A/N: Sorry for the long wait, but I'm dancing 10 hours a week now and on top of my school projects I just haven't had time to write. Please read and review. As I always say, I DO NOT OWN CRIMINAL MINDS. ALL RIGHTS BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTFUL OWNERS. If I did own them, Jemily would have happened in the very first episode ;) Enjoy!
"FBI! Open up!" Morgan ordered as he pounded on Robert Hastings front door, gun drawn. When no one came to the door, the agents glanced back at Hotch and Rossi, who silently drew their guns and gave the man a nod. With a deep breath, Morgan spun around and gave the solid door a good, hard kick. The door fell to the ground on the other side, a loud bang echoing throughout the house. With a nod, Morgan slowly entered the house, followed by Hotch and Rossi, J.J and Reid covering the end.
"J.J, you and Reid clear the first floor. Rossi, Morgan and I will check the basement." Hotch ordered, beginning to follow Morgan into the kitchen. The blonde woman refused to move.
"No" she said defiantly. Hotch looked at her, stunned. He had never once been spoken to like that by Jennifer. Not once in the past seven years.
"What? J.J, need I remind you that I am the one –"he was cut off by the now slightly angry agent.
"Yes, I know that Hotch. But it's my fault Emily...god damn it, Hotch. If Em's in that basement, I need to...I need to be there Hotch. Please." J.J all but begged, her emotions threatening to escape. But in true Emily Prentiss fashion, she steeled her insides. If Emily was in that basement and she wasn't...no. She wasn't losing hope. Emily was still alive. She was going to talk to her again, and apologize for this happening to her, and... J.J was brought back to reality by Hotch's voice.
"Fine. J.J, you come with Rossi and I. Morgan and Reid, clear the house." He ordered. Morgan nodded, now slightly discouraged. But he knew better than to argue with Hotch, so he followed Reid down a dimly lit hallway. Hotch nodded towards the basement door, and together the three agents moved slowly to the kitchen, guns drawn, ready to shoot and kill the son of a bitch that took their best friend.
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Emily let out a groan of pain as her broken and bruised body hit the hard, cold floor.
"I'll be back for you later." Robert sneered at the dazed agent who was half lying on the floor. With a sick smile, the man pulled the heavy door shut behind him and the sound of a dead bolt could be heard on the other side. The room was suddenly thrust into darkness, and Emily had to fight hard to stay awake. Those drugs were certainly working. Her head spun as she attempted to stand up, not even straightening her knees before she crumpled to the ground with a loud sigh.
"Who's there?" a voice asked from somewhere in the darkness. Emily jumped and immediately held up her hand to try and protect herself. The voice spoke again. "Who's there? I'm not going to hurt you." Emily thought the voice sounded like a teenage girl's, probably no more than 20 years old, at the most.
"I...I'm Emily. Where are you?" Emily asked hoarsely, her throat dry and twanging with pain. A dark figure slowly made their way over to wear Emily lay on the floor, attempting to protect herself. The figure reached above her head and pulled a chain, illuminating part of the cold room.
Emily blinked drowsily and took a moment to look around the room, her mind slowly clearing. It looked like Robert had locked her in another basement of some sort. The floor was different from Robert's though...this was one was cold, hard cement. The walls weren't much either, just concrete blocks stacked on top of each other and painted once over with a now peeling coat of grey paint. Cobwebs hung from the rafters on the ceiling. When Emily's gaze locked on the other person, she was startled at what she saw.
A young girl, probably around eighteen years old stood in the centre of the room. She had long, dirty blonde hair and bright blue eyes that reminded her of J.J's. The girl was fairly tall, probably 5"6' or 5"7'. She wore a dirty, tattered nightgown, and her arms were wrapped snugly around middle section. The girl was dirty and looked like she hadn't seen sun in a while.
"Who...who are you?" Emily asked quietly, pulling herself into a sitting position. The girl slowly walked towards the older woman on the floor, kneeling down beside the broken woman.
"I'm Hallie. Hallie Fields. Are you here because of Robert too?" the girl, Hallie, asked. Emily nodded her head.
"How long have you been here, Hallie?" Emily asked quietly, slowly moving to a sitting position. Her head ached and her body throbbed, and she was freezing cold. Looking down, she noticed she was still only wearing her bra and panties.
