Chapter 10 –

Suddenly everyone turned and looked hard at Emily, who could feel the tears in the corners of her eyes but she carried on looking at Hotch, ignoring everyone else.

"Emily?"

Hotch spoke firmly as he pocketed his cell, all Emily could do was to nod her head towards the room safe and Hotch quickly moved towards it.

"What's the code?"

"A88642C."

The tone was slow and steady, completely belying how Emily felt, as Hotch opened the safe and brought out the brown CIA file JJ noticed Emily quiver and quickly the blonde stood up and put an arm around her friend's waist.

"Come on Emily."

JJ helped a silent Emily to sit down on her bed as Hotch flicked through the file, Rossi and Reid had also moved over to look at it.

"She was helping me find her, that's why I was with Sally last night."

Emily's voice was a whisper, quiet enough for only JJ to hear as JJ rubbed her back sympathetically.

"Guys?"

Morgan knocked on the door as he spoke, quickly attracting the attention of Hotch who saw that Morgan meant for them to leave and allow Emily a bit of space.

"Ok Prentiss we'll speak to you later about this."

JJ nodded in response as the male members of the team left the room, only when the two of them were alone did JJ attempt to speak to Emily.

"Wow I had no idea that you had a sister!"

Emily laughed softly as JJ tried to make light of the situation, finally comfortable enough to allow her emotions to flow Emily reached up and wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Half sister, the Colonel's habit of sleeping around finally caught up with him."

"Colonel?"

"My father, I always had to refer to him by rank as a child and now I just do it to annoy him."

"So why are you looking for your sister?"

Emily reached up and wiped her eyes, taking a deep breath before she spoke.

"Milly is my little sister, she only turned 15 a few months ago, the day after her 15th birthday she ran away from boarding school, I only found out that she was missing three weeks ago and that she was thought to be in Dallas."

"Oh Emily why didn't you tell us?"

JJ's voice was full of emotion as she spoke, Emily shook her head as JJ wrapped her arms tightly around her friend and finally Emily allowed the rest of the tears to fall onto the blonde's shoulder.

"My room."

Hotch spoke firmly and Reid, Rossi and Morgan quickly followed him, the four men silent until they were behind closed doors once again.

"Did you know that she had a sister?"

Hotch's question was quickly directed at Rossi who shook his head before the older agent turned to look at Reid and Morgan but they too just shrugged their shoulders.

"Ok then let's divide this file up and find out what's going on."

Emily lifted her head from JJ's shoulder and wiped her eyes.

"Sorry."

JJ shook her head firmly.

"Don't be, I should be sorry about what happened earlier, us ambushing you like that."

"Well I guess that I have been acting a little strange lately, but come on an unsub?"

JJ tried to laugh but she saw the despair in Emily's face and she quickly frowned at her friend.

"The footage wasn't great Em, you were the last one to see the latest victim, you were handing her money and kissing her, even if you didn't kill her, what were we supposed to think?"

Emily frowned as she thought then she quickly stood up.

"Oh, oh no, you thought?"

Emily put her hand on her forehead as she realised that her team had thought that she had brought the services of a prostitute.

"Oh crap!"

"It's ok Em come on settle down."

JJ smiled as she got up and put her hand on Emily's elbow and the two of them sat back down on the bed.

"So why did your sister run away?"

Emily reached up and ran her fingers through her hair, she shuffled up the bed and propped herself up with some pillows while JJ kicked her boots off and sat cross-legged near Emily's knees.

"Milly was the result of one of my father's numerous affairs as soon as my mother found out she left him and he remarried but the Colonel isn't exactly an ideal father to have. Milly's mom died when she was 13 years old, it was ruled an accidental overdose, but she was never a stable woman. Instead of taking time out to comfort his young daughter the Colonel packed Milly off to boarding school, a year later he appeared on my doorstep with Milly, asking me to look after her for the weekend, washing his hands of her yet again."

Emily took a breath and looked down at her hands, intertwining her fingers before she composed herself again.

"Milly was crying out for some love and attention, getting into trouble at school but instead of helping her, the Colonel palmed her off onto me. I've really messed up JJ, with Milly, you, the team. Apparently after my 'death' Milly went off the rails again and ran away, I need to find her, rescue her, but she still thinks I'm dead!"

"Oh Emily!"

JJ went to move up the bed to comfort her friend but Emily had jumped off the bed and was running towards the bathroom, quickly following her JJ found her Emily hunched over the toilet, without thinking she crouched down beside her and lifted the brunette hair away from Emily's face.

"It's going to be ok Em."

Emily didn't say anything as she stood up, allowing JJ to help her back through and lay down on the bed.

"I'll be back in a minute."

JJ smiled as she picked up Emily's room key and walked towards Hotch's hotel room.

"How is she?"

Dave spoke quietly as JJ walked into the room, looking around at the four men she noticed that they now looked more sympathetic towards Emily's situation.

"Sleeping hopefully, what have you found out?"

"Apart from the fact that Emily's dad is a piece of work?"

The tone in Morgan's voice was full of anger as he glared at JJ but she knew that it wasn't directed at her.

"Yeah Emily gave me that impression."

"Ok so what did she say about Sally Rogers?"

Hotch quickly tried to get everyone back to the case in hand.

"That she was helping Emily to find Milly, do you think Milly is in danger from the unsub?"

"She's a fifteen year old girl living on the streets, she is in danger from a lot of people."

Hotch sighed as he gathered the file together and looked at JJ who nodded her head.

"Garcia?"

JJ looked around but everyone just shook their heads.

"I'll ring her, you go back and make sure that Emily is ok, in the morning we'll divide the work up, half of us look for Milly and the rest will concentrate on the unsub."

JJ nodded as she stood up and smiled at Hotch, quickly leaving the room and heading back to Emily who was hopefully still sleeping.

Hotch waited until he was alone before he picked up his cell, knowing that despite the late hour Garcia would be there waiting for his call.

"Sir?"

"Sorry I didn't call you earlier."

"How's Emily, what's going on?"

Hotch sighed before he rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"It seems that Emily has a half-sister, Amelia Dowson Prentiss, she ran away just over four months ago from boarding school."

"How old is she?"

"Fifteen."

"Oh my!"

"She has been sighted in Dallas, hence why Emily has been down here lately."

"Oh poor Emily."

"Can you do some digging for us?"

"Of course, I'll do it now ready for the morning."

"Thank you Garcia."

"Anything for you guys, so Emily is in the clear?"

"Yes."

"Good, now I expect to hear from her soon."

"I'll pass it on Garcia."

"Thanks Sir."

Garcia cut the call off and Hotch imagined that she was immediately finding out all she could on Emily's younger sister and that it would be far more than Colonel Prentiss had managed even though he was in the CIA.

JJ shut the door quietly and wandered over to the bed, she could see that Emily was still asleep but not peacefully. Without another thought JJ placed her boots at the end of the bed and climbed on, lying next to her friend, knowing that she was going to need all the support she could get from the team in order to find her sister, hopefully alive and not too badly damaged.