Emily had to process her credential cancelation before she could leave, but she is barely outside the building when her phone rang the first time, she declined the call without even paying attention who it was from. She got into her car and took a deep breath.
"1, 2, 3, 4, 5." She counted while taking deep breaths to calm herself, she needed to stay calm to be able to think, and she needed to think what her next steps would be. "1, 2, 3, 4, 5." Emily took a deep breath again when her phone started ringing again, she took a quick look, saw Hotch's face and clicked decline, again.
"Aaron, not the fucking time." She said out loud while she tried to empty her mind and stay calm. When her phone rings again.
"What?" She answers, and Emily knows she is being rude, but one of her first reactions to being pushed is usually snap at people.
"We need to talk" Aaron says already knowing her.
"You need to make sure the team is solid, and your job. You have a case, so go to it."
"I'm trying to help you."
"I didn't ask you to."
"Damn it, Emily. Let me help."
"I don't need your help. I need you to make sure the team stays safe. Now go do your job." She hangs up before he can reply. She bumps her head in the seat, she needs to keep him safe as well, at least until she knows what to do next.
Hotch tries to keep everyone as calm as possible after Emily leaves, gathering the team for the brief knowing Barnes will join them to analyze their reactions. He keeps the assistant director from physically joining them on the case questioning her that he is still unit chief, one with a complete team that is not in any need for special help.
But he knows she will be calling to check on the case constantly, this confrontation will cost him. But his priority was to do everything to make sure the team stayed focused. The case unfortunately came first, and he knew Emily would agree.
Reid on the other hand had other ideas and chose that meeting to make his support for Emily, someone he had chosen a long time ago as his protector, known by Barnes. Emily was the only one he would allow in as a type of guardian, and since Jason had left, the link between Reid and Emily had become very strong.
Which means he feels compelled to protect her just as much. Hotch doesn't think he is wrong, he just wishes he would have chosen another moment. The outburst against Barnes staying to review how the team coped after Emily was fired didn't sit well with any of them. But they would have to suffer it until his superiors decided they didn't need someone keeping tabs on their team.
Thankfully Rossi intervenes before any real can be done against anyone, and Reid leaves without talking to anyone. Hotch needs to talk to her, to check up on her. He is troubled by what happened, Emily was a strong impressive woman, who had fought for her career and with a lot of hard work had made a name for herself.
He tried calling Emily, he needed to warn her Reid was probably going to ended up at her door. He just needs to talk to her, but when he is finally able to do it, he knows he made everything worse and now she had closed herself off.
That's how Dave finds him in his office, sitting on his couch looking lost.
"How did it go?"
"How do you think Dave? Emily was just fired with forged reasons, she was humiliated. Besides facing criminal charges, and we did nothing." He ran his fingers in his hair. "And now I have to make 6 people besides myself focus on a case instead of helping her."
"We will fix this, you know we will, but right now we need to get everyone on that plane and this case solved before Linda Barnes has more reasons to come the BAU." He ran his fingers in his hair." Rossi reasoned with him. "We need to keep the team here so we can defend her, because you know if they are charging her, we will be called as witnesses."
"I know…I know that." Hotch knows he needs to keep his promise to Emily, but how can he just leave?
"Emily knows we must do this. We need to finish this case so that we are there is still a team to able to help her. And you know she won't be alone. Reid will be at her apartment as soon as he doesn't think she will kill him for it.
Aaron got up and got his bag and briefcase, he still felt like he was letting her down, but he knew it was the best thing he could do for now. Finish this case as quick as possible and keep calling her and Reid to see how things were going.
"Darling, I still don't have a team lead position for you, doll." Clyde Easter answered his phone.
"Hello Clyde. I'm calling to warn you really, I probably won't be able to leave the country for a while. And you might be called as a witness."
"What are you talking about, Em?"
"I was fired today due to an investigation of misconduct. It was announced quite loudly how I'll be charged for different offenses. And based on the questions being asked, I think they will try to go after all my cases and one of the biggest one that might be reviewed is Doyle and the issues this case caused to the FBI."
"That is simply absurd."
"Clyde they will use anything they get their hands on."
"They can't use Doyle, Emily do you really think that Interpol or better yet, I would leave anything to chance? The FBI and Interpol have an agreement on interagency cases, and Doyle is a case they cannot use. This has been discussed and agreed, they can't go back and decide to do anything about it."
"What? Are you sure about this?"
"Yes, I'm sure. Emily you were part of the JTF-12, Interpol still considers you an active asset. If the FBI decides to burn you, we can bring you back and have you under the interagency agreement protection."
"I don't know what to say." Emily passed in her living room. "Wait, why was I never briefed on this?"
"It's on a need-to-know policy, you never had any agents under you that were interagency."
"I need to think Clyde, I'll call you back with a decision. But for now, don't do anything." Should she call Rossi? Or maybe wait and talk to the team before making any decisions?
"Tell agent Hotchner hello for me." She hung up before he could say anything else.
