If Not for You
Part 7
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Stepping out of the elevator, Emily looked about her.
The NYPD crime lab was unlike the one back at Quantico. This lab format was open; glass walls instead of the stereo-typical concrete walls. She liked the openness; everyone can see what the others were doing and if there were any dangers; lab smoking, experiments went wrong, they could be spotted easily.
"Can I help you?"
Emily smiled as she turned her attention from the lab to the man standing near her.
"Yes, I'm looking for Jo Danville."
"Oh! A friend of Jo! Come on, I'll take you to her office."
Emily followed him; she shook her head slightly when she caught him giving her the once-over.
"Emily! You made it!" Jo had turned around a corner across from them and spotted her friend.
"Hey!" Emily greeted her.
"So Jo. Friend? Buddy? BFF?" the man asked curiously.
Jo smiled at him, "BFF? What are you? 10th grader?"
He stammered, "No…I …I mean, you know…you both…uh…" He stopped and took a deep breath and letting it out, "Okay, I will get back to the spectrometer. We have a thing going there."
Jo laughed, "Emily, this is Adam, lab tech extraordinaire. His life is dedicated to these equipments. Adam, this is Emily Prentiss, FBI."
Emily held out her hand to him, "Hi Adam. Nice to meet you and thank you for showing me the way."
Adam shook her hand eagerly, "Oh! FBI, imagine that? Jo is from…uh craps…I did it again. Um, it's nice to meet you too. And I really have to get back to uh…the…uh…"
"Spectrometer?" Emily offered, grinning.
"Bye Adam." Jo chuckled.
Adam nodded and almost tripped himself as he turned hurriedly into one of the lab rooms.
"He's pretty interesting…like a comic relief or something." Emily commented, her eyes followed his clumsy movements.
"Oh, he is harmless. Very nice kid." Jo replied. "And very smart."
"Uh! Another pet project?" Emily asked, her brow arched; Jo was known to take on junior agents back at the Bureau and 'nurtured' their talents.
Jo returned Emily's raised brow with her own, "Pet project? You're making me sound like some cat lady."
Emily laughed and Jo joined in.
"Wow, two gorgeous brunettes hanging out in the hallway, I think I have died and gone to heaven!"
Jo and Emily turned to the voice. Jo shook her head, "You, my friend, are happily married with an adorable toddler. I'm going to rat on your wife about you."
The man laughed, "Aw Jo! You know she doesn't mind."
"Mind what?" Another voice, a feminine one, from the other side of them.
"Oh…busted." He muttered.
"Lindsey!" Jo turned to her. "Meet a friend of mine from the Bureau. Emily Prentiss, this is Lindsey Monroe-Messer."
Emily held her hand out again and shook Lindsey's hand, she immediately liked her; she had a friendly disposition.
"And this is her husband, Danny Messer." Jo directed Emily to Danny.
"Nice to meet you. So you two worked here?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, but not for long. Danny has been promoted to Sergeant and he'll be out on the street end of the month." Jo provided.
"Oh. Well, congratulations, Sgt Messer." Emily offered.
"Thank you, FBI Agent Prentiss," Danny grinned. He looked at his wife, "Honey, whatever they tell you, don't believe a word of it."
"What did you do, Danny?" Lindsey asked suspiciously, her smile faltered.
"Oh, nothing yet. But I do have to get going. Mac wanted to see what I had done to the lab in the back."
"What did you do?" Both Jo and Lindsey asked at the same time.
Danny shook his head, "Oh, not much. Just that I blew the pig up by accident. Too much gas ingested."
The two ladies shook their heads in amusement and chuckled. Emily was thoroughly intrigued. He blew a pig up?
"Hey, don't laugh. I found something when it blew up, so Mac should be excited about it. So, Emily, nice to meet you. Jo and babe, I'll see you later!" He left them as he turned around and disappeared around another corner.
"So Jo," Emily began. "How long did it take you to figure out the labyrinth?"
Jo tilted her head and it took her a couple of seconds to figure out what Emily meant.
"Three days or so."
"For me," Lindsey chimed in, "It was about a week. I keep winding up in the men's room."
They laughed together.
"Jo, I don't want to keep you from your friend but let me update you on the robbery case."
Jo nodded and Lindsey gave her the latest on the router, database had no match on a finger print found on the corner of the router.
"Keep at it. Check the FBI IAFIS as well." Jo said.
The FBI Integrated Automatic Fingerprint Identification System, IAFIS, is one of the largest biometry database that not only contain every fingerprints from every criminals identified but criminal histories as well.
Lindsey nodded, "I'll do just that. Emily, it's very nice knowing you." She shook Emily's hand again and left them.
"Very interesting and fun group you have here." Emily smiled.
"I know. And they treated me as if they knew me for a long time. And I'm very comfy here."
