Beg and Plead
The next morning Elle was up at the crack of dawn. She grabbed a quick shower before heading down to check on JJ. She found the agent still asleep and noticed she shivered slightly. With a small smile, Elle headed upstairs and retrieved a blanket. Just as she covered the blond with the blanket, JJ's eyes opened. She lay there for a minute just staring up at Elle.
"Go back to sleep. It's early," Elle whispered. JJ's gaze flitted downward to see the blanket covering her and she seemed to think about Elle's statement for a minute before opening her mouth.
"What do you want with me?' she asked. It felt like she'd asked that same question a hundred times already.
"I told you. You don't need to worry about that," Elle stated calmly.
"Damn it, Elle. You kidnapped me. You could at least tell me why," JJ shot. Elle merely shook her head.
"You know what you need to know. Just think about it. You can figure it out," Elle answered coolly.
"Now, how do you like you're eggs. You're up so I might as well make some breakfast," she questioned, standing u p. The abrupt change of subject made JJ's brow crease.
"I'm not hungry," JJ lied. She was pretty hungry. After all, she had refused to eat the Chinese earlier…or was it the day before? Being sedated so much was impairing her sense of time.
"JJ, you need to eat. I don't want you to get sic," Elle said in a stern but motherly tone. JJ closed her eyes to try and control her emotions. She knew a part of her wanted to trust Elle. They'd been friends when Elle had been with the BAU. But the more rational part knew that the former agent held a lot of power over her.
"Over easy," JJ finale muttered out of the corner of her mouth. Elle smiled.
"Bacon or toast?" she asked.
"Bacon," JJ answered.
With that Elle headed up to the kitchen to start on breakfast. She flipped the TV on and watched the weather channel. JJ looked around the small room. It looked different in the relative light of the morning. She was definitely in a basement. JJ tried unsuccessfully to try and free her hands from the restraints again. Elle was smart; JJ had to give her that. Twenty minutes later Elle reappeared at the bottom of the stairs. She was holding a tray with two plates of food. She took one plate and set it on the table. Next she propped JJ up with the pillow and placed the second plate in her lap.
"Don't try anything," Elle said simply. From her pants pocket, she pulled out a key and undid the ends of the restraints holding JJ's arms to the headboard. JJ breathed a sigh of relief as she stretched her arms. It was then that she noticed the gun holstered on Elle's hip.
"What are you waiting for?" Elle asked, pointing to the food. JJ slowly picked up the fork and took a bite of egg. She had to admit it was good.
"This has to do with the Lee case, doesn't it," JJ blurted. Elle had to stop eating to keep from spitting it out.
"Is that what you think?" Elle scoffed. She'd expected more from JJ. Had she not been paying attention?
"He's why you left," JJ stated. Elle just shook her head.
"I did what I h ad to do to get a sex offender off the streets," Elle countered. She took a bite of bacon before she continued.
"But I'm afraid you're off the mar," She added.
Elle set her plate down and stood up. She pointed to the tray and JJ handed it over. Her heart jumped a beat when Elle turned around. It fell just as quickly when she spun around reattached the chains to the bed.
"You understand. I can't have you trying to run away. It would defeat the purpose," the brunette explained. Without another word, Elle left JJ alone. She knew that shortly she'd have to administer the sedative but she would let breakfast settle first.
Back at Quantico the team had reassembled in the conference room. It was obvious that none of them had gotten any sleep in the last six hours. Morgan paced back and forth anxious, hands shoved in his pockets. Hotch and Gideon walked in and shut the dor. Someone, probably Gideon, had put a picture of JJ up on the board with all the information they had gathered in the last twenty four hours.
"What are we supposed to do now?" Garcia asked.
"We can't give up, that's for sure," Emily said, her voice laced with determination.
"Hey kid, you have any statistics for this bastard?" Morgan asked. Reid looked up and cleared his throat.
"No. But I think we should contact the media. JJ's been missing for almost thirty hours," Reid mumbled.
"What would we tell them? We don't even have a profile," Morgan argued.
"I think if we make it public that she's missing…maybe set up a tip hotline. We could draw the unsub out," the genius replied.
"It's not a bad idea. But we also run the risk of satisfying the unsub. For all we know, admitting we can't find one of our own agents will make the unsub think he has power over us," Gideon remarked.
"That's a risk I'm willing to take," Hotch stated firmly.
"We can leave out the fact she's an FBI agent," he added.
"Ok. So…we could ask JJ's neighbors if they saw or heard anything," Emily suggested. They all looked around for a minute.
"Here is what we are going to do. Prentiss, you and Reid go interview the neighbors. Talk to everyone on the street. Garcia, go through JJ's case files. Give me names of anyone that we put away that has been released recently," Hotch began to order. He looked at Morgan.
"What about me?" he asked.
"Help Garcia. The fast we can find recent parolees, the faster we can track them down," Hotch replied.
"What about you and Gideon?" Reid questioned.
"We'll do the press conference," the head agent answered. Morgan nodded as he and Garcia headed out of the office. Reid and Emily followed suit, leaving Gideon and Hotch in the room.
"So what do we tell them?" Hotch asked.
"We tell them we have a missing woman and any information will help," Gideon answered pulling out his cell phone. Emily and Reid ended up in her car.
"You know this isn't your fault," Emily stated as they pulled up to a stop sign.
"I know. And we're doing everything we can to find JJ but it feels like we aren't doing enough " Reid sighed as the car lurked forwards past the sign. Emily reached over and placed a hand on Reid's arm.
"She's going to be ok. I have to believe that. JJ is strong and she' not going to give up," Emily reminded him. Reid merely nodded his head as they continued on their way. The remainder of the drive was quiet. Reid's thoughts spun around in his head at a mile a minute. When they finally arrived, they pulled to a stop and looked around.
"So where do we start?" he asked.
"How about with that one," Emily suggested, pointing to the house to the left of JJ's. He nodded and they climbed out. They slowly walked up the stone path to the front door. Reid knocked twice and waited. They could hear faint footsteps until the front door was pulled open by a woman in her thirties. She was still dressed in a thick robe. She stared at the two agents before speaking.
"Can I help you?" she asked. Reid and Emily shared a look. Emily licked her lips as she went fishing for her badge.
Back at the BAU, Gideon and Hotch were walking out to address the small mass of people they'd gathered together. It was as many reporters as they could get there in such short notice. Gideon looked around to make sure that cameras were rolling before he stepped up behind the podium.
"I want to start by thanking you all for coming on such short notice," he said.
Downstairs in Garcia's office, she and Morgan were hunched over several large file boxes. They'd grabbed them out of JJ's office before coming down. They'd only grabbed cases for the last year. It was a start at least. Morgan pulled a handful of folders out of one box and sat down in an office chair. As he flipped through the pages he let out a low whistle. Garcia was typing at rapid fire speed to see if any of the names in the files had been released from prison in the last few months. At the rush of air, she turned around to look at Morgan.
"Let's hope our sicko is in one of these folders," Garcia breathed as her computer beeped, displaying the first batch of results.