AUTHOR'S NOTE:

Hello, beautiful readers :)

Sorry for the wait, but this chapter took some time to be written, edited and posted. The next ones are already written and just need a quick edit before uploading, so there won't be a hiatus again :)! And to excuse myself for making you wait, I made this current chapter looooong! Hope you enjoy it! Let me know if your city has such activities!? I've participated in something similar and it was sooo much fun, hence where my inspiration for the chapter came from!

ALSO: Bonne fête nationale, France!


CHAPTER 141

EMILY PRENTISS WOULDN'T HAVE IT ANY OTHER WAY

"Mrmphhh." Emily let out, feeling Richard's hands gracing her stomach early the next morning.

"Did you just purr!?" He teased her, allowing his pointy finger to trail up slowly, ending up in his 'happy place', as he always referred to that spot.

Emily ducked her head under the covers, sleepily ignoring his cute attempt to wake her up. It just was not going to work.

"Come on, little Hello Kitty…it's time to play." He tried to be cute with his figurative speech, but of course Emily would have something to say about that.

"Actually, Hello Kitty is believed to have been created by a Chinese woman when she made a deal with the Satan. Now, my mother isn't Chinese, but to the rest of it – I can relate."

"Come on, that's just an urban legend…" Richard pouted.

"Is it?" Emily met him with a devilish grin, half of her face now poking from under the covers, just to creep him out even further. "There's this fun little cartoon where Hello Kitty is a serial killer and goes after her victims with an axe."

"What!?" Richard gasped. His perception of this cute kitty face was now ruined forever. "I am never going back to Japan or a serial killer's face is going to haunt me everywhere I look!"

"Ha! Get used to it!" Emily's reply came way too spontaneously this time.

Seeing the look he instantly gave her, she concluded he must be terrified of her. This was not the first time she'd spoken about death, murder and violent crime in such a chillingly calm and collected way. Any normal person would be afraid of such seemingly emotionally detached behavior and she wondered if Richard's perception of her was changing, each time she'd let something slip.

Richard, however, seemed more surprised, rather than scared of her words; like what was weird to him was the fact that she was saying those words, not what the words said, on their own.

"I'm not scared." He reassured her, as if he could read that burning question that she now had.

"I have you." He added, in the sweetest of ways.

Despite spending forty-five years of her life, hating females who chuckled, Emily did chuckle now, herself. She then cursed herself quietly, for having done it so spontaneously, but she could not help reacting to what she thought Richard was insinuating with those additional three little words.

He had her. Did he mean as his girlfriend? In his life? By his side? Or possibly – had he already learned how incredibly tough she was as an individual, so in a way he was saying he was not afraid of serial killers, because he had her, to protect him? And if so, this would be the cutest and most sincere form of flattery and appreciation Emily had ever received, without feeling like a freak, like a tough boss, like a Unit Chief, like she was the one with the balls, the one wearing the pants in a relationship. She hadn't told him about her job, but had he found a way to figure out her endless bravery, anyway? And had he also just found the best, most subtle way of giving Emily Prentiss a compliment, while making her comfortable enough to appreciate it, receive it and even chuckle about it?

"Do you want pancakes?" He then suggested, very casually.

"Nope…" Emily grinned, now fully poking her head from underneath the covers.

"Then what do you want for breakfast? And please keep in mind I'm French, so I can prepare you anything your heart might desire – pancakes, muffins, home baked croissants, waffles, a nice large crepe with chocolate-…" He started to enlist, but she was quick to cut him off with her little suggestion.

"You?"

The way her eyes glistened as her lips pursed and her cheeks became rosy, made him fall for her even more. She was just so casually asking for some, that it was impossible for him not to let out a tiny laugh.

"It was going to be one of my breakfast suggestions, right after the omelet. However, I did not want to wear you down from the start of the day. I need your sharp thinking, ma spy chérie." He said, lustfully already playing with the blanket, getting ready to uncover what was underneath it.

"Oh, au contraire – I do my best job when I have some French chocolate in the morning. You know, for the energy boost…" With a very innocent smile, she sent a wink his way.

"Chocolate? Is that so?" He smirked.

Emily nodded, biting her lower lip after having voiced her preferences in what she supposed would be a subtle way.

"Alright then, how do you like it?" He asked, just further needing a confirmation that this semi-naked woman underneath his bedsheets was, indeed, the most stripped from reservations, free-spirited, sexually active and attractive woman he'd ever met in his life.

"Hot…" She whispered, bringing him on top of her with one hand, while the other one drew circles against his stomach.

"And laid back, I see. I mean, wow…I get to be on top now!?" He was surprised she'd willingly put herself underneath him, for once.

"Yeah, dream on!" With a devilish smirk and before he could understand what was happening, he found himself with his back against the mattress, and with Emily on top…as always.

"Arrgh!" He only half-lamented.

The truth was that he'd gladly give all the power to Emily. Thinking back, through all of his previous relationships and hook ups, he'd been nothing but utterly irritated when a woman would always want to be the one in charge. Richard respected all human beings, especially women, but it did not mean he couldn't be annoyed by them, contemporarily. At times, he had even felt insulted by the continuous lack of regard towards him and what he wanted, too. He specifically remembered a blonde one – he could not think of her name, no matter how hard he tried; but this had been the woman to have driven him borderline insane, with her constant and unsatisfiable desire to be the boss of him.

He wasn't a control freak – never had been, actually. He did like it when things went his way, but he also knew how to operate smoothly and efficiently if things got messy and out of control, which was why he was so high up in his job. In relationships, however, he liked to still feel like a man, while not treating his partner like someone that did not matter. In fact, he loved seeing his partner take initiative, make suggestions, pull the strings, but not every time and not all the time.

And then again – everything he had ever hated in women's behavior was now not bothering him at all, coming from Emily. She would sometimes chuckle and he'd find it cute. She'd constantly make jokes about things and she was sarcastic like nobody else he'd ever met, but he enjoyed it. She would do that thing where she'd fall asleep on her own side of the bed, just to end up on his side, hogging his covers, with her hand sprawled against his chest and gripping it somewhat tight, at times making it hard for him to raise his chest, in attempts of taking a deep enough breath so that he wouldn't pass out. It was enough just to know that the woman he loved was finally in his bed, naked, right next to him, but when she was physically preventing him from breathing, he somehow found it even harder to function properly.

"Okay now, who's the daydreamer!?" Emily teased him, interrupting his silent little monologue with his own self.

He saw her hand on his chest again and he sucked in a breath. Oh, he knew exactly what she was setting up for and he would never deny her the pleasures she was craving.

"So, about that breakfast?" She reminded him cheekily and he was more than happy to serve.

"You are amazing, Emily." He let the words slip off his tongue.

They had finally been able to catch their breath now and she was still comfortably laying on top of him. She felt like a feather, herself, and she could only hope that she wasn't preventing him from breathing and coming down from the high of pleasures.

"You often say this." She pointed out curiously.

Thinking back of how he spoke to her, she realized his vocal comments and compliments were always about her character. He'd never miss out a chance to let her know just how brave, how smart, how quick-thinking she was. He never vocalized how funny she was, however, as he didn't want 'funny' to be taken the wrong way. And yet, he'd always laugh at her jokes and he'd tease her back mercilessly. He wasn't the kind of guy who'd back down and let her have it her way. He had an opinion and he'd voice it in a very calm and educated manner.

He also never complimented her for her body. Her appearance – yes, he would let her know when she looked exceptionally nice, but he never spoke about her physical features. His hands gave her enough reassurance that he was more than happy with what God had given her and she liked the fact that he wasn't like the other guys, only seeing the shell. He always made it a point to let Emily know it was her interior that he appreciated even more.

And the way he spoke…it constantly reminded Emily of Angela. Coming to that conclusion in her mind, she inadvertently chuckled softly.

"Seriously, you too!?" He teased her, yet again, for having spaced out and taken a dive into her own inner thoughts now.

"I couldn't help but make a comparison." She said vaguely.

"Oh? Mind sharing? I have no doubt it's something naughty." He grinned, feeling like he wanted some more of her. His hand trailed between her breasts and he smiled at her, sure she'd be able to read his advances.

Checking out the time, they had just about enough time for a quick second round before they'd need to rush for breakfast and go check in for their spy game that day.

She lowered herself down, placing a trail of kisses from his lips, down his chin, his neck…

"You remind me so much of Angela." Emily decided it was a great time to share that thought when she was tickling his neck with her hot breath. And her lips were lusciously warm and a little sticky, from having licked them just seconds ago.

"Uh…" He tensed up instantly.

With one hand, he caressed her back, while the other hand put some space between them in a very subtle way that she had to think twice about it before she realized she was being pushed away.

"Yup…I'm known to ruin a moment like this. Nothing new." She said sarcastically, thinking of all the times she had turned a guy on, only to then ruin the whole damn thing by saying something way out of place.

"I'm sorry." She murmured.

"It's fine." He reassured her.

He wasn't upset or annoyed, but he was most definitely not in the mood anymore.

"I guess I talk about her a bit too much." She shared.

"Actually, I find it cute when you do. Just…maybe…"

"…not in bed?" She supposed that was what he would have said, had she not interrupted him.

He just nodded in reply.

A bit of silence followed while she laid on the side, letting him breathe, for a change.

"Why?" He broke the silence.

"Huh?"

"Why do you often say I remind you of her?"

Emily smiled. She hadn't expected that question.

"Well, your manners, most of all. And the way you speak, the way you treat people, how you respect them…"

He smiled as well, remaining quiet, so that she could continue enlisting her reasons.

"She always calls men 'Sir' and she gives no damn when people tease her about it."

The smile on Richard's face when he heard that felt oddly like pride.

"She never puts people down. She has never been a bully and, as far as I know, she has never allowed anyone to bully her, either. She'd stand up for others, defending them when she feels like injustice is being thrown their way. She's fierce…"

"Just like you!" He was quick to throw that in, as she spoke.

"Yeah. She's got an insane idea for justice and, well, maybe some questionable ways of reinforcing it in the world. But she means well and she has a huge heart, full of love to give…to anyone…"

"Including you?" He asked curiously.

"Uhm…" Emily pursed her lips, thinking to herself.

She had recently professed her love and affection to Angela, but despite how well the girl had received those words, she had not reciprocated those feelings towards Emily. Not vocally, anyways. Emily knew how attached Angie was to her and how much she respected her, wanting to be exactly like her, but she had never allowed herself to say those few words back to her.

"I'm sure she loves you." Richard said softly.

He could simply not sit there and allow that frown on Emily's face get any deeper. And God knows what negative thoughts were going through her head at that moment.

"Mhm…"

"Emily…" He started to console her. "From what I know, this girl worships you."

"She does…"

"But…?" He shamelessly asked to know more.

In any other occasion, Emily would have closed up in her own shell, remaining quiet and maybe even letting the other person know that this was her own damn business.

But not with him.

"But she never says it. And yes, okay, I know that love is shown, not told, but…"

"…sometimes it just feels good to hear it?" It was now his time to interrupt her and finish her sentence for her.

She just nodded.

"Do you think you're ready to hear such a statement?" Damn, his question hit hard.

How did he even know that Emily Prentiss was terrified of the words 'I love you'?

"Uhmm…yes." She quickly replied. "I know she feels that way and I know why she's so scared to tell me about it. But yeah, I can't help selfishly wanting to hear her say those words."

"What about someone else?" He tried so damn hard to come off casual with that question.

This had been something he'd been trying to figure out for a while now. He knew exactly how he felt about Emily and while he had been itching to let her know, he could feel that it was way too soon for her to be able to receive his words properly, without being freaked out and instantly beginning to plan her escape from him, from this relationship and from his life.

"Can I be honest?" She threaded lightly, knowing how harsh her real thoughts on this matter could come out.

"Please!"

"With Angela, when she came to play at my playground now…" She started off, remembering the first day of the Academy, when she had seen Angela cross that finish line on the track, dragging Bryan along.

Richard once again remained silent, allowing her to finish speaking.

"…I knew I wanted her in my life. I knew I loved her. And I know this must sound weird to you, but I do love this little girl more than anything else in the world."

"Not weird at all." He quickly threw in.

"So, as things started to progress, I was just lucky to have her by my side…I mean, the little that I saw of her at the beginning was enough…"

"…until it wasn't?" He supposed.

"Well…selfishly – yes." She gulped guiltily. "There came the moment when I just wanted her constantly near me."

"I suppose the budget problems didn't make it any easier on you?" He said.

"Pfff, because of money, I cannot have her by my side and it's tearing me up inside. No matter how hard I try, the Universe just doesn't want to allow me to have her back."

Richard chose not to question that slip up of the word 'back'. He also didn't address how she referred to Angela as 'a little girl'. He just continued smiling lightly and giving Emily the chance to speak uninterrupted, not counting the few little comments he'd randomly throw in.

"And then again, I have this overwhelming feeling that this isn't about the money at all." She added. "And the more I try, the worse I make it for her. Like, okay…fine, I freaking know that she wants to be part of my team and I do want the very same thing, but I can't help but feel like I'm hurting her with my attempts to help…and God help me, I swore to never hurt this child again!"

Somehow, what Emily had intended to sound like a very emotionally detached and quite vague explanation, had turned into a full-blown downpour of her inner thoughts and real, raw emotions. And somehow, the only one surprised that she had gone that deep with her words, was Emily herself. Richard was relaxed, his facial expression did not change and he looked pretty comfortable to have been poured all over with Emily's thoughts and emotions.

"What sucks the most is that I can see right through her."

Those additional words made him look a bit perplexed, like he didn't quite understand how that can be a bad thing.

"She's incredibly tough and she prides herself in being able to mask up any and every emotion she feels…" Emily started to explain.

"And she can. Oh, God, can she fool people!?" She continued, letting out a small and quite devilish laugh.

"But not me. She could never fool me. I've always been able to see right through her. I see her, all of her – the good, the bad, the quirky, the smart, the manners, the sarcasm…I see all of her and I love all of her and I don't mind knowing that inside this little girl there is both an Angel and a Devil. I love being surprised to see which side of her would jump at me at any given moment. I love hearing her laugh and I love her insane sarcasm and I know…God, I know it is all my fault that she is such a sarcastic little prick, but if someone can't handle her for what she really is, they don't deserve her. But I do! I always have and I forever will. I swear to God, I love this child more than anything in the world!"

With her last statement, Emily's hand inadvertently formed a tight fist which she then smashed against the mattress, trying to reinforce her words, as if the message did not already come clear enough for Richard to grasp. She was figuratively destroying all the obstacles that seemed to stand in her way when it came to Angela.

