Thank you to all those who reviewed the first chapter! Here's chapter 2, Another thank you goes out to Flashpenguin for betaing this, she always does a good job on my stories.
"A friend is one that knows you as you are, understands where you have been, accepts what you have become, and still, gently allows you to grow." William Shakespeare
An hour later, Emily had left a note for the girl next door. Her go bag was repacked and she had an extra purse with her I-pod and speakers in it. She was taking David's bet seriously; she was going to find a kind of music he didn't like.
After David picked her up, they pulled out on the road, Emily turned her I-pod on as they started heading towards Southern Virginia where seven of the victims lived.
"Who are we seeing first?" Dave asked as Taylor Swift sang about burning pictures.
"Her name is Ella Jefferson," Emily read from the file. "She was stabbed in 2005, when she was 18 years old. She was attending Bryant and Stanton College at the time."
After a few minutes when they had talked about the case a little more, Emily turned the sound up on the I-pod speakers as a Dwight Yoakum song started playing. "You're telling me that you like this song artist?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, Dwight Yoakum? He's great, hey; did you see him in the movie Four Christmases?" David asked, "It came out a couple of years ago."
Emily huffed and switched the song to Enya. "What about this?" she asked.
"Very relaxing, I like her song 'May It Be' best." Emily's mouth dropped open a little bit. David reached over and closed it.
"What about …?" Emily was desperate to find an artist that David didn't like; finally she switched to a song she had meant to delete off her I-pod a couple months before. Emily grinned and looked at David.
You need to watch the way you talkin' to me, yo; I mean after all the things that we've been through. At the sound of the music blaring from the speakers, David did a double take. This wasn't music, it was…well, he didn't know what it was, but it certainly wasn't music.
"Sure." He lied, forgetting that he didn't have any money on this bet. "I forget his name, but he certainly sounds like he's trying hard to sound good."
"It's Kanye West and he's not a musician; he's fakes it big time," Emily stated it as a fact. She clicked a few buttons on her I-pod and the song stopped. "And I just deleted him." She giggled. "Glad to know there's at least one artist you don't like Dave," she teased. "Looks like I win this bet."
"I said there wasn't a musician I didn't like," David emphasized the word. "Him, Mr. West," he pointed to her I-pod where a piano song had started playing. "He's not a musician. He fakes it."
"Well I have to agree with you on that one," Emily relented.
"Looks like I win this bet," David said smugly. Emily rolled her eyes and moved to change the song. "Don't." His hand shot out and stopped her from changing the song. "I like Yiruma."
Emily shrugged and left the I-pod playing. "So," she asked "what's the name of this little restaurant you want to take me to?"
"Cellars." Rossi looked from the road to Emily and back. "My agent said that there were mixed reviews about the place but he had a good experience there."
Emily nodded as she thought of Dave taking her out to dinner. She'd be lying to herself if she wasn't looking forward to it at least a little bit. He was good looking; not her usual type but she could see how other women found him irresistible, and it would be an absolute lie if she told herself that she wasn't curious to find out how he got the moniker of 'Lothario of the FBI'.
"Where else are our victims?" David asked as he turned his attention back to the road.
"Uhh," Emily tried to return her attention to the case and she opened up the file again. "In southern Virginia we've got three other victims' one in Chesapeake another in Norfolk and the last in Portsmouth besides the victim in Alexandria from last month she's the most recent victim in Virginia."
"Those are close together." David mentioned, "We may finish the interviews early today since we won't have to drive very much when we get there."
Emily nodded. "I was thinking the same thing." She said, "Then tomorrow, there's another few in the South Central part of Virginia. There's actually two in South Boston one in Halifax and three in Roanoke."
"Don't we have to head in a more western direction then?" David asked.
"Yes, after we interview the three victims in Roanoke, we need to go to interview the two in Wytheville and one in Big Stone Gap."
"I've never even heard of Big Stone Gap." David commented.
"That" Emily stated as she flipped through the file of information that Garcia had given her "is because it has less than four thousand inhabitants."
