyes were sweet, dark pools of tenderness and teasing as she kept caressing him and sneaking in kisses while they ate their pasta. When they walked back to the office, down the sidewalk a couple of blocks to the building where they worked, she had her arms wrapped around his arm, cuddled close to his side in the cool fall weather.

Reid was left wondering if she had given him that whole "I don't do long term" speech just as some way to protect her own heart, and not as the truth. But maybe that is just what he would like to believe because it meant that she could be wrong about their chances of lasting.

He wasn't even sure what he wanted them to end up being months from now but he just knew it felt odd to go into this already with the mind set it wouldn't work out. Was she this way with every man she dated?

"Emily," he said, as they reached the front of the building where they worked, "I think I have a theory why none of your romances have ever worked out."

She startled and then laughed. "Don't tell me. I'd rather not know."

He told her anyway because he felt it was important. "If you believe something won't work out, it won't every time. You set it up to fail."

"I'm just a realist, that's all. Working out for me is two good dates in a row. I can't look past that because life always gets in the way."

"It does?"

"For me, yeah, but, hey, living day by day can be a lot of fun." She gave him a quick kiss.

He relaxed into the kiss. The wind whipped around them and people were walking by but for Reid, with Emily cuddled to his side, it was as if they were in their own little word.

He asked her "You didn't think it through very well before you acted on impulse and kissed me that first time, did you?"

She pulled back, with a sly smile on her lips, and answered "Au contraire, I thought about kissing you for months before that. That night I just got you where I had already wanted you." She slipped inside the building, leaving Reid there with a confused but happy look on his face.

Emily wanted him to just accept that they would have to be short term but he was not that kind of man. He didn't give his heart knowing it would be short term. He didn't sign up for flings- never had and never would.

So far he hadn't given his heart to her but if that day came he prayed she would forget all her silly notions about ending up alone and give them a small chance to find out if they could end up together.

They deserved that much, a small chance at love being more than a chemical trick of the mind.

XXXXXXXXX

"EP, that is some big smile you have on your lips today," Penelope said when she ran into Emily in the break room after lunch. "Do tell what's got you floating on cloud nine."

"Okay," Emily admitted "there's a man in my life now, its true, but don't bombard me with questions about it." Emily smirked. "I know how you work."

"Oh, yes you do know me all too well!" Penelope squealed excitedly "And, as one of your very best girlfriends, it is my duty to bombard you with questions so I can decipher if this man is up to par for your awesome self. What does he do? What does he look like? I bet he's gorgeous. You would not be smiling like that if he was anything short of awesom-tastic."

"That is not a word."

"Hush, and don't avoid the subject. I'm dying here. Tell me how you stumbled upon a Mr. Perfect when Garci didn't even know there were any contenders vying for your attentions. Ohhhh, are you giving Mick another chance? That accent does make me kinda warm so I wouldn't blame you at all and he did have it bad for you. Is it him?"

"God, no. Mick could never make me smile like this."

"Well I've never known anyone to make you smile like that except our boy genius and I know its not...it is! Emily Prentiss, you secret keeper! I want details."

"Drinks later?"

"I'll call JJ."

Emily walked off with a smile still playing on her lips. When she reached her desk Derek smirked at her and she told him "Don't start," before she got down to doing her paperwork, only sneaking in a small look at Reid, who was already lost in his own paperwork and didn't notice.

XXXXXXXXXX

Emily was sitting in the driver's seat of an FBI issued black SUV a few days later, after the team broke for the night. Spencer was in the passenger seat. They were waiting for the rest of the team to get in so they could go to dinner and then the hotel for the night.

Spencer took out his phone and dialed it. Emily's phone rang. She pulled it out and saw his name on the screen. Looking next to her she asked "What are you up to?"

"Excuse me," he joked "I'm trying to make a call."

She chuckled and answered her phone. Speaking into the phone she said "Hey, I'm busy right now arguing with my co-worker."

"I'm sorry to interrupt that. I'll make it quick. I remember you mentioning that your mother took you to see The Nutcracker when you were eleven and you enjoyed it immensely, right?"

"When did I tell you that? I don't remember telling you that."

"Eidetic memory. I remember what you forget but if I remember it then rest assured it did, in fact, happen."

"I'll take your word for it."

"Would you like to go see The Nutcracker again this year, without your mother this time, which may make it that much more enjoyable."

"I get it. You're calling to ask me on a date."

He teased "A short term date because I know you don't do long term."

"Ha, ha."

"So would you like to go with me?"

"If you spring for the popcorn."

"There won't be any popcorn, sorry."

"Then forget it."

"We can get popcorn afterwards."

"Okay, I'll go then, as long as there is popcorn involved."

"I look forward to it." He disconnected the call.

Emily chuckled and looked at Reid. "That was just silly."

"You said to call you and ask you for a date so I did." His eyes shimmered with teasing as he looked at her.

She couldn't stop smiling, and felt flushed with warmth, as she reached for him and pulled him close for a kiss. Just before their lips would have met the door was opened by Dave Rossi, with Morgan and Hotch not far behind.

Rossi chortled at them, as they both blushed. "Next time hang a sock," he teased before climbing into the SUV.