"I don't know... a couple of weeks, maybe a month." Hallie said simply with a shrug of her shoulders. All of the days blurred into each other after a while. She could have been down there for three months for all she knew. Emily sighed with a shake of her head.
"And no one reported you missing?" she asked the blonde girl. Hallie shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know. After I came out to my parents as a lesbian, they disowned me. Said they didn't want anything to do with me. I wouldn't be surprised if they never reported me missing." Hallie explained to the older woman. Emily sighed once again. She could relate to that feeling.
"I'm sorry Hallie." The brunette told the other captive.
"I'm sure the police will find us soon." Hallie said, stretching a hand out to the older woman. Emily felt the urge to pull away, but she didn't want to frighten the girl and so she let her place her cold hand on her arm. Emily laughed at Hallie's statement. "What's so funny?" the girl asked inquisitively.
"I'm Special Agent Emily Prentiss. I work for the Behavioural Analysis Unit of the FBI. " Emily began. "I am the police."
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J.J followed Hotch down the staircase to the basement, with Rossi making up the rear. Hotch turned around and gestured to the dark basement, gun drawn and ready to shoot. The three agents crept into the darkness, J.J flipping on the light switch.
"FBI!" the blonde agent yelled as her eyes adjusted to the new found brightness of the basement. The agents aimed their guns around the basement. As they looked around, all three of them sighed. They had certainly found their unsub's lair; but no one was in it.
Just as Emily had told J.J, the basement smelled like rotting corpses. Their victims had definitely been held captive here, both before and after death. In the far corner sat two sets of shackles; hands and feet, which were drilled into the stone wall. An old, wooden table sat in the middle of the cold room. A series of knives were laid out in perfect precision on a smaller table to the side. The floor was stained with what looked to be blood. A cabin with a padlock sat against the wall next to the staircase. The agents prayed to God that the blood wasn't Emily's.
"Morgan, we're all clear down here. No sign of the unsub." Hotch said into the radio attached to his shoulder. A moment later, Morgan replied.
"We're clear up here too Hotch. Reid and I'll meet you outside." He told his boss. During the short conversation, Rossi and J.J had put on gloves and begun searching the basement for any sign of Emily. J.J let out a gasp, causing the two men to rush to her side.
"What is it?" Rossi asked, worried that she had hurt herself. J.J bent down and picked up light gray hoodie off the floor, blood covering a good part of it. A bloody knife clattered to the floor with a dull thud when she lifted it up.
"This is Emily's sweater...she must have put it on when she woke up this morning...she fell asleep in her church clothes..." the blonde muttered, starring off into space. Rossi took the sweater from her and placed it back where J.J had found it. Peeling off his gloves, he wrapped an arm around the shaken woman's shoulders and spoke softly.
"Okay, well at least we know Robert has her now J.J. C'mon, let's get you upstairs. I'll take you back to the police station and you can stay with Garcia for a bit, alright?" he asked her. Rossi knew that if the blonde woman stayed down there for much longer she was going to lose it, and they couldn't let that happen right now. Everyone's heads needed to be in the game if they were going to find Emily before she died.
"Don't treat me like a victim, Rossi." J.J snapped, but then she sighed. Dave didn't even flinch at her words; he had been waiting for them. "But yes. I'd like to go back to the station." She continued, moving towards the staircase. Rossi turned to Hotch, the latter giving the older man a nod.
"Go ahead. I'll call crime scene. Reid, Morgan and I got this." He told him as the two men followed J.J up the stairs.
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Back at the police station, J.J sat with Penelope in silence, simply starring off into space. The women had been sitting there for over two hours in complete silence, waiting for the team to call them with news. As far as the blonde agents knew, the rest of the team was still at Robert's house, trying to figure out where the bastard could have taken Emily. Finally, the silence became too much for J.J to bear.
"I'm going to go get some coffee...you want anything PG?"
"Half caf, extra shot venti, two pump non-fat hold the whip caramel macchiato." Garcia said quietly, looking up at J.J. She couldn't help but giggle at the woman's stunned face. "You know what; I'll just have a large coffee. Three sugarsand two milks. And wait-"Garcia added, reaching into the purse that sat at her feet. She pulled out her wallet and passed her friend a twenty dollar bill. "It's on me sunshine." Garcia added with a smile. J.J gave her a sad smile as she took the money and walked out the front doors into the early afternoon heat of Raleigh. A phone rang in the background of the noisy police station.
