Disclaimer: I own nothing
A/N: I took a break, but now I'm back! LOL! Thanks for reading, reviewing and adding this story into your favourites and alerting it!
Emily woke up the next morning and stretched. She was uncomfortable and it dawned on her that she was still wearing her work clothes and had fallen asleep on them. She saw Derek's hand thrown across her torso and noticed that he too was in work clothes. She looked at the clock that told her it was 3am. She stifled a groan and slowly disengaged herself from Derek and slipped out.
She first changed into a tshirt and shorts and went down to the kitchen. She made herself a bowl of cereal and milk, her favourite, which was Fruit Loops and sat on the couch. She switched on the TV and put it on mute, because she didn't want to disturb Derek. She was in the process of eating all the blue cereal, she heard a noise. She set the bowl of cereal down and was about to reach for her gun when Derek sleepily made his way to the living room.
"Hey princess!" He said and sat next to her. He had shed all his clothing except his boxers. He pulled her towards him and the couple snuggled. He dozed while she finished her cereal, one colour at a time. After she was done, she felt a little energized and the fact that Derek was only in his boxers didn't help. She turned, so she was leaning on him sideways. She kissed his chest and worked her way to his mouth. He kissed her and the kiss grew stronger as he woke up.
"Now? Are you sure?" Derek asked Emily, holding her a few inches away from him so that he could see her eyes.
"If I wasn't, I wouldn't have started. But I do think we should move it to the bed. The couch is awesome for make out sessions only." Emily said, smiling at him. She stood up and tugged him onto his feet and laughed when he picked her up and carried her to the bed. For the next few hours, they pretended that nothing was wrong.
They entered the office together the next morning, both looking tired, but happy. Emily was still a little stressed. She had called her mother on the way to work and had told her that Derek had picked her up. She went straight to her desk, dumped her bags on the floor and then headed straight to Hotch's office. She wanted to know if they or the police had made any progress.
She knocked on his door and went in when he told her to come in.
"Hey. Any updates?" Emily asked.
"Well, from Garcia, yes. Hold on, let me call her in here. Or would you be willing to wait a few minutes till the team is here and she can give the update to everyone?" Hotch asked, not being sarcastic. He understood the urgent need for information. After the reaper, he felt that he understood his team better.
"I can wait." Emily said and turned to go, before Hotch stopped her.
"Prentiss. Are you with Morgan?" Hotch asked her. It had been hard to ignore the constant looks they shared, the undercurrent of something more than friendship.
"Yes. Is that going to be a problem?" She asked him, prepared for a verbal battle with a hundred reasons as to why this was okay.
"It may be a problem later, but for now, as long as nothing affects your work and your concentration, especially now, I'm going to let it go. But the three of us will have a talk after this man is caught." Hotch said.
"Thank you." Emily said and left. She walked out to see Reid come in. He went to his desk and started his computer. It looked like Morgan was doing his email, but she knew that was a lie because he looked up at her and she knew he was waiting for her to get out of Hotch's office.
She walked to her desk and it was only then did Reid notice her.
"Emily, hi. Um, I've actually got a theory for you." Reid said, not seeing the way Morgan frowned disapprovingly. He wanted to talk to Hotch to keeping her off the case. He knew that Emily would have a fit if she discovered what was going on his mind, but he couldn't help but feel worried.
Emily walked over to Reid's desk and leaned against it. She and Reid always traded theories. She looked at the young doctor, who looked nervous for some reason.
"What's your theory?" She asked Reid. She was curious as to why he was feeling uncomfortable.
"Um, so the unsub attacks people, girls, who are in their early twenties. He may not go for you, if you're bait. He's still living in his past. He wants to relive it, except this time, really do what he had planned on doing with you Emily. I think the things he's done to these women, no doubt disturbing, is just a teaser. To let you know he's here, he knows where you are, but I also think that it would throw him off when he sees you, because you're old now. I mean, you are older than what you were." Reid corrected his faux pas when Emily raised her eyebrows at him.
