Chapter 3

It was almost seven o'clock, they had cracked the case over an hour ago, and Morgan had finally gotten Emily alone. Of course, he only had an hour to spend with her, but it was better than nothing. For the past three days, Reid wouldn't let Emily out of his sight and Morgan wasn't backing down either. It didn't help that Hotch had not once partnered him or Reid up with Emily. What was the deal with that anyway? Emily was always paired off with him. Sometimes, Hotch seriously pissed him off.

"Do you like it?" he asked her sheepishly. It unnerved him a little that her opinion truly mattered to him.

Her famous, genuine smile graced her lips and she nodded as she took a glance around.

A thick blanket of snow covered the gently rolling hills and it sparkled as if it were truly magic. A beautiful stone path carefully weaved its way through the small park, and every tree that outlined the path, was lit up with gold Christmas lights. The park wasn't crowded in the slightest, and the only sounds came from the laughter of children who were sledding down the large hill. It truly was a winter wonderland.

"How did you find this place?" Emily raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged. "Someone mentioned it."

She laughed when she saw him sticking out his tongue.

"Morgan, what are you doing?"

"I'm trying to catch the snowflakes with my tongue," he told her. However, he was quickly brought back to reality when he felt something cold and wet hit his back. He turned around and found Emily armed with a snowball. "What was that for?" he asked.

Emily stifled a laugh. "I have always wanted to do that," she told him as she sent another snowball flying his way. It hit his head.

"Hey! You asked for it." He quickly made his own snowball and threw it at her.

She let out a sound somewhere between a laugh and a shriek, and he could have sworn it was the most beautiful sound he had ever heard. Laughing loudly, he scoped up a pile of snow and threw it at her, but it hit the tree she was now hiding behind.

"You're cheating," Morgan accused as he ran after her. He grabbed another handful of snow and crept to where she was hiding. "Emily," he pronounced slowly. "Come out. Come –" She jumped out suddenly, and since Morgan was not prepared for the sudden attack, he lost his balance and they both fell to the ground. He could hear her laughing, and when he opened his eyes he was suddenly aware of how close they were. She was lying on top of him and their mouths were inches apart. It was the perfect moment to kiss her, but before he could, she rolled off of him. He groaned inwardly, but laughed when he saw her beginning to make a snow angel.

"I can't remember the last time I had this much fun," she told him dazed.

A sudden flicker of light caught his eye. He looked up and a smile lit his face. "Look, a shooting star."

My dad use to tell me that every time you saw one it was a soul going to heaven." Her voice, it was so lifeless, full of pain, broken, and he desperately wanted to know the story behind her words.

"I like that," he told her.

"But then I found out that shooting stars are not stars at all. They're just rocks that enter the atmosphere and catch fire under friction."

"What's the fun in that?" Morgan questioned. She shrugged, so he leaned over to whisper in her ear, lingering a little longer than necessary. "But you can still wish on it. Can't you? What's stopping you?"

"Why? What you're wishing on is only a trail of debris," she told him bluntly.

He smirked at her logic, but quickly shook his head, dismissing her answer. "Don't think about it like that. Think about them as…angels – granting a wish to someone who cares."

She laughed mockingly. "Angels? Seriously?"

Morgan shot her a playful glare, and in an a more intense tone, he questioned, "If you could have one wish, what would you wish for?" He watched her as she stared up into the starry night sky. For a moment, he thought that she was ignoring him, but to his shock she actually answered the question.

"Something I can't have," she whispered, losing herself in a thousand thoughts, not one of which Morgan could guess. "But it doesn't matter," she added, recovering quickly from whatever it was she had been thinking about. "Wishes don't come true."

"Sure they come true, but only if your wish is reasonable. You can't go wishing someone back from the dead. It's not possible," he told her so softly, she had to lean in closer to hear him. "And when you make a wish it doesn't mean that it'll happen in the near future. It could happen within years. You just have to be patient."

"And why is that?"

"Because some wishes are harder to fulfill than others and they want it to be just perfect."

She smirked with amusement. "And what do they – the people or angels who grant them – get out of it?"

"A smile. A full-hearted smile."

"It seems like a lot for just a smile," she pointed out stubbornly.

He nodded, grinning softly at her. "You'd be surprised. A person would do a lot to make someone smile."

"But it doesn't matter," she told him, completely ignoring his answer. "Dreams, miracles… they're all just a load of crap. Believe me. I would know."

"Is it possible that the miracle was not something that happened to you, but rather something that didn't?"

Emily regarded him intently, contemplating his answer with curiosity. She had never once thought of it like that before. And then she busted out laughing at another thought. "God, you are such a cliché."

"You got that right." He showed off his award winning smile once more, but immediately became serious and tapped her shoulder. "What's bothering you?"

She rolled over on her side, ignoring the cold snow pressing into her. "It's disappointing to know that you can see right through me."

He chuckled. "It's what we do best."

"It's just… if you spent your life concentrating on what everyone else thought of you, would you forget who you really were? What if the face you showed the world turned out to be a mask with nothing beneath it?" She sighed dramatically when he didn't reply. "Am I making sense?"

Morgan found himself nodding. He knew she was talking about their latest case. Ten teens dead and all of them had skeletons in their closets. But then, who didn't? "I think we all go through that at some point. Trying to figure out where you belong, but everything is okay in the end."

"It wasn't okay for Kali or June or –"

"It wasn't the end then."

She raised an eyebrow. "They're dead. I think that counts as the end. Don't you?"

"Things have a way of working out for the best when you let them run their course, Em," he told her honestly. "Everything happens for a reason." Emily nodded before she jumped up and began to walk away from him. "What?" He ran after her. "Was it something I said?"

She was shaking with laughter, and her eyes were sparklingly. "You really are a cliché."

---

Reid heard them before he saw them and man was he pissed. Morgan had somehow lost him and he had gotten Emily alone. Did he mention that they had been gone for forty-two minutes? He glanced at the clock in the hotel lobby. Correction. Forty-three minutes and their plane left in a half hour. He grumbled as the laughing couple walked through the lobby doors.

"Where were you two?" Reid confronted them.

"Morgan showed me –" Emily explained, but was cut off.

Derek cut in, "What's it matter to you?"

Reid crossed his arms. "Our plane leaves in a half-hour."

"Correction," someone spoke from behind them. "It's not leaving tonight."

They all glanced at Hotch, who had that same 'Hotchner glare' on his face. "What? Why?" they all asked.

"Snow. They won't take off until it clears."

"We'll have to book new rooms," Rossi chimed in.

Hotch nodded as he headed for the lobby desk. "Hello. We would like to book three new rooms. It appears our plane won't be taking off after-all. It would be nice if we could stay in the same rooms..."

A short man, with a horrible hair-cut and fake smile, typed something into his computer. "No. Sorry. No can do," he told them, his accent thicker than ever.

"What? Why?"

"Only two rooms."

Hotch frowned. "But you weren't booked this morning."

The man glared back. "Well we're booked now." Hotch flashed his badge, hoping it would help, but all he got was another dirty look. "Two rooms or none. Your choice."

He heard Emily sigh in frustration from behind him. "Hotch, just book the two rooms. The roads are too icy to go anywhere and I don't mind sharing with a guy." She laughed at the thought. "I'm capable of sharing a room with the opposite sex."

"You can stay with me, Em," Morgan said smoothly, slinging an arm around her shoulder as he did so.

Before she could answer Reid added, "Or me."

"No. Reid and Morgan, you'll share a room with Rossi," Hotch nearly snapped, a small undertone of annoyance in his voice. "Emily, you'll share a room with me and that's final."

He glared at all of them and no one was dumb enough to argue.