Hotch looked down at his phone and saw JJ's name. Last time he had spoken to her was six months ago at the funeral. They had agreed not speak again about what they had done unless it was absolutely necessary. Truth was, they hadn't spoken at all since then, not about anything. To see each other or to speak would remind them of the events of those few weeks and the immense burden they were both having to bear. To try and forget it was the only way to deal with it, although Hotch resentfully felt that would be far harder for him than JJ. He had to face his team every day and deal with what they were going through knowing he could go some way to ease their pain with just a few words. He couldn't tell them though…..that would be putting not only Emily in danger, but also each one of the team. He knew they wouldn't thank him for it if they ever found out, but just as Emily had done a few months ago, keeping this from them was the only option he had.

Tentatively he answered the call.

"JJ" His voice was formal and professional. No emotion. It actually made him uncomfortable to talk to her.

"Hi Hotch."

"Hi. What's up?" Hotch had no time for small talk with JJ. What they hell would they talk about? It wasn't that he was angry with JJ. Of course she had done everything she could to keep Emily alive, they both had. It just didn't feel right for them to speak of anything apart from Emily and to speak of her was just too hard.

"Hotch, Easter just called. Doyle's dead. Caught by the FSB in Russia."

"Right." Hotch paused, trying to digest what he'd just heard.

"Hotch? You still there?"

"Yes JJ. What about Prentiss? Did he say anything about her?"

"He just said she was safe and he would call me with more information as soon as he had it."

Silence again…

"Hotch, are you ok?"

"Yes, I just don't know what to say. What do I do now?" Hotch didn't mean to say that out loud. That wasn't like him at all. If he felt it, he never said it. He always tried to deal with things himself.

"Nothing yet Hotch. Let's find out more about Emily first, then we can decide from there."

'We?' Hotch thought. There had been no 'we' for the past six months. He had done this on his own. He didn't want to be angry with JJ, but he had felt slightly abandoned by her.

"Ok JJ, keep me informed."

Hotch sat at his desk for the next hour, feeling shell shocked. He was obviously immensely relieved that Doyle was dead and Emily was no longer in danger from the monster, but his worries centred around his team. How would he break this news to them? How would they feel towards him? He had once said to Rossi, when Morgan had been arrested, that there was no room on this team for secrets. The secret he had kept was huge and had meant his team suffered. He had watched each one of them break down in a different way and had fought to keep them together and focused on their work. It had been the most difficult few months of his life after dealing with what happened to Hayley. He hadn't slept properly since the events and had a constant head ache due to the pressure of knowing what was happening to his team. He too had felt himself breaking, but had no-one to lean on.

Rossi had been the one he had spoken most to over the months, mainly about how the rest of the team were coping. Rossi asked him several times how he himself was coping with it. Hotch said few words as he hated lying to his friend, but knew out of everyone, Rossi would understand the most. Rossi was of course dealing with his own grief. He had been close to Emily…. A mentor, a friend and pretty much a father figure. He knew that she had confided in Rossi about things the rest of the team knew nothing about and Rossi had always believed and trusted in Emily unquestionably.

Watching Garcia had probably been the hardest. She came in every day for the first couple of months and cried. She probably cried only once a week now at work that Hotch was aware of, but he guessed when she went home there were tears every day. Her usually bright and happy attitude was nowhere to be seen….. No flirting with Morgan or teasing Reid. No wacky hairstyles or bold clothes. She still couldn't walk into the bullpen because just seeing Emily's desk would make her breakdown. She had cursed herself for not finding Emily sooner and Hotch had tried to convince her that there was no way of her finding Emily. Emily had made sure of that.

Reid was the most concerning as he went into his shell. His words were few. He battled with the fact he had not managed to say goodbye to her. The boy had seen so many people he loved leave in one way or the other. Reid and Emily had shared a bond in many ways. Out of everyone on the team, she was probably the one who could talk to him the most on an intellectual level…. Of course no-one was as intelligent as Reid, but Emily wasn't far behind. She was wordly wise and she never boasted about that, but every now and then she'd say something that would amaze everyone. That was their Emily. Her and Reid of course also shared their love of everything that was 'nerd' and Hotch wandered if Reid had even managed to watch a Star Trek film since that day. He doubted it.

