Title: End of the Tunnel
Disclaimer: Unfortunately, I don't own Criminal Minds, but I love to watch and write about them!
Author's Note: This was one of those that came to mind and I couldn't let it go until I wrote it. I'm not sure if this is a one shot or not, let me know your thought on that! Please read and review, thanks!
"Meet Anna Boxbury, 18, Hailey Silverton, 20, Grace Harden, 19, and Sarah Sysco, 18. All students at Caltech. All brutally raped and murdered, " JJ said as she flashed their before and after pictures. Before, they were all beautiful young women in the prime of their lives. After, brutally raped and murdered, their bodies so desecrated that IDs had to be made with DNA.
"Where were the bodies found?" Rossi asked.
"All were found near campus, one in an alley, one in a field, one behind a church, and one off the side of a desolate road. All found on a Sunday, medical examiner places each death within 12 hours of the time the body was found, so it looks like this is a Saturday night hobby," Reid replied, looking through the case file.
"Then there's this, sent to Sarah's roommate, Amanda." She proceeded to show a video of Grace tied on a bed, bound and gagged." The video was a close-up of her face. The background was dimly lit and had loud heavy metal style music playing. You couldn't see an of the attackers, but their shadows indicated there were probably at least 6 of them. After her rape, they began beating her. The video was over two hours long, though the team didn't watch all of it.
"Talk about brutal," Emily said in disgust.
"Ok, get your ready bags, we are heading to California. Wheels up in 1 hour. Morgan, let Garcia know we need her out there with us. Have her bring her setup so that she can analyze this video.
He lightly knocked on her door. "You may enter the kingdom of knowledge," she announced as she turned around.
"Hey baby girl, we have a new case and we need you there. Make sure you bring your laptop and anything you use to analyze video. Is your ready bag here or do I need to run you by your place to get it?"
"No, I keep one here just in case. I know I don't go out with you guys often, but it seems that when I do it's always urgent. When are we leaving and where are we heading?"
"Wheels up in an hour headed to out to Caltech." He watched as her face paled, but she recovered quickly.
On the plane, Morgan sat next to Garcia and caught her up on what they knew. Then he gave her the DVD. She put it into the computer and within seconds excused herself to the bathroom. He knew the video was gruesome, but she had seen worse. Something wasn't sitting well with him.
She came back and had composed herself. "Sorry," was her only response. She spent the rest of the flight analyzing what she could.
"Garcia, could you get anything?" Hotchner asked
"Not much. The music is a combination of what's known as sludge metal and thrash metal."
"They are both subgenres of heavy metal," Reid interjected.
"Right, and the music is awful. Because of the volume, I'm not able to really isolate any other sounds, they are completely drowned out. I can tell that there seem to be 6 men. I know that's mostly what you knew before, but there just wasn't much to enhance on this one. "
"That's ok Garcia, you can only work with what we have. Ok, when we land, Garcia and JJ, I want you to come with me, we'll head to the police station and get you set up there. Morgan and Prentiss, I need you to go to interview the roommates of all of the victims. Find us a common denominator. Rossi and Reid, go to the scenes, see if you can find anything there. Work fast people. Its Thursday, we have until Saturday before the death toll rises.
The team spent the day investigating. It was well after 10 before they head to the hotel, calling it a night. When Emily and JJ reached their room, they found Penelope already there. She was sitting in a chair staring out the window.
"Hey Garcia," they said upon entering. She made no response indicating that she heard them, or even knew they were in the room.
"Penelope, everything ok?" JJ asked.
Still no response.
"Garcia, what's the matter?" Emily asked, touching her on the shoulder.
Garcia looked at her, her expression was completely vacant. Then she stared back out the window.
The two girls stepped off to the side. "Ok, something is really wrong," JJ said, stating the obvious.
"I've never seen her like that."
"Me neither. Maybe she just needs some space. Let's go find the guys." They girls left the room and headed down to the bar.
"Hey all, where's Garcia?" Reid asked.
"She need some time to herself," Emily replied. Morgan looked at her and could tell something was wrong.
"Emily, what's wrong with Garcia?"
"I don't know Morgan. She just had a rough day."
"Well, she knows where I am, so do you. If she needs me, call me, not matter the time."
"I know Morgan. She just needs time to process. She saw some horrible things today."
They each had a drink, chatted about the case and made small talk. By midnight they started back to their rooms. When JJ and Emily reached the room, Garcia was still in the same place. It appeared she hadn't moved. The only change was a tear stained face.
"Penelope, it's been two hours and you haven't moved," JJ said, concern clearly etched in her voice. Garcia didn't move.
