cm/csi:ny - A Walk in the Dark
Title: A Walk In The Dark
Author: Liv darkmagic-luvr
Fandom: Criminal Minds/CSI:NY
Characters: Emily, Hotch, JJ, Morgan, Reid, Rossi, Mac, Stella, Danny, Hawkes, Flack, Andrew and Lizzie Flack
Rating: T
Warnings: general spoilers.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Criminal Minds or CSI:NY. Any and all unrecognizable characters are mine and should not be used without my permission.
Author’s Note: Written as part of my alphabet meme for afteriwake who asked for the prompt ‘zebra’; this is a metaphorical zebra. Set in the future, kept most of the cast on both shows just because I didn’t feel like making a big deal about adding new characters.
We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light. - Earl Nightingale
“What do we have?” asked Hotch, walking up to David and Morgan in the observation room. Both looked up at him as he entered, turning away from the two way mirror. Morgan shook his head.
“Nothing good.”
“It never is. How long until the rest of them are here?” David shrugged and nodded off in the direction Hotch has just came from. He turned and acknowledge Mac who walked up to him, flanked by Reid and Stella.
“They’re all here,” said Mac, folding his arms over his chest. “Can’t tell you how long I can hold him off though.”
“We don’t really think she did this, do we?” asked Reid, looking past the others and into the interrogation room. Hotch didn’t answer him, catching Morgan off guard. He looked over at his boss, a frown forming on his face.
“Hotch?”
“Everyone has a breaking point,” Stella swallowed and looked over through the glass, into the interrogation room. “Maybe this was hers.”
“But, she’s got two kids, and a husband-”
“Who is currently very upset. What the hell is going on?” the team turned to see Flack storming in, eyes blazing, his short hair slightly disheveled. David stepped forward, placing his hand on the younger man’s shoulder.
“Don, you have to calm down-”
“What the hell is going on?” repeated Flack, looking from Hotch to Mac. Reid shook his head and stepped away from the two way mirror. Flack’s gaze swept into the interrogation room and his frown turned from angry to confused and then settled on grief, shaking his head. “Oh, god…”
“Where are your kids?” asked Stella. Flack couldn’t answer her, still staring at his wife sitting behind the glass. “Flack?”
“They‘re at school.” he said quietly. “Emily took them-”
“Don, when did you last see her?” asked Hotch, folding his arms across his chest.
“This morning,” Flack swallowed, closing his eyes. “This isn’t happening-”
“Unfortunately, it is,” started Reid, grimacing. “We’re doing everything we can to figure out what happened, but the odds are-”
“No. No, Emily wouldn’t do this,” said Flack, looking up at Reid.
“With all do respect, Don, Robert Gruenberg was shot with Emily’s gun. Your annalists have concluded that-”
“I want to talk with her,” interrupting Flack and looking at Hotch, who shook his head.
“I’m afraid that wont be possible-”
“She’s barely coherent,” said Flack loudly. “What harm could I possibly do?”
“He’s right, Hotch,” said Morgan. “We can’t question her about what happened until the drugs are out of her system.”
Hotch sighed and looked over at Mac, who looked to be just as uncomfortable with the request as he was. Hotch shrugged and shook his head slightly. “It’s your call, Mac.”
Mac took a moment to think, Flack looking at him hopefully, the rest of them just looking at him. Finally he nodded. “Go see your wife.”
Flack clapped Mac on the shoulder and turned out of the observation room, Morgan pushed after him, catching his arm before he managed to make it into the interrogation room.
“Give me your gun,” he said , holding his hand out for Flack’s weapon. Flack gave him a look.
“Excuse me?”
“You going in there as her husband, not as a detective,” said Morgan clearly. “Give me your gun.”
Flack nodded and pulled out his service weapon, handing it over to Morgan. He nodded at the other man once and turned his back on him, opening the interrogation door and walking in. He let a breath go he didn’t know he was holding, giving his wife a once over as he walked into the room.
