At 7:45 the team pulls up in front of the house in Baltimore in two SUV's. They see Emily on the front lawn talking to a uniformed Secret Service officer. She turns to greet them and JJ winces. Obviously Emily had not had a chance to get any sleep.
"She's looking bad," Reid notes.
JJ nods. "Yeah, she is. So let's do what we can to help her end this thing."
Reid just nods, still not sure what he's feeling for Emily. The team approaches her as the officer walks away.
"Hi. Thanks for this. I know you all must be exhausted," she greets them.
"You don't look like you got much sleep either, kid," Rossi says, the affectionate nickname slipping out to both his and Emily's surprise.
Emily manages a small smile. "Understatement of the week, Rossi. The house is three levels and the cell left evidence on each floor. It's all as it was last night. I made sure of that already."
"Are you going to help us with the profile?" Reid asks.
She shakes her head. "I'll be with you to answer any questions you may have but I know too much to give an objective profile. I'd rather get a fresh look at it."
The team nods and follows her into the house. She steps back and gestures that the place is theirs. Hotch looks at his profilers.
"JJ, Morgan, start at the basement. Rossi, Reid, start upstairs." The duos head off. Hotch glances around and confirms he is alone with Emily. "Garcia is already working on the search you requested. She said it could take all day."
Emily nods. "That's fine. I'd rather have I right than have it quickly."
He nods. They stare at each other a moment. He starts to turn away.
"I was wrong," she says quietly. He turns back. "Yes, I'm still mad but I was wrong to say it the way I did. I respect you, Hotch, and that outburst was just a shitty way to handle things. Do we need to have a long talk? Yes. But please know I still respect you as a profiler."
"And as a team leader? As your boss?"
"As I said…we need to have a long talk," she reiterates.
He actually grins. "I'll take that for now. I should have sent Rossi or gone myself. I know that and I'm kicking myself everyday for that mistake."
"I know. That's why I can still look at you. But it was pointed out to me if Morgan hadn't gotten reinjured I wouldn't have been so furious about the assignment. Heck, Morgan and I were laughing and joking even after that. The fury didn't set in until…until Blair had me. And I know I have some culpability in that. I put too much faith in his m.o. and the profile and put myself in a bad situation by going off alone. Like I said, we need to have a long talk."
"Agreed. So let's help you find these bastards and try to put our team back together."
Emily nods, giving him a real smile. "Sounds like a solid plan."
JJ and Morgan had gotten to the bottom of the steps and stopped. Morgan took a quick whiff of the air and groaned.
"Ammonia."
"Yep," JJ agrees. "Let's see what else we can find."
The two agents start to go through the rubbish strewn throughout the area. JJ moves behind a small cabinet and starts to shake her head.
"Damn it." Morgan looks over. "Got a bunch of empty rat poison boxes."
"I've got nail boxes over here. They've been assembling the bombs already."
"Fuck, Morgan." JJ steps to the stairs. "Prentiss? You got a second?"
Emily had been about to look in the kitchen cabinets when she hears JJ's call. She goes downstairs.
"What's up?"
Morgan holds up the boxes. "Nails and rat poison. All empty. Lots of them."
"Fuck. They've built them already," Emily concludes.
"These men are well trained. We've got fertilizer leftovers, these boxes and the stench," he points out. "Typical terrorist bomb including the poison on the shrapnel to hamper blood clotting," Morgan states.
"What's your thought on ages?"
"Hard to say from this. They could get the training they need online or at a training camp."
"How big a bomb are we talking?"
"A couple big ones or several small ones," he replies.
Emily thinks back to the training exercise. "Hogan's Alley. My role was several bombs placed in strategic locations around D.C." Her jaw clenches. "I'm missing information. I need to make a call."
She storms upstairs, hitting Harlan's number as she goes. "Harlan, what the hell haven't I been told?"
Harlan is confused. "What are you talking about?"
"My team was put through a pointless drill in Hogan's Alley but my role as the terrorist rings eerily similar to what I'm seeing here. What the hell has been withheld from me or the task force?"
Harlan is silent a moment. "I had no idea about the drill. If someone is holding information back I don't know who."
