A/N: This popped into my head one day during math class, and given that I failed my math exam, I probably should have been doing my work, but it's too late to fix that, so I hope you like this story! This takes place after season seven, Emily's been working for INTERPOL for a little over a year in this fic. Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
"Lauren?"
She didn't know why she still responded to that name. After all this time she still found her gaze moving in the direction of the speaker, even if she knew they weren't talking to her. Though what Emily found this time surprised her; a man was looking directly at her. Judging by his dark hair, fit body, she assumed he was in his mid-thirties. He almost looked scared as he stood there staring at her.
His suit screamed detective of some sort, but Emily didn't remember ever crossing paths with him before. She even did the math; he would have only been a rookie when she was Lauren, not even.
He glanced down and Emily noticed the file in his hands.
"Lauren Reynolds?" he repeated, still frozen to his spot a few feet from her.
"I'm sorry," Emily replied with a fake smile. "I think you have me confused with someone else."
His gaze dropped again to the file and he looked back up at her, shaking his head. Emily could see that people around her were starting to stare, especially the INTERPOL team she was here with. So Emily moved closer to the man. Once she did so, Emily could see the contents of the file in his hands. It was Lauren's accident report, with a picture of her paper-clipped to the top corner.
You've got to be kidding me, she thought. Glancing around, she saw an office that was unoccupied, and decided that it was a private enough place to talk to this guy.
"Come with me," she instructed quietly and led him to the room.
He still looked dumbstruck as she closed the door behind her. Emily sighed and leaned against the desk, while he stood across from her. There was no way she was going to tell this guy the truth, or anything relatively close to it, but she had to make sure he would stop asking questions. It surprised her that he still had that file with him.
"Emily Prentiss," she said and extended her hand. "Head of the London Gateway Office."
He tentatively reached out and shook her hand, with a confused look plastered across his face.
"Detective Roy Flanagan," he replied. He grew silent again as he studied her.
"Is there something I can help you with?" Emily prompted.
He held the file out for her to see, and Emily nodded as if she just realized what was going on.
"She was my sister," she said quietly. It was one of the lies she had ready for anyone outside of INTERPOL.
"Oh." He paused. "I'm so sorry for bringing this up then."
"It's fine," Emily replied with a small fake smile, while what she really wanted to do was strangle the poor guy. "May I ask why you still have this file? I was told this case has been closed for years."
"It has been." Detective Flanagan shook his head and gazed down at the file.
"I was a rookie when it happened," he finally told her. "I had never seen anything like that before... All my superiors said it was an accident and left it at that. I guess I just refused to believe that it was an accident... maybe it just didn't sit right with me or something."
Emily had seen the photos of the accident; they certainly weren't pretty. The car, along with 'Lauren,' had been burned to a crisp. This assured that there was no evidence of any foul play left at the scene. But somehow this buffoon had managed to see through it.
"And then we never found any relatives for her," he continued in an almost accusatory tone.
"She became involved with some less than respectable people," Emily replied carefully. "We lost contact with her. I had been informed of her death a few years later."
The detective nodded as he thought; Emily remained silent, sensing he had something else to say.
"Maybe, since it was the first time I had seen anything like that, it just stayed with me. No matter how hard I try, I can't seem to forget about it..."
Suddenly, he looked up, his green eyes piercing her brown ones.
"Have you ever had a case like that?"
Emily bit her lip and nodded. "Yes I have, and I've learned that at some point you need to finally get closure on it. So I think today you're getting closure." Emily took a deep breath before she continued. "Lauren Reynolds died in a car accident nine years ago. Don't you think it's time to let her rest in peace?"
"Yeah," Detective Flanagan replied quietly. "Yeah, you're right."
He turned and left the office, heading straight to the back room where all the files were kept.
Emily sighed once he had disappeared from her sight. She noticed her team glancing at her with questioning looks, so she took a few deep breaths before returning to the reason she was there. All the while, Emily hoped that one day she would finally take her own advice.