Monday

The team had just finished a long and stressful case. They'd been called to a small town in Indiana after a report of two burned bodies, one of a young boy and one of a young girl. They'd both been missing for three days and when they arrived there was two more missing children. It turned out to be a neighborhood baker killing for the thrill to see if anyone could find him, bringing new meaning to the childrens story "Hansel and Gretel". He was just about to burn the living children when they found him and took him away and the children were returned to their parents unharmed.

Soon they were on the road heading back to headquarters in two black SUVs. Morgan was driving one with Prentiss sitting on the passenger side and Reid in the back. Prentiss was looking out the window in a daze. "What's up?" Morgan asked, glancing at her then back to the road.

"Nothing really, these children cases always just get to me, you know?" She mumbled quietly.

"Well at least for every one child abduction there's about 20 failed attempts." Reid stated, trying to cheer her up in his own way.

"That just means there's a lot of child abduction attempts and a lot of bad people out there." She muttered.

Morgans brow furrowed. Prentiss wasn't usually this bitter, he shrugged it off though, positive she'd be fine the next day.

Prentiss sat at her desk in headquarters, thinking. She was the last one there other than Hotch, which was quite rare considering Rossi stayed late too. Hotch came down from his office, locking the door behind him. "Shouldn't you be getting home?" He asked her, confused as to the way she'd been acting lately. "You don't usually stay this late."

"Oh, I'll head home in a little while."

"Well just don't stay too much later, I don't want you getting sick." He said, not letting any emotion show through his serious face expression. Then he turned and in a moment Emily was alone in the dim light. What am I going to do? She thought tiredly. Her mother had been kidnapped and the kidnapper had left a letter behind. She took the paper out from her pocket. It was crumpled now after Reid had seen her reading it and she shoved it in her pocket as quickly as she could. She read it again.

Dear Emily Prentiss,

I know who you are. I know where you are. I have your mother and when you were just a young girl I killed your father and there's nothing you can do about it. Don't try to find me, I'm not in your database. If you want your mother back meet me at the park near your apartment on Friday. 8pm exactly, don't keep me waiting. Dare to bring anyone and I will kill your mother and I'm obviously not stupid enough to let you catch me and find your mother. She is hidden in a place you'll never find unless I tell you directly. Also I have people trained to kill, so if I'm caught she will immediately be killed.

See you soon,

Mysterious Rider

His writing was neat and clean, making it look so much more dangerous. She felt a tear drop on the paper. She didn't want a repeat of when her father died or the Ian Doyle incident. She straightened up. Since when had she been a person to cry? No, she was going to act professional about this. She briefly wondered about telling the team. They could always help her but...No, they would all be too worried to let her go alone to the park. No way they would let her go alone.

She stood up rigidly and picked up her jacket, stretching her hands through the sleeves and out the openings. She padded out of the office, the doors automatically locking as she left.

Prentiss waited patiently by the side of the busy road, filled with the people whose jobs allowed them to go out on a Monday night. The bus pulled up and she hopped on. She sat down on one of many empty seats. The bus made one stop before she'd get off. She counted the heads as people came on. Only four, making a total of nine people. The last man to get on was wearing a hood, covering most of his face. He slowly made his way to the near back before stopping and sitting beside Prentiss. Her brow furrowed but she didn't say anything, if he tried anything she always had her gun. Neither of them said a word and in a few minutes she stood up. The man let her out and she felt the hair on the back of her neck prickle as she walked away. Prentiss was a trained FBI agent and she knew to trust that feeling. He was watching her.