Lost and Found
Summary: Taken… Vanished… Hurt and lost… Found, but broken. The story of how love and family brings one agent back to the world of the living and out of the darkness that threatened to consume her.
Warnings: this story will contain violence. If that triggers you please refrain from reading or at least heed the warnings I give. Things won't be very graphic, but there will be possible moments. Just keep that in mind.
This can get dark and angsty, so beware.
So, for my Untold Truth readers out there, this story does not mean I've given up on that story, not at all. I love that story. I just don't have a lot of time and this is a story I've had lying around partially written for a while. There are enough chapters of this story for a few updates to tide all over until I have the time to get out the next Untold update. Hope you enjoy and look forward to hearing what you all think.
Also, title's not very original, I know. But hey, it works so whatever right. It'll do just fine I think.
Criminal Minds does not belong to me. I own nothing but my own words and creations. Unfortunately, that doesn't include the show. It sucks, but it is what it is…
Chapter 1: Desperately Seeking Emily
"Penelope Garcia. Speak and be heard." The bubbly blonde answered her phone, pulling herself away from her romantic dinner with Kevin.
"Hey PG, it's JJ." She tried to keep her voice steady. There was no need to panic… yet.
"Ah, what can I do for you Sunshine?" She always enjoyed some buddy time, but she was kind of in the middle of something.
"I was wondering if you could run a trace for me." Again, she tried to remain a rock.
"Is it Will? Garcia was quick to ask. "Do you think he's getting a little something on the side?" She always had her suspicions…
"What?" It was indignant at first, but she found her resolve, her voice deflating an octave or two. "No… No, it's not Will…"
"Then who?"
"It's… it's probably nothing, but Emily was supposed to meet me an hour ago. I'm thinking she just forgot or is running late, but she's not answering when I call." And she always answered if she could…
"That doesn't sound like our Gumdrop." She said with a sense of panicked curiosity.
"I know. I'm on my way to her place now, but I wanted to know if you can try and track her phone anyway." She just needed the peace of mind. "It's probably nothing, but I'd feel better to know where she is and at least check on her."
"Have no fear. The oracle is on it." Now she needed to know too. "Opening my computer as we speak… Yeah, not now Kevin," she brushed off her boyfriend who was trying to ply her off the phone with kisses, "I must find the solace of known safety for my Gumdrop. Your sexiness can wait."
"What's going on Garcia?" JJ asked, hoping she didn't interrupt… them, but more so that she would get something on Emily.
"Oh, Kevin says hi."
"I meant with the trace."
"I'm working on it. How far are you from her building?"
"I'm just down the road, about to turn on her street now."
"Ok, tell me when you get there. I'm isolating her location now." Her fingers clacked away at the keys as she tried to pinpoint her friend's GPS. Finally, a ping alerted her to a destination. "There we go!"
"You have something?"
"It says her phone is in her apartment."
"Good. I'm there now. I'm going to park and then see if she's home. I'll call you back if I find out anything."
"Oh no you don't!" She insisted.
"What?"
"You're not hanging up on me. I'm staying right here on this line until I know my beauty is safe and sound and then I can be mad at her with you for forgetting your outing, which, by the way, I'm angry at you for not inviting me to. Tre rude Jayje."
"We knew you had plans. Plans that I will apologize for interrupting when we know she's ok."
"Oh you better believe you'll owe me for that."
"I'll make it up to you. Better yet, Em will. We'll make her pick up the tab next girls' night."
"Free booze. She'll be my BFF."
"Hey!"
"I'm a cheap date, she has the goods. Sorry Jayje." For a moment, they both forgot their worries.
"Nice. I see how it is." JJ looked around as she pulled into the parking garage. "Hey Pen, I see Emily's car, so she's probably here if you want to get back to Kevin."
"You're not getting rid of me that easy. Now I need to hear her voice and get proof of her safety, a picture would work, before I can enjoy myself or I won't enjoy myself if you know what I mean."
Unfortunately, she did. "Ok. I'm heading up to her apartment now." The two women shared some idle talk to pass the nervous energy as the seconds seemed to drag on as the elevator moved upward. Finally, it dinged and opened to Emily's floor. "It's really quiet here." JJ said absentmindedly. But it was true. Emily's home almost always had a soft outpour of music flowing or some kind of noise. But it was… well, it was dead quiet.
"You don't think she's there?"
"I'm about to find out…" She said and approached the door. A gentle rap on the wood and she waited for a response. "Emily?" She called after several attempts.
"No answer?"
"Em?" She tried again and still nothing. "No Garcia. She's not coming to the door. I think I have her spare key on me. I'm going to try and get in. Is her phone still pinging here?"
"Yuppers. Hasn't moved."
"Then why isn't she answering?" JJ asked herself.
"I can't hear you Jayje. Everything ok in Prentiss land?"
