Stepping off the elevator, Gideon wasn't met with the normal quiet of his early morning arrival. Instead, the hum of a vacuum could be heard coming from somewhere on the dimly lit floor. Apparently he was early enough that the janitorial staff hadn't yet finished their work on the floor.

~Well, if they haven't been in my office yet, they'll have to skip it today, ~ Gideon thought as he walked the catwalk lining the bullpen to his office.

Reaching his office, Gideon unlocked it and stepped inside. Deciding not to turn on the light just to clearly reveal all of the clutter that occupied his office, Gideon felt his way to the desk. Sitting down, Gideon found the switch to his desk light and cast a yellow glow onto the same papers and files that had been scattered on the surface before he had left for Missouri.

Sinking down into the chair, Gideon reached into his go bag and pulled out the forms and reports he had done on the flight home the day before. With a feeling of satisfaction, he dropped the papers into the outgoing basket. That feeling was short-lived as he caught a glimpse of the still overflowing inbox. Yes, he had chosen sleep over work yesterday upon arriving back on the East Coast, but that choice had meant an even earlier start to his work day this morning.

As the inbox pile wasn't going to get any lower by simply staring at it, Gideon reached in and pulled a few items from the bottom of the pile, figuring they had been sitting there being ignored the longest. Focusing only on the paperwork, Gideon worked his way through one item at a time until a knock on the door finally caused him to look up.

Raising his head, Gideon realized that the sun had finally began to cast its light upon his office. Beyond the glass pane of the office window, the unit chief also noticed that several desks in the bullpen were now occupied. Letting his gaze move across the window and to the doorway, Gideon found the source of the knock.

"Good morning," Hotch replied, looking more wide awake than Gideon had felt when arriving this morning. Now that he had Gideon's attention, he stepped into the office without waiting to be invited. "I figured you would be here already and thought you might like a good cup of coffee," he added, holding up the cup of coffee from Rosie's Coffee House, in his left hand.

"A cup of coffee from Rosie's is always welcomed," Gideon replied, reaching out to accept the cup. The little coffee house was nestled among homes several blocks from the Hotchner's home. It was a place known only to locals, and not exactly on Hotch's route to work, but some days just called for the detour.

Taking the cup from Hotch, Gideon took a deep breath in order to breathe in the aroma of the coffee. Just that act seemed to give him a new burst of energy. The psychologist in him knew that it was probably a totally mental phenomenon but in this case he really didn't care.

"I also have the performance evaluations for Morgan and Hudson, which I finished up last night," Hotch continued, holding up the two files that he held in his other hand. "I think you should look over them before I pull either of them into my office to discuss them so we know we're both on the same page."

Gideon reached out for the files like he did the coffee, just without the same amount of eagerness. "I'll make them my next order of business," Gideon said, wanting to get the whole process out of the way so that he and his team could concentrate solely on their cases. Placing the two files on his desk, he raised the coffee cup to his lips and took a sip.

"I see you've got quite at bit in your out box already," Hotch commented. "What time did you get here this morning?"

"Some time before the sun came up," Gideon replied as he placed his coffee cup on a clear patch of the desk. He let his eyes fall on the out box, surprised that there was quite a bit in it now. "These early hours are the most productive of the day, given that there aren't as many interruptions."

"I think Haley would shoot me with my own gun if I tried to come into the office that early as breakfast seems to be the one meal we get to eat together any time that I'm not out of town."

"Another benefit to being unattached, I guess," Gideon replied.

"One I'll happily pass up," Hotch replied.

"Haley would approve of that answer," Gideon countered. He was happy that Hotch had a relationship that worked. Perhaps he was even a little envious of it. Still, he knew that he was too attached to his work to make a marriage work out. He had found that out the hard way. He sincerely hoped that Hotch and Haley's marriage would be one of those which could survive this job.

Hotch smiled. "I'm sure she would too," he agreed. "Anything you need from me right now?"

Gideon shook his head. "Still no official word from Strauss. I"ll let you know when I hear from her. As for the performance evals, I'll drop them off after I've reviewed them."

