Disclaimer: I do not own any rights to the TV series, Criminal Minds.

Full Circle
Part 10

By N. J. Borba

Hotch and Rossi entered the back yard and instantly headed toward JJ who was standing beside a lowered gurney. It had taken them a half hour to get there after her call, even using their sirens to punch through traffic. Two paramedics were tending to the man, one crouched down on either side of him. Hotch noticed the grimace of pain that arced across the sandy-haired kid's face as his shoulder was swabbed. That distress made him just a little bit happy, but he knew the feeling wasn't going to get Emily and Derek back any quicker. In his head he could see little Beth as she'd been earlier that day, smiling while Derek pushed her on the swing. That memory helped spurn him on.

"What's your name?" Hotch question, but the boy looked away.

"He hasn't said a word since we got here," JJ informed them.

Rossi squatted and turned the kid's head toward him. "That wasn't an optional question. A woman has been missing for two days and now a Federal Agent has disappeared. This is about as serious as your life is ever going to get, so I suggest you start talking."

"I don't know anything," the young man finally spoke.

"You've got a bullet in your shoulder, but you don't know anything?" Dave shook his head.

"Let's start over," Hotch suggested. "What's your name?"

"Daniel Collins."

"Any relation to the Kyle Collins who lives here?" JJ inquired.

The boy nodded, his cooperation slowly bleeding outward. "He's my older brother," Daniel revealed. "Look, I was just here to meet with Teresa and her friend, see if maybe I was interested in the job they were offering. When I arrived I saw someone in the doorway and I thought he was going to hurt them, so I hit him. I thought I was helping. I didn't realize he was an FBI agent."

"Back up," Hotch caught something in the boy's condensed synopsis. "What kind of job was Teresa offering you? And who's her friend?"

Daniel winced as the paramedics wrapped his shoulder. "My brother said Teresa paid him five thousand dollars for each job he helped her with."

"Five thousand dollars to commit murder?" Dave asked.

The kid's eyes widened. "No, Kyle wouldn't do that. He was just hoping to make some easy cash. Not everyone at this school is a spoiled rich kid, you know? Kyle and I lost our parents years ago. We lived with our grandmother until she died last summer. We've gotten measly scholarships, but it's not enough. I just want to get a degree and find a decent job. Maybe not have to live month to month like my grandma did."

Hotch believed the story, though it didn't justify being stupid. "There's rarely such a thing as easy cash, Daniel. Do you know who Teresa's friend is?" he asked again.

"I never met him, but Kyle said his name was Steve... maybe Scott?"

"No last name?" Rossi pushed.

"I never heard one," Daniel replied.

The paramedics raised the gurney. "We need to be going," they announced.

"Daniel, is there anything else you can tell us?" Hotch asked. "Do you know where they might be hiding out, or at least what they were driving?"

"I didn't actually see them leave. I was in and out, but I'm pretty sure I heard my van take off," he revealed.

JJ looked to Hotch. "Reid and I didn't find any vans nearby."

"It's a work van," Daniel offered more on his own. "I deliver furniture part-time. It's a black Chevy, 1994, 95 maybe. It has a gold logo on it with the words: Wallace Furniture. And I probably just lost that job," he lamented. "Kyle never told me where they might be holding anyone."

"Do you know where Kyle is right now?" Rossi asked.

"No, and we don't own cell phones," he answered. "All our money goes toward school. I'm sorry. Am I going to jail?"

Hotch sighed, knowing the kid thought he'd been doing the right thing. "Right now you're going to the hospital. After that, you'll probably be charged with assault. I don't know about jail time," he decided not to sugar-coat things.

As they wheeled him toward the ambulance, Hotch turned to Dave. "Call that furniture company and get a plate number. Make sure an APB is sent out," he instructed. As Rossi wandered a short distance away to make his call, Hotch noticed the red car. "Is that Teresa's vehicle?"

JJ nodded. "Casey is bringing in a team to lift prints, should be here soon. An initial scan of the inside didn't produce anything useful." She guided him toward the storage shed and the two of them stepped inside. There were a few wood shelves and a small work bench in the center, but the whole place was pretty bare. On the work bench laid two items. "Derek's badge and cell phone," JJ pointed out.

