Reunion from Hell
Emily hates family reunions, and ordinarily she would simply ignore her mother's invitation, but when the President of the United States himself calls to make sure his niece is going to be in attendance, it's impossible to say no. So she goes, bringing Aaron Hotchner, and the rest of the BAU team with her, as a buffer between her and her family. But what happens when members of her family start dying one by one? Will Emily herself be targeted? And will her team be able to find the ones responsible before everyone she loves to hate is dead?
Chapter 1: Mother's Invitation
'You, Emily Prentiss, are hereby cordially invited to the 37th annual Prentiss-Trent Family Reunion, hosted by Elizabeth Prentiss and Jonathon Trent'
Emily had not arrived at work yet, so Derek couldn't help peeking at the formal cardstock invitation that was dropped on her desk Monday morning.
37th annual? Her family had been having regular reunions every year for 37 years?
That seemed crazy to him, but then again, his family was small and tight-knit so this sort of gathering was entirely unnecessary. He realized then that he knew nothing about Emily's family beyond the bare bones information he had been able to glean over the years about her mother. Did she have a big family?
And who was this Jonathon Trent character? Could it be her mysterious father? He had always wondered about him and wanted to ask her, but always thought better of it. She really didn't seem to like talking about her family at all.
"What's that?" Reid asked him as he noticed Derek hovering at Emily's desk with the invitation still in hand.
"Someone dropped it off for Emily this morning," he explained, laying the cardstock back on her desk and walking back to his own desk as he continued, "Seems her mother is throwing a family reunion and thought to 'cordially invite' her daughter to the event."
They both laughed at his Ambassador Prentiss impersonation, but quickly stifled their reaction when they heard the elevator ding and saw Emily entering the bullpen. Not quick enough though. She immediately noticed their mischievous smiles and was filled with curiosity.
"What did I miss?" she asked them as she approached her desk.
"Oh, um," Reid stuttered for a moment, not sure how to answer, "Nothing. Morgan just said something funny." His response was decidedly vague and she ordinarily would have pushed for the real story, but she had just noticed the invitation on her desk and was no longer listening to the boy genius' ramblings.
Morgan watched carefully as she picked up the invitation, read it slowly, shaking her head as she did, and then tossed it into her trash bin without a second look. Wow, she really did have family issues…
She then spoke, without looking at either of them, but clearly realizing what they had found so amusing, and that they were currently watching her like a hawk, "My family is a nightmare. My parents have been hosting this ridiculous event since I was two years old, but I have not been in attendance since I moved out of the house at fifteen. And I do not intent to be there this year either. So please, whatever questions or comments are flying through your minds right now, keep them to yourself."
And with that she took her seat and began flipping through the new case files she found there, completely ignoring the confused looks on her friends' faces.
After about five minutes, the guys realized she really wasn't going to elaborate, so they let it go and got back to their own work.
Emily was relieved at the easy silence that passed over the bullpen after that. Invitation forgotten, she was able to focus on the consultation in front of her, and was pleased when JJ came in to tell them there would be no new cases today. Maybe it wouldn't be such a rough day after all…
And then the phone rang on her desk…
"Agent Prentiss," she answered it on the first ring, not looking at the caller id before picking it up, and instantly regretting it.
Morgan couldn't hear the other side of the conversation, but he noticed immediately when she tensed and closed her eyes tight. She was irritated, and he wanted to know why, so he listened to her side of the call, trying to make sense of it as best he could.
"No, I have no intention of…"
"Why would this year be any different than any…"
"Are you really going to try to use Jeremy's position to…"
"Don't you dare bring Michael into this. Just because he's…"
"We both know what this is really about and…
"I won't be a pawn in your political…"
"I said no, and that is final. Do not call me at work again."
Through the whole conversation, Emily kept her voice low and her face as emotionless as possible, but there was no hiding from Morgan or Reid that she was angry. They were profilers after all, and they knew her well enough to see her reaction to the call. Who was it on the line? And who were Jeremy and Michael?
The Next Morning…
The team was gathered in the round table room, prepared for their morning briefing, but much to their surprise, Hotch was late. He was in his office, door closed, blinds drawn, having a meeting with someone, who had apparently been here since before even JJ got in. That never bode well, and it must be really important if it had made Hotch late to the briefing.
