As From Discretion Comes Isolation
Chapter One

The story is set between Series 8 of Criminal Minds and Series 16 of Silent Witness

10.57am. Emily looked at her watch for the third time in the last half an hour; their flight was twenty-two minutes late. She sighed and leant against the barrier at the Arrivals gate at London Gatwick Airport. It was not somewhere she was familiar with as she hadn't had many visitors since moving halfway around the world but she had made a special journey today. For the past hour she had been stood waiting only to be pushed by impatient men in black suits holding placards with scrawly handwriting which should say people's surnames.

She smiled as she thought of how her team wouldn't have had a very enjoyable experience either, for those who are used to the luxuries of flying on the private jet every week, a seven hour commercial flight with a delay would have been hell in comparison.

Although it had been a year since she had left her beloved BAU family she still called them her team, there wasn't a day that would go by that she didn't think of them. Her daily emails from Garcia always made her smile, no matter how busy she was she would always take five minutes to read the essay that her eccentric friend would send to her. The last time she had seen any of the team was when Garcia and Morgan had been to visit her the previous summer, a lot had changed since then, back before it all began. She had tried so hard to persuade Hotch to postpone their trip but he said that they had booked that week off and they couldn't get any personal time off for months. They were lucky as it was. There was no way she could tell him, or any of them. She would just have to get through the week and hope it didn't progress any further.

Emily looked up and listened as the announcement was finally being made, the 10.35 flight from Washington Dulles International Airport had just arrived. There was an excited movement amongst the crowd waiting in front of the electric doors in anticipation of their loved ones coming through at any moment. It reminded her of the opening scene from Love Actually, a film she'd had the pleasure of watching numerous times since moving to the country.

After another five minutes, the first trickle of passengers began marching through. 'These won't be the loved ones' she thought, the voice of her inner profiler speaking. She knew these were the pretentious businessmen whose names were scrawled on the placards; the men who would have bounded through the luggage collection with no hassle, as they were only carrying their smart-looking small suitcases or a simple briefcase with them. Surely enough, the flurry of men in an array of bland-coloured suits walked briskly past everyone and straight to their chauffeur and within a couple of minutes most of the rude men with their placards had left, leaving Emily and the rest of the people awaiting personal arrivals.

Then it happened. The moment when Bill Nighy says love really is all around, when a little girl, no older than five ran through the doors and straight into her Dad's arms without any hesitation; when a woman rushed up to her husband and kissed him passionately without a care for her surroundings and when a team of six FBI agents saw the piece of their family that they had been missing for the last year.

It was the bundle of colour that was Garcia which tottered towards her first and flung her arms around her friend, holding her tightly, "Emily! I've missed you so much!" she cried finally releasing her. The rest of the team caught up as Morgan and Hotch pushed two trolleys full of luggage. On top of the various bags sat two little boys.

"Hey you guys! What a surprise, I didn't know you were coming!" Emily cried giving each of them a hug.

J.J. beamed after greeting her friend "Will would've come too but he couldn't get the time off work and the little man was desperate to go on holiday so Hotch said Jack could come too to keep each other company."

After greeting each of her friends similarly in turn, Emily led them to the two black shining hire cars which she had organised for them to use at their leisure.

Morgan raised his eyebrows at their ride, "they're not the SUV's but after the journey we've just had, anything will do!" Though his opinion soon changed as he gave a low whistle sliding into the driver's seat of one of the cars, he could tell it was a brand new model with its soft leather seats and it had all the gadgets any vehicle-loving man needed.

After driving an hour into the capital city they had reached their destination. The typical British weather hadn't failed them as the rain poured from the miserable, grey clouds. As they unloaded their bags and walked into the clean lobby of the hotel Emily realised how tired her friends looked.

"I can come back after you have all rested, I know how tiring that flight can be..." she began.

J.J. shook her head, "we came here to see you, and London, but mainly you! We are here for seven days, there'll be plenty of time to sleep when we've caught up"

"We had an overnight flight with the time difference, we're all used to plane seats so we all slept the majority of the way" Rossi added in a matter-of-fact tone.

