Emily Prentiss dropped her purse and keys on the table by the door of her apartment. She turned the security system and checked her answering machine for messages. There was one. She pressed to listen to it and took her coat off. The team had just gotten back from a hard case in Philly and she just wanted to hit the sack.
After arresting the un-sub, or unknown subject, Jimmy, Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner, the team leader, had taken the man to the hospital so he could tell his leukemia-stricken son, Ryan, goodbye. The boy had died with his father at his side.
A job like hers didn't do much to put one in the Christmas spirit, eight days away from Christmas or no.
"Emily Prentiss?" An unfamiliar young woman's voice filtered through the machine. "My name is Leah – Leah Prentiss. I'm 26. My birthday is November 11, 1985. I was born in Italy, but I came to the States for college after I graduated from high school.
I – I don't know why I just said all that. Anyway, I think, no, I know, well, I'm your daughter. The one you had at fifteen. Could you please call me, or write me, something?" Leah rattled off a phone number and address from Triangle, Virginia, and the message ended.
Emily, who had slammed down onto her bed in the middle of the message, put her head in her hands, stunned. This was not what she needed to deal with right now. She got up and re-played the message. Twice. The name, date, and places, were all the right ones. She grabbed a notebook, and played the message one more time, writing down the contact information. Then she deleted the message.
Next she called Kevin Lynch and asked him to do a discreet background check on the woman, just to insure that she was in fact her Leah. It was.
Emily hung up and swore as she never had before. She had always wanted this, but Leah's timing stunk.
Right now she needed sleep, not that she would get much, if any, the message had unsettled her so. She would think about this in the morning.
The next day was a Sunday, which was a good thing, because Emily had tossed and turned all night. Sleep had evaded her completely. Finally, at nine a.m., she got up out of bed, a semi-decision made. She would go by Leah's apartment building, see what sort of condition her daughter lived in, and talk to somebody who lived in the same building. Essentially, she would profile her a little; see what she was getting herself into.
But first, Emily, remembering the peace she had felt when in God's house, decided it was high time she darkened the door of a church building again.
Emily hurried to slip out of the Baptist church, later in the morning. No more stalling, it was time to go to Leah's apartment building.
She didn't think she could approach Leah at this point, no matter how much she wanted to. The few people that knew Emily had been pregnant, every last one of them, David Rossi, the only member of her team who knew, included, all thought the baby had been aborted.
Not so.
Emily slid behind the wheel of her car, debating whether or not to call Rossi. Calling her mother was out of the question. Ambassador Prentiss hadn't even known of the pregnancy. Emily's father was dead. For now she would call no one, she decided, pulling into a parking space in front of the apartment building.
She hurried into the building and approached the clerk sitting behind a desk. She quickly flashed her badge and asked to see everything the man had on Leah.
"Just a moment, if you would. Oh," the man said. "There she is now." He pointed to a young woman coming in carrying a grocery bag, her black hair windblown, and her cheeks pink from the cold. "Miss Prentiss?" the clerk heralded her.
She turned to look at him with big, chocolate brown eyes. My eyes. Emily realized with a jolt of shock.
"An FBI agent would like to speak to you. Is everything okay?"
"It's all right, I know her." She gestured for Emily. "Follow me."
Once inside the elevator, Emily leaned back against the wall. This was not how this was supposed to happen.
"You're Emily Prentiss?" Leah asked.
Emily nodded, absently noticing that Leah was fingering the bracelet she wore. "Leah?"
"Yeah."
They stepped off the elevator and Leah walked out. Emily followed. "How long have you been in D.C.?" Emily asked.
"Three days."
"In the States?"
"I came the first time thirteen years ago." Leah said, opening the door to her apartment and going inside.
"I thought you said you came to the States after high school?"
"I did."
"When you were twelve?" Emily was a little incredulous. Absently she thought of Reid, the youngest person on her team. He had and I.Q. of 187, and had graduated high school at that age.
