Hellooooo everyone. So everyone wanted a rescue apart from lizzabet. I went with the rescue, but made this a really long chapter in comparison to my others. Also, I am sorry for the large gap between updates. I had another funeral to go to. Two in a week is a lot. And when one is a person your age, it really makes you think about life and what and who is important. No one should ever think that they are unimportant, because to someone you are. And you were made and brought into this world for a reason; to love and to be loved.
This chapter is a dark, but in a different way. I think that it is sad in some ways, but I don't know, let me know what you think.
21
Everyone had just hopped into their respective vehicles and were on their way to his house. It should take about 40 or 45 minutes to get there; but it had been made very clear that everyone ought to use all sirens as they navigated the city in order to push the time it would take to get there down to 30 minutes or less. 30 minutes that was all she had to wait and she'd be coming home.
O/o
Emily's mind was in a frazzled state. She began to think of everything. The time that she had been there. The time that her friends had had to find her; yet still hadn't come bursting through that damn door. She thought about what was going to happen next, when he wouldn't take her not being ready as an acceptable answer.
How long would that be?
But what she couldn't fathom was the fact that someone that she trusted, was the one to hurt her. True, it was not her choice to trust him, but she did all the same. Not fully of course, but enough to talk about her team so that she could pass and get back into the field. And that was where it was all so screwed up. The Bureau made her talk to him so that she could do her job. But by making sure that she was 'fit' enough for work, she was stuck in the hands of a pyscho. A psycho who the FBI had supposedly vetted and was to be trusted. Well, they certainly screwed that up.
She was still wondering how the FBI had managed to get it so wrong when there was a tap on the glass.
She knew that it was him, and she whole-heartedly chose to ignore it. Another tap, but slightly harder as well as her name. "Emily…" being said to her so slowly that it seemed torturous in itself.
She sat huddled in the corner and pulled her knees up so that she could hide her face behind them. To secure the position she wrapped her arms around the legs and was content.
She listened, seeing if this would elicit any sort of response. And… it did.
"Uh-uh Emily. That's not how it works Emily. If you are going to be in there, then you have to use the shower like it's meant to be used. And that can't be done from the floor."
Emily chose again to ignore him. She just took comfort in the warm water flowing over her.
"I am warning you Emily. There is shampoo in there. As well as conditioner. They are on the shelf for stand up and start washing your hair. When was the last time you did? Three days ago…? Go on, look. I even bought the brand that you use at home. So go on, enjoy."
Emily still didn't look up. She still didn't move. That was when he snapped.
"I said to you before Emily. I control this shower. I control you. There is nowhere that you can hide, and if you and I are going to live happily ever after and raise our children together, you are going to need to learn to obey me."
Silence between the two people meant that the room was only filled with the sound of running water.
"I warned you." He told her as he turned a dial and the temperature of the water decreased. She didn't notice it at first, and then she felt the cold. She ignored it. She was good at ignoring pain; pushing through it. But before she knew it, it was so cold that her fingers were starting to hurt. She looked at the other corners and saw that they too were being pelted by the water.
The head of the shower was directly above, coming from the ceiling, so there was no corner that was more sheltered than any other.
"Stand up and the water goes back to normal."
Gritting her teeth, she pushed through it a little more, until eventually she didn't want to be cold anymore. She wanted the warmth back.
Preparing herself, she placed one hand on the side glass panel and put the other on the ground and pushed up. She was up before her legs could register that they needed to support the rest of her body and that caused her to fall just as quickly as she had stood. Her head was pounding, and due to the fact that she was no longer under a constant stream of water, she could see and feel the blood as it fell from her forehead.
The laugh that bounced off each of the walls of the bathroom pushed her forward. She had to prove that she was not weak. She had to prove that she could stand on her own two feet. She at least had to prove that.
She grounded herself a second time, and this time didn't go straight into it. She rose slowly, allowing her body the necessary time to adjust to the necessary weight that had to be put on the lower half of her body.
He watched intensely as she fumbled and found it hilarious. And then he watched her again as she learnt from her earlier mistake and slowly got to her feet. This proved it. She was definitely one that had to learn things the hard way.