Emily was handcuffed to the metal table she was sitting at, blood still covering her arms, shirt and forehead. What looked like a cut above her eyebrow was beginning to bruise around the edges, and her skin was pale. Don moved towards her, pulling a chair from the wall and setting it next to her, sitting down in it and bringing his hands up to her face. Emily groaned slightly, moving into Don’s touch.
“Shh, baby, it’s okay. It’s me,” said Don softly, pushing damp hair out of Emily’s face, getting a better look at the cut on her forehead. “Em, it’s Don.”
“Donnie?”
“Yeah, Em.”
“What’s going on?” Emily tried lifting on of her hands to push her hair out of her face, but it stopped short due to her cuffs. She looked down at her hands and frowned, blinking heavily. “What happened?”
“We’re not sure, we’re still trying to figure it out,” said Don softly, brushing his thumb across her cheek. “It’s going to be okay.”
Emily’s eyes went wide, her head jerking up to look at Don. “The kids-”
“Are at school. I made sure,” Don hesitated, dropping his hand onto her knee. “What’s the last thing you can remember?”
“I, um,” Emily shook her head, trying to clear it, thinking of anything. “Leaving the house. Kissed you goodbye, told Andrew to grab his backpack before he forgot it again. Lizzy was talking about something…”
“Cheerleading tryouts,” finished Don, nodding encouragingly for her to continue. “She wanted to join the squad.”
“She’s thirteen,” said Emily shaking her head, a small smile on her face. “Such ambitions.”
“You don’t remember dropping them off at school?” asked Don. Emily blinked and slowly shook her head.
“I don’t think so,” she groaned. “My head is pounding…”
“I’ll get you something to drink,” Don stood up, leaning down and pressing a kiss to the top of her head and walking out of the interrogation room. Reid and Stella were standing outside the door, waiting for him.
“Did she say anything?” asked Reid after Don had shut the door. “Can she remember what happened?”
“Not yet,” said Don. “She can barely remember this morning.”
“Hawkes and Adam are still at the scene,” said Stella. “There’s a lot of pieces to go through.”
“Is Emily’s gun what killed this guy?” asked Don, folding his arms over his chest. Reid shook his head.
“The gun is what subdued him, the rest was overkill. The guy was torn to shreds. We were lucky we got a positive I.D. on him.”
“Emily couldn’t do that,” said Don. “There’s no way. Not even if she wasn’t drugged.”
“Hey, Stella. Tox is back on Em’s blood,” the trio turned to see Danny jogging up to them, paper in his hand, his eyes hard and his jaw clenched. “Someone dosed her with Ketamine.”
Don swallowed, turning to look back at Emily. Reid took the tox screen from Danny and looked it over, shaking his head. “I’ll tell Hotch.”
Danny was watching Don and took a step forward, placing his hand on his friends shoulder. “We’ll get this son of a bitch, Don. You know we will.”
“How the hell did he get to her?” asked Don, shaking his head and looking over at Danny. “Dropping the kids off at school? Putting gas in her car?”
“I don’t know man, but we’ll figure it out,” said Danny firmly. “I think you should get your kids though.”
“That’s a good idea, Danny,” said Stella, pulling out her phone and dialing someone. “Hawkes, it’s Stella. Can you pick up Lizzie and Andrew up from school? …Yeah now…Emily’s tox screen showed that she had Ketamine in her blood…Yeah, we think she might have been followed…Thanks, Hawkes.”
“This isn’t really happening,” said Don under his breath so no one else could hear him. He cleared his throat and turned away from his friends to get a bottle of water. Someone followed him and before he had a chance to turn around and tell whoever it was that he wasn’t in the mood to chat JJ was tugging him to a stop and forcing a couple aspirin into his hands. He looked at her, quirking an eyebrow.
“They’re for Emily,” said JJ. “But if you need any I’ve got a whole bottle in my purse.”
Don chuckled and raised the hand holding the pills in thanks, turning back to the vending machine to get water. JJ didn’t leave.
“Are you ok?” she asked, a frown forming on her face. Don shook his head.
