Well I thought it was about time that the team found out, and in this chapter its Hotch's birthday, so I thought I'd tell them then.
It's November 2008. Emily is 38 and Hotch is 43 (today!).
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"There are no secrets better kept, than the secrets everybody guesses." – George Bernard Shaw.
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Emily heard a knock on her door just as he pulled on her other shoe... talk about good timing.
She walked over and expected to see JJ or Will standing outside; as they were going to be giving her a ride to the birthday meal the team were throwing Hotch at his favourite restaurant.
So she was slightly shocked when instead she opened the door and found Hotch standing there, dressed in a casual suit.
"What are you doing here?" Emily asked once she opened the door.
"Hey honey I'm so glad to see you standing on my doorstep, please give me a kiss, I've missed you! Oh no, you couldn't possibly be that nice." Hotch teased as he stepped into her apartment and closed the door behind him.
"Oh ha, ha, I am glad to see you sweetheart, I'm just wondering why you're here?" Emily asked with a smile as she put in one of her emerald green earrings, which matched her emerald green, one shoulder dress perfectly.
"Well I was thinking... seeing as it's my birthday and all, I was wondering if I could show off my extremely beautiful new girlfriend to the team." Hotch asked with a small smile.
"Gee... I don't know, you'd need to ask her first." Emily teased, a sly smile playing on her face.
"Pretty please Emily, think of it as a birthday present." He pleaded playfully.
"I've already gotten you a present... in fact if you play your cards right you'll get more than one present." Emily added with a wink. "But I guess since it's your birthday, I suppose I should let you get your way this one time." She added with a smile.
"Mm, I like the idea of that." Hotch murmured, before leaning down and capturing Emily's lips.
"I thought you would." Emily said with a smile once they broke apart reluctantly, and rested their foreheads on each other. "Now, go to my bedside locker and take out the present, it's for you."
"Why, what are you doing?" Hotch asked, as he reluctantly began to pull away from Emily.
"I'm going to call Jayje and tell her to go straight to the restaurant because I'm getting there with someone else." Emily said with a smile.
~.~.~.~.~
"Where the hell is Emily?" Rossi asked the table in general as the entire team, plus Will and Kevin, sat waiting for Hotch and Emily to arrive.
"She said she's getting a lift with someone else." JJ replied.
"Yea and anyway, where's the birthday boy would be a more appropriate question to ask." Morgan said, as he looked at the door in anticipation.
It was then that Garcia and JJ joined the dots on their head, and shot each other identical, excited looks from across the table.
"Oh my god!" Garcia exclaimed excitedly to JJ, a twinkle in her eye.
"What is it?" Questioned Reid, who was looking between the two women with a look of confusion written on his face.
"Do you think?" JJ asked Garcia, completely ignoring Reid's question, and the confused looks the rest of the table were shooting them.
"It's the only reasonable explanation... that I'm willing to believe anyway." Garcia replied using all herself restraint not to jump up on the table and start dancing.
"Ok ladies, as amazed as I am that you two can have whole conversations without saying what you're talking about, I'd appreciate if you told all of the people who can't read minds." Rossi told the two women, hating the fact that he didn't know the gossip.
He didn't need to hear the answer however as before JJ or Garcia had a chance to open their mouths Hotch and Emily walked over to the table, both smiling widely.
A look of realisation dawned on the faces of the rest of the table and Garcia and JJ both smiled broadly, Garcia even letting out a small squeal at the sight of them.
Hotch and Emily ignored the looks they were getting from the team however, and sat down beside each other, both picking up their menus and pretending to read what was being served.
"Oh no you don't! Put them menus down now." Rossi ordered, as Reid and JJ, who was sitting on either side of the couple, pulled the menus from their hands.
"What? Can't we order food in peace?" Emily asked innocently, trying to keep a smile off her face.
"Not when the two of you just walked in here, fifteen minutes late... and together!" Morgan exclaimed, as means of an answer to Emily's question.
"We did? Huh, I didn't realise that." Hotch replied, also trying not to smile.
"Don't play dumb with us Hotch, just spill, how long have you two been getting it on?" JJ asked boldly.
"JJ!" Emily exclaimed, slightly shocked by her friends frankness.
"Emily Susan Prentiss, don't you dare 'JJ' me, when you've been keeping secrets like this from me." JJ told her, using her full name to add dramatic effect.
"Or what?" Emily laughed, quite enjoying how dramatic the entire team were being.
"Or I'll have Will here attack you!" JJ said, motioning to her boyfriend and smiling slightly.
