As Emily woke up once again, she was in front of JJ's house. Matthew looked at the laptop and then at the house.

"Yep, this is it. The brat must be inside. You see Emily, you'll be our hostage, and if you try to run, the kid dies. Henry, isn't it? He's pretty!"

Lady X showed her the screen, picturing Henry at his soccer game six months ago. She had been there, cheering him on.

"You can't do this. You don't need to. I'll do as you wish. Please, leave him alone. He's only a child!"

"Oh, stop the whining. Go on, go with her and introduce her as his new babysitter. If anything goes wrong, I'm right here."

The couple made out before both women were out of the car. As they walked to the steps, Emily fixed her jacket, hiding the blood stain in her shoulder. She rang the bell. Alex answered the door.

"Emily, how nice to see you. I thought JJ was finishing up at 6. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everything's fine, I just have the day off, and I asked JJ if I could take Henry to a movie, and she loved it. I'll be here until she comes home."

"Oh, ok. And you are?"

"Oh, she's my cousin, Henry wanted to meet her ever since I told him she was a firefighter."

"Well, I'm sure you'll just have a bunch of stories. I'll get ready and go."

"Ok."

As Alex turned down the hallway, Izzy sent Emily an appreciative look at her lying abilities. Emily hated that. Alex quickly left, talking about an exam she could have time to study for. Henry was asleep, and when Emily woke him up, he almost jumped on her.

"Calm down, little man. I want you to meet…"

"Izzy. I'm Emily's cousin."

"Hi."

The young boy hid behind Emily, and Emily picked him up and gave him a big hug and peppered him with kisses.

"I think it's time you go."

"Ok. I love you Henry. Your mom will be back in no time."

"Bye Auntie Em."

As she made her way back inside the car, the pain got the best of her and she fainted.

JJ and Rossi lurked behind the bushes. Man these guys were fucking stupid. The car they took was FBI. Of course it had a GPS. JJ saw Izzy first. Her heart started thumping as she got angrier and angried at the prospect of anyone messing with Henry. Rossi stayed behind, where he grabbed a baseball and flung it up on the roof. The noise alerted Izzy, who went outside to check what was going on. JJ went through Henry's bedroom window, and made her way into the kitchen. She grabbed Henry, covering his mouth and hid him in the closet.

Izzy took her by surprise. She had almost no time to draw her gun again. They struggled for it, and it hit the ground. JJ roundhouse kicked Izzy and she fell, but she was up short enough, and punched JJ in the mouth, then in the stomach. JJ hit her in the head with the butt of her gun, and Izzy was out.

When she woke up, the car had stopped, and the man was next to her. It was dark, but they were still inside the car. Artificial light was coming from somewhere to the back, and it looked like a parking lot. The man pricked her with a needle. She could feel the car shift its weight when the door to the trunk was closed roughly. She estimated they had taken all the bags out and were going to bomb this building, whatever it was. Would she go along with the bags or did they still need a hostage?

Emily took a deep breath. Everything started moving around her, and she tried to open the car door, but she couldn't reach for it. Was she paralyzed? She didn't think so. She could feel her toes against her shoes, clenching and unclenching. Her muscles felt weak. She felt sleepy. What the fuck was going to happen to her? She heard voices in the background, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. A hand suddenly grabbed her by the hair and pulled her out of the car. By the time she hit the ground, Emily was out like a light.

JJ went with Rossi, as Reid and Morgan went to a mall, thanks to Penelope keeping tabs on everyone through their phones.

Reid took the stairs to the second floor, and Morgan stayed back as people left in panic. He caught a glimpse of the Ex-Marine and ran after him. Reid found Emily chained to a column, white as a sheet and considerably soaked in her own blood.

Now that Emily could not struggle, Matthew diligently put on the vest full of explosives and two small boxes. He placed a tight chain that went around her neck, slightly cutting off her breathing supply. The man had a hard time wiping the blood off his hands. It was everywhere. In his hands, shirt, in her face, chest and shoulder.

Emily slipped back into the realm of the loving. She knew she was better now, the blood had stopped running down her side and she stopped losing consciousness.

"I want you alive to blow up. Strapping an agent full of explosives isn't as fun when she's dead. Believe me."

She looked down to her abdomen at the feel of a cell phone vibrating in a box. A ticking began. She had four minutes. The brunette tried to even her breathing, hoping the bomb squad could reach her in time. The man had left.

Reid tried to pull on the chains as soon as he saw the vest, but it was completely fucking useless. There was not enough time to get it all off her now. He looked around, finding a circular saw. He placed it on the chain, against the column and away from Emily. The noise was loud, echoing against the walls, sparks flying all over the place.

"Reid, Reid, listen to me. You need to leave. I won't get out of here on time. It's impossible. Please Spencer, go."

