Hotch shook his head as he looked to his mother-in-law, before starting for the staircase. He turned when a hand landed on his shoulder, seeing the saddened face of Elizabeth Prentiss, the rest of the family surrounding Tim behind her. "What do you want, Elizabeth?"

"Let me talk to her."

Hotch took a moment before slowly nodding, watching as Elizabeth made her way up the stairs.

Elizabeth Prentiss sighed as she heard the whispered gasps from downstairs, knowing either her son-in-law or husband was telling the rest of the family what had happened. She made her way to the only closed door in the hallway, knocking softly and feeling guilt well inside her at the broken voice of her daughter.

"Go away."

"Emily, please let me in."

"Mother, I don't need to talk right now. I want to be alone."

Elizabeth shook her head slightly before turning the knob on her daughter's bedroom door, slowly opening the door and looking inside. She frowned, seeing her daughter laying on her bed wrapped up in her blankets, the brunette sniffling into her pillow.

She slowly made her way into her daughter's room, sitting down next to Emily. "Are you alright?"

Emily scoffed as she shook her head, snuggling into her pillow as her red rimmed eyes stared at the wall in front of her. "Just peachy."

"Emily-"

"No, mother. I told you I don't want to talk with you right now. Ok?"

"Emily, you must be crazy if you think I wont try to comfort you when you're upset."

"Oh, but it was perfectly fine when I was a kid. When I was a teenager. When I was up in my room, or down in my room, wherever the hell my room was in those stupid mansions, I would cry my eyes out, but you didn't care because you had some stupid function to attend."

Elizabeth felt her eyes begin to sting as she stared down at her daughter. "Emily, I'm sorry. I know I haven't been there for you, but-"

"Mother, just stop. Ok?" Emily sat up, the comforter falling to her lap as she leaned against her headboard. "I get it. You have an important job, so dad was always there and you weren't. But, you know what I don't understand? Why nothing was ever good enough for you? When I got an 'A' in school, you wanted an 'A+'. When I cleaned out the garage so you could keep more boxes in there, you criticized me on not picking up a piece of lint that hid under that radiator. When you had some other ambassador over and told me to bake a cake for him, which I did, you told me how horrible it was." She wiped the new tears that fell from her eyes as she stared open mouthed at her mother. "Why was nothing ever good enough for you? Did you like making my life miserable? Like making me feel like shit everyday of my childhood?"

"Emily, sweetheart I'm sorry. I know, I was a horrible mother. I was never there, and when I was, I was always busy. But Emily you have to understand, it wasn't just because you were the ambassador's daughter that you needed to be excellent and outstanding. It's because I was trying to make you better than I was when I was young."

Emily narrowed her puffed eyes at her mother, before wiping her hand under her nose. "What do you mean?"

"Don't you want your children to be better than you were? To not make the same mistakes when you were a teenager? To teach them right from wrong, and lead them in the right direction?"

"Of course I do."

Elizabeth nodded as she inched closer to her daughter. "That's what I wanted for you. I knew you could be the best you could be, because you had so much potential. You were this amazing, beautiful little girl that I needed to protect. And you were such a little clone of me. Always running around, your beautiful hair and pale skin. You were so much like me, and what I didn't want was for you to end up like me. Sad, and angry, and making stupid decisions like I did."

Emily shook her head as she looked down to her hands in her lap. "Mother, just stop. Ok?"

Elizabeth looked to her daughter, her eyes trailing with tears. "Stop what? Being honest with you for the first time? Trying to spit out that you're my only daughter and I love you?"

Emily had a far off look in her eyes as she looked up to her mother, her mouth open wide. "You've never said that to me before."

"Oh, I believe I have before."

Emily shook her head slowly before wiping her hand under her nose. "Never once have you said you loved me." She looked up to her mother, smiling softly. "I love you too, though."

Elizabeth smiled wide before leaning forward and wrapping her arms around her daughter's shoulders, feeling the young brunette's arms wrap around her waist. "Why don't we go back downstairs, huh? We can finish that lovely dinner you made."

Emily nodded before letting go of the older woman, smiling sadly as she wiped her eyes. "Sounds good."