"Now hold on Darlin'. I don't mess with girls that have guns." Will told JJ, looking slightly worried that he was being drawn into this argument.
"What do you think I am?" JJ replied, shooting Will a glare. "Not to mention that I'm six months pregnant." She added.
"Ok before JJ's baby grows up without a daddy, we need to get back to the topic at hand... since when have you two been an item?" Rossi asked Emily and Hotch again.
"How do you even know we're an item?" Emily asked teasingly.
"You walked in here together." Morgan told them smugly.
"Ah, but my car's in the garage so Hotch gave me a lift." Emily replied, easily deflecting that answer.
"Well why didn't you take the lift me and Will offered you?" JJ asked.
"Because I didn't know you were giving Emily a lift so I stopped at her place and she didn't want you to have to come out of your way to get her when I was there already." Hotch replied, also cancelling that question with ease.
"What's with the new watch then?" Rossi asked, looking down at the brand new watch on Hotch's wrist.
Emily and Hotch stared at each other for a moment, neither knowing how to explain the new wrist watch that Emily had given Hotch for his birthday.
"Sean gave it to me... well posted it actually." Hotch said after a moment, thankful that none of the team knew Sean well enough to be able to know different.
The team were silent then, each trying to think of a reason that proved they were together, Emily and Hotch sitting back and enjoying the game they were playing... of course they'd tell the team, they just wanted to have their fun first.
Eventually after the waiter had come with their food Reid spoke up.
"Hotch, you have a lipstick smudge, the exact same shade as Emily is wearing, on your jaw, beside your ear." He told him triumphantly.
At this piece of information there was a rush as everyone at the table craned their necks around to get a good look at the lipstick mark, each person smiling smugly when they seen it.
"Explain that!" Morgan dared them, not even trying to hide his smirk.
"I think they have us dear." Hotch told Emily with a small smile.
"Yes sweetheart, I'm pretty sure we've been found out." Emily agreed, also smiling.
"Wait so you aren't trying to deny it anymore?" Reid asked as he looked at the couple exchange smiles.
"Naw... we were only denying it in the first place because it was fun." Emily smiled, as she laced her fingers with Hotch's on the table.
"You mean you put us through that torture just to get a laugh!" Garcia exclaimed.
"Um... yea, why else would we?" Emily joked.
"Though on the bright side you can now ask us all the questions you want." Hotch added when he seen the furious look on Garcia's face.
This immediately replaced the angry look on Garcia's face with one of pure joy as the clogs in her head started to turn, as she thought of a suitable question.
"How long have you been together?" she asked finally.
"Well officially... almost a month." Hotch told them.
"Wait... what do you mean officially?" Morgan questioned. "How could there be a 'not officially'... you two didn't even talk until Hotch got divorced."
"Oh my god! You weren't having an affair were you?" Rossi exclaimed. "Not that I'm judging you... that's how most of my marriages ended." He added when he seen the look on both Hotch and Emily's face.
"We did not have an affair!" Hotch clarified. "We just knew each other before we joined the team."
"What... how?" JJ asked, curious as to how they could have met when Emily lived in Chicago before she joined the team and Hotch lived in Seattle before he joined... as far as she knew.
"That's a really long story." Emily said with a small laugh, as she remembered the night all them years ago when he'd picked her up from the street.
"I used to work for her mother." Hotch said quickly.
At first Emily was hurt by the fact that he didn't remember the night in Georgetown, but she quickly felt him squeeze her leg under the table, and she knew that he just didn't want to embarrass her by telling the team where she used to work.
"Aw that's so cute... now on to more important matters though... How long have you loved each other?" Garcia asked, skipping the small talk as usual when there was gossip to be had.
Emily and Hotch both looked at each other briefly... they both knew the answer to this; they both just didn't know if it was what the other was thinking.
"Since Chicago." They both said, almost laughing at the fact that they said it at the same time.
"Oh now we need to know what happened there?" JJ told them matter of factly.
"Well not much really... It just hit me that I loved her." Hotch told them, again bending the truth slightly, and leaving out the fact that he'd rejected her cruelly... he wasn't dumb enough to tell four armed agents and one extremely dangerous Garcia that... he did like his head firmly attached to his body after all.
"Oh there's a whole other side to you two." Garcia said with a wink, and a small laugh.
"You have no idea." Emily murmured, so only Hotch would hear.
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There done. Ok not much to say on this chapter, only to ask y'all nicely to review and to say that the next chapter should be up soon! =)