Emily studied her; yes, she looked happy and content.
"I'm glad for you, Jo."
"Thanks." Jo smiled happily. "Let me get my purse and we can grab a bite, and catch up on some gossips!"
Emily eyed her, "You have not changed. Between you and Garcia, you two are the worst!"
Jo laughed, "Penelope Garcia! Oh, I can't rival her knack for getting the juiciest gossips."
Emily laughed, "No one can!"
As they walked towards the elevator, they saw Mac heading towards them, his expression was dark.
Jo muttered, "Oh, I think someone is in trouble."
Emily looked at her, then at Mac.
"Mac, is everything okay?" Jo called out.
Mac glared at her and shook his head, "The pig was a complete disaster. As it turned out, we couldn't get any clues or uses, Danny thought we had something but turned out that he had used the wrong concentration of gases."
"Maybe you could make sausages." Emily tried to make it light.
Mac frowned at Emily. "Not funny. I'm making Danny cleaned that lab."
Jo looked at them, "You two know each other?"
Emily chuckled, she still thought her joke was funny, "Yeah, we met yesterday when he went to Don's apartment to check on him but found me…there." She almost told Jo about her state of semi-undress, her cheeks a tinged of blush.
Jo nodded, "Ah! Mac is so caring! Then again, Don has been down."
Emily nodded as well, "It's really good to know he has family here, in all of you."
Mac spoke, his mood lightened when he heard Emily's almost faux pas, "He won't admit it but he does need some sort of baby sitter till he gets back to his old self. Hey, I even brought him his favorite sprinkled donuts."
Jo laughed as her cell phone went off.
"Sorry," she looked at the caller I.D. "It's Ellie."
She moved aside to talk to her adopted daughter.
"Lunch with Jo?" Mac asked Emily.
"Yeah, and catching up on things."
Mac nodded.
Jo came back with a worried look, "Emily, I'm so sorry! Ellie is throwing up at school. There's some kind of flu bug going around there and now she's got it. A rain-check?"
"Jo! Of course! Go! We'll catch up later. Tell Ellie I say 'hey' and hope she'll recover speedily."
Jo nodded, "Thanks Emily. You're going to be okay?"
Emily waved off, "I'm fine. I'll just go find Don."
"How about lunch with me instead?" Mac offered. Then stopped; he didn't know what came over him to ask her.
Emily and Jo looked stunned.
"I…I…" Emily stammered; No! I don't think I can concentrate on lunch! Just him and me?
Jo slowly grinned, "Oh Mac! That's just too good of you! Come on Emily, he doesn't bite."
Emily watched her friend; is she crazy? Mac bites! And kissed fantastically and his hands…!
"Sure! That would be great." Emily suddenly said.
The elevator car arrived and they stepped in.
"How about Bill's diner? Emily, they served great pastrami on the rye. The meat is succulent!" Jo said.
Emily nodded, she was still in shock; what made her agreed to it?
"Bill's diner sounds good. Mac?" Emily tried to look normal.
"Let's do it." And he closed his eyes and groaned inwardly. That had a double meaning and he hoped she didn't pick on it.
Emily's eyes widened. Oh yes, she picked on it.
Jo watched Mac's and Emily's reaction and wanted to laugh aloud. Mac and Emily? Hmm…
Then she frowned; rumor had it in the Bureau, especially from Garcia, that Emily had the hots for her supervisor, SSAIC Aaron Hotchner. So, what's this?
Mac and Emily. Huh! Who knows?
They did look like they would make a cute couple.
To Jo, Agent Hotchner seemed too stoic, stern and not one to delve into relationships within the Bureau, much less his immediate subordinate.
And Mac, even though he was always dark and somber, he did have a sense of humor and he was a lot more human than Hotchner was.
…
"You know, Jo is right. This pastrami is delicious." Emily said, her mouth still full.
Mac watched her, "You know, for an Ambassador's daughter, you sure don't have much manners."
Emily smiled, "Only when I'm at State dinners. Here, I'm free to do this."
There was a mustard smudge on the side of her mouth and Mac couldn't help but picked up his napkin, leaned over and wiped the smudge gently from her mouth.
Emily stopped eating and stared at him.
"It's been there for a while." Mac tried to explain his action.
"You could have told me." She said quietly.
"Hey, I've been known as a hard ass, so this is the softer side of me."
Emily slowly smiled, "Okay. I never thought of you as one. I mean a hard ass. And if I didn't know you better, you're trying to flirt with me."
"Is it working?" he asked.
What is wrong with me? Mac asked himself. This is not me at all. I don't know what came over me.
"I…I'm not sure." Emily hesitated. Was he really flirting with me?
Luckily for both, their cell phones rang at the same time.
They answered their cell phones and talked softly.
Or in Emily's case, she tried not to throw her cell phone away.
