Fighting her Demons
Disclaimer: once again I do not own criminal minds or any of its characters! Unfortunately!
AN: Firstly, I just want to thank everyone for your reviews, I am keeping in mind what you all said Sorry I abandoned this story and completely forgot all about it. I have the next couple of chapters planned so I will get to writing that and hopefully will be updated soon. Anyway, on we go.
Also, if anyone would like to give me any ideas on how to bring Will into the story once the team get back from Arizona I would be very happy!
Trigger warning of course is the same throughout the whole story.
Chapter 2
Once on the plane they got stuck into going over the case again. "Prentiss and JJ I want the two of you to go and talk to the victims, go over their statements with them and see if there is anything else that they may have forgotten about, I think it would be best having two females talk to them." Hotch requested.
Emily and JJ both nodded, Emily was glad she wasn't paired with Morgan she didn't want anything distracting her, she had to keep her emotions hidden and in check around the team, compartmentalise. She was annoyed at herself for letting her emotions show in front of the team, although rare, it did sometimes happen at crime scenes. 'catch a grip Em' she thought to herself.
"Yes I agree, we need to build up a rapport with them, get them to trust us and then we can move forward from there" responded JJ looking at Emily to which she nodded in agreement.
"Morgan and Dave I want you to go to the crime scenes, see if there is anything there that Arizona PD may have missed. Reid, you and I will go to the station, I want you to work on geographical profile, find his hunting grounds, if he sticks to the same MO then we only have a couple of days left before another victim turns up". Hotch closed the folder and sat down, "I want everyone to rest now, we are going to be needing it".
Emily sighed and sat down, looking out the window she put in her headphones. JJ sat down opposite to her. She could feel JJ watching her, she tried to ignore her but it made her feel nervous and agitated. Emily pulled her earphones out and sighed. "What JJ?"
"What's wrong with you Em? You fainted earlier, dismissed us all, you're trying to avoid us and you're nervous about something too you are biting your nails again."
"okay, firstly there is absolutely nothing wrong with me, I am fine, secondly what the hell JJ! What happened to not profiling each other!"
"I'm not profiling you, I'm worried about you." JJ replied,
"Well don't be, just worry about yourself and leave me alone."
JJ put her hands up in surrender, "okay, got it". Emily didn't talk for the rest of the flight and pretended to be asleep.
Emily and JJ went to the first victims house. Garcia had sent them the address of the victims houses while they were on the plane. The first victim was 18-year-old Abbigail Martin. Emily and JJ went to the door of her house and knocked. A woman answered the door who Emily presumed to be her mother.
"Mrs Martin?" JJ asked "Yes, can I help you?" "Hi I am Agent Jereau with the FBI and this is Agent Prentiss, I'm wondering if we could ask your daughter a few questions." The older women nodded and let them in. She led them up the stairs to her daughters' bedroom. She knocked the door and brought them in. "Thank you, ma'am," said JJ. She nodded and left giving the two agents a bit of space with her daughter, she knew Abbie wouldn't want her in the room while she talked to them.
Abbigail was sitting cross legged on her bed reading a book with her headphones in listening to music. Upon seeing the two agents she closed her book and turned her music off.
"Hi Abbigail, I am Jennifer Jereau and this is Emily Prentiss with the FBI we were wondering if we could ask you some questions if you're up for it." She nodded and said, "Yeah sure and it's just Abbie".
"We were wondering if you could go over the assault again and tell us what happened" said JJ. " I already told the other officers everything that happened, why do I need to go over it all again?" questioned Abbie.
"In instances like this, initially after a trauma, we can forget things, not on purpose, but it is our brains way of protecting ourselves from something that is traumatic and may harm us, like an assault. It may start to comeback in snippets or through flashbacks or nightmares. Now this doesn't happen with everyone but I think to determine if this is what has happened in your case we are going to need you to talk about it. I know this is very difficult for you, trust me I do, but if there is anything at all it could help us catch him, even if it is something small that seems completely pointless. "said Emily. She had spoken to Abbie trying to show as much compassion as she could and that she truly cared and understood how she was feeling.
