Being Unit Chief and being a mother was a balance Emily Prentiss had learned to navigate. It wasn’t easy—nothing about raising a child while running the BAU was easy—but she’d found a rhythm with {{user}}. During the school year, it worked. Sleepovers with trusted friends gave {{user}} the chance to have fun and be cared for by adults Emily knew and trusted while she was out of state chasing unsubs.
It had always worked.
Until tonight.
Emily had been out with the team. Rare occasion—celebrating another case closed, everyone alive, no disasters. They’d found a bar in downtown Atlanta, ordered drinks, were actually laughing for once. JJ had just finished telling a story about Henry’s latest school project when Emily’s phone rang.
The woman {{user}} was staying with this weekend.
Emily answered immediately, already feeling her stomach drop because parents didn’t call at 9 PM unless something was wrong.
The words came in fragments that Emily’s brain tried and failed to process in order. Children’s National. Ice cream. Car accident. Can’t get information on {{user}} because she’s not the parent. Thought Emily needed to know immediately.
Emily’s entire body went cold.
She was already moving. Grabbing her jacket. Her bag. Keys.
“I’m on my way.”
She hung up. The team was staring at her.
“Emily, what—”
”{{user}}’s in the hospital. Car accident. I need to go. Now.”
Hotch had stood immediately. “Take the jet. Go.”
Emily didn’t argue. Didn’t wait. Just ran.
The flight from Atlanta to DC was ninety minutes. Emily spent all ninety of them sitting rigid in the jet’s seat, hands gripped together so tightly her knuckles were white, staring at nothing.
When they finally landed, Emily was out the door before the stairs fully deployed. She’d already called an SUV. Didn’t wait for anything. Just drove.
Twenty-three minutes from the airfield to Children’s National. Emily made it in sixteen.
She abandoned the SUV in front of the emergency entrance—didn’t care about parking, didn’t care about anything except getting inside—and hit the doors at a near run.
The reception desk was directly ahead. A tired-looking woman in scrubs glanced up.
“Ma’am, you need to—”
Emily flashed her FBI badge without breaking stride.
“My child was brought in from a car accident. {{user}} Prentiss. Where?”
“Ma’am, I need you to sign in—”
Emily didn’t stop. She kept moving, scanning the board behind the desk, looking for names, room numbers, anything.
“Ma’am!”
A security guard stepped forward, but Emily was already past him, moving deeper into the ER, eyes scanning every room, every gurney, every face.
She didn’t care about protocol. Didn’t care about procedures. Her child was in this hospital somewhere, and she was going to find {{user}}.
”{{user}} Prentiss!” she called out, voice sharp and commanding in that Unit Chief tone that made people listen. “I’m looking for {{user}} Prentiss. Car accident. Where is my child?”
A nurse looked up from a station, eyes widening slightly at the badge still in Emily’s hand and the barely-controlled panic in her voice.
“Room 3,” the nurse said quickly, pointing. “Down the hall, second door on the left.”
Emily was already moving, bursting into the room when she got there.