So I love every interaction with Emily and kids, and her story in Demonology was great. I was thinking what if she actually had the kid? And gave it up for adoption? Everything that happened in the show (with the exception of Em not having the abortion and giving the kid up for adoption and telling Rossi) happened in this universe. I'm going with Em is back from the dead, Doyle thing etc. And has been for a while. For now, I'm being vague on how that worked out, once the show gets back we'll see how they use it. I am not very experienced with writing cases, and the only terminology and knowledge I have of how profiling, adoption, solving cases, murders etc. comes from tv and whatever I google. So if something is incorrect I apologize. Also, I will be talking about adoption, have never adopted anyone, don't know how it works, making it up as I go mostly. Hope you enjoy!

"Children begin by loving their parents;

after a time, they judge them;

rarely, if ever, do they forgive them."

- Oscar Wilde

Emily Prentiss walked quickly into the BAU headquarters. She was late, yet again. Mornings had become difficult the last week or so, she was never sleeping, and it was getting harder and harder to wake up once she finally did manage to fall asleep. She hadn't even had time to sit down when Reid ran by her. "We have a case!" He yelled as he made his way to the conference room.

"Wonderful." Emily muttered as she followed him.

"Well good morning beautiful." Morgan grinned at her as she dragged herself into the room. "Aren't you chipper today."

"I will stab you with this pen."

Morgan just smiled while Garcia tried to hide her grin from Hotch.

"We have three dead girls, all brunette, all teenagers. The first, Whitney Matthews went missing three years ago when she was thirteen. She was found dead two years ago in Upstate New York. There were contusions on her arms and legs, signs of abuse both physical and sexual over the year she was missing, along with signs of malnutrition. Cause of death was asphyxiation. The second girl, Melanie Grant went missing two years ago, she was fifteen, found dead last year in the same condition as Whitney. The third girl was found yesterday, Jamie Young, she was fourteen when she went missing last year. We're going to New York." With that Hotch walked out of the room with the team behind him.

On the plane, JJ noticed that Emily seemed preoccupied. She wasn't looking over the file with the intense, determined scrutiny that she usually did.

"Em?" She asked gently. "You okay?"

Emily nodded quickly and picked up the file. "Yeah, fine." She said curtly. JJ let it go for now, figuring it was just going to take some getting used to for her to get back into the swing of things with the team. It had been hard when she came back. Reid, Morgan, Garcia and Rossi had been angry that JJ, Hotch and Emily hadn't trusted them with the information. But things seemed to have gotten back to normal in the last month or so, Emily's behavior was bothering JJ a bit.

After setting up at the police station in New York Emily, Morgan and Hotch headed to the crime scene of the most recent victim, Jamie. JJ, and Reid had gone to the morgue while Rossi stayed at the station to work with the officers and speak with the family.

"Its secluded." Morgan stated when they arrived. "Who found her?"

"A hiker. There are trails off to the left, not used very often." Hotch answered. Emily took in the surroundings, but she was finding it difficult to focus. It was taking much of her energy to do her job. She focused on Jamie and the other two girls, but unfortunately, they were the problem. Hotch's cell phone rang and he told the team to head back at the station. Garcia had some information for them.

"So, Whitney, Melanie and Jamie don't just look alike, they were all adopted."

"They're sisters?" JJ asked.

"No. But each girl was adopted into their families by use of the same adoption agency."

"Did the same social worker take their cases?" Emily asked.

"No, each had a different case worker. Sorry my lovelies, I'll keep looking."

"Thanks Garcia." Hotch said as he hung up the phone. "We should check out the agency. Garcia sent me the address. JJ, Emily, why don't you two head over there?"

"Sure." JJ and Emily climbed into the car and headed out. Emily hadn't bothered to protest when JJ sat in the driver's seat. Another sign of her not acting normally, JJ noted. "Em?" She asked as they began to drive. "You sure you're okay?"

"I said I was fine JJ."

"I know. But you tend to say that regardless."

"You're becoming a great profiler Jayje, but don't."

"Em..."

"I mean it JJ. Don't profile me. I said I'm fine." She said sharply. JJ wasn't having it. After all they went through with Doyle, she was sick of Emily shutting everyone out all the time.

