AN: A big thank you to all the people who have read, reviewed, followed and favourited this story. Especially IrisT, Wren and RMPCCMFAN. I hope you guys enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.
I am working on a new CM Emily fic and while there's no set timeline on when/if it will be finished and posted if you scroll down far enough I've included a teaser, hopefully this will be enough to keep me on track to finish it. I just did a count and I have 14 fic's I've started over the years and never finished... :(
Epilogue
When The Ambassador returned to DC without her grandchildren 6 months after the funeral she told everyone who asked they had been enrolled in an exclusive boarding school whose curriculum and security was second to none, any gifts or letters could be sent through her office.
As per Emily's final instructions they were hidden away... safe.
They missed their mother but were doing well.
No one noticed that she never gave the name of the school, and by the time it occurred to anyone to ask she had taken an assignment as Ambassador at large, constantly on the move from country to country, never available to be questioned.
What very few people knew was that 8 weeks after arriving in Tallinn the children had been flown to Paris under the names Norah and Damien Porter. From there they switched names and took the train to Madrid where Emily was waiting for them.
When Hotch had hit the Potomac he found her clinging to a pier, barely conscious. She begged him to let her go and he did as promised and given her time. He hated what this was going to do to the team and to his son, but he understood why it needed to be done. Her name was out there, a price on her head and the only way to ensure their safety was for Emily Prentiss to die. The plan she'd had in place for years went forward, Matt Cruz had taken her to a safe house then arranged for a body to be found and ID'd as Emily while Hotch kept everyone else searching in the wrong place and helped The Ambassador lie to the children.
None of them knew exactly where the three of them were going next.
With identities unknown to anyone else they went from Madrid to Vienna to Budapest and then Bucharest stopping for a week in Varna before boarding a flight in Istanbul to Bangkok to Siem Reip where they spent 4 day's exploring the ancient temples at Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom to Singapore to Sydney before finally arriving in Wellington.
The day Elizabeth arrived back in DC Emmaline, Declan and Nell Harris moved into the house in Karori Emily had purchased years before.
Within 3 months Emmaline secured a position at Victoria University lecturing in Criminal Psychology.
Declan and Nell started school, made friends, joined sports teams… they thrived.
On her first day at the University she dropped a letter into a post-box, several days later Bobby Lucas opened it, inside was another pre-addressed envelope which was sent to Matt Cruz who dropped a third pre-addressed envelope in a mailbox, the letter made three more stops before reaching its final destination.
Nearly 4 weeks after it left Wellington it landed on Hotch's desk, inside was a photo of Emily, Nell and Declan their smiling faces taking up the whole frame with snippets of water and sky peeking through but not enough for him to identify their location. For the first time since glimpsing her across the room in Chicago he couldn't see the ghosts haunting her and weighing her down.
"It's weird, for all my travels I haven't spent much time south of the equator. I'd love to visit Australia and New Zealand one day."
Flipping it over three simple words told him everything he needed to know.
'Safe and happy'
And free...
Teaser:
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Keep going
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A little bit further
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Once her plate was clean and a mug of tea placed in front of her Emily looked up at her grandmother. Fleur reached up and cupped Emily's cheek.
"Tell me..."
Everything came out... how much she missed her friends in Athens, how she was mocked by the local kids and they ostracised Matt, Jon and herself for being embassy kids.
"I just wanted friends..."
Emily told her about the first party the previous January she didn't get drunk at that one but she did at the next, the party in February, when she allowed one boy to talk her into trying cocaine. The night in March when she took ecstasy for the first time, the weekend she thought the baby was conceived. The name they all called her now... realising she was pregnant, Father Gamino's damnation for both having sex outside of marriage and considering an abortion, Matthew taking her to the Doctor he found.
...
"Mom?"
Elizabeth pulled Emily close "I missed you..."
"I miss you too..." she mumbled into her mothers chest.
Elizabeth doesn't miss the present tense in Emily's words.
The move from Athens to Rome had included a promotion from First Secretary to Counselor for Elizabeth. The responsibilities and work load meant longer day's and most evenings were either at an event of some sort or closed up in her private study. Prior to Rome Elizabeth and Jules had ensured if they weren't going to be home for dinner they had breakfast with Emily and one of them was there when she got home from school. That had stopped with the appointment to Rome and day's had gone by when she was in the office before Emily got up in the morning and didn't return home until long after she was in bed.
They'd thought Emily was ok with it but those four words slapped Elizabeth in the face harder than finding out her 16 year old was pregnant.
...
The anger at finding out about the baby had been tempered by the idea that their daughter was so fearful of their reaction that she'd fled the country.
By the time they arrived in Les Viollins acceptance had set in.
Cupping Emily's face in her hands Elizabeth leaned in close to kiss her forehead.
"You are my daughter and I love you. Do you understand?"
Emily stared up at her and blinked slowly unsure of the answer.
"Did you make bad decisions?"
Nod
"Are you willing to live with the consequences?"
Nod
"Do you want to keep the baby?"
Emily paused a tear leaking out of her eye before nodding slowly.
"Then we'll work it out, cause nothing can make me stop loving you."
Emily's eyes drifted away from her mothers her doubt in the first and last statements obvious. Elizabeth promised herself that by the time she had to go back to Rome Emily wouldn't doubt that her mother loved her.
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"Except for her grandparents every single adult in Emily's life let her down and she has handled the fallout of it admirably. Her mother and I have taken steps to ensure that it won't happen again and she has the support she needs to complete her high school education and go on to college."
"I've tested out of every language course you offer and completed all of the English and History AP requirements for both Junior and Senior years which means I only need Math, Science and two elective courses to graduate." Admittedly there had been nothing for her to do but school work at the chateau.
The registrar and Mr Murdoch looked to Headmaster Lee for his response.
"I'm not sure how comfortable I am enrolling a student who has openly admitted to underage drinking, partaking in illegal drugs and who has a child at home. What's to assure me that if things get tough you wont go down the same path?"
Jules opened his mouth to defend his daughter but stopped when Emily laid a hand on his arm and answered the Headmaster honestly.
"Nothing." Her gaze was steady.
...
Running past the library a flyer caught her attention, stopping she saw it was for a FBI recruitment seminar the next night.
It couldn't hurt to go and listen