I know the Doyle saga was forever ago, but I've just now gotten around to actually putting this in writing. As you can tell from the summary, Emily's sister Anna is in the mix in this version. For those of you that haven't read my story "Sister Act", you don't really need to in order to get this story, but it might give you some good background on their relationship. Also, I've decided to pretend that Seaver doesn't exist, so she won't be here. Just for your reference, this starts out pre-"Lauren" and goes from there. Feedback is my favorite, so please feel free to leave reviews, comments, suggestions, criticism, any of it is much appreciated. Other than that, enjoy!

***I don't own Criminal Minds***

Emily sat down at the table outside and braced herself. She wasn't afraid of many things. Spiders, snakes, the dark, none of it. She wasn't even afraid of dying. She put herself in the line of fire almost every day, and you couldn't do that if death made you squeamish. And when she thought about it, she realized she wasn't even afraid of Ian Doyle. Not of him. But of what he would do, not to her, but to her team, to her family. She stiffened when she heard his voice behind her.

"Hello Lauren. Oh wait, Lauren Reynolds died in a car accident, didn't she?" He settled in at the table across from her and she silently leveled her gun beneath the table.

"What do you want, Ian?"

"You," he said simply. Her heart was pounding. She knew it wouldn't be that easy. He read her face and must have seen something there because he continued in what he must have intended to be a reassuring tone. "Oh, not today. Don't worry about that. But soon."

"I've got a Glock leveled at your crotch. What's to stop me from taking you and the little ones out right now?" She was seriously considering it too.

"You'd never make it back to your car, and you know it." Emily still didn't lower her gun. If she took him out, consequences be damned, everyone around her would be safe. Or would they? Would Doyle have ordered his lackeys to carry on his mission no matter what? Probably. "Tell me," Doyle continued, as if he'd read her mind, "Does the lovely Penelope know the truth about you? Or is she too busy watching movies with Derek to care? Here you are, all alone, while Aaron sits at home with his son. Jack, right? And why didn't Dave ask you over for a glass of wine? Does he just like being alone that much or is it something about you? And JJ? You live close enough; you could have ridden the Metro with her and Dr. Reid." Doyle barked a laugh. "He does have some quirks, doesn't he?"

Emily fought to keep her face blank. "Come near my team, and I will end you," she threatened, but Ian wasn't finished.

"Your team? Tell me Emily, how can you build a team based on lies? What would they say if they knew the truth about you? About what you did to me? And to Declan?"

"You didn't get anything you didn't deserve." Emily fired back.

"And Declan? His fate?" Ian's anger was growing now. "Did he get what he deserved too?"

"I was protecting him." Emily told him. "From you."

Ian leaned across the table closer to her. "Well maybe I should protect your sister. Protect her from you Emily. What do you think about that? I could protect her just like you protected Declan."

He rose without another word and planted a soft kiss on the side of her forehead before walking away. "I wouldn't try to follow me if I were you," he called over his shoulder. As if his words had been a signal a red dot appeared on the table in front of her. Then another. They disappeared as quickly as they'd come but the message was clear: Ian wasn't alone.

Emily made herself sit still for fifteen minutes before she allowed herself to stand. Thankfully, her car was parked in the opposite direction from where Doyle had gone, so she didn't have to even appear like she was trying to follow him, which she had no intention of doing anyway.

Controlling the trembling in her hands she got in her car and fumbled with her keys until she got it started. She pulled out her phone and dialed Anna's number. Straight to voicemail.

"It's me. Call me as soon as you get this." Emily instructed. She tossed the phone on the seat next to her and drove back to her apartment. She knew Ian was probably having the place watched, so she knew packing up and heading out was not an option. Even so, she tossed some clothes in a bag and transferred a few important documents from her safe to a large envelope that she set on top of the clothes. She zipped it shut and shoved it under the bed next to Sergio's carrier. She'd run if she needed to.

She tried calling Anna again but only got her voicemail. Emily forced her worry to the back of her mind; she and Anna played phone tag all the time. When Emily was on a case or when Anna was in a meeting or on a home visit; it wasn't uncommon for them to leave two or three messages before they actually reached each other.

"Call me. It's important." Emily said. She changed in to her pajamas and set her Glock on the table by her bed. Then she grabbed it again and held it loosely in her hand while her other stroked Sergio's soft fur.

"I'm going to get this bastard, Serge."

"So what exactly are you saying, Reid?" Morgan asked the next morning, shooting him a laughing stare over the mug of coffee he was lifting to his lips.

