AN: Ok context, basically I woke up at like half 6 this morning, couldn't get back to sleep and because I re-watched Demonology and Omnivore last night, I had an unexpected abundance of feels that I had to share. Enjoy.

As she let herself into her apartment, Emily dabbed at her still-bleeding nose with a tissue and used her free hand to shrug off her coat. As her nose finally stopped bleeding, Emily sat on the sofa and pulled the old, wrinkled photograph from her pocket and held it in her hands. She rubbed at the drop of blood that had fallen onto it and stared at the frozen image of a long-gone day in a time that was both the best and worst of her life. Best because she had two amazing friends who genuinely loved her and worst because of all the shit she put them, especially Matthew through. As she looked at the photo of the three of them as teenagers, holding their raised hands in the air and grinning at the camera, she felt a wave of memories crash over her.

The nights when all three of them would sit up for hours talking on the phone.

The days when they would pretend to be tourists and go around the city centre sightseeing and taking pictures.

The nights when they would sneak out, drink, smoke and dream about their futures, futures that didn't involve going down the same route as their parents.

The night things went wrong, when Matthew's parents busted them and screamed abuse at her and John, calling them bad influences, condemning them for their 'sinful' behaviour.

That drunken night with John and the impact that hit a few weeks later.

Matthew holding her hand throughout whilst John seemed unaware of what was happening. If he suspected, he didn't say.

How they tried to stay together, keep it together by replacing the dark times with lighter ones but all too aware that all three of them had seriously grown up in the space of a few weeks. They were still friends, still extremely close but older now and not by choice.

Her last night in Rome, before she was due to move back to the States. The last night when they sneaked out of their homes and travelled around Rome at night, taking in the lit up sights, holding each other's hands and giving them all a fond, last memory of their friendship and time together. They didn't get home until gone midnight but the next morning, both Matthew and John were at her house, and they were hugging and crying and saying their goodbyes.

Emily rubbed her eyes and was brought back to reality by the sound of someone knocking at the door. She quickly got to her feet and headed to the door, ready to tell whoever it was on the other side to leave her alone. She didn't want company tonight. Emily opened the door to find Aaron standing on the other side, it was clear he'd also walked here. There was snow in his hair and his cheeks were pink with the cold. Emily looked at him and realised that her eyes were most likely bright red and there was dried blood on her face due to the nosebleed. Not that she cared about how she looked right now with more important things to think about but she hated the idea of being seen as vulnerable or weak.

"Aaron, what are you doing here?" Emily asked in what she hoped wasn't a rude tone. She got the feeling that over the past few days she had been seriously overstepping her boundaries with Aaron at work. Again.

"I came to see how you were." Aaron replied and looked at Emily. "Is it Ok if I come in?"

"Um, sure," Emily replied. Despite her longing to be alone, the idea of having someone there with her was far more appealing and she knew deep down that was what she needed. She needed someone to be with her, so that she wasn't alone.

Aaron stepped into the brownstone and turned to face Emily as she shut and locked the door. Once the lock clicked shut, Emily turned and found herself being pressed against Aaron's chest as he wrapped his arms around her in a tight hug. Instinctively she slid her arms around his waist and hugged him back. The unexpected sign of affection from Aaron, even though they were friends, he wasn't much of a hugger, the warmth and voiceless support it represented; that he was there for her, that he cared about her, caused the dam to break and for the first time since she was fifteen years old, Emily allowed someone else to see her cry.

Aaron held tightly onto Emily as her body shook with sobs and he could feel her tears start to soak through his shirt. He didn't say anything but instead allowed her to mourn the loss of her teenage best friend, to express the guilt at not being able to help him combat his demons and the other obviously extremely painful memories that this case caused her to come flooding out. He knew Emily and knew that if she didn't let it out, it would build up and destroy her. She cared too much and when someone she cared so deeply about was in any kind of trouble or in this case killed, then she always blamed herself even when she knew there was nothing she could have done. Emily had a heart that was almost too big for her to bear at times but it was a heart that loved deeply for everyone important to her. It was a heart that was breaking and one that needed supporting now more than ever.

For how long they stood like that, Aaron with his arms around Emily and Emily with her face buried in his chest, they weren't sure. Nor did they care. Slowly, Emily's tears began to ease and she took a step back to wipe her eyes, Emily looked up at Aaron who didn't speak but simply handed her a clean tissue for her to dab her eyes and wipe her nose. Once she felt content that her eyes were dry, Emily looked at Aaron before looking at the floor.

"Sorry you had to see that." Emily muttered almost inaudibly but Aaron heard it and reached for her free hand.

