emilyprentissluvr

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A Second Date (Don’t Blame Me: Chapter 9)

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Warnings: Typical CM stuff

Words: 4.4k

It was late by the time Emily arrived at her apartment complex. 

She'd been the last to leave, pouring all her attention into digging through the Wood Stalker case files. 

She didn't even realize she'd stayed hours after everyone until the janitor walked into the bullpen and started vacuuming. She took that as her sign to call it a night.

As she waited for the elevator, the bag on her shoulder became heavy. But for the first time in a while, the weight on her shoulders was an object, not a metaphor. The team was finally progressing in the case, closing the steps Y/n had been creating.

The elevator ding pulled Emily from her thoughts as she walked in. It was a quick ride to the fifth floor and an even quicker walk to her door. She pulled her keys from her bag, and as she inserted them into the slot, the door opened before she could even turn it.

Emily's heart dropped, her hand immediately reaching for the gun on her hip. She knew she had locked her door that morning, something she always triple-checked, even after JJ had teased her for it, calling her paranoid. But it was moments like this when she was glad her CIA training still lingered in the back of her head.

She opened her front door as quietly as possible, her gun trained in front of her, before she peered into the apartment. She noted that the hallway lights were off as she stepped in, silently closing the door and placing her bag by the doorway. 

She paused for a moment, attempting to detect any sounds in her apartment, but it was silent, no sound out of the ordinary. So she proceeded to walk through the hallway, staying close to the wall.

The first room she cleared was her small mudroom to the right. No one and nothing was out of place in her living room either. But as she made her way to the kitchen, her nose picked up the scent of... Thai food?

She was quick, with no hesitation or second thoughts as she turned into the kitchen, her gun trained in front of her. Emily practically growled as she realized who was sitting at her kitchen counter.

"Took you long enough. It's rude to keep a lady waiting." Y/n grinned as she turned around on the barstool, her legs crossed over another as she twirled one of Emily's kitchen knives in her hands. 

"Place the weapon on the counter and then put your hands up." Emily glowered as she walked closer to the younger woman, her gun not wavering for a second. 

Y/n rolled her eyes. "Put your gun down first."

"You know I'm not going to do that."

Y/n sighed as she stood up, and Emily's finger immediately went to rest on the gun trigger. "You are so dramatic." Y/n chuckled as she walked around the counter, putting the knife back into the holder. "And besides, if I were going to kill you, I would have done it already." Y/n smiled, feeling nothing but satisfaction at the tense look on Emily's face.

"I'm not going to tell you again. Put your hands up," Emily said, her jaw clenched as she watched Y/n. 

"Why? You wanna cuff me?" Y/n grinned as she leaned against the counter. "I can't say I'm opposed to that," Y/n continued as her eyes raked over Emily. 

Emily scoffed as she quickly made her way to the other side of the counter; only three feet stood between her and Y/n. "You have ten seconds before-"

"Before what? You shoot me?" Y/n chuckled as she walked closer to Emily, the gun now inches away from Y/n's chest. "I mean, I'm not going to stop you. But when you can't find that friend of yours, Rossi is his name, I believe, then don't blame me." Y/n shrugged, staring Emily right in the eye, not even wavering at the gun that could go off any second.

"What?" Emily blinked, thrown off momentarily as she took in Y/n's words.

"His name is Rossi, right?" Y/n frowned as she tapped her chin. "I didn't have time to ask him, the chloroform took him out pretty quick."

Emily glared at the younger woman. Her mind raced as she tried to figure out if Y/n was bluffing or not. It wouldn't be the first time, but just as the last time, not believing her could come at a risk. And Rossi's life was not something she could gamble. "What did you do to Rossi?" Emily gritted her teeth.

"Ah, so I did get his name right! How funny would it have been if I accidentally got the wrong old guy? I mean, you don't have a shortage of those in the FBI," Y/n mused, reveling in how she was getting under Emily's skin.

"What did you do?" Emily asked again as she took a step closer to Y/n. Her gun was less than an inch away from the younger woman's chest. But Y/n didn't waver; if anything, she looked even more amused. "Well, I waited till he made it to the parking lot and then put a rag of chloroform over his mouth. Honestly, I thought he would put up more of a fight, but I was wrong," Y/n recounted, her eyes gleaming as she strung Emily along.

"Then I hauled his old ass into my car and put him somewhere no one would ever find him. So, you can shoot me if you want, but he only has 12 hours left of oxygen before he dies. Your choice, Emily." Y/n smiled.

Emily studied Y/n for a moment. She knew all of this was a game to Y/n. She wasn't naive enough to think she was getting out of this unscathed. But she had options.

On one hand, Emily could easily shoot Y/n and plead that it was self-defense; the younger woman had broken into her apartment, after all. But on the off chance, Y/n wasn't bluffing and Rossi, the man she looked up to like a father, died because of her... Emily would never be able to forgive herself. 

On the other hand, Emily could play along. And hopefully, distract Y/n for long enough to get the upper hand. It was a reach, but she didn't have any other choice, did she?

So Emily clicked the safety on the gun, slowly lowering it with her glare still trained on the younger woman. "What do you want?" She asked as she put her gun back into its holster. 

"Dinner and a conversation. A second date, if you will." Y/n said simply as she took a step closer to Emily. The agent scoffed, ignoring how Y/n's light perfume filled her senses. "A date. You did all of that for a date?"

Y/n shrugged as she reached her hand out, tucking a loose piece of hair behind Emily's ear. Emily quickly caught Y/n's wrist, holding it tight as she moved it away from her face. A faint smile curled on Y/n's lips as she shrugged off Emily's hand before walking over to the fridge.

"Well, I've never planned a date before, so I'm not familiar with standard etiquette," Y/n said as she pulled out numerous containers of Thai food from Baan Siam, Emily's go-to restaurant. 

Emily scoffed again as she watched Y/n walk to the microwave and start heating the food as if this were her apartment. "I think breaking into your date's apartment and kidnapping their friend is kind of a no-brainer of what not to do on a date," Emily said as she leaned on her counter, her arms crossing over her chest. 

"Good to know. I'll plan accordingly for next time." Y/n winked as she grabbed the steaming food from the microwave. 

While Y/n was occupied, Emily debated on whether or not she could discreetly pull out her phone and send some sort of signal to Hotch. But as if reading her mind, Y/n suddenly appeared in front of Emily, steaming containers of food in her hand. "If I even think you've sent some sort of message to your team, I will not hesitate to slice your pretty neck up." Y/n smiled, her calm tone not at all matching her words.

"How do you know I haven't already?" Emily countered easily. 

She genuinely wasn't worried about Y/n killing her. Hurting her? That was another story. But all Emily had done for the past week was dig into the younger woman's past and learn about her triggers and behaviors. She knew Y/n didn't kill women.

And as long as Y/n was entertained and not trapped, she wouldn't kill Emily. 

Y/n chuckled as she walked around the agent. Bringing the food to the kitchen table and pulling out a seat for Emily. "You must be distracted, Agent Prentiss. Because if you didn't already notice, I jammed your phone signal before you walked in."

Oh, well, Emily hadn't noticed that. This was not off to a good start.

"Well, now that we've gotten all the pleasantries out of the way, please take a seat." Y/n smiled as she motioned to the pulled-out chair. "Derek mentioned that Thai food was your favorite."

"I'll make sure to thank him the next time I see him," Emily mumbled under her breath as she took a seat in the chair Y/n had pulled out for her. The younger woman pushed her chair in, apparently very committed to the whole date thing, before taking the seat next to Emily. 

Emily watched as Y/n loaded her plate, not making a move until Y/n took the first bite.

The younger woman rolled her eyes as she realized what the agent was doing. "I didn't poison the food," Y/n said as she took a bite of the Pad Thai. "Again, if I wanted you dead, I would have done it the second you walked through the door. And besides, death by poison is such a boring way to go, you should have higher standards for yourself."

"Thanks for the reassurance," Emily muttered as she put food on her plate. 

There's a silence before the younger woman speaks again, "So, how was your day?"

Emily looks up from her plate of food with a scoff. "Seriously?" 

"Yes, seriously," Y/n said with a smile as she poked at her food.

Emily fought the urge to roll her eyes, knowing that the faster she played along, the faster she'd be out of this situation. "It was long, thanks to you."

Y/n laughed as she looked at Emily. "Me or Gideon? I know his stories can get long-winded."

Emily shouldn't have been surprised that Y/n knew Gideon had been to the BAU today. But she couldn't help but feel caught off guard for a second before managing to mask her reaction, "Well, the only reason Gideon came back was because of you."

"You're not too fond of him, are you?" Y/n said with an eyebrow raised as she studied the agent in front of her. 

"You could say that," Emily shrugged.

"Yet... you're fond of Rossi?" Y/n observed, and Emily hated the way her eyes practically bored through her. "What are you trying to get at?" Emily frowned at the younger woman.

Y/n chuckled as she put more food on her plate. "Nothing. Just probing to see how far Gideon got on his side of the story."

Emily knew it was a baited statement. And she wanted to ignore it; she did. She knew anything Y/n told her had to be taken with a grain of salt. But she also knew that there was undeniable tension between the two older men, something having gone on way before anyone else joined the team. 

"You can ask. I know you're dying too." Y/n smirked, pulling Emily from her thoughts.

"And trust what you'll say over them? Over my dead body." Emily said, even though she wanted to ask, she wasn't about to give the upper hand. And besides, she knew this was Y/n's tactic, to make the team distrust each other and lose sight of the actual goal, apprehending Y/n.

"You're loss, darling. Just know that digging into the past isn't always pretty." Y/n shrugged, and again, Emily fought the urge to roll her eyes at another ominous yet vague statement from the younger woman. "That's rich coming from you."

Y/n just chuckled, and if Emily was trying to get under her skin, it wasn't working. "And not you? I'm sure you have some skeletons in your closet, darling. And wouldn't it be oh-so-fun to dig them up?"

Emily gritted her teeth. Logically, she knew her time at the CIA was classified. And Y/n hadn't shown any Garcia-level hacking abilities. So, she knew the threat was just a blanket statement, but she couldn't help but wonder what she would do if Y/n had that information to hold over her. 

"Geez, you are such a worrier," Y/n chuckled as she noted the stern expression on Emily's face. "No need to fret, I won't dig unless I have to. I prefer things to come naturally."

"You're deluded if you think I would willingly tell you anything about me," Emily said seriously.

"Well then, I guess it's a great day to be a psychopath."

Emily let out a huff. She'd walked right into that one, hadn't she?

"Okay, just tell me what you want," Emily said as she put down her fork. She'd tried to play along, and she lasted a good 5 minutes before wanting to pull her gun out. "You're here for more than just a date."

"And here I thought we were getting somewhere." Y/n sighed dramatically as she leaned back in her chair. "I was bored."

Emily blinked. "What?"

"You and your team have been taking so long-

"It's only been a week!"

"And I've left you two bodies and a gift!" 

Emily shook her head, fighting the urge to rub the headache out of her temples. "I don't understand. You went years without being on anyone's radar. Why are you giving us the chance to catch you?"

Y/n hummed as her fingers tapped on the table. "First of all, I'm not giving you a chance to catch me. Secondly, I have no elaborate scheme or endgame," Y/n said in air quotes, "to explain why I put myself on your team's radar. I simply saw a beautiful woman at a coffee shop and had to have her. Call it the romantic in me."

Emily couldn't even process what she heard as the younger woman winked at her. "The only romance you're capable of is a self-serving one." Emily shook her head. 

"You don't know that."

"Yes, I do. You're not the first psychopath I've encountered, and you won't be the last."

Y/n just smiled as she wet her bottom lip. "What if I want to be the last?" She said as she stood up, watching how Emily's hard eyes never left hers. The younger woman slowly approached Emily, standing a couple of inches away from her as she used her foot to scoot the Agent's chair toward her. 

"You won't," Emily said as she stared up at the other woman. 

"How can you be so sure?" Y/n asked as she knocked Emily's right knee with her own.

"Because you're not as special as you think you are," Emily said, and if she was trying to get a rise out of the Y/n, it was failing by the way Y/n's small turned upward.

"I don't know..." Y/n started as she gracefully draped herself in Emily's lap. Her weight was placed on Emily's right leg as her arm snaked around Emily's neck. The agent unconsciously held her breath as Y/N's hand rested on her lower neck. Emily's hands were clenched by her side as she fought the urge to shove the younger woman off of her. 

"I felt pretty special when you kissed me back in the bar." Y/n smiled, her breath hot against Emily's ear.

Emily refused to show any emotion as she stared straight ahead. She pretended she couldn't feel Y/n playing with the baby hairs on her neck or the way Y/n's lips had grazed her ear.

"When you pinned me against the wall in the bathroom." Y/n continued as her other hand splayed against Emily's torso. 

Emily turned her head, her face now inches away from the younger woman as she looked her dead in the eye, "I was doing my job."

Y/n just chuckled as she leaned closer, the tip of her nose almost brushing Emily's. "Was it part of your job to enjoy it?"

"It's part of my job to make it believable. Don't flatter yourself." Emily shot back, and Y/n just laughed as she brought her hand up from Emily's stomach to rest softly on the older woman's cheek. "You keep telling yourself that."

Emily immediately pulled the younger woman's hand off her cheek. "You can keep telling yourself that this," Emily said as she dug her dull nails into Y/n's palm and moved their hands back and forth, gesturing between them, "Means something. But really, you'll just end up being another tally in the number of people I've put behind bars."

For the first time that night, Y/n was silent. And honestly, the silence was more unsettling than anything the younger woman had said. Emily couldn't tell if Y/n was about to choke the life out of her or break into deranged laughter. 

But instead of doing any of that, the younger woman just sighed with a small pout on her lips, "I see we're still not on the same page."

"You think?!" Emily yelled before she could control her mouth.

"Okay," Y/n nodded as she squeezed Emily's hand softly before untangling it from the older woman's grip. Honestly, Emily hadn't even noticed she was still gripping onto Y/n's hand.

"Okay?" Emily repeated back as Y/n got off of her lap and went to sit back down in her seat. 

"I acknowledge that you want to take things slower," Y/n said with a smile as she leaned back in her chair.

"That is not what I said," Emily said incredulously. 

"And I'm completely fine with taking this at your speed."

"There is no speed at which I would do anything with you," Emily said pointedly.

"They say the first stage is denial," Y/n said as she started to gather the takeout containers on the table. 

"Of grief. Denial is the first stage of grief." Emily corrected as she watched the younger woman flow seamlessly through her kitchen, putting all of the containers back in her fridge. 

"Love...grief... you can't have one without the other," Y/n said as she returned to the table to collect the plates.

When Y/n reached for Emily's plate, the agent quickly stood up, grabbing the younger woman's wrist tightly before she could touch it. "And how would you know? You don't have the emotional capacity to experience either of them, " Emily said in a low voice.

Y/n rolled her eyes, "Says who?"

"The person who has spent the last week digging through your life. The second my team and I are no longer a challenge, you'll get bored and move on. You're textbook, you're not special, and you're not capable of being in a relationship of any kind." Emily answered back easily as she stared at Y/n. She hadn't even realized how close they were until she saw Y/n's eyelashes flutter and a small smile curl on her lips.

"How did you know degradation was my kinda foreplay?" Y/n smirked, and Emily scoffed as she dropped Y/n's wrist and took a step back.

Honestly, Emily was at a loss for what to do. Nothing she said or did seemed to faze Y/n at all. She thought she could find what made the younger woman tick, find a way to throw her off balance. But so far, she'd found nothing, and it was not working to her advantage.

Although... she did have one advantage over the other woman.

Emily quickly reached for her gun, clicking off the safety as she pointed right at Y/n's forehead. The younger woman's smirk turned into an eye roll as she crossed her arms, but made no action to move away. "Dramatic much?"

Emily scoffed as she held the gun steady, "You kidnapped my friend and broke into my apartment because you were bored."

Y/n just shrugged.

"Unless... you didn't kidnap Rossi. And all of this," Emily said as she waved her gun around, "Has been a waste of my time."

"Time spent with me is never a waste." Y/n countered back, but all she was met with was a cold glare from Emily.

Y/n sighed when she realized Emily wasn't going to say anything, "May I reach into my pocket without you blowing my brains out, Agent Prentiss?"

"Depends."

"I'm just grabbing my phone, nothing scandalous. Unless you want it to be," Y/n said smoothly as she reached into her back pocket for her phone. Emily didn't entertain her with a response as she watched the woman unlock her phone and scroll for a bit.

When she turned her phone around, Emily was met with a sight of a video. 

Not a video, as Emily observed closely. It seemed to be live streaming, and in the center of it was none other than an unconscious David Rossi in an unrecognizable, dark room. 

"See? You know, I'm kind of offended that you thought I was lying about kidnapping him." Y/n said as she pocketed her phone once again. 

"Where is he?" Emily gritted out.

"Some place only the two of us know about," Y/n said wistfully, and Emily couldn't get a read on her. 

The 'two of us' she was referring to had to be about Y/n and Rossi.

But Rossi didn't even know Y/n existed until this case... right?

"I can see the cogs turning in your brain, darling." Y/n taunted, "Ask me, I know you want to."

No, Emily was not going to ask her. She was going to get this information out of Rossi first, if there was even anything to know. 

"Tell me where he is," Emily repeated.

"What if I don't want to?" Y/n said with a sly smile.

"Then I'm going to pull this trigger and find him myself."

Y/n chuckled as she took a step closer to the gun, bending down slightly so the gun could rest in the middle of her forehead. "Do it then,"

Emily bit the inside of her cheek. Wow, Y/n really was insane.

"That's what I thought, all talk and no play," Y/n smiled as she stared up at Emily.

"Now, here's what's going to happen," Y/n said as she got up from her slightly crouched position and made her way back to the table to grab the plates, "I'm going to wash the dishes, because how awful of a date would I be if left you a mess to clean up?!" 

"I'm pretty sure you made it into awful date territory when you, again, kidnapped my friend and broke into my apartment." Emily felt like a broken record as she followed the younger woman to the kitchen sink, her gun still raised, but that didn't seem to faze Y/n at all. 

"Okay, I get it. Already noted it for next time. No need to keep dredging up the past." Y/n said over her shoulder as she turned the sink on and grabbed the sponge. 

Emily didn't know why it was the sight of Y/n scrubbing her plates that set her off. Y/n had done so many things in the last hour, but maybe it was Emily's exhaustion or the sound of soap squeaking that had gotten on her final nerve.

"Stop washing my fucking dishes and tell me where Rossi is!" Emily yelled as she closed the distance between her and the sink. Her shoulder knocked into Y/n as she reached across and turned the water off. 

"Okay, geez. No need to raise your voice, darling." Y/n chastised as she reached for the towel on the counter to dry her hands.

"Then give me the address, I'm done playing games," Emily said as she waved her gun at the younger woman.

"Fine," Y/n sighed, "But you don't get to hold these dirty dishes over me, I was more than willing to clean them," Y/n said seriously. 

"Ah, yes, because leaving dirty dishes in my sink is the worst crime you've committed," Emily scoffed.

Y/n just shrugged, and Emily slammed the gun down on the counter, "Rossi," She said, one word, but it was enough to get them back on topic.

"Okay," Y/n surrendered, as she dramatically put her hands in the air. "I'll send you the address after I walk out of your apartment."

Emily shook her head, "Not a chance in hell."

Y/n just laughed as she leaned against the counter, "Then I'm not sending you the address, darling. There's only one good outcome here, and it doesn't end with me in an interrogation room."

"You think I'm just going to let you go?" 

"I don't think, I know," Y/n said as she pushed off the counter and took a step closer to Emily. "Because just like you've been studying me, I've been studying you." Y/n continued, eyeing the other woman as Emily glared at her.

"Your loyalty is your biggest weakness, and you would go to any lengths to keep those you love safe. You look up to Rossi like a father, probably because your actual father-"

"Don't," Emily gritted, and Y/n just raised an eyebrow. "Fine. But you wouldn't be able to live with yourself if anything happened to him. So, you're going to let me go because you know I don't kill mostly innocent men. But if I'm locked up in an interrogation room, then I couldn't care less if David Rossi dies.... So what's it going to be, darling?" Y/n said, and if Emily could shoot the smirk off of the younger woman's face, she would.

