A/N: Hello readers! So yeah, I'm posting another crossover. This one I thought of while I was brain storming for When Walls Come Crashing Down. I had actually written this one first, then I forgot about it for a while. Now I figured I should post it since it's just been collecting vitural dust in my memory stick for the last few months. What I have written, I don't really consider finished, but I lost the ideas I had. Though I could just leave it like it is now . . . Anyway, review and let me know if you want me to write more!
Disclaimer: As you already know, they don't belong to me.
"Would someone like to tell me how the UNSUB got his hands on rare sea urchins while living in Bangor, Maine?" Garcia asked over the phone.
"Probably the Black Market," JJ replied. "You can get almost anything."
"We should ask the locals if they know of any smugglers in the area," Reid suggested.
"Fish smugglers. And here I thought I'd seen it all," Garcia mumbled.
"Garcia, look as any fishermen who are making more than they should be," Hotch instructed.
"Actually before you do that," Emily said, speaking up for the first time in a few hours. "I might know a guy who could help us," she admitted.
"Really?" Derek asked with a raised eyebrow.
"His name is Duke Crocker," she replied with a nod. "He has a very big boat and as long as he thinks he won't get caught, he'll smuggle anything."
"All righty, let's see then," Garcia said. the tapping on her keyboard could be heard through the phone.
Rossi and Morgan were giving Emily questioning looks but she ignored them.
"Duke Crocker, age thirty-five, one wife, no children. He currently resides in Haven, Maine and indeed has a boat named the Cape Rouge," Garcia told them. "He has some arrests for smuggling and other small crimes, but not much jail time. Lots of parking tickets though. In the last year or so, the number of arrests has decreased. Oh and here's why: he now owns a successful restaurant called The Grey Gull. The guy really likes his colours. And if I can add, he's not too bad on the eyes either. He's got the whole bad boy surfer look going on," she finished.
Morgan rolled his eyes, while Rossi, JJ and Emily chuckled. Reid just looked confused.
"Okay, thanks Garcia," Hotch said and ended the call before she had a chance to reply. "Detective, how long a drive is it to Haven?"
"Probably around three hours," she replied.
"All right, Prentiss I want you and Morgan to go talk to your guy," Hotch commanded.
"Yes Sir," Emily said and headed for the door.
"We need to stop at the hotel first and grab our go bags," Emily said as they got into the SUV.
"Why?" Morgan asked skeptically.
"I'll tell you later," she replied.
After stopping at the hotel, they set out on the road. The first few hours were spent in silence, but as they neared the town, Emily grew fretful. She was picking her fingernails and wouldn't look in Derek's direction.
"All right Prentiss, what's going on?" Derek finally asked with a glance in her direction.
"I need to explain some things to you," she said slowly. "You should pull over."
"Okay," he replied and turned off the road. "Now spill it."
Emily remained silent for a moment, trying to find the words to explain the situation without Derek getting mad, or worse, disappointed.
"I met this guy when I was working undercover . . ."
"With Doyle," Derek finished for her.
"Yeah. Doyle's other guys usually dealt with him, but I did a couple times," she replied.
"Okay, so what else aren't you saying?" Derek asked, trying to not overreact.
"He knew me as Lauren Reynolds," Emily said and took a deep breath. "And I don't know if he knows what happened after . . . After Doyle got arrested the first time." She still refused to meet his eyes.
"Emily look at me," Derek said quietly.
When she looked up, the mask was back in place.
"It's okay," he continued. "It was part of your job to work with his contacts. Right now, none of this is your fault."
"But we have no idea what we're walking into," she argued.
"You have a plan though right?" he replied with a knowing look.
"Yes . . . Well sort of," she said.
"So let me hear it," Derek replied with a smile.
"First we need to find a gas station and change into something that doesn't scream FBI," Emily told him with a smirk.