"I'm going in now." She said as she pulled the key from her purse and struggled, with her shaky hands, to get it in the keyhole. Managing on the second attempt, she opened the door. "Garcia, I'm in. I don't hear anything, so I'm going to look around. Who knows? Maybe she was tired and is just napping or something."
"Maybe." But they both had an unsettling feeling. It was just too quiet for JJ. Something wasn't right. She just knew it. Even before seeing it, she knew.
"Emily?" She tried. "Em, it's JJ. You here?"
"Still nothing Sunshine?" The other blonde asked after hearing JJ's calls.
"No Garcia. I don't see anything either. I'm going to look around a little more. Hang on ok?"
"Like a stripper on a pole." She quipped.
Ignoring the very Garcia comment, JJ took a good look around the room. Nothing looked out of place; nothing she would notice at least. The boots the brunette wore to work that Friday were on the mat by the door along with her bag. It was a long day. JJ assumed the usually neat Prentiss probably just threw it there in attempt to just get inside and leave work at the door. Not typical, but no cause for alarm. With that theory in mind, she didn't consider it odd. The kitchen, living room, office, the whole downstairs was clear. No Emily.
"Em? If you're here, I'm coming up." She gave warning to the seemingly empty apartment.
Still getting no response, JJ made her way upstairs, looking for any signs at all. Just out or caution, she had her gun out and Garcia on speaker in her pocket. Nothing peaked her attention thus far but something still didn't feel right. Heading straight for Emily's bedroom, she listened for any signs of movement. Garcia was listening intently too, waiting for something. JJ knocked and went in, the room empty, pajamas left out on the bed, and the door to her bathroom slightly ajar with the light on. "Em are you in there?" Nothing. "Emily, you ok? I'm coming in and if you're naked this is going to be awkward." She warned with an attempt of levity before walking into the bathroom.
She pushed the door open, gun drawn and pointed, ready for attack, Garcia, in a phone whisper, asking what was going on. But she tuned it all out as she took in the scene that was the bathroom. Bath water was in the tub, remnants of scented bath salts littering the clear liquid. A wine glass laid shattered in a puddle of red; some wine, some not. "Oh God."
"Jayje? Jayje?! What is it?"
"I… I need you to pull up surveillance footage from Emily's building. Can you do that for me?"
"Not until you tell me what's going on. What is it?!"
"It looks like there was a struggle. There's water in the tub that clearly wasn't used and," she touched it, "It's icy. A glass is broken, wine spilled… The bathroom's a mess. And… And there looks to be a bloody partial hand print on the counter."
"Oh sweet baby Jesus! Something has happened to my poor little Gumdrop!" Pushing the shock aside, Garcia got to work. "I'm hacking the surveillance system now."
"Ok, I'm going to hang up so I can call Hotch and get the team here. Call me back once you have it."
"Sure thing." She said and clicked the phone off jumping right to work.
JJ, on the other hand stood in the midst of the chaos, surveying the scene as she dialed her boss. "Hotchner." He answered.
"Hotch, its JJ. We have a situation."
"What's going on?
"I'm at Emily's…"
"Prentiss? Is she ok?" She could practically hear him stiffen as the alertness in his voice sharpened.
"I… I don't know."
"What do you mean you don't know?" He questioned. She had to know… He needed her to tell him.
"She was supposed to meet me tonight. She was running late and I waited. But, after a while when she still didn't show up and wasn't answering my calls, I got worried and came to her place. Her bathroom's a mess Hotch. It looks like there was a fight and… And there's blood. I don't know if it's hers. I'm really hoping it's not… but…" He didn't need more. He got it.
"Alright." He said doing his best to hide the worry in his voice. "Is Garcia apprised of the situation?"
"Yes. I called her to track Emily's phone and now I have her getting the CCTV feed for us."
"Ok, good. I'm on my way. I'll call Morgan and Rossi, you call Reid, and we'll all meet there to go over the scene."
It didn't take long for the team to gather, Garcia linked up to them through the phone. "What the hell happened here? Where is she?" Derek asked with his typical outraged front.
"Garcia do you have anything?"
"I pulled up the footage, but I'm not sure what I'm looking for or when I'm looking for."
"Start with when she got home Friday and work from there."
"On it Boss man." Garcia tried to keep up her quirky demeanor.
"While she's doing that, let's get a better look at the place. Other than the bathroom, does anything seem off?"
"No." JJ was quick to answer. "It looks like it always does. Everything is where it should be."
As they were discussing the scene, breaking down what it all meant, and working up what they could with what they had, they heard the analyst speaking. "Oh! Oh… no…"
"Garcia? Did you find something?"
"I… Emily got home in good time after our last case. Probably speeding… It looks like she got out of her car, heard something, looked around a little, but didn't find anything and just went to her apartment."
"Ok?" They waited for more. There had to be more.
"That's where things start getting hinky."