"Emily, you seriously don't trust me after everything last year?"

Emily sighed. "Its not that Jayje. I just...I can't talk about it and work this case. I can't." Emily finally looked over at JJ and made eye contact.

"Fine. But when this case is over, whatever it is that is bothering you...out with it." JJ said with a tone of finality. Emily just gave her head a short nod and returned to looking out the window.

Back at the police station Morgan, Reid and Hotch had been going through the girls files extensively. They couldn't find a single other similarity between them. They looked alike, were all around the same age, and had all been adopted with the same agency, but that was it. Despite all living in Upstate New York, they were each born in different towns, all at least half an hour or more apart from one another. All three girls went to different schools, had different doctors, were involved in different clubs and activities; Whitney was a soccer player, Melanie was a dancer, and Jamie had been learning to play the violin. None of their teachers crossed paths, neither girl had common friends, family, there was no connection besides the adoption agency. If it didn't pan out, they were effectively screwed.

Morgan threw the folder he had in his hands onto the table in frustration. "I hate this case." He announced.

"I don't ever really like a case." Rossi said with a grin. Morgan ignored him and got up to refill his coffee cup.

"There is nothing!" Morgan insisted. "All we know about this guy is he likes brunettes, keeps them for a year before killing them, and then goes out to find the next girl. Jamie was killed yesterday, he's gotta be out looking for the next one, if he hasn't found her already!"

"The fact that he never kept any of them longer than a year is interesting. Whitney was thirteen, Melanie was fifteen and Jamie was fourteen, so we're not really looking at a pedophile here. This man leads more towards Hebephilia, which is the term for people who are sexually attracted to teenagers usually ranging from eleven to fourteen. Its sometimes classified along with pedophilia, but it is distinctly different. The name originated from the Greek Goddess of Youth, Hebe. She was the daughter of Zeus and Hera, and she is also known as..."

"Reid! Enough!" Morgan cut him off.

"Sorry."

"Its okay kid, just...we get it, he likes young teenage girls, he's a sick fuck. There is a name for it, moving on." Reid simply took a sip of his coffee and returned to looking over his file. Emily and JJ walked back into the station not a minute later. Morgan perked up. "Please tell me you found something." He begged.

"Not much." Emily said as she sat down next to Reid.

"The agency deals with open adoptions, closed and private. Mostly with closed." JJ began telling the team. "Families looking to adopt compile files on themselves and the mother can go through them and chose a family. That's how 80% of their adoptions work, about 15% are open, the mothers meet with the prospective families and stay apart of the child's life, they work out specifics. And about 5% are completely private, the mother doesn't know where the baby is going, and the families don't know anything about the mother. All three girls were normal closed adoptions. The birth mothers picked thy families out, none of them met each other, but all three mothers were listed on file, we have their information." JJ got herself a cup of coffee and sat down on the other side of Reid, having given all the information they had. Hotch took the file from JJ.

"Cynthia Greene, twenty-two, from a middle class background was the mother of Whitney; Maria Thomas, twenty-seven, upper class background, mother of Melanie, and Katherine James, seventeen, middle class, mother of Jamie. Was there any information on the fathers?" Emily shook her head. "We should visit the mothers. They might know something."

"That'll be a shock. Hey ma'am, you gave birth to a kid, gave it away and now its dead, you have anything to do with it?" Morgan said sarcastically. He didn't notice the death glare Emily gave him, but JJ did.

"I doubt we should word it like that." Reid said with a completely serious face. Rossi stifled a chuckle.

"I was kidding."

"Oh."

"Come on, all three of them still live in the area it seems like. We'll spilt up, its all we've got for now. Morgan, Prentiss, you two take Katherine James, Reid and JJ, you two take Cynthia Greene, Dave, you and I will take Maria Thomas. Call if you find anything." Hotch said.

"This is probably gonna suck." Morgan said as he and Emily walked up to Katherine James' house. "I mean, teenage mother probably doesn't want this brought back up."

"What would you know about it?" Emily asked a little more sharply than she had intended.

"I don't." Morgan said hesitantly. "Look Prentiss, you good?"

"I just had this conversation with JJ Derek, don't profile me."

"I'm not trying to, but after Doyle..."

