CHAPTER 10
October 2010
The morning had been quiet so far, each of the team trying to get through as many consults as possible before an urgent case came up. They didn't get very far as just before 11 Hotch came out of his office and called over to them
"Conference room now… We have a case."
Dropping what they were working on Emily, Morgan and Reid all quickly made their way up the stairs.
Once JJ, Garcia and Rossi had joined them, JJ started to hand out files.
"In the last ten days four women have been killed in the District." JJ brought up the victims photos
"The victims are all white, in their mid to late 30's, brown hair and eyes and they all worked for Federal Government agencies. DC police have requested the Bureau take over the case. All four victims were tortured and raped in their beds before their throats were slit and the unsub left a message…" JJ hit the remote again and the screen changed to show each of the crime scenes, the victim splayed out on the bed and the same message written in her blood on the wall behind.
WHERE IS LAUREN REYNOLDS?
Next to it a four leaf clover dripped down the wall.
At first the words didn't process properly through Emily's brain. It couldn't be… Tsia and Sean had promised her that they were safe… she'd seen the photos of the accident, read the autopsy report… Cruz had checked it all… there was nothing left to connect her to Lauren Reynolds.
Staring up at the writing on the screen Emily didn't notice sweat breaking out on her brow, her fists clench and her breathing speed up so much the rest of the team could hear it.
"Lauren Reynolds is dead" the mantra she had been repeating to herself for 7 years passed through trembling lips causing Reid's eyes to jerk to her in confusion.
Her eyes blurred… if someone was looking for Lauren Reynolds then…
DECLAN.
"Oh God…" she whispered as the team stared at her confused by the extreme reaction.
Her eyes darted frantically around the room before locking gazes with Hotch "Ragnorok" she choked out before shoving herself out of her chair hard enough for it to fly backwards into the wall.
Grabbing her phone she dialed a cell number from memory as the bolted from the conference room, down into the bullpen stopping long enough to grab her car keys Emily was out the glass doors and clattering down the fire stairs before anyone could react.
None of them heard her yell "Valhalla" down the phone to Matt Cruz.
Hotch reacted quickly, following her through the bullpen, down the stairs and out to the car park where he lost her momentarily. He spotted her again as she was sliding into her car and sped out of the academy, tires squealing.
Pulling out his phone he tried calling her but only got a busy signal.
Going back upstairs he tried two more times with no luck. Giving up he sent her a text message telling her to call him. Pulling out the post it note he kept a cell number on, with no other reference he dialed the number and as requested years before passed on the message.
Back in the conference room Rossi had managed to keep the team focused on the case.
"Whoever this Lauren Reynolds is our unsub has a lot of rage for her." Morgan commented.
"She's left the grounds and I'm getting a busy signal." Hotch re-entered the room "Let's keep going"
"Garcia, see if you can find a Lauren Reynolds that matches the victimology."
In her car Emily hung up with Matt and immediately sent a text message to Ayesha.
Grab the bags and get Nell to Quantico NOW. I'm picking up Declan
20 minutes later she pulled into Declan's school and made her way to the office.
She signed him out and told the school they had a family emergency and he wouldn't be there for a few days.
Once they were back in the car Declan, confused by her sudden appearance and demeanor asked.
"Mom, what's going on?"
Despite her desire to shelter him from all of this Emily had never lied, she'd been fortunate that Declan had never asked the right questions.
"How much do you remember about where we lived before Chicago?"
His face screwed up in concentration.
"I remember a big house and there were purple flowers… I didn't call you Mom…" he turned to stare out the window
"I remember it being dark and there were loud noises and I was scared but you came and got me..."
Emily took a shaky breath relieved that he remembered so little "Do you remember me telling you there were bad people looking for us?"
"Yes"
Did her remember calling her Lauren?
"I think they found us so you need to come to work with me until I know for sure. Just for a couple of days."
"What about Nell and Ayesha?"
"They're meeting us there."
Hotch was just about to send Morgan and JJ to the latest scene when Garcia's voice came through the speaker.
"This is your friendly Queen of all knowledge and I've found our Lauren Reynolds."
