Chapter 10: Playing Phone Tag

BAU Jet – Bound for LA:

"Please just call me so I know you're ok," Reid finished leaving his voicemail for Emily with a heavy sigh before setting his phone down in front of him. It was the fourth time he had called her since JJ received word from the hospital, and he knew Morgan and JJ had both also called and texted her several times. It was still going straight to voicemail, and they were all growing more worried by the minute.

"Still no answer?" JJ asked him as she returned to her seat beside him, slipping her own cell phone into her pocket.

"No, not yet," Reid answered, trying not to sound as panicked as he felt, "I'm sure she just hasn't had the chance to turn it on yet. She'll call us when she gets the messages."

JJ knew that he was just trying to reassure her, but she still had to resist the urge to snap at him. Emily was hurt, and the doctors really hadn't told her all that much. They didn't know how seriously she was injured. Only that she had received a gunshot wound that required surgery. And that the ever-stubborn woman had left the hospital AMA.

What other injuries did she receive? Who had shot her? Was it a simple through and through, or had there been internal damage? For all they knew, she could be bleeding out in her apartment right now…

"Ok, that's it," Morgan suddenly exclaimed as he reached for his own cell phone, "We have a case to prepare for and less than three hours before we land in LA and need to be focused. And none of us are going to be able to do that until we get some answers."

"Who are you calling?" JJ didn't see how continuing to call Emily at this point was in any way a good use of their time or energy, and it certainly wouldn't help them get ready for their new case.

"Garcia," he muttered as the phone rang quietly in his hand. He placed the call on speaker and placed the cell phone in the middle of the table between the three of them.

"Chocolate thunder, what can I do for you this evening?" their technical analyst's bubbly voice came through the line, "I haven't found anything else of consequence on our little family investigation…" she trailed off, clearly referring to the side project Morgan had asked of her. She really was looking for some evidence of who or what had driven their team members to leave, but there was nothing jumping out at her from the weeks prior to the mass exodus.

"Keep at it Baby Girl," he reassured her, "But that's actually not why I called."

"What's going on?" she asked, sounding more curious than concerned, likely assuming it was about their latest case and not another personal matter.

"JJ got a call from George Washington Memorial Hospital. Apparently, Emily was admitted this morning as a Jane Doe, and when she woke up, she checked herself out of the hospital against the medical advice of her doctor. We've been trying to call her, but her phone keeps going straight to voicemail. Could you track her down for us? We all need to know that she's ok, so we can focus on our work here."

"Oh my goodness," Penelope let loose a little shriek at the realization that her friend was hurt, before the sound of her fingers flying across the keyboard came through the phone, "Her cell phone is dead or turned off, so I can't get a current location, but it last pinged from inside her apartment early this morning."

"Does her apartment building have security cameras?" JJ asked, "We don't even know where she was shot. Maybe we can see if she left or if someone broke in."

There was a short pause while Garcia looked up the appropriate information before she found what she was looking for, "Ok, there are cameras, but not on her floor. They're all on the ground floor at the main entrances and exits. It looks like Emily left the building around three a.m. this morning."

"What was she doing going out at the time of night?" Reid was genuinely confused. It wasn't even close to usual behavior for their former teammate, and he honestly couldn't imagine her going out for any reason at that time, even if it was a Friday night, or rather Saturday morning…

"She was wearing yoga pants, sneakers, and a light jogging jacket. No purse or other bags. Just her apartment key around her neck. I can only assume she was going for a run," Garcia correctly surmised.

"At three in the morning?" Morgan was still hung up on the ungodly hour his former partner was leaving her home.

"Emily goes running when she needs to think, or she wants to burn off some anxious energy," JJ explained, "She used to slip out of the hotel sometimes in the middle of the night when one of our cases wouldn't leave her alone. If something was bothering her about the profile, or she'd had a particularly nasty nightmare, she'd leave for an hour in the middle of the night to run it off. The woman is a proper insomniac at the best of times; I can imagine that right now, stressing about whatever is going on with leaving the BAU and finding a new job, she has probably been doing this a lot."