Because Y/n had won, and there was no solution or outcome where she didn't. Y/n understood Emily just as much as she understood the younger woman. And Emily knew Y/n was telling the truth; if she brought Y/n in, she was signing Rossi's death sentence. The team didn't know enough about Y/n's past to find Rossi, and Y/n was playing on that. 

Emily didn't want to give. She didn't want to accept defeat, didn't want to lose to Y/n again. But what other choice did she have? She would not gamble Rossi's life or anyone on the team.

"Fine," Emily said through her teeth as she clicked the safety on the gun and put it back in the holster on her belt. "But don't think this is the end," Emily threatened, although it held no weight if the smile on Y/n's face was any indicator.  

"Oh, this is just the beginning," Y/n smiled as she walked up to Emily, planting a soft kiss on the older woman's cheek. She reveled in the way Emily didn't tense or flinch like she had earlier.

"I'll send you the address once I get to my car. I assume Garcia will be getting the message, too, since you don't understand privacy anymore." Y/n pouted as she walked to the door. Emily had to force herself to stay put and do nothing as Y/n walked away. 

"I'll see you soon, darling," And with that, Y/n was out the door. 

Taglist: @laanswife @gh0sstss @unoreverselu @unexpected-character @leftoverenvy

Diners and Milkshakes (Don't Blame Me: Chapter 8)

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Warnings: Mentions of child abuse and other typical CM stuff

Words: 4.3k

"Because your unsub, Y/n, is the daughter of the Wood Stalker."

"I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree," Derek said as the team took in the new information Gideon had given them. 

Emily frowned as she took in Derek's blunt words, "Well, she had the genetic and environmental influences of a psychopath for eight years," Emily said. She was far from Y/n's biggest fan. She probably hated her more than anyone in this room. But that didn't mean she couldn't sympathize with the little girl that Y/n was. 

"Did she even stand a chance at a normal life?" JJ asked, subconsciously wrapping her hands around her midsection. She didn't know why she felt different about this case. This wasn't the first time one of their unsubs had been a child of a murderer. Maybe it was because she was about to be a mother herself, and she couldn't imagine a world where her future child would be put into a situation like that.

Gideon shrugged, "Jill and I tried our best. We got her into therapy, but since she had no living relatives, she went into the system."

"You pulled Jill onto the case?" Rossi asked, surprise flooding his features. Emily felt like she was missing something as she watched the two older men communicating silently. "Who's Jill?" Emily asked.

"Jason's Ex-wife," Rossi said, his jaw tight. Emily could feel the tension rising in the room again. She looked over to JJ, knowing the blonde may know more since she had been on the team longer. But JJ just shrugged, also at a loss about the past being discussed.

"I brought Jill onto the case because she is the best Biological Psychiatrist in the country. She was the only one who could help Y/n," Gideon explained calmly, not trying to add fuel to an already raging fire.

"So, was Y/n her patient? Or one of her experiments?" Rossi asked as he leaned back into his chair. 

Emily's eyes widened as she looked at Hotch, wondering when he would step in and save them from whatever this argument was. Luckily, Hotch was on the same page. "Can you tell us about the first time you met Y/n?" the unit chief asked, hoping to get them back on track. 

Gideon nodded, "Yeah, it was the day after Alex Painter was killed,"

𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟔, 𝟏𝟗𝟗𝟏 

𝐍𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐨𝐧 𝐂𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐲, 𝐕𝐢𝐫𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐚

Gideon sighed as he poured another crappy cup of coffee from the police department's machine. It was another earlier morning after a late night, and he wasn't sure how much longer he could stay on the case. 

He knew the brass was about to pull him off the case and send in another unit. The BAU was still fairly new, and while they had gotten results, this case wasn't. Five dead women and not a single lead so far. But Gideon didn't care about the reputation he was tarnishing; he wanted to find whoever was killing these women and give justice to their families. 

That was always what he'd been about. He didn't care about politics and how people viewed the BAU, unlike his partner David Rossi, but rather that justice was being served and trying to make the world a safer place. At least, that had been the goal.

"Agent Gideon, a couple of hikers called in and said they saw a body." Sheriff Russell sighed as she walked up to the agent. 

Gideon sighed as he massaged his temples. "Same timeline has to be our guy."  He said as he stood up and grabbed his coat. 

"That's what I was thinking. I sent a couple of cops who were close to the scene to go check it out. Told them we'd meet them there." She said as they walked outside and got into the cop car.

It was another thirty minutes before they arrived at the scene. Gideon walked up to the body and noted that the woman looked the same as their previous victims. "Did we have an ID?" He asked.

Sherriff Russell nodded as she crouched down beside him, "Alex Painter, 27, she was here visiting family."

Gideon nodded as he took in the information. But as he studied the body he couldn't help but notice the lack of strangulation marks that appeared on all the other victims. "Did the coroner figure out COD?"

"Yeah, blunt force trauma to the head," Russell said as she stood up, "Are we sure this is our guy? I mean, why would he deviate from his MO? I thought you said the strangulation was key in his killing."

"No, this is our guy," Gideon said immediately.  "Everything else is the same. If we can figure out what made her different, we'll be closer to catching him." He finished as he stood up. He finally felt like they were making leeway with the case, but unfortunately, that was at the cost of another young woman's life.

Russell was about to make another comment when they heard a branch snap to their right, followed by a small gasp. The three cops on the scene immediately pulled their guns out, but Gideon silently ordered them to holster.

"Hello?" Gideon asked as they walked closer to where the branch snapped. "Is anyone there?" He continued with his arms out to the side non threateningly. He knew it was a child, the gasp light and high-pitched in a way only a child could make. 

As he walked closer, he saw small feet peeking from behind a tree. "I'm with the police. I'm not going to hurt you." He said calmly, not approaching any further, wanting the child to come out from behind the tree on their own time. 

He saw the feet move again so that they were hidden behind the tree. "What's your name?" Gideon asked as he began to sit on the ground. His knees protested as he made it down. But he needed to appear as least threatening as possible, and if that's how he could do it, then so be it. 

When he heard no answer, he decided to keep talking, "My name's Jason. But everyone always calls me by my last name, Gideon." He continued talking for another five minutes, talking about everything and anything. 

Gideon was beginning to give up hope about the child coming out from behind the trees on their own when he saw the corner of the child's face poking out from behind the tree. Gideon smiled and continued talking, not wanting to make a big deal of it and scare the child away. 

It took another five minutes for the child's entire face to emerge from behind the tree. Gideon observed that the child was a little girl with long, unruly hair that seemed like it hadn't been brushed in a while. She had dirt on her face and a swollen right eye.

"Hi there, what's your name?" Gideon asked again but the little girl just stared at him.

"That's okay. You don't have to tell me your name, but I do want to talk to you. How does a  milkshake sound?" Gideon asked, hoping to break through to the little girl. 

The girl still stared at him blankly, not indicating that she even understood what the agent was saying. "Or we could have whatever you like. What's your favorite food?" Gideon asked, hoping to get a little engagement from the girl at least. 

And finally, the little girl stepped all the way out from the tree. Her eyes filled with hesitation as she shrugged at Gideon's question. The agent noticed her tattered clothing. Her small cargo pants had a hole at the knee and her long-sleeved t-shirt was also muddy. 

Gideon found it odd that she was wearing all black. She didn't look older than six or seven and most of the kids he met were always wearing something colorful. It made him wonder if it was by choice or not.

"I don't have a favorite food either." Gideon continued "Have you ever had a milkshake before?" He asked.

The little girl slowly shook her head as she studied the man in front of her. 

"Would you like to try one?" Gideon asked.

The girl didn't say anything as her gaze diverted from Gideon for the first time to the people behind him. She saw the cops a couple of yards away from them, all of them with their hands on the gun holstered to their hips. 

She pointed to them, causing Gideon to turn around. "It's okay, they're not going to hurt you," Gideon said softly. "They work with me, but they don't have to come with us. Just you and me. How does that sound?" He asked. 

Gideon watched closely as the girl turned around and looked into the woods for a second before turning to him and nodding cautiously. He wondered if someone else was back there and made a note for the sheriff to look into it. He didn't want to jeopardize the progress he made by asking the girl.

He slowly stood up, ignoring the way his knees cracked, and told the little girl to follow him. Luckily the police understood the gravity of the situation and stayed back, letting the FBI agent handle it.

"Do your parents know where you are?" Gideon asked as the girl walked closer to him. She blinked at him and Gideon thought she was about to speak before she just shrugged.

"Okay," He said simply, making another note to tell the Sheriff to figure out who this girl's parents were. 

They walked silently to the car. The little girl was a couple of steps behind Gideon the whole time. The agent winced every time the girl took a step on a branch. He wondered if it hurt her bare feet, but the girl was showing no indication if it did. He wondered if it was a learned response or if it just didn't hurt.

"Well, this is the car," Gideon said as he pointed to the old car. "Do you want to ride up front?" He asked, and again the girl just shrugged. Instead of asking more questions, he just walked to the other side of the car, surprised that the girl was following him.

He opened the passenger door, motioning for the girl to hop up and she did with surprising ease. "Buckle up." He smiled as he closed the door and got in on the driver's side. As he started the engine he turned to the girl and saw that the seatbelt was untouched. 

He kind of wanted to let it go, but then again, it was ill-advised to have a child that young in the passenger seat, so he had to do something. "Do you need help?" He asked.

She nodded slowly and Gideon didn't miss the way she flinched as he reached across her. She was still as a statue until the buckle clicked and then she let out the breath she'd been holding. 

It was a quiet drive to the small diner on the side of the road. He knew it was protocol to take her back to the police station, but he had a feeling he'd get more answers in a friendlier environment. In all honesty, he was surprised she'd even gotten into the car with him.

Luckily the Sheriff had been a step ahead of him and had already sent the cops to comb through the woods around them, as well as contacting a social worker to meet them back at the station when they were done. 

On the other side of the car, the girl stared out the window the whole time, her eyes barely reaching it due to her height. 

When they finally reached the diner, Gideon was glad to see it was mostly empty. He quickly turned off the car and hopped out to open the passenger door. He saw the girl pulling at her seatbelt and now Gideon was wondering if she had ever used one before. 

"You want me to do?" He asked, not wanting to go anywhere near the girl without asking first. Reluctantly she nodded and then hopped out of the car as soon as she was free.

"Jason? Back already?" The waitress chuckled as soon as they walked in the door.

"You know I can't resist your strawberry milkshakes." Gideon smiled as he stayed by the door, letting the girl take in everything before moving to a booth.

"Well, who's this?" The waitress, Wanda, as her name tag indicated, asked.

As soon as the girl realized Wanda was talking about her, she went to hide behind Gideon's legs.

"A new friend of mine," Gideon said simply. "Could we take the booth by the back?" He asked and Wanda smiled, taking the situation in stride as she set the booth up and walked away, not wanting to scare the girl anymore. 

They slowly made their way to the booth, Gideon sitting on one side and the girl on the other. The girl sat there, staring at the menu, but Gideon could tell she was reading it as her eyes went back and forth.

"I always get the Strawberry milkshake," Gideon said, breaking the silence. "But you can get whatever sounds good to you. There's chocolate, vanilla-" Gideon continued before the girl pointed at the menu.

Gideon leaned over and saw what she was pointing at. "You want a Banana Milkshake?" He asked, and she nodded her head. "Good choice." He smiled as he got up to order, but never took his eye off her. Not that it mattered, she stayed in her seat staring out the window the whole time. 

"So I told you I'm with the cops, right?" Gideon asked as he slid into his seat. The girl turned away from the window and nodded. 

"I'm actually an FBI agent. Do you know what that is?" He asked kindly. 

The girl shook her head. 

"It means that I look for bad people and catch them so they don't hurt people," Gideon said simply, "And right now, I'm looking for a really bad man. And I think you might be able to help me."

The girl's eyes widened, and she looked down at the table. If Gideon hadn't thought she knew something before, he knew that she did now. 

"I promise you won't get in trouble. All you have to do is talk to me." He continued, but the girl immediately shook her head, her wild hair flying back and forth. Gideon was surprised by the reaction; it was the most emotion he'd seen all day. 

"Why can't you talk to me?" He asked. He watched the little girl look around the diner; he wondered what she was looking for until she pointed at the pen on the counter across from them. "Do you want to write?" He asked as he stood up and grabbed the pen.

The girl nodded, and Gideon immediately grabbed the notepad out of his coat pocket. He handed both items to the girl and was surprised to see how quickly she began to write. 

After she was done, she handed over the notepad. 

𝙄𝙩𝙨 𝙖𝙜𝙖𝙞𝙣𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙧𝙪𝙡𝙚𝙨

Gideon frowned as he read the words. "Talking is against the rules?" He asked for clarification, and the girl nodded. "Well, do you want to know a secret?" Gideon asked conspiratorially as he leaned in closer, his eyes widened, animatedly. The girl nodded hesitantly.

"The rules don't count in this diner." He smiled, and the girl looked at him skeptically. So Gideon had to double down. "So if I wanted to stand on the table," Gideo said as he stood up and climbed from the booth chair onto the table, "I can do whatever I want." He smiled, thankful for the way the other patrons were ignoring him. 

He felt ridiculous standing on the table, but when the girl let out a toothy smile, he couldn't help but smile back. It was the first smile he'd seen from her, and he finally felt like he was getting somewhere. "See? No rules." He said as he carefully got off the table and sat back down.

"Okay," The girl said, and Gideon smiled again. Her voice was hoarse and soft at the same time. It made Gideon think that she hadn't been allowed to talk for a very long time. 

"Okay," Gideon repeated, "How come you were in the woods?"

The girl looked around the diner before scooting closer, "I got us in trouble."

"Us?" Gideon asked.

The girl nodded as she looked back down at the table, "Me and Alex." she whispered.

"You know Alex?" Gideon asked calmly, not showing any shock or surprise on his face. The girl nodded again, not saying anything else, so Gideon continued asking the questions. "How do you know Alex?"

The girl shrugged again, but the way her eyes flickered to Gideon and then back to the table indicated to the profiler that she knew more than she was revealing. 

"You can tell me anything; I promise you won't get in trouble with me," Gideon said softly.

The girl hesitated but finally gave in, "She was staying with us. She was my daddy's friend."

Oh.

Oh...

Another piece of the puzzle coming together. But Gideon hadn't been expecting this. The thought of the unsub being a father hadn't even crossed his mind. But now he was sitting across from The Wood Stalker's daughter, and he wondered if she knew what her father was doing.

"Your dad?" Gideon asked. "Does he have a lot of friends?"

"Yeah, I never get to meet them though." She said as she swung her feet, her heels tapping against the booth. 

"How come you met Alex then?" 

"I didn't mean to. I was thirsty, and I went to the kitchen after bedtime, and- and Alex was sitting at the table." She answered, her eyes skittering around anxiously. "And then daddy saw me and he got really mad."

"Is that how you got that?" Gideon asked as he pointed to the girl's black eye. She nodded as she slumped back to her seat, "I was being bad,"

Gideon felt his heart pang. He'd worked with a lot of children in his field, but it never got easier. "You weren't being bad, you were just thirsty." He said kindly. The girl just shrugged so Gideon decided to move on, "Did you see Alex after that?"

The little girl looked around the diner again as if she was making sure no one else was listening to them, "Yeah..." She trailed off but Gideon gave her an encouraging nod to keep going.

"She looked really sad when I saw her, so I waited until I heard daddy go to sleep, and then I snuck out to the basement to see her."

"Is that where all of your daddy's friends stay?" Gideon asked.

"Mhm. I'm not 'sposed to go down there but- but she looked really sad. So I stole Daddy's key and opened the door. But Alex was on the ground and- and I kept shaking her shoulders, but she was still sleeping." The girl continued.

"Did you see anything while you were down there?"

The girl shook her head, "It was dark and I couldn't reach the light switch..." She trailed off again.

Gideon watched the way the girl squirmed in her chair and decided to take a break. "You're doing a really good job, kid. Why don't I go check on our milkshakes?" He asked and smiled when she nodded in agreement. 

He walked over to the counter where Wanda was putting in another order. "I'll have your shakes out in a sec." She said as she walked toward Gideon.

"Thanks," Gideon said offhandedly as he watched the little girl.

"You know, you really oughta put some shoes on that girl," Wanda said with a knowing look.

Gideon chuckled as he shook his head, "Would you believe me if I said that would be the least of her worries?"

"I wish I didn't. Poor thing. How 'bout I add extra whip cream to her shake?" Wanda suggested and Gideon nodded at the sentiment.

It was only a minute later when Gideon carried the milkshakes back to the booth, presenting the massive shake to the girl. She eyed it suspiciously, waiting for Gideon to eat a spoonful of his before hesitantly reaching for her spoon. 

Gideon's heart warmed as he watched her eyes light up after the first bite. 

"Good?" He chuckled, although the pace she was devouring the shake at should have told him enough. 

"Mhm!" She smiled, and for the first time the little girl actually looked like a kid. 

They ate in relative silence, and Gideon noticed how the girl's smile never left her face. He knew he was stalling, but he wanted her to enjoy this moment, this brief instance of peace and childlike joy, before her whole world changed forever.

And maybe that was a good thing, scratch that, it would be a good thing. Taking her out of the hands of a serial killer was good. But Gideon knew the system and the protocols of evasive questions that lay in her future, and if he could just give her five minutes of calm, then he was going to do that. 

"Thank you for the milkshake, Mr. Gideon." The girl said after she took her last bite. Her stomach full and satisfied for probably the first time she could ever remember. 

"You're very welcome. Are you ready to keep going?"

The girl nodded as she brushed her hair behind her ears. 

"So what did you do when you couldn't wake Alex up?" Gideon asked, getting right back into it. 

"I waited. And then after a really long time I heard her start to get up. I think she was scared when she saw me, but then she was happy and said I could help her."

"How did you help her?" Gideon questioned. 

"She said I could help her go back to her family. And she was sad cause she missed them. Daddy said she was too sick to go see them, but Alex told me she wasn't sick anymore."

"Did you help her get out of the basement?"

"Mhm. But she said we had to be quiet. And I tried to be quiet, really quiet but I couldn't." The girl said quietly as she brought her thumb to her mouth, biting at her nails anxiously. 

Gideon gave her a sympathetic look, "Did your daddy find you?"

"Yeah, and he was really really mad. He told me to go back to my room and I did. But then he came back and made me go to the basement where Alex was. It looked like she was sleeping again, but there was blood all over the floor. He said it was my fault that Alex had to go away. And then he handed me the hammer and told me I had to do it." 

Gideon didn't have to ask what he made her do. "It wasn't your fault," He said softly, and the girl shook her head, "Yes, it was, it always is cause I'm bad." She said, her lip quivering.

"You are not bad, your dad is the bad one." He reiterated and wasn't surprised when she shook her head again. Years of trauma were not going to be broken by a couple of words, but Gideon's heart still felt heavy.

"Can I go to the bathroom?" The girl asked quietly, pulling Gideon out of his thoughts.

"Of course." He said as he got out of the booth and walked the girl to the corner of the diner. He stood outside the bathroom and checked his phone, flipping it open to see that the Sheriff had turned up empty on both the wood search and figuring out who this girl was. 

He sighed as he pocketed his phone, but at least he'd found the girl and could take her somewhere safe.

He waited by the door for another five minutes before he started to get concerned, "You okay in there?" He called out as he knocked on the door.

No response.

"Kid?" He knocked again, his heart rate picking up as he was met with silence.

He quickly threw the door open, ready to deal with the consequences later, when he saw the small window in the bathroom was open.

"No," He gasped, his heart dropping.

"No, no, no, no!" He yelled as he threw open every stall and came up empty.

"Fuck!" He cursed as he ran out of the bathroom, throwing a twenty on the table as he raced to his car.

The police department searched for days, every available officer deployed throughout the county, but they turned up empty.

𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐃𝐚𝐲

"Did she leave by herself or did her dad take her?" Derek asked after Gideon had finished the story of his initial encounter with Y/n.

Gideon shrugged, "To this day I still don't know."

"Well, when did you find her?" Emily asked, feeling uneasy.

"A year later, after she called in about her dad. But a lot happened from when I first met her to that day. She wouldn't speak to anyone for two months, that's why I called Jill in, she was the one that got her to open up." Gideon sighed as he ran his hands through his short hair. 

