Sorry it has been so long since my last update. I have been bogged down with school work for the past few weeks, and then to put 5 college essays and another 3 scholarship essays on top of that, this story just had to take a backseat. I hope you enjoy this next chapter, it definitely is a filler chapter and is pretty slow, but it sets up later chapters, especially the next one. I will try to update soon, but who knows with my schedule. Again sorry I haven't updated in awhile. but here you go. :)
JJ pushed herself into a sitting position and wiggled to he edge of the bed. Morgan placed a hand on her shoulder stopping her.
"And where do you think you're going?" He asked
"I need to go find my son. Derek let go of me." Her voice shook from the tears that were on the verge of flowing out again.
"JJ, you can't even take more than four steps, I won't let you do this on your own?" He looked at her with distraught. JJ stretched her legs out and managed to place her feet on the ground.
"He has them. He's set on breaking us. I need to get out of this damn hospital!" She yelled brushing his hand off of her. "I can do this Derek. I'm going."
Derek scoffed at the spark of determination from the blonde. He gave you hell and now you're gonna give him hell back. He smiled at the thought of the momma bear doing anything to protect her young. "JJ, I said you can't do this on your own. Now I'm not going to stop you, but I am going to help you." The blonde looked back at the man perplexed. "You're not going to tell me that I'm too injured to do this?"
"JJ we're both injured," He put his finger to his temple "He messed with us up here, there are pieces that we'll never be able to recover. But that shouldn't stop us from arresting his ass." He smiled assuring to the blonde. "Now let me help you up."
He held out his hand, which JJ took. He helped pull her off the bed and steadied her on her own feet.
They took a few more small steps away from the bed. "Curtis is the reason why I haven't been able to walk for 3 months, and now he's the reason why I'm pushing myself to get better." She whispered, letting go of Morgan's hand that was tense as she took another step on her own.
Derek watched as JJ turned around and walked back to the bed. She placed her hands on the bed to hold herself up. Her breaths were labored and a bead of sweat dripped from her brow. "You okay?" Derek asked placing his hands of her shoulders.
She waved her hand "I'm fine, just haven't done that much in awhile." She choked on a small chuckle as a tear slid down her cheek.
"JJ?" Derek pulled her into his arms as she wiped the tear from her face. "You are so strong." He whispered kissing her cheek "We'll find them."
Hotch, Reid and Rossi sat around the round table in the conference room listening to the recorded transmission of the boys' call. Hotch closed his eyes hanging on every syllable from his son.
"Can you put Agent Curtis on" He heard his own voice ask followed by a few seconds of silence and then Jack's voice came back
"Dad?"
"Yeah buddy."
"Curtis remains withdrawn, he isn't even being picked up in the background noise, except after Henry gets the phone." Reid stated over the recording
"Yes mommy." Henry's voice answered on the transmission
"Henry can I see the phone?" Curtis' muffled voice said in the background
"I gotta go mommy."
"It confirms Morgan and mine's preliminary profile of him." Hotch said above the noise. "He has a delusional obsession with JJ, just like his previous obsession with Strauss. He see's her as the reason for his failures and will do whatever it takes to make her feel the same way."
"But don't worry me and the boys are going to have so much fun, and when ever my friend arrives the real excitement begins. Oh, got to go, lunch is ready." Curtis voice continued.
"Curtis I'll fi-" JJ's voice was cut of and the room filled with silence.
"So the question is, who is Curtis' new partner." Rossi said breaking the long silence
"Somebody that would have a vendetta against the BAU." Reid said
"No, for this partner it's more personal than just the BAU, he took Jack and Henry, yet he hasn't shown signs of being able to kill children, so it's somebody who has shown signs of harming children in the past and had a personal vendetta against myself or JJ." Hotch retorted keeping his eyes focused on his hands
"That's going to be a long list." Rossi sighed grabbing a notepad and a pen from his Go-Bag.
"The average amount of cases we take on within a year is about 109, if we narrow that down to cases closed where either it went cold or the Unsub was arrested, we're at about 83 cases. However that's not factoring in any cases that you or JJ have consulted." Reid sighed trying to calculate the data floating in his head, but stopped and stated the obvious aloud. "Curtis leaves clues, but this is too vague."
"Let's get Garcia to pull all files on past Unsubs that match the criteria and we'll go from there." Hotch said pulling out his phone "I'm going to the hospital to check on Morgan and JJ."
"We'll start making a list." Reid said as Hotch walked out of the room
Jack struggled against the window trying to open it, and finally stopped letting out a giant sigh. "It won't move."
"I guess Agent Curtis locked the windows." Henry said watching his legs dangle off the bed.
"Yeah thanks Henry" Jack said sarcastically rolling his eyes.
"Jack a-are we going to die?" Henry's voice cracked as tears started falling down his face.
Jack instantly came to Henry and put his hand of Henry's shoulder. "No. Your Mom and my Dad are gonna find us. I bet they're already on the way. It'll be okay."
Henry's sniffles continued and Jack slid of the bed grabbing a blanket at the end. Jack went into the corner and hooked the blanket onto a nail in the wall. He took one of his shoes off and placed it on top of the windowsill with the blanket sandwiched in-between. Then, Jack went to the far corner and slowly pulled the nightstand away from the wall.
