I know, I know (please don't keel over in shock) I have never posted two separate stories within weeks of each other. Normally I'm a one story at a time writer, but I decided to be different this year. That may be good or it may be bad. Fingers crossed it is closer to good.

This is a reworking of the story I took down 'A Journey of a Lifetime'. I didn't scrap the entire thing so there are scenes that will feel familiar but have been tweaked to the fit the new one and many brand new scenes. It has already taken on a life of its own and I've gone places I hadn't expected to go. This one is now a stand alone and not connected to any of my other stories. I hope you will find it entertaining. Now go read and enjoy.

It wasn't the outcome they had been looking for…not by a long shot.

They had identified their UnSub and when they went to arrest him, he barricaded himself in his home with his three young children. SWAT managed to get him on the phone, but he refused to negotiate with Dave. He would only do it with the dark haired female agent he had seen on the television. It had to be face to face, not over the phone because he thought it was too impersonal that way. If she weren't there, unarmed, in five minutes, he would shoot one of his kids.

Derek didn't like the idea of sending Emily in alone and unarmed and was very vocal about it. As Emily handed over her weapon to Hotch, she countered that she knew what she was doing and that she had no intention of letting him kill any of his children. Armed with only her quick mind, Kevlar vest and open mic, Emily entered the house to talk him down.

From the command post set up in the house across the street, the team stood huddled in a circle listening as the UnSub demanded to see what she might have hidden under the vest.

"No, no! Don't do it, Prentiss," Derek said and then groaned when they heard the sound of Velcro ripping.

Apparently that satisfied him and they all breathed a sigh of relief as they heard her strapping the vest back on. It turned out to be short lived. Suddenly a single shot rang out. There was a grunt of pain followed by the heavy thud of a body hitting the floor. Imagining the worse the team prepared to rush the room when Emily's pain tinged voice came over the line.

"It's okay. It's just a flesh wound."

Though she made it sound like she was reassuring the UnSub, Emily was actually talking to them. Just like at the Separatarian ranch, she was telling them not to come in. Reluctantly they holstered their weapons and went back to listening, occasionally giving her tips through her earpiece.

The longer the negotiation went on, the tenser Derek became. There was something seriously wrong with the whole situation. He couldn't put his finger on what exactly it was, but his gut was screaming at him that it was going to get worse.

"Hotch, we need to go in now," he said urgently.

The Unit Chief frowned. "Prentiss seems to be holding her own. The UnSub sounds like he is on the verge of surrendering. If we rush in now, he could harm his children or her."

"He's already shot her, man. He's too calm. Way too calm. It's like he has already made up his mind." Realization set in. "He's going to kill them all."

Ignoring Hotch's order to stand down, Derek tore out of the house and across the street intent on saving his partner's life. He never should have let Emily go in by herself. It was too dangerous for one thing and the guy was a nutcase intent on taking out as many people before taking his own life or committing suicide by cop. At this point Derek was quite happy to help him along with the second option since the guy had already shot Emily.

Reaching the front door, he didn't bother to check if the door was unlocked. Derek reared back and kicked out with his foot as hard as he could. The door shuddered from the blow, but remained in place. Growling in frustration, he lashed out a second and third time. So focused on busting down the door, he was unaware of the commotion his actions were causing on the other side.

But the rest of the team definitely did. Through their comms they could hear Derek battering at the door, the UnSub screaming threats, his kids crying and Emily attempting to be heard over the din and calm everyone down. By the time they caught up with Derek, he had succeeded in busting through the door and was just disappearing down the dark stairwell. There was more shouting and then suddenly the air was filled with the sound of gunfire.

Fearing for the safety of all those involved, the team rushed down the stairs and burst into a situation that seemed unreal. Emily, white as a ghost, sat on the floor with her belt acting as a tourniquet on her left leg, bloody hands applying pressure to the gunshot wound. Derek, gun still held ready, kneeling next to the prone form of the UnSub checking for a pulse and a few feet beyond laid the man's children, so still and so silent. The team jumped into action with Dave and Hotch going to check on the children while Reid and JJ made a beeline to Emily.

