Authors Note: Thank you all so much for adding me and my story to your alerts and favorites! And for all of the comments, it means so much to me! I hope you enjoy this chapter :)

I do not own Criminal Minds

Precisely 20 minutes later the team boarded the jet. Morgan made a point to sit next to Emily, which caused her to squirm uncomfortably. When the jet started moving, she stared out the window and lost her thoughts in the clouds.

A few minutes later Morgan rested his hand on her shoulder. She jumped at the contact, the second time today, Morgan noted. Emily turned to look at him, and gave him a glare.

"You jumped last time I touched you also." Morgan said, but Emily just looked away. Morgan moved to the seat across from her so they were now facing each other. He tentatively put his hand up and moved her hair from across her face. He let in a shallow gasp as he saw the bruise and cut.

"Emily what happened?" He demanded.

"Nothing," She said strongly.

"This does not look like nothing." He gestured to her face.

"I just had an accident."

"Does this 'accident' have a name?" Morgan pressed.

Emily stood up and started to walk away.

"Emily! Tell me what happened." He shouted rising from his seat to follow after her.

"Stop acting like you know me Morgan. I am going to go to the bathroom, and when I'm back all we are going to talk about is the case." She walked into the small airplane bathroom and tried her hardest not to slam the door.

"Christ!" Morgan hissed. He looked up to see that the whole team was staring at him and had seen the last few moments.

Emily stared at herself in the mirror. She let a few tears roll down her face, but that was all. She took her shirt off and examined the bruises on her body. They weren't as dark as before, but they were still there. She slowly put her shirt back on and sat down on the cover of the toilet. Her hands held her face, but she couldn't hold in the tears anymore. They fell freely down her face. She thought back to a few nights earlier. When he grabbed her arms hard and threw her on the ground. She was a federal agent, she should have been able to stop him, or do something. Anything. Instead she had let herself become a victim. It's all your fault, she blamed herself. You should have stopped him. She suddenly became disgusted at the fact that she was crying. Prentiss's did not cry. Her mother had made a point to teach her that. She wiped her eyes and flushed the toilet, to make the illusion she had actually used it. She walked out of the bathroom to be greeted by the stares of her team. She took the seat closest to where she was and farthest from the rest of them.

Morgan made a move to go sit by her again, but JJ stopped him. Let me, she mouthed and walked over to where Emily was sitting.

"Hey," She said softly, sitting down, "We're all worried about you."

"Then you should mind your own business." Emily shot back.

"You know we can't do that. Emily, look at me." JJ sternly ordered her.

Emily slowly turned her face, and her red eyes met JJ's concerned ones.

"We are a family Emily. When one person is hurt we are all hurt."

"You know you sound like a cliché right?" Emily asked her.

JJ laughed, "A cliché is a cliché for a reason." Her tone suddenly got serious again, "Now you either tell me what happened or I am going to send Hotch over here." JJ threatened.

Emily sighed, "Why? It doesn't matter. Why can't you just let me forget about it?"

"Because we are your family and we need to know what happened to you. Now tell me, and you damn well better be honest, do you have any more bruised or cuts?"

Emily hesitantly rolled up the sleeves of her arms revealing bruises all the way up. "That's not all." She whispered.

JJ held in a gasp and kept her composure, "Where else?"

Emily closed her eyes and shook her head.

JJ put her arm around Emily, "Emily, you need to tell me."

Suddenly Emily felt like a little kid again. Except when she was a little kid she was not comforted like this.

"Everywhere." Emily tried to keep her voice strong, but ultimately failed. Another tear fell down her cheek despite her fight to stop it.

The rest of the team looked over to a sight they had never seen before, Emily Prentiss was crying. The men all gave each other questioning looks.

"Guys, let's work on the case." Hotch said, not wanting to violate the girls privacy.

"What happened, Em?" JJ couldn't keep the concern out of her voice.

Emily just continued to stare at the seat in front of her. If she told JJ what happened, it would mean it was true. It would confirm she was weak, and that she had become a victim.

"Okay, can you at least tell me who did this to you?"

"The man I went on a date with a few days ago. John Bates." She managed to say.

"That's good Emily; we are going to get this guy. But why didn't you tell us this before?"

