Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV series, Criminal Minds.

Who We Are
Part 15

By N. J. Borba

Sunlight shone through the long narrow windows as she traversed the familiar corridors of her sister's hospital. Emily wasn't sure when she'd come to think of it as Anna's hospital; it just sounded a little more personal to her. As she adjusted the brown canvas bag slung over her left shoulder, Emily gave a nod to a male nurse named Tony who she'd gotten to know. And a smile flashed to the female nurse on duty, Candice, who had become a good friend to Anna over the last three months.

At first Anna had only been in and out for her dialysis treatments, usually four hours a day for four days in a row. Back then she'd been able to go home after her treatments and spend time with Michelle. Emily had even hired a private nurse for that block of time. But two weeks ago she'd been admitted due to a bad cold and hadn't been able to leave yet. The chemo had left her vulnerable to even the most benign illness. And the BAU blood and tissue testing drive hadn't yielded a donor.

Emily knocked on the door as a courtesy, but headed straight in without a response. She stopped in her tracks, spotting Rossi seated at her sister's bedside, his hand against Anna's blanket-covered thigh. "I… uh…" she stumbled over her words. "I'm sorry, I'll come back later." Emily backed toward the door.

"No," Rossi stopped her, getting to his feet. "I should be going, actually," he smiled at Anna and leaned in to kiss her.

Both brows rose as Emily watched their lips meet in a kiss. She wasn't sure what the relationship was between her colleague and sister, but the exchange seemed more than sociable. He passed her on the way to the door and Emily gave him a thin-lipped smile. "You really don't have to go."

"It's okay," he gently patted her shoulder. "She loves her time with you," Dave smiled genuinely as he departed.

Turning around again, Emily faced her sister. "So…" she moved toward the bed and sat down her tote bag, which was filled nearly to bursting with magazines, books, a deck of cards and even some puzzles that Michelle had packed for her mother. "How's Dave doing?" Emily asked.

Anna was propped by several satiny pillows that Michelle had helped Emily pick. Her legs were covered by a Kelly-green cashmere blanket from her parents. The rest of her was draped in a lavender robe Garcia had given her as a gift. And her scalp sported a coordinating purple and green silk scarf. "David is well," she smiled. "He's been such a dear friend. Today he read to me from a new book."

"Just a friend, huh?" Emily questioned. "Because that kiss seemed more than friendly. I mean, you two haven't… well, you're not really up for that, are you?"

"I believe it would have to be David who was up for it," Anna grinned.

"Oh, God!" Emily cringed, covering her ears with her hands. "I need a mental picture eraser now, thank you very much." Her hands went back to her sides, resting against the soft cotton of her gray slacks. She shuddered, thinking it was a bit like walking in on your parents having sex, which she had thankfully never done. "You do know I have to work with him, right?"

The elder sister chuckled softly, but it turned in to a fit of raspy coughing. Anna grasped the glass of water Emily poured for her and took several small sips. "You work with Derek, too," she mentioned when her throat was finally clear.

"Yeah," Emily agreed as she pulled up a chair and began digging through the bag. She pulled on a teal cardigan because it always seemed chilly in the hospital room, despite it being a warm spring day outside. "But that's different." She spread an array of magazines on Anna's bed; two celebrity rags, three fashion mags, a house remodeling catalogue, a cooking guide and one magazine on knitting, which was something Anna had been interested in ever since receiving Fran's Christmas gift. So far she'd knitted half a scarf, but performing even that simple craft caused her fatigue.

Anna pulled out the book she had tucked beside her. "Have you read this?" she asked.

Emily stared at the front cover for a moment. Her head shook. "Nope."

"It's about a girl with cancer and her parents have another child just to be a genetic donor for her," Anna explained. "David didn't get very far into it yet, so I don't know how it turns out, but it sounds like an interesting story."

"Why on Earth are you reading a book about cancer?" Emily questioned.

Another chuckle escaped Anna's lips, which thankfully didn't turn into a cough. "Should I also not read books about living, breathing, sex, death?"

With a sigh and a why-do-I-bother shake of her head, Emily grabbed one of the celebrity rags, settled back in her plastic-molded chair, kicked off her shoes and rested her feet on Anna's bed. She gently nudged her sister's leg in a playful manner. "You know, some days I wish we'd grown up together and other days I'm pretty sure you would have driven me completely crazy if we had," Emily grinned. She'd often thought how different it would have been with her big sister there as a constant friend in her life. Her smile faded quicker than she would have liked, and the magazine fell to her lap. "I wish I was that genetic match for you."

