At the first sound of the automatic volley, JJ had dropped her phone and pulled her gun. Morgan had too but had been in the line of fire, taking shots to his chest, arm and leg, going down hard.
JJ screams out her warning, praying her phone is still connected. She fires a few times at the men up on the catwalk, striking one and scaring the other enough that he moves away. She grabs Morgan by the collar and drags him to cover between two crates and the wall.
"Morgan?"
"I'm…'kay," he says weakly.
JJ looks at him. "The fuck you are. Call for help, Morgan. Now!"
He nods. She reloads her main sidearm and pulls her clutch piece, taking a protective stance in front of her partner. Her eyes scan the catwalks as well as the ground in front of her.
She is trying to figure out a way to get Morgan out of the building when bullets rip the ground in front of her. She follows their path up to a man on a stairwell across from them. She squeezes off two shots. Obviously he thought he was too far away for her to get an accurate shot off. Obviously he is wrong.
She watches as both bullets strike him in the torso. They may not be kill shots but they drive him over the railing 20 feet to the ground. She knows he's out of the game.
"Okay, Prentiss, that's two hit, one for sure down. How many others are there?" she asks herself.
"Five…minutes…out," Morgan says.
JJ knows he's telling her the ETA of backup. If there are many more gunmen it may be too long. She scans the warehouse again. She eases her head around the side of the crate she is using for cover…and draws the fire of a third gunman.
"SHIT!" she shouts as the crate splinters, sending shards of wood at her face. She has just wiped them away when she sees the man dart across the open floor towards cover. He doesn't make it. One shot to the head stops him.
"Three down, 2 permanently," she scores for herself.
She is again scanning the catwalks when she feels something hit her cheek. Lifting her hand up she wipes blood away. Her eyes widen. She leaps away from the crates as bullets strike the floor where she'd been standing. Twisting in the air, she fires both guns up at the injured man above her. He stumbles back, falling over the railing. He is dead before he crashes into the crate Morgan leans against.
"Jayje…COVER!" Morgan screams with all he has.
JJ is now on her back fully exposed to any other shooters. She doesn't need Morgan's encouragement to scramble to cover behind another crate.
"Shit, shit, shit," she mutters. She is no longer where she can cover Morgan. "I have to get back there," she coaches herself. Taking the time to put her last full clip in her main gun, she pockets the partial clip. She needs to get 15 feet across the open floor to get to where she can protect Morgan. She eases up and looks over the crate she is behind…and it is riddled with gunfire. She drops down.
"Where the hell is he?" she asks herself. Replaying the scene in her mind, she thinks she knows where the shots came from. But he could have moved. She thinks about where he could go for a better angle and nods. Instead of moving towards Morgan, she spins out from behind the crate moving away from him, each gun pointed to a location he may be. The gunman, expecting her to go the other way is momentarily caught off guard. It gives JJ enough time to check both possible locations and fire before he ever does. He goes down, three shots to center mass.
"Five down, Prentiss. God, how many more can there be?"
She starts to ease her way back to Morgan. Even with her ears ringing from the shots in the cavernous building she can now hear the approaching sirens.
"Help's almost here, Morgan. Just hang on. You still with me?"
"Here," he says weakly.
"Good. Just hang on, buddy. We'll be out of here soon."
Movement to her right catches the corner of her eye. She turns and fires at the same time as this gun man does. He takes three hits to the chest. JJ slams backwards into the crate behind her, her breath forced out of her lungs from the impact into her vest of the two hits he got on her. Her foe falls dead. She falls gasping for air.
"Got…to…get…up…protect…Morgan…" she tells herself.
She is still trying to get back to her feet when the first few police officers storm into the building. Two race over to her and Morgan, allowing her to go ahead and drop to the floor as they cover them. Once she has her breath back, she looks at Morgan. He clutches the wound in his right arm; his left leg is bleeding profusely at the thigh. A hole in the middle of the "B" on his vest shows the third hit. She crawls over to him, pulling off her belt. Without a word, she quickly wraps it around his leg and pulls it tight to slow the bleeding.
"Nice…job…Jayje," he manages.
