Chapter 9: Back to Work

The six week break that the team was required to take had come to an end. Everyone was looking forward to returning, even Prentiss and Reid. For Emily that also meant no more required counseling sessions. She only agreed because it was required for her to return to work. She did however go to someone else outside of work which really did help her, and still had a few sessions with this therapist.

Things were now starting to go back to how they were before the incident. As normal as possible that is, even though a month had passed, Spencer often found her staring at nothing. Sometimes he noticed that she had been crying. Emily Prentiss had always been a reserved person, but she became even more so after all of this.

She and Reid rode together to work today. Emily was glad to be returning to work, but she was also nervous. Spencer had sensed this and squeezed her hand to assure her that it was going to be okay. Only one other person on the team knew about what actually happened, and Emily hoped that it stayed that way.

During their break, Garcia had tried to reach out to Emily, only for her calls and texts not to be returned. Penelope knew that something must have been wrong because Emily would never deliberately ignore her. This had her worried, so she decided to go visit her best friend. She was shocked when it was Reid who answered the door.

Emily ended up walking up behind him when she heard him answer the door. Spencer was about to ask Penelope to come back another day, but Emily answered before he could do so. She knew that they could trust her. Penelope Garcia knew when to keep things shared with her to herself.

Everyone was excited to be back at work. When Spencer and Emily walked in, they were greeted with a warm welcome. Everyone was talking about what they did over their break from work. Rossi had invited everyone over for dinner after work that evening.

"Spencer, Emily!" Garcia called out to them as she saw them walk into the meeting room. She hugged both of her friends tightly. Hotch called everyone to the round table to inform them that they had a case waiting for them.

"I guess dinner is postponed." Rossi said right after Hotch informed them about the upcoming case.

"Sorry guys." Hotch apologized knowing that they were looking forward to dinner. He let them know that they would want to solve this case. He informed them that Ian Doyle had surfaced, and that Declan was missing. Just his name being mentioned made Emily cringe.

"He won't touch you, Emily. Over my dead body." Reid whispered so that only she could hear him. She relaxed some because she knew that he meant it. She was still scared for Declan, the boy that she fought so hard to keep safe. Emily hurried up and composed herself before anyone would say anything to her.

"Wheels up in thirty." Hotch stated as he left the round table to go back to his office. Morgan and JJ went to get their go bags. Garcia decided to take advantage of the fact that it was just Emily, Spencer and herself. She knew that she wouldn't be accompanying them on this case, so she reached out to them before they left.

"Don't hesitate to ask if you need anything." Penelope said as she pulled her best friend into another much-needed tight hug. Tears started to roll down Emily's cheeks. "I'm only a text or a phone call away." She reminded Emily. She also told Spencer the same thing.

"Thank you, Penelope." Prentiss replied as she dried her eyes before heading out of the meeting room. She tried her best not to smudge her make up that she had put on earlier. She then just ran off without saying anything else which alarmed the other two.

Before heading out, Emily ran to the restroom. She suddenly felt sick to her stomach. She didn't know if it was the thought of having to face Doyle again, or if it was the dinner that she and Spencer had eaten yesterday that didn't agree with her. She hurried out so they wouldn't come looking for her.

Everyone else had started making their way to the jet. Reid had stayed behind to wait for Emily. While waiting for her, he and Garcia were catching up. Emily eventually came out and was met with worried looks from her lover and best friend. She assured both of them that she was fine before either of them could say anything.

"Let's get going before Hotch comes looking for us or calls." Reid motioned for her to follow him out. When they boarded the jet, they got odd looks from their friends. The two of them pretended not to notice and took their seats at the table to play cards or chess.

"Chess or cards today, Dr. Reid." Emily asked earning a look from Spencer. They realized that they were now being watched by others. Both of them seemed to have forgotten that some of their co-workers were entertained by their games.

"Cards okay with you?" Reid asked as he took out the deck of cards and began shuffling them. Emily opened the jar of pretzels. She got a few weird looks when she started snacking on them instead of putting them out for their game and responded quickly.

"What!?" She said looking at the others. "I'm hungry." She added as she at another pretzel before placing them on the table. What no one else knew was that was all she could keep down at the moment.

Reid started off strong but started losing after a few rounds. Emily may have been winning at cards, but she was about to lose to another bout of nausea. She got up from the table mid round and bolted for the restroom. When she returned to the table, she was greeted with worried looks from those around her.

"Are you okay, Emily?" JJ asked causing Reid to sigh in relief. As much as he loved Morgan like a brother, he didn't want him unknowingly saying something insensitive to Emily in fear of it triggering her. Even thought things seemed to go back to normal, he sometimes saw her crying when seeing and hearing things that reminded her of the traumatic event.