"What about his weapon?" Hotch asked.

She shook her head. "We haven't been able to recover it."

"Which means our suspects most likely have a loaded gun with them," he concluded, looking at his watch. "And nearly an hour's lead on us. Where's Reid?"

"In the house," JJ answered as they headed that direction. "He's been searching Teresa's room and also talking to her other roommate, Amy, and Amy's boyfriend."

Hotch frowned. "They were here the whole time?"

"Oh, yeah. They were mostly naked when Reid and I practically broke down her bedroom door," JJ explained. "The music was so loud they didn't hear a thing. Apparently they let Derek in and left him alone to wander around. I love how kids think as soon as they turn eighteen they're responsible adults," she quipped as the two of them made their way up the stairs, down the hall and into Teresa's room. They found Reid there, staring at the pictures on the wall.

"I just talked to Garcia," Reid let them know.

"How is she?" JJ asked with genuine concern.

Spencer shrugged one shoulder. "Upset, but she wanted us to know that she sent the agents out to Emily's parent's place like Derek asked."

"Why would he do that?" Hotch questioned the order.

Reid directed them into the bathroom where he revealed Beth's picture on the door. "I gave him a translation for the words, but it was hard to know what Teresa was thinking without seeing the context. Derek reacted as any parent would, with caution." He ran a hand over some of the other pictures. "Beth's photo is separated from the others, isolated. I don't think Teresa ever planned to hurt Beth. The words: on an equal footing. It seems to me she's identifying with Beth."

Hotch arched a brow. "How so?"

"I think she sees herself as a child, an innocent person caught up in her parents mess," Reid informed them of his theory. "And the pictures on her wall out there," he waved a hand toward the main bedroom. "They all depict scenes from early childhood, up until around her thirteenth birthday. I'm guessing that was about the time her father started having an affair."

"Thirteen. Not a child any more, but not yet a woman," JJ thought it seemed significant.

Spencer nodded. "She's extremely bright, but her father's affair was akin to suffering a major trauma. Teresa's life has been stalled by it. She wants her family to stay the way it is in her mind; perfectly happy."

"You keep mentioning her father, but her mother admitted to both of you that she was having an affair," Hotch noted.

"True," Reid acknowledged. "But I doubt Teresa knows about that. She's focused only on her father and his side of what was done to bring down her family, which is why she went after Lauren and now Emily."

"Will she try to hurt her father?" JJ asked.

Reid pursed his lips. "I don't think so. She wants her parents together, which is why she's doing this; eliminating any obstacles for their eventual reunion. I think we should talk to her parents and brother. Ask them about places Teresa might have gone, places she'd feel safe."

"Good idea," Hotch agreed.

Rossi joined them in Teresa's room. "The delivery van is already accounted for. It was actually left behind the furniture store. They must have picked up another vehicle somewhere, maybe that other guy's car," he suggested.

Hotch nodded. "Dave, you and I are going to check out the van. Reid and JJ, stay here and get a hold of her parents. And talk to her roommate again, ask her and the parents if they know any Steve or Scott. I'm going to see if Garcia can trace Teresa's cell and maybe locate Kyle Collins. Keep in touch," Hotch reminded them. He knew Derek had been in as close contact as possible, and that if he'd waited for backup to deal with Teresa she might have gotten away anyhow. Morgan had done the best he could. Hotch felt like it was the team that had let him down by not being there.

xxx

She sat against the concrete wall, staring up at the flickering fluorescent light that let off a harsh glow. Emily had tried everything she could think of to get free. First there'd been kicking at the door, which never even budged for all her effort. Second she'd screamed her head off, thinking someone might be close enough to hear. Third had been to climb the wall covered in pipes to determine if there were any hidden vents or other exit possibilities. There hadn't been. In fact, there was just the one vent cover on the wall directly above her. It looked big enough to crawl through, but there was no way to reach it.

