I really can't tell you guys how happy you all make me when I get emails telling me I have another review or story alert. It absolutely makes my day! I've changed up the way I wanted this chapter to go at least three times but now I think I finally got it where I want it! Hopefully you all like it!
Disclaimer: I don't own CM.
-kbrewster
It was only eleven in the morning, and Emily was already ready to call it quits for the day. Before she and Gabrielle had even left the house, Emily managed to spill hot coffee on herself. She quickly changed with just enough time to walk out the door and get Gabrielle to school on time and herself to work on time. Despite the fact they actually managed to leave on time, Gabrielle had left her math book on the counter so they had to turn around to retrieve it. They were both at least ten minutes late to their destinations that morning. She still felt like she smelled like coffee grains and while it was a nice smell to wake up to, it definitely didn't make a very appealing perfume.
Emily's boss was anything but on her side today, as he'd already screamed at her for things that were absolutely beyond her control. She had been working there longest out of all the employees, which normally always worked to her advantage, except when the boss was having a bad day. He took it all out on Emily, and normally she took it with a grain of salt. However, today she was about ready to give the man a piece of her mind. I may not be a Special Agent anymore, but I'm pretty sure I've still got it. I could take him. She thought bitterly to herself.
As if her day wasn't already turning out to be awful, a small child and his mother came into the store early that morning, and the child was one of the worst behaved children Emily had ever seen. He ran rampantly through the store knocking things off shelves, pulling clothes off hangers, and mismatching shoes. She was pretty sure she even saw him shoving various objects into a purse. Once the boy and his mother left the store, of course Emily was the one who was stuck on clean up duty. Alone. Great. She thought. I didn't want a break today anyway.
She was busy refolding some sweaters that had been thrown off a shelf in the midst of the attack of the temperamental toddler, when the very man she was ranting about in her head approached her.
"Madam Marie?" He said with a thick French accent. Though he could be somewhat of a jerk, he never seemed to forget his manners.
"Oui?" Emily replied in French.
"You have a phone call in the back. It sounded very urgent otherwise I would have made them call you back. I will cover for you here," he said.
She nodded, growing anxious. Her mind instantly went to Gabrielle. No one else would call her at work except for Gabrielle's school. She quickly walked to the back of the store to the "employees only" area. She took a deep breath and answered the phone that was waiting for her.
"Hello?" She asked, feeling like her heart would pound out of her chest.
"Emily?" She heard a very familiar voice ask, using a name she hadn't heard in ten years. She felt like she might pass out, so she gripped the countertop in one hand to maintain her balance. She felt tears well up in her eyes as she closed them, letting out a breath of air, putting a face to that voice. A voice she would never be able to mistake for anyone else's: Aaron Hotchner.
"A-Aaron?" she breathed, wondering if maybe she was in some kind of strange dream. Was the room actually spinning? She slowly sat down on the floor, not caring about anything else than the man on the other end of the line.
"God," he said. "It- it really is you. After all these years…"
"Yes," she choked out. "It's me… but how did you find me?" She said, feeling her stomach twist into a knot. There could be only two reasons he would be calling her: Doyle was dead, or he'd found her.
"Emily," he said, using her name again. "He found you. There was a note on my door this morning. You have to come back, Em. We need to protect you,"
Had she heard him right? Go back? To the States, back to him, back to Emily? Was that even an option? It had been ten years, how was she just supposed to show up in everyone's lives again? She felt her entire body shaking with fear, with anxiety, and maybe with a touch of excitement.
"Come back? Aaron, I don't… I don't know if I can do that," she said sadly. She wanted nothing more than to go back to DC, return to the way things were. But no matter how much she wanted it, she knew it would never be the same.
"Please," he begged. Emily had never heard him sound so desperate before. "Please, you have to come back. JJ told me… about the pregnancy. I can't let anything happen to you, not for real, and I can't let something happen to our child," he said.
Oh God. He knew about Gabrielle. Emily never wanted him to find out, not this way. She knew if Hotch had known about the baby, he would have worried himself sick for the rest of his life. Even if he would never meet her, Emily knew him too well to know just how good of a father he was.
"I'm so sorry," she said instantly. "I didn't want you to find out like this… I've wanted to tell you for so long," she heard her voice cracking with each word. "It's a girl, by the way," she said. "Her name is Gabrielle. I call her Gabby. God, Aaron she reminds me so much of you," she gushed quickly, knowing time was limited.
"Don't be sorry, it's not your fault," There was a brief pause, Emily imagined he was taking in what she told him. "A little girl, huh? Her name is beautiful. I'm sure she's beautiful. I can't wait to meet her, Em. We don't have much time to talk now, though. I want to know everything about her as soon as I can, but you need to get to the airport. There's a man waiting there for you. It's the same man who gave you your identity," he gave her a description: short light hair, most likely wearing a hat, and a grey jacket.
