The manhunt was just beginning and the hope to find more potential victims was looking good when Spencer showed up with the uncovered names they were missing. "I got 4 names on the bottom of the list prentiss gave us. Luke Renault, Lawrence Riley, Lila Rafferty, Lyle Rogers. All with the initials L. R!"

"The CIA uses cryptograms like that to assign to non-official cover agents working the same case," Hotch relayed as they gazed over the new names.

"So do other foreign countries," remarked Rossi. "Those last 4 names are covers... spies."

"Wait," Penelope happened to take a quick peek and found something obviously wrong. "No. This isn't right." She plucked the paper from Spencer's hand and turned it over for them to see, her finger pointing to a spot next to a black mark. "Do you see this space? That shouldn't be here."

"Could it be a formatting error?" Aitana asked. Everyone else seemed lost too.

"No, this is a spreadsheet template. Formatting doesn't allow for this. There's a missing name on here!"

"It's another spy whose cover is L. R.," Seaver made the logical deduction. The only question now was what the name was.

Spencer remembered exactly what that last name could be, and the more he considered it the more sense it made. "Lauren Reynolds is dead," he repeated the sentence that hadn't made any sense to him not too long ago. At the other's questioning looks, he explained. "'Lauren Reynolds is dead.' Prentiss said that on a phone call 17 days ago. But her intonation wasn't surprise or grief. It was like a mantra, like she was reminding herself."

"Lauren Reynolds, L. R," Morgan picked up on it soon. "If Prentiss is the last name on that list, she's on Doyle's list, too."

"That explains her behavior the past month. The secrets, the evasion," Rossi said.

"She's been biting her fingernails again, too!" Spencer added. All the signs were there and none of them had seen it.

"She said goodbye," Aitana suddenly said. Everything was beginning to click. Just as the others were asking her what she meant, she raised a finger to give her a moment then headed for Emily's desk. Hotch had already tried calling her in the meantime and to all of their surprise, Aitana yanked one of the drawers open to see Emily's vibrating phone inside along with her badge and gun. "She said goodbye earlier and I didn't realize it." Aitana let out a deep sigh. How could she have been so stupid? All the things Emily had said...she was saying a goodbye.

"Why would she do that!?" Penelope was the first to freak out.

Spencer wasn't of the same feeling but more of a deep disappointment and sadness. "That doesn't make sense. Why run? We're her family. We can help."

"Doyle's killing families. She's not married, not close to relatives. He was ready to wipe us out," Rossi said, trying to make it clear for the others. "She ran to protect us."

"She's a trained spy. She doesn't want to be found," Morgan said, already thinking logically to do exactly what she didn't want them to do. "She knows all of our tricks. We don't know any of hers."

"All right, then how do we find her?" Seaver asked them.

"Here's how," Hotch said, striding up to their evidence boards. "Ian Doyle is our unsub, Prentiss is our victim. We profile their behavior and we treat it like any other case." The sentiment that ran amongst the team was one and the same. It was a deep pain. Hotch didn't take time to notice it as he turned around, continuing with the plan. "Because terrorism isn't an area we specialize in, I've reached out to an expert from the state department, someone who can also shed light on Prentiss' past."

"Who?" Penelope asked.

Hotch seemed to look over them for a moment. "Her," he finally answered.

The team looked back to see a familiar face coming into the bullpen. The shocks kept coming like a truck.

JJ would've had a much more warm expression had it not been for the terrible circumstances that had brought her back, but what she offered them was still her typical friendly smile. "Let's get to work," she instructed. It was almost like old times.

~0~

The team grouped in the conference room with JJ taking charge for the time being. "Ok, so I talked to a friend from Langley. He couldn't give me Emily's full CIA history, but he could give me this." Her fingers worked the old remote like it never left her hand. "She assumed the identity of Lauren Reynolds as part of a special task force called JTF-12."

