It shouldn't have surprised Hotch, in the six months since Emily's return, his whole team treated her like she had the plague. No one spoke to her unless they absolutely had to and they went out of their way to avoid being near her. However, what really surprised him is just how far she gave up. The Emily he knew wasn't a quitter, but then again, she had been all alone already for nearly two years and that much isolation could break anyone.

They had just wrapped up a case in Hawaii and, as usual, the team went out for dinner and drinks, excluding Emily as had been the usual. However, this time, before leaving the precinct, Emily had stopped him and told him that she was going to head home that afternoon as there was a "situation at home" that required her attention. Aaron didn't think much of it as he had noticed she'd been a bit more stressed that day than usual and had been on her phone a bit more as well. He didn't think much of it before telling her to travel safe and let him know when she landed, to which she nodded a bit absentmindedly.

Figuring that she caught a 5pm flight, Aaron expected that when he woke up the next morning at 6am, that there would be a text message from his agent saying she'd landed three hours previous and that he could ask her about what happened the following day.

So that night he went out with the rest of his team, completely oblivious to what was actually occurring.

The next morning soon came and upon waking, Hotch checked his phone. There was no message from Emily in his notifications so he went directly to his messages and mysteriously, all messages to and from her were gone. He checked his call logs and emails and it was all the same. No trace of Emily. Thankfully, he had her number memorized so he tried calling her as he was growing a bit frantic only to find out her number was out of service. Now he was scared.

As he headed downstairs to meet the team for breakfast, everyone could tell he was on edge.

"What's up Hotch?" asked Morgan.

"Everyone, check your phones NOW for any emails, messages or calls to or from Emily!" Hotch ordered.

"Aaron, what's going on?" asked Rossi.

"Yesterday after we wrapped up the case, Emily informed me that she was going to head home early due to something at home. I asked her to let me know when she landed. I figured if she departed at 5pm she should have arrived by 3am. When I got up, however, there were no messages from her at all, even past messages were gone. Her phone isn't even in service."

This information alarmed the rest of the team and quickly they were doing their own investigations. Penelope even opened up her laptop to do her sleuthing online.

"Oh my Gawd! Its like Emily never even existed!" exclaimed Garcia in dismay. "I can't find any trace of her anywhere! No school records, no FBI files, no bank accounts or government IDs. Nothing in the last hundred years. When we get back home, I'll have to use my computer to dig some more."

"What do you mean, Baby Girl, our Princess can't just vanish without a trace." inquired Morgan.

"Um, actually, it is possible. I've only ever just heard of it but sometimes a spy or other agent of that class will choose to have an identity so completely removed that its like they never existed. Generally, it means that they have no intention of ever going back to that alias. If they just want to shelve an identity they will kill it off or just vanish so it can be revived. To do a complete scrub down means that it is gone," replied Reid.

"Why would she do that when we only just got her back?" she asked.

A bit annoyed with his team, Hotch responded. "Why do you think so? Its been six months since she returned and not once has anyone thought to do anything with her. Not once has anyone wanted to partner with her or even hardly acknowledge her. Yes, she did keep secrets but that information was CLASSIFIED. Did anyone ever directly ask her about her past? No! No one ever did. She didn't choose to fake her death, I did and all of you have forgiven me but not her. She's been all alone. She was alone in Paris, alone in the hospital and alone since she returned and I guess that she finally just couldn't take it anymore. If she really has done a complete scrub down of her identity, we might never see her again."

The rest of the morning passed with the whole team being on edge. What would they find back in Quantico? Could Garcia find Emily?

As they flew home, everyone kept using every resource they had to find Emily to no avail. Even upon landing in DC, they were to discover someone new living in her apartment and no trace of her at the office. Despite all the tricks Garcia knew, and all of her hacker friends, they could not find Emily, despite searching for weeks.

After a two month search, Hotch finally called it off.

"No more searching everyone," he said one morning after he called a meeting.

"But we can't give up on Emily!" Penelope begged.

"If one day Emily wants to be found by us, we will find her but right now, she clearly doesn't want us to. We all know she was CIA and Interpol and likely has all sorts of other contacts in that community that we aren't aware of. Who knows? Maybe she was given a new assignment by one of those agencies and she will return again someday. However, I for one, do not count on it. The lesson EVERYONE needs to learn is that we all have a past that can come back to haunt us and we cannot hold those things against one another. It wasn't fair how Emily was treated after her return and now she may be lost to us for good. I hope everyone understands that."

The whole team nodded somberly.

Meanwhile…

Even as the BAU team had been isolating Emily at every turn, her relationship with her former Interpol boss was changing. Both were weary of the lives they had and wanted more. Ultimately they both chose to have their identities scrubbed completely so that they could start all over in Sydney, Australia. While they never "officially" married, their new identities were that of a pair of long time married high school sweethearts and adventurers. The two would ultimately set up an outdoor adventure program for troubled and at risk youth and young adults and would go on to have two children of their own. In their off time, they would travel all over the world and yes, eventually they did visit Quantico. By that point, Emily's dark hair was far lighter and her skin far darker and she had developed a bit of an Aussie accent. During the visit to Quantico, she even did get to speak to her former teammates, who, upon returning home, she and Clyde laughed at how none of them seemed to have any clue as to who she used to be. Emily never did revive her Emily Prentiss identity and no one ever found her, or Clyde out.

As for the BAU team, they never fully gave up on finding Emiily, even as the years passed. They all kept hoping that one day that she would walk through the doors. Unfortunately for them, the scrub down had been so complete that the day when she did walk through the doors, there was nothing that was able to identify her as their former teammate and her new identity had such a solid backstory that trying to figure out that it wasn't 100% legitimate was near impossible.

They never did forget the lesson they learned due to what happened to her and from that point on, the team became even closer with each other as they were terrified of driving another member away. Even as time passed and their lives diverged, they kept extremely close and deliberately chose to gain super strong bonds with everyone they could in their lives.