𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘀

𝟎𝟎𝟐

"𝙷𝚘𝚠 𝙲𝚘𝚞𝚕𝚍 𝚈𝚘𝚞?"
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ

HOTCH walks into the office the team had made themselves comfortable in and finds Emily sitting at the table alone.  He feels bad that the team sort of ganged up on her and debunked her theory so quickly.  After Emily left, Hotch and the rest of the team realized that her theory may not be too far out.

"I know that you want to stick up for her—" Hotch begins.

"She doesn't fit the profile, not even a little bit." Emily states.

"We don't really know the profile, yet."

"Then, why did we bring her in?" Emily questions her boss.

"She ran away; that's something." Hotch defends his decision and looks at Emily. He knows exactly what she is thinking.

"I think Reid's right," Hotch says, "I think she has some anger issues. But I also think she was never given a chance to work them out."

"So, you trust me?" Emily asks, shocked.

"I trust you, but I don't trust her. Not yet, at least.  Can you talk to her? She thinks you understand her." Hotch asks and sees Emily nod. Deep down, Emily knows that she does genuinely understand the teen.

Emily walks to the interrogation room and opens the door. She takes a seat across from Noah again and notices that the teen subconsciously calms down.  She eyes the teen, who blankly stares back at her.

"Noah," Emily sweetly speaks, "I think you know who did this." She tells the teen.

"I don't." Noah insists as she looks away.

"When did he tell you to keep it a secret?" Emily asks, knowing she can get through to the teen.

"What?" Noah asks in a bit of shock.

"You don't have to protect him." Emily calmly talks.  Noah looks up at the woman and sees the comfort in her eyes.

"You don't owe him anything, Noah.  If he hurt your mother, he deserves to go down for that — not you." Emily says and waits for the teen's response.

"I don't know for sure.  He never said anything to me." Noah says in a soft voice.

"Was there anything that your brother was involved in?  Anything against the law or dangerous?" Emily asks.

"Not that I know of,"

"Any strange groups or people he hung out with?"

"He did tell me that he was going to these meetings.  He wanted me to go with him, but I didn't want to.  Something about a meeting with some other kids..." Noah trails off, trying to remember as much as possible.

"Do you know any other kids who were in the group?" Emily questions as she watches Noah try to remember.

"He only told me about his friend, Ethan.  I don't know about the other ones, but if this has anything to do with the other women...I can point you to the right people. I think they met at the church on Broker Street." Noah tells the woman.

"I'll be back," Emily says and goes to the observation room.

"I want the older kids of all the victims brought into the station." Hotch tells his team and assigns everyone a kid, "Prentiss and JJ, I need you to bring in Nick."