A/N: Hey all! So sorry for the wait on this story. This chapter was seriously giving me a headache. I was to the point where I was just going to scrap it and start again. Instead, with some major editing, I've managed to salvage it. Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think.

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.

Chapter 21: Emily/Hotch/Morgan:

"Ok, we're here," Emily fumed. "Can someone please tell me what's happening?"

'Here' was a three bedroom safe-house located on the opposite side of town to the apartment they'd been using as her last safe-house. Though, it was a lot closer to the condo she actually owned.

The drive over to the house took at least half an hour. And to Emily, it had been complete agony since none of her four Marshall's had deigned to give her a hint of what was going on. She believed in following the rules too, but man these four didn't even give half an inch.

Now as they sat around the kitchen table in the dated kitchen—the fridge was olive green!—Emily demanded her answers.

Mike cleared his throat, seemingly ready to respond to her outburst.

Finally, she thought. Someone's ready to give me some answers!

"Emily," Mike began tentatively. "Are you sure you want to know. I mean, you can back out any—"

"For the love of God!" Emily blurted out.

Rose grinned at Mike. "I think… I can't tell for sure, though, but I think… she might want to know."

Rory and Donna laughed at that, while Mike just looked annoyed.

"Please," Emily said more calmly. "Just tell me what I've got to do."

Mike nodded in understanding. "Ok, here's the deal, I talked to my contacts, and they say Doyle is most definitely here in Quantico. They have an idea where he's holed up in but their dilemma is if they go in and he's not there it might tip him off that we're on to him. If that happens he could be gone for awhile longer."

Emily nodded. She understood. They'd had a similar problem when they were tracking Foyet.

"So what have they decided to do?" Emily asked patiently.

Hoping to hear a clever plan in answer, Mike said, "Nothing."

"Nothing?" she replied incredulously.

He nodded. "More surveillance, basically… that is, until they heard we were bringing you back here—a plan, let me tell you, they weren't very pleased with either, thank you very much."

She gave him a very brief apologetic look. "So, what changes now that I'm here?"

"Now that you're here," he started. "We now have something Doyle clearly wants. Something he desperately wants. Something that will force him into making mistakes."

"Me?" she said wryly.

They all nodded and she looked form one face to another to see that they were all on board with this.

"I'm bait?" she clarified.

More nods.

"Are you all crazy?" she blurted out. "This is completely insane."

"Hey," Rory said, clearly offended. "You're the one who said you'd do anything. That you didn't care about what happens to you as long as your friends are safe. We're just doing what you said."

"I don't care what happens to me," she confirmed tersely. "But, don't you think Doyle will see through this 'Emily is bait' plan? The man is deranged, a psychopath, but he's not stupid."

"Well, what else can we do?" Donna asked quietly.

They all went silent at that. Emily thought and thought. She was so close to getting her life back. She could feel it. It was there for the taking. But it also felt like there was a mountain climb before her as well. It was obvious the CIA wasn't going to be much help in coming up with ideas. Her team? No, she didn't want to put them in any more danger than she already had.

"Ok." She let out a sigh. "First things first, Doyle's in town, that means I'm going to need squad cars in front of all my team members' houses."

"Oh, Em," Rose exclaimed. "I forgot to tell you, they're on a case in Spokane."

Emily breathed out a huge sigh of relief. "You're sure?"

Rose nodded. "They left this morning."

Good, as long as they were out of town they were safe for the moment.

"So what do you want me to do?" Mike asked hesitantly. "Should I tell the CIA you're in?"

They all looked to her for answers. She nodded slowly. "I'm in," she affirmed, pausing. Mike got up for the phone. "But, with a few changes…"

"Don't look at me like that, Pond," Emily gritted out.

"What?" her usually cranky Marshall replied.

She gave him a wry grin. "Like I'm the most insane person in the whole world. I'm not, by the way."

"Could have fooled me," Rory muttered under his breath.

All four of her Marshall's were on barely speaking terms with her at the moment. Why? Well, it could have something to do with a few of the changes she'd suggested to the CIA.

The first thing she'd requested was a new cell phone with her name attached to the Caller ID. The second thing was to bring her to the place where Doyle was supposedly hiding out in. That was exactly where they were at the moment, sitting in a delivery style truck in front of a non-descript warehouse.