"Start with the head of the Secret Service. He observed the drill."
"On it."
They disconnect. Emily takes a steadying breath. "Seems like nothing has changed in the way information is sent out to the members of a task force," she mutters. She stares out the window, anger emanating off of her for an hour as the team does their thing.
Hotch walks into the room. "You okay?"
"No. But that will be dealt with later. Any impressions so far?"
"This place is very clean. If they left in a hurry it doesn't show that."
Emily nods. "True. That leads me to think older, experienced. Probably ready to die for the cause."
"Aren't they all?"
Emily shrugs. "Yes and no. Younger terrorists always think there is more for them to do. Older ones tend to think it's time to report to Allah personally. Plus the neatness tells me they know not to leave anything important behind."
Hotch nods in agreement. "What did Morgan and JJ need?"
Emily tells them what was found. "I've called Harlan. This stinks like we're missing information. He's going after it."
"Good idea."
Their conversation ends as Reid and Rossi come back downstairs. Emily looks at them hopefully.
"Find anything?"
Rossi nods. "A lot. None of it good."
"There are a lot of communications in Arabic. You may want to translate them yourself in case they are pertinent," Reid states.
Emily nods. "I will. One of my men will help with them once we take them into evidence." Morgan and JJ join them. Emily crosses her arms across her chest. "So, take some time to compare notes. I'll be outside." She pauses. "Thank you for doing this for me."
Hotch nods. "Glad to help."
Emily goes outside and starts to pace. Inside, the team stands in a circle.
Hotch starts. "Older, probably 40's. Been part of the movement for some time and are ready to make the ultimate statement."
"Organized, controlled, detail oriented," Rossi continues.
"At least one is not only smart enough to assemble the bombs but also skilled enough to do so without setting them off when moving out unexpectedly," Reid notes.
"What if it wasn't so unexpected?" JJ says. "Emily is concerned they were tipped off. Would they still need to be skilled if they had time?"
Reid nods. "They would still have to know they were not going to accidently detonate while being moved. He had to be sure his WMD's would only go off when he wanted."
"So he has experience, then?" she asks.
"Definitely, which is why Hotch is spot on with the age," Rossi tells her.
JJ nods, glad she is getting a firsthand education in profiling terrorists but not liking why it is happening.
"Though they are on the run from this location we can assume they won't be forced into acting before they want," Hotch says. "They will be willing to wait until the right moment. They won't be swayed into trying a different target like we saw in Ames. They know their goal and they will stay focused on it."
Reid had been scanning information in his head. "For a mission-based killer, we always profile the potential victims, too. The alleged goal is the Houses of Congress. Do we know why?"
Morgan shrugs. "Could just be to throw the country into chaos if the lawmakers are hit."
"Is there anything happening this week or month that would make them a more visible target?" Reid continues.
JJ pulls out her phone and calls Garcia to see if she can check for anything on the Congressional schedule. Rossi is slowly looking around the house.
"Does it seem strange to anyone but me that the BPD gets an anonymous tip about this house too late to do anything? What exactly was the report that was made?"
"What are you thinking, Rossi?" Hotch asks.
"What if we were meant to find this? Secret Service and Capital Police will immediately ramp up security around the Capital Building. It's kind of morbid, but it will draw more people in to watch and see what will happen. I mean, yes, some people will see about this on the news and avoid D.C. but others will want to be on the frontline, hoping to get the picture or video that will get them on TV."
"So the terrorists called it in on themselves?" JJ says with confusion.
"Could have. Think about it: more people equals more casualties equals more attention. If they do have multiple explosives they will have a chance to detonate several times as more and more first responders flood the area."
"This could be a larger attack plan than Prentiss is aware of," Hotch finishes. He takes a deep breath. "I understand if no one wants to be part of this considering the tension we have with her right now. I'm going to offer her our full support behind the scenes of her task force. We'll give them our profile but I want us to work this, too. If any of you want to take a few days off- -"
"Don't even go there, Hotch," Morgan interrupts. "This is about more than petty bullshit that can be dealt with later."
"I concur," Reid says.
