champagne problems x jemily/hotchniss

twenty-eight

by far my favorite storyline ever on criminal minds. i just wish they did more of a background into lauren and ian's relationship but worry not! i'll handle that in a few chapters🥰

happy readings and stay safe besties! -salem🤍

TW: mentions of death, violence, swearing, gun violence, physical abuse, mentions of smoking, torture
word count: 6380

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Emily: "I am the blood of the dragon. I must be strong. I must have fire in my eyes when I face them, not tears." George R.R. Martin.

"I got four names on the bottom of the list Prentiss gave us," Derek said and walked up to the board with the note in his hand. "Luke Renault. Lawrence Riley. Lilia Rafferty. Lyle Rogers."

"Is it a coincidence that they're all with the initials L.R.?" Garcia asked and looked around at her team. Hotch shook his head.

"The CIA uses cryptograms like that to assign to non-official cover agents," Aaron said and turned towards Garcia. His arms crossed as his mind raced with possibilities. "Those last four names are spies."

"Wait. Let me see that paper again," Penelope said. Derek handed her the paper. She shook her head. "See, this is wrong. There shouldn't be a space right there. This is a spreadsheet template. This row would only be there if something were typed there. There's a missing name on here."

"Another spy, whose cover starts with L.R. like the rest on the template," Spencer said and crossed his arms.

"Lauren Reynolds died in a car accident, Emily. It's over."

JJ furrowed her eyebrows as she leaned against Emily's desk. "Lauren Reynolds died in a car accident, Emily. It's over."

"What?" Aaron asked and looked back at JJ.

"Emily was on the phone when I went to get her so you guys could go to Delaney's. The person on the other line said that Lauren Reynolds had died in a car accident. It didn't sound grievous or sorrowful. It sounded like he was reminding her," JJ said and kept her eyes to the floor as she retracted the call over and over. "Is it possible that Emily is that last name on the list?"

"Where's Emily?" Aaron asked and looked around the bullpen. Derek furrowed his eyebrows.

"She was right behind me when you were giving the profile," Derek said and glanced around the entire bullpen.

"I got it," JJ said and grabbed her phone. She dialed Emily's number and waited for her to answer. But instead, the ringing came from inside her desk. Aaron opened it and found her phone, gun, badge, and engagement ring all there. His heart dropped as he saw everything. Rossi stopped him right as he was about to run out of the bullpen to go find her.

"Aaron. Aaron!" Rossi said and tried to bring the man back down to his senses. Morgan helped at restraining Hotch.

"I'm not going to stand here, Dave, as she goes and kills herself! I'm going to find her," Aaron yelled and tried to get out of the two men's grips.

"Where is she going? Do you know? Hotch, we need the profile to find her," Derek said and sat him down against her desk. "We cannot go in there without it."

"You're not going to find her blindly. She's a trained spy. She's good at disappearing," Rossi said and finally let go as Aaron settled down. The rest of the team was quiet as they all took a minute.

"That doesn't make sense. Why would she run? We're her family. We could help," Spencer said just above his breath.

"Doyle's killing families. He must have made a threat to her in some way. Maybe he was ready to target any one of us. She ran to protect us," Rossi said, his eyes going to Aaron. "To protect you and Jack. She needed to run."