Derek Morgan hadn't expected the call that had come through to the BAU offices earlier in the week. And it was his surprise and his curiosity that had him standing in a circle with five women as they leaned over the envelope in his hand. He knew that he was there for one reason and one reason only: to determine if there was any women in that group of ten that were not suited for his unit chief. He didn't mind the job one bit. He'd had years and years within bars and clubs under his belt and his profiling ability was legendary within the FBI world.
Even now, as he sat between two of the women, Emily and Taylor, he had to admit, he wasn't only having the time of his life, but he knew he'd met two fantastic women in the process. Taylor was bubbly, a sales rep from Miami, Florida. Emily was more subdued, but quick on her feet and whip smart. He swore the only reason they'd won the scavenger hunt was because she seemed to know the answers before he even asked the question. And more importantly, he'd watched her eyes light up in a way he'd come to recognize as her brain finding the answer but she'd hint her way around until someone else actually blurted the answer out. It was a sign of a true leader and someone who didn't have to be the center of attention all the time.
Actually, he liked to believe he and Emily had bonded. She'd sat shot gun as he'd driven them around LA and they'd had a chance to talk even as he sped through the streets to their destinations. They other women had chimed in, but there was just something in Emily he was drawn to. He liked her, and it came as no surprise that his boss' eyes lit on her first when their SUV pulled up to the curb. Now, Hotch was off with one of the other women, one that had seemed seriously upset by the time they'd sat down to lunch. Derek had watched her earlier in the day as a member of his team and had a good idea what the reason was behind her mood.
This was not an easy situation to be in. He'd never experienced it himself, but he could only imagine the pressure these women were under and they'd only been through one rose ceremony. He'd done his research on the show before agreeing with Reid and Rossi to submit Hotch's name, so he knew the general point of the show.
"What do you do?"
He turned to his let, to Taylor, with a smile. "I work with Hotch."
"Why do you call him Hotch?"
Derek hadn't realized that he'd become the center of attention. Though, he realized, it shouldn't have surprised him. He was now the only men in a room with nine women who were here to find a husband. "I've never thought about it," he replied finally.
"What's it like working with him?"
He looked around the table. Only Emily seemed to have leaned back in her chair, separating himself from the conversation. He knew that body language. It confused him a little bit. She was listening, he couldn't mistake that, but she had deliberately sat back and withdrawn herself from a conversation about a guy who she was potentially here to get engaged to. "What's he like or what's the job like?"
"Both!" One of the women exclaimed enthusiastically. "Do you have to draw your gun?"
"Sometimes. We don't like to."
"You catch criminals! That has to be exciting!"
He watched Emily bite her lip out of his periphery vision. Something about this conversation wasn't settling with her and Derek had no idea what it could be. "It has it's good days and it's bad days." He was saved from answering any further questions when Hotch returned and all attention shifted to him yet again. For the first time in a long time, Derek didn't mind all of the attention shifting to another man. It gave him a better chance to turn to the woman on his right. All he got was an arched eyebrow and a tilt of the lips in response. He had no idea what to make of that.
Emily sighed as she stretched out on a beach towel. LA was famous for it's beaches and she was so endlessly glad that Aaron had seen fit to take them all out for the afternoon. She preferred the laid back atmosphere, but she loved the craziness that had been that morning's scavenger hunt. Lunch hadn't been that bad either except when they started talking about work. She hadn't wanted to think about that. She'd seen his service records, she worked in government. Emily knew that Aaron's job wasn't as easy or as glamorous as so many of the women seemed to think it is. Emily hated the way popular culture so often romanticized what government employees did. There were very few fun and games within the units of the FBI.
"Can I get your back?"
Emily looked up at Aaron's friend Derek. She smirked. "I doubt that would be a good idea. Don't want to send the wrong message after all."
