Choosing Love

Chapter 8: Dedication

Lauren spent the next few days shopping for clothes for her baby. She and Louise went out together, having bonded deeply over the past few months and had become close friends. They spent the day shopping and went out for lunch. They had already discussed a plan for who would care for the baby. Lauren of course wanted to take care of him herself, but Louise offered to night nurse him. And they agreed. With everything set, the only things left to do before her child was born were go to prenatal check ups. To her, it was smooth sailing from here on out.

The BAU had solved many cases over the past eight months, but they had never stopped trying to find their friend. Penelope had tried to track down her cell phone, but it was in a trash can in Lorton, Virginia. She didn't know what to do next. The entire team knew that she would be able to evade them. She had aliases, contacts, and if she didn't want to be found, could be a ghost forever. There was no record of Emily Prentiss left behind. But they wouldn't give up. She was a part of their family. Garcia widened her search and looked for any activity with Lauren Reynolds' name, and found a marriage license to Ian Doyle. She was surprised that he used his real name, as was the team. But they figured he wanted it to be real, since he could go anywhere else he wanted. It was the last trace she could find on them.

It was an unusually bright day in Quantico, Virginia- a possible foreshadowing of the day ahead. They had a few days off from work but had decided to converge together in hopes of finding Emily. They met at Hotch's apartment and gathered on the couch.

"Okay. What do we know so far?" Said Hotch.

"Emily drove out to Boston, Massachusetts and dumped her phone en route." Rossi started.

"She got married to Ian Doyle under the name Lauren Reynolds." JJ continued.

"Nobody has heard from her or seen them since that day." Morgan finished.

"We've been looking for Emily, but we should be looking for Lauren Reynolds. That's who she was when she knew Doyle. She's the key to unlocking this case." Hotch said, solemnly.

"So what do we know about Lauren Reynolds?" Asked Garcia.

"She was supposed to die in a car accident." Said Reid, quietly.

"We need to find out more about her."

"How? Everyone on that team is dead except for Emily." Morgan stated grimly.

"There has to be something there that we're missing, some connection we aren't seeing." Said Rossi.

"Like what?" Asked JJ.

"Garcia?"

"Sir?"

"Can you look at everyone connected to Ian Doyle?"

"What am I supposed to be looking for?"

"Look at the employees at his home and any partners in business that have been with him for a long time. Run background checks on all of them."

"I'll go as fast as my fingers can fly."

"Doyle's at the center of this. If we find him, we find Prentiss."

They decided to eat lunch together and kept trying to theorize what could have happened, but were coming up empty. They tried looking at Doyle, but with only superficial information on him they didn't make much headway. Their conversation drifted into gossip.

"Why do you think she fell for him?" Asked Derek.

"She said it herself when we were interrogating Crazy Jane in Washington in '06: "you don't choose who you fall in love with."" Said JJ.

"She was undercover. Sometimes it happens." Said Rossi.

"The interesting thing about that is that she compartmentalizes everything really well. She's able to separate her emotions from her work." Spencer added.

"Maybe that's where the ability stemmed from." Hotch murmured. Morgan nodded slightly.

"Makes sense. She got hurt when her emotions took over in her work and now she has to draw the line."

"Ian Doyle made her who she is." Murmured Reid, shocked. It was a sobering thought.

There was a slight lull in the conversation and for a few moments everything was quiet.

"Guys, I've got something." Said Garcia. Every face in the room turned to her. "I ran a background check on one of Doyle's employees. Her name is Louise Thatcher and she lives at one of Doyle's villas in Tuscany and she's worked for him for twelve years."

"In what capacity?"

"As a nanny to a boy named Declan."

"Twelve years... That was before Emily ever went undercover."

"And I get bonus points because She was Declan's legal guardian up until a few months ago when he was officially adopted by Lauren Doyle."

All of them jumped up from their seats and went home to pack their bags. Garcia bought them all tickets on a commercial flight to Italy. For almost nine hours they sat in the overcrowded economy seating and were reminded of how lucky they were to have the jet. They got there around eleven thirty in the morning. They checked into a hotel (not without some difficulty) and left their bags on their beds.

It was an hour and a half long drive to Tuscany. There were rolling hills of green everywhere they looked. It was a warm spring afternoon, and the sun was shining brightly down on all of them. When they found the private Villa, they parked their car at the bottom of the hill. They walked up the long and winding driveway and were daunted by the sheer size of the manor. The large wooden doors were at least seven feet high, with large brass knockers on it. Hotch knocked at the door and they waited in an intense silence. It was Louise who answered.

"Yes?"

"Louise Thatcher?"

"That's me."

"We're here to see Mrs. Doyle."

She blinked. "Who are you?"

"We're friends who have traveled from Virginia to see her."

She allowed them inside into the foyer.

"One moment." She said, going up the stairs to where Lauren was laying in bed.

"Lauren, you have visitors."

Surprised but curious, she carefully got up and walked down the stairs- only to
Stop at the sight of her old team.