M2B: Teenage Years
Chapter Four (04): A Time To Heal
That night, while everyone was in a deep sleep and dreaming, Jessie was having a nightmare. She was reliving being captive and beaten. Her whimpering and movement was slowly waking Emily up. The longhaired brunette eyes slowly opened as she tried to comprehend what woke her, when she heard her wife's cry of help.
"Jessie, wake up" she lightly shook her wife, but nothing happened, "Jessie, it's just a nightmare… Jessie!"
Grey's eyes suddenly opened and the younger dark haired woman lunged at her wife, wrapped her hands around her throat and started to strangle her. Prentiss couldn't make a sound, apart from the little squeaks that escaped. She clawed at her wife's hands, but her grip was too strong.
"MOM!" Matthew shouted before hitting his mama with enough force to knock her off Emily, causing her let go of her grip around her throat.
Jessie groaned in pain as she slowly woke from the daze she was in and sat up. Matthew in the mean time ran to his mom and tried to get her to get out of the bed and room. When Jessie looked up, she saw her son glaring at her and her wife coughing up a storm.
"What happened?!" She asked full of concerned.
"You don't remember strangling mom?" Matthew asked, confused.
"What… I'd never hurt your mom"
"You did though! I heard a weird noise and came in and you were on top of mom, strangling her!" he angrily answered.
"Emily…" Grey reached out to her wife, only to pull away when the brunette flinched away from her, "… Oh god!" she cried before running out of the bedroom and out of the house.
"Mama!" Matthew tried to catch her, but she was too fast and was now long gone.
"What's going on?" Jennifer asked worriedly.
"I'm calling 911. Go call Uncle Hotch and everyone!"
"What happened?!" she demanded.
"Mama tried to kill mom" he answered as he pulled out his phone and ran back to his mother's side, "I'm calling the medics"
"Mama wouldn't do that…" Jennifer said as she looked worriedly over her mother, who's wheezing.
"Mama's not herself… That's why I need you to go call Uncle Hotch and have everyone meet us at the hospital. I'm going with her, while you stay here and make sure Lucas and Laura get to school"
"Alright" Jen said before disappearing and calling her Uncle.
"Agent Hotchner"
"Uncle Hotch, It's me"
"Jennifer, what's wrong?"
"Matthew just called an ambulance to take mom to the hospital"
"What? What happened, where's Jessie?"
"I don't know"
"What do you mean you don't know?"
"Matthew said he walked in on Mama strangling Mom and now she's gone"
"Have Matthew text me the hospital, while I call everyone"
"Alright, thank you uncle Hotch"
"We'll figure everything out Jennifer"
"I hope so…"
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While Matthew was in the waiting room, he saw his entire family exiting the elevator and making their way to him. Garcia immediately hugged him, and asked what happened.
"I was going to the bathroom, when I heard weird noises coming from my mom's bedroom, so I knocked but the only reply I got was more noise. I opened the door and Mama was on top of Mom and she was strangling her" everyone gasped, "So I punched her on the side of the head and that seemed to have woken her up. She had no memories of hurting mom and when she then freaked out and ran out and before I could exit the house she was long gone"
"Do you know which direction she might of taken?" Morgan asked.
"No… Why would Mama hurt Mom?"
"I think what have happened is that she was reliving being captive and thought that Emily was her captor" Reid explained, "It happens to Soldiers with PTSD, and anyone who went through something as traumatic as what Jess went through"
"So she really didn't mean to hurt my mom?" Matt asked.
"I'm 100% certain" the young genius answered.
"I'm perfectly fine!" everyone heard Emily say out loud, "I'll even sign a AMA, if I have to"
"She's back to normal" David quipped.
Seconds later Emily appeared in the waiting room signing the AMA papers. She handed it over to the nurse, before walking over to where her family stood.
"No crying nurse?" Derek teased.
"Not this time" she replied, before walking over to Matthew and hugged him, "How you holding up kiddo?"
"Honestly, not so well. It feels like a nightmare" he answered, "You're going to go look for Ma?"
"Yes, while you go get some rest and stay home today. I'm going to need you to step up and make sure the rest of the pack is on track"
"Got it. I'll let Jen know, she called Uncle Hotch"
"I'll take you home kid" Derek said as he and Matthew made their way to the elevator.
"How are you holding up my raven warrior?" Garcia asked.
"It doesn't matter" Em said.
"Your life partner was strangling you, Prentiss" Hotch said, "I want you to go with Garcia to Quantico"
"Hotch, I'm fi—"
"No you're not Emily" Rossi interjected, "Right now you're attempting to put it in one of your box and not deal with what happened"
"I need to find my wife"
"Let us help then" JJ added.
"JJ's right, we're a family" Reid said, "Please let us help"
"… Fine" Prentiss gave in.
"Alright, Reid and JJ, Head West from their neighbourhood and do a search and see where she might have gone. Rossi, you and I are going to head East. Alvez and Tara, head South. I'll ask Morgan to stay with Matthew in case Grey reappears at home. Garcia, keep an eye on Prentiss, while looking any trace of Grey through CCTV, anything"
"I can do a thing?"
