Title: Et Invicto Semita

Summary: Emily Prentiss was never one to let someone else decide her path. She made her own choices and she dealt with the results good, bad and completely baffling. She just never expected these particular results to be so long lasting and all encompassing.

Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds or any recognisable character, nor am I making any money from this venture.

AN: I've taken a specific plot device a lot of fic writers use to get their favourite ship together and turned it on it's head to prove Emily Prentiss is a badass independent woman who doesn't need someone to 'save' her. Enjoy and the title is Latin for 'The Unbeaten Path'

This story is 22 chapters long and complete.

Chapter 1

October 2008

Emily was tired and sore... they'd just returned from Reno and despite getting full clearance for field duty her ribs were still complaining from the hours on the jet.

Not that she'd admit it in front of the team but Cyrus had done a real number on her and she had a feeling the after effects were going to linger for a while. All she wanted to do was relax in the tub with a glass of wine and a good book.

Finding Malcolm Cooper on her front door step was a complete surprise.

They'd emailed back and forth a few times since New York, nothing serious... he told her all about his son's latest accomplishments and she told stories about growing up all over the world. It was a relaxed friendship the two had struck up and she genuinely enjoyed hearing from him. Emily had noticed a different tone in his last few emails, something had changed and at first it wasn't overtly obvious but then he'd started to flirt a little bit more, dropping in more innuendo.

She'd shut him down pretty hard in the subway station and the restarted flirting made her curious about the true state of his marriage.

Plastering a grin on her face Emily called out to the New York detective who looked just as wrung out as her.

"Hey stranger does your wife know you're sitting outside another woman's house!"

"What wife?" he asked with a sad smile.

That was how it started…

She wasn't going to leave DC and he couldn't leave New York but that was ok with them. Relaxed weekends meeting up in Philadelphia, most of the time they didn't leave their hotel room.

They weren't in love… they were friends who had sex. Neither were under the illusion of anything more and both knew the second someone else entered the picture it was off.

They were happy and comfortable with what they had.

He laughed when she told him about baiting Viper with JJ and held her while she cried over Cate Hale and Megan Kane.

She didn't see him for two months after Matthew's death. It was too hard…

She needed everything he had to offer after meeting Danny Murphy.

She'd managed to catch a few hours sleep after getting back from Canada and was packing a bag to meet with him when they got the call about the threats to Dr Barton and his son and it was weeks before she could get away again. She never told him about the panic when she found nothing but a pool of blood and bullet hole in the wall at Hotch's apartment.

After walking away from the pack in DC she texted him and immediately headed north not caring if he would get away or not. A night alone or a night with him… either was good for her as long as she could escape for a while.

She didn't even bother to go home after rescuing Julie and Carol from the Reinman's. The moment the jet took off from Phoenix she texted him and asked if he could meet her.

The morning she got home from Philadelphia they were called to Hapton and she ended up sitting in a room with Hotch and Karl Arnold. Within days they were hot on George Foyet's trail and thanks to JJ's pharmacist they found Peter Rhea and in turn his hideout.

Between Haley's death, Strauss' investigation and back to back cases there was no time to see friends.

The next thing Emily knew she was chasing down Dale Schrader in Lockport after he kidnapped his daughter Jenny.

She vaguely remembers watching Bunting die and forcing herself out of through the windshield of the car. Everything is blurry as she aims and fires one… two… three shots at the retreating truck before falling to the ground. She doesn't know how long she waits before the ambulance with Morgan in it comes along. At the end of it all she will have a vague recollection of holding an ice pack to her head while arguing with Morgan about… something… she's pretty sure she lost the argument.

The waiting in the hospital is interminable as she lies on the gurney in the ER. She is struggling to conceive of time as the ice barely touches the throbbing in her head. The world is pulsing and waving in front of her eyes as they stitch up her arm and head. The adrenaline is making her jittery and all she wants to do is get out of the hospital and chase Dale Schrader down so she can pound on him for a while. Once that's done she's going to work on his friend.

