Prentiss

The day out with the team was full of fun and laughter. I ignored my headache the best I could until it subsided. I drank water at lunch when the others had wine or beer, and I bought a lot more outfits and shoes than I probably should have. I stayed close to Hotch's side all day and he was happy to accommodate my presence. My hand was linked in his for half the day and we shared a lot of playful kisses that often left JJ, Garcia, and Savannah either saying "aww" immediately upon witnessing the affection, or telling me how cute it was later when I found myself away from Hotch for a few minutes.

We had dinner at home with my parents tonight, and the team had been lured away by my father to see a large piece of artwork he had in his office, so I stood in the living room on my own nursing a glass of wine. I looked over all the picture frames hanging on the walls and sitting on tables. I walked in front of the fireplace slowly, viewing the picture frames perched on there. I jumped when I heard Morgan's voice behind me, "Hey."

I turned and looked at him with a smile, "Hey, not interested in the painting?"

"Not really my thing…or Hotch's, or JJ's, but those two felt too rude to leave."

I nodded, "My father tends to make people feel that way."

"Well," He approached me and took the wine from my hand. He placed it on top of the fireplace before hugging me. I questioned myself silently on what brought this on, but I returned the hug willingly. "We love you; you know that, right?" He asked quietly.

"Yeah, I do." I moved my head slightly to lean into him more.

"When you finish this, when you do whatever it is that you need to end it, just know that none of us are going to turn our backs on you, and we'll be waiting for you to come home."

"Well I'm going to ask you the same thing that I asked Rossi. What if a lot of people lose their lives because of me? What if I take them?"

"…Then we'll know that you did what you had to, and we won't think anything of it."

"Thank you." I whispered as tears stung my eyes. Just as a few fell, the team entered the living room again. Morgan and I parted and I wiped my cheeks of the tears. Hotch tilted his head slightly as if to question why I was crying, and he approached me. He wiped a tear from my cheek and kissed my hair. Looking at them all now, I couldn't believe that they were leaving again; that I might not see any of them for a long while.

Just as I leaned into Hotch and went to speak to them, Clyde rushed in quickly, "Sorry to interrupt, but look at this." I stood up properly at Hotch's side and opened the file. Papers with his writing all over them were throughout the file of a man who had been high on our suspect list until we ruled him out. I read through it all as quickly as I could while still fully understanding the information, and my eyes widened as the realisation hit me. "It's him. We got him."

"…What if we're wrong? We had already ruled him out." I looked at him in front of me.

"If we happen to be wrong then we could potentially be killing dozens of innocent people. Are you sure you want to do this?"

I hesitated and my eyes shifted before I nodded, "Mhmm." I hummed quietly, because I knew that my voice wouldn't work. I couldn't believe we had solved it. If we raided and we were successful, I could see Alex again. He could come home, my parents would have their son back, I would have my brother.

"Well let's raid," He smirked, "Go get changed."

I nodded and Hotch took the file from me. He opened it as I turned and walked towards the staircase quickly. I glanced at the large window that looked into the living room when a bright light shone through, and then I glanced at the team behind me and saw the small red dots, some moving on the wall, one moving across Rossi and then back to his chest. My eyes widened, "DOWN! GET DOWN!" I yelled at them. They all took half a second to react, but they dropped at the same time I did, and that's when the bullets rained into my parents living room. I covered my ears tightly as the gunshots continued; it still gave me an instant headache. I clenched my eyes shut until I heard the bullets stop, and then once I knew they wouldn't continue, I opened my eyes and looked up. "Everyone okay?" I asked immediately. I waited until I heard eight different positive replies, and then my eyes widened again, "Sofia!? Mum!? Daddy!?"

"I'm okay." I heard Sofia's voice from what sounded like the next room, although she was clearly terrified and crying. I stood quickly and ran up the staircase.

"Emily!" Clyde tried to stop me.

"Mum!?" I called out again.

"We're okay, angel. We're here." I heard my father reply. I ran to their room where I heard his voice travel from and let out a breath.