"I don't want to talk about to Derek, lets just solve this case please." Morgan wanted to press further. The team had all been a little on edge with Emily since she came back, but the desperation in her voice stopped him. For now. Like JJ, he was willing to let it slide for a time, but he was paying close attention, and Emily knew it.

"Ma'am did the father of your baby consent to the adoption?"

"Why?" The tearful woman asked.

"Well..." JJ began, but the Cynthia Greene cut her off.

"You think Kevin murdered his own kid?"

"We need to check everything. To be thorough."

"Yeah, we both agreed on it. Neither of us wanted to be parents. Timing or whatever. He was an ass, but he would never hurt anybody. Especially not a kid, definitely not his own, wether he was a father to it or not."

"Can we get his contact information?" Reid asked.

"Sure, hang on."

Hotch and Rossi didn't have any more luck than the other two groups. None of the mothers seemed to have any violent tendencies, all seemed genuinely shocked at hearing of their daughter's deaths, and none of the fathers had records. Garcia was instructed to keep digging into all of them regardless, but it was doubtful that any of the birth parents were suspects. The team decided to call it a night and look at the case fresh in the morning. They headed to the hotel. On the way Reid pointed out various Halloween decorations and began listing off facts regarding witches and goblins origins. Morgan almost smacked him by the time they all finally checked in and called it a night.

Emily dropped her bag onto the floor and decided she desperately needed to take a long bath. Knowing she wouldn't get any sleep anyway, she let the water run and dug out a Kurt Vonnegut novel. It hardly worked as a distraction and after re-reading the same sentence for the sixth time she threw the book onto the floor and let herself sink underwater. She held her breath for as long as she could before popping up again, then dunked in again. She tried to stay under longer each time, and the fourth time she slipped her head under after almost a minute and a half then she felt herself being hauled up to the surface.

"What the fuck!" She screamed at Morgan. "Get out!"

"Sorry." Morgan said as he quickly averted his eyes. "I thought...I knocked like fifty times and then you weren't...sorry." He quickly walked out of the bathroom and closed the door. Sighing, Emily reluctantly climbed out of the bathtub and secured a robe around herself before following him.

"What do you need? Break in the case?" She asked keeping her voice devoid of all emotion.

"What? Oh, no. I just...I wanted to make sure you were okay. After we talked to that woman, you...I dunno. But you sure as shit have been weird the last week or so, and worse ever since we got here. Prentiss, whatever is going on you can tell me."

"I know I can. I don't want to." That hurt more than Morgan realized. He did his best to hide the hurt from his face, but Emily caught it. "I just...I know you are all there for me, I appreciate it. I trust all of you with my life. I love all of you, its nothing like Doyle. I promise. I just...I don't want to talk about it. It hurts too much. At least here, with this case...I don't want to deal with it now. I want to find the bastard that hurt these girls, then maybe I'll deal with me okay?"

Morgan hesitated for a moment, then faltered. "Fine. But I'm not letting this go and neither is JJ." He warned.

"I figured."

"I got your back Emily."

"I know." She smiled at him. "I got yours." Morgan gave her a small pat and headed out of her room.

"Get some sleep."

"I'll try."

Emily barely got four hours of sleep. The next morning they finally gotten a break in the case, one of the workers at the adoption agency had a step sister who was killed when she was fourteen. Turns out, he was a suspect even though he had only been twelve at the time. He had been in and out of therapy most of his teenage and adult life, and after another girl went missing that morning, Samantha Jones; Garcia had found the record of Andrew Baker and called Hotch. Samantha, Jamie, Melanie, and Whitney all looked quite a bit like Tanya Baker; his step sister. Tanya had been raped and murdered in a very similar fashion to the three girls. She had gone missing for a year before her body was found. They headed over to question him immediately and he ran. Emily, rather than Morgan had made it to him first and full on tackled him to the ground. Morgan complained that she took his job, she said he could punch him for good measure. JJ happily delivered fourteen year old Samantha to her parents and the team headed home.

Emily did her best to ignore the intent stares JJ and Morgan were shooting her way but she knew it was only a matter of time before they started on her again. She was exhausted. She just hoped they would wait until the morning.

"She is pretending to be asleep." JJ whispered to Morgan as they both stared at Emily leaning against the plane's window.

