It had stormed all night. The flash of the lightening through the curtains warned Emily to brace herself for the following clash of thunder. Mother Nature was certainly against her tonight as the migraine she had raged on. She felt the annoying ache in her eye in her last hour of work and she took some medicine in hopes of preventing it growing worse. Now, as she laid in bed, afraid to move even the slightest inch for fear of sharp pain exploding through her head, she wished she had taken the whole bottle.

With another strike of lightening and a clamor of thunder, Emily began crying. She hadn't slept in two days, which is likely what brought the migraine on in the first place. The last case had gotten to her and she was having a hard time getting the images out of her head. She knew she only had three hours left until her alarm would begin blaring, letting her know that it was time for a new case. There was always a new victim, always another death, always another chase. Sometimes she wished she would have chosen a different profession. Sometimes she thought about what it would be like to be a lawyer or a surgeon. Then she would laugh at herself because she knew that she was meant to be an agent, even if it didn't always feel that way.

Her alarm was going to sound in less than five minutes and she figured she would save herself the extra pain and turn it off. She climbed out of bed, the nausea in her stomach rolling, the pain shooting around like bullets in her brain. She took a moment to gain her composure before heading to the shower. Perhaps a hot, steamy shower would help relax her before the day. She kept the lights off and instead lit a lavender candle. Keeping the light to a minimum would certainly benefit her migraine, although she knew that the harsh fluorescent lights at the BAU would counteract any good measures she would take.

Once at the BAU, Emily felt slightly better. The medicine she took before walking out of her apartment had worked and now her migraine was more like a dull ache. It was certainly tolerable now. There was no pressing case that needed attention so Emily sat her desk, writing away at some paperwork she needed to complete for the week. Her friends were being abnormally quiet and when she glanced around the room she realized that all of them, too, were focused on writing reports to put with their closed cases. It was a slow a day, but she dared say that out loud.

Emily was nearly finished with her paperwork around lunch time and she was hoping they would get to leave early. A nap snuggled up on her couch with a big blanket and Sergio sounded like pure bliss, but when she saw Hotch walk out of his office with that tight look on his face, she knew her plans were about to be squashed.

"I need the whole team in the meeting room." No other explanation was given. Emily figured it was just another case, as would be the usual. So did Derek, who was sitting next to her munching on a bag of Cheetos. When the rest of the team had made their way in, Hotch closed the door. Even Penelope was left wondering what was going on because she hadn't received any files to prepare for them.

All eyes were on Hotch as he sighed. The vein in his temple seemed to be pulsing and because they all specialized in behavior, they knew that what Hotch had to say was not good.

"What is it?" Rossi asked.

"We have a problem," Hotch began. He started opening the white envelope that sat in front of him and began unloading pictures onto the table. The team was silent as they observed.

Emily felt a strange feeling in her gut. Her headache turned up a notch. "What is this?"

"These were delivered about fifteen minutes ago by a teenage boy who was given fifty bucks."

The pictures of Emily at the grocery store, getting into her car, driving down her block. There were pictures of her entering her apartment, walking into work, at the pharmacy. Somebody had peaked an interest in her.

"Why would anyone target Prentiss?" Penelope asked, "We haven't even worked a case where anyone would want revenge on her in a long time."

"Was there a note?" Derek chimed in.

"Yes," Hotch answered. "I had a love once. You took mine, now you will lose yours." Hotch read the crumbled piece of paper that had been tucked in the envelope with the pictures. He and Emily both knew that he was the target of the letter, but clearly Emily was the one in danger. Emily's cheeks turned pink with embarrassment because she knew they had to come clean now.

"That doesn't make any sense," Reid said, "Emily can't be her own love."

Hotch looked at Emily with a small smile on his face. Leave it to Reid to make him feel better in such a situation. "No," Hotch said, "which is why we should let you know that we're dating."

"I knew it," JJ smiled as she looked to her friend, "you've been happier and don't think I haven't noticed you two leaving the office together."

"Oh, I can't believe it!" Penelope squealed, "This is so awesome! You guys are the perfect badass couple. Wow, I am so happy for you two."

Emily smiled politely as a comment, but she was worried. They needed to focus on the case, not on her dating life. She listened to the rest of the team say their congratulations before she cleared her throat and spoke up. "So, what do we do?"

"Well, it's safe to say that you're staying here where you'll be safe," Hotch began. "The boy said he was given the envelope at the café down the block. JJ and Reid, go see if you can get any surveillance from around 9 this morning. Morgan, Rossi, we need to search Emily's house. A bug sweep, the surveillance from surrounding buildings, anything out of the ordinary."

"What? Hotch, come on, all of these photos are at least across the street. You really think he went into my apartment?"

"No," Hotch said, "but I want to be absolutely certain."

Emily sighed. She was never going to be able to take a nap at this rate, let alone get any sleep that night. When everybody fanned out to their tasks, Hotch and Emily were left alone at the table. Emily was staring at the photos, thinking of the times that she visited each place, and visualizing if she saw anyone out of the ordinary.

"You okay?"

Emily looked at him and she couldn't help but smile in the midst of the situation. She cared for Hotch deeply and his concern for her made her heart flutter. It felt good to be cared about. "I'm okay."

He rolled his eyes. "If I had a dollar for every time you said that…"

"I'm just tired," she admitted quietly. "I haven't been sleeping well since the last case and last night I had a migraine… I doubt I'll get any sleep anytime soon with the current target on my back."

"There's not much more we can do until he gives us more information," Hotch said, even though he knew Emily knew that. "Garcia is searching any recent cases we worked on together because the unsub had to have seen us interact at some point. Why don't you take a nap in my office? I promise to wake you as soon as we get new information."

The thought of being able to close her eyes sounded so appeasing, but Emily couldn't say yes. She couldn't lay around on the job while her friends searched for some crazy stalker. She would be mortified if any of her team walked in on her snoozing on her boss slash boyfriend's couch. She shook her head, "you know I won't say yes to that."

Hotch laughed, "worth a shot."

AN: Just a short beginning for my first Criminal Minds fanfic. Thanks for reading!