"Mother! I'm on a vacation. In New York City…with Don Flack, you remember him. I, what? Tonight? No. Mother! I'm not going. I don't have a dress."
On Mac's side, "Tonight? I thought it was next week. I guess I'll be there. By myself. What? No, I don't have any significant other to accompany me. I'll be there, by myself. Bye." He sighed as he snapped his phone shut.
Emily was blowing at her bangs as she slammed her phone down.
"Mothers!"
"Secretaries!"
They looked at each other and laughed.
"Speaking of the Ambassador?" Mac prompted.
Emily sighed again, "There's a gala tonight here. Some charity she had signed on back a couple of months, and made a lot of contributions. She is in Helsinki right now for some negotiations and had forgotten about the gala until the foundation called to remind her that she was the key speaker. She found out I was here and begged me to attend and speak on her behalf. Her secretary is emailing the speech to my phone."
"Are you talking about the New York City Children's Cancer Foundation Gala?" Mac asked, his stomach felt fuzzy.
Emily nodded, "The one and only. Wait, are you part of it?"
"Yes. Claire, my wife, was one of its founders."
"Your wife?" Emily asked. Flack had told her about Mac's wife who died in the September 11, 2001 World Trade Centers attack.
Mac nodded. "My late wife. I'm sure Don told you."
Emily nodded, "I'm sorry. It must be hard."
Mac nodded again. Then he changed the subject; it still hurt.
"So, you are obliged to go?" Mac asked.
"Yes. It would look bad for the Prentiss name if I didn't, and superficial. And you?"
"And me. Every year I'm obliged to go as an honorary member, on behalf of Claire."
Emily nodded.
Mac continued, "So, I take it you'll be going with Don?"
"I don't know. He doesn't like these black tie affairs, unless it's mandatory." She laughed and picked up her phone and made a call to Flack.
A minute later, she put it down by her plate, "He's busy tonight. A date."
Mac stared at her, "Flack has a date?"
"Yeah, I guess his extended mourning had ended."
"I'm glad. He needed to move on." Mac said.
Emily nodded, she was frowning though.
Mac saw her expression. "You are not favorable?"
Emily looked at him, "Oh yes, I am but it's the date I'm not very…favorable of."
Mac raised his eyebrow; is she jealous? Am I reading this all wrong?
Emily saw his expression and quickly explained, "Oh no Mac. You've got it all wrong. I'm not…he's not my…you know. Don is my best friend. It's just that," she shook her head. "It's the new Detective your PD hired. Michelle Greene. She didn't leave a good impression when we worked at the last place she was in."
"San Antonio?"
She nodded. "Look, I may be reading it wrong and maybe she had matured since so I'm not going to say anything that might put her in a bad light. So, forget what I said."
Mac chuckled, "Okay. I'll cast my own judgment. Although as a profiler, you're pretty good at reading people and I will take your word about your assessment of her."
"Thanks!"
"So, back to the gala tonight. Since Don is not available as a date for you, would you consider me as your date?" He pitched.
Emily was shocked. Did he really ask me to be his date?
"Is there a problem with me?" He was feeling discouraged as she remained silent was prolonging.
"No! I was just surprised, that's all. But yes. I would be happy to be your date." She smiled. Her stomach was fluttery; an evening with Mac Taylor!
"Thank you. It starts at 7pm, so I'll pick you up at about 6:30?"
Emily nodded, "Yeah. That will give me plenty of time to read the speech and get dressed. Oh! The dress! I don't have one… I'll have to shop for one…oh, mother is so going to get billed on this one!"
Mac shook his head, "On that, I'm staying out of it."
"Smart man." She nodded her head. "Well, I'm full and if you don't mind, I need to hunt for a dress." She wiped her mouth, making sure there were no more smudges. But then, it was not unpleasant when he wiped it for her.
They left the diner and stood outside, Emily said, "Thanks for lunch although I don't mind paying for it."
He shook his head, "Not at all. My parents taught me gentlemanly manners and it wouldn't be right if I let you pay."
"Okay, thank you. But if we were to dine again, I do insist on paying for the next meal. I'm taught good manners as well."
Mac thought for a while and nodded, "It will pain me to let you do so but I guess it'll be okay. Just this once."
Emily laughed, "Good! I'm glad you're seeing things my way."
"Hey, I only agree to one time." He reminded her, a smile on his face. He was enjoying their bantering. And he couldn't wait for tonight.
Emily Prentiss, his date. Wonder what she will be wearing?
But then, he knew that whatever she wore, she would be beautiful.
"Well, see you at 6:30. Bye!" Emily waved at him, turned away and left.
Mac watched her retreating back until she was engulfed by other people walking along the sidewalks.
Yes Emily, I can't wait to see you tonight.
…End of Part 7…
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