A/N: This is the first full multi-chapter story I've written (and finished) in quite some time so THANK YOU lot for coming on this ride with me. Literally think I'm JUST in time before "Lauren" airs...phew! That was my aim. Anyways, here we go...

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds

Chapter 7

It had been seven months, twenty four days, 17 hours and 5 minutes since she had been back here, and here she was in Quantico, back and very much alive.

As she stalked down the dark hallway flanked by Sean, Tsia and Jeffery, all ready to put an end to this once and for all she couldn't help but remember the moment her life no longer became her life.

The last thing she could remember was seeing the vague outline of JJ was standing above her, and thinking how impossible that was and just how bad her head injury must have been for that to happen. And the next thing after that was when she was waking up in a bright white hospital room to see her old boss from Interpol sitting in the chair opposite her bed.

She had groaned at the bright lights as they caused the pain in her head to flare up once again, and the groan itself caused her ribs to send a jolt of pain down her side. One thing she knew for sure in that second was that she wasn't going anywhere fast, or soon. She was only partly right.

"Doyle's on his way to the States, we know he's coming but we don't know which one of us he's coming for first."

There was no greeting, there was no preamble; it was straight to the point with Sean, just like it always was.

"You're injured, you won't be able to protect yourself like this and I know you, Emily, you won't want your team involved."

She nodded swiftly in reply, flinching in pain as her head pounded once more.

"And so, the only option we feel available to you is a safe house." When he saw her about to protest he ploughed on: "a safe house, at least until you are better. Then, and only then, you can help us finally put him behind bars. No more running, not anymore."

"Do I have a choice in this?" She croaked out, her voice hoarse from the sedatives.

"Not really, no." He replied with a rough laugh. "Well it's either this or we use your team an-"

"No." She interrupted him, not letting his thought go any further. "I will not put them at risk, not any more than I already have."

"I thought you'd say that."

"How do we know that he won't figure it out? He figured out that Lauren Reynolds wasn't dead, what's to stop him finding out that I am...whoever I will be?"

"There's only the two of us in here and the doctor we brought on to your care is with us. Apart from the three of us nobody else will know you survived. And this time you won't need a new identity. You're going to be a nobody, a phantom amongst society, until we bring Ian Doyle down, and we will bring him down...hard."

"They're going to want proof that I'm dead. My team won't let it rest until at least one of them has seen it with their own eyes."

"That's been taken care of."

"Taken care of?" She questioned although she wasn't sure if she wanted to know the answer.

"A woman of similar build and hair colour was brought in after a car crash not long before you were admitted. We've had her on ice in case the opportunity arose. She was so battered and bruised that a positive ID is impossible unless DNA-"

"I get it." She said; shivering at the thought as her stomach rolled; she wished she hadn't asked.

It was less than half an hour later that Sean wheeled her out of the hospital with bandages commonly worn after plastic surgeries covering her face and her dark hair hidden under a light brown wig. Even though there reports said that Doyle wasn't in the country yet they couldn't be too careful.

As he wheeled her towards a beat up blue mustang she caught a glimpse of the team leaving the main entrance, their shoulders slumped and their eyes puffy from tears. She couldn't help the traitorous tear that fled her own eye as she turned away from the sight; this was for the best. They'd be safer without her, safer with her dead.

She shook herself from her thoughts to focus on the task at hand. This would be her defining moment, of that she was certain. She'd either make it out of this a somebody or she wouldn't make it out at all.

And the second option just wasn't an option in her mind.

It had been seven months, thirty days, 17 hours and 5 minutes since Dr. Michaels had informed them that Emily Prentiss hadn't made it. And it hadn't gotten any easier to accept.

Her desk had remained empty; no new member had been drafted in nor had there been any indication that such a thing would occur. That was why it was such a shock when, walking back into the bullpen after what had been another gruelling case, there was someone sitting in her chair.

Pulling himself up to his full height and heading towards the intruder, Morgan tried to keep his emotions in check. Nobody could and ever would replace his partner. It wasn't going to happen. He froze, however, when the woman lifted her head.

"JJ?" He asked in confusion, wracking his brain for reason as to why she was here.

"Hey." She said with a smile. "You wanted me to meet you here?" She asked, her brow furrowing in confusion at the slightly confused looks on each member of the teams' faces.

"I didn't arrange anything..." Morgan said, looking around at the rest of them waiting for someone to jump in. Nobody did.

"I see my merry band of profilers has returned." Garcia said, coming out of the conference room with a grin.