"I think we need to call Morgan, I'm worried, I've never seen her like this before." With that the girls called Morgan. Mere seconds later he was at their door. He rushed to Garcia's side as the girls left the room.
"Baby girl?" She continued to stare. "It's Morgan baby, I need you to look at me." She turned, her eyes were looking at him, but she was somewhere else. I mild panic set in. "Penelope, baby, what's wrong?"
"I can't," she whispered so faintly he might have missed it.
"You can't what honey?"
"I can't," she repeated. She was still staring, she was a million miles away.
He kneeled directly in front of her. "Baby girl, you need to talk to me. You need to tell me what's going on. The girls are worried sick, as am I."
His phone rang. "Morgan"
"How is she?" JJ asked.
"This isn't good JJ. I can't even get her to look at me. Her eyes will be on me, but she is somewhere else. Can you guys all come down to the room, I'll meet you in the hall."
JJ grabbed the others and they all made their way to the girls' room.
"Look, I don't know what's wrong with her. She is staring off into space. I'm not sure she even knows I'm in the room with her."
"Obviously something is very wrong. Morgan, you probably have the best chance of helping. Prentiss, JJ, let's get another room for you. And Morgan, I don't want to see either of you tomorrow if she isn't better. "
Morgan went back into the room. "Baby girl, I'm going to stay with you tonight. Let's get you over into bed." He tried to pull her to standing but it didn't work, so he picked her up and carried her to the bed. He laid her down on the bed gently. He stripped down to his boxers and a t shirt, turned off the light then laid next to her, wrapping his arms around her.
Two hours later, Morgan awoke to Garcia shaking, sobbing.
"Baby girl, you have got to talk to me. Is this about the case?" She nodded, almost imperceptibly, but he saw.
"OK, now we are getting somewhere. What is it about the case?"
"I…I think…I think I may know who is doing this."
"How would you know something like that?" He asked tenderly. She was silent, she started staring at the ceiling. "Oh no baby girl, don't do that, don't close me out. Talk to me."
"Remember how I told you that I dropped out of CalTech?" She was still staring at the ceiling. Her voice was soft and contained no emotion.
"Yes, after your parents died."
"Well, there was more to the story."
"Ok, tell me about it."
She settled herself onto his chest. She couldn't look at him while she told the story.
"I came to CalTech when I was 16. I had dropped out of school, but had my GED. Life hadn't been easy. I was the baby in the family. My oldest brother was 15 years older, and I really never knew him. I had another brother who was a 10 years older, he was out of the picture when I was 8. So from that time on it was me and the twins. The twins were 18 months older." She paused, taking a deep breath, finding her resolve. "The twins were never nice to me, but as I grew older, things got worse. One weekend, when I was 15, my parents left for the weekend. The twins tied me up and gagged me, then stripped off my clothes. They taunted me, made fun of me for my weight. They hit me, and even had their friend come over to make fun of me. They untied me about an hour before my parents got home. I couldn't rat them out. They were the golden children. They had earned full ride football scholarships and in my parents eyes, they could do no wrong."
"Oh baby girl, I'm so sorry."
"I avoided them at all costs. I locked myself in my room and started learning code. The cyber world seemed so much safer than reality. After a year, I decided to drop out and get my GED. I entered a coding contest that summer put on by CalTech. They were so impressed that they offered me a full ride. I left home for good to start my new life. I started dating this guy and he invited me to this party. Shortly after we arrived, I saw one of the twins. He left, but an hour later came back with his brother. Next thing I was feeling tipsy. My date led me upstairs to rest. Next thing I know, the twins are on top of me, so is my date and a few other guys. They tied me to the bed, gagged me. They raped and beat me. I woke up four days later in some alley."
She finally looked up into Derek's eyes. Tears were streaming down, now it was her turn to be concerned. "Derek, are you ok?"
"Baby girl, you tell me about the worse moments of your life, about all of the unspeakable things you own brothers did to you, and you are asking me if I'm ok? I'm fine, but my heart is breaking for you."
"I made it back to my dorm room, nursed myself back to health. I never told anyone. About two months later, my parents died in the car accident. I took that as my cue. That's when I went underground. I was a good hacker then, but I met up with some amazing people and learned a lot. I was able to completely delete my existence. A year to the day after they…well, a year later I started a new life. I became Penelope Garcia. I continued hacking and within another year's time I had hacked into several "hack proof" databases. The FBI finally tracked me down. That's when they decided to offer me a job. I had two choices, I could accept, or spend some considerable time in prison, so I took the job."
