Chapter 1
For once Emily wanted to have a dead body! She wanted to come into the office ready to fly out for their next case, but no... Her mother just had to ruin it all for her, forcing her to take two weeks' worth of vacation time and for what? Some God damn political party in one of her many hometowns. Some people had only one hometown, Morgan had Chicago, Reid had Las Vegas and JJ a small town near Pittsburg, but Emily had hundreds of them. There were three in Italy, ten in the U.S, four in Russia, three in the middle-east... She would lie if she said she had a place to call home when she was younger. They moved everywhere and didn't stay long before her mother got stationed in another country. Right now she was in Russia, in a town Emily ones had tried to call home. It was a place where they had stayed longer than other and now her mother had found herself back to that place. Emily had liked it when she was younger, but today she dreaded to board the plane and to sit there for God knows how many hours and then to suffer even more hours at this event her mother had stirred together. Why did her mother even need her there? There weren't enough times that her mother had complimented her daughter or told her friends how proud she was. Emily didn't want to come and she wouldn't have come either, but her mother had been smart. She had sent Evan to call her, at work so she wouldn't throw a scene, and persuaded her into coming. If only she hadn't had a conscience, then he wouldn't have been able to make her feel guilty for leaving her brother alone with a bunch of snobs. Evan had been Emily's best friend when they were younger and they had confided in each other with everything. Without her baby brother Emily wasn't so sure that she would have survived her childhood. Through her really rough times her brother had been there to help her out and whenever she had thought about ending it all by either taking her life or running away she would think of how much it would hurt Evan and she had forced herself to deal with it. So Emily would have to say that she came for her brother's sake and they would stick together through every painful minute.
It took a long time for her to realize that it was her turn to walk through the security and to be honest... She wanted the line to be much longer so that maybe... just maybe she could've missed the plane. That wouldn't have been her fault right? There was no way her brother could make her feel guilty for something that wasn't her fault. Now it was too late, though. There was no turning back.
She sighed as she pulled out the grey box and put her cell, keys, belt, passport and coat in the first one and shoes in the second. Her bag got to ride alone after the two boxes and she walked calmly through the metal detector, praying that it would beep. No delays there. Rolling her eyes, she went to pick up all her things and put the boxes back. She glanced at the clock on the wall. Two hours until departure. In what way could she possibly make herself miss the plane now? She could always shoplift, but that wouldn't look too good. Or maybe eat something bad and start vomiting. They couldn't let a sick woman on the plane. How would she find the right thing to eat to make her stomach turn inside-out? Too much candy? Though, candy in an airport was pretty expensive.
Her phone buzzed, interrupting her missing-the-plane-operation planning, from an incoming text. She was quick to pull her cell out of her pocket and read it.
'Have a safe trip! It's empty here without you... And don't kill anyone in Russia! Love you xoxo D.'
Emily smiled at the text reading it over and over again before pressing reply.
"Thanks, hun! Don't worry I'll be dead before I get the chance! See you in 2 weeks! Miss you already! xoxoxo E.'
She pressed send and pocketed her cellphone. Now that she had some time to kill she could as well enjoy herself looking through all the stores. She definitely needed some chocolate to make it through the long flight. Even though she found tons of things she wanted to buy, she told herself that she didn't need them to keep herself from throwing away her money. It worked because one hour and a half later the only thing she had bought was some Hershey.
She stood in line to be let onto the airplane, knowing that this line wouldn't make her miss anything. In a couple of minutes she would board and fly right into hell.
She actually groaned out loud when the flight Attendant wished Emily a nice day and took her boarding pass and passport. Then she had to walk through a grey tunnel until she finally reached the plane. Her ticket said 28c, which would be right by the aisle. On 28a and b sat an old couple. They both greeted her as she put her bag over their seats and threw up her coat too. The only things she kept down were a book, her chocolate and an mp3 player she'd borrowed from Morgan.
She fastened her seatbelt and turned off all electronic equipment. When she felt the plane starting to move the video telling them what to do during a crash started and she watched it with lack of better things to do. That would definitely have gotten her out of her mother's event, crashing the plane. But it would hurt a lot of others in the process so she just had to face the fact that at the end of the week she would be in a house full of awful people.
The airplane lifted smoothly into the air and she put her headphones on, closing her eyes as she listened to the words that were sung. She tried to sleep and she almost drifted away. Almost! Twenty minutes in she felt her chair shake and she jumped, as much as she could with the seatbelt securely around her, thinking that there was something wrong and she was about to tell the air-hostess, but then she heard the giggles. Behind her sat a girl who looked to be about seven years old and whose funniest activity on this plane was to kick the seat in front of her and this particular seat happened to belong to Emily Prentiss. This day didn't get any better.
