Note- The title of this story comes from the song This Year's Love.

On My Own Too Long

Reid and Prentiss

Chapter One

February 2011

"Thank you," he told her, as they sat on her couch late that evening, having drinks and talking "for going to the movie with me. I knew you were the only one who would enjoy it as much as I would."

"Sure, no problem. In fact, anytime you have any slightly nerdy thing you wanna do you know who to call."

He chuckled. "I wish it was so easy to ask other women to go out."

"Oh, should I be offended? Are you saying this wasn't a real date?" she joked with him while he gave her a nervous look back that made her laugh. "I know what you mean. Its hard to connect with a stranger. We really don't have the time anyway, with our jobs. Look at JJ and Garcia, they both hooked up with guys they met through work. So I guess, Reid, you need to look a little closer to home."

"Do you mean Ashley?"

Emily's eyes widened.

Reid went on "Cause Garcia and Morgan both claim I have a crush on her but I don't actually. I mean she's pretty, sure, but pretty isn't enough to entice my interest."

"Pretty is a good start, I'd say. Plus she's smart and funny too, right? And even if she doesn't speak Russian you could have asked her to see Solaris tonight with you. It did have subtitles."

"I could have but I wanted to ask you."

She took a big gulp of her wine.

Reid went on "I do, actually, feel a connection to someone I met through our job but I'm not sure if it really matters. What if I can't be with the person I feel this connection with? Then what? Do I just forget I ever felt it at all? How do I do that?"

"Don't ask me. I have the worse luck with romance. Four decades to make at least one relationship not suck and I've never managed it yet."

"You probably didn't start dating till puberty so its closer to 25 years that you've been sexually active."

"Wow. Now I feel so much better."

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean-"

She chuckled. "Its okay. Actually tonight was the best non-date date I've had in as long as I can remember. Maybe that should tell me something."

In a serious tone, while staring deep in her eyes, he said "Maybe it should, Emily. Maybe it should tell us both something."

For a moment they stared into each other's eyes until he looked away, clearing his throat.

"Well, like I said," Emily told Reid "anytime you wanna ask me out again, go for it. Its not like I have a busy social calender to move around or anything. Most nights I'm just here with Sergio watching the Food Network and planning out menus for dinner parties I'll never have."

"Then why do you plan the menus?"

She shrugged. "For the fun of it."

"Why don't you have more dinner parties then?"

"Why do you think? I had to cancel the last three because, lets see, I think one time some guy was eating eyeballs-"

"No, remember? He was just putting them in stuffed animals."

"Oh, well, that's so much better," she joked "Stuff like that is what I have to say when I cancel yet another dinner party."

Reid chuckled. "Talking about work with anyone who doesn't work with us never really goes over well. It took me years to realize that chatting about serial killers over dinner was a turn off. It seemed normal to me. Does that make me strange?"

"No stranger than me."

They smiled at each other and kept joking for well over another hour, just relaxing and hanging out, before he stretched and said "I should probably head home. Its pretty late."

She walked him to the door. "Reid..."

He turned and looked at her.

She went on "Ask me to hang out again sometime, okay?"

He nodded. "I'd like to but it might be a bad idea."

"Why's that? Hanging out with a friend-"

"You're one of my very best friends."

"Okay, with one of your best friends is better than just being home alone, isn't it?"

"But if we're together then we can't be out meeting someone to have another failed relationship with and I wouldn't want to keep you from that."

She laughed. "That's okay. I've had enough failed relationships to last a lifetime."

He stared into her eyes for a long moment. "Do you have a type, Emily?"

"Huh? A type? Well, I guess so. Assholes. That's my type."

"Hmmmm. I can see why you've racked up so many unsatisfactory relationships then. A strong woman like you would only put up with that for so long before you move on. So what makes you so attracted to men like that?"

"Hey, are you profiling me?"

"Nope. Just making conversation."

"Sure, I believe you. Okay...I guess I have a bad habit of going for the guy who comes on strong. Who chases me. Its kind of a default position because every time I go after a guy I just make a fool of myself. I don't know why but I suck at making the move on a man. Totally suck at it. Its laughable, really. So I get stuck with these alpha male types who pursue me till I just give in. I think the last time I was with a guy who wasn't anything like that was high school. Maybe I'm just looking for his exact opposite or something. Or its possible that I just need some serious therapy."

"Maybe what you need is to take a chance on something...someone new."

"Maybe you're right about-" before she could finish the sentence his hands cupped her face and he gave her a gentle kiss.

Emily gasped in surprise as his lips touched her. All too fast he pulled away but she wanted, needed, ached for more so she wrapped her arms around his neck and tugged him flush against her body, pulling his head down into another kiss, as they started to explore each other's mouths.

Soon their hands were roaming over each other, wanting to touch and feel and caress, to keep this moment going, to not pause and talk about it or talk themselves out of this.

Pressing her hands up under his shirt, feeling his overheated skin beneath her fingertips, seemed to ratchet everything up to another level, a point of no return. Without saying a word, he stepped back from her and pulled off his shirts, then pulled her against him again and began to devour her already swollen, wet lips.

With her heart in her throat, she started to walk backwards, pulling him down the long hall towards her bedroom. Stepping back from him, she kicked off her shoes and pulled off her socks before slowly stripping down to just her panties.

Moving close to him, as he stood there slack jawed, his eyes roaming over her flushed skin, she helped him to undress and then pulled him onto the bed over her, her fingers stroking against the taut muscles in his back, ass and thighs.

Their lips found each other again, one of his hands threaded its fingers through hers, and later there was only one question that Reid asked "Do you have something?"

"Its fine," she promised, prophetic words that would come back to haunt her later because it wasn't fine at all. It wasn't fine for a long time after that night.