So I've been trying to upload this ALL DAY but the site wouldn't let me get to my profile. Sorry about that. Enjoy.

XIV

"Will you please knock it off?" Emily strained to keep the irritation out of her voice. Mackenzie had not stopped clanging her wrist against the car door, taking the handcuff and her borderline obnoxious amount of bracelets with her.

"If you uncuffed me we wouldn't have a problem now would be Agent Juliet?" Mackenzie rolled her eyes in Emily's direction, taking note of the slight blush that took over her cheeks.

"That story didn't end very well." Emily pointed out as she turned onto the highway. Less than twenty minutes in and Mackenzie had already found a way to piss her off.

"Yea well at the rate you're going neither will yours." The girl grumbled as she stared out the side window. Emily ignored the blatant threat, having gotten used to them in the first ten minutes of their trip, and directed the conversation elsewhere.

"So what is your name?" the older brunette asked, occasionally glancing over at the younger girl. Mackenzie gave no reaction. "I mean, if it isn't Mackenzie, it has to be something else. Alright, I'll guess."

"Good luck."

"Oh, so it's an uncommon name, okay." Emily shifted in her seat and made it her life goal for the next two hours to annoy the girl as much as she could. "Isla. Zariah. Freya. Catelyn. Ursula."

"What the hell kind of people do you hang out with?" Mackenzie frowned at the list of names. Emily glared at the girl.

"Rude." She admonished her only to receive another eye roll. "I can keep guessing?"

"Or you could shoot me now and spare me." Mackenzie grumbled.

"You should really tone down the attitude." Emily suggested. "We're on the same side."

"Are we now?" Mackenzie shot the woman an amused glare. "I wasn't aware that I agreed to be carted off to some flee-rotten cabin in the middle of nowhere, stuck with one of the six people that refused to listen while a murderer chases after me!"

"So Hail is the killer?" Emily raised an eyebrow, glad to have caught the girl. Mackenzie's mouth snapped shut and a look of fear flashed across her face. Emily sighed before continuing. "Listen, I just want to help okay?"

"What don't you understand?!" Mackenzie shifted angrily. "You can't help. When he finds us, would you like to know what he's going to do?"

"How do you know what he plans on doing?" Emily asked, admittedly curious.

"Because I've seen it before." Mackenzie lowered her voice and Emily could tell that she was telling the truth.

"The woman you told us about…what happened to her?" Emily noticed the girl take in a shaky breath and close her eyes. "He's not going to find you, I promise. Just tell me."

"He-" Mackenzie weighed the possibility of Emily being able to keep her promise in her mind and found herself believing it. Annoying as she was, the woman knew how to do her job and genuinely seemed to care about the case…and her. "I went over one time without being called. They were all in the living room."

"Who?"

"Adrian, the woman, and these two guys I had never seen before." Mackenzie avoided Emily's gaze and passively stared out the window at the setting sun. "She was in a business suit, her nametag read 'Anya' and Adrian looked more pissed off than I had ever seen him." Mackenzie took a breath before continuing. "He got even madder when he saw me there; starting asking why I had come and screaming at me to leave but I refused. I asked him what she was doing there and why there was a cut on the woman's lip. He just glared at me. Then he turned to look at her and she started to cry so I sat next to her and asked what had happened. She just cried harder. I noticed these blueprints on the wall and a couple of handguns on the table and I asked him what he was planning on doing. He grabbed me by the collar and told me not to worry about it, that it had nothing to do with me and to get out. When he let go he turned back to Anya and started to drag her by the hair towards his bedroom. She was…screaming, begging someone to help her. I kind of…froze for a second but then I ran towards her and the next thing I remember is waking up six hours later."

"What happened?" Emily frowned as she turned on the windshield wipers. The rain had slowly increased since they left the station and was now at a complete downpour. She guessed the weather wouldn't improve much the further west they went.

"Hail hit me so hard I-I went blind for that entire time." Mackenzie placed her free hand at the back of her head and felt the bump that made permanent residence there.

"And Anya?" Emily was almost afraid of the answer. Mackenzie cleared her throat before continuing.

"I, uh, went into the next room and found her. She was…lying on Adrian's bed naked and covered in blood but not dead…yet." Mackenzie took in another uneasy breath as she tried not to recall the sight of the beaten woman. "I covered her and she begged me to stay. So I did. Two hours later she died in my arms." Emily was left speechless at the girl's story. No one, especially someone so young, should ever have to witness something like that. "Hail came in a little later and apologized for hitting me. I was so…lost that I don't even remember exactly what he said. I just remember he put his arms around me and that was the first time I felt truly afraid of him."