"That was quick even for you Mama."
"One of the search results that came back was a death certificate issued by the Italian government October 2001. US citizen age 31, brown hair and eyes, 5 foot 6 was killed in a car accident in the Italian province of Emilia-Romagna. She was ID'd by dental records."
"How do you know it's the right Lauren Reynolds?" JJ asked
"Because when I ran her social I got a hit on a FBI file locked down tighter than Rossi's wine cellar and the file name is LR551642992 which is her initials plus the social referred to on the death certificate."
"Garcia, are you saying you can't get into the file?" Hotch was surprised, this was the first time in years she couldn't get into something.
"Not anytime soon, the protection is nearly as good as deadbolt. 3 separate passwords are required, they all have to be entered within 30 seconds of each other and on top of that none of them can be entered remotely, it has to be the same machine. Right at this moment I can't even tell you whose passwords will work."
"Thank you Ms Garcia" Erin Strauss announced from the conference room doorway. "If you could please cease all attempts to get into the file and come to the conference room I will brief the team on its contents. Agent Prentiss will also be joining us as soon as she returns."
Hotch wanted to ask what had happened to Emily and why Strauss knew and not him but something in the Chiefs body language made him pause, she was incredibly agitated. The room fell into silence as they waited for Penelope to arrive. Once she did and was seated Chief Strauss stepped up to the table.
"Lauren Reynolds... born and raised in Boston, went to the finest schools money could buy. Attended UC Berkley much to the chagrin of her father and graduated with an Arts degree. She spent the next 5 years traveling, in late 1997 she met Arms dealer Jean Baptiste in Turkey. She spent a year working for Baptiste before striking out on her own. In November 99 in Boston she joined up with Ian Doyle - also known as Valhalla and spent the next two years in business with him. Doyle was killed in his Tuscan Villa by a rival in October 2001, Reynolds died when her car went over a cliff outside Ravenna Italy a week later."
Erin looked around the room, making sure everyone was paying attention "Lauren Reynolds was a cover. In the mid 90's JTF-12 was assembled with agents from the FBI, MI5, BND and DCRI. The team had handlers from their individual agencies but was managed by Interpol and in 5 years they delivered profiles on many of Interpol's most wanted criminals - criminals who had managed to evade the authorities and keep their true identities secret." She paused to take a sip of water.
"For the majority of cases, they delivered the profile to the Local Authorities who identified the individual, made the arrest and the team moved on. The cover of Lauren Reynolds was created early on specifically to infiltrate those organisations where the intelligence simply wasn't available to positively identify those individuals. The agent maintained the cover for over four years and the intelligence she gathered was integral in taking down several arms dealers, drug and human traffickers. As a member of Doyle's organisation she had access to people and information that no agency has been able to duplicate since. Interpol completely dismantled Valhalla's organisation after Doyle's death and no one has been able to re-build it as of yet."
"What happened to the agent?" Rossi asked quietly, his lightning fast mind putting together the pieces.
"She..." Erin looked up to see Emily standing silently in the doorway picking at her fingernails. Emily nodded at her to continue
"She left Interpol and joined the mainstream Bureau. The BND agent on the team had compromised her identity informing a rival arms dealer that she was an undercover agent. As far as we can tell he didn't reveal her name but when she requested extraction he convinced the team leader to ignore the extraction request claiming there was more intel to be gathered and there was no imminent danger. This was further compounded by Wolff purposefully missing the next check in and ignoring a request for urgent extraction. During the hit that killed Doyle she extracted herself and went straight to the Embassy in Rome where she was brought back to the States 3 days later."
"That's 7 years ago, where are they all now? " Hotch questioned.
"Sean McAllister of Interpol and Tsia Mosely of DCRI are running a team out of the London Gateway office fulfilling the original purpose of JTF-12 without the infiltration angle" Emily broke in quietly handing each of her team mates a file as she went "Clyde Easter from MI5 is working a desk job out of Bristol, the last intel on ex-BND agent Jeremy Wolff had him residing in a Siberian Gulag and…" Emily trailed off unsure how to say the rest, swallowing tightly she locked eyes with Hotch begging him to understand "I transferred to the Chicago field office before joining the BAU…"
"I was Lauren Reynolds"
"You knew" Derek's voice was accusing "as soon as you saw the crime scene photo's didn't you?"
