Morgan had intended to tell the team about the phone call. Keeping Matloff's victim's sister a secret was never really his plan. Not only did he think they had a right to know, but furthermore, he didn't need a secret. He didn't need Annabel all to himself.

He wanted her all to himself.

But that was a different thing entirely.

As a matter of fact, that was the thing keeping him from telling the team about her. First he'd have to come up with something (other than a casually thrown-out, "Oh yeah Hotch, I answered your phone.") to explain how he'd wound up receiving a call from Annabel Vermont. Then, something to explain how they'd begun dating.

He wasn't even so sure of that one himself. He just knew that she'd captivated him, from the sound of her high-pitched/naïve/hopeful voice on the phone to the way she'd managed to allow him to buy her a coffee while still buying one for him. It wasn't like the brief relationship he'd had with Tamara Barnes, another sister of a victim, nearly a year prior. It wasn't like the attraction he'd felt with Jordan Todd, JJ's short-lived replacement. It was something totally different…they clicked. Just like he and Garcia had clicked – but this time, on a level that wasn't platonic.

So the team didn't find out until almost two weeks later, as they took the jet to a crime call in Minnesota and his phone began to vibrate.

A couple of them glanced his way as he slid his phone out of his pocket and saw who the text message had come from. 'Annabel Vermont', read the screen. A grin leaked across his face even before he pressed 'read now'.

Aurelia liked you. Kick some butt and come home safe. XO

He'd had dinner with Annabel and Aurelia the night before. It was his first time meeting Aurelia, and he'd been taken with the quiet thirteen year-old; he loved kids.

Emily saw the grin. "Who's that from?" she asked, teasingly.

Morgan grinned wider, slipping the phone back in his pocket, "Nobody."

"New love interest?"

"None of your business."

But then he remembered that it was, or if not Emily's business then certainly Reid's, JJ's, and Hotch's, and retracted his statement.

"Actually, it's from Annabel Vermont."

"Should I be familiar with that name?" Emily asked.

"No," Morgan admitted, "But –" and he caught gazes with Hotch, Reid, and JJ, calling their attention to himself, "Remember Brain Matloff? She's the sister of his first victim."

Reid's face screwed itself up into a puzzled frown. JJ's eyebrows raised a little bit. Hotch remained impassive. Emily and Rossi listened with interest.

"How'd you get in contact with her?" Reid asked.

"She got in contact with me. Looking for names at the BAU, I guess. Wanted to say thanks for helping catch her sister's killer."

JJ nodded like this made sense. Rossi shrugged and went back to looking out the window. Hotch appeared to be only half-listening. Reid and Emily continued to hang onto his words.

Emily snorted, "So now your dating her? Only you could pick up chicks in our line of work."

"I pick up chicks!" Reid insisted in a voice slightly higher than usual, before blushing and busying himself with straightening out his sweater-vest.

Morgan chuckled, "Jealous, Emily?"

She snorted, "Not a chance."

The jet landed and the team departed from the plane. But Hotch hung back, and took hold of Morgan's arm lightly.

"Is it serious with her?" he asked.

"I dunno, Hotch. We've only been dating a week and a half."

Hotch studied Morgan's face quickly. Then he said, "I was in love once, Morgan. Sometimes you know when it's serious. Even after only a week and a half."

Morgan dropped his gaze. It was always hardest to talk to Hotch when he was human. Remembering the gruesome Minnesota crime scenes awaiting them, and the rest of the team outside, Morgan managed to raise his gaze back up and reply, "Yeah, Hotch. It's serious. That a problem?"

"No." The answer was swift. Morgan blinked. Some part of him had wanted Hotch to tell him it was a little bit sick to date the sister of a woman whose killer he'd chased off a rooftop. He'd wanted someone to at least acknowledge it.

Looked like that person would have to be himself.

"You don't think it's…wrong? A little too, 'my, what a small world!'?"

"I think some things happen for a reason," Hotch replied. He fished around for a moment in his inside breast pocket, then pulled out a physics-joke-covered pen.

"You should give this back to Reid," he said.