"I know."

"What are we gonna do about it?"

Morgan bit his lip as he watched his friend. "Wait." Before JJ could object he continued on. "Give her till tomorrow to come to us, finish paperwork on this case, then if she doesn't fess up, make her."

"Fine." JJ grumbled as she sat back in her seat. "But if she doesn't talk to us tomorrow..." She warned.

"I know Jayje. Chill out." Morgan said with a smile that earned him a smack on the shoulder.

"What are you talking about?" Reid asked.

"Nothing kid, get some sleep."

"Are you talking about Emily?"

"Can it kid!"

"Are you?"

"Reid!"

"Yes Spence. We were." JJ said as she gave Morgan another – much harder – smack.

"Somethings bothering her." Reid said.

"Yeah kid, we know."

Emily had been avoiding the team as much as she possibly could, she had managed to get about seven hours of sleep combined in the last two days and everyone had left her alone. Left her alone, but she could feel them watching her. They hadn't gotten a new case yet and for once, Emily was caught up on her paperwork. Thinking Reid would be the easiest to handle being around – and would be the only other one done with his paperwork – she asked him if he wanted to go out for coffee. Anything to get out of the bureau. Reid had happily agreed, and Emily noticed the looks JJ and Morgan had given him.

"Its nice out today huh?" Reid asked as they entered the coffeehouse. Emily just nodded. "Not too cold for the end of October. I'll bet kids will be happy. Warm Halloween and all. Are you gonna dress up?"

"No."

"Oh, what was your favorite ever Halloween costume?"

"I dunno."

"How about second favorite?"

"I dunno."

"How about..."

"Reid!"

"Sorry."

"Its okay." They got their coffee in silence and went to sit outside and drink them. Reid was right, it was still relatively warm for late October. They figured that they might as well enjoy it while it lasted. "Go ahead." Emily said after they had sat quietly for a few moments.

"Go ahead and what?"

"Ask whatever JJ and Morgan told you to."

Reid smiled sheepishly. "How did you know?"

"I'm a profiler and I've known all of you for years?"

"Good point."

"So...?" Emily prompted.

"There is something bothering you." Reid said. It wasn't a question, it was a statement. Emily just nodded. "Will you tell me what it is? Maybe we can help."

"You can't."

"Emily..."

"No Reid, this isn't like with Doyle, its not...I had a baby when I was sixteen. I gave her up for adoption, she was born on Halloween. This time of year sucks for me. There isn't anything to fix."

Reid sat absolutely silently just staring at Emily as he tried to process the information she had given him. He didn't even sip his coffee. After about five minutes he finally managed to speak, "wow" was all he got out.

"Well, now you know why that case bothered me. With the time of year and everything...and all the crap with Doyle I just...its hitting me a lot harder than usual this year. I regret it. I have for a long time. I mean I was sixteen, I wouldn't have been able to do it, not well anyway but...I want to be a mother. And knowing I gave my kid up...it just sucks okay?" Reid nodded. "I know everyone is going to want to know what's wrong, but I really can't talk about it much. You can tell them, but I don't want to talk about it."

"Okay."

"I'm heading home. Call me if we get a case."

"Okay."

"She had a kid!" Morgan yelled.

"Oh my God." JJ whispered. Reid had decided to only tell JJ and Morgan, since they had been the only ones who had been in on the scheme to find out what was wrong, but Garcia walked up as he was telling them, and Hotch and Rossi heard her scream after she overheard Morgan, and now everyone knew.

"She doesn't want to talk about it. She said I could tell you, but to leave it at that." Reid said quickly at the look the was crossing Garcia's face.

"There is a baby Prentiss out there somewhere." Garcia said longingly.

"Well, no." Reid said looking confused. "Emily had her when she was sixteen, that means there is a fifteen year old out there. Not a baby Garcia that would be ridiculous."

"I didnt...I know she's not still a baby Reid."

"But you said..."

"Both of you stop it!" JJ said sternly.

"Sorry." They both grumbled.

"We are not going to badger her about this." JJ said looking right at Garcia.

"Why are you looking at me?"

"Garcia!"

"Oh fine!"

"I mean it!"

"I said fine!" Garcia said. But the second she was out of their sight she practically sprinted to her computer.