Emily wasn't sure how long she had been unconscious. The last thing she remembered was being thrown into a car and everything after that was just a blank space. She looked around the room, looking for anything that could indicate where she was at. It just seemed like a normal house to her except she was tied to a chair and couldn't move. Erin was nowhere in sight. She blinked her eyes a few times to try and get rid of the blurriness. Her head felt fuzzy and full of rocks. She wondered what kind of drugs Erin had forced into her body and if they would have any harmful side effects on the baby.
Emily didn't know if she should yell for help or if calling for someone would just alert Erin that she was awake. Her mouth felt like cotton and she wasn't sure how loud her voice would be anyway. She was panicking. She could feel her breathing quicken as her mind raced to think of an escape plan. She had to do something. She struggled against the rope to try and free her hands but every time she had leverage she felt the rope pull tight against her abdomen. She let out a sob. "Why are you doing this?!" Her voice resonated loudly throughout the house, surprising herself and Erin.
Emily jerked her head up to the steps where she heard footsteps. She watched as Erin's smile grew bigger with every step she took down the stairs. Seeing Emily in such a panic was really getting her off. When Erin was standing three feet away from Emily, she laughed. "Em, little sis, you think that everything is always about you. You got everything you ever wanted. You had a mother who loved you, a great job with a team willing to do anything to protect you. Speaking of which, I bet they're having a real tough time now since… well, here you are."
"I didn't even know I had a sister," Emily said through gritted teeth. She could feel her blood pressure rising with every word that Erin spoke.
"Of course not," Erin said, "Mom never told anyone. That's why it was so easy to hop onto that plane and follow her over here. You see, all it takes is one letter from a global ambassador and they'll let anyone out of anywhere. Especially when they offer up five thousand dollars. There were no questions asked."
"You killed our mother."
"The bitch had it coming," Erin said angrily. "How could she give me up, but keep you? That's not fair."
"It's not fair," Emily agreed, "but it wasn't my fault either." She watched as Erin's face went tight with rage and contemplation. Maybe, just maybe Emily could convince her that she was innocent in all of this as well and she would let her go. "I would have done something to help you," she said gently, "I would have loved to have a big sister."
Erin stood up and stepped closer to Emily until she was only inches away. Emily thought she was going to untie her and was shocked when she felt the sting of a pistol whip against her cheek. She let out a cry.
"You took my mother away from me," Erin said. Her eyes dark and unfocused. "It's only fair that I take your baby away from you."
"You won't live long enough to hurt my baby," Emily argued, "My team will have a bullet in your brain sooner than you know."
Erin let out a hearty laugh. "I don't see them getting her any time soon. Besides, who's to say I didn't already harm the baby? You have no idea what I did while you were unconscious. What kind of drugs I put into your body…" She started pacing the floor of the room they were in. "You know, you're smart, Emily, I'll give you that." She stopped pacing when she came to an old picture that was still hanging in a frame on the wall. She pointed at it. "But I'm smarter. I've had twenty-seven years to plan this out. Every last detail. I knew you would get pregnant eventually. Anyone who was hurt as a little girl always thinks they'll be better parents. I knew it would only be a matter of time."
"How did you find out I was pregnant?"
"Well," Erin said enthusiastically as she knocked the picture of a young Emily to the floor, "I had computer access when I turned twenty. Good behavior gets you rewarded. I took up hacking. It's really not that hard once you learn the basics. I hacked Mom's cell phone a few years ago so every call, every text message, when straight to my inbox. You two didn't talk much. That call though, I was listening."
"She wasn't supposed to be here yet," Emily said. Things still were not adding up to her.
"Oh, I know, but I couldn't wait any longer. I was too excited. I decided to call her. I warned her what was going to happen, but what she didn't realize was that it was all part of the plan. Nothing she could have done to warn you would have changed it."
Emily was pissed and scared and wanted to cry and scream. She was praying that Aaron and the team would show up soon. She knew he was worried; knew they were all worried. That's why they were all a family. She couldn't bear the thought of putting them through her funeral… again. She didn't want to be the cause of their pain.
"The security cameras on the third floor show Erin stepping off the elevator and going into Emily's room, but they cut out before she leaves. Erin really thought about how to cover her tracks," JJ said.
"If she followed Elizabeth here then she's only been in the area for three days. She would need someplace to take Emily to. We have a BOLO on the car Erin is driving and Garcia is working on checking all of the hotels in the radius," Rossi added.
Reid was busy placing all of their information into the bulletin board and seeing if he could find any patterns. Erin Cruz wasn't a rational person and her actions should be able to give him something, anything that would help them find Emily.
Aaron was sitting at the conference table attempting to listen but everything was going in one ear and out the other. His mind was focused on Emily. Focused on the way she was resting against his body just last night on the couch. About how peaceful she had looked when she was finally asleep. About how she had been the one to defuse the bomb and save them all. He thought about their baby growing in her belly and smiled at the thought of her getting a baby belly that he could rub and talk to. If he had the chance to kill Erin, he was going to take it.
"Hotch? Hotch!" Morgan had been trying to get his attention for the past two minutes.
"What?"
"We need your head in this. I know that you love Emily, but she needs you focused so we can find her. We need to know if she has any place in DC besides her apartment that has significance to her. Anything she has mentioned in conversation. Does she visit anywhere on her days off?"
"She hasn't mentioned anything. She's with me in her free time and we don't really go anywhere. She likes to be at home."
"I've got something!" Garcia entered the conference room with her laptop in one hand and a large coffee in the other. She took a seat by JJ and started putting the information on the overhead screen.
"In 1982, Elizabeth bought a house in a small town just outside of the district. They lived there until 1990 before they moved, but Elizabeth never sold the house. Erin would have been thirteen which is when she was taken to the psychiatric facility. If she knows about that property in any way, she could have taken Emily there."
"Emily never mentioned living in the area before," Hotch said.
"She never mentioned it to me before either," Morgan added.
Garcia's face grew even sadder. She really didn't want to be sharing Emily's private information with the rest of the team. She typed for a second on the keyboard before pulling up a few police reports to share with them. "She probably didn't want to share this information with anyone," she explained followed by a hard swallow. "There are several police reports where a ten-year-old girl called 911 because her father was beating her and her mother was too drunk to do anything about it. The police always went to the scene, but the father would be gone when they got there and Elizabeth knew the right things to say."
Hotch couldn't bring himself to read the reports so he averted his eyes. His heart was hurting thinking of Emily being so hurt at such a young age. It was no wonder her walls were built so high. It took years for him to be able to find a door and still, sometimes, he could see that it was hard for her to let him in. It was one of her more stubborn qualities, but now, he understood. He also understood why she had never shared that with anyone. It's easier to block out the painful memories than to relive them by sharing.
"On the third call in September of '89, police arrived and the Emily had suffered a broken arm and her eye was so swollen that she couldn't see out of it. The cops took her father to prison and that's when Elizabeth's search began for a new place."
"She was only nine," Rossi said sadly.
Garcia nodded. "The records are a matter of public knowledge if you know the right place to look. If Erin had access to a computer, she could have found the address."
"Let's go." Hotch was leading the way.
