Hotch was, indeed, his predictable self and answered his office phone on the third ring. He had been in the process of shrugging off his overcoat when it rang. "Agent Hotchner," he said briskly into the handset.

"Hey, Hotch. It's Emily," she said as soon as she heard his voice. She put her phone on speaker and set it on the table between her and Gideon.

"Prentiss. How was your flight?"

"Not bad. Took off, landed safely. The usual."

A soft chuckle could be heard. "Good. I assume you're not calling just to say hello. What can I do for you?"

"Well…" she hesitated, spinning the pen in lazy circles on top of the legal pad. "I need a little help."

There was a pause. "Okay. What do you need from me?"

"I really just need an okay from you."

"For what?"

"I would like to borrow Garcia if I can. I won't monopolize her, but I could really use her skills on this."

Hotch's voice was all business now. "Is there something going on?"

"Nothing to worry about…" Yet, was silently added and heard by everyone. "The good news is that it isn't Gideon's nephew they have in the morgue. The bad news is that no one has heard from him, except for one cryptic text message that said 'I'm in trouble' that Gideon received a few days ago."

Emily shot him a dirty look, telling him that she still wasn't happy about being kept in the dark. Gideon just shrugged. "It was an unfamiliar number."

"Do the police have any idea to the identity of the corpse?"

"I have no clue. When we left they were still reeling from Gideon's little bombshell." Another dirty look cast his way. "They just assumed it was Noah based on the identification found in the backpack the body had been wearing when they had fished him out of the Seine."

"How did the body end up with Noah's backpack?"

It was her turn to shrug. "We're assuming it was stolen."

Hotch's eyebrows rose. "And then the thief drowned?"

"Actually, Hotch, it was murder. He was strangled."

"Interesting."

Interesting to say the least, Emily thought ruefully. "I was hoping to have Garcia pull up Noah's cell phone and credit card records. They would help pinpoint where he was last in Paris and we can start looking there."

"You're going to stay and help Gideon with the search?"

Emily thought Hotch sounded supportive, but decided to cover all her bases on the off chance he wasn't. "If that is okay with you? I know I don't have any personal or vacation days saved up, but I can't, in good conscience, leave Gideon to do it on his own. He's unfamiliar with the city and doesn't speak a word of French. But if you need me back, I'll catch the first flight out."

"There's no need to do that," he reassured her. "Take all the time you need. I've got you covered. Finding Noah should be your focus."

"Thanks, Hotch," she said in relief.

"I'll have Garcia call you when she gets in. But I do have to caution you that an actual case takes priority. Right now he's just a possible missing person and the Paris Police jurisdiction."

"I know. Any help will be appreciated. The quicker we find Noah, the quicker we can come home." Home. The word set a warm feeling and a yearning through her body. Washington DC had finally become her permanent home and she couldn't wait to get back.

Hotch must have sensed it. There was a momentary silence before he tentatively broached the subject. "So, Emily…how are you doing with being back in Paris after everything?"

Emily sat up straighter and stared in a mixture of shock and surprise at the phone. She had forgotten to tell Hotch that she had him on speaker and he had just aired a personal question for everyone to hear. Her eyes darted to Gideon, hoping he hadn't detected the concern in the Unit Chief's voice and that he had called her Emily and not Prentiss like he normally did. He had. Gideon sat across from her with a curious look.

"Excuse me," she said quickly, tapping the screen on the phone to turn off the speaker function before snatching it up and retreating to her bedroom.

"I'm fine, Hotch," Emily said as she closed the door behind her.

"Emily…" he cautioned.

She sighed and ran her free hand through her hair. "I'm doing okay. I've had mixed reactions to being here. When I first got here, the city was a stranger to me. All I felt was the isolation of my exile. But as I took in the sights, sounds and smells, Paris was like my old friend. Does that make any sense to you? It sounded like I was babbling like an idiot."

"You weren't and I understand. Your good and bad memories of the city are battling it out for domination and hopefully the good ones will win out and you can enjoy your time there. Remember what I told you at the office?"

