A/N: Howdy! It's been a while, I know. Two words: Life. Ugh.
Thank you for your patience. But...aren't you glad I don't post until the story is done? :o)
Hope you enjoy this next installment. It picks up with the team heading off on a case while JJ is confined to bed rest and still recovering from the nutcase who wanted to kill her and Gideon. Enjoy!
Emily groans as the alarm clock goes off at 4:30 a.m. A car was picking her up at 6 to get her to the airstrip at Quantico. She had made sure there would be plenty of time in case of bad roads. Emily rolls to her side and kisses JJ's temple. She grins when her wife just grunts.
"So cute," she whispers.
She slips down in the bed a little and lifts JJ's sleep shirt. "I love you two. Be good and stay inside Mommy until I get home, okay? And try to make sure she gets plenty of sleep, okay? Good babies," she says and gives them a kiss.
She eases out from under the covers and tucks JJ back in. After a shower she steps into her closet to get dressed and double check her go bag isn't missing anything. Walking out into the bedroom she sees JJ is out of bed. Hopefully it's just a bathroom break and the blonde can go back to bed.
As Emily retrieves her guns from the office safe, she hears her wife climb into bed. As she walks out she smiles at the sleepy beauty.
"Hey, you going back to sleep?"
JJ nods. "Hopefully."
"Good." Emily walks around and sits on the edge of the bed. "If anything changes...call me."
"I will. Promise. I'll keep you informed of what goes on and if Maddie and Luc look like they are making an appearance I'll call Garcia first to get you on a plane."
Emily smiles. "Good plan." She leans over and gives her wife a kiss. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Emily runs her hand over her babies. "Take care of all three of you."
JJ smiles. "I will. Promise."
They share another kiss. Then, before it gets too hard to go, Emily grabs her bag and briefcase and makes her way to the door. She pauses to look once more at her wife. JJ gives her a small wave and a smile. Emily blows her a kiss then quickly walks out. She sets her bags down and steps into Henry's room. She runs a hand over Alaska's head and straightens out the covers on her son.
"I love you, Champ. See you soon," she whispers and gives him a kiss. She smiles as he raises his arms to her. She gladly gives him a hug then helps him get settled again. "Love you so much, son," she reiterates then heads out the door.
She walks into Rocky's room and chuckles. As usual, the little girls bed covers are in disarray and she is flopped across the bed. Emily gets her straightened out and tucked back in, getting grunted at the entire time. She kisses her daughter's cheek.
"You are so cute, Rock." Emily strokes a hand over dark curls. "I love you so much. Be a good girl while I am gone." She kisses her once more then gets up and goes out.
Grabbing her bags, Emily goes down to the kitchen to get a bite to eat and a cup of coffee. Sooner than she would like, and before anyone else is up, Mama Prentiss is in a car on her way to Quantico. Time to turn on Agent Prentiss and make the world a better place for her children.
Emily's car pulls up at the airfield at 6:39. She can't help but laugh to see that Hotch had beaten her there and is sitting in his car doing paperwork.
"Should I wait for others, Agent Prentiss?" her driver asks.
"No, thank you. That's my boss. Even if the take-off is delayed I can get a ride back to the office with him. Thanks, though."
The man nods and hops out to help Emily with her bags. She shakes his hand then heads over to Hotch's car. She sees her boss is already making room for her in the front seat. She tosses her bags in his backseat and climbs in the passenger side.
"Morning."
"Good morning. Guess you haven't replaced the Lexus yet?"
"Nope. And I didn't want to take the van or Francesca's car because of the car seats. Sandy offered me her car but I figured this was easier. When we get back I can hitch a ride with someone I'm sure."
"I think that's a given. So you okay with leaving JJ?"
Emily sighs. "Honestly? Depends on the minute. Right now I am okay because she is asleep in bed and had no issues yesterday. Now, if I hear she has any b.p. spikes I may lose my shit."
Hotch grins. "I appreciate the honest answer." He takes a deep breath and shakes his head. "When that bastard took her I...I couldn't...did you realize he might have...shit, never mind."
Emily glances over at him. "Did I know he may have killed her immediately? Yes, I did. Still gives me a knot in my stomach to think about. My only hope was, and how sick is this, was that Jen was his main stressor and torturing her meant more to him than killing her outright."
Hotch nods. "I had the same thought. And yes, it's pretty damn sick but at the same time knowing these fucks the way we do it gave me hope that she would be mostly okay until 9. I had faith in the profile that he wouldn't kill her sooner than that."
"That's what I clung to," Emily agrees. "Still pretty damn fucked."
"Yep," he agrees chuckling.
They both jump as someone taps on Hotch's window. He rolls it down since it had steamed up while they were talking. They see the amused faces of Reid and Morgan.
"Steaming up the windows? You two kids need to tell us something?" Morgan teases.
