Thirty-four years, nine months and seven days and counting. The time she had gone without knowing the woman who had given her up all those years ago. She beat herself up about not knowing the exact minutes, even seconds, that she was away from her biological mother's arms, left to walk alone in the cold, lonely world.

Emily slowly shook her head, wiping her tears away as she stood from her desk. She needed help, and if she wanted to do this, she wanted to do it the right way. The brunette quickly made her way up the catwalk and quickly knocked on the familiar door.

"Come in."

The ivory woman slowly made her way inside, biting her lip as she closed the door behind her. "Sir?"

Hotch looked up from his file. "Emily hi." His brows furrowed when she didn't move away from his office door, and he then he noticed the tear tracks down her face. "Emily?"

The brunette let out a shaky sigh. "I'm ok, just give me a minute."

The Unit Chief stood from his seat and walked swiftly to his subordinate, placing a hand on her shaking arm. "Emily what's the matter?" He led her over to the chairs at his desk and sat them down. "Just calm down and talk to me, ok?"

Emily gave a slow nod of the head. "I'm sorry," she whispered. "Maybe I shouldn't have come up here."

Hotch was quick to sit the brunette back down when she tried to stand for her seat, and he gave a shake of the head. "Sit down. Tell me what's wrong."

The younger woman felt her breath begin to quicken once again as the thoughts all came flooding back to her. "My mother called me."

"And what happened, Emily?"

Emily gave a disbelieved shake of the head, her eyes looking out passed her boss' head and towards the back wall. "She told me that I'm adopted."

Hotch felt his jaw almost drop. "I'm sorry?"

"She called me up to tell me that I'm adopted, Hotch." She let out a breath. "You know how she's been sick, and we were thinking it was all getting better. But now they said they think the cancer came back, and she doesn't think she's going to make it so she said she had to finally 'get it off of her chest'." Emily's eyes finally connected once again with her boss'. "I don't know how to process all of this."

Hotch moved his hand from her arm to her lap, holding her shaking hand in his. "You're hyperventilating, Emily. You need to try to breathe."

Emily let out a cry. "This isn't fair! My mom is dying and then there's this woman who is apparently my real mom and I didn't even know about her until now."

The older man brought their chairs closer together and gently pulled his subordinate into a comforting hug, letting her shaking body do its best to relax into his. "I know it's not fair, I know."

Emily forced herself to take in a deep breath. "Hotch I need your help." She looked up to her friend with watering eyes. "I need to find her, and I need your help."

Hotch frowned. "You want to find your birth mother?"

The brunette immediately nodded her head. "I need to Hotch, I need to find her. She's my mother. What if she's just like me? What if the reason why I could never have that connection with my mother is because my mother really wasn't my other all along?"

Hotch gave a small shake of the head. "Ok that was confusing."

Emily glared, giving a small push to her boss' chest. "Hotch I really want to meet her."

"I would love to help you Emily, but it's going to be hard."

The crying woman finally felt herself smile, holding up a finger. "And that's why we have Penelope Garcia on our side." She wiped the tips of her fingers under her reddened eyes, nodding to herself. "I want to find her, Hotch."

Hotch looked to the younger brunette with a compassionate gaze, feeling his heart break for this woman that he called his friend. "Of course I'll help you Emily. Where do we start?"