The night was over way too soon. After having coffee and a rushed but filling breakfast – thanks to Jane's mother Angela Rizzoli who, as they learned, lived in Maura's guesthouse – they returned to the precinct to continue the work on their latest case.
"So, why do you think is the UnSub killing these girls?" Jane sidled up to Emily, nodding toward the bulletin board that was plastered with the gruesome pictures of the dead girls. "And do you think we are dealing with a man or a woman?"
"Well," Emily began, intently studying the photos. "Usually serial killers are more likely to be male. Stranglers, too. But this one? I think it is a woman.. The UnSub might identify with the victims. The way we found their bodies makes me think that they regretted the murders afterwards. Eyes closed, hands folded on their chest..."
"Like she's laying them down to rest," Jane finished the thought.
"Exactly."
"Do you think-" Jane's next question was interrupted by the arrival of Garcia, who was giving Emily a strange look.
"Emily, can I speak to you for a moment? Alone? I uh… need your advise on something private."
Emily frowned at Penelope's odd question but excused herself from the homicide detective and followed her friend to an empty office room.
When Garcia drew the blinds and placed her laptop on the desk, Emily knew that this wasn't about giving her advice.
"Penelope?"
"You know how I joked yesterday that Luciana Watson could be royalty?"
"Yeah," Emily nodded, sitting down on the edge of the desk as Penelope opened her laptop and hit a series of keys on the keyboard. "Why? You're not saying the girl really is-"
"She kind of is, Emily," Garcia turned the computer towards Emily, letting her see the adoption papers. "You know how we always call you 'Princess'? Well, she's yours, Emily. Luciana Watson is your daughter. Why did you never tell us you had a child? First the whole Lauren fiasco, now this... I don't get it Emily, why the many secrets? Do you not trust us? — Emily?"
Emily felt her heart come to a stop and her lungs constrict painfully in her chest. She sank down to the floor, hands in front of her face, shielding herself from the reality that came crashing down on her like a riptide. She felt as though she was going to drown; her breathing was coming ragged and strained and her mind seemed to be going in circles.
The pregnancy test. Positive.
John and Matthew.
Father Lorenzo.
The abortion clinic.
Telling her mother.
Deciding to keep the baby.
Being sent away to a remote cloister so no-one would notice her growing belly.
The pain. So much pain.
And blood.
Rivulets running down her thighs. Sticky. Wet.
The smell.
The doctor's voice as she drifts out of consciousness.
Waking up.
Cold and clean.
Her mother, holding her hand. Informing her of the 'baby's passing'.
"Figlia mia... Dov'è lei? Ho una figlia. Lei non è morta… lei non è morta." (My daughter... Where is she? I have a daughter. She didn't die... she didn't die.)
After trying in vain to get through to Emily, Penelope hurried back to the conference room, unceremoniously pulling a protesting JJ after her. However, once she mentioned Emily's name, JJ's eyes widened and suddenly Garcia was the one being dragged along.
They burst into the office together, stopping short at the mess that was Emily.
"Figlia… Lei non è morta… lei non è morta."
"She's been speaking Italian for the past five minutes, always the same words. But I can't make any sense of it and I can't get her to snap out of it. I'm sorry, JJ, I shouldn't have told her on my own, I should've gotten you or Derek or.." She broke off as a flash of brown and blue moved past them and sank to their knees in front of Emily.
"Emily, hey," Jane Rizzoli carefully reached out to the shocked woman, placing a hand on her shoulder. Emily didn't flinch but she didn't react at all either. She was staring right through the detective and her lack of a reaction was starting to scare all of them.
Furrowing her brows, Jane tried a different tactic:
"Stai bene. Mi senti? E anche Luciana va bene. Vedrai. Troveremo tua figlia. Te lo prometto." (You're okay. Do you hear me? And Luciana is okay, too. You'll see. We'll find your daughter. I promise.)
Jane had never been more grateful for her mother's insistence to teach her Italian than right in this very instance. Because slowly clarity returned to Emily's eyes and she blinked once, then twice, then finally focused on the three women that were now crouched on the floor around her.
"She didn't die," she repeated the words she'd muttered in Italian. "Luciana… She didn't die."
"You didn't know your child was alive? But-"
Emily began to explain before Garcia could go on.