While every one of them had had difficulty sleeping from time to time as a result of this job, it was still surprising to the others that Emily had struggled so much, or that she had developed this particular trick to deal with it. Then again, JJ was the only one who ever bunked with the woman when necessary on their travels, so it made sense that she would be more familiar with her nighttime behavior than anyone else on the team.

Morgan couldn't help but wonder if maybe Emily hadn't been quite as put together as she always appeared? She had never seemed overly tired or unfocused, even on the worst of their cases, and he never would have imagined she wasn't sleeping or that she suffered from frequent nightmares. He made a mental note then to pay more attention in the future, and to be there for her however she needed him.

"So she went running?" Reid brought them back to the task at hand, "Garcia, can you track her movements on the cameras in the area? Where did she go? Did she make it back to her apartment before she was hurt, or did something happen while she was out?"

"Way ahead of you junior G-man," she scoffed, "Our girl can seriously run. I lost her a couple of times when she went through particularly sketchy neighborhoods with no cameras, but I was able to track her down to the warehouse district. Looks like she'd been running for a little over two hours when she stopped suddenly down near the docks. Oh God…"

"Garcia? What is it?" JJ heard the fear in her friend's voice, and just knew that she had found video evidence of Emily being shot. She was thoroughly impressed by Emily's running stamina, but she couldn't really focus on that at all right now.

"I, I don't even, I'm just going to send you the link," Garcia stuttered her response, clearly bothered by her discovery.

Morgan pulled out his tablet, placing it on the table beside his phone and started the video he'd just received.

There was no audio, and it was a very poor quality video, but that didn't stop all three of them from immediately identifying Emily running between the empty warehouses. She stopped in her tracks, her head swiveling around from side to side as if she had heard something and was trying to determine where it had come from. They all noticed her instinctively reach to her hip for her gun, which wasn't there, and knew whatever was about to happen wasn't going to be good.

The camera angle switched to another alley, and they watched three men attack an unknown woman who was clearly screaming for help. It became painfully obvious in that moment exactly what noise had startled their friend, and they all feared they knew what was coming. She wouldn't be able to stand by and let something like this happen. She had no weapon, no cell phone, and they were too far from anyone else for her to go for help.

They watched helpless while the woman was beaten and raped, and then as their former teammate interrupted the attack. They sat in horrified silence as they watched the men pull first blades and then a gun on an unarmed Emily. They couldn't tear their eyes away from the little screen as Emily was beaten, or as one of the men held her down, straddling her waist, clearly intent on raping her.

They watched her shot, watched her kill the pig that had shot her, and shoot another of the men.

They all knew immediately when Emily had run out of ammunition and watched terrified as the two remaining men cornered her.

And then they breathed a sigh of relief when those same men ran out of the alley, and police arrived on scene, paramedics close behind them.

Garcia's voice broke into their shocked silence as the video ended, "It looked like Emily and the woman she saved were both taken in ambulances to the hospital, and the police processed the scene. The third guy, the one Em shot twice, appears to be dead."

So now, they had the first of their answers.

"So Emily goes for a run to clear her head, and stumbles onto a crime in progress," Morgan summarized, "Saves the victim, kills one of the unsubs, and holds the other two off long enough for backup to arrive, getting shot and fairly beat up in the process?"

"That seems to be an accurate description of events," Reid added dryly, trying desperately not to let his horror at Emily's situation seep into his voice, "Do we know how hurt she was aside from the bullet wound?" he asked JJ.

"No, the doctor I spoke to didn't give me any specifics on that front, but based on that video I'd say she isn't in good shape," she answered honestly, "Can you get a look at her medical records?" she asked Garcia, fully aware that the request was technically illegal, but also quite sure that her friend was already working on it anyway.

"Of course," she answered easily, "Just a moment."

But she didn't get a chance to fill them in because that was when JJ's phone rang…

Thinking it was Emily finally calling them back, she snatched it out of her pocket like it was a literal lifeline and answered on the first ring, not even bothering to look at the caller ID, "Hello? Emily?"

There was a moment's pause, and Morgan couldn't help but notice the slight furrowing of her brows before she asked, "Hotch?"