"I think it's amazing that you feel so strongly about this young woman." Richard commented, intentionally calling Angela a 'young woman'. He had an agenda and he felt guilty for intentionally trying to trick her, but there was something he needed to confirm to himself.

"I don't just 'feel strongly' about her…" Emily nearly hissed, using air quotes and looking like she was out there for blood, in attempts to explain just how strongly she felt.

"I would give my life for her. Again!" Emily continued her sentence after the most dramatic pause ever.

"I would do anything in the world, just to see my little girl smile." She then added spontaneously.

Richard gulped, receiving the answer to what he had tested Emily about – she had kept referring to Angela as a 'little girl', even right after he had called her a woman. And, fair enough that at the tender age of 23 she was technically neither a little girl, nor a full-grown adult, but still…the way Emily spoke was a bit odd.

"She's lucky to have you in her life." He commented briefly.

"She hasn't always been." With pain in her heart, Emily shared that.

"The important thing is that right now she has you. And judging from the way you speak about her, I'm sure she won't ever lose you." He assumed.

Emily just stared at him blankly, for what seemed like an eternity. So many things were going on in her mind, but she knew she couldn't possibly come clean about certain things, with anyone…ever. And yet, it hurt her, knowing that she was willing to speak, but her lips felt like they'd forcefully been sewn shut.

"I never answered your question." She swiftly changed the topic back to when he had tried to figure out whether she'd want to hear him say a certain bunch of words to her.

"Yes." She stated, surprising her own self with how easily she admitted to something she never thought she'd say, nor want, in her life.

"But not just yet." She then added, just because a simple 'Yes' with no strings attached, no limitations and no boundaries was obviously too good of an answer to be true.

"I'm ready to hear Angela say those words to me, though. I've been through Hell and back with her, multiple times. I know where I stand with her and I'm finally comfortable with my position in her life." She tried to explain.

He put his poker face on, masking up the disappointment. But she knew. Of course she knew – she was a profiler!

"And because of having waited for so long and being secure in where I stand with her, I am ready to hear her say these words to me. I'm finally ready to be there for her, the way she needs me to. I'm ready to fight my instincts to run. I'm confident, which isn't something I've felt with her before. And God, don't get me wrong – I've always been confident about how I feel about her, but I wasn't confident in myself. I am now. And I won't fail that kid."

The more Emily spoke, the more Richard tried to relax. Yes, he'd been shut down just now, but he also listened to her reasons why she didn't want him to confess his feelings just yet and, keeping in mind everything he knew about her so far, it was incredible she had even opened up this much, making this comparison between her relationship with Angela and her relationship with him. And he understood that a seemingly harmless 'I love you' could have two completely different effects on her – coming from Angela, Emily would be glad to receive it, calm and collected, as if she was expecting it already; but coming from him, this soon, it might tick her into becoming that vacillating, insecure version of herself, whose first instinct would be to run away and never look back. He could ruin her with just three little words. He would never do this to Emily, even if it meant keeping quiet about his feelings for her.

He played it cool, just caressing her cheek and keeping quiet. He'd gotten the message, loud and clear.

In turn, she appreciated that he didn't lament her decisions. He was a grown man and she was a grown woman – he had to accept that she had the right to have her own thoughts, desires and requests and he had to be able to work around them.

Weirdly, none of Emily's unconventional requests so far had given him trouble. He'd been calm and collected, giving her all the time and all the liberty she needed, until she'd feel comfortable with him, like she was starting to feel comfortable with Angela, whom she suspiciously kept referring to as a 'child'. He did not address that, either. He only drew some conclusions in his mind, but kept his thoughts to himself.

The mood shifted quickly, going from playful to serious and then to neutral, as she rolled to the side, laying her head on the pillow and staring at the ceiling for a few seconds, before Richard's hand tugged on the sheets and he let her know they should get up already and head out for a nice breakfast before they'd need to go sign up for the game and go through the briefing process.

After a quick morning shower, they put on some comfortable clothes and headed out the door. Richard had suggested preparing breakfast, but they'd quickly realized they didn't have too much time on their hands and so they opted for a small walk to Richard's favorite café, where Emily would then enjoy a large cup of coffee and two croissants, before stealing half of Richard's second croissant, as well.

Then, it was time to head towards the headquarters. Emily was almost skipping down the street, in anticipation for this game that many people, mostly their age, would find to be dumb and a colossal waste of time and money. Emily, however, could not wait to experience it all. She'd get to act like a spy, she'd have a fake gun and a fake identity, she'd have a mission and a partner in crime – it was everything Emily had known in life and she felt more than comfortable to share her experience with him. Maybe she'd have the chance to show him just how much of a kick ass woman Emily Prentiss really was?

"Is this guy for real!?" Emily thought to herself, watching the briefing for the game.

They'd just signed the papers and had started the briefing a couple of minutes ago and Emily was not having it.

Some twenty-year-old dude was showing her how to hold a gun. Outrageous! Plus, he possibly had the worst firearm technique she had ever witnessed in her long years of service.

Richard stayed put and just listened, taking in every wrong little detail the guy taught them.

Poor thing – Emily thought. She would have enjoyed being the one to teach him a few things.

"Madame, you need to squeeze." The young guy dared tell her at some point when she was playing around with the toy gun in her hands.

Instantly, the monster that Emily Prentiss was got released and she poured some dreadfully long speech on how dangerous it is to squeeze a weapon while discharging, especially with the elbows at the position he had taught them to maintain and the hands so far stuck out, without any range for the Agent to recuperate after the inevitable bounce back after firing the gun.

"Uh, it's...it's just a game." The boy mumbled after being unable to follow that speech correctly or to even recognize half of the technical terms Emily had used.

"For some of us, it's a matter of life or death, so…" Emily treated him with one of those 'let me trail off and say nothing more, allowing you a few seconds to fully realize how dumb you are' kind of moments.

"Uh, so as I was saying, you have to infiltrate this terrorist organization and figure out what 'Sanaya' is and where it is being kept." The guy quickly finalized the briefing, before he'd have his head bitten off by that crazy woman.

"So, it's an object." Emily said calmly.

"Uh, I cannot answer that." The boy blushed.

"I was not asking. It was a statement. Linguistically, a person is more inclined on putting a pronoun on things while speaking, but in writing they'd have more time to think about how to mask up the mystery of 'is it a person or a thing'. Not to mention that he would have said 'held' if Sanaya were a person, but he said 'kept' instead."

Richard finally nudged the stubborn woman next to him, hoping she'd shut up with the analyzing. He was having a great time, listening to her, but he started feeling bad for the poor guy who had to brief them at nine in the morning, probably for some petty cash in return. And Emily was not making his job any more enjoyable, either.

"Woman, you are one fierce Panther!" Richard exclaimed once they were let out of the briefing room and had to find their own way around Paris.

It would all start a bit like a scavenger hunt. They were given a riddle that sounded like gibberish and then they had to figure it out from there.

"Okay, let's go about this strategically. This thing speaks about trees and grass…so, maybe a park?" Richard spoke up after reading the piece of paper three times in a row, with his back against the building wall and his right leg comfortably resting against it.

"François Villon." Emily said calmly.

"Huh?"

"Rue François Villon – that's our first stop." Emily specified.

"What, the street named after Villon…the poet!?"

"Yes."

"But…this…it's not poetry. It's just jumbled words about a park or some recreation center. Oh, the Versailles Gardens, maybe?"

Emily sighed while rolling her eyes at his words.

"Of course it is about love."

"How so!?"

"Trees, grass, the water…duh!"

"I'm not following…" He also sighed, in a much more desperate manner.

"I don't expect you to."

"How so?"

"You're a dude."

"So?"

"So, what do guys know about poetry and love?"

"Excuse me, I am a romantic guy!" He faked taking offence. "I just don't get how trees and grass could in any type of way signify love."

"Ugh!" Emily kept tapping her right foot on the ground, seemingly impatient to get going. However, she still took a moment to explain.

"The trees that hover over the green grass protectively are a metaphor for the strong man, next to a woman's side. When it speaks of the shade, it's linked to the bad times in life, when a man has to step up and be there for his tender half. Now, this is absolutely sexist, but still, let's not forget the era in which Villon wrote his most notorious poems."

Richard pursed his lips, realizing just how quick Emily's analytical mind was. She was, also, clearly a very smart person, too.

"Fine, that street is just a couple of blocks away from Champs de Mars, so we'll have the beautiful view of the Eiffel Tower as we hang out." He pointed out as they headed to a bus stop.

As part of the game, all contestants were banned from using their own means of transport. They had to rely heavily on public transport or their own two feet and while Richard dreaded that, as he was used to the comfort of his vehicles, Emily was super excited.

"Oh, that bus doesn't go there. They changed the route two years ago." She told him when he was about to get on the first bus that stopped there.

"How do you know so much!?"

"I told you – I've lived in Paris, numerous times actually. And I never had a fancy car, like one of your many, so I used public transport." She teased him.

Was she upset that he was so rich? Or was it just an unsignificant little comment.

They got on the second bus that stopped in front of them and Emily's curious eyes took in every little detail of the journey.

"You really like Paris, huh?" Richard commented.

"Ooooh, yeah!"

"Ever imagined yourself, living here…like…permanently?"

She gave him the 'I know what you're doing' look and he decided to drop it.

A few stops later, they got off and headed towards the narrow one-way street that they were looking for.

A young guy was hanging about, checking out the shop windows and aimlessly walking up and down the street, holding a Starbucks cup in his hand. Emily caught that and she instantly cut the distance between them, as she found it suspicious – usually Starbucks was the place to go for tourists, as the locals preferred to sit at a quiet little café and enjoy their morning, reading a newspaper.

"Pasteurized milk – gotta love Starbucks, ey?" The young man said when he saw Emily walking over.

"Hmm…" She started to think about his words.

This time, it was Richard's turn to wow her with his knowledge of Paris.

"Pasteur is the name of a metro stop, just down the boulevard, in direction of Gare de Paris Montparnasse-Vaugurard."

"God, I love me a smart man!" The words just rolled off Emily's tongue and she didn't even notice what she'd said before she started dragging him in direction of where his hand was pointing.

As they got closer, a girl and a guy jumped out from one of the side streets, attacking them as part of the game.

"Oh, sweet thing…" Emily said with a smirk when the girl pointed a gun towards her. "I can disarm you in two seconds."

"Put your hands up and give us your bag!" The guy yelled at her and Emily tried very hard to contain her laughter, as she kept reminding herself this was just a game.

Richard shot her a glance and, even despite words, she somehow knew what he meant.

She put both hands in the air and smirked at the two people who were trying to rob them.

During the briefing, they'd been given a bag of gadgets and things that would help them during the game and they'd been told to be very careful not to lose the bag, as it was crucial for the final outcome.

"Give me the bag!" The guy intruder yelled.

"Can't do that with my hands up in the air, can I?" Emily annoyed him.

"Then…ugh, put one hand down and throw the bag over to us." She got instructed.

"Sure thing…" Emily was not even slow and careful to put that hand down before she literally threw the bag in his face.

Jumping back from the surprise, the unskilled guy was neutralized and Richard was quick enough to take care of his female partner in crime, at the same time.

He tackled her at the very same moment that Emily threw the bag. In a way, they were synchronized as if they'd been working together for years. Emily had most definitely noticed that dynamic between them already, but being 'out on the field' together now, it was even more evident.

"Now give me my bag and your bag, too." Emily commanded before changing the tone to a more ironic one. "Sorry, where are my manners!? I meant – give me the bags, please?"

The other duo looked at each other, but there wasn't much they could do, with Richard holding the female back while Emily held the male under gunpoint, with the female's gun on the floor now, away from everyone's reach.

"There…all yours. Just let us go!" The girl wept and even though this was just a game, Emily felt proud of her accomplishment.

Before Richard and her would walk away, Emily managed to turn around and whisper a little something to both of their new enemies.

"Next time – protect each other, okay? You should have held your gun at me when I threw my bag at him. And don't break focus. And Jesus, don't give up this easily!" With a small wink, Emily waved at the two youngsters who were participating in the game, before she walked over to where Richard was waiting for her.

"Now what?" She asked him.

"Now we take a quick moment to recognize the fact that you're set out to be a pain in everyone's ass today!" He teased her.

"Awh, come on. This was nothing. You should see me in action – and I mean the real action!" Once again, the words just slipped off her tongue.

Then again, she imagined a scene in real life where Richard would see her in her full FBI glory and…surprisingly, she felt oddly calm and kind of proud of that thought.

"I would love to." He quickly said in regards to her last statement before he continued, answering her previous question. "The Pharmacy."

His pointy finger flew in direction of the Pharmacy that had the same name as the metro stop – Pasteur.

"Why? We'll just be wasting time!"

"Because while you were smirking at the guy after you threw that bag at him, you failed to notice how my struggles with the girl resulted in me, getting a nasty lil' imaginary scratch on my face from her fingernails."

"What!? That bitch! Hold on a second, let me go back and give her a little talk…"

"Emily?" He held her hand, physically holding her back. "It was part of the game! The girl just made the gesture. I could tell she was trying hard to hurt me in some sort of a way and since I kicked her gun out of reach, she opted for scratching me, instead."

"Ooooooh, if she was so meticulous about inflicting pain on you in whatever way possible, then yeah – we need to head to the Pharmacy. It must be presumed that one of us has been hurt and we now need some light medication or bandages."

"Ugh, I thought of that a minute ago. Don't go taking all the credit!" He kept on teasing her and she just stuck her tongue at him, playfully tapping his lower back and urging him to head towards the Pharmacy.

Once inside, they were bounced off to a guy who was sat behind a counter where the cashier's machine was switched off. Emily figured he was part of the game, just sitting there and waiting for the groups of participants to find him.

She explained the situation and he asked for a prescription, so he could give Richard painkillers, placing the word in air quotes, as it was obvious this was just a fake purchase.

"Hey, wasn't there a small, folded piece of paper in the bag?" Richard recalled, urging Emily to empty the contents on the counter.

"Here. That's the one." Richard said contently, handing the guy what seemed like a doctor's note of some kind.

The guy looked around suspiciously and when he was sure no other game contestants were inside at the same time, he handed Richard a big brown bag, containing something much bulkier and heavier than just a container with some pills.

"Dude, I'm not in this much pain!" Richard laughed, placing the paper bag inside the other bag that the game required them to carry around all day.

"Bon voyage!" The fake pharmacist said awkwardly, greeting them as if they were going on a trip, but none of them even spoke about traveling.

