Chapter Seven:

"Okay, is it just me or is everyone you work with like insanely good looking?" Emma asked as Emily grabbed her by the shoulders and pushed her down into the chair at her desk.

"Don't move from this spot." Emily told her, her face completely serious.

"Hey as long as you have Solitaire on this computer I ain't going nowhere." She jokingly said.

"Emma I'm serious. We are working on a huge case right now and you can't get in the way. You shouldn't even be here right now."

Emma put her hands up defensively for a moment. "Relax I won't get in YOUR way I promise."

Emily still wasn't satisfied but she left Emma at her desk anyway. She decided she would claim to have absolutely no knowledge as to who the 19 year old girl was if anything caught on fire.

Emma swirled around in the chair a few times still bored out of her mind until she looked up and saw Hotch walk by. "Hey, Bible salesman! So are you doing to tell me what's going on between you and Emily or what?"

Hotch nearly spilt the cup of coffee he was carrying all over himself. He put the mug down and walked over to Emma motioning for her to keep it down. "Could you please no bring that up around here?" He asked her.

"Ah, I see. So you two are having some sort of little affair on the side or something? What are you married or something because if you are you are definitely no Bible Salesmen."

"I'm going through a divorce right now, not that it's any of your business and what makes you think that there is something going on between your sister and me?" He asked keeping his voice as low as possible.

"I'm not stupid I saw the way you were looking at her back at the apartment."

"What do you mean?"

"You had that love sick puppy dog look on your face. Trust me I know that look I've seen it a million times before. Unfortunately most of the time it wasn't directed towards me but I know when I see it."

Hotch let out a loud sigh. He didn't even know why he was going to confess this to Emily's little sister of all people but he needed to get it off of his chest. Things with Emily had gone from purely physical to actual love. At first they both just needed someone to go to when a case really got to them but soon it turned into something much more than that. She understood him and the job better than Haley or anyone else ever could have. It was because she was part of the job and knew exactly what he felt and what he was going through. He had actually been in love with her for a while but he was too afraid to say anything because he figured it would scare her off. "I'm in love with her." He said more to himself than to Emma.

Emma smiled knowingly. "Okay as gross as I think this all is I must admit that you two are actually pretty sweet together. I think you should tell her."

"Thanks but I'm not taking love advice from a 19 year old kid."

"First of all by law I'm considered an adult not a kid. Second of all I know my sister and I know that she feels the same way about you too. I can just sense these sorts of things. I also know that if you don't tell her soon you might lose her."

Hotch had to admit that for a 19-year-old she was a smart kid. He knew that she was right. He faced rapists, child molesters, and serial killers every single day but he was struggling to tell a woman how he really felt. What and who was he turning into?

"Hotch!" Emma looked over and recognized the pretty blonde calling for her boss across the bull pen. She had seen her earlier that day on TV.

Hotch nodded a goodbye to Emma and got up to see what JJ needed. Emma smiled to herself and felt like she had done at least one good deed in a long time.

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Morgan knocked on Garcia's office door a few times before he opened it. She was sitting in front of her rows of monitors and hadn't even heard him come in.

"Got anything good for me?" He whispered in her ear making her jump.

Garcia turned around in her chair and smiled at him, waggling her eyebrows suggestively. "Oh yeah I got something really good for you….but that's for after working hours." She turned back around to face the monitors and Morgan couldn't help but laugh.

"So you couldn't find anything on the security cameras?"

"The power was cut right around 8:15 pm so I'm guessing you're looking for a guy who knows exactly what he's doing."

"Thanks anyway." Morgan said disappointed. Before he left he stopped at the door. "Hey you know Emily's little sister is here and the kid has got quite the mouth on her."

"Yeah and quite the record for someone who's only 19."

"What?" Morgan asked not really surprised.

"Well I kind of heard a few people discussing the topic around the water cooler and I decided to do a little information hunting." She said as innocently as she could.

Morgan laughed and shook his head. "Baby girl you are incorrigible."

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Rossi, JJ, Hotch, Prentiss, and Reid all sat around the conference room pouring over every detail of the case that they had collected. They seemed to be hitting one dead end after another and when Morgan walked in and sat down next to Prentiss he didn't help things.

"I looked at all of Sanderson, Cole, and Lane's friends with young children and little girls and none of them have the initials EE which means we're back to square one with that." Morgan said frustrated and through a blue file on top of a large stack.

"Lydia Cole." Prentiss said looking through a file.

"The only victim he didn't kill." Rossi said.

"I know it's going to be hard to get anything new from her but what if we brought her in and tried again. Maybe she could give us a little more information that would be helpful." Prentiss said looking up from Lydia Cole's file.

"I'll go make a phone call it's our best shot right now." JJ said leaving the room.

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Lydia Cole and her mother had been in the small interrogation room for two hours already and the team was getting nothing from the child. Lydia was too tensed up around her mother to tell the agents anything else.

"Excuse me Mrs. Cole can I speak with you out in the hallway for just a moment?" Prentiss asked the tall bleached blonde.

Mrs. Cole reluctantly agreed and stepped out with Prentiss. "Mrs. Cole would you mind if we spoke with your daughter alone. You can watch through the one way mirror and if at anytime you don't feel comfortable you can come back in the room. It's just that we think that your daughter is too frightened to give anymore information with you in the room."

"But I'm her mother" Mrs. Cole protested.

"Please Mrs. Cole. Any tiny piece of information that Lydia can remember could greatly help us and stop this monster from hurting any other little girls."

Mrs. Cole grudgingly agreed and watched through the window as Prentiss tried to talk with her little girl. Another hour later and they were right back where they started from. Prentiss came back into the hallway and walked over to where Hotch, Reid, and Morgan were standing.

"I don't think she was tensed up just because her mother was in the room. I think that she's not comfortable around any adults right now." Prentiss said.

"Then how are we going to get any new information out of her? It's not like we have another kid around to talk to her." Reid said.

Prentiss suddenly remembered Emma still sitting at her desk and messing around with her computer. She was 19 but she looked much younger and she was great with little kids. "My sister." Prentiss blurted out.

"What?" Hotch asked.

"Look I know we don't usually work this way but maybe I can get my sister to talk with Lydia. She looks young and for some strange reason she's really great with little kids."

Hotch didn't really agree with the suggestion but it was their only chance. He finally agreed to it after five long minutes and Prentiss went to get her sister. Emma fiercely pushed Emily away at first. She didn't want to be involved with the case at all but after playing the pity card and slipping Emma a crisp 100 dollar bill she agreed. Emma was their only hope now.