"Don't be sorry, I'm here for you." Aaron replied and they sat down on Emily's sofa, Aaron looked at the photograph of Emily, Matthew and John and placed his arm around her again, allowing her to lean into the hug. "Tell me about Matthew."

Emily gave a small smile at the photo and nodded her head. "We met when we were fifteen and living in Rome…"

Just over a month later, the team walked into the bullpen and into an unexpected and unwelcome surprise. The Boston Reaper, whom they had finally managed to catch after he returned to killing after a ten-year wait and who turned out be one of the Reaper's believed victims, George Foyet, had escaped prison and was on the run. As they quickly pieced together and realised how he had been able to escape and the realisation that all along this had been his plan for if and when he would have been caught kicked in, the team looked at one another.

"They'll catch him, won't they?" Garcia asked, whether for her own piece of mind or theirs as a whole didn't matter. What did matter was that a psychotic serial killer who now held a personal vendetta against all of them, especially Aaron was loose, armed and willing to kill anyone and everyone in his path and they had no idea where he was, what he was going to do next and what would happen should they cross paths again.

"No they won't." Aaron replied and walked up to his office, Foyet's face taunting him on the screen in the bullpen. He knew his enemy, spent ten years studying him and what he had learnt about Foyet over the past few days added to that belief. Foyet was smart, too smart, he wasn't going to be arrested by the police. Besides, he had a bigger target now, the BAU. They had been the ones who'd gone after him, revealed and arrested him. It wasn't the Boston PD who had to be wary about The Reaper, it was his team and it was his fault.

Aaron rubbed his eyes and shook his head. He tried to keep Dave's words in his mind. That it was not his fault that Foyet killed those people yet it was so easy to play The Blame Game. Should he have made the deal? Would Foyet actually have stopped killing again or now that his identity had been found out, would he have not cared and simply kept killing until he was stopped. The ten year wait between his last kills and these ones showed he had exceptional self-control but surely the spree shooting on the bus showed a loss of control. A loss of control which would mean that no, even if the deal had been made, Foyet would not and could not stop killing.

"Hey,"

Aaron looked up as Emily entered his office. "Emily,"

Emily walked over to him and rested a hand on his arm. "Dave told me about what he said to you the other night in Boston. He's right Aaron, this is not your fault. Planned or not, Foyet is starting to lose his control and he is the one to blame for all of this. He killed those people, he lied and lived that lie for ten years. Personally I think he was lying when he offered you that deal. He knew that you wouldn't take it and even if you did, he wouldn't have stuck to it. You aren't Shaunessy, even if the deal had been taken, you wouldn't have stopped looking for him and he wouldn't have stopped killing. You both know it." Emily explained, maintaining eye contact with Aaron who could see the justification and truth in her words. Just as Foyet spent ten years planning his comeback as The Reaper, he had spent ten years planning how to profile and catch him. They were really playing opposite sides of the same game.

"Yeah but now he's going to come after me, come after us. The BAU revealed him and I was the one who he offered the deal to. This one is personal now and we have no idea where he is, what he's planning and when he'll strike next. I didn't believe Shaunessy when he told me he had no choice, now I see why he did it. More people are going to die, more people have died because of it." Aaron replied, it wasn't as easy as it sounded to stop feeling guilty. Since Foyet started killing again, eleven people have died. How many more were going to before they managed to stop him? What if next time, Morgan wasn't out cold? What if he got to one of the team before they could be saved?

"Hey listen to me," Emily said sharply, taking both of Aaron's hands and holding them tightly in her own. "This is not your fault. Foyet made the choice to kill those people, you didn't tell him to. He did that himself. If he comes back, he comes back and we'll be ready for him. If he hurts you or any one of us then you know we'll all make sure he pays for it. Morgan's already saying that if you don't finish him off next time, he will and so will I. What's done is done and that can't be changed. We can stop him Aaron and we will. No matter what. No matter how long it takes or what we need to do to ensure he never harms anyone again, we will."

"Thanks Emily," Aaron replied. He knew the truth in her words, could feel them lift the weight slowly off his shoulders. If Foyet targeted him or a single team member, then the rest of them would make sure it was the last thing they did. The BAU was family, family protected their own until the bitter end. Whilst they didn't know where Foyet was or when he would strike again, they did know what he was capable of and that gave them some preparation, some expectation for what would come in the future. What would happen would happen, they would just have to be ready for when it did.

"Anytime, now come here," Emily said and quickly pulled Aaron in for a brief but tight hug. The hug was brief but expressed and confirmed what Emily had been saying to him. He was not alone, whether Foyet went after him personally or the team as a whole, they would have each other's backs. He was not alone. He had Emily, he had the team and whatever Foyet threw at them next, they would get through it.

Together.