Just as the door shut behind the blonde woman, Morgan, Hotch, Rossi and Reid walked into the police station, grim looks on their faces. Garcia shot up from her seat and rushed over to the men standing by the front doors.
"Oh, please tell me you found her." She pleaded. Morgan looked at her sadly.
"No baby girl, we didn't. But we'll keep looking, I promise. We're going to find her." He told the colourful technical analyst. Garcia nodded sadly as an officer walked up to the group.
"Agents, the state trooper just called. They just found two more bodies. Looks like our killer struck again." He said grimly.
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Meanwhile in Robert's lair, Emily attempted to comfort a crying Hallie. The blonde girl had started crying after Emily had told her she was the police; and that was half an hour ago.
"Hey, Hallie. It's going to be okay. My team's going to find us. We're going to be alright, okay?" Emily told the blonde woman who reminded her so much of Jennifer.
"He...he killed my girlfriend. He killed Lauren." Hallie said between sobs. Emily sighed and continued to rub soothing circles on her back; it was all she could do, and even that hurt. The agent would have much rather pulled the broken girl into a hug, but the cuts (she counted five) stung in the damp air of the room. Her ribs were peppered with quickly forming bruises, and the skin around her wrists and ankles had been rubbed raw. Emily was in no shape to be hugging someone.
Eventually, Hallie calmed down enough to talk. Emily took a deep breath and brushed the messy blonde hair out of the younger woman's eyes.
"How old are you Hallie?" she asked quietly. Hallie hiccupped softly before answering.
"I'm 21" she said softly. Emily was surprised at this. She didn't think Hallie was even over 18.
"Wow, I would have never guessed that. I thought you would be like 18." The agent said truthfully. Hallie smiled slightly at that comment.
"I get that a lot" she said. Emily smirked.
"I bet. Hallie, I need to tell you something very important, okay?" Emily asked the other woman. Hallie nodded her head.
"Alright" she said quietly. Emily took another deep breath.
"I'm on an undercover assignment right now, with another agent on my team, Jennifer. We had to pretend we were a couple so we could figure out who was killing all of these women. I –"she was cut off.
"So, you're not a lesbian?" Hallie asked, confused. Emily smiled slightly.
"No, I am. You didn't let me finish. As I was saying, I'm on an undercover assignment. If Robert comes back in here, you can't tell him about me, alright? To him, I'm a retired business woman who is married to my wife, Jennifer. If he finds out the truth, it may be dangerous, for both of us. Can you do that?" Emily asked seriously. Hallie nodded her head, making Emily smile slightly.
As Emily was about to ask Hallie another question, the blonde girl lunged toward the cord attached to the light, pulling it and encasing the room in darkness.
"What was that...?" Emily asked, only to be interrupted by the younger woman.
"He's coming. He'll beat you again if he sees the light on. Just lie down and pretend we weren't talking." Hallie explained quickly, dashing back into the corner she was originally sitting in. Emily lied down as quickly as she could, trying to hold back her grunts of pain and the new wave of tears that stung the back of her eyes. Hallie hadn't shut the light off for her own safety; it had been for Emily's. The girl was more worried about the other woman than herself.
Now that the room was quiet, Emily could in fact hear the creaking of floor boards above her head, giving the profiler reason to believe that Robert had locked her and Hallie in a basement of some sorts. A sinking feeling began to settle it's self in the older woman's stomach; Robert wasn't coming for her. He was coming for Hallie. Taking her chances, Emily took a deep breath and whispered the four words that she knew were going to be the last that Hallie ever heard.
"You're not alone Hallie" she said, causing a small sob to echo from the dark corner of the basement. Hallie knew what Emily meant by her statement. Robert was coming for her. He was going to kill her, just like he had killed Lauren and Tatiana and all those other women.
As if on cue, the heavy door was pulled open and the room was filled with light from what looked like a hallway. Robert laughed evilly at the sight of Emily still lying on the basement floor, bruised and broken. He stepped over the woman and walked quickly to the corner he knew Hallie to be in; grabbing her by the hair and dragging her across the floor, the woman kicking and screaming the entire time.
