Chapter 1

Agent Emily Prentiss was about to get into her car after a hard day at the office when she heard JJ yelling for her to stop. She turned abruptly as the blonde began to speak, "Hey Emily! Don't forget about your birthday dinner tomorrow, be there around 5."

Prentiss groaned as she slammed the car door in JJ's face and started the car before driving away. Prentiss chewed on her lip in frustration as she thought of tomorrow's upcoming events, she hated birthday parties. People being nice to her, giving her gifts, it just wasn't her cup of tea. It all started on her sweet sixteenth. She had invited almost everyone in the school to her party. She had been so excited for her party, getting more and more anxious as the day began to near. When the day finally arrived, only the chess club, some Goth kids and a few kids she barely knew came. Turns out that Brittany, one of the popular girls had her sweet 16 on the same night and everyone went to hers. Ever since then Prentiss had hated the idea of birthday parties.

When Prentiss got back from work Hotch was leaning against her front door. She unlocked it and pushed it open roughly, nearly causing Hotch to fall over. He followed her in and sat on her couch, placing his hands behind his head and his feet on the coffee table. "What do you want?" Prentiss asked as she poured herself a glass of wine and seated herself in the matching chair across from him, raising her eyebrows in suspicion. She wasn't usually rude, but she was cranky and work today had been a nightmare.

"I came here to see if you were okay. You seemed kind of down at work today."

"I'm fine!" She said just below a yell. "Why do you care anyway?"

"Because I care about you." Hotch replied with a warm smile.

It was more then just work she thought to herself. It was the fact that tomorrow she would be turning forty. Another milestone reached in her life and yet she was still without a husband or kids. She was getting older and lonelier. She also always had this thing for Hotch but she knew that was wrong, he was her boss and married to a nice woman with a kid. He had the life that she always wanted. She couldn't stop the tears from running down her face as she thought about all of these things. Before Hotch could ask what was wrong or even move Prentiss ran out of the house and down the street to the bar. She knew she would regret that eventually because that could have been their moment together. She could have had what she always wanted.

Around 1o'clock Prentiss got home from the bar. She stumbled through the entire house searching for Hotch, hoping that just maybe he has waited. Of course he wasn't there. That night Emily Prentiss cried herself to sleep.

"Ring, ring, ring." Prentiss groaned as she looked at the clock. "5:30am you've got to be kidding me," she grumbled to herself. She rolled over onto her stomach before answering the phone. "Happy Birthday" the team yelled into the phone in perfect chorus.

"I know it's your birthday but we got a case and we have to be in Denver before 8." JJ explained.

When Prentiss got to the bureau, everybody had already left to get on the plane except for JJ who sat in the conference room looking through a file. "Hey JJ, what's the case this time?" Prentiss asked.

"Three females were killed, Kristen Field, Selena Sim and Michelle Smith."

Prentiss picked up the profiles of the three girls. They all had long black hair and dark eyes. They had been taken from very public places at all different times throughout the day. Besides their similar features and the way they were killed, they had nothing in common. One woman was a lawyer, one was a stay at home mom and one worked at the super market.

On the plane ride over JJ filled Prentiss in on the case. "If he keeps up at the same pace we should be looking for another victim by sundown tonight."

"Hello officer LaMontagne I am Agent Jareau and this is SSA's Hotch, Morgan and Dr. Reid."

"Hello, follow me and I will show you the space we got for you." The space was huge compared to what they normally got stuck with. The table stretched across the room with a white board and a TV in front.

Prentiss and Rossi were visiting all the dump sites and by the time they were done they weren't any closer then when they had started earlier in the day.

They went back to the station and met with the rest of the team. By 5 o'clock they didn't have anything new. Prentiss and Rossi decided to take a break and go pick up supper for the team. None of them had ate or drank anything but coffee all day.

Prentiss was sitting on a bench outside of the restaurant wishing Rossi would hurry up in the washroom. All she could smell was McDonald's fries, and when her stomach growled, she began to eat them. She didn't even notice till she was half way done the fries that there was a man sitting on the bench beside her. He appeared to be between 40 and 50 years old, with long, dirty, brown hair.

Prentiss was about to get up and see what was taking Rossi so long, when the man on the bench put a gun to her head and told her to get in the van that was a few feet away. She looked around and saw no one around yet she could have sworn there was like 10 people around her 10 seconds ago. Prentiss was pushed in the van despite her struggling. He quickly pulled out her gun that was clearly visible and threw it to the front of the van. As they drove off Prentiss could hear Rossi calling her name in the distance.

This is my first fanfic, so please read and review. Let me know what you think!