So she continued to sit with an unconscious Derek's head cradled in her lap. At least he wasn't dead, which had been her first thought when they'd tossed him into the room with her. Emily gently ran a damp cloth across his injured forehead. The cloth was actually a piece of her pant leg that she'd torn off to clean her own wounds the day before. She glanced at the watch on his wrist. It was just after 8pm, which meant Derek had already been with her for over two hours. And he hadn't stirred yet. And the BAU hadn't shown. And her captors hadn't been back. She wasn't sure what to think.

Emily leaned down, knowing there was only one thing she wished for at the moment, other than seeing her daughter. "Wake up, Derek. Please," her voice shook as she took a deep breath. "We can figure this out as long as you wake up," she encouraged.

xxx

JJ stifled a yawn, hoping that Reid wouldn't see. But he was too engrossed in the photos and articles that were spread across the living room floor. They'd sent Amy away for the night and commandeered Teresa's house to use as a base of operations. After extensive documentation of the bathroom door, Reid had been allowed to carefully remove items so he could better study them. He'd been sitting on the floor for over an hour just staring at all the information. "Maybe you should take a break," JJ finally suggested. "It's after midnight."

"If it was you trapped somewhere worrying about Henry, would you want us to take a break?" he asked her. "I barely slept last night, I won't sleep again until we find Derek and Emily," Reid declared. He only looked up briefly when Rossi and Hotch walked through the front door.

"What did you find?" JJ asked.

Rossi held out a red phone. "Garcia's trace led us to a dumpster at the Seattle Center, near the Space Needle. Teresa obviously left it there to evade us."

"Were you able to get anything out of her family?" Hotch asked.

"Not really," JJ answered with a scoff. "It's like they don't even know their own daughter. They couldn't remember any family outings in the area or favorite places she liked to hang out." The woman sighed. "I don't think they've been paying much attention to Teresa for the last ten years."

The team leader eyed Reid and then settled on JJ again. "You two should get some rest."

She pointed to Reid's back. "I already tried that," her head shook to indicate she hadn't been successful. "I don't think I can sleep either. They can't have gone far, right? All the professors I talked to earlier said Teresa's been in class all week. Sits right up front, hard to miss. So, they have to be within fairly close driving distance."

"We searched several local grids tonight and found nothing," Rossi spoke up.

JJ's cell rang. "I'm putting you on speaker," she let Garcia know.

"Any word?" Penelope asked first off.

"Not yet," Hotch replied. "What have you got?"

"Well, I haven't found any match for the prints that were pulled from Teresa's car," Garcia relayed. "Kyle Collins is a phantom. Other than his class registration, he barely exists. No cell phone, no credit cards. I can't find him... yet. Also, I went through every roster for Teresa's classes this semester. Found six guys with either first, middle or last name of Scott. Also pulled up eight with names having Steve in them."

Hotch exhaled, knowing it would be a long night. "Why don't you forward us their contact information and we can make some calls."

"Gotcha. I'm copying everyone, so check your phones. I'll keep searching for Kyle. If you need me, you know where to find me," she signed off.

It was four in the morning back there and Hotch knew she'd been running on less sleep than all of them, but she wasn't ready to give up. Neither were they. "All right, JJ start with the Scott's. Rossi and I will divide up the Steve's. I don't care how late it is, we need this information." He left Reid to his studying while the rest of them started making calls.

xxx

He opened his eyes. It took several attempts before they finally managed to focus. His head ached terribly, but was laying against something soft. When he saw her face, Derek thought he was probably hallucinating due to the nasty head wounds. "Emily?" He tried to sit up, but felt her hand push him down. His head settled back into its comfy position for a while longer. Morgan thought it was one of the nicest dreams he'd had in a long time. Until she opened her mouth.

"If you didn't have a giant knot on the back of your head I'd put one there for you," Emily let him know. Her previous worry quickly turned to anger the second she knew he was awake. "Where the hell is our daughter?" she demanded.

Derek didn't mind the irritation in her tone. He knew he'd rather have her yelling at him than the alternate possibility of finding her dead. "Beth's fine," he blinked as his vision still tried to adjust to the light. "She misses you like crazy, but she's a tough little cookie. Your parents took her to DC and I sent Silvia along with them. We all agreed that would be best, in case whoever took you tried to come after her."

