When Wendy failed to offer a verbal response, Emily sighed and came around her desk. "Wendy, Danni being in my life again does not change our relationship. You are my daughter. You have been since the day we met when you spit in my face, and told me to go play Mother Teresa with someone who gave a damn, and you will be until we're both dead and buried. Understand?"
Wendy smiled and nodded. "I was kind of mouthy, wasn't I?"
Emily scoffed. "Kind of?"
Penelope Garcia, a.k.a. Jasmine was tapping her fingers along her keyboard and pulling up pictures and criminal records. As soon as she finished her search, they going to put on a slide show for Emily, to see if any of the faces were familiar. Penelope wasn't all that hopeful. Chances were that Emily had met the guy years ago, when he was a kid, and now he would be a man, and between the time that had passed and the guy growing up, it would be hard for her to recognize anyone.
She was about to declare that she was finished when the detectives returned, both looking a little downtrodden. Agent Hotchner quickly addressed them. "Did you get anything from the medical examiner?"
"He's confident now. The wounds showed no signed of hesitation," Cooper said.
"That's to be expected," Dave said. "Killers develop more confidence the longer they're killing and not caught."
"We got this too. Em, come look at this picture, will you?" Cooper held up his phone, and Emily walked over. She took the phone and studied it, then handed it back to Cooper.
"It's Sasha's necklace."
"Where did she get it from?" Detective Jareau asked.
"Me. It was a birthday and graduation gift. She just finished," Emily stopped and took a breath, and Penelope ached at the pain in her eyes. "She just finished high school."
Detective Jareau continued to press her. "Why a ladybug?"
"Before she died, Sasha's mother called her ladybug. I wanted her to know that her mother would be proud of her too." Emily flicked her tongue over her top lip. "Why all the questions about the necklace?"
"The killer tore it off her neck."
"He knew I gave it to her?"
"Or he assumed you did. It's gold, not something Sasha could afford on her own," Cooper said.
"So, that means what? More confirmation that he hates me?" She crossed her arms over her chest, and Derek Morgan, the delicious hunk of football player rested a hand on her back.
The man had been a complete sweetheart since Penelope had been in his presence. She couldn't believe a man who was such an Adonis was also a nice guy. That combination was almost unheard of. Of course, he was apparently also a drug addict, so he was not without his faults.
"That's probably exactly what it means," Dave said.
There was silence in the room, until one of her machines dinged, and everyone was suddenly focused on her. An itch to bolt out of the room tickled up her spine, but felt Penelope felt a soothing presence beside her, as Kevin moved closer, and swallowed her anxiety. "The search is done. Are you ready, Em?"
The other woman nodded and focused on the only monitor that was facing away from Penelope and Kevin. Emily sat at a table with Derek close beside her, their fingers entwined. Penelope clicked the buttons, and the first picture popped up on the screen. He was a redhead, thirty years-old, at the high end of the age estimate.
"Do you recognize him?" Hotch asked.
"No." It came out as a long sigh. "Next."
Penelope hit the keys and sent the picture of a 25 year-old man with filthy blond hair and rotting teeth. Small time criminal and broken-down meth addict.
The FBI agent asked again, his voice soft, "Him?"
Emily shook her head. "No."
And on they went. Over the next hour, they flipped through picture after picture, with Emily squinting and struggling to remember any of the men on the monitor. Penelope noted that Emily and Derek seemed to get closer as time passed, as she leaned more and more on the football player. Derek didn't seem to mind at all.
She also didn't miss the anxious twisting of his fingers that weren't touching Emily, or the movement of his feet. His throat moved when he frequently swallowed and his jaw tensed and relaxed at odd intervals. He was jonesing, alright. Being still was probably torture for the man right now, but he was doing it, because Emily needed him. Penelope couldn't help but smile at him.
"Stop."
The entire room seemed to jolt at Emily's voice, and one of her hands raised in the air. The flashing of the pictures had nearly put them all into a coma, one that they were all suddenly rising from with the possibility of a lead.
"You know that man?" Agent Hotchner asked.
"I don't know. He looks familiar. I think I've seem him before, but I can't remember the context." She frowned deeply, her eyes glued to the screen.
"What's in his jacket?" Dave asked.
Penelope scanned her screens. "Jason Filar. A few arrests for B&E, a handful for burglary, one for trespassing, a couple for vagrancy, one for minor assault, and he's got a juvy record."
"What's in the juvy record?"
"It's sealed."
Dave looked impatient. "You're a hacker, unseal it."
"I…I…" She stuttered and turned to Emily. Hacking into files that any cop could get access to was one thing, hacking into files sealed by a judge, while she was in a room full of cops, was an entirely different matter.