"To call you day or night if I'm having a bad day."

"Right. I'm here to listen."

"Thanks, Hotch. I appreciate it." Emily glanced at the closed bedroom door, hearing the heavy footsteps of Gideon approaching. "I have to go. Gideon's coming to knock me up. Bye," she said and hung up.

Hotch was still frowning at the handset when Dave walked into his office. "Who was that?" he asked in curiosity, taking a sip of his freshly brewed morning coffee.

"Prentiss…" he trailed off.

"And?" he prompted.

"She just said something strange. She said Gideon was going to knock her up."

Dave almost choked on his coffee as his eyebrows shot up to his hairline. "Well that is unexpected."

Hotch's frown deepened. "Is that all you have to say?"

"Good for her?"

It was only later when Emily returned did they learn what she had meant. Of course they had to wait for Emily to stop laughing first. She had found it hysterical that they had thought she and Gideon had done it. It turned out to be how the British would give you a wake up call by knocking on the door when there was no phone in the room.

Emily threw open the door just as Gideon raised his hand to 'knock her up'. "Yes?"

He lowered the hand he was about to knock on the door with. "I wanted to talk to you about something."

"What's that?" she asked cautiously, having a good idea what it was about and not wanting to discuss it with him.

Gideon always considered her a straight shooter and got right to the point. There was none of that beating around the bushes crap. "On the phone with Hotch, he seemed concerned about your mental state. Is there something I need to know?"

Emily rebuked him. "He's a boss concerned about his agent returning to a city she had a lot of history with growing up. It's nothing more than that."

"Seems like more to me. You've been uncomfortable since we landed."

"Well, it wasn't and maybe I'm uncomfortable because I'm with you."

He stepped into her personal space and she instinctively took one back. "Prentiss, you have to be straight with me. If there is something going on, I have a right to know about it."

She pushed past him and made her way to the table where she began to shuffle her notes together. "No, Gideon, you don't."

Gideon followed hot on her heels. "I beg to differ. We're here in a foreign country searching for my missing nephew. If you're unstable or there is some bad blood here, then I need to know about it so I can be prepared."

Emily bristled at the idea that he thought she was unstable, but she managed to rein in her temper and kept the anger out of her voice. "There's nothing to be prepared for. I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

"I can call Hotch and see what he has to say," he threatened.

"You do that. I'm sure he'll give you an earful," she said sarcastically, slapping one hand down on the table. "Why do you even care? You disappeared and cut us all out of your life years ago. Why do you suddenly want insight into mine? It's none of your damn business."

"You're right," Gideon agreed, taking a step back and holding up his hands up in surrender. He needed her help so he couldn't afford to piss her off. She could easily hop the next flight for home and leave him high and dry. But that didn't mean he would give up on uncovering her secret. If it was going to have an effect on his search for Noah, he had to know. "I apologize."

She stared hard at him and then nodded that she accepted his apology. Emily decided to chalk up his nosiness to his worry about his nephew's welfare and the helplessness he was feeling. She was just a convenient target for his prying. Emily turned her focus to the papers she had been absently straightening during their heated exchange and a notation caught her attention. She picked up the sheet and reread what she had written.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Capitaine said they had Noah's passport?"

"You would be correct," Gideon confirmed, crossing his arms and wondering where she was going with this.

"He's going to need one to get back into the States."

"So he would have to get a replacement."

"Right and he would have to go—"

"To the U.S. embassy to get it," he finished for her. "And we can contact them to find out if he applied for a new one."

Emily made a face. "I don't know. They may not release that information to you even if you are family and acting on your sister's behalf."

"It never hurts to try."

"True. But I have a better idea." She whipped out her phone and dialed the number, making sure not to put it on speaker this time. She didn't want a repeat of Hotch's conversation.

Across the ocean, Elizabeth Prentiss set down the morning paper and checked the screen on her cell phone before answering. It was her private number and very few people had it, but telemarketers still managed to get through from time to time. A wave of worry washed through her when she saw Emily's number. Before her daughter had flown to Paris, they had made arrangements that if they needed to contact each other, they would call in the evening Paris time. Emily calling in the afternoon was an abnormality.

