Disclaimer: I only own what I make up.
Also: This is the sequel to Always Family, and there are some new people that I brought in. Rundown, just in case anyone is new: JJ has a brother named Theodore Jareau (TJ), and he has a teenage daughter from a previous relationship named Isobel. Emily is married to TJ now, making her Emily Jareau, and stepmother to Isobel. TJ and Emily are also parents to twins Milo and Kiley, who are five months old. JJ and Will also have baby Emiliana now, who is six months old. The team also met a girl named Rebel Rose Kelley on a case in New York. Rebel is nineteen, and she has a ten month old daughter named Sadie, from a previous relationship. Rebel is also nine months pregnant (via her ex), but is now in a committed relationship with Spencer. She also moved to D.C., and is next door neighbors with Emily and TJ now ;) I think that's everything!
The story picks up right after the last chapter of Always Family.
Addendum at time of completion: Yes, I do know there are a lot of people. Please don't waste my time and yours with complaints about this matter, or anything else. Thank you.
"To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite,
To forgive Wrongs Darker Than Death Or Night;
To defy power, which seems Omnipotent;
To love and bear;
To hope, till hope creates from its own wreck the thing it contemplates;
Neither to change nor falter nor repent;
This, like thy glory, Titan! is to be good, great and joyous, beautiful and free;
This is alone Life, Joy, Empire and Victory."
—Percy Bysshe Shelley
JJ woke up with a start, which immediately had her on alert because she didn't even remember falling asleep. Something had happened to her. Something bad.
She just couldn't figure it out because her memory was fuzzy.
Looking around, she saw that she was in a bedroom of some kind, in a house that wasn't hers, or even one that she recognized.
The room was plain, but rundown, with an almost abandoned feel to it, and the more JJ looked around, the more she started having flashbacks to her childhood bedroom on the farm in Pennsylvania. Everything in this room, from the floor to the furniture, and everything in between, looked like it had been decorated some time in the seventies or the eighties. Even the toys on the dresser, the posters on the walls, and the clothes hanging in the closet showed that this had been the room of a teenage girl, way back in the day.
"I need to get out of here," JJ murmured, getting to her feet. But then she let out a curse when she felt woozy.
She'd been a federal agent long enough to recognize a concussion when she had one, and she would be remiss to not recognize it now, as she frantically wracked her brain, in hopes that she could remember who had done this to her. JJ swore again when she realized that she was without her gun and credentials, and also that she was barefoot—her captor had even gone so far as to remove her shoes. Real thought had been put into this abduction. A third curse escaped her lips when she felt physically sick—she had been drugged, and she could still feel the substance coursing through her system. There was even a funny feeling in the back of her throat.
JJ stood, but only took two steps before collapsing in an unceremonious heap on the room's faded shag carpet. The drug was really doing its job.
She wasn't sure how long she was out, but she came to as her subconscious—which sounded a lot like Emily—scolded her for falling asleep while concussed. JJ also heard somewhere in the distance, a grandfather clock chiming.
She lay there, counting.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
So it was eight in the morning… wherever she was…
"What was I doing?" she asked herself. "I wish I could remember."
JJ was greeted by a loud silence.
"But I need to get out of here. I need to get help."
Carefully and quietly, JJ crept across the room and tried the door. To her surprise, it wasn't boobytrapped, and it was even unlocked. Exercising even more caution, JJ stole out into the hallway. She doors that led to bedrooms, and maybe even attic at one end of the hallway, and at the other, a staircase that led to the first floor.
All of JJ's senses were on hyperdrive because she didn't have a weapon, and hadn't found anything yet that could be one, so she was very careful as she went down the stairs. She spotted the front door, but it was boarded up, so that was a no-go. But it was late December, and almost everything outside was a cold, frozen wasteland.
On her left, JJ saw a dining room, while on the right, she saw a living room, and more importantly, her phone on an end table. JJ was sure this was too good to be true, but she would get herself out whatever mess this would probably lead to later.