"No, Em. I'm not leaving you. You said it yourself, we're a family."

"And so I need to keep you safe. Here is not safe. We can't both die."

"We won't. I'm too awesome to not save you. I thought you knew that."

The chain fell, and Emily was still wearing the vest. A minute and a half. Two locks in Emily's side sealed the vest, and Reid carefully started working on it with the saw. Emily tried to stay as still as possible. One down, another one to go. One minute was up. The last lock broke at 50 seconds. She wiggled out of the vest and Reid grabbed her hand, running down the stairs and to the door.

Boom.

Emily woke up with a throbbing in her face and abdomen. A hand to both sides confirmed her left cheek had been stitched, and her side had no cuts. She groaned as she tried to get on her side, and almost fell of the bed as she realized it wasn't her spacey bed. It would have had been funny if it were any other situation. As soon as JJ caught her, she started talking really fast, crying and kissing her forehead and hands. Morgan stood there saying, "Good to see you're up, princess. God, I'm so sorry Em, but they had to amputate your legs. I'm so sorry!"

Emily's eyes got as big a saucers, her first instinct was to touch her legs and look, and what she saw was two unharmed legs, which, if JJ was writing this, would read, "creamy, fit, long and beautiful legs that she'd like to-", but she isn't. Considering the circumstances, Emily looked pretty good. She was bruised in her cheek, nose and a big cut in the lip. Only the cheek needed stitches. Her hair was messy, and if it were under any other circumstances, JJ would have thought it was the sexiest, cutest thing in the world! A punch in Morgan's gut made both of them think Emily was doing a lot better now.

Smack! Morgan grabbed the back of his head, JJ punching his shoulder and kicking his shin.

"Asshole! Do you want her to get a heart attack? I'll give you a heart attack!"

Emily reached for JJ's arm and the blonde stopped her assault on Morgan, not because of Emily asking her to, but because Emily pulled her until she was sitting in the bed, no longer being able to reach Morgan. Morgan laughed and apologized, leaving for his own good, to the suggestion of a very angry blonde.

Silence. JJ was glad they didn't leave things the way they did. This was the time to fix it. JJ turned around

"I'm sorry again. I shouldn't have treated you like I did. I just don't know what we'd do without you again. I don't even want to think about it."

"It's fine. You care, you get all mama bear on us, and it's Ok."

JJ laughed. She rubbed both eyes and yawned tiredly. Emily felt herself melting at the sight. She thought it was the first and last thing she wanted to see for the rest of her life. JJ blushed as Emily laughed.

"Tired, huh? How long have I been out? And how long have you been here for? How's Hnery? Oh my God, I'm so sorry, JJ, I tried, but they wouldn't budge-"

"He's fine, he's fine. It's Ok."

"Good. Is he around? You should leave. Get Morgan to give you a ride home. You look really tired, and you could spend some time with your son."

"Gee, Em, you really know how to sweeten a lady up. Henry's with Garcia, and judging by the amount of candy he ate, he's going to be up for a while."

Emily rolled her eyes, "He could visit me, if you'd like. And by what I said, you know what I mean. You could never look anything but beautiful. And you have to take care of that lip. Whose ass did you kick? I'm only saying you should get some sleep, in your bed" 'or possibly mine'. Emily blushed at the thought, and JJ could guess what had caused it. Her happy smile and sparkling eyes changed, and a look of fear crossed her face, only to be replaced by a look of anxiety. Emily immediately freaked out. Did JJ know what she was thinking? Would she get shot down in hospital bed, bruised and tired?

"Lady X. Em, we need to talk. About, well that." JJ pointed to her eyes, and Emily looked away, starting to bring up an excuse.

"Look, I'm tired, maybe we can talk about this some other time-"

"I want to take you on a date. Go to dinner and then watch a movie in my livingroom, and making out like teenagers, and if you're good maybe second base by the end of the night."

"What?"

"Well, fine, under the shirt over the bra then."

"You, you're asking me out?"

"Well, you certainly weren't going to. Hell, you pushed me to see Will"

"I thought that's what you wanted. I was trying to be a good friend."

"And I'm glad you were. Now I have Henry, even if Will never showed up again. It's not him I wanted. I want you."

Emily sat there in silence, trying to take it all in.

"So, what do you say?"

Emily sat up, bringing a hand to her chin, as if in thought. JJ refrained from rolling her eyes, and though every cell in her body knew she would say yes, a small part of her and Emily yelled a yes! As she hugged and shyly kissed JJ on the cheek. Rossi held Henry by the hand, the curtain separating them, but Rossi was pretty sure it was obvious. A mischievous look crossed his face, and he turned around with Henry, ready to give the team a lot to talk about.

I've always heard every ending is also a beginning, we just don't know it at the time. I'd like to believe that's true.