Here's the next chapter. Unfortunately, I can't guarantee that the next update will be so soon. As always, please review!
"Oh my God, JJ." Emily moaned. She rushed over to her friend who was still struggling against the grasp of the thug holding her arm. She pulled JJ away from him and pulled the gag out of her mouth. JJ coughed. "Are you okay?" Emily asked quietly.
JJ nodded. "Yeah." She didn't get a chance to say anything else before Lars grabbed Emily and pulled her away. She stumbled, but didn't fall. JJ was left standing alone, completely vulnerable. Her eyes never left Emily's.
The Matchmaker surveyed the scene. It was playing out just as he had planned it. "You see, JJ…can I call you JJ?"
"No." JJ said defiantly.
The Matchmaker laughed. "You sound like Emily, always the troublemaker. This, in fact, is why you're here. You see, Emily has been most unwilling to cooperate with me. She's cost me some valuable clients, and I simply couldn't tolerate it anymore. I thought you might provide a nice…incentive for her to improve her behavior." The Matchmaker paused, reveling in the look of shock that passed from JJ to Emily and back again.
"You can't be serious." Emily said, fixing her eyes on The Matchmaker's annoyingly smug face. She saw him nod slightly and before she could turn around, she heard a thud and JJ's moan of pain. Turning, she saw that her friend was lying on the floor.
"You can see that I am entirely serious." The Matchmaker said. "Now, unfortunately, JJ, we don't have any available rooms at the moment, so you'll be sharing with Emily for a few days or so."
Emily breathed a sigh of relief, but hoped it didn't show on her face. JJ had managed to get up from the floor, but her lip was bleeding profusely and she looked a little dazed. Emily felt Lars grab her arm again, and, as JJ was shoved out of the room, she was dragged along as well.
They reached her room and JJ's handcuffs were finally removed, the door was closed. Emily helped JJ to the bed and dashed into the bathroom. She reemerged with a damp towel that she dabbed on JJ's lip. For a few minutes, neither woman spoke. It was JJ who broke the silence.
"What do you think they did to Henry? And Will? Oh my God Emily. Why is this happening? What is going on?" JJ sobbed. Emily gently wrapped her arms around JJ's small body and tried to calm her down.
"Jayje, I'm sure they're fine. He had no reason to hurt either of them." Emily soothed. After a bit, JJ calmed down.
"Where are we?" she asked.
"I haven't figured that out yet." Emily said.
"Are you okay?" JJ had yet to take in the extent of her friend's appearance, but now that she did, she could see the bruises that dotted her face, arms, and legs. They were all different colors, which JJ knew meant that they hadn't all been made at the same time. Emily was being beaten. "What did they do to you?"
Emily took a breath. "JJ, I'm so sorry. I never thought he would do something like this."
"Who, Emily? Who is doing this?"
"The guy in the room upstairs calls himself The Matchmaker."
JJ could tell that Emily was holding something back. "How bad is it?" she asked.
"JJ, he's running a high end, modern day brothel." Emily finally said. "There are women here from all over the country. That's how he's staying undetected."
JJ was quiet again. She'd never heard her friend sound so hopeless. Then she asked, "Emily, did they rape you?"
"No!" Emily practically yelled. She reigned in her emotions and spoke again. "They've tried though. That's what he was talking about earlier, the 'clients' he's lost. That's why he's brought you here. If I don't do what he says, he'll hurt you. And I'm sure he'll say the same thing to you."
"Oh, Emily. What are we going to do?"
"JJ, we're going to get out of this, I can promise you that." Emily assured her. "We are two highly trained FBI agents. We can take whatever they dish at us." Emily flexed her bicep and made a face, making JJ laugh softly despite the circumstances. As the laughter subsided, Emily spoke again. "JJ, they'll give you a three day 'solitary period'. You'll be by yourself in the room. After that, you'll have a tour, and they'll start making you do things. Or at least, they'll start trying to make you do things. JJ, I need you to promise me something. Don't worry about me, okay? I want you to look out for yourself. Don't give in to them; I don't care what they do to me. No matter what happens, you're the one that has a family to go home to." Emily said quietly.
