L'enfer, c'est les Autres
Story by fromawhispertoascream
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters but I do own this story. The title is a quote by Sartre and means: "Hell is other people." I do not own the quotes at the beginning ant the end of the story.
Summary: A horrifying case is keeping the team more than busy. Meanwhile, JJ has to face her own personal demons. Rated M, warnings for mentioning of necrophilia and the subjects of sexual abuse, self-harm and eating disorders.
Post-Gideon. There's no Agent Rossi.
"When you stand before me and look at me, what do you know about the pain that is inside me. And if I were to crush before you and cry and tell, what would you know more about me than about hell, when someone tells you it's hot and terrible. Yet therefore we should stand so awestruck, so thoughtful before each other like at the entrance of hell." - Franz Kafka
"She's different. Withdrawn."
"What?" Aaron Hotchner asked, but not looking up from what he was reading.
"JJ", Derek Morgan replied. "She is acting differently."
The two men were sitting in Hotchner's office, having a view over the desks of the other employees down in the hall. Hotch followed Morgan's gaze to see Jennifer Jareau standing at Spencer Reid's desk, talking to him. She seemed her usual self, she looked well-tended, secure, committed.
"I haven't noticed anything" Hotchner said looking over at Morgan. As Morgan didn't stop the staring, Hotch cleared his throat and continued. "Well, the death of a family member is always a traumatic experience. She is mourning, of course, but after two months now I think she is readjusting pretty well."
"I know. Well, maybe it's nothing", Derek said. Yet he sensed something, he couldn't quite put his finger on... Maybe I've been doing this too long he thought to himself.
Noticing Aaron looking at him he tried to change the subject.
"We got a new case?"
"Apparently. I'm just reading the request by the local police but JJ has the details. Conference room in 5 minutes. You tell the others?"
"Sure."
This was the ugliest part, most of the time. JJ started the slide projector which displayed a gruesome photo onto the white wall.
Morgan made a grunting noise. "What the hell is this?"
"This" JJ explained "is Patricia Norman, age 27. Her body was found tied to a tree like this in Belworth, Texas. This" - she clicked to show the next picture "is Marcia Gray, age 32, found nearby tied up in an way she had to kneel."
JJ looked at the faces in the conference room. You couldn't read anything of Hotch's face, as usual. Reid had that interested look in his face that was almost morbid. It was like he was about to start a lecture. Morgan looked slightly disgusted, as did Emily.
Thank God Garcia isn't here JJ thought and doesn't see this and won't hear what I'm about to say.
"Both women were abducted three days ago and turned up dead only 48 hours later. The significant thing about these two murders is, the disposal, obviously, and " she paused for a moment "they were heavily raped, multiple times, and most likely after they were killed."
Morgan sighed. "Necrophilia, great."
Reid started talking. "A necrophile is usually a person of very low self esteem. He may develop sexual fantasies after exposure to a corpse, looking at pictures, sometimes even without any direct exposure. He is usually is very fearful of rejection by women and he desires a sexual partner who is incapable of rejecting him and / or he fears the dead, maybe through a significant early loss in childhood and transforms that fear into desire to manage it."
"Are we talking about a psychotic unsub here?" It was the first time that Emily Prentiss spoke. "Not necessarily", Reid answered, "while the mutilation can sometimes go to psychotic and unorganized looking extremes, this can all be a part of a very organized offender who acts completely outside of normal human behavior."
JJ turned her head to the others so she didn't have to look at the pictures any longer. "Local police requested our help after the autopsy revealed the fact of the sexual assaults happening after death." "Plane's leaving today at 3 p.m. Get whatever you need, and prepare for a longer stay." Hotch added. J
J put her finger on her right sleeve, trying to massage away the headache that had been paining her the whole morning. She noticed Hotch looking at her and quickly hut her hand down. "Well, the complete case file and more questions on the flight." She concluded. With a "sorry" she hushed out of the conference room towards the women's bathroom, Aaron Hotchner's worried look following her.
Two months. Two months. The pain, the guilt threatened to devour her. JJ locked herself in a cabin in the women's bathroom and tried hard to control her breathing. It had "happened" two months ago. A month later she started working again, everyone had told her to take more time, but she couldn't – she couldn't stand to be alone with her own thoughts. Of course she had lied to them. She hadn't told the rest of the team what really happened. How could she, without revealing part of herself. JJ had been through hard times in her life, but the last 8 weeks were almost unbearable. She felt so guilty and so alone. Tears came in to her eyes. No, no! Control yourself! She wiped away the tears, took a deep breath and stepped out.
On the plane, Morgan Hotch and the others were going through the files. JJ did her best to fake interest and attention. "Anything on victimoligy yet?" Morgan asked Reid. "Well, Patricia Norman was working at a law firm, and Marcia Gray was a real estate agent. Both single, no kids."