The four Marshall's were mad because she was about to attempt to make contact with Doyle, a psychopath, with no back-up insight, and not so much as a bullet proof vest on. They were pissed off as hell at the CIA and Department of Defence for going along with Emily's crazy changes, too. Emily understood where they were coming from; as Marshall's their job was to protect her and try not to put her life in danger. The CIA had no such qualms about putting her life in danger, however. They just wanted to get the man. And Emily was fine with that. She just wanted to get this done and over with.

She did feel slightly guilty when Rose had commented earlier, 'Em, if you get yourself killed, I'm going to kill you again!' But she had to do this. It was the set up to ending this once and for all.

"Are you sure about this?" Mike asked her for the hundredth time.

She nodded.

Emily took out the phone, flipping it open. She dialled a number that was given to her by JJ's former Defence Supervisor, Carter. How he'd gotten it, she didn't know.

Emily waited patiently through the ringing dial tone until she heard a click. "Yes…" an accented voice asked tentatively.

"Am I speaking with Ian Doyle?" she replied, enunciating every word, every syllable carefully.

"Yes… who am I speaking with?" he answered, ever so politely.

"Ian, I know you know how to use a cell phone, did you not see the caller ID?" she retorted patronizingly.

A breath later, Ian said, "Emily Prentiss is dead. I killed her."

There was a hint of doubt to his voice, but only a hint. He only had minor misgivings about her current state. Well, that was good to know. But, she was about to ruin all that had been done to create the illusion of her death.

"Are you sure, Ian?" she breathed out.

Silence came at his end. Emily gestured for Rory to open the back door of the van. He grimaced at her but did as told.

Emily stepped into the open doorway to look out at the warehouse.

"Are you near a window? Look out the south side," she said into the receiver. "I'm in a delivery truck… See, I'm waving to you. Always so happy to see you…" she added mockingly.

A moment later she heard a slight gasp at the other end and she grinned, self-satisfied.

"What's stopping me from really making you dead, right here, right now?" Doyle gritted out.

Her grin grew at his predictable response.

"Oh Ian, and here I thought you didn't care anymore," she said, sarcastically. "You won't hurt me."

"Really?"

"Have you found your son yet?" she teased him with the prized information. The fact of the matter was she was still the only person who knew where Declan was. And that was what was keeping her safe at the moment.

"What do you know?" he asked suspiciously.

Emily grinned at him taking the bait.

"Uh uh, Ian, not so fast," she said laughingly. "First, you need to agree to be my guest in my home. Tonight, say midnight?"

"Your home?" he said incredulously.

"Yes, my home," she replied. "Surely you know it. You only had me tailed from there six months ago."

"All right," Ian answered. "I'll be there."

"And be a good guest, Ian, there are no plus ones with this invitation," she reminded him. "Just you and me and an exchange of words."

"And how about your friends at the BAU, are they invited?" Ian asked.

"Sadly, they've been otherwise engaged, it's just you and me," Emily assured.

"All right…" Ian finished, hanging up.

Emily shut her phone taking a deep breath. She forgot how exhausting and all around life threatening it was to talk to Doyle.

"You know he's not coming alone," Mike said from the driver's seat.

Emily nodded. She knew Ian wasn't an idiot. But this was all she could come up with on short notice. The last time they'd met it was with his rules in place. Now, she wanted him on her turf, playing by her rules. It was going to be dangerous. Of course, they were working on getting the residents out of the building at the moment and planting CIA in there instead.

They would get Doyle tonight whether it cost her her life or not.

Hotch couldn't take his eyes away from the frowning JJ. They'd landed in Spokane, convened with the locals, and given everyone a job. JJ had just had a spare moment to call home to get an update from her former supervisor. And from the look on her face the news was not good.

She hung up the phone. He watched her, as she brought up a hand to pinch at the bridge of her nose. She was getting a headache.

He approached her quickly, placing a gentle hand on her back. "Hey, you all right?"

JJ let out a sigh. "I'm fine. Can't say the same about everyone else in DC, though…"

Hotch's hand instinctively began to rub circles into her back. Her face was still tight, but at least she'd dropped the hand from her nose.

"What do you mean?"

"I can't get a hold of Carter, or anyone else for that matter," JJ ranted.

Hotch frowned. "Time difference," he suggested half-heartedly.