Both Reid and Garcia had asked to see Emily's body at the hospital so they could say their goodbyes. Hotch and JJ had to think on their feet to dodge that bullet and they told them she didn't look too good…..Morgan had look confused when they said that as of course he had seen her right before and knew that wasn't true, but he never questioned it. He couldn't understand why anyone would want to see her that way.

Hotch had watched Morgan struggle to cope with the loss of his partner and friend while at the same time trying to be strong for Garcia and Reid. Hotch suspected that Morgan saved his tears for when he was at home on his own. He had spoken to Hotch about going in to the building to get her that day…had they gone in too late, were they too loud, could they have done it differently? It killed Hotch to not tell him that he had actually saved her life. Morgan had walked around looking nothing but angry and lost since the day he believed she had pretty much died in his arms. Rossi had spoken to Hotch about his theories of Morgan's feelings towards Emily. Hotch knew the two of them were close and that there was probably more to their feelings than just friends, but he wasn't sure. Morgan was not the type to share that kind of information.

A knock at his door shook Hotch out of his thoughts. It was Rossi.

"Hotch, I've got some paperwork for you to sign up." He walked over and handed him a file.

Hotch didn't say anything, but just took the file and began to read. Rossi could see Hotch was deep in thought, which of course lately was a common occurrence, but today it was different.

"Something wrong Aaron?"

Hotch looked up at Rossi with a frowned expression.

He shook his head, "No, everything's fine."

"OK." Rossi said and turned to walk out of the office.

As he got to the door, Hotch continued, "Dave…. everything's not ok."

Hotch finally felt like he was able to share some of this burden. With Doyle dead, Emily and the team were no longer in danger.

Rossi shut the door, turned and sat on the chair opposite the unit chief.

"Go on." Rossi said.

"Doyle is dead."

Rossi too paused for thought on hearing the news…."Well that's good news right?" It was good news, but didn't change anything about Emily, or so he thought.

"Yes it is, but there's something else….something that I'm going to need to tell everyone and I could really do with your help."

Rossi looked confused, but of course he would always offer his support. "Whatever you need."

Hotch took a deep breath, "Dave, Prentiss is alive." Hotch looked at Rossi as he delivered the news trying to gauge his reaction.

Rossi looked down in thought for a few seconds and then looked back up at Hotch, "And you've known all along right?"

"Yes."

"And JJ?"

"Yes, how did you guess?"

"Just thinking about back at the hospital. The two of you were huddled a few times. I guess that makes sense now."

"You understand why we did it don't you?"

"I do and as soon as I've managed to digest this I know I will be incredibly happy she is alive, but I don't know how the others are going to react. They've gone through hell the last few months. We all have."

"That's why I need your help."

"And you have it, you know that… Have you had any contact with her?"

"No, the only people who know anything about what happened to her after that day at the hospital are JJ and Easter. I've not spoke to JJ since, until today. It had to be that way."

"I see, and is she coming back?"

Hotch could hear the hope in Rossi's voice.

"I have no idea. I'm waiting for more news from JJ."

"Right, well until we know that I suggest we don't say anything. They will have a million questions. You… we need to be able to answer as much as we can."
Hotch was relieved to hear Rossi say 'we'. He knew he could rely on his friend.

The following day they had a new case. They were all in the briefing room, Garcia telling them about three missing women, one found dead, all three believed connected. Hotch's phone rang out and he looked at the screen to see JJ's name. He looked at Rossi as he got up.

"I need to take this…..carry on without me."

Rossi acknowledged Hotch's look, knowing this was the news they had both been waiting for.

After the briefing he went straight to Hotch's office where he was pacing around his room.

"So Aaron. What's the news?"

"Prentiss is in London at the moment. She wants to come back."

"Right…that's good. Any idea when?"

"She'll be back in a weeks time. We've got a week to tell the team and her family and help them come to terms with it. JJ's taking care of everything else."

"What's everything else?"

"Well, reversing her death certificate. Sorting out her coming back here. Everything like that. She'll have contact with her."

"Ok, well let's get this case over and done with, then we can tell them all."

