A/N: So, it's been a while again...
This is a complete change from what I usually write and it's been somewhat of a challenge for (and to) myself but what the muse wants, the muse gets ;)

Premise: Seaver never stayed on with the team and this is set sometime after "The Thirteenth Step" onwards and is AU from then.

The case is entirely fictional and I'm taking writer's liberties with the places mentioned. I tried to be semi-accurate but when you don't live in America there's only so much you can do! This is partially written so updates every other day.

Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds.

Prologue

There are things we don't want to happen but have to accept...things we don't want to know but have to learn...people we can't live without but have to let go...

Jennifer Jareau wasn't one to complain, never had been and never would, but today she was knackered. She'd been run off her feet for the past week, chasing every shred of information that passed her desk back to its source and trying to diffuse the situations they had caused and she wanted nothing more than to go home to her fiancé and her son despite it only being 9am and she'd only been in work for half an hour. Her intray was already overflowing. She was good at this job, she knew she was, and those she now worked with knew it too; after grossly underestimating the blonde she had taken great pleasure in showing them just how wrong some of their first impressions were. That, however, did not mean that it didn't affect her sometimes, didn't get under her skin and didn't make her miss her old job, her family.

Today was set to be a particularly busy day for her, and it was about to become a whole lot more hectic; but not in a way she could ever have anticipated.

She was on the first file for today and she'd planned and organised so as to be out of there by 6pm when her eye caught on the picture on her desk and she couldn't help the somewhat sad smile that pulled at her lips. It was taken at one of the FBI family gatherings from the middle of summer, the sun was shining and every single one of them was laughing and smiling as the camera had flashed. Will, Henry and she were cocooned in the middle of her friends as they had enjoyed the summer sun and the oh-so-rare case-free afternoon. It was one of her favourite pictures and as much as it made her miss her old job when she saw it, it also reminded her to be like them and to keep them with her every day as she worked her ass off in a job that she had taken, not out of want but out of duty; she hadn't had a choice. Her family had helped make her who she was, make her who the Pentagon had wanted so badly so it only made sense to draw from them for love, for comfort, for courage and for strength and that was that picture reminded her to do.

Smiling fully now as she finished the last line of the report she signed it with a flourish; one down and it wasn't even her first meeting of the day yet.

As she was striding purposefully out of her office, trading good mornings with her new colleagues that funny feeling that had been sitting in her very bones since she woke up that morning came back again, it was like her body was trying to tell her that something wasn't right but she just didn't know what and it was beginning to worry her; Hotch had always taught her to trust her body's instincts after all and these were more than just some inane worries, something wasn't right, really not right.

And that's when it happened. She had to grab on to Johnson's desk as her knees almost gave way from beneath her as the reporter on the television suddenly blared to life.

"It has been confirmed by a source within the FBI itself that one of their own agents has been taken hostage after interviewing a friend of the family of the missing girl, Jo Hallens in Norfolk, the most recent abductee in a chain of as yet unsolved cases throughout the city...and I can now report that this agent is a part of the elite Behaviour Analysis Unit based in Quantico, Virginia. At this time we do not know the exact details of the case on which this highly skilled team was work..."

The rest of the words faded into one big blur as her head spun and her throat constricted; someone had taken one of her family. One of her family was in danger.

A reassuring hand on her shoulder encouraged her to look up, finding Johnson standing over her, worry marred his features;

"That used to be your team, didn't it?" He asked although he already knew the answer. "Do you need me to call someone?"

She pulled herself together at his caring tone and his concern for her when it wasn't her that anybody needed to be worried about, it was her team that they should be worrying about. She straightened up, setting her shoulders back in a determined stance, and taking one last glance at the flashing red news update, she turned back to face her new colleague and friend;

"Tell Garrett I've had to leave, family emergency." She said as a sense of determination set in; she had to get there.

Johnson nodded crisply, knowing he would be doing that exact same thing if he was in her position.

"I need to find out who it is, I need to help them." She said more to herself than to him before she marched her way out of her new workplace, hoping that her new boss would be sympathetic although not really caring; it was her family in peril after all, and she couldn't sit by and do nothing. It wasn't in her nature.

As she climbed behind the wheel of her car her mind was consumed with worry; what if it was Reid, could he take it after the Henkel case? Or Hotch, Rossi, Morgan or Emily? Could it be Garcia? No matter which one of them she knew that a part of her was taken when they were and the only place she wanted to be right there and then was with them, helping them. Where else could she be?

Her hands grasped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles turned white and she had to take a few deep breaths to calm herself down before she plugged her phone into the car headset and started to drive, pressing her speed dial and praying that he would answer on the first ring, she had other calls to make, too.

"Jay-Jay," Will's familiar southern drawl sounded in her ear, so relaxed and unhurried.

"Will..." She began but faltered, unable and somewhat unwilling to say the words out loud because that would make this all the more real.

"Jay-je, what's happening? Jen, what's wrong?" He demanded into the silence that followed, worry and fear lacing his usual thick accent. He could hear her breathing shake and knew that whatever it was it was bad, very bad. "Jen..." He implored softly, wondering what had her so rattled and upset.

"Someone's taken one of them hostage, Will...hostage." She said in reply, so softly that he may have missed it had he not known to expect the quiet admission; it was JJ's way after all. He knew straight away who 'they' were and his eyes widened, no wonder she was so upset.

"Where are they?" Was his next question, boycotting asking whether she was going to them because of course she was.

"Norfolk." She said on a breath, glad that he understood what she had to do without her having to say it.

"I'll meet you there as soon as my shift's done; I'll pick Henry up and drop him off at –"

"Bring him with you?" She almost pleaded as the need to see all her family overcame her as she pulled onto the highway, heading towards where she needed to be.

"Of course. Drive safe. Love you." He said, understanding the things that she wasn't saying as much as those she had.

"Love you." She replied into the headset before hanging up. She quickly pressed number 2 on her speed dial once the first call ended. Her heart began to pound, she could hear the blood rushing in her ears, she had to know who it was; she had to. And she had to get there, now.

After a few rings went unanswered she was impatient, after more she was beginning to panic and when the voicemail kicked in she put her foot on the gas pedal and willed her car to take her there as quickly and safely as it could while she left a rambling message, media liaison she was not; at least not right now.

As she drove she kept trying her other speed dialled numbers, wishing hoping and praying that somebody would pick up. She needed one of them could tell her what was going on, if even just to hear their voice and know some of them, one of them, was there but nobody was answering and her heart wouldn't stop pounding, her mind wouldn't stop coming to all sorts of conclusions and her hands gripped the steering wheel ever tighter as she raced along the roads to make it to her family, she only hoped she made it there in time to be of some help.