The screen displayed them an old profile picture of Emily and though it was just from the neck and up, there were some obvious characteristics that did not belong to the woman they had come to know.

"I heard about them," Rossi remarked, only now vaguely recalling the name. "They were profiling terrorists, weren't they?"

"Yeah, assembled after 9-11. CIA and Western agencies contributed their best and brightest."

"But serial killers and terrorists have different personality traits. How does Doyle fit in?" Seaver inquired.

JJ nodded. It was a fair thought. "He was their last case. And now the JTF is on his hit list. Jeremy Wolff was victim number one, from Germany's BND. Sean McAlister at interpol was the second. He's the one that brought the JTF in to work the Doyle case." JJ brought the sequential pictures of each name she spoke of. "He was murdered last week in Brussels with his wife and daughter. Tsia Mosely of France's DCRI. She got engaged to Jeremy earlier this year. After he died, she fled to D. C. And team leader Clyde Easter, British s. I. S. He hasn't checked in since Tsia's murder. He was also in D. C."

"Did JTF make the arrests?" Aitana found herself asking, head tilting as she gazed at each picture. They were special profilers, as far as she understood, which left a few key pieces not fitting together.

"No, the host countries handled that," JJ responded, furthering the confusion. "The team moved onto the next case."

"So wait...if all they did was deliver a profile, how does Doyle even know about them?" Aitana's hands went back and forth between the pictures on the screen.

"Well, considering the shadowy nature of terrorist cells, they utilize a skill we don't... infiltration."

Ah, that would certainly make a difference.

"Who was undercover on Doyle?" Spencer made the question despite already having taken a good guess on the answer.

"Emily. She made contact with him in Boston to get intel on Valhalla. She was posing as another weapons dealer." At which time, JJ handed them photographs of Emily in the same guise as her profile picture. The distinctive marks of her appearance continued.

"Look at how she's dressed," Morgan said, "She seems awfully comfortable." Those clothes weren't even close to what casual Emily would wear on a normal day. "How close did she get to Doyle as part of her cover?"

"The recon they did on Doyle included a background of all of his romantic relationships," JJ's lips pursed as she went on, "Emily was his type."

There was a lot to (not) think about after that.

~0~

As much as she hated to, Aitana made a call to her mother to do exactly what she promised she wouldn't do. She was cancelling their plans again.

"I'm really sorry, Mamá," Aitana was going back and forth in her office. "But you've seen the news, you know what's going on."

"Oh, I know, and I am beyond worried for you!" Her mother exclaimed. "Please tell me you're okay?"

"I am," Aitana assured, preferring to leave out that her friend was the one in trouble. "But this is work and this guy...he's bad news."

"I understand, it's not you, it's work," her mother said, unknowingly relieving Aitana of a huge layer of guilt.

"It really is," Aitana promised. She paused when JJ poked her head into the office. JJ's eyes widened when she realized Aitana was on a call so she quickly made a motion she'd come back later. Aitana waved a hand for her to come in. "Mom, I gotta go!"

"Cuídate," her mother said.

"I'll take care, promise," Aitana said then promptly hung up. "JJ…"

"I didn't mean to interrupt," the blonde said, raising her hands up.

"No, no, you're good! I just...I had made plans with dying Mom-for like the 10th time and—"

"You had to cancel?" JJ finished for her with a rather nostalgic smile. "Yeah, I was once there too. It's hard."

"Yeah…" Aitana lowered her phone to the desk, fingers tapping over it. "They've been understanding though. I think they're just happy that I've managed to hold onto a long term job again."

There was a lot to take in from that one sentence but JJ was no longer the same woman who left the BAU almost one year ago. Seeing it left a pit in her stomach that could only be attuned to guilt. "I know I should have called in...checked in—"

"Oh God no!" Aitana exclaimed, eyes wide in alarm. "This isn't — you are not at fault for anything here, JJ! God…" She laughed. Her hand came digging through her hair. "I mean-JJ you're back!" she said as if it were the first time she saw JJ in the room.

