* Another Criminal Minds story (and another story to work on along with many others). But I have recently rewatched the Lauren Reynolds/Ian Doyle arch in the sixth season and I couldn't help but notice the way Derek reacts to Emily being in danger and the last scene in Lauren between them inspired me to write a little Demily story. I don't know how long this will be or really where exactly it will go, but I'm just going to let it flow. Read this first chapter and let me know if it's worth continuing! *

(The italics indicate a flashback. I plan on using those throughout the story.)

"No! No!" Derek Morgan screamed.

The gunshot rang out and echoed through the entire bullpen. Morgan's heart raced and his feet were moving faster than he thought he could move them. With each second that passed he knew that she was suffering.

He crashed through the door and he was sure that for a second time stood still as he took in the graphic picture of violence that Emily's office had become.

The other man that laid on the ground of Emily's office didn't even get a second of attention from Derek. He deserved what had happened to him. The blood pooling around his upper body from the gunshot wound in his chest.

"Emily! Emily!" He dropped to his knees next to where she laid on the floor. The blood on the floor surrounding her soaked through his pants and the cold, wet feeling against his skin sent a shiver down his spine.

"De… De…" She tried to say his name, but her breaths were uneven and the

syllables were almost not audible.

"No, baby girl. You don't have to talk to me, okay. I just need you to stay with me. Just stay with me, Em."

"Ba… bab…" She tried again, but her voice was even quieter and her eyes were barely open anymore. Derek could see just the smallest bit of her dark brown eyes that usually were the first thing you noticed about her. Her eyes said everything and now all they were saying was that she wouldn't make it much longer.

"Where the hell are the paramedics?!" Derek yelled out the open door at anyone who was listening. "Emily please stay with, please."

"The… ba…" Her eyes shut completely.

"Don't Em. Don't do this. Just open those eyes of yours, just open them."

He took her hand in his and gripped it tightly. He felt the smallest movement of hers tightening around his and he knew she was in there, he knew she was going to fight, he knew she wasn't giving up on either of them yet.

"Sir you have to move."

Derek looked up to see the paramedics standing over him with the gurney. "I'm not leaving her."

"We can't do anything for her if you're in our way."

"I'm not leaving her!" Derek shouted.

"Morgan!" Hotch now stood next to him. "Let them do their job."

Derek gave Emily's hand one last squeeze and scooted back, allowing the two paramedics to come to either side of her. They started to work quickly, but all that they were saying was a blur in Derek's mind as he watched her and only her.

"Derek." Hotch put a hand on his shoulder.

"How the hell did this happen? How the fuck did this asshole end up in the FBI?"

"Derek." Hotch tried again.

"No, do not Derek me. How the hell could they let this happen?"

"Look you can be as pissed as you want to be, but right now Emily needs to be your worry. We will work this and you will go to the hospital."

"But…" Derek didn't know what to say. He was torn, he wanted to be with Emily more than anything, but he couldn't stop himself from wanting to get to the bottom of how some psychopath got into the bureau and got to Emily.

"Go be with Emily." It was a command from Hotch, not a suggestion.

Derek walked out of the office in a trance. There were people running everywhere, each one was in a hurry to do what they could for their fellow agent, although the haste now seemed a little late.

"Morgan." It was JJ who stopped him from walking into one of the desks. She knew how hard this was for him, for their whole team.

"I have to… Emily." He was talking to the blonde, but he wasn't looking at her.

"I know, I know." JJ assured him. "Let me drive you."

Derek agreed without even a thought. He followed JJ through a haze. Before he was even aware that they had left, he realized they were halfway to the hospital as JJ drove at least fifteen miles an hour over the speed limit. They both faced forward, eyes on the road.

"Emily, Emily Prentiss. Where is she?" Derek begged for answers from a nurse, not caring what she knew or if she was even involved with Emily's case.

"Derek." JJ pulled him back, away from the nurse. "You need to calm down, okay? This isn't going to help right now."

"Me not being able to find Emily isn't going to be able to help either JJ."

"We will find her. I will go find out where she is. I need you to just stay calm and wait for me. You're too irritable right now to do all of this."

Derek huffed, but let JJ work. She went up to the nurses' station and he could see her talking, not taking no for an answer. When she returned, she didn't say anything put just led Morgan to the nearest elevator and up to the third floor. They found the waiting room, which was completely empty.

"What are we doing in an empty waiting room?" Derek asked, as JJ sat down.

"All the nurse could find out for me was that she is still in surgery, but she knew that she would be brought up to the ICU when she was out. She put a note in her chart to say that we were here so the doctor can find us."

"The ICU?" Derek tried to swallow the words.

JJ nodded.

"Why are we here? Why did this have to happen?"

"I wish I knew." JJ wanted to have a better answer for him.

"It's not fair." Morgan fell into one of the seat across from JJ. "We lost her once. I can't lose her again."

"Don't do that to yourself Morgan. The last time you lost her was for her own good, for our own good. She wouldn't be here now if we hadn't lost her then. And we won't lose her now."