"I'm fine." She stated hoping everyone would leave it at that. "Whatever I had last night hasn't been agreeing with me." She added hoping this was actually the cause. Spencer gave her an apologetic look since he was the one that suggested the restaurant the previous night. They continued their game until Hotch walked over and sat down with them to go over more details on the case. Emily cringed at the thought of having to hear and talk to Doyle again.

Hotch asked her if she would be okay doing so before making the plan. As much as she didn't want to, she knew it had to be done to solve the case once and for all. She figured Doyle must have known that she may have been pregnant at the time of the attack. Why else would he have attacked her the way that he did. Even though she would never forget what he did to her, she wanted to put this case behind her for good and move on with her life.

Since this destination was closer to home the flight was shorter. Just as Hotch finished going over the case the jet was landing. After getting off of the jet they went straight to the Baltimore police station. Once they settled in, they got to work immediately. Reid was the one who figured out that it actually wasn't Doyle who kidnapped Declan.

"Who better to ask than Doyle." Hotch suggested as Morgan and Rossi came back from investigating the house where Declan was taken from. They informed the others that the nanny who took care of him was shot and killed as well as the police details who were on shift watching the house at the time.

"Let's go find the bastard and bring him in for questioning." Morgan stated after hearing that Doyle may not actually be the unsub in this case. Hotch spoke up before they could say or do anything else.

"No need to, He's already here and in custody." Hotch informed them. This caused Emily's heart to sink because the man responsible for her despair was only a few feet away from her. Even if he was handcuffed and locked in a room, the thought of him still sent chills down her spine.

"I'll do it." Emily said hoping that her tone and expression didn't betray her. She got up from the chair she was sitting in and made her way towards the interrogation room where they were holding Doyle.

"Are you sure?" Hotch asked giving her a choice to back out if she didn't want to see her attacker face to face. She assured him that she would be fine. Since there were enough of them working on putting the pieces together, Reid snuck away to watch the interrogation with Hotch.

The unit chief didn't bother send him back either. He figured he'd send Reid in if the interrogation started going bad or was too much for Emily. He also knew that they were together, actually the whole team knew because of what happened at Ross's New Year's Eve party. Hotch didn't see an issue with them being together. Prentiss and Reid cared for each other very much, but they were professional when out in the field. So, it wasn't like their relationship got in the way of their job performance. If Strauss found out and for some reason tried to break up his team, Hotch had ammo to keep her quiet.

"I've got this." Prentiss replied as she went into question Doyle. Neither of them tried to stop her knowing it would be pointless to try. Ian Doyle sneered when he saw Emily come through the door. She started questioning him the second she sat down. "Who hates you enough to take your son?" She asked before he had the chance to say anything about their last encounter. He gave her a bitter laugh and spoke his mind.

"Well hello to you too." He laughed as he went on. Emily was not amused. "To answer your question, I would say you since you already took him once." He spat back at her. It was taking everything in her not to lash out on him for what he did to her. She also reminded him that if she hadn't faked Declan's death and hidden him, he would have been killed anyways.

"Now isn't the time, Doyle." She warned him that not cooperating won't help them find his son. The longer it took them to identify who took Declan the more danger he was in.

"Fine…" He mumbled a few other things as she asked him another question.

"We know his mother is still alive." Prentiss stated as she placed some pictures down on the table. She informed him that there was a woman involved in the kidnapping. "Which one is she and what did you do to piss her off?" Emily asked dreading the answer to the second half of that question. He looked through all of the photos that Emily had placed on the table and nodded remembering encounters with all of those women.

"I've slept with all of them." He admitted as he looked carefully through the photos again. He pulls one picture out of the stack and places it to the side. "Chloe Donaghy is the one, but I wouldn't call her a mother. She tried to kill Declan before he had the chance to live." He explained as he flicked the photo in Emily's direction.

"What did you do to her?" Emily asked and instantly regretted doing so.

"After I caught her trying to end the pregnancy by attempting to kill herself, I chained her to a bed for seven months. After Declan was born, I paid her off and hadn't seen her since then" He explained. After hearing that Emily thought she was going to be sick again. Even though Chloe Donaghy was a criminal, Emily felt sorry for her. No wonder she hated Doyle. Emily realized that could have possibly been her fate too had she not gotten out when she did.

"I don't blame her for hating you." Emily replied trying to get through the rest of the interrogation.

"You know, you would have been a great mother." He admitted. He looked at her with a sinister smile on his face. She knew what he was implying. "It's too bad you didn't get the chance to." He gave another bitter laugh as he tried to read her expression. Emily was fighting back tears. He just confirmed what had been plaguing her mind since the incident. He knew that she was pregnant somehow. That was why he let her live and what he meant when he told her he was going to take something that meant everything to her. She got up and left.

