As From Discretion Comes Isolation
Chapter 7

A/N - Thank for your continued support and your opinions on the story, it means a lot!

There was a harsh light streaming downwards which was concentrated directly on J.J.'s hard plastic seat. Despite her best efforts and her overwhelming tiredness she had not been able to get any sleep. With her eyes closed and her head resting lazily on her hand she could hear the noise of nurses scurrying around, trying to keep themselves busy through the long night shift. There was an occasional cry or alarm which sounded loudly causing movement among the staff but mostly there was an eerie silence as the patients slept. As she took a deep breath, the distinct smell of hospital food and disinfectant filled her nostrils, the whole scene was not pleasant and she wished she did not have to be there, but she did. This is not how she had expected her quiet first few days week in London to pan out. She was no stranger to uncomfortable nights in hospital waiting rooms, but she had never felt this fearful or wanted to hear good news so desperately. It differed so much to the last time they were in this situation. This time she didn't have to lie to her friends and watch their hearts break in front of her eyes. This time they were all waiting together, praying for the same outcome

No-one knew how long they had been dozing patiently in the waiting area of the London hospital, where all Interpol agents were given the access to private healthcare, when a flustered man came running into the ward. He looked clearly panicked just as the team had many hours ago when they had first arrived.

"Hello?" he looked around desperately in the empty corridor for a member of staff, running his fingers through his dark hair is frustration "can anyone tell me what has happened to Emily Prentiss?"

Hotch looked up at the sound of his friend's name. He too had struggled to sleep. He stood up quietly and walked out of the waiting room towards the man.

"I'm Aaron Hotchner, Emily's friend and former colleague from the FBI, may I ask who you are?"

The man stuck his hand out shakily, "Mr Hotchner it is a great pleasure to meet you, Emily has told me so much about you and your team at the BAU. I'm James Kelson, I'm on Emily's team at Interpol, what happened? My phone died last night so I put it on charge overnight and when I woke up this morning I had all these messages telling me Emily had been shot"

Hotch nodded, "I'm sorry we're meeting under such unfortunate circumstances, we wouldn't have known ourselves had we not organised to have dinner with her last night. She rang to tell us she was sorry that she was late and whilst she was on the phone he approached her in her office. As soon as we heard him we left to try and help her but he had already shot her by the time we arrived. Thankfully the janitor found her and kept the pressure on the wound and when the paramedics arrived they were able to stabilise her but she had to go into surgery as soon as she came in. She is in Intensive Care at the moment and we were told to wait here for any further news," he explained, slipping easily into professional mode.

James stared at him, unable to speak for a moment before he felt his jacket pocket, "sh-she gave me this yesterday morning, she told me to give this to you if..." he trailed off and handed Hotch a blank envelope with shaking fingers, "I'm going to get some coffee, I'll be back in a bit," he said still clearly shaken about the situation.

Hotch walked back into the waiting room staring at the envelope. J.J., Rossi and Morgan were now all awake and waiting to hear the new advancements. Garcia and Reid had volunteered to take the boys back to the hotel as no-one wanted them to experience a trip to the hospital during their holiday.

"Who was that?" Rossi asked as his friend sat beside him.

"A member of Prentiss' team, he's pretty shaken up, I think he's taking it all in, it must be hard to lose two of your teammates and then find out your boss has been shot, it puts you in a vulnerable position."

Morgan nodded, "what's with the envelope?"

"He gave it to me, he said Prentiss had given it to him yesterday morning to give to us if anything should happen to her" he replied beginning to open it. The page was filled with Emily's words, relaying information that she obviously felt needed to be told to her team no matter what.

Family,

If you're reading this letter it means something has happened to me but don't worry about that for now, I need you. Just weeks after starting at Interpol I received a text from a disposable cell which said 'look out for more x' there was also a link to a news article about a murder which had occurred the previous day, I looked into it but the local police had no leads so the trail went cold and my team had international cases to attend to. There was then a second murder almost exactly a month later except it was further north, I knew it wasn't a coincidence as the MO was too similar so began working on the case alongside my other cases. The murders continued once a month, alternating between the two locations until two weeks ago when the first member of my team was killed. This confirmed my suspicions that whoever the unsub was, he was getting closer to us. I had suspected someone had been stalking me from the start, possibly the unsub, so I locked down my team making everything on this case need-to-know only. James is the only other member of the team who knows what has been happening so any questions ask him and he can authorise you to consult on the case for Interpol so you are helping legally, I have also left the most important case files with him to help you. I need you to carry on where I left off, find the unsub and stop these murders. I have been working closely with pathologist Professor Leo Dalton and Dr Nikki Alexander of the Lyell Centre so please contact them to get started.

I'm sorry I've ruined your vacation, thank you I love you all - Emily.

There was a stunned silence as they finally understood the burden their friend had been carrying and they wished that she had not had to deal with it alone.

"I don't think there is any doubt that we are going to help Emily in whatever way possible" Hotch said calmly, "I know it'll be different from working cases back home but she has presented us with the information we need, hopefully fresh eyes will give the case a new perspective."

The others nodded in response before waiting for further instruction from their Unit Chief.

Hotch glanced at his watch, it read 7.43am, "I think it's best if Morgan and Dave you go back to the hotel, update Garcia and see what information she can access, then you can begin looking through Emily's notes, see how much of a working profile she had of our unsub. J.J., you and I will get Reid and visit the Lyell Centre and speak to this Professor Dalton and see how he can help us," he paused as he noticed that James had returned and was standing in the hallway clutching a polystyrene cup and a brown paper file, "keep in touch, any information we know will be beneficial," he concluded as he got to his feet.

"James" he said from the doorway, the man turned and smiled weakly "Emily has asked us to continue working the case whilst she can't, would you be able to elaborate on why she believed she was being stalked?"

He nodded solemnly, "after the first text we came to the conclusion that he was just trying to seek attention and instead of contacting the newspapers directly, he contacted us. However, after the second murder she began to see small and usually unnoticeable changes happening to her email account such as emails being deleted, folders renamed things like that so she contacted your technical analyst and asked her if they were signs of your account being hacked, pretending it was relevant to a case and she said yes. We put all sorts of firewalls up but he seemed to break through them, we learnt her phone was also being hacked but no matter how many times she changed her phone he broke into it as well. That is why she has been so distant over the past year, it isn't because she doesn't care about you, she really does but she couldn't risk him finding out any more about her life."

Hotch stared at him gravely, he thought back to how each of his team at some point had commented on the lack of contact they had had with Emily. They had laughed at how she was living the high life in London but he knew that they felt they were losing her, and now they knew why. "Thank you James, I know this must be hard for you. We are going to visit the Lyell Centre as Emily said in her letter that she had been working closely with the pathologists there, would you be able to authorise our team to consult on the case and stay here and update us if there is any change in her state?"

"Of course" he nodded and handed the file to him, "here is the case file she left with me, I suppose she wanted you to have it and if you need any extra information about the case, I'll be happy to help if I can."

"Thank you" he said as his team began to leave the waiting room, all of them tired and sore from their sleepless night but they had a job to do now. One of their own had been hurt and it was time to make them pay.