"Yes, I knew as soon as I saw the four leaf clover"
"Why didn't you tell us straight away?" JJ asked quietly
"I didn't come out of the Villa alone…" she looked out into the bullpen where Ayesha, Declan and Nell were waiting for her "if someone is looking for Lauren Reynolds…"
"October… May" Hotch caught on first "Declan and Nell?"
"I found out I was pregnant when I arrived in Rome. Declan's mother was killed early on when the villa was hit. I took him with me…" She'd never spoken about Declan's mother in the past, if anyone asked he was the son of a dead ex.
Strauss cleared her throat and looked pointedly at Emily "Agent Prentiss, please tell them what you left off your official report." at Emily's panicked look the Section Chief quickly added on "technically you never lied. We understood and agreed with your reasons for keeping the truth out of the official records otherwise one of us would have said something long before now."
"Declan was being raised by Doyle's housekeeper Louise... but he wasn't her son. That was what Doyle told everyone to protect him. Ian Doyle is his father."
"and Nell's" Hotch finished, this was the mission Strauss had threatened to de-classify…
"and Nell's" Emily agreed "everything else is in the file, after action reports from Clyde, Sean, Tsia and myself along with the investigation results into Jeremy's actions."
"Are we sure Doyle is dead?" Rossi asked "Whoever this is want's you and probably Declan and he's the best candidate."
"He's dead." Emily was resolute as she pushed away the images of that night.
"How do you know? According to this the villa was burned to the ground and they relied on dental records to identify people and not everyone was positively ID'd." Rossi continued to push
"I was standing 3 feet away from him when a bullet went through his brain. He's dead." Emily snapped... she could still see the betrayal in Ian's eyes as she leveled the gun at his forehead and pulled the trigger.
"So what..." Derek broke in anger written all over his face "you seduced this guy for a profile?"
All eyes in the room snapped over to him.
"We're all thinking it..." he defended his question.
"No, Doyle wasn't even on our radar when the cover was created." Something shifted in her eyes as she got lost in the past.
"We designed Lauren to be a Lieutenant to a big name dealer... a thrill seeking hedonist loyal only to the person who could provide her with the most money and danger. Valhalla was a big name in the weapons world, but no one could pin down who was really in charge… there were rumours that Ian Doyle was high up in the organisation so once the cover was established the decision was made to go after him. I spent months gaining his trust enough to confirm he was Valhalla and I didn't need to seduce him to get that information. I let him seduce me to maintain my cover and the flow of intelligence from other organisations. You want to call me a whore who sold her body to the highest bidder go ahead!"
Her words would take time to sink in, days perhaps as Morgan had too much anger to see past the lies. Knowing he wouldn't get anywhere on this but still wanting to get a hit in.
"Your exes from a previous relationship… that's how you described it… Some ex you've got there…" Derek glared up at her "did it ever bother you…? Raising a terrorists kids?"
JJ reached out and grabbed Derek's forearm while looking straight at her friend "I asked you straight out why you wouldn't talk about him… and you said he doesn't deserve to be acknowledged because he's not worthy of them." Her gaze turned to Derek's "looking at this file that's the truest thing I've ever heard"
"Gideon knew everything didn't he?" Hotch directed his question at Strauss.
"Yes, Agent Prentiss requested he be given full clearance when she transferred to the BAU."
"Did anyone else know about Declan?" Hotch tried to steer the conversation back to the case.
"Only Louise who had been raising him." Emily was firm "Doyle was insanely protective over his true identity he didn't even tell me until..." her jaw clenched, could she really admit the truth of how close she'd come to spending the rest of her life as an arms dealer.
"Until?" Hotch was concerned, all the colour had left her face and she had turned an ashy green colour.
"He thought he had a reason to keep me in the compound indefinitely… Excuse me..." The team watched as she bolted from the room.
The room fell into silence, none of them knowing what to say.
After several minutes JJ stood and left the room to go check on Emily, as she walked out Reid spoke up.