“Someone drugged my wife, killed someone and tried to blame it on her, Hawkes is pulling my kids out of school because it might be too dangerous for them to be alone, and I can’t do a god damn thing about any of this.”
JJ placed her hand on Don’s shoulder sympathetically. “It’ll be okay. You’ll get through it.”
He took JJ’s words to heart, giving her what he hoped was a convincing smile and turned to head back into the interrogation room. Hotch was inside, his arms folded over his chest and a frown plastered across his face. Then again, it never really did leave his face. He gave Don a nod when he walked in, but didn’t move to leave. Emily still had her head in her hands, her hair falling around her face, making her look small and wounded. She looked up when Don shut the door behind him, and blinked in surprise at Hotch in the corner, like she didn’t know he was there. Her surprised look turned into a frown and her eyes flickered down to her cuffed wrists, and suddenly everything seemed to click together for her.
“Did I do something?” she asked, looking back up at Hotch. Don slid into the seat next to Emily, placing the water and the aspirin on the table.
“No,” said Don, ignoring the feeling of Hotch’s eyes on the back of his neck, concentrating on keeping Emily from freaking out.
“We’re still going through the evidence,” Emily bit her lip, turning her head away from her husband. Don reached out and placed a hand on her knee, resisting the urge to shoot Hotch a glare.
“You were drugged, babe,” said Don. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Drugged?” she mumbled, repeating Don. “When was I drugged?”
“I was hoping you could tell us that,” said Hotch. “Hawkes is picking your kids up from school, they might be able to tell us something.”
“They don’t have anything to do with this,” snapped Don. Hotch nodded, still looking grim.
“I wasn’t implying that they did. But they might have seen something Emily can’t remember.”
Emily touched Don’s hand when he opened his mouth to argue and shook her head when he looked back at her. He closed his eyes, bringing his hand up to his face to rub the bridge of his nose.
A knock on the door startled the three of them and JJ opened the door, poking her head into the room. Her eyes swept over Emily and Don before locking onto Hotch.
“Hotch, Lizzie and Andrew are here,” Hotch started forward, placing his hand on Don’s shoulder before he could get up and headed out of the interrogation room. JJ stayed behind, glancing over her shoulder to watch her boss go and turned back to Emily and Don.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Emily,” said JJ. Don didn’t think she sounded convinced, but Emily nodded.
“Thanks, JJ.”
.
“Did you guys see anything out of the ordinary when your mom dropped you off at school?”
Lizzie shrugged, not looking up from her cell phone. “Not really. I left before the car stopped. No way am I letting anyone see that my mom drops me off at school.”
“Andrew, what about you?”
“Well, I waited ‘til the car stopped before getting out,” said Andrew, giving Lizzie a look. Lizzie rolled her eyes and continued texting. “Mom had to help me with my science project,” he nodded to the large model atom on top of the table.
“Neither of you saw anything strange?” asked Reid. Lizzie looked up long enough to bat her eyelashes at him and shake her head while Andrew just mumbled ‘no’.
“Reid,” he looked up to see Hotch gesture him over to speak with him and Stella outside the break room. Lizzie flipped her phone closed and followed Reid with her eyes before being interrupted by Andrew.
“Did Mom do something wrong?” Lizzie rolled her eyes.
“No, loser.”
“Then why’d we get pulled out of school?”
“That would be a who cares?”
“Lizzie-” but she was already standing up, pulling out her phone and heading for the door.
“Later.”
“Sheldon said we weren’t supposed to-”
“Whatever, shortbus,” Andrew flipped off his sisters back and slumped back in his chair, pulling a book out of his backpack and flipping through it until the door opened again and Morgan walked in.
“Hey, Andy. Where’s you’re sister,” Andrew just shrugged, tossing his book to the side. Moragn went straight for the coffee.
“Hey, Derek?” Morgan looked over his shoulder at Andrew, his staring at his hands folded on top of the table.
“What’s up champ?” Morgan turned back to his coffee, picking up a swizzle stick and popping it into his mouth at the same time he grabbed a handful of half-and-half’s. Andrew looked up at his profile.