O/o
The man was smart. That meant that he would react with what could be serious consequences for Emily if they just bombarded the place.
Much to his disappointment, Derek wasn't allowed to go in the house with the rest of them; but he was allowed to be on stand-by for when they got out with Emily. However, he had mentally prepared himself for that.
They were speeding along. They had to make it in time. It had been 7 minutes and they were only a quarter of the way there.
'Come on Emily. Come on.'
O/o
Emily reached her hand out and steadied herself. After she had been up for a few seconds, she could feel the temperature of the water slowly starting to rise. It was a welcome relief. But as it returned to what it had been, she felt her whole body beginning to tingle and burn. After the extreme cold, the warm water was hurting. But she could cope, she could.
"That's it. Now reach up and start to wash your hair. Remember, you need to listen to me, otherwise it will end up in you getting hurt."
She was still for a moment. Slowly she reached for the corner shelf and saw that he was indeed correct. It was the exact shampoo and conditioner set that she liked to use. How could he know that? Browsing over the shelf, she also saw the same shower gel as well as the same soap that she used. Even the bath sponge was the same colour. But… but how could he know that?
She would never share such intimate details about her life. So that left only one other option. He had been in her home. He had seen her things; probably touched them. He had invaded her personal space.
"Sunshine? You gotta start listening to me otherwise you know what happens."
Taking a deep breath in, she closed her eyes, and then she opened them as she breathed out.
Tentatively she removed the hand that she used as a stabiliser and she felt the world around her make a sudden tilt to the left. She grabbed a hold of the shelf and began to get her balance yet again with her eyes closed. Maybe the hit to the head did more damage than she had initially thought?
But as she opened her eyes this time the world was balanced. She was centred.
Opening the bottle, the smell hit her nose and she smiled. It was something small. But it was something familiar.
He didn't miss a beat. He saw that smile, and he knew that he had put it there.
Squeezing a generous amount onto her palm she put the bottle down and lathered her hair up before washing all the suds away. She did this with her conditioner afterwards as well.
O/o
It had been 15 minutes and they were just over half way there. They were making good time, but Morgan like the rest of the team was still agitated. They were so close, yet so far away and it was so frustrating.
O/o
Just as the last bits of her conditioner were washing out of her hair, she decided to get move around a bit. Her legs were aching from standing so rigidly still.
Stepping forward in the small space, she didn't see the excess conditioner around the drain and stepped on it. This caused her to lose her balance and she again landed on the ground with a thud. Shortly followed by a groan of pain.
She sat there and allowed time to pass taking joy in the silence.
O/o
They were only five minutes away. Five minutes. Morgan could cope. He could cope if Emily got out of this and got back to him. This team just had to do that. That was all that they had to do.
O/o
He decided that he would be the first one to break the ice.
"Now sweetie, you really ought to be more careful don't you think?"
She didn't respond but sent a scowl in his direction.
"Don't look at me like that. I am not the one who keeps making stupid little mistakes now am I?"
Angrily she decided that getting up would require too much energy, so stayed put.
That however, was not a good idea, and only served to make him angry.
"Stand up."
She didn't.
"I said stand UP!"
Still, she lay on the floor.
He tried to compose himself, but found that the bubbling inside him wouldn't go away.
Grabbing the dial, he turned it in the opposite direction about half way.
This immediately earned a small scream from her as she scrambled to her feet as quickly as possible.
She was looking at him, and he at her. As she tried to make eye contact with him, she found that it was near impossible. His eyes kept darting back and forth and up and down. She was confused with regards as to what he was doing. Then she followed his gaze, and saw that she was looking at her body.
That meant that he was looking at her body. And in all honesty, the thought of that was making her sick.
She started to turn around and cover herself up as best she could standing in the cubicle made of glass.
"Oh honey. Don't start getting shy on me now. Trust me, like I said earlier, we'll be a lot more intimate later."
She continued to shy away.
"Come on gorgeous. I want to get a good look at what is mine."
She didn't respond.
Little by little he began to turn the dial back up again. He could see in her posture her reaction to the hot water. As it got slightly hotter, she removed her hands and he put it back down to luke warm. It was a welcome relief.