"Okay. I guess I'll go tackle the things that found their way into my inbox while I was gone," Hotch said, taking a step in the direction of the door.

"You could take a few things if you'd like," Gideon offered, motioning toward his own inbox.

"No thanks," Hotch replied before exiting the office as quickly as he could without being rude.

"Thanks again for the coffee," Gideon called after him, not blaming Hotch for one minute for making a dash for the door at the offer.

Alone again, Gideon looked down at his desk. The only thing that indicated that he had accomplished anything in the hours he had been here so far was the increased number of things in the outbox. Other than that, the inbox looked just as full and the surface of his desk was just as cluttered. The boxes of potential cases hadn't gone anywhere either.

Reaching out for the coffee cup, Gideon took a long sip as he reached up with his other hand to rub the back of his neck. Glancing out of his window, he saw Nichols walking through the bullpen, a coffee mug in hand. Apparently the computer specialist hadn't bothered stopping for coffee on his way in like Hotch had. The other member of the team present was Reid. The young agent was already at his desk with a file opened in front of him. The dark-brown coffee cup with a black lid was evident that like Hotch, Reid had made a coffee stop on his way into work. The other two agents were no where to be seen. Glancing at the clock on the wall, Gideon saw that Hudson and Morgan still had ten minutes until they needed to be here, and he knew from experience that they would both use those ten minutes. He couldn't really blame them. On days like this, Gideon wouldn't mind being able to wait until the last minute to show up as well.

As nothing was getting done with him just looking out the window, Gideon took one last sip of the coffee and then placed the cup back on the bare patch of desk. Picking up the top file of the two Hotch had given him, he flipped it open. Like it or not, it was time to get back to work.

An hour later, Gideon's coffee cup was empty, both performance evaluations had been reviewed, and a quick check of his email had revealed to Gideon that he had a new email from Strauss. As the subject line read 'Media Liaison', Gideon opened the email immediately. As he read it, he realized that he had been right in his assessment that Strauss had known he had played her. The 'condition' that she stated in her email was her way to let him know that.

~Oh, well, ~ Gideon thought as he singed out of the email and switched off the monitor. ~We're just going to have to try beating her at her own game again.~

Picking up the performance evaluations for Hudson and Morgan, Gideon got to his feet. Picking up the now empty cup from Rosie's coffeehouse, he dropped it into the wastebasket before heading for the door.

Stepping out onto the catwalk, his gaze automatically went to the three desks Hudson, Morgan and Reid occupied. All three of them were now at their desks, though Morgan was standing at his desk rather than sitting. As Nichols had occupied the Chicago native's desk chair, Gideon assumed the computer specialist was helping out with something computer related. Knowing that his agents would inform him if it was something that he needed to know about, Gideon continued to his destination.

In no time, Gideon had covered the short distance to Hotch's office. Finding the door open, Gideon rapped his knuckles on the door as he stepped into the doorway.

"Come in," Hotch said, even before he had looked up from the file he was reading.

"Am I interrupting something?" Gideon asked, even as he stepped into the neat, immaculate office of the younger agent. As always, the stark contrast between Hotch's office and his own refused to slip past his notice.

"Nothing I can't pick up later," Hotch replied, flipping the file in front of him closed. "I just started reviewing the consult," he added, even as he motioned to the files that Gideon held. "I take it you've finished reviewing the performance evaluations."

"Yes," Gideon replied as he pushed the door shut and then crossed over to the chair across the desk from Hotch. "However, that isn't the only thing we need to discuss," he added as he sat down.

Reaching across the desk, Gideon place the two files containing the evaluations down in front of Hotch so that the two files were not neatly stacked.

"You're good to bring them both in to discuss the evaluations. I agree with your judgement on the evaluations. I did add a comment in Hudson's evaluation but it doesn't change anything else."

"Okay," Hotch replied, pushing the two files together and placing them off to the side. "I'll bring each of them in here this afternoon as long as nothing else pops up. So, what else did you want to discuss? Does it have to do with the media liaison position?"

"As a matter of fact it does. I got an email from Strauss containing the official approval of added the position to the team. Seems the director is actually intrigued by the idea and if it is successful for our team, they will consider adding the position to the other teams as well."