She's not really paying attention… tetanus shot… Antibiotics… painkillers… pregnant… HCg levels… pregnant?

"Huh…?" is all she manages to get out as she tries to focus on the Doctor's face after a few moments she succeeds and manages to actually take in what he's saying.

"Your blood test results are showing elevated levels of HCg which is indicative of pregnancy… looking at these numbers 4 to 5 weeks. From your response I'm guessing you didn't know." he smiles gently before continuing to speak but between the concussion and shock nothing is penetrating.

"Doc… I've missed everything you've just said… can you write it all down and I'll see my Doctor when I get back to DC?"

She shoves the paperwork into her pocket and shoves everything into a box to be dealt with later.

Emily waits until they have the Mullers safe before slipping away to call her Doctor and book in an appointment for the day after they get back to DC.

Her body feels like one giant bruise when she manages to haul herself out of bed and to the doctors 48 hours later. There's nothing much to see on the ultrasound... not even a heartbeat yet just confirmation that something is in there. Another blood test… another interminable wait and it's confirmed. Her HCg levels have tripled since the initial blood test and she wonders if it's the concussion, shock or morning sickness that's making her nauseas.

She has a week of medical leave, without calling him beforehand she catches a cab down to union station and gets on the next train to New York.

This time it's her sitting outside his building waiting for him to get home. She catches a glimpse of him walking down the street and is about to stand and call out when she sees who he's with.

There's a baby on his hip and a four year old between him the woman she thought divorced him.

She has a diamond ring and a gold band on her ring finger and smiles as he kisses her on the lips.

When the realisation that he's just another loser who's BS she fell for penetrates, she slips into an alley and waits 15 minutes before walking away and hailing a cab. She sends him a text saying she's met someone and wants to see where it goes.

Emily never wants to see Malcolm Cooper again.

She spends the night in an expensive hotel ignoring what she witnessed and manages to get a seat on the 5:30 am train back to DC. When she gets home her first thought as she wanders through her condo is that there's no where to put a crib.

Her second isn't can she do this… she knows she can but should she do this.

She's a 39 year old single workaholic ex CIA operative who has weeks where she's away more than she's home. There's any number of cases that can come back to bite her in the ass. She was at the funeral of a perfect example less than a month ago.

She's spent the last year in a sexual relationship with a man who has been lying about his marital status the entire time. Really she's more embarrassed by the fact that the behavioural analyst didn't pick up on the lie than anything else.

Emily knows if she continues with the pregnancy she'll be doing this alone. She'll either need to get a Nanny or quit the BAU. As much as the team will support her there will be no one to co-parent with, no one to share the ups and downs with, late night feedings, all the firsts, teething, crawling, illnesses, talking... it will be hers and hers alone.

She falls into an exhausted sleep somewhere around midday caught between the wanting and the having...

When she wakes it's dark outside... that's not hard in December. She has missed calls from her mother and Hotch.

Hitting the speaker she listens to the messages without getting out of bed. Her mother wants to know if she'll make it for Christmas with her in Spain... Hotch confirming her return to work next week.

Chewing her lip she wonders... if there's anyone who'll understand it's her Mother and Hotch. A quick glance at her watch... it's just before midnight in Madrid... too late for the conversation she needs to have... a conversation that will either make or break the relationship with her mother. Hotch will still be at the office and that's not the place to have the conversation she needs to have with him.

She shoots off a quick text to her mother confirming she won't be there for Christmas and requesting a Skype session the next day whenever Elizabeth is free.

Emily deliberates over the message to Hotch a while longer trying to decide if she wants to talk her mother first.

Ok for desk duty Monday. Need to talk to you before then. Can I come over after Jack is in bed?

The absolute last thing she want's to do is interrupt the precious time Hotch gets with his son. They're still grieving and adjusting to life without Haley... a part of her doesn't want to put this on him but he's the only one in the team who'll understand.

