Fill for CM Prompt Meme: Garcia reveals the truth behind her parents' death: they were out looking for her.

It's November 14th, 2008.

It's been a year since someone shot her.

It takes a long time for the haze to lift completely. For things to begin sounding familiar again. There is one thing that remains a complete mystery to Garcia, and that is what in the world happened? Who did this to her? Why? Were they still a threat? These things have all been explained in bits and pieces, and probably, more than once, but Garcia finds she has a much harder time retaining information, especially if it was given to her while she was hospitalized.

Things are getting easier, little by little. JJ is over quite a bit and Emily a little less. Still, they do their best to be here, while Morgan, Hotch, Reid and Rossi are more distant, preferring to text it out or communicate via Skype, which, she is proud to say, she has completely figured out.

She is fine with them giving her space, as long as Em and JJ stay close. She can't do this alone, and thankfully, they seem to get that.

Today, she can think of no better way to pass the hours than to sit with Emily and JJ, and brand new baby, Henry. He is perfect and he reminds Garcia of all the good that remains in the world.

They are adoring him, and so is she until her mind begins to wander. Until she begins to think about the blank space November 14th has become in her memory.

"Do you have a picture of him?" she asks suddenly.

"Of who?" JJ asks, confused.

"Of the guy…from last year…" she refuses to say the guy who shot her. That just sounds too weird, since she does not remember it happening.

"Garcia… Are you sure you want to do this?" Emily asks, already walking to Garcia's computer and typing something into a search engine. This very thing used to be second nature to Garcia, but it's not anymore. It's something she has to think about and concentrate on. Her typing skills have returned. Her hacking skills somehow, never left.

"Positive," Garcia reassures, nodding.

When the image is before her, Garcia finds she can't breathe. She knows with some sixth sense that she has seen this man before. She knows he looks familiar and not just because he pulled a gun on her.

Just like that, Garcia remembers sitting in the darkness of her office, days before he shot her. Most of the recollection is fuzzy and ill defined, but she can see clearly the arrest report picturing a 16-year-old Jason Battle, questioned at the scene of her parents' accident on May 23, 1995. He failed the sobriety test, but not by much. No lasting charges were ever filed because Garcia had been too much of a mess to pursue a court case.

"He's the one who killed my parents," she says, over the sound of blood rushing in her ears.

Over the next hour, JJ and Emily listen, as she tells what she has never once spoken aloud. Not to her support group. Not to Kevin, her current squeeze. No one.

"I was out really late…again… I thought that because I was almost done with my senior year and eighteen…you know…that rules didn't apply. My parents thought differently. I knew if I got caught there'd be major trouble. So, I sneaked in the house and it was like, 3 AM. I totally expected my mom to hear me and catch me in the act. She always did. But I didn't hear anything. Next thing I knew, there were cops in the driveway, telling me my parents were driving down the exact same road I was just on to come home… They were searching for me. I probably passed the accident on the way home, but I honestly don't remember seeing it… I remember they picked some kid up for it at the scene. He was barely old enough to have his license. I saw him at the hospital where they took my parents. He was a little cut up and totally distraught. I was in shock. But I…I begged them to let him go. To not pursue charges beyond what they had to. Two lives ruined was enough. This was my fault, not his…"

"Garcia…oh God…" JJ breathes.

Tears are streaming down her cheeks. JJ is beside her - somehow holding Garcia's hand and holding her baby at the same time. Emily is crouching in front of her.

"No wonder you were so set on making charges stick last year…" Emily muses.

Garcia shakes her head. She doesn't understand. She doesn't remember wanting anything other than for everything to go away then. And as far as last year goes, she can't remember anything from that night.

The furtive glances JJ and Emily are exchanging though, are totally ringing Garcia's bell. She involved them in something. Asked for their help in confidence and she has no doubt that they gave it.

That even now, a year later, they have not broken their word.

From all sides, Garcia is embraced. They don't say, "It's not your fault." They don't, because they know she won't believe it. Instead, they hold her. Instead, they sit with her and with this new truth.

"He can't hurt you anymore," JJ whispers. Her voice is heavy with sadness. She is crying, too.

Garcia can't speak.

"Parents never stop loving their children," Emily says softly, confiding a secret of her own, without revealing anything of consequence. Still, the truth is there - a kind of grief in her eyes. It's familiar. She sees it in JJ's gaze, too, and she knows they see it mirrored back to them in her own eyes.

Garcia takes a deep breath, and with it, gathers her resolve. They might not have been there for each other in their own losses, but Garcia feels sure that they can come back from them…if they stay together.