"Baby girl, I had no idea. This case was like reliving your nightmare."
She sat up on the bed. "Yes it was. Case is solved though, I know my brothers did this. Everything in that video was for me. When I first saw the video on the plane, I wondered, but thought I was being paranoid. This afternoon though, I was able to isolate a couple of tracks. They had to be put in there on purpose."
"What did it say?"
" 'Sarah, this is all for you my little bitch. Just wait until we finish what we started.' I knew then exactly who it was. I pulled everything I could find on the two of them and the guy I had dated at the time. It's all in there. Find the three of them and I am sure you will find everyone else."
"I've got to get Hotch down here. We don't have to tell him everything, but he needs to know that we think we know who we're dealing with." He picked up his cell.
"Hey Hotch, can you come down?"
He arrived, knocked on the door and entered cautiously.
"Sorry it's so late Hotch, but we think we found the unsub. I don't want to go into all of it right now, but here is a file with three suspects."
"Morgan, are you sure?"
"Yeah, I'm sure. There are three guys in there, there are probably another 3, but you get these guys and you'll find the others. Garcia and I need off the case. She can't work it any longer, and I need to be here with her. We are staying in this room until you guys have arrested these jerks."
"Ok, I'll take of this. You take care of her. You can fill me in when the time is right. Do you need me to have a guard posted?"
"I don't think that would be a bad idea Hotch." Hotch left. Thirty minutes later there was a knock at the door.
"Hi, I'm officer Jason Miser. I have been asked to stand guard for the occupants of this room."
"Thanks officer. I'm SSA Derek Morgan, FBI Technical Analyst Garcia is inside. Let me grab you a chair." Morgan took a chair to the hallway.
Penelope had been staring out the window again. Morgan approached from behind, wrapping his arms across her chest. "It's going to be ok. I'm here with you, I'm not going anywhere."
"Thank you. I think I need to shower." She walked to the bathroom. She looked back at Morgan with a sad smile.
Derek picked up the phone. "Mom, sorry, I know it's the middle of the night, but I need some advice."
"Son, you know that you may call me any time, even in the middle of the night. How can I help?"
"Tonight Penelope just revealed some horrors of her past to me. We were working on a case and her past came back to her. It was horrible mom. I thought what Buford did to me was bad, but this was a hundred times worse. I don't know what to do."
"Do you love her?"
"Of course I do, you know that."
"Then just love her. Show her you are there. Don't press her, let her lead, but be there to hold her up, to support her. Just do what comes naturally."
"Thanks mom."
"Any time son, any time." With that they said their goodbyes and hung up the phone.
After ten minutes he started to worry about Penelope. He knocked on the door, "baby girl, are you ok in there?"
"No."
That was all he needed. The door was locked, but he kicked it in, he could buy a new door later, right now, she needed him. She was in the shower, sitting on the floor of the shower, arms wrapped around her knees sobbing. He went straight to her and held her. The fact that he was soaking wet didn't stop him. He just held and rocked her until the water grew cold. Then he shut off the water and grabbed a towel to wrap around her. He removed his wet clothes and wrapped a towel around his waist. She helped her out into the room, and had her sit on the bed. He kneeled again in front of her.
"Baby girl, I'm in uncharted territory here. I will do everything in my power to help you through this. Just tell me what I can do for you and I will do it in a heartbeat."
"I'm really tired right now. I need to sleep, will you be my pillow," she gave a halfhearted grin.
"It'll be tough, but I suppose," he said back.
He started dressing. First his boxers, then a pair of workout pants.
"Not a shirt," she said quietly.
"Whatever your heart desires my dear." She got up and pulled out a nightgown. As a second thought she pulled out an old worn t-shirt. The shirt looked familiar to Morgan.
"I stole this one time. I've never washed it, I wear it whenever I need you close," she blushed.
"I will be as close as you need me to be." He laid in the bed and she laid beside him, her hand on his chest, her head resting in the crook of his arm. She was enveloped in his arms, in his scent. Her body slowly began to relax.
Meanwhile, the rest of the team was up and reviewing the file Garcia had put together. They had no idea how she knew, but these guys fit the profile to a tee. The team split up with officers from the local PD and raided the homes of each of the three men. After several hours of interrogation and pitting the unsubs against each other, they had three confessions and had arrested the other three involved. Their official work in Pasadena was done, but there was some other business that had to be taken care of. One of their team, their family, was hurting, and they couldn't leave until she was ready.
Morgan hadn't slept. He had watched Garcia sleep for the past six and a half hours. His phone vibrated on the night stand. He gently slid out from beneath Garcia grabbed the phone and headed into the bathroom to take the call.
