It was entirely fair for JJ to ask Emily to return the favour she had done for her, she had guessed it would involve either helping out with paperwork or babysitting Henry for a few nights, but this was certainly not what Emily had expected. JJ was officially crazy, all those baby hormones were finally getting to her head. This was in no way an equal exchange for JJ saving her from a horrendous date with a guy from the law firm down the road although JJ did have to pretend to be Emily's lover to get her out of there.

"Can you repeat that JJ, I don't think I heard you right."

"You are my puppet for the day." JJ was smiling so widely it was actually starting to hurt her cheeks. "I don't mean that you have to follow me round like a servant or anything like that, just that if I tell you to do something, you have to do it. You can't refuse and you can't tell anyone why you are doing the thing. Got it? I promise it won't be anything too bad, and it wears off at midnight – very Disney princess-esque." JJ thought it was pure genius, definitely up there with David Rossi's little plots and plans. This way she could finally get Emily to make a move on Hotch, which was way overdue, and also have a little fun with her short term power.

"Fine." Emily groaned. "But no public nudity or anything illegal please."

"Don't worry Em, I just want to have a laugh not harm you." JJ then walked off to her office, a little too gleefully in Emily's opinion, and Emily went to the break room to make some extra strong coffee, this JJ at eight am on a Tuesday was vodka-shot worthy. 'Today is really gonna be bad.' Emily thought, trying to imagine what horrors that blonde trickster had in store for her.

By half past nine nothing had happened, JJ had stayed in her office and hadn't sent a single email or text to Emily. If anything, it made Emily more nervous knowing that it was coming but she had no idea when or how.

Ten o'clock came quickly and it was time for the team to meet in the conference room for the case briefing, JJ held Emily up before she reached the door. 'Oh god, not during the briefing, everyone will be there!'

"Emily my puppet of the day, for the length of this meeting you are not allowed to say a single word. And no, you can't use any other languages, not Italian with Dave or Russian with Spence, not a word. You can gesture, write, whatever you like, just no talking." The laugh JJ let out at that was not making Emily feel safe.

"JJ! They will think I have gone temporarily insane!"

"It's gonna be hilarious!" JJ smiled broadly and walked into the conference room and took her place standing in front of the board, while Emily somehow dragged herself in and took her seat between Hotch and Dave, all the while making a promise to herself to never, ever ask JJ for anything ever again as long as she lived.

JJ gave the profile as always with the team taking notes, Emily made her notes extra clear and detailed this morning, knowing that without the ability of speech she was going to have to point and get someone else to read what she had written. She had already figured that any attempt to just sit there silent would not be successful, JJ would drag her into it somehow. None of the others had noticed that anything was different yet. They started tossing ideas between them about the unsub and whether he was killing at random or if there was anything at that linked the victims.

"Prentiss, what do you think?" 'Damn you Hotchner.' The whole team was looking at her, waiting for her ideas as she had yet to say anything, which was probably a first as she usually jumped in with what she thought. She looked at JJ who was looking at her daring her to talk. 'Crap.' This was going to look so very bad. Emily shrugged at them. Hotch's mouth actually fell open in shock, Dave looked concerned, Morgan was looking her up and down as if trying to decide if she was still sane, Reid was just plain confused, and JJ, the culprit behind all of this was trying very hard, and failing miserably to hide her laughter.

"Are you alright Emily?" Dave was genuinely concerned; this was not normal Prentiss behaviour. Emily nodded.

"Okay..so do you want to tell us what you think about this unsubs victimology Princess?" Morgan was trying to skim over the fact that she had clearly just had some sort of stroke. All Emily could do was shake her head. 'Please don't fire me. Please don't fire me. Stupid JJ.'

"No? Are you joking Prentiss?" Hotch actually seemed to be getting angry, he was her boss and she knew that right now she was not doing her job. 'Great, he's going to suspend me for insubordination.' Emily sent a pleading look to JJ, who wasn't paying attention as she was too busy holding her hand over her mouth so stop herself from laughing so hard. Why had she agreed to this in the first place? When she realized that she would get no mercy from JJ, she dropped her head down to her chest in defeat. 'This can't actually get worse.' Emily picked up her pen and paper pad and wrote in capital letters 'SPONSORED SILENCE' and turned it to the team. It was worth a try, that kind of thing did happen, it wasn't entirely unbelievable.