JJ forces a grin to her face, still panting after the hits and her exertions. "Someone…had to…save…yer…ass."
He grins as she collapses down beside him. When Hotch and Rossi race in a few minutes later they see two EMT's working on Morgan while another one is helping JJ get her vest off.
"JJ?" Hotch asks.
"Morgan…shot three times. Vest. Arm. Leg. Me. Vest. Twice. Fuck this shit hurts."
Rossi forces a smile to his face. "Would hurt worse without the vest, kid."
JJ laughs, then grabs her chest. "Shit. Stop. No jokes. Fuck. Tell Em I'm okay."
Hotch nods. "We will."
Just then the incident commander walks up. "Agent Jareau? I need your guns."
JJ nods and hands them over. Hotch looks at the IC.
"What's the initial report?"
"Six bastards ambushed your agents. Six bastards dead." He looks at JJ. "Nice job, Agent."
JJ just nods. As the IC walks off, Hotch looks at JJ. "Good entry?"
JJ nods. "Door was open. We were set up, Hotch. They fucking knew we were coming and laid in wait for us."
Hotch nods. "That's what I was afraid of." He winces as the EMT cuts off JJ's shirt. Her white sports bra is vibrant against the already deep purple and red bruising coming up on her torso. "The IC will probably have a cop ride with you to get your statement. We'll see you at the hospital later. Well done, Agent Jareau."
"Thanks."
As JJ is loaded onto a stretcher, Hotch and Rossi step closer to Morgan, trying not to interfere with the EMT's. One man looks up and sees the concerned agents.
"Lost a lot of blood but no major arteries hit. He'll be fine."
Hotch nods. "Good."
It worries him and Rossi that Morgan is unconscious. They both say prayers as he is loaded up and taken quickly out to a waiting ambulance. Though JJ had been loaded onto one before him, it is Morgan's that goes screaming out of the lot first.
Emily is finishing the last of the paperwork she has to fill out for ICE regarding the refugees when Reid gets a call.
"Hey, Hotch." He listens a moment. "I see. And their status?" Reid asks with concern.
The tone of Reid's voice pulls Emily from the paperwork in front of her. He glances at Emily then turns his back on her. Wrong move. Now she knows it's about JJ. She stands and moves in front of him.
"Right. I will. We should be done here soon. Tell Garcia to book us out on the next flight. We'll make it even if we have to finish with ICE later." He hangs up.
"What the hell happened?" Emily demands.
"JJ and Morgan went to check out the warehouse. They are okay. But they were ambushed. They had their vests on. JJ took a couple hits to her torso but she's okay. Well, you know how it still hurts like hell but mostly okay. Morgan took hits to the chest, arm and leg. He's in surgery. He should be fine."
Emily's rage is boiling. "And the fuckers that shot them?"
"JJ took out all 6 of them," he says proudly.
Emily stares at him a moment. "Six? Six men against them and she got them all?"
Reid nods. "Yes, she did."
Emily has pride in her eyes to counter the fear in her heart. "Damn she's so fucking good. Let's get the h-hey, they were ambushed?" she confirms with a frown.
Reid nods. "Yep. Hotch and Rossi are sure there had to have been a leak about where they were going. They're on it."
Emily stares at Reid. She slowly shakes her head. "It wasn't there."
She storms out of the room and down the hall. She goes into the office Catarina had been using and grabs the woman, slamming her against the wall.
"You made that fucking call. You warned them we had people on the way!"
Catarina tries to pry Emily's hands off her shirt but it's no use. "Yes! I had to tell my partner to get out of there! You all were going to ruin our investigation!"
Emily slams her against the wall again. "Your call got my wife and best friend shot, you stupid bitch!" She spins her around and pulls out her cuffs. "You are under arrest for 2 counts of assault with intent to kill on a Federal Officer, and aiding and abetting in human trafficking."
Catarina struggles to get away from Emily. "You can't DO this! I'm a Federal Officer, too!"
"You won't be by the time we're done with you!" Emily looks at Reid. "Tell Hotch we'll be a bit late. We're taking her to the federal lock-up before heading to Miami."
Reid nods. "Gladly."