"Good," Emily was finally able to breath a little easier upon hearing that. "I don't think she actually would have tried to hurt Beth, but I couldn't be sure."

"She?" Derek questioned. "So, you know for a fact it was Teresa Meyer?"

Emily shrugged. "After some deduction, I concluded it was probably a she, most likely the child of Louise and Charles Meyer. I didn't know her name, though. And she's been keeping her voice and physical appearance masked from me."

Morgan was impressed. "You profiled her?"

She nodded. "I guess it's like riding a bike."

"You did good, Emily." Derek sat up again and she didn't try to stop him. He leaned heavily against the wall beside her, their shoulders touching. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sure," her tone was clearly sarcastic. "I've been abducted, put on trial and haven't seen my daughter in days. How the hell do you think I am?"

Derek realized he'd had that coming. "Right, stupid question," he acknowledged, gingerly rubbing the cut along his forehead. "How long have I been here?"

Emily pointed to his watch. "It's almost 6am. I honestly didn't think you were going to wake up," she let a small note of concern fill her voice, but quickly buried it. "What the hell are you doing here, Derek? What were you thinking? Did you come here by yourself?"

"No, I..." he paused. "I didn't come to Seattle alone. The team is here, they're just not here. Obviously. And I came because..." he stopped himself short from saying, I love you, even though it was the purest truth in his head at that moment. "I thought you might need some help,"

"Well, you shouldn't have bothered," she crossed her arms.

Sensing she was emotionally exhausted as well as physically, Derek tried not to take her words personally. "Emily..."

"Derek, don't you get it? If anything happens to us... if both of us die here... she'll have no one," her voice quaked. "You shouldn't have come."

He felt his heart break along with her voice. "Hey..." he reached out and took her left hand in his. She tried to pull away, but he wouldn't allow it. Derek looked her in the eye. "First of all, she'd have your parents, my mom and my sisters. Heck, the whole BAU team would probably jump at the chance to adopt her. I know for a fact Garcia would. But, second..." he emphasized the next words. "No one is dying on my watch. Unless you don't stop yelling at me."

She almost laughed, leaning her head against the wall again. "How pathetic are we?" Emily asked. "Trapped in this hole, our daughter facing the very real possibility of becoming an orphan and we're still fighting." She took a deep breath. "I'm not upset at you. I'm more upset with myself for letting my guard down in the first place. If I'd never looked at that damn cell phone..."

"Someone called you," Derek realized. "That's why you were still sitting there in your car? Emily, they probably did it on purpose, to make sure you were distracted," he tried to help her understand. "Did you see who the caller was?"

"It..." Emily wished she'd never opened her big mouth in the first place. "It's not important now."

Morgan's head was throbbing like crazy, but he still had most of his wits about him. It didn't take very long to piece the timeline together. "Shit... it was me, wasn't it? It was my call that night that distracted you. I'm responsible for all of this."

"Derek, no..." she closed her eyes and shook her head. "You aren't to blame for any of this either. It was just... really bad timing." Emily felt his hand slip away from hers and she opened her eyes to glance over at him. He looked really upset. "Derek, please don't..."

"I just wanted to be the perfect dad," he whispered.

"What?"

He turned his head a little to face her again. "From the moment I laid eyes on Beth and realized she was my daughter, I loved her so much and I wanted to do everything right for her. I wanted to be the perfect daddy for her. Instead, I've done and said everything wrong."

Emily blinked away a tear that threatened to fall. "That's not true at all."

"She cried the whole time you were gone on Sunday." Morgan confessed. "I didn't want to tell you it was the whole time, because I thought you might never let me see her again. But.." he sighed with a heavy heart. "She sobbed through her lunch and she eventually hiccupped herself to sleep. Then I watched her wolf down her dinner that night and I felt liked I'd starved her."

