Author's Note – All of your reviews have been wonderful, thank you for following. In this chapter I've caught up to the start of Hindsight. Let me know what you think.

Second chances – chapter four

March 2013

Emily hated sitting at a desk, she had too much energy to burn but with the long hours she could barely fit in time for the gym. Of course as part of her role, she still had to requalify for take downs and fire arms handling, but the practice was a lot less than what she had been used to as part of the BAU. Emily tried running in the park, but lack of time combined with the awful weather made that few and far between. Which was why at nine o'clock at night she was in her apartment running on a treadmill.

She had been living in London for nearly nine months now and everything was going well. She liked her job, even though it made her a bit restless; her assistant, Amy, had become a close friend, often dragging Emily out despite being four months pregnant. She had been asked out on dates, but had politely declined them all, much to Amy's chagrin. Emily had tried to explain that she wasn't interested in a romantic relationship at the moment, leading Amy to conclude there was someone waiting for her in DC. All of Emily's denials had sounded hollow, even to her.

Neither she nor Morgan had made any commitments or declarations during any of their Skype chats; they only exchanged stories about their day to day lives, vented to one another when they were frustrated, or used the other as a sounding board for ideas they had. Emily was happy they could still have that kind of relationship when she was so far away.

Her phone started buzzing from where she rested it on the control panel. Hoping it wasn't a call from work, she picked up only to see it was JJ. Emily smiled as she answered. "Hi JJ, how are you?"

"Hi Em, I'm good, how about you?"

"Too much energy to burn. If I knew how much paperwork was involved, I would never have complained so much when I was at the BAU."

"If I recall, you didn't complain that much. You distracted Morgan most of the time."

"He distracted me first," she protested. "Not that I don't love talking to you, but by my calculation you're still at work." There was an uncomfortable silence from the other end and Emily started to worry. "Who's been hurt?" She asked, biting her lip as she waited for the answer.

"No, no, we're all fine," JJ paused. "At least physically."

"What's happened?"

"I don't know the details but I think something happened between Morgan and Spencer. They're both avoiding one another and neither will talk about it. It's just Spencer's been so closed off since Maeve's death; I'm worried he'll do something. He blew up at the lead detective when we were in Florida because nobody investigated the victims' report of harassment."

"He probably came back to work too soon; it's going to take time for him."

"I would rather he be here so we can keep an eye on him." They both remembered Spencer telling them he'd almost started using again after Emily had 'died'.

"But why would he be avoiding Morgan?"

"Morgan stepped in between Spence and the detective, and went after him when he stormed off. When they got back they didn't speak, just avoided one another."

Emily sighed. It was times like these that she felt she had abandoned them. Morgan had rung to inform her of Maeve's death and she had been devastated for Spencer upon hearing the news. He sounded so lost when Emily had phoned him; she had wanted to fold him into her arms to protect him from the rest of the world.

On the other end, JJ continued. "I was wondering if you could talk to them."

"JJ I don't know, it's between them. You know how stubborn they can be."

"And you're just as stubborn. You're more likely to get through to them."

"I'll try, okay. I don't know how much help I'm going to be."

"Thank you." There was a pause. "Damn it, I have to go; Strauss just arrived. I'll speak to you soon, maybe you, me and Pen could play scrabble in a few days. Good luck."

"I'll speak to you soon JJ." Emily placed her phone back on the control panel of the treadmill. She couldn't talk to them now, especially with Strauss in the bullpen.

Resuming her running, she looked longingly at her favourite spot in the apartment; the window seat where she looked out over London. She could hear pitter patter of rain drops through the open window. Another twenty minutes of running, a shower then she would be curled up there with her blanket, ready to phone home.

Her phone started buzzing again. Penelope. Pressing the connect button, Emily put the phone to her ear. "Hi Pen."

"Something's wrong," Penelope cut in without preamble. "I mean nobody's hurt, but something's not right between Morgan and Reid." She was panicking.

"Penelope, I'm sure everything is okay. Spence is still grieving; he's probably lashing out at anyone who tries to talk to him about it."

"Who called you?" Emily sighed before admitting it was JJ.

"But Spencer isn't lashing out, he's avoiding everyone. And Morgan called me Penelope. He didn't even smile, just locked himself away in his office." Things must have been bad; Emily could only count a handful of times Morgan had called Penelope by her given name and not Baby Girl. "I'm worried about them."

"I know, JJ already asked me to talk to them. I'm not sure about how to approach it."

"Approach Morgan first, whenever anyone's tried to reach out to Spence, he just clams up and runs away at the first opportunity. I'm scared he'll start using again." Emily started to become very concerned at the techie repeating JJ's fears as well.

"I'll talk to him soon."

"Thank you my love. I'm sorry for not asking before, but how are you? You sound a little out of breath."

"I'm on the treadmill; it's hard trying to fit in the gym while sat at a desk."

"Preaching to the choir sister."

"Oh, how's it going?" Emily recalled some of Penelope's recent pictures.

"Lost a few more pounds, got a steady pace going."

"You look great, like you always have." She could hear a knock the other end and someone speaking.

"I'm sorry I have to cut this short, Strauss wants to come in, love you my raven haired beauty."

"Love you too Pen." Disconnecting Emily sent a quick message to Morgan. She slowed the pace of the treadmill as she waited for him to reply.