JJ afforded the brunette a small smile. "I am," she nodded. Her eyes raked over the office that was once-for many years-hers. There were various more plants around, surely more than she used to own back in her day. The shelves had been, for the most part, emptied and replaced with Aitana's own belongings.

Aitana noticed it soon enough and awkwardly cleared her throat. "I, uh, had to make some modifications…"

"Of course," JJ agreed. She didn't want Aitana to feel like she shouldn't make the room her own, because it really was her own now. Her gaze fell over the desk where Aitana's name plaque stood proudly. She'd seen the same one on her door.

"I did leave this alone, though," Aitana moved over to a bookshelf at the corner of the room. "It's all yours and I didn't really want to move it in case…" She trailed off, leaving JJ to make the connections. It wasn't that hard to see what it was.

"I'm...not," she said, at least not in the way Aitana would presume she would. She had her own plans that were hopefully going to be put in march soon enough.

"Oh," Aitana slowly brought her arms behind her back. "I'm...sorry. Really."

"Aitana, you don't need to worry about me," JJ said, almost laughing when Aitana's eyes widened again.

"I'm not-I mean…" Aitana exhaled before she said something incredibly wrong. "This is...this was your office, this was your home for so long and...if you'd want to come back, I would completely understand. This liaison job is...not as easy as you made it look."

JJ couldn't help the smirk that crossed her lips. "I heard some stories before you officially came on. Penelope told me."

"Yeah," Aitana chuckled. "It took me a while to be able to get in front of the cameras."

JJ's eyebrows raised, her lips pressing together, "Spicy Sprinkles?"

Aitana laughed a full fledged laugh. "Oh God, they told you!" Soon enough, JJ joined her. "Morgan is…"

"Yeah, totally understand," JJ waved her off. "But if they've given you nicknames then it means you're fitting in just fine."

Aitana took her bottom lip with her teeth. "Um, yeah, they've been pretty good to me. I have my own struggles and they've been understanding."

"I'm glad," JJ genuinely said. "I knew I made the right choice leaving you here."

Aitana felt her heart skip a beat. "God," she whispered, shaking her head when she remembered those days where she was indecisive about taking the job. "You know, I still don't understand why you wanted me of all people to take your place here. I'm not a liaison. I was barely a profiler before I had to go into W.I.P."

"I told you before, you got along with every single one of us back in San Diego. You clicked with us."

"Huh," Aitana folded her arms, suddenly pensive.

"What?"

"It's funny, Emily sort of gave me this goodbye conversation that i didn't know was a goodbye conversation until she ran off. But she told me something similar to what you just said. I clicked with people, and then she…" Aitana laughed shortly, "She said I definitely clicked more with certain people."

Once more, JJ's eyebrows raised together, "Aah." So she had seen it too. "And, uh, how is all that going?"

"What?" Aitana blinked.

"I mean, your social life. I know I'm being nosy—"

"No, um…" Aitana tucked some hair behind her hair, "Despite what we're facing right now, things have been going well. I'm starting to socialize more again. I'm talking to my parents again. My brothers."

"Mateo's doing well?" JJ asked, remembering the poor man as part of her last case at the BAU.

"Yeah, thank God. He, my nephew and my sister-in-law are fine."

"And Angel?"

Aitana wave it off. "Fine too. Being an annoying older brother is something he and Mateo both know how to do very well."

JJ chuckled lightly. "Well I'm glad. And I'm really happy to know you've been settling in," she made a pass at the office. "Really."

Aitana nodded. "Thank you. Thanks for trusting me to take the keys."

JJ had felt secure when she first left Aitana with the job. She couldn't picture anyone else in the position but Aitana.

~ 0 ~

As soon as they'd gotten a ping of Emily's last known partner from the Doyle case, the team took a plane for Boston. The idea was that Emily would go to the place where the case first started and it seemed like they were on the right track because twenty minutes in the plane and Penelope had gotten an alert from the local Boston precinct.

