The Woods

Disclaimer: CBS owns Criminal Minds, you know that.

Summary: The team interrogates a possible unsub that will only speak with Emily...

Timeline: Alternate Universe, Present Day

A/N: This was a little something that has been rolling around in my mind. Enjoy.

Thanks for reading, don't forget to leave a review.

"Men use thought only as authority for their injustice, and employ speech only to conceal their thoughts." Voltaire

"You do realize you have the right to speak with an attorney present?" Morgan asked their unsub as he handcuffed the man to the police station table.

"I'm aware" the man replied, "But I'll wave that right on one condition."

"And what's that?" Dave asked leaning against the mirror of the interrogation room.

"Bring in that brown haired girl that arrested me" the man said, looking over at the two agents, "You know, the hot one?"

Morgan clenched his fists, "Not going to happen."

The unsub shrugged, "Then I want my lawyer."

Emily stood in the observation room, looking through the two way glass and sighed, "Guess that's my cue."

"Absolutely not" Hotch told her, "We don't bargain with prisoners."

Emily raised an eyebrow, "If it's the only way to get Eli Thomas to talk, then I will."

Emily turned to walk out the door, only for Hotch to grip her arm, "Prentiss, you don't have to do that."

"Yeah I do" Emily told him, "We still don't have concrete proof linking him to the murders, Hotch. If my being in that room gets him to talk then so be it."

"Emily" Hotch sighed, "I don't trust that man to tell the truth and using you as bait to get him..."

"It worked before with The Fox, it'll work now" Emily said, walking out of the room.

Hotch winced at the reminder that he once used her to get Karl Arnold to talk. That was a decision he regretted soon after.

"You want us to get your lawyer?" Dave asked, setting the paper and pen down, "Give us his name."

"Keith Marshall" Eli Thomas said, "You may have seen him on television, he got that mobster off."

Morgan rolled his eyes, "I'll be back."

He opened the interrogation room door and was stunned to see Emily on the other side.

"You wanted me here" Emily said taking a seat opposite Thomas, "So talk."

"Prentiss you can't be serious?" Morgan asked.

"Serious as a heart attack" Emily said, nodding to Morgan, "Hotch wants you."

Morgan slammed the door as he left, leaving Dave standing next to the door.

"Are you going to try and change my mind too?" Emily asked.

"Do what you gotta do" Dave said, "But I'm not leaving you alone with him."

Emily nodded, grateful for her friend's protective nature. She knew why none of the men wanted her alone with Eli Thomas.

The man, their obvious unsub, was a serial killing, sexual sadist. Who had an infinity for brunettes, making the men on the team on hyper-alert.

"Hotch, man" Morgan said, "You can't let Emily do this."

"What choice do we have?" Hotch asked, keeping his eyes trained on the two way mirror, "Thomas won't talk. Prentiss can get him to lower his guards. We have to put him in those woods."

"But we're putting Emily in danger" Morgan protested, looking in only to see Emily shoot them a look, "How does she do it?"

"Just one of the many charms of Emily Prentiss" JJ said, walking into the room, "Here's the information Garcia got on the storage locker in Thomas' name."

Hotch looked down at the information, "Morgan, you and JJ go down to the storage center, I'm going to call in for a warrant with the D.A."

Emily folded her hands on the table, "So tell me Mr. Thomas, do you like being in this room?"

"The accommodations could be better" Eli said with the smirk on his face, "But I'm certainly enjoying the the view."

The female agent had to restrain herself from gagging at the man's lecherous gaze.

"So what do you want to know, Emily?" Eli said watching the brunette go immobile at being addressed by her first name, "Yeah I know all about you."

Emily felt her pulse racing, her mind replaying the incident with Karl Arnold. And that was something that she didn't want to go through again.

The brunette made herself stay strong, this wasn't a time to lose it. Especially not in front of this man.

"You're quite the little newshound aren't you?" Eli told her, "You know Google is a wonderful thing. All you have to do is type in someone's name and poof, up comes up everything you ever wanted to know about someone. And wow, there's a lot to learn about Supervisory Special Agent Emily Prentiss."

"Is that a fact?" Emily asked, praising herself for her voice remaining detached, "And what did you learn about me? Hmm?"

"Well there was that little incident about you and that Irish arms dealer" Eli winked, "Ian Doyle? Now there was a man who gives criminals a bad name. Murdering children? Uh uh, that's a big no-no with me."

Emily tapped her fingers on the metal table top, "You have a rule against children? Yet you have no problems with kidnapping assaulting or hunting women in the woods?"

The man shrugged, "If I did that, which I'm not saying I did, why not go after the weaklings?"

"Weaklings?" Emily repeated, "You consider women who've been through the worst of the worst, weaklings?"

Dave moved over and dropped the files of their victims on the table. Emily opened up the files and pulled out three photos of brunette women.

"Holly Snyder" Emily said, touching the first picture, "Linda Corman and Casey Frazier."

"Huh" Eli retorted, "Never met them."

