The Stripper Chapter Two

Disclaimer: Not Mine

A/N – sorry this is more of the girls than it is Derek/Emily but I needed to get Emily to admit to herself what she wanted and in my world nobody goads her into admission quite as well as JJ.

Lunch was a fun event as they caught up on the latest news with JJ. Emily realized how much she missed her daily interactions as the vocal blonde blasted her.

"You're nuts." JJ told her as she sat her chopsticks down. "You're going to let some chick from the C team run an A team op?"

Emily rolled her eyes. "JJ, you know you can't goad me into doing this, right?"

"Pfft, yeah I can." JJ argued. "Because we know there is something bigger at stake here than some little chippy coming up and infiltrating the A team."

Emily lowered her gaze. "Really?" She forgot that JJ was always a little more intuitive than they gave her credit for. She might have not started out as a profiler but it wasn't because she didn't have the necessary tools.

"Really." JJ stated. "The way I see it you need to fish or cut bait."

"I hate when you use analogies that I don't get." Penelope grumbled, reaching for her green tea. "Do me a favor and dumb it down for me." She said to JJ.

JJ grinned. "It's like this, Pen. Ever since our Em came back to the BAU she's been looking at Derek a little differently."

"Ah ha! I suspected as much." Garcia confided, as Emily rolled her eyes again.

"Right. But did you know that at my wedding…"

"I told you, nothing happened at your wedding." Emily interrupted, not wanting JJ to go off on that particular tangent again.

JJ shared a look with Garcia. "Only because Emily developed a bad case of I do's but I don't's."

Garcia shook her head. "Come again?"

JJ sighed. "It's like this. There is this guy that you find yourself, for whatever reason – he might have an incredible ass, whatever…"

"We're not going to bring Hotch into this are we?" Emily grumbled, interrupting her friend's dialogue. "We just ate for God's sake."

JJ looked at her smugly. "Well, it's interesting how I said incredible ass and you immediately came up with Aaron."

Penelope laughed at Emily. "I'm not sure why you thought it would be a good thing to interrupt her. It's like you've completely forgotten the ode to his ass that she made up on the evening she told us she and Will had been separated for the better part of a year."

JJ nodded. "I was suffering with a bad case of I do's but I don't's back then. There he was, that big, beautiful man with his incredible ass, but I was just a hot mess of indecision." She looked at Emily pointedly. "I came up with every lame excuse in the world as to why we would never work. Until one day someone told me that he was seriously considering proposing to Beth." She couldn't even say the name without a sneer crossing her face.

"I told you that." Emily said dryly. "It was meant to cause a reaction."

JJ frowned. "Well, what I never told you, but I am telling you today, is that you were right."

"No way!" Garcia growled, sharing an astonished look with Emily. "Are you serious, he really was?"

Emily was far less gullible. "You are so full of shit." She proclaimed.

"Swear to God. I ran into him in Olde Town. He was coming out of one of the jeweler's on King Street." She hadn't initially believed that he would be so stupid as to get engaged to the bubbly brunette but when she'd seen the evidence in front of her it was a little hard to dispute.

Emily's mouth dropped. "You never told us."

"That's because I was embarrassed to have been so stupid. I waited so long waffling back and forth that I suddenly found myself at the put up or shut up stage."

"Oh for the love of Pete, can't you just speak English?" Garcia grumbled.

JJ closed her eyes before she sighed, recalling the wave of emotion she had experienced upon seeing him exit that particular store. Her heart had literally plummeted. "He was buying cufflinks for his brother." She announced without any fanfare.

"I knew it! I knew he never planned on marrying her." Emily scoffed.

JJ raised her brow at Emily. "But I didn't know that. All I knew was that I had been in love with him for what felt like forever and I was going to lose any chance I might have had because I was stupid. When I saw him leaving the store carrying what appeared to my eyes to be a ring box based on what I mistakenly thought was good intel," She glanced pointedly at Emily. "I graciously pointed out all of the flaws in his relationship with Beth including a list of reasons why the relationship would fail."

"Yeah sure, it sounds like you were gracious." Garcia snorted.

JJ shook her head. "I was an absolute shrew. And he just stood there grinning down at me while I ranted like a loon then he calmly asked me why I cared."

Garcia sighed, "Aw, and you finally admitted you were in love with him."

Emily laughed as JJ's face went red. "Something tells me she wasn't done being charming yet."

JJ shook her head. "I was so ridiculously jealous that I couldn't think straight." JJ admitted. "I'm honestly surprised that someone didn't film it and upload it to YouTube." She shook her head at Pen. "It's not there, I've looked."

"Oh no, what did you do?" Her friend wanted to know.

"Oh, that is when I brilliantly propositioned him by telling him that if he was going to settle down with Mistake 2.0 that he should really try sleeping with a real woman first."

Emily chuckled. "Wow. You insulted wife number one?"

"Not my finest hour." JJ conceded. "The problem is you tell yourself that you have it all under control then something happens and you snap and you start babbling like a crazy person and then the enormity of the fact that you lost something you desperately wanted catches up to you and your little meltdown goes nuclear."

Tenderhearted Penelope knew exactly what she was saying this time. "Oh Peaches, you cried?"

"I was inconsolable. I started to hyperventilate. He had to force my head between my knees and have me take calming breaths."

"Oh." Penelope reached out and grabbed JJ's hand. "You poor thing. What next? He swept you in his arms, declared his undying love, and the rest is history."

JJ shook her head. "That would have been a much better ending. What really happened was Hotch went to get me a bottle of water and I bolted. Then he gallantly followed me to my house to make sure that I was okay, which I wasn't, and I ended up telling him not to worry about me that I'd be fine, he could run off and propose to his little girlfriend."