He was still trying to figure out how that little girl had turned into the unsub his former team was trying to catch. And although he knew it wasn't his fault, it felt a little like it was. 

"How closely did Jill work with her?" Hotch asked.

"Closely. If you call her, I'm sure she'll be happy to talk to you guys," Gideon answered.

"I'm sure she will," Rossi muttered under her breath and Emily glanced between the older men again, wondering for the fifth time about what this feud was about. But she already had too much on her plate, Y/n was enough to worry about, so she could snoop later.

"Garcia, did you have any luck contacting the author Y/n writes for?" Hotch asked, changing routes, to hopefully keep things civil for as long as possible.

Penelope nodded as she opened her laptop, "She's currently in Colorado but said she'll be back in DC by the end of the week. She said she'd be happy to answer any questions we have."

"Good. Prentiss and Morgan, I want you on that. But for now, let's rebuild Y/ns profile with the information we have now." Hotch said, and the team nodded in agreement

For the first time, Emily felt like they were actually getting somewhere. 

A/N: this chapter kind of got away from me but oh well! I promise there’s more Y/n and Emily interactions next chapter! ;)

Taglist: @laanswife @gh0sstss @unoreverselu @unexpected-character

A Special Gift (Don't Blame Me: Chapter 7)

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Warnings: Typical Criminal Minds stuff

Words: 3.2k

EMILY WAS the first to arrive at Howard Barnes's apartment. She waited outside the door with her gun in her holster. Hotch had given her clear instructions to wait for SWAT and the rest of the team.

Emily had planned to wait, but when Hotch felt the need to reiterate it, she couldn't shake the feeling that she might be in serious trouble with her boss. 

Was it deserved? Probably.

But as long they caught Y/n, Emily couldn't care less about the consequences that came her way from doing so. 

"Geez, you got here quick," JJ panted as she jogged over to Emily. The three flights of stairs were enough to make her break a sweat, something that had never happened before she'd gotten pregnant.

"It was only ten minutes away from my apartment," Emily started as she turned to her friend, but was taken aback when she saw a deep gash from JJ's forehead to her eyebrow. A bandaid covers most of the cut. "Oh god. What happened, JJ?" Emily asked as her finger hovered over the bandaid, blood starting to seep through the fabric.

JJ quickly pushed away Emily's worried hands, "I was putting away the dishes and accidentally dropped a plate on my face while reaching for the top cabinet. I'm fine, Em, I didn't have time to glue it." JJ said softly.

"Okay," Emily nodded skeptically, "I have some medical glue in the car, I'll fix it after we're done here," Emily said, and JJ just nodded silently. Emily wanted to ask more, but she could hear the rest of the team from down the hallway, so she decided to save her questions for later. 

The SWAT team came, and when they cleared the apartment, they let the BAU in.

"Howard Barnes, a 28-year-old science teacher at Saint Luther High School." Penelope relayed on the phone from her lair at Quantico.

"Well, it was Y/n," Derek crouched down by the body, "Single gunshot to the head and the angel wing," Derek continued. 

Spencer was crouched next to Derek, noting the body's warmth and lack of rigor mortis,  "Time of death had to have been less than an hour ago," Spencer added.

"Damn, we were close. Did the neighbors call it in?" Rossi asked Hotch. 

Emily looked up from the body and saw Hotch staring at her blankly. And honestly, that look was scarier than his usual frown.

"I called it in. I was on the phone with Y/n when she shot him." Emily said, earning a resounding "What?!" from everyone.

"Why do you still have her number?" Derek asked.

"Why would she call you?" Spencer added.

"I'll explain later. Can we focus on the case, please?" Emily asked a slight pleading in her tone.

"Prentiss is right, let's focus on the case," Hotch told the rest of the team before turning to Emily, "Well, talk later."

Emily nodded, happy to delay the berating for later.

"Can you see if any of the students or staff filed a complaint or reported him," Emily asked Penelope as she recalled her phone call with Y/n.

"Hmm, let me check... Three years ago, a student anonymously reported Mr. Barnes for sexual harassment. Oh geez, the school didn't even look into it, they just swept it under the rug. Good thinking, Em." Penelope said as her fingers typed over the keyboard.

"Well, he fits victimology," JJ noted as she looked anywhere but the body. The nausea in her stomach started to roll at the sight and smell.

"How does she find all these guys, though?" Derek asked.

"Well, there's never a shortage of perverts in DC," Emily muttered, causing Hotch to send her another look.

Derek ignored Emily's comment as he gestured to the body, "I mean that this guy and all her other victims look perfect on record. Does she background-check every guy in the cities she kills?"

"Approximately 47% of the DC population is male, with a total population of 591,833-" Spencer started before Hotch abruptly cut him off. If the statistics had been relevant to the conversation, Hotch would have kept Spencer talking. "Garcia, would it be possible for her to create a computer program like that?" Hotch asked the technical analyst over the phone.

"I mean, it is possible. But hacking into sealed documents is a whole other ball game. Especially when its government sealed like some of the victim's files," Penelope answered.

"Okay, I want you to look deeper into that. See if there are any online forums that she could be using to find her victims," Hotch told Garcia before hanging up the phone.

Emily had been looking around the apartment, unintentionally tuning out the team's conversation, when her eyes landed on the kitchen counter. She'd completely forgotten that Y/n had left something for her.

The brunette walked over to the counter and saw a small gift bag and what looked to be a manuscript. 

Emily picked up the papers, flipped through them, and noted that there had to be at least 300 hundred pages of words. She felt someone walk up behind her before she heard Derek's voice, "What's that?" he asked as he looked at the papers in her hand.

"Something Y/n left for me," Emily sighed as she handed it to Derek and reached over to grab the gift. 

"Her next book?" Derek asked as he started to read the words on them, "Huh, I thought her being a ghost writer was a cover," Derek muttered to himself, referencing back to the first night they'd come in contact with Y/n.

Emily hummed in acknowledgment as she took out the tissue paper and saw a small gold charm at the bottom of the bag. She pulled a pair of gloves out of her pocket before grabbing the charm. 

She held it at eyesight and noted it to be some kind of bird. The embedded diamonds were shining from the kitchen light, and Emily knew this had to be expensive.

"It looks like a blackbird," Spencer said as he walked up next to her. "Blackbirds symbolize transformation, inner strength, and freedom," He continued as he observed the charm for himself. 

Emily frowned as she stared at it, was it some sort of sign? Did the symbolism have meaning for Y/n, or was this something else to throw the team off? Or maybe Y/n just wanted to impress Emily with something shiny. 

The brunette was still trying to piece it together when she heard a gasp from behind her. She and Spencer quickly turned around to see JJ flipping through the manuscript, "Oh my god," JJ said as she held the papers up to the team, "I know this book series! Will's nieces love it," JJ continued.

"Nieces?" Derek asked, practically voicing everyone's surprise that Y/n wrote novels for kids.

"Yeah, I think this is the fifth or sixth book in the series," JJ said as she recalled looking at the novels on the little girls' bookshelf, "The series is about an orphaned teenage girl named Angela, who's trying to solve her parent's murder. Or at least that's what I got out of the synopsis on the back. " JJ finished as she put the manuscript back on the table.

Hotch nodded as he took JJ's words in, "Do you remember the author on the covers name?"

"Ana Wells," JJ responded as she pulled her phone out and scrolled through her photos. "She's a real person, too," JJ said as she showed a picture of Will's nieces with a middle-aged woman at a bookstore meet and greet. 

"I'll have Garcia look into it more tomorrow," Hotch said as they all stared at the manuscript.

"I'm sorry, but this is just crazy." Derek scoffed, breaking the silence. "How the hell does she have time to murder hundreds of people, taunt us, and then also write what looks to be a best-selling children's book series."

"She's like serial killer Barbie," JJ muttered, her exhaustion and hormones enough to loosen her usual professionalism. Derek chuckled but was cut off by Hotch's sharp gaze. 

"She left all this for you?" Spencer asked Emily, getting the group back on task.

Emily nodded, "Yeah, but... I don't know why. Providing us with the manuscript and the name of the author she writes for benefits us, not her." 

"Well, maybe she's trying to tell you something with the manuscript and the charm." Rossi pointed out, and Emily just shook her head, "But what?"

"That's what we have to figure out," Hotch said, "But it's late, so we'll pick up tomorrow. Luckily, I was able to get a hold of Gideon, so he should be by tomorrow morning. Hopefully, With his insight, things will start making more sense." Hotch said before dismissing the team. Emily tried to escape, hoping Hotch wouldn't remember, but when she heard her last name ring through the apartment, she accepted defeat and turned around to meet Hotch's disappointed eyes. 

"A word," He said, gesturing for her to follow him into the hallway.

She nodded, instructing JJ to wait by her car so she could tend to her cut after her hopefully brief conversation with the unit chief. 

"Why did you not inform me you were talking to Y/n?" Hotch asked, getting straight to the point. 

"I was going to," Emily swears, "I just wanted to get enough out of Y/n before telling you." As she said it aloud, she realized how bad it sounded. But in her defense, it wasn't as if anything crazy had happened. 

"But that's not your call to make." Hotch said shortly, "For this team to work, I have to trust the people on it."

"And you can trust me. I just couldn't risk you cutting contact with the only lead we have."

Hotch raised an eyebrow at Emily's argument, "So, I can trust you, but you can't trust me to make the right calls for this team?"

"That's not what I'm saying-"

"Prentiss, if you're too close to this case, I will not hesitate to remove you from it," Hotch interrupted. 

"I am not too close to this case," Emily argued back, trying to keep her voice down and not yell like she wanted to. "I apologize for not telling you, but I'm getting somewhere with her, Hotch. And if you pull me off the case, chances are Y/n is just going to move on," Emily said.

Did Emily feel slightly conceited saying that? Yes.

But was it true? Also yes.

Y/n may have been toying with the whole team, but it was mostly Emily that she showed interest in, and Hotch and the whole team could see that. 

The Unit Chief thought silently for a moment before relenting. "Fine, you can stay in contact with her. But I want past and future conversations relayed through Garcia. And I want to be briefed every day."

Emily nodded, relief filling her chest, "Yes, sir."

Hotch studied the brunette momentarily, hoping he made the right call, "If you do something like that behind my back again, I will remove you from this case. Am I clear?"

"Yes sir," Emily nodded again before her boss dismissed her. 

Well, that had been easier than she thought. Honestly, she'd expected a lot more pushback from Hotch. But right now, they needed as many leads as they could get. 

A slight shiver ran through Emily as she headed to her car. The moon and the stars illuminate the parking lot, and Emily's reminded once again how late it is. " He read you the riot act?" JJ asked as she stood perched on the hood of Emily's car. Emily chuckled as she unlocked the car, "If it were any other case, he probably would," 

JJ hummed as she watched Emily pull out a medical kit from the passenger seat compartment. Emily motioned for the blonde to take a seat as she pulled out all the items she needed. "Jesus, JJ." Emily gasped as she carefully pulled the bandaid off and realized just how deep the cut was. 

"Maybe we should go to the hospital-" Emily started before JJ cut her off. "It's fine, Em. Just bleeding a lot." JJ insisted sharply. Emily held her hands up in surrender as she dabbed the cut with disinfectant. 

"I thought part of being pregnant meant your partner does everything for you," Emily said, trying to lighten the mood, and to her relief, JJ chuckled a little. "We both work full-time jobs and if I left everything up to Will, our house would be a wreck." 

Emily hummed, adding another tally to the reasons she disliked Will. 

"Well then, let him put away the dangerous dishes," Emily smiled as she pulled the medical glue out of the bag, "We can't be ruining our money maker," Emily teased as she held the cut together. "Ass," JJ muttered under her breath, and Emily smiled. 

She worked quietly as she patched up JJ's forehead. She was lost in thought when she felt JJ's eyes staring at her. "What?" Emily asked, not liking the look on her friend's face.

"It was Y/n calling you earlier, wasn't it," JJ said, her voice soft and lacking judgment. JJ didn't understand why Emily hadn't told them. But she trusted her friend and knew that there had to be a good reason for not telling the team.

"Yeah," Emily sighed as she finally put the bandage over the glued cut. "I know it was stupid; you don't have to tell me," Emily defended, an instinct even though there wasn't a hint of judgment in the blonde's eyes. "Did I say anything?" JJ chuckled, used to Emily's ways by now.

"Sorry. I just... I know what I'm doing."

"Again, did I say anything?" JJ said with an eyebrow raised. 

"No, you didn't" Emily shook her head, "Sorry, I just really want this case over," Emily muttered as she squeezed JJ's shoulder, signaling that she'd finished tending to her cut. 

"As do I. But I have a feeling that's not going to happen anytime soon." JJ said as she hopped out of the car. Emily hummed in acknowledgment before saying goodbye to JJ. She made sure her friend was safely in her car before heading out for the ten-minute drive back to her apartment.

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

It was 7:30 in the morning when Emily walked into the BAU. Usually, she was the one to cut it close, barely arriving to work on time. But she could barely sleep last night and couldn't stand the eerie silence that had fallen over her apartment. Hence, her being the first one at work.

Although, when she arrived at her desk, she saw three people in Hotch's office. The unit chief, Rossi, and what looked to be Gideon were deep in conversation, looking at case files. Emily's eyes widened at the sight of them. 

She knew Gideon was coming obviously, but it was still a shock to see the man. She was dreading the awkward reunion that was bound to happen in a couple of hours and decided to keep herself busy.

 Last night she had texted Y/n asking where she'd gotten the blackbird charm and about the manuscript.

But to her surprise, the younger woman never answered. Usually, Y/n would get back to her within 5 minutes, so what was going on? 

A part of her wanted to believe that it didn't have anything to do with the fact that she'd told Hotch about their contact. But she wasn't naive enough to believe that it didn't have anything to do with Y/n not answering her back. 

She decided to put her phone away and focus on the other case files that she'd neglected since coming across Y/n. 

It was about an hour later when the rest of the team slowly filtered through the bullpen. 

"Gideons here?" Derek asked as he sat at his desk, the surprise in his voice mirrored Emily's earlier in the morning. 

"Yup," Emily nodded. "I honestly didn't think he was going to come so soon."

Spencer scoffed, something so unlike him that Derek and Emily couldn't help but pause their conversation as they stared at the youngest profiler. 

Wow, this was going to be a long day. 

"Well, whatever he knows must be important if he's coming out of retirement to consult with us," Derek said with a shrug as they all stared at Hotch's office. The blinds were pulled down but the three senior profilers were still in there, none of them having left since Emily arrived. 

Spencer scoffed again, "It also means that he's been close this entire time. We just weren't enough for him to want to come back." 

"Spencer-" Emily started with an empathetic sigh.

"I'm getting coffee," Spencer said, pushing his chair back forcefully as he practically stomped to the kitchenette, ignoring the concerned glances thrown his way. 

"I take it your guys's talk yesterday didn't help." Emily sighed as she turned towards Derek. 

"What do you think," Derek said as he gestured to Spencer who was furiously adding sugar to his coffee.  

Emily hummed when suddenly Hotch's office door opened. "Conference room. Now." He said as he headed down the walkway with Rossi following after him. Gideon gave Emily and Derek a small nod of acknowledgment before following after the two men. 

"This should be fun," Emily sighed as they headed to the round table. 

"Tell me about it," Derek murmured as he took his seat next to Emily. Spencer came in and sat as far away from Gideon as he could. 

As soon as the two blondes took their seat Gideon rose. "I know I'm not here under the best circumstances," He said and if it was possible, the room was even more stiff and awkward than it was before. 

"But I'm here to help you guys, and even if you don't want it, you're going to need it," Gideon said as he grabbed a small box from the floor next to him and put it on the table. "I was the one that sealed the case in 1992." He finished as he handed the files over to the team.

"Why would you seal an unsolved case?" Derek asked, the confusion written over his face.

"Because it's not unsolved. We found the Wood Stalker in March of 1992, dead in his cabin from a single gunshot to his head." Gideon explained.

"Why isn't that in any of the files?" Penelope frowned.

"It's not in any of the files because I wanted to protect the person that turned him in" Gideon sighed as he ran a hand through his short hair. 

"Who turned him in?" JJ asked.

"His eight-year-old daughter. Who was also the one that killed him." Gideon answered.

"What?" The rest of the team said in unison.

"I sealed it for her, she didn't need the whole world knowing what she'd done just to stay alive," Gideon said honestly. 

"And everyone was just okay with that?" Spencer asked snarkily, notable not about the case and more of the fact that it was Gideon he was talking to. "The brass was different back then. The killer was gone and that's all they cared about. Other agencies backed my decision, although I didn't understand their reasoning why."

"What agency?" Emily asked with a frown.

"CIA. And I still don't know why, but I think we're going to find out soon." Gideon said and Emily looked at him skeptically, "How can you be so sure?"

"Because your unsub, Y/n,  is the daughter of the Wood Stalker."

A/N: If I were to do a tag list, would anyone be interested in being on it? Thanks for reading!

Three Steps Back (Don't Blame Me: Chapter 6)

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Summary: Emily knew it was wrong. She knew you were the most dangerous woman the BAU had ever seen. Yet, she couldn't seem to stay away from you.

Warnings: Typical Criminal minds stuff, mentions of death

Words: 2.8k

Emily could feel the migraine forming behind her eyes. After hours of staring at the same case files, she still couldn't find anything. She let her head drop to her desk, hoping it would just swallow her whole and then spit her out when they made a break in the case.

"...Prentiss," At the sound of her last name, her eyes flitted to the person leaning on her desk.

"Your phone," JJ finished as she pointed to the buzzing device on Emily's desk.

"Oh, right," Emily mumbled as she gave JJ a small smile of appreciation before picking up the phone.  

When she saw Y/n calling her, she returned her phone to her desk. 

"Your mother?" JJ asked as she perched on Emily's desk. 

"I wish," Emily muttered. Then, cursing under her breath as her phone started ringing again.

"Someone worse than your mother? Yikes." JJ said as she tried to discreetly see whoever was calling Emily as the brunette completely shut off her phone.

"You could say that," Emily sighed as she tossed her phone to the back of her desk.

Emily looked up and saw JJ still perched on her desk, giving her the look. Emily hated that look because it meant JJ was about to pry, and she did not want to tell the team that she was talking to a serial killer.

A small part of her knew she should at least tell Hotch, but she couldn't risk him cutting off her only means of communication with Y/n.

"Did you need something, JJ?"

"Well, I was going to ask if you wanted coffee, but now I want to know who was calling you," JJ smiled, making herself comfortable on the brunette's desk.

"It's no one," Emily rolled her eyes, "And if you're going out for coffee, I'll take my usual."

"Em, come on, who else other than your mom would make you glare at your phone like that?" JJ inquired, completely ignoring Emily's request about the coffee.

"You want a list?" Emily snarked back.

"Oh! Oh! Was it, Hannah?" JJ asked, even more interested now. 

"Wait, Hannah, as in your ex-girlfriend Hannah is calling you?" Spencer chimed in from his desk across from Emily's. 

"I thought she ghosted you," Derek added from his desk. 

The two women whipped their heads around, not even realizing that Spencer and Derek had been listening to their conversation. The glare Emily shot the younger agent made him wish he'd never spoken in the first place. Derek, on the other hand, was more than amused.

"For the fifth time, Hannah did not ghost me! It was a mutual breakup!" Emily huffed. 

"Whatever you say, princess." Derek smiled, earning him another glare from Emily. 

"The term ghosting became popular in 1990's hip hop- Ow!" Spencer yelped as Emily launched the stuffed animal cat that Penelope bought her right at Spencer's face. 

"I wasn't ghosted! And I'm done talking to you guys!" Emily frowned as she turned her chair back to her desk and ignored the three other agents.

Derek and Spencer chuckled at her antics while JJ rolled her eyes. 

"I'll be back with your coffee, Ms. Grouchy," JJ said as she pushed off Emily's desk, earning a small grumble of gratitude from the brunette.

JJ was halfway to the door when Penelope came full speed through the doors, "BAU Assemble! I've got something!" She yelled, running surprisingly fast in her high heels to the conference room.

"I guess that means no coffee," Emily grumbled as they all made their way to the round table.

As soon as everyone sat down, Penelope turned the TV monitor on and passed out numerous case files.

