Secrets

      All of the agents are sitting at their desks in the bullpen working when Hotch and Strauss finally come out of the office again. Strauss heads for the door as Hotch stopped to talk to his team. He looks down at his watch before starting. 

      “Strauss and I are heading over to try and interview Emily. You all are excused from work. I know many of you aren’t leaving but know that it will be on your own personal time.” He says looking at the agents who all nod. Not one of them even flinches to leave. He nods, understanding their commitment and starts heading out the door. JJ stands up following him. 

     “Hotch can I join you? I won’t even ask a question I just need to see her.” JJ says pleading with him. 

     “JJ I can’t, you will see her tomorrow when we bring her here for more questioning.” He says and heads out the door. JJ takes a deep breath and heads back to her desk. Back to work. 

Meanwhile at the prison 

    Hotch and Strauss sat waiting for the guards to bring Emily to the room they were waiting in. After about twenty minutes had passed a young officer came in the door. 

    “Where is Agent Prentiss?” Hotch says standing up. 

    “We can’t bring her for questioning right now.” The young officer said looking at the two Agents in front of him. 

     Hotch began to speak but Strauss stood up and walked over to the officer. “You will come back with Agent Prentiss within 5 minutes and if you do not I will personally call the director of the FBI to come down here and get her for us.” Sternly before watching the young officer run off to find her. 

     “I haven’t heard you use that voice in years.” Hotch says looking at her. 

     “Well you haven’t given me a reason to use it. Now can we focus, we need to get this sorted out fast.” She says looking down at her tablet. Though Strauss would never admit it she liked Agent Prentiss, she fit perfectly on the team. “Do you think you can get her to tell you about this mission she was on?” Strauss says not sure if she believes it. 

      “I will try.” Hotch says before turning his head to see the door open. He held his breath as he watched two officers escort, but mainly carry, Emily in. The two officers set her on the chair in front of them before leaving the room. Hotch notices the cuts and major bruising along his agent's face. Her lip is split open with blood still coming out. She refuses to make eye contact with either Hotch or Strauss trying to keep her head down. 

      “Agent Prentiss.” Strauss says getting her attention. Emily just looks up at them, her eyes looking back at Strauss empty. As she does that Hotch notices distinctive marks on her neck. He stands up and immediately exits the room heading for the person in charge. Strauss looks over the agent sitting before her, it was not the strong and confident agent she knew. She stood up as well and headed to find Hotch. By the time Strauss finds Hotch he is already yelling at the warden. 

     “How could you let this happen. That is a federal agent! You were just supposed to hold her for us. Whoever did this and turned a blind eye will be charged with assault of a federal agent!” Hotch says getting louder. 

     Strauss opens the door and touches Hotch's arm to try to calm him down. He stops and looks at her shaking his head before Strauss speaks. 

     “Warden, I have called the director of the FBI and agent Prentiss is being released to our custody.” He looks at her and nods. “There will also be a full investigation into what happened here in the last few hours. I want a list of all of the officers our agent came in contact with while she was here. I expect all of them to be fired by morning and arrested for not only turning a blind eye to this but also assaulting a federal officer.” She leans in before continuing. “You better hope your name is not on that list sir. Because if you think what you have allowed to happen to my Agent to be bad. What will happen to you will be much worse.” She said leaving the room. 

       The pair make their way back down to the room. Hotch gets the keys from the officer who is standing outside the door. “She is coming with us.” Is all he says opening the door. Emily is sitting still just staring off into nothing. Hotch starts to undo the handcuffs around her ankles which causes her to flinch, he looks up at her and sees the panic and fear in her eye. 

     “Hey, it’s just me. We are taking you out of here.” He says looking at her but her expression doesn’t change. Strauss looks over to him and decides to try something. 

     “Agent Prentiss.” She says which causes Emily to snap her head over to her and nod. “ I and unit chief Hotchner are going to undo your cuffs and you are coming back to headquarters with us.” Strauss watches as Emily’s face softens a bit and takes a deep breath. Hotch undoes the cuffs and sets them aside. 

     “Can you walk?” He asks, sticking out his hand. Emily just nods and slowly gets up and follows them out the door. Strauss walks in front of Emily as Aaron stands right by her side making sure no one can even look at her. They get to the car and Emily slides in the back and looks out the window as they drive back. 

     “How did you know that would work?” Hotch whispers to Strauss. 

      “It’s in her training. She has been trained for years to always respond to her superiors even in the worst situations.” Strauss looking at the road. 

Back at the bau. 

     “Okay I think we have most of it figured out.” Garcia says to the team who is gathered in the bullpen. “Now we just need to actually create the documents. Rossi, you have the most experience writing these would you be able to help us make sound believable?” She says looking at him. 

     “Of course” he says looking at her. 

     “Perfect I’ll create the document and share it with you all. Everyone needs to work on it so we can get this to Strauss ASAP.” Garcia says giving everyone their tables. “Even you Reid.” Handing him one, he just simply nods. 

     Everyone sits down and starts to work on writing the documents, JJ was tasked with creating fake media releases by the agencies that were supposed to be used by them. Everyone is working diligently that when the door opens they all assume it is just Hotch coming back and don’t look up. Morgan however instinctively looks up. 

