And If I Fall, Let Me Part I: At Your Service - A. Hotchner x OC & Jemily

Like...good cop, bad cop?

"I don't know how you usually do lunch, but in even weeks, we have food in the meeting room. Tyler set up something for you if you want," Alex said, not missing the slight surprise on their faces.

"You heard the lady," Morgan answered first, "I'll get Garcia."

Already busy with her phone, Alex almost missed Dave stopping beside her. "After your call, you should come and have lunch with us."

She looked up, momentarily taken aback by the invite. Had he noticed the day has been slipping from her slowly, the fact that nothing was working out well, frying her nerves? Had it been that obvious? Or was he just being civil? She slipped into a smile that didn't feel right to herself and nodded. "I will be there."

With a satisfied look on his face, Dave left her for her phone call. She didn't miss the look Hotch threw over his shoulder to check on her, and she wondered, not for the first time in the last one and a half days if she wanted to know what their analysis of her would say.

****

Hotch wasn't surprised to see Alex linger in the door, typing something into her phone, not really in or out of the room. To be fair, she looked like she needed a break, but so did most of her and his team. He also didn't doubt it had been exactly what Rossi had suggested to her. After what he had told him about their interrogation, regrouping was sensible. And still, he hadn't been able to tell her to take a break, knowing damn well she wouldn't want to hear it from him.

And to Morgan's credit, despite his mistrust of Alex, he waved over to her. When she moved to their make-up group table, after having grabbed a sandwich, she deliberately slipped onto the chair next to him. Maybe, Hotch mused, she felt the mistrust as well, knowing it could always lead to a breaking point in investigations like these.

"Tell me, how is Hotch when someone holds a grenade?"

Oh wow, right to the point, Hotch thought to himself, almost rolling his eyes. He should've known they would find out. Knowing Garcia, she probably even found old drone footage of the incident. He caught Alex's eyes, the surprise in them, and only raised an eyebrow. Judging from the snort, she understood the cue.

"So you found out about that little detail, huh," she said, taking a sip of water. Morgan shrugged, nudging Garcia's side. The blonde deliberately looked away, not willing to withstand the hazel eyes of the Secret Service agent.

"Well, it depends on who's holding it. And if you, or if you do not tell him beforehand that it's disabled."

Hotch couldn't keep it in, he rolled his eyes. "For starters, you blew up a whole street."

The smirk on Alex's face grew, lighting up her eyes even more. For some reason, he couldn't look away. "Saving your life, or not?" she shot back, and Morgan beside her made an appreciative noise.

"Fine, yeah. You still could've told me you disabled the second one, before handing it over to the enemy."

Now it was Alex's turn to roll her eyes, waving him off, dismissing the interjection. "You need to let that go, Aaron. We didn't have too much of a chance to chat with the whole bag over our head thing."

He couldn't help but throw her a grin that clearly said 'I disagree', acutely aware his whole team was watching with hawk eyes. Knowing them, it was already way too late to destroy the idea that was forming at least behind Morgan's and Dave's foreheads right now. For some reason, JJ and Emily were busy exchanging glances that he was sure had nothing to do with the rest of them. Alex, taking his silence as a win, turned back to Morgan.

"So to answer your question, Agent Morgan, he is stoic, up until it blows up, or he realizes you did something incredibly risky, and a little stupid."

Morgan smirked, nodding. "Sounds like Hotch."

The blonde wanted to say something else, but her own phone interrupted her. "Sorry," she apologized, getting up to take the call.

"Keep it to yourself, Dave," he quickly shot it in his colleague's direction, who had already opened his mouth. The older man smirked, leaning back.

"I was just going to admire the Secret Service's lunch selection. Nothing else."

Alex, undoubtedly not oblivious to the glances exchanged between the two men, ignored them, when she came back to the table.

"Dr. Reid, are you ready? The morgue can make some time now for us."

Reid, as always nodding way too enthusiastically for the prospect of seeing three dead bodies, got up almost immediately.

"See you later," Alex said, with a nonchalant nod in Dave's direction. He held up his hand until both of them left the room.

With a pat on his knees, Dave got up as well. "One hell of a woman, for sure," he said quiet enough for him to hear. For once, Hotch agreed.