Ok so this is the next chapter in the story. It's a girl's night out... and Emily's love life is the hot topic of the evening.

It's about a weeks after the date, so still October 2008. Though Emily's now 38.
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"Secrets are made to be found out with time." – Charles Stanford.
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"Right ladies, where we heading?" JJ asked her two best friends as they made their way down the busy DC Street, at eight o clock on a Friday evening.

"After the week I've had, anywhere that serves drink!" Emily replied, thinking back to the Floyd Hansen case during the week, and how she was never staying in a roadside motel again.

"Amen to that babe." Garcia agreed happily.

"Oh yea, because that'll be loads of fun for me." JJ added sarcastically, indicating to her ever growing bump as she spoke.

"Oh right, sorry Jayje, forgot about that." Emily said meekly.

"You wouldn't forget about it if you had to carry Junior around with you." JJ murmured, glaring at the bump, that she'd christened Junior, and wishing that the baby would hurry up and get the hell out.

"Ok so how about the Chinese place around the corner, they have good food and you guy's provide good conversation... and that my fine, furry, friends sounds like a good night out." Garcia said happily, before grabbing the arms of both her friend and dragging them around the corner, not giving them a chance to protest.

~.~.~.~

"My god, it feels like it's been years since we've had a proper girl's night!" JJ exclaimed, once they were seated.

"I guess between cases and you getting pregnant we haven't had time... which sucks if you ask me." Emily replied, as she picked up her menu to decide what to order.

"Yup, that it does... we need to never leave it this long again because as much as I love Will, if I had to spend another Friday night with his head lying on my stomach talking to Junior, I may have shot him." JJ told her friends.

Emily and Garcia laughed, both of them knowing how much Will was looking forward to being a father, due to the fact that any time they had talked to him since he'd moved to DC that was all he talked about.

"Aw I think it's kind of cute." Emily told her.

JJ didn't get a chance to respond however, as just then the waitress came over and took their orders... Cantonese duck for Emily, chicken chow-mien for JJ and beef and black bean sauce for Garcia.

"So," Garcia said once the waitress had left with their orders, "what's new with you Emily?"

At this Emily raised an eyebrow questioningly. Not only did the team spend most of their lives in each other's presence, therefore there wasn't much they didn't know about each other, but Emily's profiling skills also alerted her to the subtle eye contact Garcia and JJ had made before Garcia asked the question.

"Uh, nothing overly exciting ... why do you ask?" Emily questioned, not liking where he conversation was going.

"Oh no reason, you just seem chirpier recently is all... new man in your life maybe?" Garcia asked, a dangerous smile playing across her face as she spoke.

Emily kicked herself internally. She should have known that her two best friends wouldn't decide to go on a girl's night when one of them was heavily pregnant, unless there was some serious gossip to be had... and it looked like she was the gossip.

"I don't know what you're talking about." Emily replied calmly, deciding that her best bet would be to play it off, seeing as she was the only profiler in the room... thank god!

"Emily, Pen and myself may not be fully trained profilers like you are... but we can tell when our best friend is lying to us." JJ told her, an amused look on her face.

Before Emily could reply, the food arrived and this gave her the opportunity to make up an elaborate, yet believable cover story.

"I'm not happier... it's just it was my birthday, and I guess I'm still on a high from that." Emily told them... really? That was the best cover she could think of! Damn, she needed to practice lying!

"Oh my god!" JJ exclaimed, trying her best not to laugh. "You had all that time while the food was being served to think of an excuse and THAT was your best idea!"

"Come on chica, spill." Garcia prompted.

"There's nothing to 'spill'!" Emily exclaimed, feeling herself get pushed into a corner by her two friends.

"Ok then... so what about the mysterious charm bracelet you've started wearing?" Garcia asked, starting to sound more and more like an interrogator by the second.

"What this?" Emily asked innocently, holding up the wrist that had the charm bracelet Hotch had given to her a week earlier firmly attached to it.

"Naw." JJ replied sarcastically, rolling her eyes at how lame her friend was being, by trying to avoid their questions. "Emily cut out the crap and tell us who gave it to you!"

"A friend of mine did." Emily replied meekly.

At this comment, both JJ and Garcia exchanged looks and raised their eyebrows at Emily, a bemused look playing on their faces.

"What! Is it that hard to believe that I have friends outside work?" Emily asked defensively.

"If it was anyone else we were talking to then we'd say no, but you're almost as much of a workaholic as the boss man is, so actually it is that hard to believe." Garcia informed her.

