A/N: This chapter contains spoilers from last week's episode, Annihilator. I also use a directly quoted conversation between Emily and Reid because I felt it was the most powerful part of the episode and flows seamlessly with how I want this story to go. That being said, I do not own that conversation; the amazing writers do. Enjoy and please review!

Emily Prentiss was kind of a mess. She stayed in bed in her dark room after JJ left, going through a range of emotions from stressed to angry to devastated. When JJ was with her, it was easy to feel nothing else but her. The issue with that was the fact JJ wasn't hers to need. The one thing that cured everything in her was something she would never fully have.

She needed JJ more than she'd ever admit. She'd been in love with the younger woman for so long, she couldn't even remember the first time she'd realized the extent of her feelings. She did remember clearly the first time JJ had shown her she felt the same way. JJ had been kidnapped and tortured and Emily came from London to help the team find her. Emily stayed with Will and JJ until she was sure JJ was okay and one night, after Will and Henry had gone to bed, JJ came to the guest room to thank her for being there. JJ kept stressing how much it meant to her that Emily had shown up for her and helped her through the pain and flashbacks brought up by the abduction. That was the first time JJ kissed Emily. They kissed every night after that until Emily went back to London and they kissed at the airport and they went from texting daily to texting hundreds of times a day.

No one knew about the three times JJ visited her in London during the two years that followed. They hadn't done anything more than make out on Emily's bed, but it still felt like something huge. No one knew what it did to Emily when JJ called her to tell her she was pregnant again.

"It doesn't change anything," JJ had said through her tears on the phone that night. "I know I'm being selfish, Em, but we've been trying to have another baby for so long and I couldn't just stop. Not unless I wanted to tell him everything. You're over 3000 miles away."

"Stop being naive. It may not change anything for you, but it changes everything for me," Emily had snapped before hanging up. She'd known, in the back of her mind, that JJ was likely still having sex with her husband, but having the evidence of that thrown in her face made her feel sick.

They didn't speak to each other for six months.

Emily couldn't bear to sit there and think about JJ and their beautiful disaster of a relationship anymore. She couldn't sit and worry about what would happen to the team with Barnes in Missouri with them or how they would have to move on without her. She couldn't keep hoping for all the things she wanted in the world that she was never destined to have. The BAU did not belong to her. Jennifer Jareau did not belong to her. Everything she wanted and needed in life would always be just out of reach.

Emily went to her hall closet and grabbed some cardboard boxes and a roll of masking tape. She put together a few boxes and began to throw things into them, starting with what was on the walls.

CMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCMCM

Dr. Spencer Reid stayed behind when the team went to Missouri because he couldn't stand to work with Barnes, but also because he needed to see Prentiss. They had to come up with a plan to stop the Assistant Director, to reinstate Emily as their Unit Chief, and to keep the entire team together. He knew Emily would be ready and willing to fight for them, whatever it took.

Spencer was completely shocked when he stopped by and realized just the opposite was true. Emily was packing and planning on leaving them to go back to London. She acted as if there was nothing left worth fighting for, as if she had disgraced herself and the entire team by doing what it took to save him. He wasn't about to let her make helping him into what drove her away for good. Things were different now. Shewas different now. He had to fix this, fast, and there was only one person he could count on to know what to do. He texted her. "Call me. ASAP."

He listened to Emily continue to give her reasons for leaving, but they all sounded like baseless excuses to him. He helped her put things in boxes, much to his own dismay, but he would do anything to stay close to her at this point. He wasn't leaving her apartment until she agreed to stay. Finally, his phone rang. "Emily, I have to take this. I'll be right back." He went out of her apartment and to the other end of the hall, where she wouldn't be able to hear the conversation.

"Hey, JJ."

"Hey, Spence. How's the sick day?"

"Not great. Are you with Barnes?" Reid needed to get to the point fast so that he could get back in there and convince Emily to stay.

"No," JJ gave a relieved sigh. "Finally got a moment away. What's wrong?"

"I'm at Emily's. She wants to leave. She's already started packing and everything. Did you know about the recording?"

JJ was quiet for a moment. "Yeah. I did. She's leaving? She told you that?"

"She said going back to London is what's best for all of us. You have to help me. I have to try something to get her to stay."

"I've been texting her all day. She won't answer me." JJ's voice dripped with emotion. Reid knew this was a risk, reaching out to her. The way she felt about Emily had been obvious to him for quite some time and hearing about her London plans from him would likely cause her a lot of pain. "This isn't because of you or the recording, Spence. You know that, right?"

"All I know is I need something to tell her to get her to stay."

"Use names," JJ suggested.

"Names?"

"The names of the people she's saved. The names of the people she loves, the ones she'll leave behind. Tell her their names. Tell her our names." JJ took a shaky breath he could hear through the phone. "Spence?"

"Yeah, JJ?" Reid thought again that he probably shouldn't have called her, at least not until he had tried everything, but her idea could actually work.

"Please don't let her go."

"I'll do my best." Reid hung up and went back to Emily's apartment.

She was sitting in a chair, staring at the boxes with tears in her eyes. She looked up at him expectantly.

"It was JJ. She was wondering how you are. She said you aren't answering her texts."

"I just can't talk to her about this right now," she said softly.

It finally hit Reid that this might be about something more than Barnes, something bigger than the BAU. He didn't want to scare her into retreat by asking about her relationship with JJ, but for the first time, he came to the realization that their relationship might have already gone beyond feelings.

They would cross that bridge if Emily wanted to, but he wouldn't bring it up. For now, he sat across from her and pleaded with her. He told her he hadn't asked her to do something rash to save him, but she had anyway because that's what the BAU did for each other. That's what Hotch and JJ did for her when they faked her death. She held to the argument that what she did wasn't right. This wasn't getting anywhere, so he took JJ's advice and brought out the names.

"You want proof? Here are some examples. Michael Lee Peterson, Chad Higgins, Kathy and Jessica Evanson, Gloria Barker, and Declan Doyle. These are men, women, and children you've saved at the BAU. Personally."

"But that's our job!" Emily argued. "Yours. Mine. That's what we do. We save lives."

Reid didn't stop there. "And here's seven more that need it now. David Rossi, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia, Luke Alvez, Matt Simmons, Tara Lewis, Spencer Reid." His voice was insistent, desperate, and emotional.

"Stop," Emily said, but he knew he was getting through to her by the look on her face.

"I don't think you understand. After Hotch left, the team could have imploded, but it didn't because you were there. You were there to keep us together. We don't always have a choice in what happens to us, but you know what? Sometimes we do. And right now, I'm just asking you to make the choice to stay. Fight for us, you know, fight for the team! It's what we do. We fight for each other."

Emily was really crying now, but as she got up to hug him, she said the word he'd been begging to hear all day. "Okay."