counting stars | criminal minds [discontinued]

2 0 | W E L C H O P S C O T

[5.2; 5.3]

"are you planning on committing tax fraud"

Florence was buzzing with excitement for Hotch's first day back at work. He had been gone for a whole month to recover from Foyet's attack. While she had called several times to check-in, she hadn't seen him in person.

The night before he came back, Reggie and Julie came over and helped Florence make cupcakes. They had tried to make them a pretty purple color, but they ended up turning brown, so they slathered on a ton of icing to cover up their mistake. They spelled out "Welcome Back Hopscotch" on them, but Reggie ended up getting hungry and ate the B cupcake. Then they had no choice but to eat the A, C, and K ones.

When Florence got to work, she left the cupcakes in the briefing room. She gave everyone strict instructions not to eat them until Hotch arrived. Prentiss was supposed to be driving Hotch to work, and they were coming in later than normal, so it would be a while before they could eat them.

Hotch had already mentally prepared himself for the attention he would receive for returning to work. Prentiss had assured him on the drive there that Florence was forbidden from dramatically hugging Hotch — he was fully healed, but they convinced her that a tight hug could hurt him. He was itching to get back to work, so he didn't care how the team treated him. Soon, they'd get a case and everything would go back to normal.

However, when he walked into the bullpen, he wasn't met with excited welcome backs and Florence running up to him — not that he wanted that or anything. Definitely not.

Instead of any of that, there was a commotion going on. Everyone in the team was in the bullpen, sitting or standing around all the desks, and looking quite amused. Their eyes were locked onto Florence and Morgan, who weren't quite yelling at each other, but they weren't quiet either.

"It's not that big of a deal," Morgan told her.

"Not that big of a deal?" Florence asked, scoffing. "You make fun of me all the time for my Capri Suns and then you go and do this?"

"You drink too many of them anyway!"

"Honestly, Derek, you should be ashamed," Rossi piped up, smirking. Morgan cut his eyes to him, not appreciating him taking Florence's side.

"In Morgan's defense, it's surprising that she even noticed," Reid stated.

"How would I not notice?" she asked, glaring at him.

"What's going on?" Hotch asked.
In the back of their minds, they all registered that Hotch was back at work, but they wanted to see how the argument played out.

"Over the last week, Morgan stole eight of my Capri Suns and didn't tell me," Florence said, crossing her arms.

"And they were delicious," Morgan said, smirking.