"Huh? You were talking fine earlier Emily." 'Derek pinpointed the exact flaw in her bright idea. She picked up the pen again and wrote underneath her previous statement 'DURING BRIEFINGS?' and showed the team, hoping it would work. JJ read that and couldn't control herself any longer, she burst into hysterics. The rest of the team were baffled, there was clearly something going on between Emily and JJ right now that they couldn't understand. From the pained expression on Emily's face they guessed that they probably didn't want to know either.

After the briefing was over Emily slunk back to her desk while the rest of the team minus JJ tried their hardest to not mention or even look at the two women involved in this morning's antics. JJ walked back to her office whistling "Whistle while you work" as she went. The men and Garcia who were left in the room just sat there in confusion, as usually Garcia is at the centre of all office plots but this time she was out of the loop.

"Anyone want to go first?" Dave asked, looking around.

"Not me man, the last time I suggested Emily was acting weird I got punched" Derek said, rubbing his jaw in remembrance.

"Well I want to know, I can't believe I've been keep out of this! How dare they? I knew this was going to be a bad day when I had to wear my pink flower necklace with my red dress because Kevin dropped my red one in the toaster and burnt it" Garcia complained, while the guys looked at her unsure of what to do or say without saying the wrong thing.

"Erm, sorry you're having a bad day my sweet candy cane but.." Derek attempted before Garcia simply turned around and left in search of coffee, leaving the guys as confused as ever about women.

"I have no idea what is going on today. I really don't know and honestly I'm sure that I'm going to stay out of it." Hotch took the easy way out.

"Yeah, it's clearly none of our business." Spencer agreed; avowing the men to cowardice.

The day continued and the men grew only more wary of the girls of the team and Emily and Garcia only got more annoyed. Eventually Emily went up to JJ's office to escape the interrogating eyes of Derek and Spencer before she hit them with something that had more impact than a pen. Even Hotch and Dave had left the doors and blinds of their offices open so that they could cast glances at her in the bullpen every so often. JJ had made her into the freak show of the day. JJ didn't say anything when she walked in, she just looked at the clock, as if deciding something, then apparently the answer to that choice was a yes. JJ picked up the mug on her desk which was still full of coffee, although stone cold by now and without hesitating poured it all down Emily.

Emily stood there covered in cold, stale coffee from neck to feet glaring at JJ who hadn't reacted at all to what she had just done. For the first time in her life Emily actually wanted to knock her friend out cold. "JJ what the hell?"

"Because I can." She said smiling sweetly, yet Emily was now aware that behind that smile was a mind of pure evil.

"I'm going to change. What is wrong with you?" Emily then left the office and into the bullpen to collect her go bag and take it to the ladies bathroom. As she predicted everyone in the room was staring at her, make that everyone in the BAU; those with offices were also peering down at her with rapt attention.

"Uh, Princess..?" Morgan was hoping for an explanation, as a simple spill would in no way cause that kind of mess on a person.

"It was an accident." Emily muttered between clenched teeth as she knew full well that it was in no way an accident. If they believe that maybe they'd believe that JJ's untimely death would be an accident...

Once she got to the ladies room and opened her go bag, she knew someone had gone through it, all her things were muddled up and instead of her usual supply of suit trousers and office shirts, there were only two items; a short black skirt and a KISS band fitted t-shirt. The very same items that JJ had 'borrowed' from Emily last week; she had been planning this all along! As furious as Emily was, these clothes really were her only option. Well they all thought she had lost her mind anyway, how much was one stupid outfit going to add to that? She swapped outfits, shoving her coffee ruined outfit into her bag with a mental note to throw it out later as a stain like that, especially left for a few hours, was in no way going to completely wash out. She kept her head down and walked quickly over to her desk, hoping that if she didn't look at anyone, they would somehow not look at her. 'Brilliant plan Emily.' Of course they all noticed the outfit, how could they not, it was in no way FBI regulation attire. She tried to lessen their view of her by hiding herself behind her desk, in the hope of possibly being dissolved into it.