"Oh, Derek..." Emily stopped him. "You didn't starve her. And she's been going through this clingy stage lately, she even cries when I leave her with Silvia. I should have told you, but you seemed so eager to spend time with her and I really wanted that for you and for her." She felt awful again for her part in Derek's struggle to connect with his daughter. "She loves you too," Emily told him. "Monday morning she wouldn't stop talking about you. Everything was about daddy." Emily regarded his silent eyes and made one last stab at trying to cheer him up. "Derek, perfection is a myth. No one is perfect."

"Beth is perfect," he countered.

Emily smiled. "You think that because she's your daughter. I think she's perfect too, but she's only two years old. She hasn't had time to make any mistakes yet, but she will. Some day she'll come home and tell us that she failed her math quiz or a spelling test. And during those angst-filled teen years, she will no doubt think that she hates us. Given that she's our daughter, she'll probably even say it to our faces. But she won't mean it, and she'll feel horrible about it and apologize. And we'll forgive her because we're her parents and we love her."

Morgan cracked a small smile, but he still didn't seem entirely convinced of her words. "How can you be so calm about this? Don't you worry about her?

"I worry all the time, Derek. Lately it's been about her language skills. There are these two girls in a playgroup we sometimes go to. Both are really close to Beth's age and they're already making four and five word sentences. Beth barely strings two words together at a time, but the pediatrician says she's right on track and that I shouldn't worry. And my mother told me that I only ever spoke three words until I was two and half; mommy, daddy and book. Then my vocabulary took off and I was speaking both English and French by age five," she shrugged.

"So, you've stopped worrying?"

"Heck no," she sighed. "You know what? In two years worth of this parenting business, I've only really learned one thing."

He was curious. "What?"

"That parenting is about ninety-nine percent love and one percent luck," Emily was glad to see the amusement in his eyes. "You've already got love on your side, Derek. The way I see it, that means you've got ninety-nine percent of this parenting thing under control."

Derek laughed softly. "I think Reid would appreciate that parenting statistic of yours."

She sensed he was trying to change the subject before his emotions get the better of him. Emily swallowed nervously. "How is Reid?"

"He's missed you," Morgan replied. "He'd never come out and say that, but he was pretty upset about the way you left. The whole team was. But they still care about you, which is why they're here now doing their best to find you."

"I don't deserve their kindness." Emily bit down gently on her bottom lip. "I was in a pretty bad state when I left three years ago. I felt so guilty for what I made you do."

"Made me?" Derek looked her in the eye again. "Emily, you are sexy as hell and down right persuasive when you want to be, but you didn't make me do anything that night that I didn't want." The memories came flooding back. "Damn, woman, when you came to my door that night I thought I was dreaming, because I'd had that dream before," he revealed. "And you do deserve the team's kindness. Maybe we made a mistake, maybe we didn't, because I can't imagine a world without Beth in it. But whatever we did, wrong or right, it doesn't mean we're not worthy of love and friendship. And someone I admire very much told me there's a lot of forgiveness in love."

Emily finally let a tear escape. "Garcia?" she guessed.

"Garcia," he grinned, wiping her tear away.

"I've missed her," Emily breathed out. "And Reid, JJ... even Rossi and Hotch." Several more deep breaths helped settle her emotions. "Well, this has been very cathartic."

"Yeah," Derek chuckled. "And it only took us being locked together in a small room to start talking things out." He knew there were still much deeper subject matters to be talked out in the future, but for the time being he really wanted their easier conversation to keep rolling. "There's something else very important I need to tell you about when I was watching Beth on Sunday."

Emily looked a little worried. "What?"

"Well..." he rubbed the back of his neck, kneading the sore muscles there. "I searched through your kitchen cupboards and there's nothing remotely sweet to eat in your whole house. I mean, seriously. Nothing with cream filling or chocolate covered..."

"I always keep some dark chocolate in the freezer," she protested.

"Dark chocolate?" he scrunched up his nose. "Come on, Emily. How is a child supposed to grow up without some Oreo cookies or a bag of M&Ms once in a while?"

She laughed for the first time in days. It felt good, and she knew he'd done it on purpose. Even three years later, he was still the only one who really knew how to ease her troubles. Emily hadn't understood just how much she'd missed him until that very moment. "So, instead of perfect dad, now you're going for spoil-her-rotten daddy?" Emily teased. "In that case I'll be sure to send all the dentist bills to you in Virginia..." Emily groaned, realizing she'd gone just a little too far.

