A/N- This one is Rossi, and my personal favorite chapter that I've written so far :).
When Prentiss first came to the BAU team, she was taken off guard by the familiarity with which the team operated. They could anticipate the other agent's needs and emotions, they could diffuse each other's tempers within moments. And the first time Derek answered the phone with 'Baby girl', she never would have guessed that there was an agent on the other end.
But she had learned quickly, assimilating and fitting seamlessly into their way of life.
Rossi took a particular interest in how easily she became a part of the team. He watched how she teased Reid like an older sister, horsed around with Morgan like one of the boys, gossiped with Penelope, and could out politic even Hotchner.
He remembered the first distinctive time when it was clear to everyone she truly fit in.
Three weeks after she joined the team, all seven of them were gathered in the BAU room where JJ was briefing them on a case. Reid picked tiredly at a doughnut while images of the victims flashed across the screen.
"The local police have been running in circles, on this one." JJ continued on in the background while Morgan and Prentiss locked gazes over the final remaining doughnut in the box in the middle of the conference room.
If it were normal glazed or even chocolate frosted, Morgan would have let it go and given it to Prentiss. It was the nice thing to do, and he was nothing if not polite. But as it were, the doughnut was a Boston creme. One of those round things with the delicate vanilla filling, and a chocolate frost on top.
Derek raised an eyebrow as if challenging the newer agent to take his pastry, and in a second, the rest of the team was taken by surprise by him and Emily leaping out of their chairs and lunging at the box.
JJ froze in her presentation as the rest of the team watched the altercation with interest.
Mainly due to his longer arms and better reach, Morgan reached the box first, but his large hand was swatted by Emily who met him over the table with a shoulder against his firm bicep. While he was stunned by her agile move, she snatched at the doughnut. She was just bringing it back to herself when from the last second, it slipped from her fingertips and Derek caught it millimeters above the tabletop with a triumphant grin.
Before Emily could make another move at it, he flipped the doughnut upside down and licked the bottom of the pastry, "Mine now." He said with a juvenile grin.
Prentiss's mouth dropped open at the nerve of him to steal the final doughnut and claim it in such a way. As if to rub his victory in, Derek carefully ripped the pastry in half and offered the smaller part of the licked doughnut out to Emily over the table.
"I guess I can share."
The entire team watched as Prentiss took a second to look at the doughnut skeptically, she knew this moment was suddenly about more than just fried dough covered in sugar.
With a smirk, she accepted the piece of doughnut graciously, "Thank you, Morgan." Pushing away, any lingering uncertainty, she bit off a bit of the pastry, chewed, and swallowed.
The smiles reflected around the table, let her know instantly that she had made the right move as the team settled back in so JJ could finish briefing them.
"Note to self, buy more Boston cremes." Garcia joked, "Apparently the morning snack is a serious deal."
"You have no idea, Sugar." Prentiss winked at the technical analyst, using the term of endearment for the first time. Rossi watched as her shoulders noticeably relaxed and she allowed herself to drop her guard just the smallest amount. It was the start of the long road to trust that all members of the team had to go through.
...
That's how he initially noticed when she seemed to begin ignoring JJ.
It was a few months after her transfer, the team had traveled to Cincinnati on a case. Their first day was gratingly long and when they retired to their hotel that evening, the team was all on edge.
Normally, everyone got their own rooms, but due to the proximity of the case to Christmas, the only remaining rooms were doubles and the girls had to bunk together. When the team parted ways in the hotel lobby, everyone was exhausted, but on good terms. When they regrouped the following morning, Emily seemed to be trying especially hard to avoid the blonde.
She got into a different SUV, though they normally rode together. She sat as far away as she could at the conference table, though they were normally next to eachother. She made a pointed effort to talk to Morgan and Reid exclusively, though it always seemed like the girls were laughing together about something.
This conduct kept up for the full few days that they were in Cincinnati before heading back to DC.
Rossi decided to finally confront the young woman about it on the flight home when she sat next to him instead of in her usual seat by JJ.
"What's going on with the two of you?"he asked, not even bothering to beat around the bush.
"What do you mean?"
"You've been ignoring JJ all week."
Immediately Prentiss shifted uncomfortably, she didn't want to have to lie to the man who she was so close to, but she couldn't tell him the truth, "I haven't been ignoring her."
"You hardly said two words to her throughout the entire case, and now you're not sitting with her. You two always sit with each other."
"It's not a big deal." Prentiss muttered under her breath as she realized how obvious she had been.
"What happened? Did you do something embarrassing when you were sharing a room? Wake her up with your snoring? Talk in your sleep?"
Prentiss couldn't stand the interrogation anymore as she stood from her seat, "Yeah, that's what happened."
She moved down the jet to get a cup of coffee as Rossi called after her, "Which one was it?"
She ignored the question, and once she had gotten her coffee, she took her normal seat next to JJ. The blonde smiled warmly at her as she sat down and couldn't resist running her fingers up and down Prentiss's forearm.
None of which went unnoticed by Rossi.
...
Morgan, Prentiss, and Rossi were all milling around the conference room of the local police station, trying to complete the profile of the killer terrorizing Portland.
"We're looking for someone who works in the school system." Prentiss began, pacing up and down near the back wall.
"But they have a grudge against the kids." Morgan reminded her.
"So a member of the staff who's not a teacher, like the janitors or deans or something?"
Rossi interrupted them, "What if we've got it all wrong? What if it's a teacher who's had some sort of confrontation with a student and now is taking out his rage on every kid who reminds him of it?"
"That's good." Morgan agreed, nodding.
"What if we get Garcia to pull a list of all the professors in the area who have been investigated for foul play with their students?" Prentiss was already pulling out her cell phone to make the call when JJ, and Hotch joined them in the conference room.
"We talked with the family of the most recent victim, they're compiling a list of any adults who their son interacted with on a regular basis." Hotch said, he and JJ both took seats at the table.
JJ was right next to Rossi, she pulled out her cell phone to check through any messages from the field office.
"Hey, Baby." Prentiss smiled into her cellphone. The greeting didn't pique Rossi's attention as Prentiss went on to ask Garcia to compile the list for them, what did catch his notice was the flash of blonde hair in the corner of his vision.
JJ's head had snapped up at the nickname, and her eyes were trained questioningly on Emily, as her hands froze on her cell phone. Rossi rose his eyebrow at the action, but tried to hide his interest.
It was almost like JJ was responding to her own name being called, like she had learned to expect that those words from Emily's mouth meant that it was her attention being begged.
It was like JJ was used to Emily calling her 'Baby'.
A/N- Thank you all for reading and the reviews you left to the previous chapter, I'm blown away by the response. In reply to a couple of you, I put the wrong Prentiss cause I'm an idiot, but not to worry, all has been corrected!
Drop a review, let me know what you thought!