Still on the lookout for the unsub, she ran for her phone, unlocked it, and moved quickly through the screen, looking for the widget where her favorite contacts were stored, and pressed the call button when she found a specific name. Holding the phone to her ear, she silently begged the person at the other end to pick up quickly.
Meanwhile, at the Behavioral Analysis Unit in Quantico, Emily stood on the catwalk between her office and the bullpen, overlooking everyone. She'd been back at work for a little while now, since giving birth to Milo and Kiley, but she was already starting to see the job through the eyes of a parent. She hadn't when she just had Isobel to be a mother to—maybe because Isobel had been eighteen when they had first met—but now that she was a mama to two little babies, things were different.
There were monsters out there, good and well, but they, the BAU, were there to fight the monsters and conquer them.
Things were just different in Emily's world now because she had a husband and three children at home.
And soon, maybe kid number four.
No! Emily reprimanded herself. That would be lovely, but Milo and Kiley aren't even one yet!
Emily looked down at everyone in the bullpen again. The regular office workers were there, as always, but there was also her team, scattered throughout the room.
Penelope was in the kitchen, by the coffee. Emily watched as her friend filled up her favorite octopus mug and fixed it to her liking, before putting on a fresh pot when she noticed it was empty. Then, sipping her cup of cup of joe, Penelope leaned against the counter to look at something on her phone. They were either the latest tweets on Twitter, or else her newest pictures of Sergio, and Dizzy and Dolly, her two new German Shepherd puppies. Probably the latter.
Tara was at the kitchen table, a few feet away from Penelope, poring over a newspaper page in front of her on the tabletop. Her own steaming mug of coffee was within reach.
Across the room, Luke was at the filing cabinets, putting some folders back. The team had been in a bit of a lull, so he'd been using the quiet to read up on as many old cases that he could. Emily was proud of him for that, and was pleased that she could answer most of the questions about those cases that he brought to her attention, having been part of so many of them.
Spencer was the only one at his desk, although this was only because he had his nose buried in a boo, while also doing his best to ignore the constant ringing of the phones in the room. He was prone to jump at the sound of a phone ringing near him because Rebel was fit to pop with her baby at any moment. He had taken to distracting himself from thinking that every incoming call to the BAU room was meant for him, bearing news that his youngest child was on the way, by reading as many parenting or psychology books as he could. Emily made a mental note not to call for Spencer unless it was pressing.
She didn't see JJ, and she found that odd because she should have been there already. Just as quickly, though, Emily perished the thought because JJ was probably just running late. She did have three young children, after all.
Other than JJ, the only other person Emily didn't immediately see was Rossi, but that's because he was behind her, in his office.
"Emily?"
Or not.
She turned to see her old friend emerging from his office and coming to stand beside her. Together, they looked out on their teammates.
"Well, I see Penelope heading off to her office," Rossi remarked, turning to Emily. "And you and I are standing up here. Tara's at the kitchen table, and Luke is getting more files to read, and Spencer is at his desk. Where is JJ?"
Emily sighed as she faced him. "Late, it would appear, which is disconcerting because I've gotten texts from both TJ and mother about her."
"Oh?"
"TJ asked me to ask her about one of the babies' things we left at the LaMontagne house yesterday, but he's misremembering a little bit—it was a toy, and we left it at Rebel's house."
"Did it ever get back to your house?"
"It did, so don't worry." Emily reassured him. "Isobel collected it, posthaste, because it was Milo's favorite bear—I just happen to be married to a man who can be a little scatterbrained, but all is right in my baby boy's world now."
Rossi smiled in amusement. "Then all's well that ends well, right? What did Elizabeth want?"
"She wanted to know if I'd heard from JJ at all today. Apparently, she had something for her that JJ was supposed to come get before work, but she never went. JJ loves mother—she'd never stand her up. She would have at least texted her first."
Rossi furrowed a brow, starting to share in Emily's concern. "But not even that?"
Emily shook her head. "No, and I even called her a little while ago."
"Nothing?"
"Just her voicemail. I'm going to call Will soon."
"Okay, so you married into the Jareau/LaMontagne clan, but how in sync with them are you?"
