Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any character associated with it, no copyright infringement is intended.
After a certain amount of thought and deliberation, I decided to take all of the Teddy Roosevelt series of one-shots and put them under one umbrella (with a couple of chapters added in) to make it a more cohesive narrative. I hope you enjoy it.
Chapter 1: What's An Unless?
Alex Blake looked at her newspaper, and saw a picture of Emily Prentiss.
A few weeks ago, the photo from the society page would have meant nothing to her. She would have moved past the picture and skipped the society page altogether.
But a few weeks ago she met Emily Prentiss. The INTERPOL agent (and former BAU member) came to help the team when JJ was abducted. It was the first time Alex had met Emily, although she had heard all about the former team member.
Watching Emily interact with the team, Alex noticed three things. First, that whatever her life was like in London, a part of her heart wold always remain with the team. Second, there was one member on the team the Emily especially missed, but couldn't express it. Third, that same member had the same problem regarding Emily.
Alex considered that for a moment.
That night, when Emily was here, the two of them could have changed everything.
But they didn't. Emily went back to London and Spencer was here.
Their lives would go on just like they had.
Unless.
For a moment, the lines of a song played in her head. Well, a song so much as a moment of dialogue that lead into a brief song. It was from the TV special "The Lorax".
A boy asked the Once-ler, "What's an Unless?"
The Once-ler sang, "Just a far away word, just a far away thought."
"A thought?" the boy asked. "About what? About something I ought?"
"Well," THE Once-ler said thoughtfully and began to sing, "A thought about something that somebody ought...a thought about something... that somebody... ought."
In the midst of the memory, Alex knew nothing would change, unless she did something.
She folded her newspaper, with the society page on top. Then she walked over to Reid's desk and put it in front of him.
He looked at the newspaper and then looked up at Alex, "What's this?"
"I thought you might like to read it." Then she walked back over to her desk.
Reid looked at Alex, then he looked at the paper. He saw the picture of Emily.
Then he unfolded the paper and started reading intently.