"CDC statistics show approximately 4.8% of women here in the US have reported having a partner who tried to get them pregnant without their consent. In Nova Scotia a man was charged with sexual assault for sabotaging his girlfriend's birth control which resulted in her getting pregnant." Reid threw out to the room in general.
"What on earth are you talking about" Derek's anger hadn't abated at all.
"Morgan" Rossi interjected quietly "read the full report."
All eyes shot to Rossi the rest of the room wondering what he knew "She said something during the Reinman case..." he shrugged.
"What did she say Sir?" Garcia spoke for the first time.
"Emily told Carol she didn't wonder how she could love the baby. I cornered her about it after we got home, I believe her exact words were 'He wanted a child, I didn't, and he forced the issue.' There are a lot of things that are starting to make sense now."
Taking in the understanding and acceptance from everyone but Morgan Strauss walked over to the conference room door Strauss made sure it was closed securely before speaking again.
"Agent Morgan, I understand you're angry but if you continue with this behaviour I will remove you from this investigation. Agent Prentiss was following orders when she went undercover, all those involved in planning the operation knew what was being asked of her. Her orders were to do whatever it took to break into the international arms market, it took her two years, the intel she gained along the way was invaluable… that Intel is still being used today. I was part of the panel that debriefed Agent Prentiss upon her return from Interpol and I can tell you without a doubt there are very few other agents in the Bureau that could have succeeded. I know of at least 6 agents from various agencies that died before getting a quarter of the way into the market that she did… one CIA agent's head was dumped on his handlers doorstep, would you prefer it if she had returned in a body bag?" It was Garcia that reacted the most to Strauss' words and they could all see Derek's anger simmering beneath the surface but he seemed to deflate slightly when the image of Emily being zipped into a body bag was put into his head.
Hotch knew Derek wasn't angry about the assignment itself but the way Emily covered up Declan and Nell's paternity and the danger they were in.
"She said that no one else in the Villa knew the truth about Declan." Rossi tried to steer the conversation back to the case "what about people outside the villa?"
"As far as I know the only person Agent Prentiss specifically told was her handler SSAIC Matt Cruz. In her report and during the debrief she said the exact same thing, Doyle told her he was the housekeepers son. I know Gideon spoke with her in depth about the case and the fallout and I believe he worked it out for himself. It wouldn't surprise me if Agent Mosely knew the truth as well."
"I didn't have to tell Tsia" Emily and JJ stood in the doorway. The former still looking a little sick around the edges "she saw the likeness straight away."
"Could this be Wolff, trying to get revenge?"
"Maybe... as far as we could work out he never gave up my true identity only that I was an undercover operative. He was expecting me to be killed along with Doyle in the raid."
Strauss' phone chimed distracting everyone momentarily as she checked it.
"Agent's McAllister, Mosely and Easter are on their way, their flight from London arrives in 8 hours. Continue to work the case, you've all been given clearance for the full undercover operation, if you believe you will need information on any of JTF-12's other operations Agent McAllister will brief you when he arrives."
"Clyde is coming as well?" As far as Emily knew the Brit had kept his head down while exiled to Bristol. In the last 8 years he hadn't made a single attempt to contact her. She had been angry at Jeremy but devastated by Clyde's role in the last weeks of the operation, time and again he had been her biggest supporter and she knew how many risks he had taken to protect her identity.
Jeremy had never promised to keep her safe.
'I promise, if anything happens to you they'll find my dead body in front of yours'
Strauss nodded, intrigued at the play of emotion running across Emily's face. Agent Prentiss was nowhere to be found, only Emily who'd been betrayed and left out in the cold.
"I… I don't want them to have any contact with Declan or Nell. Is there somewhere Ayesha can take them on campus when they arrive?"
Perhaps more than anyone else in the room Strauss understood the reason behind Emily's request. Despite the animosity between the two women since Strauss requested Emily spy on Hotch she'd always respected the job Emily had done for Interpol.
"They can stay in my office while you work something out." Dave interjected before standing and dragging Emily behind him to his office. JJ and Garcia attempted to follow them but the glare Dave threw over his shoulder stopped the two blondes. He had something she needed to hear and he could tell she needed a few minutes to find her equilibrium again.
