CHAPTER 70

EMILY PRENTISS - THE MOTHER

"Anything?" Emily was now pacing impatiently.

It had been more than two hours since they arrived at the airport. They had food, they explored the shops, they relaxed against some pretty uncomfortable metal chairs and now they were more than ready to board their plane.

"Uhm, yes." Garcia said, on the other side of the line.

This was the third time Emily had called her, pushing for confirmation, which Garcia did not have.

"I like the yes. The uhm however, not so much." Emily stated, staring blankly at a window shop.

"Well, the yes is referred to the confirmation I just had two minutes ago, by the higher-ups." Garcia started off with the good news. It was the only way to survive the wrath of Emily Prentiss – good news first and then pray that she wouldn't ask any further.

"…And?" Emily pushed it. Of course she would. When hadn't she?

"Alright. Well, the uhm was referred to the bad weather in your current location. The fog is way too thick, so they have canceled all flights for that night." Garcia said hesitantly.

"No, they haven't!" Emily had to argue. She had been looking at the screens and there wasn't any kind of an announcement.

"Oh…" She then sighed, seeing the screens update with the new information – all flights canceled until the morning.

"I feel your pain, sweet puppies. However, do not worry – Penny G is here and she is already searching for accommodation near the airport…" She spoke while typing. Her two favorite activities, mixed together.

"Oh…" Garcia added after a few seconds.

"Oh is not a friend of mine, just like uhm." Emily could not help but feel the overwhelming weight of exhaustion, hitting her hard.

It had been way too long since she had rested, with her eyes closed and nothing but silence surrounding her. This airport, with all of its chatter now that every single flight was canceled and people were furious, was giving her a headache, bigger than the one she had been masking up skillfully ever since she realized JJ had been abducted.

"Well, turns out that all nearby hotels have been booked, you know, for the people who have to be refunded somehow, for missing their ordinary flight." Garcia spoke. "Smart, first the airlines booked the rooms, and then they made the cancellation announcement."

"What about compensating our flight?" Emily groaned, this was turning into a nightmare.

"Yeah, that's why I mentioned ordinary flights." Garcia had learned one thing – be very wise with the words you choose, especially when you hang out around a bunch of profilers. "Your flight practically does not exist yet. Everything got blocked right when I was trying to confirm it with airport control."

"Damn it!" Emily received a look by Rossi, who had overheard her struggles on the phone and was now watching her, studying all the non-verbal things that her body was communicating.

Emily was clutching onto her phone, as if it were a person and she was trying to suffocate them. Her brows were furrowed and her sight darted to the floor each time the other person on the line gave her any kind of news. She had fixed her hair three times in the past minute and she had licked her lips twice. It didn't take a profiler to know that this was not her normal behavior.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Rossi couldn't help but reach her and try to help. It was his nature.

"Yeah. Yeah…" Emily sounded anything but convinced. She then walked a few steps further again, clearly in need of some privacy while on the phone.

"The only thing I can do is book you a hotel back in the city…" Garcia suggested.

"No. That, along with transportation, would end up costing us as if were in a four-star hotel for our entire stay here. And that's way above our budget." Emily closed her eyes for a brief moment, hoping that when she opened them it would be as if nothing had happened, as if this had been just a nasty dream.

"There isn't anything else I could do from here. I tried searching an air-bnb, but you are in the middle of nowhere, with nothing surrounding you, beside the two airport hotels across the street, both of which are fully booked." Garcia sighed, feeling helpless. She hated that feeling.

"I have an idea. Don't worry. I won't let the team sleep on the floor, at a - soon to be, abandoned airport." Emily greeted Garcia and her feet started walking in direction of the exit doors.

Rossi let her out of his sight for a minute and when he checked in on her, she was nowhere to be seen. He trusted her enough not to run around and look for her, but he still had that weird feeling in his stomach, each time he realized Emily was not around.


"How did it go?" Bryan jumped at Angie, as soon as she opened the door to their room.

"Good." She said secretively.

"Hey, don't forget you and I were once friends, you know, when you turn into that amazing Special Agent quite soon." He teased her.

"You mean, right about the time you turn into one, too?" He just had to be corrected.

There was no way Angie would rise up, without him being by her side. And vice-versa. "Plus, if your definition of quite soon is equal to 17 weeks, then yeah, it would be quite soon, I guess."

"Ugh, I can't believe we have this much left. It already feels like we've been here a lifetime." It felt weird for him to be back in an Academy. When he was training for SWAT, he was basically a child. It wasn't too long ago, but it was long enough for him to have forgotten how to be a student. Although, he was doing quite well in class, without even knowing it.

"I know, right?" Angie popped on the bed, kicking her shoes off her feet. It had been a long day and all she needed was a shower. But first – she needed the strength to get up from the bed.

