A/N: And this is the it, the final part. It didn't quite go the way I imagined it would, but it is a story I managed to keep, barely, under ten parts. I do think if they had did this with Beth it would have made the character far more enjoyable and definitely more interesting than the soggy tea bag of a character Criminal Minds has actually given us. Enjoy!

Three days later Hotch and Emily returned to the BAU. Rossi watched them as they entered the bullpen together, neither saying a word to each other. The older man's eyes peered intently at them, cataloguing their every move. Prentiss was limping slightly and his forehead creased in concern. He hadn't realized the serial killer they ran into had injured her. She stopped at her desk and Hotch paused. He said something to her, and she nodded her head sharply. Hotch's mouth thinned slightly but he returned the curt nod with one of his own and continued on to his office.

Rossi sighed. Annoyance filled him. He went through all that trouble to make sure Hotch and Prentiss were on neutral ground where they could talk and he hoped both would finally acknowledge their mutual attraction to each other and what happens? Absolutely nothing. All that money he wasted to make sure they were forced to share the same room and still nothing? Oh, it seemed that they were at least on speaking terms, so that was an improvement, but not much. Definitely not worth paying through the nose for those Celine Dion tickets. Seriously, his hard earned cash went into Celine Dion's bank account?

With an angry scowl on his face, Rossi made his way to Hotchner's office and without bothering to knock he marched in and stood directly before the other man's desk. Hotch looked up with a raised eyebrow.

"Yes?" was the Unit Chief's one-word query.

"Is that all you can say?" Rossi snapped. "'Yes'? What the Hell happened?"

Hotch simply looked back at his old friend with a mildly puzzled frown. "What do you mean? You know that Prentiss and I ran into a killer, were momentarily detained by him but we managed to subdue him. We handed him over to the Seattle field office and local law enforcement. We then finished up our scheduled custodial interview and returned home."

"Not the work stuff! What happened at the hotel?" Rossi pressed. "The last time we talked you were locked out of the room."

"Oh, that. Well, like you suggested, I spoke to the manager who supplied me with an extra key. By that point, Prentiss was no longer angry. We agreed that we both needed to act more professionally than we have been, for the good of the team, and agreed we would work from a clean state and focus on our jobs." Hotch leaned back in his chair with a satisfied air.

Rossi was far from satisfied. In fact he was irritated. Dammit, he did not spend all that money to see these two exactly where they were when he came back to the BAU. "Professional? Focus on your jobs? That's it?"

"Well, what else is there, Dave?" The puzzled frown was back on Hotch's face. "We're colleagues."

Rossi threw up his hands in exasperation. "I spent all that money making sure you were forced to share a room with a beautiful woman with an incredible body and all you came away with is a 'professional relationship'?"

Hotch's eyes narrowed dangerously. "You mean you arranged it so Emily and I would be forced to share a room?"

"Of course I did," Rossi snapped back without a hint of shame. "I got tired of you moping around because Emily was freezing you out. Yeah, you acted like an asshole, but she had to forgive you otherwise I'd be stuck looking at your sad mug for years. What the Hell is wrong with you, Aaron?"

"With me?!" Hotch exclaimed in surprise.

"Yes , you! Just get your head out of your ass and finally admit you're in love with Emily so I can stop the two of you doing this tippy-toe dance around each other. Maybe you think it's cute, but it's not. Neither one of you are getting any younger. I hand you a perfect opportunity and instead of badda binging her, you decide to be 'professionals.'"

"First of all," Hotch bit out crisply, "I was not going to 'badda bing' anyone while we were traveling for work. I have the utmost respect for Emily Prentiss and she is not a woman you treat in that manner. Second, there is nothing going on between Prentiss and myself but respect and friendship. We're keeping our professional relationship now, but I'm sure we'll feel at ease enough to go back to our friendship."

"Friendship?" Rossi asked in a skeptical tone.

"Friendship."

Rossi snorted. "Yeah, and my abs are better than Morgan's. You were moping around here for weeks since Emily froze you out. That isn't how a boss reacts. You, my friend, are interested in Emily Prentiss in more than a "friend way" but you are just too stubborn of an ass to admit it."

