AN: There is one episode that initially inspired this story and a huge clue on what episode it is can be found in this chapter. Any guesses? Hope you enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my imagination and mistakes.

CHAPTER 19

It had been a bumpy 2 weeks since Emily had told the team that she wanted to look into the case concerning her adoption.

As promised, Spencer had come over that first evening to talk to Emily. He was reluctant at first to come into the house. That was until Emily took his hand and pulled him in, assuring him she wasn't upset at him. After settling in the family room, Reid explained everything to her about why he had reacted the way he did.

By the time Hotch came back down from their home office, he could tell both of them had been crying. When Reid left that evening, Emily was just as determined to help him find his truth as he was to help her find hers. He explained to the team why he had left the next day and they agreed that they should investigate his father's possible involvement as well.

The next day, Aaron had called his contact in the prosecutor's office to request the court records of the case for the team to review. Getting access to the records had ended up being a complicated process that ultimately required bringing Strauss into the negotiations.

It was finally agreed to give the BAU access however all of the records needed to stay at the FBI building because the prosecutor's office knew that there were still people involved in various capacities in this group that hadn't been caught yet.

Chief Strauss had granted them access to a rarely used conference room that was down past Garcia's office in order to delineate this case from their official workload. In addition, the team and Emily were the only ones granted access to this room so they could write on the dry erase boards and posted information as they organized it without anyone else knowing Emily's personal business.

Then earlier this week, Emily had met with Strauss to start the process of having her name officially changed within the Bureau to Hotchner. It was a decision that she had never thought that she would make having wanted to maintain her own identity professionally. But time had not helped with the sick feeling she had anytime someone referred to her as Prentiss.

When they had discussed it, Aaron had promised to support her in whatever she decided. They would work together through any confusion that having two BAU Unit Chiefs with the same last name would cause.

Strauss had understood the sudden request from the context of having heard about her adoption details from working with the team and the prosecutor's office. Strauss had promised to see what she could do to expedite the process for her.

Also taking Derek's suggestion, Emily sat Aaron down at home one evening and explained to him how she now felt about her inheritance. It had been hard to get started but once she did, Emily was grateful that he heard her out without interruption.

While she was nervously waiting for him to respond after she had finished explaining her mindset, Emily wondered what they would do if Aaron didn't want the same outcome as her.

However her fears were unfounded because he admitted that he also felt uneasy about her inheritance given what they have learned over the last month. They made tentative plans for it but the details hadn't been discussed yet. It had been enough at this point that they were on the same page.

When the team had gathered to discuss what Reid had revealed to Hotch and Dave along with what Emily wanted to know, they formulated a plan to accomplish both goals. It was decided that Garcia and Hotch would oversee the investigation about William Reid's possible connection with Emily and Dave's help.

The rationale for those two overseeing that part was Garcia's ability to run searches and find connections that weren't even possible 10-12 years earlier when the original investigation had occurred. Hotch was there to assure that if they did find a connection that they could provide a clean trail from the research that was already done in the FBI and prosecutor's files to William Reid that the BAU could then hand over to the prosecutor's office for evaluation.

The goal was to keep Spencer's memory out of it completely if possible to avoid needing to bring up what happened to him while kidnapped and making official what happened to him with the Dilaudid.

With him following through with the Las Vegas police 3 years earlier about the suspicion that William Reid had been the one to murder Riley Jenkins, it could potentially muddy the water with the prosecutor's office if he had been involved in this investigation, no matter how clear a path they were able to lay out. With that goal in mind, Spencer was not to be involved other than hearing the same updates as the rest of the team.

Surprisingly, after talking it through with Dave and Hotch, Spencer was OK with that, knowing that the team was going to fully investigate his suspicions. He was relieved to have finally talked about it and have that person, or in this case people, take him seriously and offer to investigate. It felt like a weight had been taken off his shoulders.

While Dave, Emily, Hotch and Garcia were investigating that, Spencer eagerly accepted being put in charge of overseeing how Emily came to be with the group and later adopted with JJ and Derek's help. Between the files that they had brought over from the FBI archives and what the prosecutor's office had sent over, there was a massive amount of paperwork to go through which made Reid the best person to oversee it.

As the days went on, the team was impressed by how many boxes of evidence were moving and how much information was being written on the board and posted on the walls. Given that this evidence had already been gone through by the original investigation, they immediately went through and eliminated the files for the babies who had already been identified as well as any boys. After that they had restricted the list further to encompass a time frame of 2 years before the official court date on Emily's adoption papers. Spencer was certain it was a much narrower time frame but had preferred to cast a wide net and then they could shrink it from there.