Tony's Apartment, DC:

Tony opened the door for Emily when they arrived. She had been trying hard to cover it, but he could tell that she was exhausted, and in quite a bit of pain. She was clearly an incredibly tough woman, but even she couldn't spend the day on her feet immediately after being shot and undergoing surgery without there being repruscussions.

"The guest bedroom is through here," he pointed her in the right direction, "Go ahead and get settled. Plug in your phone, freshen up, do whatever you need to. I'll order us some take out."

"Thank you Tony," she really was grateful for how understanding he had been about everything tonight, and even if she didn't like being babysat, she was thankful he had opened his home to her rather than send her to a safe house somewhere.

She quickly made her way into the guest room, and immediately plugged in her phone.

Within seconds it began vibrating with incoming messages, missed called, and voicemails. All of them from JJ, Derek, and Spencer.

She started listening to them, curious what their reactions would be to Hotch's limited information on her current state, and hoping they weren't overly concerned on her behalf. After all, she was fine.

"The hospital called me," JJ's voice was the first to come through the device, "I don't know what's going on, but a bullet wound is serious. I'm worried about you. Please call me back."

Hotch clearly hadn't done enough to reassure them, but at least she sounded calm and rational enough considering. Not that Emily shared her sentiment in the slightest. She'd been shot enough times over the years, that a single GSW with no significant internal damage was hardly a serious matter in her book.

She started the next message and almost laughed at Reid's usual antics, "Emily, it's me. Um, did you know that the first twenty-four hours after surgery, patients are at far greater risk of infection and more than 70% of all complications from surgery also happen in the first two days post-op. I know you hate hospitals, but you really should let the doctors monitor your recovery right now. I'm just worried about you. Can you please call me back? I just need to hear your voice so I know that you're ok."

He also sounded really worried. Damn it Hotch. He was supposed to make sure they were focused on the job and not stressing about her, but clearly he hadn't done so at all.

She clicked on the next message, one from Morgan, and had to pull the phone away from her ear almost immediately as his booming voice came through the line, "Emily Prentiss, plug in your damn cell phone! You cannot do this to us right now, princess. What in the hell were you thinking leaving the hospital hours after being shot?! You could have died on us, and you just check yourself out AMA and then don't call anyone?! So not ok," she could hear him taking several deep breaths as he tried to calm down and then his voice continued, sounding more tired than she had ever heard him, "We are all so worried about you. We just need to hear your voice right now. Please, just call me back."

Well, crap.

She really wanted to call them back right now and tell them everything. She wanted to talk to someone about what happened in that alley. She wanted to talk to someone about Strauss and the BAU and her damn choice about where to go next. After all, that was what had started this whole stupid chain of events. She wanted to reassure them that she was going to be just fine, and hear them laugh and cry and promise to visit when they got home from wherever they were now.

But she couldn't. Not without making a mess for Hotch, and herself. And probably getting the rest of the team into hot water.

So, she called Hotch, again. And again, the man didn't answer his damn cell phone. A trend which seemed to be holding true for the evening, throughout the whole team.

"Hotch, I just got my phone back up and I have several messages from the team. They're worried sick. Didn't you pass along that I was ok? I don't want them worried, but I can't very well call them without explaining why I left, and I'm assuming you don't want them getting involved in this mess any more than I do. The last thing we need is an angry Derek Morgan going after Strauss himself and getting fired. Can you please just talk to them and tell them I'm ok?"

She finished leaving her message for her former boss, and prayed he would handle the situation on their end.

Satisfied she had done all she could for right now, she headed into the bathroom to clean herself up after what had been an incredibly long, hard day.

Hotchner Home, DC:

The phone didn't even ring one full time before JJ's voice greeted him, "Hello? Emily?"

She sounded absolutely worried sick, and he immediately felt bad. Emily had trusted him to make sure the team knew she was alright, and because he was mad at her, he hadn't answers her call, or even listened to her messages right away. JJ's growing fear for her well-being was his fault.

"Um, no JJ," he corrected her calmly, "It's Hotch."

"Hotch?" she sounded confused, and just a little deflated. Clearly she had hoped that Emily was finally calling her back.