"How's that Baby Girl?"
"I fast forwarded through the feed looking for anything and at some point, the video just stopped."
"Stopped?"
"Yeah." She answered. "It was weird, like a bunch of blind spots."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't know. There must've been some sort of glitch in the system. There is this moving blind spot."
"Moving blind spot?" Reid asked. If it wasn't making sense to him, it wasn't making any sense for the others either.
"Yes! I don't know how to explain it."
"Send it to us Garcia. We're going to head into Quantico as soon as the crime scene techs get here. Why don't you meet us there?"
"On my way now."
Hanging up with the blonde, Hotch faced his colleagues. "I don't know what happened, but it's clear that something did. Hopefully it was just a simple accident, so I'm having Garcia check any local hospitals just in case…"
Morgan cut him off. "Hotch, this wasn't some accident. Look at this place. If she got hurt, why wouldn't she call one of us?"
"We can't just rule anything out either. We're treating this as a missing agent… We're going to find her." First, though, they needed to understand what was happening.
Hotch pulled up the video feed. Garcia was right, something was off. The cameras in the garage seemed to be working fine. They saw Emily get out of her car and look around before going to the stairs instead of the elevator. When they thought that could mean something, JJ added that that was something Emily did. Unless she had a lot to carry or just wasn't feeling up for it, she took the stairs. "That must be what Garcia was talking about." Rossi said as the screen blanked out, a static bubble taking over.
"That was weird." JJ said with concern. The rest of the video was just as odd. A circular force field of a blind spot moved around, concealing just that area. It worried them even more when the same thing happened in the elevators, stopping on Emily's floor, and then normalized for a good ten minutes before the same thing happened again. It didn't bode well for their friend that it only happened up to her floor and then back, but nowhere else.
"What did that?"
"I don't know, but we're going to find out."
They looked around a bit more searching for any clues, readying themselves for the profile they knew they would need. Once the techs took over the scene, they all reluctantly left and headed to the office. Something happened and, though they were holding out hope that it was nothing, they needed to be prepared to work it. Chances were that Emily was taken. Until something said otherwise, as of now, their friend was considered missing… Things were going to get far worse…
And meanwhile, Emily was being held against her will.
Dazed and confused, her eyes fluttered open. The slightest flicker of light in the otherwise dark world assaulting her. Her head fell to one side, her hair hanging loose over her face. Everything felt… off. Why? Why was she so uncomfortable? How much wine had she had? She only remembered taking one sip as she was getting ready for her bath; a bath she couldn't remember taking…
Sluggishly, she blinked through the haze. Her surroundings were slowly coming into focus. This was not her home, not the bed she thought she crashed in, and certainly not what she expected. A foreign tongue caught her ear. Who was there? Her senses slow to catch on, she didn't realize at first there were multiple voices carrying on a conversation around her.
"She's moving a lot. I think she's awake." Emily made out.
Hearing nothing else, she waited. A door slammed open and a silhouette approached. She couldn't make out much. The world was still so unclear, but the instinctual panic was there. Something was wrong. She wasn't safe. Run, move… do something…
"Look who's awake." The menacing voice said as he closed the gap between them. The only thing Emily could really distinguish were his eyes; a bright blue that reminded her so much of JJ's, just devoid of the warmth and love. Not much like JJ's at all then, she realized.
"JJ." She unintentionally mumbled aloud.
"Oh no Princess. There's no JJ here." His voice was just barely accented. Southern she guessed, somewhere from the Georgia region.
She started to become more alert, her faculties returning. "Who?" She asked. "Who are you?"
"You'll figure that out in due time."
"Where am I?" She wiggled, realizing only then the pains in her body. Her arms tied above her head, tingling as if they've been that way for some time and her legs felt heavy as if weighed down with rocks.
"Anyone ever tell you that you ask too many questions?"
"No." She answered fiercely.
"Feisty. You know, I like that." He spat. And when she turned her face away from his, he roughly grabbed it forcing her to look at him. "Don't you look away from me! I'm talking to you."
"Go to hell!" She yelled.
"If I go, you're coming with me." He laughed. She was unimpressed. As he turned from her, she wiggled more, trying to free herself as much as she could, but it was no use. If she could just reach her leg she could have something to defend herself. But her thinking got her caught. Her actions must've been more overt than she realized.
"Emily, Emily, Emily… What have we here?" Standing dangerously close to her, his hot breath radiating against her icy cheek, he stilled before slowly reaching down, his hand delicately running the length of her leg as if ready to caress her every curve, stopping only once he reached the edge of her pant leg. "Always the prepared one." He said and ripped the knife she hid there in its holster, tearing the black fabric as he did. "Oh, we're going to have fun." He smiled an evil smile and walked away all the while playing with the knife.
Oh yes, they were going to have fun…
So, what are you thinking? Feel free to let me know. Love it or hate it.
Thanks for reading!