"Get down!" Emily screamed, throwing herself to the floor. She rolled to the side, contorting her body so that her arm could sweep across JJ's knees, knocking the blonde to the ground beside her. Bullets were whizzing through the air, pinging off the metal warehouse walls around them. JJ had been under cover and was unarmed; Emily motioned to concrete pillar fifty feet away, hinting that they should crawl. JJ nodded.
JJ had never been one to pray before but she did in this moment, praying hard with every limb she moved. Emily covered her, choosing to crouch over crawl as she fired back at the targets she couldn't see. The rain was coming from the beams in the warehouse ceiling, and judging by the distance they were missing by, the shooters were either inexperienced, have accurate or decent weapons, or didn't have a clear view. That, or unsubs didn't care if they hit or missed the agents; they knew that eventually, Prentiss and Jareau's luck with run out.
Finally, they reached the pole, but only one could safely fit behind it and be completely shielded. Without hesitation, Emily shoved her partner against the concrete and pressed her own body tightly against JJ's; she used the angle to fire back, reaching for another clip on her waist.
"Damn it", JJ cried, "Why didn't Hotch let me bring my gun?" She had been on assignment, posing as the unsub's date. Hotch had argued that arming JJ would create an unnecessary risk, considering the guy's tendency to be distrustful. Sure enough, when she had arrived at the restaurant, he had his entourage wave a handheld metal detector over her body.
It had all gone awry when JJ sneezed and Reid mistook it for the distress sign. The team rushed in, but not before the unsub- who they only knew as The Possum- knocked the hell out of JJ and drug her out of the kitchen. Emily, who had been waiting in the surveillance van, saw JJ being abducted and followed.
"Because he would have killed you the second that metal detector went off, Jen." Emily said, ducking behind the barrier to reload. "And current circumstances excluded, you're much more fun alive."
Watching Emily's fingers fumble with her belt, JJ sighed, "Let me at least help you reload." Agent Prentiss didn't know how many clips she had left, but together she and JJ operated as a team; she shot sparingly as she saw the blurring figures move in the raptors, and JJ pulled the next clip off her belt so that the brunette never had to take her eyes off the sky above them.
JJ closed her eyes and pressed her forehead into Emily's chest. How were they going to get out of this? Neither knew if the team had been able to follow, and neither had their cell phones on them to send out a distress call. They were backed into a corner with nowhere to run. Jareau felt Emily's body jolt and lifted her head, alarmed to see the wall behind them suddenly covered in red paint. Emily kept shooting, the gun now in her left hand.
"Emily!" JJ whimpered, "Emily, you were hit!"
The brunette didn't respond.
JJ grabbed her lapel, "Emily, talk to me!"
Emily's eyes remained on the raptors above, watching one of the shadows fall to the makeshift wooden floor. The hail of bullets lessened. She kept shooting, praying the figure she saw was the only one that remained. Her hand was trembling; Emily looked down and saw that it was her last clip.
"Emily?" JJ pleaded, watching the brunette's face turn ashen. "Emily, talk to me."
"I know 3 are dead. There's one more. He's still shooting. There's 1 more Jay, and then we can get out of here." Emily said, determined. "But I can't do it- I can't shoot anymore. I need you to trade with me."
JJ blinked back tears. She verbally assaulted herself, internally screaming for herself to pull it together. "Okay, Em. Give me the gun."
Emily did as she was told and stepped back to give JJ room to move forward, then she slipped between the blonde and the concrete barrier. JJ held her breath as she pushed herself into Emily's body, being sure not to hit the growing red stain on the brunette's shoulder.
Focused, she studied the ceiling; nothing moved. The bullets had stopped, like the assailant had seen them switching positions and was using the opportunity to toy with them, trying to draw them out of their hiding spot. For what seemed like hours, JJ waited, letting her heartbeat synch with Emily's. Emily rested her head against the pole, the blood seeping through her fingers as she tried to hold pressure to her arm. The world was beginning to blur, the air around her beginning to fog like a smoky haze.