"Emily walked into a trap," Penelope regretted turning her computer over for the others to see. It was a security footage of Emily facing off Doyle on the sidewalk, and a couple other things leading to it. "It looks like Doyle got into the SUV, but from this angle, you can see that he didn't. Which I wish Boston PD Would have told me before I started watching it. Sorry again for the screaming."

Morgan was incredulous wit what they saw on the screen. Emily walked by the car chucking something inside that soon exploded. She did it all without blinking. "She threw a flash-bang grenade into a car. She's lucky the 3 people inside didn't die! Is anybody else bothered by that?" The consensus around the team was not the one he was expecting.

"I mean…" Aitana was the brave soul who went first, "Speaking as someone who was hunted down by a band of homicidal men...no," she shook her head. Morgan raised an eyebrow at her but she kept to her statement.

"Illegal as it is, I think Prentiss knows she has to be as ruthless as Doyle," Spencer added, "He's come to the US to wage a public vendetta and hired a group of mercenaries to remain loyal to him. He has nothing to lose, so she has to act the same way."

"So how did Doyle know she was waiting for him?" Seaver asked. The footage showed them that Doyle had merely been waiting for Emily to get out of the car which told that he knew when Emily arrived at the scene.

Well, the mole must have told him, right?" Penelope presumed, glancing at the others for confirmation. "The same guy who's been feeding Doyle the contractors and agents?"

"And our best suspect was just arrested with a suitcase full of cash," JJ reminded them. Clyde was already waiting for them and it was sure to be an interesting interrogation.

"How do we get Easter to talk?" asked Aitana. "I doubt he'll cooperate willingly."

"I'll handle that," Hotch cut in, "The rest of you focus on Doyle's location."

"I hate to be the one to ask this, but how long does Emily have?" Penelope could not believe she was asking that. Another part of the job that she detested.

"Her best chance is also the most troubling," Hotch answered honestly, "Doyle saved her for last because he views her as his stressor. Which means he'll take his time."

~0~

As soon as they arrived in Boston, the group dispersed to get things done as quickly as possible. There wasn't any time to waste, literally.

Aitana got in touch with the local precinct beforehand to see how their situation was doing. Once she was there, she was personally able to see the arrest of one potential witness and said. Unfortunately, he wouldn't go easy.

"Get your hands off me!" The man raged as two officers dragged him through the bullpen towards an interrogation room. "Do you know who I am? I'm the man!"

Aitana was only a few feet behind, but she stopped by the remaining group for a moment.

"Who's that?" asked Seaver, raising an eyebrow at the man who only seemed to get louder despite getting farther from them.

"That would be Jack Fahey; Irish mob," Aitana said, sourly smiling. "He called Easter's cell phone 12 times in 6 hours."

"Any connection to Doyle?" Rossi inquired.

"Well, Boston PD says he's low level but the Irish mob has long-standing ties to the IRA." Aitana pulled her arms behind her back, her sour smile shifting into a rather innocent one. "So, who wants to take a crack at him?"

Seaver and Rossi exchanged glances, neither looking very eager to take the task up.

Aitana looked around to avoid them. "He's got some...comments for women." She had the opportunity to hear some of those earlier.

"Ah," Rossi understood. "I'll go get Reid."

Aitana let her eyes land on the man with heavy gratefulness. "Thank you!" With a nod, Rossi went off to find Spencer.

"Really?" Seaver whispered to Aitana when they were alone. She laughed quietly after Aitana shuddered.

~0~

Fahey turned out to be jittery and a smart mouth. Couple that with his excessive "kindness" and both Rossi and Spencer could see why Aitana preferred to hand him over to them. She and Seaver currently watched the interrogation from the other side of the window.

"Why were you calling Clyde Easter so much, Jack?" Rossi demanded for the third time and yet Fahey only seemed to care about one thing.

