CHAPTER 17

Derek Morgan looked over at the glass doors as they opened, noticing Sam Cooper entering the bullpen. He smiled and waved. Cooper who had been walking towards Hotch's office before seeing the lights were off and door was shut, turned and walked over to Morgan's desk, greeting him, Garcia and JJ who were also there.

"Hey man how are things?" Morgan asked and he stood up and shook Cooper's hand while Garcia stood up from where she had been sitting on Morgan's desk and gave him a hug.

Cooper smiled and shook his head before answering, "Can't complain. I'm looking for Hotch. Do you know where he is?"

Morgan looked around the bullpen after noticing the lights off in Hotch's office as JJ answered, "He went to lunch with Em. They should be back in about half an hour."

Cooper looked down at his watch and shook his head before saying, "Damn, I'm heading into a meeting. Can you give him a message for me?"

"Sure."

Cooper leaned up against Morgan's desk as he said, "Can you tell him that it was Katie that handled that kidnapping case he asked me about yesterday. I was working out with a guy from Justice that use to work with the team on some cases back in the day and he confirmed it."

Morgan and JJ exchanged confused looks. They had just finished conferencing right before lunch and there had been no current case that included a kidnapping.

"Kidnapping case?" Garcia asked also confused.

"Yeah, the huge case from 10-15 years ago that involved the judge and the adoption lawyer. Katie was investigating a kidnapping and discovered that these scumbags had a whole illegal adoption operation that had been going on for years." Cooper answered as he handed Morgan a packet of papers.

"What?!" Morgan, JJ and Garcia all exclaimed at the same time.

"Yeah, I don't know why he was asking about it since these guys are in prison." Cooper answered as he shrugged.

JJ took a deep breath to calm herself before saying quietly, "I think it might relate to a consult he is currently working on." She gave both Morgan and Garcia a pointed look as she said it.

Cooper looked at the group intently. He had noticed their confusion when he mentioned kidnapping. The range of emotions that had past over each of their faces when he had described the case. Then JJ's weak explanation together with the look she was giving the other two as she stated Hotch's interest didn't fool him at all. Combine that with Hotch's nervous behavior the previous day and it added up to something weird going on.

But, looking at the clock on the wall, he couldn't dwell on that right now. He had to be in a meeting with Donaldson in 5 minutes who, unlike Strauss, didn't accept any excuses for tardiness.

"OK then. Hotch had already heard that it was BAU agent that broke the case. Josh knew exactly which case I was talking about yesterday when I mentioned it. Thanks for passing on the message. Tell him to let me know if he has any other questions." Cooper said before he walked away from the group, all of their eyes following him.

Once the glass door closed after Cooper exited, Morgan stood up and blurted out, "What the hell?"

Garcia's gazed shifted quickly between the two of them before saying tentatively, "You guys don't think…."

JJ sighed and shook her head before answering softly,"That is exactly what I think."

Morgan caught a glimpse of movement of other agents starting to filter back into the bullpen after lunch who were poorly attempting to eavesdrop on their conversation. With this being a discussion that didn't need an audience he turning back to JJ and Garcia and said in a voice only they could hear, "conference room. Baby Girl, bring your computer. We have some searches to run." Both nodded as they stood up and followed him up the stairs.

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As Hotch and Emily walked into the bullpen after lunch, they immediately noticed that no one from the team was there. Emily had planned on visiting the team for a few minutes before heading back to her office.

Turning to her husband she ask curiously, "Where is your team?"

Hotch shook his head before looking around the bullpen. As he did, he saw movement through the glass windows. Gesturing, he answered, "Conference room. Did you get a message about a new case while we were at lunch?"

Emily pulled her phone out of her pocket and looked at the screen before shaking her head as they walked out the stairs, "No, no messages."

When Hotch opened the door, he saw Garcia sitting on the opposite side of the round table frantically typing on the laptop while JJ and Morgan sat on either side of her with their focus also on the screen. Dave was sitting on the other side of the table with his back to Hotch. When they noticed the door open and Hotch standing there, the conversation in the room immediately stopped. As a few seconds passed, the tension increased. Not sure what was going on with his team, Hotch asked, "Is there a new case?"

For over a minute no one spoke. Then Morgan stood up and asked, "Why didn't you tell us?"