“I lied,” he said softly. “I saw mom talk to someone after she dropped me and Lizzie off at school.”
Derek turned back to the boy pulling the swizzle stick out of his mouth with a very serious expression on his face. Leaving the rest of the half-and-half’s on the counter he picked up his coffee and headed over to the table, sitting across from Andrew.
“Tell me what you saw.”
Andrew looked back at his hands. “Mom was helping me unload my science project from the back of the car. It was heavy and it slipped. One of the teachers helped us out.”
“You told us this, Andrew,” began Morgan but Andrew shook his head.
“Mom said to be careful because part of my model musta pricked her when she was unloading it, but there isn’t anything that sharp on my project. See?” Andrew stood up and touching his science project. Lots of popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and fishing wire, but nothing that could draw blood. Andrew looked back at Morgan.
“What about this teacher who helped you out?”
“He said he was a teacher when Mom asked, but I’ve never seen a teacher look so…you know, gross.”
“Gross how?”
“Not clean,” said Andrew with a shrug. “He smelled weird, didn’t look like he shaved, and he keep fidgeting with something in his pocket.”
“Andrew, did you see something like a needle when he walked over to help you and your mom?”
Andrew went silent for a moment, frowning in thought. “You mean something like one of those pressure needles?”
“Andrew, I need you to tell me exactly what this guy looked like.”
.
Emily and Don looked up as Hotch opened the door. It had felt like hours since he had left and they were surprised by his sudden appearance.
“We caught him,” was all he said.
.
“It wasn’t like that! I didn’t know anyone was going to get hurt.”
“You knew exactly what was going to happen,” said Mac, pressing his hands into the table. Reid was sitting at the table, next to him, pulling out photo‘s of the deceased and placing them on the table. “And you had every intention to make sure it happened.”
“That’s why you used the drug on Emily Prentiss, using her gun to shoot Alan McCormick. We found your prints on the gun, under Emily‘s after you had used it,” said Ried. “The drugs in her system caused her to hallucinate, and forget everything that happened like a dream.”
“You murdered an innocent man and framed an FBI agent for it,” Mac practically growled across the table. Reid pulled out an evidence bag with glass shards inside it, placing it on the table for the world to see.
“We caught you in the middle of smashing the Ketamine bottles, trying to destroy the evidence. It’s over.”
.
Emily didn’t move from the table after Hotch had told them they caught the man, just continued staring at her hands. Don had unlocked her handcuffs gently and stood up, expecting her to follow. When she didn’t he turned back to look at her.
“Emily. You okay?”
“Did you think I killed him?”
“No,” said Don firmly. After a moment he walked back over to his wife, frowning at her in concern. “Did you?”
“It got me thinking.”
“Emily, you would never do something-”
“With the things I see, Don, and after this, I’m not sure it isn’t a matter of time before I do something.”
Don went silent for a moment and sat back down in the chair next to her.
“How long have we known each other, Em?”
“Don, please don’t-”
“Right after the terrorist bombings in 2008, right? We didn’t really get off to a great start, remember?”
“I thought it was okay.”
“You arrested my sister for murder, Em.”
“How many times do I have to apologize for that? She fit the profile and she was at all the meetings-”
“That’s not the point,” Emily frowned at him.
“What is the point?”
“Through that whole case we were at each other’s throats. I held out for my sister when all the evidence was against her-”
“I’m pretty sure you got thrown off the case too,” said Emily, interrupting him. Don waved that little fact away.
“Not the point. Point is, I didn’t give up on Sam when she was in that dark place, and I’m not going to give up on you just because you’re overwhelmed by your stupid job.”
“You did not just call my job-”
“Emily, you’re never going to turn into them,” said Don softly. “And you know it, because you’re horrified by the thought of it.”
Emily nodded. Had to admit the man had a point; she was horrified thinking she had killed that man. Don reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, brushing her cheek with his thumb.
“I love you.”
“I know you do. I love you too.”
