Warning: Spoilers for everything up to Season 6 Episode 18, "Lauren".

T rating is for canon-typical violence, some extra language, and mentions of sexual assault pertaining to their case victims.

Status Quo

Meaning "the situation; current conditions"

Reid would be lying if he said he wasn't worried about Emily.

He'd be the first to admit that they'd gotten off on the wrong foot—mostly because of his Dilaudid withdrawal symptoms and his missing Elle—but since then, even he had to admit Emily had grown on him. He knew that the BAU wasn't a family in the traditional sense, but they were close enough—and Emily was very good at playing the teasing big sister.

Reid knew he was somewhat incapable of picking up most social cues, but he didn't have to be a profiler to know that something was off. She'd been taking a lot more phone calls than usual, and she took extra care to make sure no one could overhear her. She'd also turned down Solaris. Now, even though it sounded amazing to him, he was cognizant enough to know that five hours in a dark theater watching an original version of the film wasn't everyone's idea of a good time, but even Emily had suggested that they hang out soon, and he'd thought it was the perfect opportunity.

He hadn't noticed at the time, but beneath Emily's characteristic tone, there had been an underlying sense of caution that she didn't usually display—at least, not with him. That was when he'd really started paying attention.

"It's probably a family thing," Morgan had reassured him, patting him on the shoulder as he dumped sugar into his morning coffee. "Besides, man, if she isn't telling us about it, she probably doesn't want us to know."

Reid had been inclined to agree, but he also knew from personal experience that keeping something from the others didn't always pan out well. Problem was, he didn't know how to approach her about it, so he did the only thing he could—he watched.

He'd always been good at watching—he had to be. Growing up, watching had been the only thing besides reading that gave him comfort. He couldn't interact, but he could watch.

While he watched Emily, he didn't like what he saw. When she thought no one was watching, especially, she was constantly on edge, looking over her shoulder and around corners. She jumped at shadows in ways only Emily could, with the slightest twitch of her eyes or the tensing of her shoulders. No, it didn't take a profiler to know that something was wrong with the unusually tough-as-nails agent. Of course, he knew next to nothing about females or their problems, so he called the only person he could think of to give him some clues.

"She might just be going through something personal," JJ soothed over the phone, Henry's laughter in the background. Will's Southern drawl was staticky in the background, but Reid forced himself to focus on JJ's words. "Who knows, she might have a boyfriend or something."

"She wasn't seeing anyone the last time I heard her talk about it," Reid said, adjusting his sunglasses as he sat in the park near his apartment building. Morgan had teased him about needing some more Vitamin D because he, quote, looked like a sheet of paper sometimes. "I dunno, JJ. Maybe you're right. I'm just a little worried."

JJ laughed, and Reid felt a pang in his chest. He missed having her around all the time. "That's because you're a sweetheart, Spence. Just ask her about it if you're that worried. She'll think it's nice, and if there really is something wrong, maybe you can help her."

"Okay, but I don't exactly have the best track record with talks like that," he defended, fidgeting on the park bench. He smiled awkwardly at an older man feeding the birds, who gave him a friendly smile. "I don't know. Maybe I'm reading into it. I just…you know, want her to be okay."

"Would you like me to ask her?" JJ asked, sounding a little more concerned at Reid's insistence. "You know, have a girl talk?"

Even Reid knew that the phrase shouldn't make him uncomfortable, but he couldn't help shifting despite it. "No, it's okay. If I…if I get a chance I'll ask her about it. Thanks anyways. Tell Will I said hi and Henry I love him."

"Will do, handsome," JJ said with a knowing smirk. "Call me if you find anything out, or if I can help. Take care."

"You too." Reid hung up and massaged his temple, feeling one of his headaches begin to flare up. So much for Vitamin D. He'd lay down, try to get some sleep; maybe that would help before it got too bad.

Maybe he'd ask Penelope if she'd noticed anything off. He knew he was probably overreacting, and that Emily probably wouldn't want him in her business anyways, but…he couldn't shake the feeling that something was going on with her.

Walking back towards his apartment building, he was startled out of his thoughts when his phone buzzed in his pocket. He initially thought it was JJ calling him back or something, but Hotch's name was displayed, calling him in for a case.

