"When you walk to the edge of all the light you have and take that first step into the darkness of the unknown, you must believe that one of two things will happen. There will be something solid for you to stand upon or you will be taught to fly."
Patrick Overton
It took about five days for it to happen.
Hotch and Rossi got to JJ's house only to find it empty. They decided to stay there and wait for a few days to see if she was going to come back because there was no trace of where she had decided to go. It may have been invading her privacy, but when it came to safety, they didn't care.
About an hour after they arrived, Garcia called Rossi, asking where he was, explaining what had happened.
He gave her JJ's address and she met them there.
So that was three of them together.
Garcia used her computer system to look JJ up, which she found easy considering they were in her new house and had seen documents already that had her new name on it. All she had to do was put it in and within a few moments she found JJ's new identity. Easily, using the FBI's system, Garcia looked up JJ's credit card usage and found that she had paid for gas in McCook, Nebraska. Based on that, the three team members concluded that she was probably there looking for another team member because of a letter that she had received so Garcia ran each of the remaining team members' first names in the system of McCook, Nebraska. There were a lot of each name, but with the process of elimination she was able to narrow it down to two Spencers, three Emilys and one Derek. By easily looking at pictures, she recognized one of them.
"I got it! It's Reid, living in McCook, it's Reid." Garcia said and then after a couple more minutes she added, "But I just checked his transactions, he just paid for a plane ticket to Redmond, Oregon and then paid for a hotel room at a hotel in Culver…"
Using the same process as before, Garcia was able to narrow it down and then examine the pictures to find that Emily had been living in Culver.
"Emily was living in Culver and then bought a plane ticket to Baton Rouge so that means that's where Morgan must have been living." Garcia said slowly, "And then she bought a ticket to Columbus. She's probably following Morgan, who was following me. It's like a cycle."
Hotch nodded, "So if we wait, eventually all the team members should end up here." He said.
He was right.
On the second day that they were at JJ's house, Morgan arrived in Aspen. Because Garcia knew which flight he was on, Rossi picked him up at the airport.
On the third day, Emily bought a ticket to Aspen. That time, Hotch went and picked her up.
There were only two of them left.
One day went by and neither of them arrived.
But then on the fifth day, Reid finally flew to Aspen. Emily picked him up from the airport and brought him back to the house after that.
So then, they were waiting for JJ.
The sixth day went by, she didn't come.
The seventh, eighth and ninth day that they were staying in JJ's apartment, she still had yet to arrive.
And by that ninth day, they were starting to get worried.
"So JJ hasn't charged her credit card anywhere for two days. That means she's probably still at my house. Maybe she decided to wait for me there to see if I'd come back like we're doing for her." Reid suggested.
Hotch nodded slowly, "It's possible, but we only stopped here because we had no leads on where she was going next because she drove to Nebraska. You, however, flew to Oregon and then here. If she really wanted to find you, she could."
Rossi was pacing as they spoke, "Is it possible that something might have happened?"
Garcia stopped typing for a moment and turned around to face the team, "Like what?" She asked.
Rossi shrugged and shook his head, "I don't know. Maybe her car broke down and she got stuck, maybe she got a ride from someone else, maybe…" He paused, looking at the ground for a moment, "Maybe…we were too late."
Reid looked at the pile of letters sitting in the middle of the table, "So he sends the letters, knowing exactly what's inside of each of them and he's smart. He knew we would all would have left immediately. He would have researched how long each of our trips would take. And he would watch, knowing exactly where we were at all times. It could have been a perfect cycle."
"But it wasn't." Hotch said.
Reid nodded quickly, "He set this up. He could have chosen any of us to break the cycle, but he knew. He knew that he wanted it to be her from the beginning."
Morgan looked up from where he was sitting at the table, "But why? He's hunting all of us."
"Yes. He is, but his behavior suggests that he and JJ may be connected in some way. It's possible that he might have known her." Reid said, his mind racing.
Hotch looked at Reid, "His behavior?"
Reid looked up, "In the letter he sent, he only addresses her by Ms. Jareau, while calls everyone else by their first name. He's depersonalizing her." He said, "And now this…he got to her first because he wanted to."
Rossi nodded slowly, "He did get to her first, but what does that mean? In the letter to Hotch he threatens to kill her, but if they knew each other, that would change the whole situation. He would want her to remember who he was."
"So he took her." Hotch suggested.
Morgan nodded from where he was, "That would give him privacy and effectively get the rest of us in a group together." He said.
Hotch turned around to look at Morgan, "Why would he want us together?" He asked, thinking out loud.
Reid was the first to speak, his voice emotionless, grim. "So that we'd be easier targets."
A still silence followed.
No one spoke, no one moved.
Until a small pinging noise came from Garcia's computer. She turned around slowly to look at it and after a few clicks, a white screen came up. "Guys." She said, voice shaking.
They gathered around her computer, looking at the email she had just received. It was from him.
Hello BAU, so glad to be together again, isn't it? I'll admit, trying to track all of you down did prove to be a difficult task, but I managed. I always do.
