"Where are you going?" His angry voice echoed in her head as she ran across the parking lot. It seemed to her that she had never run this fast. Or maybe once before, as she was after Ian Doyle. Now someone was after her.

Emily Prentiss finally reached her car and jumped into the driver's seat. Her hand was trembling as she turned on the motor. He had not followed. She could see his shadow in the doorway, as he watched her drive away.

Tears were pooling in her eyes, and she desperately tried to wipe them away, as they made it difficult to drive. She tried to focus on the road, unsure about where she was headed. Home seemed lonely and cold to her right now. A friend's home? She couldn't really think of anyone whom she could confide into after this disastrous evening.

Emily's heart stopped as she took another turn with the car and struggled to keep it on the road. She couldn't bring herself to drive slower. She had to get as much distance as possible between him and herself. Suddenly the left side of the car started rolling on something soft, and she realized she wasn't fully on the road anymore. The brunette saw the tree in her headlights just seconds before the shock.

"Prentiss?" Hotch's voice was clearly worried as he stepped out of his car. The woman was sitting on the side of the road, a few meters from her own car, which did not look good. One side was jammed from the tree it had collided with, and smoke was still coming from the motor although almost an hour had past by since she had called him for help. Emily Prentiss herself looked like hell.

"Thanks a lot for coming." She responded as though everything was normal, and stood up as the dark-haired agent approached.

"Are you okay? I didn't think it would be this bad…" He motioned to the car.

"Yeah… I was driving too fast to be honest, but I'm okay. How did you find me?"

Hotch hesitated, his eyes still lingering on the jammed car, and on the woman standing in front of him, shivering from the cold – or the shock, he wasn't quite sure.

"I… asked the technical team to trace your cell. It's good the Bureau's open 24/7." He answered absently. "Here." Hotch quickly removed his jacket and wrapped it around his colleague's shoulders.

Emily had stepped closer to his car, so that Hotch could now see her clearly in his headlights. Her jaw was bruised, and there was dried blood on her lip. Why was she not wearing a coat in this cold November night? And where was she headed to be dressed up so elegantly? As Hotch's eyes travelled southwards, he noticed that the beautiful black dress was torn in several places, which increased his worry.

"Are you hurt?" His hand went protectively to her shoulder as he readjusted the jacket. She looked at him strangely.

"No… No. That's not the car accident." She stopped abruptly, realizing that she had given away too much information, and turned away. Before Hotch could say anything else, she cleared her throat and said:

"Can we go now? I'm awfully tired."

"What about your car?"

"I'll call the garage tomorrow morning. The motor's down anyway, I couldn't move it."

"Okay…" Hotch looked one last time at the once beautiful vehicle, then turned to Emily.

"Okay, let's go."