"I never had an idea that you could be so ridiculous." Emily said, looking at her friend in a new light.

"Yeah, well fortunately for me Hotch had enough of my crazy and shut me up his favorite way." At their confused looks she chuckled. "He kissed me." JJ's eyes sparkled. "Then he calmly told me that he and Beth had broken up several months before because he had no desire to marry her."

"Ah, maybe that's what I heard." Emily said with a grin, as JJ tried to swat her.

"I got incredibly lucky." JJ declared. "But if I would have just followed my heart and not played games it could have happened a lot sooner."

"Well maybe you weren't ready." Emily said petulantly, having a clue as to where the conversation was heading.

"No my problem was I continually over thought things. There were plenty of times that Aaron indicated to me that Beth was out of the picture and he was looking at me in a different light, but I got wrapped up in so many reasons and excuses why it wouldn't work instead of focusing on why it would." She smiled over at her friend. "And maybe nothing happened at the wedding, but there was a moment. Something that made you realize there could be something between you and Derek."

Emily gave a disgruntled sigh realizing that the talk was now going to be focused on her. "I'm about as crap at relationships as I am with dancing."

"You're only crap at relationships when you're in a relationship with the wrong person." JJ calmly pointed out. "And you can dance around a pole and pull it off. No one is expecting you to be able to do splits and hang upside down. The secret is you connect with one person and seduce them. Don't look at anyone else, make it a private dance."

"So you want me to put myself all out there in front of a bunch of sleazy guys?" Emily whined. "Because nothing says romance like that."

JJ frowned over at her. "I want you to admit that you have feelings for Derek Morgan."

"Of course I have feelings…"

"Romantic feelings." JJ clarified. "Then I want you to do something about them. I also want you to quit whining about why you can't do this because I've seen everything you can do. This is nothing."

"I'm not a dancer." Emily stated.

JJ stared at her. "You know, when you let something so stupid interfere with your work it pisses me off." When Emily's nostrils flared she continued. "There are women dying Emily. You can stop this guy. You're far more qualified than Allison is, and I can guarantee you that if she gets her foot in the door she's going to be doing her damnedest to take advantage of the situation. She's going to be gunning for your job and your man."

"He's not my man." The brunette said stubbornly not ready to admit anything yet.

JJ shrugged. "Well I guess it doesn't matter then." She turned to Garcia and shrugged her shoulder. "Allison and Derek might make a cute couple."

Garcia nodded. "Sure and maybe we could eventually grow to like her."

"It could happen. I guess she'll be spending time with us on all of our group outings." JJ conceded.

"You're not going to make her a god parent are you?" Garcia questioned as Emily snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Yeah, that might have been too much, too fast, Pen." JJ laughed.

Emily couldn't contain herself any longer and blurted out. "Fine. He said he didn't want her, he said that he wanted me. Are you happy?"

JJ and Garcia both grinned widely. "Very. So what's it going to be Emily? Are you going to fish or cut bait?"

Rolling her eyes again, Emily laughed. "When do the lessons start?"

"We'll start with dancing tonight." JJ told her as she shared a wink with Pen. "We'll also work on ways that you can let Derek know that you're mutually interested." She paused for a moment. "Look at that Pen; she's not even going to try to deny it. We've already made progress."

"Bite me." Emily mumbled, but she was smiling as she did.

~~CM~~CM~~

A very animated trio returned to the BAU offices with a plan firmly in place. They joined the rest of the team in the conference room to alert them to Emily's decision. With her decision in place they immediately began to strategize.

Hotch had a few leads that he needed Garcia to run down for him and she quickly retreated to her office. Blake and Reid left the building to follow up on two of their initial suspects that they wanted to take another look at. Rossi headed to his office as well, wanting to follow up on another angle.

JJ had hung back, a little nostalgic for the team, but had decided that it was time for her to leave. "I guess I'll see you at home." She said to Hotch. To Emily she grinned. "I'll see you this evening." She looked a little too gleeful.

"Don't remind me." Emily blushed, still not sure how her friend managed to goad her into submission.

"I'll walk you out." Hotch told JJ, coming to stand beside her with his hand at the small of her back.

Morgan waited until the room was clear. "You know Hotch set you up. JJ didn't just accidently show up here for lunch."

Emily shrugged as she witnessed the pair kiss by the elevator. "You're probably right. Although she did say that she would try to get out here this week." The girls tried to get together as often as their schedules allowed.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she was able to talk you into it. Although, I'm not sure how good of a teacher she's going to be." He eyed the pregnant woman with suspicion.

Emily chuckled. "You're kidding right? Hotch is completely besotted, she's obviously doing something right." She shook her head as she witnessed her friend clearly grab her boss's rear end.

Morgan observed it as well. "Did she just?" They watched as their boss grabbed his wife's hands and kissed them both before pushing the call button for the elevator. Then oblivious to their audience he kissed her lingeringly while they waited for the doors to open. "Damn, looks like Hotch isn't the only one that's head over heels."

Emily smiled softly at the pair then turned to Derek. "It makes a person envious. I want what they have."

Derek swallowed hard trying to read exactly what it was she was telling him. "Everything? Marriage, white picket fence, family?"

Deciding to follow her friends lead and take that leap Emily's smile grew. "Yes." She stood up to head back to the bullpen. "This is me letting you know that I'm interested." She winked at him boldly as she stepped towards the door, her heart pounding in her chest.

"That must have been one hell of a lunch." Derek mumbled.

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