JJ shifted her stance and felt Emily's blood between her toes; it had seeped its way through the flats she was wearing. She lowered the gun and took a step back, cupping Agent Prentiss's face in her hand. "Emily, you've got to stay with me. Do you hear me?"
Emily nodded, her mouth too dry to reply.
JJ exhaled sharply, praying once more. Suddenly, the sky opened fire again. But she saw him. 250 yards away, a figure stood in the raptors, shooting at the two agents. She steadied her aim and fired. Three shots later, JJ watched him fall to his knees and then hit the ground. She waited for a moment to be sure that no one else would follow, but everything was quiet.
"Em, if I help you, do you think you can get to that door over there?" JJ pointed towards a metal door halfway across the warehouse.
Emily just nodded again. She took a step forward, but quickly lost balance. Eyeing the ceiling, JJ slid the Glock into the waistline of her dress pants. "Come on, Emily. You can do this." She whispered, slinging the brunette's uninjured arm around her neck. "We can do this." She repeated.
Prentiss knew they needed to get outside. Her count could have been off, and more of the unsub's agents could be on their way to finish the job. They needed to get out of the death trap and fast, but she couldn't seem to make her feet move.
"I know this is going to hurt and I'm sorry." JJ winced, anticipating Emily's pain. She pulled Emily's limp body across the warehouse floor, a streak of blood left in their wake. Emily whimpered, biting the collar of her jacket to keep herself from screaming. "I'm so sorry, Emily. I'm so, so sorry." JJ repeated. "We're almost there."
The door was padlocked from the inside with a heavy metal chain. JJ propped Emily against the aluminum wall and said, "Cover your eyes." Sparks flew as she fired the Glock at the lock, it finally falling free to the floor. She slid the gun back into her pants. "I've got you, Em." She whispered, bracing once more against the weight of Emily's body."
The night air was cold against their faces, a fresh feeling compared to the humid stench of metal that had been suffocating them for the last hour. In the distance, JJ could see flashing lights; the faint sound of sirens greeted them in the silent country air. They sank down against the warehouse wall, Emily falling into JJ's lap. The brunette wasn't even trying to apply pressure anymore. She didn't have the strength.
JJ slipped off her sweater and wrapped it around Emily's shoulder, holding her partner tightly. "Emily Elizabeth Prentiss, you stay with me, you hear?" She ordered, refusing to cry. "You don't get to come save the day and then die on me. I swear to God; you don't get to do this."
Emily used every ounce of strength she had to lift her good arm and place her hand over JJ's, "I'm here, Jay. Not going anywhere."
JJ grinned, the tears freely flowing at this point. The lights pulled closer, and she had never been so happy to see an ambulance in her life. "Here they come, Em. Hang on."
Car doors started slamming several hundred yards away, but JJ couldn't get up to go get the team. "Over here!" She screamed. "We're here!" Her voice thundered. She used the arm that wasn't clinging to Emily to beat on the metal walls behind her. "Over here!" She screamed again.
Morgan found them first, yelling into his radio. "By the warehouse. Prentiss is down. Send a bus."
"She needs a transfusion, Derek. Make sure they have blood." JJ pleaded.
He nodded, repeating her words into his earpiece. Morgan knelt beside them, pulling Emily from JJ's arms and wrapping her in his shirt. "Are you hurt?" He asked Jareau.
She shook her head, crawling over to Emily. Together, they kept pressure on her arm.
Emily howled, struggling to sit up; the pain was burning through her collarbone and neck, radiating like a fire. JJ leaned against her, "Stay down, Emily. It's okay. We've got you. You're going to be okay."
Morgan screamed, "Get your ass over here, Hotch!" into his earpiece.
A few seconds later, the ambulance arrived and two EMTs jumped out before its wheels stopped moving. "Thank God." JJ sighed. "See that, Em? It's okay now. You're okay."