The case took two days and both Rossi and Hotch were distracted by what they would have to do once it was over. The morning after the case had finished Hotch gathered the team in the briefing room. He and Rossi remained standing, Rossi standing by the unit chief's side to show his support. Reid, Morgan and Garcia sat next to each other waiting for Hotch to begin. Rossi quickly realised that Hotch didn't even know where to start, so he began for him.

"Guys, we have some news…." The three agents turned to look at Rossi in anticipation…."They got Doyle. He's dead."

There was silence. Rossi could see Garcia's face change…. She was starting to cry. That was not unusual or unexpected. She cried at the mention of anything to do with Emily.

Reid continued to stare at Rossi, silently asking for more information. He just couldn't find the words.

Morgan lowered his head towards the table. He was frantically rubbing the table with a finger. Trying to suppress the anger Rossi guessed.

The silence was uncomfortable. Hotch was waiting for questions, but they never came so he took over from Rossi… "He was in Russia, the FSB found him."

Morgan all of a sudden stood up, "Who cares! I'm glad he's dead and I hope he suffered, but what does it change….?" He hung his head and the anger fell away from his tone…"It should have been me…I should have killed him. If I'd of got there sooner…" He was practically whispering and his voice broke. Garcia took hold of his hand. She had heard that so many times from him. He had constantly beaten himself up for not getting to her a few seconds earlier.

Rossi and Hotch looked at each other and Rossi nodded at Hotch, willing him to continue.

"That's not all… There's something else I need to tell you."

Morgan sat back down and took Garcia, who still had tears streaming down her face, into his arms.

Hotch took a deep breath….."Please believe me that what I am about to tell you isn't easy and it was only ever done to protect you and…." He paused."….and Prentiss."

It took a few seconds, but one by one the agents in front of him moved their gaze to him, all looking lost.

"Emily…..?" Reid said almost choking…"to protect Emily. But she's…gone."

"No, she's not gone. Emily…she's alive." Hotch said softly, trying to break the news as gently as possible.

Garcia was first to react with a gasp. The look on her face was almost the same as when JJ had delivered the news that Emily was dead. It was too much to take in.

"Emily's alive? My Emily is alive? How can she be alive?" Garcia's voice was desperate.

Reid's expression had barley changed and Morgan was looking at Hotch in disbelief.

"She didn't die at the hospital. She was taken to a secure hospital to recover. I don't know what happened to her after that, but I know she is in London now and is going to come back here now that everyone is safe."

"So you knew all along that she was alive?" Morgan asked.

"Yes."

"And you too Rossi?" Morgan said. Neither Rossi nor Hotch could tell what Morgan was thinking. His words were monotone but his breaths were deep. His chest was rising and falling harder than usual.

Hotch spoke before Rossi could answer….."No, Rossi knew nothing until a couple of days ago. The only people to know were me, JJ and Easter."

"JJ?" Reid said…. "JJ knew and she never told me?"

Garcia was sobbing too hard to say anything and Rossi could feel the tension rising even more if that were possible…. "Guys, come on. This is good news. Our Emily is alive and I know we have all suffered greatly these last few months, but the main thing is she is alive. She'll be back in a few days."

"She's coming here?" Reid mumbled.

Rossi walked over and put a hand on Reid's shoulder….. "Yes. She's coming home buddy."

Reid hung his head and the tears started to flow. That was the first time any of them had seen him cry since that day at the hospital. Garcia turned to Reid and enveloped him in a hug.

An unusually quiet Morgan sat and watched his two friends, a million emotions running through his mind. He didn't know the right questions to ask and felt like his world was imploding so he stood up and held his hand out to Garcia, "Hey you. She's alive….." He said with a small smile. "…..Come on let's get you out of here and freshen up. All that make up is running down your pretty face."

She took his hand and turned to Reid, "You coming Spence?" Reid said nothing, but stood up and followed as Morgan led Garcia out of the room, Morgan shooting Hotch a glance as he walked past.

Hotch turned to Rossi, "What do you think?"

"I think they've just found out a person they love very much and have grieved for for the past 6 months is still alive. It's a lot to take in. Let's give them a bit more time and we can speak to them again."

To be continued very soon…