"Do you have somewhere that isn't quite so exposed that we can get to quickly?" Erin hissed as she kept her body in front of Miranda's in a way that told her the woman was accustomed to protecting others in the heat of the moment.

"I have a panic room, just in case a thief breaks in," she said, and Erin gave her a tight nod. "What do we need to do?"

"Grab your cell phone and take me into that room. We're going to have to regroup, as I have a feeling that your little article has driven John out of the sewers and into the light once more."

She began to do as ordered when Emily scurried into her office, her eyes wide and wild. "Miranda, there's an armed man in our building!"

"I know, I heard the shot, too. We're going to head into my panic room, and Erin is going to walk us through what to do next. We just need to stay calm, okay?"

She was proud of the way that she said those words with a flat affect, even as inside her mind she was screaming with terror. Emily nodded as she continued to move further into the office, heading directly for the door to the panic room, opening it with a shaking hand. "The other assistant is still out running errands, so hopefully the police will keep her outside until this is all over," Emily said as first Erin and then Miranda entered the panic room, Emily pulling the heavy door closed behind them before bolting the door with the heavy bar. "What is going on?"

Miranda looked over to Erin, who was pacing back and forth in the back of the room and she shook her head a little as she brought her phone up, hoping that she would still receive coverage in the heavily protected room. Thankfully, there were a few bars of reception, and she called Andrea, praying that she would pick up. "Hey, Miranda. We're still on for lunch today, right?"

"About our lunch…"

"Oh, god, are you going to bitch about the fact that I had Emily rearrange your schedule so that I could take you out?"

She let out a strangled little sob of a laugh and heard Andrea draw in a short breath, as if she could hear the emotions roiling beneath the surface of her laugh. "There's a small incident here at the building, and Emily, Erin, and I are currently holing up in my panic room. I'm going to need you to do something for me."

"What?"

There was true panic in that one word, and Miranda took a long breath as she tried to regroup her thoughts. "I need you to call Penelope Garcia and let her know that this current situation is most likely related to something that happened here years ago."

"If you're telling whoever's on the phone to call Penelope, have her bring the current BAU team here. They're going to want to deal with John Curtis themselves, if he can be taken alive. I want my would be assassin to face some form of justice. I want to live free again."

Miranda nodded before relaying that message to Andrea, listening to her hurriedly scrawl it down on a piece of paper. "Are you going to be safe there?"

"It's a sturdily built safe room, and no bullet can penetrate the walls, so we should be safe enough until the police are able to deal with the situation. So I'm afraid that we'll have to put a raincheck on that lunch of ours. Though I do want to have one with you, very shortly. At least you'll be able to write a very good story for your paper on this, and I will give you an exclusive interview, though I'm certain that Erin and Emily will have to make their own choices as to whether they want to speak with you about this."

"You have that right, Miranda," Erin muttered as she took a seat on the small settee that Miranda had placed in there with the thought of being comfortable if she ever had need of the room. "And tell Penelope to call Alex, too. She's going to be my next collection, and I wanted to save the best for last."

"Did you hear that, Andrea?"

"I did, yes. And I hope that Penelope knows what Erin is talking about. Though I assume that she will, since they obviously know each other. I do hope you know that as soon as you're home, I'm going to kiss you senseless, away from the prying eyes of the press."

"That sounds delicious, Andrea. I wish that we could talk more, but you have that call to make, and I need to try and find a way to calm my heart. Will, will you also let my girls know that I'm fine, and that you'll call to let them know if and when anything changes?"

"As soon as I've finished my call with Penelope, I'll call their school and talk with the principal, letting him know that I'll be picking them up and trying to get their attention off current events. I'm certain that everything will be fine, in the end. You're safe, Erin's safe, and Emily's safe. That's all that really matters. Yes?"

"Yes. And I will see you soon."

"You have my word on that."

Before either of them could say goodbye, Miranda ended the call, feeling like she did not want to hear the finality of that word falling from Andrea's lips when they were still in danger. Letting out a deep sigh, she slipped off her heels and glided over to the settee, perching on the opposite end of it from Erin. Emily shrugged her shoulders before sinking down onto the carpeted floor, pulling her legs up to her chest as she stared ahead of her. "So, what are we going to do while we're waiting for the all clear?" Emily asked, her voice sounding thick with tears. For some reason, Miranda wished that Emily was closer to them so that she could reach out and touch her shoulder lightly. It was probably the adrenaline pumping through her system that made her want to be gentle and kind, since she was feeling so off kilter from everything that had happened in the space of one short half hour.

"I think that Erin should tell us exactly why she's in Witness Protection, and why someone would want to come into my building and start shooting it up."

Erin glared over at her, and again, Miranda could tell that she could be a force to be reckoned with, if she was truly upset with a situation. Beneath that glare, however, was a bone deep weariness, and Miranda did reach out this time to softly touch her upper arm as she tried to think of something else to say, to make her words sound a little less judgmental. "Because John Curtis is a psychopath who has wanted to kill me from the moment that I demoted him over a huge mistake that he and Alex made while we were working one of the highest profile cases the BSU had ever seen. If I had also fallen on my sword, none of this might ever have happened."

"Well, now I need to know the rest of the story," Emily replied as she turned to face them, little rivulets of tears tracking down her face through her makeup. "Please, let us know why we were almost collateral damage." And to her shock, Erin nodded as she adjusted her body, leaning towards them rather than away as she cleared her throat in order to begin her story.