"Jay, have you seen my red blouse?" Emily called as she rummaged through her dresser, searching for her favorite shirt.

A second later, JJ walked into the bedroom with two cups of coffee in hand and gave one to Emily. As soon as Emily's eyes fell on JJ, she laughed and smiled fondly. JJ took a sip of her coffee and batted her eyes at her girlfriend over the rim of the mug.

"I guess you have seen it." Emily chuckled.

JJ looked down at the red shirt she was wearing under her blazer.

"I like wearing your clothes." She shrugged, taking another sip of coffee.

"And I like you in my clothes." Emily agreed. "But you missed a button."

With the most natural, domestic ease that JJ had ever seen, Emily reached out and rebuttoned JJ's shirt. Once she was done, she gingerly smoothed out JJ's charcoal blazer and straightened the collar before leaning forward and pressing a light kiss to JJ's lips.

"Looks like I'll be going with the black shirt today." Emily smiled.

JJ watched with a soft smile as Emily pulled on a black turtleneck and blazer. Once Emily turned back around, their eyes met, and she cocked her head slightly to the side in question.

"What?" Emily inquired.

"I just really love you, Emily Prentiss."

The brilliant smile that spread across Emily's face made JJ's heart skip a beat.

"And I really love you too, Jennifer Jareau."

As soon as Emily and JJ walked into the BAU bullpen, all eyes were on them. Reid and Morgan immediately turned around in their desk chairs to face them. Whatever conversation Rossi and Hotch were having stopped in its tracks.

"Good morning to you too, everybody." JJ murmured, chuckling nervously.

"Prentiss… My office please." Hotch directed.

Straightening her spine, Emily followed Hotch towards his office. As they passed the windows of the conference room, Emily noticed a young girl sitting at the round table, listening to Garcia, who was talking emphatically. For a split second as she passed, Emily and the young girl made eye contact, and the girl's eyes widened dramatically before she looked away, and she immediately began to nervously bite her fingernails.

Emily quickly redirected her attention to Hotch and uttered a quick and quiet "thank you" as he held the door open for her.

"Who's the girl in the conference room?" She inquired.

Hotch eyed Emily carefully for a few moments before speaking.

"She arrived about an hour ago and asked for you specifically." He stated, using his usual "no nonsense" tone.

Emily couldn't help but feel like she was being scolded. The way Hotch eyed her like he was expecting an answer or explanation set her on edge, and she fought the urge to start biting her nails out of nervous habit.

"I've never seen her before." She insisted. "Did she say what her name is?"

"Dani."

"No last name?"

Hotch shook his head.

"As soon as I started asking more questions, she shut down." He explained. "She's obviously nervous."

"That could just be because Penelope is talking her ear off." Emily chuckled; her best attempt to lighten the mood.

When Hotch didn't show the slightest bit of amusement at her comment, Emily cleared her throat awkwardly and tucked her hair behind her ear.

"You should go see what this is all about before we get started."

"Yes, sir."

Kicking herself for acting as meek as she had under Hotch's close examination, Emily made her way to the closed office door. Just as her hand landed on the doorknob, Hotch's voice stopped her. This time, the harshness in his voice had softened a bit, reminding Emily that not only was he her boss, but he was her friend.

"Emily, we all have things that we keep from the team." He confirmed. "All I ask is that you don't let yours effect your job."

Emily glanced back at Hotch with a careful, uncertain glance. She wanted to ask him what exactly he meant by what he had said but decided against it. With a quick, dutiful nod, Emily left the office and headed to the conference room.

She could hear Penelope speaking with her usual enthusiasm but couldn't quite make out what she was saying. As Emily raised her hand to knock on the door, she took a slow, steadying breath. She had no idea who this girl was, or what she wanted, but Emily had a sinking feeling that it wasn't something she was going to like.

She knocked twice. Instead of the firm, confident knock that she expected to have delivered, it was soft and hesitant. Within a second, Garcia was at the door. She opened it swiftly, shooting Emily her trademark 1000-watt smile.

"Good morning, my beloved crime fighting badass." Penelope greeted.

"Good morning, Penelope."

Penelope easily caught on to Emily's unease, and her smile turned from one of pure happiness and excitement, to one of sympathy and worry.

"I'll leave you two to it, then." Garcia declared, ducking her head as she moved past Emily in the doorway, giving the brunette agent's arm a comforting squeeze as she did.