"Yeah, JJ, it's me. Is the rest of the team there with you?" he asked, not wanting to have to repeat anything, and hoping to get some answers from the lot of them.

"Yes, Morgan and Reid are here with me," she told him, placing him on speaker, "We are on the jet right now, but we have Garcia patched in already so she can hear you too. What's going on?"

"Emily called me," he began, deciding they clearly needed some reassurance that she was alright before he started asking them any questions, "She wanted me to make sure that everyone knew she was ok, but her message didn't say exactly what had happened. Just that she was in the hospital and that she didn't want anyone to worry because she knew they probably called you, JJ. So who wants to explain to me what's going on?"

"Garcia was able to find some surveillance footage of the, uh, what happened," Reid started, unsure how to explain it, "Emily interrupted a rape while out on her run, and ended up killing one of the unsubs. She was shot, and after she woke up from surgery, she checked herself out AMA, and none of us have been able to get ahold of her since."

"Her message said her phone was dead, so she had used a friend's instead," Hotch explained quickly, "You said one of the unsubs. Were there others there? Have they been caught?"

"Two other men that fled the scene," Morgan filled him in, while Garcia simultaneously sent him the video she had pieced together.

He watched, glad the others couldn't see the tears welling in his eyes as he saw his friend fighting for her life.

Clearing his throat, he then changed the subject quickly, "She is ok, and I'm sure she will call you all back soon enough. Can someone please explain to me why she was alone in an alley in DC in the middle of the night instead on the jet headed towards a new case with the rest of you?"

"You don't know?" Morgan sounded surprised, and confused, "Emily resigned from the BAU the same day that you transferred to White Collar Crimes. None of us have seen or heard from her in two weeks."

"That's what I was afraid of," Hotch muttered, "Until I received the message from Emily today, I believed that she was still with you all. In fact, I was under the impression that she had secured her job by informing on me with Strauss," he decided to just tell them the truth since they were safely removed from the situation sitting on the jet, and there was no chance of Derek doing something stupid, at least not right away, "Clearly, that was not the case…"

"I don't understand…" Reid replied slowly.

"Strauss has been trying to get rid of me for quite some time," Hotch admitted, "With me coming off of a suspension, she was prepared to finally fire me out right. She made it clear that there was someone within the unit who would be able to provide her with all of the evidence she needed to have me removed from the Bureau for good. My only out was to transfer out of the BAU and out of her immediate control before she did so."

Hotch continued while the team registered this with varying levels of confusion and anger, "I assumed that Emily was the informant, and based on what's happened I do believe that she was the one Strauss attempted to turn. Her introduction to the team was incredibly rocky, and I always suspected that Strauss was directly responsible for her joining the team in the first place, so she likely blackmailed her or even threatened to fire her out right if she didn't inform on me."

JJ finally caught the direction of his thoughts, "But since she quit, you think she refused Strauss' demands and left on her own before she could be fired, same as you, only she didn't have another unit to transfer to right away?"

"Yes," Hotch replied simply, and now that he heard someone else lay it out so simply, it really did seem like something Prentiss would do. He felt horrible for thinking so poorly of her these last few weeks when she had actually gone to bat for him and never said anything.

"Well damn," Morgan's whispered response was an even blend of fury with Strauss, and pride for Emily, "That explains a few things. We will be dealing with this when we get home from this case, but right now I'm more concerned with the fact that Emily is recovering from a bullet wound alone somewhere. Hotch, you said she called you on a friend's number, right? Can you send that to Garcia so we can track her down? I want to know where she is staying."

He did and Garcia got to work. He could have simply told them that Emily's cell phone was now on, but he knew that he needed to bring her up to speed before she spoke with the rest of them, and didn't want them to call her right then.

"I've got an address for an apartment building," the technical analyst informed him, "I'm sending it to you now."

"Ok," Hotch acknowledged as he received the message, "I will check in with her, and make sure that she is really ok. You all focus on your current case, and when you all get back, we will deal with this situation with Strauss, ok?"

"Alright Hotch," Morgan agreed, "Take care of our girl."

"I will," he promised, hanging up the phone, and grabbing his car keys.