Emily sighed, following Morgan later that morning through the police station to the conference room where the team was set up. The couple was instantly greeted by a stern agent Hotchner, who appeared to not be happy at all. Hotch couldn't be mad at them though. They'd done what he'd asked of them. While things weren't all hunky dory between her and Derek as they usually were, they were on speaking terms. Being on speaking terms meant that they could work together and if they could work together effectively and efficiently, it meant that Hotch could not transfer either one of them.

They never should have had to even worry about Hotch transferring one of them, Emily mused as they entered the conference room. Their disagreement never should have erupted like it did and they shouldn't have fought about Mallory like that.

As much as Emily still wanted to help Mallory, it was too late. The girl had left, convinced that Emily was just like any other person that said they cared about her. Everyone said they cared, that they wanted to do something to help, but everyone left. Nobody helped and nobody cared.

Derek was right. It wasn't like her to want to add Mallory to their little family which only consisted of the two of them so soon after meeting the poor girl because Emily didn't trust people easily. But Derek didn't understand Emily's need to help her. He didn't know that once upon a time, she had been Mallory. That she knew what it was like to hate oneself so much that all they wanted to do was die and to disappear forever. And he definitely didn't understand that the ever present feeling of loneliness did not disappear once surrounded by people. He didn't know what it was like to be surrounded by people, but feel like the only person in the room.

Emily couldn't blame him for not knowing though. Neither one of them were good at opening up about their feelings or the past for that matter. Instead, they were amazingly good at stuffing and bottling up all of their emotions until they couldn't take any more and eventually exploded into inconsolable emotional fits. People generally described them as the strong and silent type. Everyone believed that nothing was ever wrong because they always appeared to have it all together. Unfortunately, those that seemed to have everything under control felt like on the inside they were breaking.

When it came to telling Derek about the past, she was apprehensive about it, just as he was himself.

Derek had been right again when he'd told her earlier that morning that just letting Mallory leave wasn't like her. Emily was a determined and passionate person. When she wanted something, she worked until she got it. If she wanted to do something, she did it and nobody was going to tell her otherwise. But Mallory had left without a word during the night, so what was Emily to do? Sure, she knew that she could easily go out on the streets and look for Mallory. However, Emily knew the action would be futile. Mallory wasn't stupid though and would not go back to the area she used to inhabit if she thought there was any chance of Emily going after her. Besides, Emily knew exactly the thoughts that occasionally wandered through Mallory's mind like a lost tourist and the thoughts that had taken up permanent residence in her mind as well. Not to mention, having used every defense mechanism known to mankind herself, Emily knew that if she did go out on the street and found Mallory, the girl would pull away even more just to protect her fragile heart the only way she knew how. By shutting people out and building tall, unbreakable brick walls around her heart.

After giving up on God and the church as a scared and lonely teenager, Emily was surprised to find herself praying to the almighty deity for Mallory now.

"Rossi and Reid are working on putting together a preliminary profile," Hotch explained to them upon their entrance to the conference room. His intense stare, almost a glare, told the couple that he was not happy with them at the moment. Still, the unit chief did not chew them out like an irate mother to disobedient child as they had originally feared. Instead, he motioned to the empty conference room next door. Whatever Hotch was going to discuss with them was a private matter and not intended for curious bystanders and was not to be repeated.

Slowly, Derek and Emily followed Hotch to the other conference room. Their footsteps were slow and heavy as they trudged along like they were being forced to do something against their will. And maybe they were. Derek and probably Emily as well were hoping that the stern unit chief would forget about lecturing them. Unfortunately for them, Aaron Hotchner was not a forgetful person and spent half the night, planning on what he was going to say to reprimand their actions of the day before.

Emily groaned, closing the door to the conference room behind her. Hotch and Derek was already seated at opposite sides of the oblong table, waiting for her to sit down and join them. Everyone in the room remained as silent as the dead. Taking the empty seat to Derek's right, Emily couldn't help but think back to the day before. She and Mallory had talked and played scrabble in these same chairs. Ever since Emily woke up this morning, discovering her gone, Mallory had been weighing heavily on her mind. There was so much Emily felt she could have done to make Mallory feel loved, but didn't do. A listening ear and game of scrabble didn't exactly say, "I love you." Shaking her head, Emily tried to clear her head. Mallory was gone. She wasn't going to come back or even call, even thou to love Emily had slipped her card in with the girl's few possessions. Even if she tried to forget about Mallory, Emily doubted that she could. Mothers never forgot the child they lost. And while Mallory wasn't exactly a child and Emily not a mother, the profiler cared for the depressed girl as if she was her child. Besides, one did not need to be a parent to love someone unconditionally like a parent loves a child. Mallory needed to experience a mother's love, something that she'd been denied as a child. Emily wanted to give her that.

Her thoughts of Mallory were interrupted by Hotch clearing his throat. Speaking clearly to them and maintaining eye contact, he kept his hands idle on the tabletop. Wanting to know what the other was thinking as Hotch looked at them like this, Derek and Emily glanced at each other like they usually did while being thrown under the bus and made eye contact. Whatever an on edge, upset Aaron Hotchner had to say to them could not be good. Gulping, the agents swallowed their questions, inhibitions, and pride, immediately fearing the worst as they looked to their superior.

"When we are on a case, you not only represent yourselves," Hotch said sternly as he began his lecture.