Two days earlier, Spencer was thrilled to have finally isolated what he was certain was the internal file number that they had used for Emily. They had slowly been able to eliminate the other girls adopted in the 2 year time frame by going through the evidence. He wasn't sure why but this file had an extra level of security that didn't exist with most of the other records. On the documents for the other babies they had found the adoptive family name written in however on these where the name had been written in it was now blacked out and replaced with a number.

Spencer had worked several hours trying to make sense of this number, discounting it was an anagram or a code. There was something familiar about it but he couldn't place it. It wasn't until he woke from a dream in the middle of the night that the possible answer came to him.

Unable to go back to sleep, he quickly got ready and headed into the BAU. Arriving at 4:30AM, he headed to the workroom after a brief stop in the break room for his morning cup of coffee. When he arrived, he went to the table looking for a specific document. When he found it, he turned to the last page and looked at the stamp before smiling.

The mystery number was identical to the docket number on Emily's adoption papers. At some point after the adoption was finalized for some yet to be known reason, someone had gone back and redacted the adoptive name and replaced it with this number.

Spencer was now 97% certain he had the correct file number. He spent the next 3 hours pulling together all of the documents with that file number while he also laid out the timeline.

As he was organizing the documents before needing to go to his desk, Spencer noticed something and took a closer look at the document. It was an information sheet and care instructions that the caregivers of the babies filled out and sent to the adoptive home after the adoption. It contain birth and current measurements, feeding information as well as other pertinent information such as birth marks listed.

As with the rest of the documents, the adoptive name had been blacked out on sheet however when Spencer went to put it aside, he noticed that the third carbon copy was still attached. When he turned the page, he let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. On the 3rd page, the indentions from when the document was filled out was still visible. And on it was the internal file number, the other number that Spencer now knew was the docket number for Emily's adoption as well as the name Prentiss clearly printed at the top as well as Sebastian Prentiss' signature at the bottom.

BINGO. Now he was 100% sure and knew he could bring the information that he, JJ and Morgan had found to Emily.

But, he thought as he looked at his watch, it would need to wait until the end of the day because he needed to get back to his desk.

####

It was late afternoon as Emily sat at her desk nervously. She had received a message earlier in the day that Spencer was ready to present the findings to her. On one hand, she wanted to walk down to the workroom and wait for everyone else to arrive. However that part of her was in direct conflict with the part of her that wanted to leave and go home to cuddle with her kids and forgot the whole investigation.

For most of the day, she had felt her anxiety rise as the time got closer to when she would hear what the findings were.

Her doubts about this investigation had risen with a vengeance two days earlier when she had overheard Derek and Spencer discussing where they were with the files and then Spencer mentioning offhand that, according to the records, October 12th was most likely not her actual date of birth. On top of everything else, it was hard to hear that she had been deceived about something as fundamental as the day she was born.

After that, the anxiety had Emily stepping back until they had found some concrete evidence. She found she needed some distance from the process. She needed to trust her closest friends to find the answers for her while she kept her focus on the confusing information they were finding on William Reid.

As they started, they had reviewed the information they had found when Spencer was investigating the Riley Jenkins case. The inconsistencies had immediately started when they started to track his movements around the dates of the phone call Spencer had mentioned as well as the day William Reid left his wife and son.

The date of the phone call had been the same day that Katie Cole had first interviewed Peter Howard as part of the FBI investigation into a botched kidnapping. When they saw that the day that William Reid abruptly disappeared was same was the first arrests were made on this case, they felt that it was no coincidence. Now they just needed to see where the evidence led them.

.As Emily was thinking about the next factors that they needed to look at on William Reid, there was a knock on her door. Looking up, she saw Morgan standing against the doorframe, grinning at her as he asked, "so are you ready Princess?" He could see how nervous Emily had been the last couple of days and decided to go to her office and walk to the workroom with her.

"I don't know." Emily responded shakily as she stood up and walked around her desk until she reached him. He reached over and squeezed her shoulder.

Derek smiled at her and tried to keep as relaxed as possible, hoping it would help her relax as well. "Hey, Em, it's going to be OK. We have some answers for you. Not everything but The Kid found a definite connection this morning. He figured out what that other number was. He also found a document that your father signed along with both numbers on it," he said as they walked out past the empty desks of her team and down the hall towards the work room.