"How's she doing?" JJ asked. He should have known she would be the one other end.
"She's resting now. It was a long and difficult night. She's been to hell and back more than once. If it takes the rest of my life, I will do everything I can to make sure she never glimpses that hell again."
"She's lucky to have you."
"No, I'm the lucky one. I think I hear her waking up, I will get back with you guys."
"Oh, hey wait. I called to tell you that we caught them. First the three she knew, after Rossi and Hotch dealt with them in the interrogation room, we had their confessions and they gave up the other three. That have all been booked on four counts of rape and four counts of 1st degree murder."
"Thanks for the update JJ. I'll call soon."
When Morgan re-entered the room, Garcia was sitting up in the bed with a look of shear terror and panic, sweat was dripping from her face.
"It's ok baby girl, I'm here. I had to answer the phone." He rushed to her and embraced her. "JJ called. They have all 6 guys in custody with confessions."
"That's good. At least no one else will die." She sat in silence. "I don't know if I can do this again Derek. I have had to pick up the pieces of my life so many times. I don't know that I can do it again."
"You can, and do you know why you can?" She shook her head. "You can because you are the strongest and bravest woman I know. It will be hard to do and I hate that you have to, but I want you to know that I will be there every step of the way. I will help you pick up those pieces. I will help you put them back."
"Derek, I know we have to tell everyone, but I can't do it. I had never told that story to anyone, and I don't plan to. I can never repeat it."
"Baby girl, we don't have to tell them everything. We can just tell them that they had beat and raped you when you were at CalTech. We don't have to tell them anything else. The rest of it, who they were, the details of what they did are between us. I will take them to my grave if that's what you want me to do. "
"I was Sarah then, she's gone. I don't want them to know about her. I need you to tell the team what they need to know, and I need to do it now before I don't have the strength to face them."
"Go take a quick shower and get dressed. I'll have the team come down in about 20 minutes." He kissed her on the forehead and walked her to the bathroom. "Don't lock me out this time baby girl. If you need me, let me know."
"Derek? Thank you, for everything."
"Any time baby girl, any time."
Derek finished dressing and placed the call to JJ.
"Hey JJ, can you round everybody up and have them come down in about 10 minutes. Garcia and I need to see you guys."
"Ok, we'll be there, I was about to call and check on you again. We'll be down in a few."
"Oh and JJ?"
"Yeah?"
"This is going to be really sensitive, no questions for now."
"Got it."
Garcia came out of the bathroom dressed. She had thrown her hair into a ponytail, but Morgan still thought she was as beautiful as ever.
"The team will be here in a few minutes. Why don't you have a seat on the bed? " As she sat down there was a knock at the door.
Derek answered and invited everyone in. Penelope still sat on the bed, eyes averted from everyone.
"Have a seat." Derek said, gesturing to everyone.
"Penelope isn't up to talking, so I agreed to share what has happened in the past 24 hours." He sat beside her, wrapping her in his arms. "Yesterday, Penelope was analyzing the video when she realized there was a message for her in it. She knew these men because during her time at CalTech, they had raped and beaten her, this was another part of why she went underground for a while before coming to the FBI. As she heard the message, the only 2 sentences that could be isolated on the whole tape, she realized it was meant for her and she knew instantly who the unsubs were. Last night, she had a hard time processing it all. She wanted to give us the names, but couldn't without explaining herself. She told me the whole story, every last detail. She doesn't want me to share that with you all, and I have no intentions of doing so. Everything about how she came to the names, and found the files was completely legitimate. As you can see, she has a lot to deal with. The two of us are going to take some vacation time off and try to rebuild everything she had so carefully built after her attack. I've rented a car and we are going to take the long way home, the scenic route if you will." Penelope looked up at him. She hadn't known this. When had he had time to arrange all of this? "Hotch, will you let us take the time?"
"That shouldn't be a problem . You guys both have a lot of time saved up. If you or Penelope need any of us, we are a phone call away."
"I know and we both appreciate that. We'll be fine, it will just take some time."
"We love you Garcia. You too Morgan," they all announced as they left the room.
"We love you too guys. We'll see you back at Quantico in a couple of weeks."
The team packed up and headed for the plane. Morgan and Garcia would leave the next morning.
"Thank you Derek. If you only knew how much this all means to me."
"Sweetheart, it means the world to me that you shared your past, that you let me be the one to hold you last night, that you are letting me be the one to help you through this."
That night, the mood in their room was somber. They didn't talk much, she just let him hold her, as long as she was in his arms, she could see the light at the end of the tunnel.