Chapter 7

A/N: Hey guys, so I was going to wait to post this chapter but a lot of you said not to fight my impatience, so here you go! Also thanks to all of the people who reviewed, it was a very nice surprise when I woke up to find all those new reviews! I was definitely not expecting such a good response! This chapter is even more exciting, so enjoy :D

"Guys we've been searching for hours. If he's anywhere in this forest, we're not going to find him in the dark with only three people," Morgan said, still very anxious to find Carter. He recognised that if he was the UnSub (which he really believed he was), even though they really needed to find him, there was no way they'd be able to cover the whole forest area. Three people simply weren't enough and it was already 8 at night.

"Well let's hope he went back to his house and that Hotch and Reid have found something. Otherwise, we're going to have to wait till tomorrow to launch a full-scale manhunt for this creep," Rossi said, resigned.

Emily stood in thought, looking through the tops of the trees and up at the stars. She couldn't help but think about JJ. She'd looked so hurt when they left and Emily couldn't believe that she hadn't stood up for JJ and thought more about her theory in front of Hotch. And now she couldn't focus on their search for Carter because she was so conflicted. She so badly wanted to trust JJ and look further into the case, but she also trusted her own intuition. Carter fit the profile, and an innocent man wouldn't attack his deputy and run. It just didn't make sense. All she could do was take the lead she had and run with it. But that didn't make it any easier.

Emily brought herself back to reality and said, "Alright, well then let's go meet Hotch and Reid back at Carter's house. We can call them on the way."

She took the lead back to their SUV, and Rossi and Morgan followed suit.

When they arrived at the house, Rossi, Morgan and Prentiss were greeted by a horde of Stafford County police officers, combing every square inch of their own sheriff's house for any scrap of evidence they might find tying him to the murders.

When they got inside, Hotch and Reid were already deep in conversation, but turned to greet the other agents when they noticed them walking in.

"Have you found anything?" Morgan asked hopefully.

Hotch simply shook his head, a grave look on his face.

"We haven't found anything. Which honestly is not surprising. Someone as careful as Carter wouldn't leave any evidence in his own house, he's much too intelligent. And it would've been stupid for him to come back here so there's no shock there either," Hotch sighed agitatedly. He couldn't risk any more lives but he didn't really have a way to stop Carter with no evidence and no way to know where he went. "We're having the Sheriff's Department sweep this entire place for evidence but it may take a while. It's been hours since we left. Our best bet is to head back to the office and continue our search from there, dig into his past until we find something."

Meanwhile, back at the BAU office…

As JJ came to, she was incredibly disoriented. At first she couldn't remember what had happened, but as she tried to move, she realised she couldn't. She was physically paralysed. And that's when it hit her: the PPK had her. And she was terrified.

She looked around and remembered that she was in her own office, and noticed that she was sat in a chair, no need for any restraints. She couldn't move even if she wanted to. She realised she must have been drugged like the other victims. Oh God, she thought, terrified. She couldn't start thinking of herself as a victim. Not yet.

At that moment, her fear increased exponentially as she saw a figure emerge from the darkness of her office. As she looked up and saw the UnSub's face, JJ's eyes went wide as realised she knew exactly who he was – and she hated herself for not seeing that it was him. The only light in the room was from a lamp on her desk, the door was closed and so were her blinds. No one knew what was happening to her. And she couldn't even scream.

All she could do was watch as he reached into a duffle bag and pulled out a short knife. She felt her heart racing in her chest as he got closer and closer to her and for the first time in her life, she wished for nothing more than to scream at the top of her lungs.

Please no, she thought. Please God let the team find me. This can't be happening, this can't be happening. All she could do was hope for her team, her family, to find her and kill this son of a bitch. But as he leaned over her, putting his mouth right next to her ear, his breath hot on her neck, she feared it might be too late.

The last thing she heard was him whisper something in her ear, before he roughly grabbed her arm and positioned it on the arm of the chair. How she wished she could scream when he raised the knife up above her, plunging it into her hand with such force that it splintered the arm of the chair as it dug straight through. She may have been paralysed, but she felt more pain in that moment than she had ever thought possible. It was excruciating. But she knew it would only get worse from there.

She knew then that she wasn't getting out of this.

The team walked defeated through the doors of the elevator and into the bullpen.

"Alright everyone, meet back in the briefing room in five. We've got a lot of work to do and it really can't wait, we've got to find Carter," Hotch said, not wasting a single second.

All Emily wanted to do was go find JJ so that she could apologise for not standing up for her earlier, but with the rest of the team hurrying around her, she thought it would have to wait.

As Hotch remembered something, he called out to Morgan. "Morgan, will you please go tell JJ we need to put an APB out on Carter. Also ask her if she can organise a press conference. We're going to need to warn the public. I think she's in her office."

"Sure thing Hotch," replied Morgan. As he was about to head up to JJ's office, Garcia walked up to him, having heard what Hotch had asked Morgan.

"Hey, what's up baby girl?" Morgan asked, his mood lightening as soon as he saw her.

"I was just going to say, I really don't think you should go talk to JJ. She seemed pretty pissed before you guys left, and she hasn't left her office since," Garcia suggested.

"Yeah I know, and I feel really bad about that, it's just… I mean I respect that she thinks we're going in the wrong direction, but everything we have points to Carter. Wait, we've been gone for hours and she hasn't left her office? God she must be really hurt," Morgan said, incredibly stressed out by this whole case. He had no idea.

"I know, I get it. Just… maybe let me go talk to her for you. I'll tell her to start a press conference and all that. I just think she might take a bit more kindly to me," Garcia said.

"Alright. Well tell her I want to apologise to her."

"Sure thing you beautiful boy."

"Thanks Garcia."

Morgan walked up the stairs and past her office, sighing as he did, and continued on into the briefing room. Garcia followed behind him, and stopped just outside JJ's office door. She didn't want to barge in so she knocked a few times.

"Hey JJ can I come in?" she asked, getting no reply. She figured JJ just didn't want to talk to anyone right now, but it seemed a little bit unprofessional, which was unlike JJ. But she pushed her thoughts aside and pressed on.

"Listen Jayje I know you're mad at the rest if the team but can you please let me in? If it makes you feel any better, Morgan wants to apologise to you," she said hopefully, half joking. When she again received no answer, a bad feeling began to creep up Garcia's spine. Something wasn't quite right. All of JJ's blinds were closed, which was rare for JJ. She usually liked to look out on everyone while she worked. She said that when the cases were getting to her, she'd look out of her window onto the bullpen and see her colleagues working hard, selfless and strong. And then Emily would throw some paper at Reid's head grinning to herself as he kept looking up to find everyone still hard at work, no suspects.

From what she could see through the blinds, there was only a very dim light peering through them. Garcia couldn't wait for an answer, the bad feeling she had spreading to her stomach.

"JJ?" she asked, pushing open the door.

The first thing she saw when she opened the door was the blood. There was just so much of it. It made her feel sick to her stomach. And then she looked up and saw JJ's face. She didn't think she'd ever seen anyone in so much pain. Her eyes were closed, but Garcia could see that she was nowhere near peaceful. She was dying, or… God no, she thought.

JJ's throat was slit, knives sticking out of both her hands and feet. Needles littered through her body, in her head, her neck, her arms, legs… everywhere. And all Garcia could do was scream.

A/N: Well I hate myself for putting JJ in pain, but I also don't because it makes this just so much more interesting *evil laugh* Unfortunately I don't have any more written right now so it may be a little bit longer before I update again (not too long, just a day or two). Hope you can hold out till then and hope you enjoyed this chapter! Please review :D