A/N: Another new story. I'm literally the worst person for sticking to projects. Oh well. This was inspired by a story called Breath by KDMOSP, and she was lovely enough to help me out with this story (I believe her exact words were 'Bloody hell woman, keep writing!').

Oh by the way...just a forewarning...this isn't going to be pretty.

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds or any of its characters and affiliates.

"JJ, take the right flank. There's a maintenance gate behind the trees on the driveway; it leads straight out to the pool area. Morgan's taking the left; he'll cover you from the roof"

Aaron Hotchner's voice was crisp and clear in her earpiece. His instructions, while simple, put a tiny flutter of nerves into her stomach. This wasn't their usual raid. Their usual raids included brief, yet careful planning, following days of investigation and putting together the profile.

This had come up so abruptly that at one point, JJ hadn't even been sure who they were tracking down. There was no time to call in backup. They had to go it alone, a steely team of six, and hope that their backup arrived in a timely manner.

"Copy that," she said softly, swallowing thickly as she crept up the driveway towards a gap in the flora. She could see Morgan silently making his way up the other side. Pausing for a moment, she watched as he found his own path, and disappeared between the trees.

Forcing herself to keep walking, she tried to shake away her inhibitions. They had silently invaded and searched many locations in the dead of the night before. Not to mention she was armed with a powerful hand gun.

She usually had someone covering her back though.

Spotting the gate through the trees, she glanced up as she walked towards it, her gun held tightly in her hands, stretched out in front of her, ready to fire. The hotel loomed above her, eerie in the dark of the night, clearly quite decrepit even on the outside.

She was thankful upon reaching the gate that it opened fairly quietly. Edging her way through it, she took a deep breath as she pushed it closed. Shrubs and trees reached out over her path, touching her face like gentle fingers as she pushed her way through them.

"JJ, Morgan, we've got signs that someone's been here within the last hour. Be careful"

JJ swallowed heavily, creeping along the side of the hotel. "Got it Hotch"

She didn't know what was making her so nervous. Sure, not having backup could definitely rattle her nerves, but something felt off. Something felt wrong.

Shaking it away, she steeled herself against the anxiety and pushed her way out onto the main pool path. The pool sat just before, shaped like a large peanut with a small island of palm trees and shrubs in the center. She wrinkled her nose upon seeing it was filled with water. She knew the hotel had been closed and untouched for at least two years; that water would be beyond filthy by now.

Keeping her gun raised, she moved along the edge of the pool towards the other side of the hotel, her eyes darting about in the darkness for any signs of movement, any signs of the person they hunted.

"JJ, I'm on the roof...I can't see very well. It's too dark. Where are y-"

JJ flinched as Morgan was suddenly cut off.

"Morgan?" she said urgently, yet softly, quickening her pace as she headed around the pool. "Morgan!"

She had just passed the halfway point across the pool when the faint cry of a small child reached her ears. Whipping around, she clenched her gun, her knuckles shining white against the darkness as she strained to see beyond the bushes on the opposite side of the pool.

"FBI!" she called out, her senses on high alert as adrenaline kicked in for her.

A gunshot rang out in the night.

JJ barely had time to register it before a white hot pain erupted in her head, like a thousand knives tearing her open from the inside out. Her gun clattered to the ground as she fell limp, the dark night disappearing from her vision as the world around her folded into nothingness.