A/N: I'm back and I seriously thought that I'd never get the alphabet finished but I did and it felt great! I'm sorry for the length of time between Z and this piece but I needed a few days to get out of the alphabet and get my brain back on a track for a normal story. Now that I've done that, I hope I continue to please with my writing style.

Many, many thanks to my faithful reviewers, fanficlover, Hazmatt, babygurl0506 and moonshine-036 for sticking with me throughout my alphabet journey and continuing in your encouraging messages.

Please be aware that the focus of this story isn't really on the case so I won't be spending too much time on it.

This one is rated M with violence, language and adult themes.

PLEASE NOTE: This is NPH 12. If you aren't already following this series, I recommend that you make your way to my author profile page and start with NPH 1, as some or all of this will not make sense otherwise.

DISCLAIMER: I sadly do not own Criminal Minds, its storylines or characters. I can only claim to manipulate them for the purposes of this story.

Silence – Chapter 1

Carrie Whitman stepped out of the bathroom and stretched. She was feeling a little tired but was looking forward to putting the boys to bed and getting the night started. At the picnic the Sunday just past she'd made friends with the women who had partnered into the BAU through their relationships and they'd made a date to pop round and spend an hour or two in the hot tub once the boys were asleep. But first they had to get to that point.

She padded back to the den where she'd left them watching The Lion King and frowned slightly as she took in the silence. Considering Hakuna Matata was currently playing she sighed quietly as she stepped in through the door.

"Alright boys, what are you planning?"

It seemed as if time slowed to a stop as she took in the boys sitting silently on the couch, both crying and shaking. Movement off to her right had her turning away from them to see Vincent Whitman step away from the wall with a gun in his hand.

"Hello darling. Did you miss me?"

She ducked his first swing, suddenly so eternally grateful for the self-defence lessons she'd tried to laugh off and that Aaron especially had insisted she learn as she charged him, pushing him back into the wall he'd just stepped away from.

"Boys run and get help! Hurry!"

She heard a flurry of movement behind her as Vincent shoved her off him and struck out at her again. She was glad of his being off balance as the blow just glanced her temple but even that blow set her ears to ringing and knocked her back a few feet. She pushed the pain back, ducked the next blow and struck back. This continued until she tripped on a cushion that had been knocked off the couch.

As she lay stunned on the ground, fighting to catch her breath, she opened eyes she hadn't even realise she'd closed to find she was staring down the barrel of a gun.

"Say goodnight bitch."

New Section-

When they'd received the call that close to a dozen children had gone missing in Kansas City all in one night they'd dropped everything else and had left within the hour. They were already to the three hour mark and time was rapidly running out. The clues though had been numerous and they'd discovered the children dirty, naked and hungry just 12 hours into their captivity. Emily and Reid had been called in to help with communicating with the children, since most spoke only a little English overall.

She'd been relieved that the case was almost over and she could go home, admitting finally that she'd had enough and she needed to stop. Aaron had folded her close and told her he was proud of her for making such a tough decision and she was basking in the warmth of his arms when calls started to pour in that more children were missing and the suspect they'd originally had in custody had an airtight alibi for the night in question.

She'd very nearly cried as her husband kissed her temple almost absently and walked off to take control of the investigation once again.

Now she worked alongside JJ to piece together the evidence they held in front of them and that her too-tired brain wasn't fully comprehending.

"I don't think I can do this," she whispered as her vision swam. She'd been awake for almost 36 hours now and was beginning to feel ill with it.

JJ took one look at her and said easily, "You don't need to honey. Why don't you come over here to the couch and lie down for a while. I'll call Hotch and let him know what we're doing and if he needs to he can send someone else to assist me."

"I feel like I'm letting you down," she said tiredly as she allowed the younger woman to get her settled with her feet up and her head pillowed on a cushion.

JJ held her tongue and smiled slightly as Emily went out like a light. She pulled out her phone and dialled as shouting and a crash could be heard from the front room. She walked to the door and watched as about half a dozen cops picked up a man screaming about his brother being innocent and carried him out of the station.

"Hey Jayje. What have you got for us?"

"Not a lot. I just called to say you were right. I've just tucked Emily in on the couch. I'm flying solo here so if you need anything faster than you're getting it already, you might want to think about sending Reid to me."

Hotch chuckled softly. "Whatever you can do for us is fine. We're just getting to the children now so we are back to trying to find the unsub. Have there been any more reports of missing children?"