     “Oh my god.” He says quietly. This catches the team's attention and they all look to see what he is looking at. JJ looks over and her breath catches in her throat. “Emily.” She barely says above a whisper. JJ can see all of the bruises and cuts that are on her face along with blood stains and rips in her jumpsuit. JJs knees start to buckle as she watches Hotch lead her into the conference room and close the blinds.  

    Morgan is the first to run up and bang on the door. JJ follows quickly behind him standing waiting for the door to open. After a couple more knocks on the door Strauss opens it and JJ peaks inside and can see Emily curled up in a ball in the corner of the room shaking. 

     “You’re scaring her.” Strauss says glaring at Derek as she quickly starts to close the door behind her. JJ tried to go past her into the room. 

     “Let me in there.” JJ says, trying to walk past her. 

     “You can in a bit but first we have to get her to calm down becausesomeone” she snaps her head towards Morgan. “just brought us back to square one.” She says glaring at Morgan. 

     “I’m just trying to help. You’re the one who put her in that situation and look what happened to her! You said she would be safe, that is not Prentiss in there. Don’t try to turn this back on me. This was all your doing!” He says, starting to get louder. The two stare at each other for a moment but are interrupted by Hotch opening the door. 

       “Agent Morgan can you go get Emily some food, she has not eaten anything yet.” Morgan nods and grabs his keys before taking off. “JJ can you go find something more comfortable for her to wear, check her to go bag for a pair of sweats or anything.” He says, JJ just nods going to try to find something for her to wear. “Everyone let’s meet in the bullpen in 15.” He said going into his office with Strauss. After a couple minutes the team watches as Strauss heads out of his office and leaves. 

      “At least she is gone.” Rossi said looking over to Reid who is still frantically working trying to distract himself. He looks over to JJ who is digging through Emily’s to go bag until she pulls out her issued workout clothes. Rossi steps over to her and puts his hand on her shoulder. 

      “JJ, take a deep breath for me.” Rossi says looking at how panicked the younger agent is. 

      “I can’t, I need to be in there. How could they let this happen to her?” She said looking at him. 

      “It’s okay, we have her now. But she needs you to take some deep breathes so you can be there for her.” He says looking at her sincerely. 

      JJ just nods and finally lets out a deep breath she didn’t realize she had been holding since seeing Emily, her Emily, walk in like that. 

      “Feel better?” Rossi asks.

       JJ nods. “Yeah a lot, thank you.” She says before going to Hotch's office. JJ walks up and takes a deep breath before knocking on the door. “Come in.” She hears and opens the door to find Hotch sitting at his desk undoing his tie. 

      “Here are the clothes you asked for.” JJ says lifting them up a bit. 

      “Thank you can just set them outside of the conference room door. I’ll be down to talk to everyone in a couple minutes.” Hotch says, looking distracted. 

      JJ just nods and heads out of his office closing the door behind him. She walks over and sets the clothes outside of the conference room door. She pauses a moment and tries to listen inside but it is just silent. JJ just shakes her head and goes back to her desk. A few minutes pass and Morgan comes in with 5 pizzas. 

      “Why did you get so many?” Reid asks, looking at him strange. 

      “Well I didn’t know what she wanted and I got some for us as well then.” He says setting them down on his desks. Everyone is silent staring between the conference room and Hotch's office as they wait for him to come and give them an update on what is going on. Finally after what feels like an hour, even though it was only 10 minutes, Hotch comes into the bullpen. 

     No one says a word as he approaches, they all sit and wait silently to understand what has happened. He looks over his team and can see the worry and concern apparent on all of their faces. “Before I start I would like everyone to know that we will be detaining agent Prentiss until this is cleared up. The sooner the better.” He says looking at JJ who just nods back. “As for Agent Prentiss” he pauses a moment before shaking his head. “We don’t know what all happened. The fbi is launching a full investigation into it and we should know in a couple hours. Prentiss was clearly attacked, we believe by more than one person based on the different marks and bruises left on her. It is highly likely she was raped and based on marks on her neck we believe they tried to kill her.” Hotch says shaking his head. “Agent Prentiss hasn’t spoken a word to us since we got her, she seems to be only reacting to authority and commands at the moment. We believe that her mind automatically put her in this state to get through what she did. I am currently trying to get in contact with her mother to see if she can help bring her out of that state, if anyone knows if she has a boyfriend that we could bring in that would also help.” He finishes looking at the team who is trying to digest the information given to them. 

    Garcia looks at JJ trying to get her to speak up. But JJ is still stuck on what she just heard. How could this happen. 

     The team soon catches on to the look Garcia is giving JJ. “Garcia do you know something?” Hotch asks, eyeing her. 

     “I do,” she says, still trying to get JJs attention but she is still stuck in her mind and won’t react. “Ugh fine.” Garcia says standing up and shaking JJ a bit which causes her to snap out of it. “What?” JJ says, realizing everyone is looking at her. 

    “Hotch asked if anyone knew if Emily had a partner.” Garcia says, raising her eyebrows at JJ. JJ just looks at her and slowly nods. 

    “JJ do you know who her boyfriend is?” Hotch asks, confused. 

    This is as good of a time if any. JJ thinks before looking up. “Umm yeah, actually I am her girlfriend.” She says blushing a bit.