Hotch and Emily, who had moved into sight in the doorway, looked at each other before turning back to look at the 4 pairs of concerned eyes looking at them before Hotch said, "Tell you what?"

Dave shook his head at them before calmly answering, "Henry McRae and Peter Howard"

None of them missed the sudden looks of shock on Hotch and Emily's faces. If the issue hadn't been so serious, the uncharacteristic looks from both would have been comical. Then almost as quickly as the looks appeared they were gone. Hotch placed his hand on Emily lower back guiding her into the conference room. Once they were both inside the room, he closed the door before they walked over and sat at the table with the others.

Emily, still looking paler than usual, looked up from the table at the assembled group and quietly asked, "How did you...?"

Hotch hearing the uncertain tone in his wife's voice glared across the table. He had been trying to avoid this type of confrontation. They were planning to tell the team however all Emily had requested was some time to process the news.

He had specifically told Kevin the day before not to tell anyone what he was searching for and now he was pissed that Kevin couldn't even keep his mouth shut for even 24 hours. He sighed before grumbling, "Dammit, wait until I get my hands on Kevin."

The rest of the team look at each other confused before Morgan asked what all of them were wondering, "What does Kevin have to do with this?"

Hotch looked up surprised to see Garcia glaring back at him as she said, "why are you threatening my Kevie boo?"

Hotch looked at her surprised before asking, "then how do you….?"

Morgan answered, "Cooper." Hotch shook his head internally chastising himself. He hadn't asked Cooper not to say anything to the team as he had done with Kevin. It would have resulted in the other profiler becoming suspicious. 'At least I was able to talk to Emily about this last night.' he mumbled to himself.

"He stopped by earlier to see you and since you weren't in, he asked if we could pass a message and this along to you." Morgan took the papers that had been sitting next to Garcia's laptop and pushed it across the table so it was in front of Hotch.

The group sat in silence as the tension in the room grew until Dave quietly asked, "is this…"

Emily sat up and looked directly at the group as she answered firmly, "Yes."

JJ looked around at the group before softly saying, "If you aren't ready to tell us…."

Emily shook her head and stood up and started pacing as she said irritated, "it's not that. I just needed some time to process the news. I've only found out about this last night."

She turned back to the table and looked at the looks of concern and empathy of her friends. The people that had been standing behind her for not just the last month but for years. Yeah this isn't when or how she wanted to tell them but this is where they were.

She blew out the deep breath she had been holding as she sat back down at the table. She reached over and gave Hotch's hand a quick squeeze before she laced her hands in front of her on the table and said, "I guess we should start at the beginning."

Before she could say anything else, there was a light knock on the door just before it opened slightly and Reid stuck his head in and looked at the group before asking, "did I miss something guys? Do we have a case?" He had been a few minutes late getting back from lunch but hadn't received any urgent messages.

Hotch shook his head and waved him into the room, "no case. Come in and take a seat, Reid. We are just getting started." Spencer walked into the room, looking curiously at the range of expression on the faces of his colleagues and wondering what this meeting was about. He walked over to the open chair at the table and sat down.

Emily smiled and nodded at him before starting, "One of the items left to me by Sebastian Prentiss was the contents of a safety deposit box. A couple of weeks ago I went to the bank and emptied it and took the contents home to inventory all of it. There were various items in there including documents and receipts that our lawyer needed and my adoption papers."

The group looked at her surprised by the way she was referring to her father. It wasn't a secret that he had died when she was a young child. She rarely spoke of him however when she did, it had always been 'Dad' or 'Daddy' as opposed to the more formal 'Mother' than she had always used to refer to the Ambassador until recently when it was 'the Ambassador'.

Hotch then continued, "Sunday night I came across Emily's adoption papers for the first time. When I looked through them I was shocked to see those two names on them. I started in the prosecutor's office when they were being tried." There was an audible gasp in the room.

"Oh my god." JJ said as she leaned over to give Emily a hug.

"You aren't serious man." Morgan exclaimed looking back and forward between Hotch and Emily.

"Why go to Cooper and Kevin? Why not come to us? " Garcia asked quietly as the others nodded as they didn't understand either why the news had come from Cooper and were even shocked when Hotch had mentioned he had gone to Kevin for help.

