Six weeks passed before I was cleared again for travel and field work. I was relieved to finally be allowed back out; Garcia drove me crazy at the office.
We closed two cases before I met with Sean McCallister regarding Ian Doyle. Another one closed before I found the flower at my front door, and that's when I realised that I needed to remove myself completely from the team to protect them. If he found where I lived already, it was only a matter of time before he discovered my relationship with Hotch, and knew where he and Jack lived.

I hadn't seen Hotch outside of work for three days now. When he tried to catch me before I got inside, I would say Garcia or JJ were waiting for me, and I kept things strictly professional in the office.
He had texted me last night, saying he was worried about me and needed me to talk to him about it. I deleted the text off my phone.

Morgan was suspicious after we found Tsia dead outside of that apartment that I sent her to. I convinced him to stop by my apartment and grabbed the things I needed, flushed the Gimmel ring, left a letter for Hotch and one for the team that I had written, and went back to the BAU with him.

Then I waited for Hotch and Rossi to present the profile to everyone on the case, and I left.
I dumped my phone, borrowed an old friend's car, and drove to Boston. A flight would have given Garcia some information.

I slept a few hours at a motel off a side road to the highway. It was old and run down, but they accepted cash with no ID, and they were low-key. Ian knew me and he wouldn't expect me to stay in a place this bad.

I spent an entire day in Boston trying to track him down. I sat outside The Black Shamrock for two hours before one of my old phones buzzed. I tried not to cry as I listened to Garcia's message. She told me that they found my letters, that Hotch was shattered, and that I needed to stay alive for the team, but also for Hotch. She said that he couldn't lose me too, after Haley. And then she mentioned Jack too. It broke my heart. She said that they were coming.

I sat in this warehouse, beaten, branded, and a gun pointed to my head.
"Take me to where he died…" I said quietly.
He took me there, threw me into the corner, and told me that I would die here, too.

Then I told him that Declan was still alive, and he was furious. Almost more than he was before I told him. He had adjusted to his son being gone, and that I was the cause of it. Now I threw him a curveball, and he seemed worse than before.

I fought back when he started to beat me up and I eventually got the upper hand. I hit him across the face with a broken table leg a few times before I threw it away. I paused, distracted for a moment when I heard gun shots, and Morgan call my name, and when I turned back, he had the table leg. I felt it pierce my skin a second before the gun shot rang out, and he fell limp below me, dead.

Morgan rolled me over and looked at the table leg. It was in my abdomen and it was agonising. He looked terrified.
"I need a medic!" He yelled out behind him, "You're going to be okay, Princess. Baby keep your eyes open for me, okay? Look at me, focus on me."

The pain was unbearable and my vision started to blacken around my peripheral. I tried to speak, to apologise to him, but I couldn't get the words out. He hushed me, seeing that I tried to speak. He told me to hold on, and I heard the paramedics asking him to move out of the way.
They put an oxygen mask on me and asked me for my name. I managed out "Emily", and I tried to concentrate on what they were saying. I wanted to know if this was it or not.

I woke up to the beep of the heart monitor and blinked my eyes open. The bright light hurt my eyes. I felt someone squeeze my hand and met Hotch's eyes. I let out a breath and tears dripped onto my cheeks immediately, "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Stop, sweetheart. I understand why you did what you did. You need to stop ending up in the hospital. You're going to kill me." He shook his head. "Do you remember everything?"

"I don't remember if Ian got away…"

"He didn't. Morgan shot him, he's dead." He nodded and squeezed my hand again. I closed my eyes and let out a breath. "The table leg didn't go too deep. There's minimal damage to your internal organs. They stitched you up and had to give you some blood; you lost a bit due to the size of the injury. You've got a pretty serious concussion, but you're going to be okay." He nodded to me.

I smiled at him and took my hand from his to caress his cheek, "I honestly thought that I was never going to see you again. I'm sorry for ignoring you, Aaron. He was going to come after the team. I needed to make sure he didn't know that we were together so that he didn't target you and Jack specifically." I heard the heart rate monitor spike as I felt the panic rising.

"Hey, it's okay, honey. Relax, you're okay, the team is okay, Jack and I are fine. Take a deep breath." He stroked my hair gently with his free hand since his other took my hand again. "Rest, Em. Get some sleep."

"Stay with me?" I whispered.

"Always." He settled back into the chair and held my hand tightly. I closed my eyes and tried to listen to my breathing.
It seemed unusual that he wasn't angry or feeling betrayed. When I was looking into his eyes, all I saw was concern, relief, and love.

