Title: Soaring into the Unknown.
Summary: Unknown to the team, there is a criminal on the plane. Could they survive and come out of the experience stronger than ever?
Author's Notes: With Many Thanks to REIDFANATIC for the beta read! I am graceful to her for making my work the best it can be.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Sadly, the characters in this story are borrowed from the TV show 'Criminal Minds'.
CHAPTER ONE:
Jennifer "JJ" Jareau was tired, exhausted even. It had been a long case and the only reward was catching the unsub before he struck once again, although they had been too late to save the final two victims, so near but yet so far.
Her throat was sore due to all her screaming and sobbing for the weakened girl in her arms, who had been barely holding onto life by the thinnest thread. The ambulance took too long due to the traffic. JJ had stopped screaming and the tears slowly vanished when she realized that the victim was still, too still, too quiet and no longer taking short, shallow, painful breaths.
She had briefly glanced up when the medics came rushing in. The look on her face had stopped them in their tracks and with a sad sigh, they hung their head, somehow, ashamed of the fact that they hadn't tried harder to get through the traffic, leaving the victim in terrible pain in her final moments.
The humming of the plane was gently luring her into the darkness but she didn't want to sleep, not now, not with five of her co-workers so near. She knew that when the darkness came, the nightmares would be tagging along like an eager puppy following its master.
She glanced around the plane, smiling slightly when she saw Spencer Reid, the youngest member of the behavioral analysis unit, soundly asleep. She felt relieved that he was finally sleeping after the kidnapping.
She couldn't help but cry herself to sleep every night for weeks afterward, feeling guilty that she had agreed with his decision to split up. JJ deeply regretted the fact that she had not argued more firmly about the fact that she thought that it was a bad idea for them to separate. Instead, she had come out of the experience with a bite and new found fears of dogs. Better off than Reid.
She liked him, really liked him, but she didn't even know how to tell him – she even threw out some subtle hints that she was sure the others picked up on but not him. He still remained clueless to her feelings. For a genius, Spence could be an idiot. She just wanted to …
A mumbled snore pulled her out of her train of thought and she held back a giggle when she realized that it is none other than Aaron "Hotch" Hotchner. He is a great man, strong willed and extremely loyal to his team. She knew that he would do anything in his power to ensure that everybody was safe out in the field. He would be the person that she would call if she was in any trouble, no matter how small.
She had once called him with a hint of fear in her voice; unsure of how he would react, when her beloved car died for the final time on a winding road, basically in middle of nowhere. Without question, he came to her rescue, staying on the phone the whole time as he knew that she was terrified of being alone in the darkness, especially with the memories that her job elicits. He never once mentioned it since then nor expected any small favor in return for what he had done.
He was like her second father; she knew that he knew it even if they never said it out loud.
As she was reliving the times that he stood by her, she could feel the darkness lurking behind her eyelids. With a harsh rub to her eyes, she felt a little bit more refreshed. When her blurred vision returned to normal, straight away, she wished that she had her camera instead of storing it away in her luggage.
Penelope Garcia and Derek Morgan, somehow managed to tangle their bodies together on the uncomfortable couch at the back of the plane. Garcia got a small smile on her face as she snuggled into Morgan's chest. Even with the dim lighting of the plane, she could see Morgan was relaxed, something that she rarely ever saw. She was happy that they could be at ease and sleep with no evidence of nightmares from what they saw everyday. To be honest, she was jealous of the way that everybody on the plane could sleep when she couldn't.
With care not to wake her second best friend, Emily Prentiss, who had somehow managed to get into her heart quickly and unnoticeablely. Some days she told herself off for letting somebody so easily climb over the walls that she had taken great care to put up. However, other days, she was glad to have her – somebody she could trust not to betray her by telling others that she cried. Emily was one of a kind; she could make JJ feel so much better with some simple words or just a heartfelt hug. However, today she could not be comforted with hushed words or a gentle touch. JJ stood up, careful to avoid the paperwork that surrounded the girls, which they wanted to, needed to finish before the plane landed so that they could put the case to bed when they got back.
She held back tears as her mind flashed back to the look of despair and hope on the victim's face as JJ held her – wishing that help would come soon or death come easy but neither did. To her last moments, she gasped and struggled to get much needed oxygen into her lungs. Pain had seemed to have overtaken her entire body leaving no area unaffected. JJ shook off the feeling of failure, she had tried so hard to help and her hoarse voice proved that she had screamed with all of her might, begging but failing.
She knew that she had scared the rest of the team; they never saw her so out of control. They did not know how to react, not even Emily. As soon as the victim died in her arms, she regained her professional control and stood up, leaving the body behind, not daring to look at her again or look her co-workers in the eyes. She cannot breakdown again.
She could see the concern in their faces when she walked by them without one flick of emotion, ready to do her job as the team's liaison, feeding the media the information they craved. She hated giving bad news. Especially the news of the victims' deaths. They were too late and the media would eat that up with sadness but they had a duty to report to the public that the creep had been put behind the bars. The rest of the day had passed by in a blur and before she knew it, she was staring at Reid on the plane.
JJ wasn't looking where she was going and managed to trip over Hotch's foot. She cringes from the floor as she could see that he is waking up. "Sorry." she whispered as he glanced at her with confusion. "I wasn't looking." She added as she picked herself off the floor, ignoring the pain in her knees.
"It's okay. Where were you going?" he asked in hushed voice, careful not to wake the rest of the team up.
"Uh … I was just," she had not considered exactlywhere she was going. She had just needed to wake up some more. "Off to see the pilot. See how much longer it will take for us to get home."
Hotch had just nodded, giving her a brief smile, understanding that she needed to clear her head. He had tried to tell her that he would always be there for her through the love in his eyes but she seemed distant, not really there, just a shell. With a nod, JJ heads toward the cockpit, even if that wasn't her original plan. She might as well now that she had told her boss that's where she was headed. Sure not to make the same mistake twice, she walked slower, watching her every step. She could feel Hotch's eyes piercing into her back as she carefully made her way to the front of the plane. With a final look, she could see that Hotch was giving into the lullaby of the darkness as his eyes failed to stay open.
She thought of turning around, Hotch would never know, especially now that he was gently snoring. She is however curious about her former question. It would be nice to know how much longer it would be before she could sleep, out of everybody else's hearing, how much longer until nightmares claim her? She couldn't think like that, how much longer until she gets a decent cup of coffee? Better, but she sounded too much like Spence. Besides Luke, the pilot wouldn't mind her dropping by. He just had a baby girl and she knew that he would be dying to tell her all about the new addition to his family.
Luke also surprising made amazing coffee and she could wake Spence with the streaming smell before the plane bumps onto the ground. Her heart beat with joy as her mind fillied with the thoughts of Spencer Reid as she pushed the door to the cockpit open.
"Hello? Luke? It's Jennifer Ja-"she was stopped by the sight of the blood on the back of Luke's head.
Without thinking about it, her hand instantly went to the gun at her hip, prepared for anything.
"Come out with your hands on your head!" JJ tried to sound confident but even she could hear a hint of fear in her own voice. She just hoped that she was loud enough to wake the other agents up without making them panic too much. For all she knows, Luke could have just … fallen. Silence greeted her. She was terrified, it was too quiet. She just had a feeling that something was wrong, deadly wrong.
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