"I'm glad you are not," Anna was quick to reply. "I would not want you to carry that burden. I wouldn't want you to be upset if you tried to help and could not. Just like I am glad they took me instead of you all those years ago. I am glad I could endure that pain so you did not have to."

As she listened to Anna, Emily tried very hard not to let guilt eat her up inside again, because she'd been working on that for the last three months. At times it almost felt as if she were a recovering addict working on her twelve step program. Step one: let the past go. But there were still so many things she wanted to make right, and so many questions she wanted answered. "What did he do to you?" the words slipped out without warning.

Anna knew without direct mention of his name that her sister was talking about Richard, the man she'd grown up knowing only as Eli. "Emily, you know I'm never going to tell you that."

"Why not?" Emily persisted, tired of trying to push it all aside. She dropped her bare feet to the cold floor and the magazine fell from her lap as she leaned forward. "I know some of it, the things I read in Eric's journal, what little you've said, and what we've all concluded given our profiler backgrounds. It can't be any worse than everything else I've already imagined. I just want to understand what he did and…"

"Imagining and knowing are two very different things," Anna insisted.

Emily took a deep breath. She knew how true her sister's words were. There was a deeper reason behind her curiosity, though. "I'm just not good at sitting," she exhaled. "Doing nothing… feeling completely helpless. I hate it. And I keep thinking that maybe if I knew more about what made him tick then I could avoid it in my life, or…" her thoughts were too scattered to make any sense of them and she dumped her head against Anna's bed, forehead resting on the cashmere blanket.

Anna stroked her sister's dark hair. "I hate it, too," she replied. "Some days I feel as if I have sat through my entire life, unable to do what I really wanted, unable to fight back. Unable to understand why it all happened. But having you here helps more than you could know," Anna insisted. Her book was carefully placed on the rolling table beside her bed as she implored Emily to sit up again. "They found me a donor," she revealed.

"What?" Emily's head popped up.

"There's a young woman in Arizona who went to a donation event recently and her tissue type is an exact match," Anna said. "Can you imagine how a complete stranger would be such a match? The human body is a mysterious thing," she remarked.

Emily didn't give a damn about the mysteries of the human body at that moment. "So, when are they doing the transplant? Or transfusion?" she wondered which route Anna's doctor would choose. "And why didn't you say something earlier?"

"Because that sweet young woman also learned some other wonderful news upon having that blood test done," Anna explained. "She found out that she's pregnant."

Memories of all the reading material Emily had gone over months ago flashed in her mind. "You can't donate if you're pregnant," she concluded, watching her sister nod as if they were simply discussing the weather or where to go for dinner. Emily pushed her chair back and shot to her feet. She paced the room a few times, trying to calm herself with little success. "How can you lay there and be so fucking serene about all of this?" she finally exploded. "It's not fair!" Emily shouted, unconcerned about who in the hospital might overhear her.

"I have lived many years," Anna replied. "Now that baby will have a chance to live."

With a huff, Emily threw up her hands. "What about your baby? What about watching Michelle grow up? What about…" her voice croaked. "What about all the trips around the world we've been planning, and you going to school? You can't just give up."

Anna motioned her sister over, pointing to the empty chair. "Please sit," she whispered.

Emily obeyed, but she wasn't happy about it. "You're not giving up, are you?"

"It's not just my kidneys, Emily," the woman replied. "My chest aches every time I breathe. My liver function is at an all time low…" she decided not to continue the list, but got to the heart of the matter. "Dr. Kirkland says I won't be responsive to any kind of treatment at this point."

"What kind of doctor tells someone that?" Emily was incensed again. "Jeez, why doesn't he just finish you off himself?" she lamented.

"He is only being realistic," Anna replied. "Emily, I… I am in pain, all the time. And I hate the drugs because they make me sleepy, they make me… not me." She watched her sister digest that information. Anna hated putting it on her shoulders, just like everything else that had come down on her sister in the last few months. But she needed someone to understand. "I try not to let it show, for your sake, for our parents, and especially for Michelle. But it hurts," she admitted. "It hurts."

"Then tell me what to do," Emily begged. "Just tell me and I'll do it. Anything. I swear."

Anna smiled. "Will you tell me a story?"

"I…" Emily blinked, surprised by that response. "What?"