Garcia stifled a yawn, "speak for yourself, not all of us jet around the country every week, some of us aren't great flyers and cannot get to sleep on lumpy airplane seats so instead watch the Wizard of Oz on the inflight entertainment and tell stories to four year old Godsons who also can't sleep."

Morgan put his arm around her, "go up to the room and get some sleep Baby Girl."

She shook her head firmly, "no, no I'm here to see Emily, I-."

"No arguments, you'll see Emily all week and we saw all the sights last time anyway so come on let's get you up to our room," Morgan said giving her a 'don't argue with me Baby' look.

She frowned slightly, "our room? Sugar I'm sure there's plenty of rooms in this huge hotel, we didn't need to share."

"Ah but I sleep all the better knowing my girl is near me," he smiled wickedly.

As the others watched them argue, Henry pulled on his mother's hand, "Mommy I'm tired."

"Oh you are?" J.J. asked pulling him into her arms, "are you too sleepy to go see London?" he nodded his head so his blond hair shook and she noticed his eyes already beginning to droop.

Garcia took him out of her friend's arms, "come on little man, we'll have nap time in Auntie Penelope's room" she smiled as she saw he had already placed his head on her shoulder and began snoring lightly, "I'm sorry Emily, we'll meet you later for dinner, text me the details, I love you" Penelope rambled as she carried the little boy towards the lifts with Morgan carrying the luggage behind.

Hotch nodded "we'll all go and take our luggage up to our rooms and then we'll meet back down here in about ten minutes so Emily can give us the tour."

The team followed the orders of their Unit Chief, even when they were on a break it was difficult not to see him as their boss.

In the busy family restaurant the nine friends sat around chatting happily about their day and catching up on their lives over the past year.

"I can't believe I slept for eight hours! As soon as I hit the pillow I was just out," Penelope cried mortified that she'd missed almost the entire day.

Morgan laughed from beside her, "you would've slept through dinner as well if I hadn't woken you up!" After they had put little sleeping Henry into one of the twin beds in their room, Garcia had fallen asleep lying on Morgan's chest before he too was overwhelmed with fatigue. When Henry awoke in the mid-afternoon, Morgan took him down to the indoor swimming pool to play while he left his Baby Girl still sleeping soundly in their room.

"So buddy what was your favourite part of today?" Hotch asked his son who sat beside him.

Jack furrowed his brow in thought, "I liked seeing the Queen's palace and Big Ben and the London Eye was good."

Hotch smiled at him, "yeah they were pretty good, I was impressed the sights lived up to the expectation despite the weather."

Reid nodded as the waiter placed the plate with his ordered meal in front of him, "I agree, I found London's history fascinating. I had read seven books on the city itself also several on the royal family and then five on the country as a whole as background research at home. I particularly look forward to visiting the British Museum and the Natural History Museum but most of all the Science Museum, did you know they are holding a special Doctor Who exhibition for the 50th Anniversary? Garcia we have to go!"

"Ooh yes!" she squealed excitedly, "and Kevin can't ruin this one!"

"I'm glad you all had a good day and I'm sorry we didn't get to see everything but we'll go out again tomorrow," Emily said. She paused and took a deep breath, unaware of how they were going to react to her news but she knew she had kept it from them for long enough. "I've got something I need to tell you, I'm really sorry I haven't told you before but-" she was interrupted by the clear ringing of her phone in her pocket. She looked at it and went slightly pale, "I'm sorry I've got to take this..."

The team waited patiently as their friend walked outside to take her phone call, after five minutes she returned, she looked horror-struck.

"Emily is everything ok?" J.J. asked.

She picked up her bag, "I'm sorry, I've got to go, work I-, I'll see you tomorrow, I'm sorry" she babbled quickly before rushing out of the restaurant.

The team watched as she left the building, "what d'you reckon that was all about?" Morgan asked.

"It's not our place to get involved anymore, she'll tell us when she's ready, until then we're still here on vacation" Hotch said. Something about his words made them all remember that Emily was no longer part of their team at home in Quantico but a friend they were merely visiting.

The team remained fairly quiet for the rest of their meal, despite their best efforts to continue to enjoy themselves, something was clearly wrong with their friend and they couldn't get it out of their minds.