Pushing her down onto his couch, he sat himself on the coffee table and grabbed her trembling hands.
"Whatever else I read in that file or I hear about what you did while undercover I want you to remember this. I am proud to call you my team mate and friend and I will do whatever it takes to make sure you three go home together safe and whole…ok?"
Emily nodded trying to process everything that had happened in the last two hours.
"Some days I wonder if it would have been better if I burned myself and went underground or adopted them out so that even if someone tracked me down they would still be safe… today is one of those days."
"Maybe… maybe not… I imagine you've been playing the 'what if' game over this for seven years now?" Emily nodded staring off into the middle distance.
"And nothing I say is going to stop that…"
Emily nodded again "Do you know the biggest what if I play…?" Dave shook his head "Nell was conceived after I requested extraction…"
Before he could formulate a response a quiet vibration came from her pocket. Pulling out her cell phone Emily nearly stopped breathing at the message from Garcia.
I'll ride the lightening with you
Emily had been sure that Garcia hadn't heard her conversation with Gideon all those years ago in Alachua for the simple reason that the Tech hadn't asked. Garcia was not shy about asking for explanations. And now one of the most loyal, loving people Emily had ever met had told her just how far she would go to protect Emily's children.
"I don't deserve you guys."
"Yes you do" he whispered leaning forward to kiss her forehead.
Back in the conference room Reid's mind was rapidly going through his interactions with Emily Prentiss, amending all his knowledge to include what he had just learned.
"Huh" he stared off into the distance.
"What is it Reid?" Hotch asked quietly.
"I'm adjusting my mental image of Emily and she makes so much more sense now."
Like she had finally come into focus.
"There's… this one photo I saw when we were helping her unpack. Emily wouldn't explain to me, it's a sad but beautiful photo. She was pregnant 6 maybe 7 months along, lying on a couch with Declan sleeping with his head on her stomach and she looked… so haunted. I never understood why until now."
"I took that photo…" a new voice from the conference room door causing them all to turn and look.
"Matt Cruz… I'm assuming you've all been briefed" at their nods he sat down the in the chair Rossi had vacated 15 minutes earlier.
"I didn't want her to be alone when she got Interpol's final report on Wolff so I flew it out to her. I spent a couple of days with Emily and Declan, made sure they were alright before coming back to DC. Didn't see them again until… god… Halloween '05" Matt stared blankly down at the familiar report before looking around at those still gathered in the room.
"I'll answer any question I can… any question you don't want to ask Emily"
Most of the team looked down at the table, unable to look the other agent in the eye.
Hotch started "She said that Doyle didn't tell her the truth about Declan until he had reason to keep her in the villa?"
"You would start with one of the hard questions wouldn't you? She'd had free reign to come and go as she pleased. From what we could work out Doyle started screwing with her birth control four.. maybe five months before she requested extraction. The second she got pregnant Doyle would have an excuse to keep her in the villa… he could claim it wasn't safe for her to go out alone."
JJ swallowed hard... the implications of Emily being entrapped that way weren't missed by any of them "so by the end she was essentially a hostage."
"No… hostage implies there was something he was willing to exchange for her release. She was a prisoner, a trophy to him. She suspected she was pregnant when she got herself out, it was confirmed by the Embassy Physician when we were in Rome."
"Did Wolff ever give a reason for selling her out?" Hotch knew there were somethings only Emily would be able to answer but if he could get some of these big questions out of the way without her there then it would go better for all of them.
"No… as far as we could find out he wasn't being coerced and it wasn't actually about Emily. He wanted out and the money Halsey was willing to pay would give him a very luxurious retirement."
Following Hotch's lead JJ and Reid fell into their investigative habits. Garcia taking notes just in case she needed the information later on.
Morgan brooded but listened to every word.
"What about people Emily came into contact with before joining up with Doyle. Could it be any of them?" JJ asked
"It's possible but not probable. The cover held for four years and it's been seven since she got out. Someone should have come after her long before now."