Then they had to hang up. Emily took all of five seconds to quickly stand from the floor, perhaps a bit too quickly as she noticed the room spinning again. But she didn't care, she pressed on, knowing she had to get to Gabrielle before something happened to her. She knew Gabrielle was who Doyle was after most. Emily had taken Declan away from him, so he was going to take Gabby from her. Not if she could help it, he wouldn't. She marched right up to her boss, already a story planted in her head.
"Monsieur," she started, picking at her fingernails for the first time in awhile, "It seems there has been a death in our extended family. I have to go get Gabby and leave for Italy right away," Emily lied smoothly, biting her lower lip.
Though her boss gave her an annoyed expression, he nodded for her to go on as he pushed his glasses back up on his nose.
She nodded her thanks and left the department store, fully aware that she would probably never go back. This was it, she had to face the past once again. She had hoped Doyle would believe the lie that was the death of Emily Prentiss. She should have known he would take it into serious investigation. After all, she'd pulled the same thing once before when she was Lauren Reynolds nearly twenty years ago.
She drove to Gabrielle's school located about ten minutes away from the store, growing shakier and more terrified each minute. She would explain things as much as she could to Gabrielle, leaving out unnecessary details. She would tell the short version, yes that was it. Only, what was the short version? She pondered.
She bit her thumbnail as she parked her car at the front of the school building. She mentally braced herself before going into the school building to sign Gabrielle out. Once inside, she talked to the woman at the front desk. She calmly explained that there had been a death in the extended family, and that they were going on a trip to Italy where the family lived so Gabrielle might be out for awhile. Emily was then asked to sign a few papers and was now waiting from Gabrielle to meet her in the office. She asked the woman who went to get Gabrielle to not say anything about the death, as Emily wanted to be the one to explain it to her.
Much quicker than Emily expected, the woman returned with Gabrielle at her side. Emily found herself blinking back the tears as the young girl approached her mother, a look of worry on her face.
Emily stood from the chair she had been sitting in, managing to greet Gabrielle with a smile. All the while Emily was fighting the urge to pick Gabrielle up and never let her go, she was terrified of something happening to her, and to see her walk through the door completely unharmed, unaware of what was about to happen made Emily want to save the moment, but she knew that just wasn't a possibility.
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"What's wrong?" Gabby asked as she approached her mother, immediately sensing something was not right. She couldn't recall a time in the past when she had been picked up from school early unless she had been sick.
"I'll tell you out in the car, okay? Come on, we need to leave now," Emily said, taking Gabrielle's school bag in one hand, and Gabrielle's hand in the other.
Though Gabrielle had many questions, she followed her mother out to the car. Once inside, Emily tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. She checked and double checked that all the windows were up and the doors were locked. Whatever was about to be said, Gabrielle knew it was serious. For one, Emily had let her sit in the front seat, something that was quite a rare occurrence. Second, Gabrielle knew her mother, and she knew how she acted when she was worried. Normally, she only worried over silly things. Things like, was Gabrielle wearing her seatbelt? Did she have enough lunch money? Were people nice to her at school? Had she remembered to turn the dryer off that morning? But this, this was something Gabrielle had never seen before. To be honest, it scared her a little bit.
"Can you tell me what's wrong?" Gabrielle asked timidly.
She watched as Emily bit her bottom lip and glanced towards her, Gabrielle noted the tears in her eyes. Emily took a breath and finally she spoke.
"Gabby, you trust me, don't you?"
"Of course I do, you're my Mom," Gabrielle confirmed, still wondering what had her mother so worked up.
"Okay, well what I'm going to tell you right now might make you angry at me, or make you think differently of me, but I need you to understand something for me. You mean absolutely everything to me, you know that don't you? I would do absolutely anything to keep you safe and out of danger," Emily rambled, her voice shaking as she dutifully picked her nails again.
Gabrielle nodded, not knowing what she was supposed to say to any of this. Emily continued.
"You know how when you ask me about your Father, I tell you you're not old enough to understand, or that there are some things that aren't supposed to be talked about?" Gabrielle nodded again.
"Well, sweetie. It's time for you to know some things that I've kept from you for your own protection,"
Gabrielle didn't know what to say. Were they in trouble? Was her father a bad man? Why hadn't Emily told her this yesterday, or this morning when she wasn't at school? The young girl found herself picking at the hem of her skirt, not wanting to make eye contact with the woman sitting next to her.
"Look at me," Emily coaxed, lifting Gabrielle's face lightly so she was looking at her.
