Ch 11 The Boiling Point
Once again they were forced to watch as this violent and vicious man attacked their friend and colleague. They watched as Emily tried in vain to fight him and it broke their hearts a bit more when she inevitably failed. The hardest part though was listening to her scream and watching her cry.
Anger and frustration began to reach an all time high with the BAU team. They were a team who came face to face with the worst Unsubs and serial killers out there and all they could do was watch. They were all desperately grasping at straws for something anything to do, everything they came up with lead straight to a dead end. And as inevitable as it was it was still shocking when they finally snapped.
"We are not going to let him kill her." Morgan yelled directly at Hotch.
"Of course we are not going to lose her to this man." Hotch yelled back.
"We have no clues, nothing to go on except some crazy tips from every nut case out there. The profile has given us nothing." JJ shot back at the profilers around her.
"There is nothing wrong with the profile." Reid replied calmly.
"Well there must be because this has never happened before so man up, say its wrong, and fix it." JJ growled at Reid.
"Reid is right there is nothing wrong with the profile we just have no suspects or leads to use it on." Rossi explained trying to calm everyone down.
"Someone out there knows this guy." Hotch countered.
"Oh so it's my fault I'm not correctly informing the public? Well guess what everything I tell them is exactly what you've told me to say so if there is a problem then it's because you told me the wrong things to say." JJ once again yelled at the others.
"This should never have happened in the first place she should never have been out there alone." Morgan shouted at Hotch.
"So what you are saying is you think this is my fault?" Hotch countered.
"Yeah" Morgan fired back.
"So you would have done something differently if you were in charge, maybe you think you still should be leader of this team." Hotch said attacking Morgan.
"I would have never sent her out there by herself." Morgan yelled.
"No, cause you always have her back, how is that working out so far." Hotch accused.
"Emily is not some helpless doll, she knows how to take care of herself she didn't need anyone going with her." Rossi said trying to defuse the situation brewing.
"Oh so it is Emily fault she got kidnapped and is now being tortured by this psycho." Morgan fired back.
"No I'm saying she wouldn't want you talking about her like she needs to be taken care of." Rossi explained anger creeping into his voice as well.
"Well it doesn't much matter how she would feel now does it because she isn't here and we have no idea where she is, he is going to kill her if we don't find her." Morgan raged once more.
"She is not going to die stop talking like that." Hotch yelled the fury clear in his voice, he was not going to let some horrible man take her from him.
"It's the truth this guy is going to put her in a glass box and watch her suffocate and we get to watch." JJ said dejectedly.
"Did you know statistically—" Reid tried to say but Rossi cut him off.
"I don't want to hear any damn statistics right now Reid."
"This is driving me crazy having to watch him hurt her over and over again and not being able to stop him why haven't we been able to track him down." JJ yelled at Garcia through the speaker phone sitting on the table.
"I am working on it, these things can take a lot of time you know." Garcia responded desperately trying to explain, she didn't want to be part of their fight in fact she had never hear her team fight like this.
"I thought you had your boy toy helping you shouldn't that make things go faster, that is if you two are even actually working." JJ spat venomously.
"I am working harder than you sitting there saying you don't have any clues. I am the one running everything down looking under every cyber rock so don't accuse me of not working." Garcia fought back insulted by JJ's comments.
"So what we leave her to die because we can't find anything?"Morgan raged, his anger had only grown since the argument began.
"No we are going to find her." Hotch yelled louder than anyone ever excepted to hear from him.
"You keep saying that but how, I don't hear any plan oh great leader." Morgan shouted back matching Hotch's tone, all sense of propriety had left the room long ago.
"If I could I would be breaking down every door in the city to find her." Hotch seethed his face inches away from Morgan's face.
"Yeah right you know lately I wonder if you really care about anything anymore." Morgan hissed as he forcefully pushed Hotch backwards.
"Go to hell Derek." Hotch shouted pushing Morgan even harder in return.
"It's true isn't it, do you even really care if we get a break." Morgan continued to vent his anger at Hotch.
"How dare you! I love that woman, you don't think I blame myself for sending her out there alone, for not being able to find her after four days. I can't stand watching that maniac hurt her and I have no way to stop him, it makes me want to tear this city down and rip that guy limb from limb. So don't say I don't care because if anything happens to her I have to tell my son that another woman he cares about isn't coming home."
He wasn't sure what else he would have said but before he had the chance to continue Emily interrupted him.
They immediately forgot their argument and turned to the computer screen. They listened intently to Emily's heart breaking speech. Even being held captive by an unsub couldn't diminish her sense of humor, and they couldn't help but laugh at a few of the things she said. It made them miss her even more and it was hard to watch as it became difficult for her to speak. And as much as she wanted to continue talking they wanted her to continue even more. Without Emily the team was like a puzzle with a missing piece and for a few moments it was as though they were whole again. But they all knew Emily needed to conserve her strength.
"You gotta stop talking honey we are going to find you please stop making your injuries worse." Dave said quietly, he had the fortitude to know she needed to stop and conserve her strength.
"I wouldn't stop talking if I were her; if she stops she had to accept that she will die sometime soon." JJ whispered back at him.
"It's ok Em rest now we are going to come get you I promise." Hotch said softly willing her to rest.
Finally when Emily could barely get the words out she finished her goodbye, reduced to gut retching sobs they watched her cry herself to sleep. They continued to watch her sleep for several minutes, each of them absorbing what she had said. No one wanted to break the silence for fear it would break the peaceful sleep that had taken over Emily. It took several minutes until Morgan finally turned to Hotch.
"I am really so sorry I didn't mean any of."
