Fighter

Another One

Two men in suits enter. One of the men asks, “Are you SSA Emily Prentiss?”

Hesitantly, Emily responds, “Yes…”

A small blonde boy pushes by them, “Emily!”

Declan runs up to her and hugs her. Emily hugs Declan back but looks at the two men. The two men, “Declan Ian Doyle has been legally moved into your custody.” The two men leave immediately. The team stands in awe.

“Emily, look what I drew on the way here!” Declan shows Emily her rabbit he drew on the plane ride to DC. Emily receives a text, Declan asks, “Who is that?”

Emily reads aloud, “Have fun with Declan.” Emily looks up at Aaron with great concern

Aaron promptly takes her phone and motions for the team to follow him out the door. Declan repeats his question, “Who was that?”

“Oh, it was nobody,” Emily readjusts her posture and lets Declan sit by her bedside. Emily asks, “So you are going to stay with me?”

Declan nods his head and asks, “Why are you in the hospital?”

Emily takes a second to find the right wording, “I just had babies.”

Declan’s face goes from curious to shock. Declan becomes excited, “Can I see them?”

Emily responds, “Maybe tomorrow. They need to rest for a little bit.”

“They?” Declan hops off the bed and spins around, “They?”

“There are two of them. Louis and Lauren,” Emily smiles.

“Like Louise?” Declan sits back down seriously.

Emily leans back, “Yes, like Louise.”

“I miss her,” Declan dramatically lays down by her feet.

Emily sits back up and hugs Declan, “I miss her too, bud.”

Aaron walks in with a detailed officer, “There is a detailed officer outside your room, outside the newborn’s room, outside every exit and outside your house. I don’t want to hear how you are fine, you are not. You and Declan are in danger and for the time being you are being moved to a different hospital and then to a halfway house.”

“But-” Emily lets Declan go and reaches for her phone.

“No buts. I am taking your phone. The team and I are launching a full investigation. You are and will be our victim, as well as Declan and the twins,” Aaron says bluntly.

Declan asks, “What does that mean?”

“You and I, and the twins are going to spend some quality time with each other until we are safe,” Emily tries to explain in the best way possible without having him panic. Emily turns to Aaron, “I have the right to refuse your help, and that is what I am doing. I will be safe. Ian won’t hurt-” Emily blocks Declan’s ears off, “Ian won’t hurt his children. I know that for a fact.”

“But he will hurt you…” Aaron sinks his head down.

Emily lightly says, “Not now. We can talk later.” She takes her hands off his head and smiles, “Sorry about that, bud.”

Before Emily can even think, Declan blurts, “My dad was a bad guy. The ones you made me stay away from, right?”

Aaron promptly exits the room as Emily loses all her vocabulary. Emily manages to put together a few sentences, “Come here. Sit down.” Declan sits at her bedside and holds her hand, “Your dad ended up on the wrong side of our radar. You have to understand though, he tried his very best to be the greatest and safest dad he could be; and sometimes that meant pretending you weren’t his. Your dad would never hurt you. He loves you, but now that he is gone… Now that he is gone, you don’t have to hide anymore. You can have your wonderful average life again, but this time, with me.”

He responds fairly quickly, “Did you love him?”

Emily takes a second to answer, “Yes, I did. I loved your dad very much. There was a point where I tried to help him turn, and become a good guy. I would have taken you, and Louise would have come. We would have been a happy family, but…”

“Why didn’t you?” Declan asks before Emily can finish her sentence.

“He couldn’t leave his bad life behind,” Emily briefly explains.

Perplexed, Declan starts to understand, “He didn’t choose me.”

“You have to understand, he loved you so much,” Emily retorts.

Declan shakes his head in frustration, hops off the bed, raises his voice, “If he loved me, he would have chosen me over his bad life!”

He runs out the door in a huff. Emily reaches out to try and reach him before he leaves, but is unsuccessful, “Declan, wait!”

Aaron jogs into the room, “What’s going on? Where’s Declan?”

Emily, now on the verge of tears, answers, “He asked me about Ian, and I guess he thinks that Ian wasn’t- I just- He’s gone.”

Aaron immediately calls security. JJ and Reid run into the room and both ask, “Where’s Declan?”

“He ran away!” Emily tries to get out of bed.

Penelope enters the room and rushes over to Emily, “No, no, no, you just got out of surgery you can’t get up.” Helping Emily back into bed, she looks around the room, “Where’s Declan?”

Before Emily can answer for the third time, all of them hear, “CODE PINK. CODE PINK. MISSING CHILD. BLONDE HAIR, BLUE EYES, 10 YEARS OLD, MALE. BLONDE HAIR, BLUE EYES, 10 YEARS OLD, MALE.”

Derek and Dave, walking back from the cafeteria with the team’s coffee’s in their hands, start sprinting towards the room. Finally, Derek and Dave meet up at the room to see everybody dispersing to find Declan. Penelope meets them in the hallway, “Declan is missing, JJ is on floor 1, Spencer is on floor 2, Aaron’s on this floor. I’m on 4, and Dave is on floor 5. Clear?”

Derek asks, “Where am I?”

“With the panicked mother,” Penelope answers and runs away.

Derek nods his head and enters Emily’s room. She was put on oxygen to help her breathe better through her panic attack. Derek pulls up a chair while everyone is frantically looking for this small child, “Coffee? I got it for the rest of the team, but you look like you need it more than me.”

“I do need it more than you, but I can’t have caffeine for another month,” Emily declines the coffee.

The two sit in silence for a little bit, until Derek breaks it with pictures, “While you were away in wherever, I got a dog.” Derek shows pictures of his new rescue puppy, “Her name is Ginger. She is a rescue pitbull. She is the sweetest thing ever. I’m really hoping that Penelope will let up with the gifts now that we have the three new additions to the team.” Derek looks up from his phone to see Emily crying, “What? What’s wrong, princess?”

“Nothing. Nothing is wrong,” Emily wipes away her tears, but continues to cry, “It’s all my hormones.” Derek is still confused, Emily elaborates, “Ginger is the cutest dog I have ever seen in my entire life.”

Derek stands up, “I’m going to hug you now.” Derek leans into Emily who starts balling harder. As he lets go, Derek asks on a more serious note, “Where were you?”

Emily takes a deep breath, “I mainly spent my 7 months in Paris as Marisol Monet, but I went to Italy under the identity Bernadette Bonetti, for a few weeks when tensions got high. I also had passports for Sabine Schneider, Germany and Laura Lopez, Spain.”

“That’s a lot of identities,” Derek's jaw drops.

“I’m surprised I didn’t have an identity crisis,” Emily shrugs her shoulders. Derek and Emily both laugh.

While those two are having the times of their lives, the team is looking everywhere for Declan. Penelope clicks down the hallway with her hot pink heels. She stops to look into the babies room, just to find Declan sitting their in between both incubators.