Timeless Chapter Six
Emily headed towards the door to JJ and Morgan's shared apartment. She was wearing her best pair of tight jeans paired with a form-fitting black tank top. She had even gone through the effort of curling her shoulder length black hair into precise ringlets. Emily was determined to have her newest plan work. Aaron Hotcher had somehow, someway become her best friend and she'd be damned if he didn't get a chance with the girl of his dreams. Of course she felt a little guilty of attempting to sabotage JJ's solid relationship but Emily truly believed she was doing the right thing. Emily also knew that JJ had plans tonight and wouldn't be home. Emily took a breath and then proceeded to knock on the door. Here goes nothing. The door opened after four knocks revealing Derek Morgan in nothing but a pair of blue police sweats and a white wife beater, showing off his impressive biceps. He greeted her with what Emily felt was a cocky smile.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Princess Emily Prentiss. What brings you here?" Morgan said to his unexpected guest. He couldn't remember a time when Emily had come over.
Emily smirked up at him. "Well, it wasn't to see you." Emily knew she was playing with fire but at the moment she was just having fun.
"You wound me, Prentiss." Morgan said with a dramatic sigh. He enjoyed a feisty woman.
"Actually, I was hoping to see JJ. I wanted to invite her to go for a round at the shooting range with me. Get out some frustrations." Emily said, hoping she sounded sincere.
"Well, your out of luck tonight sweet cheeks. Jenny went out to dinner and a show with good ol' Spencer. I figure she'll be back pretty late. Those two kids always seem to find something else to get into on their excursions." Morgan said with a smile. He was becoming rather fond of Spencer. He also liked that he didn't have anything to worry about when it came to Jenny. Spencer was like a brother to her, and to him actually.
Emily put a bummed look on her face. She already knew about JJ and Reid's movie date. They did it once a month, never failed. Morgan didn't need to know that though.
"Oh, that's right. I forgot. There goes my night." Emily said sadly. Morgan looked over at her, taking pity on her plans falling through.
"Well, if you didn't mind, I'd like to take Jenny's place. I haven't had time to go to the shooting range lately." Morgan said genuinely. He loved going and getting that delicious release from shooting the gun. Emily seemed like good company, he had to admit. He wouldn't mind getting to know her better. He felt that of all of JJ's friends, Emily and Hotch were the two he never seemed to connect with. He was hoping to change that.
Emily let out a wide smile. Her plan was working perfectly. "That would be great. I've been meaning to ask you if you'd like to hang out sometime. I haven't been as friendly as I should have been to you."
Morgan looked at her and laughed. It was like she was reading his mind.
"Well, then let's change that Emily. Let me go change and we can head out, okay?" Morgan asked her. He really didn't want to go in sweat pants. He had to look respectable, he was a cop. He noticed Emily wasn't exactly dressed just for an outing at the shooting range. Not that she looked bad, in fact, Emily was looking rather fetching. Just because he was in a happy relationship doesn't mean he didn't notice other attractive woman, just as he was sure Jenny didn't suddenly find all other men to look like gremlins.
"Fine by me, hurry up though!" Emily said laughing as Morgan practically sprinted into what she would assume was his shared bedroom with JJ.
JJ walked into Hotch's office holding a stack of files. She needed Hotch to sign off on a few things so she could head home. She found him sitting at his desk, going over a few files of his own. He looked exhausted. JJ walked over and sat down in the chair in front of his desk, waiting for him to acknowledge her presence. After nearly two minutes of waiting Hotch looked up, startled to see her sitting there just staring at him.
"JJ. How long have you been sitting there?" Hotch asked. He couldn't believe he'd been so absorbed in his paperwork to notice her.
JJ laughed. "Just a few minutes. I figured you'd notice me eventually."
"Well, usually, you're hard to miss." Hotch said. He almost kicked himself. He knew Emily had a plan to capture Morgan's interest but Hotch himself had decided to just let his pipe dreams about being with JJ go. If she ever did become interested, of course he'd welcome that but until then he would just play boss and friend.
JJ blushed. "I'll take that as a compliment." JJ didn't quite know how to take that. She knew Morgan thought Hotch had developed more than friendly feelings for her but JJ hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. Besides, he was involved with Emily.
