Happy reading =)

"Laughter is brightest in the place where the food is best." – Irish proverb

"If I have to answer the question "have you ever shot anyone?" one more time, I might demonstrate that my answer is yes," Emily says as she leans on the wall and lets out a heavy breath, her irritation with the college students quite evident.

"Well that would be one way to get them to stop sending you on these recruitment trips," I quip.

"Yeah, I'm not sure what possessed me to agree to that little addition to my job description. I would've been more than happy with just teaching, working on consults, and going on the occasional case with the teams."

"But then we wouldn't have these trips to look forward to. When was the last time you and I got to spend time with each when there weren't any dead bodies involved?"

"Dinner last week, for one," she retorts, a smirk forming on her face. "Or have you forgotten Reid dazzling us all with statistics about the recent transportation study completed in the D.C. area?" she teases.

"Watch yourself, young lady," I say pointing a finger at her.

She chuckles. "This is why I love spending time with you, Dave. You always make me feel so young…"

"You calling me old?"

"Yes," she deadpans before letting out a laugh. God it was good to hear her laughing again. We'd gone too long without it. Even when she'd returned after Doyle, the laughs hadn't quite been as full-bodied as they once had been. Now it seemed as though things were back to…well, things had found a new normal, at least.

"You think any of them will apply to the Bureau?" she asks after a moment, nodding toward the group exiting the lecture hall that we'd just presented in.

"Hopefully," I say with a shrug. Or hopefully not…this group hadn't particularly inspired confidence after repeatedly asking the same questions over and over again.

"Did they rope you into next month's trip as well?"

"Of course. My fame being put to good use. At least we'll have each other."

"This is true," she says with a smile. "You feel like a bite to eat?"

I nod. "I could eat. Craving something in particular?"

She grins. "I could go for some Italian."

An hour later we're seated in a little hole in the wall Italian restaurant that I'd been to more than a few times on my book tours. They'd always had great food, great staff, and were good about giving me privacy, so it had been a no-brainer when Emily said she was craving Italian.

"So how are things at the Academy?" I ask, leaning back in my chair as we wait for our food.

She smiles. "Good. I think I've gotten the hang of it for now. Only took a couple months," she gripes.

"Happy to be away from the unsubs at least?"

"I'm not so far from them," she reminds me after taking a sip of wine. "If I'm not teaching about how to catch them, I'm doing consults, or chasing them with you guys or with Cooper's team."

"Still, it's a little bit of distance. And in my experience that little bit of distance can make all the difference in the world."

"True," she admits. "It's been the change that I needed. I think if I'd stayed in the BAU much longer I would've burned out," she finishes honestly.

"Well then I'm glad you made that change, even if it hurt a little to see you leave us. I'm just happy you didn't take that Interpol job in London."

"So am I," she agrees. "It would've been a dream to run the office there, but I much prefer being closer to you guys."

I nod and take a long drink from my wine. She'd changed in the months since she'd left the team. She'd changed from the woman she was all those months ago, before Doyle had left his mark on her, yes, but this was a different kind of change. She was more open, a little less guarded, and a little more willing to show her affection for her friends. It wasn't a monumental change – she could still (and did still) compartmentalize better than anyone I know – but it was enough for her family of profilers to notice. None of us said anything, knowing that doing so might spook her in some way, but we all came to appreciate the changes. For me it came down to one thing, really: she'd never looked so happy.

"Trust me when I say we're all quite happy to have you nearby. Across an ocean is much too far to have to travel to see you."

"I'm sure you could've fit me in on your way to Italy."

"That is true," I admit with a smile. We both take a moment to enjoy another taste of the wine. "How are things with you and Derek?"

I chuckle when she nearly spits out her wine. For a pair of profilers, they really make terrible liars sometimes. Just last week he'd tried to fool me into thinking they were just working out together. "Me and Derek?" she replies, trying to maintain a façade of confusion.

"Don't play coy with me, Prentiss. I know you two got together not long after you decided to stay, so out with it. How are things?"

She smiles genuinely. "Amazing," she answers honestly. I admit I'm a little bit surprised by how forthright she's being. Emily Prentiss, even the one who'd surfaced as of late, was not one to offer up her feelings on a platter.

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," she agrees with a nod, as a dreamy look enters her eyes. Ah. No wonder she's never looked so happy! Whether she knows it or not, she's falling in love.

"I imagine that's another reason you're happy you left the team. If you'd stayed, you two never would have gotten together."

She chuckles again. "I suppose not."

"But he's treating you well?"