Derek didn't let her comment get to him, though. He knew she was trying. He was trying too. It was still just a little bit bumpy. But he also knew they couldn't waste any more time trying to traverse that rocky road at the moment. They needed to find a way out if they ever hoped to try and spoil their daughter. He stood up slowly, using the wall to brace himself. "Oh, shit..." Morgan hissed as he made it up to full height.

"What's wrong?" Emily got to her feet.

He shook his head and gritted his teeth. "It's nothing."

"Right... I forgot that in the Derek Morgan dictionary, 'oh shit' means nothing." She could plainly see him favoring his left shoulder. "Would you let me look at it?" Emily noticed a nod and took that as her cue to push his black t-shirt to one side. "Derek, its about fifty different colors. I think something might be broken. What happened?"

"I was hit by something... hard." He flinched as she let the shirt snap back into place. "And then there was this pipe that eventually knocked me out," he needlessly pointed to the gash across his forehead. Morgan pushed away from the wall and gave his legs a try. His whole body was stiff, but after a few minutes of stretching his legs he was getting around fine. Derek quickly scanned the room and turned to her. "I have a plan, we're going to need to work together on it."

Emily nodded. "Working together was never our problem," she replied. "So, what's your plan?"

He pointed to the wall behind her. "You're going to crawl through that vent duct up there."

"Oh, really?" She looked at him like he was crazy, even though he remained dead serious. "Shall I wait for a radio-active spider to come along and bite me so I can use my super-grip power to climb the wall? Derek, it's at least twenty feet up there."

"I'd say closer to twelve," he fired back, though he couldn't help be amused that she knew how Spiderman had gained his super powers. "If you stand on my shoulders you should be able to reach it just fine."

Her mouth gaped open. "Stand on your, very likely, broken shoulder?

He lifted his left arm and raised it above his head, grimacing the whole time. "I've broken my collar bone before and I couldn't do that," Derek slowly lowered the limb. "I don't think anything is broken. I imagine it was just a nerve cluster that got hit, which is why it hurts so bad. It'll be fine," Morgan was confident. "And you can stand more on the right side." He watched her silently staring at him, a massive frown marring her otherwise beautiful face. "The other option is we let our daughter become an orphan."

Emily had almost forgotten how well he knew how to push her buttons. She walked toward the area below the vent as he positioned himself in front of her, his back against the wall for extra support. "So, I'm just supposed to leave you here alone?" Emily asked, resting one hand on his right shoulder in preparation to climb up.

"I'm a big boy," he assured her.

She was less than convinced as her feelings for him came creeping back to the surface. "I'm sorry I was upset with you about being here and... for..." she sighed, feeling his warm breath so close to her face. Emily didn't think as she leaned forward, closing the tiny gap between them. She initiated the kiss, but he deepened it. Their lips tingled and hearts raced as both of them searched for the spark that had lit between them three years ago. It was still there; not hard to find. But it had to be left to smolder again as Emily finally broke away. "We can just pretend that was..."

"An afraid-we-both-might-die kiss?" he supplied. Derek nodded, knowing it was just one more thing to add to the list of topics they'd need to talk about later. "Here," he laced his hands together and boosted her up. Her weight instantly dug into his right shoulder as she stood, but he steeled himself against the pain. "Can you reach?"

"Barely," Emily tugged one bottom corner of the vent screen and was pleased when it came off easily. She carefully handed it down to him while trying to remain steady upon his shoulders. "I..." she stood on the tiptoes of her bare feet. "My fingers are only brushing the bottom edge. I can't get high enough to pull myself up."

Morgan took just a second to think before offing a new suggestion. "Stand on my head."

"Derek, no," she protested, already thinking she might cripple him for life by being on his shoulders.

"We have no other options," he returned in a forceful tone. "And once you're in the vent, don't talk to me down here. Things could echo really loudly in there. Just get out and find help. Now, are you ready?"

She took one last deep breath. "Okay, on three..." Emily and Derek counted off together.

To Be Continued...