"Get to the basement. Now." All that was in the basement was a heap of old antique or unwanted furniture, a large piano that has been broken for years, and behind all of it hid a panic room that I had forced my parents to install as soon as I started to see the horrors of the world. "Take Sofia, Savannah, and Garcia with you." They both nodded and left with me a step ahead. Once we reached the bottom of the staircase though, I saw them all, Sofia, Savannah, and Garcia included, all being held still by several men wearing all black. I stopped in my tracks. "Go back up. Call Interpol." I said to my parents quietly, handing them my phone from my pocket behind me. My mother took it as she and my father ran back up the staircase.

"Interpol, my dear, will do you no good right now." A man said as he walked into the centre of the living room.

I looked at him, "Keep Clyde and I, let the others go; they have nothing to do with this."

"They became a very big part of this the moment they started looking into it. The big guy had a meeting with Perez, the smart kid and the techy have been texting each other a lot and those texts made it very clear who was involved in this and how close you're all getting," He took his gun and pointed it at me, "Let's go."

I bit my tongue and supressed the panic rising inside of me. I took the last step down to the living room floor and two men walked to me and went to restrain me. At the last minute, I roundhouse kicked one and punched the other away from me. Others that weren't holding a team member moved towards me. I took a step back and glanced at my gun on the coffee table.

"Okay, I guess I'll have to force you into then." He said with a sigh. He moved the gun that was once aimed at me, to aim at Reid.

My eyes widened as he cocked it quickly and his finger sat on the trigger. "Okay! Okay." I stepped forwards again and two men grabbed my arms. I looked at Hotch before they pushed me forwards and out of the house. Once we reached outside, I felt a sharp pain to my head a moment before everything went black.


I woke to hear echoing footsteps, quiet sobs, and a quiet sound of long nails drumming against a hard surface. I felt a warmth under my head right next to the intense pain that I felt in one particular spot. When I finally decided to sit up and open my eyes, I realised where I was. I had been lying on the ground with my head resting in Hotch's lap with the rest of the team around me, but we were all in a large cage that occupied only about a quarter of the large room. The corners of the room where dark, and two dim lights lit the cage and the space of a large part of the room on the other side of the cage.

"Hey, how's your head?" Hotch asked me quietly. The footsteps stopped and I glanced up to see JJ looking at me. I assumed the steps were hers; she was probably pacing because she looked stressed. The nails had been Savannah's and Garcia had been sobbing.

"Painful. What happened?"

"You don't remember?" He looked more concerned now.

"Refresh my memory?" I asked him quietly. I watched him hesitate and I waited patiently. He started to recount the night starting from the file that Clyde gave me, and as soon as he started, I began to remember. "Stop, stop." I cut him off before he could bring up the bullets into the living room. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

"Calm down." He whispered.

"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry for getting you all into this mess."

"We got ourselves into it, princess. This isn't your fault." Morgan assured.

"Well now we're all dead. I hope you all enjoyed the last week of your lives." Clyde sounded almost relaxed.

"Shut up." I snapped at him.

"Well we wouldn't even be here if you didn't—"

"Don't you dare and try and blame me for this shit right now, Clyde," I glared at him; my voice was aggressive and I assumed my eyes were too, "There are a million things I could say to blame you right now, too."

"Maybe if you hadn't have spent the whole week playing, we would have found them before they found us…" He murmured.

I stood up quickly and I ignored the dizzy spell that almost overwhelmed me. I approached him as he took a half a step back, but Morgan stopped me and pushed me back. Hotch stood and held me with him. "Stop Emily." He demanded quietly as I tried to fight out of his hold.

"I'm not your enemy here, darling. You need to save your fight for when they come back in here."

"Say one more fucking word and I will—"

"Stop!" Reid cut me off with his exclamation. I took a breath and pushed Hotch away from me as I turned around and walked to the other side of the cage, keeping my back to Clyde. I massaged my temple briefly before my hand brushed over the back of my head where the pain still throbbed heavily. I paced back and forth slowly with my arms crossed tightly over my chest; it was freezing in here.