"In 1991, there was a serial killer that operated in rural Virginia at the same time and place that Alex Painter was murdered," Penelope explained as she pulled up pictures of about 15 women on the TV. They were all of different races but looked around the same age. 

"All of these women were kidnapped, held for a week, and then dumped in the woods. They were all beaten, barely recognizable by the time their bodies were found." Penelope continued, making a point not to look at the crime scene photos.

Rossi looked between the case files and the TV when a spark of recognition came to his eyes, "I remember this. Gideon was the lead profiler on the case. They called the killer The Wood Stalker" 

Back then, the BAU members worked solo, only using each other as consults rather than working on cases as a team. "I helped Gideon build a profile, but he never found the guy." Rossi finished.

"That's right," Penelope agreed, "In March of 1992, The Wood Stalker vanished. And with no leads or suspects, the case went cold."

Emily frowned as she looked over the case. There was something off, but she couldn't put her nose on it, "So how does Alex Painter tie into this? She's not in any of these files."

"Ah, right! Thank you for the segway, my brooding brunette," Penelope said, and no one even batted an eye, used to the technical analyst's ways by now.

"While you guys are the profilers and I am the mere but mighty technical Goddess-"

"Garcia." Hotch intervened, raising an eyebrow to keep the blonde on task.

"Right." Penelope nodded, "I found it odd that Alex Painter wasn't mentioned in any of the files, especially since she matched victimology."

"Why did they rule her out as one of his victims then?" Derek asked as he flipped through the case file. "I mean, we know now that Y/n killed her. But if all I was looking at were these files, I'd agree that The Wood Stalker killed her.  It seems negligent to not even investigate her death."

"That's what I was thinking! And we all know Gideon is very thorough." Penelope said, and a slightly uncomfortable wave washed through the room.

"That's one way to describe him," Spencer muttered as he stared down at the table. 

Rossi was about to say something in his friend's defense, but Hotch shook his head, not wanting to further the conversation.

It had been less than a year since Gideon left without a word, and the team had mostly moved on. But it was still a touchy subject, especially for Spencer. 

"So, who investigated Alex Painter's death then?" JJ asked, and everyone was thankful that she had cut the awkward silence that had fallen around them.

"Well, this is where things get even more odd," Penelope said as she pulled up the picture of Alex's file. "Detective Anthony Scott was the lead on her case. So I did some research on the guy, and to an untrained eye, he seems normal."

"Well, you are far from normal, baby girl." Morgan complimented, and Penelope smiled. "Very true. Anyways, I dug a little deeper and found that Detective Anthony Scott doesn't exist."

"What do you mean he doesn't exist?" Emily asked, a skeptical brow raised.

"I mean that someone very tech-savvy created Anthony Scott. I'm talking bank accounts, birth certificates, marriage licenses, and more." Penelope continued.

"Why would someone go through all of that trouble to cover up who investigated Alex Painter's death?" JJ asked. And once again, the team felt like they were getting into something a lot larger than they were hoping for.

"Could it have been Y/n?" Derek asked.

"Why would she try to cover up something she already told us about?" Emily countered, more defensive than she would have liked, but she would think about that later.

"Yeah, and there's no way Y/n could have created an identity that thorough. There's only a handful of people I know that could do that, but they wouldn't have any reason to." Penelope agreed. 

Emily bit her bottom lip in concentration; she knew what this sounded like. Fake identities that seemed too good to be true. Seemingly unimportant cases swept under the rug...this had CIA written all over it.  And if the CIA was involved, it meant that whatever information they had now was all they were going to find. 

But how on earth did the CIA get connected to all of this?

Maybe she could make a couple of phone calls. Contact some of her old handlers and see if they could find anything pertaining to this case. 

"Why aren't Gideon's notes in here?" Hotch asked, pulling Emily out of her head as she realized she had missed whatever the rest of the team was talking about.

"Well, since it was before I came to the BAU, his notes weren't digitalized. And when I went down to the archives, almost everything about this case was gone." Penelope said regretfully as she took a seat, having no more information to give the team.

"His notes should still be in there, though. The case is still classified." Spencer said, and it affirmed even more to Emily that the CIA or some other agency has something to do with this.

"I feel like there's dead ends everywhere we turn with this case," JJ muttered, and the team silently agreed.

"I know we all feel a little discouraged, but we are further than we were yesterday. I'll call Gideon and have him come in as soon as possible. Hopefully, he can provide us with more information. But for now, let's get back to work," Hotch said quickly before dismissing himself to his office, leaving the team in a little shock. Hotch was never one to give a pep talk, so maybe this was even worse than they imagined.

"I'll give Gideon a call, too," Rossi said as he left for his office, not wanting to see the other agents' reactions. It was an odd situation, the complex feelings he had for his friend were different than those of the younger agents. 

But Gideon was also one of Rossi's oldest friends, and after everything they'd been through, he still had respect and loyalty to him. So, he did not want to hear what the other agents had to say about him.

"Has anyone talked to Gideon recently?" Penelope asked in the conference room, trying to break the ice since the topic of Gideon was now unavoidable.

"Since he left all of us with a note?" Spencer asked sarcastically, a tone that surprised everyone, "No," He continued as he gathered his stuff and practically stormed back to his desk without looking at anyone else.

"I was just..." Penelope trailed off sadly, not having predicted that reaction from the youngest profiler.

"It's not your fault, Pen, it's just a hard subject for him," JJ said as she squeezed Penelope's shoulder.

Emily had stayed relatively quiet on any subject that involved Gideon. She shared vastly different opinions on the older agent than her friends did.

She knew that Gideon didn't like her. In fact, everyone knew, because it wasn't like he tried to hide his disdain. 

Towards the end, he tolerated her, but the way he left and the effect it had on everyone just solidified her dislike of him, not that she would ever voice that aloud.

"I'll go talk to him," Derek said before leaving the room and leaving the three women to themselves.

It was silent for a moment before Emily's phone started to buzz. She sighed and ignored the look JJ sent her as she picked up her phone. 

Y/n (1:34 PM): Call me back tonight. I have a surprise for you.

Emily (1:34 PM): I don't like surprises. 

Emily typed back before pocketing her phone. She heard her phone buzz again, no doubt another text message from Y/n, but she did not want to deal with this right now.

"What was that?" Penelope asked as she motioned her hand towards Emily. 

"What was what?" Emily played dumb with a shrug.

"Don't even try, Pen. She's been like this all day." JJ rolled her eyes.

"Who is causing you to glare at your phone like that?" Penelope pressed, ignoring JJ.

"It's no one," Emily said as she grabbed her case files and started to stand up, not looking at either blonde.

"Emily! Indulge me in something that is not this case!" Penelope begged, always the one to get into people's business.

Emily scoffed, finding it quite ironic that the person she was texting was the reason for this case. "It's a personal matter."

"Even better!" Penelope continued, earning a stifled laugh from JJ. 

She rolled her eyes, knowing that no one was going to give this up any time soon, "Fine, you know what? It is Hannah! Now, can everyone just mind their own business?!"

"Hannah unblocked you?!"

"What? How do you know she blocked me?!" Emily gaped at Penelope and then instantly realized that was a stupid question.

"Never mind. I'm done talking. And stop hacking into my phone!" Emily practically growled before exiting the room, leaving the two blondes wide-eyed.

"Well, we know it's not Hannah," Penelope said, earning her a slap to the shoulder.

"She's going to kill you," JJ said as she gathered her stuff, and Penelope just shrugged it off. Emily had always been all bark and no bite. She was a secret softie once you got to know her.

"Where are you going?" Penelope pouted, not wanting to be left alone.

"I'm going to buy her a coffee before she kills me too."

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

It was after eight by the time Emily unlocked her apartment door. The team had been working nonstop for hours, but it felt like the more they uncovered, the more questions that arose.

Eventually, Hotch sent everyone home, stating that they should just wait for Gideon to tell them everything he knew before jumping to conclusions.

But Hotch and Rossi were having trouble reaching Gideon, and if they couldn't contact him, then this shitstorm of a case was going to take even longer to solve.

So when Emily fell onto her couch, she didn't even have the energy to take off her shoes, let alone cook anything. She stared at the ceiling for a solid five minutes before remembering Y/n's text.

She reached for her phone and opened Y/n's text from earlier in the day that she never looked at.

Y/n (1:35 PM): I promise you'll like this one.

Emily sighed as she debated whether or not she should call the younger woman. 

Ultimately, she gave in, knowing, at the very least, Y/n would reveal something new.

She quickly dialed her number before she could talk herself out of it.

"I was wondering when you were going to call," Y/n answered after the third ring, a cocky smile evident in her face.

"It was a long day at work, thanks to you," Emily answered shortly as she sat up fully on the couch, crossing her legs under her.

"To me? So you're thinking about me all day long?" Y/n grinned. Something was going on in the background of wherever Y/n was, but Emily couldn't decipher what it was.

"Don't flatter yourself. The only reason I'm thinking about you is because you've murdered 300 people." Emily scoffed.

"300 men, not people." Y/n corrected. 

"What about Alex Painter? She wasn't a man."

"Really? Is that all you've got on her so far?" Y/n chuckled. 

"Pretty much. And you knew that the information you gave us would only lead to dead ends." Emily remarked. 

"Alls fair in love and war, darling. And besides, I thought the BAU was the best. I have to say, you guys are disappointing me."

"Disappointing you?! That's rich," Emily scoffed and was reminded once again that she was talking to a psychopath.

"It is rich! Because I'm starting to get bored, and you know what happens when I get bored." Y/n started, and Emily heard the sound of a door slam on the younger woman's side of the phone.

"What was that?" Emily asked as she sat up a bit straighter, a knot starting to form in her stomach.

"It's your surprise! Or did you forget why I told you to call me?" Y/n smiled. 

"I told you, I don't like surprises." Emily gritted out as she heard the sound of a scuffle on the other end of the phone.

"Oh, you'll like this one!" Y/n chuckled, and then Emily heard the sound of a gunshot. 

"Y/n!" Emily gaped as she stood up, hoping this wasn't what she thought it was.

"His name is Howard Barnes. Oh, wait! My bad, his name was Howard Barnes." Y/n chuckled.

Emily was frozen for a moment; her usual fast thinking was nowhere to be found. 

"Don't worry, Emily. He's not your gift. He's just some perv that needed to die before he hurt anyone else. Your surprise is on his kitchen counter; I think you'll like it." Y/n smiled as she branded the angel wind behind the dead man's ear.

"I'm going to find you," Emily said, finally out of her frozen state as she shrugged her coat on and grabbed her gun from her safe.

"You have such a way with words," Y/n laughed, "Also, say hello to Gideon for me. And tell him I'm not afraid of the dark anymore." Y/n finished, and with that, she hung up.

Emily paused as she took the words in. 

Y/n knew Gideon? 

So Gideon had to have been involved in Alex Painter's investigation. Further proving that someone wanted this case covered up. 

But why?

Christ, everything is even more confusing now, Emily thought as she dialed Hotch's number.

"Hotch." He answered on the first ring.

"Y/n killed again. We need to figure out where Howard Barnes lived," Emily said quickly, trying not to think about the future conversation she was bound to have with Hotch, explaining all of this.

This was going to be a huge mess.

The Best Day (Emily Prentiss x Reader)

“I hear your laugh and look up smiling at you”

Summary: In which you and Emily end up coaching your daughter's little league soccer team.

Warnings: None

Word Count: 2.2k

As soon as Emily entered the house, she knew something was wrong. The living room was spotless, the dishes were done, fresh cookies were cooling on the stove, and the smell of her lavender bath salts was permeating from the bathroom upstairs. 

This could mean one of three things. The first was that she had completely forgotten an anniversary. Except for the fact that it was September, and Emily knew the two of you didn't have any anniversaries this month. Thank God it wasn't that, Emily thought. 

The second thing was that you were buttering her up for something. 

The third and most likely option was that you had already done something and were doing all this to soften the blow. 

She heard your soft footsteps come down the stairs before your hands were wrapped around her from behind. 

"Hi honey," Emily smiled as she leaned against you momentarily. Taking in the smell of your shampoo and reveling in the fact that it was a Friday night and she could spend the weekend with her two favorite people. 

"Hi," You answered as you kissed her on the cheek, "I just put Amelia to bed-" You started as the sound of your four-year-old bounding down the stairs interrupted you. 

"Mama!" She yelled excitedly as she collided with Emily's legs. 

You chuckled as you removed your hands from Emily so she could pick up your daughter.

"Hi baby," Emily smiled as she adjusted Amelia onto her hip. "I thought Mommy put you to bed," She said as she tickled the little girl's stomach, causing her to laugh and squirm in Emily's arms. 

"Too excited!" Amelia giggled.

"Too excited for what?" Emily asked, turning to you, but you quickly turned around and pretended to be cleaning something in the already spotless kitchen.

When Emily looked down at  Amelia, the little girl mimed, zipping her lips closed.

Emily followed you behind the counter, leaning her hip against it. "Y/n Prentiss..." Emily trailed on, "What did you do?"

"I made cookies!" You announced, ignoring the question as you picked one up and held it in front of Emily "Chocolate chip, your favorite." 

"You're deflecting," Emily commented as she took a bite out of the cookie. It was delicious, just like everything else you made, but she wasn't going to let that distract her.

"Yeah, Mommy, you're deflecting," Amelia parroted, having no clue what the word meant, but lately, she'd been Emily's shadow. Following her everywhere and copying everything she did, it was honestly the most adorable thing you'd ever seen.

"Fine," You groaned as you let Amelia have a small bite of the cookie before putting it back on the pan. "I may have accidentally agreed to something." You said with a sheepish smile. 

"Uh huh," Emily said, prompting you to continue. This hadn't been the first conversation that had started like this, and it definitely wouldn't be the last.

"So you know Amelia's little league coach, Heidi?" You asked as you started putting all the cookies in a container.

"I do," Emily confirmed. She looked down at Amelia and saw the little girl giggling into her shoulder, so whatever this was, she knew about it. 

"Well, she just got a promotion at work and doesn't have the time to coach anymore." You continued.

"So?" Emily asked, already knowing where this was going.

"So I may have agreed for us to coach Amelia's team." You said, turning around with a guilty but hopeful smile.

"Yay!" Amelia cheered from Emily's arms. You were honestly surprised she was able to keep the secret that long and not blurt it out as soon as she saw Emily. 

"That's right, baby," You said as you lifted her out of your wife's arms. "Aren't you just so excited?!" You asked her, and she clapped happily in your arms. 

Emily looked at the two of you, both staring at you with pleading eyes, and she knew without a doubt that look was her undoing. It was impossible to tell you or Amelia no.

"You two are lucky you're so cute," Emily said with an amused head shake, "When do we start?" She asked.

"Tomorrow's game!" Amelia blurted out, and Emily narrowed her eyes at you, but you knew no malice was behind it.

"Surprise." You joked as you took a few steps closer to Emily and kissed her on the cheek.

"You owe me a lot of coffee tomorrow morning," Emily said seriously as you walked upstairs to put Amelia to bed again.

"Deal."

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

It was 8 am the next morning, and the three of you were heading to the soccer field. 

"I did some research last night," Emily said as she drove.

"You did?" You asked humorously, turning toward your wife. You and Emily both had on matching hats and pink coach jerseys. It took some corralling to get Emily to wear it, but as soon as Amelia walked into your room and squealed in excitement about matching with her mom's, Emily was a goner.

"I read up on some gameplays and strategies," Emily continued, and you couldn't help the dopey smile that came to your lips, "You're so cute," You giggled because if there was one thing about Emily, it's that whenever she was all in, she was all in. 

You watched the small blush rise on Emily's cheeks and couldn't help but revel in the fact that you still had this much effect on her.

You turned toward Amelia in the back seat, "Isn't your Mama just so cute," You asked.

"Yeah!" Amelia giggled excitedly.

"Okay, okay. I get it," Emily said as she pretended to swat at you. You and Amelia seemed to be partners in crime in tearing away at her walls and insecurities, and she couldn't have been happier. 

"Good. Now, what I meant to say was that they're four, so I'm pretty sure all we have to do is make sure no one runs off the field and hand out juice boxes." You said.

"Oh right," Emily said with a sheepish smile, "But if for some reason they turn out to be soccer prodigies, we have a game plan," She continued, and you chuckled in agreement. 

It was 20 minutes later when you made it to the field. You put Emily in charge of helping the kids warm up as you talked to the parents. With you being the one to drop off and pick up Amelia from practice, you knew them better than Emily.

"Alright, when I roll the ball to you, I want you to kick it!" Emily said enthusiastically as she lined up the ten four-year-olds a couple of yards away from the soccer goal. 

Of course, Amelia had volunteered to go first, the little girl had been outspoken and energetic since she'd arrived in the world. It was a trait that Emily had been reprimanded for when she was younger, her mother telling her that young girls were supposed to be passive and quiet. 

But seeing those traits in her daughter made her realize just how wrong her mother was. There was nothing about Amelia that Emily wanted to change. She was perfect the way she was.

"Alright, Amelia, you ready?" Emily asked as she kneeled in front of the goal, a small soccer ball in her hands.

The little girl nodded eagerly, and Emily slowly rolled the ball to her. Amelia kicked it, and it was nowhere near the goal, but Emily still cheered, "Yeah! Good job!" She smiled as Amelia ran toward her and gave her a high five before going to retrieve her soccer ball. 

"You ready, Chloe?!" Emily asked the next girl in line.

By the time all the girls had kicked the ball a couple of times, you jogged over to tell Emily the game was about to start.

You rounded the girls up into a circle for a short meeting before the game started. 

And when Emily heard the words, "The most important thing is to have fun," come out of her mouth, she knew she was a changed woman.

It took a few minutes to get all the girls on the field. "It's like herding a bunch of squirrels," Emily murmured to you as she kept putting the girls back in their spots since they had all tended to wander around.

"I take it we have no soccer prodigies on our hands." You giggled, bumping your hip into Emily's as you walked off the field.

"We were 0 for ten on the warm-up goals. So, maybe next year," Emily commented.

Once the game started, there wasn't much to do except stand on the sidelines and cheer.

Halfway through the game, you put Amelia as the goalie since you wanted the girls to play all the positions.

"Zoe, sweetie, you can't pick the ball up!" You heard Emily yell from beside you. You chuckled as you watched the little redhead run across the field with the ball in her hands before throwing it into the goal.

"Did you see that, Mrs. Emily?" Chloe said excitedly as she ran over to the two of you.

"I did! But maybe next time we use our feet to kick the ball, alright?" Emily said, and Chloe just shrugged before walking before you and holding her hand out, "Juice box?"

You chuckled as you grabbed one out of the cooler and handed it to her as you ruffled her hair. "You wanna take a little break?" You asked, and Zoe nodded as she walked over to the bench. 

When you turned your attention back to the field, you noticed the lack of a goalie.

"Hey, where did Amelia go?" You asked Emily, who was watching your team try to score another goal.

"What?" Emily asked as she looked to the left and saw that Amelia was nowhere to be found.

"We need to put a tracker on that girl," Emily murmured, not at all surprised that Amelia had wandered off somewhere. The little girl's attention span had always been next to none, constantly running off when something caught her eye. 

Emily would have been more worried if they were anywhere else, but the field was small, and she walked the perimeter beforehand, so she had a good idea of where Amelia had wandered off to.

"You stay here, I'll get her," Emily said as she squeezed your shoulder before jogging off the field.

"Amelia!" She called out as she walked over to the patch of flowers behind the bleachers.

She was relieved to see the little girl's pigtails peeking out. "Baby, what are you doing?" Emily asked before Amelia turned around, smiling at her mom.

"Look!" She replied, holding two tiny bouquets that she had picked in her hands. Although bouquet was probably a generous word for it. "This one is for you,"  Amelia said as she handed the crumpled bunch of flowers to Emily. "And this one for Mommy!" She said excitedly.

"Those are very pretty," Emily chuckled as she easily scooped Amelia into her arms, "But you're supposed to stay on the field."

"But flowers!" Amelia said, once again holding up the flowers at Emily's eyesight. 

"I know, but it's not safe to wander off like that, okay? Next time, you need to wait for me or Mommy to go with you." Emily said as she rubbed Amelia's back.

