Cat and Mouse

It is never a good sign for the males in range when a group of women call a secret meeting and lock the door. This was the lesson that Penelope Garcia, Jennifer Jareau, and most importantly Emily Prentiss set out to inadvertently teach Aaron Hotchner one rainy Thursday afternoon when the work was low and the men of their team were blissfully unaware.

It was three p.m. when Emily snuck a look around the crowded bullpen and then proceeded to grab her friend's arm and drag her, spluttering in confusion, to the quiet confines of Penelope's office. Emily warned the two women to keep quiet as she locked the door from the inside and slid to the floor.

Penelope and JJ exchanged worried glances, but were uncertain of whether or not they were allowed to speak. Finally, after five long minutes, Penelope took the risk. "Emily, what is going on here?"

Emily's eyes were desperate when she raised her head and morosely announced to her friends, "I am officially doomed to be an old maid. I need your help, or all hope will be lost!"

The two women watching her merely blinked at the melodramatic statement.

"Care to elaborate on that any, Sweet Pea?" Penelope asked.

Emily looked at her like she was clearly missing the obvious. JJ, being the helpful profiler she tends to be, stage-whispered to Penelope, "She's been trying to hint to Hotch for months that she's into him, but, brilliant psycho-analyst that he is, he hasn't caught on."

"Hint?" Emily wailed. "I've all but posed naked on the man's desk! He must be blind not to see it, and I can't just come right out and say it because the FBI's got all those stupid rules about relationships between coworkers!"

Penelope gaped at the dark-haired woman who had nearly reduced herself to tears. "You mean you've been crushing on Agent Hotchner and you never told me? Sweet Pea, I thought we were friends?"

JJ raised an eyebrow at the computer whiz. "Pen, I think that's because she didn't want it blogged about for the entire public world to see. And she probably thought Hotch was the only employee left in the building that didn't know."

Emily's head snapped up to stare at her blonde friend in wide-eyed horror.

JJ backtracked hastily. "I'm exaggerating, Em. Really, exaggerating." Emily had begun gasping for breath, looking oddly fishlike.

"Breathe, Sweet Pea!" Penelope commanded. She fixed Emily with a tight-lipped glare, and Emily swallowed convulsively to calm herself and managed to sit up a little straighter. "That's better," Penelope approved.

"Now," JJ said, her tone all business. "How do you intend for us to fix this?"

Emily gave her a withering look. "If I knew that, I wouldn't have called you in here, would I?"

"You call dragging me halfway through the workplace calling me?" JJ muttered.

"Semantics," Emily snapped.

"Well how the hell are we supposed to help you if we don't know what it is that you want from us?"

"What I want is for someone to figure out how the hell I'm supposed to tell Hotch that I friggin' love him without losing my job!" Emily shouted.

"Okay, okay, all right Em, we're working on it," JJ said, frantically trying to shush the desperate agent.

Emily narrowed her eyes accusingly. "No you weren't, you were bitching about my tactics."

"Okay, my dear honey bunches of oats," Penelope intervened, "we are accomplishing nothing. Can we please focus?"

At that moment, Penelope's ever-present cell phone rang from its place beside her computer. The three women stared at it for a few seconds before Penelope finally reached for it.

"No!" Emily hissed. "This is a private meeting! No outsiders!"

"Sweet Pea, it's even more suspicious if I don't answer it."

"No one can know I'm here. Or JJ either for that matter," Emily insisted.

"I don't have to tell them you're here."

"What if they ask?" Emily persisted.

"Then I'll lie."

"Fine then! Answer the damn thing!"

So of course, as soon as Penelope proceeded to do so, the ringing ceased. The women continued their practice of phone-staring.

"What if they come looking for you?" Emily was getting mildly hysterical.

"You're the one who kept me from answering it!"

"Hmph." An angry woman is never willing to take the blame.

"Em, I thought we were supposed to be on a mission here," JJ pointed out in an attempt to derail her.

"We are! But we aren't any further than when we first stepped into this office, and we are wasting precious time!"

"I don't know Sweet Pea," Penelope said contemplatively. "I personally kind of liked the idea where you stripped in Agent Hotchner's office."

JJ failed to hide her snicker while Emily dragged her friend's nickname out into a two-syllable whine. "Pe-en! I'm being serious here!"

JJ pulled herself together enough to give Penelope 'the look', and Penelope sheepishly said, "Sorry Sweet Pea, I couldn't help myself."

The three finally managed to calm down enough to put their heads together. The goal was for Emily to get the message across to Hotchner without losing her job, and, as she specified after Penelope threw out a few more obscene ideas, without any utter humiliation that would result in a personal desire to never show her face in the office again.