Once Garcia was gone, Emily carefully closed the door to the conference room. The tension in the air was tangible to the point that Emily felt it sitting on her shoulders, weighing her down. The girl- Dani- Emily reminded herself, was eyeing her carefully. Her back was stick straight, not touching the back of the chair she was sitting it. Emily straightened her own spine to match the girl's posture as she sat across from her. She took a moment, studying the young girl. Her deep, chocolate brown eyes were narrowed slightly as she studied Emily right back, as if she were assessing a threat. Her facial features were soft yet defined. Her sharp jawline, high cheekbones, and slender nose made her look older than she was, but Emily was sure that she couldn't be older than sixteen.

As Emily studied her, taking in her confident, challenging demeanor, long, gorgeous dark brown hair, and assertive gaze, the sinking feeling in Emily's gut grew exponentially.

"I'm Agent Emily Prentiss." Emily introduced herself, forcing the words out of her mouth.

Dani nodded, not bothering to introduce herself as she reached for the messenger bag that was sitting on the floor beside her. Emily's dominant hand twitched, prepared to go to the weapon attached to her hip. She inwardly cursed the way she had been conditioned to expect danger- a side effect of her career. After a second or two, Dani pulled a manila envelope from her bag and placed it on the table, sliding it closer to Emily.

"I need you to sign these papers." The teen announced plainly, taking a pen from the inside pocket of her leather jacket, clicking it open, and placing it on top of the envelope.

Curiously, Emily picked the envelope up from the table and opened it. She removed the stack of papers from the envelope, immediately recognizing them as legal papers. When she read the header, her breath stopped in her throat.

Relinquishment of Parental Rights

"These are… I-I don't- "Emily stammered, frantically looking between the legal papers and the girl sitting before her.

She saw it in that moment. The eyes, the hair, the natural air of rebellion. It was like looking in a mirror that transported her 15 years into the past.

"Look, Agent Prentiss." Dani began. "I want about as much to do with you as you do with me, so once you sign those papers, we never have to see each other again. Sound good?"

Still unable to process the information, Emily diverted her full attention to the papers.

"Daniella Lucia Moretti." She read aloud, slowly, her voice barely above a whisper.

"It's Dani." The young girl corrected, almost harshly.

"It's a beautiful name." Emily affirmed. "Who gave it to you?"

Dani sighed, exasperated, and very obviously done with the situation.

"The nuns at my orphanage."

That caught Emily's attention, and her eyes snapped up. She dropped the papers down onto the table and folded her hands together over them.

"I don't understand." She insisted. "I was told you were adopted."

"I wasn't adopted until I was six." Dani clarified. "That only lasted about a year. Hence, why you still have parental rights."

Every impulse in Emily's brain told her to push on her answer, to fill the gaps that it created. However, her attention was drawn to Dani's hands. They were rested on the messenger bag that now lay on top of the table. Across Dani's knuckles, raised on her alabaster skin, were scars. They reminded Emily of her days in Catholic school. The nuns would use a ruler to slap the top of the hands of misbehaving students. If Emily's last name wasn't Prentiss, letting all of the nuns know exactly who her mother was, there was no doubt that Emily would have been subject to a few slaps on the knuckles as a child.

Dani carefully followed Emily's gaze down to her hands. With lightning fast reaction time, she pulled her hands into her lap, under the table.

"How did you end up in the States?" Emily inquired, hoping to ease the additional tension that her staring had just created. "You were born in Italy. Why aren't you still there?"

"Would you stop with the questions and sign the papers?" Dani snapped, immediately realizing the bite in her tone and looking down at her hands.

"First, tell me why you need them signed."

Dani's gaze snapped right back up to meet Emily's. Emily had stiffened, put on her interrogation face. She instantly felt guilty, as if she were acting like a mother scolding her child when she had no right to do so.

"I'm getting emancipated." Dani declared. "In order for that to happen, you have to sign your rights away."

"And you have the means to support yourself?" Emily questioned, cocking a quizzical brow.

"You care all of a sudden?"

The shock from Dani's response hit Emily square in the chest, and she suddenly felt like she was drowning. Every fight or flight instinct in her took control of her actions, and before she knew it, she had signed the papers. Before she could so much as click the pen closed, Dani had slid the papers out from under her, sealed the envelope, and put it back in her bag. The young brunette stood, revealing her tall, slender stature. At fifteen, she was already nearly as tall as Emily.