Author: Liv darkmagic-luvr
Fandom: Criminal Minds/CSI:NY
Characters: Emily, Hotch, JJ, Morgan, Reid, Rossi, Mac, Stella, Danny, Hawkes, Flack, Andrew and Lizzie Flack
Rating: T
Warnings: general spoilers.
Disclaimer: I don’t own Criminal Minds or CSI:NY. Any and all unrecognizable characters are mine and should not be used without my permission.
Author’s Note: Written as part of my alphabet meme for afteriwake who asked for the prompt ‘zebra’; this is a metaphorical zebra. Set in the future, kept most of the cast on both shows just because I didn’t feel like making a big deal about adding new characters.
We all walk in the dark and each of us must learn to turn on his or her own light. - Earl Nightingale
“What do we have?” asked Hotch, walking up to David and Morgan in the observation room. Both looked up at him as he entered, turning away from the two way mirror. Morgan shook his head.
“Nothing good.”
“It never is. How long until the rest of them are here?” David shrugged and nodded off in the direction Hotch has just came from. He turned and acknowledge Mac who walked up to him, flanked by Reid and Stella.
“They’re all here,” said Mac, folding his arms over his chest. “Can’t tell you how long I can hold him off though.”
“We don’t really think she did this, do we?” asked Reid, looking past the others and into the interrogation room. Hotch didn’t answer him, catching Morgan off guard. He looked over at his boss, a frown forming on his face.
“Hotch?”
“Everyone has a breaking point,” Stella swallowed and looked over through the glass, into the interrogation room. “Maybe this was hers.”
“But, she’s got two kids, and a husband-”
“Who is currently very upset. What the hell is going on?” the team turned to see Flack storming in, eyes blazing, his short hair slightly disheveled. David stepped forward, placing his hand on the younger man’s shoulder.
“Don, you have to calm down-”
“What the hell is going on?” repeated Flack, looking from Hotch to Mac. Reid shook his head and stepped away from the two way mirror. Flack’s gaze swept into the interrogation room and his frown turned from angry to confused and then settled on grief, shaking his head. “Oh, god…”
“Where are your kids?” asked Stella. Flack couldn’t answer her, still staring at his wife sitting behind the glass. “Flack?”
“They‘re at school.” he said quietly. “Emily took them-”
“Don, when did you last see her?” asked Hotch, folding his arms across his chest.
“This morning,” Flack swallowed, closing his eyes. “This isn’t happening-”
“Unfortunately, it is,” started Reid, grimacing. “We’re doing everything we can to figure out what happened, but the odds are-”
“No. No, Emily wouldn’t do this,” said Flack, looking up at Reid.
“With all do respect, Don, Robert Gruenberg was shot with Emily’s gun. Your annalists have concluded that-”
“I want to talk with her,” interrupting Flack and looking at Hotch, who shook his head.
“I’m afraid that wont be possible-”
“She’s barely coherent,” said Flack loudly. “What harm could I possibly do?”
“He’s right, Hotch,” said Morgan. “We can’t question her about what happened until the drugs are out of her system.”
Hotch sighed and looked over at Mac, who looked to be just as uncomfortable with the request as he was. Hotch shrugged and shook his head slightly. “It’s your call, Mac.”
Mac took a moment to think, Flack looking at him hopefully, the rest of them just looking at him. Finally he nodded. “Go see your wife.”
Flack clapped Mac on the shoulder and turned out of the observation room, Morgan pushed after him, catching his arm before he managed to make it into the interrogation room.
“Give me your gun,” he said , holding his hand out for Flack’s weapon. Flack gave him a look.
“Excuse me?”
“You going in there as her husband, not as a detective,” said Morgan clearly. “Give me your gun.”
Flack nodded and pulled out his service weapon, handing it over to Morgan. He nodded at the other man once and turned his back on him, opening the interrogation door and walking in. He let a breath go he didn’t know he was holding, giving his wife a once over as he walked into the room.