As the two of them exited, Emily had a thought in her mind.

"Didn't you say this place is close to the train station?"

"Yeah, one of the many." Richard answered quickly, before he realized what Emily was hinting at. "Ooooh, bon voyage was meant to lead us to the next destination on the map – the train station. Damn, you're smart!"

"I'll start scratching your face each time you say that to me. It's getting old!" Emily faked annoyance, but in reality she was happy to be on the receiving end of such compliments.

"Maybe I'll like it…" He tried to tease back.

"No, you actually won't. Behaviorally speaking, you're not the type of guy who'd end up having those suppressed desires to be hurt or dominated. In fact, judging by the way you are in real life, you're more prone to ending up as the dominating one, so trust me – you won't enjoy having pain inflicted on you…least of all by my moi."

Richard was dumbfounded, mostly because he could tell that Emily's weird deduction might end up being true. He never liked using power and dominance in a relationship, but if he had to choose which side of it he'd stand on, he'd be on the delivering end, not the receiving one.

*********************************************************************************************************An hour into the game Emily was blossoming. Richard kind of took the second most important role in their little duo, taking a step back and adoring this woman's analytical skills and sharp mind. She was quick to take split second decisions on the field and they'd always prove to be beneficial for the duo. She was beyond smart and he found that to be one of her most attractive features. Forget her body, forget the clothes she wore…her mind and her heart were what ultimately drew Richard to her, what made him love her.

"…and we attack." She ended off what surely had been a small briefing for the next part of the game where they had to figure out how to obtain an object from the other team that was playing that day.

In total, there were four teams. Emily and Richard were the smallest one, with just two people on the field. Then there were two teams of four players and the last team had five. That did not bother them, as they were sure in their abilities to kick ass, nonetheless.

"Mhm. Yeah." He mumbled in response.

He had not heard a single word she'd just said, but he was positive he could improvise later. What mattered to him were those stolen few glances at the woman who made his heart skip a beat when she'd go into one of her emotion-filled rants.

"Ugh!" She groaned.

Of course she'd been aware of how he'd been staring at her while she spoke. What he thought were a few stolen glandes had actually been a couple of long moments of silence, on his part, and God only knows where his mind had taken him as Emily laid out her carefully thought-out plan of action, for him to follow later.

"Just…try not to get killed, okay!? I'll handle the rest." Her voice could not show any more annoyance, even if she tried to.

"Would you relax? It's just a dumb game!" He pointed out jokingly.

"Not when our lives are at stake! Plus, it's a mission and I refuse to fail a mission!"

He stared her down, admiring her ethics. Yes, it was only a game for fun, but Emily did not seem like the kind of person to back down from a challenge. Her head was in the game and she was cool and focused at any given moment.

Richard, however, was just doing it for the kick…and maybe with that one ulterior motive in mind.

"Fine, then how about we…" He then laid out a plan that he came up with on the spot.

"That's literally what I just said!" She rolled her eyes before letting him know she was just pretending to be this annoyed.

"Break it!" Her hand flew towards him and she made a fist with her fingers.

"Come on…we're not teenagers." He chuckled.

"Break it!" She commanded and he obeyed, bumping a fist against hers and making a swoosh sound when they separated.

"Now let's go kick ass!" She smirked. "Metaphorically…sadly…" She added in a small whisper.

Emily loved the action of a mission. This kind of resembled her real life, where she'd go after UnSubs on a daily basis, constantly trying to outsmart them, to catch them, to talk the weapons out of their hands, to beg for their victim's life to be spared. Only, this time it was all a game. And yet, it did not feel like one, not to Emily Prentiss. She had objects to obtain and goals to achieve and there was no chance in Hell she'd be defeated by one of those other teams of youngsters who didn't know what the real world of spies and law enforcement actually looked like.

They headed towards Gare de Lyon, taking a bus that Emily was very familiar with. She'd taken that one years ago, to go to her doctor's appointments, during the healing process after Doyle's vicious attack.

Her body tensed as she thought of that man. Richard placed his hand on the small of her back, gently pushing her towards him before placing a small kiss on her lips.

"We make a great team." He whispered against her lips before pulling back, just to not make them look like they were fifteen and in love. Only half of that statement was true, after all.

Emily blushed a little, noticing an elder man's eyes on them, with that knowing grin on his face.

"We should get off." She said calmly.

"Uh…" Richard was now the one blushing. Did she really just say such a thing?

"Eww, pervert! We should get off…it's our stop!" She squealed after slapping his shoulder for being so naughty in his thoughts.

"First, she wants it. Then, she wants it again. In fact, she wants it all the time and at any place." Richard murmured to himself in French, following Emily as she descended the two steps from the bus. "And now I'm the one being punished for naturally assuming she wants it…yet again! Incroyable! Absolument incroyable, cette madame!"

"Shut up!" She hissed at him with a little smirk.

Now standing in front of the train station that kind of resembled a posh old palace, they took a moment to look around and admire its beauty before heading inside. Emily remembered a number that had been scribbled on the ground with a way too obvious red chalk, right in front of the Pharmacy just earlier. It was out of place, in the middle of the nice little neighborhood with its clean streets and the cute flowers in front of each shop. In her profiler mind, that was a clue, intentionally left there for the game participants.

"What now?" He barely got to ask when Emily was already busy with something.

She had headed straight to the small storage lockers unit at the train station, walking past all the A cubes until she reached the B section. With the pointy finger of her left hand she graced a few of the lockers until she started continuously tapping on the B-15 one.

"The number right in front of the Pharmacy!" Richard instantly recognized it and that made Emily smile.

She loved his quick thinking and his observation skills.

"Wait…we need a key!" He pointed out once Emily tried to figure whether some idiot may have left it open, by mistake.

"No. We need a Morgan."

"A what!?" He asked in confusion.

Emily sighed. How could she even begin to explain what – or rather who Morgan was and why he was the designated door opener of the BAU. And what was the BAU? How did Emily fit in with that team? A team? Did that mean she was…in law enforcement, somehow?

"A hot, chocolate guy to kick that door out of its hinges." Emily smirked.

This little word game allowed her to both explain what Morgan was, but to also integrate Richard in the picture in the cleverest of ways.

"Then allow me…" He motioned with his hand, urging her to move away, seeking safety.

"Pff, amateur!" Emily smirked, physically pushing him aside now and sticking one ear against the storage locker door.

"Of course it would be rigged!" He commented with a grunt.

Now that they'd stopped talking, they'd both heard the faint ticking sound, coming from the inside.

"Alright, protocol says-…" He started to speak, only to be interrupted by Emily who laid out an entire speech of how this situation should be and would be handled in real life.

"Well, we can't do the obvious first step and secure the safety of hundreds of travelling people to and from this station. And before you ask why, let me kindly remind you that this is just a game."

"Shit…that's true." Emily confirmed with a frown. "But there must be something else we can do. Evacuating the entire place is the top priority right now. So, since it's just a game…what's the alternative!?"

As Emily thought out loud, two girls and a guy approached them.

"Is there a problem?" One of the girls asked, seeing Emily's worried facial expression as she stood immobile, in front of the locker.

Both Richard and her noticed the small badge that every staff member for this game had, to point out to the participants that they were not just random people, but rather ones that were there specifically to help them progress in the game.

"You should evacuate the building. Right now!" Emily let them know, acting as if they were just random youngsters.

"Why!?" The other girl asked curiously.

"We are not allowed to let them know about the bomb threat before we've assessed the situation, so…" Emily whispered to Richard before turning to the girl to say the rest out loud. "We are law enforcement and we need to take a few safety precautions."

"Really!? Is there…like…a terrorist attack or something?" The young man said, visibly not too preoccupied.

"Boy, you don't need to worry. Just evacuate the building as quickly and calmly as you possibly can." Richard spoke softly, with one hand on the guy's shoulder.

"Okay. Thank you for the warning."

With those words, the young trio gathered their bags from the floor and headed out quickly.

"Hey!" Emily called out. "Hey!?"

Nobody turned around.

"They forgot a bag." She said to Richard, sporting a pout.

"Shit!" He instantly murmured as his eyes laid on the middle-sized duffel bag right next to their feet.

"You sounded just like me now." Emily said proudly.

Ever since he'd gotten to know her better, she'd noticed his behavior shift into a mixture of what he used to behave like and what she sometimes did and said. The hardcore base was his own, but those few sarcastic slip ups were surely influenced by her.

"Those were not just random onlookers!" He commented, glancing at Emily before he eyed the bag again.

"Shit!" She bit her bottom lip as the realization hit her. "Those were the ones who planted the bomb!"

"Yup. And that's-…"

"…the detonator." Emily finished his sentence, her eyes wide in shock as they set on the bag as well.

"I think we may have sped the explosion up a bit." He commented as the ticking sound started to quicken.

"Alright, take a breath…calm down and let's focus on the details…" Emily knelt down, her eyes inspecting the bag.

There were a bunch of pins on the top lid and some scribbled words all across the fabric.

"What are you doing!?" Richard jumped at her, physically preventing her hand from touching the bag as she tried to do so.

"This one." She pointed at one of the pins.

"Wait…the dude we just spoke to had quite the alternative style. And his t-shirt was from a rock band's world tour, so he wore it with pride. He must be a diehard fan."

"Yup. And that band from his t-shirt and this one…" Emily pointed at the odd pin on the duffel bag. "…they despise each other. So, this one must be the Switch."

She unpinned it from the bag, but nothing happened. It was highly unlikely this game would be so extremely tech-advanced as to detonate a bomb with just the pulling of a pin from a bag. That sounded like a scene that belonged to a Hollywood production, instead. So, Emily started to think of the next most difficult solution.

"Wait, turn it around…" Richard asked after noticing something scribbled on the back of the pin as Emily tossed it in her hand.

She did so and did not pay him much attention as her mind was now entertaining the idea that she might need to poke the actual bomb with the pin, to deactivate it. Or something equally as impossible, given how it would clearly not be an actual bomb inside but most likely a sound machine or a smart phone, set to play a ticking sound on repeat.

"3479" He muttered to himself after he stood up and his eyes leveled with the combination lock for the B-15 storage cube.

"…and maybe then we need to twist it sideways…hmm, twice clockwise and…what, uh, once anti-clockwise? No, wait, that wouldn't work…uhm, maybe we have to-…" Emily, still kneeling down, kept on mumbling unhappily, still trying to figure things out by complicating them a million times more.

"Eh…Emily?"

"…or to push the…I don't know…push the handle…or…wait, there is no handle. But there might be something else to push…"

"Emily…?"

"…the equivalent of three full cycles and then a tap on the left side of the device and…"

"Emily!?" Richard tried his hardest not to laugh as he finally raised his voice a bit, in a desperate attempt to let her know he'd done something.

God help him, Emily was a thousand times more interesting to experience, compared to this game, as well thought-out as it might have been. Her enthusiasm and her drive to succeed were amusing, but what finally got him was the way she seemed to never remember that this was just a game. There was this constant spark in her eyes and he had no doubt that in her mind, this was an actual mission that had to be completes with success. And damn, that little black spy outfit she chose to wear that day was making it all even better.

"…or we should-…" Emily was mumbling until Richard's voice startled her, making her look up and realize he was now standing in front of the opened locker.

"Oh…" She exclaimed. "That works, too."

"I multiplied the final sum of the numbers by each next number and then detracted the total from the multiplied sum and then divided it by four, as there were four digits initially, then I added two – the number of players on our team; then I read the outcome backwards, so from the last digit backwards and then I divided it in two groups of two digits and I first put in the second group, then the first and then the locker opened."

"Nope, that wouldn't make sense – only our team is made of two members, so this logic wouldn't work for the other teams." Emily was quick to point out.

"And that's the only unbelievable thing you noticed!?" He raised an eyebrow.

Did she really not notice how he was taking the complete piss out of her!?

"Math equations are really Reid's thing, so…" She shrugged, totally believing this might have been a possible logic.

Emily had dealt with criminal masterminds before, she'd seen and experienced firsthand how sick and twisted logic could be put behind a creation such as a bomb, a code or an encrypted message. Yes, Richard's version sounded way too long and complicated, but you never know what a criminal mind could come up with.

"Emily…please…" He chuckled. "I literally put the number 3479 in the locket and it opened." He finally told her, one finger pointing at said number on the back of the pin that she still had in her hands.

"Oh…sure…that could also work…I knew that…" She said lamely.

Was it really as easy as picking out the odd pin and inserting the number from the back? What an unstimulating let down!

As suspected, the device inside the locker was a mobile phone, set to play a ticking sound. It was locked with a pin that Emily knew she wanted to crack on her own, to make up for the code that Richard had figured out.

"Competitive…I like it." He commented when it became obvious how hard Emily was working on unblocking the phone.

"Did you try the same number?" He asked.

"It wouldn't be the same one, used twice in a row." She stated. "And yes, I tried it." She then admitted, having learned her lesson from staying away from the 'easy' way out.

"What are you thinking?" He asked, seeing her deep in thought for the next few seconds.

"If I had to profile this entire thing, it relies heavily on visual clues – the chalk scribbling in front of the pharmacy, the code on the pin…" She started to speak.

"…and none of the things we've done repeat. Even the guy from our briefing this morning said that, besides our fake guns, every other object is to be used just one time and then discarded. So, logically, we've just used a numeric code to open the locker…so it shall not be a numeric code to open the phone now."

"I agree." He nodded.

"Visuals…let's see…what else do we have that was visual and clearly part of the game?"

"Well, the train station we're at…the three youngsters who played us…the locker…a phone…" He enlisted.

"One station, three people, one locker, one bomb…" She analyzed. "Nah, even as easy as it is with the recurring one, three is the odd one out. So, if this would be a code, we wouldn't know where the three stands in the code and we would risk blocking the phone after three wrong attempts."

"So, let's focus only on the three then. Like you said – it's the odd one out, it stands out, it is a constant for all the teams – no matter how many members the teams include, there will always be those three people interacting with each team, in this same scenario. So, three…but then again, we unblock a phone with a code, so…maybe three times three and then a one?"

"No, no. Forget the code. We need an alternative." Emily licked her lips while analyzing the options.

"Alright, so code is off the table. Unlocking it by face recognition is not an option and neither would be fingerprint recognition…although, this phone is way too old to support those two options anyway."

And just as Richard said that, Emily had a revelation.

"Pattern!" She smiled, carefully picking up the phone and placing it in her hand before pushing the only physical button it had at the bottom.

The unblock options came up and, as suspected, face recognition and fingerprint were missing. A standard 4-digit code, however, was an option, along with the pattern.