Elizabeth didn't even bother with saying hello. "Lee, what's wrong? Are you okay? Do you need me to come over there?"

Emily's endearing chuckle wafted over the line. "Hello to you too, Mom. And to answer your questions in order: nothing, I'm fine and definitely not."

Her mother breathed a sigh of relief that everything seemed to be okay, but she couldn't help double-checking. Her daughter often hid her pain and insecurities behind 'I'm fine'. "Are you sure?"

Emily turned her back on Gideon and whispered into the phone. "Positive, Mom."

Behind her, Gideon noted Emily's use of 'mom' instead of 'mother'. During the time they had worked together, she had never mentioned her parents until that day when the Ambassador had breezed into the BAU like she owned the place. He had witnessed their awkward greeting, and though they had shown a united front for the team, he had sensed the tension in both that hovered just below the surface. Emily only referred to her as mother or Ambassador Prentiss. Mom was something new.

"Okay. But if there's ever anything I can do for you, I want to be there. I want to help you."

"Well, maybe there is something you can do for me."

Elizabeth latched on to it, interpreting that something was still wrong with her daughter. "So you're not alright?"

Emily briefly refrained from rolling her eyes. Everyone was afraid she was going to have a mental breakdown by simply stepping onto French soil. First it was JJ, then Hotch and now her mother. If one more person asked her if she was okay, she was going to scream or shoot them if they were physically standing in front of her.

"I am, Mom. Really," she said, successfully keeping the exasperation out of her voice. "I just need a favor."

"Name it."

"Can you check with the embassy here to see if Gideon's nephew applied for a replacement passport? I would have tried, but I was afraid that they might give me the run around."

"You could have simply told them that you're my daughter."

"Why do all the name dropping when I can go directly to the power behind the name?"

Elizabeth chuckled as she reached for pen and paper. "Flattery will get you everywhere. What's his name?"

"Noah…" Emily trailed off, realizing she had no clue what his last name was. It obviously wasn't Gideon. She turned around with the question in her eyes.

"Eisenberg. Noah Eisenberg," he supplied with a small smile.

"Eisenberg," she repeated. "You got that?"

"Got it. Is this the poor boy you went to identify?"

"It is, but luckily it wasn't him. Right now we're trying to track him down to make sure he's okay."

"Ah. The game is afoot," she quoted, hearing the excitement in her daughter's voice. Did she always sound like that before the start of a case?

Emily smiled. "Sherlock Holmes."

"Correct. Give me a few minutes, Lee. I'll call you back."

"Okay, Mom. I'll be waiting for it."

Elizabeth hung up and went to her study to contact her personal assistant. "Jonathan, please get the embassy in France on the line."

As she waited to be connected, she felt a flush of excitement. It was great to be helping Emily for a change. If this had happened a year ago, her daughter wouldn't have bothered to call. She would have taken her chances with the embassy staff. It was nice to be needed.

"I thought you didn't get along with your mother," Gideon observed when she had hung up.

Emily took her time in setting down her cell phone and arranging it so it laid dead center on top of her notes so that she could rein in her growing irritation. Once again he was prying into her personal life while she had yet to ask him one question about where he had vanished to five years ago. Was she curious? Damn right she was, she was very curious, but she wasn't the nosy type and it wasn't any of her business. What he has been up to over the years has no bearing on finding his missing nephew just like her fiasco with Doyle didn't. If Gideon wanted her to know, he'll tell her though she wasn't going to hold her breath about it.

"How would you know? You met my mother for what? A half hour max before you, Morgan and Reid flew to Boston. That's hardly enough time to understand the inner workings of our relationship."

"What can I say? I'm a quick study."