"I'm not saying anything!" Reid sputtered, moving stacks of paper around on his desk.

"No, go ahead kid, I want to hear this."

"Hear what?" Emily asked as she walked into the bullpen.

"Reid's giving me dating advice." Morgan told her.

Emily barked out a chuckle and set her bag on her desk. Shrugging out of her coat she looked between the pair of them. "How exactly did this conversation get started?"

"Morgan was just discussing his latest weekend conquests." Reid lowered his voice on the last two words as if he was concerned about who was listening in.

"Wait, conquests?" Emily clarified, placing extra emphasis on the last letter. "As in, multiple?" She raised an eyebrow at Morgan. "I guess I shouldn't be surprised."

"Hold up, it's not like that." Morgan started to explain.

Emily held up a hand dismissively. "No really, I don't want to hear this."

"Princess, just shut up for a second, will you? I was talking about the two new purchases I made this weekend."

Reid almost spat his coffee out but Morgan continued hastily. "Houses man. Houses. I bought two new ones, all run down and ready to be fixed up."

Emily laughed. "Morgan, it might benefit you not to use the word 'conquests' when you're not talking about, you know, your conquests. The poor doctor gets confused." She patted Reid on the head before collapsing into her chair.

"Tired, princess?" Morgan asked.

Hell yes she was tired; sitting up half the night expecting a psychopathic arms dealer to come bursting through your door will do that to you. But she wasn't about to tell them that.

"Haven't had enough coffee yet," Emily responded.

"I thought you switched to tea?" Reid asked.

"A girl can only take so much tea, Dr. Reid," Emily told him, standing and heading toward the small area that served as a kitchen.

She poured herself a generous cup and found herself glancing up towards Hotch's office. As she expected, he was hunched over at his desk, poring over a file that Strauss had no doubt needed his immediate input on.

Her mind unwillingly flashed back to the events of the previous night. Doyle threatening everyone she loved, including Hotch. And Jack. He knew Jack's name, which was what bothered her most. Would he really hurt Jack?

But she knew the answer to that; there was no doubt in her mind. Jack was at the same age now that Declan had been when things went down last time. Ian would see it as some kind of twisted revenge, substituting son for son. And for the first time, Emily was thankful for the events that transpired almost a year ago, when she and Hotch had first started seeing each other. She'd kissed him from her hospital bed with the entire team looking on. They'd pulled back from each other sheepishly but there wasn't any real awkwardness there, just tenderness. And a strong desire to do it again.

They'd both picked up on it right away. Jack, who'd always been close to Emily, was pulling away from her. He didn't run to greet her at the door and he didn't feel the need to hug her every time he saw her. Questions that normally elicited long winded tales barely got a one-word answer. And then Hotch had relayed the conversation that positively broke her heart.

Hotch had decided to talk to Jack at bedtime, when he was tired and usually more free with his responses. Hotch tucked him in and sat beside him, ruffling his hair.

"Jack?"

"Yeah Daddy?" came the response.

"Is there something bothering you?" Silence. Hotch knelt on the floor now so that he and Jack were at eye level. "Buddy if there's something wrong you know you can tell me. You can tell me anything, I won't be mad."

Tears welled up in Jack's eyes but he still didn't say anything.

"Jack, tell me what's bothering you. I'll fix it, whatever it is."

When Jack finally spoke it was barely more than a whisper. "I don't want a new mommy."

There it was. Jack thought Emily was going to replace Haley. The concept of romantically moving on was too much for a six year old to grasp and rightly so.

Hotch held Jack's hand when he spoke next. "Jack, no one is going to take your mom's place. No one ever could. Your mom was special."

"But you like Emily now," Jack said.

"I do like Emily," Hotch told him. "But if you don't like it when we spend time together, we'll stop."

"I don't wanna make you sad, Daddy," Jack said quietly. "But I don't want Emily to be my new mommy either."

Hotch squeezed Jack's hand reassuringly. "You're not making me sad Buddy. You could never do that." He stretched himself out on the bed next to Jack and held him until he fell asleep.

Emily had understood, she really had. She would do anything for Jack, even if it meant taking a step back from Hotch. They still shared the odd dinner when Jack was spending the night at Jessica's but there wasn't anything more. This was further reinforced by the fact that before long Jack had gone back to being his normal self. They both took that as a sign that they were on the right track with him and that they needed to stay there for a while. And if Emily wasn't around Hotch or Jack, well, she liked to think that Ian wouldn't see them as any special target.

As if on cue, Emily felt someone place a hand at the small of her back and she turned to see Hotch standing behind her.