"He's not my father." Emily mumbled quietly though Morgan still heard her. He sighed, knowing that the topic was a touchy subject, before saying, "Sorry, Princess."

When the reached the door to the workroom, he stopped and turned to look at her, waiting for her to look up at him. When she did, he said, "just remember no matter what you find out in this room, we are all here for you."

Emily nodded as she smiled at him and said, "Thanks Derek, let's do this" before she took a deep breath and opened the door.

####

As the team settled into the room, there was a buzz as they were anxious to hear what details had been found. A couple of minutes after Emily walked in with Derek Garcia came in holding her laptop followed immediately by Dave. Emily sat down at the table with Hotch sitting on one side of her while JJ took the chair on her other side. Once everyone else was seated, Reid stood up awkwardly at the front of the room and announced that he had a connection. Taking a deep breath, he started to talk while pointing out various documents they had tacked up on the wall.

"OK, as everyone knows we were able to isolate the file number that we thought was the one the group used for Emily. But we wanted to be sure. There was also another number in place of the adoptive family name on all of the paperwork associated with that number. They only did this with a few children . It isn't clear why other than it was done after the adoption was finalized and it was done to add an additional level of separation."

"How do you know it was done after the adoption was finalized?" Dave asked as he looked at Reid.

"Because the number they were using was the docket number the court used for the adoption." Reid said before turning his focus back to Emily and said, "I thought it looked familiar and then when I came in this morning, I confirmed it when I looked at your adoption papers. With that, I was 97% sure but I really wanted to be 100% sure before we presented it to you. Then when I was reviewing all the documents with those numbers this morning, I found this," Spencer said as he took on of the documents off the board and placed it in front of Emily before continuing, "as you can see both numbers are on this sheet and the adoptive family is blacked out."

"Yes, I see." Emily said distracted before Spencer smiled and turned up the top sheet to show her and the rest of the group the carbon copy underneath that had the same information however the family name was visible. "Oh my god, this is me," Emily says tearily as she touches the line where Prentiss is written before looking down at the signature line. "That is his signature."

"Yes, I compared it with the adoption papers." Spencer said solemnly before stepping back and giving Emily time.

After a couple of minutes, she looked up from the sheet and said, "OK, as far as we can tell, this is me. Was there any additional information other than what is on this sheet?"

"Yes, we have found most of the documents they used that have this file number so if you want, we can review what we found."

"Please."

"OK. As suspected earlier, we have further evidence that October 12th isn't the day you were born." Spencer paused before continuing, "the intake paperwork lists your date of birth was October 23rd. There are a couple possible reasons for that I'll come back to in a few minutes. However, we won't know for sure until we find the original birth certificate and that wasn't in the file."

Reid walked back over to the board and took down a couple more documents and brought them back to the table before saying, "Judge McRae signed off on custody being awarded to the Mr. Howard on November 3th. Sebastian Prentiss petitioned for adoption on November 9th and the judge granted it on November 13th."

Emily looked up at him in shock before looking over at Hotch and then back to Reid before she exclaimed, "four days. It only took 4 days to finalize the adoption. Wow!" Hotch too was surprised as they knew how long the whole process had taken them when Emily adopted Jack and that was with him already being the custodial parent.

After looking through the documents, Emily asked quietly, "Does it say why I was given up?"

Reid took a deep breath and looked at his friend with sad eyes, knowing this topic had been weighing heavily over her though he was pleased that they had found some answers, "yeah Em. Your biological mother was killed in a car accident." He paused as everyone at the table gasped before continuing,

"As next of kin, her mother had custody of you and was the one who contacted Mr Howard. The intake paper stated that she hadn't wanted her daughter to keep the baby in the first place. She stated that she had done research during her daughter's pregnancy as she wanted her daughter to put the baby up for adoption at birth which her daughter had refused to do. She had heard about this firm and that they offered money to birth parents. She said she needed the money."

Emily looked down at the top page of the intake document that Reid had placed before her and read through it. Her mother did want her and had even resisted pressure to give her up for adoption so that she could keep her. Wiping the side of her eye, she said quietly, "is there any information about my father?"

Reid nodded and turned the page of the intake document until he reached a new page, "your grandmother stated he was a soldier who at that point deployed to Vietnam. She stated that she didn't want to care for the infant indefinitely until and if he returned. She also stated she didn't think he even wanted the baby." Emily nodded at that and looked over the page with the information Reid had just stated about her biological father.

