New story. I debated posting for a while and decided to go for it. I own nothing but my own words, the plot, and the characters I've added. I certainly don't own Criminal Minds.

Chapter 1: Wanted

The team was gathered in the bullpen early on a Tuesday morning. They came back from a case late Sunday and were given that Monday off, so this was the beginning of their work week, and they weren't quite expecting the days that were coming.

The day off prepared them for an easy week, but they were going to get anything but.

JJ was the last to arrive. It was a busy morning with Henry and Michael, so she was running late, but she got there in one piece, just a little more exhausted than usual. She entered to find Spencer and Derek leaning against their desks and Dave beside them, arms crossed as they all stared up toward Hotch's office. This piqued her attention. What was going on? Her eyes followed to see that Hotch was in some kind of closed-door meeting and moved toward the guys.

"Who's Hotch talking with?" JJ asked as she put her bag down by her desk. She could see him pacing by the window through the slight opening in the blinds.

Without even looking at her, no hello, Derek answered, "We don't know."

"How long has he been in there?" she tried another question.

"About 30 minutes, I guess. They've been in there since before we got in," Dave said.

"I'd say a little longer," Spencer said. "I came in early and he was already in there. That was about forty-six minutes, 27, no 28 seconds ago. They haven't come out once, but Hotch did go by the window two times."

Derek finally tore his eyes away from the room and to her. "He looked frustrated."

"That's just Aaron," Dave added. "You know how he gets after a meeting, especially unexpected ones." Though, something told Dave that it was more than that. This was no normal meeting, and he was as curious as the rest of them about who was in there with him.

"No one has any idea who is in there with him?"

"Nope, but I have Baby Girl on it."

"Where is Garcia?"

"In her office. She just got in right before you and is down in her lair seeing if she can pull up any footage to tell us who's with Hotch."

"She's just as curious as the rest of us, huh?"

"Of course."

"I'm going to check in with her. Let me know if he comes out or anything happens."

"Will do," Spencer said, eyes still trained on Hotch's office, hoping to find some insight.

JJ pulled herself away, heading toward Garcia's office, thoughts formulating in her head. Most of his meetings turned out to be nothing, just a department thing or this or that, but this one seemed to have everyone on the edge of their seats. Maybe it was the mystery of who was in there with him and what they could be talking about for that long, but it gave them all a knot in their stomachs.

"Hey Pen."

"Morning Buttercup. Just getting in?"

"Yup. The guys told me you were playing junior detective. Find anything?"

"Not yet. Waiting for my babies to load up. Then I'll be all over it."

While they waited for the machines to power on and systems to load, Hotch was in a very unexpected meeting. When he came in that morning a little early after dropping Jack off at school, he planned to do a little left-over paperwork from the last case so that he could, hopefully, make it home in time for dinner with Jack. That wasn't likely to happen.

He just sat down with a deep breath as he took in the mass of documents that required his attention when there was an urgent knock on the door. Hotch looked up and was shocked to see the man that was standing there.

"What are you doing here?" he curiously asked, his eyes intently focused on the blue ones meeting his and his heart beating just a bit faster in anticipation. He wasn't sure what to expect from this visit. Which role would this man be playing this time? Friend or foe?

"Can I come in?"

"Sure, come in."

"Good. Thank you." The man sat down, hands clutched in his suit jacket pockets. "I need your help. It's about Emily."

"Emily?" That definitely had his attention. "What about her?"

"She's missing."

"Missing?" Hotch was at a loss. What the hell had been happening in London? And what was going on with Emily? Trouble seemed to find her everywhere. "What happened?"

"Honestly…" he sighed. "We're not sure and that is what I need your help with."

"You think she's in America?"

"It's a possibility. Right now, we really just need to find out what happened."

The meeting only became more stressful from there. Hotch went from sitting at his desk, hands painfully gripping at his hair to pacing around as they went through details, of which there were agonizingly few. They worked on ideas, trying to connect dots, but they were coming up empty. And it didn't help that the other man seemed to be as worried as he was either.

Outside of his office, he was oblivious to the time and the team who continued to watch and wait. They barely moved as they continued to discuss what could be going on in there. It was nearing time for the morning briefing and Hotch was still tucked away. That wasn't an ordinary occurrence. Over an hour in there and no word, no orders, nothing.

All of a sudden, a rush of commotion came into the bullpen, an excited tech analyst and a less than thrilled JJ following behind came running in.

"It's Clyde! Clyde's in Hotch's office!" Garcia declared.

"Clyde? As in Emily's Clyde?" Reid questioned.

"I don't know that he's Emily's Clyde, but it's Clyde Easter if that's what you're asking."

An attitude in his voice, Derek asked, "What's he doing here?"

"You think Emily's somewhere around here too?" JJ wondered.

