I'm working on a sequence of stories that belong together but still stand for themselves.

Thanks to REIDFANATIC for Beta Reading.

Criminal Minds is not mine.

Èanna

May was almost over and Emily had her paperwork all ready. Her new position would be in the same building so she could still visit with her friends. The only thing she was a little worried about was telling them. So far she had talked to JJ and Hotch but had both of their words that she would announce it herself when the time came. Her situation with Morgan had not really improved. They worked as a team, acting on autopilot while on a case, but their conversations were strictly on the subject. Slowly she got the feeling that he had moved on and she was not going to blame him for it.

Much to her dislike they got called to a case only two hours from home just a few days before she was off the list of being called to a scene. The case itself, as well, was not going the way she wanted it to go. They had been called to try to solve the case surrounding five year old Èanna. The little girl's parents had died in a tragic car accident six months earlier and since then her life seemed to be a misery. Her first foster parents had been shot to death two months after taking the little girl into their home. The second set took it's time, before coming to the decision they would try to take care of the girl. A month later the Ericksons had been found dead as well. After that incident about ten sets of possible foster parents turned her down, as her case was opened to them. When they had finally found a couple, months later, the name of the little girl was changed, but nonetheless the Maxwell and Carissa Ashton disappeared only two weeks after taking Èanna home and were found dead a few days later with obvious marks of torture and abuse.

Emily had met the little girl the first day as she and JJ were sent to talk to her. The little brunette had been terrified with the constant changes in her live and the disappearance of all those she loved or started to open up to. She had barely talked at all but seemed to put a little more trust into Emily than into Jennifer and that had turned into a huge problem for the agent.

"It's the only chance we have." Aaron Hotchner knew that he was asking a lot from his two agents, although he had not expected that much of protest, since Derek and Emily were close friends and known to trust each other.

"You want us to play a married couple and force Èanna to lose another set of possible parents?" Derek looked at his boss in bewilderment. Nobody on the team knew about the two of them dating and they were certainly professional enough to not bring up their splitting. Until now that hadn't been a big problem, but he could see in Emily's face that she had no intention of playing a married couple with him.

"With the time between attacks becoming shorter, it shouldn't take longer than a week, maybe ten days." Reid commented.

"Can't JJ do it? She has more experience with children in this age." Emily ignored the genius completely trying to reason herself out of this situation.

"Èanna connected a lot more to you than to me and we need to make her feel safe." JJ pointed out and her colleague knew that she was right, but decided to still be mad at her friend for not helping her out. After all JJ knew what had happened between Derek and her, she had expected a little bit more of support.

"Plus you two are single, while it would be a little weird for JJ to play a couple with someone, with being married for just a week." Rossi's glance wandered between the two agents, wondering what had happened to the close friends and partners. Emily sighed quietly cursing herself for not keeping the dating a stranger story up or telling Hotch the real reason for her transfer.

"Did Strauss give her okay?" It was her last try and she could see in the confused looks on her teammates' faces that it hadn't been a good one. But the question was reasonable, if Strauss heard about this she would be furious and there was no need to make Morgan's job any harder than it already was.

"My authority is high enough to authorize this operation." Hotch said, getting slightly annoyed with the arguments. The only reason he could see was Emily's upcoming transfer, but it was almost two weeks until then and he did hope to be done with the case by then.

Derek threw a quick glance towards Emily, hoping for her approval, but she turned her gaze to the pictures of the crime scenes. "I want a word in the process of identity making." With that he stood up to call Garcia. If he couldn't stop this, he at least wanted it to be the least awkward for the two of them.

An hour later the team was off to a house a little bit off the area, so neighbors wouldn't be too involved as well as able to answer too many questions. While the team set up cameras around and inside the house, it was Derek's turn to fill in his new "wife" on her identity.

"We are Chad and Stephanie Anderson, ages are ours, moved here a year ago, but are often gone so neighbors don't know us. The house belongs to a family, who rents it out for vacations. Chad can't have children and that's why they decided to take foster children. With the issue of not being able to have children the couple has some marriage trouble and was seeing a psychologist about that."

"Marriage problems weren't in the profile." Emily remarked dryly.

"Yeah, but they really should. Couple number one was happy after a year of therapy to save their marriage. Couple number two was still having sessions and number three had neighbors reporting on fighting."

Emily nodded slowly; at least she didn't have to act like she was madly in love. Although saying that she wasn't in love with him, would push it as well, after all they hadn't separated because of their feelings, but because of their jobs. With that she headed outside, ignoring his sigh.

As the team was done with the set up, they left before Èanna would arrive. They suspected that the little girl was being watched and therefore they already risked enough to set up Emily and Derek for it. Of course the little girl was anything but fond to be shipped off to a new family. Tears were streaming down her little cheeks as the social worker walked her into the house. As soon as her hand was relieved she ran off to the door trying to get out.