Emily looked up at her incredulously, "I am a federal agent. I should be able to protect myself. I shouldn't have gotten beat by some man.

"Tell me what happened."

Emily continued to stare at the seat in front of her. "We were on our date, and we went back to his place. It was going nice until... until..." Emily took a deep breath, "He took me to his room, but I told him I wanted to take things slow. He obviously didn't like that answer. After I refused him again he grabbed my arms and slammed me against the wall, then the floor... You don't need to hear the rest."

This time JJ couldn't keep her gasp in. Anger suddenly filled her. More anger than she had ever felt in her entire life now all bottled up inside her. She gave Emily a quick side hug. "I'll be right back Emily."

Emily immediately regretted telling JJ anything. Now the whole team was going to know! This was not Emily Prentiss. She did not let things get to her. She did not let feelings control her life. She needed to be that controlled women. That was what gave her consistence. She was about to call JJ back but she was already walking toward the rest of the team.

JJ walked over to the the team fueled by anger.

"What did she tell you?" Morgan asked.

"Hotch," JJ ignored Morgan, "We need to get an arrest warrant out on John Bates."

"What for?" Hotch asked, keeping his face expressionless.

"The assault of a federal agent." JJ spit the words out.

"Just for the bruise on her face?" Morgan asked.

"There's more, trust me." JJ answered

Hotch's face turned red with anger the second the words left JJ's lips.

"I'm going to kill that bastard!" Morgan yelled.

Reid sat wide eyed staring at JJ. And Rossi looked dumbfounded. Hotch immediately pulled his cell phone out and portrayed the information to Garcia, who took it the worst of all.

Morgan quickly got up out of his seat.

"Where are you going?" JJ asked.

"To talk to Emily."

"No, you're not." JJ told him, "She does not need to be around men right now."

"Is there anything we can do?" Hotch asked. Concern for Prentiss had overwhelmed him.

"I don't know," JJ shook her head slowly. "Just get that bastard arrested. I am going to go back over to Emily."

"Garcia is on it now." Hotch confirmed. They all knew what that meant.

When JJ went back over to Emily, the guys resumed talking.

"I am going to kill that thing!" Morgan fumed.

"How could she not tell us?" Reid asked confused.

"Well it's not exactly easy to be a woman in law enforcement. If I had to take a guess, she was embarrassed to tell us." Rossi gave his view.

"But we're family!" Morgan argued back.

"Don't take this personally," Hotch said, "You know how many women we have interviewed, and it's hard to admit something like this had happened."

"But she is not just some woman, she is Emily!" Reid persisted.

"For right now I want you guys to give her some space. Don't question her about anything, but also be supportive." Hotch ordered. He then looked at his watch and sighed. The plane would be landing in less than 15 minutes. He got up and motioned for JJ to join him on the other side of the plane.

"When the plane lands I want you to take Emily to the hotel room we have rented. I do not want her working on this case." Hotch told JJ.

"That's exactly what I was thinking."

"I also want you to stay with her. Morgan, Reid, Rossi, and I should be able to handle this case for now with help from the local Leo's."

"Okay." JJ agreed. They both went back to their seats to prepare for arrival.

A few minutes later the plane landed and the team walked out on to the runway.

"Rossi I want you and Reid to go to the Police station and get set up. Morgan and I will be going to the most recent crime scene."

"What about JJ and me?" Emily asked.

"You two are going back to the hotel."

"Hotch," Emily stepped closer to him, "I did not tell you what I did so I could be barricaded in some hotel room." She angrily told him.

"If I would have known about this sooner, you wouldn't have come here at all. I want you to go down to the hospital and get checked out. When they clear you for duty we can talk about you joining the case." Hotch told her assertively.

"If this had happened on some case you would not be treating me this way!" Emily argued.

"You know that's not true."

"You've got to be kidding me!" She exasperatedly said.

"Come on Emily." JJ took her arm and guided her towards one of the SUV's.

"Hotch; you can't really expect her to not be a part of the case, can you?" Rossi asked as soon as she was out of hearing range.

"If she is not physically or mentally ready, she will not be assisting on this case. Now let's go." Hotch answered heading towards another SUV with Morgan at his tail. Reid and Rossi took the last car.

I hope you all enjoyed the chapter! Please comment if you can :D