She quickly receives an affirmative from the Unit Chief telling her any time after 8 is fine.

When Hotch opens the front door to his apartment just after 8:30 he immediately senses a fragility he didn't believe existed. The bruises are stark against her paler than normal skin and there's a weariness he didn't expect.

Her request for juice when he offers her a drink surprises him as well. From her demeanour and request to do this after hours he would expect this conversation to be had over a beer or glass of wine.

Pushing herself onto the stool at the bench she studies the condensation ring for a moment before lifting her head and looking him in the eye.

"I wouldn't normally ask you this... but... I need to make a choice" her voice cracks slightly "and you're the only one who'd really understand..." she swallows hard "Is he worth it...? Worth the fear, and the time away, the things missed, the risk, the crippling doubt... is Jack worth it."

Clarity hits him like the two by four swung by Joseph Smith...

"Yes" he doesn't elaborate, he doesn't need to, he probably didn't actually need to be asked the question but Emily needed to hear his doubtless answer. He pauses to let her process his answer before asking a question of his own.

"How far along are you?"

"Nearly 6 weeks."

He nods and contemplates her demeanour... despite the no profiling rule Hotch figures this is one of those times it's ok to break it.

"You're terrified..." he states softly, nodding at the slightly trembling hands and rapid breaths puffing in and out of chapped lips "We all know you've been seeing someone and given the question you just asked me I suspect his absence is a factor in your decision. If you need additional time off that's fine and this conversation never happened. If however you don't you are in for the hardest, most painfully rewarding experience of your life. Every positive and negative will be sharper, every dead child will have their face and every saved child will put you back together. Every minute away is torture and every minute with them is peace." he drops back into silence, he's given her the words she needed to hear.

"You remember the case in Reno... just after Liberty Ranch?" her voice is rough, she really didn't want to admit how badly she'd been used "It started when we got back. We'd been friends for a while and he told me his wife had left him" Hotch inhales sharply "It wasn't serious... it was fun and relaxing... turns out his wife never left him... I found out I was pregnant after the car accident in Lockport... yesterday I discovered I was his piece on the side. I went to tell him and found him with his wife and kids." she huffs out a breath with a small shake of the head "I'm not going pine away with a broken heart, I feel kinda stupid for not picking up on the lie... but hindsight and all that... so I'm in this alone…" she blinked as the meaning of what she had just said took hold.

She drained the cup and pushed herself off the stool "Thank you… I already knew exactly what you were going to say…" she pauses and a small smile graces her face as she realises her choice had already been made "I'll see you Monday"

"Emily… Congratulations" He pulls her into a light hug

The conversation with her mother the next day was strange. She'd held up the print out from the Doctor and blurted out the whole story. Elizabeth sat there stunned for a moment before asking the only question Emily wanted to hear right at that moment.

"Are you ok?"

"Yes… no…." Emily blew out a hard breath, she'd been trying to work out the answer to that question for the last 5 days "Can I get back to you on that?"

Elizabeth smiled and nodded "I'm guessing you want to keep this under wraps until you hit the second trimester?"

"Yeah... My doctor is pretty surprised the pregnancy held in the car accident, while things look ok now..."

"Does anyone else know?" Elizabeth hoped Emily had some kind of support in DC. Despite popular belief to the contrary she was well aware of the pitfalls of Emily's upbringing. She also knew she'd lost her daughter in the mid 80's and it wasn't until Emily transferred to the BAU that they started to reconnect and rebuild. These days they were speaking more often than in the past but they still easily riled each other up, and mis-communicated more often than not.

"I spoke to Hotch earlier today. He's the only one who could answer the question I had."

"What question is that, Em?"

"Is it worth it?"

"Alway's..." Elizabeth smiled gently "Even when you can't do anything but watch from afar and hope that one day you'll get a chance to make things right." An idea flitted through Elizabeth's mind... but she didn't bring it up yet. Emily wasn't ready for it, maybe in a few months time when she wasn't recovering from a car accident and reconciling an unexpected pregnancy with the concept of being a single parent.