"Anybody got a smoke?" He gave Spencer a quick look-out. "How about you, beanpole?"

Spencer's face fell flat.

"What do you think?" Rossi would question first, giving Spencer the perfect opportunity to get under the man's skin.

"Narcissism masking deep-seated insecurity."

"Ah, so if we puncture his self-image, this hood rat will talk."

That got Fahey to move. "Hey, hey, hey, I ain't no hood rat. You take that back!"

"Well," Rossi started moving around the room, "You look like one. You smell like one. You smell that?"

Spencer sniffed the air, muttering, "Hood rat."

Fahey may as well burst into flames. "I am not! Take it back!"

"Hey, Jack. Do you know what a hood rat is?" Rossi smirked but all Fahey did was huff and look away. "You see what I mean? He's just gonna have to learn the hard way."

"I'm sure a few nights in the cells will do some good," Spencer said, already making a turn for the doors.

"All right, all right!" Fahey called a few steps before Spencer would reach the door. "Look, Clyde was gonna pay my medical bills, all right? This ear, it ain't growing back." He made a gesture to his ear under gauze. Both agents had been wondering what happened to that ear. Aitana hadn't gotten the answer either.

"What happened to it?" asked Rossi.

"This bitch teammate of his shot it. Said it was a warning!" Fahey went on without noticing the donning looks on the agents. "Thought she could take on this IRA Big shot named Doyle." Rossi rushed for his side. "So I told these…" Rossi didn't hesitate to grab the man by his injured ear, eliciting a sharp yelp from Fahey, "Aah! What the hell, man?! Jeez!"

"Where's Prentiss!?"

"Who? I don't know!"

"Lauren Reynolds!" Spencer exclaimed, figuring that Emily's real name wouldn't mean much to Fahey if he was involved with Doyle back then. "Where is Lauren Reynolds?"

Sure enough, it clicked in Fahey's head. "Oh. Friend of yours, is she?" His tone did not promise an easy ending.

"You tell us where she is right now, or I swear, I'll send you to a prison where they'll teach you what a hood rat is," warned Rossi, but this time it was not enough.

"And by the time you do, she'll be in pieces," Fahey smirked. "So, uh..my price just went up. 200,000?"

Rossi straightened up and glanced at Spencer. This was threatening to turn into something longer that they did not have time for.

~ 0 ~

"What other leverage do we have?" Hotch asked the group after having to bring Fahey out of the interrogation. He noticed the man flinching every now and then. His foot didn't seem to stop tapping against the floor either. "Is he an addict?"

"Apparently, he's having a nicotine fit," Aitana said, crinkling her nose. "He asked for a smoke in the beginning. No one's let him have one."

"We can use that," Seaver pointed, her lips growing into a smirk. "He'd relax, open his big mouth."

"Is that enough?" As far as Hotch knew, Fahey had gone upstake with his demands. He may look stupid but he was far from that. He read the situation well.

Seaver, however, was more confident. "Well, I'm pretty good with narcissists. Dated a few."

"You sure?" Hotch asked her. If it was up to him, he'd keep the same agents for the interrogation.

Seaver nodded. "Yeah. He's already had a go at Aitana—"

"Unfortunately," muttered the brunette, still shuddering at the flashback.

"—and he's sort of afraid of Rossi," Seaver finished, sending an apologetic smile in Spencer's direction. He merely nodded at her facts. "I can do it."

"Alright," Hotch gave them the order.

They would take Fahey up to the rooftop so he could finally get a cigarette. They would try to coax the information out of him but it would all end in bullets and one dead witness.

~ 0 ~

The last thing Seaver would expect after nearly being killed—and splattered with the blood of the now dead Fahey—was for Rossi to say she was the only one capable of saving the case. She was new—she was the newest agent at the BAU. The mere idea that an entire case could rest on her, and only her, made her stomach twist and turn with knots.