"Mother told me the baby had been a stillborn," she glanced at the adoption records that were still on the laptop's screen. There it was. Elizabeth Prentiss. Her mother had signed them, had signed her baby away to a couple of strangers. Emily didn't know whether to be angry or sad and while the feelings were warring for the upper hand, all she felt was empty and tired. "She never even told me if it was a boy or a girl. Told me to just forget... but I never could. And now.. she's alive?"
"Luciana Watson is your daughter?" JJ finally caught up on what was happening, a gasp escaping her throat as she realized the onslaught of emotions Emily must be experiencing. No wonder she'd broken down.
"Do you remember Matthew Benson and John Cooley?"
"From that creepy exorcism case?" Garcia shuddered at the memories. "Yeah."
"I was 15 when I got pregnant. The result of a drunken night with John. We'd moved to Italy almost a year and a half before and I still didn't fit in. Not with the local kids and not even with those of the English private school I was attending. So one night, I finally snuck out to go to one of the parties the others always went to. And John, well… he was charming and stayed by my side the whole evening, showing what seemed to be genuine interest in who I was." She chuckled bitterly. "He was 18 and I was easily convinced that he was exactly what I needed to dull the pain and loneliness. I got drunk and one thing led to another. John only shrugged his shoulders when I told him I was pregnant eight weeks later. It was Matt who helped me through this once he'd managed to get me to open up to him. He went with me to the abortion clinic, his saved pocket money in his jean pocket to pay for my mistake. But when I was inside the examination room and I heard the baby's heartbeat… I just couldn't bring myself to go through with it."
"So you decided to keep it?" JJ asked, trying to imagine how lonely and scared 15-year-old Emily must've felt. Hell, she'd been scared shitless when she'd learned about her own pregnancy. And she'd been 26.
"I did. And two weeks later, I finally found the courage to tell my mother… Three days after, I was on a train to a remote cloister near the German-Italian border. Mother's immaculate reputation couldn't be sullied by a teenage pregnancy..."
"Oh, Em," JJ pulled the raven-haired woman into a tight embrace. "I'm so sorry."
"We have to find her before... before the UnSub kills her," Emily had trouble to wrap her tongue around the words. "I've already failed her once."
"We will, Emily," Jane squeezed the agent's shoulder. "A Rizzoli never breaks a promise."
"We have to tell Hotch, Em," JJ stated, meeting her friend's dark eyes. They all knew that Hotch might decide to pull her off the case and make her sit on the sidelines but he needed to know. There was no way around it.
"I know," Emily nodded, scrambling to her feet, the others following her lead. "I'll go talk to him."
"Do you want us to come with you?" Garcia asked, her big concerned eyes never leaving Emily's face. She felt terrible for confronting Emily like that. If only she'd known.
The remorse must've been visible on her face because the next thing she knew, Penelope found herself on the receiving end of a rate Prentiss hug.
"It's okay, Pen. You couldn't know. I kept it from you and the team after all. Thank you for giving her back to me." Then Emily left the room and went to find Hotch. This was something she needed to do on her own.
"Emily!"
Emily turned around to find the pathologist jogging to catch up to her. She'd been on the way to the little café on the precinct's ground floor to get coffee for everyone as well as a few minutes of relative silence where she didn't need to talk to anyone. She still had to go and talk to Hotch and the others but first, she needed to take a moment for herself to gather her thoughts.
However, seeing Maura made her smile nonetheless. The honey blonde could never bother her.
"Jane told me," Maura's eyes told Emily everything she needed to know. That Maura was sorry, that she was there for her, that she was worried about her.
Apart from Rossi and Matthew, Maura had been the only person she'd ever told about the child she'd 'lost'. When Emily had met Maura, the memories of the pregnancy had still been fresh, the loss of her child still leaving her heart bare and her emotions raw. It had been a dark time in her life and sometimes she wondered if Maura had been the one thing that had made her push through that darkness and back into the light.
"So, does that make me an aunt?" Maura asked as she linked her arm through Emily's, trying to lighten the mood.
"I don't even know if that makes me a mother, Maura. I honestly don't think so... Luciana already has a mom and she's fighting for her life at this very second. — But if I was a mom? You'd definitely be godmother. There's no-one I'd rather leave my child with than with you."
The medical examiner smiled at her friend, playfully pecking her cheek as they walked into the café. "I love you, too, Emily. We'll get through this, just like sixteen years ago."
AN: Sorry it took me so long to update. Now, did anyone anticipate this "little" surprise? What do you think of it? Let me know 😊