A/N: Hey, how are you guys liking it so far?

Any observations?

Have a good reading.

Season 3 Episode 03 = Scared to Death.

I woke up feeling refreshed, but having very little idea of where I was. I remembered that we had the day off today, so the time wasn't much of a problem.

After looking around the pale beige room I figured this must be Prentiss guest room. Last night we had shared a large pizza with a bottle of whiskey, which we had obviously finished and after realizing that she was almost asleep on the couch I helped her upstairs.

Put her in her bed and took of her boots off, but left her in her clothes, it would be too weird to do anything else. I went back to the hallway and decided to see if there was a guest room available, it wouldn't do my back any good to sleep on the couch if there was a good bed waiting. For my luck there was a full second bedroom, with bathroom and already ready for a guest.

If I was honest with myself it would be impolite to do all this without the owner awareness, but since she was passed out in the next room. I got into the shower and spent a good 20 minutes under the hot spray, after that I put my boxers and undershirt on, falling asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Looking around I saw a warm cup of coffee in the bedside table and for the life of me I did not want to leave the bed, problems that needed solution waited for me after leaving this bed so started drinking my coffee.

A knock on the door took me out of my thoughts and I heard Prentiss's voice.

"Hotch, uhh…Sir?" She didn't have anything to feel embarrassed about, I knew how getting hurt on the job sometimes was more of a pride injure then anything else, and I would probably have done the same, but I also have someone to look after me at home and she didn't and that is what I was pissed at. Had, I had someone. Well that is that.

So I would probably let her be embarrassed for a little while, but not for getting hit.

"Agent Prentiss?"

"Sir, if we don't leave soon, we are going to be late at the office." She didn't even remember we weren't coming in, did the woman remember anything from yesterday?

"Agent Prentiss, do you remember anything from last night?" I hear some shuffling out side and knew she was nervous.

"Uhh….that is…well sir, very little."

"We don't have to go in today, with Gideon not showing up, both of us still having to talk things over with Strauss, she said not to come in so she can have everything done by the time we show up tomorrow, after all you did get a concussion."

"Yes I was wondering about the headache and slight memory loss."

"That could be because we drank a bottle of whiskey, but that is just a guess."

"Oh God. Did I say anything?"

"Nothing out of the ordinary." I smiled at that, she had shared a little bit, about her mother making her crazy and having ended what sounded to be a good relationship, nothing embarrassing.

"That's good, I think. I'll leave you alone then."

I decided to have another shower before going home, I knew I was stalling but who could blame me? I didn't want to go to an empty house, I could call Haley, maybe have Jack for the day.

I left the room in my undershirt and pants with my coffee mug, I knew that in the team the only person as addicted to the black substance as me was Prentiss. I learned not to wait to get my cups of coffee after she started working there, more then once all I found in the break room was an empty pot and her guilty face drinking from her mug.

"Holy mother of God." The woman's eyes were wide open.

"What?" I looked behind me, nothing there.

"Nothing sir." She looked down at the kitchen counter and started to move the stuff around. I looked at myself and say that it was probably the weirdest thing to see your boss, dressed like this, after all she only had seen me without a suit once.

"Yes, I know. Is there any more coffee left or did you already drank the gallon?"

"I…uh…I am making more." The red spots on her cheeks looked permanent and she still wouldn't look up, apparently today we had a shy version of agent Prentiss.

"Are we going to talk now?" I asked bluntly. We had a few things to go over for some time now.

"We have to talk?"

"You haven't being acting like yourself, you doubted your abilities as a profiler, had what appears to be very serious fight with your father, and from the looks of those pretty heave boxes ended a long term relationship, over the phone, while you had just gotten a concussion." I raised my eyebrow at her.

"Ok, I'm sorry about the whole concussion thing, but I'm sure I didn't even have one, don't people get pretty bad? I just forgot some things that happened yesterday night. On the fact that I had a fight with my father, I'm sorry sir, but it's none of your business, I can assure you this is not affecting my job."

I knew she would get defensive, but what could I do, unfortunately the devil woman had decided to use her against me, and now she was my obligation somehow.

"Prentiss"

"No, no. I'm not done. The fact that I ended or not a relationship, had absolutely nothing to do with the job, or how I am, so no implications that you might feel will make me a worst profiler."

"Prentiss"

"Not done yet. I know I was off those past weeks, but honestly I applied for the BAU for longer then I would have liked and always got a no. So when they decided to finally transfer me, I believed I had showed something that made them, you, whoever the hell that I was a profiler, or at least could learn. It's not cool to learn you are just a pawn on someone's chess game."

