Hello all! Sorry for the delay! College and homework! Anyways, thank you thank you to all who read and reviewed this story! And a great big thank you to my wonderful beta, HGRHfan35! you are awesome!

Enjoy!

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If Not for You

Part 9

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Mac settled her in the big conference room as he brought her the files. Mac knew the files pretty much by heart but it didn't hurt to read over them again, and letting Emily read it as well. Her opinion might lead to something useful.

Besides, it gave him more time to spend with her.

She still looked fresh and stunning, as if she had stepped out of some fancy catalogue, even though she had been dressed up many hours ago. Some women, he had seen, withered after a couple of hours. The Cinderella effect; after midnight, the magic waned away. But not Emily, she still looked beautiful.

"Did I miss the memo for the dress code?" They looked up to see Adam by the doorway, he was looking at Mac and then at Emily, his gaze on Emily lingered longer than necessary.

Mac felt flairs of jealousy.

Then he became contrite; why should he be acting so possessive over Emily? After all, they were not dating at all. And Emily was a very attractive woman who garnered male attractions, wanted and unwanted.

He ought to feel proud that his 'date' was so darn beautiful and being that he was formally garbed, anyone would know that they were together.

And they would envy him.

Yes, that should be the feeling; not jealous.

And Emily had absolutely no interest in him romantically or she would have given him some sort of signs.

What signs?

Well, she was more interested in this case than being alone with him, would be one indicator.

The second, she had not acted as if she was interested.

Then again, neither had he.

Granted, they complimented each other's attires but who wouldn't, out of politeness and courtesy.

"What do you have, Adam?"

Adam quickly turned his gaze from Emily to Mac, "Uh oh yeah, there was a powdery substance Jo took on the router in the last robbery case and the result coming back is talc."

"Talc? As in baby powder?" Mac looked wary.

Adam nodded quickly, "Yes, I mean, there are many uses on talc but this one is specifically for baby powder as it has scent like those products sold for babies."

"So, the chances of isolating where it comes from are nil."

"That's it, boss."

"What else do you have?" Mac asked, needing more positives than negatives.

"Um, nothing. But hopefully Hawkes and Jo might have something when they come back."

"Alright. Thanks Adam."

"Sure, no problem." Taking one more glance at Emily, who was still perusing the files, and walked out of the conference room.

"Anything I can help?" Mac asked after a few moments; Emily was still engrossed in the second case, making notes on a yellow pad Mac had provided for her.

She looked up when he spoke and thought for a moment; he should wear formal suits more often, he looked very handsome in it.

"Do you have a dry erase board? It helps me identify common threads by writing it in certain ways."

Nodding, he left the room in search for the lady's request. When he came back, Mac noted that she had moved on to the next file.

Once the board was set up behind her, Emily stood in front and began filling the board with her neat handwriting; dividing the board with the equipments missing by brand names. There were only three different brands; five stores were targeted, actually six counting tonight's but they did not have the information of what was missing yet, so she left a blank space. Base on what she had written so far, it was clear where the similarity was heading. The brand names of the routers and laptops.

She turned to Mac when she had filled in all she thought was pertinent and watched him figuring out the board.

"So this is your theory?" Mac pointed at the board.

Emily nodded, "We need information of who the seller is of these brands to these electronic stores. The sales representative might be the key."

Mac nodded, he was astonished at how quickly she had figured out something that obvious yet it had bypassed them.

"We'll have to go back to all the stores for the accounts of sales." Mac said.

Emily shook her head as she picked up her phone, "No need. I have a faster method." She hit a button which Mac presumed was a speed dial button to someone and putting the call on speaker mode.

"PG! Are you still in your cave?" Emily smiled as she greeted the BAU technical analyst, Penelope Garcia.

"Emily? Is that you? I thought you're on leave?"

"I'm still on leave, in New York City but I do need your help in tracking something for the NYPD."

"Oh…but don't they have their resources?"

"You're much faster and more efficient. Please, PG?" Emily grinned at Mac who was listening to the conversation with intrigued. He had never heard someone talked so fast; is she on something?

Emily could feel Garcia's smile widened, "Oh Emily! You're always full of praises! So, what can I do for my favorite profiler?"

Emily chuckled, "I thought Derek is your fav? But, it's okay."

She began reading off the brand names and asked for information about sales representatives around the NYC area.

"On it like a speed bump, peaches!"

"Thank you, PG. Call me back when you have it!" Emily was ready to end the call when Garcia spoke again.

"Hey! Wait! Have you heard? Did JJ called you?" Garcia asked.

Emily frowned, "About what?"

"Oh. Okay. Maybe I'll remind JJ to call you; she said she will." A hesitant Garcia replied.

Emily rolled her eyes, typical Penelope to lengthen the torture once she had something juicy to impart.

"Come on, Pen, while I have you on the phone; how about just telling me. Are you and Derek dating for good now? Or has JJ decided to take the plunge and call it official with Will?"

"Uh, no…that's not what…okay. Are you sitting down?"