"We need a medic!" Reid shouted into his mic as JJ dropped down next to Emily and put her hands over the brunette's bloody ones.

"Em, you're going to be fine. The medics are on their way."

Emily didn't appear to be aware of their presence, all her focus on the three little bodies across the room. "He shot them," she said in a stunned voice. "He just shot them."

Reid and JJ exchanged worried looks. "She's going into shock," he declared, taking off his FBI windbreaker and draping it over Emily's shoulders. "We need to keep her warm. She's lost a lot of blood. The bullet might have nicked the femoral artery."

"That's not good."

"No it isn't. Lets get her on her back and elevate her legs above her heart. It will decrease the blood flow to her thigh, slowing the bleeding and assist with clotting."

"Okay. Em, we need you to lie down. It will slow the bleeding."

Emily continued to stare at the bodies. "They're so young. One is still a baby."

"Emily? Can you hear me?" When she didn't get a response, JJ reached up and gently turned her friend's head, leaving traces of blood on her chin. "Em, it's very important that you listen to me. You have to lie down or you might bleed to death."

Emily blinked; her dark brown eyes glistening with unshed tears when she recognized her friend. "JJ, why did he have to shoot them? They were only children and so innocent."

"I honestly don't know. Please lie down."

Derek materialized next to JJ. "How's she doing?"

Before the blond could answer, Emily's eyes turned cold as she spat out, "It's your fault those kids are dead."

"Wha…what?" he stammered, not expecting the anger.

"If it wasn't for your battering down the door, they would still be alive."

"Pren…"

"I had it under control."

"Emily, you need to stay calm," Reid begged. "Getting angry is only going to raise your heart rate and make the bleeding worse."

"But no," she ranted. "You had to be the hero and charge in to save the day."

"Em," Reid and JJ said at the same time. She was now sweating and though they didn't think it was possible, she looked even paler.

Derek tried to defend himself. "That was his plan from the beginning. I only…"

"Get the fuck away from me!" she hissed and weakly shoved him, leaving bloody handprints on his vest.

The effort cost her dearly. The shove sucked up the rest of her energy and her body responded in the only way it could. Emily's eyes rolled into her head and passed out. Reid was there to catch her and gently eased her to the floor. He quickly checked her vitals. Her breathing was shallow, pulse rapid and weak and she was clammy to the touch.

"Where's the medics?" he demanded anxiously.

"Right here," a voice next to his shoulder said. The two medics moved into his line of sight. "Now if everyone could step back so we can get to work."

"She has a gsw to the left thigh. There doesn't seem to be an exit wound and judging by the amount of blood, the bullet may be embedded in or nicked the femoral artery," Reid pointed out before standing up and joining the others.

Fearing what Reid said could be true, the medics worked quickly, but carefully. Within minutes they had Emily on oxygen, an IV inserted in her arm and a pressure bandage on the wound. Then with Derek and Reid's help, they eased her on to a backboard to make it easier to transfer her to the stretcher and hopefully prevent any unnecessary jostling that could result in heavier bleeding and possible death.

"I'm going to ride with her," Derek announced, moving to follow the medics and their charge up the stairs and out to the ambulance.

Hotch, along with the others, had witnessed Emily's reaction to Derek's presence and didn't think it would be a good idea for him to ride along in the ambulance. Emily's health was more important. She needed to remain calm and that wouldn't happen if she were to wake up on the ride to the hospital and find Derek sitting there. It would be best to keep them separated until she had some time to recover and cool off.

"Reid and JJ can go with her." He nodded at the two and they headed off.

"But…" Derek protested.

"I said no," and without another word Hotch went to join Dave and the head of SWAT, heads bent close together as they talked amongst themselves.

