At 9:30 a.m. the signal is given for the Hogan's Alley drill to begin. Emily had driven in early that morning on her own to prepare her team for their role in the unusual game.
The rest of the BAU is split into two teams: Hotch, Reid and JJ, and Morgan and Rossi. Each team slowly makes their way through the maze of hallways, approaching each other from opposite sides of the building. Along the way they clear every room marked as part of the exercise. They find it incredibly odd that they have yet to encounter an unsub or Emily.
When they finally get to the room in middle of building, Emily is sitting on a chair in the center of it, her legs crossed. She grins calmly at them.
"Gee, looks like you caught me," she says easily.
Reid and Rossi both lower their guns. JJ, Hotch and Morgan suspect something is up and keep their weapons trained on her.
"Emily Prentiss, stand and put your hands in the air. You are under arrest," Morgan yells at her.
Emily starts to laugh, a hard look in her eyes. "Cute. How about you drop your guns? All of you? And perhaps I don't drop this?"
She holds up a remote with a blinking red light.
"What the hell is that?" Hotch demands as Reid and Rossi lift their guns once more.
"Deadman's switch. I release it and the building goes boom. And then you can be sure you'll never find the bombs on their way to 5 strategic locations around the DC area."
"Why are you just sitting here? Why are you…you not trying to escape?" Hotch questions warily.
"Because none of us are leaving here. If any of you make a move towards the door you will die. Drop your weapon, Agents, you're now my hostages."
"Why should we drop our- -"
The distinctive sound of guns being racked echoes through the room. Slowly the agents look up and see the 6 men in the rafters, their guns trained down on them.
"I won't ask again," Emily says cruelly.
Hotch and Morgan exchange a look. They had been set up to fail. Emily had been given everything she needed to defeat them, not to mention she knew how they worked. Hotch drops his gun to the side of his body.
"We surrender."
Emily stands and throws the switch she'd had across the room. She storms out, pissed that she'd had to do this to her friends. The men in the rafters drop down to the floor. Morgan looks at them in disbelief: they are just cadets. Emily was the only fully-trained agent they were up against and she had beaten them. He and Hotch exchange a look: they had been screwed.
Emily storms into the room where several people had observed the exercise. She points to the window.
"THAT was BULLSHIT! There is no way they had the correct information! They were not aware the rafters were in play! Not ONCE did they check them. What the fuck is this about?"
Director William Ryder stares at the furious agent. He slowly turns and looks at the director of the Secret Service who starts to answer.
"We simply wanted to see if your team could adapt to- -"
"BULLSHIT! I know what the write up said! But that's not what this accomplished. Nothing happened here except me beating my team in an unfair fight. Now what were you really looking to test?"
The head of the Secret Service looks at Ryder. "We'll be in touch, Bill."
The man leaves. Emily turns back to her boss and old family friend. "What the hell happened here today?"
Ryder sighs. "Honestly, Emily, I have no idea. And I hate it as much as you."
"Are they trying to take one of us? Because I will speak for myself and say I'll turn in my badge before I switch agencies."
"I swear, I don't know the endgame here. I only found out about this drill last night. I insisted on being here in hopes of getting an idea what they really want. I'll keep an eye on this. I promise: I'll find out what is really going on here."
Emily sees he is not lying. She slowly nods. "Thank you, sir."
"That said, good job."
"Thank you, sir. Of course, it's not hard to win a game stacked in your favour."
"True. I'll be in touch."
Ryder leaves the room. Emily sits down in one of the observation chairs. A few minutes later Hotch walks in.
"Nice job, Emily."
Emily raises an eyebrow. "It was a set-up, Hotch. You all couldn't win. And Ryder doesn't know why but the head of the Secret Service was here."
"That will all play out in time. What I don't like is that they set you up to be alone in the drill; they set you up to be Lauren Reynolds."
Emily flushes. "Yeah, there's that, too. To be honest, that's why I went with the capture I did. They gave me all sorts of more…violent ways to take the team down; ways I could separate you and pick you off. I couldn't do any of them. I just couldn't. If it had been a fair fight I might have tried them but not like this."
Hotch smiles at her. "I'm glad. My ego was wounded enough when cadets took us from the rafters."
Emily smiles. "You all didn't know the ceiling was in play, did you?"
"We were told a single level dwelling, 10' walls."
"Fucking bastards," Emily mutters. "This is totally pointless."
"Yes, it is. But I'd say you passed the test."
"Maybe. But then cussing the man out probably eliminated any good will I earned by capturing my team."
Hotch laughs. "True. Come on: time to let the others bitch you out over this one."
Emily smiles and stands to go see how her team feels about her "defeat" of them in this pointless drill. "I have a feeling I wasn't the one being tested."
"I feel the same way. As I said, it will play it out as it should in time. If Ryder really doesn't know what's going on it's other agencies planning something; either a joint task force or 'borrowing' one of my agents. And after this crap I'd be hard pressed to support either of those options."
"You may not have a choice, Hotch. If it really is above Ryder, we're screwed," she points out.
The two agents make their way down to the others. There is no need to voice the fact that they will keep their concerns private for now. Emily forces a smile to her face.
"I guess one of us was sent incorrect drill information. You all weren't expecting the rafters."
Morgan raises an eyebrow. "I'd say there was a hell of a lot we didn't know. We weren't aware there were explosives in play, either."
Emily frowns. "Really? That was my role: international terrorist planning a bombing in DC."
Morgan raises an eyebrow. "We were told you were a robber/kidnapper possibly with hostages and just 2 men working with you."