Emily traced her finger along the dotted lines, meticulously illustrating the number three on the screen.

"Daaamn…" Richard nodded his head – yes, this was the smart-ass woman he'd spend the rest of his life with and nobody could tell him any different. She was the one – Emily, whatever her last name was, it did not matter as she'd have the option to change it to his last name, after the wedding.

"Close your mouth, you're drooling." Emily teased him, watching him stare at her yet one more time, while the wedding bells sounded in his mind.

Their eyes curiously watched the screen as it unlocked and a congratulations message appeared when the fake bomb's timer stopped the countdown and froze with a little less than two minutes left until it would have exploded.

"You're a damn beast, woman! Wooow!" He dragged out his appreciation, still nodding his head like an idiot, confirming his idea with each glimpse he stole – this was the woman he loved.

"I've heard that one before." She smirked, intentionally wanting to make Richard feel awkward with what she added next. "Although, it was always after midnight, lights off, clothes as well…and yeah…beast mode…you know?"

"Emilyyy!" He dragged out once more, but this time in complete shock.

"Don't worry, this tiger has enough game left in her for tonight, as well." With an innocent smile, she made him gulp and look away shyly.

"Panther…" He corrected her underneath his breath, because in his eyes, Emily was his very own Black Panther – wild, unpredictable, fiercely loyal to her kind and well, passionate like no other.

"Meow." Emily whispered in his ear, sending chills down his spine.

They took a minute to just chill and discuss what has happened so far in the game, wondering how many more steps were left. Richard offered they'd sit in the waiting room, to extend their feet and get comfortable, but Emily suggested they'd get a refreshment – a coffee and a pastry, to keep them energized for what would come next.

Somehow, lost in the chatting, they lost track of time.

"Can't believe we got plaid!" Richard murmured like a pissed off child., throwing a tiny tantrum.

"It's been half an hour now – drop it!" Emily stated.

"Woah!" He did not expect her to command him like this.

"I'm just saying – keeping negative thoughts is only going to hinder the investigation. We need to focus now. We got plaid because we were not focused, not taking it seriously. Didn't you learn your lesson from that?"

He let out a sigh. Damn it, she was right. Plus, she sounded so bad ass, taking the lead and acting like the one in charge. But…was she acting!? Or had he subconsciously let her be in charge from the moment they'd started playing the game?

"You're great…" He whispered only half of what he was thinking to himself.

"Huh?" Out of context, Emily did not know how to read those words.

"…at this." He pointed a finger at the cryptogram that she was currently solving, as a little hint had come their way in the form of a text message, sent to the phone that had previously served as a bomb.

"All of this…" He then corrected himself, waving his hand to paint a bigger picture.

Emily was sprawled on a small chair, looking awfully comfortable with the phone in one hand, one foot over the other and her coffee in the other hand, like she did not have a single problem at all.

"I am." She agreed with a small smirk on her lips.

"You are so calm and collected, it's admirable. You'd make an amazing chief of…I don't know…police? Detective? Anything that has to do with law enforcement, really."

She could see how his eyes beamed as he spoke. Emily was used to being the Superwoman in the eyes of kids that she had saved through the years, kids like Nora, for example; but Richard…a grown man, was worshiping the ground she walked on and it was both endearing and flattering to her.

"FBI." She said calmly, her statement startling him for some reason.

"Yeah, especially the FBI. God, you'd be the hottest boss there. Wow…"

"Unit Chief!" She corrected him with the right term before adding more. "And I meant – shut up, the FBI is here!"

For a second, his heart dropped to his knees. Did she just…

Before he had the chance to think of it some more, his eyes followed Emily's pointy finger, finally laying on three individuals in front of them.

"Ah…" He exhaled, finally getting it.

"Let me handle this." He then added when the three men approached them and asked to check their bags and personal documents.

"Pff, please!" Emily said with the utmost annoyance, her hand physically pushing Richard's chest, urging him to take a step back as she naturally took the lead.

In any other occasion he'd be majorly pissed to have been shushed like a little boy, literally pushed back in the corner. But not now. Not with Emily. Not when she was such a bad ass, handling herself like she did not need no man to handle her, instead.

"You are American!" One of the FBI Agents stated grumpily, in the worst imaginable French accent.

She chuckled inwardly, reminding herself that this was just a game, those three guys were actors, there to help through the game, to give them a boost of adrenaline and to try their best to be as authentic in their performance as possible. Emily just hoped their efforts wouldn't be based on the horrid representation her own Agency got on TV.

"Last time I checked being an American was no major crime." Emily stated with a smile that could annoy even a saint.

Richard was loving her smug nature, her intimidating posture that was both intense, non-verbally communicating 'I will kill you like a fly on the wall…', but also laid back enough, to the point that he was sure that statement would end up with '…while I nonchalantly smoke a cigarette and chant along to some dumb cheerful song'.

The FBI guy tried to argue, to which Emily answered with a dragged out, dry and super boring speech on law, constitution and democratic rights abroad…or at least that was what the fake FBI Agents grasped from it.

"Oh, also…" She added after taking a small moment to take her breath.

"Oh mon Dieu, there's more!" Richard muttered to himself.

To him, a fired-up Emily was the most entertaining thing in the world and he wouldn't want her to ever stop or change or do anything to her amazing, dorky, sassy, ironic, sarcastic, authoritative and yet funny character.

"Shh." She barely said, giving him the 'Don't interrupt my fierceness!' look.

"You don't have authority outside of the US-…" Emily tried to start saying something in the most complicated way, only to be interrupted instantly.

"Actually-…" Richard stupidly decided to let her know that the FBI did actually have authority abroad…like it wasn't Emily's best friend's job and like Emily didn't know.

She groaned a bit, but decided to let him have a go at these three idiots in front of them. It surprised her to learn just how much Richard knew about the FBI and their internal business – things that were most certainly not shown in those lame American TV shows. Those were facts here, he used the terms that Emily would use on a daily basis and he basically recited the manual for Clara's job, always handing cases abroad, with all of its complications and specific regulations, rights and even up to the permits for firearms carrying outside the US.

"Now, having said that, unfortunately you have not been called in on an official matter…" Richard started. "You are not legally connected to a case…" He continued with a few more things that made Emily's head turn to face him.

What the Hell!? The terms he used, that FBI slang and the abbreviations and he even got the hierarchy of a department down to the very last pawn – the interns in training.

"Also…" Richard stated, pulling on the collar of his smart suit jacket with that cute little smile that if Emily didn't know him any better, she'd consider as innocent.

"God, yes – there's more!" It was now Emily who'd mutter those same words to herself, getting a kick out of the idea that Richard possibly had even more sass to bring to the table.

"You did not properly identify yourselves as law enforcement, so legally we are not obliged to comply. Although, I won't be legally obliged to comply anyway, whoever the Hell you might turn out to be, so…" Richard accompanied those words with a swift motion, flashing the guys his wallet, quickly opening it to show something that was inside.

"Uh, is this part of the script?" One of them whispered to his peers who just shook their heads.

Emily felt left out. She was the only one to not have seen the thing and as curious as she was about it, something made her believe it was for the best to not know.

"Uuuuuh…" Another one of the guys groaned, unsure how to proceed.

Their goal had been to try and detain the game participants and get them back to the police station where the FBI team would have been based, temporarily, and where the next part of the game would take place. However, this was now going to prove a hard task.

"How about some professional courtesy, boys?" Richard suggested with that cute smile of his that made Emily's knees go weak.

"Uhh…yeah…sure…" The one that was clearly supposed to be in charge spoke. He then told them about their ongoing investigation and how much they knew so far.

"Sounds like we need to check out the board, boys." Emily grinned.

"The board!?"

"Oh God, have mercy!" She exclaimed. "The victim board. Please don't tell me you didn't start with victimology!"

"Ah, oui oui! It's in the station. Would you like to follow us there?"

"Oh, how nice of you to ask!" Emily faked surprise. "Let's go!"

"Hey, what about the scene?" Richard nudged Emily, seeing her so eager to go somewhere else.

"It's not a crime scene. There isn't much else we can do here."

"But what if there are clues? What if later on we forget something?"

"Pff, please! I profiled this place the second we stepped foot in here. I'm done and I'm bored. Let's move."

Richard's heart was bursting with so many emotions. He loved seeing Emily in action, she was kicking ass!

They got in a minivan with the three guys and Richard looked out the window, figuring out where they were going.

"The game headquarters." Emily stated, reading through his curious stare.

"How on Earth-…"

"There were a Police Station and an Interrogation Room plastic signs behind the reception where we signed up this morning – props for later on in the game. I was expecting this."

"Wow…" He just sighed. This woman's attention to details was incredible.

As suspected, they ended up in the game headquarters where they were walked into a small room, with the Police Station sign hanging crooked over the door. As expected, the prop had been put there for later in the game, to make it seem like they were in a different place than just the game's office.

"This…we uh, so far we have these victims." The fake FBI Agent said as he pointed at a few photos that were scattered on the table, overlaying and giving zero respect to the victims.

Emily cringed as she picked them up and walked over to the pin board, laying them out nicely, in order, as she analyzed the autopsy reports and the time of death of each of the seven victims. She drew a timeline of events and put up the most important facts in the most synthesized and efficient way.

"I thought this was a domestic terrorism investigation. A spy game, indeed…" Richard fed her, knowing perfectly well how she'd shine then.

And Emily Prentiss did not disappoint.

"Oh yeah, I know. Because domestic terrorism and spy stuff rarely ever leave victims and open cases behind!" Emily rolled her eyes, searching for something else now.

He could not help but fall for her even harder.

"Where's the map?" She asked the Agent in charge.

"What map?"

"Ugh, where's Reed when you need him!" Emily muttered underneath her breath, while waiting for one of the other guys to hand her a map of Paris.

Once she had that, she added it to the board before picking up a few extra pins and figuring out the locations of the victims' discovery.

"Oh, right here." Richard helped her out with the first street name and they worked the rest of it out together until Emily was content with the geoprofiling she'd done.

"Hmm…" She murmured. "This is giving us nothing, really. I don't think the game organizers know jack shit about geoprofiling anyway, so it's highly unlikely any of this is going to be of use…" She pointed at the map with a frown on her face.

"If you promise not to bite my head off, I can be honest with you…" Richard threaded lightly.

"I can take it. Spill!" She urged him.

"I know you can. I'm afraid for my own wellbeing here." He chuckled before adding the rest. "I am positive that we just wasted about ten minutes doing…this…profiling…thing…" He trailed in between the words, not wanting to call it geoprofiling, even if Emily had been clear that it was the right term.

"Victims were scattered all around Paris. Wait, hold on…there's always a park or some sort of a playground nearby. Could it be connected to…I don't know…anything to do with children?" Emily supposed out of the blue.

"Well, judging by his reaction, I'd say you might be onto something here." Richard pointed out how one of the fake FBI guys' face changed once Emily mentioned children.

"Good enough for me. Let's go!" She commanded, grabbing Richard's hand and dragging him out.

"Madame, you can't just leave a Police Station!" One of the actors tried to keep her there, as their purpose was to make them waste time inside, so they wouldn't be back out there, searching for the object or person that they needed to bring back in order to win the game.

"You're right, Sir. My bad." Emily stopped in place, turning around a bit too obediently.

Richard held in his breath, awaiting what crazy thing she might say or do next.

"I have the right to know on what grounds are you detaining me for 24 hours and what is your concrete evidence?" She requested.

"Uh, uuuh…bomb threat." One of the boys said.

"I disarmed the bomb, I complied with the FBI, I am in the Police Station on my own free will. I have also not been read my Miranda rights and you have no proof, neither suspicion of illegal activity, thus no right to keep me here. And I would very much like to go have an ice-cream now, so au revoir!" Her voice went a bit high-pitched as she greeted them in French at the end and she continued towards the exit, with Richard just a step behind her.

"I'm not going to lie – this was so cool!" He pointed out.

"Mhm. And I'm not going to lie, whatever you showed them earlier must be way cooler than my criminal knowledge, so good job, partner!"

"Well, I won't tell you what it was, but it was pretty cool of me, huh?" He fished for a compliment with a grin on his face. "We got them to tell us what they know about the investigation so far and we walked out of there with something valuable…"

Emily gasped when she saw a photo he'd managed to snap while inside the Police Station.

"Please tell me you have all the victims' photos!" She pleaded.

"Nope, just the most important one." He kept his phone in her face.

Apparently, there was only one photo and she did not seem happy about it.

"The most important victim is always the first victim." She sighed. "And that right here is the second one."

"Focus…" He urged her.

"This is the second victim!" Emily stated once again.

"Don't let your emotions take over. Think!" He said in a very calm manner, his voice sounding way too soothing.

"Wow…"

"What?" He asked, unsure how to take Emily's reaction.

"Oh, it's just…" Her shoulders shrugged a bit and she chuckled. "It's a long story, but many years ago someone used to tell me those exact words. I had a déjà vu."

"You never know…it could have been me…" He imitated a creepy voice, teasing her.

"No, it was a woman, actually." Emily smiled, thinking about her. "Victoria…I called her Vixy. She hated it."

"I'm sure she was just teasing you."

"She wasn't! She was so headstrong and so damn smart. I will forever be grateful to whatever Godly creature that assigned her to me when I needed her the most."

After a deep sigh, Emily thought back of those days. It had been right in the middle of the Doyle case when Victoria had taken over from Clyde, giving Lauren her instructions and commands. No matter how tough Victoria had been, Emily had felt a strong connection to her instantly.

Clyde had been a great leader at first, but certain things had happened and Clyde had no longer been the most suitable Agent to handle Lauren Reynolds. Then Victoria had stepped in and Emily had had absolutely no idea who the Hell she was and where she'd come from, but she'd praised the Lord for having her as her Handler for a while.

"Tell me about Victoria." Richard asked curiously as they walked down the street and he kept an eye out for something specific.

"She was funny and sarcastic." Emily started off with a smile.

"Were you friends?"

"Not exactly." Emily gulped, realizing it would be impossible to be honest and tell him that Victoria had been her Handler during her CIA spy days.

"But you cared about her, right?"

"Not romantically, if that's what you are asking." Emily laughed out loud. "Although, I sometimes have this weird dream that Victoria magically becomes a man and we walk down the aisle. Weird, right!?"

"Dreams are not supposed to make much sense anyway." He laughed politely, checking out their reflection as they walked by the dark windows of a bank.