"So you think I should confront him?" Emily asked, intrigued by this train of thought. Her go after him, instead of waiting for him to come after her.
"Well, with a lot, I mean a lot, of back up. Yeah." Reid said and swallowed when he saw Morgan advance towards his desk, with a thunderous expression on his face.
Emily saw the fear on Reid's face and turned around to face Morgan. She wanted to laugh because she was going to protect little Reid from the big, bad Morgan.
"Hey! You are not a part of this conversation, so go do your own work." Emily said, before Derek could say anything. As he advanced, she put her hand on his chest, pushing him a little.
"You want to do this, don't you? Confront the bastard? Morgan asked, giving Reid a dirty look. Reid turned around and began to try and focus on his computer. Or pretend to focus at least.
"Well, yeah! It beats waiting around and getting some other poor innocent girl stalked, hurt and threatened. Derek, stalking ruins a person's life1 They are forever paranoid. It took me forever to get over it and I got over it only because I joined the freaking BAU!" Emily said, turning Reid's chair around so that he was facing them. He looked like a guilty child when he saw Morgan, but Morgan couldn't be mad at him for putting the idea into Emily's head.
"I think we should talk to Hotch and Rossi." Emily said, getting up to call JJ and asking her to set up a meeting with the team, so that they could discuss Reid's theory and the possibilities. Morgan went after her, put a hand on her lower back and said "I hope you know I really hate this" after Emily hung up. She smiled and removed his hand, looking at Hotch's office pointedly.
The team assembled in the conference room where Reis explained his theory to JJ, Garcia, Hotch and Rossi. Rossi looked at him approvingly, Hotch looked stoic and JJ looked a little scared.
"Nuh-uh. No freaking way! You are not going to confront that weirdo! He's a sadistic stalker! He may even kill you Emily!" Garcia cried out. She was horrified by the suggestion and gave Reid dirty looks for coming up with it. Morgan grinned widely at her.
"I think it's a great idea! I refuse to keep looking over my shoulder and being paranoid while he runs around like a mad man. He wants me. And like Reid said, he is definitely living in the past. Maybe we can even recreate it for him!" Emily said, getting another idea in her head.
"What do you mean?" Rossi asked her.
"Well, we can twist my mother's annual fundraiser gala a little bit. She was wondering what she was going to do to raise the money, and we can have a date auction! Like where people bid on dates from certain people and I can be one of those people!" Emily said, really liking her idea.
"It would give him easy access to you and JJ could send out a press release saying that you'll be participating. And if we know where he's going to strike, it will be easier for us to control the situation." Rossi said, looking at JJ and Hotch.
It was taking everything from Derek to keep quiet. Emily had sent him a text a few minutes earlier saying that Hotch knew and that they should be very careful and not give him any reason to do anything.
"Morgan, what is your opinion on this?" Hotch asked, wanting his point of view.
"Honestly sir, I think this whole idea is balderdash!" Morgan said, looking upset.
"I think it's a great idea and since it's me, I feel that this is my decision. I really think this can work." Emily said, looking resolute.
"Find out if this is alright with your mother and we'll plan this. JJ, get the release ready. As soon as we get the okay from the Ambassador, I want this out in the press." Hotch said, essentially dismissing the team. Emily was ecstatic at the idea of catching her stalker once in for all. And being in control of the situation, instead of waiting in fear. She knew that Derek was very upset and hated what was happening, but he wasn't going to get his way this time.
She went to her desk and called her mother. After talking to her for about an hour and explaining everything, she agreed. So now, all there was to do was plan a party, put on a pretty dress and then catch the unsub.
Emily went to tell Hotch and then, she and JJ headed to her mother's house to plan the party in detail. She knew she was pretty much avoiding Derek, but she was already scared. She needed only support and positive thoughts around her right now. She texted him saying that she would see him tomorrow, covertly saying that she didn't want to see him that night.
While she was talking to her mother, her phone buzzed. When she checked her texts, there was one from Derek, that said "No chance. I'm waiting outside. We're going home together!"
She sighed and continued to party plan with her mother, with a small smile on her face.