We do not own Criminal Minds, though if we did Hotch and Emily would've gotten together by now :D

Ok this story is supposed to take place after the episode The Rite of Passage (hence the title). I loved the episode so much I thought what the hell eh? This is to do with Emily getting her ear drums blown out. I was pissed at the writers for not putting anything about the condition of her ears so I thought I should write this. I wrote this mostly by myself and my sister helped with little details and things along the way. She's super new to this so please read and review. We'd both appreciate it!

ON THE PLANE

Everybody had just arrived on the plane and took their regular seats. Emily's ears had been killing her for the last few hours. She was still mad at Morgan because she could barely hear anything. The rest of the team didn't realize the extent of her hearing loss, but she really hoped that it wouldn't be as bad as Hotch's hearing problem.

"So…that was a bad case," Morgan said trying to start a conversation

"Ya think?" Rossi said

"At least we caught the guy," JJ said

"But the sheriff died," Reid said

"And Morgan nearly blew out Emily's ear drums," Hotch said

"Speaking of Emily's ear drums, how are they doing Em?" JJ asked. Emily was having a hard time keeping up with the conversation because she was overtaken with pain. It also didn't help that she had to rely mostly on her lip reading skills which were not that great. She barely made out what JJ said

"They're ummm… okay?" She said unsure of herself

"Can you hear?"

"Ya,"

"Really Em? Because you haven't been looking at our eyes, you've been looking at our lips," JJ said causing everybody in the plane to look at her with worry written all over their faces.

"Ya I'm fine," she lied, her ears where burning now

"Emily, when I was in the explosion and hurt my ears I tried to cover it up but it didn't help because all of you knew and all you guys wanted to do was to help me. When I didn't let you in, it just got worse for me, until I realized that I needed help. I really do not want you to make the same mistake that I made," Everyone on the plane was surprised at his confession; he had never said anything that personal to any of them. Emily thought about the statement and nodded agreeing with Hotch. She looked up into the concerned eyes of her team, she really did need to tell them because she needed help and she really didn't want to not be able to hear. She took a deep breath and admitted her true feelings.

"Ever since the shooting, my ears have been burning, it wasn't so bad at first just a bit of ringing you know? Then it got a lot worse, I can barely hear any of you right now," JJ gasped at the degree of Emily's hearing. Morgan slumped down beside Emily on the couch, showered in guilt and put his head in his hands.

"God Em, I'm so sorry," She couldn't hear him properly because he was talking in a low voice. But after so many years of working together she understood what he was saying.

"Morgan, this isn't your fault," She said. Morgan, whose head was still down looked up with wide eyes. She knew he was going to argue against her previous statement, gently put her hand under his chin and tilted his head towards her so she had a better chance of hearing him, but knowing Morgan he was probably going to start yelling.

"What do you mean this isn't my fault! I was the one who shot out at the guy when you said you had him!"

"I was wrong, Morgan I couldn't handle him, he was coming at us too fast and… you did the right thing," Morgan replaced his head in his hands and thought about what Emily had just said. Of course it would be Emily who would defend another person's actions after almost deafening her. The entire plane was silent; all thinking about the events that were surely to come.

"Whether or not Morgan caused this you still need to be looked at," Rossi said breaking the ice. "To make sure that nothing is permanent," Everybody nodded at this. They had already gone through this once with Hotch, they weren't going to let it happen again.

"Ladies and Gentlemen please take your seats, your plane is landing," The pilot said over the speakers.

"We should probably follow the pilot's orders," Hotch said

"Well the odds of us getting injured are…"

"Okay, we're sitting!" JJ said pulling Reid down into a seat, stopping him from going on with his statistic. Everyone sat down preparing themselves for they're landing. They were almost on the ground when Reid noticed something.

"Did you guys hear that?" Reid asked

"Reid I can barely hear what you're saying so no," Emily said sarcastically

"What did you hear?" Morgan asked

"I'm not sure; I'm not even sure, never mind,"

"Okay, but tell us if you hear it again,"

"I will," The plane landed and the pilot said it was okay to get out, so that's what the BAU team did, Emily promising she would get her ears checked out the first possible opportunity she had. They were almost all off the plane when they heard a loud noise coming from the distance.

"Was that the noise you heard earlier?" Hotch asked Reid quickly, Reid nodded as Hotch pulled out his gun, the rest of the team followed in suit.

"That's a gun shot," Morgan said. "Crap," Emily thought "Hearing a gunshot this soon after having my ear drums burst probably isn't good,"

Emily had thought that two teenagers, probably around seventeen or so came around the plane shooting at each other. The sound from the guns was ear shattering for Emily, so painful for her ears that she collapsed to the ground covering her ears with her hands. The rest of the team were so concentrated on the scene in front of them, they didn't realize that Emily was down.

"FBI, put you're hands up!" Hotch yelled at the boys. They weren't listening to Hotch though; both of them were too caught up with each other.

"FBI! Put the guns down," Hotch roared over the screeching bullets against the concrete. The group moved more towards the shooters, still not realizing Emily was on the ground trying to hold back pain as the bullets went in every direction. Emily was now by herself on the ground when she heard someone come up from behind her. She rolled onto her back just in time to see a teen point a 45 caliber gun at her face. She tried to yell out to her team but they were too busy trying to apprehend the other two people.

"Why are you on the ground instead of helping your team?" The kid asked bringing the gun closer to her, as she slowly moved her hand towards her own gun, which was currently in its holster. Emily didn't answer, after a few seconds to think the teen came to a realization "You're bait" Emily looked at him with questioning eyes, which made him more angry "You stayed here so that I would go up to you and they would arrest me!" This theory was obviously not right but after several years studying human behavior she realized that nothing she said was going to satisfy him.

"Yes that's it! That's it!" the man said. Emily's hand was on top of her holster and opening it, she just hoped she could get it out and ready before this teen got more aggravated.

"What are you doing?" another teen said approaching the two of them

"This bitch is trying to have me arrested! She's baiting me, and I can't let her get away with it!"

"Coop, I doubt she's baiting you, I don't even think she can move,"

"She's part of the damn Feds! She is bait!"

"Okay, even if she is, what are you going to do? Kill her?" The teen that was moving closer and closer to Emily nodded then smiled

"Cooper, are you out of your mind! You can't murder a cop!"

"Watch me," he said as he lifted his gun and pointed it at Emily.

So Megan and I have been meaning to post this for a while but haven't gotten around to it because of exams and stuff, but hopefully over the summer we'll be able to update frequently :D

Please read and review, we love reading them

Amy & Megan

P.S Sorry if you find any grammar/spelling problems we're still pretty young