Emily glanced at her husband and rolled her eyes. This was how Hotch began every single one of his lectures, which was something both of them were accustomed to. One or both of them always seemed to be getting heat from Hotch or Strauss for breaking protocol and not following orders. Their rash, hasty, and impulsive actions on the job usually landed them in a meeting like this one, being reprimanded for their actions. Unable to follow the orders of their superiors would ultimately lead to their downfalls as Strauss so gently put it once after a case after she and Morgan had deliberately ignored Hotch's orders. Maybe, they had been a little too quick to move in and didn't wait for backup, but a victim's life depended on it. After being cleared by the paramedics, she and Derek had received a stern lecture from Hotch and an unpaid suspension from Strauss.

"We know," Emily groaned with a roll of her eyes.

Hotch only glared at her to reprimand her for interrupting his lecture. The glare did the trick and Emily sunk lower into her seat as she fixated her gaze on the floor, instead of on Derek. Both subordinates resembled naughty school children in the principal's office as they awaited their fate.

"You represent this team and ultimately the Bureau. Acting unprofessionally because you have a personal vendetta with each other could mean a bad rap for this team. If the local police do not think we are professional, they aren't going to call us in to assist with their investigations." He watched Derek and Emily bow their heads in shame as they listened to every single one of his words. They regretted their actions, mentally kicking themselves for letting their personal relationship get in the way of their work. "Not to mention, Strauss is looking for an excuse to reassign this team. You just may have given her one." Apologies rested on the tips of their tongues, but Hotch didn't let them speak. Vocal apologies didn't change anything. "I warned you yesterday that if you did not have this issue sorted out by morning, one of you would be transferred once we got back to Quantico." Hotch watched them slowly nod their heads. They understood. "Both of you are remarkable profilers and I would be sad to see either one of you leave this team."

"We talked this morning," Derek told Hotch, taking his chances on speaking. A quick glance in his wife's direction resulted in a smile. Smiling at Emily, he didn't bother to look at Hotch as he continued. "And we're good."

They had talked that morning, but they were far from good, Emily thought to herself as she watched Hotch nod his head in approval, deep in thought. Somehow, she knew that this whole thing would come back to bite them in the butt when they least expected it. Few problems could be solved with a kiss as much as people wished and pretended it to be true.

Hotch nodded in agreement. "Well then," he said. "You wouldn't mind assisting Rossi at a new crime scene, would you?"

xXx

"You know Rossi's just along to babysit us," Emily whispered to Derek as he migrated the black Chevrolet Suburban along the city streets. Morgan smiled as he nodded in agreement all the while risking a glance at the older profiler through the rearview mirror.

The Italian's brown eyes were staring back at him full of mirth as an amused smirk coveted his face. "Well, it's not my fault you decided to have a lover's quarrel in the middle of the police station."

His comment caused Emily's white cheeks to turn a crimson red color from embarrassment. She hadn't of expected him to hear her. But it was true that he was along only as Hotch's spy to keep an eye on them and report back to the unit chief. After all, they were in the doghouse. They were in the doghouse and would continue to be so until Hotch decided that he could trust them to be alone together again. Unfortunately for them, Hotch's scale was different than that of a normal 1-10 scale. On a normal scale, their wrong doing would probably be about a seven. Hotch's scale however, it was probably an eleven. So it could very well be a long time before Hotch fully trusted them again.

Upon arriving at the crime scene, the three agents exited the vehicle and wandered towards the yellow tape that blocked the crime scene off to the public. This crime scene was an abandoned feed mill from the sixties and the victim a well-dressed, wealthy thirty three year old male of the upper class.

"Damn," Derek muttered under his breath. Crime scene was still diligently at work processing the scene and the coroner had yet to remove the body. Although this is the first crime scene of the case he'd walked, he was getting tired of them. It meant that the unsub was ahead of them and he hated that. One glance towards Emily, told him that she was thinking the same thing. Glancing at Rossi, Derek knew that the older man only cared about getting ahead of the unsub right now. The longer they stayed behind him, more and more victims would pile up.

"Just like the others," Emily commented, letting out a sigh as she pulled on a pair of the latex gloves. The female profiler was right, just like all the other victims, this one had been shot execution style with one bullet to the head. Stooping beside the deceased man's body, Emily used her gloved hand to pick up his arm. Peering at the wrist, she shook her head. Dropping the arm and looking up at her teammates, she said, "They're no defensive wounds."

The three agents finished profiling the scene and returned to the police station in silence. Even though Emily wanted to make a sarcastic remark about Rossi's evaluation of her and Derek's actions in the field, she remained silent by biting her tongue. All three of the agents were deep in their own thoughts about the case.

Derek and Emily had remained professional at the crime scene. Somehow, Rossi knew they would. While he understood Hotch's concerns, Rossi thought that the unit chief was a little unfair to agents who did wrong on the job.

While able to complete the tasks asked of her, Derek couldn't help but think that Emily seemed a little distracted. He wondered if she were thinking about Mallory again. If Mallory was gone and Emily was still thinking about her, then Derek knew that she'd gotten attached. Emily was difficult to figure out since she was notorious for playing her cards close to the chest at all times. This was rather obvious since he couldn't figure out the reason why Emily cared so much about someone she barely knew.

He couldn't stop looking at her with that damn look on his face which she couldn't tell if it was pity or something else. Emily Prentiss hated that look, just like she hated people feeling sorry for her. There he was looking at her again while he should be watching the road. Just because he learned to drive in Chicago, didn't mean he had to drive horribly! If he paid half of much attention to the road as he did to her, they might have already arrived at their destination. She glanced back at him, before turning her head completely away so that he could only see the back of her head.

Derek sighed when he glanced in his wife's direction again, but was only met by the back of her head.