Leah started putting her groceries away. "I was almost thirteen. I moved from Italy to Connecticut. After finishing four years at Yale, I moved to Vegas for a few months. Then my mentor, who I had been living with, got a job and had to move, so I ended up moving back to Italy to teach there. I was there with a teaching Visa for nine years, since I got citizenship to the States when I came to Yale, until I came here. What about you?"
"Well, for the past five and a half years I've lived here near D.C. Before that I was all across the map, with my mother and working for the CIA."
Leah nodded and turned from the kitchenette. "Do you want something to drink? I can make coffee."
She was twirling her bracelet around her wrist now. She wouldn't leave it alone, had touched or twirled it every chance she got since she had first glimpsed her mother.
A nervous tick? Emily wondered.
"No, I'm fine, thanks."
"Okay." Leah motioned toward the living space. "Why don't we sit?"
Once they had settled there, Emily said, "Nice bracelet."
"Oh, thanks. My college mentor gave it to me my freshman year." She leaned forward so Emily could get a better look at it.
There were three strands to it, two of silver and one of gold, braided together. Four jewel beads, emerald, diamond, ruby, and sapphire, were placed evenly at fixed points of the strands. Emily picked it up to get a closer look at it when Leah handed it to her and felt a nick in the emerald bead.
"I think this bead is cracked." Emily told her.
"Oh, um, that's not cracked. It's Morse code. The emerald has a dash on it, which stands for a T. The diamond has dot-dash-dot on it, or R. The ruby is dot-dot-dash, or U. Sapphire has a dot, E.
T-R-U-E. True."
"Wow." Emily handed the bracelet back to Leah. "She must care a lot about you to have it made for you."
"Who? My mentor? Actually, she's a he. And that's not all the sentiment that's in this piece."
"Oh?" Emily asked glad to have found a safe topic.
"Well, the strands being twisted together is meant to remind me that two are stronger than one. If you look at the order of the beads as a whole, they're green, white, and red. The Italian flag. And white, red, and blue. The U.S. flag. Emeralds," She fingered the green bead. "Stand for increase. The facts that you can go far and still always find room for improvement. Diamonds stand for brilliance. That you're brilliant. Rubies stand for preciousness. The thought being that you have a brilliant mind and that's a gift. He always told me not to hide it. Don't be obnoxious about it; just don't dumb yourself down – ever. It stands for wisdom, too. Sapphire stands for beauty, hardness, and natural excellence. You're beautiful on the inside and outside, no matter what anyone else says. Also, bravery, you can't melt into a puddle of mush every time someone insults you. Build a wall that blocks people like them out. And as for natural excellence, you'll be great whether or not you choose to get an education most people only dream of. You're great on your own. I don't need him to be with me in order to be great, he just helped me realize all of this, helped me to be great in my own way. It's kind of like wearing a pep-talk on my wrist. That sounds bad, I guess, but I'm glad I have it."
"And I'm glad you have someone like him in your life." Emily murmured. "To make up a little for me not being there."
"Had." Leah whispered. "We lost contact when he moved to D.C."
"He's in D.C? If you want, I know someone who could help you find him." Emily said; thinking of the computer hacker turned technical analyst on her team, Penelope Garcia. "What's his name?"
"Oh, well, I don't know. I don't really know why I said any of that, it's kind of private."
"Yes or no?" Emily pressed. She wanted to do something to make her daughter happy, to make up for when she had never been there to raise her.
"Yes?" Leah said, as if she were guessing.
"What's his name?" Emily repeated.
"Reid."
"Hm." Emily mused. "Would you like to meet my team? We don't have a case as of yet, so tomorrow should be a paperwork day. There shouldn't be any objections to you hanging out with us. And if you're gonna want me to hang around you or vice versa, we're pretty much a package deal."
"Oh, okay." Leah swallowed. "Hey, um, Mom?" The title came out as a squeak and she didn't look at Emily as or after she said it.