"She's adamant Doyle is dead and I don't doubt she genuinely believes that but could she be wrong?" Morgan finally spoke up.
"We never positively identified his body… we could only guess from where the bodies were found in the villa. Emily said he was dead and we believed her."
"Umm, Sir?" Garcia spoke up "This may not be relevant but what's 'ragnorak?"
Hotch sighed, he'd been hoping no one would ask "I've known for several years that Emily had been involved in a classified mission. A threat was made against the children in late 2006 and she was preparing to disappear with them. The threat was neutralised. Ragnorak is a pre-determined code word should another threat be made."
JJ's jaw dropped as she remembered a whispered threat made to Erin Strauss.
"So she'd just take off with Declan and Nell and we'd never see them again?"
"Given what we've just found out, are you surprised she has an exit strategy in place?"
For the next several hours Hotch, JJ, Morgan and Reid peppered Matt Cruz with questions. Emily and Dave returned after settling Ayesha and the kids into Dave's office.
Emily occasionally jumped in to clarify certain points but mainly stood at the conference room window staring down at the glass doors with trepidation.
Morgan was the first to notice when she tensed up at something out in the bull pen. Rising from his seat we walked over and stood next to her. Looking over to the glass doors Strauss was there with three people whose photo's he'd seen earlier that day.
"How long has it been since you've seen them?" he murmured quietly.
"I was 5 months pregnant the last time I saw Tsia and Sean as for Clyde… I met him for an intel drop about 3 months before… well everything." Morgan didn't think he'd ever seen her this defeated.
"You ready for this?"
"No…"
"Do you want me to take them to my office?"
Emily sighed "No bring them up here, I'm going to check on the kids."
She doesn't acknowledge what's left of her former team as she strides down the cat walk to Dave's office.
Slipping inside she finds Ayesha working on her laptop, Declan reading on the couch and Nell asleep her head in Declan's lap.
Lifting Nell slightly she slips underneath the 7 year old and wraps her arm around Declan's shoulder, relaxing for the first time all day.
She doesn't even try to stop herself from drifting off to sleep.
Sean glared up a Morgan wanting nothing more than to punch the man.
"There's a damn good reason we've kept our mouths shut for the last seven years. I fucked up not getting her out…" Clyde took a deep breath pushing down the anger.
"Why do you think she doesn't trust?" Tsia interjected quietly causing Morgan's head to jerk up.
"Clyde let Jeremy talk him into leaving her there just a little bit longer. Jeremy wanted his payday from Halsey and Clyde wanted the information. Emily paid for their hubris. The protocol for self-extraction was to get to a safe house in Genoa. She went in the opposite direction, straight to the American Embassy in Rome because she couldn't trust anyone at Interpol. She spent years looking over her shoulder and when she finally finds a place where they are safe, happy and with people who have never let her down this happens. All because Jeremy wanted out..."
"So we keep quiet about Emily and the kids, Tsia and I knew the moment we laid eyes on the boy who he was. The name Emily Prentiss doesn't come up in conversation with anyone, even when we're using her information for current OPS." Sean leaned back in his chair, rubbing his hands over his face.
"Look, I get classified and I get her needing to protect the kids…" Morgan struggled to put his anger into words "Do you guys know how we met?"
All three shook their heads "None of us have had much contact with her. Clyde kept his distance, Tsia and I have seen her once since she left Europe..." Sean confirmed.
"We got a consult request from the Chicago field office, estimated 30 victims. Prentiss received a 'watch out for' request from the locals and recognised the MO from a kill 6 months before. In 24 hours she traced 24 of the 30 victims, identified the Unsubs geographic pattern and wrote a preliminary profile. Gideon convinced her to transfer over and it wasn't until 6 months later that we found out she had kids. She just invited JJ and Garcia over for dinner and there they were."
"I love those two kids … I'm angry cause I can't help her protect them if I don't know what's coming. I'm angry cause I've always known she was running from something… I just never thought it would be this." Morgan sighed regretting his earlier words.
