Hi guys! Happy New Year! I hope you all had an amazing holiday! Sorry for the wait but high school is keeping me busy, but I decided I had to get this out before exams started.

Thank you to the Guest who reviewed my last chapter.

Hotch stood in the doorway of Emily's hospital room. Derek and JJ exchanged a glance before they both gave Emily a quick hug and headed out to the waiting room. They knew that the others would need to have private conversations with Emily and well now may not have been the best time it would have to work.

Emily gestured to the chair beside her bed and watched as her ex-boss walked over and sat down. The two stared at each other for a moment, doing the infamous nonverbal communication that they were known for, before Hotch finally broke the silence. "Emily, why didn't you tell any of us?"

Emily sighed heavily before responding, "I didn't want any of you to worry about me. This was my problem and you guys did not need to stress out about it."

Hotch shook his head quickly before responding, careful to keep his face calm and masked, knowing that Emily would not respond well to pity or sadness. "You know that's not true. You should know by now that we are more then just a team, we are family, and part of being a family is being there through the good times and the bad." Hotch stood up and prepared to leave, "But I know that you do not need a lecture and there are others who are desperate to see you so I will just tell you how happy I am to see and that I never replaced you on the team." With that he winked and walked out the door, leaving Emily to ponder his last sentence.

She did not get much time too think as almost immediately after Hotch had left Garcia practically ran into the room, throwing her arms around Emily.

"Emily Prentiss! Don't you ever disappear on me again! I was so worried about you sweetie! Why did you not tell any of us the truth? When you broke off contact we were so worried! I know you don't like to ask for help, okay that is a little bit of an understatement, but you could have come to us! We deserved the truth. And OMG! We have not talked in MONTHS! We need to get caught up, when do you get out of here, we need a Girls Night! After you are feeling better of course.." The blonde rambled on, her voice getting more and more hysterical before she finally broke down and started bawling.

Emily, having known that a breakdown was coming, just wrapped her arms around Penelope and let her cry for a few moments before she attempted to calm her down. "Shh it's okay PG. I know and I'm sorry that I kept this from you. It was a stupid decision I made without thinking the consequences through and by the time I realized that I felt like it was too late to go back and tell you all the truth."

They continued hugging for another few moments before Garcia pulled back reluctantly. "Okay my Beautiful Brunette Badass I will most definitely be seeing you soon but at the moment I know that a certain Boy Genius and Italian Steed are waiting anxiously to talk to you and I need to go scold my Chocolate God and Sharpshooter Blonde for keeping this from me, the All-Knowing Goddess!" And with that, Penelope turned and flounced out of the room.

Emily sat chuckling at the blondes antics before looking up as someone cleared their throat. "Ah my Belle, why must you hurt an old man's heart by hiding away from him?"

A huge smile bloomed across her face as she looked up at the man she had thought of as a father for over four years. "Rossi, out of everyone you probably understand best why I hid this."

As he walked over to give her a warm hug he responded, "Yes I must admit I do, but that does not make it any easier to deal with. Now I figured everyone else has probably already told you all this so I'm just going to use my position as oldest member of this team and ask straight out, are you okay?"

Emily let out a sigh as she decided that for once she would be completely truthful. "Honestly? My stomach hurts like a bitch even through all these drugs, I'm pretty sure I'm the weakest I've ever been in my life, I feel ike it's been forever since I managed to keep any food down, and I also feel like it's been forever since I actually felt okay." At Rossi's pointed look she let out another resigned sigh before she continued with what she knew he actually wanted to know. "My emotions are so far all over the place that I honestly have no clue what I'm feeling. When I first got the diagnosis I was determined to fight and win, but at the same time I knew there was a chance I could die and even though I was used to facing it every day I was still terrified. Now that I know this could all be over and okay I'm so exhausted that I can't even really react. So no I'm not really okay but if this surgery has worked and I am clean then I will be working to getting okay."

Rossi was completely shocked that she had willingly shared that much so he just nodded and hugged her again. "You know I'm always here for you Em. I'll be back after you speak to the kid. . he's been in pretty bad shape over all this."

This time Emily had much longer to think. She thought over everything that had happened since she woke up and was surprised at both how forthcoming she had been and how well everyone seemed to have taken it. She knew that they had probably been holding back a bit because of her condition but nobody had seemed really pissed. Of course she had yet to talk to Reid and she knew he would have taken it hard. As she thought that she heard a tentative knock on the door and mentally prepared herself for whatever reaction he may have.

Reid walking quietly into the room and Emily was struck at that moment by how young and broken he looked. Before she had a chance to say anything he blurted out, "I missed you!"

"I missed you too Spencer and I can not begin to tell you how very sorry I am about all of this. I just- you guys have already suffered too much because of me." Emily responded, looking away guiltily towards the end.

Reid looked down at her for a moment before he responded, "I'm mad at you. But not for lying or running away. I'm mad at you because even after all this time you still can not understand that you have not burdened us, that we would gladly have gone through all the drama and sadness in your life with you because you are part of our family and we love you. And I'm also mad that you broke your promise. You told me that you would stay in touch with me no matter what and you didn't." He frowned and she couldn't handle the sad and disappointed look on his face so she shyly opened her arms and smiled with relief when he immediately stepped into her embrace.

"Spence I'm soo sorry I broke my promise. You are like my little brother and it pains me that I hurt you. I promise you that it will never happen again. If, god forbid, anything else happens to me I will talk to the team. I hope that are friendship will be able to recover from this."

Reid looked up at her and smiled, "It does not need to recover, we are fine. Plus I need my nerd buddy back! I keep saying awesome things and nobody understands them! And Morgan keeps picking on me!"

Emily started laughing and Reid joined her before they were interrupted by a knock at the door. Turning around, they saw the rest of the team standing there. JJ spoke up for the group, "Can we come in? Or are you guys still talking?"

Emily laughed and waved the group in. As they all happily surrounded her bed and started talking, she grabbed Reid's hand and leaned back against Derek. She smiled around at the group as they all laughed at one of Garcia's insane comments. Leaving them may not have been her best idea but it had all worked out in the end. As she caught Derek's eye and he squeezed her shoulder, she knew that this was were she belonged and she would never leave them again.

So that was my longest chapter yet. I hope it was good. I'm thinking that this is the end but I may do an epilogue if anyone is interested? Please review.