I'm not afraid of death. It's the stake one puts up in order to play the game of life.

~Jean Giraudoux

Emily Prentiss opened her eyes. She couldn't see anything, for the whole world was spinning. The surface under her was too hard to be ground and much too hard to be a bed. She blinked a couple times, trying to clear her vision. Thankfully the spinning stopped allowing her to sit up and survey her surroundings. What she saw at fist confused her as she seamed to be inside an interrogation room, sleeping on top of the table.

She then realized something else disturbing; She had no recollection of how she had gotten there. Her first instinct was to reach down to her hip to see if her gun in badge were there. To her dismay she realized they were missing. To make it worse, she didn't even recognize the clothes that she was wearing. She was wearing a white tank top and a black skirt just a bit to short for her taste, over them she was wearing a large brown trench coat. Not her usual fashion statement.

Getting more confused by the second, Emily turned to face the one way mirror and said:

"Hello. I am SSA Emily Prentiss from the BAU. Where am I? I have no memory of how I got here... Hello, I can't find my identification. Do you have a phone I can use I need to call my supervisor... Is my team here? I really have no memory of what I'm doing here."

Emily sighed in exasperation and slid of the table trying the door she already knew would be locked. She walked back to the table taking a seat in one of the chairs. She knew that something had happened, she just had to remember what.

"I know it's my first day in interrogation, but I am seriously confused." John Baker sat behind the one way mirror, and he stared with confusion at his senior officer, Detective Burns.

"It's true, I've bean doing interrogations for some time, but I've never seen a story quit like this and we're not even in the room yet. Maybe this isn't the best time for you to try the interrogation."

"Awwww, you're always going to say that. You said so yourself, the best way to learn is by doing."

"I guess I could give you a chance, but remember kid, she's psychotic, so don't listen to any story she tells you and stay on topic."

John nodded. He'd do anything to prove himself to the detective, despite his conflicting thoughts. On one hand, the woman behind the glass seemed so obviously confused that his instincts were telling him she was innocent. On the other hand, the detective was giving him a chance to prove himself by making her seem guilty. Ether way the only thing to do was to go in there and use all the things he'd learned in context.

Emily looked up when the door opened, though she had still not bean able to remember anything. The boy who entered the room was obviously nervous, and if she had to guess, she'd say it was his first time doing this.

"Hello Ms. McDougle," he said, walking up to the table but not sitting down.

This really confused Emily. She has absolutely no idea what was going on and no way to control it. She hated that feeling.

"Ex- excuse me," she stammered. "My name isn't Ms. McDougle, it's Prentiss, Emily Prentiss"

"Now, Ms. McDougle, we both know thats not true. It clearly states in your file that your name is Reilly McDougle. So Reilly, I think.."

"I'm sorry, but I'm pretty sure you've got the wrong person." Emily cut him off, her confusion deepening "I'm pretty sure I know what my own name is, and every second you spend in here with me the real 'Reilly McDougle' is still out there. May I ask what exactly she did?"

"You know what you did, but I guess it can't hurt to give you a quick refresher. You're being held on multiple murder charges, including the murder of FBI Agent Erin Strauss."

"Strauss! Your lying. She's dead? Really?" Emily's mouth fell open in shock, Strauss was dead. But maybe she wasn't. She wasn't going to trust the word of a police officer stupid enough to think her name was Reilly McDougle. She needed to call Hotch and figure out what the hell was going on. "May I use your phone?" Emily cautiously asked the man in front of her. "I need to make a call to my supervisor, Aaron Hotchner, to confirm that I'm not crazy."

"Uhh... Umm," he stuttered, looking toward the one way mirror.

"First time, huh?" Emily asked, now confident in her earlier analysis.

"I'll be right back," he said, sounding relived. He rushed toward the door, obviously thankful to be out of the situation.

This was good. If she could contact Hotch, he'd come and get everything sorted out, and then she'd probably go get herself checked for amnesia.

Now if only she could remember how she'd gotten here. She thought back; the best thing to do was to try to remember the last thing she possibly could. This turned out to be easier thought than done, as her memories were in a jumble and she had no idea in what order they came.

The last thing she could remember, that wasn't hazy or confusing, was arriving at the BAU late at night. JJ had sounded panicked on the phone, so she'd known this wouldn't be a normal case. The previous night, they had just arrived home from a case about a serial rapist. Emily remembered that there had bean extra people there that night.

