Another chapter for my loyal readers, and the very few, very special, dear to my heart Reviewers. You guys get capitals because I love you so much...

Ten days ago (marks of existence)…

JJ was standing in the middle of Emily's apartment, with a group of crime scene technicians. They were spread out dusting surfaces for fingerprints, blood, evidence that might explain where Agent Prentiss had gone, or if something had happened to her. Morgan had returned from her apartment the day before really freaked out. He'd never seen her place so disorganized. There was no sign that she'd been in the apartment, for several days at least. Rossi and Reid returned with similar sentiments from Hotch's place.

This was how it happened that two of her teams' private abodes were basically being ransacked by grubby-handed scientists. She sighed to herself; she knew she didn't really mean that. She wanted to know what had happened to Emily and Hotch this was not like them. This was not like anyone she knew.

Rossi had said she didn't need to be in Emily's apartment for this, but since she wasn't a profiler, and they wouldn't be doing any more cases until their people where found, she hadn't wanted to stay at the office. But being in Emily's apartment wasn't much better. JJ decided to go back to the BAU; maybe she could do some coffee runs or something, so that she felt helpful instead of useless. As she was leaving, walking down the corridor to the elevator, JJ noticed a small blinking red light high in the ceiling. Did Emily's apartment complex have security inside as well? JJ rang Garcia to get her on to that line of questioning immediately. At least if they had video footage of Emily leaving or arriving, they could time-line when she had last been to her apartment. They would know if they were dealing with two separate incidents, or one big one. JJ didn't know if she was hoping for two minor things or a very big bad one. She felt more inclined for big one; at least Emily and Hotch would be together. That had to be better than individual badness, right?

Garcia had immediately set about infiltrating Emily's home security, well her apartment complex' security. She went back five days and started to sift through the digital data. She was surprised when she found one dated four days ago, in the middle of the afternoon. Emily must have come straight home from work. Fifteen minutes later, Emily exited her apartment in different clothes and left the building. Garcia frowned at her screen. Emily hadn't had a bag with her. She barely had enough clothes on for any solitary endeavor. Dark straight pants, and some sort of flirty-ish top, not the usual wear for her girl. She didn't seem to have any protection either, Garcia noticed. Not even a coat for if it rained.

With her brow still frowned, but her mouth chewing on a piece of cinnamon gum, she sped up the data display. She watched for when Emily came back. Penelope heard the door swish open, and felt more than heard the soft footsteps of JJ.

"How's it going?" JJ inquired as she deposited a cup of hot beverage on Garcia's station.

"I found Emily, Friday afternoon. Waiting for her to come back." Garcia replied her eyes never moving from the fast motion nothing.

JJ reflected that it was weird watching something play in high speed when nothing actually changed on the screen. But then, she wasn't sure that anyone else actually lived on the same floor as Emily. Or if they did, they were workaholics like Emily, or lived abroad. Emily lived in a rich area. Being an Ambassador's daughter had some perks.

"Stop." JJ partially screamed. Garcia had closed her eyes for a few seconds and had missed the two figures' high-speed stroll down the hall. "Rewind." She commanded.

Garcia obeyed but inwardly grumbled at the obvious remark. She stifled a half sigh/groan, knowing that expressing her frustration at the situation by directing it at JJ would not be helpful.

Pen reduced the speed back to normal, and the two remaining female members of the BAU watched the screens with intense obsession. At the bottom of the screen, a dark figure was helping another slightly smaller figure along the corridor. The smaller one's head was resting on the bigger one's shoulder, while the bigger one's arm was wrapped around behind the back of the small figure and clutching at it's waist.

"Hey, isn't that Hotch?" JJ remarked. The figure had just turned his head, looking down but over the smaller figures' head. Garcia nodded as they watched him shift the smaller figure closer to his left hip, and keep the smaller figure upright as it fumbled about near it's waist. The two figures, Hotch and the other smaller one, turned side on. They had made it to Emily's door.

"Is that Emily?" JJ asked astounded. Again, Garcia nodded.

"What are they doing?" Garcia posed.

JJ and Garcia watched in silence as Emily hung sprawled over their supervisor, and he mildly allowed her to. They watched as Emily, still fumbling about at her waist, finally found what she was looking for and attempted to insert her key into the lock.

"Is she drunk?" JJ asked incredulously, Emily never let herself go that far, at least not in the company of the team.

"I think so, poppet." Was the only reply.

Eventually, Hotch stepped in and took the key from her. Garcia was having a hard time reading his face. Not that it was especially easy to read Agent Hotchner; he was the epitome of the perfectly stoic agent, even with the team. But he didn't seem too put out, he was actually somewhere between angry and amused. Or was that expression bemusement? Whatever it was Hotch seemed to be taking extreme care with his handling of Emily. He looked kind of concerned, in a more than business-like way.

As soon as the door to Emily's apartment swung open, she seemed to sway and her knees almost buckled. Hotch immediately grabbed at her waist more forcefully. He pushed, half carried her into her apartment.

Garcia and JJ looked at each other, their expressions mirrored back at them in the other. This was too weird. Something was seriously 'up' with Prentiss. When they turned back to the monitor, Hotch and Emily had disappeared into her apartment. Silence stretched in Garcia's haven for a few seconds, then another person appeared. Dressed in dark colors and obscured by a helmet, possibly a motorcycle helmet, the figure walked straight to Emily's door. The figure produced a key and opened Emily's door. JJ gasped. The figure waited at the door, probably watching whatever was happening in the apartment. Garcia wondered if you could back-pray. If so, she was starting right now.

Emily did not have manly visitors to her apartment without her being there and inviting them in, and definitely not ones she gave keys to willingly. They saw a shadow cross the threshold of the door, must be Hotch, they both thought. The dark figure brought up a canister, or an aerosol can, and sprayed something at Hotch's face. Well, at least sprayed something at the height of which Hotch's face would have been if they could see into the apartment. The figure kept spraying until they saw a body crumple in the doorway. The figure stepped over the body, which they assumed was Hotch. Boy shoes. Emily had been wearing smart girly boots.

"Oh please no." JJ breathed. Not again her brain thought. Why did this keep happening to the team?

After a few more moments, the figure reappeared. He and Garcia had decided it was a guy, looped his arms under Hotch's arms, clasping them around his chest. He then dragged Hotch to the elevator. When nothing happened for a few moments, she decided they'd taken the elevator down.

"Hang on one minute." She said aloud. She jumped the feed forward a few minutes. Suddenly the figure was back. He entered Emily's apartment again. Then he was out again carrying Emily as if she weighed five pounds. He entered the elevator again.

"Crap." Garcia swore. She didn't like to really swear, she enjoyed making up convoluted sentences instead. It seemed so much more sophisticated to swear an intelligent verbose sentence than a one-word blasphemy. But this occasion called for a one-word curse. She didn't have the heart to get more derogatory.

"We need to show the guys." JJ said softly. Her head began to ache. She'd only recently come back to work after taking maternity leave for Henry. She didn't know if she had enough energy to do this again. At least she wasn't carrying around another life form this time.

"I'll see if I can find where they came from and where this guy took them."

"That's going to take a while Garcia."

Penelope looked at her a little pompously, "Then I'd better get started now then, hadn't I?"

"Because of the situation, I'm going to let that one slide." JJ said.

Garcia nodded; it wouldn't be helpful to start sniping at each other. She shook her head slightly, closed her eyes, counted to three (a nice happy family number) and started awakening her perfectly placed and balanced Road and Traffic Trojans. They were beautiful little RATTs, she loved them like she loved her brightly coloured Trolls, they helped keep her safe.

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