Emily walked confidently, she stood tall, even by his side as he towered next to her. Her chin was held up and there was that determination in her eyes. He held her hand like a gentleman, walking down the street like she belonged to him…like he belonged to her, too. They looked good together, visibly different with all of their features, but somehow complementing their looks, adding to each other's little quirks and acting like a unit, like a team.

"True, but apart from a couple of nightmares, I've never had something recurring s often as this dream abut Victoria. I don't really believe in finding the meaning of dreams, but I've always wondered about this specific one."

"That woman must have done something extraordinary for you, if you still think of her so often."

"She did. I believe she saved my life more than once."

"Physically?"

"Nope. Mentally…" Emily smiled, taking a moment to check their reflection in the next dark window of the same bank. She'd seen Richard take a peek and she was curious to do so, as well, before they'd walk past the bank and towards one of those fancy shops with the see through windows that she wouldn't be able to use as mirrors.

He seemed proud to have her by his side, like she was something big, something worthy, something precious that complimented his look, his vibe, his whole exterior. She felt like a valued piece to his persona, which was something she'd never felt with any other guy.

"Victoria gave me some amazing advice when I needed it the most. I'm glad a woman took over for my previous, uhm…friend."

"A guy?"

"Yup." Emily sighed. She'd been majorly pissed with Clyde's modus operandi at some point during the Doyle case.

"Do you think you would have clicked so well with Victoria as a new friend if she was a man, too?"

"That is a weird ass question!" Emily blurted too quickly, before realizing she sounded just like Angela, inserting the word 'ass' to reinforce a statement.

"Not so weird to ask after you shared about your dream where Victoria was a man."

"Touché…" Emily put one hand up in fake surrender, while holding the gentleman next to her with the other.

He had his hand angled a bit, so the triangle shape of his elbow had just enough space for Emily to slide her hand under as his palm was casually tucked in his front pocket. He seemed so cool and unbothered, almost giving that 'gangsta' vibe that actors in movies try to portray.

"The answer is no." She continued. "When I met Victoria, I needed a strong, powerful woman to connect to, to cling onto even. I needed to suck all the energy out of her, to hear all the positive things a female could tell me, to get closer to a woman who would be able to understand what I was going through. No man could ever do it for me, not back then…I wouldn't have survived without Victoria."

As she spoke, Richard smiled to himself. He was glad Emily felt so strong about someone.

"You don't have to suck anything…" He said in a whisper. "You can lick it, instead."

"God, Richard, eww!" Emily's free hand slapped his shoulder.

At the very least, she was happy he chose to say that in English and she hoped nobody on the street would have overheard or understood the reference.

"Ah, Emily, Emilyyy…" He teased slowly. "What are we going to do about that dirty mind of yours!?"

She gave him a cold look. Dirty mind!? There was nothing dirty about her mind when he had come out and said it in such an obvious way!

"We'll figure it out while we lick…our ice-creams." With the most evil grin, his pointy finger flew to a shop across the street, with its window covered in ice-cream shaped stickers and paper flowers in all color.

"I hate you!" Emily grunted, stomping her foot like a child.

How did he do this!? How was he constantly able to outsmart her, trick her, embarrass her, make her blush like this and worst of all – chuckle like Angela!?

"Man, I have the best comeback about me hating how you'll lick something else, but I'm way above saying stuff like that." He said with a grin, enraging her even more.

They crossed the street and got in line behind five other people who were waiting to get a sweet treat.

For a long moment Emily seemed pensive, she was way too quiet.

"Can I see the photo again?" She requested after giving Richard's words some thought.

She really was too emotional and spontaneous earlier, when she argued about this being the second victim. If Richard quoted the same advice as Victoria once had, then maybe Richard was right, as well, and maybe Emily needed to be more attentive.

"Shiiiiiit!" She gasped after just two seconds with her eyes on the photo.

Richard had snapped the photo from the victims board, capturing the text Emily had scribbled under it, too.

"This is the second victim they found…" Emily pointed out the obvious – she'd written the discovery date on the board and it had been two days after the first girl the Police had discovered.

"But she'd already been dead for several days, so…" She continued. "This is victim number one!"

She gasped at her own statement. It was so damn obvious and she should have known better!

"You distract me!" Once again, she slapped his shoulder very delicately.

He just grinned at her.

"Wait…did you know this is victim number one – the most important victim?" Her brows visibly changed shape as she asked.

"Oh my God, you knew! How on Earth would you know!?" She answered herself before asking him another question.

"The autopsy reports were in my hands first. I'm very good at noticing details. I saw the estimated time of death for this girl was days before the first girl they found. It was obvious." He replied.

"How!? How are you good at noticing details!?"

"You almost sound jealous about that." He gave her a small wink, further enraging her.

Yes, she was jealous!

"Escape rooms." He said out of the blue.

"Huh?"

"I enjoy escape rooms and they're all about noticing small details."

"How does a huge guy like you enjoy such nerdy activities?"

"I was hanging out with someone much younger than me. She was obsessed with escape rooms and she was great at noticing details. I guess I learned a few things from her and no, there was absolutely nothing romantic about us. Not at all, oh wow!" He cringed, anticipating what Emily might understand by his words. At the same time, he couldn't really mention little Bella without going into further detail, so he had been as vague as he possibly could.

"Can we go do one together?" Surprisingly, Emily felt attracted to the idea of that.

"We should, maybe, focus on this case here first, partner." He said with a wink.

Emily saw that there were now only four people waiting for ice-cream and she concocted a plan.

"I'll be right back…" She excused herself, walking out the sweets shop and dialing a number frantically.

"Arrrambphhhhssst?" A male voice picked up the phone after the twelfth ring.

"Are you drunk?" Emily laughed. He hadn't been able to formulate a simple 'Hello'.

"Are you insane!? Do you have any idea what time it is here!?"

"Oh shit, I did not consider time difference. My bad…"

"What do you want, Emily?"

"Listen, this will only take a minute, but what's your professional opinion if…" Emily then took a deep breath and poured all the details over the sleepy man.

"That was one painfully long minute and God, you speak way too much!" He commented. "But my opinion is that you are insane to be working on a case while on vacation in Europe. Goodbye, Emily, it is my day off, too." He said grumpily, but somehow jokingly.

"Wait, Rossi!" She pleaded. "I really need your opinion on this!"

"Fine, but you owe me a nice bottle of wine!"

"And a Cuban cigar – I promise!" She grinned. Of course she knew just how to bribe him.

"That first victim is suspicious. All the other ones are somewhat high risk, as you described them, but this one seems too polished…Are you sure this isn't some sort of revenge?"

"Gang-related? I don't know, Dave. Gang crime is usually a one-off offence when it comes to murder, aimed only to scare someone. If the first victim was the intended one, why continue?"

"With only two and a half hours of sleep, I cannot give you an answer to this."

"Come on, you've done way better than that!"

"Damn, I love it when you give me compliments." Rossi smirked to himself. Emily always pointed out how incredibly smart and able he was and how much she admired him.

"So…my case!?"

"Right…what if she wasn't just murdered, but silenced, instead? What if she was part of whatever organization you're dealing with? Or maybe she was a witness?"

"Hmm, she may have been offed by someone close to her – someone the Police would find easily, unless they break the connection to this victim by sprawling several other ones all across the city…" Emily thought out loud.

"Wait, didn't you say the FBI was involved? You have the authority to take over as FBI, you don't even need to use your Interpol credentials."

"Oh, uhm, that…it's…complicated." She sighed.

It was just a game, but she'd left that little detail out while explaining the case to Rossi.

"Either way, you have all the power to be part of this, more than just an outside spectator."

"Right…this does not help me much, but I'll run with it." With the corner of her eye she saw it was almost Richard's turn to et ice-cream, so she cut the call short.

"Thanks, Rossi and I'll make it up to you!" She said before having him hang up on her halfway through the final greeting.

She walked back in just in time for the guy at the counter to ask what flavors she wanted.

"Since I know this guy already has a joke ready in case I order vanilla, I'll have mango, blueberry and caramel. Thank you." She told the boy, giving Richard a victorious look.

"Damn!" He hissed. She had ruined a perfectly inappropriate joke by straying away from the vanilla flavor. "Also, you managed to make a disgusting combination – fruit and caramel!?"

"Yes. I know someone else who likes those three flavors together. So!?" She said defensively, envisioning Angela and the last time they'd been out for an ice-cream when she'd shocked Emily with her choice of flavors.

"I knew someone who would pair caramel with anything and I mean anything! It was hilarious! I once made her pancakes and she couldn't choose which syrup to have, so she poured caramel, strawberry, chocolate and mint syrup on both pancakes…and she actually ate everything. Eww!"

"Hmm, coming to think of it, Angela would probably do the same." Emily laughed.

"I hope whoever you called was in our time zone, by the way…"

"He wasn't. And I owe him a nice present from Paris now, but…" For a moment she stopped and thought of Rossi's words a bit.

Richard and her walked out, holding their ice-creams and standing in a corner to enjoy them before continuing the game.

"I feel like we're stuck now. We have no clues where to go from here." Richard interrupted Emily's thoughts, just as she was analyzing what Rossi may have meant when he'd said she had the power to be part of it all.

"…not just as a spectator…" The words rolled off Emily's tongue subconsciously as she finished quoting Rossi's advice.

"That's kind of what we are, you know?" He reminded her.

"Uhm, no…" With a quick motion she let Richard hold her ice-cream as she proceeded to empty the contents of the small bag they had been given at the beginning of the game.

Richard gulped as he saw her randomly throw the bag on the first available table she saw on the sidewalk. It was kind of rude, but at least the table belonged to the same place they'd just gotten ice-cream from, so they had the right to use it, technically.

"Ah-ha!" Emily grinned, holding a torn piece of paper in one hand.

"A photo of some weirdo…" Richard pointed out, not impressed by it.

It wasn't until Emily turned the half photo around that he started to look content.

"Looks like an address. See – street, neighborhood and PA as in Paris maybe?" He trailed a finger over the little text left on the back of the photo after someone had torn it in half.

"Oh my God!" Emily nearly screamed as she realized something.

"What!? What!?" Richard jumped.

Not even saying a word, Emily reached for his pocket, retrieving his phone and unblocking it before she laid eyes on the first victim's photo that appeared instantly on the screen.

"…I have all the power to be part of this…" She reminded herself, using Rossi's words.

Her left hand extended, grabbing her ice-cream from him after she quickly put the few items back in the bag and slid his phone back in his pocket.

"Right, so maybe right after you explain what you mean with that, you can also explain how on Earth did you know my lock screen code!?"

"Professional deformation." She winked at him. "Also known as – subconscious attention to details."

Did he really think he was the only one to have genius-like abilities?

"Damn, nobody has ever figured out my passcode!" He said grumpily as he started walking after Emily who did not even say a word as she headed back down the street where they'd just come from.

A few minutes later they entered the fake Police Station again, demanding to speak to the man in charge.

However, as soon as she laid eyes on the goofy FBI guy who'd been the one acting strange all along, she knew better.

She walked behind the reception desk, grabbing the Interrogation Room sign and replacing the Police Station one with it.

"Sorry, guys, but I have a case to solve and this ain't moving fast enough for me." She told the actors who were trying really hard not to laugh at this middle-aged woman's enthusiasm.

"You!" Emily pointed at the goofy one before quickly emptying the table and dragging a squeaky chair near it.

"Sit!"

Like a scared little boy, this twenty-year-old obliged.

Richard, standing a few steps away, could hear the other two fake FBI agents discuss how this was not the way the game was supposed to go and that the purpose of the interrogation room was for them to question the game participants, not the other way around.

"Shh, let it play out." Richard whispered and thankfully they were not completely blind to the fact that this man was doing his absolute best in order to give Emily a fun game experience to remember.

Meanwhile, Emily had already bombarded the guy with a bunch of questions.

"I didn't do anything!" He kept on mumbling.

"Then how do you explain this!?" Emily threw her best piece of evidence on the table and he gulped before suddenly remaining quiet.

"Isn't this the same band from the bomber's t-shirt!?" Richard asked, finally noticing the small pin on the backpack Emily had thrown.

In the blink of an eye, it all became much more clear. One of the fake FBI Agents was in cahoots with the young bomber guy from the train station.

"You intentionally found the victims in a mixed order, trying to throw the investigation off. You communicated to the others that we were trying to figure things out, so they stopped talking to us and they quietly left. God knows how much planted evidence there is, just to confuse your colleagues even further…not that they seem too competent anyway." Emily thought out loud.

"You wanted the FBI to keep their eyes on the victims, which…fair enough…" Richard shrugged. "But…why? What was so important for you to keep a secret?"

"Nothi-…nothing!" The guy stuttered, sweating way more than what his role required. He was legit scared of this duo. The game players were usually way less aggressive in their approach, if they even went as far as making the connection to the music band merch without the game masters giving them direct clues about it.

"Family." Emily said calmly, surprising Richard.

The guy jumped in his seat.

"Hmm, he does have similar facial features like the guy from the station." Richard pointed out after giving himself a second to analyze Emily's one-word statement.

Family. Of course it would be about family, if this guy had gone through this much trouble to lie and cover things up.

"Tell me, how much training did you have to go through, just to throw it all out the window because of your dumb little brother's involvement with whatever terrorist organization?" Emily asked, to which Richard had to whisper, reminding her this was just a game and this guy probably didn't even know there was an FBI school to go to, before you become an Agent.

Emily rolled her eyes, once again trying to chill a bit.

The fake Agent then sang like a bird, giving them information that they'd both suspected already. He'd found himself in the horrible situation of having to cover up for his brother's actions, so he wouldn't be thrown in jail for his affiliation with the people who were responsible for the victims. And just as Richard had suspected – the first victim had been the most important one, as she'd had direct ties to the ringleader of it all.

Emily grabbed the photo from the board and made sure the FBI guy was in handcuffs in no time. However, just as she decided to leave, she had an idea.

"Keep the cuffs on…" She told his two fake FBI colleagues. "…but he's coming with us."

Dragging the guy towards a car parked right outside the game headquarters, Emily searched through the bag that she'd been carrying around.

"What are you doing?" Richard questioned.

"We need to open this car."

"We don't have a key." He reminded her.

"We don't need a key." She grinned, holding a small piece of paper in one hand.

"Okay…356801." Richard read the number on it, sounding skeptical.

Emily allowed him to analyze the situation for a moment as she played with the paper between her fingers.

"Right…no. I'm not getting it." He shrugged after a few awkward moments of silence.

"Of course you don't, you're too rich for this." Emily chuckled, nearing the car and interacting with the small numeric board on the driver's side.

