Fighter

Alive And Well

TW: SEXUAL ASSAULT

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“Welcome back,” Derek greets Aaron as he walks into the briefing room.

He responds, “Thanks. Everybody take a seat.”

Everyone takes a seat as Derek asks curiously, “Why?” Trying to dig deeper he asks Aaron, “What’s going on? Everything all right?”

Aaron begins, “7 months ago I made a decision that affected this team.” He continues, “As you all know Emily had lost a lot of blood after her fight with Doyle. The doctors were able to stabilize her.” Penelope looks up slowly with tears in her eyes. Aaron explains further, “She was airlifted from Boston to Bethesda und a covert exfiltration.” Everyone looks back and forth between Aaron and the others. “Her identity was strictly need to know, and she stayed there until she was well enough to travel. She was reassigned to Paris, where she was given several identities, none of which we had access to for her security,” Aaron takes a small breath.

Stunned, the team stands and sits there in awe. Penelope chokes up, “She’s alive?”

Without answer, Spencer adds, “But, we buried her.”

“As I said, I take full responsibility for the decision,” Aaron admits, “If anyone has any issues, they should be directed towards me.”

Defensively, Derek asks, “Any issues? Yeah, I got issues.”

Penelope turns to face the door as Derek goes off. With that, everyone turns to face Emily standing in the doorway. Emily holds her purse with one arm and has a coat draped over the other in front of her. Penelope, now crying, says, “Oh my God.”

No words are spoken as everyone looks at Emily. Derek looks back at Aaron, the turns to Emily once more. Spencer approaches Emily, that’s when he steps back cautiously, “Woah!” He notices her stomach protruding outwards.

Emily moves her coat to reveal a baby bump. The team gasps and Emily looks at Aaron, “You didn’t tell them?”

Not a word comes from anybody. Emily takes a breath, “When I was with Ian, he forced me to act as Lauren. I did what he said and one thing led to another… I couldn’t stop him. There were guards everywhere.” Derek almost throws up. “When I was in Paris under my new identity, I found out I was pregnant.”

“Why are you so big? JJ wasn’t that big?” Penelope asks hugging her tightly.

“It’s twins,” Emily blurts. Spencer, who is taking a sip of coffee, spits it out all over the table. Derek stands there frozen in time. Emily walks over to him and hugs him. Her bump brushes up against him, “Not a day went by that I didn’t want to…” Derek pats her on the shoulder, “You didn’t deserve that, and I’m so sorry.” She finishes her hello’s and moves on, “There is so much I want to tell you guys, and I will. I promise, but right now I really need to know what’s going on with Declan.”

Everyone shoves their feeling deep down and pushes away all emotions to focus on the case. After an hour, Emily makes the decision to enter the interrogation room where Ian is being held. She opens the door slowly and reveals herself. Ian’s eyes sparkle with the bright ceiling light. He smiles, “Of course.” As Emily walks to the table he notices her belly. His eyes widen, “Is that? Are you?”

“I’m not here to talk about me,” Emily pulls out photos of women, “Which, one is Declan’s mom.”

He points to the center photo on the bottom row, “Chloe Donaghy. But she had nothing to do with this.”

“How do you know?” Emily asks. She continues, “Did you kill her, too?”

“Because she tried to kill Declan before he was even born,” Ian clarifies. Emily continues questioning Ian, but all he can do is focus on her bump. After her last question, she starts to head for the door but is stopped by Ian. He asks genuinely, “Is it mine?”

Emily turns around slowly and smirks, “THEY. They are yours.” She exits the room and leaves Ian in there to ponder her wording.

Only a few seconds go by before he realizes. He stands up and declares, “When I get out of here, THEY will be mine.”

Emily pops her head back in, “It’s not when, Ian. Not when you get out. It’s if. If you can even make it out of here.” She shuts the door and leaves Ian to smash his cuffed fists on the metal table. 

After a hard day’s work, the team surrounds the jet holding Chloe, Lachlan, and Declan. On the bullhorn, Aaron announces, “Lachlan McDermott and Chloe Donaghy, this is the FBI.”

From inside the aircraft, Lachlan asks, “You called the feds?”

“Why would I do that?” asks Chloe back at Lachlan.

From inside they can hear Aaron, “We know you have Declan. To ensure his safety, we would like to trade.” Lachlan looks out the window and listens, “We will give you Ian Doyle and you send us the boy.

Chloe stumbles over her words, “This- This is not our deal.”

Lachlan grabs Declan, “No, but it just got interesting.”

Chloe pulls a gun on Lachlan, but Lachlan shoots her before she has the chance to finish her sentence, “You’re not going any-”

Lachlan opens the plane’s door, steps out with Declan with a gun pointed at him. Lachlan demands, “Bring Doyle here.” The heavily pregnant Emily, and genius boy Spencer, take Ian to Lachlan. Lachlan insists, “I want him here on his knees.”

With Emily, Spencer, and Ian walking towards Lachlan, Morgan asks through the walkie-talkie, “Hotch, are we really going to do this?”

Aaron responds, “No one leaves here.”

Lachlan moves his gun from Declan and points it at Ian, “You bastard. How’s it feel, huh? It’s your bloody time now, isn’t it?” Ian looks at Lachlan, then Declan, “Now hand him over.”

Just as Emily and Spencer try to hand off Ian for Declan, Chloe stumbles out of the plane with a gun. Derek screams, “Gun!” Chloe shoots Ian, Spencer shoots Chloe as she shoots Lachlan. The team runs towards the victims. Declan is checked out immediately by Emily. Lachlan is confirmed dead by Spencer.

Declan reaches over and holds Ian’s hand. Ian holds Declan’s hand but looks at Emily, “You were always the one, Lauren.” Ian’s hand goes limp and Declan turns to Emily and gives her a big hug. Emily tears up but stays strong for Declan.

The scene is taken care of and the team gets in their vehicles. Aaron whispers to Emily with a sleeping Declan on her shoulder, “He must be exhausted.”

“Yeah, I don’t think he fully understands what is going on,” Emily whispers back.

“He is being placed with his aunt back in Ireland. Chloe’s sister, Meghan, strayed from her family and passed all of Penelope’s background checks,” Aaron puts his phone back into his pocket.

“That’s good,” Emily smiles and nods along. When they return to Quantico, they sluggishly trudge their way into the bullpen. Emily notices a figure, “Who is in the briefing room?”

The team follows behind Emily. She enters the room where she sees Penelope surrounded by blue and pink cupcakes, “I know it’s been a long day for all of you, but I couldn’t wait any longer. We need to have a…” Penelope reveals a handmade sign, “Welcome Home - Back From The Dead - Baby Shower Extravaganza!”

Everyone stands slouched over and in awe of how quickly Penelope put together the shower. Emily steps forward and gives Penelope a hug, “Thank you.”