"Seeing this file and how far she went to protect a little boy who she had no obligation to… how much courage it took to continue with a pregnancy she was trapped into. Raise those kids to be beautiful, loving and kind and most importantly trust us with them…. I get it… now we need to work out who this sick fuck is and how we stop them. Everything else doesn't matter."
"Ummm" Garcia is standing at the door to the conference room.
"I've been running footage from security cameras near the victims homes and I found this. He appeared within 2 hours of TOD for all of them" She hits the remote to pull up the freeze-frame of the man. "Any of you recognise him?"
The reaction was immediate and before any of them can speak Morgan jumps in.
"Who is he?"
"Doyles second, Liam Dunne. He went to ground when Doyle died and no ones seen him since." Clyde confirmed
"Can you find him now baby girl?"
"Are you the god of chocolate thunder?"
Sean reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone to check the email he'd just received.
"Warning notice..." he muttered scrolling through the document "Oh fuck…" his face paled.
Tsia and Clyde pulled out their phones as notifications popped through as well.
"Someones put a price on her head… her name, address, photo everything is out there but the kids…"
Morgan bolted from the room as Garcia gasped.
"HOTCH!"
It took them 2 day's to track Liam back to a warehouse, he was holed up there waiting with a small army…
No one liked the plan but it was the best one they could come up with. Emily was who he wanted so it was up to her to distract them long enough for the team and SWAT to get into place.
"Where's the boy Lauren?" Liam's voice echoed menacingly through the warehouse.
"What boy?" Emily kept to the shadows, high up on the walkway.
"Ian's boy... the one you stole."
"I don't know what you're talking about"
"Sure you do..." another voice, female, British, pissed off joined them.
The way the voices bounced around made it impossible to pinpoint anyone's locations.
"Louise Thatcher was raising him... they never found his body?"
Time... she just needed to buy her team some time to get into place.
Her heart nearly stopped when a third voice joined the first two "Where's Declan Lauren?"
"I know you have him…" it continued "You promised me you'd get him out, keep him safe… and then you shot me."
The voice, was close… to close…
"Liam found me alive got me out… and it took years… I had to learn to walk again, talk again, read and write but I never forgot the bitch who betrayed me…"
A click right next to her… Emily turned her head slowly to look down the barrel of a gun… the same type that she'd shot Ian with.
The face from her nightmares stood there, older, angrier, scarred.
"Halsey lasted 3 days before he gave me a name… not yours but it was a start… It took me over a year to find Wolff and he was grateful enough to get out of North Korea that he gave you up free of charge. I've been watching you..."
"I told you I wouldn't raise a child to live that life…" she holstered her glock and held her hands out to the side placidly just waiting.
"Don't you mean children? She's a beautiful girl… I would have given her everything she ever wanted… she would've been treated like a princess… You a queen, if you'd stayed."
"I also told you I could get you out… do you remember that? He would be safer… you refused because you're a warrior… you lead warriors and you raise warriors…" the venom in her voice surprised him.
"If I hadn't pulled the trigger, I wouldn't have been your Queen, I would have been your possession and every time you wanted the ego boost youd've forced me to have another one of your warriors. We'd always be on the run because my team would never have stopped looking for me and I would never have stopped trying to escape… I would always have taken them with me."
"You stole my children!"
"You threw them away!" Emily roared 8 years' worth of rage bubbling to the surface "You weren't raising Declan, Louise was… you wouldn't even acknowledge him. I did exactly what you wanted me to. I raised him, I kept him safe and before you came looking for us no one knew he was yours." Her breath came out in harsh pants. "Your life for Declan and Nell's… that was the trade I made because I love them and hate you."
A red dot appeared on Ian's chest.
"That's the trade I'm making now…"
A quiet pft reached her ears at almost the same time as Ian's body flew backwards, blood spraying out of his chest covering Emily in a fine red mist. She immediately dropped to the floor and crawled over to him to do what she should have done all those years ago.
Make sure he's dead this time…
Looking down at the fist sized hole in his chest she feels the vice around her heart unclench as she reaches out a shaking hand to check his pulse. There isn't one… her eyes move up to his face and she takes in the scar her bullet left, there are more crisscrossing his head… more than she can count… She wants to thank him for Declan and Nell and she wants to empty her clip into his body for them as well.
