Day 3

Warning: story may get graphic. Contains violence and sexual assault.


Of all the members of the team, Morgan was probably taking Emily's kidnapping the worst. After all, she had been with him when it had happened. She had just ran into the store to grab drinks and some snacks for everyone, and then she was gone. Their unsub had taken her while Morgan was sitting just meters away. It was a display of power, the unsub showing that he was smarter than the best of the FBI.

It also felt personal; none of the other victims had been from law enforcement or even from the government until Emily had been abducted. Morgan was certainly taking it personally. After everything they had been through together; all the car rides and stakeouts and takedowns. After Doyle, and thinking she was dead and the guilt that had gnawed at his core. And then she was back, and safe, and it was Morgan and Prentiss together again. Something had felt so right, so organic and pure about their partnership. They both had the other's back, but now he had let her down. And she would pay the price.

Rationally Morgan knew that he couldn't have saved her; nobody had predicted this level of escalation from the unsub. But emotions are not rational, and the guilt bubbled inside him. He tried to make his feelings productive and threw himself even harder into the case, working tirelessly to find her. But part of his mind was taken over by the pain and anguish he felt. She was trapped with a violent unsub because of him.

JJ wasn't sure exactly how long she had been at work, trying desperately to find a new lead in the case. She vaguely remembered having a coffee around noon and it was now 5pm. She was exhausted, hungry, drained, but kept pushing on, holding out for the break that would lead them to Emily. She was looking over photos from the crime scenes for what felt like the hundredth time and couldn't stop looking at the broken bodies of the second victim. Thick brown hair, tall, pale… she could have been Emily's cousin. Suddenly JJ wasn't looking at a picture Avery Kaufmann of Sedona, Arizona; she was looking at her colleague and friend Emily Prentiss, lying dead on the yellow grass.

JJ felt her eyes fill with tears and she felt nauseous. She quickly left the room and went to the bathroom. She splashed cold water on her face and tried to take a few deep breaths. Running her fingers through her hair, she noticed the large bags under her eyes and the disheveled look of her clothes. She knew that she should take better care of herself but couldn't, not while Emily was in danger. JJ remembered her sitting with her on the plane to London, she had been so fragile and broken after recovering from the stake to her abdomen. She had been so quiet and seemed smaller somehow. JJ didn't want to see her in that state again and went back to the boardroom determined to keep working.

Reid had noticed JJ leaving but didn't say anything. All of them had needed multiple breaks to compose themselves after hearing Morgan's frantic phone call. At first they couldn't believe what had happened and. Reid kept waiting for Emily to cheer everyone up with coffee or make a sassy comment about the unsub's antics. But after the first day her absence was felt and hovered like a gray cloud over the boardroom. The urgency and desperation to solve the case increased every passing minute that she was in the hands of the unsub.

Reid considered Emily his close friend and confidante. She was the one who had taken a beating for him when they had been held by Cyrus and had since saved his life multiple times. She was the only one whom he had told about his headaches and would agree to watch a Russian film with him. He couldn't let her go through something like this, after everything that she had already suffered. He continued with the geographical profile of the unsub, his mind moving at warp speed.

Hotch could almost see the wheels in Reid's head turning as he drew on the map spread in front of him. Hotch tried to focus his mind on the unsub's profile but found his mind wandering. His thoughts seemed to move in a circle: How could we let this happen? She has survived so much already, how can she handle more? We have to find her. But how could we let this happen? As team leader, Hotch felt responsible for every member of his team. He remembered when Reid had been kidnapped and how his dilaudid addiction had caused him such pain, when Garcia had been shot and laid so still on her hospital bed, when Morgan had confronted Carl Buford and the demons that had awaken. Hotch couldn't add Emily being kidnapped and tortured to his heartbreaking list of times he had failed.

Rossi felt exhausted but knew that he could rest when Emily had been found. Every moment that passed with him sitting comfortably in the boardroom was a moment that she was trapped with him, probably in large amounts of pain. The image of Emily lying bloody on the cold ground with a silhouette of an angry man over her kept Rossi motivated and determine to find her before it was too late. Rossi knew that it had already been three days and didn't let himself think of the torture the other victims had suffered. He focused on the construction site angle, looking through companies working in the areas that the bodies had been dumped.

The last member of the team sat behind her computer screen, as per usual. Stray tears trickled down Garcia's face and she angrily swatted at them. She trying to keep herself together but every so often she thought of Emily's abduction and she couldn't stop herself from crying. Then Garcia kept thinking of the pain Emily must be in, how scared she must be, and how isolated she must feel… and she kept crying. She knew that she needed a breakthrough, a solid lead to give the team, but for once she couldn't seem to find one. But she wouldn't give up, she had to keep trying to save her friend. So her fingers continued moving over her keyboard as tears fell from her eyes.


Sorry for the long delay! Life got in the way as it always does. As requested, a look into the lives of the team. Thanks for your comments and suggestions.