Emily finally pulled her attention away from the screen. "Cooper, JJ, Hotch, if Jasmine cracks open that file, you will forget that she did so, correct?"
Cooper shrugged. "I don't know any Jasmine." He turned to JJ. "You ever meet a Jasmine?"
She shook her head. "Met an Ariel once though."
"Hotch?" Emily asked.
"The Bureau employs it's own hackers to do the same everyday. There's no reason for me to care."
Emily made eye contact with her and nodded. Penelope put her fingers to work, and within minutes she had the guy's juvenile file open.
"Oh, that's just sad," she said. "He has multiple arrests for prostitution between the ages of 15 and 17. And then it's more of the same, B&E, trespassing, loitering and the like."
"Do they have any arrest photos of him?" Emily asked.
"Uh, let's see. No, no, no, yatzee!" She hit a series of keys, and a new photo appeared on the screen. "It's the only one they've entered, from his second arrest for prostitution."
"Is he familiar, Em?" Cooper asked.
She nodded slowly. "Yeah…his eyes, I remember his eyes."
"From where?"
"I don't…I don't know." She bit her lip, her face screwed up in concentration, but shook her head when an answer failed to come to her.
"Okay, Em, you continue to look at these photographs. We're going to head out and question this guy," Cooper said.
Emily's phone rang then. She answered it, and stepped away, speaking quietly to the person on the other end. When she hung up, she looked torn.
"I have to put this on hold. Nikki needs me at the hospital."
Derek straightened up, alarm on his face. "Is she okay? Her baby?"
Emily smiled at him. "Yeah, their both fine. She's trying to make a decision about keeping the baby or adopting him out, and just needs some moral support."
"You can't find someone else to do it?" Cooper asked.
"You know how long it took me to earn her trust, Cooper?"
He nodded. "I'll drive you then. I don't want you going anywhere alone. Agent Hotchner, can you go with Detective Jareau to find this guy?"
Agent Hotchner nodded. "Happy to."
Emily was unbothered by Cooper's protectiveness, because frankly, she was too tired and distracted to care. And she had more important things on her mind than her friend's hovering. She bit her lip. "Cooper, would you mind sending a couple more cops here until JJ and Hotch get back?"
"Yeah, sure. You worried about something specific?" He asked.
"You said he's angry at me and wants to hurt me. If he's been paying attention at all, he'll know the way to cause me the most pain." It hurt just to think about it.
It was Penelope that answered.
"Oh god, Danni and Wendy," she blurted out. Emily nodded.
Cooper pulled out his cell phone. "Where are they now?"
"Wendy is probably in her office, and Danni is up in my apartment." Wendy and Keesha were crunching numbers, seeing how long they had before going bankrupt.
Cooper nodded. "Have Wendy move up to your apartment, and I'll send a couple cops to sit with them. He hasn't abducted from a building yet, so they should be safe if they stay inside."
"Thank you." Emily headed down the hallway, past her own office and into Wendy's. She knocked on the closed door, but failed to receive a response. She knocked again, and called for Wendy. When she didn't answer, Emily pushed the door open. Wendy wasn't there, and neither was Keesha.
Emily felt her heart starting to beat faster. She checked the office that Keesha and Amy shared and found that empty as well. When she flicked on the light in her own office, she found Keesha asleep on the old sofa inside. Emily bent down and shook the girl's shoulder. "Keesha. Keesha."
"Emily? Oh sorry, do you need your office? I was just taking a nap."
"Keesha, where's Wendy?"
"I don't know, we took a break and I went to take a nap."
Her chest tightened, and she bolted out the door, ignoring the confusion and worry on Keesha's face. Emily ran smack into Cooper. "I can't find Wendy."
He must have seen the barely contained panic in her face or heard it in her voice, because he immediately put his hands on her arms, and spoke softly. "Alright, she's probably just hanging out with the girls. We'll find her, okay?"
"Emily, what's going on?" Keesha appeared behind her, still looking sleepy.
"Keesha, can you go up to Haven, and look for Wendy?"
"Yeah…is she okay?"
"I hope so."
Keesha turned and left, and Emily tried to breath around the panic that was strangling her chest. Cooper rubbed her arms again. "Alright, I'm going to check Mother Night, and you check the rooms back here okay? We'll find her, Emily."
Emily nodded, and headed first to the game room, startling the girls inside. She glanced around, and marched toward the exercise room, which she knew Wendy never used, because she the fantastic metabolism of a 22 year-old. Her heartbeat was echoing in her ears, as she left the game room and the sound of it made her feel even more panicked and terrified.
Wendy wasn't in the living room either, and Emily was struggling to maintain what little grip she had when she saw Cooper coming down the hallway. She hadn't felt this scared since Danni was little, and that scumbbag went after her. "Did you find her Cooper?"
