Happy Easter to all who celebrate! Clearly Easter is kind of a lazy holiday for me because I spent a lot of time writing this today, so I thought I'd go ahead and update : ) Thanks for all your reviews, I love reading them as always!

XxxxX

Emily continued her routine for two more days: arriving at the nursing home right at 10am and staying as long as she possibly could. There wasn't much else for Emily to do, and she was finding that she was actually enjoying spending time with her mother, not dreading it. Elizabeth continued to do well. They spent mostly everyday together, and Emily would even say she and her mother actually had a good relationship now; something she never imagined herself saying.

In fact, she had almost forgotten Elizabeth was sick.

Almost.

Emily had been back at the house with George for only an hour after spending the day with Elizabeth, when she got a phone call. She immediately recognized the number as that of the nursing home, and answered it quickly.

"Hello?" She answered worriedly. When Emily had left her mother, she had been sleeping. Emily had taken it as a good sign, but was now concerned that something was wrong.

"Ms. Prentiss, I'm so sorry to bother you, I know you just left, but- it's your mother." She heard the voice of one of Elizabeth's nurses say.

"What's wrong?" Emily demanded, not meaning to sound so harsh.

"After you left, your mother woke up. She's- she's not doing very well." The nurse said honestly. Emily couldn't remember this woman's name for the life of her at the moment. Nothing mattered except her mother.

"What do you mean? Just tell me." Emily said, wondering why the nurse kept dancing around the issue like it didn't matter.

"She just doesn't know where she is. She won't listen to us. She's asking for you." She said finally.

"I'll be there in ten minutes." Emily said, hanging up the phone, not caring that the drive normally took twice that time. She quickly explained what was happening to George as she grabbed her keys and practically sprinted out of the house and back to her mother's car. She sped to the nursing home, just hoping a cop didn't stop her.

XxxxxX

Fourteen minutes later, Emily parked her car and flung the door open, slamming it shut behind her and quickly making her way into the nursing home.

Her mother wasn't up in her room, but in the main lobby of the home. There were so many people around her, and Emily knew that had to be making everything worse. She was about to start yelling when she realized they were trying to keep Elizabeth from walking out.

Emily pushed through the nurses and told them to leave her alone. How could they think crowding her like that was making anything better? She wondered.

"Mom. You're okay, I'm here." Emily said gently, putting an arm around her mother and leading her over to the couch.

Nothing could have ever prepared Emily for what happened next.

"Who are you?" Elizabeth asked.

Emily froze, immediately averting her eyes downward so she didn't have to look at her mother. She couldn't let herself falter now, she told herself. She could break down later. She straightened in her seat and faced Elizabeth, hoping she appeared more calm than she felt.

"It's me. It's Emily." Emily managed to choke out. This is what Emily had been afraid of happening, but kept telling herself wouldn't happen. She felt stupid for convincing herself that now.

"No, you're not. My daughter is fifteen. And I would appreciate it you'd let me find her, we have a plane to catch. We have to be home by tomorrow morning so I can attend a meeting. She's being stubborn and apparently hiding." Elizabeth said.

Emily didn't know what to do. How was she supposed to handle this? She'd read about handling these types of scenarios, she'd asked Elizabeth's doctors, but it seemed like every bit of information she'd retained just went right out of her head. She was clueless, and she was sad. She knew this wasn't Elizabeth's fault; but she couldn't help but to feel a bit dejected that she wasn't able to fix this.

The last few times Elizabeth had been like this, the sound of Emily's voice was enough to calm her down. Not bring her out of it completely, but at least enough that she didn't seem so scared and confused. This time, it seemed like Emily's presence was just making it worse.

"Mom. No, I'm right here, it's okay." Emily tried again. Her voice was shaking, she didn't even sound like herself to her own ears.

Elizabeth sighed, moving to get up from the couch. "This is ridiculous. Don't you people have any respect? I am an ambassador for this country; I shouldn't be treated like some kind of criminal! Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to look for my daughter and get on that plane, whether she's with me or not." Elizabeth said coldly as she walked away.