"Any idea who he's meeting with?" Morgan asked.
"I can't be sure," JJ began, "but I think the gentleman in the bullpen, waiting for our mystery guest is one of the Director's private security staff. So, it's possible the Director, or one of his assistants is in with Hotch."
"Great," Emily grumbled to herself. If Jeremy was here, there was likely only one reason, and she did not want to deal with any more family drama this week. Despite the fact that she had made it extremely clear that she had no intention of attending the damn reunion, everyone was still pushing her about it. Normally, it was relatively easy to ignore the event all together because her mother hosted it at the embassy in whichever country she was currently posted, but this year things were different. Michael's election to the presidency had posed an opportunity to host the reunion in the White House, and her mother hadn't been able to resist. So, the whole family was arriving, here in DC, and she couldn't get away from it.
No one else noticed her discomfort, or commented on her quite irritated aside.
"Why would the Director of the FBI be here?" Reid pondered aloud, not really looking for anyone to answer his query.
"A new case?" Morgan replied, looking to Rossi for answers.
"I hope not," he answered honestly, "A case that warrants a two hour meeting with the Director would be a political nightmare. More likely, this is something personal. The Director coming here, rather than arranging for Hotch or Strauss to come to him, coupled with the fact that the meeting started so early in the morning, leads me to believe this is something outside the usual FBI bureaucracy, something he doesn't want to draw too much attention to."
"What does it matter? We'll know soon enough," Emily expressed her disapproval, louder this time.
"Well, someone's grumpy this morning," Garcia chimed in as she entered the briefing room, "Where's Hotch? I figured you would be finished with the consults by now."
"Consults?" Reid asked, "Hotch said we had a new case."
"Not one that's crossed my desk," Garcia replied, "I thought you lot were just going over new files this morning." She looked at JJ expectantly, assuming if there was a case that she didn't know about, the former media liaison would.
"Don't look at me PG," JJ replied, "Hotch hasn't told me anything, and I didn't bring him this one."
"Well then what is going on?" the analyst asked, extremely curious, and mildly annoyed at not being kept in the loop.
"We can only assume it has something to do with the Director's unannounced visit this morning," Rossi commented, earning wide eyes from Garcia.
"The Director is here?" she practically squeaked, "Like the Director of the FBI? Why? What's going on?"
Everyone laughed at her sudden nervousness, everyone except Emily, who continued to sit silent, sullenly staring out the window overlooking the bullpen. She was currently having an intense staring contest with the Director's bodyguard from across the room, and wasn't listening to their conversation at all.
"Emily," Morgan said, placing his hand on her arm, "Earth to Emily…"
"Huh," she answered brilliantly, breaking her death stare with the bodyguard, to look up at Morgan, who had clearly been talking to her for quite some time without her noticing, "Sorry. What did you say?"
Everyone laughed at her response as Rossi replied for the group, "We were just filling Garcia in on our theories about the Director's unannounced visit, and we were wondering if you had heard anything through the political grapevine that might explain what's going on, but you were not listening at all."
"Why would I know anything?" she asked, feigning confusion. She knew exactly why he was here, but she did not want to talk about it. But none of them knew about her relation to their boss' boss' boss' boss, and she didn't know why they thought she would have any unique insight on the matter.
"Come on Em," Garcia whined, "I know your mom is in town, but I can't seem to figure out why, and there have been high ranking officials from like a dozen different agencies and governments flying into DC over the last few days. Something is up, and then the Director shows up out of the blue for a closed office meeting with Hotch, that is apparently linked to a mystery case for the team. So fess up, what do you know?"
When she didn't say anything, Morgan pressed further, "Does this have something to do with the invite I found on your desk yesterday?"
"Morgan…" she started warningly, but was cut off by JJ.
"What invite?" she asked, honestly curious.
"A family reunion or something hosted by her mom," Reid answered before Morgan could.
"Why am I the only one who doesn't know about this?" JJ complained before noticing the confused expressions on Rossi's and Garcia's faces.
"Please just drop it, ok?" Emily tried to derail the conversation, "We don't have any reason to think that the two are related." She knew this was a lie, but she really did not want to discuss her family at all, much less with a bunch of profilers who would be analyzing her every micro expression as she did.