"Before you were born, there was a bad man that wanted to hurt me," Emily started to explain. "He wanted to hurt me so badly, that I had to do something to make him stop looking for me. I had to pretend like I had died. So I moved away from where I lived previously in America. After I had already pretended I was dead and changed my name, I found out I was pregnant with you. I couldn't tell your father, because the bad man might have found us. I wanted to keep him and all my other friends safe, and keep you safe. So I only told one person who helped me escape. Your dad still lives in America, sweetheart. He's there, and he loves you so much. I have always wanted you to meet, but it just wasn't possible with the bad man after me. But… I got a call at work this morning, from your dad. I haven't talked to him in ten years, but he told me… he told me that the bad guy had found us. So we have to go to America, okay? We're going to get on a plane and we're going to get away from here," by the time Emily finished her story, she was crying. Gabrielle was too stunned to cry. Her mom wasn't who Gabrielle thought she was. She understood everything Emily was trying to say, she just wasn't sure how to handle all the information. Were they going to get hurt? Would the bad man find them in America? Was she going to meet her dad when they got there?
As if Emily could read her mind, she wrapped an arm around Gabrielle's shoulders. "We're going to be okay, we're going to see your dad. He's going to keep us safe. We need to leave now so we can get on the plane, but please, ask me anything you're confused about. I want you to understand," Emily said softly.
Gabrielle wasn't sure what to ask first, so she shook her head. Emily finally put the car in drive, and drove away towards the airport. She knew there was absolutely no time for them to stop back at their apartment and get anything, they had to leave now.
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The drive to the airport was silent, and Emily kept finding herself holding back tears. She was terrified that she had scared Gabrielle. Emily had spent enough years being scared and paranoid that she never wanted Gabrielle to have to fear for her life in the same way she had been doing for years now.
Emily wanted to talk to Gabrielle, but she figured she would save it for the plane ride. Emily wanted more details herself before she tried to explain anything else further to her surely confused daughter.
It felt like forever, but eventually they reached the airport. The two of them got out of the car and went inside. Emily held onto Gabrielle's hand tightly, in search of the man Hotch had described on the phone. She spotted him sitting at a table nearby. Quickly she led Gabrielle over to him and sat down in the seat across from him, sitting Gabrielle in her lap.
"Hi," he greeted.
"Hello," she returned the greeting.
"I'm sorry we're not meeting under more positive circumstances," he said, his tone hushed.
"I know," Emily agreed. "What do we do?"
"We're taking a jet back to DC. It'll be the three of us. Aaron Hotchner and Jennifer Jareau will meet us at the airport, and then they want to take you and the girl to Aaron's house," the man confided.
"Gabrielle," Emily said suddenly. "That's her name. Gabby," Using the term "the girl" felt incredibly too impersonal for Emily.
The man nodded. "You and Gabby will go to Aaron's. Then we'll think of another plan,"
"Okay," Emily confirmed.
The three of them rose from the table and made their way to the jet that would take them back to the States.
Emily wasn't sure what she was feeling. She was scared that Doyle would follow them, no doubt. She was worried about Gabby. But she found herself actually looking forward to seeing Hotch and JJ again… after all this time. The emotions swelled up in Emily as they boarded the jet. She sat Gabrielle next to her, relaxing as the girl rested her head on her mother's shoulder. This will be the end of it all. Emily thought, a wave of hope washing over her.
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Ian Doyle was on his way back to DC for the first time in ten years. Just as he suspected, Emily was being whisked back to her former town of residence. He was going to be there as well, finally ready to take his revenge on the woman his anger had been directed at for so long.
He boarded his plane, annoyed at everyone else around him. He didn't care about anything else except getting to where he wanted to be. He struggled to ignore those around him, his thoughts drifting from Emily, to Lauren, and eventually to Declan.
Declan would be a grown man by now at the age of 22. Doyle had spent time looking for Declan after Emily admitted he was still alive, but with no luck. He stopped looking for Declan and focused all his attention on finding Emily, and that focus only grew stronger when he confirmed she was still alive.
Doyle was never one to get emotional, that just wasn't something a former terrorist needed a track record for, but every time he thought about the past, he wanted to get upset. He wanted to cry, even. When Lauren was in his life, he was truly happy. He knew deep down what he did for a living was wrong, but that never stopped him. He wasn't harming himself or anyone he truly cared about, so why should it matter? That had always been his mentality. As long as he was able to provide for his son, he didn't see anything wrong with his profession.
All he had asked was for Lauren to marry him. All he wanted her to do was become a permanent part of his life, and raise his son to be like him. He had always pictured his wedding with Lauren, how happy they would be. Maybe they would even have another child to give Declan a sibling in the future. All his hopes and dreams came crashing down on him, when he learned that Lauren Reynolds wasn't actually Lauren Reynolds. She was never for him, only against him. She'd never truly loved him because technically she'd never existed. To top it all off, he thought his only son was dead. The son he worked so hard to keep alive to be brought into the world.
Each time he replayed the scenarios over in his head, he felt his blood boil. He wanted his revenge on Emily Prentiss and he wanted it as soon as possible, and he didn't care who else he had to harm to get it. Anxiously, he tried to calm his nerves as he sat back in his seat. It was only a matter of time now.