Author's Note: Thank you all so much for the reviews for last chapter!

If you're interested, my friend and fellow fanfic writer, LoveforPenandDerek made me a fantastic banner for this story! I'm going to post the link to it on my profile page—it's also the new background on my computer! I hope you enjoy this chapter! - Angie

Reid couldn't help but think that the shooting had been a blessing in disguise. If it hadn't happened, he didn't think Emily would have told him what was going on, let alone passed that information on first to Hotch, and then the rest of the team. It hadn't taken them any time to show up at Reid's apartment after everything had gone down. All of the people who lived around him knew that the 'quirky kid' next door worked for the FBI, and several of them had made 911 calls to report just that.

By now everyone knew, and the entire department was a flurry of activity. It was Monday afternoon; Hotch had been behind closed doors all morning. He'd just gotten back to the BAU and informed the team of a mandatory meeting. They were filing in and Reid looked around for Emily. She was the last to walk in, and the only vacant seat was beside him. He sent up a silent prayer of thanks. He had the feeling that if she wasn't working with him, she'd be avoiding him. And that was really pissing him off.

Emily grimaced as she realized that the only vacant seat in the room was next to Reid. It really was just too much. She tried to avoid his gaze as she walked over to sit down next to him, but she couldn't. Her eyes met his, and then traveled to the bruise on his face.

When they'd gone down, Reid had covered her body with his; miraculously, the only injury had been the shard of glass embedded in his cheek. They'd been able to remove it and then stitch it, but the skin surrounding the area was a combination of blue, purple, and yellow instead of the ivory tone he normally was. Guilt washed over her once again. Reid, whom she'd come to affectionately think of as flawless, was going to be scarred for life—because of the wound he'd acquired protecting her. And the worst part was…she was sure she was going to scar him again. Because of what she knew she had to do.

The door abruptly closing drew Emily from her thoughts. Hotch stood at the head of the room in front of the white board, a resigned look on his face. "Strauss won't budge. This isn't ours."

Reid and Morgan flew up out of their chairs at the same time. No one looked at Derek; they expected it from him. Instead, all eyes flew to Reid.

"What?" the two men said at the same time. Derek's, more of a roar, drowned Reid's out.

Hotch held both hands up in front of himself. "Relax," he said in a commanding tone. "And have a seat."

Reid immediately complied; it took Derek a moment, and he never stopped muttering.

"What are we going to do?" JJ asked. "We can't just work on other cases. That would be wrong. No one's head would be there, Hotch," she said adamantly.

Hotch nodded in agreement. "We're taking Emily to a safe house," he informed them.

"What?" Emily asked in disbelief. "No! That's not…we're not…we're not wasting the FBI's resources on me."

"It wouldn't be a waste, Em," Reid said softly.

She turned to him, her posture practically bristling. "Yes, it would! I'm a trained agent; I can take care of myself."

"I was a trained agent, too, Prentiss," Hotch reminded Emily quietly, gaining her attention once again. "But I couldn't protect my family. Is this a chance you really want to take?"

Emily stood up. "Yes," she said defiantly, rubbing her palms on her slacks in an uncharacteristic show of nervousness. "Yes, it is. It's my life. And I'm not going to endanger all of yours because of things that have happened in my past."

"Emily—" Reid started.

But Hotch interrupted him. "Luckily, what you want doesn't matter," he informed her. "As of this moment, you're officially in FBI custody."

"What?" she exploded, charging towards her Unit Chief. "That is ridiculous!"

Hotch ignored her outburst, turning instead to the rest of his team. "Any work on this case is voluntary," he told them.

"I'm volunteering," Reid said.

"The Bureau isn't going to give us any more resources. The people in this room…this is what we have. This is all we have."

"I'm in," Derek said.

"No!" Emily said again, her tone more desperate than before.

"Me, too," JJ chimed in.

"A memeber of our team is in need. This is no time to back out," Rossi agreed.

"Me, too," said Penelope. "I'm in."

"Actually," Hotch said. "The Red Cells need you."

Penelope shook her head. "They get me if this team doesn't have an immediate need." Her eyes went to her friend, who was still fuming. "My team has an immediate need—so I'll be with them," she insisted. "They can find a different TA for now."

Hotch nodded, an almost imperceptible grin on his face. "I told Strauss you'd say that."

"Hotch, listen to me!" Emily commanded.

Reid rolled his eyes. "Could someone please cuff the subject?"

"Absolutely not," Reid said forcefully. "We aren't taking you to your apartment to get anything. No one is going to your apartment. I'm sure he's lying in wait somewhere around the building."

"I'm telling you, he's not, Reid," she promised. "He knows I'm not stupid enough to go back there."

"And yet here you are…determined to prove him wrong," Reid observed.

She sighed. "I'm just trying to tell you that there's no danger," she said angrily. She felt like a child, for God's sake. She'd been put into FBI custody against her will; they hadn't even let her go to the bathroom alone.

"And I'm trying to tell you that there is! Think about this, Emily," Reid said coaxingly in an attempt to get her to gain some objectivity. "You're a profiler. Your head isn't where it should be. What would you tell someone if you were in the field?"

She sighed in defeat. "I'd tell them that it's a chance they shouldn't be willing to take," she whispered, her body sagging wearily. She looked around for the nearest chair and sank down into it. "I can't believe this is happening," she said.

Reid knelt down in front of her. "It is, Em. But look around you. You have all of us here willing to help you. We're not going to let you go through this alone."

Emily looked at him, her brown eyes sad and distressed. "You don't know what you're saying, Reid. He's going to kill me…and if that means he needs to kill any of you in the process, he'll do that."

"Emily, we'll catch him," Reid promised.

She smiled sadly at him and lifted a hand to run her fingers tenderly over the stitches on his cheek. "We won't catch him," she whispered. "He's too good to be caught."