"I would like you to tell me a story."

Emily's mouth opened and closed, like a fish gasping for air on a beach. It took her a little bit longer to fully grasp what her sister was saying, and she wasn't sure she understood, but she complied. "I'm not good at fairytales," Emily responded. "And I don't think I could stomach a happily-ever-after at the moment."

"Too bad, because I want a futuristic story with a happy ending," Anna stated. She squeezed her sister's hand and smiled. "I want you to tell me about the day Michelle graduates. I want you to describe that day to me, everything about it."

"Anna, no," Emily immediately protested. "You'll be there…"

The older sister shook her head. "Please, tell me," Anna implored.

Full realization hit Emily like a freight train, but she slowly nodded as she took Anna's hands and tried to be strong for her sister. "Are we talking about her undergrad degree, her masters or her doctorate?" she finally asked, hoping to infuse some lightheartedness into their conversation, which was sure to end on a bittersweet note.

"Actually, I was thinking we would start with high school."

"Okay," Emily agreed. "Um…" she decided to start by setting the scene. "It's a beautiful spring day. Kind of like today, blue skies, sunshine and birds chirping," Emily almost wanted to puke at her own nauseatingly perfect description, but she pressed forward, seeing the smile on Anna's face. "So they decide to have the ceremony outside on the lawn. There are plastic folding chairs set up in rows, and a stage up front. All the graduates are seated in the front rows in their caps and gowns. They're smiling and laughing, thinking they already know everything there is to know about life."

"They have no idea, do they?" Anna grinned.

A smile echoed her older sisters as Emily nodded. "We sit through some speeches, several of them, long boring speeches by the valedictorian and some old guy…"

"Who's there with you?"

That question was an easy one to answer, even though Emily hadn't spoken to her mother in nearly three months. At least nothing more than what was required while passing one another in the hospital corridor or arranging to transfer Michelle back and forth to school. "Her grandparents, of course," Emily stated.

A confirmation nod came from Anna. "And Derek," she supplied.

Emily shrugged. "I suppose he'll still be around, since I can't seem to shake him no matter how hard I try."

"Stop that," Anna admonished, knowing her sister loved Derek a great deal. She also knew how worried her baby sister was of messing things up with him. "The speeches have ended," she prodded her sister back into the story. "What happens next?"

"They start calling the names of all the students," Emily rolled back into the tale. "And there are a lot of them, and Derek makes jokes about some of their unfortunate middle names. Then I ask what his middle name is and he clams up on me," she chuckled, getting very caught up in the story. "Our parents roll their eyes at us and tell us to stop behaving like children."

Anna laughed at that, pleased to hear her sister's jovial tone. "And then they call out Michelle's name, right?"

"Yes," Emily confirmed. "Michelle Elizabeth Prentiss."

"No," Anna shook her head. "That's not the name they call."

A small noise of uncertainty emitted from Emily's mouth as she regarded her sister with questioning eyes. "That's the name you put on her birth certificate. I do remember that from getting her enrolled in school," she noted.

"I know. But this is the future and her name has changed in the future," Anna was adamant on that point.

"Oh no, it hasn't," Emily's brows spiked upward. "She's barely eighteen, she sure as heck better not be married yet for any reason."

The spark of laughter that rolled off Anna's tongue was highly amused. "No," she said. "Of course she is not married. Between you, daddy and Derek I doubt she will be able to date a boy until she is perhaps as old as I am," Anna guessed. "No, the name they call out at her graduation is Michelle Elizabeth Morgan."

"Morgan?" Emily questioned.

Anna nodded. "That is what I see in the future. At least that is what I hope."

Emily didn't know how her sister could sound so hopeful of that fact, knowing what it meant for her in the future. She swallowed the sorrowful lump in her throat and continued. "They call her name and she stands up. She's very tall, taller than me, which she always teases me about. Her hair is cut at shoulder length again, because it's her favorite style," Emily tried not to lose it. "And her green eyes are sparkling in the sunlight as she walks up onto the stage to collect her diploma. She smiles and thanks her principle as they shake hands. Then she faces the crowd again and spots us, waves emphatically, and then hurries back to join her friends.