"Okay, fine," Amelia sighed dramatically as she flopped her head onto Emily's shoulder.

"Thank you," Emily smiled as she walked back to the field.

"How about I take the flowers, " Emily said as she put Amelia back down on the ground. "And you go back on the field," Emily continued.

"Being the goalie is boring!" Amelia pouted.

"There's only a couple minutes left of the game," Emily chuckled, very familiar with the pout that one hundred percent originated from you.

"And once we're done, maybe Mommy will buy us ice cream. But only if you play," Emily negotiated, and Amelia immediately sprinted back to the goal, going as fast as her little legs could carry her. 

Emily shook her head with a laugh as she walked back over to you. 

"Amelia picked you some flowers," Emily said as she handed you the crumpled flowers which were more stem than actual petals. 

"Of course, she did," You giggled as you grabbed them and gently put them in your pocket.

The rest of the game went by quickly. The team didn't score a single goal, but it didn't look like any of the girls cared as they ran off the field. You and Emily gave them all high fives before sending them off to find their parents.

"Ice cream time!" Amelia announced as she ran up to you and Emily.

"Oh, is it now?" You asked as Amelia tugged on your hand.

"Yeah! Mama said you're paying!" Amelia giggled, turning toward Emily with a mischievous smile. 

"She did?" You question, turning towards Emily with a raised eyebrow. 

"Uh-" Emily trailed off, pretending to be oblivious as Amelia laughed at her antics.

"C'mon!" Amelia said, trying to pull the two of you, but just staying in place as her feet slid on the grass.

"Okay, okay," You appeased as all three of you walked to the car. 

You could feel Emily's giddy smile before you turned to look at her. 

"What?" You asked, feeling the slight blush rise to your cheeks just from the way she was looking at you. 

"Nothing, I just- coaching was a lot of fun."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah," Emily said as she leaned over to give you a quick kiss on the cheek.

"Oh, thank goodness," You sighed in relief, "Because I signed us up to coach next year,"

"Y/n Prentiss!"

"I'm kidding! I'm kidding!" You laughed, and Emily knocked her shoulder into yours.

"You're definitely paying for the ice cream now," Emily said as she unlocked the car and helped Amelia into her car seat. 

"We share a bank account, honey." You reminded her.

"Well then, you're paying in spirit!" 

JJ: I need boy advice, help!

Emily: Kill him.

I fear I've watched one too many episodes of emily interacting with kids... so prepare for lots of fluffy momily fics

Heyyyy, hope you’re well! I have a very random Emily Prentiss X Fem!Reader request,I was just listening to Billie earlier and I feel like this would be a good lyric prompt “buy my sleepless nights are better, with you than nights could ever be alone” maybe early stages of relationship where Emily’s struggling to sleep on a case sharing a room with reader, so reader comforts her? Idk up to you if you wanna do it❤️🫶🫶🫶 ily

Halley's Comet (Emily Prentiss x Reader)

"But my sleepless nights are better with you than nights could ever be alone"

Summary: In which Emily is having a hard time falling asleep, so you keep her company.

Warnings: None

Word Count: 1.2k

Emily stared at the ceiling, hoping the exhaustion in her body would catch up to her brain so she could finally get some sleep, but that was wishful thinking. 

She turned to the right and saw you sprawled out next to her. Your head was on Emily's pillow, one leg wrapped around Emily's, and the other was almost hanging off the bed. Your arms were underneath you, and Emily wondered how you could sleep in such odd positions.

Honestly, she was jealous of your ability to fall asleep anywhere and everywhere. Even in a dusty motel in the middle of Nebraska, you were out as soon as you closed your eyes. 

She brushed some hair off your face and kissed you gently on the forehead before extracting herself from the bed, trying to be as quiet as possible. The two of you hadn't been together long; it had been merely two months since Emily nervously asked you to be her girlfriend, to which you answered yes before she could even get the full question out. 

Emily walked across the room to find her bag and pulled out a box of cigarettes and a lighter. 

She made her way to the chair next to the window, curling her feet under her as she stared out the window.

She toyed with the cigarette box before reaching toward the window and opening a sliver. Just as she pulled a cigarette out and was about to light it, she saw your hand pluck the cigarette from hers. Emily froze, she hadn't even heard you getting out of bed.

"Busted," You chuckled sleepily as you grabbed the box and lighter from her hands as well, depositing them on the window sill. 

"Couldn't sleep?" You asked as you stood in front of her.

"No. Sorry for waking you up." Emily said guiltily as she tugged you by the waist to sit on her lap. You giggled as you ungracefully landed on top of her.

"It's okay. I can't sleep without my heat source anyway." You said as you played with the ends of her hair. 

"Is that all I am to you? A heat source?" Emily chuckled.

"Of course not! You're my personal chef, too!" You said, tapping the tip of her nose.

"You're spoiled rotten." She rolled her eyes, and you just smiled as you tucked her hair behind her ear, "Seriously though, Em, what's keeping you up? Anything I can do?"

"No, no, it's fine, sweetheart. You should go back to bed." She said, softly cupping your chin and giving you a quick kiss. 

"I'm not tired anymore." You countered, which Emily knew was a complete lie because your eyelids were getting droopier by the second. And it was moments like this where Emily fell in love with you even more. Half asleep and insisting you weren't tired just so you could keep her company. What had she done to deserve you? Emily often wondered.

"We're like E.T. and Elliot. Whatever you feel, I feel." You added, and Emily chuckled as she pulled you further into her chest. "Only if I get to be Elliot," Emily said.

"Nope, you're older. You have to be E.T.," You said, poking her side. 

"Hey!" Emily scoffed, and you laughed as you hid your face under her chin, "I'm kidding! I'm kidding!"

"Mhm," Emily hummed as she ran a soothing hand across your back. 

"I wish we had this view in D.C," You murmured after a couple of minutes, looking out the window. Stargazing was one of your favorite things to do with Emily. She knew all of the constellations and the stories behind them. She was like a never-ending spout of knowledge, and you could spend hours just listening to her talk. 

"I know, right," Emily agreed quietly,  "We see some of the most beautiful places for the worst reasons."

"Ironic," You murmured sleepily, trying your best to stay awake, but Emily was just so comfy. 

"It is ironic; I mean, traditionally, beauty has been counted among the ultimate values of goodness, truth, and justice..." Emily continued, and you hummed in acknowledgment. You tried to listen to Emily's philosophical ramblings, but her voice and the light scratches against your back were a deadly combination. Something Emily knew very well...

"Hey! Stop trying to put me to sleep! I'm not tired." You said with a pout as you sat up slightly so you could be face-to-face with Emily.

"Honey, I promise you I'm fine." She said as she swiftly lifted you. You yelped in surprise, throwing your arms around her neck as she carried you back to the bed.

"You can go back to sleep," Emily said as she gently placed you on your side of the bed. 

"Only if you join me," You said as you patted the spot next to you.

"Y/n..." Emily sighed.

"Trust me, please." You said, giving her your best pleading eyes that Emily could never say no to. 

"Fine," She relented, and you just rolled your eyes at her dramatics. 

You motioned for her to lay her head on your lap as you sat up. "Whenever we watch a movie, and I play with your hair, you always fall asleep," You said as Emily got her head situated on your thighs.

"That's because you insist on watching the same cheesy rom-coms over and over again," She mumbled as you started to lightly run your fingers through her hair. 

"Hey! You don't hear me complaining whenever you force me to do a Lord of The Rings movie marathon." You argued back, scratching her scalp, and you were pleased to hear the soft hums coming from Emily.

"You little liar!" Emily laughed, "I do hear you complain, the entirety of the movie, I might add."

"That's not me complaining! I'm simply making commentary throughout the movie." You smiled.

"Sure," Emily appeased as she snuggled further into your lap. 

You smiled as you spent the next couple of minutes playing with her hair. The sound of the rickety air conditioner was the only thing filling the quietness of the room. 

"I should make you do this every night," Emily murmured after a while, and you were glad to hear the slight sleepiness in her tone.

"Now whose spoiled rotten?" You teased. 

"Of course I'm the spoiled one. You're the best thing that's ever happened to me." Emily hummed as she turned her head to look up at you. Your heart clenched at her words and sleepy smile. You didn't know how to voice the words that could encompass just how much Emily meant to you. So you stuck with, "I love you," and hoped that she could tell how you felt just from three words.

But it was Emily, so of course she could read you like a book. "I love you more." She smiled as she lifted her head off your lap and laid it on the pillow. She opened her arms, and you immediately fell into them. Your head placed in the crook of her neck, and your legs intertwined together. "You think you can sleep now?" You murmured, your lips brushing against her neck. 

"Yeah, turns out you're all I need," She smiled as she kissed the top of your head.

"So cheesy," You mumbled as you snuggled closer.

"Just for you," Emily said as she closed her eyes and let the soft sounds of your breath guide her to sleep.

Emily may have been in the middle of Nebraska, but she'd never felt more at home than being by your side. 

Emily: I always thought "happiness" started with an "h". So why does mine start with "u"?

JJ:

JJ: Are you dyslexic?

I'm in a writing mood. Does anyone have any Emily Prentiss x Reader requests?

A New Light (Don't Blame Me: Chapter 5)

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Summary: Emily knew it was wrong. She knew you were the most dangerous woman the BAU had ever seen. Yet, she couldn't seem to stay away from you.

Warnings: Typical Criminal Minds stuff

Words: 2k

"How's that big head of yours?" Emily asked as she leaned against the door frame of Derek's hospital room. She had come straight from the crime scene, where Hotch had received a call that Derek was being released but needed someone to pick him up. Emily immediately volunteered, the lingering guilt still at the back of her mind. 

"Always the flatterer, princess." Derek chuckled as he packed his bag, "Doctors think she drugged me transdermally."

"Jesus. She really was two steps ahead of us," Emily sighed, and Derek nodded in confirmation, "Hotch said she struck again?"

"Yeah, she's taunting us," Emily said.

"This is my fault. I should have done more to stop her-" Derek started before Emily cut him off.

"She drugged you, Derek. No one could have seen that coming."

"I know, but-"

"Ah! No buts! Except for yours, which is about to get pushed around by me in a wheelchair." Emily smiled as she gestured to the wheelchair outside of his room.

"Like hell I am," Derek scoffed as he tried to walk out of the room but was stopped by Emily. 

"It's hospital protocol. And I'll call Dad if you don't cooperate!" Emily threatened.

Derek rolled his eyes but eventually sat in the wheelchair. Emily could be very scary when she wanted to be.

Out of everyone, he was glad that it was Emily to get him. They shared an easy camaraderie, which was exactly what he needed. 

"I don't think Hotch will approve of you calling him Dad." Derek quipped back as Emily pushed him through the halls of the hospital.

"Yeah, you're right. Mom suits him better." Emily smiled, causing Derek to laugh, "Ten bucks to say that to his face." 

"Oh, you're on," Emily said, flicking the back of his head, and their bickering continued all the way to the car. 

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

"Alright, my beautiful crime fighters," Penelope started as she walked into the conference room where the rest of the team was. As soon as Emily and Derek had walked into the bullpen, Hotch had called everyone to debrief and review new information.

"I found a whole lot of nothing with the information Derek gave us, but I did possibly find something!" Penelope said as she connected her computer to the TV. 

"I ran the name Y/n Y/l/n, and unsurprisingly, I found nada. However, I ran the name Alex Painter, Y/n's first victim, through VICAP and got this.."

The technical analyst pulled the picture up, and the team sat in confusion.

"Alex Painter was a woman?" Emily asked, extremely skeptical if this was the right person.

"And she was killed in 1991? Assuming Y/n is in her mid-20s, that would put her at about 6-10 years old when she killed Alex Painter." Spencer chimed in.

"COD was blunt force trauma to the head; I mean, even though it sounds unlikely, it isn't entirely impossible," Derek said.

"I've seen it before," Rossi added. 

"You can't be serious," JJ said defensively, causing the whole team to look at her, surprised by her uncharacteristic tone, "She was just a kid. There's no way she could have done that by herself."

"I'm with JJ," Emily said, although much calmer than her blonde counterpart, "Something's off. This is either the wrong Alex Painter, or we're getting into something a lot bigger than we thought."

The rest of the team nodded; not everyone was on the same page, but everyone knew something wasn't adding up. 

"Well, that's my cue to do more sleuthing. I will update you guys when I'm done. PG out." Penelope declared as she grabbed her stuff and made her way to her lair for the foreseeable future. 

"While Garcia's doing that, I want a new profile on Y/n, especially after last night,"  Hotch said as he motioned to the numerous boxes on the table. "Go over all the case files again; maybe there's something Interpol missed." He said before going to his office to no doubt do his own work.

"Well, this should be fun," Derek grumbled, earning a sigh from everyone else.

"Coffee, anyone?" Emily asked, knowing this was about to be a long day. Everyone gave a pleasant nod. Before she left the room, she turned to JJ when no one was looking and mouthed "tea," to which JJ gave a grateful smile.  

As Emily was brewing the coffee, she felt her phone buzz. Not thinking anything of it, she pulled it out of her pocket. But when she saw the sender of the text, her heart dropped. 

Y/n (10:23 am): Did you like the flowers?

Emily scoffed, about to turn her phone off, when another message popped up.

Y/n (10:24 am): It was hard to find them on such short notice. But only the best for you, darling.

Emily (10:24 am): I don't want anything from you.

Emily quickly typed out. She didn't know if this was against protocol, but she couldn't just not respond. 

Y/n (10:25 am): We'll see about that.

Emily pocketed her phone, leaving the conversation at that before turning to the coffee pot and filling up everyone's mug. 

"Thanks for the tea," Emily heard from behind her and turned to find JJ.

"Of course. You feeling okay?" She asked as she handed JJ her mug, "No morning sickness, thankfully. But I give the smell of coffee two hours before it makes me puke."

"I'm sorry," Emily said apologetically, but JJ waved her off.

"So, have you put any more thought into you and Will?" Emily asked, trying not to pry, but she also wanted to get her mind off of Y/n.

"I don't know," JJ sighed, "He was blowing up my phone last night."

"After you told him you were at my place?" Emily asked.

"Yeah, he was just worried," JJ said quietly. 

Emily tried not to let her emotions play on her face, but god, she couldn't stand Will. 

"Well, you're welcome to come over whenever. And if you need me to talk to Will-" Emily started before JJ cut her off.

"It's fine, Em. But thank you." JJ said appreciatively, squeezing Emily's arm. 

"Yo! Where's that coffee, princess?" Derek called from the conference room. 

"Well, duty calls." JJ chuckled as she helped Emily grab the mugs. 

When they returned to the conference room, there were files everywhere. It was going to be a very long day.

By 6 pm, it seemed as if they had made no progress. Emily's eyes were strained, and she honestly didn't think she was retaining anything she was reading. 

"This is insane," Derek muttered as he picked another file out of the box.

"What is?" Spencer asked, adding another file to his stack that was probably double the size of everyone else's.

"Her victim count. It's insane." Derek said as it was the most obvious thing.

"Why? Cause she's a woman?" JJ asked.

"Yeah," Derek said sarcastically, causing Emily to throw her pen at him, hitting him right in the forehead, "Hey! I was kidding!"

"I know," Emily smiled, and Derek rolled his eyes.

"What I meant was that she's in her twenties and already has a kill count in the hundreds. What happened to her that made her into the killer she is?" Derek questioned.

"I don't know. And until we figure that out, we stand no chance of catching her," Rossi added.

Emily bit at her bottom lip. She didn't want to think about how many more people were going to die before they caught Y/n.

"Maybe I can try and lure her out again." Emily offered and was immediately met with a resounding no from everyone.

"We already did that, and it didn't work," JJ said. Not even wanting to think about sending her friend to meet Y/n again. 

"And besides, you know that's not how we work, Prentiss," Derek said.

"Yeah, yeah. You're right." Emily said with a small nod. But she couldn't help but think they could catch Y/n quicker if they did, except for the fact that Derek was right. The BAU didn't go undercover and lure people; they profiled and caught unsubs from an outside perspective. And that's how Emily wanted to do things from here on out. Right?

It was almost 8 pm by the time she walked into her apartment. The last two days were catching up to her, and Emily wanted nothing more than to sleep for the next 12 hours. She quickly popped a frozen pizza into the oven before going to change. 

As she waited for the pizza, she browsed through her bookshelf when she suddenly remembered that Y/n told her she was a writer. Was it possible that Emily had read one of her books? She had quite a hefty collection in her apartment, but it wasn't even a fraction of all the books she'd read in her life. 

What kind of books did Y/n write? Emily wondered. Mystery? Romance? Fiction? Fantasy?

And what got her into writing? How did she even have time to write and murder hundreds of men?

The oven rang, pulling Emily out of her thoughts. She shook her head as she walked back to the kitchen. Reading was supposed to help her get out of her head, and all she could think about was Y/n. 

She took her pizza on the couch, putting on some reality show that she didn't pay any attention to. 

After about twenty minutes, Emily pulled her phone out and went to her text messages with Y/n. She knew she should tell Hotch she was in contact with Y/n. But what if Hotch disapproved and made her end it? She couldn't get rid of the only lead they had, so maybe she should wait until she got enough out of Y/n. 

So, without thinking too hard about it, she texted Y/n. 

Emily (9:02 PM): Alex Painter.

The name was all Emily typed before turning off her phone. She knew Y/n wouldn't be able to resist talking to her. And even if the younger woman didn't give her anything, what harm could it do? It wasn't like the team was making much leeway anyway.

Y/n (9:03 PM): I thought you wanted nothing to do with me? Change of heart?

Emily (9:03 PM): No. I just want to know about Alex Painter. 

Y/n (9:04 PM): What about her?

Y/n (9:04 PM): Also, this is not the kind of late-night text I prefer, Emily.

Emily scoffed, ignoring the last message.

Emily (9:05 PM): Did you really kill her in 1991?

Y/n (9:05 PM): I don't know, did I? I thought your team was supposed to be good at stuff like this.

Y/n (9:06 PM): Also, what are you wearing?

Once again, Emily ignored the last message.

Emily (9:06 PM): You were just a kid in 1991. How were you able to overpower a grown woman?

Y/n (9:07 PM): Answer my question, and I'll answer yours.

Emily groaned as she looked down at her outfit. She knew what Y/n was doing, and she didn't want to play into her game. But if she could get an answer, it would be worth it. And it wasn't like she was doing anything illegal.

Emily (9:09 PM): An old Yale T-shirt and flannel pajama shorts.

Y/n (9:09 PM): Surprising, but nonetheless hot. Want to know what I'm wearing?

Emily (9:09 PM): No. I answered your question, now answer mine.

Y/n (9:10 PM): Bummer. If you wanted to know, I would have told you that I am taking a very relaxing bath right now and am wearing absolutely nothing.

Emily gripped her phone, cursing her brain for visualizing that for even a second. God, this was a bad idea.

Y/n (9:10 PM): And if you had said please, I definitely would have sent you a picture. 

Emily (9:10 PM): Back to Alex Painter 

Emily typed, not wanting to entertain Y/n any longer. 

Y/n (9:11 PM): Yes ma'am.

Y/n (9:11 PM): 1991 is correct. More specifically, I was 7. And to answer your question, I took the last hit.

Emily (9:11 PM): What does that mean?

Y/n (9:12 PM): You tell me. But I have to say I'm quite bored of this conversation now. We'll talk later, darling.

Emily shut off her phone, knowing the conversation was done. But what did Y/n mean by her taking the last hit?

Emily quickly went to clean her kitchen before getting into bed. 

She tried to sleep, but all she could think about was Y/n. 

hiii

i really hope your day is good so far❤️

i just wanted to let you know that i LOVEEEE the "don't blame me" series and was wondering when the next chapter might be out, I've also looked at your other stuff and i just adore your writing' i check everyday to see when the next chapter might be out.

that's all! just wanted to tell you this

☆*: .｡. o(≧▽≦)o .｡.:*☆

Hi!! I am answering this so late, so I apologize, but thank you so much! College is kicking my ass, so my updates are, unfortunately, very sporadic. But I'm working on chapter 5 of Don't Blame Me right now, so it should be out soon!

See You Soon (Dont Blame Me: Chapter 4)

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Summary: Emily knew it was wrong. She knew you were the most dangerous woman the BAU had ever seen. Yet, she couldn't seem to stay away from you.

