Disclaimer: as always, I own nothing, no copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: This is another fic I'm writing as I'm going through old CM episodes trying to cure my writer's block for my current fics. This one is going to be a short fic, only 4 or 5 chapters. It starts with the Season 3 episode "True Night" and ends with the 2-part episode Lo-Fi/Mayhem. This is a straight-up Reid/Prentiss pairing.

As Emily Prentiss sat at her desk in the bullpen of the BAU offices, she kept thinking about Johnny McHale.

She just couldn't stop thinking about how he was a normal guy once. But after a gang brutally killed his fiancé, he became an unsub; taking his revenge by brutally killing them. He wasn't a really bad guy, not in the beginning, anyway.

Understanding that suggested a disturbing question for Emily. Given what happened to Johnny, what's to prevent anyone from becoming an unsub?

She shared her concern with Dave Rossi. All he could think to say was,"Life is a hell of thing to happen to people." That gave her no comfort. So she sat at her desk, pretending to work, hoping a comforting insight would come to her. She was so deeply lost in thought that she didn't realize someone was standing behind her.

"Um...Emily?"

"What?" It came out in a harsh, irritated tone. She looked up scowling at ...Spencer Reid. "I'm sorry," she apologized immediately.

"It's just everyone else is gone."

She looked around and saw he was right.

"I guess I was just deep in thought." She said.

"Yeah. So, I was wondering if you'd like to get some coffee."

"Coffee?"

"Well, coffee that wasn't made in a law enforcement coffee pot. I'm guessing you're working away because you're not ready to go home."

For a brief moment she thought about telling him exactly why she wasn't ready to go home yet, but decided against it. "Yeah, you're right. I am most definitely not ready to go home yet."

"Me either. So, how about getting some decent coffee?"

Emily thought about it. What was the harm?

"Sure, why not?"

Forty-five minutes later they were sitting down in a coffee shop in Georgetown drinking coffee when Reid asked," So, are you having the nightmares yet?"

Emily was sipping her coffee when he asked, and the question took her so off-guard that she spewed out the coffee.

"What?"

"I was just wondering if you were having nightmares." Reid said calmly.

"Who the hell starts a conversation like that?"

"I wasn't starting a conversation, just a new topic."

"You know what I mean. Why would you even ask me a question like that?"

"I saw you in the bullpen."

"So?"

"You were pretending to work."

"I was working."

"You opened a bunch of unrelated files on you desk and hoped no one noticed."

"What makes you think..." she didn't finish the question, because she remember how fast Reid could read. A quick glance of the files was all he would need to realize they were three unrelated cases.

"Even though one of them was upside down, I could still read them all. So, for some reason you don't want to go home. Now, you might go out, but you stayed behind and pretended to work. I remembered when I started having the nightmares, I did everything I could to avoid going to sleep. So, is that why you don't want to go home?"

Emily sighed. "No. It isn't that."

"Then it must be the conversation you had with Rossi on the plane."

"How do you know what we said? You were reading your comic book."

"I read your files while asking you out for coffee, Emily, don't you think I can read a comic book and listen to people talking a few feet away from me?"

"I hate you."

"So, it is what you and Rossi were talking about. About John McHale, I mean."

"Yeah."

"Except he's not the one you're worried about."

"I thought we weren't supposed to profile each other."

"This is different."

"Why?"

For the first time since they left the offices, Reid hesitated.

"I uh...I'm trying to make amends."

"Amends?"

"I ...owe you. I've not always been nice to you. And then you were so nice to me, about Gideon."

"I was just being a friend."

"And so am I. You're afraid you could be an unsub."

"Maybe."

"I don't think you have anything to worry about."

"You don't know that. How can any of us know?"

"You know, when I first had the nightmare, when it got bad enough, I told Morgan."

"Yeah?"

"And Morgan told Gideon."

"How did that go?"

"Well, first I was mad at Morgan. But I thought about what Gideon said, and I think it might be relevant to your concern."

"What did he say?"

"He said the difference between me and the unsubs was I cared about people. He said that was a strength, not a weakness."

"Johnny cared about people."