"Ooooh, is that how you unlock a rental car?" Richard finally understood.

"Yup. There's an app and they give you a code to digit on the car and it opens. I was wondering when we might need this six-digit code and voila!" She said with a grin, helping the FBI guy to the back of the seat before she sat in the driver's seat. Of course she'd want to be the one in charge, even in the car.

"Are you sure you want to drive around Paris at this time of the day?" Richard smirked.

He may not know much about rental cars, owning enough of his own, but he knew a thing or two about Parisian traffic.

Emily nodded and he let her enjoy the confidence for about three red lights more, at which point he enjoyed her little meltdown situation, being stuck at a sharp curve, between a public transport bus and a trash truck.

"Don't you see me here!?" Emily screamed in French.

"Move! I can't see a thing! Move! Get the Hell away from me…move!"

Richard was biting his lower lip, exchanging a small smile with the guy in the back seat. Emily was just so entertaining.

"Need help?" Richard asked silently.

"No!" She bit back right before finally getting away from the two huge vehicles, only to be instantly stuck between three bicycles and a flashy government car, judging by the colored license plates.

A few colorful words later, Emily decided to hit the breaks in the middle of the road, seeing as she was barely moving at all. Everyone was maneuvering around her with the utmost arrogance, leaving her behind as she tried to get to the next crossroad where she'd need to somehow figure out how to go from the right lane to the left one, as she'd need to make a left turn.

"Screw it all, I ain't doing this!" She groaned, throwing her hands on the wheel with the vehicle now completely still.

Richard risked his life, walking out and around the car, softly pushing her towards the passenger's seat. Granted, he'd meant for her to walk out and get in from the other door, but Emily decided it was faster to just hop from one seat to the other instead.

He smiled to himself, remembering how little Bella had done the same after each time he'd found her in his car. She'd loved the driver's seat, but she'd hated the mere thought of ever having to drive, herself.

"Alright…" Richard said a few seconds later when he'd fixed the mirrors and placed the seat at a position where he was comfortable to hit the pedals and to sit back relaxed. "Mind telling me where we need to go?"

Emily showed him the photo she'd stolen from the victims board, turning it over, revealing a bunch of scrambled numbers.

"GPS coordinates. Good." The calm and collected manner in which he instantly admitted to knowing exactly what those numbers were made her smile.

Emily inserted the coordinates in the GPS of the car and they obtained a location. She relaxed back in her seat, allowing Richard to deal with the traffic on their way there, as she came up with a plan.

"May I know what's going on in there?" He asked, pointing at her head.

"Not just yet." She replied with a wink, searching for something inside the bag.

Soon enough they arrived at their destination. It wasn't far from the game headquarters, but it had taken them a bit to arrive with all the cars out at that time of the day. Emily realized why one of the game requirements was for at least one participant per team to have their license and be willing to drive, in order to even sign up. She'd been anticipating this ride, they'd made it a bit obvious from just how they'd put it in the game rules on the website.

"Drop your weapons and get to the ground. Now!" A male voice startled them, coming out of the small tent that had been set up in the middle of the secluded sidewalk.

Richard had barely stepped out of the car, while Emily still had one foot inside as the guy took them by surprise.

Emily was a bit slow to follow those orders. She was busy thinking of just how well this game had been organized – from the costumes, to all the young actors who played the different supporting roles, to the locations used so it would look authentic, yet not disturb the normal life in the city if something like this would happen on a busy street, in a popular quarter.

"Down, now!" The young guy repeated, urging Emily to get down to her knees, like Richard just had.

"Now!" He screamed at Emily who met him with an evil grin.

"Sure, but first…want to say Hello to the big brother on the back seat?" She suggested.

The young guy had been wearing a mask, but Emily had recognized his voice, plus she was expecting to meet the guy who was responsible for the bomb attack, just as she'd made the connection between him and the FBI guy.

"Shit…" He muttered to himself.

He'd been participating in this game for nearly a year now, but never had he ever had a contestant bring his fake brother to a negotiation.

"Right, so if my partner would, please, have some dignity and get the fuck up…" Emily ironized, watching Richard on one knee next to the car. "…so we can proceed to you giving me what I want and me not ratting your dumb ass brother out."

She bluffed so hard. The other two FBI guys already knew their colleague was dirty, but she'd milk any and every chance to get what she wanted now.

"What do you want?" The younger one hissed.

"Sanaya." Emily smiled.

"No!"

"Yes…" She kept on smiling. If this was an actual negotiation, the other guy would be so damn annoyed.

"I said no!"

"No because you don't want to give me Sanaya or No because you don't know where Sanaya is?" She questioned.

Meanwhile, Richard was slowly getting up and calculating the odds of something happening.

As if Emily knew exactly what was on his mind, she kept on distracting the young guy by saying whatever random thing that came to her mind. She also never gave Sanaya a gender, nor did she refer to it as a person or a thing. She already had her suspicion about what it was, but she needed a confirmation.

The handcuffed FBI guy stayed quietly in the back seat, letting it all play out. So far, just a few groups had gotten this far ahead in the game and not without numerous tips and hints form the game masters. He only just realized that these two crazy old people never asked for a hint, they never got any help to push them in the right direction and yet they were ahead in the game and smashing every step of it.

A short back and forth of unpleasantries initiated and Emily could tell how the actor guy felt awkward to be acting so rude with her, but it was all for the fun. And yet, she had absolutely no mercy for him as she negotiated her ass off, using his disgruntled FBI agent brother as leverage.

Two minutes in, he surrendered.

"Ey, partner?" Emily called out to Richard.

"You into that kind of stuff?" She asked with a wink, tossing a pair of plastic handcuffs at him.

"Yes…you?" He winked right back, handcuffing the terrorist swiftly, turning him around and making him bend over against the car so he'd have his hands behind him, allowing for an easy arrest.

A little too easy, indeed. Emily found it way too swift and smooth, almost as if Richard had done this before.

Good – she thought to herself. At least this was some sort of a reassurance that Richard had been on the right side of the handcuffs dance of two.

With both guys in the back of what they were supposed to believe was a Police car, Emily tossed the key back to Richard so he'd drive them back to the Police Station. He complied and they discussed a few non game related topics until Richard grew suspicious of something happening in the backseat. With the corner of his eye he started paying some attention to the backseat through the rear view mirror, while still listening to Emily go on and on about detainment procedures in the US.

"B-l-o…" Richard started to mutter quietly.

"If this ends on 'job', you're insane!" Emily scolded him.

"M…" He continued, rolling his eyes at what she thought he might just randomly blurt out.

It was fun to watch her sink into her seat from the imminent embarrassment she felt.

"E…t…B…l…o…m…" He continued muttering util he realized it was one thing, on repeat.

"Blomet!" He said, making Emily shrug initially, until she remembered something.

"Wait…Blomet? Sounds very familiar…why?" She raised an eyebrow, giving herself a moment to think.

He let her think. He'd already figured it out, but he wanted her to enjoy this experience more, to be the one to figure the most riddles out and to solve the majority of this case or whatever it really was, since it didn't feel like just a game anymore.

"Blomet, yes, yes! It's the name of a street!" Emily finally said. "It was in that Pasteur area from the beginning of the game. We walked down that street on the way back, right before we passed that Catholic school, right?"

"That is correct, Agent." He teased, but Emily tensed up a bit, hearing the word 'Agent' escape his lips.

"It's Emily!" She blurted out, a bit too quickly. "I'm Emily to you."

Richard gulped.

"How did you figure the word Blomet out?" She changed the topic swiftly.

"Oh, the dudes were taking turns in spelling it out in Morse code." Like it was no big deal, Richard explained it calmly.

"Ughhh we even tried spelling it in turns so they won't figure it out easily!" The fake FBI guy whispered to his actor brother, both of them wondering how were those two players so damn good. Normally it would take them a while to even get the message across, even after giving major spoilers and help that would nearly solve the entire case for the players.

"Can I get some water?" The fake FBI guy asked.

"No. Shut up!" Emily hissed at him, just because she found it so funny to be able to speak like this to a colleague and then not have to face the consequences.

"Think about it like you were law enforcement, Brigitte!" Richard encouraged her, using the code name she'd chosen for her spy self that day.

In the back of her mind Emily started to analyze the situation. They had a street named Blomet, which they had figured out was close to the game headquarters and the place where it had all started a few hours ago. They also had 'water' and the use or Morse Code, which Emily had already found unsuspicious as the FBI guy would have surely had to go through Morse Code training at the FBI Academy. Didn't Angela mention such a training to her just recently?

And as she thought of Angela, she decided to put herself in the girl's shoes. How would Angela analyze this? She'd probably overanalyze the entire thing, which made Emily chuckle. Angela was such a daydreamer, her imagination had no limits and she was able to come up with the most outrageous theories. She would probably think that 'water' represented the ocean on a planet, named Blomet. Why not? Angela would believe her own self.

"The pool!" Emily gasped.

Having given Angela's presumed wild theory, Emily had remembered seeing a swimming pool poster on the Blomet street that morning. It had grabbed her attention for a very specific reason – back in the days after Doyle's vicious attack, when Emily had been accompanied to Paris by JJ and left there to heal for the following seven months, she'd expressed a desire to go swimming. However, Paris not being near the seaside, plus with the autumn weather not allowing for an outdoors pool, Emily had been forced to research for indoor pools in the area she'd lived in. Being a bit away from the game area, she never even realized there was a pool out there, which was too bad now that she considered the possibility of walking to the Eiffel Tower on foot right after a nice, relaxing swim.

"Maybe Angela isn't that weird, after all…" Unintentionally, Emily said out loud.

"Huh?" His voice startled Emily.

"Oh, did I say it out loud?" She blushed slightly. "I just meant that Angela would have come to that conclusion right away."

"Sounds like this girl has an analytic mind. That's cool." As he spoke, Emily smiled to herself.

"She must have learned from the best." She muttered.

"Indeed." With a smile on his own face, he made arrangements for them to head over to the swimming pool on Blomet street.

Ten minutes later they were met by a cracked open door.

"Technically, it's not breaking and entering if the door is already opened." She stated.

"Only if we have probable cause that someone might be in danger inside." He quickly reminded her.

"Ugh, fine…" Giving herself just two seconds to roll her eyes, Emily pretended to have heard something coming from the inside. "Did someone scream for help?"

Sighing deeply, he cracked the door further, walking in first, as if to scan the perimeter and to make sure it would be safe for Emily to follow him.

"Hold on!" Emily froze in place, right before they'd turn the corner and finally see the swimming pool area.

They'd quickly walked past the boys' and girls' changing rooms, a large shared bathroom and a canteen area, but something in their gut was telling them that the actual pool was where they needed to be. After all, wasn't the clue about water!?

"Do you hear this?"

"Emily, nobody is screaming for help!" He announced, hearing only silence and the humming sound of some water-cleansing machine that was currently working.

"Shh!" With her pointy finger against his lips, Emily forced him to shut up and listen more carefully.

Once he concentrated, the humming sound became a bit louder and cleared, but besides it there was also another sound, coming from a different direction.

"Tick…tock…" Emily dragged out, in a voice that was chilling and scary to Richard.

She seemed to be enjoying this way too much and she was scarily calm and collected about the fact that they'd just found a second bomb in under two hours.

"Are you serious!? Again!?" He lamented.

Emily followed the ticking sound until she was at the corner of the swimming pool. Tucked underneath the kids' slide, there was a parcel.

"Don't touch it!" He hissed, the moment her hand reached out for it.

"Would you relax? It's just a game!" She took the chance to tease him now, being the one to remind a freaked out Richard that this was all just for fun.

"Plus – I know what I'm doing here." She added with a smirk.

Very slowly and carefully, she unpacked the actual bomb from the cloth it was covered with. Then, she took a deep breath and looked around, studying the venue.

"Get me a large cup, a glass, a water bottle – anything you find in the canteen!" She commanded.

"Yes, Sir!" He teased her, pretending to be annoyed by her bossing around.

"I'm sorry, I meant to say please." She gave him a quick glance, smiling at him.

"Now!" She hissed when a few seconds later Richard was still wasting time, looking at her like it was the first time he was seeing her face.

"Okay, okaaay!" He dragged out, heading in the direction of the canteen. "This woman would be the end of me…uhhh!"

"I heard that!" She called out, letting him know that mumbling to himself was not going to be a thing from this point on.

A minute later, he emerged with a paper cup and a small water jug.

Emily picked the jug and she knelt down on the edge of the pool, filling it with water before handing it to him.

"Right, so…when I give you the sign you will pour it slowly, in a thin stream, at a 90 degrees angle. You copy?" Once again, she took the lead.

He nodded.

Emily inspected the bomb. It reeked of cheap plastic and it looked nothing like any other bomb she'd ever seen, but it would do.

"So, which wire should we cut…the red one?" Richard asked the obvious question.

Wasn't that exactly what every Hollywood action movie character did, when facing a bomb?

"The red wire method is a myth, sorry to break it to you." Emily shrugged.

"But…there's a red wire…see?" His finger flew to it.

"In this case – yes."

"What do you mean? There are bombs with no red wire!?" Richard gasped, playing into it.

"Ugh, yes."

"Then what should you do?"

"Well, if there is no red wire, you cut the second wire on the line." Emily said.

"What if there's only one wire?"

"That's technically impossible. Plus, bomb creators like to put as many wires as possible, just because dumbasses like you like to watch too much American TV, so their minds get boggled with the idea of cutting one of the wires and they stop thinking clearly."

"Ouch!" Richard faked a frown.

In reality he was loving this sassy, confident, knowledgeable version of Emily.

"Okay, so red wire is a red herring…" He summed it up. "We need to cut the second wire, in this case – the blue one. Right?"

"Nope."

"What!? Are you serious!? You literally just told me so!"

"It would only be correct if the last wire wasn't white. In which case – you cut the last wire." Emily said while still silently concocting a plan of action.

"Fine, so cut the damn last wire then and let's get out of here. This place reeks of chloroform." Richard pinched his nose. He'd always disliked the strong chemical smell of pools and this one being an indoors pool was even worse. Poor ventilation, it was clearly closed for maintenance at the time being and his head was starting to spin from the fumes of whatever thing there was in those water cleaning machines.

"In this case, if you had to choose a wire, it would be this one…" Emily's finger pointed at the third wire from right to left.

It was such a random one to choose. There was nothing special about it and her choice would seem absolutely unjustified to any normal human being.

"But…you said it's the white one…"

"Only in cases where there is just one blue wire on the line. Here, we have three. So, in this specific case we would need to cut the last blue wire, which is the third to last wire."