"Why didn't you go to the police?" Emily's soft voice asked. Part of her wanted to pull over and comfort the girl but her better judgment ruled against it. She knew Mackenzie didn't react well to being touched. Her humorless laughter caused a chill to run down the agent's spine.

"And tell them what?" she asked. "My boyfriend just raped and beat a woman to death but I have no idea who she was, why he did it or what he did with the body?"

"Something to that effect." Emily nodded only to receive a scoff.

"That's just as bad as this." Mackenzie motioned to their surroundings. After a few seconds of silence she muttered, "I never thought my life would turn out like this."

"I don't think anyone means for these things to happen." Emily said calmly. "Don't you have a family?"

"I had a family." The girl shrugged nonchalantly. "They didn't much care for me."

"So you left?"

"So I left." Mackenzie confirmed. "And came to fulfill my dreams in the Empire State." She laughed coldly. "What a joke."

"When this is over, you could always go back. I'm sure your family misses you." Emily told the girl.

"My leaving was equivalent to the Second Coming for my parents. I don't think going back is an option."

"I'm sure that's not true." Emily avoided using the girl's 'name'.

"And how would you know?" the girl's angry glare bore into Emily.

"No parent thinks that way about their child." Emily chuckled slightly. "Not even mine."

"Oh, spare me please." Mackenzie rolled her eyes. "You have the stench of a privileged upbringing oozing from your every pore. Don't try to tell me that mommy didn't hug you enough." Emily debated telling the girl that her mother did in fact, not hug her at all as a child until she felt the little hairs on the back of her neck go up. Glancing in the rearview mirror, Emily noticed a familiar car's headlights; familiar because that very car had been behind her for nearly fifteen minutes. Calmly, Emily took the nearest exit and watched as the dark red SUV followed.

"Take my cell phone, call Hotch." Emily ordered the girl as she tossed the device to the girl.

"Aren't you forgetting something?" Mackenzie nearly laughed. Shit. Their phones still didn't work thanks to the genius beside her.

"Don't you have one?"

"Yea two, they're with my bag and jacket."

"Well, get it."

"In NYPD's evidence lockup." Mackenzie took in the worried look on Emily's face. "What is it?"

"What color car does Adrian drive?" the agent asked the girl as calmly as she could.

"Blue, why?" Mackenzie's face slowly put on the expression of panic Emily was trying to avoid.

"What about Alek?" Emily recalled the small mall acting as Hail's personal secretary.

"Red. What the hell is it?" Mackenzie turned slightly and noticed the SUV tailing them. "Oh my God."

"Calm down, there's no way they know where we are." Emily tried to assure the girl.

"Calm down?!" Mackenzie shouted. "I told you this was going to happen! Why couldn't you just listen to me?!"

"We don't know that it's them." Emily responded as she pulled into a rest stop. "Just wait." She placed her hand on her holster and watched as the SUV slowly passed them. Exhaling in relief, both women shared a look.

"I need to use the bathroom." Mackenzie announced shakily. Emily nodded and got out to open the door for her. Following the girl in, Emily unlocked the handcuffs and waited outside the stall, flashing her badge at anyone who seemed to question why she was travelling with a teenager in handcuffs. She didn't trust the girl not to run for it and couldn't risk losing her charge. Mackenzie washed her hands in silence and Emily noticed just how much they were shaking. She leaned forward and turned off the water, seeing as Mackenzie was having trouble turning the knob. Wordlessly, the girl turned around, placed her hands behind her back and waited for Emily to lead her back to the car. The rain hadn't relented and by the time the two got settled in the car, they were soaked. Emily turned up the heat and risked a glance towards the girl. She was paler than before, her hands still trembling and her eyes wide as she stared straight ahead. Slowly, Emily reached out and placed her hand over the girls. Mackenzie flinched and brought her doe-eyed stare to Emily's chocolate eyes. The agent couldn't remember seeing that level of fear in anyone before now and guessed that she had good reason to be afraid. Briefly recounting the months she had spent looking behind her while Doyle was free, Emily sympathized and offered a tight smile.

"Don't worry." She told the girl who continued to shake. "You're safe."

"No I'm not." Mackenzie's words came out quivering. "And neither are you." This time, Emily didn't take the threat lightly. She saw the fear in the girl's emerald eyes and for the first time actually began to worry. As she pulled out of the parking spot and eased her way onto an empty residential street, Emily's worries were confirmed as a red SUV slammed into the side of their sedan, sending the car skidding down the street and wrapping itself around a pole. The last thing Emily Prentiss thought before darkness overtook her was that maybe they should have taken the girl genius a bit more seriously.