Emily was handcuffed to the metal table she was sitting at, blood still covering her arms, shirt and forehead. What looked like a cut above her eyebrow was beginning to bruise around the edges, and her skin was pale. Don moved towards her, pulling a chair from the wall and setting it next to her, sitting down in it and bringing his hands up to her face. Emily groaned slightly, moving into Don’s touch.
“Shh, baby, it’s okay. It’s me,” said Don softly, pushing damp hair out of Emily’s face, getting a better look at the cut on her forehead. “Em, it’s Don.”
“Donnie?”
“Yeah, Em.”
“What’s going on?” Emily tried lifting on of her hands to push her hair out of her face, but it stopped short due to her cuffs. She looked down at her hands and frowned, blinking heavily. “What happened?”
“We’re not sure, we’re still trying to figure it out,” said Don softly, brushing his thumb across her cheek. “It’s going to be okay.”
Emily’s eyes went wide, her head jerking up to look at Don. “The kids-”
“Are at school. I made sure,” Don hesitated, dropping his hand onto her knee. “What’s the last thing you can remember?”
“I, um,” Emily shook her head, trying to clear it, thinking of anything. “Leaving the house. Kissed you goodbye, told Andrew to grab his backpack before he forgot it again. Lizzy was talking about something…”
“Cheerleading tryouts,” finished Don, nodding encouragingly for her to continue. “She wanted to join the squad.”
“She’s thirteen,” said Emily shaking her head, a small smile on her face. “Such ambitions.”
“You don’t remember dropping them off at school?” asked Don. Emily blinked and slowly shook her head.
“I don’t think so,” she groaned. “My head is pounding…”
“I’ll get you something to drink,” Don stood up, leaning down and pressing a kiss to the top of her head and walking out of the interrogation room. Reid and Stella were standing outside the door, waiting for him.
“Did she say anything?” asked Reid after Don had shut the door. “Can she remember what happened?”
“Not yet,” said Don. “She can barely remember this morning.”
“Hawkes and Adam are still at the scene,” said Stella. “There’s a lot of pieces to go through.”
“Is Emily’s gun what killed this guy?” asked Don, folding his arms over his chest. Reid shook his head.
“The gun is what subdued him, the rest was overkill. The guy was torn to shreds. We were lucky we got a positive I.D. on him.”
“Emily couldn’t do that,” said Don. “There’s no way. Not even if she wasn’t drugged.”
“Hey, Stella. Tox is back on Em’s blood,” the trio turned to see Danny jogging up to them, paper in his hand, his eyes hard and his jaw clenched. “Someone dosed her with Ketamine.”
Don swallowed, turning to look back at Emily. Reid took the tox screen from Danny and looked it over, shaking his head. “I’ll tell Hotch.”
Danny was watching Don and took a step forward, placing his hand on his friends shoulder. “We’ll get this son of a bitch, Don. You know we will.”
“How the hell did he get to her?” asked Don, shaking his head and looking over at Danny. “Dropping the kids off at school? Putting gas in her car?”
“I don’t know man, but we’ll figure it out,” said Danny firmly. “I think you should get your kids though.”
“That’s a good idea, Danny,” said Stella, pulling out her phone and dialing someone. “Hawkes, it’s Stella. Can you pick up Lizzie and Andrew up from school? …Yeah now…Emily’s tox screen showed that she had Ketamine in her blood…Yeah, we think she might have been followed…Thanks, Hawkes.”
“This isn’t really happening,” said Don under his breath so no one else could hear him. He cleared his throat and turned away from his friends to get a bottle of water. Someone followed him and before he had a chance to turn around and tell whoever it was that he wasn’t in the mood to chat JJ was tugging him to a stop and forcing a couple aspirin into his hands. He looked at her, quirking an eyebrow.
“They’re for Emily,” said JJ. “But if you need any I’ve got a whole bottle in my purse.”
Don chuckled and raised the hand holding the pills in thanks, turning back to the vending machine to get water. JJ didn’t leave.
“Are you ok?” she asked, a frown forming on her face. Don shook his head.