"It was. What brings you to my office, JJ?" Hotch asked, trying to be professional like her was supposed to be doing in the first place.
"Oh. I just need you to sign off on these files." JJ said, handing them over to him. Hotch looked them over and then added his signature to the bottom of them before handing them back to her. He offered her a small smile.
"There. You can go home now, JJ." Hotch told her. He knew his subordinates didn't want to be at work any longer than necessary and really neither did he. He missed his son and sleep more than he could say.
"You should head home too. You look like you could use the sleep." JJ said urging him to leave. She knew he hadn't had a whole lot of sleep this week and that he was missing time with his son and his bed the longer he stayed.
"I would like to, JJ, believe me, but I have about fifty more of these to go through before I can leave. Strauss's orders. After that, I'm out of here." Hotch said, looking grim. He watched different expressions cross on JJ's face. She then turned around and promptly left the room. Hotch wasn't sure how to feel about that. Usually she at least said goodbye. Hotch decided to ask her about it tomorrow and went back to looking over his paperwork. Five minutes into it, JJ strolled back in, plopping back down in the chair yet again.
"Come back to say goodnight?" Hotch asked with a smile he only reserved for her.
JJ threw a smile his way. "No, actually. I came to help." JJ had made up her mind five minutes prior. She walked out into the hallway to call Morgan and tell him she was going to be home late. She couldn't just let Hotch stay here all night when they could split the paperwork between them and be done much faster.
"Help? JJ, I appreciate the gesture, but I can handle it on my own." Hotch said firmly. He didn't want her to stay here out of obligation. He could handle it on his own, he always did.
"I know you can, but I want to help. Come on, we can get this finished a lot quicker between the two of us and then you can get your beauty sleep." JJ said, hoping he let her stay.
Hotch looked at her. She really was perfect. "Alright, if my sleep deprived face bothers you that much, you can help me."
JJ laughed. "Oh, hush. You know you have a handsome face, even if it has dark circles marring it." JJ felt like hitting herself. She was flirting with her boss. It must be the fact that it was nearing midnight.
"I'll take that as a compliment." Hotch said, echoing JJ's earlier statement. Hotch wondered, not for the first time, if maybe JJ did have some form of feelings for him, buried possibly.
JJ turned her professional side on. "Come on, Hotch. Let's get busy. I don't want either of us here all night." She took half of his stack and got to work.
"Yes, M'am." Hotch said following her orders and getting busy.
Emily groaned. She had been enjoying reading her book and drinking some red wine. She wasn't expecting company. She'd only managed to get out of work two hours ago, it was her time to unwind. She went and opened her door, shocked to see Derek Morgan standing there, a DVD and a pack of beer in his hands.
"Hey." Emily said, taking the scene in front of her in. What was he doing here?
"Hey back." Morgan said to her. She was probably wondering what he was doing outside her house and really Morgan wondered that too. After Jenny had called and told him she was planning on working late that night, Morgan decided he wanted some company and the first person to pop in his head was Emily. They had had a great time at the shooting range two weeks before and Morgan wanted their friendship to grow.
"Not to be rude but what are you doing here?" Emily asked, curiously. This wasn't part of her plan.
"Jenny called and said she had an insurmountable pile of paperwork to do and I wanted a friend to hang out with and I thought of you. If you're busy though, I'll leave." Morgan said, hoping she wasn't busy.
"No, no. I'm not busy. I was just reading actually. Come on in." Emily allowed him into her living room.
Morgan went and sat the DVD and case of beer on her counter.
"So, you up for watching The Godfather and knocking a few back?" Morgan asked. He wasn't sure what kind of movie or beer to get, they weren't that close of friend just yet.
Emily smiled at him. She loved The Godfather. Beer she could take or leave.
"Sounds good to me." Emily shared. Morgan popped the DVD into Emily's DVD player and grabbed he and Emily a beer. Morgan and Emily sat down on the couch and made themselves comfortable. Emily snuck a glance at Morgan intensely watching the television screen. She was starting to think her plan was a bad idea.