Warnings: Typical Criminal Minds stuff

Words: 2.2k

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

EMILY DROPPED her bags on the floor as soon as she entered her apartment. She shed her shoes and jacket as she made a beeline to her wine cabinet, not even getting a glass before downing almost a third of the bottle. She looked at the clock in her kitchen that read 1 AM and immediately went to flop onto her couch.

Hotch had sent them home after looking at the car crash scene. Emily had wanted to stay and do as much as she could to find Y/n. But she knew there was no point. There was no way they would find Y/n before she wanted to be found. 

Luckily Derek was okay, the drugs seemed to be passing through his system. The paramedic said he should be fine by the morning, easing Emily's guilt. The rational side of her brain knew that this wasn't her fault, but she still couldn't help but feel like it was. Y/n only wanted Emily which meant that everyone else was just collateral damage. 

'If only I hadn't gone to the coffee shop' Emily kept thinking as she took another sip of the wine. The BAU was supposed to be a fresh start. A place where the was a distance between her and the unsub. Where all she had to was help create a profile and then make an arrest. 

But now? Now it was personal. 

Emily had been fully content on drinking herself to sleep until she heard a knock on the door. The brunette furrowed her brows as she slowly stood up and put the wine bottle down, reaching for her gun in a hidden compartment under her coffee table. She quietly approached the door and looked through the peephole to see an anxious JJ on the other side fiddling with an overnight bag. Emily let out a sigh of both relief and annoyance as she opened the door, putting her gun on the table by the entrance, "JJ? What are you doing here?"

"Can I um- stay here for the night?" The blonde asked, looking down at the floor. All of Emily's annoyance washed away as she immediately pulled her friend into the apartment. "Yeah of course. You know you're always welcome here." The brunette said as she grabbed JJ's bag and led her to the couch. 

"Thanks," JJ mumbled as she sat in the corner of the couch, pulling her legs up so her chin could rest on her knees. Emily was at a loss for what to do. The blonde had been completely fine when they had left the crime scene so this couldn't be about work. 

"You want a drink?" Emily offered as she sat next to the blonde and held up the half-empty wine glass. 

"No thanks," JJ said as she looked at Emily for the first time. Emily could see that her eyes were slightly red and puffy, she had been crying. She immediately went to comfort her friend and ran a soothing hand along the blonde's back, "What's wrong?"

"It's um- It's Will," JJ said nervously as she gnawed at her bottom lip. Emily's face immediately hardened. She had always hated the guy. Hated the way he treated JJ.

"He moved in last week." JJ continued and Emily tried to hide the look of shock on her face, "I didn't know you guys were getting serious." The brunette said. The last time they talked about Will, JJ had said they were nothing more than hookup-buddies. 

"Well, we weren't planning on it," JJ mumbled as she wrung her fingers together. 

"What changed your mind?" Emily asked and her soft tone broke the dam of emotions that JJ had been holding in.

"I'm pregnant!" JJ immediately burst into tears and Emily's eyes widened in shock as she pulled the younger woman into her arms. "Happy tears or sad tears?" Emily asked pushing away her surprise and putting her full focus on JJ. She didn't want to approach this the wrong way.

"I don't know," JJ sniffled against Emily's shoulder, "Ive- I've always wanted to be a mom but it wasn't supposed to happen like this! I was supposed to be married and in love and...and..." The blonde trailed off as tears fell on her face and onto the brunette's shirt. 

"It's okay, let it out," Emily murmured as she comforted her friend. It was another couple of minutes before JJ's tears stopped and she pulled away from the brunette's embrace. 

"I don't know what to do." JJ said as her blue eyes locked onto Emily's brown ones, "Well you have a lot of options and time-" Emily started before she was cut off by the blonde, "No no, I want to keep the baby. I just don't know what to do about Will." JJ said nervously. "Everything's moving so fast and even though I've known him for two years, it's not like we did a lot of talking," JJ said.

"Not like you'd understand him anyway," Emily murmured under breath and thankfully JJ didn't hear her. "Have you talked to him about this?" The brunette asked, speaking louder so that JJ could hear her this time.

"Yeah, but he said that this is just what people do. I mean he dropped everything to move here to help me with the baby." JJ said and Emily shook her head. "That doesn't mean you owe him anything."

"Don't I at least owe it to the baby to try?"

"I um, I don't know," Emily said, feeling way out of her depth. She wished that Penelope was here to give JJ advice. The bubbly blonde always seemed to know what to say.

"But you need to do what's best for you. And if Will cares about you and the baby he needs to respect whatever you decide to do." Emily murmured.

"I know. It's just hard," JJ said as she wiped away a tear from her lashline.

Emily rubbed her shoulder, giving her a couple of minutes of silence to process her thoughts. "You're going to be a great mom." She said after JJ seemed to come back to herself. 

"You think so?"

"I know so." Emily smiled before grabbing the TV remote and turning on a movie for the both of them to watch. She knew there was too much on her mind to be able to fall asleep and she assumed it was the same for the younger agent. 

They were about halfway through the movie when JJ noticed that Emily had been zoning out. She'd been worried about the brunette ever since they left the crime scene. 

"Em," JJ said as she pulled Emily's attention away from a spot on the wall, "Are you okay?" JJ asked, never having seen Emily so on edge before. They had been best friends for almost three years but JJ still hadn't been able to crack the walls that Emily put up. JJ didn't mind though, she knew Emily was just a naturally guarded person.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Emily shrugged. 

"Well, it can't be easy getting so close to an unsub like that," JJ said and Emily couldn't help but just stare. She had completely forgotten that no one on the team knew about her past. They didn't know what she had to do to accomplish a mission. It wasn't that she was ashamed of it per se, she knew she helped to down a lot of bad people. But just because she wasn't ashamed of it didn't mean she felt good about it either. 

"I'll get over it," Emily said, giving JJ a reassuring smile that said she was both done with the conversation and that the blonde didn't need to worry. 

"Well even if you're over it, it doesn't seem like Y/n is," JJ frowned. 

"She's not the first woman to be obsessed with me," Emily said jokingly,  trying to get the blonde off her case.

"You know that's not what I meant," JJ said rolling her eyes, not amused with Emily's humor as a way to lessen the situation.

"I know I just- I don't want to think about it for too long," Emily murmured, hoping that was a good enough answer and thankfully it was since JJ didn't say anything else for the rest of the movie.

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

"Any last words?" Y/n asked as she pointed her gun directly at the back of Jonah Herring's head. Her knee dug into his upper back as his face was forced into the ground of his living room floor. 

"Go fuck yourself." He groaned and Y/n just chuckled, "You men are so unoriginal. I can't even tell how many times I've heard that."

"You bitch!" Jonah growled as he tried to free himself from Y/n's hold. But the drugs that Y/n had slipped into his beer were preventing him from overpowering her.

"Again, unoriginal!" Y/n tutted as her gun traced Jonah's jawline. "I'll give you one more chance. How about that?"

"I will fucking kill you!" He spat and Y/n just rolled her eyes. "You know, most of the time you don't want to antagonize the person with the gun," She said as she brought it back to his head.

"And usually I'd take my time and have some fun. But I'm on a bit of a time crunch, unfortunately," Y/n said with fake pity.

Jonah's eyes went wide as he heard the click of the gun, "Wait-"

"Too late!" Y/n smiled as she pulled the trigger and Jonah's lifeless body fell to the ground.  Y/n immediately tucked her gun into her back pocket and rolled Jonah onto his back.

"Now this may hurt a little." Y/n joked as she pulled the branding pen out of her pocket. She'd done this so many times she could probably do it with her eyes closed. Finishing the angel wing only took two minutes before she stood up and Jonah back onto his stomach.

She pulled her phone out and saw that it was almost 3 am. Y/n smiled as she pocketed her phone, the adrenaline of outsmarting the BAU less than a couple of hours ago was still running through her body. They had underestimated her just like everyone else had.

And now they were going to pay for it. 

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

Emily's eyes fluttered open at the sound of her phone ringing. She groaned as she sat up, her back not thanking her for sleeping on the couch. She checked the time and saw that it was only 7 am causing her to groan.

"Prentiss," She grumbled into the phone. 

"We found another body," Hotch said with the sound of cars in the background as he drove through morning traffic.

"What?" Emily asked, her body now fully awake as she shook JJ, who was fast asleep next to her.  

"The police got reports of a gunshot from an apartment building around 3 am. When they found the body they were able to identify the angel wing."

"A gunshot? Why would she use a gun that makes noise? She always uses a silencer," Emily scoffed and bolted upstairs to get her and a now very grumpy and sleepy JJ a new set of clothes.

"It's a taunt. She wants us to know that she's been close this entire time." Hotch answered easily.

"Of course it is," Emily mumbled as rummaged through her drawers, "Any updates on Derek?"

"Doctors said he's going to be fine and should be discharged within the next couple of hours," Hotch said. He had been with Derek in the hospital when he got the call from the DC PD. 

"That's good," Emily muttered more to herself, "JJ and I will meet you there."

"Okay," Hotch confirmed before hanging up.

It was another 45 minutes before the woman arrived at Jonah's apartment. The crime scene looked the same as all the others, organized with nothing out of place other than a dead body. 

Hotch, Spencer, and Rossi were all standing by the body when Emily and JJ walked next to them. 

"The victim is Jonah Herring, 26. Time of death was approximately 3 am and COD was a gunshot wound to the back of the head," The ME said as she wrote on her clipboard. 

"She must have come here right after escaping custody," Rossi noted.

"Why didn't she leave DC? She had the resources and time to do it," Spencer added.

"It's about the hunt," Emily said as she walked around the apartment.

"The hunt?" JJ asked.

"When we were in the bathroom, she said she missed the hunt and how exhilarating it feels," Emily continued as her eyes focused on a bouquet of Chrysanthemums in a vase on the kitchen counter. The flowers stood out in the very masculine and plain apartment. 

 "She wants us to play into her game," Hotch frowned.

"Seems like it," Emily muttered as she brushed a finger on a flower petal. She felt a sense of unease as she looked at the flowers, the team's voices fading out in her mind. A corner of white peeked out from the base and Emily immediately lifted it to find a small note card. 

"Hey guys!" Emily called out, interrupting whatever Rossi and Spencer were talking about. "She left us a card." The team gathered around Emily as she handed the note to Hotch.

The Unit Chief opened the small piece of paper and the side of his jaw ticked, "Actually, she left you a card." He said as he handed the note back to Emily.

She frowned as she opened the letter and read the simple four words on it.

𝘚𝘦𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘴𝘰𝘰𝘯, 𝘌𝘮𝘪𝘭𝘺

"Godammit," Emily sighed as she gave the note to the rest of the team to read. 

"Well its not just the hunt that exhilarates her." Spencer said as he gave the card back to Emily, "It's the fact that you are hunting her."

Emily: I am not the jealous type.

JJ: You punched Spencer.

Emily: He was holding your hand.

JJ: It was a handshake.

Emily: First of all, fuck this.

Emily: Second of all, fuck off.

Emily: Third of all, fuck me.

JJ: I… uh… what?

Emily: Did I fucking stutter?

Emily: Wait. People actually tell their crushes they like them?

Derek: What the hell do YOU do?

Emily: I die? What kinda question...

JJ: How high are you?

Emily: Nooo, JJ. It’s “hi, how are you?”

Emily: JJ's lip balm tastes like honey and something else, but I can't decide what.

Spencer: YOU GUYS KISSED?

JJ: No. She just ate my lip balm.

Hotch: One of these days, your smart mouth is going get you stabbed.

Emily: Pfft, as if I haven't been stabbed before.

Spencer: Why are people always fighting over top or bottom? I would be lucky just to have a bunk bed.

Derek:

Penelope:

JJ:

Emily: I'm gonna tell him.

JJ: Don't you dare.

Until Next Time (Don't Blame Me: Chapter 3)

Summary: Emily knew it was wrong. She knew you were the most dangerous woman the BAU had ever seen. Yet, she couldn't seem to stay away from you.

Warnings: Typical Criminal Minds stuff

Words: 2.9k

EMILY PULLED Y/n closer so that her back was flushed to the agent's front. "You're bluffing," Emily scoffed as she eyed the woman. She knew from Y/n's profile that she didn't kill people whom she deemed innocent. So there was no way she would blow up a bar full of a hundred people.

"Are you really willing to take that risk?" Y/n smiled sweetly and it took the brunette less than a second to lead Y/n out of the bathroom and pull the fire alarm.

The alarm started blaring and people started making their way out of the bar. Emily looked at the detonator again and saw it was now at a minute. She didn't like how slowly the crowd was moving so she yelled at the top of her lungs, "Everybody out! It's a real fire!" And luckily, people started moving much faster.

"What's going on?" Derek said as he ran toward the women, ignoring Y/n's smug smile and focusing on Emily. He'd had his eye trained on the bathroom door, waiting for them to come out. 

"She said there's a bomb," Emily said as she kept her eyes on the crowd, wanting to ensure everyone got out. 

"Where?" Derek said as he eyed Y/n, who just shrugged playfully.

"I don't know and I don't think we have time to find out," Emily said as she showed Derek the detonator which was now counting down from 45 seconds. 

"Get her out of here and I'll make sure everyone else is out," Derek stated leaving no room for argument. 

Emily nodded and pulled Y/n out to a less crowded exit. "You know, as much fun as this is, could you loosen your grip a bit?" Y/n pouted over her shoulder at the brunette.

Emily scoffed as she walked the two of them further away from the building. She saw Hotch and JJ driving toward them in their SUV before quickly hopping out and jogging towards the women. 

"Mm, the blonde is pretty," Y/n noted and Emily just gritted her teeth. 

"What? Did I hit a nerve?" Y/n teased and the brunette ignored her as she walked them toward the unit chief.

"What happened?" Hotch asked as he pulled out his cuffs and handed them to Emily.

"She said she put a bomb in there," Emily said as she quickly cuffed Y/n's hands behind her back.  "Derek's getting everyone out but I'm pretty sure she's bluffing," The brunette continued as she tightened the handcuffs even more. 

"She is right here," Y/n said, causing everyone to turn toward her. "And she would appreciate it if you loosened the cuffs a bit." Y/n continued as she wiggled her hands from behind her.

"Can you focus on something other than yourself for two goddam seconds and tell us if the bomb is real or not?!" Emily growled, her patience for Y/n's antics dwindling more and more.

"That's kind of a lot to ask of a psychopath, don't you think?" Y/n pouted as she turned her head over her shoulder to look at the brunette. "That's what you guys profiled me as, right? A high-functioning psychopath?"

"You won't be so high functioning when you spend the rest of your life in prison." Emily retorted which only earned a laugh from the younger woman, "We'll see about that."

"Prentiss," Hotch interrupted, not liking how much Emily was getting riled up. "The detonator." He said as he held out his hand for the agent to give to him. Emily begrudgingly gave it to the man and watched as his eyebrows rose slightly.

"What is it?" JJ asked as she leaned closer, trying to see whatever Hotch had discovered.

"Well, she is bluffing," Hotch said as he turned the device around and showed that the timer had already run out and nothing had happened, "And this isn't a detonator, It's a remote control for a toy car. Jack has one of these things." The unit chief pointed out quietly, not wanting to make Emily even more mad.

"You're kidding me?!" Emily scoffed as she turned to face Y/n who had the biggest smile on her face, "What? I bought it from the toy store before I came. Like I said before, it's fun to rile you up." 

"You think this is funny?! " Emily said lividly, hating how Y/n was getting under her skin. 

"No, of course not. I think it's hilarious," Y/n said licking her lips.

"We're done here," Hotch said calmly, already sensing how Emily was on the verge of blowing up. "Take her to the SUV." The unit chief continued and Emily nodded, not having to be told twice. She practically dragged Y/n the ten feet of the car before throwing open the door. 

"This was fun, darling! Next time we'll have to use handcuffs in a different context if you know what I mean." Y/n said brashly with a wink as Emily forced her into the car and connected the cuffs to the seat.

"There will be no next time." Emily gritted out and Y/n smiled innocently, "We'll see about that, Agent Prentiss."

The brunette slammed the door shut and walked toward JJ and Hotch, not wanting to spend another second in the younger woman's company. 

"You okay?" Hotch asked and Emily blew out a breath, "Yeah, she's just- a lot."

"Well, at least it's over now," JJ said as she gave her friend a reassuring pat on the shoulder. Emily nodded as she turned to look at Y/n who was still looking at her with a smile on her face. Something felt wrong but Emily couldn't put her finger on it. 

"Yeah, you're right," Emily said, shaking the worries out of her mind, "I'm not riding back with her though." She said seriously to her boss.

"Don't worry, I'll make Derek do it." The unit chief said and Emily sighed with relief. She was done with Y/n. She could forget all about today. Well, maybe not forget about it, but at least compartmentalize it until it wasn't a big deal.

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

"Would you like to play a game, Agent Morgan?" Y/n asked as she stared at the bald man next to her. One of the local Police officers was driving but Derek had insisted on sitting in the back seat next to the woman, not wanting to take his eyes off of her for a second. 

"No," Derek replied shortly, trying to ignore the headache that had been blooming in his temple since leaving the bar.

Y/n sighed dramatically, "Oh come on, It'll be fun!"

"No," Derek said again and the woman just shook her head, "Twenty questions. You ask me whatever you want and I'll answer with the complete truth."

"Really?" Derek asked and Y/n nodded her head, "As long as you answer my questions. No lying."

Derek thought the idea over. Realistically he knew there was no harm, in fact, he could probably get more answers out of Y/n right now than in an interrogation room. "Fine. But I'm asking a question first," Derek said and Y/n nodded with a smile, happy that the agent was playing along. 

"What's your full name?" Derek asked and Y/n sighed boredly, "Y/n Y/l/n. Although I guarantee  you won't get far with it."

"What does that mean-"

"Ah ah. Mine turn." Y/n tutted, "Is there anything going on between Emily and the blonde?" 

Derek blinked slowly, "That's seriously the question you're asking me?"

"Yes," Y/n said as she eyed the man with a frown. Derek rolled his eyes but answered honestly, "No. Nothing is going on between Emily and JJ."

A smile touched Y/n's lips that Derek didn't like the looks of but he decided to ignore it for now. 

"What was the name of your first victim?" The agent asked. Four years ago when he first worked the case the team knew that the first victim they found couldn't have been Y/n's first victim. The crime scene was organized and perfectly executed so it was obvious that Y/n worked up to it. 

"Alex Painter" Y/n answered and to an untrained eye, it looked as if the woman wasn't bothered. But Derek could see through her, could see the way Y/n's eyes narrowed slightly and how she bit the inside of her cheek. The agent wanted to ask more but he could tell that Y/n wasn't going to answer. 

"My turn! What's Emily's favorite flower?" Y/n said, seemingly snapping out of whatever funk she was put in by the question.

 Derek paused for a moment his stomach feeling uneasy. However, he couldn't tell if it was because all the questions were focused on Emily or because his headache was starting to make him feel nauseous. 

"Chrysanthemum's." He said, remembering when Emily pointed them out to him on a case one time.

"You choose to shoot your victims in the head, why?" Derek asked, turning the conversation back to Y/n. This had been a question Rossi brought up this morning. The use of a gun made the kills seem impersonal but the brand of the angel wings did the complete opposite. 

"It's efficient and fast. I don't see a point in prolonging the inevitable. The men I kill deserved what they had coming to them." She said, her voice void of any emotion and it almost sent a shiver down the agent's spine.  

"My turn again! What's Emily's favorite food?" Y/n asked, her emotions suddenly flipping back on.

"Why do you want to know that?" Derek asked and Y/n frowned, "Answer my question or I'm done talking."

The agent sighed, he knew Y/n wasn't bluffing so he answered cautiously, "She loves Thai food."

Y/n smiled as her tongue darted out to wet her bottom lip, "Interesting," The woman said and Derek immediately wanted to change the topic, "Why did you move back to the States?" He asked and Y/n sighed, "It was for work. I wasn't too keen on the idea of moving back but I can't deny how much fun I'm having."

"Fun you've had," Derek corrected, blinking slowly as his vision became fuzzy. 

