-EMILY-

"I understand your concern, Mrs. Prentiss," the Principal of Lenora's school said to me.

I had pleaded with Spencer to let me attend the meeting with the school. Lenny was like a daughter to me and I wanted answers.

"I don't think you do understand my concern, Mrs. Lowry. You seem to be more concerned with punishing Lenora, then why she ran off in the first place," I said, using my Unit Chief authoritative voice.

"We are most certainly concerned about Lenora's injuries, but we have no evidence at this time that Nancy Pruitt was the culprit," Mrs. Lowry said.

"Is school not a safe place to be?" I asked.

"We strive every day for that," she began.

"Well yesterday, on a playground full of hundreds of children, my daughter was beaten to the point that she was too afraid to even enter the school. How is it possible that not one teacher or aid noticed a group of girls in a circle beating up another child?" I said angrily.

I saw Spencer shoot me a look, but I wasn't sure what for. I didn't have time to try and figure it out. I was too busy controlling my anger right now.

"As you said, there are hundreds of children. We are not able to –"

"Able to what? Keep them safe? If there are too many children than you should hire more staff. If you can't hire more staff than you need to figure something out and quick, because I can assure you I will be speaking with my lawyer about this situation," I said.

"Mrs. Prentiss, we do not want this to become an issue that lawyers need to be involved. I promise you that I will look into this further and I will set up a meeting with all the parents whose children were claimed to be involved," Mrs. Lowry said.

"Continue to update me daily through my email, if you would," I said with finality.

"Yes ma'am, I will," she said.

I started to stand up and walk out when I heard her say, "Dr. Reid?" I turned around to find him looking down at his feet. He slowly lifted his head and I could hear the pain in his voice.

"Mrs. Lowry, I know you do the best you can and I realize to you this may just be another headache with a student. But she is all I have. She is my baby and if you would just take a moment to imagine how it would feel to see your child hurt the way Lenora was. To receive a phone call that she is missing," he said as his voice cracked.

"Dr. Reid, I am truly sorry for what transpired on my watch. I have a son and a daughter. I can't begin to fully understand the distress this has caused you, but I know that I would be devastated if something happened to my kids.

All I can promise you at this time, is I will make changes so this incident does not happen again and I will do all that I can within my power to see that justice is served for Lenora," Mrs. Lowry said sincerely.

Spencer nodded as he stood up and shook her hand. He thanked her for her time and we walked out of the school. As we headed to my car, I heard a couple women chatting together in the parent pick-up line. I heard one of the women talking about Nancy. I stopped as Spencer kept walking.

"Excuse me," I said making the women turn toward me. All four of them glaring at me with disgust and judgment.

"Is one of you Nancy Pruitt's mother?"

"I am," said the tall, bleach blonde. She wore a mini jean skirt and a way too tight tank top that showed off her obviously fake double d's. Her face caked in make-up and plastic surgery. "Who are you?"

"I'm Emily Prentiss. Do you have a minute to talk about the situation with Lenora yesterday?" I asked her politely.

The ladies began whispering as a smug look crossed Mrs. Pruitt's face.

"Again, who are you? You aren't Lenora's mother, she's dead," she said.

"Yes, yes she is. Like your manners," I said smiling. "Anyway, we just finished having a meeting with Mrs. Lowry and would like to sit down with you to discuss yesterday's incident."

"Mrs. Prentiss, you have no proof that Nancy was involved. My daughter would never participate in such behavior. She is an upstanding citizen. So, I'll ask you one time, to leave me and my daughter alone or I will get the authorities involved."

"Actually, it's Agent," I said with a grin. The other Mom's looked at each other before looking back at me with less amusement. "You obviously don't know anything about me. I am the Unit Chief for the FBI. I have been trained to hunt down serial killers," I said in a low deep voice for emphasis. "I can assure you, if you want the authorities involved, I will be happy to contact them.

I will have every good lawyer and judge in town against you. I have gone up against some of the most violent, frightening people and haven't blinked. You aren't even on the scale of difficulty. So, try me. I dare you."

Mrs. Pruitt's eyes were wide and her mouth dropped open in shock.

"Are you threatening me? How dare you threaten me!" she said.

"No, how dare you stand here and defend your demon seed. She physically assaulted someone and rather than own up to the shitty parenting you are obviously doing, you blame the victim. You are the reason your child is an asshole and I can assure you from experience, if you continue making excuses for her, I will see her again when she's older. When she is being arrested," I said furiously.

"So, I suggest you go home tonight and seriously reconsider your stance on this situation. Do you really want to go up against a well-respected dignitary and FBI agent? Or do you want to do what's right and take responsibility for your child's actions and settle this out of court?"

With that, I turned and walked off to the car where Spencer stood waiting for me.

"She's not even your kid!" Mrs. Pruitt yelled.

I didn't even acknowledge her at this point. I had said my peace and I felt good about it. However, I was concerned about Spencer's thoughts about what happened. He was quiet the entire ride home.

(xxxxx)

The rest of the evening Spencer was quiet. He didn't say much, other than to check on Lenora. He disappeared a few times without saying a word to walk Lulubelle. I thought back to how our day went and I wondered if I had crossed a boundary.

It was after 9 o'clock and three books later, before Lenora finally fell asleep. I turned off her bedside lamp, kissed her head, and walked out into the living room. Spencer was sitting on the couch reading a book, or pretending to. I noticed he hadn't turned a single page.

"She's asleep," I said as I sat down on the opposite end of the couch.

"That's good," he said as he flipped a page slowly, just to look as though he was reading.

"Spence, did I overstep today?" I said, wanting answers.

He looked at me for some time, before closing his book and placing it on the end table.

"I don't know," he said.

"Well, obviously I did something," I said.

"Emily, I appreciate everything you do for me and Lenora. I really do," he started.

"But?"

"But, today … she's not your daughter, Emily. She's is my daughter and I don't want to handle this situation with threats. It will only cause more problems, especially for Lenny," he said with clouded eyes. "I just think maybe this is moving too fast and … right now … I need to focus on helping my daughter through this.

I don't want to battle with parents. I don't want to sue the school. I just want Lenora to be safe and happy," he said as a few tears escaped.

"Wait, you don't want to be with me anymore because of today? Seriously?" I said incredulously.

"This isn't easy for me. I am very confused and unsure right now. All I know is, Lenora needs my undivided attention," he said looking away from me.

"Spencer, how have you not been giving her attention? Do you think this happened because of you? You realize you couldn't have prevented this?"

"Perhaps, but I still feel like I need to clear my head. I'm taking Lenny to Vegas for a while. Visit with Mom, give her time to heal and figure out what we are going to do," he said.

"So, run away? That makes a lot of fucking sense," I said as I crossed my arms angrily over my chest.

"I'm not running away. I'm trying to do what is best for my daughter," he said in frustration.

"And what I did wasn't for her best?"

"I need time to process everything," he sighed.

"Nice, and while you go process everything what am I supposed to do? Just sit around and wait for you to decide I'm worthy of you again?" I said sarcastically.

"I don't expect you to wait for me," he said softly.

"Wow, ok," I said in shock as I laughed humorlessly.

I stood up and walked over to the door to grab my things. He didn't move from his position. His face buried in his hands.

"Goodbye, Reid," I said as I walked out and slammed the door.

(xxxxx)

A/N: as always thank you, thank you for the comments!