“Someone drugged my wife, killed someone and tried to blame it on her, Hawkes is pulling my kids out of school because it might be too dangerous for them to be alone, and I can’t do a god damn thing about any of this.”
JJ placed her hand on Don’s shoulder sympathetically. “It’ll be okay. You’ll get through it.”
He took JJ’s words to heart, giving her what he hoped was a convincing smile and turned to head back into the interrogation room. Hotch was inside, his arms folded over his chest and a frown plastered across his face. Then again, it never really did leave his face. He gave Don a nod when he walked in, but didn’t move to leave. Emily still had her head in her hands, her hair falling around her face, making her look small and wounded. She looked up when Don shut the door behind him, and blinked in surprise at Hotch in the corner, like she didn’t know he was there. Her surprised look turned into a frown and her eyes flickered down to her cuffed wrists, and suddenly everything seemed to click together for her.
“Did I do something?” she asked, looking back up at Hotch. Don slid into the seat next to Emily, placing the water and the aspirin on the table.
“No,” said Don, ignoring the feeling of Hotch’s eyes on the back of his neck, concentrating on keeping Emily from freaking out.
“We’re still going through the evidence,” Emily bit her lip, turning her head away from her husband. Don reached out and placed a hand on her knee, resisting the urge to shoot Hotch a glare.
“You were drugged, babe,” said Don. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”
“Drugged?” she mumbled, repeating Don. “When was I drugged?”
“I was hoping you could tell us that,” said Hotch. “Hawkes is picking your kids up from school, they might be able to tell us something.”
“They don’t have anything to do with this,” snapped Don. Hotch nodded, still looking grim.
“I wasn’t implying that they did. But they might have seen something Emily can’t remember.”
Emily touched Don’s hand when he opened his mouth to argue and shook her head when he looked back at her. He closed his eyes, bringing his hand up to his face to rub the bridge of his nose.
A knock on the door startled the three of them and JJ opened the door, poking her head into the room. Her eyes swept over Emily and Don before locking onto Hotch.
“Hotch, Lizzie and Andrew are here,” Hotch started forward, placing his hand on Don’s shoulder before he could get up and headed out of the interrogation room. JJ stayed behind, glancing over her shoulder to watch her boss go and turned back to Emily and Don.
“Everything’s going to be okay, Emily,” said JJ. Don didn’t think she sounded convinced, but Emily nodded.
“Thanks, JJ.”
.
“Did you guys see anything out of the ordinary when your mom dropped you off at school?”
Lizzie shrugged, not looking up from her cell phone. “Not really. I left before the car stopped. No way am I letting anyone see that my mom drops me off at school.”
“Andrew, what about you?”
“Well, I waited ‘til the car stopped before getting out,” said Andrew, giving Lizzie a look. Lizzie rolled her eyes and continued texting. “Mom had to help me with my science project,” he nodded to the large model atom on top of the table.
“Neither of you saw anything strange?” asked Reid. Lizzie looked up long enough to bat her eyelashes at him and shake her head while Andrew just mumbled ‘no’.
“Reid,” he looked up to see Hotch gesture him over to speak with him and Stella outside the break room. Lizzie flipped her phone closed and followed Reid with her eyes before being interrupted by Andrew.
“Did Mom do something wrong?” Lizzie rolled her eyes.
“No, loser.”
“Then why’d we get pulled out of school?”
“That would be a who cares?”
“Lizzie-” but she was already standing up, pulling out her phone and heading for the door.
“Later.”
“Sheldon said we weren’t supposed to-”
“Whatever, shortbus,” Andrew flipped off his sisters back and slumped back in his chair, pulling a book out of his backpack and flipping through it until the door opened again and Morgan walked in.
“Hey, Andy. Where’s you’re sister,” Andrew just shrugged, tossing his book to the side. Moragn went straight for the coffee.
“Hey, Derek?” Morgan looked over his shoulder at Andrew, his staring at his hands folded on top of the table.
“What’s up champ?” Morgan turned back to his coffee, picking up a swizzle stick and popping it into his mouth at the same time he grabbed a handful of half-and-half’s. Andrew looked up at his profile.