"Holly had filed a restraining order after being beaten near death by her boyfriend" Emily told him, "Linda, she was held hostage in grocery store robbery and Casey, she was a girl that had been stalked by an ex husband."

"How tragic" Eli said, "And this has what to do with me?"

"These women were abducted, beaten and forced to walk through the woods before they were murder" Emily said, "Surprisingly not far from your cabin in the woods."

"A lot of people have cabins in the woods" Eli said, "Still doesn't mean that I'm responsible for this."

Emily pulled out a note from the second folder, "Would it surprise you that we learned that Kristen Thomas was a victim of a murder similar to this?"

"I never denied that my sister was murdered" Eli said, "I was the one that reported her death."

"And the police had you as the prime suspect" Emily said, touching the police report, "You were seen arguing with Kristen the night before her murder."

"If you had anything on me about Kristen's death or the deaths of these unfortunate women, I'd be in lock up right now" Eli told her, "Right, Emily?"

"What were you and Kristen arguing about?" Dave asked.

Eli kept his eyes trained on Emily, his gaze never leaving hers.

"Agent Rossi asked you a question, Mr. Thomas" Emily said, keeping her hands folded on the table.

"Kristen wanted me to sell the family property" Eli said, "I wasn't interested in getting rid of it. I mean why sell the only home we've ever known?"

"Why didn't you want to sell?" Dave asked.

"Because its mine" Eli said, looking over at Dave, "And I don't get rid of things that are mine."

"Never?" Emily asked.

Eli leaned in, "Never."

Dave cleared his throat, "And do you consider all these women yours? Kristen, Holly, Linda and Casey?"

Eli smiled, "I think I'd like my lawyer now."

Emily stood up, gathering the papers and pictures and walking to the door.

"Emily?" Eli called out watching the brunette turn around "Nice speaking with you."

Dave placed a hand on the brunette's shoulder walking her out of the room.

The two walked into the observation room, Emily saw the desolate look on Hotch's face.

"I'm sorry" Emily said, "I tried to get him to talk."

"You have nothing to apologize for Emily" Hotch told her, "You did the best you could."

A knock puled the three agents from their thoughts, when Morgan walked in with JJ.

"We've got a problem" Morgan said passing papers over to Hotch, "The storage locker is clean. Nothing pointing to anything regarding a case. But this was interesting."

"Veronica McTiernan?" Hotch read, "Who's she?"

"Garcia ran a background on McTiernan" JJ said coming in, "She was a 19 year old woman that went missing back in 1998, she was last seen leaving her job at the Stop and Shop convenience store when she disappeared. The police ruled it a runaway."

"But that doesn't sound like her?" Hotch asked, as he and Emily looked over the file, "Seems that Veronica thought that she was being followed but the police dismissed it."

"Great" Emily muttered looking back into the room, "Who wants to take bets that it was Thomas over there that got his hands on Veronica?"

"There's nothing solid leaking to them except for the news clipping" Morgan said dejectedly, "God this sucks."

The sheriff knocked on the door, "Agent Hotchner, Thomas' attorney is here demanding the release of his client and a tourist found what looks like skeletal remains in the mountains."

Emily shared a look with Hotch, who said, "Stay here."

The team minus the two female agents left the room.

"How are you doing?" JJ asked her friend.

"I've had better days" Emily said, nodding to the man in the interrogation room with his lawyer, "So do you think he'll get away with it?"

JJ shook her head, "I have no idea."

The two women remained silent turning their attention towards the interrogation room.

What felt like hours but probably a matter of a half an hour passed before the three men returned looking beyond angry and resolved with their news.

"We have to let him go" Hotch told the two women, "The body that was found has nothing linking Thomas to the murders. We've checked and double checked, there is absolutely nothing."

Emily took a deep breath storming out of the room, with Hotch following close behind.

The dark haired agent, hated seeing her so withdrawn from the team. He felt like she was retreating behind her walls again and he didn't want to lose her.

"Emily?" Hotch said, placing a hand on her shoulder, "Come on, lets go outside and get some..."

"Hello, Emily" Eli said walking out of the interrogation room.

The two dark haired agents watched as their unsub walked towards them, and Hotch could feel the brunette tense up as the man stood in front of them.

"It was really nice talking with you" Eli said, as Morgan came out of the observation room and shoving the man away from the dark haired paired, "No need to be so hostile Agent Morgan."

Emily felt a rush of courage course through her, "This isn't over Eli."

He turned giving Emily a grin, "What, you'll be watching me? I'm flattered."

Eli looked around at the team, "I might leave town, travel. I heard the woods are big in Virginia."

"Get him the hell out of here" Morgan said shoving the man towards the waiting deputies.

"See you around, Emily" Eli said in the bullpen, "Who knows we might even see each other again."

Emily walked away from the team towards the small police precinct break room, silent.

She knew that there were always cases that haunted the team from time to time and this one was going to haunt her.

Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "Faith that stands on authority is not faith."

Not sure if this will be a oneshot. Let me know if it should be a two shot.

I hope you all enjoyed this, don't forget to leave a review.