"What's the matter Baby Girl?" Morgan asked immediately, his voice full of concern at her slightly puffy eyes from crying.

"Nothing's the matter, Hot Stuff. In fact things couldn't be better."

"Garcia," JJ said softly. "You know you can tell us anything. What's wrong?"

"Someone else can explain it more clearly." She said cryptically as she turned on her heel and made her way into the conference room.

They all looked to Morgan who merely shrugged and they headed after Garcia. It was sometimes better not to question the Goddess of the All Knowing and instead to just follow blindly. All would be revealed in the end, it always was.

"So what's this all ab-" JJ's question died on her lips and her jaw almost hit the floor at the sight before her.

It looked like Emily, in fact it looked exactly like Emily. But that wasn't possible.

"How is this possible?" Reid almost squeaked as his eyes landed on Prentiss who squirmed a little bit under their gazes.

She opened her mouth to talk, once, twice, three times and nothing came out. She didn't think she would be this nervous. She was just so glad to see them, to be back and alive that she was struggling to explain. Explaining would bring it all back, make it all real once again and she wasn't sure she was quite ready for that, though she knew that they deserved the full explanation.

"It seems our very own Emily Prentiss has been rather busy lately." Garcia said with a small smile knowing that she must have looked exactly like the rest of them when she'd entered her office to find her supposedly dead friend very much alive and sitting in her spiny chair. "Seems even dead people can have some fun." She quipped and when she heard Emily wince slightly she added, "Too soon?"

That gained a chuckle from the collective group and eased the tension a little, and that was all Emily needed. Within seconds she was pouring out the story, her story; from her Interpol days and Doyle all the way up until present day and how she had come to be back here, alive. Her story was peppered with different reactions from her friends - her family, really – gasps punctuated certain comments, swift shakes of the heads others as they all soaked in the information. She could almost hear the cogs of their brain's turning madly as they tried to garner all the information she was flinging at them and process it.

"We finally cornered him and two of his cronies by luring them to a place we knew well. He thought he was indestructible, but not when your prey controls the environment. And the rest, as they say, is history. Interpol's dealing with tracking down his remaining contacts but Sean reckons, and I agree, that they're nothing without him so they're not going to cause trouble for us."

When she finished there was a moment's lull where the air in the room seemed to still. She smiled that half smile as she looked down at the ground that told them more than any of her words could; she was worried; worried they wouldn't take her back, worried they would think less of her, and worried that this would change things forever.

She needn't have and each and every one of them was washed away when she caught movement out of the corner of her eye and looked up just in time to catch the blonde as JJ flung herself at her, clinging on for dear life as if to check she was definitely there and not a figment of her imagination.

"Don't ever do that again." JJ spoke low in her ear before pulling back, tears falling freely down her cheeks as she held her friend at arm's length to get a good look at her. "You, Emily Prentiss, are insane. We would've helped you, without a doubt."

"I didn't want you to get hurt." She mumbled, fully realising now just how much she had obviously hurt them in faking her own death as she looked around at the faces of her friends, colleagues and family.

Morgan was trying to pretend he wasn't holding back some tears while Hotch's usual mask had slipped and she could see the mix of shock and relief plainly on his face. Reid Rossi was smiling, a full blown smile but it didn't quite reach his eyes and she recognised the hurt that was in them, he had been the one to see her body after all. She just wished he'd never had to go through that. In fact she wished that none of them had had to go through any of this. However, that would involve turning back time to stop Doyle from entering her life and that was 'outwith the realms of possibilty' as Reid would say. She knew now more than ever that even if she could she wouldn't want to. She wouldn't have met these wonderful people if she hadn't been a part of that mission many years ago, and she wouldn't change that for the world.

These people surrounding her were her true family and she would spend the rest of her life working with and protecting them, being there for them and asking for help when she needed it. After all they deserved that much and so much more for all the emotional turmoil of the past seven months, thirty days, 17 hours and 5 minutes.

"We're just glad you're alive, Emily." Hotch said with a smile.

"Me too, me too." She replied with a smile.

"So who's up for drinks?" JJ asked with a smile as her eyes still shone with tears.

As they walked as one group out through the BAU bullpen Emily couldn't help the smile that was on her face. She knew that there would be a way to go and that she would have some more in depth and lengthier conversations about the past seven months to come but right now, surrounded by the people she loved she was just so very glad to be alive and a somebody once more.

a/n #2: I totally couldn't just KILL her! lol