Re: Derek/Emily
"If the next words out of your mouth are anything resembling barefoot and pregnant, you're going to regret it," she replied too sweetly.
"I meant something to you?" Sighing at his use of the past tense, Emily moved to the nearest sofa and sat down. First Reid, then Reid again, now Morgan... She should have known better to think they could move on so easily. "I'm not trying to make you feel better. If I wanted to do that, I'd lie to you, Derek, and tell you everything it is you think you want to hear. Callen and I come from different places, but through similar training. I'm not surprised he'd say something similar. And I've never been like the rest of you, never trusted as easily or been as open. It's a culture shock, coming out of covert intelligence work into the BAU. It took a while not to feel like an outsider, coming in after Elle Greenaway, being an unwitting plant for Strauss. And then to feel like I belonged somewhere, only to have the things from my past I couldn't share come back to- You and Reid both seem to think keeping the secrets was so easy for me, like I had a choice in keeping the secrets I did.
"I took an oath. I may have grown to dislike the work, but my word still means something. There are always going to be secrets between us because those oaths still stand. The only difference is that now you know they're there." Rolling her eyes at the flattery, she stared at him a moment. "You know what's funny? For all Hotch's dislike of secrets between the team, when it came down to it, he was the one who advocated the secrets to protect me and the rest of the team. It was his plan, not mine. I was barely conscious as the drugs were wearing off after surgery when JJ explained it to me and I agreed to follow it. He was the one who really understood."