As Emily was looking over the document, Hotch asked as he placed his hand on her shoulder, "have you found any names?" Emily looked up at Reid, waiting to hear his answer.

Garcia nodded from her seat and opened her laptop as she said, "yeah if you have names I can run them and see if I get any hits."

Reid shook his head as he said, "Emily, your biological mother and father's names are not listed anywhere. We will probably need to find the original birth certificate for those."

Garcia, not to be deterred when they were so close to finding answers interjected, "not necessarily Gorgeous Grey Matter, if you have the grandmother's name I can do a search for her. It will shorten the list of possibles to her daughters."

Reid looked at her confused momentarily before going back to the board and pulling down another document. He turned the page before looking back up and saying, "OK, the grandmother's name is Mildred Jane Taylor."

Garcia started to rapidly type on her laptop before looking at him to ask, "birthdate?" Reid looked at her confused as he had already stated they weren't sure of Emily's actual birthday when Garcia looked up at him and said, "not Emily's, Mildred Taylor's birthday. Does it list her date of birth?"

"Oh." Reid looked down at the document and shakes his head, "no, not listed."

Garcia nodded and kept typing before then asking, "Does it list her hometown?"

Reid look at the document in front of him and then back up nodding as he said, "Commack, New York."

Morgan's head shot up and he said as he turned towards where Dave had been sitting "Wait, is that your hometown Dave?" He paused when he saw the chair empty having not noticed the elder profiler leave. Her turned back to the group before saying, "where did he go?"

Hotch frowned as he had noticed Dave quietly leave a couple of minutes earlier, "not sure but we can catch him up when he comes back."

The rest of the team looked around the room confused at Dave sudden absence until Garcia said excitedly, "OK, here we go. Mildred Jane Taylor. She had two children- a boy and a girl. Nathan and Emma. Mildred married early the following year to a judge named Keeler. Wonder if he knew that she illegally sold her grandchild. She died 2 years ago. Her husband retired shortly afterwards and is current under hospice care for terminal cancer. Nathan died 10 years ago." Garcia paused as she continued to type before stopped and looking at Emily as she said, "Emma's death certificate lists October 30th of that year as her date of death. Car accident."

The group was quiet for several minutes before Emily asked deflated, "So no living family."

Garcia nodded but before she could say anything, JJ placed her hand on top of Emily's and as she gave it a squeeze said, "there may be a father listed on the birth certificate."

Emily looked down and shrugged before she said, "yeah but it's unclear if he even knew of the pregnancy or if he wanted a child."

"I'll keep looking Gumdrop. Now that I have a name I can search for birth certificates with Emma Taylor listed as the mother. It's just going to take some time because not everything is digitized yet from then." Garcia said as she started typing away on her laptop again.

Emily looked over and gave her a sad smile before saying, "thanks PG." She paused before turning back to Reid and said, "Spencer, you mentioned earlier about possible reasons they would change the birthday that you would come back to."

"Yes, this group did routinely change birthdays or place of birth probably as a way to prevent anyone from easily creating a clean paper trail. However the 11 days from the 12th to the 23rd was long even for them. I believe there were other factors in play.

One of those factors is your biological father. I don't believe he was as much in the dark about the pregnancy as what is stated in the paperwork. I believe that they were concerned that he would return from deployment and challenge the adoption. Any challenge would have thrown light on their illegal operation which they wanted to avoid. He couldn't challenge the adoption if he couldn't find you.

The other likely factor is that they needed you to be older in order to finalize the adoption. According to state law at the time, for the process to be complete so they could finalize the adoption, you would have needed to be at least 30 days old. If you were actually born on October 23rd, then on November 13th, you would have only been 21 days old. That would have been another red flag if anyone had started to look into the adoption.

I also believe that both of these factors along with the professional positions the Prentiss' held is why the documents had extra levels of separation with names." After Spencer finished, silence filled the room.

After a few minutes, Emily looked up at her friends and colleagues sitting with her around the table. Nodding to them, she said, "thanks all of you," before she walked around the table hugging each one.

Hotch noticed she had made her way around the table and was now in an embrace with JJ as they spoke quietly to each other. Noticing the time on the clock Hotch said, "we should all head home. It's getting late." The group nodded and gathered their things before each of them walked out the door.

I will post the next chapter as soon as I have it ready. As hard as I try, it doesn't seem to be happening any quicker than every 7-10 days. In chapter 20- during a late night meeting one member of the team is drinking and revealing a shocking secret to another team member.