Her cell phone ringing saving Emily from coming up with a snarky response. A quick glance at the screen told her that it was Penelope. As soon as the connection was made, she told the blonde what she needed, making sure to give her Noah's full name, his cell phone number and the unknown number the text came from. But when she felt the question coming, she cut Penelope off before she could say another word. A fourth person asking her if she was okay would have made her a whole lot less okay, so she had to nip that in the bud before it happened and redirected her friend back to the matter at hand. Penelope took the hint and got to work. She did caution Emily that it was going to take some time since she had other searches to complete for an open case. The brunette told her that it wasn't a problem.

The second she hung up, the phone rang again. This time it was her mother calling her back. Elizabeth informed her that Noah never showed up at the embassy to apply for a new passport. Emily thanked her for her assistance and promised to call when she had some time later that night. When Elizabeth said I love you, Emily wanted to say it, but she was uncomfortable doing it in front of Gideon. Leaving the room was out of the question since he had eventually followed her before. She ended up turning her back on him and whispered a hasty 'I love you too' into the phone.

When she turned back, Gideon had a knowing smile on his face. "That was Mother," she explained unnecessarily.

"I know. I heard the I love you."

A faint flush crept up Emily's neck to her cheeks. "Uh…what she had to say is a mixture of good and bad. Noah never went to the embassy to get a replacement passport so that means he is probably still in the country and hopefully still here in the city."

Gideon frowned thoughtfully. "Isn't France part of the passport-free area of the European Union so you don't have to show it to travel between countries?"

Emily nodded. "Yes. The Schengen Agreement, but many member countries still require you to carry your passport and can ask to see it at any time. It's the only form of identification accepted."

"So he's still here," he said, agreeing with her previous statement. He glanced at his watch. "It's almost three o'clock. Capitaine Dubois said I could go through Noah's backpack."

"Then we better get going," she said, grabbing her jacket off the back of the chair. "We don't want to keep him waiting."

Emily sat next to Gideon at the conference table as he methodically went through the contents of Noah's backpack. Capitaine Dubois had been his courteous self, greeting them with a friendly smile as he escorted them to his office. After cautioning them again that nothing was to be removed from the office, he retreated to a corner and had a low conversation with his unnamed lieutenant. While she listened to them with half an ear, Emily picked up the water-logged sketchbook Gideon had set aside and thumbed through it. Though the pages were soaked, she could still make out the architectural features drawings Noah had done of the Duomo di Milano, St. Peter's Basiclica and the Trevi Fountain.

"I see Noah's been to Italy," she commented.

"Yes," Gideon grunted, studying the scraps of paper the police had bagged separately. "He spent a month there before coming to France."

"He's very good at drawing," she said, easily recognizing Notre Dame, the Stratsbourg Cathedral and the Pont Alexandre III.

"He gets it from his father's side of the family."

"I always wished I could draw like this," Emily said wistfully as she continued to flip through the pages. "But I can't, so I have to settle with going to the Louvre and admiring the works of others who can."

"I'm the same with the Smithsonian."

The conversation behind them grew more animated. Emily sat up straighter in her chair, focusing her full attention on what was being said while pretending to be still looking at the sketchbook. The more she heard, the more unsettled she grew. At one point she gave Gideon a subtle nudge under the table with her foot, and when he looked at her, Emily mouthed that they had to leave.

He nodded that he understood and pushed back from the table, drawing the attention of Dubois and his lieutenant. "Thank you, Capitaine, for allowing me to go through my nephew's backpack."

"You're welcome, Monsieur Gideon. Did anything appear to be missing or was there something that didn't belong?"

"Not that I could tell."

Dubois failed to hide his disappointment. "A pity. I was hoping you would find something that would indicate where your nephew is."

"So did I," Gideon agreed. He glanced at the sketchbook still in Emily's hand. "Would it be too much to ask if I could keep Noah's sketchbook? Of all his things, I know he would want it back even if it was damaged by the water."

The Capitaine and lieutenant exchanged words in rapid French before answering. "I believe we can do that. There was nothing of interest pertaining to the case in it besides the drawings of historical landmarks."

Gideon signed all the necessary release papers and with another promise to call if Noah contacted him, they made their way out into the December afternoon. Once they were a safe distance from the police station, Emily stopped and turned to him.

"We've got a problem."