-[-]-[-]-
The Grey Gull was a cute little seaside restaurant, that was indeed grey. Emily and Derek exited the SUV and Emily did one more check to make sure everything looked good. Derek was clad in work boots, dark jeans, a grey t-shirt and sunglasses, while she wore yellow high heels, jean capri pants, a red blouse and jewelry hung around her neck. Their guns and badges were tucked into the back of their waistbands in case they needed them.
"Okay, I think we're good," she said to him. "Just remember the plan; I'll take the lead, don't talk unless I ask you something and don't show any reaction to what is being said."
"Don't worry, I got it," he replied with a reassuring smile. "I got one question though."
"What is it?" she asked seriously.
"How the hell can you walk in those shoes?" he asked while staring at her feet.
"You've seen me wear heels before," Emily pointed out.
"Yeah, but non this high. Seriously though, why do you even have those in your go-bag?"
Emily chuckled. "Now is really not the time."
"You're right, sorry," Derek said. "You ready?"
"Yeah. Are you?" she replied, the smile was wiped from her face.
"As I'll ever be," Derek said.
He watched as Emily turned around and took a few deep breaths. And suddenly there was something different about her. Emily had always been confident, you could tell by her stance and the way she held herself, but now, with a hand on her cocked hip and the glimmer in her eye, she was a different person. Then Derek realized, she was Lauren Reynolds.
-[-]-[-]-
Emily really didn't like being Lauren Reynolds again, and having Derek there only made it worse. It was their only option though. Well, not really. It was their safest option. If Duke didn't know what happened with Doyle, then her showing up here as FBI would have shut him up. If he did know and she showed up as Lauren he would call her out on being a fake, then shut up. If he had no clue as to what happened to Doyle then Duke would talk to Lauren.
Emily took one last calming breath and sauntered into the restaurant. Duke stood behind the bar, focusing on a box in his hands.
"We don't open until eleven today," he told them without looking up.
"I don't think the owner would mind if you made an exception," Emily replied with a grin.
"Well, well, well. If it isn't Lauren Reynolds," Duke said with a smile. "And I see you've brought a friend." He waved at Derek.
Derek simply crossed his arms in response.
"I take it he's not the talkative type," Duke commented with a shrug. "So Lauren, what brings you by? I don't believe we had a meeting . . ."
"You're right Duke, we didn't" Emily replied and leaned on the counter. She took a deep breath before continuing. "I need your help with something."
"Do you now?" Duke asked her, obviously intrigued. "And why is that? Are you still working with Doyle?"
Emily felt Derek shift behind her. This was the question they were waiting for, her answer would decide the direction the conversation.
"He became a little too popular for my tastes, if you know what I mean," Emily told him.
"I see," Duke replied with a nod. "Last I heard, he got out of North Korea."
Seriously? Was I the last one to know he was in North Korea? she thought.
"How did you hear that?" Emily asked, keeping her tone light.
"People talk. That was like last year or something though so I don't know what he's up to now," Duke said.
Emily looked out at the water and replied, "Neither do I. I'm doing fine without him." Emily returned her gaze to Duke. "Let's get back to the matter at hand shall we?" she asked, the slight smirk returned to her face.
"And what matter would that be?" a woman asked from the patio doors.
She looked familiar to Emily but she couldn't put a name to the face.
"Lauren," Duke said, grabbing her attention. "You may have met my wife before, but I can't really remember. In any case, Lauren, Evi. Evi, Lauren."
"I believe we met quite a while ago," Evi replied and sat down on one of the bar stools a few feet to Emily's right.
"Yes, it's good to see you again," Emily said with a smile.
Emily really didn't like the way Evi was looking at her. She was sizing Emily up, but for what, she wasn't sure.
"You still with Doyle?" Evi asked, her gaze never leaving Emily.
"No," Emily replied nonchalantly with a shake of her head.
"Well I should hope so, considering he's dead," Evi said.
Shit.
Emily finally broke the staring contest and looked down at the counter in front of her.
"It happens when you're in that line of work," was all Emily could say.