Hotch nodded answering as he had been expecting the question before, "I didn't immediately share my suspicions with Emily. I was hoping I was wrong about the names and wanted to verify what I suspected before saying anything.

Yesterday morning, our lawyer did confirm it for me. While I was there he mentioned that it was a member of the BAU that cracked the case. When I went to Cooper, it was to ask if it had been his case."

"Cooper's message today was it was Katie Cole's case." Morgan interjected having forgotten to pass on all of Cooper's message.

Dave nodded before he said, "Yeah, she handled most of the cases at that time that involved children. Gideon handled the ones she didn't." He stopped and looked thoughtfully before continuing, "I remember hearing about this case. I wasn't in Quantico though during the investigation into that kidnapping. I was on the West coast working on the Tommy Yates case."

Turning to look at Emily, he said, "you should talk to Katie. I'm sure she will remember the case. It was catalyst for her leaving the BAU to go to Crimes Against Children."

Hotch nodded as he answered, "I've left her a couple of messages and she left one for me this morning. She's been in the field the last couple of days."

"But that doesn't explain how Kevin is involved." Garcia said.

Hotch sighed as he knew Garcia was territorial with her team and her position within the team. He knew he needed to be careful with the answer because the last thing he wanted was to upset her. He took a deep breath and said, "because of the age of the case, I was having trouble accessing the file so I asked him. I didn't come to you instead of Kevin or Dave before Cooper because I wanted to talk to Emily about it before anyone else found out.

The two of them don't know the rest of what's been happening over the last month so wouldn't put the pieces together like I knew both of you would have in under 5 minutes."

The group around the table nodded at his answer as they had figured it out quickly when speaking to Cooper

"I get it Aaron." Dave said.

Hotch was relieved to see Garcia nodding as well before she said, "sorry Hotch. I can understand too. I just want to help. Is there anything else you need now that all of us know?"

Before anyone could say anything, Reid interrupted, "sorry, I came in late. Who was involved in this case?"

"It's a closed case where a judge and adoption lawyer were buying and selling babies along with several other charges including kidnapping. Their names are Henry McRae and Peter Howard." Hotch answered.

Emily sat back in her seat before she said, "I've decided that I want to learn more about this case. Aaron is requesting access to the file from the prosecutor's office. I'm going to look through the complete FBI file once I can get it from archives. If anyone wants to help me go through the information, that would be great." There were murmurs and nodding around the table except from Reid who was looking down at the table in front of him.

"Hotch, were they convicted?"

"Yes, they were convicted along with a social worker who was also involved. As for the rest of the operation, several other tried and convicted of various charges. However there were some involved that they couldn't gather enough evidence to take them to trial and they knew others were involved but the investigation wasn't conclusive on the who part. The FBI investigated and the prosecutor's office prepped for this trial for over two years because of the complexity of it."

JJ looked over at her best friend as she said, "Emily, what are you hoping to learn?"

Emily scrunched up her brow as she answered confusedly, "I don't understand the question."

Morgan nodded and said while gesturing towards JJ, "I don't know if this was what JJ was asking but when we are helping go through the files, what do you want to learn? Only the information surrounding you? Or a full understanding on their whole operation?"

JJ nodded and answered, "Yes, exactly."

"I want to know what happened to me. How did they got me. Was I kidnapped or did my biological parents sell me to these guys? From the files, the summary evidence it appears that kidnapping isn't likely as that wasn't their MO until later but I want to confirm that."

Dave placed both of his palms on the table as he said, "Ok, we'll start there then."

All of the sudden Spencer pushed his chair back and stood up before muttering "Excuse me." The group looked at him with concern, none of them missing that he had been quiet for the last few minutes

"Spence?" JJ said softly as she started to walk around the table.

Spencer looked up nervously, avoiding eye contact with the team before saying, "I need to get some coffee, " as he walk away from the direction JJ was coming and out the conference room door. No one missed the full cup of coffee still sitting on the table in front of his seat that he had brought in with him.

Emily looked at the door he just past through. Her shoulders sagged when looking out the window she saw him bypass the break room and walk out of bullpen.

The room was silent. No one knew what to make of Reid's unexpected reaction. All of them knew how close he and Emily were.

Trying to break the tension in the room, Morgan asked, "Em, what are you going to do with the information? I mean you're 31. Do you really want to try and locate your biological parents?"

