A/N – so sorry yet another angsty chapter, italics are flashbacks, this story will be finished before Christmas but others are slightly on hold until after so I can catch up with cooking, wrapping presents and resting my busted shoulder after my bike accident last week!

Chapter 21 - ...And Back

Tuesday Afternoon –

Emily didn't touch the sandwich and salad they had brought in for her lunch, as soon as Kate had left the room her nerves had started to build up and as the clock ticked around to 1:30pm along came the court officer to take her to begin her ordeal.

Emily took her seat and fixed her gaze on Mr Silkman, knowing that his questioning would be fair easier than the cross examination.

"Agent Prentiss could you tell the court how you Mrs Ainsley please?"

Morgan and Prentiss knocked hard on the front door, eventually Mrs Ainsley opened the door and reluctantly let the two agents in. Emily looked around at all the mess as Morgan started to question Mrs Ainsley but she just gave them yes and no answers and failed to elaborate on where Kate could possibly be. After a great deal of persuasion they were allowed to take a look at the girl's room. The room itself was quite small, but it did contain a bed and a chest of drawers, Emily picked up the photo from beside the bed, it was of a couple and a young girl, immediately Emily assumed that it was of Kate and her parent's. Emily shook her head as she watched Derek pull the covers off the bed and noticed that the mattress was obviously stained and had a strong smell of urine, bed wetting in a nine year old was uncommon unless other things had been happening in the bedroom. Emily took two steps over to the chest of drawers, opening the top of the three drawer unit she immediately noticed the lack of clothes and the school rucksack beside the unit. Neither of them thought that Kate had run away and Mrs Ainsley was definitely hiding something from them.

"Did you get to speak to Mr Ainsley before you left the house Agent Prentiss?"

"Only briefly, he was leaving for work when we arrived, he didn't show any concern as to where Kate was and just drove off to work."

"So when did you next see Mr Ainsley Agent Prentiss?"

"When he abducted me and took me to the cabin where I found that he was holding Kate."

Emily took a breath and proceeded to tell the jury what she had witnessed in the cabin and how she had been rescued. After she managed to get through that she braced herself for the cross examination.

"Are you back working at the BAU now Agent Prentiss?"

"Yes."

"That must have been hard after what happened to you."

Emily didn't reply as she fixed her eyes on the Ainsley's who were sitting next to each other, holding hands and smiling at her.

"Did you tell us everything that happened in the cabin?"

Emily sat there in silence as she sucked in her bottom lip.

"Agent Prentiss are you withholding evidence from the court?"

Emily bowed her head for a moment.

"Agent Prentiss will you answer the question?"

Emily turned at looked at Mr Silkman and wondered why he was allowing the defence lawyer to badger her so much.

"Agent Prentiss!"

"Objection your honour, please Mr Anderson is attacking the witness!"

"Your honour I am simply trying to find out if the witness has anything more to say that might help my clients."

"Objection overruled, Agent Prentiss you will answer the question please."

Emily closed her eyes for ten seconds.

"No, no I didn't tell you everything."

"So Agent Prentiss what else happened in the cabin?"

Emily felt the tears start to roll down her face, her eyes looked down at the floor as she spoke.

"He...he raped me."

Emily managed to croak out the answer, she slowly lifted her head and looked over at her friends and saw the tears rolling down JJ and Garcia's faces.

"No more questions your honour."

"Agent Prentiss you may leave the stand. We will recess for the day now, I'll see everyone back here tomorrow morning at 9am."

The judge quickly stood and left the court room as the Ainsley's and then the jury were escorted out while Emily stayed rooted to the seat. Everyone else filed out of the court room until it was just Emily and her friends and her mother left.

JJ and Morgan walked towards Emily whilst Garcia and Rossi sat with the Ambassador who was in shock.

"Hey girl, come on let's get out of here."

Morgan put his arm around Emily's waist and helped her to stand up. JJ reached out and took a hold of Emily's hand and in silence they walked out of the court room, once outside they sat her down on the same bench that Kate had sat on earlier.

Garcia and Rossi walked out with Elizabeth as Emily felt her mother sit down beside her and hold her tightly.

"Why didn't you tell me Emily?"

"Because I wanted to forget it, blank it out of my mind, put it into one of those boxes and shove it right to the back never to be retrieved!"

Emily spoke quietly but angrily at her mother but regretted it straight away, it wasn't her fault.

"Sorry mother that was uncalled for."

"Hey Em, how about we head back to the hotel?"

JJ spoke up, knowing that she for one certainly wanted to be out of the courthouse and she expected that the others felt the same.

JJ had always suspected that something else had happened to Emily in the cabin, she had seen how torn and ripped her friend's clothes were and at the hospital Garcia had told her about her own fears. JJ had kept her thoughts to herself, believing that Emily would tell her when she felt ready to do so.

"Is Kate ok?"

JJ nodded as she helped Emily to stand up and they walked out of the building and back to the safety of the hotel room.

JJ and Garcia walked up to the hotel room with Emily, Morgan and Rossi knew that it was best to give her some space for a while and her mother had decided that it would be better to leave her daughter in the company of her friends.

JJ opened the hotel door and saw Kate laying on her bed with Spencer beside her watching Disney cartoons, Hotch was sitting at the table reading a file but soon looked up as he heard the door open, his eyes immediately noticed how upset everyone was and gestured to Spencer that it was time for them to leave. Emily walked straight over to Kate's bed and hugged her tightly, allowing her tears to fall once again.

"Are you ok mom?"

Emily just shook her head, unable to be strong for her daughter.

"What happened mom? Did they? Oh I'm so sorry mom!"

Kate started to cry when it dawned on her as to what had happened in the courtroom.

"Oh god JJ, Kate knew all this time and didn't say anything!"

"I'm afraid so Pen, Kate was there and saw it, just like Emily had to watch it happen to Kate except Kate didn't tell anyone Emily's secret."