Find the question odd, she looked at Mac and shrugged her bare shoulders, "Yes I am, PG. Out with it, will you?"

"Okay, promise me you won't drown in the Hudson River, gross and nasty as that river is. I mean who would want to swim in it anyways and aren't those rumors about the Mafia getting rid of their victims and many other unsavory walks of life that…"

"Garcia!" Emily was mortified when she saw Mac's raised eyebrows.

"What? I mean it's the truth!"

"Penelope! The news!" Emily almost yelled into her phone.

"News! Wha…oh! Yes, the news. Okay, brace yourself chicka!"

"Garcia, any time before the rooster crows!" Emily wished she could reach through the phone to strangle her friend."

"Okay, okay! Calm down! It's about Hotch."

Emily stilled, "What about Hotch?"

"He and his little ADA are no more. They are done-zo! He broke up with her." Garcia imparted.

Emily was silent. Strangely, if that news had broken out a week ago, she would have told herself that there might be a chance for her and Hotch but now? She didn't feel anything.

In fact, she had not thought about Hotch a lot lately. It was another dark haired man that occupied her interest. That man was standing five-feet away from her at this moment.

"Em? You there? Are you in shock?" Garcia's voice penetrated through her mind.

"Yeah, I'm still here. Thanks for the news. Um, call me when you have the information, okay? Thanks." Emily quickly ended the call before Garcia decided to pry more.

It was quiet while Mac watched her. It was apparent that this 'Hotch' meant something to Emily. Flair of jealousy rose up to his throat but he quickly temp it down.

"You okay?" He asked as he became concerned about her quietness.

Emily nodded, then turn to him she said, "Yeah. I'm fine. Just waiting for Garcia to call back. Where is the ladies' restroom?"

Mac said, "I'll show you. You'll never find it and if you do, you'll never find your way back here."

"Thanks," Emily said quietly.

On their way, Mac turned to her, "You want to talk about it?"

Emily shook her head, "It's okay. There's really nothing to talk about."

"Okay. Sometimes, it's good to have an outside ear and I'm told I have a very sympathetic ear."

Emily smiled softly, "Thanks, I'll remember that."

They parted ways when he pointed to the ladies' restroom door. He waited nearby and thought for a while.

Just who is this Hotch? And that it had mattered that he dumped his girlfriend. Is Emily in love with this guy?

Mac knew that he could get his answer from another source; Don Flack.

But should he? Asked Flack about Emily's love life?

He empathetically shook his head. When she was ready, she would tell him or maybe she wouldn't. Whatever the outcome, he would respect her and her personal life. Just as she had done with his; she had not once asked about Claire.

"Okay. Thanks for waiting, Mac. Shall we?"

Mac nodded; his mind still preoccupied.

As soon as they walked into the conference room, her cell phone rang. It was Garcia.

There were two sales representatives pitching the wares to the electric stores. There was a long going feud between the two as they were in competition to sell their brands of hardware.

"I'll get Flack to round them up." He picked up his phone and called for Flack.

As he ended his call, Mac turned to Emily, "Well, I guess we'll wait and see. So, how about that late dinner?"

Emily smiled at him, "Ah! You said that magic word! Where to?" She stood up and walked up to him.

He slowly smiled as she stood in front of him, he wanted to stroke her smooth cheek and …kiss her delectable lips!

"I've got a smashing place where it serves great food."

"What kind of food? Although at this point I'm really starved and I don't care what kind, as long as it's edible."

Mac couldn't resist, "Dumpster diving?"

"No! Please, don't ruin my appetite. So, where to?"

Mac shook his head, "Do you like Thai food?"

Emily grinned, "One of my favorites!"

"Good. Thai it is."

"So, where is this restaurant?" She asked excitedly as she walked out of the conference room with him by her side.

Shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly, he replied, "My place."

"Your place?" She stopped walking. Mac had to turn around when he realized she had stop walking.

Mac tilted his head to the side, "Problem?"

She shook her head. Flashes of her dreams, of him and her were coming back to her head.

Mac saw her hesitation and began to regret the suggestion. "Or if you'll like, we'll…"

"It's fine, Mac. I wanted to check out your pad anyways, Don had told me about all the fun toys you have."

Mac shook his head, "They are not toys, mind you. They are more collector's items."

"In other words, toys. Big man's toys." She grinned wider.

"Fine, if you insisted on calling it that. Come on, I'll take you to my toys!" As soon as he said it, Emily began to laugh hard.

He frowned at her, wondering if she was okay, again.

Then he realized what he had just said and the double meaning. Obviously she picked up on it quick.

Feeling a lot of heat rising up to his face, he shook his head, "That didn't come out the way it's supposed to."

"But it was so darn funny! And you're as deadpanned as you said it!" She laughed more.

Mac smiled and soon he began chuckling at his own faux-pas.

"Okay…as soon as you're done, let's go! I'm starving here."

Wiping her tears from her eyes, she nodded and stood in front of the elevators.

…End of Part 9…

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Lizzie