"Hi," she said, shoving her thoughts aside rapidly. She tried to put a smile on her face.

"Rough morning?" he asked her softly.

Could she tell him? Should she tell him? Of course. She could and she should. He would understand, wouldn't he? He'd understand how she'd crossed the line with Ian because he'd crossed the line with Foyet…but she shook her head instead. "Late night."

Hotch looked at her with thinly masked concern and opened his mouth to say something but was interrupted by JJ, whose recent stint with the State Department had been short lived. From what Emily could piece together, JJ had made her supervisor's lives so difficult that when she asked to be assigned back to the BAU they hadn't given it a second thought. She'd passed her profiling exams with flying colors and was now on an even keel with the rest of them, not that anyone would have ever assumed she wasn't.

"Garcia says we have a case," she told them in the no-nonsense tone she preferred when trying to get things done. As she walked off to corral the rest of the team Hotch turned his focus back to Emily, blocking her way as she tried to make it to the conference room.

"You know you can tell me anything, right?" he asked her softly. It was so out of character for him to be this open but Emily had begun seeing the softer side of Hotch more and more.

She nodded and managed a smile. "I know. Let's go." She ducked past him and made her way to the roundtable room with him right behind her. They settled in at the table and Garcia began her spiel.

Even though Emily tried to stay focused, she found her mind wandering, brainstorming ways to track Ian down before he started hunting everyone in the room with her. She heard a buzzing sound and realized that her phone was vibrating wildly on the table. Everyone was looking at her and she wondered how long it had been going off without her noticing. She snatched it off the table and glanced at the caller ID. She didn't recognize the number so she hit the 'Ignore' button and set it on her thigh. The first thought that flashed through her mind was that it was Ian, calling to harass and threaten her some more. She turned her eyes back to Garcia but then felt her phone give a short burst of movement and she realized she had a voicemail. Ian wouldn't leave her a voicemail, it wasn't his style.

Momentarily appeased, she managed to listen in to the rest of the case. Someone was strangling red-headed women in Georgia. There was no evidence of sexual assault or any other trauma. Four were dead in the past three weeks and the timeline between the kills was escalating. Hotch had barely gotten the words 'wheels up in twenty' out of his mouth before JJ's phone rang. She glanced down at it and excused herself, stepping outside the conference room. Emily seized the opportunity to check the voicemail.

"You have one new message," the robotic voice droned in her ear.

"Yeah, no shit," Emily muttered. Morgan turned to look at her and she realized she'd actually spoken out loud. She flashed an apologetic smile and turned away from him. JJ was in her direct line of sight and had apparently just finished an intense conversation with whoever was on the other end of the line. Emily watched JJ pocket her phone and determinedly walk back in to the conference room.

"First message, sent today at ten oh three AM," Emily's phone went on robotically. JJ met her eye and Emily could tell by the look in her eyes that she wasn't going to like what JJ was about to tell her.

"Emily you need to see this," she grabbed the remote for the television and powered it on. It was tuned to a local news station and there was no need to change the channel.

The news anchors were discussing a breaking story with grim faces and Emily lowered her phone slowly, even as a voice she recognized spoke out of it.

"And now over to Robin who has the latest information from the scene of this tragedy." The screen cut to a shot of a short-haired brunette holding a microphone. Behind her was a scene of chaos; there were emergency vehicles everywhere running to and from the smoldering remains of what must have once been an enormous building."

"Thank you Lilly," the reported in the field acknowledged. "I'm standing in front of what can only be considered a calm scene compared with what it was at four o'clock this morning when the explosion happened." She paused long enough for the news station to show some helicopter footage that must have been taken earlier; the sky was dark, illuminated only by the large building engulfed in orange flames that leapt toward the sky. By the time they cut back to the reporter Emily was fighting to stay standing. She recognized that building.

"Behind me now, you can see the action still going on as firefighters and other rescue workers try to salvage what they can from the ruined building that once housed Second Chance, a transitional housing facility that was just getting ready to celebrate its tenth anniversary. In those ten years, community officials and residents alike agree that Second Chance has become something of a source of community pride, taking in those who were down on their luck and turning them back in to productive members of society," she paused for dramatic effect. "As of right now, it is unknown how many residents were in the building or how many made it out alive. The program's founder is believed to have been inside the building when it exploded. There's no word yet on if her body has been recovered."

Emily felt herself sink down unsteadily into a chair while her phone tumbled out of her hand as they flashed the founder's picture on the screen: her sister Anna.