"And don't even try to tell us someone from work gave it to you." JJ said, seeing Emily was about to speak, "because I know that I gave you the throw you wanted for your room, Pen got you the red bag you wanted, Rossi got you perfume, Spence got you a book, and Morgan took you out clubbing... and Morgan informed me that while the two of you were out, you didn't even accept a drink from a guy, so come on Em, we're your best friends, tell us who he is!" she finished.

"Yea Emily, tell us... the gift looks like something your boyfriend would give to you, so if you don't tell us who really gave it to you we're going to presume it was the one and only SSAIC Aaron Hotchner, seeing as he was the only person who didn't get you a gift." Garcia added teasingly.

At this sentence Emily nearly choked on a cashew nut. Even though she knew that Garcia and JJ didn't have a clue about her and Hotch... I mean how could they; they'd only gone on one official date and spent lunch together once or twice... she couldn't help but get a little panicky, due to the fact that she wasn't sure if Hotch wanted people to know about the 'thing' they had just yet.

She called it a 'thing' because despite the fact that they were officially a couple, they really hadn't had much time to do proper couple things... they hadn't even kissed since the day at the carnival, due to the fact that they ate lunch on campus so they couldn't risk being seen.

All they'd really done so far is talk... and as much as communication was important in a relationship, Emily wasn't really willing to put labels on things until they'd spent more time together outside of work.

"Actually," Emily started, hoping the lie she was about to tell would throw her friends off the scent for now, "Hotch got me a bunch of flowers." she concluded, proud at the fact that it wasn't really a lie, he'd given her lilies before their date.

"Oh right... well that still doesn't explain the charm bracelet." Garcia said, eyeing the piece of jewellery in question.

"Oh that..." Emily started, also looking at the jewellery, "I actually got that for myself, as a kind of birthday present thing." She lied again, starting to feel guilty now.

"So what do the charms represent?" JJ asked, not letting the subject be dropped that easily.

"Oh well, the book is for my love of reading, the boat is for all the travelling I done as a kid, the case file and gun represents my job, and the cocktail glass represents the fun I like to have with you guys." Emily told them.

"What about the heart and the merry-go-round?" Garcia asked.

Emily took a deep breath... they were her best friends, and she knew she could trust them not to tell anyone, but she really wasn't ready to tell anyone else about Rome. Hotch was the only person in the world other than Matthew that knew, and right now that's how she wanted it to stay... that didn't stop her feeling bad for not telling them though.

"Well... the merry-go-round represents, uh, the youth I wish I had." Emily lied easily, "and the heart reminds me of all the people I love." She added, only half lying this time because Hotch was one of the people she loved.

"Oh right." JJ said, not fully convinced, but not able to think of anything else she could ask.

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The rest of the meal passed without any more interrogations.

Emily and Garcia had fun making up names for JJ's baby other than Junior, and they talked a bit about Kevin's disgusting food preferences, but other than that and some small talk, the evening was quiet, much to Emily's relief.

They decided to call it an early night, at around midnight... well it was early for them... due to the fact that JJ was carrying a bit of extra weight and was getting extremely vocal about it as the night went on.

JJ called Will to pick her up and Garcia called Kevin, which left Emily to get a cab back to her apartment.

Once she opened the door, had thrown down her bag and taken off her killer heels she went straight for her phone and hit speed dial one.

"Hotchner." Came the surprisingly alert reply... well at this hour anyway... on the other end of the line.

"Hey it's Emily, we need to talk, I think the girls are on to us." Emily responded.

"Right, well you can come over tomorrow." Hotch said calmly.

"But you have Jack tomorrow." Emily said, biting her lip.

She knew how little time Hotch and Jack got together thanks to Haley, and she really didn't want to intrude on that.

"Don't worry Emily, you're an important part of my life now, and that makes you a part of Jacks life as well." Hotch told her.

"Ok, well I'll see you then." Emily responded quickly before hanging up.

She sat down on her couch and felt a wide grin spread across her face... He'd just said she was an important part of his life!

She was important enough to meet Jack... well she'd met him before obviously, he was her honorary nephew after all, but this was different... this time she was his daddy's girlfriend as well.

Any doubt's Emily had had about the 'thing' between her and Hotch were immediately put to rest... in her mind anyway if she was being introduced to his son as his girlfriend there was only one label she could put on the 'thing'... a couple.
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Ok, so there we go. The Floyd Hansen case is the episode 4x04 "Paradise" by the way. I didn't want the girls to know about Rome because it's the one thing that only Hotch knows and I want to keep it that way... until Demonology anyway. Tell me your thoughts.