CHAPTER 21

December 2017

They'd left Roswell 30 minutes before and the entire team was quiet. Sitting across from her, Emily studied Tara, this case seemed to have worn on her more than the others.

"You ok?" She murmured not wanting to draw the attention of the rest of the team.

"I will be..." Tara confirmed.

"Well, if you don't want to go home to an empty apartment Caleigh and I would love to have you over for dinner." Emily smiled knowing Tara wouldn't say no. She loved spending time with any of the BAU kids.

"I'm exhausted, but I would love to have dinner with you guys on one condition..." Tara's smile was weak but genuine.

"Yes you can supply desert." Tara always had the same condition.

January 2018

Captain Savalas stared at the team that had come in from D.C. to investigate his weird ass murders. There were a few new faces but he definitely recognised at least one of them. He'd just passed the detectives exams and was on his last beat shift before transferring to vice when the call came out. He'd never forget the voice calling 'officer down' over the radio. He and his partner had been the first to the scene to find a dead kid, and an FBI agent with a detectives blood up to her elbows as she tried to limit the bleeding.

He must have been staring at Prentiss too much as one of the other agents called him out.

"Why are you staring at Emily, she's noticed and it's really creepy" JJ asked him.

"She was here in 08 right, the Lo-Fi killings?" Savalas didn't quite keep his voice quiet enough for Tara to not overhear.

"Yeah, so was Rossi, Garcia, Reid and myself" JJ confirmed.

"Do you remember the two Detectives… Cooper and Brustin?"

"Vaguely…I've been in the BAU for a long time. There's been a lot of Detectives we've worked with." JJ was really curious about where this was going.

"A couple of years back I ran into Cooper at 1PP… he'd just been hosed by the brass and moved to admin. Now… as far as I knew Coop was a good cop, family man and all that and his version of events is and this is a direct quote 'the FBI bitch I took a bullet for seduced me, got herself knocked up and then when I tried to get a paternity test and visitation she ruined my career…'" Savalas' gaze drifted back to Emily "and I remember clear as day responding to an officer down call to find Agent Prentiss covered in Coopers blood"

"That's a really good story…" JJ smiled as her memory of those manic days started to come back "I'd need to double check with Reid but if I remember correctly Cooper was hitting on Emily from the moment he laid eyes on her… she shot him down, hard. Emily knew he was married and wouldn't go near him." JJ assured him as Emily's words from when she was pregnant with Caleigh floated through her mind.

'I made my choice… he made his and we parted amicably.'

"Also he didn't take a bullet for her" Reid's voice interrupted them "He ran ahead and entered a blind alley when the unsub shot him. Cooper was already down by the time Emily entered the alley and she took down the unsub"

Savalas nodded their words confirming what he really thought "That's what I thought, rumour has it his wife left him late 2012… ended up in a shelter with some nasty bruises…" he left the room having got his confirmation.

Reid and JJ stared at each other for a moment "You don't think?" JJ spoke first.

"It's possible." he responded his lightning fast mind going through every conversation he'd had with Emily about Caleigh's father… which were few and all resulted in Emily shutting him down.

"What's possible?" Tara finally spoke up.

"Has Emily told you anything about Caleigh's father?" JJ asked, Tara shook her head no. She hadn't even asked figuring Emily would bring it up when she was ready.

"She never actually told us she was seeing someone…" Reid confirmed "but when you work with profilers everyone knows just about everything…"

"Hard to keep a secret in a room full of profilers" Tara acknowledged remembering one of her earliest conversations with Morgan when he'd asked her about the ring indentation.

"Emily is particularly good at it… we knew there was someone but no details until one day she was pregnant and single. To this day she won't talk about Caleigh's father with anyone." JJ filled her in.

"So you guys are thinking there's a kernel of truth to this Detective Coopers story?" Tara confirmed.

Pulling out her phone JJ dialed Garcia "Yeah…"

"Good Morning JJ, Goddess of kickass how may I help you?" the bubbly voice came over the speaker.

"Can you do some digging for us?" JJ asked quietly.

"Was Glinda the good Witch a controlling psychopath who used an innocent girl to do her dirty work in a covert power grab?"

Reid blinked in confusion as Tara mouthed the question back at herself and nodded in consideration of the theory.

"This is off the book digging" JJ breezed passed the random comment "As in don't tell Emily off the book."

There was a pregnant pause on the other end "You know I can't keep secrets from anyone…" Garcia whined slightly as Tara smirked.

"You only need to keep this one until the end of the case. NYPD Detective Malcolm Cooper and applications for paternity testing since 2010." Reid told her.

"Wow… if that's not the most irrelevant thing I've ever sear… oh my god…" Garcia gasped as the search came up with several results.

"What?" all three of them asked at once.