"How do you know?"

"Because it's Emily and because this isn't just about her. She knows how much she is needed. She will make it through this."

"I don't know Jayje." Derek let his head fall into his hands.

"When you left, did any of you think about what it meant for the rest of the team?"

Derek and Emily had been eating dinner at one of the homes that Derek had been working on. He was days away from putting it on the market, but he had insisted that he wanted her opinion on it before doing so and he wanted to make her dinner, show her what he was capable of doing with his hands.

"Really? Is that why you brought me here?" Emily set down her glass of wine and crossed her arms in front of her chest, like she was protecting herself from Morgan's questions.

"No, but every time I see you now that you're back, I keep thinking about that time and I never really asked you. I mean I asked, but I didn't really get an answer."

"And you want an answer." Emily uncrossed her arms.

"I just don't want secrets. I get it. I get that you had to do what was best for you and for Declan and for the rest of the team. But you couldn't have just left. I know you, Em. I know that you wouldn't just walk out on us."

"Of course I wouldn't." She sighed. "I cried for days in that empty hospital room alone after you all thought I was gone. I thought that nothing would ever be the same and that I had lost the only people who would ever be like family to me. I knew it would tear you apart, but I knew that me actually dying would be worse."

"I don't know what I would have done if you never came back."

"Well you wouldn't have anyone to be eating dinner with right now." She smirked.

Derek smiled back at her, leaning over the kitchen island from his stool. Emily met him in the middle. Their lips met and that kiss was the first of many that would be happening that night.

"I can't just sit here. I can't just wait for someone to come tell me the bad news." Derek had been quiet for the past hour as he waited with JJ, but he was drowning in the silence. Drowning in all the horrific thoughts that were running through his head.

"Derek."

"No. I just need to know something anything."

"You must be here for Ms. Prentiss." A woman in scrubs seemed to show up out of nowhere, standing in front of Derek and JJ and interrupting their conversation.

"What do you know? How is she?" Morgan jumped up from his chair and began his third degree of the doctor.

"She's still in surgery."

Derek's heart sunk at the statement. For the split second before his questions were answered, he thought that maybe this doctor would have something good to say, have something to tell him that would give him hope that he wouldn't lose Emily. And now he dreaded what else was going to be said.

"It's been rather touch and go since she was brought in and the doctor's still have a lot of work to do before she'll be stable enough to move into a room for the night."

"Is that all you can tell us?" Asked JJ.

"Right now, that's what I know. I'm not actually on Ms. Prentiss's case exactly."

"What do you mean? If you aren't on her case, then why are you giving us the update?" Morgan pressed the doctor for more answers.

"Because I knew that some kind of news was better than no news." The doctor told him. "What I need from you is to know who I should be talking to about the baby?"

"Me, me." Derek stuttered. "That's… I'm the baby's father."

"Okay. Would you like to talk somewhere more private?"

Derek looked to JJ. "No, whatever you need to say to me you can say to us both."

"Well then, I will be with the baby, more than likely, until they are discharged."

"Wait so the baby… the baby is…"

"We had to deliver the baby. When Ms. Prentiss came in she was showing signs of preterm labor and the baby was in destress due to the trauma she suffered. We tried to wait and I was hoping that we wouldn't have to deliver the baby so early, but by the time she was on the table, she was having contractions every five minutes. We did an emergency c-section that went as well as we could hope for in this kind of situation."

"Please tell me the baby is okay."

"The baby is doing very well for what happened. They are having trouble breathing on their own which is expected when they're eight weeks earlier. We also noticed a little something irregular in the heartbeat which can be something that will resolve itself or we may have to take further action, but it will take a little time before we make any further decisions. Other than that, it seems as if the baby is just as much a fighter as mom is."

"Where are they?"

"The baby was just taken up to the NICU about fifteen minutes ago."

"Can I see… Am I allowed up there?"

"Of course you are. Would you like to come up with me?"

Morgan looked to JJ, but she just gave him a small nod. "Go Derek. They need you."

"You'll stay in case someone comes?" Derek knew the answer.

"I'm not going anywhere." The blonde promised.

Derek followed the doctor as she got in the elevator and went up two more floors. When the doors opened she headed straight down the hallway and made a right at the end. They pushed through a set of wooden double doors. The doctor stopped outside another set of doors, pumping a small amount of hand sanitizer from the dispenser before entering the NICU. She continued to one of the incubators in the middle the room where she stopped and grabbed the chart on the end.

Derek stood about a foot away, not sure what to do.

"You can come over." The doctor gave him a warm smile. "Come meet your daughter."

"My daughter?" Derek asked in belief.

"Yes. You have a beautiful little girl."

* Okay, so that ending may have been predictable and some of you may have seen it coming. The next chapter should bring a better explanation of what happened to Emily before the beginning of the story and a little more background to Derek and Emily's relationship. Leave me your reviews with all of your thoughts please! *