Emily Prentiss sank back into her desk chair, dumping her go back on the floor by her feet. She was exhausted. The case took more out of her physically and emotionally than she was used to. Tackling suspects usually fell to Derek, but Emily ended up being the one to throw this week's sicko to the ground, spraining something in her knee in the process. Rubbing her sore knee she looked back to Morgan. He was on the phone with the social services in North Carolina, still working to make sure Lila Powers would find a nice home. His hand wandered up to his head, rubbing it as he walked from the elevator frowning into the phone.
"Well, just let me know once you know something. Okay?" He gruffed, then hung up, sighing as he sat down at his desk across from her.
"I don't get it Prentiss," He said, looking over at her, "Why is it so impossible for these kids to get a break?"
"Lila might. There are homes out there that are nice for foster kids."
"Yeah well the fact that we don't know for certain is what bugs me" Morgan said, shaking his head, "She might go into a great home or into an abusive home, and we will never be able to influence what happens to her."
"There's nothing we can do now but hope."
"Yeah Prentiss, I know. But she just had her only family murdered in front of her, and we can't even offer her the solace of knowing she will be taken care of."
Emily sighed. She thinks about that fact every time a case comes up involving children. It is already terrible when kids are exposed to the kind of violence that the BAU deals with every day, but when they lose all sense of security afterwards, grieving their losses and terrified of the future, it breaks Emily's heart.
There's no coming back from a case like that, Emily thinks. These are the cases that keep her up at night.
"Do you remember Carrie Ortiz?" Emily asked.
"Yeah, the teenage girl that had to watch her mom and dad beaten to death in front of her," Derek frowned, "She went to live with relatives right?"
"Yes but we couldn't contact them for awhile." She explained, "She was going to have to take that gamble with finding a foster home, and she had so much potential. I couldn't let her go through trauma like that again." Emily confessed, thinking about Carrie lying in that hospital bed, shaking from her memories.
"You tried to take her." It wasn't a question.
"I told Hotch after the case, and he reminded me i needed to be objective" she scoffed. "I won't tell you that you shouldn't be human or care about Lila or any other kid we see suffering... but hotch was right in a way," She admitted sadly. "I couldn't have given Carrie what she needed."
Emily thought about the moment she decided to change her life forever. She was gathering up files thinking about how much space she had in her apartment and how Carrie's life depended on her living in a good home. Emily was all of a sudden completely certain, and opened her mouth without a second thought. I can take her. The words had echoed in the room while Hotch frowned at her. He had questioned her, but she was ready to be defiant. She had thought it through, and she wanted Carrie. She wanted her even as Hotch explained that she was living with her family. She wanted her even as she pretended to be happy at the news because she should have been happy for her.
"I guess all we can do is move on", Morgan said, lifting Emily out of her thoughts.
"Yeah." Emily said. "We move on."
Morgan smiled and bid her goodnight, picking up his go back with a weary grunt. When the elevator doors shut behind him, Emily allowed herself a second to collect her thoughts before she got up and followed suit.
Tonight was gonna be another long night.