"Sure," Y/n laughed hysterically as she fell over and Derek had no idea what was going on. His mind felt so slow as he tried to comprehend the scene in front of him. His words weren't meant to be funny so he was extremely confused as he watched the woman practically fold over with laughter.

That was until he looked down and noticed the cuffs were no longer secured around Y/n's wrist. Before he had time to react Y/n had quickly pulled the gun from his ankle holster and shot the cop driving the car in the hand.

The cop screamed in pain as his hands came off the steering wheel, causing the car to swerve into a ditch on the side of the road. Luckily they were only going about 25 miles per hour so when they hit a tree Derek and Y/n barely lurched forward. Derek, uncharacteristically, had been frozen since the moment he heard the gunshot. His head was pounding and his eyes were unfocused as he stared at the woman in front of him.

"I really am sorry about this, Derek." Y/n sighed as she toyed with the gun in her hand. The agent tried to reach toward her but the haze in his eyes was getting worse. "What....did.....you....d-do?" Derek muttered.

"Nothing a bandaid won't fix. And trust me, women find scars very sexy." Y/n said, and before Derek even had time to react he felt the gun slam right into his temple. The last thing he remembered was trying to reach out for Y/n as she climbed out of the car before his vision went black.

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

Emily's breath fogged the window as stared into the night from the back seat of the SUV. She had the urge to trace her bottom lip, the same ones Y/n had kissed less than an hour ago, but she didn't let herself. She hated how that moment kept replaying in her mind. Hated how she had enjoyed it, even if it was for a sliver of a second.

"You okay back there, Em?" JJ asked as she turned around from the passenger seat. The blonde had been worried about her friend since she sat in the car. 

"Yeah, just tired," Emily said with a small smile that even she knew was unconvincing. Although her words were the truth, she had never been tempted to drown a bottle of wine and crash right into bed.

"Why don't you take the day off tomorrow," Hotch suggested from the driver's seat.

"I'm fine." Emily rolled her eyes, not liking the attention on her.

"Prentiss that wasn't a request-" Hotch started before he was interrupted by the police intercom on the dashboard of the SUV.

"I need backup and medical on 24th Street immediately! We have an agent down and the suspect is on the run! I repeat the suspect is on the run!" A scratchy voice from the device called out.

Emily's eyes widened as she heard the dispatcher repeat it all over again. 

"Oh my god. You don't think that's..." JJ trailed off, already knowing the answer.

Hotch immediately turned his sirens on and hit the gas. Luckily they were only a minute away but the drive felt like hours before they saw the car off the side of the road.

Emily got out of the car before Hotch could even put it in park, and raced to the site of the crash. She saw that the paramedics leading the cop with the shot hand to the ambulance but no sign of Y/n.  She looked behind the car and into the miles of woods that Y/n could be in. Her first instinct was to run in there and find her until she heard a grunt of pain from the car. Her eyes widened when she realized she recognized that sound very well. 

"Derek?!" Emily yelled as she ran closer and was relieved to find him sitting in the car with an icepack on his forehead. The paramedics had tried to get him to the ambulance but he had refused until he could tell the team exactly what happened. 

"Jesus Prentiss, lower your voice." He winced and the brunette immediately apologized but was glad to see that he was still pretty much the same. 

"What happened?" Hotch asked as he walked up from behind Emily.

"She was asking me a bunch of questions and then all of a sudden my vision started going blurry. Next thing I know she's shooting Detective Watson in the hand and I'm getting knocked out with my own Glock." Derek says, still evidently out of it in a way that concerns all three agents who are listening to him.

"You need to get checked out by the medics," Hotch said immediately and Derek shook his head, which only made the pain worse, "Hotch, I'm fine-"

"Derek you were obviously drugged. So you will get checked by the medics. I'm not negotiating." Hotch, said before he yelled for the medics. Two men immediately rushed over to Derek's annoyance but he was more at least he was more cooperative. Hotch immediately went into Unit Chief mode and took control of the scene. He had Emily and JJ look over the car for details while he got in touch with the Bureau about putting out an APB for Y/n.

Emily walked to the opposite side of the car. The door was still open from when Y/n had escaped and the cuffs were opened and on the ground. The brunette shook her head as she imagined the smug look on Y/n's face the last time she had seen her, "I should have seen this coming."

"This isn't your fault," JJ said slowly, slightly confused as to why the brunette was taking this so hard.

"I knew something was wrong but I didn't say anything. Maybe if I had, Derek wouldn't have gotten hurt and Y/n wouldn't have gotten away-" Emily started before the blonde cut her off, "No one could have predicted this. Not even you."

Emily bit the inside of her cheek as she turned to look at the forest behind her. The breeze was making the limbs of the tree sway and it felt as if the unknown was taunting her. "She's been two steps ahead of us this whole time," The brunette said as she turned back to JJ. "And we just let her get away."

"Emily-" JJ started but the brunette was already walking away, not wanting to look at the car or the empty handcuffs for another second. She walked toward Derek who was fighting with the medics. "I don't need to go to the hospital!" Derek grumbled as the paramedic walked away with an annoyed look on his face. When Emily was close she shot the paramedic an apologetic look before taking a seat next to her partner. 

"Do they know what she drugged you with?" The brunette asked and Derek shook his head, "They won't know without further testing but they said it didn't seem too serious. My only concern is that I don't even know when she did it. Or how."

"That does seem to be the question of the day. How the hell did she pull all of that off?" Emily muttered and Derek shrugged, "I don't know, but I did get some information out of her."

"Anything useful?"

"Yeah, well more concerning than anything."

"What does that mean?" Emily asked with a frown.

"It means that not only do we have a serial killer on the loose. But we have one that's obsessed with you, Prentiss." Derek said sympathetically and Emily just stared straight forward into the woods, imagining Y/n leaning against one of the trees and giving her a cocky wink.

"Lovely," Emily muttered. 

JJ: That’s ridiculous. Emily does not have a crush on me.

Derek: Yes she does.

Spencer: Yes she does.

Emily: Yes she does.

Emily: Mfs be texting at 3am "wyd", bro I'm in bed with your wife.

Will: Emily, answer my call.

Emily: I love Cheetos.

JJ: Me too.

Emily: Guess we should make out then.

Don't Tempt Me (Don't Blame Me, Chapter 2)

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Summary: Emily knew it was wrong. She knew you were the most dangerous woman the BAU had ever seen. Yet, she couldn't seem to stay away from you.

Chapter 1

Warnings: Regular CM stuff

Words: 3.3k

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

EMILY STARED at herself in the mirror. Her hair was perfectly curled with bangs sitting just above her eyebrows. The black dress she bought hugged every curve of her body and showed off her toned legs. Emily knew she looked good, but hated the small part of her that wanted to look good. 

A knock on the door made Emily tear her gaze away from the mirror. "Come in!" The brunette called and a couple of seconds later Hotch opened the door and walked into the locker room. "You sure you're up to this?" The unit chief asked, a hint of concern laced his signature frown.

"Yes Hotch, I am the one that suggested it," Emily reminded him as she walked to her locker to grab a pair of earrings. "I know, just double checking," Hotch said. He wasn't exactly enthusiastic about this plan, if he could even call it that. It had been less than 12 hours since Emily suggested taking Y/n out on a date. How all of this transpired so quickly was still a mystery to Hotch. There was a higher probability of things going wrong than right, but he knew they had to act fast before Y/n left DC.

"Did Garcia find anything else?" Emily asked as she finished putting her small, silver hoops in.

"Well, she's using a burner phone to text you so we can't trace her. And we can't find her in any database with just a first name, plus it could be fake anyway." Hotch said as he leaned against the frame of the door. "So, in short terms, we have absolutely nothing." Emily sighed and Hotch nodded apologetically. 

"We do have her profile though. And up to this point, she's only ever killed men." Hotch offered and Emily couldn't help but laugh, "She's still an unpredictable, high-functioning psychopath."

"I know, I just..." Hotch trailed off, knowing that there wasn't anything to say to comfort the agent in front of him. "Don't let your guard down and don't do anything stupid." He added.

"Me? Do something stupid? Never." Emily said as she closed her locker and Hotch scoffed before cracking a rare smile. "The cars ready for you," He said getting back on topic, "Derek's going to be there and I have five other undercover agents scattered throughout the bar."

Emily nodded as she gathered her belongings and followed Hotch out the door. "Do you have a plan for when you get in there?" The unit chief asked as the pair walked into the elevator. "I'll make her wait for a little, maybe have Derek talk to her. Get her warmed up a bit and then take her down when she least expects it." Emily said.

"That's it?" Hotch asked slowly, already hating this plan more and more. 

"Well, there's still a chance Y/n knows exactly what she's walking into. And if she does then I'll press the button" Emily said as she held up her wrist. Penelope had given her a bracelet with a small button on it that would alert the team if she pressed it. "I know what I'm doing though, trust me on that."

"Okay, but if at any point I think things are going south I'm sending SWAT in," Hotch said seriously and Emily nodded in agreement. 

As they walked out of the elevator and to the car Emily felt her phone buzz.  She pulled it out of the bag, already knowing who the message was from.

Y/N (6:03 PM)- I can't wait to see you again, Emily.

Emily let out a shallow breath as she reread the message and then pocketed her phone. As soon as she got into the car she closed her eyes, trying to gather herself. She was no stranger to being undercover. In fact, this wasn't even her first undercover case with a serial killer. But it was the first time she had to go undercover as herself. No fake identities or new personas, just regular, old Emily Prentiss. So this should be easy enough, right? Well, at least Emily hoped to God it would be. 

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

Y/n sat at the bar counter in the same black pantsuit from this morning as she waited for Emily to show up. The brunette had sent her the address to one of her favorite bars, and so far Y/n had been impressed. Although, it was currently 6:40, which meant that Emily was ten minutes late but Y/n wasn't too upset. 

"Now what is a pretty lady like you doing all alone?" A man asked as he slid into the chair next to Y/n. The woman turned her head and was face to face with Derek Morgan. She stared at him, eyes narrowing, and Derek had honestly never felt more scrutinized by someone's gaze until now.

"I'm waiting for someone," Y/n said, her hard look quickly turning into a smile and Derek was surprised by how genuine it looked. 

"I wouldn't make you wait," Derek said with a boyish smile as he leaned closer, his knees bumping into Y/n's as he swerved his chair more in her direction. Derek didn't know what he was expecting, be he did not expect Y/n to place a delicate hand on his knee, "I suppose I have time to kill," She said thoughtfully. "I'm Y/n."

"Derek," The agent said as he placed his hand on top of hers. 

"Ruler of the people," Y/n murmured as she tilted her head slightly.

"Excuse me?" Derek asked, confused as to what she was saying.

"The name Derek. It means ruler of the people," Y/n said as she removed her hand and placed it in her lap. She once again eyed the man up and down and Derek, who usually loved the attention from women, was starting to feel uneasy. 

"The meaning behind a name is just as important as the name, don't you think?" Y/n asked and Derek nodded slowly, "Yeah, I guess you're right."

"Now, are you going to buy me a drink or are you merely gracing me with your presence?" Y/n asked, her tone sickly sweet even when it was full of sarcasm.

"Oh right," Derek said shaking his head. He couldn't even comprehend how a two-minute conversation was already throwing him off his game, "What do want?"

"Two Old Fashioned's." Y/n smiled and Derek tried not to read into it the fact that that was one of Emily's favorite drinks. Derek waved the bartender down and ordered the drink. When Derek turned back to Y/n he saw that she was surveying the bar, obviously looking for Emily, although the intentions behind her eyes were still unknown to the agent.

"Are you sure you're not getting stood up?" Derek joked and Y/n turned to look at him with a slight eyebrow raise. "I don't get stood up," She said seriously and Derek believed it.

"Two Old Fashioned's!" The bartender said as he placed the drinks on the counter in front of them. From the corner of Derek's eye, he could see Y/n smile as she looked at the door. As soon as he was about to grab the drink, Y/n's hand cut him off and grabbed both of them. 

"Sorry to cut this short Derek, but it seems that my date has arrived." She smiled as she stood up. 

"Wait that was my drink-" Derek started before he was cut off by Y/n, who was behind his chair, leaning over to whisper in his ear, "Not anymore."

Derek hated the way he tensed up but that only made Y/n laugh softly. "We should do this again sometime," Y/n murmured before pulling away and walking to the middle of the bar. Even though he was now nervous for Emily, he couldn't be more relieved to be away from Y/n. There was something about the woman that Derek couldn't shake.

"I was beginning to wonder when you would show up." Y/n smiled as she shamelessly looked Emily up and down. The brunette just shook her head apologetically, "Sorry! I got stuck at work." She said as the two women made their way through the crowd. 

"You look gorgeous," Y/n complimented as she fell into step with the brunette. Emily smiled as her hand easily found its way to Y/n's lower back as she guided her to a table in the corner of the room, "So do you," Emily said and she wasn't lying. The black suit fit Y/n perfectly and it was one of the reasons Emily had been so drawn to her this morning.

"I thought it was a slow day," Y/n threw over her shoulder. "I thought so too." Emily chuckled as they found a table, her hand dropping from Y/n's back as she reached for her drink. She briefly took note that it was her favorite drink, but she also knew that they had a similar taste in coffee so she didn't want to read into that much. 

"So what is it you do, Emily?" Y/n asked as she took a sip of her drink. 

"I'm an accountant with the firm a couple blocks away," Emily lied easily, "And you?"

"I'm a writer." Y/n smiled and Emily tilted her head slightly, "Really?" She asked, not expecting that to have been the younger woman's answer. 

"Yes, well, I'm a ghostwriter if you want to get specific," Y/n answered and Emily frowned, "What does that mean?"

"I write stories anonymously and sell them to authors so they can put their names on them," Y/n said.

"So you do all the work but don't get any credit?" Emily asked, extremely intrigued if the woman in front of her was telling the truth. Although it did make sense, Y/n didn't profile as a narcissist. 

"I do the work and get a big paycheck, darling. I love to write but I don't want the fame that comes with it." Y/n said and Emily brushed her finger against the younger woman's knuckles, "So I take it you're pretty successful. Who do you write for?" The agent asked, suddenly wondering if she had ever read one of Y/n's books.

"I'm afraid that's classified."

"I'll have you know I am nothing if not persistent," Emily grinned, "You went overseas for your job, right? So it's not an American author." Emily pointed and Y/n shook her head amused, "Alright, enough about me," Y/n said as she grabbed onto the brunette's hand, "Come on. Let's dance," She smiled as she began to drag Emily to the middle of the bar.

"Already?" Emily practically yelled as she followed Y/n. The brunette naively hoped that they would have talked longer. It was kind of part of her plan but it seems like that was out the window now. 

"It's never too early to dance," Y/n said as she pulled Emily flush against her in the crowded room. Her hands went to Emily's hips as the brunette threw are arms lazily around Y/n's neck. She couldn't help but stare into Y/n's eyes. Her gaze was soft, eyes reflecting the flashing lights of the bar, and Emily couldn't help but get lost in them. There was something innocent about Y/n's eyes and that was what pulled Emily out of her trance. Because Y/n wasn't innocent, actually she was probably the furthest thing from innocent. Emily took a deep breath and tried to refocus. 

"I never got the chance to finish my drink," Emily said as her body swayed to the music and Y/n followed suit.

"I didn't take you for someone who needs a drink to have fun," Y/n said as she pulled Emily impossibly closer, their noses were less than an inch away. "I'm not," The brunette said, tilting her head and she realized she would have the perfect angle to connect her lips to the soft ones in front of her. Not that she was going to, or wanted to,Emily reminded herself. 

"Oh yeah? Prove it." Y/n smirked as her thumbs brushed against Emily's hipbones. As soon as Y/n did that she felt herself being flipped around so that her back was right up against the brunette's front. Emily snaked her arms around Y/n's waist and hooked her chin on Y/n's shoulder. "Don't tempt me," Emily murmured against the shell of Y/n's ear, and the agent couldn't help but revel in the way Y/n shivered. For the first time tonight, Emily felt like she was the one in control.

"It's fun to rile you up though." Y/n smiled as turned her face towards Emily, her nose brushing against the side of Emily's cheek. 

"You couldn't handle me riled up." Emily chuckled, although her eyes betrayed her when her gaze focused back on Y/n's plush lips for a brief second. She had hoped Y/n hadn't seen it but of course, she wasn't so lucky. 

"Was that a challenge? Because I'll have you know, I love a challenge." Y/n said as she placed her hands on top of Emily's and leaned further back into her. Emily knew this was her chance, granted it came a lot sooner than she thought. But her trained eye saw the opening so she knew she had to take it, "Let's get out of here," Emily murmured into Y/n's ear, "I'll show you what a real challenge looks like." The brunette continued and Y/n immediately unwrapped herself from Emily's arms and dragged the both of them toward the bathroom. 

Emily made brief eye contact with Derek and he raised his eyebrows silently asking if everything was fine. She gave a slight nod, her code to let him know she was fine and to not approach unless she called for backup. The brunette quickly tore her attention away from Derek and to her hand that was interlaced with Y/n's.

Before they could even make it to the bathroom Emily felt herself being pushed against a wall and Y/n's soft lips claimed her own. She was taken back for a second but her hands still instinctively shot to Y/n's hips. It was the way that Y/n's hands made their to Emily's hair and tugged slightly that Emily was brought back to reality. 

She immediately kissed Y/n back, loving the way she could taste the slight hint of citrus. Wait, not loving, she was only doing this so she could arrest Y/n. Emily reminded herself, even though it was very hard to think about anything other than the Y/n's lips felt.

Emily pulled Y/n even closer, practically lifting the woman as her tongue trailed along Y/n's bottom lip. "Let's go back to my place," Emily said, pulling her head away for a brief second and trying to ignore the beautifully kiss-swollen lips in front of her.

"I have a better idea," Y/n murmured as she connected their lips once again, her kiss was hungry and passionate but soft at the same time. Emily tried not to enjoy it, she knew shouldn't. Y/n was a serial killer after all, but did she have to be so good at kissing?!

Emily felt herself being pulled away from the wall but her lips never left Y/n's. She didn't even know where they were going until she heard a door slam shut and a lock click. The agent internally cursed herself for not being attentive enough, but she could still fix this.

"I think we can do better than a quickie in the bathroom," Emily said as she easily flipped the two of them around, pinning Y/n to the wall by her hips. The younger woman gasped in surprise before looping her arms around Emily's neck. Y/n smiled as she started placing kisses along the brunette's defined jawline. She nipped at the spot just below Emily's ear and she tried her best to suppress the moan that wanted to leave her lips. 

"Not much of an exhibitionist, Agent Prentiss?" Y/n said as she pulled back and gave Emily a sadistic smile. 

Emily felt her stomach drop. She should have known this was too easy. Should have known the second laid eyes on Y/n in the bar earlier. But somehow she couldn't think straight whenever she looked at the woman in front of her. 

"What? Do you really think I am that stupid?" Y/n said with a pout as she studied the way Emily's face hardened. "That I would unknowingly walk into your so-called trap?" Y/n chuckled as she twirled Emily's curls in her hands. "And then you had Derek come over and flirt with me? It's quite comical how predictable you are."

"Why'd you come then?" Emily asked, trying to figure out the right moment to call for backup.

"Like I said earlier, I love a challenge." Y/n grinned before flipping them so quickly that Emily didn't have time to fight back before her back hit the wall. "But right now, it's proving to be rather easy," Y/n sighed as she traced Emily's bottom lip, "You and your team were supposed the be the best. But I have to say, I am rather unimpressed."

Emily immediately pulled her head away even though she had nowhere to go since she was still pinned to the wall. "So you knew who I was this morning at the coffee shop," Emily stated, not knowing if that was worse or better at this particular moment.

Y/n eyes lit up as she leaned closer, "No, I didn't know who you were. That part just was luck."

"So lucky," Emily muttered under breath.  

"As soon as I realized who you were, I cursed myself for being so sloppy," Y/n said, ignoring Emily as trailed her finger across her collarbones, "But then I realized that meeting you was a blessing in disguise. Because now I know what I've been missing for all these years."

"And what's that?" Emily asked as she quickly used all of her momentum and knocked both of them to the floor. Y/n's back collided with the ground and Emily straddled her hips to keep her down. The agent pinned her arms above her head and Y/n barked out a laugh as she stared at the woman on top of her, "Bold. I like it."