"I apologize for disturbing your morning."

With a curt nod, Dani strode out of the conference room and began making her way out of the bullpen. She ducked her head, knowing that every member of the BAU was watching her, even if they weren't looking directly at her. After a couple second delay, Emily shot up from her chair and jogged after the teen. Just as Dani made it to the elevator, Emily caught up to her.

"Dani, wait." Emily called.

Hesitantly, Dani turned around to face her. Emily got one last look at the beautiful young woman standing before her before releasing a slow breath.

"Do you need anything?" Emily asked. "Anything? Even a ride home."

Just as Emily asked the question, the elevator dinged, and the doors slid open. Dani stepped inside the elevator and turned to face Emily once more, giving her a small, sad smile.

"It was nice meeting you, Agent Prentiss."

"Um, who was that and why did she look like some younger, regenerated clone of you?" Penelope questioned, quickly following behind Emily as she strode to her desk and struggling to keep up in her heels.

Emily ignored the question and began decluttering her desk, throwing things she no longer needed into the plastic trash bin right beside her.

"Em?" JJ interjected, moving to stand next to Penelope. "Who was she?"

JJ knew the answer. Emily had told her about the child she had given up for adoption at age fifteen. She and Rossi were the only ones who knew, and Emily had expressed that she wanted to keep it that way.

Emily didn't so much as glance up at what she was doing, knowing that everyone was watching her and weren't even bothering to hide it.

"Uh… that was my daughter." She breathed.

"Your wha- "Penelope started, only to be cut off by Emily, whose movements were becoming more frantic.

"Biologically, I mean." She clarified. "Because I just signed away my rights so she can get emancipated. She's supposed to be in Italy. She was supposed to be adopted right away, but she wasn't. All these years I held on to the fact that she was adopted by a good, loving family, but she spent most of her life in an orphanage."

JJ stepped forward and placed her hands on Emily's shoulders, pulling her girlfriend's attention to her.

"Why don't you and I go grab some coffee, yeah?" She proposed. "Maybe cool off a bit."

"I don't need to cool off, Jennifer." Emily insisted. "I need to know why I was lied to fifteen years ago."

"I can look into it." Penelope offered. "Adoption records are easy to find and unseal. It'll take me about an hour."

With the world's smallest, grateful smile, Emily gave Penelope a small nod. Without a second of hesitation, Penelope spun around and marched toward her lair.

"You know." Reid interrupted. "Intercountry adoptions in Italy are actually fairly uncommon. With the religious nature of the country as a whole, most orphanages actually discourage adoption in the hopes that the biological parents will come back for the child."

"Reid, not helpful, my man." Derek sighed, clapping his hand on Spencer's shoulder.

Emily's breathing began to quicken, and JJ caught onto it right away. She immediately took Emily by the hand and directed her into her office. She locked the door and shut the blinds before settling Emily down into her desk chair and kneeling in front of her.

"Slow it down, love." She cooed, brushing strands of hair away from Emily's face. "Slow breaths."

JJ continued to whisper sweetly to Emily as she attempted to ward off the impending panic attack. After a few minutes, her breathing had evened out, and the shaking in her hands subsided a bit.

"I don't know what to do, Jay." Emily admitted, tears gathering in her eyes.

"We'll wait and see what Pen can dig up, and we'll go from there." JJ comforted. "You're not in this alone, okay? I'll be here the whole time."

Emily leaned down and kissed JJ softly, and when she pulled away, JJ wiped away the few tears that had rolled down her cheeks.

A soft knock at the door interrupted the moment. With an apologetic sigh, JJ got up from the floor of her office and opened the door just enough that she could speak to Hotch on the other side, but still obstructed his vision from Emily.

"We need to brief the team on the newest case. We'll meet in the conference room in twenty minutes." He informed her.

"Yes, sir." JJ agreed.

"Do you two need anything?" Hotch asked, his stern demeanor softening.

JJ smiled softly and shook her head.

"Alright then." Hotch nodded. "See you in a few minutes."

When JJ closed the door once again, she turned around to find Emily standing stick straight, her face void of any expression.

"Hey, don't do that." JJ frowned.

"Don't do what?"

"Don't shut down on me. Around the team, fine. I can understand that. But when it's just the two of us, the walls stay down, okay?" JJ requested. "Promise me."

Reluctantly, Emily nodded. Releasing a deep sigh, she pulled JJ into a tight hug.

"I promise."