Derek raised an eyebrow at her choice of clothing. "It's all I had." Emily mumbled. 'Please don't focus on it Derek. I can't take any more attention.' Emily looked around her, planning to shoot a glare at anyone who was still looking at her; JJ was standing at the door to her office smiling down at her, Dave looked kindly at her and gestured at his own shirt and gave her a thumbs up to mean that he approved of her liking for KISS. It was Hotch's reaction to her new outfit that surprised her the most; he was as-clear-as-day checking out her legs! 'Fine JJ, I will let you off this one.' She smirked as she was glad that she was actually able to get that kind of response from him. He then turned and went back into his office and shut the door forcefully behind him.

Luckily the rest of the office went back to their work and Emily was back to being left in peace, she even made it through the lunch break without having JJ doing any further damage to her life.

It was the time of the day that was half way between lunch and the end of the day when everyone could finally leave, it was when most people's concentration started to wane and they looked for distractions instead. Like most days when they were on stand down the other members of their BAU family came to the bullpen, so it was not a surprise when at around 3pm one by one Garcia, Dave, JJ and even Hotch strolled into the bullpen and pulled up chairs so that they could chat with the group about anything other than what they were supposed to be doing.

"JJ, how's Henry doing, is he starting to talk yet?" Reid was more than fascinated by the development of his godson.

"Well, he can go as far as syllables, but nothing as fully formed as a word yet. Although Will and I are trying to used the words 'Mama' and 'Dada' a lot more around him in the hope that he'll start to pick up on it and say his first word."

"Why not try the fully worded 'Mom' and 'Dad'? In some reports it has been found that children pick up the monosyllabic and easier sounding words more easily."

"You mean words like 'Spence'? JJ joked.

"Well, if that is one of his early words, there is nothing wrong with that." Reid said smugly while JJ laughed.

A delivery man came in through the glass doors carrying a large bouquet of pink roses and called out for an Agent Prentiss. 'JJ, what the hell have you done now?' Emily cautiously waved her hand at him, she took the flowers and quickly threw them down on her desk looking terrified. 'Oh god there's a card'. The others didn't miss the appearance of the card, she tried to grab it and hide it before the situation could get any worse by someone actually reading what JJ had dictated.

Derek came up behind Emily and snatched the card from her hand and read aloud; 'Emily, Hope these brighten up your day as you have mine these past three months. Love, Charlie. X' "Ooh, Princess has a loverboy! Emily and Charlie sitting in a tree!"

"I will overlook the fact that for three months you never said a word if you give me every single detail." Garcia said as gleefully as if she had just won the lottery. Emily was standing there in shock. 'JJ why?'

"No no no no." Emily turned to look at the group, and saw them all grinning at her except Hotch who was walking back to his office. 'Oh god, no! I'm not seeing someone. No, I don't want anyone except you. The flowers aren't real!' "JJ Please!" Emily begged her now ex-friend.

JJ had on the most innocent look possible. "What's wrong Em?"

"Hotch...I..I.."

"Why does it matter what Hotch thinks?" She was going to make her say it.

Emily said nothing in response but instead ran up to Hotch's office and entered without knocking, to find him sitting behind his desk staring at nothing in particular.

"I'm not seeing anyone. It's not what you think."

"You don't have to explain flowers to me Prentiss, I know what they are. You don't have to tell me about your love life, you can see whoever you want." 'No I can't, I want to see you.' "I don't care about your love life Prentiss." 'Okay that hurt like hell.'

"You don't care." It came out as more of a statement than a question. A tear fell down Emily's face and she had to leave the office before he saw her breakdown. Emily walked back through the bullpen, JJ saw she was crying and put a hand on her arm. Emily pushed JJ back with both hands away from her, she couldn't take much more. "Go away! Haven't you done enough damage to my life today?" Emily then turned on her heel and ran out of the BAU.

Hotch had watched Emily from his office window, he was shocked to say the least, he had never seen her act like that before. He ran from his office and over to JJ, she knew what this day was about and he needed answers. "JJ I order you to tell me what the hell has been going on today between you two." He was trying very hard not to shout at her while she looked so guilty and upset.

"I made a mistake. This whole day has been my fault, Emily isn't to blame for anything she did. I'm really sorry." Poor JJ looked like she was on the brink of tears. Dave went over and pulled her into a hug. "I need to find Emily, I have to apologise. She was so upset though."

