Chapter One
"She always had that about her, that look of otherness, of eyes that see things much too far, and of thoughts that wander of the edge of the world." Joanne Harris
She looked around her dining room or what was left of it. The table was littered with paper and maps. The only blank wall in the room had marker boards and bulletin boards, each covered in materials and writing. At center of the marker board on the left was a picture of a woman. She stared at that picture every day and wondered if she would ever see her again. The marker board on the right had another picture, another woman, and more mystery.
Sitting at the table with her laptop open and on, she stared at the map of England on the bulletin board. She started to reach for the empty mug of coffee in front of her when it was picked up by someone else in the room. She didn't even acknowledge their presence. She smiled weakly as they replaced the mug full of coffee. She picked it up and took a sip, then picked up the closet file to review it again.
She ignored the man and woman standing in the doorway. They were friends, but they didn't know how to help her. They didn't know what to say or do. But, they both knew that it was time to help her stop. This mission was going to destroy her. She was slowly wasting away and they both feared how much longer her mind would last at this rate.
"How long has she been doing this?" the man said.
"Since she got home from London three months ago," the woman replied.
"She's not going to stop." he stated matter-of-factually.
"I know. That's why I called you. I was hoping you could talk to her. Maybe you could make her see that this isn't what she would want for her." the woman told him.
"I'll try," he replied and sighed.
He walked further into the room and sat down at the table. He watched her bright blue eyes darting across the papers and the computer screen. He ran a hand through his mousy brown, curly hair. He was waiting for a break in her thoughts or some break in her movements to say something. When she didn't stop for over ten minutes, he decided to speak up.
"JJ?" he finally asked.
"What, Spence?" she replied, surprising him.
There was no anger in her voice. There was hardly in any emotion at all coming from her. She was still working like a woman possessed, flipping through the piles of paper looking for something. He sighed and reached out to still her hand. She glared up at him, tears burning her eyes, with all the fire that she could produce in her cobalt eyes.
"She wouldn't want you to be doing this, JJ. She wouldn't want you to wasting all this time looking for her. She went into hiding and probably for good reason. You can't blame yourself for this. You need to let it go. She'll come back when she can," he told her.
"I can't just let her go, Spence. You know that. None of us can. Or have you forgotten the ten weeks after Doyle killed her that you spent on my couch crying? I'm not giving up on her."
"I am not saying that you should give up on her, JJ. I am saying that you need to let her go. We don't know what happened in London after we left. Hotch has tried to find Elizabeth to question her, but she keeps dodging him. We all miss her. We all want her to come home, but JJ, this isn't the way."
"Either help me, Spence, or leave," she told him with as much anger as her body could vent.
"JJ, you aren't well. When was the last time you slept? What did you last eat?"
"It doesn't matter," she replied.
"It does. It does for Henry. You are scaring him, JJ. You need to stop this for him," Spencer told her trying to appeal to the mother inside her.
She dropped the file on the table and sat back in the high backed, wooden, dining chair. Her eyes danced with fire as they met his hazel. Garcia could no longer keep quiet. A silent guardian to JJ's maniacal destruction, she joined them at the table, blustered and flustered at her friend's condition.
"Kitten…"
"No, Garcia, don't. You said that you would help me. So, either help me or leave. I can do this with or without you. But, I am not going to stop until I find her. If she is running, there is a reason. I just need to find out what it is. Once I do, then I can stop it. We can help her. You know how stubborn she is. She wouldn't want to ask us for help. She wouldn't want to risk us. She went after Doyle by herself because she thought that it was safer for us, but Morgan didn't let up. You didn't stop him!"
Garcia bowed her head. She still felt bad for not telling JJ about helping Morgan "off the clock" in searching for Doyle. But, she agreed with him when he told her that he didn't want to bring the rest of the team in until he had proof. He didn't want to give them false hope. It hurt JJ that they didn't tell her, but in the end, she'd hurt all of them by not telling them that Emily was still alive. They were even after that, and it took a while for them to rebuild the trust between them. It had strained the entire team, but they had come together stronger in the end.
"Jayje...this isn't the same."
"Why isn't it?" she asked them.
"We know than she is alive. We don't know who is after her or why is she hiding. Maybe us looking for her will cause problems for her. We don't know what is really going on. How do we know that we aren't going to lead someone straight to her?" Reid asked trying to reason with her.
"I can't let her be out there alone. I just can't. I have to help her."
"Okay. Okay, but we need to do this differently then. We can't be looking for her. We have to try another angle," he told her.
JJ looked at him wondering what he meant. How did he want to attack this? She thought that she had tried every angle that she could think of and she still didn't have anything.
"We have to treat her like a victim. We'll assume that someone is after her. In doing that, we need to figure out why they want her. If we find the want, we find them," Reid explained.
"And if we find them, we help Emily?"
"Exactly," he replied realizing that he had gotten through to her.
"Then, help me help her," she pleaded, tears burning her eyes.
"What do you know?"
"Not much," she replied.
"Let's start from the beginning then," he suggested.