"Afterward, she weaves her way through the throng of people and hugs her grandparents first. She hugs Derek next and he tries hard to play Mr. tough-guy and not cry, but I can see the tears welled in his eyes," Emily continued. "And then she looks at me and I pretty much lose it. I'm teary and she's teary and she gives me the biggest hug. She thanks me for a whole slew of things that I can't really focus on. All I can think to say is how proud I am of her. And then our eyes lock and I tell her how proud her mom and dad are of her. And I end with something really corny about how you both are watching her."

Realizing she'd acknowledged her sister was dying for the first time, Emily finally broke down. "It's okay," Anna assured her. She let her little sister cry for a short time before reaching for one of the fashion magazines and flipping through the pages. "What do you think of this dress?" Anna asked. "I like the cut of the waist. Certainly a far cry from my Little House on the Prairie days, don't you think?"

A small bubble of laughter rose in Emily's throat as her tears dried. She stared at the red dress and once again marveled at her sister's attitude. "It's not bad. I think it would make you look a little big in the hips, though."

"You might be right," Anna flipped a few pages. "Oh, here," she showed Emily another dress. "This green one is gorgeous. I love the sleeves and the way it drapes at the bottom. Now that one would look good on me."

"You're right," Emily agreed. "Green is a great color on you and that…" she stopped, pausing to think about something. "Crap, Anna, you're not trying to pick out a dress you want to be buried in, are you?"

Anna smiled softly, grateful that her sister had mentioned being buried without protesting or breaking down. "No, not at all. Actually, I want to be cremated," she stated her desire. "And I'd like my ashes to be buried next to Eric, or spread over his grave site. But you could also have a memorial service here. Maybe you could say a few things about me. Hopefully good things," Anna smiled sheepishly as she looked to her sister for some sign of acknowledgment to her wishes.

Emily swallowed hard as she thumbed the magazine page, but she nodded. "Okay."

xxx

He noticed the light was still on in Michelle's room and figured the girl had fallen asleep with it on. But as Derek stepped toward her bed he found that she was still very much awake and tapping away on the cell phone Emily had begrudgingly purchased for her a few months ago. She looked up at him with wide eyes, knowing she'd been caught. "Ellie," she pointed to the phone. "It's still early there and she was missing her dad a lot today and needed a friend."

Morgan knew it was close to the one year anniversary of that loss, and he remembered being the one Ellie had turned to for her support until Michelle had taken on that role. "That's okay, but you need to tell her goodnight now because it's way past your bed time." Derek thought he sounded a lot like his mother just then and wondered how he'd ever come to take on the fathering role in Michelle's life. He watched her typing on the phone and his heart won out for a second. "Tell her goodnight for me."

The nine-year-old smiled as she relayed the message and then turned her phone off. "Ellie says goodnight to you, too," Michelle whispered, sinking down under her sheets a little more. The girl bit down on her lip. "Derek, I told Ellie something but I think I should tell you too. She said I should."

"What is it, sweetness?" He sat down on her bed.

"I've been mean to Emily the last few months," she admitted. "I haven't talked to her very much and sometimes I pretend not to listen when she tells me to do stuff."

Derek already knew most of what had been going on because Emily had mentioned it to him. "Why do you think that is, kiddo?"

"Because…" Michelle sighed. "Because I thought that if I wasn't nice to Emily and if I didn't do what she said then she wouldn't want me around. Then mommy couldn't die because she'd have to take care of me."

His heart went out to the girl, having suspected something like that. "But you don't like being mean to Emily do you?" Derek asked the child.

"No, I love her," Michelle was quick to respond. "But what if she gets sick too?"

"Hey, no," he caressed her cheek. "It doesn't work like that. Your mom and dad didn't get sick because you love them. None of this is your fault, okay. Do you understand that?" He watched Michelle shrug and realized how much she reminded him of Emily. Not so much in the looks department, but her strength and her wisdom, her guilt and her vulnerability. "I know this is all confusing, baby girl. But none of it is your fault," he tried to assure her again.

The girl gripped her covers tightly. "Is my mommy going to die?"

Morgan wished there was some way to banish those words from her vocabulary, some way to make all her troubles disappear. But he knew there wasn't. "I hope not, sweetness." Derek remembered what Michelle had once told him about her mother always saying those words when she'd asked about her dad dying. He knew the little girl deserved the truth, and he trusted she could handle it. "But probably," he honestly relayed.

She actually smiled a little to hear him say it. "Will you stay with me until I fall asleep?" Michelle asked.