Hotch merely stared blandly back at his old friend. "You have an incredibly active imagination, Dave. There's nothing going on."

Rossi threw his hands up in exasperation. He happened to glance out Hotch's window and watched Emily get up from her chair and move off towards the break room. Rossi frowned as he noticed her limp again.

"She okay?"

"What do you mean?" Hotch asked as he shuffled through the accumulated paperwork on his desk.

"Emily, she's limping. What did that guy do to her?" Rossi turned around to look at Hotch.

Hotch's hand paused a moment before he said in a neutral tone. "She got a deep bruise on her leg."

"A deep bruise? She get it checked out?"

"Well, you know, Prentiss. She's fine. It's just a bruise."

"She's moving so gingerly," Rossi mused. "Are you sure?"

"Positive," Hotch said in a firm voice. "Now, if we're done, I need to get caught up on this paperwork."

"Yeah, yeah," Rossi grumble. "We're done." He moved to the door but paused and turned around to say one last thing to Hotch. "But you my friend are still an idiot. Beth was the wrong woman for you, but the right woman is sitting in front of you and you refuse to do anything about it. She's not always going to be single and when she's gone, you're going to regret it forever." He stomped out of the room and back into his office where he sulked for most of the day until his cell phone rang.

"Mr. Rossi," an angry voice barked out at him. "This is Aloysius Creighton from the Imperial Hotel."

The hotel manager he bribed. "Oh yes, Mr. Creighton. What can I do for you?"

"I must say that your friends, Mr. Hotchner and Ms. Prentiss were two of the worst guests I have ever encountered." Creighton's voice was practically quivering.

"I'm sorry?" Rossi asked in surprise. "You're saying my friends were disruptive."

"Disruptive is a kind way of putting it!" Creighton snapped. "I had constant complaints from their neighbors regarding the noise they made. And the state they left the bed! There were deep grooves they put into the headboard spinals from goodness knows what. Mr. Rossi, the Celine Dion tickets in no way compensates for the trouble this couple caused. Why, Reverend Bailey and his wife said it was like sleeping next door to a pornographic movie house!"

As Creighton continued to yammer on, Rossi stood up from his chair and moved over to his window that looked out over the bullpen. He watched as Hotch came down from his office and started to walk across the room, past Emily's desk. Dave did not miss the hand Hotch brought up to touch Emily's shoulder as he walked past and how his fingers trailed across it before he continued on his way.

Rossi smirked knowingly, no longer listening to the sputtering of the hotel manager.

Friends my ass!

Emily heard her front door open and close. A voice called out to her. "I'm in the kitchen," she replied as she continued stirring the pasta sauce simmering on the stove.

A pair of strong arms came around to wrap around her waist and she felt herself pulled gently back against a hard body. Warm lips touched sensitive skin of her neck.

"Mmmmm, what smells so good?" Hotch rumbled out as he began to slowly nibble on her neck.

"Home made sauce and shells," Emily moaned as he continued his assault with his mouth and one hand slipped under her shirt to stroke her soft skin. "But you seem to be hungry for something else."

"I am," Hotch replied as he reached over to turn off the stove. He spun Emily around to kiss her and show her exactly what he was hungry for.

"God," Emily moaned as she wiped her mouth with her napkin. "I can't believe how hungry I am."

"You worked up an appetite," Hotch said in an amused voice. He leaned over and wiped a bit of sauce off of the corner Emily's mouth that she had missed. He set his own plate aside so he could pull her into his arms. After christening Emily's kitchen table and floor, they had finally sat down to their belated dinner on the floor of the living room, Hotch dressed only in his boxers and Emily in his dress shirt.

She sighed in contentment, satiated and pleasantly aching and tired. It was only the third day of their new relationship but she had discovered that Aaron Hotchner was a man of insatiable appetites. She had no complaints. She snuggled closer into his arms, ready to fall asleep when his next words made her eyes pop open.

"I think Dave is suspicious."

Emily pushed away from Hotch so she could stare at him with wide eyes. "What? How?"