JJ and Rossi both nod. Hotch nods. "Good. Let me go speak with Prentiss. You all double check each other here in the house. Make sure we've missed nothing before the Secret Service or CIA gets in here and cleans it out."
The team nods and goes to parts of the house they had not yet searched.
Outside Emily had been pacing. For one reason, to ease her tension. For the second, to keep from falling asleep. She was now approaching 28 hours with no sleep and was being reminded once again she is not as young as she used to be. When her phone rings she answers without looking at it.
"Prentiss."
"Emily? Are you okay?"
Emily sighs. "Yes, Mother. Sorry. Didn't look at the caller i.d. before I answered."
"Ah, okay. I just wanted to say goodbye. Sandy and I are on the way to the airport. Honey, if you need anything as you and JJ start to work on things we are both here for you."
Emily nods. "I know, Mother. Thank you. Have a good flight back to London."
"Thank you, sweetheart. I love you. Here's Sandy."
"Love you, too, Mom."
"Emily, did you get any sleep?" Sandy asks immediately.
Emily sighs. "Not yet. I'll probably catch a nap soon."
"Well, take care of yourself. Running yourself until you get sick won't do anyone any good."
"I know. I'll rest soon. Promise."
"Okay. Good luck with the case and, more important to me, with getting things settled with JJ and your friends."
"Thank you, Sandy. I promise to keep working on making things better again."
"I know you will, Emily. I love you."
"Love you, too, Sandy."
Emily hangs up and puts the phone back in her pocket. If both her mother and mother-in-law have that much faith in her who is she to doubt herself? She would do what she needed to do to clear the personal with the team. And she would go above and beyond to repair the cracks in her relationship with JJ.
"Prentiss."
Emily turns as Hotch approaches. "Yes, sir?"
He looks around to confirm they are alone. "I have a proposition for you." He quickly makes the offer to work in the background of the case. "Our general feeling is this is far more advanced than you've been made aware of and we want to prevent unnecessary deaths."
Emily's eyes tear up. Regardless of her temper tantrum and horrible attitude towards them, this team is still watching her back. She clears her throat before she speaks.
"Thank you, Hotch. I accept the help. I'd be a fool not to. And I know you offer this to help the country but I also know it's because of loyalty to me, even while I'm being a shit."
Hotch gives her his trademark grin. "We're all shits at some point, Emily. We'll solve this case and deal with the other crap later. Deal?"
Emily nods. "Deal." Her phone rings and she sees it is Harlan. "Let me see what this is." She answers. "What's up, Harlan?"
"Bastards 'forgot' to give us the latest intel reports. This is bad, Prentiss. How soon will you be done at the house?"
"I think the team is wrapping up now. I'll be there soon."
"Good. If what we're seeing is right, we're looking at a window of about 5 days to find and neutralize the threat."
"Son of a bitch. Okay, I'll head that way now." She holds the phone away a moment. "Hotch, how soon until you all are ready to present a profile to my team?"
"They were just double checking everything. We can meet you at Murray Avenue in about an hour."
"Good. Harlan, the team will be ready in about an hour. Let's make sure we have anything for them that could affect their profile."
"Will do."
Emily pockets her phone. She relates the timeline Harlan has found. Hotch frowns.
"Think we need to get Garcia to dig a bit deeper than your team?"
"Maybe. Can you get her to check the 9-1-1 call that lead to this raid. Right now I'm not trusting anything that Secret Service is feeding us."
"Keep that distrust and it will keep you alive."
Emily gives a wry grin. "That's one of the things I remember about being on JTF-12. Some things never change. See you in D.C."
Hotch nods as he watches Emily stride across the yard to the government sedan she is using. He sees a tenseness in her shoulder and a determination in her stride her recognizes from her early days at the BAU. He hadn't realized how much she had changed until he sees this. No wonder she is so mad about what happened in Winslow. She probably flashed back to the days where she couldn't trust anyone to have her back and was sideswiped by the feelings this team had now done her the same way.
"Yes, we'll make this right, Emily. Something tells me you and I have a hell of a yelling match coming. There is fault with both of us and we'll get it all hashed out," he vows to her taillights.
He goes back inside to see where the team stands on giving the profile to the task force team.
