Emily watched Derek for a few weeks after their conversation in the park that day, but he seemed to be back to his usual self. She frequently checked in with the team at first, just to make sure that she wasn't missing something, but they all gave her similar reports. Derek was great, focused at work, loved talking about his family, happy when Emily was at the BAU working with them.

Spring slowly melted into summer, and it was a good one. Serena joined the swim team at the club they belonged to and while she didn't excel in it like everything else she did, she held her own. She enjoyed being part of a team.

Emily signed Caleb up for a parent/child swim class on Saturday mornings at the pool, in hopes that Derek could often be that parent, and most Saturdays he was home and he was. Serena and Emily would happily sit together in a lounge chair and watch the two of them together in the pool. Serena, who never stopped celebrating the joys of her family with her facial expressions and body language, would giggle along with Emily when Derek and Caleb were being particularly cute together.

In June, as per their tradition that started when she was pregnant with Caleb, Emily went out in public to dance with Derek for his birthday. And though Emily had tipped the scales into what most would consider "late-40s," she never felt that way when she was dancing with him. They still got impressive stares from the much younger crowd on the dance floor.

Serena went from slightly above average in the height to well above average over the course of the spring and summer. She was still her adorable, wonderful self, but it made Emily a little sad; it all seemed to be happening so fast. And when you combined her height with some of the more insightful things that often came out of her mouth, it was difficult to remind yourself that you were talking to an eight year old.

Penelope, who took Serena on her first shopping adventure so many years ago, was Serena's constant shopping companion since. When their little girl took off in the growth department that summer, Penelope was the one who happily took Serena, along with Emily's credit card, out to get her some new clothes.

That summer, Serena finished her online courses in Algebra II and Astronomy, and looked forward to starting Trigonometry in September. Spencer became an even more frequent visitor at the house, not because Serena needed much help, but because she liked working with people rather than alone, and while Emily could keep up, it wasn't in the way Spencer could, with anecdotal stories about math history.

By the time August rolled around, the Morgan household was ready for full-swing fall planning. It was their family's happiest time, with so many celebrations: The anniversary of Serena's adoption day, Caleb's birthday, Emily's birthday, Halloween, and on and on. For Emily and Derek, two people who remembered dates and milestones better than most, there were other things they celebrated, in private. Their first time together over a decade ago, when Emily first returned from Paris after Doyle, when they first started reading together via Skype when Emily was in London. There really wasn't a week that time of year where they weren't celebrating something as a family, or celebrating just the two of them in the privacy of their room after the kids were asleep.

JJ and Will, who were often over for dinner that summer, had much fun at Emily and Derek's expense with regards to their little, special anniversaries. "Well, Will, I think it's time we hit the road. I know that glance they just shared and it must be time to celebrate the first time they sneezed in front of each other," JJ said one night, which made them all laugh.

It was August 14th when, after nearly four years of almost complete personal peace in the their lives and the lives of the team, that everything came crashing down around them, like this much goodness given their careers had been a gift that went on too long and it was finally time to pay the piper.

Emily was working with her friend Michelle Stone, the newly promoted Fairfax Commonwealth's Attorney, doing cognitive interviews with witnesses of a homicide. Emily was in Michelle's office, taking a break and eating lunch, talking about things other than the case, when her eyes flashed to the CNN report that was on mute on the TV in the office. She froze for a second before she grabbed the remote from Michelle's desk and turned on the volume, heard the reporter standing on the other side of a police barricade with a microphone in her hand.

Robert Foster, sentenced yesterday to life in prison for the brutal rapes and murders of five young men in Baltimore, escaped just after 10:00am this morning, in transit from the Baltimore County Detention Center to North Branch Correctional Institute, a hyper-max prison in Crapestown, Maryland. Reports claim that he managed to overtake the two officers driving him, taking their guns, murdering both. He hijacked a car on the freeway, killing the driver. He was spotted at 11:40am back on the streets of Baltimore, where he already has a young boy captive. It's now reported Foster has them barricaded in the basement of a building down the street from this barricade."

Emily reached for her phone in her purse and called Derek, who answered on the first ring.

"Where are you?" Emily demanded.

"About ten minutes away from the building where Foster is, Em," he replied tensely.

Emily felt physically ill, like every bite of lunch she'd just eaten was about to make a reappearance. "You should have called me earlier. You don't have to do this one, Derek. They can handle it without you. Please, please sit this one out. He could have taken off and gone anywhere, but he walked right back into Baltimore. There has to be a reason."

"His family owned the building he's currently in. We think maybe there's something in there he needed. A patrol officer saw him unlocking the front door of the building. He already had Eric Ray. When the officer shouted, he put the Eric in front of him, held a gun to his head and backed inside the building and down into the basement. The room he's in is to our advantage, we have the schematics. If I can help save Eric then I have to. He's ten years old, Emily, just some little kid who went to buy candy at a corner market on a summer day and ended up in the clutches of Robert Foster."