She would claim, in a weak attempt to get some help, that Aitana was also new. While that was relatively true, the other truth was that the liaison/profiler had known Emily for a few months more and had shared a case in San Diego and in D.C. before officially becoming an agent at the BAU. Aitana was out, Seaver was it.

"So what's been bugging you since we left Quantico?" Rossi started throwing the questions at her, not letting her take time to think about each one. "How about the affair? That bugs me! How does the two of them sleeping together change Doyle's profile?"

Seaver recognized the strategy Rossi employed. She wasn't supposed to think long and hard. "I-I don't know!"

"Come on, Ashley. It's textbook!"

"I haven't read every textbook!" It was a weak answer and she knew it. Emily once told her that not everything she needed to know would come from a textbook. Experience was a big part of the job.

"You want me to hold your hand? Fine!" Rossi snatched her fist, gripping it tight, making it even harder for Seaver to try and 'think'. "What doesn't fit? Just say it! What are you thinking? Spit it out!"

"Why families?" Seaver finally shouted. She hadn't needed to think about it. It was blaring right at them and yet nobody said a thing. "Prentiss is Doyle's stressor. He wants revenge on the woman who betrayed him, and I understand that. But why kill that child in D. C.?"

Rossi nodded approvingly, letting her fist go in the process. "That's the agent Seaver I'm looking for!"

Seaver's lips would pull into a small smile, for the first time she felt like an agent. She just hated the circumstances in which things happened.

~ 0 ~

Penelope and JJ had worked hard to dig more into the life of Emily's old team. When they were confident they had concrete pieces, they brought the rest of the team into the conference room to discuss.

"So, assuming Clyde isn't the mole, we looked through the JTF's personal records again, and Jeremy made some fancy plans before his death," Penelope started bringing up reference photographs on the screens for them. "Specifically, he bought a large estate in Spain. He signed all the documents with one of his covers. Made a down payment in cash, deposited the rest."

"So Jeremy sold the list to Doyle," JJ said what the others were surely already concluding. "He was the first victim, killed quietly. Doyle didn't want any attention until he was ready."

"Did Tsia know?" asked Hotch.

Penelope had to shake her head. "We can't tell. If I were running from a terrorist, I would cash in my IRA—not that one. The other...you know what I mean. My point is, Tsia didn't touch that money, so I don't think she's in on it."

At which point, Hotch would have to strike a type of deal with Clyde in order to get the man's cooperation. He wasn't a suspect anymore, not at all, but there were still things the BAU knew for sure wouldn't be disclosed even if the situation called for it.

A few hours later would have Clyde himself standing in front of the team, explaining what he already knew. "Ian Doyle's a power-assertive psychopath, highly controlling and very explosive when something doesn't go as planned."

"Ok, so how does this fit in with who he is as a family annihilator?" asked Seaver. "And Prentiss' role in it."

"Annihilators have a romanticized view of who their family is…" Morgan started saying when Clyde cut in.

"Well, actually, he was an orphan."

Morgan nodded, taking the comment into consideration. "Well, they think of family as their possession, until some law shatters that and starts them killing."

Clyde would agree but the facts still remained against them. "But Doyle was never married."

"Children?" asked Rossi.

"No."

"You sure?" Aitana didn't hide her disbelief, something that would irritate Clyde. "Because the way your profile has him with his murders being carried out in a surgical-like precision sounds like there's room for something you may have missed." The more she went on, the harder Clyde looked at her. In the end, Aitana had to avert her gaze until somebody else would step in.

"Perhaps this child was a surrogate for one he had," Spencer offered the alternative. A that, Clyde wouldn't be able to say for sure it wasn't possible.

Hotch decided to go with the theory. "Say Doyle had a child and you didn't know about it. Is it possible that Prentiss did?"

"Then why would she keep it from me?"

JJ raised an eyebrow at the man, almost uttering 'Seriously' in the process. "Who else was in the compound the day that you arrested Doyle?"

"Just his staff."