"Do you remember when Emily emailed us a couple of months after moving to London. She said she had meetings in New York and depending on how they went she was going to try and come to DC for dinner… Well it turns out those meetings were actually a court hearing, Detective Cooper was trying to get the court to order a paternity test on Caleigh. According to the transcript the judge denied the request based on insufficient evidence." Garcia scanned through the documents "Coopers evidence only proved he was cheating on his wife… it looks like Emily managed to refute all of his claims without actually confirming or denying who Caleigh's father is. Oooh that sneaky bossman!"

"Excuse me?" JJ spoke to all three of them.

"Hotch knew…" Garcia was flabbergasted "he signed off on the release of her Bureau phone records and the BAU's travel schedule from October 08 to December 09…"

"Whose phone records and travel schedule?" Rossi came into the room and was quickly shushed by the other three trying not to get Emily's attention.

"I'll send you everything I find… Garcia out" the phone when silent.

JJ quickly filled him in on the completely non-case related information they'd come across.

"Huh… Emily wouldn't touch a married man with a 10 foot pole…" he mused "but if he lied… and she trusted him enough to not actively profile him…"

"I wonder if she found out he was still married before or after she found out she was pregnant?" Tara asked unsure of which would be worse.

"Hard to know without getting her to admit it." Reid shrugged "Let's solve the case and then corner her on the jet." There was a gleam in his eye at the prospect of solving this particular 8 year old mystery.

Half the team had been looking at her funny for the last 36 hours and Emily could feel the eyes on her as they took their seats and the jet taxied for the flight back to DC. From what she could tell Matt and Luke were just as curious as she was about what was up with the other three. Somehow she had ended up in a window seat with Rossi in the isle, Reid opposite her and JJ next to Reid. Tara was across the isle and was not subtle about her gaze flickering to Emily every 30 seconds or so.

"What?" she finally snapped.

Reid pulled out his phone and dialed Garcia as JJ and Tara leaned forward.

"Malcolm Cooper…?" JJ asked and didn't miss the slight widening of Emily's eyes.

"Who?" Emily tried to play dumb but knew she was done for when Garcia's voice carried through the phone line.

"The asshole who has taken you to court twice to try and get a paternity test and when that failed reported you to child services in London for neglect in a bid to force the issue."

"Oh that Malcolm Cooper…" Emily licked her lips nervously.

"Now this sounds like a story…" Matt raised his eyebrows, darting his gaze between Emily and JJ.

"And one that I will not be telling!" Emily is firm in her conviction but pre-discussions earlier that morning resulted in an agreement that they could wear her down over the two hour flight.

"You know what's really interesting" Garcia's voice breaks the momentary silence "Not many people have the skills to track this but the phone number Detective Cooper was communicating with always seemed to ping from a tower within a 4 or 5 block radius of you, Emily."

Slumping back into her chair Emily knew she had finally been caught out and contemplated how much she wanted to share with them. Seeing her reaction Dave decided to throw her a lifeline.

"How about we tell you what we've worked out so far and then all you have to do is confirm or deny… ok?"

"Fine…" Emily grumbled.

"He approached you… it was several months after you first met? Played the 'my wife left me and took the kid' sob story?" Dave started.

"Yeah… the October after and yeah I fell for it." she could do this, these people were her friends.

"We all knew it was on and off depending on our caseload…" Reid chimed in and Emily nodded, conceding the point.

"Because you already knew him you tried not to actively profile… which I know is damn near impossible because Will bitches about it all the time" JJ rested her foot against Emily's in an attempt to offer comfort.

"And you told us that you found out you were pregnant while being treated after the car accident in Lockport" Garcia added "I'm guessing you told Hotch more than us… enough for him to eventually put the pieces together."

"I went to see him in New York and tell him about Caleigh" Emily finally started to open up "I'm sitting outside his building for something like an hour… it never even occurred to me to call ahead and let him to know I was coming… there he is with his picture perfect family... I called it off via text then and there, came back to Washington and told Hotch everything but his name the next day and you guys all know the rest..." Emily finished… it felt freeing… finally telling the team everything.

She made a mental note to call Morgan when they got home, although knowing Garcia the analyst would have already filled her boo in on everything.

"Soooo… when do we kill him?" Luke finally asked.

"We don't" Emily was firm as she leaned back in her chair "Garcia, what happened to Cooper every single time he made a play for Caleigh?"

"The first time in December 2012 NYPD IAB was sent the details of several prostitutes Detective Cooper had been involved with. The second time in September 2013 his now ex-wife was given enough evidence for her to win full custody of their two boys and for the court to order supervised visitation only while he underwent anger management classes… which he never completed BTW. Finally we have November 2013 when he reported Emily for neglect… she made a complaint to NYPD that he was stalking and harassing her then had an intent to file suit notification sent where she threatened to sue him for defamation of character." Emily smirked at the rest of the team.

