Chapter 33

Rossi glanced at Emily from the driver's seat. "It's not your fault, you know."

Emily scoffed at that and sat back in the passenger seat with her arms crossed in front of her. "Yes, it is. Jeremy only went after her to get to me."

"Would it be Hotch's fault if it was Jack that Jeremy Sayer was holding hostage?" Rossi asked rhetorically. Emily would never blame Hotch or Derek or JJ if it was one of their kids that Jeremy Sayer had at knifepoint. But she was never as kind to herself as she was to others. "No," Rossi answered his own question emphatically. "It wouldn't be his fault any more than it is yours."

"I should've been there," Emily said.

"I thought her father didn't want you there," Rossi reminded her. "You did what you could."

Emily shook her head. "It wasn't enough, was it?"

"You're talking like she's already dead. But she's not," Rossi pointed out. "She's alive, and she's going to stay that way."

"But for how long?" Emily questioned worriedly. She stared straight ahead, watching without really seeing as the black Suburban raced past the National Mall with its sirens blaring. She had to look away from the sympathy and understanding in Rossi's warm gaze because she didn't feel like she deserved it.

With Ian Doyle dead, Emily thought she could be a part of her daughter's life without endangering her, but she was wrong. Maybe it was selfish of Emily to want to know her child when she knew what kind of people the BAU had as enemies.

There was no way Jeremy Sayer was walking out of the townhouse a free man. There were only two possible ways for this to end – with Jeremy's arrest or, more likely, with suicide by cop. When Jeremy realized that, Emily didn't think he would go down without taking Hannah down with him. Her daughter was the closest substitute to the sister he couldn't find but resented more than anyone in the world. Hurting her daughter would be the next best thing to hurting his sister. And the only person Jeremy wanted to hurt more than Carrie was his mother.

"Long enough for us to save her," Rossi told Emily firmly. He didn't know what she was thinking, but he could tell from her deeply troubled expression that it was nothing good.

"He's right, Prentiss," Derek chimed in from the backseat. "Jeremy won't kill his hostage, not if he thinks he can use her to negotiate with us."

Emily knew they couldn't give Jeremy what he wanted. They couldn't tell him where his mother and sister were. And even if they could, it wouldn't end there. He would have what he originally wanted, but he would realize he was in a townhouse that was surrounded by FBI agents with no way out. They couldn't stand back and let Jeremy walk out of there, knowing what he was going to do if he got away. Jeremy was delusional if he really thought that was going to happen. The most they could do was try to buy some time by making Jeremy think they were trying to find Kendra and Carrie Sayer for him.

When they arrived at the townhouse, Emily was already out of the SUV before Rossi had even put it in park. She left her Glock in the glove box. She was going into the townhouse unarmed. She wore a vest, but she didn't think Jeremy even had a gun. He preferred knives.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Rossi asked Derek, who was also wearing a vest and preparing to go in with Emily. "You're a civilian now."

Jeremy wanted Emily and Derek there - and only Emily and Derek. He told them that via Hannah's father when Emily was on the phone with him.

Jeremy Sayer was recreating the circumstances of his arrest eight years ago, but this time he thought he was going to win. This time he was going to get the better of them. To redeem himself, he needed the two agents who were in his mom's house when he was arrested.

Rossi didn't have to ask Emily to know she was sure she wanted to do this. She would have gone in even if Jeremy hadn't asked for her by name. It was her daughter in there. And, yeah, maybe Emily was compromised because she was too emotionally involved but try telling her that. Hell, if it had been Joy, no one would have been able to stop David Rossi from going in to confront her captor, protocol be damned.

They were all guilty of it at one time or another. For Aaron Hotchner, it was when George Foyet was alone in his house with Haley and Jack. Of course, no one knew where Foyet was. It was Hotch who figured it out, and he beat them there.

Maybe it made Emily a hypocrite for sidelining Matt Simmons when Kristy was being held hostage, but that didn't matter right now. All that mattered was getting everyone out of this in one piece. The only person that was expendable was Jeremy Sayer. Emily thought she was expendable, but she wasn't…not to David Rossi, not to the BAU team, and not to Hannah.

"She can't go in alone," Derek said simply as they watched Emily stride purposefully toward the front door. "Hold up, Prentiss," he called out, jogging to catch up to her.

The rest of the BAU team would arrive within minutes and get into position surrounding the townhouse, but Emily and Derek weren't waiting for backup. They had comms in their ears and would know the second anyone had a clear shot at Jeremy. Until that happened, their only weapon was profiling. They had to get in Jeremy's head. Hannah's life depended on it.

