3

Broken

Emily's body ached from the cold seeping into her bones. Her feet throbbed from the nine and a half miles she had hiked uphill in the dark. She felt little comfort that Derek Morgan was walking the grid with her. She knew that he was still angry with JJ and her for lying. Emily didn't care. It all seemed so trivial.

Emily's flashed light cast its beam upon Derek's face and back to the ground again. In that brief moment, Emily could see the exhaustion in his face; the same wretched exhaustion that was creeping into all of their bones. After all, they had been hiking in the cold dark for hours on end. It was treacherous ground. Yet, no matter how many briars reached out for Emily's cheeks, she knew that their exhaustion, fear, and pain would be incomparable to the terror JJ could be feeling.

"Em, do you think she's here," Derek had stopped and leaned his back against a tree.

Emily shook her head, "No way to know unless we keep going."

Derek didn't move, "We need to talk."

Emily sighed, her breath making fog in the air around her, "Do you really think this is the time, Derek?"

Derek frowned, "No. But we still need to talk. Not just about the faked death, but about JJ, and after all this…"

Emily knew where Derek's thoughts were heading. Her stomach lurched as she let herself think about the things JJ could be going through. She swallowed the knot in her throat and looked back at Derek.

"We'll be there. We'll be there for her, for each other. I know that having to lie to you and the rest of the team…I know it was a bad choice, but it was a necessary one. I might be dead for real right now had we not done what we did. JJ…she was instrumental in my survival, and because of that, and because of who she is, her heart, her goodness, I will be there to make sure she survives. We all will. Sooner or later you'll all forgive us, but until you do, then maybe you should put it aside so that JJ doesn't have to carry that burden. She'll have enough to deal with."

Derek nodded his head slightly, "Some of us have already forgiven, Em. And now, with JJ…it just all seems ridiculous. We got to get her back."

"We will," Emily stated with conviction as once again she lit the ground in front of her and continued to walk.

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The pain in her heart was equally unbearable to the pain in her body. JJ tried hard not to let another tear slip down her dirt-smeared cheek. She shivered again as the coldness covered her. She could feel the cold dirt beneath her bare skin. She was still naked, still bleeding and inconceivably afraid.

He raped her twice more in the two hours that followed the first time. Each occurrence more devastating and tortuous than the last. He eventually grew bored and dragged her screaming out the door of the cabin.

Ten feet from the cabin he removed leaves and sticks from a covered pit in the ground and threw JJ into it. She could see his face in the moonlight and knew she would never forget the evil blackness in his eyes.

She could smell the earth surrounding her and suddenly found it hard to breath. She knew from the cases they had worked on how quickly and easily hypothermia could set in. She was in so much pain she welcomed the numbness the cold brought with it.

She hadn't heard him in over an hour. She heard him as he dragged the dead girl's body from the shack. She heard a motor of some sort, possibly a four-wheeler. She knew he had left but it didn't stop the fear.

She found herself singing softly. The words of an old lullaby soothed her as she pictured Henry in her head, and her friends at the BAU. Her family. The thoughts helped to block out the darkness, the closed-in feeling, and the thoughts of complete shame and guilt.

As the thoughts of her friends and family were beginning to calm her, the living nightmare that had just occurred ripped through the short-lived security. JJ began to hyperventilate. Her body shook violently from the cold air and the dank hole in the ground. Her fear of the things that had already happened to her was only surpassed by the terror incited by the sounds of walking coming from a short distance away.

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"Team 1, Team 3 this is Team 2, we've located a cabin of some sort. Coordinates on GPS."

Emily looked down at her handheld device and located the position of Reid and the two rangers accompanying him. She looked wide-eyed Derek, "They're less than half a mile from here."

Derek didn't hesitate to run in the direction Emily indicated. Emily was on his heels. The idea of Spencer Reid and two strangers being the first ones to come into contact with a possibly traumatized JJ disturbed Emily almost as much as JJ being kidnapped in the first place.

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She listened for another twenty minutes in complete silence. She thought she heard her name called out more than once, but she couldn't be sure it wasn't the unsub back to finish her off. The violent shivers coursing through her body made her teeth ache. She could barely feel her fingers, but the pain deep within her body was not ignorable.

She was ready to give up. She was ready to lose herself in the icy coldness. And then she heard the familiar sound of safety. True safety.

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Emily walked the perimeter of the shack, too disturbed by the stains and smells on the inside of the unsub's lair. In her heart she knew that JJ was still alive. She knew that she was close.

"JJ!" Emily called out, her emotions catching in her throat. "JJ! Please! Where are you?"

Emily remained quiet and listened intently to the atmosphere around her. She could hear the crime scene techs working inside the shack. She could hear the shuffle of her teammates feet in the leaves around the cabin. She closed her eyes and listened harder.

That's when she heard it. A faint whimper muffled with fear. Emily opened her eyes and walked through some underbrush close to the shack.

"JJ…I think I hear you sweetheart. Please call out."

Emily's voice was much calmer than her racing heart. She listened again and this time a strangled cry, a sob, reached her ears from somewhere beneath her. She began feeling the ground with her boot and after several minutes she heard a clunk.

She quickly dropped to her knees and found herself on a locked iron door. She called out to her team and felt a surge of energy.

"JJ. We're coming. We're going to bust this thing open and get you out of there. Can you hear me?"

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JJ felt somewhat warmed by Emily's voice. She tried to call out, but couldn't open her mouth. She was suddenly very aware of her nakedness, her vulnerability. She found the words she wanted to say.

Her voice was raspy, unsure, her body shaking, "Just you. Not them."

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Emily's heart sank with JJ's words. She knew immediately that JJ had been hurt.

"I need a blanket. Hotch," Emily addressed her supervisor, "When that lock is cut and that door open I need to do this alone. I need to get to her without any eyes on us, do you understand."

Hotch knew enough about victimology to know that if JJ only wanted help from Emily then they would honor that request. He nodded to Emily and backed Spencer, Derek and Rossi away. The lock was cut with no issues and the door lifted.

Emily suppressed the gasp that wanted to escape her mouth. She was glad to see JJ, but was horrified by the things she could see in the beam of her flashlight. She swallowed her own fears and slid down into the hole. She approached JJ slowly, noting the blue coloring of her friend's normally pink lips.

She hated to see JJ naked and bruised, bleeding, and crying. She knelt down in the dirt next to her friend and was relieved to see the recognition in the blonde's eyes.

"Hey sweetie. Listen, I'm going to put this blanket around you. Okay?"

JJ allowed her to place the blanket around her, feeling glad that it was a large enough blanket to cover her entire body. She looked into Emily's eyes and let the tears fall freely.

Emily looked into the beautiful blue eyes of Jennifer Jareau. She felt immense sadness for the trauma her friend might have suffered. She wrapped her arms around JJ and held her tightly. The younger woman let herself be comforted.

Emily stroked JJ's hair in a soothing manner, "We need to get you out of here. Will you let me help you? Can one of our team help me get you out?"

JJ shook her head, "No."

Her voice was so small. Emily's heart broke. She let go of JJ briefly and looked out of the hole at the paramedics standing by. She knelt back down, "What about a couple of paramedics?"

JJ nodded. She knew she had to get out of the woods. Before she could even try to stand up, she could feel her heart flip flop in her chest. She looked up at Emily and before she could reach out a hand, she blacked out.