"Somehow, I don't think Strauss was very happy to hear that."

"Probably not," Gideon agreed. "Although knowing Erin, she's probably trying to take some credit for the idea now that she knows the director is in favor of it. Which is fine with me. My only concern is this team and nobody getting buried under the workload."

"Including yourself," Hotch said, a cautionary tone to his voice.

"Including myself," Gideon acquiesced, not about to argue with his friend and fellow agent. He knew he was close to cracking under the pressure and stress of the current work load. However, he was reluctant to push even more of his work off on other agents on the team as he knew they too were already quite busy. "So, we're going to play her game and not challenge the condition that she put forth in her email about the hiring process of our new liaison."

"Why do I have a feeling I'm not going to like where this is going?"

"Because you're not," Gideon confirmed. "Strauss is willing to allow us to have final say on who fills the new position, provided that we choose from a list of candidates that pass her screening process first."

"She's trying to get a spy for herself onto the team."

"Perhaps," Gideon conceded, as he couldn't argue that the thought hadn't occurred to him already as well. "Or she's simply planning on setting us up to fail. If we add the media liaison and the performance rating of this team goes down, she'll have her justification that the position is not necessary."

"So, what are we going to do?"

"We'll just have to pick the best person we can out of the candidates that Strauss sends our way and then if necessary do a little on the job training while watching for signs that they're actually spying for Strauss. Essentially, we're going to have to use our skills as profiles to beat Strauss using her rules."

"And you still want me to conduct the interviews?" Hotch asked, wondering if perhaps part of this meeting was so Gideon could tell him that he had decided to take the selection process over himself. If he were to be honest with himself, part of him wished that was exactly what Gideon would do. The rest of him was determined to let Gideon or the team down.

"Why not? I think you're more than capable of weeding through any duds that Strauss sends us. And if none of them is a good fit, we simply inform Strauss that she needs to send us more candidates."

"She'll love that," Hotch dead panned.

Gideon shrugged. "So, shall I let Strauss know to send you names of candidates as soon as she has them?"

"Yes," Hotch said, even more determined now to rise to the challenge. "Do you mind if I bring Nichols into the loop to help me with the selection process? At this point, I'd like to know more about the candidates I'm interviewing than just what Strauss is going to deem fit to send my way. Not to mention, he'd be handy in helping me organize the whole process."

"By all means, utilize whatever you have at your disposal," Gideon replied, electing not to share the fact that he had utilized Nichols computer skills more than once when considering someone for the team. The veteran profiler got to his feet. "Just pick the right person for the team," he added, before turning and heading in the direction of the door.

Satisfied that the task was in good hands, Gideon left the office. Nichols was no longer in the bullpen, as Gideon stepped out onto the catwalk. However, the other three agents were still at their desks but spared the unit chief only a brief glance at the sound of the door opening. As Morgan, Hudson and Reid all looked back down at whatever they had been looking at, Gideon headed in the direction of the kitchenette. Even if it wasn't as good as Rosie's coffee, he needed some more coffee in order to tackle the pile of work waiting for him in his office.

As was normal following a case, the day after was spent doing paperwork and catching up on things they had missed while out of town for all members of the BAU team 1. The only one who seemed to enjoy it was Reid, which only irritated the other two agents in the bullpen. While he had quickly gotten through the post case reports and forms and moved onto some consults, Morgan and Hudson had slogged through the former. Their only reprieve was the trip to Hotch's office to discuss performance evaluations - from which both agents had returned from looking more relaxed than they had when heading to Hotch's office.

By the time five o'clock approached, both Morgan and Hudson were ready to clock out and leave the office. The two agents kept glancing at the clock on the wall, willing the minute hand to move faster. Meanwhile, Reid, like Hotch and Gideon in their offices, seemed oblivious to what time it was.

Nichols, Morgan and Hudson had decided that tonight was going to be a team night out to grab some drinks, at Hudson's expense to fulfill the requirement of the challenge coin loss. Reid was going along with the plan simply because he had learned it was no use to argue when it came to team functions. Like it or not, his team was determined he would be a part of them. As for Gideon and Hotch, the former three knew the hard part was getting them away from their desks. Once that was accomplished, getting them to agree to a couple of drinks as a team would be the easy part.