They chatted for a while, catching up on the little things.

By the time Monday came around Emily was feeling much more centred. No longer battling the after affects of the concussion she made sure the paperwork from her doctor was in order and went straight to Hotch's office when she arrived just after 8am.

"Here's my clearance for desk duty" she handed over the first sheet from her GP "and here are my current maternity duty requirements." a wide relaxed grin was on her face as Hotch glanced over the documents restricting her from flying. "I see my doctor again the first week of January, depending on how everything looks she might lift the travel restriction."

"Well barring National emergency we're on stand down until then anyway" Hotch quickly scanned the paperwork. He'd pulled up the maternity duty policy that morning and was already rearranging the team assignments in his head. His basic plan was to move JJ and Reid into the field more and leave Emily with victimology and families. He really hoped she'd been paying attention to Reid when he was doing geographic profiles.

"That gets me through to 9 weeks. If possible I want to keep this under-wraps until the end of January but if I'm not cleared for travel we'll need to tell the team something."

"Even if you are cleared they're going to wonder why you're stuck on interviews and victimology."

"Let them wonder..." Emily shrugged "Dave and Garcia are the only ones who'll ask me outright what's going on. Reid will notice but not question it, JJ will play the concerned friend and tell me I can talk to her about anything and Morgan will brood silently and then come and question you about why I'm in the penalty box."

"What happened to no intra-team profiling" Hotch grinned unable to find any fault in her logic.

"Please..." Emily scoffed "that's not profiling, that's knowing your friends."

Christmas and New Year passed uneventfully except for the constant state of low grade nausea Emily found herself in. She never actually threw up but found herself unable to stomach the idea of anything heavier that soups and sandwiches...

She's pretty sure that more than anything piqued the teams curiosity.

As predicted she's cleared to fly in the new year and doesn't miss the mildly surprised looks on their faces when she's relegated to interviews and victimology in Atlanta.

She catches Rossi looking at her suspiciously when the same happens in Wyoming, but they're all too caught up in trying to work out who the hell is convincing these kids to choke themselves to death for him to question her. Hotch is trying not to coddle her or give anything away but when they arrive back at the station with Wilson Summers in custody neither of them miss how pale and exhausted she is.

Emily isn't sure what takes him so long but Rossi finally questions her when they get back from Miami, it's the third case in a row Hotch restricted where she went. Given her lack of irritation at being left behind, a single coffee with breakfast and not seeing her scarf down a single burger in nearly two months he decides to test out one more thing and invites her into his office and pulls out the good scotch he has hidden.

When she turns it down his face breaks into a wide grin...

"You are pregnant then?"

"Just on 12 weeks…" she confirmed and didn't get to say anything else before she was swept up in a bear hug.

She relaxed into the hug, her Mother and Hotch had both been happy for her but she hadn't been ready for a joyful response then. She was now.

"Thank you..."

He pulled her down on the couch and looked her up and down with a soft look in his eyes. His memory going back to a freezing lot early in the year and the decisions she'd made as a teen. It had been obvious at the time she had long ago made her peace with the decision and regretted the impact those events had on Matthew more than terminating the pregnancy.

"Who else knows... just so I know who I can gossip with."

"Hotch, my mom and my doctor" Emily confirmed "I knew you'd be the first to ask me outright."

"When are you planning to tell the rest of the team...?"

Emily let an evil grin spread slowly "I'm not..." she looked down to her belly which was just starting to curve out gently "I've got a month, maybe 6 weeks before I can't hide it. If anyone asks directly I'll confirm it... I've got 10 bucks riding on Garcia asking me next... Hotch thinks Reid'll make an off hand comment and accidentally put it together. We both agreed you'd be the first to notice and say something." Rossi chuckled and nodded as he considered the options.

"If it's Garcia she'll squeal loud enough to bring the others running and spill the beans and if it's Reid…" Emily had thought long and hard about how to announce her pregnancy to the team.

