Hey guys! We made it to chapter 20! Woo-hoo! I really hope you all have been enjoying this story so far. I appreciate all the support so far. You guys are amazing.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, I will be changing my uploading schedule for this story. Since the start of the story, I have been uploading every Tuesdays and Thursdays. I have decided that from now on I will upload once a week. This will help me have more time to continue writing the story. I want to improve the quality of my story and this change will definitely help. From now on, I will upload every Tuesday! Do not forget to follow me and this story in order to receive notifications when a new chapter is posted.

Thank you all for the support. Enjoy and be safe :)

Chapter 20

It was around seven in the afternoon. Emily was in the kitchen cooking dinner while Dani was upstairs in her room. She hasn't left her room since the argument. Emily wanted the situation to calm down so she decided to talk to Dani until dinner. She finished cooking, so she turned off the stove and washed her hands. Emily headed upstairs to Dani's room. She knocked on the door and not surprisingly, Dani didn't answer. Emily took a deep breath and opened the door, preparing herself mentally for another discussion. She went inside and saw Dani on top of her bed with her laptop.

"Hey, I wanted to tell you that dinner is ready," Emily said while leaning against the wall.

Dani looks up from her screen. "I'm not hungry. You can eat without me," she said and kept on typing.

Emily walks towards Dani, sitting on the side of her bed. "Dan, we need to talk."

"Can we not do this now," Dani said, closing her laptop.

"'Dani, I just want to know the truth. I can help you if-" she is interrupted by her phone buzzing. She quickly pulls out her phone and reads a message sent by Garcia. They have a new case in Pennsylvania. Emily sighs and places her phone down.

"New case?" Dani asked with a brow raised.

"Yes. we have to head out to Pennsylvania," Emily replied. "That doesn't matter right now. What matters right now is our conversation about what happened at school and about what I said earlier."

Dani stands up and places her laptop on top of her desk. "It doesn't matter. You have a case that you have to go to," the teen wanted to avoid Emily as much as she could. Even though she didn't want to admit it, Emily's words did get to her. She has heard the phrase sticks and stones may break my bones but words can never hurt me many times before but the agent's words felt like a knife stabbing through her chest. She walks to her closet and takes out a towel. "Ima take a shower. Anything you want to tell me before you leave?"

Emily looks at Dani and sighs. She knows the teen wants to avoid talking with her. Emily wanted to know what happened at school in order to clear things up but she didn't want to push the teen into talking. The agent hoped that once she came back from the case, Dani would open and tell her what happened.

Emily stands up and walks up to Dani. "Since you are suspended it means that you are grounded. No going out or anything of that sort," Emily said looking at Dani. Dani gives her a small nod. "As always, I will be in touch with you to see that everything is okay."

"Alright, I will get going," Dani said, walking out of her room.

"Dani, don't forget that I love you no matter what," said Emily with an honest tone.

Dani turns around and looks at Emily. "Good luck, agent," she says in a low volume. She leaves and heads in the bathroom.

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The BAU team is in the Jet. They are all gathered around Emily's phone, listening to Garcia explaining the case.

"All five victims are around the same age. A range from twenty to twenty-five. They all have different jobs and family structures though. I tried to see if they knew each other but nothing popped up," Garcia said.

"Well, we can see that our unsub chooses both male and female victims, so he doesn't choose his victims based on gender," Rossi said while looking at his tablet. "He doesn't have any racial preference either."

"Well, he does have the same M.O for all five victims. Blunt force trauma to the head and then decapitates the victim's arms and legs," stated Reid. "I just wonder if he decapitated them before or after post mortem,"

"Alright, Tara, JJ, and Luke, you will head off to the latest crime scene. Reid and Matt will check out all five autopsies. Rossi and I will set up the station," said Emily. The team nodded and all took a seat.

Emily sat at the back of the jet wondering what Dani was doing. Dani was grounded but she knows that the word grounded does not mix well with a teenager. But what really was clouding her thoughts was the question of why Dani got into a fight. She knows Dani didn't get in a fight only because a person was talking bad about her. She knows Dani better than that. Dani has her feelings made of steel, hardly ever broken. Dani wouldn't care about what a person says about her, it just doesn't reflect her profile. Emily knows it was something way more serious but she doesn't know what it was.

"Hey there," said Rossi while taking a seat across from Emily. "What has you so caught up in your thoughts?"

Emily looks up and meets Rossi's eyes. "Nothing, I was just thinking about the case."

"Are you seriously trying to lie to a profiler with years of experience under his belt?" Rossi asked with a brow raised. Emily lets out a small chuckle. "I've seen you with that face before, Emily. That is the face of a worried mother."

Emily lets out a sigh of defeat. "Is it that obvious?" she asked.

"It is," Rossi said while nodding. "Is there anything going on between you and Dani?"

"It's just that we got in an argument earlier in the day about her getting into a fight at school," Emily said. She rubbed her face lightly. "It… didn't end so well."

"An argument with a teenage girl," said Rossi. "I don't think those things ever end well."

"No, I don't think they ever do," Emily said with a small smile. "It's just that the argument got really heated and… I said something that I wasn't supposed to say," the agent said. She rested her head on her arm.

"What exactly did you say?" Rossi said while touching his beard.

"Her folder had a bag of Molly inside of it," she paused. "I asked her if she did not learn anything from her mother's mistakes with drug abuse ." she looks down, regretting every word she said.

"I see," Rossi said, nodding slowly. "I understand why that didn't end well. The topic of Dani's mother is very sensitive to talk to her in general. It's not very wise to bring her up like that."

"I know," said the brunette. "I said it without thinking. I tried to fix amends afterward but she just pushed me back. Honestly, I don't blame her."

"She just needs time to cool off," Rossi said. "I'm sure she knows you didn't mean to say that."

"God, I just feel like a total jerk," Emily said. "I can't believe I screwed up this badly."

"Parenting can be a very difficult job from time to time. You screw up but that is just part of growth," said the older agent. "Don't worry, Emily. You are not the first or last parent to mess up. At the end of the day, you and Dani will be just fine."