This is written for the 'Theme Song Challenge' over on the 'Chit Chat on Author's Corner'- Forum. I was assigned Emily Prentiss as a character and the song 'The Weight of the World' by The Editors as her theme song. I'm not really writing Emily very often, and I rarely write character-centric pieces, but well… they don't call it a challenge for nothin'. This is for littlegreenbottle, who suggested it. I hope I didn't screw this up completely. =)

On some days she felt like the weight of the world lasted on her shoulders.

Actually on most days she felt like that come to think of it.

From an early age onwards there was a lot of pressure on her and on some days it seemed like she was destined to carry the weight of the world on her shoulders – all by herself.

But Emily Prentiss never let that drag her down. She tried her best to face every challenge, every issue, every pressure with a clear head and a positive approach. Previous experiences in her life taught her that. Being Ambassador Prentiss' daughter was certainly not easy and for whatever reason people assumed Emily was just where she was now because of who her mother is. But all of them were and are wrong. The weight of these suspicions lasted on her every day and every single day she had once more to prove to plenty of people that she wasn't just another of these girls that were only where they were due to connection and family.

She worked hard for everything she had now. She did things she certainly wasn't proud of, but that lay in her past now anyways, couldn't be changed and shouldn't be anyway. If she hadn't done what she did, someone else would have. It had been a job and maybe getting that involved was not part of the description, but it certainly made things a lot easier. But it certainly did not make the burden a weightless one. With Doyle's arrest and Lauren's 'death' this part of her life ended as well, but wasn't that easy.

Never could she talk to anyone about this, knowing if she did she might put herself and the people she spoke to at risk. The only people who knew where her handler and friends – that had been more or less involved with the case as well so many years ago. For years she kept quiet, carried it around with herself, never looking back, never talking about it, but when she finally did, when Doyle escaped it would change things forever.

She never meant to share that part of her life with her friends at the BAU, knew they probably wouldn't even understand what she did and why, the reasons for her actions. She also knew that the more they knew, the more they were at risk. A risk she did not want for them. That's why she chose to walk, leave everything behind. To protect them. And maybe to also protect herself, to protect her past.

Of course she should have known better. She should have known they'd find out eventually. That's how good they were. That's what they did for a living. To piece together the puzzle eventually.

The case did not end well, leaving Doyle a fugitive and her declared as dead. With no one knowing, no one other than her friend JJ and her boss Hotch. They gave her a new life – an opportunity of some kind - in a new country, with everything she needed to stay safe and protected from Doyle.

With almost everyone from her past thinking she was dead and everything in her future not knowing anything about her or her family, this should have felt better, liberating and new. But it didn't. With Doyle still on the run she couldn't relax, checked her steps twice before doing them and always looked over her shoulder just to make sure.

Yes, no one would ever be to understand the weight Emily Prentiss was carrying around with herself, but then again no one ever should. It was a part of her by now and she had learned to accept it.