I took the very small liberty of showering (at an alarming speed) and changing out of the clothes I had been wearing before I ran two blocks to the shady convenience store I scoped out the minute I put in the papers to rent my apartment. I let out one calming breath before getting up the nerve to buy a (highly illegal) burner phone from the guy behind the counter. He didn't give me a second glance when I asked, just forked it over and barked that the total would be $30. I didn't even bat an eyelash. Just handed over the bills and sprinted for the street.

I took a cab to one of the lower income parts of town, sat myself on a bench at one of the community center parks and dialed each of my teammates one by one. I gave all of them the same message, "I'm in trouble. I can't explain it over the phone but I need your help. Please. I'm sorry to be so cryptic but I need your help. Meet me on the north side of the Brown Memorial park. Make sure you're not tailed."

Each one gave me varying versions of the same response, "I'll be there as soon as I can." "Don't worry Emily, I'm on my way." "Whatever it is, hang on. I'm coming." "Honey, I've got your back." "Coming." "Hold tight. I'm almost there, Prentiss."

I didn't have to wait long. Just as I knew they would, they all arrived within minutes of each other, all screeching to a halt (or, in Reid's case, hauling butt from the nearest subway station) upon their arrival. One thing about the BAU: they're efficient. Always ready to go, always prepared, always ready with a go bag. Hotch, whose house was the farthest away, was the last to arrive. When he did it was to the noise of all my friends clambering to get information from me, worriedly asking what the matter was, what was going on.

I saw no point in answering until Hotch arrived, besides quietly acknowledging that yes, yes, I was fine, I wasn't hurt. I didn't want to have to repeat myself. It was already going to be hard enough.

Hotch jumped out of his company issued car, yanking the keys out of the ignition. He hadn't even bothered buckling up. Though we weren't at the office, the minute he opened his mouth to question me, the rest of the team settled to allow him.

"Prentiss. What the hell is going on here?"

This was it. This would be the moment I would finally gain some purchase and have a fighting chance to get my baby back. Terrifying and liberating all at once, I dragged my hands down my face, then brought them to fists at my side.

"Guys, this...This is going to be hard to explain. It's not going to make a lot of sense and, if I'm being frank with you… It's probably going to piss you off."

"Why don't you let us decide that for ourselves, Prentiss. Come on. It's us. How bad could it be?" Derek Morgan's sympathetic, uber optimism (while appreciated) was crippling. And total B.S. They were going to flip once they learned what I had been keeping from them. Lying to them for two years, that was going to set us back, I knew it. The most important aspect of our team was trust. And they were about to learn that I had been constantly, repeatedly lying to them since the day they met me. Since they day they took me in as one of their own. This would not be an easy thing to reconcile, if it could be at all.

I'm pathetic. This is my daughter. I'm beating around the bush, wasting time worrying if my friends will be mad when my daughter's life is at stake here. Has been for two years. That tears it.

"Look, I'm going to tell you. I need all of you to sit through what I tell you without talking. Don't ask questions, don't accuse, don't interrupt. Just listen." She saw each of her team nod, puzzled but agreeable. They would listen. "I have a daughter. She's almost four. You don't know the guy. It was an ill advised relationship, but I… She's not on my personal records because I kept her quiet. In our line of work, you know how it is. Anyway, about a month before I joined the team I came home to find she'd been taken. Guy was good, didn't leave a trace-nothing. No prints, no DNA, no video on any of the near by cameras, didn't trigger any of my alarms. All he left was a note."

At this I pulled the very note out of my pocket, from where I'd stashed after reading the email. The paper was a little more worn than when I had gotten it, from being folded and unfolded, read and reread. Hotch took the note from me with pursed lips. He read but said nothing. The only hint of a reaction was his brow settling lower over his eyes, an angry almost menacing glare. He passed the note to Garcia who gasped and passed it to Morgan. As Morgan and Spencer read together (Reid peering over Derek's shoulder) I could see their eyes grow darker, get fiercer. JJ was the last to read. Her eyes blazed. "What the hell did you wait two years to tell us this for, Emily? Waiting to see if we were trustworthy?"

I couldn't look her in the eye, though her intense gaze followed mine everywhere. "I joined the team so I could have access to the resources that are available to you, the contacts. I have a few friends in the FBI, knew I could cash in few favors. I was supposed to join, catch the son of a bitch, get my daughter back and go back to living my life. I wasn't supposed to-"

"To what?" JJ barked, blonde hair flying back in the bitter North wind. "To constantly lie for two years to the people who have always had your back? To mislead the people who took you into their lives, their homes, their families?"

"JJ, I don't know what you want me to say." My stomach was knotting and bile rose in the back of my throat. First my daughter, next the closest thing I have to a sister. Worry and fear and anger swirled around inside my head and cut off my air. If I couldn't get Amy back and I didn't have the team to cope, I'd be lost. I'd have no one. I will have burned all my bridges for nothing.

"For the love of God, Prentiss, what were you thinking? What-" JJ began to round on me again, but Hotch intervened.

"As upsetting as this is, JJ, I think we have more pressing issues. The life of a little girl is at stake here. You're upset, that's fine. Be upset later. We," Hotch gestures to the others, tucking the note in his inside coat pocket, "Have a case."

A/N: Woo! Another day, another chapter. Tell me what you think!