"No, she wasn't there."
Emily's stomach turned over violently, and she rested a hand there to steady herself. "God Cooper, what if he has her? What if she's already dead?"
"I'm sure she's fine, Em." He grabbed her arm. "Jesus, you're about ten shades whiter than normal."
"I'm fine. There's Keesha."
Keesha came down the stairwell, and held up empty hands. "She wasn't in Haven, and none of the girls have seen her."
The vice around her chest tightened, and the pit in her stomach began to burn.
"Where haven't we checked?" Cooper asked.
"Nowhere. We checked the whole damn building." Oh god, he had her, the son of a bitch had Wendy.
"Did you look in your apartment?" Keesha asked.
Emily stared at the girl, her mouth open, then dove down the hallway, toward the stairwell to her small apartment. She could hear Cooper behind her. Wendy had to be there, with Danni. But, what if she got up there and Danni wasn't there either?
She started to feel a bit dizzy, and was actually afraid she might pass out before she got the door unlocked. Her baby was missing. She had to find her child. She worked through it and threw the door open. "Danni! Wendy!" She called to them.
The two girls looked up startled from where they were sitting on the floor, playing cards. Emily's knees almost went out in relief. Wendy was the first to jump up and rush over, realizing that something was not right.
"Mom? What's wrong? What happened?" As soon as she got close, Emily grabbed her in a fierce hug, her eyes sliding shut as the panic and adrenaline began to slowly recede. She was safe. Her child was safe.
"What's wrong? What happened?" Wendy repeated again, but didn't pull away.
Cooper answered for her. "We couldn't find you, so your mom got a little upset. It's okay now."
After nearly squeezing the life out of Wendy, she turned to Danni and wanted to hug her too, but was uncertain if Danni would appreciate that. She settled for squeezing the girl's hand. Danni offered her a guarded smile in return.
Emily explained to Danni and Wendy that she was having cops come and sit with them as a precaution, and then she and Cooper left for the hospital. She fell into the passenger seat of her SUV with an exhausted sigh and leaned her head against the cool glass of the window as she tried to get her body to settle. Even seeing both of her girls safe and well in her apartment couldn't immediately quiet the adrenaline rushing through her. In fact, they were ten minutes into the ride, before felt her heartbeat beginning to return to normal. She breathed in and out, and let her eyes drift shut as she thought about what she should say to Nikki.
She knew she would tell the girl the same thing she told every pregnant girl that passed in and out of Haven: Emily personally did not regret her decision to have and keep her daughter. She loved her daughter, and though she'd been far too young and far too alone, she loved being a mother. But that was Emily, and she also knew that while being a mother may be a gift, it was a gift that was not necessarily appropriate nor even wanted by all. And that was okay. Nikki was 14 and her child's conception had been extremely traumatizing for her; if she didn't want to raise her son, well that was a completely valid choice.
Emily sighed and then had to stifle a yawn; her eyes felt so heavy, she didn't even bother to open them. Cooper drove in the slow stop and start typical of New York City driving, and her body shifted slightly as he guided the big car around a corner. An SUV was not her first choice for this city, but for carting around teenage girls and all the groceries and supplies they needed, it was the only option. Her body had quieted as she thought about Nikki and the familiar motions of the car soothed her, even threatening to pull her into sleep. Emily began to feel the exhaustion of the last several days weighing over her head, but she knew sleep wouldn't happen. The hospital was not that far away.
"What the fuck?" Cooper suddenly grunted.
Emily turned her head toward him, her eyelids just pulling away from her eyes when something slammed into the SUV, shaking it the whole vehicle. Her eyes flew open to see the car was spin once, twice, sliding all over the street and sidewalk before the rear of the driver's side slammed into the side of a brick building.
The suddenness of the stop ripped the breath from her chest, her body was flung forward against the seat belt and the airbags deployed like a slap in the face. She must have blacked out, but only for seconds. Then Emily sat, head spinning and body zinging for several seconds, before she fought the airbag, pushing it out of her face, squeezing the air out of it. Her chest heaved and her brain still buzzed, as she turned toward Cooper. He was out, but she awkwardly reached over, fingers stumbling along his form until she got his wrist, and a sigh escaped as she found a pulse.
Emily pushed herself up to try and look around, and had to fight a sudden sickness in her stomach, but she managed to make out a figure heading in their direction.
Relief swept her body at the sign of someone coming to help. Then she managed to focus on his face and her stomach dropped to her knees.
Jason Filar.
Alright, I'm not crazy about the editing on this chapter since it still reads pretty clunky in parts, but I'm overdue for an update, so it will have to suffice. Thank you everyone who's still patiently following this story, and thank you anyone who leaves a review. I know I've kind of sucked at responding to reviews, but I still appreciate all of them.