I was inspired by the way that you all dropped your lives to save a friend, but it was too bad you were too late. I'm going to assume that you already noticed a missing member of your team. And I know that you are going to perform your profiling magic and figure out that I took her. Well you're right. I did. And we've been having fun for the past few days while you've been sitting in her apartment, waiting. I wonder how that must feel. I'd imagine it's not good.
Don't worry though, she's alive.
And that's all I'm going to tell you, the rest is a surprise. You'll find it out from her soon enough. A lot sooner than you know.
Well, I just wanted to write this to keep in touch with you, keep you all up to speed. I'm sorry that it's short, there is more to the story, but I'd rather tell you myself.
Goodbye for now.
Garcia shook her head, "He really does have her." She said, complete disbelief painted on her face.
Emily nodded, "But this makes it sound like he's going to give her back. He said that we'd 'find it out from her soon'." She pointed out.
"Apparently 'sooner than we know.'" Morgan added sarcastically.
Hotch was still, his hands in his pockets. He opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the ringing of the doorbell.
All of their heads turned towards the door.
Hotch looked back at his team and then headed for the door, he wasn't sure if it was a threat, but if it was, he wanted to make sure that none of them were in danger. Slowly, he opened the door, imagining that his fears would be irrational, that it would just turn out to be the mailman or something.
It wasn't.
When he opened the door, two men stood there, stone faced, staring at him. Neither of them looked friendly, but they didn't pose an immediate threat either. It just seemed like their demeanor was off, too serious. Something inside of Hotch told him to shut the door in their faces, that something bad was going to happen.
So he did.
He slammed the door shut quickly, but was unable to lock it before the men on the outside pushed their way in. Once they were inside, it was easier to see them. One was about 6 feet while the other was considerably shorter, both had dark hair and dark eyes, looking almost Italian, maybe even brothers. The first thing the smaller one of the two did once inside the apartment was pull out a gun and point it at Hotch.
"Woah, woah." Morgan said, walking over to where they were. He put his hands up in surrender as he reached Hotch's side, "What's going on here? Who are you?"
The smaller one smirked, resting his gaze on Morgan. "What do you think?" He asked, sarcasm obvious in his voice.
Hotch stepped forward, getting the attention of the smaller man. "We're federal agents. Taking us or harming any of us in any way is a federal offense. If you do what I think you're about to do, what do you think is going to happen? You're going to get away with it? Seven missing agents isn't exactly subtle. They'll find you and then you'll go to jail for life. You don't have to do this."
The larger man grinned an evil grin, stepping closer to Morgan, who bravely stood his ground, giving the man a hard glare.
Hotch shook his head quickly, "Please don't hurt them. Take me." He said.
The smaller man spoke again, a smile stretched across his face. "You don't understand Agent. We aren't here to hurt you…" He said sinisterly, in a way that sounded like something bad was about to happen.
Hotch tilted his head questioningly.
Neither of the other men replied.
And then a noise came from behind where Morgan and Hotch were standing.
"Emily?" It was Reid.
Hotch turned around just in time to see Emily stumble from the spot where she had been clutching the table over to Reid, completely collapsing in his arms. He tried to catch her, but only ended up falling over as well. On the ground, he shook her. "Emily. Emily!"
She didn't move.
Morgan turned back towards the men first, getting into the larger man's face. "What did you do to her?" He asked, his voice thick with anger.
Reid started to pick Emily's limp body off the ground when he too started to struggle slightly. "I don't know what's…." He started to say, but couldn't finish because, with Emily in his arms, he was already falling to the ground again.
He fell backwards, luckily it was carpet, but the thump still sounded painful. Emily landed on top of him, and then, neither of them moved after that.
Morgan turned around again for a moment and then whipped back towards the men, "What's going on? What are you doing to them?!" He asked.
The smaller man smirked, lowering the gun he was holding. "We didn't touch them. We've been standing here the entire time." He said smugly.
Before Morgan could say anything, there was another interruption from behind him.
It was Garcia's voice, "Rossi!" She exclaimed as he sunk in his chair until he fell to the ground next to it. With wide eyes, she looked up at Morgan.
"Garcia…" Morgan started, seeing a glazed look in her eyes, "Garcia." He walked over and touched her, only to feel her shaking slightly. "Are you okay? What's wrong?"
She shook her head, swallowing quickly, "I feel…." She trailed off, blinking rapidly. "What's happening to me?" She whispered to him, just as she started to fall out of the chair. Before she actually did though, Morgan was able to catch her and set her gently on the ground.
As Morgan started to walk back over to the men, about to kill one of them for messing with his baby girl, he started to feel weird. He felt extremely dizzy, like the whole world around him was spinning. No matter how much he tried to steady himself, it just got worse. A terrible headache throbbed painfully as he fought to stay conscious, but after a few moments, just like the others, he fell to the ground only to see Hotch, who had fought just as valiantly to stay awake, hit the ground at the same time as he did.
"Somewhere in the world there is a defeat for everyone. Some are destroyed by defeat, and some made small and mean by victory. Greatness lives in one who triumphs equally over defeat and victory."
John Steinbeck