Derek nodded as he finally turned the lamp off. He sat there with her for a good twenty minutes after she'd fallen asleep. Then he made his way downstairs. It was quiet except for the burble of Michelle's fish tank in the living room. Derek found himself drawn to it, sitting down on the sofa and staring across the room, watching as the three gold fish swam around the glass enclosed space; over blue rocks, through a brown and red castle, around the fake green plants. There was something calming about it, like being at Sea World with Ellie as they'd watched the sharks glide through the water.

His thoughts were interrupted by the front door opening and closing. Derek stayed seated, but turned his head and watched Emily in the shadowy entry hall as she dropped her bag by the door, removed her shoes and shed her sweater. She walked straight toward him, sunk down on the sofa next to him and laid her head against his shoulder. The two of them remained that way for a long time, not needing words to convey the sorrows of their day.

"How was Michelle?" she finally asked.

"Good," Derek traced the contours of her fingers as her hand rested on his knee. "We went for a long bicycle ride in the park. I think that really helps to clear her head. I know it helped me," he relayed. "And I treated her to pizza for dinner."

"Very nutritious," Emily replied.

"We had salad too."

She turned her head to look at him. "Your idea or hers?"

He chuckled. "Hers." Morgan pressed a kiss to her temple and then rested his head against hers. "She asked me tonight if her mom was going to die."

Emily's stomach knotted up as she sat forward, resting her elbows against her thighs. "I'm so sorry," she ran her hands through her hair, not even sure of the last time she'd showered. Maybe it had been earlier in the day, maybe four days ago. Everything the last few months seemed like a jumble of moments that were barely connected. "I should've been here," she lamented.

Derek leaned forward as well, a hand resting between her shoulder blades. His fingers moved to her neck and gently kneaded the tight muscles he found there. "Emily, you can't be everywhere at once. Anna needed you at the hospital. And Michelle was fine with me." He regretted telling her, but they'd agreed to be as open and honest as possible in their relationship.

Her mind danced, also subject to those jumbled moments in time. "Did you talk to Garcia today?" she switched topics.

"No, it's Saturday and I had the day off," Morgan reminded her. "I wanted to devote my time to Michelle."

"But it's been over three months and she hasn't found anything new on Margaret," Emily spoke, trying to keep her head busy with thoughts other than her sister's insistence that death was imminent. "We still don't even know how she found out my private cell phone number."

Morgan sensed that her visit with Anna had spurned this new desire to find Margaret, not that it hadn't been a priority before. "Well, despite what she may sometimes boast, Garcia isn't all-knowing and all-powerful. The team has been over all of it so many times, Em. Other than Reid's hunt and peck method…"

"Right, she just sat around for hours on end trying out different numbers," Emily scoffed, having heard it all before.

"He had some data based on prefix and area code," Morgan went over it yet again. "It seemed like a pretty big number, but not entirely inconceivable. And it's a lot more likely than her being some super star computer hacker. Anna said they never even owned a TV, let alone a computer."

"Eric and Anna were locked in that cellar a lot," she remembered. "Margaret had plenty of opportunities to slip away for long periods of time. Her family had money; so maybe she had another residence somewhere near the farm. A place where she could keep tabs on my parents, or me. She knew they could never try to get close to me again, but…" Emily sighed. "I don't even know what I'm saying any more. I just feel like she's waiting. Those notes, the pictures, following us to California… and now we haven't heard a single word for three months. She's sitting out there somewhere, Derek. She's just waiting for Anna to die. Like a damn vulture circling above our heads and hoping to swoop down and pick at the remains of my family."

"Hey," Derek attempted to derail her. "First off, we've showed Michelle the rendering and age progression photos Garcia did. She knows what Margaret looks like, she knows not to speak to her or go near her. Besides, someone is always with her. You and I or your parents take her to school and drop her off. The teachers there all know the situation. They watch her. No one is going to swoop down and take her."

"Anna was in her bedroom, in her house, with my father nearby," Emily whispered. "And they got to her."

Derek pulled her back to his side, wrapped his arms about her shoulders and reclined against the sofa again. "I think you need a break," he told her. "The nurses can take care of Anna for one morning and afternoon. And JJ offered to have Michelle over tomorrow. We can drop her off and then go out for coffee," he suggested, recalling all their coffee dates in the past. "Or we could see a movie or have brunch somewhere," Derek continued. "Or we could just spend half the day together doing nothing."

"That all sounds kind of like a date," she noted with a questioning tone.

He smiled. "Maybe it will be."

