Disclaimer: Not mine.

A/N: The couples talk and define their relationships but they are still separated by an ocean….

Chapter Seven

"Hotchner."

She sighed just hearing his voice, providing even further evidence that she had it bad. "The flowers are gorgeous."

In his office in Quantico Aaron Hotchner grinned widely; a full on dimpled smile. "Well the inspiration for them certainly is so I'm glad they are living up to my expectations."

Her breath caught in her throat. "I had no idea that you could be so romantic."

He smiled. "There are still some things you don't know about me, Jennifer Jareau."

"Yet."

"What?"

She sighed, "You forgot to add the word yet. There are still some things I don't know about you, yet."

"The yet was definitely implied." He leaned back in his chair and confided. "You know, I miss you more than I thought possible which quite frankly scares the shit out of me."

"I miss you, too." She stared down at the hearts she was drawing on her blotter. "You know I'm probably going to have to find another job?" She'd been giving that a lot of thought lately as well.

"I told you I would hold your job, JJ." Hotch was quick to reply not sure why she would be thinking of finding another one.

Feeling bold because of the distance and emboldened by his gift and comments she commented, "I know. But I won't be able to work for you when I'm sleeping with you."

That had him sitting up in his chair. "Exactly how much longer are you going to be there?" Hotch asked hoarsely making her giggle.

"Too long." She closed her eyes and imagined that she was back in Virginia setting across from him. Not wanting to tease him she changed the subject, "So, tell me what's been going on. How's Jack?" She smiled as she listened to him fill her in on his son's school exploits and then move to talk about the team. Once he completed his news she spoke of Henry and what she was doing for Interpol.

"I'm really just here for Emily." She shared with him. The job held none of the allure that her position back in Quantico had and barely held any interest.

"Did you know it was Morgan?" Hotch suddenly asked, interested to get her take on the story.

"No. She didn't say anything before I came over, and then it just came out. But it makes sense; they've always had a little flirty thing. He was moodier about her departure more than anyone else." She paused for a moment, "has he told Pen yet?"

"No, he's waiting to talk to Prentiss again. I take it their initial conversation did not go well."

"That's an understatement." She asked him to hold on as one of the team knocked on her door effectively bringing their conversation to an end. "Hey, I'm sorry but I've got to go."

"Yeah, I figured." He'd heard the conversation on the other end of the line and was familiar enough with the drill. "We'll talk again soon."

"Hey Hotch?"

"Yeah?"

"I wasn't kidding about finding a replacement for me." She wasn't sure when she made the decision; maybe when he kissed her, but she knew there was no turning back from it.

The gentlemen in him gave her an escape route. "Don't you think this is something we should deal with when you're back here?"

The woman in her knew she had no intention of looking for a way out. "I think if we would have kissed when you picked me up from my house we would already be lovers. I know that's the direction I want it to go." She paused to let him absorb that. "You know, I will have my pick of assignments when I get back. Emily was right about one thing when I decided to come over here."

"What was that?" He asked, still trying to control his breathing after the image her last statement put in his head.

"She said it was time to do something for myself." She giggled lightly. "I'm granting myself the freedom to act on my feelings for you."

"The team is going to love me." He groaned, only imagining how they were going to deal with the decision to replace JJ. Her temporary duty assignment had not gone over so well.

"Aaron?" She asked, a little timidly now.

"Yeah?"

"If I've misread this situation or am being too aggressive I can back down."

He chuckled. "JJ we've been heading this direction since I said 'welcome to the BAU'."

"Have we?" She asked coyly.

"Yeah, we have," he responded with conviction. "So I'm going to find a replacement for you, because when you come back I'm not going to be your boss, I'm going to be your lover."

There was no hesitancy in his statement just solid conviction. "I'm counting the days."

"You called." Emily moved into her office and closed the door as she answered her phone. "I was just getting ready to call you. To apologize." She affirmed. "I'm really sorry, Derek."

"For what, Emily? Waiting so long to tell me? Entertaining the idea of not telling me? Or assuming this is something that I would have no interest in?" Derek asked, the questions rolling off his tongue, each one as important as the last.

Emily grimaced. "All of the above." She let out a heavy sigh. "I didn't mean to hurt you, Derek, I was trying to be honest and it came across abrasive."

"It did," he agreed before conceding with a sigh, "But I should have been a little more understanding. I'm having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact you're pregnant and I'm going to be a dad."

She let out a little laugh, "If it helps, it gets easier with time."

"It would help if I could see you. I don't like that you're so far away." He admitted. "I didn't crawl into your bed thinking I could hit it and quit it, Em. I've been trying to find a way in it for a long time."

His admission made her smile. "Really?"

He laughed, unable to help it. She sounded so surprised by the fact. "Yeah, really. Do you think I would have been so hurt otherwise?"

"I honestly didn't think, Derek." She confessed. "I'll be honest with you; I am really excited about being pregnant now. But I didn't start out that way. At first I was petrified. It can be very overwhelming." She exhaled. "JJ managed to talk me off the ledge. Now I'm happy and excited. But I'm still a little nervous about everything going on. I've got a little bump and I want to wear the tightest clothing I have to advertise it. But then, my god, my hormones. JJ tells me that they should be settling soon and I'll have a period where I'll be normal again. And nice, apparently I have stretches where I'm not so nice."

