A/N: Thank you for all the fantastic reviews. You guys are the best! I'm glad that Liam was well received, even to the point that somebody was wanting me to have him and Emily get together and just forget about Derek. I must say, the thought has crossed my mind while writing this.

I also need to thank mike91848 for being totally awesome, and making me... make sense. I'd never had a beta before, but I lucked out when I came across him.

Now, to the reading! Let me know what you think.

"Alright, enough of that!" Garcia shouted. "You get to talk to her all the time," she said to Morgan in an almost whining tone. "This is PEmily time." She turned back to her monitor then. "Don't you have any hot British guys to flirt with over there yet?"

Derek released an almost silent laugh as he raised his hands and backed away. "And that would be my cue."

Before he could take his leave though, Penelope's landline started to ring. "Look who's all work and no play now," Emily pointed out gleefully to the techie.

Garcia gave a sympathetic smile in response, and then answered the phone. She profusely apologized to the person at the other end, and then hung up. "I'm sorry my Love, but I have to run this analysis to Hotch. Otherwise, I think he might have an aneurism." At Emily's insistence that it was fine, she stood and made her way to exit. Before she left though, she shoved Derek back toward the computer. "Keep 'er warm for me."

Emily and Derek had both laughed at that, and then the atmosphere had become suddenly thick. Emily wasn't sure what had changed, but she could feel the intensity. It was strange, being that they were half a world apart. But then again, only a thin pane of glass separated them.


Derek had been trying to repair the damage since it happened, calling Emily relentlessly in his spare time. He doubted that increasing the frequency of the calls tonight had made much of a difference, but he had to try. He couldn't stand by and let Emily isolate herself from everyone, and Garcia had made it painfully clear that morning that she wasn't about to let him. Derek had sent dozens of texts and e-mails, and he was pretty sure that he'd heard Emily's voicemail recording enough in the past few months to repeat it from memory. When he was a kid, his sisters liked to play a little game when they were mad at him. They'd act like he wasn't there, and had never even been born. Looking back, he knew that it was just a childish punishment for his incessant tattling. He'd thought that they had been bad, but he'd never been ignored quite this efficiently before.

Then he started to wonder why Emily was mad at him at all. He hadn't said anything that warranted her anger. He had only been honest with her. Maybe he should be mad at her, she was the one acting like a child. He released a heavy sigh, that woman was going to drive him insane.

The knock on his door effectively put an end to his internal debate. It was just after two in the morning, and he was a little surprised that anyone else was in. It was J.J. that entered, and she had a fresh stack of folders. She smiled apologetically at the way his face fell, "Conference room in thirty, the others are on their way back in. The one on top is urgent, and the rest will have to wait." He barely had the time to utter an affirmative response before she whisked back through the now open door. It looked like they were going to end up catching a case tonight and the thought brought a moan from deep within his chest. He wouldn't be going home to sleep off the emotionally draining day for the whole weekend after all. He did have thirty minutes to listen to Emily's voicemail a few more times though, and he could do that while he skimmed the file in front of him.


Emily pushed in the top right button on her phone using a little more force than was necessary. It was about the hundredth time she had completed the action during the course of their little road trip, and Liam couldn't hide the concern in his voice. "Everything copasetic there, Boss?"

She clenched her jaw, angry with herself for not hiding her frustration. It showed for only a second longer before Emily was able to school her features and replace the frown with a warm smile aimed at her subordinate. "Yeah, wrong number."

She knew that the man wasn't a dunce, and that he didn't believe her for a second. "Well," he blew out a breath of air and turned away, "maybe you should tell him that."

They were sitting in the parking lot of the prison in Wales. Neither of them had had the presence of mind to realize that no warden would be available to sign off on the order at six in the morning. So they'd been sitting in their BMW for the past hour and a half. That was long enough for Emily to begin to miss being in the spacious Suburbans that the F.B.I. used for standard transportation. Though, she considered, the BMW was much nicer.

Both of the agents were a little too exhilarated to see a car pull into the spot marked, 'Reserved for Warden'. They quickly hopped out and trotted toward the main entrance after the man had gone inside.


Garcia breezed back into the room. Her adventure had taken a bit longer than expected, and she'd been working on an apology all the way from Hotch's office. As the door clicked shut behind her though, she was nothing if not confused by what played out before her. Derek immediately stood up, greeting her and saying his goodbyes to Emily in the same breath, before rushing passed Penelope. She spun to follow him out of the room with her eyes, far too astounded by the maneuver to try to stop him.