"JJ and Will are the sister and brother I always wanted, but just waited my entire life to meet—I'm very in sync with them." Emily sighed once more. "Even Tara has already asked where JJ is."
"Yet, I'm standing right beside you, and I can hear the cogs in your brain turning from here."
"My bond with JJ has been intense for as long as she and I have known each other. Of course the cogs in my brain are turning."
Rossi was about to respond when they both heard Emily's desk phone ring. He wisely moved out of his friend's way as she raced for the phone and slammed her door close behind her in her hurry. He didn't think his body was strong enough to handle accidentally being plowed into by anyone in a hurry.
Emily's heart jumped when she saw JJ's name on the desk phone console, so she immediately transferred the call to speaker and sat down in her chair.
"JJ?" Emily called. "Where are you?"
Emily's heart positively dropped when she heard JJ sniffling, like she was crying.
Emily tried again. "Are you hurt?"
"Yes." JJ whispered. "Yes, and there's a drug in my system, but I don't know what."
"Sweetie, where are you?"
"I don't know. I was run off the road, and—"
JJ stopped short when she heard footsteps approaching.
Emily could only listen in horror at what happened next.
"What the hell are you doing? No! Don't!"
Emily heard the footsteps drawing closer on JJ's end of the line. This increased JJ's panic, tenfold.
"PLEASE DON'T! I HAVE A FAMILY! NO, NO, NO, NO, NO! I'LL BE SO GOOD, JUST PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"
The line went dead after that.
Emily let out a horrified shriek and bolted from the room. She heard Rossi calling to her, asking what was wrong, but she just ignored him. There was only one place her mind.
Penelope was just beginning to wonder if she should go talk to Emily about JJ's increasingly suspicious absence when her office door burst open, revealing the woman in charge, herself. After she recovered from nearly jumping out of her skin, Penelope took stock of how freaked out her friend was and helped her into a chair.
"What's wrong?" she asked.
Emily didn't answer straight away because she was still trying to catch her breath while simultaneously processing what she'd heard on the phone.
"Emiliana," Penelope used her friend's real name. "Come on. Focus on the sound of my voice."
Before Emily could respond, Rossi, Spencer, Tara, and Luke all came jogging in to the office.
"What's happening?" Rossi asked Penelope. "Emily answered a phone call, shrieked, and then took off here."
"I wish I knew, sir. She hasn't said anything yet."
Rossi, Spencer, Tara, and Luke all gathered around Emily.
"You don't scare easily." Rossi said gently to her. "What's got you so rattled?"
Emily took a deep breath and slowly let it out as she looked around at the other five. "I just got a call from JJ in my office, and you guys, she's been kidnapped, she's hurt, and even drugged!"
Her company fell silent, horrorstruck.
"JJ just called and managed to tell me that she was hurt, drugged, and run off the road, but she didn't say whether or not she knew the unsub." Emily's voice wavered as she struggled to keep it together. "She didn't get any further than that because the unsub found her."
Spencer wrinkled his nose as he tried to suppress his memories of how he'd found himself in a very similar situation when he was at the mercy of Tobias Hankel, ten years previous.
"Emily, did you hear the unsub say anything when they came near the phone?"
She shook her head. "No. All I heard was JJ pleading for her life."
Emily's tone was ominous and foreboding, so Luke patted her shoulder in sympathy and turned to Penelope.
"Can you play the call in here, or trace it?"
Penelope nodded, already moving back to her desk. "For you, I can do both."
Soon, the team was listening to the phone call, everyone with heavy hearts.
"And," Penelope said, switching screens to a map when the audio file finished. "I've tracked JJ's phone, but… no dice."
She felt her face fall as she read the information on the screen.
"What is it, PG?" Emily asked her. "Whatever it was you were expecting isn't there, is it?"
"That is correct. JJ's phone must have been switched off right after the line went dead, because I can't even find a signal to ping."
Emily raised an eyebrow. "Do you think you can turn JJ's phone on remotely?"
"Yes, but it'll take awhile."
"Then get a start on that please, and call me when you've got a location to report."
"I understand."
Emily thanked her and herded the rest of the team out into the hallway for a meeting, since the conference room was too far away.
