Finale Fix

BONUS PROMPT: Surprise (Buffy)

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Missing Persons

PROMPT: Like Mother, Like Daughter (Happy Days)

--

This was the one thing Emily had wanted to avoid above anything else. There was a reason Cami wasn't part of her BAU life, and really, this was it. Emily wanted to ensure her daughter's safety and the best way for her to do that was to make sure no one else knew. She sat borderline catatonic in the conference room of the BAU, the rest of the team, including Hotch, brainstorming around her. At that moment, she had no idea what to do or where to even start.

Her daughter had been kidnapped by a serial killer.

How do you ever come to terms with that? She suddenly felt so much more sympathy for the victims that came across JJ's desk. Her daughter couldn't be dead. There was no way Cami wasn't going to come back to her alive and in one piece.

"Emily!"

She was thankful to see Matthew. She stood and allowed him to wrap his arms around her, hugging him as tightly to her as he was hugging her. His support was exactly what she needed, someone who knew Cami, who knew what she was going through. She outright clung to him, needing him, needing his support the same way she had when Cami had just been born, when she'd found out that she was pregnant to begin with.

"Could Foyet have found out about Cami?" Reid asked suddenly, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

"What?" Emily gasped out.

Reid's mouth opened and closed for a moment before he finally spoke, "Could he have found out that Cami provided the blood that saved Hotch's life?"

"He would have had to be in the hospital," Derek replied, shaking his head.

Emily felt her chest tightening. She'd managed to keep back tears, forced herself to stay stoic so she could help find her daughter, but this was starting to get to be too much. She looked up at Matthew when he cleared his throat.

"Em and I are going to go get some tea."

For the first time in a long time, she didn't argue. She wanted to be there, but Matthew, in his omnipotent ways, had managed to pre-empt what was going to turn into a necessary exit and made it graceful. Still, she didn't miss the significant look Matthew exchanged with the rest of the team.

Find Cami, it said, alive.

The mood in the room shifted once Emily was gone. The tension was still there, crackling under their skin, but they all could step back now, think rationally without having the mother of the 'victim' in the room. They could turn this clinical.

Hotch looked around at his team. "Foyet could have been in the hospital. He stabbed himself, whether it was to be part of the investigation or to knock suspicion off of him he stabbed himself."

The room was quiet for a moment, and Hotch took that time to look around at his team. There was something they knew. "What is it?"

"Nothing case, really," JJ said immediately.

He raised an eyebrow.

JJ huffed out a breath, rolling her eyes before pinning his gaze. "You know this isn't your fault, right?"

Ah. Right. He should have known his team would see through it, would know that he blamed himself.

"It's not," Dave agreed. "And Emily doesn't blame you."

"Can we just focus on getting her back?" Hotch asked, looking down at the information they had on George Foyet, on his crimes. But this was different.

The case was different, beyond the personal. He'd kidnapped Cami, one female victim. It seemed too easy to say he'd done it to get to him. He'd been at home for at least a week, why hadn't he just come and taken him down again, this time for good? Hotch would have been by himself, no one around to interrupt, and Foyet would have been able to torture like he always wanted. So why had he taken Cami when there were easier ways to get to the one he really wanted?

It was the foundation of his guilt. Of course he blamed himself for what Emily was currently going through. Her daughter was missing, kidnapped by a serial killer that wanted Hotch. That tore at his insides. He was dangerous to her, to her family. Hadn't this proven that now? He'd put her in danger by associating himself so intimately with her and now Cami was gone.

To top it off, Hotch felt jealous. She'd thrown herself at Matthew when he'd come in, but she'd barely looked at him. She blamed him too, that much was obvious. And he couldn't blame her. Still, he wanted to be the one comforting her through this. He wanted to be there for her, telling her everything would be okay, that they'd find Cami, bring Foyet in, and all of this wouldn't matter. It would all be over. And this time, they'd make damned sure Foyet couldn't and wouldn't escape. Even if it meant that Hotch had to make up a justifiable reason to put a bullet through his heart.

After this, George Foyet would never hurt his family. Any of them.

"Matthew, really, it's okay," Emily sighed, pushing the paper cup away.

"It's tea, Emily. Chamomile tea, and you need something to soothe your nerves. You're going to lose it."

Emily ran a hand through her already mussed hair. "How the hell can you sit there so calmly? This is your daughter too!"

"I know," Matthew replied, reaching out for her hand and resting his over hers. "But only one of us can panic at a time and right now, you need the comfort more than I do."

There was a moment of silence while Emily stared down into her cup. "What if she doesn't come back?"

"Em, come on. This is Cami we're talking about. She's a smart kid. A smart young woman," Matthew replied, his tone the same soothing one she recognized. He'd used that voice a million times through the years when she'd thought she was being a terrible mother, when she felt like Cami was losing out because of who she was, a teenaged mother.

"What does that mean?" Emily replied, anguish obvious in her voice.

"Cami's a lot like you, Em," Matthew answered. "She's smart, and she's resourceful."

"She's at the hands of a serial killer! It doesn't matter who you are, you're useless when facing that kind of fear."

"You know that's not true. You've taught her how to protect herself. She knows how to get through this by the simple merit of being your daughter. Even if she doesn't know it."

Emily knew the tears were welling in her eyes and knew, at this point, there was nothing she could do to stop them. "She has to come home, Matthew. She's my baby girl."

"She will, Em," Matthew said, gripping both of her hands tightly, hoping to convey the same support he'd always shown in her. "She's your daughter, your spitting image. She'll come home."

Neither of them were sure they could believe it.

I don't know when I'm going to get the next chance to update this. And by that, I mean I had it all planned out, but didn't write it down so I'm not sure where I'm going from here. I don't want to drag this out, but I don't want to speed through it either and that balance doesn't seem to want to find itself today. But I promise I haven't forgotten this, and I won't, I just have to figure out how to get from here to the end without it seeming too rushed.

Feedback is better than illegal drugs! Not that I would actually know...