When she turned back to her computer, Emily looked well composed if a little more pale than usual. Garcia shook it off and made her way back to her chair. Before she could begin the long-winded explanation of regret that she had worked up, the other woman began a regret-fueled sentence of her own. "I'm sorry Penelope, but I have to go. I… I have a lot to get done before I can leave for the evening." Garcia had dragged it out for a few more minutes, pleading for the brunette to take some vacation time and come home. That had only seemed to make the other woman want to end the conversation all the more quickly.


Emily had gotten a reprieve from the never-ending phone calls for the last hour or so, and she couldn't help but wonder if the team was on the jet. She'd set her phone in the cup holder for easy access to decline incoming calls, but dammit if she wasn't a little disappointed that she hadn't gotten any to decline.

Winchester spotted her eyeing the dormant cell as if she were trying to will it to ring. "There are laws against using those things and driving for a reason." She passively rolled her eyes at him. "Though, I've never heard of anybody wrecking because their phone wasn't going off."

Emily shifted her focus from the road ahead to glare at her passenger. "I'm perfectly capable of driving without a running Public Service Announcement, thank you." Liam only laughed as she returned her stare to the road.

"Any chance you could drive a little faster?" The prisoner spoke with a thick Irish accent. "How long we been in this piece o' shite anyhow?"

"Shut up, Mickles," Winchester sounded lamely. "We'll get there when we get there, don't worry your pretty little head about it."

Emily tuned out the outburst thinking, 'the worst part of transferring a prisoner is listening to them run their mouths.' It tended to get monotonous after awhile. "Enjoy the scenery while you can," she added. It was more for her partner's amusement than anything else.

Mickles leaned forward quickly, peering over Emily's shoulder to look at the clock on the dash. "Hey," Winchester barked, "get your ass back in that seat." The man obliged, but he fixed Liam with an angry stare. Winchester didn't back down, instead forcing the other man to capitulate. Once satisfied that he had indeed won, Liam turned back to the front.

Neither agent missed the sound, the metallic click almost deafening in the small space. They were both overly familiar with the noise and wouldn't have normally batted an eye at it, had it not been for the fact that it came from the back seat. Before they could react, the silence that they had previously settled into erupted into a loud crack. There was no hesitance in his movements as Liam tore his seatbelt away and went for the gun. There was another thunderous crack just as he reached his objective. Both bullets had ripped through the back of the driver's seat and, presumably, Emily as well.

She didn't feel the pain. She didn't have the time to. Emily had no idea where the first shot had landed, but the second had hit her hard. It cut through her right shoulder and the force of the impact made her jerk the steering wheel. They hadn't been moving at a great speed, but it was fast enough to make it nearly impossible to correct for the sudden change in direction. They swerved violently toward the side of the road. The momentum, coupled with the rough terrain of the ditch, was enough to roll them. Screeching metal, broken glass and then nothing.


"You heard the lady," Emily began to chuckle somewhat nervously at their friend's overly suggestive command. She stopped smiling and looked more serious when Morgan hadn't joined her. "Derek?" He watched her eyes as she searched his face looking for anything to indicate what he was feeling. He averted his gaze for that very reason, deciding that he didn't want her to read him. "Is everything okay?" Concern colored her words.

"Yeah," he started solemnly, slowly facing her again. "Just…" Derek had to run a hand over his chin. His thoughts were waging war, and he needed something to say to her. "I was just thinkin' is all." It wasn't what he really wanted to say, what he desperately needed to say, but not a lie either.

"Hey," her voice was low and breathy. He could tell that she was waiting for him to open up, that she knew he was keeping something from her. "How is everyone over there?"

"Awe you know," Derek played up the charm that he was so famous for. "J.J.'s keepin' 'em in line."

"Yeah?" Her warm laughter flowed through the speakers again, and he couldn't help but smile in return. "I was wondering who was gonna step up when I left." Derek knew that crestfallen didn't even begin to describe his current expression, but he didn't care. She probably didn't mean for her words to come off the way that he had taken them, but they had still hurt. He could see that she had almost instantly realized her misstep as well. "I'm sorry," she whispered into the silence.

"Come back," he choked out. Emily's mouth fell open but, if he was doing this, he was going to put everything out there. His sadness at her comment only served to push him into telling her exactly how he felt. "I want you to come back to D.C. I want you to come back for me." She looked down, breaking his unrelenting eye contact. Derek could tell that she was trying to come up with a response, he hoped to God that it wasn't 'No', and he knew that he had to make sure that she understood him in no uncertain terms. "I am desperately in love with you. I should have grabbed you the minute you walked into my life, or even when you walked back into my life. Hell, I should have handcuffed myself to you when you said you were leaving." Her head tilted to the side, and he knew that look. It was pity. She leaned forward, elbows on the desk, and pressed her lips into her knuckles. "I should have never left London, but I did." His eyes were wide, and glistened with tears. "You know why?"