He sighed. He'd swing by his apartment and grab some Tylenol, maybe that would help. The doctor had given him some low-strength narcotic painkillers for such occasions, but he'd been clean for so long now…he couldn't risk it.

Threading a hand through his dark hair, he continued down the street, keeping two fingers at his temple to try to alleviate the ache.

He didn't see the shadowed figure trailing him.

…

"Hey, sorry I'm late," Reid said hurriedly, rushing into the briefing room and sitting quickly next to Morgan.

"It's fine, but don't start making a habit of it," Hotch said pointedly, leaning back in his seat. "We're waiting for Garcia and Prentiss, anyways."

"And the goddess of wisdom is right here," Garcia supplied quickly, clomping into the room in bright heels that Reid couldn't fathom any woman wearing. She started quickly handing out tablets, slipping Reid a paper copy. "Sorry about the delay, doves, I had a thing with a hard drive."

"Oh, should I be jealous?" Morgan asked, prompting a smirk from Reid as he opened his file to scan the contents.

"Only in your dreams, cher," she replied, bopping him on the head with a furry pen before advancing to the front of the room. "Should we wait for—"

"Here," Emily huffed, all but running into the room with her purse slung over her shoulder. Reid looked up quickly, looking for anything to indicate that he was on the right track, but she looked like her usual self. Maybe a little flustered, but…okay. "Here, sorry. I had—"

"A thing with a hard drive?" Rossi asked, prompting a laugh from Morgan.

Emily slowed, eyebrows drawing in confusion as she set her purse down. "N…no, Sergio—"

"It's fine, can we please get started?" Hotch said, rubbing his forehead. "Garcia?"

"Right," she said quickly, the bubbly techie clicking the remote and quickly turning away as the screen filled with images of strangled women. Reid rubbed his temple, squinting at the screen. Maybe he should consider starting that prescription. "So, we've got good news and bad news. The bad news is that we've got three women from Oak Ridge, Tennessee who were raped and then strangled, and dumped in a junkyard, a lake, and an alley, respectively."

Garcia paused, making doubly sure that she'd clicked the screen to the smiling headshots of the victims before turning to look. "Good news, they have a suspect in custody and enough probable cause to hold him indefinitely, so they're not asking us to fly in, just to give a profile based on what we know so they know where to look for evidence. No missing victims that they know of."

"Well, that's a pleasant surprise," Rossi said, swiping on his tablet. "Unsub's one Jason Hargrove."

"Yes, I have the skinny on skeezy Mr. Hargrove, and I would not want him anywhere near me," Garcia provided. Reid rubbed his temple harder, glancing at Emily as subtly as he could. She looked fine, focused on the case…maybe he was overreacting. Or worse, hallucinating. "Your detailed files contain all of his juicy exploits, for better or worse, and I would totally peg this guy as a sleazebag. And if that's all, I will leave you to discuss. Call me if you need me."

"Okay, so what do we make of this guy?" Rossi ventured, looking at the BAU members around the table. Morgan got up and meandered to the coffee pot, listening intently.

"Well…there isn't a lot of physical evidence, so he must be somewhat organized," Reid said quickly, hoping if he could contribute early they wouldn't bother him for the rest of the meeting. His head was killing him. Maybe it was caffeine withdrawal. "No DNA under the fingernails, but signs that they were awake while they were strangled. The sexual assault indicates someone who feels inadequate, maybe, and the age suggests he may be in his thirties or forties…they're all brunette, so we might be looking at someone taking out his frustrations on someone who looks like an old girlfriend, or wife."

Reid didn't notice the silence until he looked up, meeting a few questioning glances. "Well, do you want to give a couple of us a chance to pitch in?" Emily suggested with a good-natured smirk.

"Uh…right. Sorry." Reid said with an awkward smile, leaning back. Good, maybe they'd let him relax while they sorted the rest out.

Reid listened with half an ear as the team completed the profile, throwing in facts and statistics as he was called on. He mostly just rubbed his head, thinking he should've gotten something stronger than Tylenol. He was almost surprised forty minutes later when Hotch dismissed them, volunteering Morgan to call the ORPD with the profile. "The rest of you, enjoy the rest of your weekend," he said with a nod, collecting his things.