"He didn't seem to be at first. In fact, he was upset at me that I didn't recognize what an amazing and beautiful woman you are and how perfect you were for me." He smiled at her and pulled her back into his arms. He kissed the top of her head as she once again snuggled close to him. "But, at the end of the day, he had this smirk. You know, that knowing, you aren't fooling me smirk he sometimes gets? That one." Hotch rested his chin on the top of her head. "I don't know how, but he seems to have figured things out. He was asking me if you were hurt."

"What? Why?"

"Sweetheart, you were limping in the office today," Hotch said in an amused voice that was colored with a hint of male pride.

Emily snorted. "Well, excuse me, but there was a certain man in my hotel room who was insatiable and continues to be."

"What can I say," Hotch murmured as he nuzzled her hair. "You're like a drug for me, Emily. A beautiful, sexy drug that I don't ever want to give up."

"Yeah," Emily breathed out as Hotch's skillful hands began to make her body hum and burn. "Like I said, insatiable."

Hours later they were stretched out in front of a crackling fire, their bodies twined together, a throw Emily kept on her sofa covering their rapidly cooling skin.

"Rossi is really going to notice me limping tomorrow," Emily moaned.

Hotch chuckled as he tucked a curl behind her ear. "Maybe we shouldn't try to hide it."

Emily thought about this. On the plane ride back they had agreed that it would be best to keep their new relationship to themselves, partly to prove that they could have a relationship and still work together and also because it was something they just wanted for themselves, their little secret. Would it be so bad if the rest of the team knew?

She sighed. "I don't know. I did like the idea of it just being you and me in our own secret world."

"I know. Can you imagine the reactions of the team? I would have to listen to Dave's "I told you so"," Hotch sighed.

"JJ and Garcia asking about how sex with you."

"What?!" Hotch pulled back, aghast. "You're not serious?"

"Totally. Well, JJ may not ask, but you know Garcia would want all the details."

Hotch thought about it for a moment and was forced to agree about the tech analyst grilling Emily. He sighed and rubbed his face with his hand. "Okay, we don't say anything and if they figure it out, they figure it out."

"Do you think Rossi would say anything?

He mulled this over and then shook his head. "No, you know what, I think if Dave knows we're happy, that's enough for him. He was just exasperated because he thought there wasn't anything going between us. That's all he wanted, for us to realize that we would make each other happy."

"And are you? Happy, I mean," Emily asked as she propped herself up on her elbow to look anxiously at him.

Hotch smiled softly at her, a smile she had never seen before. It was so gentle, warm and full of love that she felt her heart skip a beat. He pulled her towards him until she was lying fully on top of his body, skin against skin.

"I'm the happiest man alive, Emily. You make me completely and utterly happy. I only hope I make you even a little bit as happy as you've made me."

She felt a lump form in her throat and she reached a hand up to cup his cheek. "More than a little. I've never been so happy in my entire life." She kissed him softly on his smiling mouth.

Emily rolled off him until she was once more tucked against his side. She looked curiously at him when she heard him chuckle softly.

"You know what? We both really have Beth to thank for this."

"What?!" Emily cried out, jerking up into a sitting position.

"Hey, get back here," he said as he pulled her back into his arms. She resisted a moment but finally settled back down against his side.

"What do you mean we owe Beth?" she grumbled.

"Well, if my former girlfriend wasn't a serial killer that you so brilliantly figured out, I wouldn't have been forced to confront my feelings for you and take the step that will make me happy for the rest of my life."

"So we're together because of the psycho bitch you allowed to pick you up."

"Well, yeah." Okay, it sounded weird when it was said aloud, but it was true.

"Fine, I'll send her a thank you card." Emily actually brightened at that. "Yeah, I can send her a card. Thanks for making sure I get lots of incredible sex!"

"Emily, no taunting the imprisoned psychopath. In fact, I'll feel better if neither of us have any contact with her ever again."

"I can agree to that," she murmured as she cuddled close to Hotch, exhaustion finally taking over. She yawned. "I'd be happy if we never talk about her again."

"I can agree to that," he repeated back to her. He looked down with tender amusement as he watched Emily drift off. He tilted his head to kiss her tousled curls.

"Thank you, Beth for being a serial killer and letting me find my true love."

Fin.