Well, that definitely sounded like the "old" Elizabeth Prentiss. Emily thought to herself. She'd often threatened to leave Emily in some foreign country all by herself if she didn't comply with Elizabeth's schedule, but she'd never actually done it. Emily had tested that theory many times as a teenager, sometimes even wishing her mother would just leave her alone. It never happened though, Elizabeth always found her, and then always lectured her afterward.

Emily looked over as Elizabeth wandered around the lobby, asking people if they'd seen a fifteen year old girl anywhere. No one had, of course. Nurses were still standing by the door, in case Elizabeth tried to leave again.

"Aren't you going to do anything?" Emily asked, suddenly angry. There were at least ten people in the room, most of them qualified medical personnel, except for the one who answered the phone and ran the front desk. But even she was going on about her business like everything was normal.

"As long as she's not posing a threat to herself or anyone else, there's not really much we can do." She heard someone say, but she wasn't sure who said it. She was too mad to care.

Emily sighed. She remembered reading that somewhere. She just wanted to make this better.

After she took a moment to calm down and collect herself, she went back over to her mother. Elizabeth had sat back down on the couch and looked highly annoyed.

Emily sat down next to her, hoping she wasn't about to make things worse.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked, refraining from calling her "mom" in case that upset her.

"I'm fine." Elizabeth said.

"Let's go on up to your room, okay?" Emily offered, noting that Elizabeth seemed to have calmed down a little. She wasn't quite sure what her mother was thinking, but she didn't want to ask and possibly confuse her or send her into another round of searching for teenager Emily.

"Maybe Emily will be there." Elizabeth said, as if she hadn't thought to check there yet.

"Yeah," Emily said softly. "Maybe."

She guided Elizabeth up the stairs and into her room. Elizabeth sat down in the chair by the window, a favorite spot of hers.

"Do you want me to stay with you until you feel better?" Emily asked.

"I suppose that would be alright." Elizabeth replied.

Emily smiled a little, feeling pretty proud of herself for at least getting Elizabeth back up to her room.

Elizabeth stared out the window, twirling her hands around, Emily knew she was anxious.

"Why don't you tell me about Emily?" Emily asked. She figured maybe at least this would get Elizabeth talking and hopefully calm her down.

"She's fifteen. We've been in Italy for about four years now. My term here is over, so we're going back to the States. I would like for her to finish high school there, but she tends to go where I go." Elizabeth said. Emily nodded as she continued. Emily remembered leaving Italy. She remembered how they'd left not long after Matthew had helped her, and how she'd felt awful for leaving him there when he'd been so amazing to her when nobody else had been.

To this day, Emily hadn't told Elizabeth about what happened in Italy. She never told her about John, Matthew, the pregnancy, or the abortion. Back then, Emily had just been too scared. As she grew older, she didn't really see the point in bringing it up. What would there be to say?

In that moment, Emily regretted not telling Elizabeth. She knew she should have, she'd thought about it before. But it just never happened. Emily never thought she would run out of time.

"She's...stubborn." Elizabeth said finally. Emily had almost forgotten her mother had been talking, she'd been so lost in her thoughts.

"She can be hard to handle some days, but she's so smart. Probably smarter than me. She picks up on languages easily. She was bilingual by the time she was five." Elizabeth said. Emily nodded again, remembering being taught Spanish by a nanny at a young age. She could speak it as well as she could speak English by kindergarten.

"And she's beautiful." Elizabeth added lastly. "I don't know if she knows that, but she is. I'm sure she thinks I'm horrible because I drag her around the world, and I'm not always the best at...talking to her. But I hope she knows I love her." Elizabeth said.

"She knows." Emily said gently.

Elizabeth just turned her gaze back out the window.

"Do you think she'll come back? You don't think she's run away, do you?" Elizabeth asked, her voice full of concern and worry.

