I wrote this chapter FOREVER ago and lost it so I'm rewriting it. I'm not sure how it turned out, so if you could let me know, that would be great. Warning: it is a very dialog-heavy chapter. As always, Happy Reading!

Morgan made his way over to the black SUV, realizing that Emily had already sat herself in the driver's seat.

"What are you doing?" he sighed, looking at her through the open car window.

"Waiting for you to give me the keys," she answered even though she knew that that was not what he had meant.

"You're not driving."

"Why not?"

Well, he thought, no matter how much she prided herself on her compartmentalization ability, she was definitely not the most...stable person in the world at that moment, and he really didn't know if it was a good idea to let her behind the wheel on the crowded highway. Of course, telling her that would get him absolutely no where.

"I always drive," he said simply, knowing it probably did nothing at all in terms of persuading her.

"Maybe I don't like your driving," she countered.

"Emily," he groaned, "arguing isn't going to help us catch the UNSUB and you know it."

She looked up and him, rolled her eyes, and exhaled in annoyance before hopping up and sliding past him. "It's not like Hotch is gonna let me do anything anyway," she muttered under her breath. Morgan watched her cross to the other side before he slid into the seat she had previously occupied and pulled the door closed. He started the engine, continuing to shoot glances her way.

Once they pulled onto the highway, Emily averted her attention to the dotted white line that separated the lanes. She followed it with her eyes to try and concentrate on something other than what had happened not too long ago. All she wanted was for her eyes to see something other than the image of her mother lying dead in that bathroom.

"I remember when my dad died," Derek finally said, causing Emily to look his way.

"You don't have to..." she began; she knew it was a difficult subject for Derek to talk about, but part of her sensed that he actually wanted to talk about it.

"Not too long after it happened," he continued, "I remember shutting everyone out-my mom, Desiree, Sarah-I shut them out because I knew that I had to be the man." He smiled a little, and so did Emily, but it quickly faded away. "I had to be there for them. I had to help them get through it, but how could I be strong for them, if I couldn't even be strong for myself?" He paused for a moment and let out a small sigh. "But I realized something, Emily. The people that I was trying to protect, the people that I shut out, were also the only people who actually knew what I was going through. I guess I'm telling you all of this because I want you to know that we're here, Emily. We're trying to do everything that we possibly can to help you, but we have to protect you, too. We can't lose you. Not again."

"You're not going to," Emily said in an attempt to reassure him, but there was an edge to her voice, like a part of her wasn't convinced that everything was actually going to work out the way that they all wanted it to.

"Emily, your mom's killer had a lot of rage," Morgan stated for the second time. "You know what that means."

"Yeah, but maybe his rage stems from something political; she made a lot of enemies over the years," Emily pointed out.

Derek looked at her a bit skeptically. "We'll see when we get back to the BAU."