Henry's sniffles started to die as he looked up to see Jack moving around. He wiped his nose with his sleeve. "What are you doing?" he squeaked
"Building a fort." He grunted scooting the nightstand closer to the levitating blanket in the corner. "When I got scared I would build a fort with my dad." He stopped moving the nightstand and looked up to the small blonde child on the bed. "Do you want to help?" He asked receiving a nod from the smaller boy who dragged the comforter along with him. Jack continued to pull the nightstand into the corner and squished the third corner of the blanket between it and the wall. Henry helped jack draped the comforter over the blanket creating a makeshift door and third wall to the fort.
The two crawled inside their fort and smiled at their work. "See. Already makes you feel better, right?" Jack laughed nudging Henry who giggled back. "I feel like I'm in a castle."
"Boys!" Curtis yelled from another room in the house. "Boys can you come here please."
Henry looked to the older boy for guidance; jack took in a deep breath. "Henry this is our safe place. If anything happens you come here, understand?"
Henry nodded in response.
"Now stay behind me." He whispered crawling out of the fort. Henry followed close behind him.
"Boys!" Curtis voice rose showing his anger. Jack and Henry walked into the main area of the house where Curtis stood at the door with a woman behind him in an orange jumpsuit. She gave them boys a devilish smile. "Hello" She smirked
Henry took in a deep breath "Bad lady." He whispered into Jack's ear.
The woman brushed past Curtis and stooped down to be eye level with Jack.
"This is the son of the agent that killed Matthew?" She asked Curtis scanning jack from head to toe.
"Yes Agent Hotchner" he replied "And of coarse there's Henry behind him."
The woman chuckled again, grabbing Henry's arm and pulling him into her embrace. "Oh how could I forget you." She squealed tightening her hold on Henry as he struggled to get away. "Do you remember me Henry, my name is Izzy." Henry struggled to break free as the embrace tightened to point where he couldn't take a breath.
"She asked you a question." Curtis growled
"Yes." He strained to say as his face began to turn bright red from the lack of oxygen.
"Let go of him!" Jack yelled kicking Izzy in the shin. She released her grip and yelped in pain. Henry fell to the ground in a fit of coughs trying to regain the air he so desperately needed.
"Why you little!" Izzy yelled, grabbing Jack by the hair. She threw him across the room; Jack hit the floor and slid until his head struck into the wall.
"Jack." Henry screamed crawling to his friend's side and helping him sit up.
Curtis and Izzy slowly walked to be in front of the boys each sporting a malicious smile from ear to ear. "Oh this is going to be too sweet." She snickered "I wonder if they're beating themselves up knowing we have their kids."
"We can go see that for ourselves." He whispered. Izzy's smile widen at the thought of seeing the woman who put her in jail for the past 3 years and the man who killed her love in agony from losing their children.
"You ready?" Morgan asked walking into JJ's hospital room with a duffle bag slung over his shoulder. JJ nodded and shifted herself to the edge of the bed. "How did Hotch take it?" She grunted steading herself on her own.
"Uh, he definitely didn't like the idea of you leaving the hospital without being cleared by the doctor."
"He never seemed to listen to his doctor when he was in here."
Morgan smiled "I guess that's why he didn't fight it."
JJ took a few steps to reach Derek and then put her hand on his shoulder for support.
They walked out of the room and down towards the elevator. Hotch waited by the metal doors, his face devoid of emotions with a phone to his ear.
"Tell everyone to meet in the conference, Morgan, JJ and I will be there soon."
Hotch closed his phone and scratched the back of his head discomforted by the news he had received.
"Hotch, What's up?" Morgan asked walking up to his irritated Unit Chief
"Izzy Rogers escaped from prison sometime last night."
JJ gasped in shock "And we're just finding out about this now?"
"Apparently all outside communications were halted during the lockdown. And the computerized alert that a prisoner had escaped was hacked by an unknown source before it was sent to outside authorities."
The three made their way to the black SUV sitting in the parking garage.
JJ stopped, the memory of her abduction bubbling to the surface. Morgan looked back to see the blonde frozen. "JJ, you can't let him get to you."
"I-I remembered the night I was taken, but I wasn't afraid." Her voice shook as she looked into Derek's eyes "I knew that you would find me."
"So why did you stop?" He said stopping a foot away from her.
"Because I wanted to feel that fearlessness again, maybe even try to get it back." She whispered "But I can't."
"You can't." He said watching the blonde's face contort into confusion "That fear will never leave you. You just can't let it beat you." He paused enveloping her into a hug resting his chin on her head "That fear makes you stronger, it motivates you to conquer it." He kissed the top of her head and tightened the embrace. "JJ you are strong, strong enough to walk on your own out of a hospital, strong enough to stand against any obstacles that come in your way, strong enough to find Henry and Jack, and strong enough to takedown Curtis." He pulled away to look her in the eyes. "You just can't let that fear be stronger than you." Morgan wiped away a tear that had started to slide down JJ's face as she nodded understanding his words.
Hotch pulled up beside the couple in the SUV, and both slid into the car, Morgan in the front passenger seat, and JJ right behind him.
"The rest of the team is waiting for us back at the conference room." Hotch said quickly pulling out of the garage and turning on his siren.
"Then lets not keep them waiting." Morgan answered
Yeah so there you go, I know it was pretty slow. Sorry again for not updating sooner. Thanks for reading, if anything was stupid or needed to be written better please review and tell me and I'll try to update it.
As always, comment, favorite, follow, review, suggest, message me or do whatever floats your boat.
I will try to update as soon as I possibly can.