She has no more time as a movement in the shadows forces her to find cover.
The men whose loyalties Ian had managed to buy start to converge on her position at the same time as her team enters the building.
The next 15 minutes are a blur of shadows, gun fire and blood until only her team and the woman are left standing.
Emily's glock was empty, she didn't have time to reload and she knew no one else on the team had a clear shot, her gaze met Morgan's as the unknown woman raised her gun and pulled the trigger, two shots hit her center mass.
Her vest protected her from the bullets but nothing could stop physics, her body was pushed back through the rotten wooden railing and teetered on the edge momentarily before gravity took hold and she was free falling.
If asked she would say she fell for an eternity.
She didn't see Hotch and Reid running towards where she had fallen… didn't hear the retort of Morgan firing at her, Rossi screaming her name or JJ's panicked "No".
Mere seconds passed before she hit the water and darkness took over.
Hotch saw it all in slow motion and before anyone else could react he was diving after her in a vain attempt at rescue.
It took them three day's of dredging the Potomac before they found the body.
'FBI Agent killed during raid' was what the newspapers reported and when the funeral was announced people from all over the country started arriving.
Bobbi Baird
Carrie Oritz
Richard and Beth Jacobs
The Galens
Tony Cooper
Kathy Evanson
Paul Davies
Joe and Molly Muller
Nancy and Courtney Campbell
Sam Cooper and his team
Malakai Shreeves, Mick Toohey, Lydia Falk and Ria Marquez flew out from Chicago.
Jason Gideon and Elle Greenaway watched from a distance a part of the story but now forever separate.
Ambassador Elizabeth Prentiss refused to let Declan and Nell attend the funeral with her, claimed it wasn't safe for them to attend such a public event. Ayesha kept them occupied in the townhouse and once the graveside service was completed The Ambassador took her Grandchildren straight to the airport where they flew back to her current posting in Talinn, Estonia. The house in Aquia Harbour was sold and everything placed in storage.
Ayesha finally finished her degree but found after 6 years with the Prentiss family she couldn't stomach the idea of getting that close to another. She took the money Emily left her and went backpacking through South East Asia as she mourned the loss of her family.
Every day after finishing the letter to his mother Reid pulled out fresh sheets of paper and wrote two more. The first was addressed to Declan and Nell, telling them all about the new magic tricks he was working on, the pranks he and Morgan played on each other and the books he wanted them to read. The second was to Emily, needing to tell her about the case they had just worked on, and what he believed she would say about each Unsub.
Garcia went through every single photo she had of Emily and put together scrapbooks for Declan and Nell. When she'd used all of her own she made copies of the ones the rest of the team had. After every major and minor event a new photo was added and the story behind it included, they told stories about about what everyone was up to. A photo of Jack and Hotch on Jack's first day of school, a picture drawn by Henry… She never gave them to Emily''s children because they were never finished.
After he'd finished flipping his current house Morgan decided to do something different. He made a phone call to DC's social services, the first two case workers didn't take his offer seriously but the third did once they actually stopped and listened to his story. Instead of rebuilding whole houses he was fixing pipes, patching holes, cleaning gutters and generally helping out the parents who like Emily just needed someone to sit quietly in their corner.
When Rossi sat down to start his next book he stared at the screen for hours, the blank page and blinking cursor mocking him. He'd spent months planning to delve into the psychopathy of cult leaders but every time he went to start typing the same word appeared... 'Emily'. Finally he gave in… instead of writing about what she'd spent her entire life hunting he would write about the hunters. He would tell her story… this was his penance for breaking his promise.
JJ finally took the profiler exams. She knew she couldn't replace Emily she would never want to try but she could honour her friend and continue her work.
Hotch let each and every one of them break down on his couch. He never stopped Reid from quoting Emily, he gave copies of the photo's he had to Garcia… and then he found every photo of Haley he had and asked her to put a book together for Jack. He and Jack helped Morgan out when the house of a struggling single parent needed more than just an hour or two of care. He proof read Rossi's book on profilers and spent hours helping JJ prep for her exams.
Life went on without their friend.