"Spencer. Oh My God, what did you do?" Emily had opened her door and she knew Spencer had tried to come to her rescue, the guilty look said it all.
"I had to." He defended himself.
"No, you didn't." What was going to do with Reid if she had to leave again?
"Life is too short for people like Linda Barnes."
"Spence…"
"I wasn't going to, you know, go with her and help her dismantle the team." Emily was trying to prevent him from walking further into the apartment, but she knew if she didn't get him out soon, he would connect the dots.
"Thank you for standing up for me." She got closer to him. "I appreciate you coming to the house for support but what you did was reckless." She could tell he knew something was going on, he was looking around for something. "The BAU is under the microscope right now, and the last thing you should be doing is giving Barnes more ammunition." She walked closer to the door, to try and guide him outside. "You're making her job easier."
"Why are you trying to get rid of me?" Spender asked unsettled.
"What?" He had to go, before he could understand and advise the other of her decision, or worst be as upset like he was after the Doyle case.
"Ever since I got here, you've been trying to get rid of me. Keep me out of the…" He walked closer to her dining room and finally he could see the boxes and bubble wrap piles.
"Nah, I just…I wasn't expecting anyone, and the place…" She didn't need to finish he was already running in the direction of the boxes. "Spence, stop."
"It's been less then 2 days and you are already leaving?"
"I'm…I…" She exhaled. "Okay, look, Barnes was going to take someone down. It's best that it is me, and it's best that it is now that I can have a backup plan." She just wanted Reid to understand, and not be angry. She had to do this damn it, she didn't want to leave them, but there was no other choice. "Hotch is back where he never should have left, you won't have a problem if I get myself out of this equation."
"There is no guarantee that she won't come after Hotch as soon as you are gone for good."
"I think that if I go away for good, she will leave you alone."
"You can still fight this. We can still fight this."
"Maybe I don't want to." She was so tired, she couldn't help but feel that on the last few years all she had done was fight, constantly. She had fought harder than she had ever fought before, but in the end, she still died in the water.
"Now who is making easier for Barnes?"
"Spence, please." She doesn't know what he hears in her plea, but he sits down on her couch and just stares around, so she decides to continue packing while he was there, there wasn't much she could argue with him anymore.
"Do you want something to drink?" She asks.
"Can I have some water, please?"
"Sure." Reid takes advantage of this and sends out a text.
She gets it for him and resumes her packing.
"This is the right decision for me, I need you to support that."
"What is your plan? If they are charging you, you can't leave!" He questioned.
"I have someone that will help me with that, I'm not leaving the country right now." Emily tried to explain without giving many details. "And later, I might be able to go back to Interpol, when I came, they said the door would always be open to return. And I do like London."
"Well, if you really want me to support you, just answer me this one question: why is it not ok for me to walk out on the team without a fight, but it is for you?" He asked getting up while she kept packing.
"Because you and I are different." She reasoned.
"We are not. And if the situation was reversed you wouldn't give up on me. And you know what? I happen to know that for a fact, because you didn't. When I was in prison you did everything in your power to get me out." Emily exhaled and Reid got worried.
"What?"
"Yeah, I did do everything" Emily knew that with this conversion a lot of shame would be brought on for her, and a lot of bad feelings would also arise for Reid. "I needed to believe that you were innocent of killing Nadie Ramos."
"I was innocent." Worry enter Reid's eyes are at the way Emily says that she needed to believe it.
"That wasn't obvious at first." She explains, making sure he understands she didn't doubt him, but things weren't as clear as she wished in the beginning. "Like when we talked in that Mexican jail. Do you remember?"
"No, I don't. I was drugged and everything was fuzzy."
"I made a deal with the local cop. I told him I needed to go at it alone, I promised I'd give him the recording. I was trying to find any evidence that you didn't do it." Emily explained. "But what you told me was that you remembered holding the murder weapon."
"I did?"
"The more you talked, the more you incriminated yourself."
"No. I looked thru all the case files after I was exonerated. There wasn't a single record of…" Reid stops and looks Emily in the eyes. "You deleted it."
"I did, and I have reasons to believe Barnes is going after this. This and every single case I have ever worked on. That would mean thousands of people that might be getting released from jail because I hold this team above the very laws we are supposed to uphold." She knows she is getting emotional, and she can't, she needs to make Reid understand this.
"But Emily."
"You deserved to be reinstated, that is why it's wrong for you to quit. But what I did for you it's not the first time I've screwed up, in this time I've been your unit chief there were other times and you know as much as I do that Stephen's death, this is one of the worse things that ever happened."
"Emily this wasn't your fault, you couldn't have done any different to protect him."
"No Spencer, I've lost the right to lead this team. And I've lost the right to be an agent." She turns her back to him to control her emotions, she had to make him understand that this wasn't simply her moving away to be an agent somewhere else.
She was giving up the FBI and Interpol.
A/N: Okay, some of you may not like that I'm using part of the dialog from the show, but I loved this one and I thought it's such a good scene and I want to use it, so I did adapt it. So I'm sorry, but I hope you like it.