"JJ's right, Hotch what did you say to her man, she was crying." They were all looking at him now. Yes JJ had been messing with Emily all day but it was him that had made her cry. He had told her that he didn't care, he did, too much. He didn't like her getting flowers from other men, he wanted her to himself. He loves her. 'So because she doesn't feel the same, you take it out on her. Smart move.'

"You do know I was behind the flowers don't you? There is no Charlie, never was. I was trying to make you jealous so you would actually make a move." JJ explained, guessing that her version of 'make a move' was not the same as what had actually happened in Hotch's office.

"Why would I make a move?" 'Because you love her'

"Because Hotch, you are just as much in love with her as she is with you. Except you are both idiots and apparently need help in seeing what is right in front of you." The others all nodded in agreement with JJ.

"Any idea where she'll be?" he asked anyone present.

"Two floors up, supply closet on the far left. It's her secret place." Reid piped up when the others came up blank. They looked at him questioningly. "She doesn't want people to see her cry and it's the one supply room that isn't in use any more. I only know because I got lost and found her in there one day after Foyet had got to you Hotch." Reid felt bad that he was letting out Emily's secret, he would apologise later.

"I'm going to find her. Don't worry JJ, it's me she's upset with not you." He then left before JJ could protest. Hotch took the stairs, not wanting to even wait for an elevator to arrive. He had already wasted too much time. He found the supply closet easily, it was the only one without the new colour of paint on it that had worked its way around the building a month ago. He knocked before opening the door.

She was sitting in the far corner, her knees pulled up to her chest, hiding her face and the tears that Hotch could hear her crying. She looked vulnerable, something he had never seen on her before; it made his heart break because this was his fault. She noticed someone come in and automatically became defensive. "Get out!"

Hotch switched on the light and properly entered the room, closing the door behind him, he didn't want any interruptions. "Emily, it's me. I'm not going anywhere."

"Please leave me alone Hotch."

"I'm sorry but I can't do that. I care too much about you to let you sit in here and cry for the rest of the day."

"No you don't, you specifically said that you don't care. Now get out and tell Reid I am going to shoot him for telling you about this room." Hotch went over and crouched down in front of her, putting his hands on her knees. She still didn't look up at him, Emily hated it when people saw her cry; probably a lasting effect of her strict upbringing she guessed.

"Emily, please look at me" she tilted her head slightly but not all the way, she couldn't bear to face him just yet. "I didn't mean what I said, I'm sorry. I do care about you, I thought you knew that." She still didn't move but at least the tears had stopped, when she said nothing he continued. "JJ told me what's been going on today, she told me that none of it was your fault, including the flowers, that there is no Charlie." Emily finally lifted her head up and looked him in the eyes.

"No there isn't."

"Good. Because you're mine."

"Yours?"

"Emily Prentiss I am completely in love with you and have been for years. You have always been there for me and Jack, you make me happy which I never thought I would be again, you deserve the world and more and if you'll let me I will spend the rest of my life trying to give it to you. I love you Emily." He barely had time to breathe before she flung herself at him, knocking them both backwards onto the floor, kissing him hard and passionately. He smiled and kissed her back, they carried on until their lungs were practically screaming for oxygen. Try to catch their breath; they sat up, with Emily in Hotch's lap and her arms around his neck.

"I love you Aaron Hotchner, more than anything. I don't need the world, I only need you." He leant forward and kissed her again, slowly and gentler this time. They both would have been more than happy to stay like that forever, but a supply closet at the BAU was definitely not the most comfortable place to be.

"Come on." Hotch said, pulling them both upright. "We're going home."

"Leaving early? Who are you and what have you done with my Agent Hotchner?" He rolled his eyes at her before they left the supply closet hand in hand.

"Now I've finally got you I am never letting you go." He said unashamedly. She put her hands on either side of his face and reached up to press her lips to his again.

"I adore you Aaron. Now let's get out of here before I do something that isn't covered in my contract." She whispered teasingly in his ear, he let out a sigh and then turned to open the car door for his Emily.

"Love you too Sweetheart" he replied, and gave her a quick peck on the lips before getting in the car himself. On the way to his apartment they discussed what thank you gift to buy for JJ.