Under normal circumstances, Emily would have attempted to defend Hallie, but her bruised and broken body would simply not allow her to. And so Emily lay on the basement floor, watching with tears in her eyes as Hallie was dragged out of the basement. Not even the heavy door, once closed, could silence the terrified cries of the young blonde woman.
The cries continued for what seemed like forever to the agent who was now sitting on the basement floor, but in reality only lasted about a minute or two. Hallie's terrified and desperate cries were silenced by two loud gunshots that echoed throughout the building, ringing in Emily's ears.
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J.J returned to the police station with two cups of coffee in hand to find Garcia sitting at her desk, tears streaming down her cheeks. A sick feeling twisted in the blonde's stomach; it had to be something about Emily. She rushed over to the desk and set the coffee down, tapping the colorful woman on the shoulder.
"Garcia, what happened? Did they find Emily?" J.J asked nervously. Garcia spun around in her chair and looked at the profiler through the tears in her eyes. Garcia shook her head.
"I…I don't know. They…they found two more bodies…and they said that it looked like it was Robert's doing…but that's all they said. The boys are there right now. Oh J.J." she cried, falling into J.J's open arms. The latter wanted to burst into tears as well; but she knew that if she did, it would just make Garcia even more upset. So she just held the sobbing woman close, rubbing soothing circles on her back.
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"Hotch, what do we tell J.J if this is Prentiss?" Morgan asked the man in the seat next to him as he drove the government SUV as quickly as possible across town to their dump site. Hotch sighed with a shrug of his shoulders.
"We tell her the truth. Look, I know this may be extremely hard for our team. But we need to hold it together; for ourselves, for J.J, and especially for Emily. Okay? If you feel as though you cannot do that, I don't want you to get out of this vehicle. Are we clear?" Hotch asked his team. The other three agents agreed to his conditions as Morgan parked on the other side police tape.
Together, the four FBI agents got out of the SUV and flashed their badges to the uniform on crowd control, who lifted the tape up for them to walk under. They rushed over to where the two bodies lay on the side of the road. They let out a collective sigh of relief when they saw who the people were.
They weren't Emily. Both of the women looked to be about 20 years old, with cuts across their chests and stomachs. One of the women's cuts looked to be almost completely healed; the other's red, raw and almost bleeding. The thing that struck the men as odd was the bullet holes in both the women's heads and lower abdomens. These kills were different than the others.
"Hotch, he's escalating." Morgan said, knowing full well what that meant for their chances of finding Emily alive. Rossi and Reid sighed loudly, starring at the two women who lay dead on the side of the road. Such young women, taken much too early and simply because they were gay. Morgan shuddered at the thought of Emily in the hands of Robert. To J.J this was all an act. If Robert spit horrible, derogatory insults at her, they didn't mean anything. But if he called Emily those things, they actually meant something to her. This wasn't an act. This was who she was. This was her life.
"I know. We need to head back to the station and figure out where the hell that bastard took Prentiss." Hotch said as his phone rang. He excused himself as he answered it, walking away from the other men to somewhere a bit quieter.
"It doesn't make any sense. Why shoot these girls twice? It's extreme overkill. If they were shot in the head first, which it looks like they were...they would have already been dead. So why shoot them in again?" Rossi asked, puzzled. Reid cleared his throat, causing the other two men to turn and look at him.
"It's a sign of anger, most likely directed at his ex-wife. He shot them in the head, but he also shot them in the uterus...he's making it so they can't have children. It's almost like he's getting his wife back for taking their sons." He explained to the others. Rossi and Morgan shivered. This wasn't looking good.
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Back in the basement, Emily had pulled herself to a sitting position once again, once the haunted cries of Hallie Fields stopped ringing in her ears. How could Robert have killed such a young girl? Hallie had so much to live for. She was only 21 years old.
That's when Emily began to cry; and not a few tears here and there. Full on hysterics that shook her whole entire body. What if she died in that basement? What if she never got to see J.J's face again? What if she never had the opportunity to tell her the truth?