"Look Strauss was trying to use you against me, yes. But would she put a incompetent agent on my team to do that, no. Would I have kept you around for that long knowing you weren't a dedicated and trainable profiler, absolutely no."

"Thank you sir, but you don't have to look out for me. I can take care of myself and most important, you don't have to feel like I'm you responsibility just because of the whole thing. I'm old enough to know the rules of the game."

"I don't think that."

"You don't have to lie."

It seemed she just wanted me out of the there, if she had a week like the one she described I would also want to be alone, well I didn't really, I wanted Jack.

"I'll get out of your hair now, I'll see you at work." She nodded her head and took me to the door. I left without saying goodbye, things were already weird as they were.

After getting home I changed my clothes and called Haley, she said she would bring Jack over, since she and Jessica wanted to go out, and that I could just drop him off before work the next day. Even as weird as it was discussing those things now I was glad we were doing ok and that she was taking this so well.

In the beginning I believed she would be difficult with my being away from work, and all the trips and stuff, but apparently getting away from each other made a big difference in how we communicated with each other.

Sean called me that night and we talked about the whole thing, Haley and him were never close and he decided that I needed to get back on my horse, what he was talking about I don't know. He wanted me to start looking at woman, said I never had done it like a normal man, because Haley and I had gotten together so young.

He said I had put it in my head that I was her husband and the BAU chief and forgot the other parts of my life, and that he believed Jack was the best thing that happened because it made me stop and learn to be a father, so he believed I could find my way and start to get a life too.

As I lied down to sleep all I could think about was what Sean and I had talked, I couldn't remember the last time I had looked to a woman, or the last time I had just actually appreciated a woman, not even my ex-wife. I felt like I had just being ignoring this part of me for so long.

And that is how I got myself into a very weird predicament. On Friday we were all on edge to see if we would get a slap on the wrist and be grounded home, or if we would be able to go on cases, so as soon as I got in I told JJ to look for a case, before Strauss could ground us and hid inside my office.

And that is when I decided to let my eyes wonder for the first time in years. Why did I hear Sean, he was insane and a bad influence on me apparently, because he just had to talk about how I should start noticing woman, and the first one that took my attention was a subordinate.

Why did she had to decide to wear freaking red today of all days, she is always in clothes that aren't noticeable, so why today of all days to start something new? I hadn't noticed when I came in, because she had a suit covering it, but when I looked down my window to the bullpen, she had taken it off, and the tank top with the most vibrant shade of red appeared.

And my attention was lost, or rather it was hook by her, and I didn't even had that much contact with her. Ok, Prentiss is on my team, and spending the night on her apartment might have capitalized some sort of different reaction, because just the fact that she is using a red tank top is not enough reason for me to be caught staring at her several times. If I don't snap out of this, things will get messy.

I was relived that by the second day the red tank top from hell was gone, and I knew I was over reacting, I was sensible to a subordinate I was still having to figure things out with Haley.

She shouldn't be living with her sister, and she didn't need to look for a job right away, there was Jack to think about, we didn't need to hurry with anything. But it was useless she refused to move back, she didn't want me to support her anymore, and she wanted to share the expenses.

And to top it off, Prentiss was changing pants like there was no tomorrow. She and Morgan had being going back and forth between the dumpsites and the stations, so she and Morgan would put clothes that would allow them to get more mobile and dirty. But I didn't kept track of how many times Morgan changed, Prentiss on the other hand.

On the plane back I decided to try and finish some paperwork, Haley promised that I could spend the day with Jack, and so I wanted to have everything out of the way, so as soon as I was done tomorrow I could leave the office, even a few hours earlier if I was able.

When Morgan started questioning me I realized that the whole team was dealing with something, Gideon had just left, and even if I did address that, I had to do more, Spencer and him were very connected. There was also JJ and Garcia, after all they had known the man for some time now, and they were also dealing with it.

Prentiss I knew didn't want me anywhere near her right now, she was a closed off person and her words about me not needing to be responsible for her showed that she would resent me if I did start snooping as I was used to doing with the other two woman.

Morgan was right, we had done just fine without Gideon, and it showed how much this team was ready to take the responsibilities of the BAU without needing people like Jason Gideon, I was sorry my friend had being so severely burnt out in this unit, but sometimes that was how it went. Still out team was ready to keep on.

Telling Morgan that there was a chance for Haley to be back was strategically, I knew things weren't going to go back, and I knew that both of us were not in a place where reconciliation was even wanted anymore. But if he thought that there was a chance for things to get back to normal, he wouldn't hover much, or tell others, which was what I was waiting for.

Right now I just wanted to finish the paperwork and a restful night of sleep, I just had to wish that the dreams wouldn't be filled with red tank tops, I really had to make myself wish for that, otherwise things would get even more weird.