"You have a family now," she cried.

"Don't do that," he pleaded. "This is no different than what I do all of the time, Em. Please understand."

Emily dug deep to understand. She'd been so long without a gun and credentials that that feeling of absolutely having to be there, to do something, to stop something, to fight the bad guys was buried deep. She tried to dig that feeling out and have empathy for her husband, who did do things like this all of the time and always walked back in their door.

"I love you. I have faith that you're going to come home safely, Derek," she finally managed.

"I will. I love you."

Emily dialed Garcia who answered without her usual cheerful tone and nickname. "Emily," she said quietly.

"Pen, I need to hear," Emily quietly demanded.

"Em, I shouldn't," despaired Garcia weakly.

"Garcia! If this had happened yesterday, I would have been right there in the office with you listening. Patch me through!" Emily shouted.

Emily heard a couple of clicks and then static, and then voices. She removed the phone from her ear and put it on speaker, holding it in her lap and rocking. Michelle, who had heard only one side of the exchange up until this point and was sitting in stunned silence at her desk, got up and pulled her chair near Emily. She sat down and put a hand on Emily's back.

Emily heard the team talking. She heard the initial negotiations, and Foster's voice was loud; they must have gotten speakers to amplify his voice because it sounded like he was right there. She heard Foster a little louder, yelling that he wanted to talk to Derek Morgan only. No weapons. If Derek came in, the boy could go out. She heard Derek negotiate back that he was coming in with another agent. She heard silence for a second before Foster agreed.

"NO!" shouted Emily, but she knew this communication only went one way; he couldn't hear her.

She heard Goldstone volunteer to go in with Derek. Hotch asked Derek if he was sure. "I've got this, Hotch," said Derek with conviction. Hotch must have nodded. And then, "Unlock the door. We're coming in," Derek shouted.

This all felt wrong.

There was the sound of a heavy door creaking open, then closing and latching, metal on metal, probably steel. The sound of a bolt. There was some scuffling. There was never any negotiation. It all happened so fast. There were two quick gunshots that Emily felt were going right through her. She heard Derek shout, "No!" and the heavy thud of a body hitting a body. She heard the sounds of Goldstone moaning and the sound of a younger boy scream. She heard Hotch yell, "Blow the door."

She heard Foster's voice, "I will put a bullet through his head if you move." Scuffling. The sound of more metal on metal. And the very last thing she heard Derek say was, "There's a tunnel!" before his mic went dead. There was the loud sound of an explosion.

In the office, Emily stood up and started pacing. It was a trap all along.

She heard the team. Hotch yelled to take down the other door, which Emily assumed lead to the tunnel no one knew about. She heard Goldstone gasp it was just his shoulder, he has Morgan. "Was Derek shot?" JJ screamed. "No," Goldstone replied. She heard a boy screaming. And then another explosive sound. She heard running feet. They were quiet, a dirt tunnel, thought Emily, not concrete. The sounds of another heavy door opening. "We're outside, it's an alley," said Rossi. Quiet searching and then JJ's voice..."They're gone."

"NO!" Emily screamed again. She bolted to grab her purse.

Michelle called out Emily's name as Emily ran from the office, her phone still on speaker, the sounds of the team investigating, but she wasn't hearing it at the moment. All she could hear was her own thudding heart. She got to her car with tears streaming down her face. The sounds of the team disappeared, Garcia disconnecting her, and then her phone started ringing, but Emily didn't answer.

She gave herself five minutes to get herself together as she got on the freeway, feeling relieved at the light mid-day traffic. Five minutes, she told herself, or Hotch would send her packing the minute she showed up in Baltimore. She debated if Hotch would leak Derek's picture to the press in hopes of finding him or not. If he put out the picture, she needed to call Fran Morgan. If he didn't, she should stick with Judy. She called Fran.

"I need you to get Serena from day camp and I need you to get Caleb from Judy's!"

Fran needed no explanation after hearing the tone in Emily's voice. "Derek?" she asked, her throat thick with rapid tears.

"I'll bring him home, I promise," said Emily firmly. "Don't turn on the TV while the kids are there."

She disconnected and her cell phone rang again. Emily's five minutes were up. She answered Garcia's call with conviction and firmly said, "Tell them I'm on my way. Tell them someone helped Foster escape and lay this trap. Tell them to find those accomplices for me to interview before I get there. Tell them we are going to get him back and home safely. Keep me updated."

In that moment, she could remember it all; the feeling of needing to be there, to do something, to stop something, lit a fire in her. She was a on autopilot, an agent again, and she was going to save him. She had to. She closed her eyes briefly against the horror the could possibly happen to Derek, but reminded herself that Derek didn't fit Foster's victim profile and pushed that feeling down. They could get through anything if he just kept breathing.

I'm coming. Just keep breathing, she chanted in her head over and over on that drive.