"Yes"
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After almost a full hour of running and hiding, Jessie finally stopped to catch her breath. The dark-haired agent leaned her head against the cold brick wall and tried to stop herself from shaking. She still couldn't believe and didn't want to believe that she had hurt her spouse. Flashbacks of the fear on both Matthew and Emily's face kept appearing in her mind. Slowly, the agent collapsed onto the cold ground and cried.
"Oh god… what have I done?!" she asked herself before she threw up.
Ten minutes went by and Grey was slowly disappearing inside her mind. She felt herself disappearing and was being replaced by this zombie like creature, no emotions, and her eyes glazing over and just staring into space.
"Gimme some of that stuff Joe!" a distant voice said as he tried to snatch the bottle of hard liquor from his friend, Joe.
"I paid for it, I get the biggest swig!" Joe countered.
"Whoa! Guys look!" the third man declared as he pointed over to Jessie.
"Hey there baby, what's a foxy thing like you doing in this dump?" Joe asked, but did not receive a reply, "Hey, I'm talking to you!" he said, before backhanding her.
"She dead?" the second guy, Louis asked.
"Nah, man! Look at her chest moving in a breathing way" Mark, the third guy, said.
"Then she just needs to be taught a lesson" Joe declared, as he swiftly kicked Grey on the side of her head.
"Joe, knock it off, she's obviously not all there!" Louis said.
While the men were arguing, Jessie slowly became even more withdrawn, until she truly believed that she was now completely gone.
"Let's get out of here, before someone sees us!" Joe cried out, before running off.
Meanwhile Reid and JJ were driving around when they saw three men running out of an alley. Not thinking anything other than a mugging gone wrong, the blonde agent continued to drive down the road. They continued to go through neighbourhood after neighbourhood, until they were back exactly where they had started.
"Let's go check on foot, for all we know she could be hiding in the dark corners" JJ suggested.
"Good idea"
As both agents walked through the dark corners of every neighbourhood and showing a photo of Jessie to anyone who could spare a minute. Just as they were starting to make their way to the SUV, a blood-curling scream was heard. Both agents ran as fast as possible to where the scream was coming from. When they finally arrived, both of them froze on the spot. There lay a badly beaten and bloody Jessie Grey.
"Jessie!" JJ called out, as she kneeled by her colleague's body, "Spence, she's not answering me"
"I'm calling the medics right now… She's retrieved into her mind, I think"
"What do you mean?"
"Jessie can't deal with the possibility of having hurt Emily, so she's disappeared inside her own mind" he said, before he heard the voice of the operator on the other end of the line.
"Jessie, it's JJ. Please comeback"
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When all three children walked down the stairs, they saw Matthew fast asleep on the couch, while their Uncle Morgan sat up from the lazy chair and walked over to them.
"What happened? Where are mom and mama?" Laura anxiously asked.
"Your mom is at Quantico with Garcia" he answered.
"What about mama?" Lucas asked.
"We don't know, where she is" Derek replied.
"What do you mean? What happened?" Laura asked, trying hard not to cry.
"Come here sweet pea" her uncle said before he wrapped his strong arms around her, "We've got everyone looking for her"
"But what happened, Uncle Derek?" Lucas asked more adamantly.
"From what Matthew witnessed, your mama had a nightmare and thought that your mom was the bad guy and hurt her"
"How bad?"
"Just some bruising around her neck"
"She tried to strangle mom?!" Lucas said in shock.
"Calm down Lucas, when she came to she realized what she did and ran out. I need you three to head on to school and Matthew will text you when we have anything. You can expect your mom to pick you up from school as well, so don't get on the bus"
"… All right, uncle Derek" Laura said before she, Lucas and Jen made their way out of the house.
Morgan sat back in the lazy chair and watched Matthew sleep for a while, until his phone started vibrating and saw that it was Reid calling.
"Have you found her?"
"Yes, but she seems to have disappeared inside her mind"
"Short form Reid"
"That was the short form. Jessie couldn't handle hurting Emily so she locked herself into her own mind"
"Crap… Does Prentiss know?"
"Not yet…"
"I'm going to stay in their home with Matthew and pick the kids up at their school… I have a feeling that Em won't want to leave her side"
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They waited for almost a full hour, when a doctor called out, "Family of Jessie Grey-Prentiss?".
"I'm her wife, this is the rest of our family… When may I go see her?" the brunette asked.
"Not until she's fully awake. We ended up having to sedate her due to her waking up and fighting off the nurses"
"Once she's fully regain consciousness, I'll have a nurse come and take you to her"
"Thank you doctor" Emily said, before turning away from the doctor and sitting back in the same chair.
"Emily, talk to us" JJ said, after sitting next to her friend.
"I need to see her, but just the thought of seeing her is making m shake in fear"
"Then go home" Rossi said, "Come back when you're ready. You two seeing each other like this is only going to cause more damage"
"And what? Have her think that I hate and fear her?!"
"Prentiss, you're already visibly shaking" Hotch interfered, "Go home, be with your kids and see her when you're ready"
"… Alright" Prentiss said as she made her way to the elevator and out of the hospital, to her car.
"What if you're both wrong?" Reid asked, "What if Jessie waking up alone is only going to make her condition worse and Emily even more guilty for listening to you two?"
"They both need to come to terms with what happened, Spence" JJ said, "They need to do this part alone"