"You want to keep your job?" Hotch taunts back.
Reid glances at Morgan. "Answering a question with a question. Very informative." Morgan nods in agreement.
Emily rolls her eyes. "You two are such 12 year olds."
Morgan chuckles. "Couldn't resist. The plane is ready."
Hotch and Emily get out and grab their things. As they start towards the plane, Morgan falls into step beside Emily.
"Can I guess Hotch was testing your frame of mind?"
Emily nods. "Yes, he was." She looks at her best friend. "I'm okay. For now. I promise to let you know if that changes."
He nods. "You need anything, any time of night, you know where I'll be."
Emily smiles and squeezes his arm. "I know. Thank you."
Five minutes after they board, Rossi hops up the stairs and starts to get settled. Reid looks at him and grins. He nudges Emily, who sits beside him. She looks at the doctor who nods towards Rossi and points to his own chin. Emily looks up and starts to giggle. Morgan looks over and Emily gives him the same sigh. The African-American turns in his seat and sees. He begins to chuckle. Hotch had also seen what the rest of the team had seen. Rossi turns towards them and pauses. He frowns as he sees they are all grinning at him.
"What?"
"So, uh, have a good morning, Dave?" Hotch asks.
Rossi's eyes narrow. "What's it to you?"
"Guess you hitched a ride with Straus?" Morgan puts in.
"Yes. And?"
"Her colour pallet is good for your skin tone," Emily explains.
Rossi's eyes widen. He hurries past them as they all start laughing. In the bathroom he sees the smear of lipstick across his bottom lip and a little on his cheek. He lets loose an impressive string of Italian curses as he washes off his face. When he steps back out he glares at his teammates.
"Sometimes I really, really hate all of you."
He goes to his seat and pulls out his tablet so he can start to review the case. Hotch looks at everyone.
"It's a quick flight. Read over everything the police sent us. I have Garcia running full backgrounds on the victims that have been identified so far and the supposed owner of the storage locker. I have a bad feeling that will be a dead end...no pun intended."
The others nod and start to read over the case. A storage locker in Charlotte had gone into arrears and been auctioned off by the owner of the facility. The (lucky?) bidders had seen all the storage bins and been sure there would be plenty of items for them to sell off.
Then they opened the first bin...and found a mummified body.
They immediately called police. In all there were 33 bodies in bins of various sizes. Clothing on the bodies had stretched fashion trends over the last 20 years. This had been the storage facility of a scarily prolific serial killer. Even worse, the locker had only been rented 3 years before so he had carted the bodies there from somewhere else.
"Currently, finger prints and dental records are being uploaded as quickly as possible. Only one full autopsy has been completed," Hotch explains. "I just got that report this morning. This was a true mummification process."
Reid looks up sharply. "Do you mean the well-known Egyptian process?"
Hotch nods in confirmation. "Yes."
"Oh, God..." Emily mutters.
Reid looks to Morgan and Rossi. "The process begins with the body being bathed in wine and rinsed with water. Then there is the removal of all internal organs except the heart. The brain is actually extracted through the nose."
Morgan winces. "Oh that's sick."
Reid nods and continues. "The organs are then dried out and preserved. The body is covered and stuffed with something called natron which dries it out. The rags and any fluids will be saved for burial with the body. The body dries for 40 days and then is washed again then covered with oils to keep the skin elastic. Then depending on the era, the organs are then put back in or put into canopic jars depicting the gods and the body is stuffed to make it appear as it had in life. The body is oiled again then wrapped in linen."
"The unsub didn't bother with the wrapping and used regular salt in place of the natron," Hotch interrupts. "The thought is he is probably using the ancient burial methods as the organs he removed are missing."
"Trophies," Rossi suggests.
"Most likely," Hotch agrees. "But other than that, what Reid said is pretty accurate."
"So is this guy dead or what?" Emily asks.
"No idea yet. There are still some bins at the facility that did not contain bodies. Morgan, Prentiss, get there and go through them. Something in them could give us info on the unsub and maybe the victims." The two agents nod. "Rossi, Reid, get to the M.E. and get a look at the bodies and the bins. See if anything jumps out at you."
"If it's a mummy getting revenge I'll kill you, Aaron," Rossi teases. The others grin.
"I'll be at the police station seeing what else they have and preparing a press release. As you can guess, this story blew up in the news because so many people were around to see what was going on. A forensic artist is going to be working on composites of any bodies that do not pop in the system via prints or dental records. It goes without saying, we will be under intense scrutiny during this case. As more info goes public, we will probably be inundated by calls from families looking for missing loved ones."
"This is going to suck," Emily mutters.
"I concur," Reid states.
The team falls silent as they continue to read over the information they have received. Emily can't help but think she could end up in Charlotte for far longer than she wanted.
"Please, God, don't let anything happen to the twins or Jen. Please," she prays.