VI

"I'll meet you in there." JJ motioned towards the bathrooms and left Emily to join the rest of the team. Seeing that Hotch was the only one in the meeting room, Emily sighed and entered slowly.

"Hey." She greeted him with a smile. His lips twitched upwards at her presence.

"Hi." He turned his back to the screen and faced her completely.

"Where are the others?" Emily gestured to the empty chairs.

"Setting up a canvas of the three crime scenes with Waters." Hotch explained. "They should be back soon." She nodded and after a brief moment of silence, Hotch couldn't help but ask. "Was he bothering you before? Waters?" Emily chuckled.

"No Hotch, he wasn't bothering us." Emily emphasized the last word, earning herself a confused look. "JJ was there too."

"Oh yea," Hotch shifted uncomfortably. "I know."

"Then why'd you only ask about me?"

"Well, you know, I just thought," he paused for a moment and Emily had to contain her laughter. "I mean JJ can take care of herself."

"And I can't." The brunette crossed her arms and raised a perfect eyebrow in question.

"No!" Hotch cried excitedly. "That's not what I meant at all! Of course you can, I just mean that-"

"Aaron?" Emily raised a hand and interrupted him.

"Hm?"

"Take your foot out of your mouth, I'm kidding." She smiled, showing her teeth and Hotch blushed slightly.

"Do you want me to talk to him?" his tone grew more serious and Emily laughed.

"And say what; 'don't flirt with my agents while-'"

"So he was flirting with you?" Hotch crossed his arms and frowned deeply.

"Hotch, don't worry about it." Emily took a step closer to her friend. "I appreciate the concern but it's fine."

"Want me to tell him you're with someone?" he asked seriously as the distance between the two narrowed.

"But... I'm not." Emily lowered her voice; the proximity of the two causing her palms to sweat. She risked a glance slightly south to the man's lips and couldn't help but wonder how they would feel against hers. Would they be warm, rough- whoa, what am I thinking?! Her thoughts only accelerated with his reply.

"Would you like to be?" Hotch's voice was soft, almost sensual, as the two latched their gazes onto one another. Studying the color of each other's eyes, the two almost didn't hear the glass door open and close behind them. Both took a large step back and immediately felt cold due to the lack of closeness.

"Sorry to interrupt?" Rossi eyed them questionably before taking a seat. Blushing, the dark haired duo watched as the rest of the team strolled in. Emily didn't miss the pinch on the shoulder JJ gave Dave as she sat beside him and hurried to get a seat that wasn't next to Hotch. Practically shoving Morgan aside, she sat and resisted to urge to bite her already chewed-down nails.

"What'd you got Garcia?" Hotch asked as the technical analyst appeared on the screen in front of them.

"Crime fighters!" the woman's bright office came into view. "I come bearing gifts!" She cracked her knuckles before showering the screen with lines of code.

"I don't even think Reid can understand that Baby Girl." Morgan frowned as the thousands of lines scrolled across the screen.

"Oh come on! It's right there!" Garcia pointed excitedly to her screen.

"We're not all as smart as you, PG" JJ toyed with the pen in her hand and waited for her friend to explain.

"Too true Sunshine." Garcia smiled to herself. "Well, what you're looking at, my lovely band of heroes, is a code sequence that I found embedded into the program used to run security cameras at every crime scene."

"We're listening." Rossi leaned forward.

"All three murders were caught on tape but the only problem is we can't see it."

"Why not?" Morgan asked.

"Someone else got to them first." A sly smile appeared on the woman's face.

"That's not a good thing Pen." Emily grumbled.

"It is but it isn't my love. You see, someone was watching the murders happen live and the same person called in all three attacks." Garcia pushed a few buttons and the team listened intently to all three 9-1-1 calls. All were the same; same wording, same voice, and apparently from the same caller.

"The voice sounds altered." JJ pointed out.

"Somebody give the girl a gold star! That's because it is." Garcia explained quickly.

"Who is it Garcia?" Hotch asked, anxious for a new lead. The blonde techie slumped slightly and frowned.

"That's the problem bossman. Have any of you ever heard of codename Mackenzie?"

"The hacker?" Reid spoke up and Garcia nodded. "Presumably, codename Mackenzie hacked into over 300 bank accounts starting in early 2010. He's stolen over $6,000,000,000 since then but has recently gone off the grid."

"No one knows where to find this guy?" Morgan asked, confused.

"Or girl." All three BAU women quipped.

"That's the problem." Garcia continued. "Even when Mackenzie was active, no one knew where to start looking. He- or she- literally popped up like daisy. Every single account owner didn't even know they were being robbed until it was too late."

"If you know its Mackenzie, why can't you track him?" Hotch frowned slightly.

"They are good Hotch. And I mean crazy good. So good, they make me look bad." Garcia grumbled.

"So essentially," Rossi sighed. "We have nothing."

"I wouldn't say nothing." Emily rubbed her chin as all eyes went to her. "We know that Mackenzie protects their program or coding or whatever to an obsessive degree right?" Everyone nodded. "Well, in the seconds it took them to call NYPD about the murders, do you really think they bothered to add measures to protect their voice with the same ferocity?"

"Someone give the woman a kiss for me!" Garcia shouted.

"Oh, he will." JJ whispered under her breath and accepted the fist bump Morgan offered.

"I'm on it like Donkey Kong! Garcia out!" With a ping, the bright office disappeared.

"Who the hell is Donkey Kong?" Rossi muttered and shook his head in confusion.

"Don't worry about it Rossi." Morgan patted him on the back.

"I'm getting too old for this." The older man complained and each member laughed wholeheartedly, no one noticing the unwavering eye contact between their favorite dark-haired pair.

I'm going to wait for some interest in the story to accumulate before continuing to post. I have up to chapter 12 written at this point and want to see if I should continue or not. If you like the story (or even if you don't) please drop a review and let me know!