Derek huffed in frustration. He wanted to go with his partner and be there when she woke up. He was genuinely puzzled to why Emily was mad at him. He saved her life. Left to stew in his own juices, he glumly watched the coroner begin his grisly job. Derek figured he would apologize when Hotch returned, but only got out "I'm sorry," before he was cut off.

Hotch stood imposingly tall in front of him, arms crossed, face etch in stone making it unreadable. "What happened?" he demanded.

Derek filled him in as best as he could. It had happened so fast. Just as he was nearing the bottom of the stairs, he heard three shots ring out and fearing the worst, he put on a burst of speed. Upon entering the cellar, he saw the UnSub swing his gun in Emily's direction. He didn't think, he just reacted and fired off four rounds: three to the chest and one to the head. The UnSub was dead before he hit the floor.

When Derek was done, Hotch stared at the drying pool of blood where Emily had been. He didn't doubt that the shooting was justifiable. Derek perceived that Emily was in imminent danger and acted accordingly. But, at the same time, there was no way to tell if it would've gone down the same path if Derek hadn't stormed in and spooked the UnSub. What he had done may not have been the right call to make nor did he have the right to make that decision in the first place.

"You shouldn't have gone in there."

"What you mean is that I shouldn't' have gone against your orders," he hissed, raised voice, clearly angered.

"No, Morgan, you shouldn't have done that. We had to wait for Prentiss to let us know it was time to go in. She had a handle on it."

"She was shot!" he yelled.

"Right, and when she's better, I'll have a talk with her about knowing when to make the call, but that's not the matter at hand here. You jeopardized the case and our agent."

"I did what I had to do."

Hotch stepped closer, eyes steely and voice low. "You did it because you wanted to. You acted in emotion because Prentiss was hurt. But that wasn't the right call."

Derek remained silent, jaw clenched in anger and frustration, but mainly with worry. All this crap could wait until later. Right now he should be at the hospital checking on his partner.

"Fine. Whatever you say. Can I go now? I want to be there when she wakes up."

"No. You're suspended for three days effective the moment the jet lands in DC."

"What?"

"You heard me, Morgan."

"This is bogus, Hotch," he declared in exasperation.

"For this team to function efficiently, everyone must trust each other and trust in my decisions. You still don't," Hotch pointed out, thinking back to New York when he had commandeered the ambulance with the bomb on it.

"I trust you and Prentiss."

Hotch shook his head. "If you truly did, you wouldn't have ignored a direct order. Three-day suspension and if you continue to argue I can easily make it a week. Understood?"

"Understood."

"Good. Now lets go and check on Emily."

The team was impatiently waiting for news on Emily. It already felt like they were waiting a lifetime, and it was amazing how many ways they could think up for one little bullet to the leg to do damage. The longer the wait was, the more they came up with.

"What can possibly be taking so long? What's the problem?" Derek huffed.

Everyone turned to Reid like he had all the answers, and, though it would have been easy for him to spout out a fact or two about complications and possibilities; he bit his tongue. It wasn't the right time. Derek was already frustrated and that wouldn't help, so he said nothing and just looked away.

"I'm going to see if there is any update," Hotch offered, standing and walking away from the group without waiting for them to respond.

The rest were left to speculate, but Hotch had no luck either. When he came back, they could read it on his face.

"Nothing?" JJ asked.

"No. They said that someone would be around to speak with us as soon as they can and to just be patient. Records show that she's still in surgery."

"I'm going to go update Garcia," Derek said, excusing himself to go calm down. He was still amped up and just needed a moment alone while everyone else ruminated some more.

"I guess it's good, right? That she's still in surgery…" JJ said. "Means that she's still fighting." Though, she didn't think it was supposed to take this long. No one expected that. And Reid didn't have the heart to tell her that it probably wasn't as positive a sign as they wanted it to be.

There was anxiety in the air as they continued to wait. The occasional frustrated groan sounded along with a sigh or two. They just wanted answers. Why wasn't anyone telling them anything?

