Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any of its characters.

All mistakes are my own.

The team's laughter died down a bit,

"I think it's the goatee." Said Hotch amusedly.

"Okay fine, fine." Rossi mock-glared at the others as they sipped their drinks. Most of them had switched to water or coffee by now, in case the roads cleared up. Reid was still slightly- completely, out of it. He rested his head on the back of Hotch's desk as he ran his finger slowly along the rim of his coffee cup, struggling to do so. His coordination wasn't all that good when he was sober, let alone when he was drunk.

Morgan had his back pressed against Hotch's couch and Garcia was pressed against his chest. As it should be in his opinion. He was grateful of their close friendship. It gave him an excuse to be around her more often and to be with her more often than one would perceive as normal for two friends. Right now, he could hold her in this way without anyone openly questioning them or judging them. But then it hurt more. He couldn't kiss her, be with her 24 hours a day, live with her or do anything more than what he was already doing. The more he allowed himself to do, the more he wanted. It was like a double-sided sword. He looked at her, laying against his chest and felt her laugh and throw her head back onto his shoulder. He snapped out of his daze when he realized that he'd been essentially staring at her. He looked around to see if anyone had noticed. Nobody but JJ, who smirked at him through a screen of hair. Morgan rolled his eyes and rubbed her forearm affectionately.

"Come on, old timer, spin the bottle." Garcia said with a small giggle as she took another sip from her coffee. Morgan snaked his arms around her waist, held his coffee cup. She glanced up at him over her shoulder,

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"I do not like the sound of 'I'm fine'." Her expression turned to worry as a flash of sadness appeared, and disappeared from his features. A determined look came across Garcia's face, "We talk later." She held up her coffee cup and with a half-smile, clinked his cup with hers.

"Deal."

"Come on keep the game on her toes! Who did it land on?" Garcia asked, trying to transfer Morgan's attention to the game.

"Me. Again. Unfortunately." Reid said unamused, "Okay so let's just get this over and done with. I choose… Dare."

Everyone but Reid, who was staring into his cup of lukewarm coffee waiting to hear his next ordeal, looked to Rossi who was deep in thought. Rossi smirked and looked at Reid, who sensed he was being watched and looked up.

"I dare you to try and balance a bottle of beer on your face." The team sniggered and giggled. "For ten seconds."

"Oh for god sakes" Reid sighed, "An empty one?"

"Sure." Rossi smirked again as Reid reached for an empty bottle next to Hotch's trash can and tilted his head back. The team whispered their cheers, amused grins plastered on their faces. Reid placed the bottom of the bottle on his forehead and adjusted the position of his head to try and balance it. It didn't work the first time as it tilted backwards and hit the back of Hotch's desk and fell, and caught by Rossi. He attempted a second time and a third. The team cheered and encouraged his further. Emily heard a buzzing noise behind her, coming from her purse. She got up and went to her phone. Nobody noticed that she had left as they were caught up with the view of Dr. Spencer Reid trying to balance a bottle on his face. Emily reached into her bag to try and find her cell whilst glancing back to see how Reid was getting along. She grinned to herself as the bottle fell once more. She didn't recognize the whole number, but the area code corresponded to Virginia, definitely. She answered,

"Prentiss." She looked back at the group and grinned when the genius managed to balance the bottle for a couple of seconds but fall on the sixth. She missed what the person on the other end of the line had said and asked them to repeat. The other person was a woman, she sounded young and polite,

"Ma'am this call concerns your mother. You're listed here as her daughter, Emily Prentiss?" Emily's face fell. The call wasn't just another one from one of her subordinates, telling her that her mother was away in some foreign country, yet again.

"Ma'am?"

"Yes, speaking. Is she all right?" She walked quickly down the stairs into the bullpen area and crossed to the right through the side door into the dimly lit hallway. She could hear the distant cheers of her friends from Hotch's office, Reid must have finally done it, and mentally scoffed. She closed the door until it was only ajar.

"I'm calling from Howard University Hospital, your mother has been involved in an accident earlier tonight."

The news took the wind out of her lungs, "What do you mean by involved?"

"There was a collision on route 50, near Brentwood."

"I'd actually rather not hear this over the phone, I'll be over in a while. Howard University?"

"Yeah, would-"

"Thanks." She snapped her cell closed and leaned back against the wall next to the door. He shoulders slumped as if the weight of the news had been dropped onto her already tired shoulders. She exhaled slowly and bit back tears that were threatening to fall over her cheeks.

A/N: I am so incredibly sorry for the ridiculously long wait for this chapter. I've had mock exams, real GCSE exams, family & friends crap so it's really held me back quite a bit. So I'd really like to apologise for that. Anyway, thank you every single last one of you for reading, following, favouriting and reviewing my fanfiction. I really appreciate it, thank you!

I'd like to just point out I'm a Welsh teenager so I have no freakin' clue about the medical system-thingy-bobs in the USA or their protocols or anything really. So I apologise for any inaccuracies in this, and the following chapter.

I'd also like to apologise for the glitches in the uploading of chapter four of "Hurting". I'm not sure what's happened exactly but I think it's because I've changed it from one format to the other and FFN doesn't agree with it well… oops. My bad, but I'm working on it! Also, thank you to the reviewer who alerted me about this. I wouldn't have known otherwise!

I'd love to have some feedback on this, to see if you like where it's going, if you want to see anything else, any suggestions etc. are ALL welcomed. Thank you so much, and once more I'm so sorry for the delay! J