"Fine, just do it, okay?" He urged her.

"I won't."

"What!? Woman, are you playing with me!?"

"Do you see a pair of scissors anywhere!?" She sighed. "If we needed to cut a wire, the game masters would have provided us with the tool to do so.

"Hmm, you might be right about that one."

"I am. And I do not appreciate you doubting my tactical decisions." She said, scrunching her nose.

Richard tried to decipher that – were her nostrils also irritated by the chemical smell…or was she cringing from disgust over the fact that her very own partner dared doubt her on the field?

She then inspected the fake bomb and all of its parts.

"Ready?" She asked.

"Wait! No! Ready for what? Emily!?"

"Pour it riiiight here." Her finger tapped gently on one part of the bomb.

"What…the water!?"

"Yes."

"Emily…this is a bomb, not a fire."

"Yes."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Are you kind of crazy!?"

"Yes."

"Are you going to say anything other than Yes?"

"Yes." She grinned. Those quick back-and-forth quarrels made her feel alive.

"Pour the goddamn water, now!" She added, making him instantly regret wishing that she'd utter anything other than a Yes.

He obeyed, pouring a thin stream of water, precisely on a 90 degree angle. Emily was kind of impressed at how quickly he reacted, given that they'd been joking around right before that, so his focus must have been very wonky.

With the corner of her eye she took a glimpse of the man who would probably do cartwheels in a ballerina costume, for her to be entertained. It was nice to be hanging out with someone as smart, quick-thinking and fun like Richard and the fact that he was easy on the eyes, too, was an added bonus.

"Now!" He whispered, giving her a sign.

Emily slowly detached a part of the bomb.

She made a small sign in the air, hoping that since the game masters were always following how the game was going, they'd take the sign as an indication that the bomb was diffused.

Seconds later, the ticking sound was still going on, so Emily decided to explain her strategy, so the game masters would make the ticking stop.

"Water can be used to control a magnesium incendiary bomb and the resulting fires in nearby combustible materials." She started off.

"True - bomb disposal robots typically render explosives inert by firing a high-pressure jet of water at wires on the device." Richard stated out of the blue, speaking calmly, like it was no big deal.

"Wow, look at you – bomb expert!" Emily realized that he'd only played earlier, pretending to be absolutely clueless when it came to explosives.

"Got a few more tricks up my sleeve, Brigitte." He let her know with a very cheeky wink.

In any other occasion, Emily Prentiss would hate the fact that she did not know absolutely everything about a guy who was teasing her so mercilessly. She always had to have the upper hand, she always had to know it all – that was how she'd survived, on the job, for so many years, especially those years she'd spent in deep undercover.

The thought of that particular time of her life made her break focus for a second, as she shuddered.

"Head n the game!" Richard's soft voice reminded her.

It was incredible! How did he even know? Could he sense that Emily's inner mood had shifted? How was he always able to know when she was on one of her inner thoughts, long voyages through her painful memories?

In any other occasion, Emily Prentiss would also hate the fact that not only did Richard have the upper hand, seemingly keeping a whole bunch of secrets of his own, but he was also able to read her in a way that nobody ever had.

And yet, in this very occasion, she felt oddly at peace with it all. It was even fun to know that there was yet more to find out about him and her insides tickled in anticipation for the moment he'd decide to share an additional little piece to the mix.

Regaining her composure, Emily realized that the timer of the fake bomb stopped ticking. She was sure there was a much easier way to disarm it, for the game purposes, but she'd wanted to show off in front of Richard, even if it meant then having to explain her actions so that the game staff would overhear and realize that she had disarmed it some other way.

For a quick moment Emily thought about this game once more – there were actors, different venues, scenarios, different crimes that were intertwined and at moments like this one in the swimming pool, there were microphones near them, so the game masters could listen in on the conversations and know what the players were doing, saying and coming up with, when it came to strategy.

It was structured so well that at times it was easy to let the adrenaline take over until you'd forget it wasn't part of reality anymore.

Richard knew a bit more about this game than he'd led on, but he wasn't willing to tell her about it just yet. He did not know the theme, the hurdles and the answers that they needed to find out, but he knew why this game had been created and most importantly – whom it was designed for.

"Alright…you might be useful…" Emily murmured when her curious hands continued to play with the fake bomb until she found a small compartment that opened up when she pushed it. Inside, there was a small key.

"That was in the notebook." Richard commented, taking the small notebook out of their gamers bag of tools and searching for a page he'd seen earlier.

"That's right!" Emily gasped, studying a small drawing of a weirdly shaped box, with a key drawn next to it, with the same red dot on it, as the one she was holding in her hand now.

"Looks like a-…" Richard started off, but Emily interrupted him.

"Motorbike storage box!"

He shot her a glance, wondering just how many guys' motorbikes she'd been on, so she'd be so damn quick to state that.

"Don't ask." She winked at him, anticipating the question he had in his mind.

"There were a bunch of bikes parked outside. I found it weird, since the pool is not even open for visitors at the moment. I mean, it could always be that the locals are using the pool's parking space for the time being, but still…worth checking out?" Richard suggested.

"Mhm."

Once outside, they started testing the key against every box until they found the right one that opened. Inside, there was another notebook and a plastic toy gun.

Emily skimmed the text, learning a bit more about their case. They'd just found the diary of the handyman who had carried out the hits on the victims they'd earlier put on the victims board, in the Police Station.

"It all slowly starts to make sense now." Richard commented, showcasing the gun. "Murder weapon…we can run ballistics and fingerprint analysis and we'll have the handyman in custody. Then, you can wear the crap out of him until he gives us the name of whoever hired him."

"No need." She said.

"Huh, wait…why?"

Emily took a few more seconds to finish reading what was on the notebook before ultimately explaining herself.

"This profiles as highly-organized crime. It is very non-fitting that the people involved would hire a hitman to do their dirty job, not to mention that if it is gang-related as we originally thought, then gangs almost exclusively handle their own business with their own hands, no middle man!"

"I mean…you're right, but how do you explain someone being highly intelligent and at the same time mistyping 'goggles' twice on one tiny page?"

"She didn't."

"She?" Richard gasped.

"Yes, the hitman is female. I can go on about the way I profiled her actions and her individual crimes, or you could just not ask again and we both agree that it was a female."

"Hmm, well in this case, can I have another look at the notebook, please?"

Emily handed it to him and let him read the few sentences once more.

"Yeah, you're right – linguistically speaking, this is most definitely a woman!" He stated.

"Seriously!?" Emily said scoldingly, with her hands on her hips, looking at him disapprovingly. "Did you just waste precious time to go prove something that I've already established as a fact!?"

"I will make it up to you tonight." He said sweetly, but even that did not help tame Emily's daemons down.

"And no, I wanted to be sure of something." He then added mysteriously.

"And…?"

"And…I am sure of it now."

"And…?"

"And…that lipstick shade looks amazing on you!"

Emily folded her arms in front of her chest now. She'd tried to make him tell her what was on his mind, but he was just trolling.

"Come on, we have to get back to the Police Station." He urged her and she sighed in annoyance as she still did not know what his thoughts were.

On the way there, Richard explained to her that the line about 'your blue eyes' in the notebook was what made him think about the young guy from the train station – the one they now had in custody. He had sparkling blue eyes and Richard also explained that since motorbike storage boxes usually have two sets of keys – an original and a backup one; he believed that this mystery woman was using this box and the notebook in it to communicate with the blue eyed boy.

"I would have pointed out the two very distinct styles of writing, had you not urged me to start walking." Emily said grumpily.

She'd noticed that, but then forgotten to tell Richard about it, as they'd spoken about something else.

Once in the station, Emily headed towards where the male criminal was held.

"You'd be wasting your time." Richard whispered to her. "Plus, I'm pretty sure the actor is already out there, interacting with the other players, so…"

Emily nodded. He was right, once again.

"So, we have this notebook and a connection. We can work with that." Emily grabbed a chair for herself and sat down comfortably.

"Your blue eyes…" Richard pointed out, to help them start analyzing.

"Goggles…why goggles? I mean, you do put them on your eyes and we were just at a swimming pool, but still…it is way out of context here." Emily added.

"Call me…" Richard read. "Your phone…"

"Charging…" Emily caught yet another word that had to do with phones.

"We need to access the evidence room!" Richard suggested, remembering how the young boy had clutched onto his phone after they'd arrested him.

Ten minutes later, they walked out of the evidence room, with GPS coordinates for some place. Emily had figured out that 'goggles' really meant 'googles', so she'd checked his Google search history and she'd obtained the coordinates in no time.

Since they did not have access to the car from earlier anymore, Emily checked the coordinates on a computer at the game headquarters while the same guy who'd done their briefing that morning was smirking and eyeing her up and down like she was some type of a royalty.

It felt nice, if she had to be honest. She knew they were smashing the game and she could tell they were far ahead of the other groups of players, so that was cool.

"Oh, yumm!" Emily licked her lips, realizing that the address belonged to a 'Fromagerie' – a French style cheese shop, on the very same street as the Police Station.

They headed there, being welcomed by two actors at the door. For a few minutes they conversed, with the two guys firmly against letting Emily and Richard in. However, once Emily laid out what they already knew about this case, plus throwing in a sweet little deal for them, in turn for their cooperation and testimony in court, they both took a step back and surrendered.

Finally, it was revealed that inside the cheese shop, a hostage was being kept.

"Hey there." Emily said sweetly, extending her hand to help the girl stand up on her feet after she'd been crouching behind the counter desk for so long, unsure if those two people were really her saviors or yet two more bad people.

"Hi." The girl shivered.

"Here, come on…we're getting you out of here." Emily said softly and the young actress nearly chuckled.

Through the other editions of the game, people had been kind of rude and kind of impatient with her. It was obvious that she was a huge piece of the puzzle, so everyone's instinct had been to interrogate her right then and there, disregarding the fact that had this been an actual hostage situation then the girl would be malnourished, scared out of her mind, possibly even beaten up and too scared to even speak a word.

But this woman was nice and gentle, she embraced the girl and led her out of the shop while whispering soothing things to her. She said her name was Emily and that she was there to help her. She said that nobody was going to hurt her anymore and that they had a bunch of people in custody already. But she never made a request, nor asked the girl a question until they were safely out on the street. It was then that the girl told her story, finally making it all make sense.

The blue-eyed boy was a criminal, despite his brother being FBI. At some point, he'd gotten himself involved with a gang that had slowly introduced him to guns, street violence and selling illegal substances. He'd then met a girl, but before he knew it she'd turned out to be the girlfriend of the leader of another gang – the one that ruled the city streets currently. Being town, he started playing for both gangs, so he'd be closer to the girl he liked. However, he'd gotten busted by the girl's boyfriend and he'd been forced to now go against his original gang, planting bombs on their turf, stealing their drugs and guns, slowly making sure said gang won't exist too much longer.

And then the bodies had dropped. The girl explained why the killings happened, how they happened and what they meant. The original victim was, indeed, the girl the police had found second, which was as much as Emily and Richard knew. However, hearing her words blew this whole case wide open. She was not only a witness to those murders, as the girls had been kidnapped and held in the same cheese shop as her, which for the game purposes was sort of the gang hang out spot; but she was also leverage.

"You said you have that FBI Agent in custody?" She asked Emily at some point.

"Yes."

"Well, I'm his girlfriend." The girl's words made Emily's jaw drop. "I was originally kidnapped, just to make him comply, as the gang wanted his younger brother to do things that he wasn't able to do without his help and connections."

It only took Emily and Richard less than five minutes with the girl before they were able to fit all the pieces together until it all made sense.

"Woah, gotta admit – this turned out to be a tad bit more complicated than what I originally believed it would be." Emily broke her Brigitte spy persona for a second, whispering to Richard.

"Is it a good time to let you know this was the game with the highest difficulty rate, out of all the games they offer?" Richard smirked as he finally told her SOME of what he knew about this specific case.

"It was fun!" Emily said enthusiastically.

"Indeed, it was a very enjoyable experience." He nodded, hiding the fact that this was possibly the best day of his entire life.

He'd gotten to experience Emily as a leader; he'd been in the presence of a kick-ass woman, strong, smart, capable of cracking such an intricate case nearly just on her own. He'd intentionally

"Now, I guess we should go back to the headquarters and return Sanaya, right?" Emily questioned while tossing an eraser-shaped USB drive between her fingers.

The girl had told given them the USB at the end of her long explanatory speech about all the illegal things that had been going on. Apparently, this USB drive had information on every shady deal, every bomb threat and every single person involved – enough information to put each ad guy in jail.

"Ah, how I wish those things actually existed, in the crime-fighting world…" Emily said with a deep, dreamy sigh.

"Pff, are you kidding!?" Richard shook his head, somewhat disagreeing.

"What would be the fun then!?" He added, making Emily laugh out loud.

He was kind of right about it – the adrenaline would be much less if a USB with all of the answers was just magically available for each case.

"Ah…I love my job…" Emily let out one more dreamy sigh, as she thought out loud.

What would her job be without the adrenaline of not knowing and of having to figure it all out!? What would her life be without a job as highly demanding, as dangerous, as uncertain as the one she had?

And, most importantly - who would Emily Prentiss even be, if her most Emily-Prentiss-like features all had to do with her amazing ability to do her job so well!?

"You'd be amazing in uniform…" He dared whisper against her lips before giving them a small peck and urging both Emily and the hostage girl to start walking back towards the Police Station.

"Uhm, I can't." The girl muttered.

"Oh, come on. It's all over. You'll be safe. We'll contact your family once we're back there." Emily tried to reassure her while Richard just grinned on the side.

"It's over…for you." The girl muttered once again.

"You don't have to worry – you won't be harmed again." Emily continued pushing.

She'd had her fair share of victims who were afraid to be taken anywhere, even to a place of safety. She knew how to handle a scared young girl.

"Ermm, I think we should just go…you and I, come on." Richard commented, trying to keep the magic of the game alive.

"But…she must come, too!"

"Emily…for God's sake – the game finished for us, but she's still paid to sit there and wait for the next group of players who'd figure it all out!" He blurted out, making the young girl chuckle.

"Exactly…" She confirmed with blushed cheeks, before she started making her way back inside the cheese shop.

"By the way, guys…" She stopped and turned around to face them again at some point. "No other group has ever figured it out this quickly! How many clues did you get?"

"Wait, we had the right to get clues!?" Emily snapped.

"Uhm, yes. They told us about it at the briefing this morning, you know, those twenty minutes when you slept on the chair." Richard chuckled.