“I lied,” he said softly. “I saw mom talk to someone after she dropped me and Lizzie off at school.”
Derek turned back to the boy pulling the swizzle stick out of his mouth with a very serious expression on his face. Leaving the rest of the half-and-half’s on the counter he picked up his coffee and headed over to the table, sitting across from Andrew.
“Tell me what you saw.”
Andrew looked back at his hands. “Mom was helping me unload my science project from the back of the car. It was heavy and it slipped. One of the teachers helped us out.”
“You told us this, Andrew,” began Morgan but Andrew shook his head.
“Mom said to be careful because part of my model musta pricked her when she was unloading it, but there isn’t anything that sharp on my project. See?” Andrew stood up and touching his science project. Lots of popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners and fishing wire, but nothing that could draw blood. Andrew looked back at Morgan.
“What about this teacher who helped you out?”
“He said he was a teacher when Mom asked, but I’ve never seen a teacher look so…you know, gross.”
“Gross how?”
“Not clean,” said Andrew with a shrug. “He smelled weird, didn’t look like he shaved, and he keep fidgeting with something in his pocket.”
“Andrew, did you see something like a needle when he walked over to help you and your mom?”
Andrew went silent for a moment, frowning in thought. “You mean something like one of those pressure needles?”
“Andrew, I need you to tell me exactly what this guy looked like.”
.
Emily and Don looked up as Hotch opened the door. It had felt like hours since he had left and they were surprised by his sudden appearance.
“We caught him,” was all he said.
.
“It wasn’t like that! I didn’t know anyone was going to get hurt.”
“You knew exactly what was going to happen,” said Mac, pressing his hands into the table. Reid was sitting at the table, next to him, pulling out photo‘s of the deceased and placing them on the table. “And you had every intention to make sure it happened.”
“That’s why you used the drug on Emily Prentiss, using her gun to shoot Alan McCormick. We found your prints on the gun, under Emily‘s after you had used it,” said Ried. “The drugs in her system caused her to hallucinate, and forget everything that happened like a dream.”
“You murdered an innocent man and framed an FBI agent for it,” Mac practically growled across the table. Reid pulled out an evidence bag with glass shards inside it, placing it on the table for the world to see.
“We caught you in the middle of smashing the Ketamine bottles, trying to destroy the evidence. It’s over.”
.
Emily didn’t move from the table after Hotch had told them they caught the man, just continued staring at her hands. Don had unlocked her handcuffs gently and stood up, expecting her to follow. When she didn’t he turned back to look at her.
“Emily. You okay?”
“Did you think I killed him?”
“No,” said Don firmly. After a moment he walked back over to his wife, frowning at her in concern. “Did you?”
“It got me thinking.”
“Emily, you would never do something-”
“With the things I see, Don, and after this, I’m not sure it isn’t a matter of time before I do something.”
Don went silent for a moment and sat back down in the chair next to her.
“How long have we known each other, Em?”
“Don, please don’t-”
“Right after the terrorist bombings in 2008, right? We didn’t really get off to a great start, remember?”
“I thought it was okay.”
“You arrested my sister for murder, Em.”
“How many times do I have to apologize for that? She fit the profile and she was at all the meetings-”
“That’s not the point,” Emily frowned at him.
“What is the point?”
“Through that whole case we were at each other’s throats. I held out for my sister when all the evidence was against her-”
“I’m pretty sure you got thrown off the case too,” said Emily, interrupting him. Don waved that little fact away.
“Not the point. Point is, I didn’t give up on Sam when she was in that dark place, and I’m not going to give up on you just because you’re overwhelmed by your stupid job.”
“You did not just call my job-”
“Emily, you’re never going to turn into them,” said Don softly. “And you know it, because you’re horrified by the thought of it.”
Emily nodded. Had to admit the man had a point; she was horrified thinking she had killed that man. Don reached out and tucked her hair behind her ear, brushing her cheek with his thumb.
“I love you.”
“I know you do. I love you too.”