"A stabbing like that must have rocked the entire town." David mentioned.
Emily nodded in agreement. "I thought we could interview some of the other townspeople about what happened; maybe one of them saw something that could help the case."
Rossi waited until he had merged into another lane before answering. "Let's do the same thing with the other victims, maybe someone they know saw something."
"No witnesses came forward, but maybe someone didn't realize what they were watching." Emily said.
"Is there anything that these cases in Virginia have in common?" Dave asked.
"I think so." Emily said as she flipped through the files in front of her again. "I noticed that he or she attacked in the early morning. Always between four and six in the morning. Besides the victims being all women, that's the only predictable pattern that I can discern." Emily sighed and closed the files for a moment.
David glanced over at Emily before returning his attention to the road once more. "We've solved cases on less," he repeated what Hotch had said once.
"True," Emily agreed, leaning back in her chair. She fidgeted with the adjustment handle and the chair leaned back slightly.
"You all right?" David asked.
"I'm fine, just tired." Emily closed her eyes, sighing deeply.
"Do I need to go get you some coffee?" David asked. Emily smiled. Ever since he had started working at the BAU, he got her coffee when she obviously was stressed with something. It had become a bit of a habit for them; he would get Emily a hot cup of coffee and then the two of them would have a grown up talk about life.
"My mother called me yesterday." Emily seemed confused and David glanced at her again. "She was wondering why I haven't introduced her to my boyfriend yet."
"I didn't realize you were dating anyone," Dave remarked, knowing his remarks were only punctuation in Emily's story.
"That's the thing," Emily bit out shortly it was clear now that she was in shock at her mother's comments. "I'm NOT! She was looking at my facebook pictures and she saw a picture of our entire group at a bar." Dave cocked his head slightly. "Remember about a month ago when we all went to Morgan's new hang out?" she continued.
"Yeah."
"Well apparently Garcia took some pictures and posted them on facebook, she tagged me and my mother looked at the pictures and misunderstood one of them. She talked for nearly twenty minutes before I could get a word in edgewise about the content of the picture she was speaking of."
"What picture was that?" David asked. He had been there, while they had all been drinking, none of them had gone overboard with the alcohol, the pictures couldn't have been that bad, could they?
"Well you know when I tripped and you caught me?" Emily said, she opened her eyes and turned a little to face David.
"Yeah."
"Evidently Garcia caught that exact moment at an awkward angle and it looks like you're…umm," Emily hesitated trying to think of a polite way to word what her mother had been so angry at. "It looked like you were being grabby with me and that I'm encouraging it." Wow, that's putting it delicately, she thought to herself. "My mother was pretty angry."
"I may be a Narcissistic Bastardly Lothario" David quoted Erin Strauss' favorite nickname for him, "but I would never grab you, like that."
"It's been so long I might welcome it," Emily muttered to herself. She hadn't meant for Dave to overhear and she stiffened slightly to see if he would comment on it. He had but chose to stay silent; he didn't want to get into a discussion of how long it had been for him.
One Taylor Swift Album and half an N*Sync Album later, Rossi and Emily reached Norfolk, They went to the local police station where they took nearly an hour to interview the victim there before going to Chesapeake and then on to Virginia Beach.
By five in the evening they were both worn out from the drive and subsequent interviews. After booking separate hotel rooms for the night they agreed to freshen up and meet in the Lobby before going to dinner.
Emily came down to the lobby to find Dave on one of the couches, finalizing their renovations at the restaurant. Seeing he was busy she glanced through her clutch to double check that her room key was in it, as she found it, she lost her grip on her clutch, accidentally dropping it. "Darn it," she muttered, bending to get her things.
"Here." Dave was suddenly beside her, picking up her clutch and handing her the makeup that had rolled out. Emily dropped the items back in the clutch and looked back up at David who was looking at her as if he had never seen her before.
"What?" she asked, looking down at her dress wondering if something had stained it.