"Or more specifically, you happened," Evi countered.
"What do you mean?" Duke asked Evi.
Things were quickly starting to go down hill, and Emily really didn't like it. She needed to shut Evi up and regain control of the conversation.
"She's the reason Doyle's dead," Evi told him.
"Does it really matter?" Emily cut in. "He's dead, it's all in the past. I came here for business, so can we get back to it now?" She tried to make it evident in her voice that she was annoyed, she just hoped it didn't come across as nervous.
The room was silent as Duke glanced between Emily and Evi. She could see that he was trying to decide who ho should listen to.
"Normally, I don't ask questions, but in this case I will because I'm getting a very off vibe from the two of you," Duke said and pointed at Emily and Derek.
"There's nothing off about us," Emily defended.
"That wasn't very convincing," Duke pointed out.
"Especially for someone as experienced as you at lying," Evi added.
Emily looked back at Evi and saw amusement in her eyes; Evi was enjoying this. Evi knew and she was just waiting for Emily to admit it. Emily was screwed.
"All right Evi, I'm going to ask you this again and you better give me the straight answer. What do you mean?" Duke said sharply while eyeing Emily.
"She means I'm FBI," Emily confessed and pulled out her badge.
Duke looked at the badge, then back up at Emily. He put both hands down on the counter and leaned heavily on them. He looked angry. Out of the corner of her eye, Emily could see Evi smirking.
"The whole time?" Duke asked without looking at her.
"The whole time," Emily echoed.
"What about him?" he asked and nodded to Derek.
"I'm her partner," Derek replied. He now stood next to Emily.
"Of course you are," Duke mumbled.
"Look Duke, I'm sorry if you feel betrayed. Though I never reported you," she assured him. "My target was Doyle."
"No, it's not that," Duke said. "I can't believe I never figured it out before. I mean, usually I'm pretty good at picking out cops but you just never even registered on my radar."
"I was undercover to get Ian Doyle, I had to make sure I never registered on anyone's radar," Emily replied.
"Right," Duke said and looked at her. "So if Doyle's dead, why were you still pretending to be Lauren Reynolds?"
"I didn't know if you knew what happened with him," Emily said.
"And you figured if I didn't, then showing up here as her would be your best chances of getting information," Duke surmised.
"Exactly," Emily confirmed.
The silence resumed as they all stood-and sat-there awkwardly. Duke was still shaking his head, Evi still had that smug look on her face and Derek was glancing around the restaurant.
"So what is it you need help with?" Duke asked.
"You're not actually going to help them, are you?!" Evi exclaimed.
"I never said I would," Duke replied. "I can be curious, can't I?"
Evi shrugged in response.
"We're on a case in Bangor and we need to know where someone would get uni from Japan, if they live around here," Derek said.
Duke nodded. "I see. And I should help you with this because . . . ?"
Emily glanced at Derek, silently asking if he wanted her to take over the conversation. Derek shrugged in response.
"We were hoping you'd do it as a favour."
Evi laughed mirthlessly and Emily glared at her.
"But see, I'm more of a 'I do you a favour, you do me a favour by paying me' kind of guy."
Emily sighed; she knew that was coming, that's why she came prepared. Derek on the other hand, was not impressed.
"Excuse me?" he asked in disbelief.
"Like I said, I don't do favours and especially not for the Feds," Duke reiterated.
Derek was going to say something when Emily stopped him.
"You know Duke, I was really hoping it wouldn't come to this," Emily said, feigning sadness as she reached into her back pocket.
Duke watched her wearily as she opened the file on her phone she had asked Garcia to send her earlier. Emily handed Duke the phone and watched as his face paled at what he saw. He rubbed his free hand over his chin as he thought.
"Where did you get this?" Duke asked, eyes still glued to the screen.
"I work for the government. Do you really need to ask?" Emily quipped.
"All right," Duke said with a smile as he gave Emily her phone back. "What can I help you with?"