"Okay."
"When was the last time you had contact with her?" Reid asked her.
"Three months ago in London."
"When we left the hospital?" he questioned.
"Yes," JJ answered just above a whisper.
She could see the anger in his eyes. She hadn't told anyone then that Emily was missing or hiding. She didn't know how to tell them that she was just gone. The only one that knew was Garcia. He couldn't believe that they had been working on it for this long without telling him.
He had seen the stages of grief that JJ was going through, but he hadn't put it all together until the other day when Hotch had called her into his office. The look on her face when she came out finally made Reid process her laundry list of emotions. He knew that he wasn't the most efficient when it came to emotions, but he was trying harder to notice things about his teammates. He was making a point to do it and for Reid that was at big deal. So he was not only upset with Garcia and JJ for not telling him, but himself for not seeing it sooner.
"Where is the last place that you know you can place her?" he finally asked.
"The hospital in London," JJ replied.
"Garcia?" he asked.
"On it, Boy Wonder," the vivacious blonde told him, grabbing JJ's laptop and typing quickly.
"Don't bother, Garcia. You've already done that search for me. I was still in London when you did it. I doubt than anything has changed since then. We didn't find anything then and we won't find anything now. She knows how to drop off the grid and she has."
"Are you giving up?" Garcia asked her, worried for her friend.
"Isn't that why you are here? You want me to stop. Spence, you even told me to let it go."
"Do you want to stop?" he inquired.
"No, I want to make sure she is okay," JJ told them.
"Then, we will change tactics. You've been searching for a trace of Emily and you've gotten nowhere. We need to think like her and think like an UnSub at the same time. We need to approach this from two angles. Let me see what information that you have," Reid told her reaching for the file.
JJ gave him a watery smile and handing him the first folder that she had started. He saw that it was titled London. She knew that it would only take him seconds to read it. She hoped he saw something.
He studied the file for a few moments before looking up. He didn't look pleased, but he knew that JJ had done her best in looking. She'd even enlisted Garcia to help her track what leads she had found. They weren't many and they were mostly hunches, but they had led her to Clyde Easter.
"You went to Clyde?"
"I did."
"He actually saw you?" Reid asked, wondering what the Interpol boss actually knew.
"He did. It kinda surprised me, too. He seemed to be upset that he didn't know where Emily was. But, he also didn't know where Amelia was. I tried to talk to Lilly, but she wasn't in that day. Once I left, I couldn't get back in. Clyde had barred me from the office."
"So he is missing two of his top agents and he had no clue what's going on, he bars you from coming back, and Lilly was mysteriously unavailable to be questioned. But, was he the logical conclusion to your mini-investigation in London or was he an obvious choice considering what you found?"
"Logical conclusion," JJ told him.
"So, he knew that you would he coming to ask questions and he still didn't have answers. Do you think that he was lying to you? Or, that he was hiding information."
"Neither, he was genuinely upset by my presence. I don't think he knew than I was coming until I was there. Once he talked to me, he knew that they were missing. I am sure that he launched his own internal investigation. Barring me from coming back was probably a precaution," JJ stated.
"From?" Garcia asked.
"If he found out than Emily was being hunted by someone, they could follow JJ and find her," Reid explained, dropping the folder on the table and staring at JJ.
"I understand that, Reid, but I think she still needs us."
"You were part of her contingency plan before?" Reid asked.
"I was. I had a burner phone and the locations than she might go. I also had intel that made no sense to me at the lime. Dates and accounts that didn't go to anything, but later, I found out that they were ways to track her without tracking her. They were check in times and accounts that she had access to without raising suspicions to who she really was. They were deep cover accounts and had been in place for years. She told me where her bog hole was," JJ explained.
"Bog hole?" Spence asked.
"In the special forces and other deep cover operations, they make locations, accounts, complete lives up for the operatives. It is their escape, a safe haven for them to get to and find a way to fight back against whatever drove them there. Most of them the government doesn't even know exist. The only problem with going into the bog hole is they have to leave their entire life behind. They essentially die."
"Amelia died the night you went to Jordan," Spence reminded her.
"I know."
"Has there been any movement on Prentiss at all?" Spencer asked them both.
"No, nothing," Garcia replied quickly.
"Calm down, Penelope. I am not accusing you of anything. It was simple question. Alright, so let's recap what we know so far from the beginning and then we'll go deeper."
"Okay…" JJ said.
"Emily and Amelia are missing. Amelia's life was destroyed before JJ went to rescue Emily in Amman, thus Amelia could be anywhere and anyone at this time. Emily was last seen at St. Mary's Hospital in London shortly after we all came home. There has been no activity on any of her accounts and she is completely off the grid. Even though JJ knows how to find her through her contingency plan accounts, there hasn't been activity on those as well. Have I left anything out?"
"Elizabeth doesn't seem to want to talk to Hotch and when she does, she doesn't know anything."
"So, Hotch has reached out the Ambassador and we haven't gotten much."
"Do you think that Elizabeth knows?" Garcia asked.
