Disclaimer: as always, I own nothing, no copyright infringement is intended.

A/N: I'm trying to get back into the swing of things and not have so much time elapse between updates. I thank everyone for their patience and their reviews.

This next chapter is mostly Reid & Prentiss with an appearance by JJ.


A few days after Archer disappeared from the BAU offices, Emily regretted her decision to chase down the bank account by herself.

It would have been safer to reach out to her contacts or at least JJ, but it would take more time. Time was not on her side right now. She was pregnant, which meant she had only a few months at best before she couldn't do this. She wasn't going to have this baby while in hiding. She refused.

So, she ran down the bank account. The person she paid to trace the account for wasn't as good as Garcia, but he was competent enough. In any case, she had a name and an address. It was a modest looking house, not Ian Doyle's style at all. He wouldn't be there, but whoever was there would lead her to Doyle.

Her plan was to stake it out for a few nights, then find a way to get inside. The problem was after the second night, as she was walking home, she was ambushed.

She heard someone call out, "Lauren Reynolds." She looked around instinctively and that's when the shooting started.

Fortunately she was able to get behind a car right after it started. The bad part was there were four men and they were all shooting at her. Then she felt it, a sharp pain in her shoulder. She was hit. She had to get out of here and to a hospital. She took a big risk and ran from the car to an alley. As she ran, though, she felt a bullet hit her in the thigh.

Then another.

Then she collapsed.

She could her the men come after her.

This was the end.

"I'm sorry Spencer," she said weakly. Then, a little louder she cried out, "Spencer...Spencer help me."

She wasn't certain why she was calling for him. It wasn't like he could hear her.

The men got closer, then she heard something behind her.

"FBI! Drop your weapons."

The men laughed. Then whoever it was behind her started firing at them. After the first man fell, they start firing.

Then they started running.


Spencer Reid was in his bed when he heard Emily's voice. The last few days were more than a bit aggravating for him.

Despite the fact that Archer vanished from the interrogation room while talking with Rossi, the team was still treating this as an elaborate hoax. Reid quoted Sherlock Holmes several times and advised,"we need to change theories to fit facts, not facts to fit theories."

Despite evidence that Archer was more than human, and despite the fact that the women in the case file were murder victims, Hotch ordered everyone to work on other cases. When Reid reminded him they had finagled invitations when they knew a case existed before, Hotch suggested Reid take a few days off. Reid let the matter drop, but that didn't mean he wasn't working on it on his own.

Tonight he had come home and just laid down on his bed, still fully clothed. He was drifting off, thinking about Archer and all the times he had appeared to Spencer when he heard Emily.

"I'm sorry, Spencer."

Sorry? Sorry for what?

Then he heard her cry out, "Spencer, Spencer help me."

Reid didn't even think, he just acted. He sprang off the bed, grabbed his gun off his night stand and walked out of the bedroom. As soon as he walked out of the bedroom, he found himself in an alley. He saw Emily on the ground, obviously wounded. He also saw three men approaching her.

"FBI!" he cried out. "Drop your weapons!" He hoped he sounded as authoritative as Morgan did, but he doubted it.

The men just laughed. Spencer could see words weren't going to be helpful in this situation. So, he took the direct approach and started shooting at them. Specifically, at the man on the left, who was the closest to Emily. Reid hit him in the knee twice, when the man fell to the ground, Reid shot him in the head. Then Reid started to shoot at the one in the middle. The other two men started shooting at him. Reid shot one in the arm and the other in the shoulder. At that point the men ran away.

The best thing to do, would be to chase after them. Except Emily was hurt on the ground, and Reid was the only one there.

He knelt down. "Emily, are you alright?"

"What are you doing here?"

"I heard you call out."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know and I don't care. Can you stand?"

"I don't know."

"Try."

He helped her to her feet. He draped her arm over him, and guided her back down the alley. Then they were in his bedroom. He got her on his bed.

"I'm going to call an ambulance."

"You can't."

"Emily you're hurt."

"Except Emily Prentiss is dead. You can't call an ambulance."

"Emily, who do you trust? Who can you tell that you're alive?"

"JJ. JJ knows."

"Okay. I'll call JJ then."

When JJ answered the phone Reid told her, "JJ, Emily's on bed and she's hurt. She's been shot and I need your help."

JJ sighed. She knew this was going to be tough on Reid. She hated lying Reid, but it was necessary. "Reid, Emily's dead."

"I know she's not. I know she's alive. She's with me. I'll put her on."

JJ was shocked to her Emily's voice say, "JJ I can't tell you how, but I'm at Reid's apartment. I've been shot, in the shoulder and the leg."

JJ was trying to figure out what was happening when she heard a voice behind her.

"Send an ambulance Jennifer."

JJ turned around, to see a tall, lean man dressed in a white linen suit standing there. A man she saw once before, when she was a girl. She moved the phone from her ear. "What are you doing here?"

"I told you I'd be back. Get them an ambulance. Don't worry, no one will know Emily Prentiss was here. I'll see to it. I promise."

JJ wasn't certain what was stranger, that Emily was in Reid's apartment or the man who saved her as a child was standing in front of her. She lift the phone up to her ear. "I'm sending an ambulance over. Don't worry, it'll be our people. Everything will be okay."

After she hung up the phone, she looked at the man named Archer. "What are you doing here?"

"What I always do, helping. Speaking of which, don't you have an ambulance to arrange?"

"You can't be real. You aren't real."

"I'm as real as that monster in the woods was. Come on Jennifer, you know despite everything you've been told there are monsters in the world. Some are human and some aren't. That thing that tried to kill you was the non-human kind. Emily was shot by the human kind. Now, she might bleed out if she doesn't get some help."

JJ called and arranged the ambulance. When she was done she looked and saw that Archer was still there.

"Did you have something to do with Emily being at Spencer's apartment?"

"I'm not entirely certain. Not directly, but ...actually I have no idea how she got there. I will find out though. Should I keep you in the loop?"