"Agent Hotchner?" a voice broke their reverie.

"That's me," Hotch said, standing at attention.

"I have you down as Emily Prentiss' medical proxy."

"Yes."

"Why don't we talk privately?"

Hotch could feel the tension rise from the group behind him and made sure he spoke clearly, "You can speak freely. We're all family."

The doctor nodded and motioned for them all to take a seat where he joined them. "Emily was shot from the outer thigh with no exit wound. Thankfully, the projection of the bullet allowed for it to miss bone, but the type of round that was used splintered upon impact and made a mess of her muscle and nerves."

"What does that mean?" JJ asked.

"Will she be okay?" Derek followed up.

"She lost a lot of blood," the doctor explained. "A bullet fragment nicked the femoral artery during surgery. We had blood on hand and gave her several transfusions. We managed to stabilize her and continue to remove the fragments."

"How is she, though?" Dave asked.

"As I said, we stabilized her. Right now, she's resting comfortably in post-op. A nurse will be taking her to radiology to get a few scans and then she will be moved to a room shortly thereafter."

"I thought she was okay," Hotch stated. "Why does she need scans?"

"The scans are just to make sure all the fragments are out. We had to act quickly because of the blood loss so, we need assurance that all the pieces are out and none are embedded in her thigh. Unfortunately, Emily had a lot of muscle and nerve damage because of the scattered fragments. Now, it's possible that it will all heal just fine."

"But?" There was always a but, wasn't there?

"But we can't know the extent of the damage just yet. There was a lot of shrapnel lodged all over, some deeper into the tissue than others. We'll watch her for any signs of infection and do tissue conductivity as well as any other necessary tests, and we'll go with the best treatment plan from there."

"She'll be okay, though?" JJ asked the question again, Reid hanging on for the answer as he put aside the stats in his head.

"As of now, yes. I think with a little physical therapy, she'll be good as new, but we'll have to see how the next few days play out and determine the damage to the muscle before there are any definitive answers."

"Okay," Derek said. That would have to do. "When can we see her?"

"Scans should take about an hour or so. A nurse will come out and tell you once we have her settled in a room."

Dave held out his hand to shake with the doctor. "Thank you."

The doctor nodded and walked away, leaving the group to take a collective sigh of relief. Emily was okay. So far, so good. Unfortunately, things didn't stay that way. Soon after making a call to Garcia to fill her in once more as promised, things went south for Emily.

A nurse brought them back to her room, making it clear that Emily needed her rest and that, even if she were to wake up, she'd be groggy and needed to relax as much as possible, so not to disturb her. Of course, they agreed, only wanting what was best for their friend. When they walked in, Emily looked pale and small in the big sterile room, and yet, there were no other signs of her injury. Buried under the covers, they couldn't see her bandaged leg, only the bump from where they had it propped up on a pillow.

"She looks…"

"Good," Derek finished for Reid.

"Well, that's a lie," Garcia said as she peered at Emily through the screen. She insisted that she be there in more than spirit as she waited at the airport to catch a flight to them. "She's white as a tall glass of milk in desperate need of some cookies to crumble in it."

"Whatever you say, Mama." At least she could bring some levity to the situation.

They took seats where they could find some and talked quietly among themselves. They didn't want to disturb Emily, but they did wish she was awake and able to talk with them, but alas, more waiting. The waiting was something they would have preferred to the scenario they got.

Out of nowhere, Emily started whining. Her eyes still closed, no response to her name, she just groaned, presumably, in pain.

"Emily?" Reid called to her.

"Emily, can you hear us?" JJ joined him.

"What's going on?" Garcia asked.

They all approached Emily, hoping this was just her waking up and in need of a painkiller or two, but no such luck. She didn't respond to any of their questions and, before they could go get a nurse or press the call button, the monitor started beeping. Reid, the only one positive what the monitors were saying, told them that she was spiking a fever and, as she was waking up from the anesthesia, was experiencing all the pain and not reacting well. Her blood pressure was skyrocketing.

