A/U: This is a half adventure fic and half romance one, focusing on the growing relationship between Hotch and Prentiss.

Disclaimer: I don't own CM.

"Hotch? Hotch?"

Hotch snapped out of his thoughts.

"Yes?"

"Let's get going, man. The plane is about to leave."

Hotch grew annoyed with himself. He rarely got distracted this much but this case was unsettling, to say the least. The team was heading off to Manhattan, working on a case that had been open for months now. This was now the fifth couple found in their car, dead, shot execution style. It seemed like an ordinary crime scene, if a crime scene could be called ordinary, yet, what was bothering Hotch was how familiar the crime scenes looked.

Of course, Reid had suggested that it looked like the work of the Son of Sam, and that there was a copycat on the loose. The team agreed with him, even Hotch. After all, the Son of Sam was a very notorious killer and thus, prone to be copied. The MO fit his almost perfectly.

Hotch however felt like he had worked this particular case before. Hotch obviously didn't work the Son of Sam case, so he wouldn't be very familiar with how the crime scenes looked and yet, these crime scenes, with the executed couples, the abandoned vehicles and the lack of evidence made Hotch feel as if he had been there before. He had told the team this but they couldn't really follow up on it and Hotch was basically dismissed.

He felt a light touch on his shoulder. "You ok?"

He looked to his side and saw Emily Prentiss there. Suddenly, the crime scene, the bureau and everything disappeared. Hotch couldn't help but get a feeling of joy at seeing Emily. Prentiss had just left the Interpol recently and rejoined the BAU team. She had been here for almost half a year now and her relationships were basically back to way they were before she had left, other than her relationship with Hotch. Just a few months ago, they decided to go on a date together and they both realized that they had a lot more in common than they had thought. They started spending more and more time together; at first, they mainly just talked about work, but they started talking about more intimate things afterwards, such as their hobbies, secrets and past love lives. "Still, we've only been together for a few months now", thought Hotch. "Aren't these feelings too much?"

He turned back to face Emily.

"I'm fine. Just thinking about the case."

"You're still thinking about why the scene looks so familiar to you, aren't you?"

Hotch couldn't bring himself to lie to her.

"I know that you guys wanted me to drop it…"

Emily put her finger on Hotch's mouth, hushing him.

"If you really think it will help us on this case, I think you should keep working on it."

"Really?"

"We aren't making much headway with the case otherwise, and to be honest, I completely trust you on this. People don't get feelings like yours on accident. You have seen this case somewhere else before. You just need to keep digging deeper."

"Thanks Em."

Hotch produced a rare smile. Emily smiled back at him. He was tempted to kiss her and she noticed it. She closed her eyes and waited for his move. Hotch's mouth was just a couple of centimeters away from Emily's when he moved away. Emily looked disappointed but she understood. She walked away while saying, "See you on the plane. You better hurry up too. It leaves in four minutes."

Hotch sat down and wondered and worried about how serious this relationship with Emily was. After all, he had nearly kissed her at work, with plenty of people watching and with a strong reputation of being the hardened leader of the BAU with few emotions. How would it look and how would it affect his status, if he was seen kissing his coworker in the middle of the room?

Suddenly, he looked at the time. It was 1:28 with only 2 minutes before the plan took off.

Hotch got up from his seat and started sprinting for his life.

"HOTCH! Come on!"

This was Morgan yelling at him from the plane. Hotch ran as fast as he could and made it just inside before the deadline. He ran so quickly that he was disoriented and ended up tackling Morgan once he was inside.

"Hey man. Watch where you're going."

"Sorry."

Hotch got up and brushed himself over.

"You ok, Morgan?"

Morgan chuckled. "No offense but look at the size of me and look the size of you. I should be the one asking you that."

The group laughed, including Hotch.

"Point taken."

As Hotch went to sit down, Morgan asked, "This case really bothers you, huh?"

Hotch stayed silent, indicating yes.

"Even if it does, you have got to stop daydreaming about it. This is the third week where you've almost missed the plane on this case, and about the tenth where you've just dozed off when you shouldn't have."

"Sorry."

"If you're gonna doze off, daydream or whatever, do it at times like this. Where were all grouped together and you can share your thoughts with us and we can help you put this puzzle together."

"Thanks, Morgan. But to be honest, I still haven't gotten anywhere with this case."

Reid spoke up, "So, let's start from the beginning so we can all have a fresh mind on this. Since Hotch feels like he has worked this case before, the unsub must be from an unsolved case a while back. With his MO being shooting couples in their vehicles."

JJ said, "Yes but we've had Garcia check our prior cases. While there were a lot of Son of Sam copycat cases, all those cases have been solved. The unsubs are all either in prison or dead."

"Let's just focus on what we have here then. The evidence, the victimology and all that. If we really can't get anything after that, then we can consider linking this to a previous case." Rossi interjected

The team murmured in slight agreement. No one wanted to just ignore Hotch but the team wasn't making any progress when they were all focused on his ideas.

"Alright, let's take a break and look at these crime scenes individually. Come back here in 30 minutes to discuss any new leads."

The group split up and went to different areas of the plane. Hotch went near the back, where he could be alone and perhaps, be able to make sense of all this.

He thought for a while but couldn't really think of anything. Slowly, he dozed off when suddenly, he was lost in the sounds of gunfire, a masked unsub and the corpses of couples. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Emily Prentiss walking towards him. He quickly snapped out of it and returned to reality. She sat down on the seat opposite of his.

"You know what the problem is, right?"

Hotch gave her a confused look.

"What are you talking about?"

"You're just thinking too much about this. It happens to the best of us." she said matter-of-factly.

"Em, I've tried to stop thinking about it but I just can't."

"Let me help then. How's Jack doing?"

"What?" Hotch was startled by the random question.

"I'm trying to get your mind of this case. So, as I said, how's Jack?"

"He…oh, it's no use. I'm not going to talk about my private life when we're in the middle of work."

"I see…."

Suddenly, Emily got up and sat down beside Hotch. She slowly and deliberately raised her hand, soft and pale like winter snow, and placed it onto Hotch's leg. She looked right into her boss's eyes and slowly moved it onto his inner thigh, very close to the area between his legs.

Hotch's face flushed red and his heartbeat accelerated.
"Em, what are you doing?"

She smiled. "As if you don't know."

"Are you crazy?"

Hotch tried to draw away from Prentiss but she had him pinned between the side of the plane and her body. He tried standing up but Emily anticipated this and quickly strapped Hotch's seat belt into the buckle and then swiftly sat on the buckle, so that he couldn't reach it.

She whispered seductively into his ear, her hot breathe causing tingles, "Looks like you have no choice now."

Hotch looked nervous, so much that if a team member were to look at his face, they might think that he was going to wet himself.

Abruptly, Prentiss drew back her hand and laughed. "Gotcha!"

"God, Em. That's not funny", but he started laughing too.

"Well, that was for the kiss from earlier. You should know better than to ditch a lady like that. And besides, it worked, right? Your head is now free from our case?"

"There's only one way to find out."

She rested her head on Hotch's shoulder.

"So, how's Jack?"

It was a struggled but Hotch managed to find himself straying away from the awful crime scene and towards Jack. He answered Emily's question with a substantial amount of detail while Emily listened on, a smile still resting on her face.