"Dave," she says, tilting her head to one side, her tone telling me what the rest of that sentence was supposed to be: "are you serious?" and the fact that she is very much not impressed with me asking.

"What?" I answer. "Just looking out for you."

"I don't need you to-"

"I know, I know," I interrupt, reaching out and placing a hand on hers. "You can take care of yourself. Trust me when I say I never questioned that, bella. I just… I know his type. I was his type."

She smiles and puts down her wineglass before reaching over and placing her other hand on top of mine. "Then I guess I'm getting quite the gentleman," she says as she gives my hand a brief, light squeeze.

I smile in reply, telling her I appreciate her words. I'd never given much thought to what people thought of me – I'd always been arrogant that way. But to have her say that somehow fills me with a small sense of pride.

"But if he ever does something stupid, and you need help moving the body," I say with a grin. "I'm your man."

She laughs heartily. "Good to know."

The waiter interrupts our moment to deliver our food, and I watch as her eyes widen in anticipation of the first bite of her meal. It's something I've always enjoyed – watching people as they taste a meal for the first time. She lifts her fork and takes a small amount of the plate's contents. The moment it reaches her mouth she lets out an appreciative moan as her eyes shut.

"God that's good," she says after finishing the mouthful.

"I told you."

"Do they deliver across state lines? Because I'd pay an obscene amount of money to have this delivered to my apartment."

I chuckle. "You'll just have to make sure to come back, I think."

"You know, those recruitment seminars and fairs aren't looking so bad after all…" she says playfully. "Particularly if you've got the intel on where to go in each city for dinner."

"I knew you'd come around eventually," I say with a wink. "Now, to good company and good food," I say as I raise my glass. She follows suit and smiles as her eyes twinkle with happiness.

"So, Dave," she begins as we walk back to the hotel. "I have to ask. You and Strauss?"

I raise an eyebrow in reply.

"I thought we were friends, Dave."

"I subscribe to a 'don't kiss and tell' kind of policy."

"You'd make a terrible girl, you know," she says with a cheeky grin. "All this "no details" business. Ohhhhh! Ice cream! Can we get some? Can we? Please?"

I suppress a laugh at her antics. She's rather like a kid in a candy shop. Then again, after everything she's gone through, I find that I'm happy she has that air of innocence about her. It means she hadn't lost everything to Doyle's efforts to torment her. "Only if you finish your work tonight."

She frowns. "How do you know I brought work with me?"

"I'm paid to analyze human behaviour, and you think you're going to get one past me? I literally wrote the book on profiling, Emily. Come on now."

She huffs. "Well, it's not that much work. In fact, if you helped me with the consults it wouldn't take me any time at all…"

"No. Absolutely not. They're not paying me to do your work for you."

"Oh, come on, Dave. It'll be like old times."

"Emily, we worked a case together two weeks ago."

"And?"

"Isn't that self-explanatory?"

"I'm just saying…we could toss theories around. You'd be helping me out..."

"Yeah, helping you have more time with Derek when we get back home tomorrow," I scoff, knowing exactly what she's trying to do. What she should know is that she's dealing with the master manipulator.

"And that's a bad thing how..?"

"I never said it was a bad thing, I'm just saying it doesn't impact me, so I don't care."

"But that's not quite true," she points out. "Because I know for a fact that you care very much about me. In fact, you told me so at dinner. And by extension that means you care very much about whether or not I'm happy."

"What's your point?"

"My point is that Derek makes me deliriously happy, and I think you're in the business of enabling anything that makes me happy."

I stop and glare at her. "How did I get to this point? I used to be a real arrogant son of a bitch."

"Still are, to an extent. But we've beat down that thick outer shell a little," she says with a grin, knowing that she's got me. Damn woman.

"Fine. But if we're getting dessert it's going to be gelato, and not that American ice cream crap," I relent with a heavy sigh. Though my appearance is all grumpy old man, we both know I'm more than happy to indulge her. She'd gone through enough darkness and battled enough demons in her life…it was time to let some light in.

"Fine by me. Let's go, I think I saw a gelato place down the street."

I just shake my head and smile. She was different than the Emily Prentiss we'd come to know and love, but there was something even more loveable about this version of her. Her move away from the BAU had hurt us all, but we'd all come to understand that she needed to leave, and we needed to let her. She's a much happier, and much more content person for it. And I can't help but hope that this trend for her continues for a long time, because the world truly is a better place with Emily Prentiss in it.

So...amused by Emily's childish antics? Enjoy the banter between them? Smile at Rossi's weak spot when it comes to making her happy? Let me know.