When they entered the townhouse, Emily called out to Jeremy before moving into his line of sight. "Jeremy? It's Emily and Derek." She moved into the living room cautiously with her hands held up in front of her. "We're unarmed."

Her eyes were drawn not to the knife being held to her daughter's throat or to the killer she was there to negotiate with, but to her child's eyes which were glazed with fear. That was the first thing she saw…how truly and utterly terrified her young daughter was. She was the one who put that fear in Hannah's eyes. She may not be the one wielding the knife, but Hannah only had a knife to her throat because of who she was to Emily.

"Emily!" Hannah cried out for her. It was a plea that contained a mixture of relief and desperation at seeing the one person who she thought could save her. She sounded so young, like a little girl who wanted her mom after a nightmare, only this nightmare was very real.

Emily fought the urge to go to her child, ignoring her maternal instincts that suddenly kicked into overdrive and were telling her to take the girl into her arms and promise her that everything would be okay. Going to Hannah in that moment would make Jeremy panic. If he panicked, there was a good chance he would hurt Hannah.

Emily was so singularly focused on Hannah that she completely missed the look of confusion on Jeremy's face when Hannah called her by her name and not 'Mom.' If she had seen it, she may have been able to use it. Was it Hannah's fear or her own that had Emily missing things that any profiler worth their salt would have caught?

Shaking off the confusion, Jeremy's grip tightened on the handle of the knife. Not taking Emily at her word, Jeremy looked for himself to see if either of the feds had their guns. He remembered the asshole fed pointing his gun at him in his mom's house and threatening to put a bullet through his brain. Seeing that Emily and Derek really were unarmed gave Jeremy a confidence boost. He thought he had the upper hand, but he wasn't underestimating the feds either. Last time he saw the both of them, Jeremy was taken out of his mother's house in handcuffs. He hadn't forgotten that.

"Do you have your handcuffs?" He asked curiously.

"I do," Emily answered hesitantly as a feeling of sickening dread came over her. Jeremy liked tying people up. When he was thirteen, he used clothing like belts to tie kids up in order to scare their parents. Emily was already at a disadvantage because she was unarmed. If by some miracle she had a chance to disarm Jeremy, it would be hard to do that with her hands cuffed behind her back.

"Cuff yourselves," Jeremy said with unrestrained glee in his voice. He would so enjoy watching the asshole fed cuff himself with his own handcuffs.

"I have handcuffs, but Derek doesn't," Emily said with a glance at Derek.

"If you're lying-"

"She's not," Derek spoke up. "You'd know that if you came over here to see for yourself. What's the matter? You afraid to come over here and face me like a man?"

They knew Jeremy wasn't going to do that. He had positioned himself perfectly in a corner of the living room with Hannah standing in front of him. This was different from when Jeremy was holding his little sister hostage. Carrie was nine at the time. The top of her head only came up to his chest, giving Derek a clear shot at Jeremy's head. Hannah was fourteen and tall for her age. The top of her head came up just past Jeremy's chin. Although the rest of the team was now in position around the townhouse, Emily and Derek both knew that no one would be able to get a clear shot at Jeremy. None of the agents would risk their bullet hitting Hannah.

"You'd love that, wouldn't you?" Jeremy said, knowing he wouldn't win in a fight with the asshole fed. Not a fair fight anyway. "I'm good right here though," he told them. "Your daughter…she's hot," he said, speaking to Emily as he leaned in so close that Hannah could feel his hot breath on her face. "We're nice and cozy over here." The way Jeremy was leering at her young teenage daughter and what he was insinuating made Emily's skin crawl.

The implications of Jeremy's words were not lost on Hannah, who took a couple of shuddered breaths as she tried unsuccessfully to hold back a sob. When a strangled sound escaped her throat, it made Emily's heart clench painfully in her chest.

Jeremy turned his head to look at Emily. He could see the hatred and revulsion in her eyes. She couldn't do anything to him though, not when he had her daughter. "I can do whatever I want to her," he boasted. As if to demonstrate that, he glided the blade gently down to the point where Hannah's pale skin disappeared under the white button-down shirt she had worn to school. She was still in her uniform. With the tip of the knife, Jeremy sliced the top button off. Hannah visibly cringed, but he stopped there, having made his point without ever hurting her. The blade hadn't drawn one drop of blood. There was no cut left in its wake. It was only a quick demonstration of what he could do if he wanted to. "I won't hurt her though, not if you do what I say," he told Emily.

"I'm listening," Emily said with only a very slight edge to her voice, which was impressive considering the pure rage she felt in that moment.

Feeling like he was now completely in control, Jeremy smirked slightly. "Use your handcuffs to cuff Derek."