"This interrogation is over." She informed them as she tried to run off before anyone saw her break down. Reid was disgusted at what Doyle had admitted. He went straight to the interrogation room without saying a word to anyone. He was about to go in, but someone stopped him. He turned around and was surprised to see Emily who had run off minutes earlier. She came back knowing that Spencer was going to try and avenge her because of what Doyle admitted.

"He's not worth it." She reminded him that what he was about to do would cost him dearly. He gave her a defeated look as he walked away from the door. "Don't worry where he's going, he will never see his son again." She added hoping to stop him from losing control due to clouded judgment. Now they had some explaining to do because Hotch was standing there watching the two of them. He knew that Doyle had struck a nerve when Emily was questioning him. He started putting the pieces together, Reid rushing Prentiss to the hospital the evening she was rescued, Doyle striking a nerve with Emily at the mention of not getting the chance to be a mother, and Spencer Reid almost going into the interrogation room to possibly kill the man. That was when it dawned on him what had occurred, and he felt terrible that it happened at all.

"She's right you know." Hotch said giving them a sympathetic look now figuring out what had happened. Reid nodded curtly as he stormed off to cool down. He realized that Reid was hurt by Doyle's words too. Emily was about to go after Spencer, but Hotch stopped her before she could do so. "Is there something I should know about?" He asked out of concern. Emily shook her head failing to fight back the tears this time. He knew something must have happened when she was tortured by Doyle and she didn't want to talk about it. He wasn't going to force her to do so. He let her know that he was there for her if she needed him.

"Like I told Spencer, where he's going, he will never see his son again. Provided the justice system doesn't fail us." She stated trying so hard not to break down crying. Emily wanted justice to be served for all of the lives he had taken. He stopped her before she could run off.

"I can assure you he will not walk." Hotch reminded her of all the evidence against him, and that was just in the United States. "You know he could be sentenced to life if you pressed charges against him for what he did." He added. This confirmed that Hotch had figured out what had happened to her. She also knew he wouldn't say anything either.

"Only for him to escape again." Emily countered the unit chief's comment. He knew that she was terrified of the thought of him being out free. She knew that he meant well, but it seemed like everyone had forgotten that he escaped a prison in North Korea.

"It might not be another life sentence." He quipped back. Emily knew what he was implying, but that didn't make her feel much better either.

Hours later the case came to an end. None of them were prepared for how everything had played out. Emily was the most torn over the whole thing. She did everything that she could to protect Declan Doyle, but he still witnessed the atrocity that occurred right before him. His mother never wanted him, she kidnapped him and used him to lure his father to an old enemy so she could get paid. His father, mother and Lachlan McDermott were shot dead right in front of him. That was exactly what Emily tried so hard to protect him from.

"You saved him, Emily." Reid said as he sat down in the chair across from her. It was a quiet flight home being that the case ended how it did.

"That poor child is probably scarred for life though." She admitted trying to hold back the tears. Reid reached for her hand across the table and gave it squeeze letting her know that she did the best that she could. Emily was still feeling nauseous. She attempted to get up to get a bottle of water but didn't make it far before she fainted.

"Emily!" Spencer got up immediately and was by her side. He kept calling her name until she came around.

"What happened?" Emily asked a minute later as she tried to sit up. Reid told her that she had fainted as she got up from the chair to get water. She looked up to see five pairs of worried eyes looking at her.

"You fainted." Reid explained as he handed her a bottle of juice instead of water.

"Have you eaten anything today?" JJ asked as she offered Emily some saltines that she found on the jet. The blonde remembered that her friend had only had pretzels earlier this morning, and now it was almost midnight. Emily shook her head. Reid figured her not eating all day was what caused her to faint. He also talked Hotch out of calling the paramedics, which Emily was thankful for.

"Everyone took a seat when the pilot came on and said they would be landing shortly. It was just the two of them at the table again. Spencer took advantage of this and asked if she was okay.

"I wasn't able to keep anything down today." She admitted. His eyes widened at hearing this. She went the entire day not feeling well and didn't say anything. He vaguely remembered this morning and the jet, but he didn't realize she had been miserable all day because she hid it well.

"You didn't think to mention that?" He asked out of concern causing her to sigh. She reminded him that she did so this morning when she mentioned the previous night's dinner not agreeing with her.

"I did." She replied. He felt bad for not checking on her more.

"I'm sorry." He apologized. She also admitted that the thought of seeing Doyle again also made her sick to her stomach.

"Seeing that terrible man and hearing his awful confessions made me sick." She admitted hoping that he wasn't mad at her. "Please don't tell anyone that." She begged him to keep that between the two of them.

"Of course, love." He reassured Emily that her secrets were always safe with him. The jet landed and everyone got up from their seats and exited. Rossi decided that tonight was too late to host dinner.

"Dinner at my place tomorrow?" He asked everyone while they were still in the bull pen. Everyone took Rossi up on the invite as they left for the night.