Emily cried for what seemed to like an hour, wherein reality it was probably no more than twenty minutes. When her sobs finally calmed down to nothing more than a sniffle or two, she heard footsteps upstairs. Two sets of them. She choked back her tears and stuffed her feelings into one of her many mental compartments, resting her pounding head back against the cold brick.
The door opened and flooded the basement with light; Emily could see an old, wooden stair case that lead to a room upstairs. A cross hung on the wall. She had seen that wooden cross before; she just couldn't remember where.
"Emily, I brought you a friend." Robert said sinisterly, throwing another person into the basement. Emily couldn't quite make out who the person was; it was too dark. What she could see was that the person was small; not a child, but definitely not an adult either. Judging by the groan of pain as their body made contact with the floor; Emily could tell it was a young girl.
The person remained on the floor, moving ever so slightly. Emily could tell the young girl was terrified from the whimpers of fear she let out every so often. Robert laughed from the doorway, throwing into the room a paper bag. With one last laugh, he pulled the door shut behind him. The clinking of the deadbolt was heard from the other side of the door.
The FBI agent waited a moment while Robert's footsteps got quieter and quieter upstairs, until they ceased all together. Very slowly, Emily moved to stand up and walked blindly to where she remembered Hallie pulling the light. The woman slowly pulled the cord hanging from the ceiling; encasing the room in a dim, yellow light. Emily couldn't help but let out a gasp at who was lying on the floor.
A petite, frail girl lay on the basement floor. She had long, chocolate brown hair that currently fell over face, effectively hiding it from view. The girl looked to be about 16 years, and it absolutely broke Emily's heart that someone so young had fallen victim to this horrible man's crimes. The girl wore a tight fitting pair of jeans and a light pink t-shirt that reminded her of what J.J had worn to church the previous day.
Slowly, as to not frighten the girl anymore, Emily knelt down on the floor and rested a hand gently on the girl's shoulder. The young girl flinched away from the contact and let out a whimper of fear.
"Shh. It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here because of that man too." Emily whispered softly, trying to coax the girl out of her fetal position. Slowly, the scared girl uncurled herself and looked up at Emily, her big brown eyes full of fear. Emily smiled softly, trying to be reassuring.
"It's okay. I'm not going to hurt you honey. My name's Emily. Emily Prentiss. What's yours?" the older woman asked. The girl on the floor began to cry again.
"I...I'm Sutton. Sutton...Sutton Moore." She said quietly. Emily smiled.
"That's a really pretty name. I like that name. How old are you Sutton?" the older woman asked kindly. Sutton reached a hand up and wiped away a tear from her cheek.
"I...I'm 15. Why am I here Emily?" Sutton told Emily, crying again. Emily sighed when she heard just how young this girl was. She thought about it for a moment, trying to decide how to phrase the inevitable question she had to ask the young the girl.
"Sutton...are you...do you like girls?" Emily asked softly. The young girl on the floor burst in to hysterics, answering Emily's questions without any words needed. With a sigh, Emily reached down and ever so carefully, trying to avoid hurting herself or Sutton, pulled the young girl close to her so that her head rested on the agent's legs.
"How...how does he know? I haven't even told...my...my parents yet!" Sutton sobbed. Emily rubbed soothing circles on the hysteric girl's back for what seemed like hours, until Sutton sobs had calmed down a great deal. Looking down at the girl in her lap, Emily noticed something odd about Sutton's jean pocket. It looked like she had a phone in there.
"Sutton...do you have a phone in your pocket?" the agent asked the teenager. The girl nodded her head, reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone, handing it to the agent.
"I already...tried calling people...but he...he did something to it...I can't call. Or text any of my...my contacts." Sutton cried. Emily gently took the phone from the girl and turned it on, noticing that it did indeed have some sort of lock on it. Taking her chances though, she typed the one number that came to mind and wrote one simple word, so that Robert wouldn't be suspicious of them if he were to see it.
'Lauren' she typed, holding her breath as she hit the send button.
A/N: So, that turned out to be so much longer than planned! Next chapter I promise will be the rescue of our favourite brunette agent. Or will it? I guess you'll have to read the next chapter to find out! Also, I got Garcia's coffee order from an episode that was on a while ago, late one night, and I wrote it down. It makes absolutely no sense to me, but apparently it's real. Please review!
