This is very much a transitional chapter that is necessary to move the story on… trying to dig into why Stephanie is the ways she is…. I hope you enjoy. And thanks once again to Sara Nublas and CriminalMindsWhore for all your help beta'ing for me.
Dillon sat on a chair gripping tight onto the candy given to him by Detective Harry Simmons' partner, Carrie Palmer. The boy had calmed down somewhat now, taken in by the hustle and bustle of the local police station.
Derek stood with Simmons—the lead Detective on Emily's kidnapping—explaining everything he could remember of the past few months, continually glancing towards Dillon, unable to take his attention off him as if doing so would cause the boy to break down or disappear again.
"Derek, Harry, I've just heard from the officers who went to Stephanie Burton's house. No sign I'm afraid." Palmer informed them, with a look of sympathy towards Derek.
Simmons looked from Palmer back to Morgan, "Derek, is there anywhere else that springs to mind that they could have gone to?"
Derek frowned, frantically trying to get his mind to settle and think straight, "I…. I don't know… Look I know this isn't an FBI case, but the technical analyst from my team is on the way here to help give some background to Stephanie and look after Dillon. She is the best in the business. Would you mind if we used her to do the background work on Stephanie? She will have it done in no time."
Palmer looked towards Simmons and shrugged her shoulders, "Your call Harry."
Simmons paused to think. This would be unusual but he knew it would save time. Their resources were already stretched.
"OK, but Derek, I have to maintain jurisdiction on this. You do understand that? You're way too personally involved to make any calls on this."
Derek nodded, "I know, I know…"
Simmons couldn't help but feel he was going to have a battle on his hands here. Not that he could blame Derek… this was his family. He'd do exactly the same.
As if on cue Garcia and JJ made their way into the office.
"Detective Simmons, Palmer, these are Agents Garcia and Jareau."
Simmons looked toward Derek, eyebrows raised, "Exactly how many of your team are coming?"
"They are both witnesses….. They had dealings with Stephanie and Emily over the past few weeks."
"Ok, well Agent Garcia, we have some workspace over here for you if you'd like to get set up. Agent Jareau, can you tell Detective Palmer everything you recall please."
"Of course." JJ nodded as she shot Derek a concerned look. As she went to walk away she put a gentle hand on his arm, "We'll find her, don't worry Derek." She whispered.
Derek tried to force a smile, but it didn't come. Instead he looked back over to Dillon who was no longer there. He watched as Detective Simmons pulled the chair over to where Dillon was now, clinging on to Garcia as she tried to work around him.
Derek made his way over and prised the boy away, "Hey kiddo listen, Aunty Penelope has got to do some work to help find mommy."
"But I want to stay with her." He said, the tears starting to form once again.
Garcia looked up to him, "Dillon, if you want you can sit on the chair next to me ok?"
Dillon nodded, wriggled off Derek and jumped onto the chair as Garcia rustled in her bag. Derek watched and a small smile appeared when he saw the two Star Wars action figures she produced. They were the ones Reid had given her when he left that she kept on her desk with all the other mementos she had collected over the years.
Whilst Dillon was distracted by the figures Simmons and Derek hovered over Garcia.
"Agent Garcia, can you find out if she's linked to any other property locally or has family."
Garcia tried not to look too sarcastically at the Detective trying to tell her what she could do blindfolded.
"Detective, no offence but I work better without too many people fussing. I will have everything you need in a few minutes… please?" She said apologetically.
The Detective took a step back and Derek followed suit. Both men turned around upon hearing Palmer behind them walking in with JJ.
"Agent Jareau has given me all the background to what has been happening over the past few weeks. I'm just going to brief the officers at Miss Burton's property further."
"I'll come with you. They need to be on the look out for any paperwork relating to any other properties." Simmons said, following on behind.
JJ watched Derek's face as he stared at the Detectives walking away. He looked lost.
"Hey Derek. They're doing everything they can."
"I know, but it's not enough is it? We have no idea where to start looking. What do you think JJ? What do you think she's capable of?"
"Well from what Emily told me and when I met her the last time, she definitely didn't seem stable, but no-one could have imagined she'd do anything like this."
"Why didn't Emily tell me everything?"
"Because she didn't know if you'd believe her. You didn't have a bad word to say about Stephanie….. No-one did."
"But I would have believed her—"
"Derek, JJ. Come here!" Garcia yelped.
They both quickly moved over to stand behind Garcia and stared at the screen, "Ok, so Stephanie Burton was born and raised in Roxboro, North Carolina. She was an only child and her parents were Cathy and Maxwell Burton. I found child services records on her."
"Child services? What for?" Derek asked, JJ seeing the look of confusion on his face.
"When she was fourteen years old her parents split and she went off the rails. Looks like her mom hit the drink and didn't take very good care of her. Stephanie ran away several times and was eventually put into care as her mother couldn't take care of her. Father wasn't interested as he felt she brought shame on him."