At five of five, Nichols emerged from his office and descended upon the cluster of desks shared by his teammates.

"Okay, so Morgan and Hudson, you go pry the Boss away from his desk, and Junior and I will go collect Hotch," Nichols instructed as he walked up behind Reid.

"Sure, you keep the easy one for yourself," Morgan said, as he flipped closed the file he had been looking through.

Across the aisle from Morgan, Hudson quickly put his computer into shutdown mode and turned off the monitor. As he had just simply been trying to look busy for the last twenty minutes or so, there was nothing that needed saving.

"That's because I'm the one who had to call Haley and tell her Hotch was going to be late getting home," Nichols countered, trying to sound put off by having to do so. Truth was, he hadn't minded talking to Haley at all, and Hotch's wife had been quite understanding about the team needed some time together. She had also been agreeable to the suggestion that Haley spend some time with Vanessa this afternoon and the two families eat dinner together tonight, something that he had already run past his sister. It was also a plan he hadn't bothered mentioning to Hudson or Morgan when they were deciding who should call Hotch's wife.

"Fine," Morgan pouted even as he got to his feet, motioning to Hudson.

"Good luck," Nichols said gleefully, half expecting to still have to drag their team leader out of his office himself.

Nichols heard Hudson mutter something under his breath as he walked by. He hadn't quite caught what it was and the team's computer specialist figured he probably didn't want to know.

"Let's go, Junior," Nichols said, tapping Reid lightly on the shoulder.

Feeling almost as reluctant as Morgan and Hudson had sounded about going to chat with Gideon, Reid got to his feet. Not that he really had to do anything. He figured he'd let Nichols do the talking, especially as this whole outing hadn't been his idea after all.

With Reid following Nichols, the two made their way out of the bullpen and up to Hotch's office. The door to the office was still open. Stepping into the doorway, Nichols let out a long, whistle. At his desk, Hotch looked up at the sound.

"That whistle means that you have reached the end of the workday," Nichols announced before Hotch could say anything, as he walked uninvited into the office.

Hotch glanced down at his watch and noticed that Nichols had a point. However, as Nichols didn't usually make it a habit to stop by and remind him it was time to head home, he figured that there was something else going on.

"It is," Hotch agreed, looking up at Nichols even as he noticed Reid, who had stepped into the doorway of the office but hadn't ventured any further. "So what is it that you want?" Hotch asked, wanting to get right to the point instead of playing games.

"I'm here to let you know that it's time for Hudson to pay his debt and that the team is going out for drinks. Morgan and Hudson are collecting Gideon as we speak," Nichols replied, not put off at all by Hotch's brusque question.

"I'll have to check with Haley," Hotch replied immediately. Truth was though, after the last case and finding out about Strauss' latest obstacle for them to hurdle, the former prosecutor definitely felt as if he could use a drink or two. "If she already started dinner-"

"She hasn't," Nichols interrupted, not at all surprised by the answer. "I took the liberty of calling her a couple of hours ago and inform her that we were kidnaping you for a couple of hours and sent her over for a little girl time with Vanessa," Nichols informed him. "Dinner is at my house tonight."

"Well, then I guess I can't say no," Hotch replied, starting to clean up his work space. In a matter of minutes he was ready to go, his office just as neat and tidy as it was when he had come in this morning.

As Reid had never left the doorway, the young genius stepped out onto the catwalk first. He was soon joined by Nichols and Hotch. Before any of them could take a step toward Gideon's office to see what kind of progress was being made there, the other three agents stepped out of the office.

As a group, something that didn't happen that often, the six agents headed for the elevator together.

"Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" Nichols whispered to Morgan as he fell in step with the Chicago native.

"I guess I should never underestimate the power of free alcohol," Morgan quipped just as quietly.

As Hotch hit the down button of the elevator, Nichols laughed gaining everyone's attention.

"Inside joke," Nichols replied, not at all embarrassed by the attention but not about to share.