The trio froze in stunned panic when a knock echoed through the small space. "Garcia?" a voice called. "I know you're in there."

"It's Morgan," Emily whispered in alarm.

"Yes, Sweet Pea, thank you for stating the obvious, what do I do?"

Emily's frenzied looks between Penelope and the locked door were almost comical, in exception of the situation. Derek Morgan answered the question for her when he called, "Baby Girl, don't make me break down this door."

Emily's eyes widened and she hissed out an almost inaudible, "Go! Go!" and frantically gestured for Penelope to go to him."

Penelope pulled open the door cautiously and slipped out into the hallway to join the mocha-toned man. "Yes?" she asked innocently.

"Penelope Garcia, what is going on in there?"

"Nothing," she answered too quickly.

His eyes narrowed suspiciously at her. "Why didn't you answer your phone? You never don't answer your phone."

"I was busy?" she squeaked out uncertainly. It was obvious that he didn't buy it, and as he reached for the handle to the door she was not-so-subtly blocking, she caved. "All right, all right, okay, all right!"

Derek's hand paused, and he quirked an eyebrow at the plump techie.

Penelope bit her lip. Emily would kill her if she gave up any more than half of the truth. "Emily called an emergency girls' meeting, and she doesn't have an office, so I kindly offered to lend her mine for a few hours."

Derek chuckled at the nervous way Penelope rushed through her words in a single breath. "So Prentiss finally came out of the closet, huh?" Penelope's eyebrows furrowed in a quizzical look. "About her Hotch obsession," he clarified.

"Oh," Penelope said. Apparently, JJ was right about everyone but Hotchner knowing. "Umm…."

Derek sighed and pushed past Penelope into the small space that was proving to be quite cramped when four full-grown adults were crammed inside.

"Garcia!" Emily yelped. "I thought I said no outsiders!"

"I'm hurt, Prentiss," Derek said with a mocking pout. The grin that followed it showed how much he was appreciating the opportunity to see Emily's generally cool, collected demeanor broken. "I thought you considered me a friend."

"Derek Morgan, what do you not understand about girls only?" Penelope demanded, planting her hands on her hips.

"Yes," Emily agreed snippily. "You're not welcome."

"Come on Prentiss, it's not like you're discussing anything that's news to me." He was beaming, obviously enjoying her discomfort.

JJ buried her face in her hands with exasperation at the rapidly devolving situation. "Morgan, please, if you're going to stay, at least tone down the antagonization."

"Sorry Jayje, I couldn't help myself."

"Yeah, well, nobody can today. You might want to leave while you still can," JJ warned. "I wouldn't be here if I hadn't been dragged."

"Desperate times call for desperate measures," Emily told the grumpy woman remorselessly.

Derek observed the exchange with a frown. "Do I get to hear what's being discussed before I make my decision?"

"Nope," Emily said. "Besides, I thought we weren't discussing anything that was news to you."

"Doesn't mean I know specifically what's being discussed, just that I know you, Prentiss."

"I'm flattered," she deadpanned. "You aren't allowed to know unless you officially intend to stay."

"That sounds like a double standard, Prentiss."

She folded her arms crossly. "It's the only way to know you won't go blabbing and ruin the whole point of the thing."

He 'hmph'ed and thought about it before he finally said, "All right, I'm in."

Penelope cheered, Emily glared at her murderously, and JJ groaned. It appeared to be an admittance of defeat; if Derek was staying, she had no hope of keeping the crazies in hand.

"Okay, this is how it is," Penelope said, laying out the plan for him. Or rather the lack of one, but that just depended on how you looked at it. On one hand, there was no official plan. On the other, the current plan was to find a plan.

Emily began repeatedly banging her head on the wall behind her while they weren't focused on her, letting her friends – and occasional tormenters – know just how frustrated she was.

They went silent, and the only sound that remained were the continuous thuds from Emily's head meeting the wall. It was a sign of how far gone she was when she ignored the careful whispers her friends delved into after deciding there was no point in trying to get her to stop.

It probably would have been more beneficial to her mental health if she had paid the hushed discussion some attention. Alas, she did not.

She was concerned, however, when the three conspirators turned on her with matching grins. Emily gulped as they slowly approached her like a pack of hungry wolves stalking their prey. She tried to back away from them, but found that the office seemed much smaller when she actually needed the ample space it lacked.

"We are staging an intervention on your behalf, Sweet Pea," Penelope announced. The group encircled Emily so she had no route of escape.

"Jayje?" she begged, eyes wide with desperation.

JJ merely shook her head with a shrug. She seemed to be employing the ever-popular "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" strategy.