"He'll bring up some obscure pregnancy related fact in front of the team telling them for you?" Dave paused for a moment and considered the various reactions of their teammates and accepting her plan of just letting the team work it out for themselves.

"They all already know somethings up, Morgan's grumbling about missing you in the field with him but because you're not causing a fuss over it they don't want to bring it up with Hotch yet. How do I get in on this action, because I have a third option for you..."

It took another two weeks for someone to put the pieces together and said something. Emily was talking to Reid in the break room when Garcia walked into the bullpen looking for Morgan. As her eyes roamed past the two of them she stopped and did a double take. It wasn't overly obvious but there was a curve to Emily's frame that hadn't been there before. Cocking her head to the side Garcia studied her friend noting the weight gain in very specific places. Hips, lower belly... a little bit up in the boobs but nothing anywhere else.

"Oh... My... God..." her eyes widened comically as Emily heard the exclamation and turned to face the technical analyst.

"That's... you're PREGGERS!" at her screech Hotch and Rossi both popped out of their offices, JJ bolted around the corner and Anderson walked into a wall.

"What?" Reid spun round to stare at her incredulously.

"Yes I'm pregnant and thank you Garcia, you just won me $20.00" Emily grinned as the redhead fanned herself for a moment before running towards Emily and wrapping her arms around her.

"Why didn't you say something… how far along are you… when's the baby due… is your baby daddy happy…?" Garcia babbled happily as the two rocked back and forth in the hug.

"14 weeks so they're due mid August and I was conducting an experiment on how long it would take a group of crack profilers, a tech goddess and media goddess to notice a pregnancy." Penelope looked at her askew at the avoidance of the question about the father but decided to leave it for now.

"Was I first?" Garcia's eyes widened in excitement.

"Third in the team" Emily shrugged "Well, technically second, Hotch doesn't count, I had to tell him cause I'm on restricted field duty and Rossi guessed two weeks ago."

"Did I hear baby?" JJ walked up to them with a smile and hugged Emily as she nodded happily. "I can't believe I didn't notice!"

Up on the catwalk Dave wandered over to stand next to Hotch and the two of them watched as the JJ and Garcia continued to exuberantly congratulate Emily while Reid stood there and processed.

A slow smile crossed his face as he studied Emily before he spoke "They'll start sucking their thumb about now!"

"Who'll start sucking their thumb?" Morgan questioned as he came up behind the group.

"The fetus in Emily's uterus" Reid commented absently while still studying his friend.

"The what in Emily's what now" Morgan turned to stare incredulously at her midsection.

"You do know what a fetus is don't you?" Emily teased him "the unborn offspring of a human being."

"I know what a fetus is…" he said a little snippily "I just didn't realise..." he stopped not sure how to finish the sentence "our Prentiss is gonna be a Mama!" he eventually decides on, his face breaks into a grin.

By this time Rossi and Hotch had finally joined the rest of the team.

"Pay up boys!" Emily declares as Morgan releases her from the hug holding her hand out to Rossi and Hotch.

"What was the bet?" JJ asked as they each placed $10.00 in Emily's palm.

"Who would notice and say something to me next. I said Garcia, Hotch said Reid and Rossi… poor delusional Rossi put his money on Kevin."

"Kevin?" JJ choked out with a laugh "Kevin Lynch made the list above me and Morgan?"

"What exactly were the terms of this bet?" Morgan glared at them collectively unable to decide if he was more pissed at them for betting on the rest of the team or himself for not picking up on what he could now see were blatantly obvious signs.

"Rossi caught on in Wisconsin and finally got me to admit it two weeks ago. Hotch and I agreed on that at the beginning." Emily began. "Hotch thought Reid would make an off hand remark and accidently put it together. Rossi's bet was Kevin would make an ill advised comment about me gaining weight, I knew I could rely on my favourite tech kitten to not just work it out but make enough noise to announce it to the rest of the team for me."

END CHAPTER 1