"So, tell me about this project." Bryan went back to snooping for information, realizing Angie had successfully changed the topic earlier.

"Can't. It's classified." She smirked, feeling so cool and powerful to be able to say those words.

"Shut up! I know where you hide your candy!" He threatened, sitting on the side of her bed.

"Oh, because I care about calories in a package?" She laughed.

Truth was – Angie loved sweet treats. But she would be crazy to let him know that.

"I also know where your bows are." To this, she pulled a straight face.

"Fine. All I can say is that I won't be here for a few days. So, don't worry when you wake up and I'm gone. I won't be pulling an Amanda on you." She had to beg Jack and Clara for permission to let Bryn know that she would be away. He already knew she was crazy, so the last thing she wanted was to give him a heart attack if he thought she was gone missing, or that something bad had happened to her.

"Shit, no way! You're going on a case with the IRS?" He supposed, feeling somewhat jealous.

Angie shrugged, unable to confirm, but also unable to deny his deduction.

"I don't even have many details on what I'll be doing. I just know what this whole thing is about. But if I had to guess – I'd be making coffee runs and cleaning Seger's phone screen with baby wipes." She shrugged.

Four weeks into the Academy, she was still a Freshman and therefore would automatically be considered an idiot. IRS Unit Chief Garrett already hated her guts and despised Clara for choosing her. She was surely going to be everyone's pet, during that trip. But at least she'd be in Cuba, for free. There was no doubt she'd squeeze in a mean Mojito with a cute Cuban guy, at some dim lit bar in the middle of nowhere.

"Will you, finally, get your phone out of hiding and take it with you, so we can text?" Bryan begged, but he already knew that she had no intention of ever touching that phone again.

It had been tucked in the bottom of her drawer, ever since she entered the Academy on day one. She never touched it, never charged it, never cared enough to even look at her missed calls and messages. That had made Bryan suspicious – did she even have anyone to talk to?

"I don't want to. Even if I did – I simply can't. Both Kevin and I were advised, and I really mean forced to, leave our personal belongings and phones back in here. We might have a work phone to use for a few days, but we surely cannot make personal calls. So, I guess you're gonna have to sit back, relax and wait for me to come home. Unless you don't give me enough credit for being good enough to survive?"

"If anyone can survive – no doubt it would be you. I just hope you are safe and that, in some way, you manage to enjoy this…project or whatever it is." He said sweetly.

Angie rubbed her eyes, feeling exhausted. She forced herself to get up and take a shower, after which she crashed and fell asleep immediately.


"I'm sorry, Miss. We don't have any available rooms for the night." A hotel receptionist informed Emily as soon as she walked in the lobby.

"FBI." She announced, holding her badge up so he can see it clearly.

"Did…did something happen?" The guy, who hadn't even finished his first week on the job, started stuttering.

"Yes. We just cracked a case in your city. The guy who killed four innocent girls is now in custody, while my team and I are stuck at the freezing airport, unable to go home. How is that fair?" She tried to play her cards right. This young boy clearly had no idea what he was doing behind the desk, so if she made him feel bad for the team, she could maybe score a room.

"But we really don't have-…" The boy trailed off. He was scared of her.

"What is the problem?" An elder man came up from behind them, having overheard what sounded like a quarrel.

"We need a place for the night." Emily stated calmly now, since this man was older than her, so she automatically treated him with more respect.

"We are fully booked." He announced.

She played with her FBI badge one more time, but his reply did not change.

"Wait…" He called out after her, when she was on her way to go try her luck in the other hotel.

"Are you with this blonde woman, the one who was on TV, talking about the killer?" The guy, who turned out to be the Hotel Manager, asked her.

He had been forced to stay at Reception, as there were many demanding people walking in, complaining about flight cancellations and the lack of rooms. He was simply there to deflect the tension.

"Yes, I am her boss. And that same girl got kidnapped and tried desperately to save a little boy's life just hours ago. She is now curled into a ball, sitting on the floor, at the airport, near the bins, writing her after case report, because that's the only corner we could find that wasn't full of people yelling about their flight being cancelled." Emily stated firmly.

"I'm sorry. Is the boy okay?" The guy shivered at the thought that a child would be harmed.

"Yes. Agent Jareau, the woman you saw on TV, was able to communicate to us his location and my team managed to save him. A minute later, we would have found him dead." Emily knew how to make a man feel for her, pity her, so that she could get whatever she wanted out of him.

"Is the Agent okay?" The man asked. "When I saw her on TV, she reminded me a lot of my daughter who is now living in Canada. I barely get to see her anymore. I don't know, she just put a smile on my face."

"She's a tough girl, she's fine and unharmed. She's just cold and pissed off right now. And all she wants to do is go home and hug her two little boys." One more time, Emily jumped at the chance to point out JJ's discomfort.

