Emily groaned as she sat down at the card table that had been set up in their room of the sheriff's department. She almost knocked over the third cup of coffee that she had gotten that evening as she flopped her head down into her hands. She knew that they needed to find this sick serial killer, but right now all she really wanted to do was finally go to the hotel and sleep for the next twelve hours, even if it was still a little early for such an attitude.

It was already past six pm here, and they were still sifting through the tips that they had gotten from off of the tip-line that they had set up. So far they had all been from a bunch of conspiracy theorists, or idiots just pining for their fifteen minutes of fame.

"You know," Hotch said, addressing Corporal Mitchell and his three guys as they alternately sat or stood around doing work of their own on the case. "We completely understand if you want to go home to your families. We'll be fine here if you want to go home."

"I'm staying;" Deputy Thomson said without a second thought. "I don't have any reason to go home."

"Same here," Deputy Shaw replied.

Corporal Mitchell seemed to be thinking this over, and into the silence Lieutenant Hayes inserted, "I've been one step ahead of you, and if you guys don't mind toughing it out for about seven more minutes, I'm sure you won't regret it."

The corporal looked at him a little strangely, but agreed with a wary, "Okay."

Five minutes later, they all turned when someone knocked on the doorjamb of their hideout. All ten people in the tiny room turned to look as an African-American woman in her mid thirties who was carrying a casserole dish said, "Knock, knock. Can I come in?"

"I would rather you didn't, actually," Lieutenant Hayes said, moving so that he blocked the woman's view from any of the photos hanging up on the evidence board. "Why don't we go into the muster room and push some of the tables together before everyone else gets here and comes back here seeing all of this stuff. That's the last thing I want for the boys and Jade and Dylan."

"Dylan?" Corporal Mitchell perked up at the mention of whoever Dylan was.

"Yeah," Lieutenant Hayes looked back over his shoulder as he herded the woman back out of the room. "I invited a few family members over for a potluck dinner in the muster room."

Thomson raised his eyebrows as Mitchell asked, "Did the sheriff approve that before he left?"

"Of course," Hayes said with a smile that seemed so out of place. "We can't have these poor agents losing faith in the southern hospitality of our fine city, can we?" Corporal Mitchell just shook his head as Hayes gestured towards them all saying, "The gang's all coming in. Let's get away from this for an hour, and then we can come back to it with fresh minds and full stomachs, alright?"

Emily looked in mystification at Hotch as the deputies began to smile and follow Hayes out of the room. Even Hotch looked a little surprised at this unusual occurrence, but even he smiled a little as the sound of a growing number of talking people reached their ears.

"It looks like we're going to a potluck," Hotch said, heading out of the room.

One by one, the rest of the team followed him out as well. Grabbing her coffee and a case file before she stood and went as well, Emily was the last one out of the room, and, remembering Hayes concern about others seeing the photos, she shut the door firmly behind her as she walked out. Considering that everyone but the people who had been working in that one room had all already gone home for the night, it was easy for the team to follow their ears to the muster room.

Once there, Emily saw the four deputies mingling with what appeared to be two women and four children. Then the same woman that had been back to their evidence room called out cheerfully, "You came! I'm so glad you finally decided to come meet us all!"

A pretty brunette blushed as she came into the muster room carrying a crock-pot. A blonde preschooler on her heels was looking out at all of them with wide nervous eyes.

"I figured it was the least I could do for Albany's finest," the woman said with a light shrug and a small smile on her lips. She was obviously nervous, but had meant what she had said as a bit of a joke anyway.

"And Washington, D.C.'s finest, too," the same African-American woman said, gesturing at the group of profilers standing in a line along one side of the room.

The brunette smiled, nodding at them as a greeting.

"Um, okay," Thomson slapped his hands together, approaching the duo that still stood in the doorway. "This is Amanda Williams," he gestured to the woman, "and this is Olivia," he said, sweeping the little girl up into his arms. "This is my partner..." he gestured towards Hayes, and his partner introduced himself.

"Nathan Hayes."

As the round of introductions went on, Emily catalogued each name for future reference.

After this, Nathan's wife, Kayla Hayes, took charge again, saying, "Why don't we get these desks shoved together so that we can get the food set up and get to eating, alright?"

The BAU team pitched in to help the Albany natives and they soon had everything set up just the way Mrs. Hayes wanted it. A few desks lined up against a wall for the food and most of the others pushed together in the middle of the room to make one big, long table to sit at while they ate.

Emily's mouth was watering by the time that they were done getting it set up, and she was more than ready to dig in when Corporal Mitchell raised a hand in the air, asking for silence as he turned to Hotch and asked, "Do y'all mind if we say grace before we eat?"

"Of course not," Hotch said instantly, speaking for the whole team.

The four deputies had each prayed over their lunches earlier in the day, Emily had noticed, but she had thought nothing of it at the time. Now as she closed her eyes along with everyone else in the room, she found that she rather liked listening to the reverent timbre of Lieutenant Hayes' voice as said a prayer. Despite what they had just left behind in that tiny room of the department, he sounded peaceful – like he was talking to a friend - and Emily found that – even though she had never put much stock in prayer, or even religion since leaving the Catholic Church - for some reason it soothed her as well.

"D.C. guests go first!" Mrs. Hayes called out once her husband had said "amen."

I'm not sure where this came from but I do know that it's going to be very Emily Prentiss-centric in the first chapters. Hopefully you guys enjoyed this chapter! Reviews (and votes on my poll) make my day! Thanks!:)