Endgame

"LAUREN" SPOILERS!

Rating is for REAL swearing.

. . . . .

Chapter 4

JJ shows Hotch the message seconds before he grabs his bag to head onto the plane. They both know what it means. She's bringing the fight to DC. She's bringing the fight to them. Ian Doyle will chase her as long as he has to now that he knows he hasn't defeated her. And that's a mindfuck in it's own right. How the hell did Doyle find her?

In some ways, he's grateful that he doesn't have to leave Quantico. He steps out with JJ, stopping on the breezeway. Morgan's lost in thought, and even Reid seems a little dazed. He's not surprised. He can't expect them to just be okay with the whole thing. They adjusted to her death, now they have to adjust to her life.

"Emily's coming here."

Morgan and Reid look up. Rossi, who must have heard his voice, comes out to lean against his doorframe.

"She's coming here?" It's Reid who speaks first, dazed and confused and there's a part of Hotch that knows this is going to be one of the hardest things they've ever faced. He's sure Emily knows it too.

"I thought she wanted to protect us." There's spite in Morgan's tone, but nobody calls him on it. He's allowed to feel hurt. He and Emily were close, had always been close, had developed the type of relationship where they told each other so much. And now, they all know Morgan feels like he has to start from scratch. JJ knows the instinctive need to protect family and knew long before Doyle that it was a piece of Emily. Hotch knows the darkness that she harbours, the darkness that allows her to shoot a piece of someone's ear off to send a message. Rossi knows all about dark pasts, about haunting cases and, Hotch knows, a good chunk of Emily's demons too. Morgan only knows honesty and Emily's betrayed that. Reid only knows abandonment and Emily's solidified that.

Not that Hotch truly believes she had much of a choice.

She'd taken on a certain amount of responsibility for the well-being of the team before she'd had to disappear and he knows that it was a maternal one. A stabilizing one. She had people relying on her, depending on her, looking to her. He doesn't fault her for ripping that away. Not now. In the beginning, when it still hurt, even for him, but not now.

"So what do we do?"

It seems, for a moment, the entire room takes a breath.

"We go over the profile, and wait for Emily."

The best part of this is how I can breeze through this. The first ten chapters or so have been edited within an inch of their lives (of course, I'm not perfect, so there is possibly typos, weird grammar, etc) so I can update all the time!

Thanks for reading, and twice as much thanks if you decide to leave a review. Which I'd really appreciate.