"Hotch was very helpful in gathering the evidence… and making sure it can never be traced back to either of us." She grinned wickedly at JJ "Even if I did decide to go with Luke's idea, I wouldn't involve the whole team."

JJ frowned in thought "We really need to redo our disposal assessment…"

"Well Garcia and Rossi haven't changed… we can probably shave a few hours off Spence and add some to Morgan and Hotch for travel time…" Emily mused.

"Do we want to know?" Tara eyes darted between the two women.

"Emily and I got a little…" JJ started

"... a lot…" Emily interrupted

"Drunk one night and worked out how long we'd need to dispose of a body, hide the evidence and set up alibi's. Then we worked in each member of the team and how long they would add or minus from the process."

"Where was I during these drunken shenanigans..." Garcia's outraged voice came through the phone.

"Passed out on the couch from the oxy… it was your second night home after Battle." Emily informed her.

"You mean the night my favourite bottle of Absinthe mysteriously disappeared." the outrage went up a notch.

"Damn…" Matt muttered impressed by the whole thing.

"I love you guys…" Rossi sighed "I really do, but I do not want to know."

Emily read and re-read the email Linda Barnes sent to JJ multiple times.

She clicked the save button and moved a copy to an encrypted external drive before pulling out a prepaid burn phone and sent a text message.

It's started

JJ's face as she asked if she should be worried was gut wrenching.

She wanted to scream 'Yes! Be worried... be scared' but she didn't.

Emily followed her orders, smiled and reassured her friend that everything would be fine

It was amazing… with all their technological advancement and paranoia Barnes didn't think to check for a simple mini cassette recorder in her pocket.

As soon as Emily was dismissed she drove to a little bar in Dunn Loring where she ordered herself a single beer and sat in the back corner. 30 minutes later a woman sat across from her, they chatted about the news, climate change and their kids like old friends.

Emily left without the cassette and went home, late that night she got a message.

Push back.

Day two of her inquisition Emily could have punched Barnes when the woman brought up Caleigh.

"My daughter has absolutely no impact on my ability to do my job, does your son?" Emily cocked her eyebrow in challenge.

That was when she snapped back and as instructed refused to continue playing Barnes' game

Spence was breaking her heart.

"Why is it not ok for me to walk out on the team but it is for you?" he could see it, there was something she was hiding. He'd known her too long and let her get away with hiding too many things to not call her out.

"Because you and I are different."

"We're not."

"And if the situation was reversed, you wouldn't give up on me and you know what? I happen to know that for a fact because you didn't. When I was in prison, you did everything in your power to get me out." her eye twitched and she blew out her breath... hard

"What?"

"Yeah… I did do everything." Emily knew she had to redirect him, turn his attention away from the present and to the past. Spencer Reid and his beautiful gigantic brain was a genuine threat... and even bigger threat was his heart and loyalty to her.

Then he had to throw Doyle in her face "All I'm saying is that it's a lot like when JJ and Hotch faked your death so that you could escape from Ian Doyle. You didn't have any choice in the matter, but it's what they had to do. They fought just as hard to save your life as you did to save mine. It's what we do."

His final hit nearly caused her to give everything away "Caleigh's settled into life here, so you really want to drag her away from her school and her friends... just like your mother did to you?"

6 hours later Spencer was nothing more than an academic and she'd been reassigned... in less than a day Emily knew a position in OPC would open up and she's be there so fast her head would spin.

Exactly like they'd predicted.

"The Director called me, Barnes will never come near the BAU again."

"And so we live to fight another day!" Dave called out, raising his hand for Emily to high five as the rest of the team celebrated below them.

She watched their celebrations for several minutes before calling out again "Now take 10 minutes and get comfortable again then meet me in the conference room."

Emily turned and went back to her office, gut clenching over what she had to tell the team. Taking her time she started with her photo's, placing them back in their correct places. A picture of Caleigh taking pride of place.

When time ran down she made her way along to cat walk and when she entered the room the entire team was already waiting for her. Matt briefly met her gaze and nodded in encouragement.

"What I am about to tell you cannot leave this room." Emily takes her seat and pauses to lock eyes with each team member in turn..

"Several months before I returned, I signed off on a report from one of my Inspectors regarding Linda Barns' actions during a case where cooperation between Interpol and the Bureau was required, the report stated she was controlling, impulsive, her actions endangered the lives of agents and civilian alike, it also stated a suspicion that all the Bureau agents were too scared to go against her. I forwarded that report to my superiors, the report worried me enough to include a memo stating that I would only be releasing my Inspector's if I took the lead on JTF's with her involvement." Emily lifted her water glass to her lips and took a short sip.