He smiled as she rambled. "You, not nice?" Derek teased.

"Shocking, right?" She chortled.

It was Derek's turn to sigh. "You know that I'm going to be involved, right?"

Emily bit her lip as tears filled her eyes. "I had really hoped so."

"Is it okay for me to start telling people?" He asked tentatively.

"Other than Hotch you mean?" She asked dryly.

"Honestly, I thought maybe he had already known."

She thought about that for a minute before it clicked. "Through JJ?" She hadn't considered that he would have thought that.

"Yeah." He chuckled. "Which, by the way, Hotch is completely in to her. Let me apologize for mocking your source."

"You're forgiven." She replied as she laughed. "I'm glad, I really am. I don't know how we didn't see it before because they are perfect for each other. You should see the flowers he sent her."

He thought of the confidences that his boss shared with him only the night before. "I just hope he doesn't end up getting hurt. Penelope said Will is really hopeful this separation will bring the two of them back together."

"Well, not to challenge your source, but that's just pure speculation. She's not getting back together with Will." She replied with full confidence.

"Oh, you think she's in to Hotch?" He couldn't help but pry.

Emily snorted. "No. I know she's really in to Hotch. You should have seen her face when she got the flowers. Her face lit up like a kids on Christmas morning."

"Interesting." He imagined that Emily would probably know a little better where JJ's mind was considering the blonde was currently living with her. But he didn't want to spend his valuable time talking about JJ and Hotch. "Hey, speaking of Pen, I was thinking about telling her about the baby. Are you okay with that?"

"How do you think Pen is going to deal with the idea of my having your baby?" Emily could only imagine and was grateful for the ocean that separated them; the idea of getting squeezed to death was not appealing.

"You know my relationship with Pen is flirtatious platonic."

"I'm pretty sure that's an oxymoron. But I get what you're trying to say. It's harmless."

"Exactly. But Baby Girl is my best friend and if she finds out another way…."

"She won't be happy." Emily finished for him.

"That's putting it mildly."

"I also want to let you know I told my mom." He sighed, "And my sisters." His left ear was still ringing from that conversation.

"Oh God," Emily interjected, as a thought just occurred to her. "I have to tell my mother."

"You haven't told your mother yet?" Derek asked, surprised. He assumed that she'd told her parents immediately.

"No." She replied shortly. That was a conversation she was not looking forward to.

The tone in her voice had him questioning. "Can I ask why not?"

"God." Emily groaned. "Because she'll ask me what I was thinking and I'll have to admit that I wasn't and from there it will just go downhill because she'll annoy me so much that I know I'll get smart just to piss her off and I'll end up bringing up how you bet me that you could give me a screaming orgasm braced against the wall in my kitchen. Then she'll give me a disappointed 'Oh Emily' and then I'll say don't worry mom it actually happened, then she'll pull out the Emily Marie Prentiss and probably give me a stern lecture about parenthood and being responsible and by the end of it we won't be speaking to one another."

Derek laughed. "Okay, you've played that scenario out, how about you just call her and tell her that she's going to be a grandma? Leave out the screaming orgasm."

"That's the best part of the story." Emily snickered. "You realize you can change the words but it still won't change her reaction. I'm not married, hell I'm not even in a relationship, and it is not going to be pretty." She dropped her head forward.

"We're in a relationship." He defended. "We can define it any way you want." He listened to her breathe for a minute. "How do you want to define our relationship Emily?"

"How did you define it to your mom?" She countered.

He went silent for a minute, fairly certain Emily would not appreciate the fact that he told his mother that he was going to marry her. "I just told her we were very close and explained that these days a lot of people didn't think marriage was necessarily important to having a baby."

"Yeah, how'd that go?" He forgot that she'd actually met his mother, and the fact that she was privy to the calls he fielded from the woman asking when her son was going to settle down and marry and give her grandbabies.

"She explained to me that a baby needed two parents." He responded wryly.

"She wasn't happy." She worried.

Morgan was quick to reassure her. "Oh no, baby, she was over the moon. She wasn't happy that you weren't with me. She doesn't know how we can be a happy, expectant couple when you're living in England."

Mama Morgan was pretty sharp. "Well, Derek, how'd she take the news that we weren't a couple?"

"You know, I may have implied that we were, in fact, a couple." He replied boldly.

"You lied to your mother!"

"No ma'am," Derek argued, "I simply expressed my wishes on the subject."

"Oh." She was ridiculously happy by that statement. He wanted to be a couple. With her.

"Yeah, oh." He groaned as Hotch stuck his head in his office and announced they had yet another case and he was needed in the war room. "I got to go. You think about what I just said Emily Marie Prentiss. I want a relationship with you. I want to be in this baby's life. And I know that we only had one brief weekend, but I made you happy on more than just your kitchen wall. Make sure you factor all of that in." He stood to leave the office.

"Derek?" Her voice was soft. "Where ever you go, make sure you take good care of yourself. I already know what I want."

He came to an abrupt halt. "Is that right? What is it that you want, Emily?"

"You. I want you." She admitted easily, surprised at how much better she felt after the confession.

His smile exploded. "Good, now go tell your mama we're having a baby."

Thank you for reading. Thank you for all the encouraging comments and the follows – I really appreciate them.