"Or is he here about Emily?" Leave it to Rossi to bring in reality. They didn't want to ponder down that road yet. It wouldn't lead anywhere pretty with their minds set on worst case scenarios.

"At the very least, she might know why he's here. I'm going to call her," JJ said.

JJ pulled out her phone and clicked on Emily's name, dialing the London number. The team leaned in to listen as they waited for Emily to pick up. "I'm getting the voicemail," JJ told them.

"This is Emily Prentiss. I'm currently unavailable. Please leave your name, number, and a brief message. I'll get back to you as soon as I can."

"Hi Emily. It's JJ."

"And the one and only Penelope Garcia!"

"And Garcia," JJ continued. "It's been a little while since I last heard from you, so I wanted to check in. Also, the whole team is here and curious why Clyde's paying us a visit. Are you in town, too?"

"If you are you better come and see me, Emily the strange and great. We miss you!" Garcia said. Murmured chuckles could vaguely be heard around them.

"Anyway, I was just checking in. Give me a call, ok? Talk soon. Bye." JJ hung up, not comforted at all by the missed call. "Guess she's busy."

"She has a lot on her plate," Dave reasoned.

That was true. She did, but it was unusual for her not to answer. A silence settled on them as they pondered the missed call and the current circumstances, each calculating the time since they last talked with Emily.

"You know, I called Emily last week and got her voicemail too. She usually calls back pretty quickly. We haven't gone more than a week without some kind of communication since her move," Spencer said. They had biweekly Skype dates if their schedules allowed for it. "I haven't heard from her in over two weeks." And he was disappointed in himself for only just realizing that. Normally, he wouldn't think much of it, but Emily always sent a text or email if she couldn't respond with a call, so it was very atypical.

"She's probably just busy being the big shot Interpol boss lady," Derek rationalized.

"I haven't heard from her much either," JJ chimed in. "It's been about a month. Last time we talked she said that she was about to go on a case and would call me in a week or so after she got back."

It had been a while for all of them. And now, with Clyde there, Clyde whose only real connection to them was Emily. That didn't bode well.

"You think Clyde's here about Emily… Maybe something happened on a case…"

"And he's here to tell us in person…"

"What? Oh no… No! I don't like the way that sounds. Do you think she's ok?" Garcia worried. "Do I need to start looking through London hospitals for Emily?"

"Hold off on that," Dave quickly told her. They didn't need an international incident.

"One of us should go ask Hotch. See what's going on," Derek said. All eyes moved to Dave, silently nominating him for the job.

He returned that with a nod of acceptance and moved away from the desk. Uncrossing his arms, he headed up to the catwalk and gently rapped on Hotch's door.

"Just a second," Hotch called through the door.

Dave could hear the muffled, somewhat frenzied steps as the boss made his way to the door, presumably from his desk.

"Dave," he greeted the older man.

Dave's eyes narrowed as he tried to stealthily sneak a peek into the room. "Is everything ok?" He didn't have an answer. "We're waiting on you for the briefing. Is something going on?"

"Can you have everyone meet in the round table room? I'll be there in five."

"Sure… Sure. Is everything…"

Hotch cut him off and firmly stated, "Five minutes."

Hotch abruptly closed the door and returned to finishing his conversation with Clyde. Dave, meanwhile, was left with a double knot in the pit of his stomach after that interaction. His friend looked harried and stressed. That definitely didn't sit well, especially not now when Emily wasn't answering, and Clyde was in the picture. That didn't spell good news in any circumstance.

The only other time they interacted with Clyde was when the whole Doyle fiasco happened. Clyde liked to play a different game than them. He was fast and loose with the rules, but only because he was fiercely loyal and would do anything to help his friend. Still, in Dave's mind, for him to come to them, it would have to be serious and it would have to involve Emily. His mind whirled with the possibilities as he met back up with the team.

Immediately, he was hit with questions.

"That was fast."

"What did he say?"

"Did you see Clyde?"

"Did they look worried?"

"What's happening?"

"Quiet," Dave broke the barrage of questioning. "Hotch just said to meet him in the roundtable room."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

That didn't make any of them feel any better either.

"Did you at least see Clyde? Did he look worried?"

"They both looked worried," was all Dave said as he started walking to the roundtable room. They trailed behind as the words set in. If Hotch and Clyde were worried, they definitely were too.

As they sat around the table, they spat ideas out, passing along possible scenarios and profiling outcomes like they were doing a role playing game. None of them ended well. Their minds took them to the worst places, only a few times landing on happy endings, but they were being presumptuous. They didn't know anything at that point, thus the wandering mind.

"I think we're getting ahead of ourselves," Dave said, trying to be the voice of reason. "We don't know anything yet. It could just be that Emily's on a case, and they need our help."

"Yeah… Yeah, he's right," JJ tried to muster some enthusiasm and hope.

"But what's taking so long? It has to have been more than five minutes already," Derek said, getting impatient.