"Does it give any more information than that?" JJ asked hopeful.
Garcia clicked a few buttons and another screen popped up causing all three agents' eyes to widen.
JJ looked to Derek, "Did you know she'd been arrested?"
He shook his head but was lost for words.
"Not once, there's a few records here. Starting with some vandalism and then escalating to assault." Garcia read in horror.
"Are these all from North Carolina, Garcia?" Derek breathed.
"Yes. Looking at these records, the same detective dealt with several of the later cases. May be we should talk to him."
"Yes, what's his name?" Derek was quick to ask.
"Detective Johnson… I'll just write the number down for you."
JJ touched Derek's arm, "You know we can't ring, we have to give this to Simmons."
"I know." He whispered, desperate to take hold of this investigation.
A few minutes later JJ, Derek and the two Detectives were stood round a desk with the phone on speaker. Simmons was doing all the talking and he had managed to track down Detective Adam Johnson.
"Can you tell us what you remember of Stephanie Burton?"
"Yeah, it's a long story, a pretty sad one really. Her folks split up due to her father having an affair….." That caused the first concerned glance between JJ and Derek."Mother started drinking heavily and was very bitter towards her ex husband. She completely blamed the other woman, a lady by the name of Hannah Dickson. She poisoned Stephanie's mind against her. Stephanie felt neglected so in order to get her mother's attention and approval she started targeting Miss Dickson ranging from vandalising her property to eventually assaulting her pretty bad. No charges were brought as the father didn't want his dirty laundry airing in public. He paid Stephanie's mom off. Over the years, Stephanie managed to keep out of trouble up until a boyfriend did the dirty on her. Again she stalked the girl he cheated with but she wasn't so lucky."
"What do you mean?" Derek said before anyone else could get a word in.
"She was found drowned in her own bathtub. Stephanie was arrested, but we couldn't pin it on her; no forensics and she wouldn't talk to us in interview. She can just switch off and act like you're not even there and the next minute be all sweetness. She is seriously screwed up. A real Jekyll and Hyde."
The two Detectives and JJ looked at Derek, all three questioning him with their eyes as to why he didn't know any of this.
Ignoring their stares Derek looked back down to the phone, "What else can you tell us Detective?"
"Well I was really concerned about her so I monitored her for a while but she went quiet eventually. She got a job and managed to straighten herself out. The last I heard of her she moved from North Carolina to Virginia with a boyfriend. I don't know what happened after that."
"Do you know the boyfriend's name?" Palmer asked.
"Off the top of my head no. But I can find out. I made a note of it somewhere when I was monitoring her. If you give me a few minutes I'll call you back."
"Ok thank you Detective." Simmons finished off.
Emily sat on the sofa in a dated and worn out sitting room of an old farm house. She could smell the damp and there was still dust circulating the air from the door being opened when they entered, but someone had definitely been living here recently. There was freshly burnt wood on the fire and an unfinished coffee cup on the side table.
Emily tried to distract herself from Stephanie—who was frantically pacing up and down the room—by cataloguing everything surrounding her that could possibly help. There were plenty of potential weapons, particularly the fire poker by the hearth. She could see an old phone in the hallway, but getting there would require overpowering Stephanie, who Emily did not forget still had the knife on her person somewhere. This was also somewhat hindered by not having the use of her hands that were rendered useless by the steel shackles around her wrists. The phone was her life line but the only hope she had right now were her words…. Words that would stall Stephanie long enough for Emily to figure out a way to that phone and for Derek to find her.
"Stephanie?" She started off gently.
But no response came. Emily could see her tapping her fingers together as she paced up and down.
"Stephanie….. Can I have a drink of water?"
This wasn't about wanting water. This was about trying to bring Stephanie back to a sense of normality. Trying to bring her from within herself.
"Will you shut up. I'm trying to think!"
Stephanie still wouldn't look at Emily as if looking would distract her thoughts. This is exactly what Emily needed to get her to do.
"Stephanie, sit down please, we can talk."
Emily jumped out of her skin as the woman hurled towards her and pushed her backwards with one hand on each of her arms. Their faces were an inch apart.
"You want to talk?" Stephanie in a whiny sarcastic tone.
"Yes." Emily said somehow staying calm.
"You wouldn't give me the time of day before."
"I know and I'm sorry, but now I can see why you wanted to talk. I didn't realise what you and Derek had. It was obviously special."
Lying to Stephanie wasn't hard, but hearing herself say those words still stung Emily a little, knowing that she had spent two years with Derek.
"Yeah and you took that away."
"You want him back?"
This caused Stephanie to pull back from Emily slightly, but her stare didn't falter. It was a mix of question and confusion.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, would you take him back? After everything that's happened?"
Stephanie's face changed, as if Emily had just spoken in another language. She took a step back and then moved to the armchair next to the sofa, slowly sitting down.