"Everyone out," a nurse cleared the room, a doctor coming in behind her and going straight to Emily.

They tried to ask questions, but the door was just slammed into their faces as a team looked over Emily.

"What the hell was that?!" Derek yelled, ignoring Garcia's pleas to tell her what was happening. He couldn't focus on her right now, telling her that he'd call her back soon. She would give him hell for that later, but then, his mind was focused solely on Emily.

Though they were only waiting ten or so minutes, the nurses going in and out and the lack of answers made it feel like an eternity. When they asked the nurses, they didn't tell them anything and, when they peeked in the door, nothing became any clearer.

Everyone's backs straightened and tensed when the doctor finally came out of the room. They were on him right away.

"Tell us what's happening."

The doctor sighed and began, "Emily's running a low-grade fever."

They were all immediately concerned. Fever after surgery generally meant infection, and that was never a good sign.

"Right now, it's nothing to be concerned about. It's a common post-op complication. I've ordered an antibiotic that should prevent it from getting worse, but we will monitor it closely as well as watch for any other signs of infection. Right now, the wound doesn't look infected, but, obviously, we can't see through the wound to what's inside and we don't want to do anymore surgery to explore that unless necessary."

"You say it's nothing to be concerned about, but you didn't see her in there," Derek started.

"She was crying and unconscious. She didn't respond and was clearly in pain."

"You were warned that she would be groggy. She was still under the effects of the anesthesia and that was why she couldn't respond. She hadn't yet received her dose of morphine for the pain and felt it all as she was coming to. That caused her body to react in panic and her blood pressure to spike."

"So she's okay now? Unlike last time?"

"She's alright and we will continue to monitor the situation."

It was another doctor half answer that wasn't an actual answer at all.

Frustrated and worried, Hotch asked, "Can we go sit with her again?"

"Yes, but I've administered a sedative and the medications will keep her asleep for a few hours at least. Her body needs time to recover and another episode like that can cause problems for her."

They could all tell that he was holding back, but they were worried enough without hearing it. Emily had a habit of scaring them. This was another one of those moments, and it left them with the looming feeling that more was to come, though, they certainly didn't wish for that.

Emily slept through the next few hours, medical personnel coming in every thirty or so minutes to check her IV and vitals making it hard for the rest of them to relax, but they managed. They each found an uncomfortable stool or chair to claim and attempt to let the adrenaline calm down. They were feeling the stress of the day and needed the rest, too. It seemed the moment they all got to that point, everything went haywire.

JJ woke to the sounds of mild whimpers, briefly forgetting where she was and calling out to Henry. Quickly, though, she remembered exactly where she was and why, and became concerned. "Emily?" she asked.

"JJ…" the brunette responded.

"What's wrong? Are you ok? Should I get a doctor?"

Wearily, she moved her unfocused eyes to try to meet JJ's. "It hurts."

There was a sheen of sweat above Emily's brow that made JJ intentionally speak louder as to wake the team, but not alert Emily. "What hurts?"

"Everything… Where… What… What happened?"

Hotch was now beside JJ. "She doesn't look good," he said, and motioned for Dave to go find a nurse. "Emily, you're in the hospital."

"Hurts," she moaned. "Hot… Cold."

Reid exchanged a worried look with Derek who put his hand on the younger man's shoulder. It quickly became clear that Emily was confused, not making any sense as she talked even when they tried to focus her. What was taking that doctor so long?

From there, everything happened in a hurried frenzy. Her cry became louder, nearing a scream as her weak hand tried to reach for her leg. All their eyes went to where they knew her wound was. Through the hospital sheets, they could see a small patch of red growing richer and bigger by the second.

"Go," Hotch said. "Go make sure the doctor's coming now." He turned to Emily. "You're okay. Everything will be okay." Though, he didn't know if he was saying that more for his own comfort or hers.