"Unknown to me at the time, Barnes had quite the negative reputation in the international law enforcement community and my report and memo ended up with the Secretary General who contacted Director Matthis who in turn started to quietly ask questions, the reports he was given included funds being mismanaged, staff being bullied and manipulated into either turning against each other or admitting to actions they hadn't taken and a blatant disregard for life. Unfortunately no one in the Bureau was willing to sit down and officially report anything. Due to this he called a meeting with Hotch and they came up with a plan to allow her to take on the BAU and use her methods and actions during that time to either confirm or refute those reports. When Hotch went into witness protection with Jack he recommended me to take over for several reasons. I was still technically a Bureau Agent on long term loan, I am a profiler, I know the team, I was aware of the targets capabilities and finally I have extensive experience in undercover and infiltration operations."

Spencer was the first to get it "It was all a set up?"

"Partially yes." Emily admitted "She has a set MO, get rid of the leader as scandalously as possible, me. Then go after most of the long term members of the team, the most connected, Rossi, unique Garcia and Reid and extensively experienced Tara. Keep one of the younger long term team members to run things as their age and limited experience outside of the team should make them easily controllable. Finally keep the newest team members as they would have less loyalty to the team as a whole and would engender animosity between those that left and those that stayed... Stephen was originally meant to be here still, playing along and reporting everything back to myself and the Director. After Matt agreed to join the team he was read in."

"Barns was wrong." Matt said softly "I'm loyal to the Bureau and the BAU. I'd seen first hand what she was capable of and how far she was willing to go to increase her personal power and I was happy to help."

"All this was done in conjunction with the Inspector General's Office. I was working with their investigators the entire time as a case was built against her. As of 5pm today Linda Barnes is no longer a member of the FBI and within the next 48 hours a decision will be made on whether criminal charges will be laid against her, starting with reckless endangerment for her decision to take Corinne Jordan into the line of fire." Emily blew out a deep breath.

"One of the most critical aspects of this was you guys not knowing, the Director forbade us from telling you. When Hotch briefed me on the operation he told me it had been his idea to keep you all in the dark, I agreed with and followed their original plan. I trusted you to be you, I trusted you to be the amazing people and profilers you are with a sense of justice and right and wrong that Linda Barnes will never comprehend, leaving you in the dark also allowed me to predict your actions and make any changes necessary. For example, I knew eventually JJ would blow her top. In fact I relied on it..."

She looked around the team and could see they were all still processing. Hopefully they wouldn't be to hurt. She laid out a copy of the file she and Agent Carrington had put together on Barnes.

"This is a copy of the full investigation. Feel free to go through it, do not make further copies and it is to be shredded when you've finished." she glanced down at her watch.

"Take the night, process and then feel free to come and yell at me in my office in the morning. Caleigh and I have a date with a dog trainer."

"Emily…?" Tara called out softly "My head understands why this had to happen the way it did. Give me a couple of days for my heart to catch up and we'll be good."

She let a small smile grace her face "Done" before slipping out the door to her office.

In the conference room Luke looked around confused "Extensive undercover and infiltration experience?"

By silent nomination JJ, Reid and Garcia left it to Rossi to explain. He leaned back and studied Matt, Tara and Luke and tried to decide how to explain.

"Before joining the BAU in '06 Emily was CIA…." he paused at their astonished expressions "We don't know all the details but she spent most of the late 90's and early 00's working across the US and Europe as a NOC Agent. We found out when an old case came back to haunt her it was… unpleasant. If you want to know more please ask Emily."

After several beats of uncomfortable silence Matt spoke up "I'm going to leave you guys to it. Like Emily said feel free to come and yell at me in the morning and I hope I haven't damaged the teams trust in me too much."

Emily quickly packed up her office and was leaving just as Matt made his own exit from the conference room.

"Prentiss… we did the right thing." he called softly.

"I know, it doesn't make admitting to your family you've been lying to them for months any easier."

She turned and walked out the door.

END CHAPTER 21

End AN: As most of my regular readers know I'm not one for mid-story authors notes but I've been on a massive CM binge and just re-watched season 13. Did I dislike the Linda Barnes story line... Yes and I'm going to explain why. Like with the original introduction of Erin Strauss it reinforces the idea a woman in power must be a stone cold bitch. The entire 3 episode arc is well done to a point and is saved by Emily's speech in 'Miasma' and the scenes between Emily and Spencer in 'Annihilator'.

It also didn't make sense that someone in Barnes' position wasn't watched more carefully especially given her reputation for reforming units and her treatment of the local law enforcement. That should raise massive red flags with her superiors, I would think that she would actually be under more scrutiny than they depicted. There's my reason for the tweak to the Linda Barnes story arc. It was one of a number of times I've felt the writers could have done a bit more to keep the scenario more realistic.