I spent three weeks in the hospital before I was discharged. I had to stay so long due to the location of the injury; you could tear stitches in your abdomen just by standing up too quickly.
Hotch told me that he and Jack would be staying with me for a little while to make sure I was okay. After undressing myself to shower when we got home, I reluctantly asked Hotch to help me redress. Changing caused too much pain in my abdomen when I wasn't using pain killers.
"Thank you." I said after he pulled my shirt into place for me. He just nodded; he seemed bothered. "Are you okay?" He just took a deep breath. "Aaron, what's—"

"You didn't tell me that he branded you." He cut me off. It wasn't like I had forgotten it was there; it was hard to forget when it felt like it was constantly on fire. I had forgotten that he didn't know, though.

I looked down and took in a deep breath, "He…uh…he wanted to mark me as "his"," I said quietly, "I asked about it at the hospital. They said I could have a specialist take a look, but I probably can't remove it completely."

He nodded and sat down on the bed, his head in his hands. I could see he wanted to say something. Jack was asleep in the guest room, so I knew it was only a matter of time before this happened. "I am so angry at you, Emily. I understand why you left; I do. But I also think that you should have just told me what was going on."

"I was trying to protect you."

"By lying to me!"

"Aaron, I'm so sorry. There is nothing I can say that will fix this, or change any of it…" I shook my head and looked down, taking a deep breath, "A long time ago when we were working that Viper case…I told you that I had done worse things for information. You asked me what I did, and I told you it was classified. Now you know. You know that I was fucking an arms dealer, and a terrorist. He wasn't a murderer at the time, but clearly he had the potential for it.
"I understand completely if you can't look past that. Just say the word and I'm gone."

"Why do you do that?" He looked at me. I went to ask what he was talking about, but he spoke again before I could. "Ever since the miscarriage, you have been trying to sabotage our relationship. I don't know if its intentional or not…but if you want to end this then do it yourself, Emily. Don't try and get me to make that call for you."

"I wasn't trying to…" I trailed off as he stood and headed for the door. "No, Aaron wait," I ran to him and closed the door before he got there and stood in front of it. I ignored the angry pain in my abdomen from the quick movement. "I am not trying to destroy us, Aaron. I am in love with you. I want to be with you and help you with Jack if you'll let me, and I want to marry you, and I want you to love me…" I trailed off again.

His response was to pin me against the door and kiss me. It was passionate and aggressive, and it turned me on almost as soon as it started. We made out there for about five minutes before I finally pushed him away, panting for air and clutching my stomach. His eyes widened, "I'm so sorry. I was caught up with the marriage and the love and…I'm sorry."

I shook my head and smiled, "I'm okay." I went and sat down on the bed. We both knew that sex was off the table right now considering my condition. He sat beside me and looked at me.

"I do love you, so much. I think more than I ever loved Haley. You are my person, Emily." He assured. "So yes, you slept with a terrorist for information, and yes, you developed romantic feelings for him that shouldn't have come up. I know you don't want to admit that, but I know it's true. But I am in love with you, and we're going to get through this together."

"Kiss me again?" I asked as I laid down carefully. He smiled and leant over me to press a chaste kiss to my lips. When he pulled away, I linked my hands at the back of his neck, "The hospital didn't forbid making out like teenagers." I whispered before pulling him back down to kiss again.

I went through four days of court with the senate committee, and the team had to bear it too. Finally, they cleared the team and left them untouched.
Strauss asked me to see her in her office, and I followed her there.

"Agent Prentiss, do you understand the mess this has caused?"

"Yes, ma'am." I nodded.

"You almost got yourself killed. Your entire team almost lost their jobs and could have lost their lives chasing after you."

"I am aware of the consequences of my actions, Chief Strauss."

"They wanted your badge…but I convinced them that you are a vital part of the BAU, and that your dismissal would be a mistake.
"You'll be working under a magnifying glass for god knows how long, but I am reinstating you."

I let out a breath, "Thank you, ma'am. I appreciate that."

She nodded, "Are there any other secrets in your past that I should know about? Anything or anyone else that may come back to haunt you?"

"No, ma'am."

"Good. You're dismissed."

I stood, thanked her again, and left quickly. I headed back to the bullpen where the team still sat gathered in the conference room, probably waiting for me.
I made my way back up there and sat down with them.

"…So?" JJ asked after a few seconds of silence passed.

"They wanted my badge, but then Strauss convinced them that I am, quote – a vital part of the BAU – end quote, and she reinstated me."

She let out a breath, "Oh thank god!"

I saw the relief on all their faces, but not Morgan's. He was just staring at his coffee in front of him. I watched him for a few seconds to see if I could pick how he was feeling. I wasn't sure if he was mad at me or if he didn't want me back on the team. It worried me that this situation was going to be detrimental to the friendship and partnership we had worked so hard to develop so strongly.
I decided that it was conversation for later, in private.

I know that I skimmed over the whole Doyle situation. I didn't originally; I had it written into four chapters. However, I didn't like where it was taking the story, and I was extremely unhappy with my writing. After deleting the chapters, I couldn't really find a way to incorporate it into the story in such detail and keep it heading in the direction that I want it to.