"She'll be back. I'm sure it'll all work out. You've got plenty of time to rest at now. Why don't you?" Emily offered, using every bit of strength she had to force herself not to cry. She blinked the tears filling her eyes away and turned down Elizabeth's bed.

"You're sure?" Elizabeth asked. She still looked worried, but Emily could see the exhaustion in her eyes.

"I'm sure." Emily smiled, assuring Elizabeth.

Elizabeth nodded, and lay down in the bed cautiously.

"Thank you." Elizabeth said. "You're very nice. You kind of look like Emily." She added.

Emily felt the tears prick at her eyes again, but she fought them.

"Do I?" Emily asked. Elizabeth nodded.

"I hope she turns out like you." The older woman commented before settling down in the bed. Sleep took over in a matter of minutes.

Once Elizabeth was asleep, Emily exhaled sharply, as if she'd been holding her breath for that whole time. She felt like she had.

She wanted to stay, in case Elizabeth woke up and needed something, but she knew she couldn't. She wasn't allowed to stay overnight without approval. She was surprised anyone had let her come up here alone since visiting hours were over.

She made sure Elizabeth was definitely asleep before she pulled the blankets up around her mother a little tighter. Gently, she brushed Elizabeth's hair back and whispered a soft goodnight to her, before she shut the light off and left the room silently.

She didn't speak to anyone on her way out. Someone asked her what happened and Emily just quickly explained that her mother was sleeping and could they please not wake her.

She hurried out of the nursing home and got into the car, pulling out her cell phone and calling George. She knew he would be worried and anxious to know that she was okay.

She explained everything, forcing herself to stay calm. Her voice was shaking, but she hoped George didn't notice.

"Emily, are you alright?" George asked.

"I'm fine, she's okay now." Emily said.

"I know she is, but I know this had to be hard on you, too. I just don't want you to shut down and keep this to yourself, Em." The older man said gently. Emily didn't want to bottle it all up, either. For once in her life, she actually wasn't sure she could handle everything on her own.

"I'll be okay. I'm- um, I'm gonna go see someone before I head back. I don't know how long I'll be." She explained.

"Okay, just be careful." He told her.

"Call if you need anything. And thank you." She added.

The phone call ended and Emily took a breath, tossing her phone in the seat beside her and gripping the steering wheel tightly, exhaling loudly.

She leaned her head back against the seat and looked over at her phone. She bit her lip so hard she tasted blood. She shouldn't call him. It was a weeknight. Jack was probably most definitely asleep. He had work in the morning.

But she needed to talk to someone. Someone who wouldn't force her to talk about her feelings or pity her or make her feel like she couldn't handle herself. Even if she didn't feel like she could handle this.

Emily picked up the phone and dialed the familiar number.

"Hello?" He answered. She almost hung up, but she remembered he probably already knew it was her since he had her number. Dammit.

"Um- hi. It's Emily." She said awkwardly.

"I know, I saw. Is everything okay?" He asked.

"I know it's kind of late, and I know Jack's probably sleeping and I'm really sorry if I woke him up, and I know you have work and-" she was cut off by that warm, welcoming voice she had grown so used to before she moved; the same voice she didn't realize how much she missed until she heard him speak.

"Jack's actually staying with Jessica tonight, he likes sleepovers at her house on weeknights because she has time to make him pancakes in the morning." Hotch said gently, a hint of a chuckle in his voice. "So don't worry about that. What's wrong?" He pressed.

"Can I meet you somewhere?" Emily asked.

"Just come to my place." Hotch said. "We haven't moved." He added, knowing she knew where he lived.

"Okay." Emily breathed. "Can you talk to me until I get there?" She asked him softly, surprised at how much this short conversation had calmed her.

"Of course." He said. She switched the phone to Bluetooth, and just listened as he talked to her. He didn't question her, he didn't even seem surprise that she was still in DC. None of that seemed to matter to him, and for that, in this moment, Emily was grateful.