"I'm right here. Sorry to keep you waiting," Hotch spoke from the doorway, his tall commanding presence marred by a sense of discontent. "You all remember Clyde." He introduced the blonde Brit and ushered him into the room.

"What's he doing here?"

"I've come because I need your help," Clyde answered.

"On a case?" Their eyes widened slightly, hoping that was it: just about a case and not Emily related…

"In a sense, yes."

"In a sense?"

"I need your help with Emily," he started. "When was the last time any of you have heard from her?"

They all argued with him to just tell them what was going on. They didn't want to answer questions before they knew, but Hotch directed them to answer anyway. "It's important."

Similar to what they were saying earlier, the gang informed Clyde that even regularly set calls and communication have been lagging over the last month. When they called her, they got the voicemail or even on occasion, nothing at all. He wasn't shocked by that. He, too, noticed that she was a little off and much less communicative than normal, but with her, that wasn't necessarily something to be alarmed about, though definitely something to be conscious of. Emily had a terrible habit of getting into trouble and facing it alone, not ever asking for help.

"Now are you going to tell us what's going on?"

Clyde nodded and heavily sighed. "She is believed to be missing."

Not missing the word choice, Spencer was quick to jump on it. "Believed to be? What does that mean? There are doubts?" That begged for clarification.

"Yes, believed to be. About four weeks ago, Emily requested some time off. She had plenty of holiday time, and said she wanted to visit with her mother. She asked for two weeks' time and was given it, no questions."

"That doesn't make her missing," Derek pointed out.

"Correct. After two weeks passed, she called again and said she was delayed and would require another week. The call was flagged as unusual, but wasn't given much merit because the woman deserved some time off, especially after our last case. We lost an agent recently. However, I digress. The call was made even more pertinent when she failed to show up to work this week. Her mobile has been traced back to her flat. She was not there. Any efforts to track her have come up empty."

"Well, what about Elizabeth? Have you been in contact with her?"

"I spoke with her personally yesterday to no avail. Emily had no plans to meet with her mother. Elizabeth said that the last contact she had with Emily was over two months ago. They have spoken about plans for the holidays and played phone tag on occasion, but their contact isn't regular. I had Emily's team search for her. Records don't show her getting on or off any flight or transportation system. So, as of now, Emily is missing. I was hoping that you, Miss Garcia, would be able to help with that."

"Of course, of course, of course! You've come to the right gal. If anyone can find her, it's me," she said.

"I figured as much, thank you."

Garcia got right to work, grabbing her laptop from its bag and immediately clicking some keys to get started.

"Ok… So she's missing," Derek summed.

"Believed to be."

"Do you have any ideas as to what happened?" Reid asked.

Hotch and Clyde shared an ominous look. Everyone in the room found it hard to miss.

Dave's gaze narrowed as he asked, "What aren't you saying?"

"Hotch, come on. You have to tell us."

"Miss Garcia, if you wouldn't mind helping me out for a moment, I'd like to show you all something."

"Umm… Ok. What do you need?"

"My people have sent a file to Agent Hotchner. Could you be a darling and put it up on that screen?"

"I think I can manage," she said and hacked into Hotch's account to pull up the file. Clyde had to give her the encryption key to make things faster. Once it was up, all eyes were on the screen.

"This is a case file." Spencer stated the obvious.

Nodding, Clyde said, "It is. This is the Hadley case."

Derek questioned, "What's so special about it?"

"You think it's connected to Emily?"

"This one guy survived."

"Yes. That guy would be James Hadley. He's in critical condition. I've spoken with the doctors personally. They don't know yet if he'll ever regain consciousness."

Once again, someone asked how or if the case was related to Emily. Clyde vaguely told them that, though several IDs, mostly fake, were found at the scene, analysts determined that he was indeed James Hadley, and a friend of Emily's. research showed them as school mates in high school and friends since with little contact over more recent years. Garcia backed that up by pulling up Emily's yearbook and showing everyone their photos.

The team continued to peruse the file, looking at the gory pictures and the crime scene evidence, occasionally asking a question or two.

Spencer looked up from the tablet in front of him and said, "It says there was evidence. A fingerprint was found. Is there a suspect?"

Clyde nodded. "Yes. We got a match. That's how I came to be involved in a local investigation. I received a call once the print appeared in the system."

"Well? Who's the suspect and how does Emily fit into this other than just knowing the guy?"

His shoulders tensed as he stood before the other agents, preparing himself to tell them. "The print as well as some DNA evidence came back as a match to Interpol Agent Emily Prentiss. Right now, she's a prime suspect in the homicide investigation and wanted for questioning."

Slack jawed, the team just looked at each other in utter shock. Emily, their Emily is wanted in connection to a murder. There had to be more to the story… Right?

Well, there's the first chapter. Hope you enjoyed. Updates will be regular since the story is finished.