"Maybe…" she murmured.

"You don't think this has anything to do with Doyle, do you?" Hotch questioned, frowning deeply at the possibility.

"Don't know, but I'd feel a heck of a lot better if someone would answer their damned phone," JJ answered.

Hotch flinched at the sound of irritation in her voice. JJ caught his slight movement and apologized quickly. "Sorry."

"That's ok," he assured.

"I just want this to all be over," JJ moaned. And then as if realizing where they were she abruptly sobered up. She gestured to the papers in her hand. "Sorry. I'll umm… go send these out to the media…"

Hotch caught her free hand before she left his sight. "JJ, I understand how you feel…"

She nodded gratefully and then she was on her way.

Hotch breathed out, wishing the expelled breath could take away all his frustrations. Sadly, they were all firmly in place.

Derek rubbed at his droopy eyelids, trying to get the sleep out of them. He'd fallen asleep awhile ago. He glanced at his watch and was surprised to see that five hours had passed since he'd decided to rest his head on the pillows of Emily's bed. He hadn't slept that long, straight with no waking in between, since… well, since before Emily had died.

There was just something about being in Emily's place that sat right within him. He guessed it was the proximity of being near a part of the brunette. He was comforted here. He felt refreshed and re-energized.

"Thanks Em," he murmured to the air, thankful for the restful hours.

He wondered briefly at what had caused him to wake, because the way he felt he could have slept for another five hours straight. God knew he needed it. So something must have awoken him, he concluded. He looked around the darkened room. Nothing in there that he could see. And then he heard it. Voices.

There was someone in the apartment, and not just one someone. By the sound of the different pitches there was at least one man and one woman.

Derek got out of bed and reached to his hip. "Damn it," he cursed quietly, when he realized that he'd left his things, including his gun, in the living room. What was he going to do now?

Derek tiptoed towards the closed bedroom door. He needed a better idea of who was in the apartment with him before he figured out what to do. As carefully as possible, he turned the doorknob and pulled open the door just a crack. The voices came clearer then.

"…buildings secure," a woman with a husky voice was saying.

"What did you get Carter to tell everyone?" a man replied.

Carter? That name sounded mightily familiar.

"Gas leak," the woman answered.

"Well, I guess we can bring her up," the man said reluctantly. "Get Rose and Rory on the line. Tell 'em it's safe. We need to go over a few things before all this goes down…"

Rose? Rory? And who was her? What the hell was going on? Who were these people and why were they in Emily's apartment?

There was silence as the woman moved off somewhere to call Rory and Rose, he guessed. He could hear the man walking around and at one point he'd come dangerously close to Morgan's hiding spot.

"They're on their way up," the woman's voice pierced the silence.

"Good," the man answered.

The woman let out a frustrated sounding breath. "You realize this is crazy right?"

The man echoed her sentiments. "I know Donna. But she wants to end this once and for all"

Whoa, Derek thought. That doesn't sound good.

"We're supposed to be protecting her," Donna muttered. "Why did we agree to this again, Mike?"

"Because if we hadn't she would have come on her own," Mike answered. "She's very protective of her friends or haven't you noticed."

Ok, so the more he listened the more he thought these people weren't there to rob Emily blind. But things didn't seem totally innocent either.

"Yeah, glad they aren't in town," Donna commented.

Mike's response was cut off by the sound of knocking at the door.

Now, what? Derek thought, annoyed.

There were some scuffling noises as Donna and Mike went for the door. The door opened and Mike's pronouncement shocked Derek quite a bit.

"Well, come on in," Mike announced. "This is your home after all. Welcome back."

Well that's it. Not up to my usual standard (imo) but I hope it was still enjoyable. I can tell you that the next chapter will be 100 times better, and I'm pretty sure you can all guess why.

Thanks to everyone who's still reading and to everyone who's reviewing: Hotch Fan; deeda; ChocoboMuffins; kdzl; JJandHotch4ever96; Jotchprossi18 (love your pen name, by the way); Bonesaddict; mindspsychoaddict; LittleTay (nope it's not just you; Season 6 of DW had just started when I needed to name them, so that's where I got the inspiration: Rose Jones, Donna Tyler, Rory Pond, and Mike Williams. Williams being Rory's last name in the show. Lol.) and CriminalMindsWhore.

See you all soon with another update!