"No way! Get out of here!" The girl's jaw dropped. "No clues!? None at all!? No help from anyone, at any point!?"

"Nope." Richard said proudly, holding Emily close to him. "Don't need no clues when I have this genius woman by my side."

Emily grinned, melting on the inside. She had always hated being called a 'genius', but she gladly made an exception for this particular instance.

Then, they made their way back to the Police Station. Once they were just outside the building, another group exited, chatting away, discussing their next move.

One of the two girls on the other team grabbed Emily's attention – she was young, beautiful and she was damn passionate about this game as her hands flew in the air while she explained something to her teammates.

"Whooops, excusez-moi!" The same girl told them as she nearly bumped into Richard.

"Pas de problème." He said calmly, grinning at the girl for whatever reason.

A loud groan came from one of the male teammates and the other girl nudged her friend until her eyes set on the man she hadn't even noticed, on her way to go solve the case.

"Ohhhhh, hey Richard!" She beamed upon realizing she knew this man. "Ready for the new kids to kick your ass?"

"Dream on, kiddo!" He sighed, pretending to be all mighty and arrogant, but they all seemed to know better. "I am looking forward to checking your results, not your time. So, take it easy, enjoy the game and let's see what happens, okay?"

"But…don't we need to be the first ones to finish this thing, so we can win?" She countered.

Emily chuckled. This girl had a similar vibe to Angela's – an overachiever, in a hurry to do the most, be the best, learn it all.

"You do, but since this is no longer an option, I'm commanding you to just have fun and see how much you manage to solve, okay?" Richard told her.

Emily considered his tone of voice for a second – he spoke so evenly, so calmly and so eloquently, like he'd been on a stage, delivering speeches his entire life. But not those kinds of dry speeches that nobody cared about. Oh, no, no! Richard spoke with small words, he was relatable and nice to people, but most of all – he had this weird ability to connect to youngsters and to kind of be the cool 'friend' figure to them, no matter their age difference.

"Wait…why is it no longer an option"" The girl asked with a frown, but a second later realized that Emily was holding something and grinning like the Devil. Could it be Sanaya?

"How on freaking Earth did you…" The girl started to lay out her wrath, but had no words to explain how defeated she felt.

"Uuuuuugh!" She let out a groan, instead.

"Game over, kids!" Richard teased them mercilessly, rubbing it in their faces that he had solved it all while only God knew just how much more of the case they had left to still experience.

Emily almost pitied those youngsters. They looked so disappointed.

"Hey, why don't you head up first?" She told Richard, in English. "I need to make a quick phone call and I'll be there in a minute."

"Alright." With that, Richard walked inside the building.

The French youngsters started speaking in their native language, right in front of Emily, whom they had just figured out was just some American tourist or whatever, since she spoke in English to Richard.

"Ughh, I can't believe he beat us!" The same girl lamented.

"I mean, come on…what did you expect!?" One of the teammates replied, starting a quick fire conversation between the four of them.

"He's too old to be fun! Ugh!"

"Well, he looks damn fine, for an old man…"

"Damn…I know!"

"Eww, you girls are insane! He could be your father!"

"If he was literally anyone other than who he really is, then I wouldn't mind calling him 'Daddy'."

"Uhm, I wouldn't go this far. But yeah, he's fine as Hell!"

"Girls, can we focus on the case now!?"

"Why? We already lost! That promotion is long gone now. We are just a bunch of losers."

"Come oooon, don't be so sour. We're not losers…we just…uhm, we suck, I guess…"

"It would have been beneficial to all four of us if we won, but…how did we expect to do this if we went against Richard!? He's a freaking machine, that man!"

"A machine with a great butt."

"His wifey has a great butt, too, by the way." One of them said, in regards to Emily.

"She's pretty, I like her hair."

"Guys…she looks familiar…"

"True, it's like…I've seen her before…is it possible?"

"Well, she does kind of look like that actress…you know, from that new criminal show you boys like to watch."

"True…maybe a little bit, yeah. Her hair is different though and I'm pretty sure she isn't just some dumb actress, if she's hanging out with someone like Richard."

"Ah, now that you mention it – she does look like that actress! Her forehead looks different without bangs, though."

"Come on! I hated it when the actress had bangs! She's so much cooler without them!"

"True that, I agree with my man over here."

"I don't mind the bangs."

"I do."

"Guys, can we maybe go back to discussing the case!?"

"Ugh, you're such an ass-kisser! Relax, Richard already likes the four of us. We don't have to push this hard, this is just a stupid game."

"Yes, we do! I want him to be proud of us!"

"He already is."

"Stop being lazy, we can't just start slacking now."

"But Richard already won the game, so what's the point anymore?"

"Ehm, guys? Guys? Why is that woman staring at us!?" One of the young guys asked, finally shooting Emily a glance after they'd mercilessly just spoken about her, in her face, standing just two feet away from her.

"Oh, I'm just enjoying your lack of motivation, that's all." Emily responded, in perfect French.

Four jaws dropped, as they realized she was not just the dumb American tourist they'd pinned her for. Her relaxed nature, as she had her back against the building wall and one foot up on that small step at the entrance, her dark sunglasses on and that cool as heck outfit that made her look like a real life bad ass spy, made their blood freeze. They were so busted!

"Didn't you hear Richard?" Emily continued in French, looking at the guy who had previously asked what was the point of playing anymore. "The point is to finish the task, not to win the game."

"See!? I told you! I sooo told you! You, dumbass!" The overachiever girl spoke, nudging her stupid teammate.

"Well, she does have a point. Richard never nags us to be the fastest, but he does want us to be the best at what we do, so…" The second girl added. "Take it from her, guys – she does look like an intelligent woman."

"Intelligent woman with a great ass, apparently!" Emily busted them. Of course she'd understood what they'd said about her and Richard, too.

"Madame, nous sommes désolés…eeh…we are very sorry!" The boy who'd been the most vocal about her physical appearance earlier, apologized in both languages.

"Nah, it's cool." Emily waved a hand in the air, also realizing it had now been a couple of minutes and Richard might come out to see why Emily was not joining him already. That would screw up the plan she'd concocted, so she hurried to explain.

"Since it is so important for you to impress that old man with the great ass, how about I help you out a bit?" Emily suggested with a smile. "Where are you at with the investigation? I can help you skip a step…or two…"

"No!" The one passionate girl flat-out rejected what Emily was insinuating.

At that, Emily looked at the guy who had sounded the most pessimistic, out of all the team.

"No." He told her, as well. "We don't cheat – that's why Richard likes us. We may finish last today, but we'll finish on our own terms!"

"Daaamn, that's deep, coming from someone who just spoke about Richard's girlfriend's ass!" One of the girls tried to joke.

"Girl, you're no better off, wanting to call him 'Daddy', so…" Emily raised an eyebrow, teasing her right back in the most out there and unexpected way.

The girl nearly fainted. She'd never felt this embarrassed before.

"Oh, relax. I'm just messin' with ya!" Emily said in that deep voice that she usually reserved for when she'd be quoting something that Morgan had once said. In fact, the line she'd just uttered was an actual Morgan line – one of his favorite.

"Are you guys sure you don't want my help? Not even just a tiny piece of advice? I mean, I can already see you've done something wrong-…" Emily spoke, noticing how one of the teammates had grabbed the photo of the second victim, not having taken into consideration that she'd been found first, but killed second. This was about to screw up the next step for them and they'd be wasting time, following a lead that would take them nowhere.

"No!" The group leader girl cut her off. "Please, don't spoil anything for us! Like he said – we may finish last, but we'll figure it all out ourselves. It is nice, though, that you offered…but no, thank you, Madam."

"Alright, gotta respect that." Emily shrugged. "Good luck then and oh, by the way…I hated those bangs, too."

Her last words made them chuckle, wondering if it might actually be possible that she was the actress they'd mistaken her for. Or maybe they had the same forehead structure, so bangs looked awkward on both of them. Either way, Emily entered the building to go finish the game, while the young adults started to chat again, discussing what their next step should be.

"Hey, there you are." Richard uttered once Emily was back to where it had all started in the morning.

"Yeah, sorry I made you wait. A little conversation had to happen."

"No worries."

"Hey, uh…who were those young ones outside?" Emily asked curiously.

"I met them in the line of work. Why?"

"I overheard them discussing the case passionately. I have to say – I admire their desire to make you proud by doing well at this game."

"Oh?" He raised an eyebrow. "Is that all you overheard!?"

"Yup." With one hand on his shoulder, she tried to give him a little push, so they'd face the game master now and change the topic. She was not about to tell Richard about the proposal she'd had for the youngsters.

"Oh and…maybe try to avoid the blonde one, okay?" She whispered in his ear, grimacing as she remembered how the girl with the lighter hair had mentioned calling him 'Daddy'.

"So…what did I miss?" She added, now fully turning the attention back to the game, itself.

"The game master just asked if we're here, asking for clues…" Richard grinned, before leaning in and whispering some reassuring words to Emily. "And don't worry – I'm not into blondes."

"Ah, how cute." Emily faced the young guy who'd given them the instructions earlier. "No, we're actually here to give you this and be done with it, so we can go drink wine."

"Blunt…so blunt…" Richard murmured to himself. He was already used to Emily's weird ways of communicating with human beings. At this point, he was interested to see if she, maybe, had some more tact with animals. Possibly not, though.

The game master's jaw dropped when Emily showed him the thing they had come to give him – the USB drive.

"Woah…already!?" The young man said, checking what time it was. Currently, it would be considered a huge advance in the game if a team was working on the victim photos, which was exactly what those young people that Richard knew were doing.

The guy then poured about a million superlatives at them, asking if he could take a photo of them, as the winning couple. To Emily's surprise, Richard declined politely, letting him know that the next team who'd be back to the headquarters should have the honor of being photographed as winners, as he did not care about the prize or the acknowledgement, to which Emily muttered a quiet 'Pff, speak for yourself!', hoping he wouldn't have overheard.

"Out with it, Brigitte!" Richard called Emily out when she took her damn time, just staring at him and very obviously trying to figure him out, which in her words would be 'profiling'.

"Fine. Confirmation bias at its best and before you get upset with me, just a reminder that psychology set the rules, I am merely telling you which one applies to your case, Mr. No-Photos-Please." She stated as a matter of factly.

"I just don't seem to be able to point out the reason why. You certainly do not lack confidence and I bet there is no way you'd ever think your fine self might look bad on a photo, so…what other possible reason might you and your carefully defined muscles have to never want to be snapped a photo of?" Emily pondered.

"It's in the envelope." Richard simply replied – a few words, but words that sent shivers down Emily's spine.

She'd been joking about it, but the way he answered made it seem like an actual big deal, after all. She remembered that thick envelope he'd given her once, with God knows what truths inside, written on so many papers that the envelope\s seal was about to burst and it looked like a decent-sized children's' book instead.

She shrugged and let the game master give them his impressions, since he'd been able to hear and see the teams in certain locations, such as the swimming pool where hidden cameras had been placed beforehand.

Overall – he was extremely impressed with their quick thinking and their ability to analyze a situation, a place or a human.

"Profile." Emily threw in.

"You analyze a situation, but you profile a person." She then explained further, seeing as the young man gave her a confused look.

She wouldn't be Emily Prentiss if she didn't take a jab at someone when they'd get that word wrong.

It then took some convincing that they really did not want to be named the winners of the game, before the guy finally agreed to let them leave.

"Aah!" Emily exhaled, sounding almost…regretful, as they stepped out on the street with no game badge on their clothes, no bag of spy gadgets and no need to use their spy names anymore.

"What's the matter?" Richard asked curiously.

"I mean…don't get alarmed, but I could literally do this forever!" She sighed, a tiny frown appearing on her lips.

"I know, my bad ass spy." He grinned wide, looking almost…proud.

"Thank you for suggesting this activity. It kind of hit close to home. I enjoyed it. A lot, actually!"

"You are welcome, Emily. Now, should we go find some place to eat? I can't be the only one starving right now…"

"I've been hungry for hours!" Emily shared. "But how about we go back to your place, instead? We can grab food on the way or even just order something. I enjoy relaxing on the couch after a case."

It slipped her mind that he had no idea she was someone who had 'cases' on a regular basis, so it sounded natural for her when she pronounced that last sentence. Richard, however, did not question her about it. Maybe he was too French and he had not even gotten the reference?

As per her request, they got in the car and only made a small stop for food at some nice family-owned little restaurant on the way, before they arrived at his apartment and dressed down a bit.

The next few hours were spent enjoying some good food, each other's company and discussing things from the case that day, with Richard taking the complete piss out of Emily for being so overly into it. Emily would blush occasionally, pout a bit when he'd take a joke too far, or even groan in annoyance, as he was being ironic and super direct with his words, but she couldn't deny one simple fact…

Emily Prentiss wouldn't have it any other way!


REVIEW REPLIES:

"rmpcmfan" I've answered your review on Inbox :)!

"Guest" Hi :) I can confirm that Angela is NOT connected to Foyet and Strauss in any kind of way. This is not to say that she is connected to Hotch, instead, but rather - with her wild infatuation with the BAU it is not to say that she hasn't done her research and she may know about Hotch, or may have seen his photos or his work resume from even before the FBI, or something else. However, direct parental connection to either of the three people you mentioned - NO, hehe. And yay, the cult!? She was...ehm, involved in stuff, to put it very vaguely lol. But you probably already know that all is NOT as it seems, in my story. In fact, NOTHING is as it seems, in my story hehehe. I hope it's a fun and VERY unexpected twist for the readers, when the truth comes out one day. As for Rossi, I can see why you may think this - with Angie's crazy interest towards HIM, personally, and with how he is the fatherly/grandfatherly figure to a lot of characters in the show/story. However, do you believe he'd keep quiet now that his alleged grandkid is back, if that was the case? Plus, he only found out about his daughter Joy very far into the show, and Joy has a young son, not an elder daughter. Math doesn't add up...but I very much like this theory and I can see your reasonings behind that thought :) Actually, if if it was an alternate storyline for Rossi, it would have been super interesting to explore!

"sweetkid45" Thank you :)! Angie showed ZERO interest in the NYC office, hehe. I don't see her changing her mind, really. However, in the end she will get placed wherever the Bureau finds fitting best and that very well might be the BAU version of the New York Field Office...or even Los Angeles...Dallas...Chicago... Or who's to say it would be a BAU-like unit, at all!? She may get assigned to counter terrorism, lol...imagine that hehehehe! As for Emily finding out about the offer - you just be patient :) She won't be Emily Prentiss if she wasn't the sneaky little spy that we all know and love, hehe!