Emily looked up at him with glassy eyes before her expression quickly to anger as she answered. "Yes Derek, I'm well aware of how old I am. I don't know what I want to do with the information. I guess it will depend on what we find. Yes, I'll probably end up finding out my biological parents rejected me too since they didn't want me so much that they sold me to the highest bidder in the first place." With that she looked around the room, embarrassed at her outburst before turning and walking out the door behind her.

Morgan looked back to her with wide eyes before starting to walk after her. "Wait Emily, I didn't mean it like that."

Hotch stepped in front of him to block him from leaving the conference room. "Derek, let her go."

Hotch knew from experience that nothing good was going to come from Morgan chasing Emily down right now to talk. With as upset as she was, Emily needed a few minutes to herself before she would be ready to talk.

Turning to the rest of the team Hotch announced, "I want all of you to start on the cases for the day. I'll be back in a bit."

With that Dave walked out of the room towards the break room while JJ and Garcia walk out the other door towards the bullpen.

After he finished gathering all the papers from the table Hotch moved towards the door JJ and Garcia had just exited from to head to his office before going to find his wife and make sure she is OK.

Then he needed to find Reid and find out what in the hell was going on with him. So focused in what he was doing, Hotch didn't realize that there was still someone in the room with him.

Before he could walk out the door, Morgan approached him and said contritely, "Hotch, I wasn't trying to upset her. I just don't want her to get hurt."

Hotch looked at him and nodded. He knew how close Derek and Emily were. "I know, I asked her a similar question last night." Hotch pauses, sighed and shook his head before continuing, "it's why I didn't immediately mention to her that I recognized the names."

Hotch pauses and closed the door to conference room. He briefly thought about what he was going to say next.

He really wanted the other profiler to understand what he had profiled from Emily reaction to the news what her motivation for needing more information about how she had become involved with this operation. He took a deep breath before continuing, "from looking at the evidence we've seen, it appears as if she was sold to these people because the kidnappings didn't start until later. It is the part she's having the hardest time processing. And I'm certain she has just needs to know for sure. "

Morgan grimaced as he thought back at what he said given what Hotch just said. He felt like an idiot. Like the rest of them, she was an investigator. An investigator that had worked on cases involving kidnapping and trafficking. Of course she was going to want to uncover what happened to her.

Morgan then thought of what had happened right before he had made the comment that upset her. He had no idea what was going on with Reid. He had arrived late but had seemed fine until he wasn't. He along with everyone else didn't miss Emily's reaction when Reid had walked out. He was going to have a very serious talk with the boy genius next time he saw him. He shook his head before saying, "Reid walking out like he didn't help with how she is feeling either." As he said that Morgan didn't miss Hotch clenching his jaw or or the stormy look that crossed his eyes.

Morgan stepped towards the door as he said, "Hotch would it be OK with you if I went to talk to Emily. I really didn't mean to upset her. I want to apologise. Let her know that I'm all in with helping her find the answers she is looking for." Hotch sighed before as he considered what Morgan asked.

He knew Morgan wouldn't do anything to intentionally hurt Emily or anyone else on the team. He didn't even think that Emily was as angry with Morgan as it had appeared. The question came just after Reid walked out of the conference room after lying to them about needing to get coffee.

As upset as he was with Reid's actions, Hotch could tell that there was more going on with him. What it was however was a mystery as he seemed fine when he arrived in the conference room. To find out what happened Hotch knew he needed to talk to Reid and soon. Everyone on the team, except Blake who was teaching at Georgetown this afternoon, had seen what had happened. The issue needed to be addressed before it adversely affected the team.

Right now, Hotch decided that talking to Morgan and hearing that he supported her was going to help Emily more than anything, especially after Reid walking out, than Hotch could say at this point. He would see her that evening. That decision made, he turned back to Morgan and nodded as he said, "sure but let me right away if it doesn't go well. My guess is she is on the roof. She like to go up there to think when she's upset if the weather is nice."

"Ok man. Thanks." Morgan nodded and opened the door and walked out of the bullpen , heading towards the stairs.

AN: I hope the have the next chapter uploaded by the end of the week. In chapter 18, Reid explains his reaction to Dave and Hotch. Meanwhile, Emily opens up to Derek.