Garcia approached me slowly after a short while and cleared her throat. I took a deep breath and looked at her, waiting for her to say something. "…I'm scared."

I smiled comfortingly, "Pen, I promise you that I am going to do everything I can to keep them away from you; all of you."

"And how do you expect to do that?" JJ asked quietly as she joined us. Savannah walked over too.

"Clyde and I will think of something. Just don't worry about it; sit down and…I don't know…try to calm down and warm up?"

"My god, it's freezing." Savannah said quietly. I nodded in agreement. She turned and walked back to Morgan quickly. She sat back down beside him and moved as close to his side as she could. He put his arm around her and tried to warm her up a bit. JJ walked to Reid where he stood across the cage and leant into him as he hugged her, and Garcia looked at me again. I winked at her and she sighed as she turned. She walked over to Rossi and sat with him. He put his arm around her and she lay her head on his shoulder.

I stood in the opposite corner, as far from them as I could get, and Hotch and Clyde approached me. "What's your plan?" Clyde asked quietly.

I shook my head and looked down, "I don't have one. Not yet, anyway."

"Do you know who we're dealing with?" Hotch asked.

"Well we haven't actually seen him yet, but I'm assuming he is who all these people are working for. He was on our suspect list before he ruled him out but I guess we were wrong. His name is Shaun Carmody." Clyde looked at him.

"We don't even know if it's him." I shook my head again.

"Who else would it be?"

I don't know why he was irritating me so much right now, "Plenty of people, Clyde. Go away." He rolled his eyes and walked back to the other side of the cage where he was previously.

"You're panicking." Hotch whispered low enough that no one else would hear.

"Well when your whole family is trapped in a cage with murderers around, it's kind of hard not to panic. Where are my parents? Or Sophia?"

"They didn't bring them; apparently they weren't worth it because they weren't involved. They think that they don't know anything, so I guess your father is a very discreet man."

I nodded, "That he is," I looked up at Hotch and bit my lip lightly, "…Aaron, if I don't—"

"No, don't," He cut me off, "You're going to make it through this; we all are. People will know we're missing, your father knows who took us." That last comment hit me. My father. My mother and father have lost another child. Granted, I am nowhere near the child they ever wanted or would necessarily value like they did Alex, but I'm still their other child. Both children are now gone. Tears stung my eyes and I looked down as I tried to blink them away, but he lifted my head back up with a finger under my chin. "What's wrong?" He asked softly.

I shook my head, "Alex is probably dead somewhere, never to be seen again, spoken to again, by my parents. And as if it wasn't enough that their favourite and most valued child is now gone, their second one has now been taken and will be killed too. I may not be the daughter they ever wanted, but I am still their child, and now I'm going to be gone just like Alex."

"No you're not, and we don't know Alex's state. He could be fine, he could be in Russia or Singapore or wherever he is right now."

I shook my head and looked into his eyes, "Please promise me that when you get out of here, you make sure my parents know that I am sorry for everything I ever did, and I am sorry for how this all happened, and that I do actually love them. Promise me."

"You can tell them—"

"Aaron, I am going to die in here." I cut him off and my voice wasn't down anymore. I saw the whole team looking at me from behind Hotch. I took a silent breath to calm myself down, "I know it, you know it, they know it," I motioned to the team, "So please, please promise me. Tell my parents, and tell Jack about Haley more, and if he ever asks, tell him about how we met or how you made me smile and laugh and how you lit up my world. Tell him that there is such thing as second chances, and tell him that I love him. Please, Aaron."

He hesitated and I could tell this promise was painful for him; I suppose it was similar to Haley's before Foyet shot her, "I promise." He kissed me then and I relished the feeling of his lips on mine for what could quite possibly be the last time. "I love you."

"I love you too." I kissed him again before I pulled away and hugged him. He held me tightly to him and I closed my eyes at the feeling of love and comfort. I'd miss that, but then again, I couldn't miss anything when I was dead. The team would be in pain, but I wouldn't feel a thing.


"How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard." – Winnie the Pooh.