Sorry this posting has taken awhile.
I got a new job, it's been hectic. But I survived.
Messages past Moonlight.
Morgan and Reid had gotten dressed hours ago. They had been sitting quietly on their respective beds, patiently or not so patiently waiting for the time to reach an appropriate hour so that they could vacate their rooms and visit the other team members. So when Garcia opened the door and walked in nonchalantly, it would have been an understatement to say that they were surprised.
"Garcia? What are you doing here?" Reid stood up quickly, for a moment, he had forgotten that he actually was dressed and not in his blue bunny pyjamas, the pair his mother had sent him for Christmas. The ones that were an exact replica of pyjamas he owned when he was seven.
"You didn't seriously think I was going to stay in Quantico while Emily was at the mercy of some maniac? Did you?" The look plastered on Garcia's face bordered on thunderous. It reminded Spencer of a picture he'd once seen of the Greek god Zeus throwing down glowing thunderbolts on the little humans he had created for his sport and entertainment. Reid didn't answer.
"Baby girl?" Morgan was still sitting on his bed, although he had expected her to show up at some point during the day he hadn't been expecting a Garcia-arrival until a couple of hours later. He was going to, subtly, plant the idea in Hotch's head first, so that when she did arrive Hotch wouldn't blow a gasket. Now he only hoped the man would be more worried about Prentiss to lay into his tech-queen. It wouldn't be wise to be angry with her at this juncture. Garcia wouldn't take kindly to any man or person, no matter how much they were her superior, taking issue with an expression of concern for a member of her family. Especially if that family member happened to be Emily Prentiss.
"I've been in with JJ for a while. I drove up after we finished our meeting."
"The one we had last night?" Morgan asked. Garcia nodded. "Aren't you tired?"
"I won't sleep. Not until we get Emily back."
"We know. We've been trying to sleep, it just isn't working." Morgan rubbed a hand over the back of his head. He was frustrated, without any evidence or leads, there was nothing to do. He hated not having some kind of control over any kind of situation.
"Has the pixilation program you were running come across any more information." Reid inquired, he could keep his emotions under control if his mind had complex equations to work out or new information to analyse. There was only so many times he could analyse The Once and Future King before he started to associate his team members with the characters within.
"Yes. I think I've got a pretty good picture of the UnSub. It's already running through the national databases and the local ones for corresponding facial features."
"How about driver's licenses?" Morgan asked.
"Yep, those too." Silence filled the room again. "JJ's showering. I should get back, I don't want her to come out and think I've been taken too."
"Is she handling this ok?"
"I don't think she should be alone." Garcia answered slowly. She didn't want to make out that JJ couldn't take care of herself, but she'd never seen JJ cry quite like that.
"I'll come with you to wait for her to finish up. It'll at least make me feel like I'm doing something helpful. You know, keeping you company." Morgan said as he rose and gathered his belongings.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
Before retiring to his room the night before, Hotch had taken Emily's phone. He had checked her last calls but they were all verified as received and none of them were made after two pm. Hotch kept it with him all night, lying just two inches to the left of his own phone. He would not let it out of his sight until they got Emily back. He would give her back her phone and everything would be normal again. Except it wouldn't, not now. His feelings toward her were already irrecoverably changed. Aaron Hotchner cared about Emily Prentiss in a completely non-work related manner. When exactly had that happened? He wondered. But that couldn't be helped right now and he knew he wasn't going to burden her with his emotional stuntedness until he was absolutely sure she had recovered from her abduction. He wasn't going to make the same mistakes he had made with Elle and Reid. He'd be by her bedside every night of the week until he was completely certain she was fully recuperated. Hotch sighed, he would never forgive himself if they didn't find her. He was fully cognizant of the fact that if they didn't find Emily, the BAU's number one team would disintegrate faster than you could blink. Emily held the team together, and again Hotch wondered, when exactly had that happened?
Emily's phone began to ring. Hotch answered.
"Um. Hi?" A nervous male responded, "Is this Agent Prentiss?"
"No, this is her supervisor. Agent Hotchner. May I help you?"
"Agent Prentiss gave her card to a lady about her daughter, and she's in the hospital now and I was supposed to ring you when she woke up."
"I'm sorry. I don't understand you." Hotch replied. How was anyone supposed to understand that garbled message?
"Oh sorry. Um, Agent Prentiss gave her card-"
"Yes. I understood that part." Hotch didn't have time for convoluted phone conversations.
"Right well, I found this missing girl, yesterday. She's in bad shape at St. Agnes' Hospital. But she woke up this morning. Her mother, Mrs. Hawkner, spoke to Agent Prentiss about her, um, about her being missing that is and…the girl, she's saying she was abducted."
"Is she blonde?" Hotch asked.
"No. She's a…she's got brown hair. Why, is that important?"
"What was your name, sir?"
"Ah, Mattie Bleekford. Mrs. Hawkner asked me to call you because she said Agent Prentiss would want to know." Mattie was becoming more and more confused as this conversation went on. Where was Agent Prentiss and why was this man being so blunt, and grumpy?
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
JJ was just finishing her shower when she heard the door open again. She recognised Morgan's voice chatting with Garcia through the bathroom door. They were having some inane conversation about this candy being better than some other candy. JJ didn't really care; it was nice to have familiar voices in the room. She turned off the faucets and carefully stepped out of the shower. The fan still whirring pulling tiny bits of steam up into the roof and that's when she saw it. The mirror had a word scrawled across it. It was kind of masked by the fogginess, but it was clearly a word in Emily's handwriting. She swung one of the towels around her body and leapt out of the bathroom.
"Guys, you have to see this!" She screeched at Garcia and Morgan.
They both rose hurriedly, crowding the doorframe and peering into the small bathroom. There upon the mirror, a word. A message that could have only been left by Emily, or the UnSub but that was unlikely. The message, the only help given by their missing profiler. Fairytales. It had to mean something important for Emily to use her last hope of communication with the team on such an obscure reference. What did it mean? Fairytales?
There you go, finally, Emilt's message revealed.
Review please, and let me know where you think this is going. I'd love to know if what I'm trying to convey is being conveyed.
Arc