"He cared about his fiance. You care about people. Even with everything you've seen, you're still kind, even to people who haven't been kind to you. You could never bring yourself to do things to people unsubs do. You may not believe it about yourself, but I do. I don't know if that means anything to you. But I thought you should know."

Emily was quiet. He talked about her kindness despite the things she had seen. It occurred to her that his kindness was equally remarkable. She smiled at him and said," It means a lot to me." She looked concerned. "I got coffee on you."

He shrugged. "It's no big deal."

"It is. Come on, let's go to my place. We can get your shirt cleaned up."

"It's no problem."

"Spencer, please, let me."

He smiled. "Sure. Why not?"

When they got to her place, she told Reid to take off his shirt.

"Why?"

"So I can clean it."

"It's fine, see you can't tell anything spilled on it."

"Come on Reid, just take it off. if you're feeling shy just change in the bathroom. You have your go bag with you, right?"

"Emily, it's fine, really."

"Come on Reid, it won't take long."

"It's fine."

She was starting to get annoyed and grabbed him by his shirt. "Why are you being stubborn about this?"

"Why are you?"

For weeks afterwords, Emily would swear what happened next was Reid's fault. All she had in mind was cleaning his shirt when she invited him to her place. For some reason, however, her reaction to his question was to kiss him.

She pulled him towards and just started kissing him, a long, hard, deep kiss. It should be noted that for his part, Dr. Reid didn't fight her. He was just as much an active participant in the kiss as she was. When the kiss ended, Reid asked,"What you doing?"

She raised both her eyebrows and said,"What, a genius profiler like you doesn't recognize a woman making sexual advances?"

To her great surprise, she realized that was exactly what she was doing. It wasn't her intention when she invited Reid to her place. Now that he was here, however..."

"I...uh,"Reid said," I recognize it I just don't understand it. I mean, is this just your coping mechanism?"

"If sex was my coping mechanism, I wouldn't have been the office, staring at files. I would have gone to the nearest bar picked up a random stranger."

"Then I don't understand why..."

"Do I need reasons? All right Dr. Reid, I'll give you reasons."

She kissed him lightly on the cheek. "One, you were very nice and sensitive to me, trying to make me feel better. That's the kind of behavior that should be encouraged, don't you think?"

Without waiting for his response, she kissed him again, closer to his mouth this time. "Two, I find you attractive. I know you don't think you're handsome, but I do." The way she smiled while she said it and the steady, sultry tone of her voice made him think she was being sincere.

"Three," she said as she lightly kissed his lips,"is your hands. " As she spoke she took his hand in hers, interweaving her fingers into his. "They're such long, thin, lovely hands. I bet they could all sorts of things to me. Plus, the size of your hands is supposed to be proportional to...you know what I mean."

"My penis?"

She smiled. "Yes. And size does matter. It's not the end-all and be-all, but it is a consideration. And I'm just curious how big you are." She kissed him again, full on the mouth. "And fourth,..."

"Emily," he said. "I get it."

"Do you?" She said.

In answer, he kissed her full on the mouth. Then, as she thought, his hands were quite skillful at removing her shirt and bra. That lead to activities that, among other things, lead to become intimately aware of the exact size of all his body parts.

A few hours later they were in Emily's bed, both quite naked. Emily's head was laying on Reid's chest. They had just finished a little while ago and they had settled into silence.

Reid broke the silence,"Uh, Emily, I have to confess something."

"Oh?"

"I'm not really experienced at this."

"At sex? I have absolutely no complaints, if that's what you're worried about."

"It's not that it...I'm sure what I sure do next. I mean, I gather most the time after having sex most men try to leave as soon as possible."

"Do you want to leave?" she asked.

"Not really, no."

She smiled warmly and said,"Then I wouldn't," as she snuggled up against him.

"I mean, what happens next?"

"I don't know. I really didn't plan for any of this, it just happened. It felt right. Didn't it feel right to you?"

"It did. It's just..."

"Don't think about what happen next. You and I both know there's know way to know what could happen next. So let's just enjoy what's happening now. Ok?"

He smiled. "OK."