Damn. She couldn't remember anything else; she couldn't even remember who the people had been. Oh wait, it was a blurry image, but was that Jordan Todd? Yes, yes it was. For some reason, Jordan Todd had been there that night. Was JJ gone again? No that wasn't right, she'd been the one who called. Emily held her head in her hands. Her mind wasn't revealing what she wanted to know.

The door opened again a different man entered. He seemed older, probably in his 50's.

"We have decided to let you make a call," He said holding out a phone to her. "I will stay in the room, and you must keep it on speaker phone."

Emily nodded as there was nothing unreasonable about this request. She dialed Hotch's number. Thank God she had it memorized (and still remembered it) because her cellphone was nowhere to be found. She waited as it rang until a automated voice said:

"Sorry, the number you have dialed is not in service at this time. The customer you are calling has ether discontinued their account or the number you dialed is incorrect."

Emily swore under her breath. Ether she had forgotten Hotch's number or something was seriously wrong.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what's going on," Emily said. "May I try a few more numbers?"

The man nodded.

Emily then dialed Garcia's number, crossing her fingers under the table and uncrossing them when the same message played. Damn. She then tried JJ only to get the same response. She didn't have the numbers for the rest of her team memorized, as she had them all on speed dial on her cell. There was only one more thing she could try. When JJ had bean on leave with Henry, Emily had called her house constantly to see if she was alright. Because of that, the number was nearly imprinted in her mind. Emily dialed JJ's home number slowly, almost afraid of what she might find.

Emily gave a sigh of relief when she heard Will's voice coming out of the phone. The relief was almost instantaneously replaced with dread when she realized it was the answering machine message.

"Hello you've reached the home of William, Jennifer and Henry. We can't come to the phone right now, but leave a message and we'll get back to you soon. Also, if this is about my wife's work, this is her home line and any work related calls should be directed through her work phone." BEEP.

Emily didn't know if this was good news or bad. On one hand something may have happened to JJ and her family, but it was a good sign that their existence had not bean completely washed away like with the others.

Emily wracked her brains. With her team vanished and Strauss apparently dead, who was left to prove she existed?

"I'm sorry sir, but I am at a loss of how to prove to you that I'm not Reilly McDougle."

"That's alright Miss. We now have reason to believe you may actually be suffering from memory loss. A psychiatrist will be in to see you later. But if you really do not remember, I will tell you that we have substantial evidence linking you to the crimes. Since I have never dealt with a case like this before, I can not tell you if you will be able to be prosecuted or not. That is why I'll have to lock you up for now, because there is still a great chance that you are lying."

Emily nodded, knowing that there was no point fighting this. She only hoped that what the psychiatrist would help clear her and that her team, wherever they were, were okay.

"You think she's telling the truth?" Thomas Burns asked his pupil.

"Are you going to judge me on my answer?" John asked suspiciously, not wanting to give Burns his opinion if it was going to be judged.

"No, no. I just want to know your honest opinion."

John nodded. "I believe she's telling the truth; no one is that good of a liar. And didn't you find it weird that every number she called happened to be out of service, except for the last one?"

"Yes, the last number may be a clue."

"Excuse me, sir," a blond woman walked up to the desk "You have a message from the FBI."

Reid opened his eyes and sat up calmly. It didn't take him long to deduce his location and to realise that trying to explain himself would be futile.

Reid was inside a padded cell, in what he was pretty sure was an insane asylum. He knew that they would have told them that he was suffering with the delusion of being an FBI agent. He didn't run around the cell screaming and banging on walls like he knew Morgan would have. That would only reinforce the thought that he was crazy.

He was pretty sure that they would have told the doctors that he would try to explain himself, therefore, he would just sit and wait, because eventually they would start to wonder what was up. Leading him to take another psych evaluation which would be his only way out, he only hoped it would be on time to save them.

I have preserved my identity, put its credibility to the test and defended my dignity. What good this will bring the world I don't know. But for me it is good. - Vaclav Havel

So what do you think, pretty original huh? I'm sorry for the spelling and grammar mistakes. It's not my strong point.

Please tell me if it makes the story unreadable.

Also even though this fic is Emily centric I will have a part from one of the other team members POV at the end of each chapter.

and I will not put in any romances to awkward things up.

I love the idea for this story, but I will only keep writing if I get feedback

So R&R

~Sally

1/10/2010:

I got a beta MorganXGarcia :)))

I love them! thanks to them im not afraid of betas anymore and the spelling and grammar in the story doesnt suck!