"Emily, I can't do that. I can't let them hurt you and know that it's because of me." JJ insisted. Before Emily could say anything else, the door to the room burst open, and Lars walked in.
"You're in luck. A room opened up sooner than expected." He grinned. "Let's go."
Emily squeezed JJ's hand. "Remember what I said."
JJ put on her "press face" and stood up, walking to the door. Emily followed, stopping a few feet away. "Remember, please." Was the last thing she got a chance to say before the door closed in her face and her friend disappeared.
Back at the BAU office, the team had reconvened. Will had woken up, but unfortunately, he'd been knocked out before he saw anything. He was going to be fine, but he'd have to stay in the hospital for a day for observation. Rossi and Reid had told him about JJ, and Will had pledged the help of several local police departments, all of which seemed to owe him a favor. Rossi had politely declined, but promised to keep him in the loop. Reid had called the neighbor that was taking care of Henry, and she said that she would take him to the hospital to see Will, and that Henry could spend the night at her house. Morgan had gone to JJ's place, put returned empty-handed. There weren't any street cameras near her house, and the crime scene techs hadn't lifted any unknown prints so far. Garcia was their last hope.
"What have you got, Garcia?" Hotch asked.
"Besides amazingly mad computer hacking skills and a deep unrequited crush of one of the BAU's finest?"
Hotch grimaced. "Yes Garcia, besides those."
"Well, Boss man, I have a lot. I searched the state database for kidnappings with the criteria you gave me. I got one hit, dating back three years ago."
"Three years?" Rossi clarified. "That's a long time. Is it related?"
"Well," Garcia answered, "I didn't think so. Thinking that since this guy must be a pro, I figured that he must have done this before. I extended the search to surrounding states and got a few more hits. And this is where it gets hinky. On a whim, I entered the criteria into the national database. I searched for kidnappings involving ketamine and missing photos where none of the family members were killed."
"And? What did you get Baby Girl?" Morgan asked.
"A lot."
"What do you mean by a lot, Garcia?" Hotch asked.
"I mean that I found almost a hundred cases matching those criteria. None of them are closed."
"A hundred?" Reid repeated. "That's excessive."
"Yes, thank you Captain Smartypants, even I figured that out myself." Garcia said. "It gets worse. The hundred cases are spread out all over the country, dating back four years. And they're almost even spread out between each state."
"Meaning?" Hotch said.
"Meaning, sir, that this creepo has been taking women for the last four years. Sir, women matching these criteria have disappeared from each state in the country, including Hawaii and Alaska. But they don't disappear at the same time. For example, Tara Donaldson disappeared from Alabama four years ago. She's the first woman to disappear, as far as I can tell. The next woman from Alabama didn't disappear until two years ago. It's the same in each of the states. The disappearances are always at least two years apart. And no bodies have been found. I'm uploading the photos to the briefing room now." One by one, photo after photo popped up on the screen and stayed there for a few seconds before they disappeared. All of the women were extremely beautiful.
"So this Unsub is traveling around the country kidnapping women. He's using non-lethal methods, which we've already profiled. But we still don't know who he is."
"Hotch, I think there's something we're not saying." Morgan insisted. "Look at the women he's taking. They're all beautiful women. I think we're looking at an Unsub with a sexual motive."
The room immediately became tense. No one wanted to think about JJ and Emily being in the hands of an Unsub like that. But still, it was a valid option.
"Morgan's right. We need to run down lists of sexual predators with the means of doing all of this. Anyone who travels that much has to have a good amount of cash available to them."
"Sir, there's something else." Garcia interrupted. "We don't need to run down the list of sex offenders. We have a picture of the kidnapper. It was just like at Emily's apartment. His picture was captured on a street camera in Washington as he left one of the crime scenes. He was carrying the same duffel bag he used with Emily. I've got his picture running through any and all facial recognition software I can find, but I don't have an ID yet." Garcia explained.
Hotch nodded to himself. "Okay, Garcia. Work fast. Let us know when you have something." He hung up and turned to his team. This was their first break.