"Ok I understand that" responded Abbie, she let out a sigh before continuing, "It had gotten pretty warm and stuffy inside and I remembered feeling slightly dizzy and light headed so I went out on the back doors to get some air, I had been standing out there for about ten minutes just concentrating on my breathing, that helped to clear my head and made me feel a bit better. I then turned around to go back in and that's when I felt someone grab me from behind, it was as if he came out of nowhere. He started pushing me up against the wall and you know feeling me up, his hands were all over me and he had started to pull at my clo.. clothes." Abbie paused for a minute before continuing, " he was kissing at the side of my neck and then bit me roughly and kind of growled slightly, I tried to fight him of and get out of his hold but he was simply too big and strong there was nothing I could do, I tried to scream but he put his hand over my mouth and told me he would cut me if I didn't be quiet and that if I didn't believe him to just try and scream again and see what he did and and then I, I just froze. I remember just thinking 'this is it, this is what's going to happen, you have to accept this Abbie' and then I started to try and just make my mind go elsewhere until it was over, that when I felt him stop and loosen his grip and I realised something had caught his attention at the other side of the alley so I was able to turn around, I brought my knee up and hit him and then ran back inside" finished Abbie.
" You said earlier that you had been feeling dizzy and lightheaded is there any chance that something would have been put in your drink and you maybe didn't notice, sometimes with alcohol it is difficult to notice if it tasted differently, and don't worry you won't get in trouble for drinking underage if you were." Said JJ
"Oh what no that's impossible, I wasn't out drinking with my friends or anything, I was floor staff, I was working, this is where I work, well actually I don't normally work in the nightclub, I usually work in the adjoining restaurant. I had finished my own waitressing shift at about half 11 and my manager asked me if I would help out on the floor as someone had phoned in sick so they were short. I figured that the extra cash would be nice so I agreed so I shouldn't have even been there."
At this Emily let out a little gasp and had tensed her body up, Abbie hadn't noticed it but JJ who was sitting beside here did and looked at her quizzically. Emily brushed this off and said "you were working? Maybe that's how he had noticed you, you were somebody different and that had slight authority over him." Emily mussed to herself. "Abbie, do you remember anybody lurking or following you about in the club, just acting a little strange or anything like that?" asked Emily.
Abbie paused maybe thinking through her night, "no nothing out of the ordinary, well ordinary for a club anyway" she responded to Emily.
JJ spoke up then, "ok can you think back for me a wee bit to when you first stepped outside?" Abbie nodded indicating for JJ to continue "when you went out what did you see, think back, was there anything that seemed weird, could you hear or even smell anything?" asked JJ.
"No there was nothing" started Abbie, "wait a minute, yes I could smell smoke I remember it drew my attention because the door that I went out was for staff only, its where we bring out the bottle bins and that to be taken away. I remember I looked around to see if there was anyone there but I brushed it off when I didn't see anyone."
"Ok that is good, brilliant Abbie" exclaimed JJ, "is that everything?" she asked, Abbie nodded. Emily spoke up, "you mentioned earlier about him threatening you, did he say anything else?" Abbie avoided looking at Emily and shook her head no. Emily didn't believe Abbie and looking over at JJ she knew she didn't believe her either. "Abbie what did he say to you?" asked Emily. Abbie slowly looked up and Emily saw that she was crying. "he he told me that all of that what was about to happen was all my own fault as he knew that I wanted him and I was asking for it. He said he had me and he would win, he would always win because any time I thought about sex I would think of him and then he said 'you shouldn't play games' "and this time Abbie did hear Emily gasp.
Abbie looked up at Emily thinking that she had said something wrong. Emily was far away thinking about another time when somebody had said those exact words to her, 'You shouldn't play games Emily, you know I don't like it when you do that'. Emily faintly heard JJ calling her bringing her attention back to the young girl sitting in front of her, "Abbie listen to me, this is not your fault, none of this is your fault, you hear me? Don't carry that blame with you put it back where it belongs, on to him, because the moment you start carrying that around it becomes a heavy weight on your shoulders, and causes a turmoil that doesn't belong to you and it is a long heavy battle to place the blame back where it belongs. You got that?" said Emily, almost fervently. She needed Abbie to not blame herself, she knew all to well what that battle was like.