"Èanna," the young woman was clearly out of patience with the girl, picking her up and carrying her into the living room. "I need one of you to sign the paperwork. I didn't expect that someone would be willing to take her after everything that happened." She threw a glance at the girl, who now sat on the couch sobbing. Emily, who was still ignoring her "husband" for the next week, slightly shook her head and walked to the couch.

"Can you take care of the paperwork, Chad?" A few weeks ago she would have used honey or some other kind of nickname, but she didn't really feel up for that. It would hurt too much. She kneeled down in front of the couch and smiled at the girl.

"Do you remember me sweetheart?" The girl nodded slightly, while her eyes filled with more tears. It was clearly going to take a while, before they would be able to get the little girl's trust. She studied the girl for a moment not sure where to start.

"What do you have there?" She finally asked pointing to a teddy the girl was pressing against her chest.

"My teddy."

"Does he have a name?"

"Mr. Peterson." Emily smiled, wondering where that name had come from.

"Can I say hello to Mr. Peterson?" She earned a judging look, before Èanna slowly turned the teddy, so the face was directed towards Emily.

"Hello Mr. Peterson, I'm Stephanie." She slowly stretched her hand to shake the teddy's paw. "Are you and Èanna good friends?"

The girl had the toy nod and Emily smiled softly. "Well Mr. Peterson, how about we go and show Èanna her new room?" She was relieved when the girl had it nod again and then slid from the couch. They made their way upstairs to a children's bedroom filled with all sorts of toys. Garcia had truly overachieved in this case.

The agent stayed in the room at first playing with the little girl, then just watching. Sometime during their play she had heard the door shut downstairs and a car drive off, indicating that the social worker had left.

"I'm downstairs if you need anything." She barely got a response from the playing child. She smiled and left the room to look for Morgan. Not that she was particularly fond of talking to him, but the situation required good communication.

"She is settled in. Garcia did really well on the toys." She said as she found him in the dining room studying the foster parent file.

"I told her to ignore the limits. If they want us to pull this off, they get to pay for it." He didn't look up, but kept staring at the pictures. "I can't believe that they really think having the girl in another family is going to do any good for her."

"At least she is safe with us."

"Yeah but nonetheless she is going to lose us as soon as she is safe and that is going to kill her."

For the first time he looked up meeting her gaze. All the unspoken things suddenly hung between them again and Emily couldn't help but remember what her mother had said. She still hadn't told anyone of her transfer plans, usually transfers weren't any good, until all the paperwork was signed and she didn't want to get his hopes up or risk his job.

"Derek, we should talk." She didn't know why this moment felt so right, but it did and she wanted to use it as long as it felt right. His eyes narrowed as she used his real name a clear indication that she was talking about their real relationship not the fake one they were pretending to have. He was about to say something when his phone went off. A short look at the caller ID and he gave her an apologetic glance.

"That's JJ."

She made a movement with her hand so he would answer it, before turning to go back upstairs.

"Dang her timing," she murmured under her breath, as she took two stairs at a time to get back to the second floor.

The day went by fast and soon it was time to bring Èanna to bed. Morgan watched his partner doing most of the work and was amazed by the routine she already had developed. Her time with Declan seemed to have established some kind of mother instinct. He couldn't believe that he was watching the same woman that had been worried about raising a child a few months ago. When she had gone through a story and her goodnights, she indicated that it was his turn. He slowly wandered over to the little bed, kneeling besides it.

The girl's eyes were already closing, so he didn't have to do much talking. He just sat there watching her fall asleep, before leaving the room as well.

"Goodnight Annie." He murmured under his breath.

When he entered the master bedroom, he found Emily already changed and climbed in one side of the bed. He grabbed his PJs and headed to the bathroom. As he came back, he only saw some of her hair, as she had snuggled under the covers. He took his spot in the bed, placing his gun in the nightstand, so he would be able to reach it any time. Derek laid down listening for the sound of her breathing as he had done so often before. He smiled as he realized that she wasn't really sleeping yet.

"You make a great mom." He softly whispered into the silence and although she didn't answer he knew that she had heard him.

"Stephanie?"

Derek had awoken out of his light sleep when he had heard the door move, but the small steps turned out to be their foster child's. He watched as she walked around the bed, stopping in front of Emily trying to wake her up with the soft calling. He felt the sleeping woman next to him stir. Apparently she still slept a lot deeper with him next to her. While they had been dating, they had found out that her sleep was deeper whenever they stayed at the same place. When she was alone she still had a rather light sleep, every so often accompanied by a nightmare. She finally sat up, ready to react, but then realized that it was only the little girl.

"Èanna, why are you not sleeping sweetheart?"

"Are you going to go away like all the other parents?" The little brunette's lips were trembling as she pressed Mr. Peterson against her chest. Emily resisted a sigh as she took in the scared expression on the little face. She didn't know what to answer, after all she was not going to stay with the girl longer than the case would allow. But at the same time did she see the girl's need for security.

"Come here." She held out her hands to pull Èanna into the bed next to her. "I'm not going anywhere."

Derek sighed as he heard the promise that she was not going to able to keep.