Emily threw Derek an apologetic look as she moved into place behind him. He put his hands behind his back and let her cuff him without any resistance. Honestly, he was just glad Emily was still free to make a move if she ever saw an opportunity.

Unfortunately, Jeremy had already decided to use a belt to tie Emily up. He shifted his gaze to Steve, who had never moved from his position at the bottom of the staircase. That was where the adoptive father was when Jeremy first entered the townhouse from the back door. Steve hadn't even taken one step toward his daughter when Jeremy ordered him to stay back. He still couldn't quite believe this was really happening. "You," Jeremy said suddenly, startling Steve out of a daze. "Tie Emily's hands behind her back with a belt."

Steve hesitated, looking at Emily uncertainly.

Emily merely moved her hands to her own belt buckle and undid it. She slid the black leather belt out of the loops of her dark wash jeans and held it out for Steve, nodding her permission when he approached. She looked into his eyes and saw that he looked even more terrified than Hannah if that was possible.

Steve took the proffered belt with trembling hands and used it to bind Emily's wrists together behind her back, fastening the belt as loosely as he dared.

"Okay, Jeremy, you have us all right where you want us. What's next? How about you tell us what you want?" Derek said somewhat confrontationally.

"You know what I want," Jeremy told them. "I want to know where my mom is. Tell me. Tell me, and I won't hurt Emily's daughter."

"We can look into her whereabouts-"

"You know where she is! You helped hide her and my sister!" Jeremy cut Emily off angrily.

"No, we didn't," Emily told him. "Your mother did that all by herself."

"You're lying," Jeremy accused.

"She's not lying," Derek asserted. "If your mother disappeared with your sister, it's because she didn't want to be found."

"My mom left town. She quit her job. She took her little sugar plum out of school. All to get away from me," Jeremy said bitterly. "She hates me that much."

"If they stayed in the same house where you grew up, you would have found them, and you would have killed them," Emily said knowingly. "And then you'd be back in prison, only this time you wouldn't just get eight years. You're not thirteen anymore, Jeremy. If you hurt anyone, you'll get life in prison. You don't want that, do you?"

Jeremy eyed Emily suspiciously. "You just don't want me to hurt your kid. You'd say anything to get me to let her go."

"You're right. I don't want you to hurt my kid. But you know who doesn't care about my kid? Your mother," Emily stated bluntly. "As long as Carrie's okay, your mother doesn't care who you hurt. You're holding a knife to my kid's throat, not Carrie's," she stressed that fact. "Hurting her won't hurt your mother."

"But it'll hurt you. Tell me where my mom is or I'll cut her neck open," Jeremy threatened. To show that he was serious, he brought the blade back up to rest against the base of Hannah's throat and pressed it into the soft skin there until she whimpered.

"You do that, and you'll be giving your mother exactly what she wants," Emily told him, playing to his desire to punish his mother. "You know, she wanted to be notified when you got out of prison. She's been living in fear since the day she received that letter from the Parole Board." They knew Jeremy liked scaring people. It would make him feel more powerful to know his mother was living every day afraid for Carrie. "If you earn yourself a one-way ticket back to prison, she'll finally be able to relax knowing she will never have to see you again."

"Do you want to die in prison, Jeremy?" Derek asked, picking right up where Emily left off. He was letting Emily take the lead on this. She was the leader of the BAU team, and it was her kid who was in danger. Whatever her play was here, he would back her up.

If Jeremy let Emily's daughter go now, it would be just like eight years ago. The second Jeremy let Carrie go, he lost. "If I let her go, I'm going to prison anyway," he said.

"That might be true, but you haven't actually hurt anyone yet," Emily tried to reason with him. "Let her go now, and you won't spend the rest of your life in prison."

When she saw her kid with a knife to her throat, Jeremy really thought Emily would tell him where his mom and his sister were. He thought Emily would do anything to save her kid. He didn't quite know what to do now. He didn't want to die in prison, but he also just didn't want to go back to prison, period. "I can't let her go. I can't go back to prison," he said as he adjusted his grip on the handle of the knife. His hands were sweaty. He was getting nervous. Maybe even scared. That made him more dangerous and unpredictable.

The time for talking was over. Emily needed to act now.

"Let her go, and I'll take her place," Emily offered, taking a presumptive step forward.

"What? No!" Hannah screamed, hysterical at the thought of her birth mother sacrificing herself for her. Emily told her not to leave the house alone, but she did it anyway. It was her fault this Michael Myers wannabe was in her house.

Emily gave Hannah a look that silenced the girl instantly. Slowly but surely Emily continued to close the distance between where she'd been standing at the edge of the living room rug and the corner where Jeremy was holding Hannah.