"Luke," she said, addressing him as he stood beside her. "I need you to start a missing persons report and issue a BOLO for JJ's van, alright?"
Luke bobbed his head and said, "Yes, boss," before heading back to the bullpen.
Spencer stepped forward. "Would you like me to go talk to your mother?"
"Actually, I would like you to go find Will and talk to him. Tell him what's going on before he finds out from a news report."
Emily was keeping Spencer away from her parents' house because Rebel worked there, and the last thing they needed was him getting distracted by his girlfriend's pregnant state. Spencer understood and made no protest.
"Alright." he told her. "I'll call you when I'm done."
"What about me?" Tara asked while Spencer left them to carry out his instructions.
"Please go to my parents' house. They'll both be there, and so will Rebel and Isobel."
Acknowledging her new orders, Tara left to fulfill them, leaving Emily and Rossi as the last two people standing in the hallway. Emily knew what was coming next.
Three, two, one, and—
"I guess I'll stay here and hold the fort down, but don't go rogue, Emily." said Rossi in a tone of warning as they started walking towards the lobby.
Emily stomped her foot. "I'm just going to talk to TJ!"
"Please—I've been able to read you like a book since the Matthew Benton case. I believe that you're going to see TJ, but we both know that you're totally the type to take a 'detour,' which, more often than not, has led to some version of you going rogue."
Emily was frustrated because she knew that Rossi was right.
Now they were standing in the lobby, between the elevators and the bullpen.
"I know it's about JJ," Rossi continued. "But you're an FBI agent first."
Emily gave Rossi her best evil eye, but when it didn't faze him, her shoulders just sagged and she became stubborn.
"Dammit, Dave—she's literally my sister!"
"Oh, yes. I'll never question that. What concerns me is you running off to be the hero: one time, without a second thought, you went to war against an Irish drug lord in the name of serving your country, but there was also the time you skipped out on Interpol to go chase and shoot terrorists for JJ. Is that going to happen today?"
"There are no terrorists on the loose, per se, and I have a husband, three kids, and even a cat to go home to now, so no!" Emily snapped. "This won't be a repeat of that!"
Emily's voice was a step or two short of shouting, so Rossi wisely chose to back down.
"I trust you, Emily. I always have, and I always will." Rossi patted her cheek affectionately, like a father would. "Just take care of yourself, okay? And keep me in the loop."
"Of course. I'll go get my things—"
She was interrupted when one of the elevators near them opened. Two people, a man and a woman, with visitor badges clipped to the front of their winter clothes, exited. Emily couldn't see the man's features because he was keeping his head down and the hood of his jacket on.
"Is one of you Special Agent Emily Prentiss?" the woman asked as she kept her companion stable.
Emily stepped forward. "I am. How can I help?"
"I'm Bellamy Rutherford, DCPD. My partner wanted to come talk to you."
Emily jumped when she realized who Bellamy's partner was.
"Will!"
Emily rushed forward to help her brother-in-law, helping Bellamy to sit him on a bench a few feet away.
"Will, what's going on? What made you and Bellamy drive all the way out here?"
Emily had a feeling that she wasn't going to like the answer, but she steadied herself, nevertheless.
"We went to go check out a car that looked like it had been run off the road." Will exhaled shakily. "We went, and… oh, Emily… it's JJ's car. She was nowhere in sight. We drove straight here."
He got unsteadily to his feet, so Emily became the one to support him.
"Are you going to be okay to walk to my office?" she asked with caution.
Moons and stars and rings danced before Will's eyes as he felt panic and the gravity of the situation collide into him at the same time.
"No."
He collapsed immediately.
Emily caught Will and lowered him to the floor, trying to wake him up when he fell unconscious. Bellamy was already on the phone with 911. Rossi moved into the bullpen to get Spencer, Luke, and Tara. Someone else would get Penelope.
All Emily could think about was her unconscious brother-in-law, her injured and missing sister-in-law, and how she and TJ were probably going to be taking care of their nephews and niece by the end of the day, until who knew when.
What a day this was turning out to be.
It wasn't even noon yet.