"I feel like a complete bitch, she's stuck in there about to die, saying all those nice things and I'm out here saying horrible things to everybody and what's my excuse I'm a little tired and hungry. I am so sorry you guys especially to you Pen I didn't mean it at all I think Kevin is great." JJ apologized as she took a seat at the conference table.
"It's okay JJ don't worry about it." Garcia squeaked out, it was clear she was crying .
"I think it's safe to say we're all sorry." Hotch said hoping they could work as a team once again.
"I am sorry Reid I would love to hear your statistics" Rossi commented.
"I don't think they are going to be of any help now, actually they will likely make everyone mad again and I really don't want to fight any more."
"Hotch I am so sorry I had no idea why I said any of that." Morgan said.
"It's okay; you only did it because you're frustrated and we are the only ones to take that frustration out on. We are all frustrated and we all blew up at the same times. This is not a normal case we have never been this stuck before." Hotch knew he needed to refocus the team if they were ever going to save Emily. "The profile is correct but no one seems to know this guy. On top of that we have to watch our friend get hurt with no way to stop him. This guy is playing a game with us, but we are going to get her back. I don't know how yet but we will because I will not let this sick bastard win."
"Still I'm sorry and we are going to get her back especially for you and Jack." Morgan said softly to Hotch. He nodded a silent acknowledgment to Morgan, he was still rather uncomfortable being open with is feelings.
"Okay no more fighting we got a lot to do and not much time to do it in." Rossi announced breaking the awkward silence that had settled in the room for a few seconds.
"Garcia how much time do you estimate it will take you to trace the video signal?"Hotch asked.
"We are still looking at about ten to twelve hours."
"See if you can speed that up, that is a little more time than Emily has."
"Also, right before the Unsub left the last time he looked right at the camera twice and I think if I play with the two images I can get a good picture to try and run through the facial recognition software. I am almost done cleaning up the image then I can run it through the software."
"Great when the picture is ready send it to JJ. JJ I want you to get that picture all over the news and then take it and compare it to every name we have received from the tip line. Reid help her, someone knows who he is, I know it. Morgan check out all the community colleges that teach welding and see if any of their students paid for their classes all in cash. We know that this guy buy everything with cash now maybe he buys everything this way. And I need you to talk to Detective Klein we are going to need some glass cutters a bunch of them, no pun intended but it looks like we are going to be cutting this one a little too close." Hotch ordered.
Everyone found something to do, each with a new sense of determination. Hotch stood therefore a moment staring at the screen and thought about the words Emily had said. He hoped that if this had never happened that Emily would have told him how she really felt. He knew that he was to blame. He was the one who told her that he wasn't sure if he could love again. He gave her no reason to hope that the two of them would have a future as anything more than friends. But in retrospect he had always hoped that there would be a future for them and it would have helped to know how she felt.
"How long have you had feeling for her?" Rossi asked him quietly.
"I don't know I can't remember anymore. But two months ago I did something, stupid I kissed her."
"That doesn't sounds stupid to me given the feelings you have." If Rossi was surprised at his actions he didn't show it.
"No the stupid part came after. I told her I couldn't promise her anything and I was nowhere near ready for a relationship. Basically I told her I wanted everything to stay the way it was before I kissed her."
"That's not stupid if you weren't ready why risk hurting her."
"But that's not why I did it, I was scared and didn't want the hassle of a relationship but I really believe that if this hadn't happened, if she wasn't hours away from being murdered that I would have kept things in neutral forever. How big of a jerk does that make me?"
"Silly, stupid even but not a jerk, sometimes we can't see what wonderful things are right in front of us until someone takes it away from us."
"You know how cliche that sounds right? Do you actually write those books of yourself?" He said with a sad smile. "But I do understand what you are saying and clearly you are correct. You know what she said after I asked her if we could keep things the way they were? She said 'I will take you any way I can get you' and then she said she would always be there for Jack and I no promises needed. God she is a better person that I."
"No she is just a very smart girl who is falling head over heels for you. You better bring her back." Rossi said with a smile as he walked away.
"I will" he said to himself, he would move heaven and hell for her and he hoped to kill the bastard who did this in the process. Under normal circumstances he tried his hardest to make sure the Unsub was taken alive but today he didn't care. He wanted revenge and he wanted Emily to be able to sleep peacefully at night knowing this monster could never hurt her again.
He hoped that this was a nightmare they would all walk away from and eventually forget. And if Emily had not been kidnapped that might have been possible but now it was a pipe dream, nightmares like this were never forgotten they were record with a scar forever. A scar that you had to find a way to live with.
Hotch really wished that he could tell Emily that he was falling in love with her too. He should have never taken back the kiss and what it meant. Instead he should have manned up and told her how he really felt. But he was scared and he wasn't ready to make decisions, when he kissed her his body got ahead of his head, at least that was what he thought when it happened. But now he was pretty sure his subconscious had already made the decision and it was the rest of him that needed to catch up.
He was ready now and he was still scared but he was now afraid of never getting her back alive. Nothing could change the fact that they still had to find her and it was a real possibility that they wouldn't be able rescue her in time. That thought kept echoing in his head and it was more than he could bare, he couldn't let it be an option because he wasn't sure if could do this job anymore if she died. Hell he wasn't sure if he could breathe if she didn't live. He wasn't sure if the team could survive this one if Emily Prentiss didn't come home. He knew Garcia would find her he just didn't know if it would be in time. But he was going to ready the moment she had a location.
A/N Again thank you all for the reviews. The next chapter should be up tomorrow (bare any editing issues) I promise everything starts coming together for the team. I hope you enjoy.