Emily watched her as she looked deep in thought. Whatever she was thinking, Emily knew she had struck a nerve.
JJ came rushing into the office where Derek was sat waiting for the two Detectives to return.
"Derek, I've been doing some more digging with Garcia. Get this, the boyfriend she left North Carolina with was a Sean Bennett. Bennett was found dead along with a Clarissa Stark. Both shot. I got hold of the Detective. Again they suspected Stephanie but couldn't prove anything."
"Jesus JJ. How did I not see this? She seemed so… so normal when I met her. Did you see this? Did anyone?"
"No Derek, I mean Penelope knew her more than me and she only ever had good things to say about her before Emily came back. You obviously grounded her Derek."
He nodded in realisation, "Yeah and when I left her she went right back to that person…That was her stressor… I was her stressor."
As the realisation hit Derek as to what had unfolded these past few months, he lifted his hands to his face, covering his eyes…"I can't lose her JJ… Please. What are we going to do? What about Dillon?"
His voice trailed off as it broke. JJ had never seen Derek like this. No matter how grave the situation he had always maintained a strong and composed appearance on the exterior. She had never seen him break.
"Derek, there is something we could do."
"What?"
"She's suspected of crimes in three different states. I can make it a federal case."
"But there's no way they'll let me run it."
"No I wasn't thinking of you."
Derek frowned silently asking JJ to explain.
"We could ask Hotch to head it….. Look Derek, you want the best on this right? The best is our old team. Let's get Reid and Hotch in on this and I have no doubt Rossi will come back to help."
"You think they'd be able to come?"
"Derek, they will all drop everything for Emily. You want me to call them?"
"Yeah." He whispered, trying to mask the quiver in his voice.
As JJ rushed out of the room, Derek felt a slight relief knowing who would be working on this, but it didn't relieve the sinking feeling….. the feeling that he really could lose her for good this time.
"Stephanie?" Emily whispered after they had sat in silence for what felt like hours.
Stephanie was staring at the floor, her breaths were slow, but Emily could see her chest rise and fall deeply.
Without moving, Stephanie began, her eyes still fixed on the floor. Her voice was softer, but monotone, "Why do they do it?"
"Do what?"
"Men…. Why do they cheat?"
Emily took a second to think. She wasn't sure where this conversation was going or how to handle it, so she would say as little as possible.
"I don't know."
"My mom said that men wouldn't be able to cheat if there wasn't a woman to cheat with. She's right isn't she?"
She shot Emily a glance, but it was too quick for Emily to gauge her demeanour.
"I guess that's true, but it all comes down to free will. No-one is forced to cheat."
"My mom says men are weak. She says women know how to push their buttons to get what they want."
Emily needed to know more about Stephanie to get out of this one. She needed to deflect the conversation somewhat to buy more time.
"Where's your mom now?"
Stephanie shrugged, "Don't know and don't care. I haven't spoken to her in years. She never cared about me."
"So if you don't care about her, why do you care so much about what she thinks?"
Stephanie's eyes shot towards Emily, suspiciously. Not allowing her time to think, Emily continued, "So when did your father leave?"
Stephanie's frown remained for a few seconds and then slowly subsided.
"How did you know?"
"Just a good guess I suppose."
Of course it was in no way a guess. It didn't take much of a profiler to figure out her bitterness stemmed from her childhood and that her mother was obviously the victim of adultery.
"I was fourteen. He left to go and live with this woman."
"And your mom blamed her?"
Stephanie's eyes narrowed, trying to figure the other woman out, "Of course she blamed her. It was her fault." The venom arriving in her voice did not escape Emily's notice.
"What about your dad?" Emily said trying to calm things again.
"I told you. Men are weak. It was her fault!" Stephanie's voice was raised and Emily could see the rage start to reappear. Her foot was tapping frantically on the floor and her hand was hovering over her trouser pocket and that's when Emily saw the shimmer of the metal of the knife.
Emily struggled to calm her own breaths. Fighting against someone with a knife with no hands was practical impossibility.
"Stephanie, I'm not saying it wasn't. I'm just asking about your father. What did he have to say about it?"
Stephanie shot up and her pacing began again, "What did he say? He said nothing! He wanted nothing to do with me once he got with her. That bitch took him away from me!"
Emily realised she had probably convinced herself that her father wanted nothing to do with her due to the other woman….. Or maybe her mother had brainwashed her into thinking that. Maybe it was slightly less painful than admitting to herself that he just wanted nothing to do with her….. Her own father… And, in Stephanie's eyes, Emily had done just the same to her again with Derek…. Took away a man she loved.
"Stephanie—"
"Stop it! Just stop it! Stop talking to me!" Stephanie pulled the knife out and held it at arms length, "Everyone—! Everyone leaves me! And you…. you're going to pay for taking Derek away from me….. You're going to pay for them all!"