Disclaimer: Criminal Minds is owned by CBS. I own nothing but my imagination.

~I've been having writer's block with the 'epic' story I've been writing, so I'm taking the advice of numerous ff authors and I'm writing some fluff pieces in hopes of reviving my muse. Enjoy!

Unprofessional Behavior

"Unprofessional? How can you possibly call what I did unprofessional? If I had been unprofessional, the little bastard would be dead! I would say, all things considered, that I acted quite professionally, sir!" Emily all but shouted as she jumped up from the chair in front of her boss's desk.

"You kneed a LEO in the crotch Prentiss! In what universe is that considered to be professional?" Hotch yelled back, as he also stood up. The team had been called to a small and somewhat backwater town in Alabama to help find a serial rapist. From the moment they arrived, one of the deputies had been less impressed by the fact that they had women on the team, and he verbalized his thoughts on that topic many times during the week the team was there. Emily and JJ had seethed in silence while at the station, but things had reached a breaking point after the UNSUB had finally been arrested.

"Hotch, for Christ's sake, he had the nerve to thank JJ and I for our support in helping 'the men' catch the unsub, as if we did nothing other than fetch coffee and type reports! It's not our fault that JJ and I were at the station working victimology when the break in the case came! We would have been out in field helping you apprehend the sick bastard if we had been closer!"

"I know that, Prentiss!, What I don't understand is how you let the deputy finally push your last button! We were nearly out of there; our boxes were packed and the paperwork was filed, we were practically out the door when you had your little melt-down. Why did you finally let him get under your skin?" Hotch asked, still pissed, but willing to listen to his agent's defense.

"You were in the restroom, you missed what he said," Emily said quietly.

"What did he say?"

"He said that even though the unsub was a sleaze, and had done some nasty things in his life, he wasn't convinced he had raped those women, he believed they had it coming to them because of their outfits and past behavior. He then said that some of them probably even liked it, you know since the unsub was fairly handsome. Then, practically in the same breath, he had the nerve to ask me for my number just in case he ever found himself in need of a tour guide in the DC area," Emily told him, the volume of her voice rising with each word. "As he said that to me, he moved closer and finally ran his hand up my arm; that's when I kneed him in the crotch. My only hope is that I did it hard enough to prevent him from ever reproducing." Emily crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Hotch defiantly.

"You very nearly did! After we left, they had to take Deputy Spooner to the Emergency Room because he thought you had ruptured one of his testicles! As a woman, you can't fully understand the pain he is in right now!" Hotch didn't like the deputy either, but just thinking about getting kicked in the crotch by Prentiss made his own balls ache in sympathy.

Emily thought of every sad moment in her life in order to try to stop a smile from overtaking her face, but she was unsuccessful. She tried to hide the smile by blowing her nose into a Kleenex, but Hotch saw it anyway.

"Do you find that FUNNY Prentiss?" He shouted. "A deputy is in the ER right now because of you and you think it's amusing?"

She wiped the smile off of her face, "Look Hotch, I admit I could have handled it better, but do I feel bad for the dipshit? No, but considering that he pretty much baited JJ and I the entire time we were there, I would say it's damn lucky that kicking him in the nuts is all I did!"

"And that's why I'm writing you up for unprofessional behavior," Hotch told her.

"Jesus Hotch, no one else on our team thinks I was out of line! JJ told me on the jet that if she had been closer to him, she would have been the one to kick him, and Morgan and Rossi whispered additional threats in the deputy's ear as we left. Hell, even Reid spouted off some statistics about how my actions would probably change his behavior towards women at least a little bit!" She couldn't believe her boss wasn't seeing her side to this. Had she reacted a bit hastily? Yes, but Hotch wasn't the one who'd had to put up with the deputy's bullshit all week!

"Newsflash Prentiss; Dave, Derek, Reid and JJ aren't the unit chiefs of this team, I am, and I say that you acted unprofessionally and you will be written up for your actions," he said firmly.

"That's your final word on the subject?" She asked.

"That's my final word."

"There's nothing I can say that will change your mind?"

Hotch shook his head. "No," he said firmly.

"Well okay then," Emily said and then grabbed her boss's tie and pulled his face close to hers. Once it was level with hers, she leaned forward and crashed her lips against his. After a few seconds, when she realized Hotch wasn't pulling away from her, she pried open his lips with her tongue and deepened the kiss, her tongue exploring the depths of his mouth. They stayed like that for a minute before she finally pulled away from him and released his tie.

Hotch could count on one hand the number of times he was struck speechless in his life, and this was one of those times. He just stood there in shock while Emily pulled out a compact mirror and fixed her lipstick. His power of speech came back to him after a few minutes of silence.

"What in the HELL was that, Prentiss?" He asked loudly.

She shrugged, "I've been wanting to do that for a couple of months now sir, and I figured if I was going to be written up for unprofessionalism today, I might as well do something that is actually unprofessional." With that she turned and walked towards the door.

As she left his office, she stopped in the doorway and looked back over her shoulder. "If you would like to continue the 'unprofessional behavior' later, you know where I live."

Hotch watched as she exited his office and made her way down to the bullpen. She grabbed her purse and her coat and headed for the elevators that would presumably take her to the parking garage. Once she was out of view, he sat down behind his desk and stared at her personnel file. He quickly scribbled an unprofessionalism notation, slammed her file shut and then grabbed his keys. As he made his way to the elevators, he calculated how long it would take to get to Emily's apartment.

The End