"Single, career-oriented, successful women." Morgan though aloud. "Probably the women our unsub fears the most, and sees his chances of being with them the worst.""They do, however, not have any apparent connection. Marcia lived in Belworth, while Patricia was traveling through on her way to a consult case in Austin. She stayed at the Sundown Hotel, Marcia lives in a house on the other side of the city." Hotch joined the discussion. "He couldn't watch those women planned at the same time. Chances are he was targeting one of them, and the other one sort of 'got in the way'. The question is, was Marcia his initial target, which means he could be a local, or was he following Patricia, which would make him somewhat harder to track. Where's Patricia's law firm localized ... JJ?"
JJ was staring off into space. It would look to others as like she was lost in though, but in fact she wasn't really thinking anything. Or feeling. She felt numb, her mind and body were empty.
"JJ?" Hotch repeated. Startled, she snapped out of it. "Sorry ... what?" Reid and Morgan exchanged glances. "I was just asking where Patricia came from, where was she living?" Hotch asked patiently. "Oh ... oh" she started going hastily through the files. "She's from Chicago, her firm is located there. But as I said, she was on her way to a consulting job in Austin. Her boss said she's not a big fan of airplanes, so she drives around the country a lot." Morgan and Reid processed this new information while Hotch kept looking at JJ. Maybe Morgan's right. There's something going on with here. "JJ, you ok?" He asked in a soft tone. Jennifer was startled once again. "What? Yeah, sure, every thing's fine." She managed a smile and dug her head into the files so she didn't have to look at her boss. Something going on.
The local sheriff's office looked like many the BAU team had seen during their travels. Packed in a tiny building, many officers shared one big room as their office. There was a hectic atmosphere filling the room, with numerous officers, secretaries and others whooshing around busily. Phones were continuosly ringing and there was a constant noise of people typing on their computers. Agent Hotchner looked around the room searching for their contact person.
The group was noticed immediately and a man came towards them. "Sheriff Robert Trenton" he introduced himself, "You Agent Hotchner?" Hotch nodded. He turned to introduce the others "Agents Morgan, Prentiss, Jareau and Dr. Reid." Trenton shook their hands one after another and stopped at JJ, who he welcomed last. "It was you I talked to on the phone?" "Yes, Sir", JJ answered, "thanks for calling us." "Well, thanks for being here. I know a lot of local police don't appreciate it when the FBI comes to their town. They feel like authority is taken away from them. It's not like that here. I'm ... we're glad you're came. We really can use a little help with this case." "We'll do what we can" JJ replied and smiled at him. For now, she had managed to push these dark thoughts to the back of her head. She was there, she was focused. She was glad to have something to do.
The sheriff guided them to his office at the other end of the hall. It was a small room, clean, kept functional. The thing to disrupt the picture of this tidiness was the board set up behind his desk with pictures of the victims. The accompanying files lay on the desk.
"What can you tell us besides what's in the files?" Hotch asked Sheriff Trenton. "Well, I can tell you the officer who first found them is now on medical leave. Young guy, 23, a kid really" - he quickly glanced at Reid, who raised a brow - " it was just a little bit too much for him. He gets counseling. Other than that, pretty much everything you have is what we have. We have know idea who this guy is, where he may be coming from. I'd like to believe he's not from this town – but that's probably just wishful thinking."
"Since one victim lived here and the other didn't" Reid started talking, we think it could be either a local who picked Marcia Gray as a primary target or someone from Chicago who followed Patricia Norman. He was focused on one of the two women, and the other one was an accident." The sheriff grunted at this statement. "Accident."
"Right now, this is our best guess, but we shouldn't stop looking for a connection between the two. There could be something we're missing." Morgan added. "But if he's not from here, he could be gone by now" Trenton argued. "That's right, but this is the only place we can start." Hotch said. "Besides, he might still get satisfaction from being in the area where the crime was committed. Many unsubs like to visit the crime scene again to relive the crime. It sometimes satisfies their need to mutilate or kills, at least for some time. So the area where the crime occurred should be monitored."
"I'll get right on that" Sheriff Trenton said and picked up his phone. He dialed a number and gave his orders for monitoring the scene 24/7.
"So what's next?" He asked, putting down the phone. "I'm well aware that your people examined the crime scene intensively. Yet I would like to see it myself. Sometimes the tiniest clue can help." Hotch said. "Fine, I'll come with you.", the sheriff replied. Aaron Hotchner turned around to the rest of his team. "Reid, I'd like you to come with me." The young man nodded. "Morgan and Prentiss, take a look at the motel Patricia was staying in. Ask other renters and the owners if they noticed anyone lingering around. JJ, can you go to Marcia's home and take a look? Sheriff, could one of your man go with Agent Jareau?" "Sure. I'll get someone."
End of chapter one. Please do review!