"All Irish?" asked Hotch.

"Yeah."

"That's a start." Hotch turned to Penelope who quickly nodded, raising her wiggling fingers to dive into the keyboard.

She would soon get a very likely match for who they were looking for. A young blonde haired boy with bright blue eyes appeared on the large screen for the team to see. "I matched Irish immigration records based on Doyle's employees. Declan Jones, he's the only boy who matches. He settled in Boston 8 years ago, adoptive guardian Louise Jones."

"I knew Louise Jones," Clyde blinked at the picture of the familiar of the woman. "She was Doyle's housekeeper."

"Are they still alive?" asked JJ.

"Declan and his mother went missing 7 years ago. Bodies were never found. Wait, what is this?" Penelope followed the trail of folders to stumble across some pretty dark pictures. Uh... God, someone took pictures of them being shot." She was sickened to find multiple pictures of the woman and boy tied up and being gunned.

"Is there an address?" Hotch quickly inquired.

"That looks like a warehouse," Spencer pointed to the surrounding walls and maybe even what looked like a metal shelf in the corner.

"It's gotta be big enough to house a small army," Penelope deduced on her own, fingers once again typing madly on her keyboard. "That's weapons, supplies. Let's see... which means it has its own perimeter. I got it, 1518 Adams street!"

"I'll start pulling in the teams," Aitana said, rushing out ahead of the others.

There was a rustling of movement after the address had been revealed. Only a few of them would linger as Penelope kept going through different pictures for something more definitive. One in particular pulled Spencer back. It had Declan and Louise still tied up but this time the gunman's hand was visible, their fingers holding the gun.

"Wait, wait, look at that. Morgan, come look at this…"

Morgan had no idea what the hell could be more important on the picture than readying the others, but Spencer had yet to be wrong about something so he came back. "It's black clothing and a hand, Reid."

Spencer shook his head and pointed at the hand holding the gun. "No, look at the fingernails."

Penelope saw it first from her own screen and gasped. "Oh, my God!"

They would recognize Emily's torn fingernails anywhere.

~ 0 ~

It was agonizing having to be away from the building while everyone else went in. Aitana took roots in the precinct, taking charge of the local officers to make sure the area was sealed off. Penelope would lead with the camera—whichever ones she could find in case something went south. Spencer and Rossi would be right outside the building on standby. Seaver and JJ had to reluctantly stay out due to their technical positions. Damn the rules.

But even when everything was prepared with as much precaution and failsafes, things still managed to slip from them. One moment, Hotch and Morgan were leading the mission and taking out Doyle's accomplices and the next they heard an ongoing fight. By the time one of them made it to Emily, Doyle had vanished and Emily laid on the ground with a piece of wood impaled in her stomach.

Hours would pass by in the hospital for the entire team. JJ disappeared for a few to try and use her connections and see what was going on. When she returned, all hopeful faces landed on her only to for them to realize what she was about to say.

No.

"She never made it off the table," JJ choked on her own words.

The first feeling was disbelief. How? Lose one of their own? No fucking way.

Penelope shook her head and turned away from JJ, as if doing that meant whatever JJ said wouldn't be true. Aitana, who sat right beside her, put an arm around her. The goodbye conversation between her and Emily really had been just that: a goodbye.

Spencer couldn't take the entire atmosphere, everybody in it nearly sobbing for who they had lost. He got up from his chair, almost making a run for it.

JJ stood in his way, stopping him with hand on his arm. "Spence."

"I didn't get a chance to say good-bye," he said, tears already blurring his vision. As far as he knew, Emily had come to each of them in her own way but he had yet to remember a moment between himself and her. Saying goodbye when they didn't know it was a goodbye was still better than having nothing at all.

Now the next time he could say goodbye would be at Emily's funeral.

A/N:

sorry :)

As always, I have AO3/Wattpad accounts under "noblecrescent" and a tumblr account under "saiilorstars" if you'd like to follow! :)