Journey On Story Summary: The story of JJ and Emily, from the beginning. A/N: I just realized I didn't put dates or locations on my chapter last time. All mistakes are mine. And next chapter will be Emily and her steadily building walls. Emily and JJ separation, my friends. Not going to be a fun chapter. To write especially, so don't expect for at least a day or two.
Chapter Nine: Toxic
Chapter Summary: Nothing too special this time, more hospital scenes, and unexpected things happen to JJ, not her, but her family. JJ's spent her birthday in hospital sitting next to Emily's bedside.
Spoilers: Cold Comfort, 4.14, Risky Business, 5.13, and Lauren, 6.18.
Warnings: Mentions of attempt suicide.
XxX
Location: Unknown.
Date: August 15, 1982. Time: UNKNOWN.
Darkness.
She was surrounded by darkness. It was cold, and there was his hauntingly chilling voice. Jones. It was Jones. Why was he here? Where was Jennifer?
Jennifer. Where's Jennifer?
There was a glint of silver, and she flinched and there was red. Dripping blood, from her fingertips. Dripping down her arm. There was another flash of silver and she cried out in pain.
"Emily?"
"No… stop it." she fought weakly. "Make it stop."
"Emily."
"Go away," she hissed, fighting harder, finding herself unrestrained. "Don't hurt me."
"Emily!"
She jerked violently, ripping out her IV line and falling off the bed. Crawling rapidly backwards, her typically calm, brown eyes wild, she snarled, "Get back!" Still trapped in the confines of her mind, she covered her face with her arms.
Jones appeared in front of her, brandishing his long, serrated blade. There was Jennifer, bound and bloodied. He hurt her. She watched as he slowly drew the knife across the pale skin, and a rage-filled scream tore itself from her throat.
"Jennifer!"
She had crawled into the corner, her eyes still wild and unfocused. The doctor and the nurses didn't really know what to do.
Jumping at him, she tackled him, aiming for the knees and making him drop the knife. He didn't quite fall, and he lashed out with his feet and fists. She felt one of her ribs crack, and the pain that came along with it. He drove his fist into her chest, knocking the air out of her and making her gasp with pain.
"Emily! Wake up!"
She was awake! She was still trapped in this goddamn hellhole! They still hadn't found her.
"Emily, please, please, wake up. It's JJ, I'm right here." She blinked, seeing the face of the youngest Jareau. She brushed her hand across the face, startling slightly when she felt a breath against her fingertips.
"That's it, Em. Just open your eyes for me." She still blinked, her eyes were open right? But when she blinked, JJ wavered, her form almost disappearing.
"NO! Don't leave me…" Emily's voice broke off, "Don't leave me again! Don't leave me alone!"
JJ's young heart broke, seeing her friend crack like this. Grabbing hold of Emily's hand and brushing the strands of dark hair away from her eyes with the other, she whispered, "Come on, Em. I'm right here. Open your eyes."
When she looked up next, she found a pair of very dark eyes staring into her own blue ones. Pulling the older girl into a light embrace, she was careful not to aggravate the wounds littered across her friend's body. However, she noticed a bloodstain.
She'd pulled her stitches out again. Third time this week. Calling the doctors back to lift the nearly catatonic twelve year old back into the hospital bed. She left quietly, squeezing the pale hand gently.
It had been a hell of a long week since the BAU found them.
XxX
Elizabeth Prentiss had witnessed the whole scene. For the time being, she wasn't the Ambassador. She was just a worried mother at this point. The thing was she wasn't sure if Emily would accept her help. For years she had let Emily take the abuse, hiding like a coward she was, instead of standing up to her husband. She had broken her promise to Jess, and for that she hated herself. She knew she should've, but she had a reputation… or what was left of a reputation to uphold. And she knew it was selfish. She should've put her tattered family first, not her work.
"Fancy seeing you here, Elizabeth."
Whirling around, she meet the cold eyes of her husband. "Good day to you too, Christopher." He hadn't changed. Killing their daughter had just made him more arrogant, more cocky, more of all his worst qualities. He didn't feel bad that he'd killed their daughter. He didn't feel ashamed that he had beat the life out of their daughter for the past eight years, minus the two years Emily had disappeared. He didn't care that he was the one that tore their already dysfunctional family apart. He didn't feel, she thought, he wasn't normal. He wasn't human. He was a monster, a predator.
"Bitch got what she deserved, eh, Elizabeth?" He stood next the stood, observing the scene inside the room, the dark brunette cowering in a corner, with the blonde trying her very best to bring the girl back into the present.
Shaking her dark head unbelievably, "Bitch got what she deserved? Is that the only thing you can say about your daughter who just threw her whole life on the line to protect that little girl, and she came out successful?"
"Pity," Christopher Prentiss sneered. "The world would've been much better off without."
She turned fully to face him, and with all her might, she slapped him, throwing him off balance. "You son of a bitch, that's your daughter in there, and even then you treat her like a piece of shit! I'll tell you something, Christopher," she grabbed the collar of his impeccably ironed dress shirt, "you will not come anywhere near myself and Emily ever again." Her hazel eyes narrowed dangerously, her maternal instincts rising to the surface. "If you do, I swear I will order my detail to kill you on sight. Do you understand me?"
Laughing outright at his wife's anger, Christopher mocked, "You think you scare me, Liz? I'll make you understand something yourself." Slamming her against the deserted hospital wall, he spat, "Do not ever threaten me again, bitch." As he pushed back, in the nick of time too, the Ambassador's detail piled into the room, keeping an eye on the volatile Prentiss patriarch.
"Fuck you," she hissed quietly.
XxX
Jackie Jareau sat on the edge of the sink in the bathroom, eyeing the paper roll edge. It was sharp, jagged, something she needed. Her life had become a personal hell in the year her younger sister had disappeared. Her father had concentrated on her now, even if she were his favorite. And for the first time, she noticed that he got off on her pain. The look in his eyes… it was haunting. And she would never forget how it felt. The pain, the feeling that he just wouldn't stop, and the fear that he just might, might kill her.
Ripping the sleeve of her black jacket up, she revealed the rows and rows of cuts mauling her arms, before she leveled her arm right underneath the jagged edge. And in the bright fluorescent lights of the sterile bathroom, the heart necklace she was wearing glinted, and blood pooled in the floor, right before the owner of the blood collapsed next to it.
"Jackie!"
A/N: Sorry for delays, my loves. School and finals and competitions do not mix well together to allow time to write. Updates will be sporadic, but I'll try my best to work on it. I have another one-shot on my computer, but it's not quite finished yet. Review! Toodles!
~S12