"Not as yet and I'm praying constantly that there won't be but who knows. How are these children?"

"Far worse than the rest. Three of them are already dead and the rest are showing some pretty horrific injuries. They're all still too traumatised for questioning and I think it might be days before we get any coherent answers from them."

"What does it look like?"

"Rape, mutilation and torture. I'm really glad you aren't here at this moment and gladder still that Emily isn't here. Morgan's taking it hard enough as it is and there is unfortunately a dead little boy here that looks enough like Jack that I'm struggling too. Kelly vomited before she got herself under control and there are still about three cops off doing the same somewhere nearby."

"No sign of the unsub at all?"

"We've got a couple more clues that are on their way back to you to add to our growing pile of undecipherable and another piece that is being rushed to a lab for analyses."

"Blood, hair or fibres?"

"A small combination of the three. They promised to get us answers as fast as they could. No one wants to leave this guy on the street any longer than necessary."

They spoke for another couple of minutes before ending the call and getting back to the task at hand.

New Section-

"How's Emily?"

"About at the point we expected her to be at. JJ's just tucked her in for a nap. I've no idea what was happening in the background but it sounded busy there. What have you got for me?"

"Not as much as I'd like, but Kelly grabbed Reid muttering about a potential lead to crack the case and that they'd be back in a minute. I saw them stop long enough to speak to Morgan and then they disappeared so if you want more information, speak to him."

He nodded as he continued surveying the scene. "I keep feeling like we're missing something so obvious we're going to hate ourselves when we figure it out because it means we could have saved lives if we got the break earlier."

"Don't Hotch. You know that all we can do is the best we can do and that we never knowingly put anyone in danger. Don't shoulder this now…"

"Hotch, Rossi, Morgan!"

They looked in Kelly's direction and saw her waving frantically. Exchanging grimly amused looks at her antics, they quickly walked around the scene in front of them to join the two youngest of their team. Kelly might have been new and temporary at best and Reid so awkward it was often entertainment for them all, but the two had proven to be an unbeatable team more than once as they sniffed out breaks in cases that appeared too tough to crack.

"Am I going to be amazed?" Hotch asked seriously.

"Better; we'll be getting the days' gold stars." She detailed what they'd found and the team nodded agreement with the assessment she and Reid had come up with.

"Right then; let's go get the unsub and go home."

New Section-

JJ sighed tiredly as there was more shouting out in the bullpen and did her best to tune it out. The same guy from earlier in the day had just kept coming back again and again and it had reached the point where it was just more background noise she didn't need to top off the headache she'd had for the last hour.

"What on earth is all that racket?"

"Hey you, welcome back sleepyhead. How are you feeling?"

"Better, but rather sore. I swear this is a rock masquerading as a cushion under my head."

JJ laughed. "As to the noise, there's a young man who keeps turning up screaming that the police arrested the wrong man and that his brother is innocent. I spoke to one of the arresting officers and he said they caught the guy red-handed. The case is airtight so they just keep escorting him out." She tipped her head to the side as silence fell outside the closed door and sighed. "Of course I doubt their goodwill will continue much longer. He's been in probably about a dozen times already."

Emily pushed up from the couch and stretched carefully. "I suppose there are just some things you can't give up on and belief in family is one of the biggest ones. I'm off to find a toilet before I burst."

JJ grinned. "I remember that part with little fondness. While you take care of necessity, I'll call the gang for an update on the case."

Emily smiled agreement and made her slow way to the door which had obviously been shut in an attempt to minimise the noise while she slept. She made a note to thank JJ for her thoughtfulness and opened up the door.

Later she thought it was like moving through molasses as she took in the scene in the main station house. As the man with the gun swung around toward her and she noted his finger twitch on the trigger, she wished fervently that she weren't so heavily pregnant as bullets suddenly sprayed in her direction and she threw her body back out of the door, landing heavily on the ground as pain kicked into gear all over her body.

As she pushed into the corner of the couch she'd just climbed out of and covered her abdomen protectively, she locked eyes with JJ across the room huddled at the other end of the other couch, phone still held to her ear as she waited for someone to pick up the phone.

End-

A/N: I thought I might continue on from there but decided that this was the perfect place for a cliff hanger, hee hee.

I'll do my best to get the next chapter out by the weekend.

Please, please, please review and let me know what you think, even if it's terrible.