Emily shakes her head and looks at Hotch. The team leader steps forward. "It is obvious there is more at play with this scenario than we know. All we can do is continue to do our jobs until the truth comes to light."
"Are they going to try to draw Emily back undercover?" Reid asks.
Hotch shakes his head. "I don't think so. She'd have had a more active role if they were watching her. This was most likely about another one of us or possibly the team as a whole. Again, until more comes to light, it's just speculation. Let's forget it for now." He glances at his watch. "We have until noon to use the facility. Morgan, do you want to try the new entry procedure suggestions you have?"
Morgan recognizes he needs to help Hotch turn the team's mind away from the crazy drill they'd been put through. He nods. "Yeah, I'd like to try a couple of them. I'd also like to practice clearing a large facility with unknown obstacles in our path." He looks at Emily and grins. "And since you are already in unsub mode, you can continue to be the unsub. This time, expect it to be a fair fight, woman."
Emily laughs and rolls her eyes. "One hand tied behind my back and it will be fair, buddy."
"Oh, good grief," JJ mutters as she heads for the doors. "I'll be out here when the testosterone clears the air."
Everyone laughs as Hotch moves to Emily's side and the rest of the team follows Morgan. Five minutes later, Morgan gets the text with the scenario.
"Okay, we're entering a large warehouse. Doors in play are marked with a green X. Two unsubs but we do know they are armed and dangerous. One has been accused of rape and another is known to have used drugs and attacked police officers."
"Son of a bitch," JJ mumbles. Reid pats her arm, knowing the second unsub scenario hits too close to home.
"JJ, you take point, followed by Rossi then Reid. I'll bring up the rear."
"Why?" Reid asks.
"What?"
"You usually lead, why take the rear?"
Morgan smiles. "You're right, I do. But you once pointed out these are chances to learn and get used to doing things differently. That means for me, too. I have to learn to trust you all as much as you trust me."
"Oh, my God…Derek Morgan's growing up," JJ teases as the others chuckle.
He shakes his head. "Turn your ass around and lead us in, woman." He signals Hotch and Prentiss that the drill is starting.
JJ points her gun forward and moves quietly into the warehouse set up. She sees the place is wide open. She holds up her hand and signals for Reid and Morgan to go one way as she and Rossi go the other. This will keep the walls at their side as a natural barrier as they check out the perimeter of the building.
Reid and Rossi back their partners, checking door as they go along. When Reid finds an unlocked door, he taps Morgan on the shoulder. Morgan nods and covers the area in front of them as Reid enters to clear the room. A few doors up, someone eases the door open and peers out. Morgan tenses and takes a couple of steps forward before stopping, knowing he has to wait for Reid.
When his partner is back and whispers "clear' Morgan whispers what he has seen. As they move closer the lights in the building suddenly go out. All the agents freeze. Hotch's voice rings out of the darkness.
"This is not part of the dill. REPEAT! This is NOT part of the drill. Hold positions."
Flashlights come on as everyone waits to see what's going on. A few minutes later Hotch calls out again.
"Team, center of the room."
Everyone makes their way to the middle of the warehouse. Morgan glances around. "Uh, where's Emily?"
"Did she have a flashlight?" JJ asks.
"Nope," Emily answers from right behind her.
"SHIT!" JJ screams as her wife startles everyone. "I hate when you just appear like that."
"Me, too," Reid mumbles.
Emily just laughs. "I think it's kind of fun."
They see an approaching flashlight and know Hotch is coming with an explanation.
"Electrical fire blew the transformer. We'll have to reschedule the rest of the drill as they think the building is done for the day."
"Damn. And I was just about to beat Morgan in a hand-to-hand battle," Emily complains.
Morgan laughs. "You and what army, woman?"
"Uh, Reid, remind me, who was it that tapped out last time we sparred?" Emily says to the genius.
Reid grins at Morgan. "That would be Supervisory Special Agent Derek Morgan."
Emily nods. "Yep, I thought so."
"I let you win."
The entire team laughs. "You wish, buddy," Emily tells him.
They all tease each other a bit more. Finally Hotch takes control back.
"Okay, since we're done here for today, let's head back to the BAU. If they get it back up and running today we can maybe come back this afternoon. No one is booked in it so we can work up a few more scenarios."
The team is nearly back to their cars to drive back to their offices when Emily's phone rings.
"Hey, Pen," she answers.
"Em, good thing you had your phone forwarded to me. You just got a call from the lacrosse camp in Chestertown, Maryland. Declan got hurt and they think his wrist is broken. He's being taken to the local ER."
"SHIT! Uh, text me the contact info up there for the camp and the ER."
"You got it. Give him a hug for me."
"Right. Thanks, Pen." She hangs up and looks at the others. She tells them what happened. "Jen, can you catch a ride home with Pen?"
"Of course."
"Sorry, Hotch."
"Don't worry about it. Tell Declan we hope he feels better soon."
"I will. God, I'm really starting to hate ER's. Two of my kids in one week just fucking sucks."
Emily gives JJ a kiss goodbye and hops into the Hummer for the drive up to Declan's lacrosse camp. She calls the ER on the way to authorize them to do whatever they feel is necessary for him.
Back at her team, Morgan had looked at JJ, smiling. "Two of her kids?"
JJ nods proudly. "He calls us both 'Mom' sometimes. Especially Emily. He may be Tom's but he's ours, too."
"That's great, Jayje," he says sincerely. "I figure we all owe that kid a lot for bringing us the Emily we know and love."
JJ nods. "We sure as hell do, Derek."