"You look great," he said, letting his eyes sweep her body once more. Her dress was a deep burgundy, and she had a cropped lace sweater on, but the lace was sheer enough that he could tell that her dress was strapless. He glanced down to see that the dress only came down to the middle of her thigh.
"This isn't too much is it?" Emily asked suddenly concerned, "I've got some more casual clothes upstairs….."
"No," Dave denied instantly. "You look great."
"So is that your expert opinion as a profiler or from your extensive knowledge of high class hookers?" Emily asked, smirking.
He locked eyes with her mouth twitching. "Both."
They stood there for a moment longer before Emily reached out and snaked one arm around Rossi's, turned him and began to walk towards the entrance of the hotel. "Feed me." She kindly demanded.
"As you wish," David said, leading Emily out of the hotel. After helping her get into the SUV, he drove to the restaurant.
It was a quick drive but Emily enjoyed seeing Virginia Beach. Ironically the team had never had a case there so this was her first time in the city she had read about in books.
As Dave pulled up to the restaurant, he pulled into the parking space and turned off the engine. Emily paused as she saw the view from the parking lot. "This is a beautiful view," she remarked as she started to turn to go inside the restaurant.
"Adam told me that the view is even better inside," Dave commented as Emily caught up with him.
Continuing to walk towards the entrance, Emily noticed that a man was following them. Entering the restaurant first she glanced behind her; she didn't like the look of that guy. David entered the restaurant after her, and gave his name to the hostess.
As Emily was looking around at the restaurant, she felt a hand slide across her butt. "Watch it," Emily snapped sharply. She turned around to face the man who had followed them inside the restaurant; he was a good four inches taller than her and about sixty pounds heavier. She didn't back down - she had encountered UNSUBs worse than this piece of filth.
"Oh I have watched you," the man said in a low voice. Dave, who had been talking with the hostess turned, his eyes darkened when he saw Emily's harasser.
"I would listen to her if I were you," Rossi reached for his hip, forgetting that he didn't have his service weapon on him.
"Listen to him; it might save your life," Emily said conversationally, now that she knew that Rossi had her back, she relaxed a little bit. She would never relax enough to be caught off guard but she knew that Rossi would help out if needed.
"Oooo I like a woman who's not afraid," the man crooned, leaning in close to Emily. She shoved him back.
"I'm not interested." Her tone of voice left no argument, but the man grinned evilly and started forwards again.
"Maybe you are and you just don't know it yet," he hissed eagerly advancing towards her.
Suddenly the man went down. Emily never saw what had tripped him up, but one second he was coming toward her and the next he was face down on the floor with Dave standing over him.
Dave leaned over to lend the man a hand. Kneeling down, his knee suddenly went into the man's back.
"Hey! Let me up! I'm going to kick your ass!" the man shouted as he struggled against Dave's firm grip.
"I'm sorry," Dave replied as his knee ground into the man's back. "Seems you're having a bit of a problem getting up." Helping the man up, Dave fixed him with a look that had stared down the worst criminals life had to offer.
"Bullshit. You had your knee in my back. I'm calling the police for assault and battery."
Dave raised an eyebrow. "Oh really? How do you figure that?"
"You tripped me! Then you put your knee in my back! I want you arrested!" Turning his head toward the wait staff he shouted: "Someone call 9-1-1! This guy assaulted me!"
Pulling the man up short, Dave whispered darkly, "You may not want to do that unless you want to be arrested for the sexual assault of a federal agent." Flipping his credentials, he watched the man go pale and then stutter. "If you know what's good for you, you'd run like hell and not look back."
"She's a Fed too?" the man asked. Emily nodded and flashed her creds.
Dave threw him toward the foyer. "Get out of here before I arrest you."
Straightening himself, the man looked back once and rushed out of the restaurant. Dave turned toward Emily and offered his arm.
"May I escort you to our table?" he asked smoothly.
"Yes." She placed her hand on his arm and let him lead the way.
"It is in trivial matters, when he is off his guard, that a man reveals his character most truly." Arthur Schopenhauer.
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