"Answer my question" Emily gritted out, as her hands tightened against Y/n's wrist. 

"This. I've missed this." Y/n said she leaned her head up, now inches away from Emily's. "The hunt. It's exhilarating. And I am definitely not going to complain about being pinned down by a very beautiful woman." Y/n grinned and Emily just shook her head. "Well, the hunt's over." She said as she leaned closer, their noses almost touching. "We have almost fifty agents waiting out there for you. The only way you're getting out of here is in cuffs." Emily continued and Y/n surged forward so their lips were almost touching, "Don't threaten me with a good time, Agent Prentiss."

Emily stared into Y/n's eyes, not liking the look in them. There wasn't an ounce of fear for someone who had just been caught. The agent racked her brain with the younger woman's profile, she knew she wouldn't go down without a fight. Knew that everything she did was unpredictable but also meticulously planned. There was no way someone of this caliber would walk into a trap and not have a backup plan. 

"I can see the cogs in your brain turning, Agent Prentiss." Y/n grinned and Emily shook her head, "What else are you up to?" She asked, her eyes never leaving the woman's under her. 

"Reach into my back pocket and find out," Y/n said as she wiggled her hips under Emily's weight. Emily rolled her eyes as she took her weight off the younger woman's torso and immediately hauled them both to a standing position. The agent made quick work of repining Y/n's arms behind her back.

She carefully reached into Y/n's back pocket and pulled out a small device. Emily furrowed her eyebrows as she got a better look at it and realized there was a small timer on the front that appeared to be counting down from 2 minutes.

"What is this?" Emily asked as she lifted the device to the other woman's eyes.

Y/n smiled as her eyes went from the device to Emily. "What? You've never seen a bomb detonator before?"

Angel of Death (Don’t Blame Me, Chapter 1)

Emily Prentiss x Reader

Summary: Emily knew it was wrong. She knew you were the most dangerous woman the BAU had ever seen. Yet, she couldn't seem to stay away from you.

Warnings: Mentions of death/Typical Criminal Minds stuff

Words: 2.2k

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EMILY TAPPED her foot as she waited in line for her coffee. She was already running late for work and the rainstorm that was passing through D.C. did nothing but dampen her mood. 

"Black coffee with Splenda!" The barista called out and Emily let out a breath of relief as she walked over to the counter. She went to reach for her coffee when her hand collided with someone else. She instinctively pulled her hand back and so did the other person. 

"Oh! I'm sorry, I thought that was mine." A woman's voice said causing Emily to look up. She wanted to be annoyed at the inconvenience but found it very hard as she stared at the woman next to her. "It's alright." Emily smiled as she shamelessly looked the woman up and down. She was in an all-black suit with her hair pulled back, highlighting the features of her face that Emily couldn't help but admire. 

"Well, you look like you're in a hurry. I can wait for the next one." The woman said, pulling Emily out of her head, "Oh, I'm not in a hurry." Emily lied, suddenly more interested in talking to the woman next to her than getting to work on time. 

"The previous scowl on your face would say otherwise." The woman chuckled and Emily grinned, "You were watching me?"

"With a face like yours, it's hard not to, darling." The woman said in a sultry tone and Emily couldn't help the small blush that formed on her cheeks. 

"I'm Y/n," The woman said as she held out her hand. "Emily." The brunette smiled as she took her hand, reveling in the feeling of the Y/n's soft but strong hand.

"Another black coffee with Splenda!" The Barista yelled, causing both women to drop their hands. "Well, I guess our dilemma is solved," Y/n said, flashing Emily a smile as she grabbed both coffees and handed one to the brunette.

"Lucky us," Emily said as she brushed her finger across Y/n's hand, delighted in the way it sent a shiver through the other woman's body. "Lucky us," The woman repeated as she looked the brunette up and down one last time, "It was nice to meet you, Emily," Y/n said, smiling at Emily before she turned on her heels and started towards the door.

"Wait!" Emily said, her legs moving faster than her brain as she followed Y/n. 

"You forgot something," Emily said as she caught up to Y/n, who had almost made it out the door. "I did?" Y/n asked, frowning slightly.

"You forgot to ask for my number," Emily smirked, a dimple popping out and Y/n couldn't help but laugh, "That was an awful pickup line."

"Is it working though?" Emily raised an eyebrow as she waved her phone in front of Y/n. "Just this once," Y/n said as she plucked the phone out of Emily's hand and typed her phone number in, "Although, I wouldn't count on it working on any other women," Y/n said as she handed the phone back to the brunette. 

"Noted," Emily said cheekily and Y/n shook her head amused, "I'll see you around, Emily," Y/n smiled as she walked out the door with a nod goodbye.

"You too!" Emily called out and watched as the other woman chuckled to herself. 

As Emily opened up her umbrella and walked towards Quantico, she realized she didn't hate the rain as much anymore. 

●・○・●・○・●・○・●・○・●

"What's got you in such a good mood?" Morgan asked as he saw a rare smile on Emily's face as she walked into the bullpen.

"Nothing," Emily shrugged as she sat at her desk and pulled out all the paperwork she needed to complete for the day.

"Fun night?" Derek inquired and Emily rolled her eyes, "Like I would tell you if it was."

"Oh come on Prentiss, it's a slow day. I want the details." Derek pushed, wanting to do anything but his paperwork.

"I for one, would not like the details." Spencer chimed in causing Emily to roll her eyes. 

"Details for what?" JJ asked as she walked next to Emily's desk, carrying another stack of files causing everyone to groan internally. 

"Prentiss' hot date last night." Derek said at the same time Emily said, "Nothing."

"You went on a date last night?" JJ asked raising her eyebrows as she unloaded around 10 case files onto everyone's desk. 

"No, I didn't. And why don't the two of you mind your own business." Emily glared before pulling out her phone, ignoring the groans from her two friends.

She waited for JJ to go back to her office and Derek to pester someone else before pulling out her phone and finding the number Y/n left her. 

Emily (9:03 am): Hi. It's Emily, from the coffee shop.

The brunette agent immediately put her phone down, trying to suppress the smile that threatened to form on her face. It had been an embarrassingly long time since Emily had properly talked to a woman that she hadn't met at a bar with the only intention of hooking up. So the last thing she needed was Derek and JJ's relentless teasing. 

She was just about to open her computer when she felt her phone buzz. She picked up her phone, delighted at how fast Y/n answered her back.

Y/N (9:04 am): I was beginning to wonder when you were going to text me, Emily from the coffee shop.

Emily (9:05 am): Were you waiting for me? How cute.

Y/N (9:05 am): Oh don't flatter yourself, darling. It's a slow day at work. 

Emily( 9:06 am): Oddly enough, same. That's why I went to the coffee shop this morning. Speaking of which, how come I've never seen you there before?

Y/N (9:07 am): I just moved here. My job has had me overseas for the last couple of years.

Emily (9:07 am): I could show you around. Give you a tour of the city. Out of the goodness of my heart, of course. 

Emily smiled at the message, hoping Y/n would agree when she heard the bullpen doors fly open.

"I found her! She's back! She's back!" Penelope yelled as she ran past everyone, ignoring the concerned looks, and made a beeline straight to Hotch's office.

"What's that about?" Emily frowned as she turned her phone off and turned to Spencer. 

"I'm not sure." He said as he stood up and walked over to Emily's desk. "It's Penelope, it could be anything," Derek added as he also found his way to the brunette's desk since she had the best view into the unit chief's office. 

They watched through the window as Hotch's signature frown got bigger and more words were exchanged between the unit chief and technical analyst.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't look good," Emily murmured and the two men nodded their heads in agreement. The agents watched as Hotch turned his head to the window and they scattered, trying to make it look like they weren't spying on the conversation. 

"Conference room. Now." Hotch called out as he stormed out of office followed by a very nervous Penelope. "Well, this should be fun," Derek muttered as the agents stood up and headed to the round table. 

As soon as they entered the room, Emily could feel the tension radiating off Hotch. She turned to look at JJ who had sat next to her and the blonde just shrugged, equally confused as everyone else. 

"Four years ago the D.C. Police Department notified us of several mysterious deaths in Virginia. The only thing connecting them was a single gunshot wound to the head and a small brand left behind every victim's ear." Hotch said as he pulled up pictures onto the TV. Emily squinted her eyes as she studied the screen, "Are those.... angel wings?" Emily asked as she looked at the brand and Hotch nodded in confirmation. 

"Wait I remember this case. It went cold after a couple of weeks. The unsub moved on when she realized we were after her." Derek said, earning a nod of acknowledgment from both Spencer and JJ.  The only two people completely new to the case were Emily and Rossi. Emily joined the team two years ago and Rossi one. 

"How do you know the unsub is a woman?" Rossi asked as he studied the pictures. 

"The kills were organized but personal. And the use of the angel wing had more feminine connotation than masculine." Spencer answered.

"Yeah, the media named her the Angel of Death, before she disappeared," JJ recalled.

"Except she didn't disappear," Hotch said, "Gideon knew that an unsub this skilled wouldn't just stop killing. So, he had Garcia track the signature for the last couple of years," Hotch said, and Penelope quickly walked next to the TV.

"Yes! And for the first year, I thought that maybe Gideon was wrong. Until I hacked Interpol's system." Penelope said as she pulled up dozens of pictures. "In the first year, I found over 34 matches in the signature in about 20 different places in Europe."

"Thirty-four?! Why weren't we notified?" Derek said incredulously.

"It wasn't in our jurisdiction. It's been Interpol's case for years" Hotch said and Emily shook her head, "So wait, 34 kills in her first year? That's unheard of. How many is she up to now?"

Penelope blew out a breath as she hit the remote and so many pictures filled the screen, you could barely make out each face. "If the system is right, her victim count is in the 300s," Hotch said and everyone went quiet in shock. 

"Three hundred? That's- that's about the same number Pedro Lopez had. One of the world's most prolific serial killers." Spencer rambled.

"And now she's back in the States?" JJ asked worriedly, causing everyone to turn to Hotch. 

"Yes, she's actually in DC as of right now," Hotch said, "Early this morning, Ethan Young was shot point blank in the head at his apartment with an angel wing brand behind his ear," Hotch continued, pulling the picture up.

"Since she's in our jurisdiction she's now our responsibility. Here's the preliminary profile that Interpol just faxed over." Hotch said as he had Garcia pass out the file to everyone.  

"You can't be serious man." Derek scoffed as he looked through the file.

"Excuse me?" Hotch asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Three hundred kills, no name, and not a shred of evidence. We're looking for a needle in a haystack." Derek said, putting his case file on the table.

"Actually, it's more accurate to say we're looking for a needle in a stack of needles." Spencer chimed in and Emily had to stifle a laugh at the look on Derek's face. 

"We have a partial, identification," Penelope said, trying to diffuse the tension in the room. "Two years ago CCTV footage captured this. One of the victim's wives was able to confirm that was her." The technical analyst said as she pulled up an image that was not only blurry but also showed about 1/4 of her face.

"That's... all we have?" Emily asked slowly and Penelope shook her head fastly, "Of course not! When I got the alert this morning I cross-referenced that image with all the CCTV footage from every airport in Virginia and neighboring states. And I got this." The blonde said as she pulled up a new image, slightly obscured but over half a face was shown.

As Emily stared at the screen she felt her breath get caught in her throat. "Can you zoom in?" Emily said, hating how her shaky voice betrayed her.

As the image got larger Emily just froze. She recognized the woman in the picture. How could she not? She had seen the woman less than an hour ago. Shook her hand. Flirted with her. Got her number. Was texting with her!

"Is something wrong, Prentiss?" Hotch asked, concerned at how pale the brunette had become. 

"I-I think I met our unsub this morning." She said wide-eyed as she stared at the unit chief and multiple 'What's?!' were heard throughout the room. 

"Yeah, I ran into her at a cafe this morning. I- um got her number." Emily said, still trying to wrap her head around everything. "She said her name was Y/n." Emily continued.

"Is that who had you all smiley this morning?" Dererk asked raising an eyebrow and Emily kicked him under the table.

"Knock it off," Hotch said sternly before turning back to the brunette, "Did she know who you were?"

"No, I don't think so. And why would she risk talking to an FBI agent?" Emily ran her fingers through her hair, so many emotions flowing through her mind at once, "It had to have been just a coincidence."

"You got a statistic on that Reid?" Derek scoffed and Spencer tapped his fingers on the table, "The chances of accidentally meeting an unsub and then getting her number? No." Spencer shook his head, not meaning to joke but JJ and Derek still had to stifle a laugh. 

"Well, this is good, right? We're already closer than we were 10 minutes ago." Rossi offered and Hotch shook his head, "Finding her was the easy part. Catching her is the harder part."

"Well, this is just great," Emily said, massaging her temples when she felt her phone buzz. She picked it up, pushing the rest of the team's conversation to the back of her head.

Y/N (9:21 am): That sounds nice. I may have to take you up on that :)

Emily stared at the message. What brought her butterflies twenty minutes ago now filled her with unease. 

"Hey guys, I may have a plan," Emily said, cutting into the conversation. 

"What is it?" Hotch asked and she shook her head, not even believing the words that were about to come out of her mouth. 

"I'm going to take the Angel of Death out on a date."

JJ: Do you like me?

Emily: No...

JJ: What if started dating-

Emily: What if I break their face!

Emily: I have the sharpest memory! Name one time I’ve forgotten something.

Derek: You left me in a Walmart parking lot like, three weeks ago.

Emily: I did that on purpose, try again.

TV (Emily Prentiss x Reader)

"What about the plans we made?"

Summary: In which you're grieving your dead wife. But is she actually dead?

Warning: Angst and mentions of death.

YOU WALKED along the cobblestone path, stepping over the cracks you had come to memorize. The sun was shining while the birds were chirping and you wanted nothing more than to shoot those damn birds and rip the sun from the sky. 

It wasn't fair that beauty could exist when the love of your life didn't.

"Hi Em." You smiled sadly as you sat down across from your wife's grave. 

It had been eight months since you'd gotten the call that your wife was dead.

 243 days of existing without your other half. 

34,9920 minutes of wondering why you had to fall in love with the most selfless, heroic, and caring person to walk this earth.

20,995,200 seconds of missing the only person who made everywhere feel like home. 

"I brought you flowers," You said as you put the fresh pair of roses against her gravestone. "The worker at the flower shop said that I must have the happiest partner alive since I buy bouquets so much. How ironic is that?" You chuckled sadly. Not because you found it funny, but because you knew Emily would have. 

'That wouldn't happen if you would stop buying me flowers' Is what Emily would have said. 

"I never understood why you didn't like flowers," You said as you picked at the grass beneath you. "And you don't get a choice now. You broke our promise." You frowned as you threw the small pieces of grass at her grave.

"You need to let that go, my love' Emily would say. 

"I was supposed to go first! That was the deal! But you broke our promise so I can do whatever I want. So if I want to fill your whole damn grave up with flowers then I will." You said indignantly. You knew you probably looked crazy to onlookers. Having a one-sided argument with a grave probably wasn't the best way of coping. Making up your dead wife's side of the conversation probably wasn't the healthiest either, but you didn't care. You didn't care about a lot of things these days. 

'You are so stubborn sometimes' Emily would have said with a teasing smile. 

"We're both stubborn," You said with a small eye roll. "I mean, we wouldn't be in this position if you weren't." Tears start to form at the corner of your eyes. You didn't think it was humanly possible to cry as much as you had over the last eight months. But here you were, the never-ending tears making their way down your cheeks. 

'I'm so sorry sweetheart. I never meant to hurt you' Emily would have said as she consoled you. She would have scooped you up into her arms and tucked your head into the crevice of her neck where it would fit perfectly.

"It's not your fault. None of this is." You sniffled as you reached out and placed your palm against the cold stone of her grave. "It's just not fair! We were supposed to have a lifetime together. We had so many plans."

'I know my love. But just because I'm not here doesn't mean you can't live your life to the fullest' Emily would have smiled, ever the optimist. That had been a surprise when you first met over five years ago. While she may have been a badass, stone-cold agent on the outside, she was nothing but sunshine and warmth on the inside. Of course, you were the only one who got to see her soft interior but you didn't mind, you loved having a part of Emily just to yourself. But now you didn't have any part of Emily. 

"I don't know how to move on without you, Em. How am I supposed to enjoy life when you're not next to me enjoying it too? How can I love anything when half of my heart is buried with you?" You cried, tears still flowing down your cheeks as you leaned your forehead against her grave. You cried until the birds stopped chirping and the sun went down. You mourned the woman Emily never got to grow into. You grieved the life you and Emily never got to live. 

You didn't know how long you'd been there, but after your tears subsided you decided to head home for the night. 

"Bye, Em. I love you." You murmured as you traced her name in the stone before standing up and walking along the cobblestone path once again. 

The drive home was quiet. The radio was playing Emily's favorite station but you weren't paying attention. Maybe that was why you didn't notice the car in your driveway until you parked. You furrowed your brows as you recognized the black SUV, those were the ones Emily drove whenever she was on the job. 

It wasn't unusual for a black SUV to be in your driveway. Emily's team would come to visit you at least once a week. You didn't know if it was because they felt guilty for her death or if they wanted to be close to the closest thing to Emily. You didn't mind it though, it was nice to have company to break up the silence of your house.

However, you knew the team was on a case. Penelope had called and told you that. So you cautiously walked up to your front porch. You shakily grabbed the keys from your purse and unlocked the door. "Hello?" You called as you walked to the living room where you saw a light on.

As soon as you walked in you froze. The purse in your hand drops to the floor. It was a ghost. The ghost of your Emily standing right in front of you. You closed your eyes wondering how your tired brain could conjure up such a perfect image of her. But when you opened them again she was still standing there. 

"Y/n?" Emily's voice cracked as she laid eyes on you for the first time in eight months.

Your brain felt foggy and you couldn't find the flashlight to see through it. Were you hallucinating now? 

Emily could see the shock on your face and the way her presence hadn't registered in your mind. "It's me," The brunette said, wanting nothing more than to wrap her arms around you and never let you go, but she knew she had to be careful. "It's Emily," She said as she walked toward your frozen frame slowly.

She was close enough now that you could feel her breath but you didn't dare to look anywhere but into her eyes. The same eyes that had watched you laugh, cry, and love. The same eyes you had spent years memorizing...

Oh my god. Was this real? Was this your Emily and not a figment of your grieving imagination?

Almost as if reading your mind she smiled, "I'm real, my love", she raised her hand slowly and tucked a piece of hair behind your ear. You let out a shallow breath as you felt her touch and suddenly the fog from your brain had been cleared. This was real. The woman in front of you was your life, your love, your Emily.

You launched yourself at her knowing she would catch you. You were immediately wrapped into her embrace, feeling at home for the first time since you had gotten that soul-crushing phone call. 

Nothing else mattered to you at this moment. All your questions and confusion could be answered later. Right now you were in your wife's arms and you never planned on leaving

 "Emily." You smiled tearily as you tucked your face under her chin, the smell of perfume filling your senses. "Hi, sweetheart." Emily smiled as tears fell down her face, "I told you I would never break a promise." 

-masterlist

[♡]-fluff

[✯]-smut

[𓆸]-angst

EMILY PRENTISS X READER: ONE-SHOTS

Matilda [1.8k] ♡

In which Emily Prentiss comes home to her wife and daughter after a week-long case.

How You Get the Girl [2.8k] ♡

In which Derek and Hotch give you advice for your first date with Emily.

TV [1.2k] 𓆸♡

In which you're grieving your dead wife. But is she actually dead?

Halley's Comet [1.2k] ♡

In which Emily is having a hard time falling asleep, so you keep her company.

The Best Day [2.2k] ♡

In which you and Emily end up coaching your daughter's little league soccer team.

EMILY PRENTISS X READER: SERIES

Don't Blame Me 𓆸♡✯

Summary: Emily knew it was wrong. She knew you were the most dangerous woman the BAU had ever seen. Yet, she couldn't seem to stay away from you.

Angel of Death: Chapter 1

Don’t Tempt Me: Chapter 2

Until Next Time: Chapter 3

See You Soon: Chapter 4

A New Light: Chapter 5

Three Steps Back: Chapter 6

A Special Gift: Chapter 7

Diners and Milkshakes: Chapter 8

A Second Date: Chapter 9