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Chapter Nine: Back to Tennessee

The drive to the air port had been in silence. Each team member was lost in their own thoughts and just didn't feel like talking.

Now they were on the plane that would take them back to Tennessee and hopefully closer to finding Garcia. They had gone back over everything that they had at the start of the flight so now they were just doing their own thing. JJ, Reid, and Emily were sitting at the table quietly discussing where the unsub might have taken Garcia, Hotch was across from them looking out the window and occasionally putting his word in, and Morgan was on the couch just staring at the opposite wall and occasionally clenching his fist.

"The bodies were all found in Tennessee, so he's probably also in Tennessee that way he could have easy access." Said Reid

Reid and Prentiss began arguing this point when Hotch looked over, but before he could say anything he noticed JJ's face. She had a worried look, which wasn't unusual under these circumstances for any of them, but what really got his attention was the fact that she seemed to be watching Morgan as if he would explode any minute.

"JJ, what is it." He asked curiously

Reid and Prentiss then stopped talking and looked over at JJ too.

"Look at him." JJ stated "I know we're all worried about Garcia, I mean she's family, but Morgan…"

"He loves her." Stated Hotch calmly

The other three looked at Hotch with surprised faces and it seemed Reid was about to say something, when Hotch beat him to it.

"I've known for awhile now. I think even before they knew." He said with a slight smile as if he was remembering something

"I think it was pretty obvious to everyone, well to everyone except them apparently." Stated JJ

"Do you think he knows it?" wondered Emily looking over at Morgan

"One way to find out." Stated JJ as she got up and walked over to sit opposite of Morgan

Reid and Emily then followed and Hotch leaned forward slightly so that he could hear.

"Hey Derek." Greeted JJ

The use of his first name drew Morgan's attention and he noticed that JJ and Prentiss were in front of him, Reid was on the other side of the couch and Hotch even seemed to be looking at him.

"Hey, what's up?" he asked

"Do you love Garcia?" asked JJ getting right to the point

"What?" said Morgan a bit surprised

"Do… you… love… Garcia? Asked Emily slowly

"Ya, of course I do." He replied as if it were obvious

"That's not what they meant exactly." said Reid "Are you IN love with Garcia?"

At this Morgan looked at them all with a surprised look, but didn't say any thing

"We know you do Morgan. Whether you know it or not." Stated Hotch

"Yes. I'm in love with Penelope. I love her more than anything." He admitted "I just didn't realize it in time." He added more to himself than the others "I don't even know if she loves me.

"She does." Said Reid as if it were the most obvious thing in the world

"We have to find her. I don't know what I'd do without her." He said looking away distractedly "I need her." He said so softly that the others almost didn't hear him

"We will. She's family and we need her too." Said JJ with a comforting smile

The rest of the trip past in silence until they finally made it back to the field office.

"JJ, go ahead and set up a link with the BAU tech in case he comes up with something, we meet in the conference room in ten minutes" Hotch told them

Ten minutes later they were all sitting at a table in a conference room with the files, a local police officer, and a laptop.

"Ok, so it's been about seven hours since Garcia's abduction." Hotch said as he got up and began pacing the room while looking at some notes "The unsub tortures his victims for two days before he kills them and he's probably been torturing Garcia for about one to two hours, which means we only have…"

"About forty-five hours, if you take away the time he actually uses to kill the victim." continued Reid also looking down at a file.

"So what do you have?" asked the police officer

"We think he probably lives in the state and we even know who it is and how he did it." Answered JJ

"So if you know who it is why don't you just go after him?"

"Because we had the substitute tech check him out before we left and Joseph Rigswood doesn't have a file. Apparently he doesn't exist."

"Our tech, the one that was taken, was about to tell us about something she found on him when she was taken." Added Hotch

"Can't you just check her computer then?"

"The substitute tried, but Garcia's a bit… well… protective, so it's taking them longer." Answered JJ

"Garcia's an expert with computers, so it probably wont be any time soon." Said Reid

"Oh come on, no offense, but no one can be that good." Said the police officer with a smile

The team then looked at him as if he was insane and just as Morgan was about to get up and relieve some of his frustrations on the guy Hotch spoke.

"Agent Garcia is almost literally a genius when it comes to electronics, especially computers." Said Hotch protectively

"She's the best out there." Added Prentiss

"Um… right, sorry." Said the officer nervously since they were all looking at him angrily now and since they were obviously very protective

"So, what do we do now?" asked Prentiss

"I think we should visit the families of the victims and ask them if they've seen anyone resembling Rigswood and send his description out to see if anyone knows him" suggested Reid

"Ok, lets go." Said Hotch

"Hold it." said Morgan "We need to be looking for Garcia."

"We already put out an APB on the car, though he probably already got rid of it. We can't find Garcia until we find Rigswood. Garcia is important to all of us, but if we're going to get her back we have to treat this like any other case." Stated Hotch looking directly at Morgan

Morgan wanted to argue, to rush out of the building and search every square inch of the state if he had to, but he knew Hotch was right. If they were going to find Penelope they had to work together and stay calm.


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