"Yes?"
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have-"
"It's fine. I like it. You call me whatever makes you comfortable."
"Okay."
"What did you want to ask?" Emily hated to ask, seeing Leah was about to ask for some answers to the big questions, the ones they had danced around since meeting.
"Who- no, I mean, why- how –"
"Let's just take all those one at a time, shall we?" Emily asked, daring to take one of her daughter's hands.
Leah hadn't put her bracelet back on and was shifting it around in her free hand. She nodded her head.
"Who. Who was your dad, you mean?"
Again Leah nodded.
"We met just after my mother and I moved to Italy…"
"Are you ready?" Emily asked Leah the next morning as her daughter climbed into the passenger seat of her car.
"Yeah."
They had covered a lot of ground yesterday, and Leah, choosing logic over emotion, had been very understanding. Emily thought they just might have made peace.
Emily nodded toward the radio as she pulled out of the parking lot. "You can turn it on if you want. Turn it to what you like."
Leah complied and soon "Hey Daddy" by Billy Ray Cyrus from the CD of his Emily had was heard.
Yeah you know Once there was this working man Hey Daddy why you always gone away? Funny how times seems to change Hey Daddy why you always gone away?
Time sure does fly by
It just goes on and on and on
One day you look up
Its all gone
Tomorrow's yesterday
Never standing still
Always with his nose to the ground stone
One day his little girl asked
Just as he walked past
She called out "are you leaving home?"
Hey Daddy, can't you stick around and play?
Can't you see I'm growing fast?
This time here will never last
Hey Daddy, think of me today
How they rearrange
So quick and yet so true
That little girl is a mama now
She grew up somehow
Left an old man feeling blue
he heard her say
Hey Daddy can't you stick around and play?
Can't you see I'm growing fast?
This time here will never last
Hey Daddy, think of me today
Hey Daddy, think of me today
Emily hated the tears that stung in her eyes. But that song was over and the next song started.
You tuck me in, Brush my teeth and combed my hair You had to do it all alone And when I couldn't sleep at night Caterpillar in the tree, how you wonder who you'll be Catch your wing now you can't stay
Turn out the light
kept me safe and sound at night
little girls depend on things like that
had to drive me everywhere
you were always there when I looked back
Make a live, make a home
Must have been as hard as it could be
Scare things wouldn't turn out right
you would hold my hand and sing to me
can't go far but you can always dream
Wish you may and wish you might
don't you worry hold on tight.
I promise you there will come a day
Butterfly Fly Away
Butterfly Fly Away (butterfly fly away)
Take those dreams and make them all come true
Butterfly Fly Away (butterfly fly away)
We been waiting for this day
All along and know just what to do
Butterfly, Butterfly, Butterfly,
Butterfly Fly Away
Leah was blinking back tears now, too. She reached over and turned the radio off. Emily chuckled. "Misery likes company, I guess." Emily said.
Leah nodded and smiled. Emily got out of the car, having arrived at their destination, and led her daughter to the bull pen where everyone but Reid was all ready working on paperwork, as Emily had predicted.
"Hey, guys." Emily stood in the middle of her team's section and said.
"Who's the cutie?" Derek Morgan asked, gesturing toward Leah.
"My daughter." Emily put a protective arm around Leah.
"My mistake." Derek said, taking a step back, hands up as if in surrender. "But are you sure she's your daughter? How many years older than her are you?"
"Don't you know not to ask a woman her age?" Jennifer Jareau, or JJ, asked, ribbing Morgan.
"I'm guessing…" Aaron Hotchner, Hotch, started.
"She's fifteen years younger." David Rossi said, interrupting them all.
Awkward silence settled over them all for a second before Leah broke it. "Hi, everybody I'm…"
"Sorry I'm late, Hotch. Traffic was backed up." Emily heard Dr. Spencer Reid say as he came into the bullpen.