Moving on, “So, Detective Rodriguez, do you know him?” Emily
asked.

“Yeah, so?” Belligerent he tried not to show his fear.  Rodriguez had warned him what would happen if
he screwed him.

“So, when was the last time he came by to see you? Emily
voice was precise and to the point.  She
wanted answers, now, it was getting late, she was tired and dammit her face
hurt because of this *****.

Swallowing hard, “the other night…no…no last night…” the
look in Emily’s eyes was making him nervous.

“Which one is it Maldonado? Emily watched him squirm in the
seat.  His eyes kept darting to the door
and back to her. “Don’t even think about it”

“What?  Last night, I
saw him last night.” Sweating he looked into Emily’s eyes and didn’t know who
he was more afraid of, Agent Prentiss or Detective Rodriguez.

Xxxxxxxxxxxxx

“Well?”  Rossi was
waiting for them to finish questioning him.

“He’s lying Rossi” Emily ran tired hands along the sides of
her head.  “Why would he lie, unless he’s
protecting Rodriguez, and why would Rodriguez lie, unless he knows something.”
Taking a seat, she looked up at the older man, “we’re missing something.  Did Garcia get any more background on him?”

“She was still working on it.”

“Where’s JJ?”  Looking
around the room, she didn’t see JJ or Morgan.
Jane and Maura weren’t back either.

“She’s not back yet”

“What about Morgan?” they couldn’t afford any more drama.

“I think he went to go apologize.  I still can’t believe that he said those
things.  I’m thinking he wasn’t just
upset with her.” Quirking an eyebrow at the brunette he let that sink in.

“Dave you don’t think I know how Morgan’s been feeling?  He doesn’t trust me yet and I don’t know if
he ever will, but I don’t think he can trust anyone else either.  But you know what?  We need him, pure and simple and if he can’t
get past this…”

“I know, but you know we all deal with grief in different
ways Emily, as far as he was concerned, he watched you bleed out, he let you
down and then suddenly you were back.
We’ve all been a bit off since then.”

Exasperated Emily slapped her hand on the table, “I know
that!  I can see it in your eyes when you
look at me.  I can only say I’m sorry so
many times but I would rather have you all hate me than to know that you were
hurt or killed because of me.  I can deal
with the hate.” Eyes glistening with unshed tears she stared at him, daring him
to contradict her.