I hope you're all doing well. Thank you for reading and I'd love to hear what you think!

I do not own Criminal Minds

JJ met Emily at the door to the bullpen. She had a visitors badge on and had changed since the morning. But the dark circles under her eyes were still there and they contrasted darkly against her pale face. But JJ knew the team would read nothing more into it than the fact that Emily was still recovering from her injury.

And when JJ looked at Emily she couldn't stop the tears that came to her eyes.

"Jayje," Emily stepped forward and pulled her into a hug, "what's going on?"

JJ opened her mouth to reply when someone said Emily's name.

Emily let go of JJ and they both turned toward Hotch who had stepped out of the conference room.

"Thank you for coming in," Hotch said as he walked toward the pair, "did JJ tell you about the case?"

"Uh, no," JJ said, clearing her throat, "I didn't have a chance."

"Okay," Hotch nodded, "why don't you come into the conference room." Emily followed him and he continued to talk, "we're trying to identify a missing person. We lifted prints from his possessions, but we haven't gotten a match."

"So you want me to run them through Interpol?"

"If you could that would be a lot of help."

"Do you have any reason to believe he's in the Interpol database?" Emily asked as they walked into the conference room.

"We believe he has recently traveled abroad and may be a foreign national."

"Okay," Emily said. She walked up to the board that had been covered with crime scene photos and began to examine them.

And even as JJ watched her closely, looking for some sort of reaction, she saw nothing.

"Is this a serial case?" Emily asked.

"At this point it doesn't appear so," Hotch said.

Emily nodded and continued to look over the images, "why is the BAU investigating?"

"I really can't give you any more details, I hope you understand."

"Of course," Emily replied. She turned away from the board and looked at Hotch. "Just send me the prints and I'll make sure they get run at Interpol."

"Garcia should be sending them now," Aaron said.

As if on queue, Emily's phone buzzed.

"Why don't you use my office," JJ offered.

Emily nodded and JJ walked with her out of the conference room. She gave JJ a knowing look, but said nothing. The bullpen wasn't the place. And when they got to JJ's office Emily turned, "give me a minute?"

JJ nodded.

Emily stepped into JJ's office and shut the door behind her. "Shit," she hissed. Then she dialed a number and waited while it rang.

"Prentiss," Easter said.

"Can you tell my why the BAU got assigned to the DeMarco case?" Emily hissed, keeping her voice low.

"Slow down," he said, "what happened?"

"The BAU got assigned to help the DC police on the Henry DeMarco case. Apparently they were requested."

"I have no idea why that would happen," Easter said, "do they know anything?"

"Not yet. They think DeMarco is in the Interpol database, but they haven't ID'd him yet. That's why they called me in."

"I'll get this all figured out," Clyde said, "let me talk to the director. Don't worry, okay? You were under Interpol orders. But Jesus, Prentiss, don't give them anything. It will be easier if we can get this figured out before they have him identified and start pointing fingers."

"Get this figured out, Clyde, quickly."

"I'll get this taken care of, Emily, I promise."

She hung up and opened the door, gesturing for JJ to join her. She walked in and closed the door.

"Why does the BAU have this case?" Emily asked quickly.

"Someone requested us. I don't know who or why."

"Okay," Emily nodded, "okay." She began to pace in JJ's office.

"What do I do?"

Emily stopped and turned to JJ, "you didn't do anything wrong here, okay? But we cannot let the team figure out what happened. Someone put the BAU on this case, and it's probably someone who knew what my orders were."

"But why would they want his death investigated? Especially if they wanted him dead?"

"I don't know," Emily shook her head, "but keep working with the team okay? And do whatever you can to keep them away from DeMarco. I'm going to keep working with the evidence we got from him. If we can figure out who set him up then maybe we can figure out why the BAU was assigned this case."

"Okay," JJ said. "I love you, Em."

"I love you too," Emily kissed her gently on the lips and then left the office.

XXX

The team sat around the conference table.

"Does anyone else find this a little weird?" Rossi asked, "we get put on a single missing persons case in DC, we don't know who requested us. The victim is unidentifiable, probably from abroad, and clearly running away from someone."

"Let's just try to work the case with what we have," Hotch said, "even if this isn't the type of case we usually work we can still help. Has Emily had any luck with Interpol?" Hotch looked at JJ.

"She's still waiting to hear back."

"Okay," Hotch nodded, "and anything on your end?" He looked at Reid.

"Nothing," he said, "sorry."

Hotch sighed, "anything on the UNSUB?"

"The DC police sent Garcia the fingerprints found at the scene. They didn't have any luck but are hoping the UNSUB might be in the FBI database," Rossi said.

"We should get those prints to Emily as well," Hotch said.

Hotch's phone rang and he picked it up, "Hotchner."

"Yes, okay," he grunted then hung up the phone, "I'll be back, keep working on the profile."

The rest of the team sat there, hashing out theories and going over evidence. JJ contributed, keeping her ideas away from the reality of what had happened. They had been going over the case for less than fifteen minutes when Hotch returned, his face grim.

"Everything okay?" Tara asked.

"Rossi, with me. The rest of you, keep working," Hotch ordered.

Rossi got up and followed Hotch out of the conference room.

"What was that about?" Reid asked.

"I have no idea," JJ said.

JJ, Reid, and Lewis continued to discuss the case, trying to come up with at least a preliminary profile. But after going back and forth for twenty minutes and still not coming up with anything, JJ's phone buzzed. She looked down and saw a message from Garcia asking JJ to meet her in her office. She left the conference room and walked downstairs.

"Do you have anything," JJ asked when she walked into Garcia's lair.

"Not yet. I was hoping I could get your help," she said, her voice void of its usual pep.

"Of course," JJ sat in the empty chair, "what do you need?"

"Hotch is asking me to work on the geography, to try to figure out the UNSUBs comfort zone," she said, not quite looking at JJ, but instead staring at her screen.

"How are we supposed to make a geographical profile? We only have one point."

"Oh, yeah," Penelope said uncertainly, "well, uh, then we should do something else."

"What's going on, Pen?" JJ asked.

"Nothing."

"Look at me," JJ demanded, waiting until Garcia reluctantly turned and met her gaze, "tell me what's going on."

"I hate this, I hate lying to you." Penelope was wringing her hands.

"Then don't. Whatever's going on, you can tell me."

Garcia bit her lip and looked at JJ. "I'm supposed to be distracting you," she said finally.

"Distracting me?" JJ asked.

"They're bringing in a suspect for questioning."

"And you're supposed to distract me from that? Why?"

"It's Emily."

"What's Emily?"

"The prints the DC police found... the reason they didn't get a match and I did, well, since Emily works undercover her prints have been removed from all databases. But I keep all your guys' information, you know, just in case."

"Garcia, what are you saying?"

"Emily's prints, they were at the crime scene, and I was supposed to distract you while they brought her in for questioning."