She actually didn't mind it when he took a seat. He'd been the most intelligent conversation she'd been treated to other than Aaron himself and since the latter hadn't been on her team that morning, Emily had made due with Derek. She'd made a mental note to ensure Penelope looked him up for her when she got home too.
"And what kind of message is that?" he asked, leaning back on his hands. It showed his body to perfection, but Emily wasn't looking.
"That I'm interested in someone else. I'm assuming that's why you were the one chosen to come on this little excursion."
He narrowed his eyes. "Where do you work again?"
She let out a bark of laughter. "State Department."
"Are you sure?"
"In all of it's mundane glory," she replied.
"You don't like it?"
"It's not challenging," Emily answered honestly. "I'd prefer my job to be challenging." She could see the approval in his eyes, even if he tried to hide it. She'd spent way too much time dancing in the political sphere not to see things like that.
"Challenges are always good."
She sighed. "You're fishing. What do you want to know?"
He didn't bother to hide his surprise and she was grateful. "Not one to pull punches are you?"
"Honesty is a valuable quality."
He looked out over the ocean where the other women were goofing around in the water with Aaron. A few of them were still stretched out not far from her, but they all seemed to be scrambling for time with The Bachelor.
"Why did you clam up when they asked about the FBI?"
Oh, she was hoping he wouldn't ask that. She blew out a breath. 'It's not an easy job," she said finally, quietly. "What you guys do isn't glamorous, it isn't cool. It's brutal work with long hours and crappy pay. The best part of your day is the part where you arrest someone knowing that you could have very well saved who knows how many lives because you found him. You lose victims time and time again not because you want to but because it's an unfortunate side effect to getting more information."
"You know the job well," Derek muttered after a moment had passed.
Emily shrugged. "I want it," she told him. "Or, I had wanted it, anyway. To work in the FBI, the BAU specifically. I asked some questions, got some answers I didn't really want to hear but understood. I don't like how so many of the women here don't see that kind of thing. They see the glamorous side of the FBI, the one with the shooting and the saving lives, not the one where you lose them. Not the one where you case psychopaths all across the country because someone has to do it."
Derek found himself looking at the woman beside him in a whole different light. She had a grasp of their job that no one else he'd ever encountered had. It really felt to him that, for all intents and purposes, she knew what they saw, what they went through. He'd wondered about that when he'd looked at all ten women emerging from the limo. He'd wondered how many of these women actually knew what they were getting into with Hotch. Because their job did everything Emily had just said and more. There were the nightmares, the long trips away... Hotch needed someone who was willing to love him, but love the job too. Because Hotch spent too much time at the BAU. It was important to him and while Derek understood that mentality, he wanted to make sure his boss had someone to come home to at night that loved him for everything, not just the bits and pieces.
Profiling was something you just couldn't turn off. More importantly, the things they saw didn't just go away when they left the office. They stuck with you, resulted in nightmares and, in the worst cases, like that of Jason Gideon only a few years ago, resulted in severe PTSD that no one could get over. Their unit had the highest burn out rate and it wasn't a secret. For as well-renowned as they were, they were also probably the most screwed up agents in the FBI. They were the ones that bordered on criminals themselves for the sole reason that they spent so much time in their heads.
He smiled. "I was wrong about you."
"I'm sorry?" she asked, raising her sunglasses.
"I was wrong about you," he repeated. "And I'm not often wrong."
Emily chuckled. "I believe it. How were you wrong?"
"I thought you didn't care," he replied. "I thought his job just simply wasn't important to you and if there's one thing you need to know about Hotch, it's that his job is his life."
"Right now?"
Derek admitted in his head to being impressed that she'd framed it as a genuine question. "Always. Hotch is the BAU. He's one of the pioneering members of the unit. I don't think he would leave it even if you held a gun to his head."
"Probably wouldn't work. You guys spend a lot of time around guns."
He chuckled. "Something like that. I hope he keeps you around, Emily. I think you'd be good for him."
He noticed her blush as he stood up to join his boss in the water.