"Let me take her place," Emily said once she was within a few feet of Jeremy. "Hurting her will only hurt me. But hurting me? That will hurt Derek. That will hurt everyone on my team."

She saw the indecision flicker across Jeremy's face. He wasn't going to get anywhere near his mother, but that was still the person he wanted to hurt the most. It was never really about the BAU.

"And if you kill me, it will make national news. Wherever your mother is, she'll see what you did," Emily told Jeremy, her heart beating erratically in her chest. "A kid would only make the local news, but an FBI agent…"

"Emily," Hannah said in a panicked voice, not liking the sounds of that at all.

Jeremy just stared at Emily in disbelief. Why was she so ready to die for her kid? What made her kid so special? His own mom wouldn't care if he died.

"A dead FBI agent will be all over the news. The reporters…they'll keep digging until they find out that your mother abandoned you in a hospital when you were just a kid. And everyone will know she was a bad mother," Emily continued, allowing her disgust for Kendra Sayer's actions to show. Whatever Jeremy had done when he was thirteen, that wasn't the right thing to do. He was a kid who needed help.

Emily was only saying this to convince Jeremy to let her trade places with Hannah. Once Hannah was out of harm's way, Emily would try to maneuver it so that someone could get a clear shot a Jeremy. And if she couldn't do that, then she would try to take him down herself, even if she had to do it with her hands tied behind her back. She could still kick out or knee him.

But, if all else failed, Emily Prentiss would die for her daughter. She had been prepared to do that from the moment she walked through the door.

"Fine. You can take her place if you really want to," Jeremy told Emily.

He finally let go of Hannah and allowed his hands to drop to his sides, still clutching the large chef's knife in his right hand.

Emily was standing right in front of Hannah now, and they were face to face. Her daughter's face was white as a ghost. She could be in shock. Why else would she still be standing there?

"Go to your father," Emily prompted the girl gently.

Hannah took a hesitant step away from Jeremy and then stopped and turned to look back at Emily. She couldn't just leave her birth mother there.

"Hannah, come here!" Steve hissed in an urgent tone, wondering what his daughter was doing just standing there when Jeremy had let her go. He wanted his little girl as far away from Jeremy Sayer as possible.

When she heard that, Emily glanced over her shoulder at Hannah.

For maybe one second, Jeremy didn't have a hold on either Hannah or Emily. Emily was within arm's reach but had yet to move into the exact place her daughter had occupied a mere second before. That one second was enough for Jeremy to feel like he was losing…losing control, losing his hostage, losing the upper hand. In a final desperate act, he raised the knife. It was in the nanosecond that Emily was looking over her shoulder at Hannah that Jeremy brought the knife down in a deadly arc.

"Prentiss, look out!" Derek shouted a warning.

The warning made Emily turn back just as Jeremy drove the blade of the knife into her abdomen. She gasped and dropped to her knees, fighting a losing battle to stay conscious through the haze of pain.

Hannah watched all of this happen in complete and utter horror.

It was David Rossi's voice in the comm asking yet again if anyone had a clear shot that made Derek run straight at Hannah like a charging bull. With his hands cuffed behind him, he used his shoulder to physically move the girl who was too shocked to move. When he and Hannah were both out of the line of fire, Derek heard JJ say she had a shot.

"Cover your ears, okay, kid?" Derek told Hannah. "Cover your ears."

Hannah followed the instruction numbly. She didn't hear the crack of the bullet or the window shattering. She didn't hear the sirens on the ambulance that was turning into her neighborhood. She didn't hear Alex, who had been at the back door barking this entire time, go quiet when Luke holstered his weapon and went over to try to calm the poor dog down.

Within a matter of seconds, Jeremy was dead, and the townhouse was flooded with FBI agents.

Rossi kneeled down at Emily's side and used both of his hands to put pressure on her wound. She was bleeding badly. The ambulance better get there soon.

Reid uncuffed Derek, who joined Rossi at Emily's side. "How bad is it?" Derek asked.

Rossi looked up at him. "Pretty bad."

A/N: Thank you for reading!

To answer a question that a few reviewers had, yes, Hannah will definitely meet Declan, but that story line will be very angsty. I didn't originally have the Jeremy Sayer story line planned out but added it in as a way to include Derek after several people who reviewed asked for him to make an appearance. I feel like I need to include some fluffier chapters and let some time pass before another angsty story line. If I had to guess, I would say the start of the Declan story line is probably about ten chapters out, give or take a few chapters. I'm excited for what I have planned with Hannah and Declan and hope you all will like it when we get to that point (and stick with me until then). In the meantime, if anyone has been hoping to see Elizabeth Prentiss, that will happen in one of the next two chapters.