She sat back again when it seemed like she'd stopped kicking. It didn't take long until the girl started again. Emily rolled her eyes and as soon as the seatbelt sign was gone she stood.
"Excuse me, sweetie, but can you please not kick on my seat?" Emily said, shifting her gaze between the girl and her sleeping mother.
"But what else am I supposed to do?" The girl asked, pouting with her lips.
"You can color." Emily suggested, nodding towards the Tinkerbell coloring book. The girl shook her head. "Well, why don't you watch a movie? I'm sure there is something for kids."
"I don't know how to put it on." the girl said, sadly.
Emily sat down at the empty seat next to the girl and turned the screen on, looking for a movie that she would like. It couldn't be more perfect that Tinkerbell was on there so she settled for that. Just when she was about to walk back to her seat to maybe enjoy a few hours of sleep before they landed, the girl pulled her back. She looked questionably at the girl.
"Can't you watch with me? My mommy is sleeping and it's boring to sit here alone."
There went those hours of sleep, Emily thought as she sat down next to the girl again. The movie started and Emily was only half watching as she couldn't seem to keep her eyes open. She fell asleep to the sound of the little girl giggling.
While sleeping she had the strangest of dreams. She was walking along some big fire, it was dark and foggy. Far away she could see some dim light and she just felt that she had to follow it. She didn't reach it, though, because suddenly the ground was gone beneath her and she landed with a thud deep down in the ground. She tried to move, but she couldn't. It was like she was paralyzed to do anything. She felt the panic rise in her when suddenly a white-clad spirit stood over her.
"I'm sorry." it said before a pile of soil fell down on her.
The hole she was lying in was filled up rapidly and it was harder and harder to breath. That's when she woke up and noticed a small body cuddling closer to her own. She noticed that the movie was finished and the little girl next to her had fallen asleep and decided to use her as a cushion. Emily smiled softly, forgetting all about the irritation she felt over the girl and where she was heading. The only thing she could think about was how she wished that one day she would have her own little girl.
The airplane was in a complete silence by now and the lights were almost completely out. She moved the girl away so she was resting against her mother before returning back to her own chair, closing her eyes as she once again leant back in her seat.
"It suits you." a voice told her with a thick, Russian accent, startling her. She looked to the man on her left with confusion written all over her face. "Kids, you know? You'd be a great mother."
"How did you...?"
"A true Russian knows these things." he said, over-dramatically. "Also, I saw the longing in your eyes when you looked at her." he admitted, settling back in his seat and closed his eyes.
Emily shook her head and chuckled as she did the same.
A lot of hours later of both dreaming dreams just as strange as the first and also some restless thinking, the pilot finally announced that they were about to land. Even if Emily had dreaded this moment, she couldn't be happier to exit the plane and finally get to stretch her legs.
The airport was big and unfortunately her plane had landed in a different terminal than where her brother would pick her up. That meant that she had to take the tram and it was hardly any space to move around inside it because of all the people. Therefore, she was glad when it stopped and she was the first one to exit. She followed the signs leading towards her only suitcase. Normally she would settle for her go-bag, but knowing her mother she knew that she would have to bring like 12 different dresses, one for each day, and that didn't fit into her small bag.
Tapping her foot impatiently, she watched as suitcase after suitcase rolled by until she finally spotted her grey one. She dragged it off from the conveyor belt and carried it towards the exit. Now, she actually felt excited about seeing her brother. They had last seen each other five months ago when he visited her in D.C. He had moved to Russia for some kind of reason, but he seemed to like it there so who was Emily to argue with him. Although, it would have been much nicer to have him close to her.
She spotted him almost immediately after walking through the customs. He wasn't hard to miss with his tall figure. Both of their faces got brighter at the sight of each other and she tried her best to walk fast up to him so that she could give him a hug. Evan noticed the heavy suitcase and decided to run to her instead. She dropped the suitcase when he reached her, hugging her and lifting her up from the ground. It made her feel like a teenager again, but at that time she had been the taller one.
"God, Mills, I've missed you so much!" he said, still keeping her in his arms, off the ground.
"I've missed you too, minivan." Emily sighed against her brother's shoulder. He put her down again and looked at her.
"You should probably come up with a new nickname, sis... I'm not that little anymore." He joked, as every time they got together.
Emily smiled at her brother like she was finally going to give in, but then she grinned mischievously. "Still not gonna happen." She said and Evan shook his head before she added. "Now, I hear there's a party in town. Would you be so kind, dear, and escort me?"