"Is it, or isn't it?" she craned her neck to look him in the eye.

"Emily, would you like to go out with me tomorrow… on a date?" Morgan finally asked.

She allowed herself to be sucked into his carefree world for a moment. "I'd like that, very much."

xxx

For three months Emily felt like she'd been taking advantage of Derek. He helped her out with Michelle at every turn, and with Anna too. They'd spent most nights at her place when they weren't working a case. She knew his house was still in a state of construction, but that he'd barely touched it. And they'd declared their love for one another, even consummated it many times, without ever really going on an official date. But he'd never balked at any of it. He was always just there.

"I think that one looks like an elephant," he pointed to the fluffy white clouds above them.

She was curled up beside him on a blanket he'd spread out over the grass. Emily did her best to relax as she heard kids laughing in the distance and other murmurs from the trail behind them; walkers and joggers, even a few bicycle riders going by. The two of them had ditched all of those options in exchange for doing as little as possible. They'd been doing that all morning, which had stretched into the afternoon. "More like a rhinoceros. See the horn there," she pointed.

"Aw, yes," Derek nodded. "But that was the elephant's trunk a few seconds ago before the breeze turned it upward."

Emily laughed softly, wanting to stay where they were for the rest of her life. The blanket was like an island, an oasis; grassy waves lapping at the shore. In her head she had already dubbed it: The Island of No. No worries about her sister or niece. No concern over the strained relationship with her mother and father. No, nearly constant, thoughts about the man whose blood coursed through her veins, which she still feared was like a ticking time bomb under her skin.

But the island was a myth.

Her head turned a little so that she could see the curve of the path that wove through the park. Further off in the distance she spotted the clearing where they'd kissed that first time. Further still she could vaguely see the outline of the tree where she'd sat one night in the rain. Where she'd planted a bullet in its twin and contemplated one through her flesh. Emily's gaze finally fell back upon the man beside her and she remembered something he'd said to her many months ago.

"I'm grateful that you made a happy memory for me here, where once there was a bad one," she whispered in his ear. "I really don't know how to thank you."

"You don't need to." He balanced his weight on one elbow and kissed her softly, a simple gesture to convey his love. Derek looked her in the eye and spotted the worries she was keeping at bay. "But I think you do need to tell me what's on your mind."

She knew it was useless to try hiding anything from him, so she didn't bother. "I think I need to help my sister die."

"What?"

Emily watched his eyes widen and she realized how her words might have been construed. "I don't mean euthanasia," she said. "At least nothing as drastic as drugging her or unplugging some vital machine," Emily amended. "I just…" she breathed out. "I think I need to help her understand that it's okay to move on. And I think there's only one real way to do that."

xxx

"Anna is dying," Emily didn't mince words as she sat across from her parents. She'd tried to think of Joseph Prentiss as something other than her father, but it never seemed right. They stared at her, unblinking. Her all-too-brief island adventure in the park had ended; reality reaching out to smack her in the face again.

Her mother's back straightened and her head shook. "No, there'll be a donor," she insisted. "You can't just give up on your sister."

"I'm not, mother." Her voice remained amazingly calm as she spoke. "Like Anna, I'm facing reality. I love my sister so much, which is why I'm ready to let her go. As painful as that will be," Emily explained. She watched them again, her silent father, her steadfast mother. "You're hoping for a miracle that just isn't possible. Anna coming back to us was our miracle," Emily tried to make them both understand. "She's holding on for us. For the two of you, mostly."

Elizabeth looked insulted. "That's not true."

"Yes, it is, mother," Emily insisted. She was starting to realize how much she and her mother were alike, stubborn; each of them willing to argue their point of view until the bitter end, sometimes to their detriment. Emily took a deep breath before proceeding. "I don't want to fight you on this, mother. That's not what Anna needs or wants right now." She paused. "I honestly can't imagine what you went through losing her, never knowing if she was alive or not. But I know she feels bad for leaving you again, and I also know that only you can really make it okay for her to move on."

"How could I possibly…" Elizabeth choked on the words. Her head shook again; her back a rigid line. "I don't think I can do that," she finally admitted.

Emily wasn't upset at her mother, she simply explained what was about to happen. "Derek and Michelle are meeting me at the hospital in a little while. I'm going to tell Anna that it's okay for her to go now. And we'll say our goodbyes," she whispered. "It's up to you whether or not you want to be there."

To Be Continued…