Reid figured this was as good a chance as any to talk to Emily, though the prospect was somewhat daunting. He'd never been good at talking. Well, he was quite good at rambling—about everything he knew—but it was mostly to compensate for the fact that he wasn't great at holding genuine conversations. Of course, he'd do his best. Maybe Emily would take pity on him and help him out.

"Uh…Prentiss? Um, Emily?" He asked, clutching the strap of his messenger bag nervously as she turned to face him, shrugging on her blazer.

"What's up?"

Reid waited a second until everyone else had cleared the room, Hotch nodding to him as he left, and struggled to find words. "Uh…sorry, I know that you probably have plans, but…do you want to grab coffee somewhere? I kind of…have something to talk to you about."

Even as he started speaking, Emily looked down and shook her head quickly, giving him a quick smile. "I'm sorry, Reid, I've actually got a thing—"

"It's important," he said quickly, following her down the catwalk. He didn't want to be pushy, as he knew he could absolutely be sometimes. However, despite the team's incessant jokes that he was more computer than human, he wasn't one to ignore gut feelings anymore than he could, and…this was a strong feeling. "Please? I'll buy."

Reid felt inexplicably dishonest with his words, as he was more insinuating there was something wrong with him. He wasn't going to correct himself, though. His head pounded, and he hoped Emily would say yes.

Emily looked like she was debating telling him no again, but finally, she shrugged, smiling slightly. "Uh…sure. Why not? I only have a couple hours, though."

Reid was surprised she agreed, so it took him a second to respond. "Uh…awesome! Great! There's this little place by my apartment building if you want? Or we could go somewhere by your place. Actually, I think it's 16.3 miles between us, and if I'm not mistaken there's a Starbucks about 8.2 miles between us, so if you want—"

"Your pick, Reid," she said with an indulgent pat on his shoulder, smiling at his characteristic rambling. "How's your weekend been?"

Reid launched into a vague description of a book series he'd read and a lengthy biography of the author and his accomplishments, which filled up a good portion of their travel time. That was good—Reid didn't want to let the conversation stray to him. He wanted to give Emily some time to talk, if that was what she wanted. Unfortunately, he wasn't very good at reciprocating, so all he could do was give a detailed account of Joao Rosa's fantastic books in a pathetic attempt to hide his nervousness.

Emily listened patiently for the most part, but even in his rambling zone, he watched her body language on the subway and walking down the street as much as he could without overtly staring. She was obviously not all there—he knew that for no other reason than she hadn't asked him to shut up yet—but she was on edge. She kept glancing over her shoulder and around the street, mumbling half-hearted acknowledgements every so often.

"—and he actually participated in a number of different professions, including authorship, medicine, diplomacy—"

"Reid, is this it?" She asked with a raised eyebrow, stopping in front of the small coffee shop a couple blocks from Reid's apartment. For convenience, Reid had thought about choosing the one by Emily's house, but he also knew that Emily had been meaning to try a new scone or something. She'd mentioned that, despite her inability to cook, she tried to make some blueberry scones that had nearly cost her the security deposit on her apartment.

The café by Reid's apartment had some blueberry scones that he'd wanted her to try, and he figured it was the perfect way to get her to relax enough to open up.

Reid was…quite out of his element, but he was comfortable enough around Emily. He took her coffee order and pointed her to a table by the window, ordering her favorite two-pump coffee and two scones, plus a coffee for himself.

He returned a few minutes later to find Emily staring pensively at her phone, which she hurriedly put away when he sat down. "So, Reid…everything okay?"

"Uh, yeah, yeah," Reid said, handing her the coffee and one of the scones. "Here, uh, you mentioned…the scones—"

Emily laughed before he could finish, looking properly chagrinned. "Yeah, the—the scones. That was…not my finest moment."

Reid laughed quietly, wondering how he should broach the conversation. "Yeah, um…I knew they didn't turn out like you hoped, so…yeah."

Emily gave him a look, sipping her coffee. "You're in a weird mood. Did something happen?" Reid didn't miss the controlled glance she sent out the window at the passing street.

"Um…no. Not…not with me, anyways." Reid felt his fingers tapping quickly against his leg, nervous without knowing why. "Um…are you okay?"

Emily tilted her head, swallowing her bite of scone. "What do you mean?"