"Come on, guys. Three on one? That's hardly fair."

Derek laughed. "Nice try, Prentiss." His muscular bulk was much more menacing when it was turned against her, Emily noticed.

In well-synchronized and sudden movements, Derek and Penelope each took hold of one of Emily's arms and proceeded to jerk her along out of the cramped office as JJ opened the door with a flourish and followed along behind them. Emily let out a shriek as they frog-marched her through the building, but remained silent for the rest of the humiliating journey after she realized how much attention that drew to the odd procession.

They reached the bullpen much quicker than Emily would have thought possible and dragged her up the stairs toward the row of larger, more spacious offices. She struggled against the iron-strong grip they had on her upper arms when they halted in front of the door that proudly claimed it belonged to "Supervisory Special Agent Aaron Hotchner".

Penelope rapped her knuckles sharply on the door several times, making sure to be heard. A faint call of "Come in" was enough for Derek to push the door open and Emily through it.

Penelope leaned her head in long enough to say, "Sorry to bother you, Sir, but Emily has something really important to tell you," and then pulled the door shut behind her. Emily had no doubt as Hotch looked up from his computer to face her that the traitors were fleeing the scene like the little cowards they were.

Right about then the enormity of what her friends were doing to her sunk in and she started gasping for breath.

"Prentiss?" Hotch asked. He watched her with confusion. It didn't take a genius to tell that something was wrong with her.

When she reached the point of hyperventilation and he got up from his desk to rush around to her. "Emily?" he said, placing his hands on her shoulders.

The sight of his face so close to hers and his touch just a thin layer of fabric away from her skin sent Emily over the edge; she stopped breathing altogether.

For one long instant she simply stared at him with her beautifully expressive brown eyes. He saw an emotion he couldn't quite recognize buried deep within them, and he wondered what was bothering the generally calm agent. Emily was usually very emotionless; it was something the two of them had in common, the way they compartmentalized every aspect of their lives.

The connection between them was broken when she swayed slightly on her feet. "Emily?" he repeated, becoming more concerned by the second. He had never seen her look so… vulnerable.

The sound of her name helped Emily to find a little more balance. She at least managed to get her lungs functioning again, although she had a feeling that if Hotch stayed as close as he was, her heart might stop for all the pressure it was being forced under. He seemed to be reading her mind when he took half a step back to give her some space.

"So what was this urgent message that Garcia was so convinced you needed to deliver?" Hotch asked her after her breathing had returned to a more normal rate.

"Umm," Emily said, feeling rather stupid. A deep blush filled her cheeks and stubbornly remained there as she tried to convince it that it most definitely was not needed.

"Is it work-related or personal?" he asked, trying to make it easier for her to open up.

"Both," she mumbled. She was going to kill Penelope and Derek, she thought. And JJ, she added as she began contemplating which methods of torture would be the most painful. The idea provided a very nice temporary distraction.

"I see," Hotch said. Except that he didn't, and that was the problem. Absolutely nothing Emily could do would show him her dilemma, and it was consuming her from the inside out.

"Oh, for God's sake!" she exclaimed. If she was going to hell, and she most certainly was now that her friends had thrown her to the dogs, she might as well thoroughly enjoy it. Taking advantage of how close he was, she reached up to grab his tie and yanked his face down so that their lips crashed together in a ferocious kiss. She poured every ounce of the passion and tension she'd been keeping to herself for so long into the kiss. She needed him to know how much she loved him, how much it had hurt to hide it from him through all the time she'd known him.

When the kiss broke, she quickly let go of his tie and allowed him to back away from her. "How long?" was all he asked.

"Every second since the day I met you," she murmured softly.

"You know there are rules against it in the agency."

"I know," she whispered. She clenched her teeth in an effort to fight back the tears that were threatening to overwhelm her.

He nodded, watching her sadly. He had thought he would be able to prevent this, no matter how much he could see the signs, but his luck was never so kind to him.

"I'm sorry," Emily said tightly. Then she turned and walked swiftly out of the office, and the door slamming shut behind her left a sense of finality in the room that did nothing but allow the sick feeling settling in the pit of his stomach to work its way to the forefront of his mind.

Author's Note:

Well, what do you think? I originally planned this as a oneshot, but I had this spur of the moment idea as I was finishing it and decided that I just had to add another chapter. After that it's just going to be a collection of bits and pieces of the Hotch-Prentiss relationship as I see it. I do intend to keep the whole cat idiom thing going with my chapter titles, so if you send me any that you can think of, it would be a great help. I hope to post the next chapter within the week, so I won't keep you waiting long.

Your author,

Snoball13