"I'll tell you what – yes, we are fully booked. But we have a business lounge on the third floor. It's not much, but it's all I could offer. It's warm and there are plenty of couches with cushions. Oh and it can be locked, so it should give you some privacy. I'll ask the nighttime maid to give you some blankets and I'll put your names on the breakfast list. It's not much, just a cup of coffee and some small sweets, but that's all we can offer from the main menu. Everything else is on request and requires an extra fee." He finally caved in.

"Alright, this is more than what I expected anyway. Forward the receipt to me here and it will get covered by our administration within 48 hours." Emily gave him her business card, but he denied taking it.

"It's on the house." The man smiled.

"Oh…" Emily half-smiled as well. Apparently she got game. "Well, thank you then. I will let my team know."

She walked away, calling Rossi and giving him the news. Ten minutes later, everyone was by her side and they got escorted to the business lounge.

"Holy shit!" Tara exclaimed as they walked in.

The place was huge. There was plenty of space to get comfortable and they also had a TV and some refreshments. Best of al – it was well within their new budget, being free.

"Good one, Prentiss!" Matt tapped Emily's shoulder, walking by her and choosing a sofa for himself.

As everyone got comfortable and threw a blanket over themselves, Emily just looked around. Rossi was next to Reid, who was next to JJ. Tara, Matt and Luke were in the opposite corner of the room, stubbornly thinking they were going to watch TV. The whole team looked a bit more alive than when they were at the airport.

It was quiet. Emily could hear JJ take a sharp breath. Seconds later, Reid chuckled, for whatever reason. Rossi let out a sigh of relief and was ready to crash. Tara was laughing about something that Matt was whispering while Luke was imitating Matt's hand gestures, standing behind him.

She finally allowed herself to smile. A genuine smile, one of those that she only reserved for special occasions. Watching her team interact with one another was the biggest satisfaction she could get in life. Well, other than another type of satisfaction, which, she wasn't sure she wanted anymore. Not after Richard.

The mere thought of him made her feel a bit more tense, but shooting a glance over to JJ and finding her curled on the sofa, contently holding onto her blanket, made Emily smile again. She was safe. She was alive. She did not show any visible signs of stress after being kidnapped. It was all good. JJ was good. Emily was good, too.

JJ had once told Emily, as they were on a plane, after a mission that had involved a young girl, that she could see Emily as a mother. It had been a touchy subject for Emily since she was fifteen, but she hadn't minded hearing those words from JJ.

Now, looking at the six of them, she couldn't help but feel like she was lucky enough to be, in a way, a mother of six perfectly beautiful, mischievous kids. Wasn't motherhood all about loving someone unconditionally, putting their own needs before yours, making sure they were alright, at all costs and at any given time? Well, then Emily Prentiss was a mother.

She put her phone in charge before she grabbed the only couch left. Surprisingly, it was one of the big ones, a comfortable one, with a lot of pillows. Surely her team somehow made sure to leave the good spot for the Chief. She smirked, realizing that sometimes it was okay to feel pampered, it felt good to be looked after. Almost as if she was their child. She was not sure how it worked, but their roles often got blurry and at times there was no clear line between business and friendship with them. She did not mind it.

For a few minutes, she worked on some paper files that she had been carrying around. She had to file them when they got back to Quantico, so why not start filling them in right away? Ten minutes later, her team expressed their wish to turn the lights off and go to sleep. She was in the middle of writing her report and her mind was all in it, but she could not deny them. She never could.

"Goodnight." She whispered in the dark, only receiving two replies back. The other four Agents were already asleep.

It filled her heart with joy, thinking that she was, once again, able to provide for the team. Although, this time she wasn't sure if this was Kick-ass Emily Prentiss' merit…or was it maybe all because of Emily Prentiss – the mother?


AUTHOR'S NOTE:

"rmpcmfan" You just wait for it and hope Jack (or someone else) actually believes enough in her, to give her a chance ;) Angie sure comes off as an airhead, but like you said - it might be part of a character. Ooh, Richard would be devastated if he lost Emily (Well, "Lauren"). He might take it worse than Emily herself, if things went bad...

"Natasha36" Will keep you guys guessing through the entire story (for different things, I don't mean just this storyline), I promise hehehe! Obviously, everything WILL be explained, at some point! I can only say Richard loves the person that was cut out of the photo. Who it is and what their connection might be, is up to the readers' imagination...for now :P Thanks, I also enjoy Reid when he annoys the crap out of people (mostly Luke) with theories.

"Ducksdragonfly" Hehe, finally there is something Reid does not know! Oh Richard has more colors than Garcia! Angie is about to experience NOTHING like what she had imagined, lol!

"Bohogal1998" Thanks, the IRT will make appearances in my story, since they all appeared on "Criminal Minds" and Emily is really close to Clara.