"Well, uh…I'm not…good at this?" Reid said quietly, avoiding Emily's eyes. He glanced out the window, following her eyeline, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. "You know. Conversations like this. My, my mother often said that it was because my social skills were made for a chessboard and not for a club, but, you know, it, uh, seems to extend to the rest of society as well. And I guess that all goes to say, uh—"

"Reid," Emily interrupted, looking concerned now. That wasn't how he wanted this to go—he was trying to keep the focus on her. "Slow down. I'm listening."

Reid did. He took a deep breath and began again, fingering his coffee and forcing himself to look at his friend. "I just…I'm worried? About you." Before Emily could cut him off, he continued, rambling at a mile a minute. "You've been distant lately, and I know we have a no-profiling rule, but I couldn't really help but notice that you keep looking over your shoulder and taking weird phone calls that you don't want anyone to hear, which is fine, but you're also showing up late to work and disappearing from time to time, and that's, you know, not like you? And I know I…you know, might be overstepping or something so you can absolutely tell me to shut up and I'll shut up, but…I'm worried about you."

Emily's face had stayed carefully blank during his rant, but towards the end, he knew he saw a flicker of fear. Hesitation. It was such an uncharacteristic emotion on Emily's face that he didn't really know what to make of it. She was always so self-assured and assertive.

He didn't like the thick feeling of the silence, so he continued on, despite his discomfort. "You don't—I mean, you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, you know, we all have secrets and that's fine, but…but this seems like…you know. Something big. And I just wanted you to know that…you know, I'm not exactly the best option, but I'm…here. If you want to talk. I can listen, you know, not just…not just rant for hours. And you know the whole team is behind you, if you need help. You just…have to let us know."

He glanced away quickly and the end of his confession, feeling quite uncomfortable. He knew that he hid his emotions behind his intelligence, and letting those walls down even this much was difficult. But if it helped Emily, he supposed he could deal with it.

Emily was looking out the window, fiddling with her watch absently. She was nodding, her eyes scanning every available point in space beyond the window, like she was looking for something. Someone.

"You know…I thought I could do it," she said quietly, thoughtfully. Reid quickly shut his mouth, knowing that if he spoke now, he'd ruin it. "I thought I could…leave everything behind. Become a new person. But…something's caught up to me."

Reid listened, taking a sip of coffee. He wanted to ask what it was, and what he could do, and what the team could do…but despite his atrocious socialization skills, he knew this wasn't the time…so he remained silent.

"It's big, Spencer," she admitted, tapping her fingers on the table, smiling sadly. "It's pretty big. And very bad." She breathed slowly, looking around the coffee shop intently before continuing. "Reid…if I tell you, you know, there's…no going back. And I'm inclined to tell you to back off, but…" She shrugged, smiling ruefully as he looked at her intently, hoping he could do something to help his friend. "I know you're a stubborn one."

He laughed quietly, looking down. This was good. Maybe she'd trust him a little. "I don't mind. If there's no going back, you know. And the others won't, either."

Emily nodded, laughing under her breath. "It's big, Reid."

Reid nodded. "The BAU is bigger. And badder." He paused, hating the incorrect grammar the phrase entailed. "Worse. Whatever."

Emily smirked, shaking her head. "You never change." She sighed, looking away again. "Alright, Reid. Okay. If I tell you…it's putting you in danger, you know. This person…has already threatened you. All of you."

"Then he doesn't know us very well," he immediately responded, hoping the confident response would settle her nerves.

Thankfully, it seemed to do the trick. Emily leaned forward, folding her hands on the table, and began.

A/N: LOL look at me starting another work when I have four in progress. Ambition.

Anyways! I've been binge-watching Criminal Minds, and I'm totally in love with the dynamics of the BAU. I got to Season 6 and of course I had to explore another option for Emily's backstory coming to haunt her, so…this was born.

You don't really have to know Emily's entire backstory to understand the fic, or the entire backstory of everyone in the BAU. All you kind of need to know is that Emily pissed someone off and now they want to kill her, and that Reid had a drug problem but now he's clean, and everyone in the BAU loves each other a lot because family feels.

Please let me know what you think! I'd love to see some reviews if you feel so inclined. Updates will be spotty, but I don't abandon fics; it's all planned, just waiting to be written.

Above all, thanks for reading :D Hope you enjoyed!