"She may have in the beginning, but with each refusal to Hotchner, I think she is beginning to worry more and more. That is why she is refusing to meet with him. She doesn't want to know that we haven't found her or neutralized the threat against her daughter. She is willingly letting them hide to protect them, knowing that the less she know the better she can protect them, and probably using her political ties to protect herself and her interests at the same time," Reid added.
"I haven't investigated her," JJ said flatly.
"Should we?" Garcia asked.
"Lightly, if we do. We don't want to rankle the Ambassador. We might need her connections and political savvy later. Like any of the Prentiss women, she is not someone I want to cross," Spence said.
"What do we need to know first?" Garcia asked, fingers flying over the keyboard again.
"Where she has holdings, land, houses, real estate and the like," Reid replied.
"You think that Elizabeth would hide her somewhere like that?" JJ questioned.
"No, but I think than Emily might have visited for a short time."
"Why just a short time"" Garcia inquired as she was still searching for anything that Elizabeth Prentiss might have her name on that Emily could have visited at one point.
"Emily was hurt. She would have needed care and medicine. She would have been noticeable, her cuts, bruises, and other injuries would have made her stand out. Eventually, she would have to break down and get care even if it was just stopping into a CVS or something like it for supplies. The brain bled from the concussion should have kept her in bed for at least a week or more. She wouldn't have gotten too far from London without having aroused some form of notable impressions on the locals wherever they were," Spencer expressed looking over at the map that JJ had posted. "May I?"
"Be my guest," JJ told him.
Spencer grabbed al marker and started staring at the map. He seemed to be focused on London, but kept measuring out from it in different directions. He reached over and grabbed the folder that JJ had labeled London again. He opened it and laid it on the table across from him so he could reference it while he was looking at the map.
"We'll assume that they have their own vehicle. Meaning they would only have a certain range of places to go and they might need to get gas. Garcia, I need you to…"
"I'm on it, Boy Wonder. Find gas stations within a…what? … two hundred mile radius of London. Done."
"Well, no, that will just give a multitude of information. We need to narrow it down further than that. We know that they won't go to Birmingham. Amelia erased her life there. If she needed something, one of her comrades-in-arms would just bring it to her. She would have another safe house somewhere. We need to look into what she might own, too," Reid told her.
"Okay, on it," Garcia replied, furiously typing away.
"Add the names Emma Swift, Aimee Elizabeth Prentiss, Diana Swift, Charlie Swift, and Charlotte Swift to that list," JJ interjected.
Garcia and Reid turned to face her. They didn't say much but just saw the light in JJ's eyes coming back. Garcia wanted to ask, but Reid beat her to the punch.
"And, those are?"
"Aliases of Amelia and her wife and child. Don't forget to look for something that might have rank attached to it, either captain or major. I doubt that she was anything higher. We can't forget Emily's known undercover names. But, I doubt she would use Lauren Reynolds, again. But, she might do something stupid and play with the names," JJ told them.
"You don't think she would something like Emily Reynolds or Lauren Doyle, do you?" Reid asked.
"This is Emily. She's on the run and in trouble. I wouldn't put anything past her."
"Okay, so we are assuming that she is on the run due to being compromised in Germany from her last case. Amelia said that she had been compromised, too, which is why she destroyed the Amelia persona. If they had been compromised, who stands to gain from that and how would they go about dealing with it? That is what we need to focus on. We need to figure out how they were compromised," Reid explained.
"I agree with that, but how?"
"We need to find out how far they made it before they made a call."
"A call?" Garcia asked.
"They would have reached out to one of their contacts. We need dissect their alias and find out who their contacts were. Then, we can start to back track based on Emily's condition and mindset. Do you think that Diana and Charlie are with them?" Reid asked JJ point blank.
"I don't know, but if it was me and I couldn't trust anyone, yes, I would have taken Henry with me. But, I know that Diana is a former operative, too. She has her own connections and if they were threatened. I want to believe that she would have taken Charlie and ran on her own. They would have some way to communicate. Emily would have found a way just make sure Charlie was still safe."
"Do you have any idea how she would do that?" Reid asked.
"Well, when she was searching for Doyle, we played online scrabble," JJ offered.
"Think she'd do it again?" Reid questioned.
"I don't know. She hasn't shown up in any of the chat rooms on the games I have been playing. Maybe I need to try something else," JJ admitted.
"Maybe you need a new screen name," Garcia told her.
"Yes, but it needs to be something that only Emily would know and reference something that she would inherently understand was you reaching out to her," Spence stated.
"I mean, Cheetobreath was awesome, but she knows it. She knows we know it. And, who else knows that we know that she knows that it was you? It would just another way to find her by using you JJ. Everything that we do has to be in perfect anonymity. We can't be the reason anyone finds her before we find them," Garcia said.
"You're right," JJ replied.
"Got any thoughts?"
"A few," JJ stated.
"Care to share?" Garcia asked.
"Give me a minute and I'll let you know."
"All that is gold does not glitter; not all those who wander are lost." J.R.R. Tolkien