"My word, you truly are something special."
Before another order could be barked at her, a bashing sound was heard from the other room. He stood up and made his way out into the other room.
O/o
Derek watched from the SUV as the highly trained SWAT and FBI Agents entered the home of the FBI Psychologist who had betrayed them all. They entered uniformly and with quick and precise movements.
His leg twitched as he anxiously awaited the all clear to go in.
Hotch and the other BAU members lead the teams and cleared the entire house before they all congregated on the one door that they knew lead to the place that Emily was being kept.
Slowly and in single file they made their way down the stairs, with torches on, because it was dark. They got to a small hallway at the bottom and manoeuvred through that to get to a door at the end. This was the door. This had to be it.
O/o
Emily watched as her shrink gone captor barricaded himself halfway behind the glass shower that she was in.
"It looks like your friends found us. Fan-damn-tastic. How the HELL they did that I will NEVER know. But from what I can tell they are headed down here. So crouch down in front of me, right here." He told her pointing to a particular point in the shower.
"No."
She blatantly refused.
"I said sit-" He was cut off by the sound of a door being kicked in and decided that that was it.
He turned the dial up as high as it would go and an ear piercing screaming ricocheted off all of the walls.
Emily felt as though she was being cooked. She had wanted to be warm, but this was too much, she couldn't take it. She lowered herself where she had been told and the temperature was put back down. She felt raw. As she touched her skin she hurt. She was too hot and the steam was getting to her. She was tired as well. Really, really tired.
Hotch was the first into the room with his gun drawn, and it was his ears that the scream hit first. The room that they quickly bustled into was dark, but a yellow glow emanated from one at the end of the room. That was where she was, but what was he doing to her?
They moved over as a group and he was the first one to catch a glimpse of the situation at hand.
Sam Thorne the guy that they all trusted was strategically placed behind a glass shower. This shower just so happened to contain what he could only assume was Emily.
She was sitting in a tight ball, not looking up. That wasn't a good thing, but at the moment he was kind of glad because he didn't know if he could make it through this if he had to look her in the eye.
He edged into the bathroom with his gun up, with JJ following his lead and Rossi appearing in the doorway.
"Sam Thorne, step away from Agent Prentiss and come over here."
Sam looked directly at Hotch at told him "No way. I did all of this. Look around, all of this. It was for her. It is for her. So you have to leave so that we can make our life together. Leave now and I won't hurt her."
"Agent Thorne you know that we can't do that."
"Then it might just end up in her getting hurt." Sam put the gun to Emily's head through the glass and grinned slyly.
"You wouldn't do that, because we'd shoot you just as quick."
"Yes, but at least in death we would be together forever."
"Come on though Thorne. You don't want to do that. That would be ripping yourself off. You live in a neighbourhood that has happy families. You must love children. Your wife died early right? That must have meant that you had to be there for her. Of course you wanted to be, but it still hurt. There was no time for you to have children of your own. You were left alone."
"I was left alone. But I'm not anymore. Emily's here now. Emily and I can live together and have a family. We can be happy and have a beautiful family with 2 or 3 or 4 children. However many she wants. However many we want."
"You know that that won't work. You are a reasonable man. You know that she is an FBI Agent. And an adult. She has the right to do as she pleases as an adult. You cannot hold her against her will."
"But you don't get it. I'm not. We have spent the last few months getting to know each other."
"You are a psychologist Agent Thorne. What would you say if you were in my situation?"
He thought about that for a moment "I…"
"You projected everything that you wanted to have with your wife onto Emily and tried to force her to become your wife. That is not right. You have no right to do it."
"I… but it is different. We love each other."
"Agent Thorne, you need to let her go now."
During the course of the discussion between the two men, both Hotch and JJ had been trying to get a clear shot of the guy so that this would end.
"No, no I don't… NO! Emily tell them." He tapped on the glass and the dishevelled woman looked up, unable to completely focus on what was happening around her.
She had heard him say to tell them something. She knew that her family was there, but what was she meant to tell them? Something about the two of them?
Her body was swaying under the water being pelted down and she remained silent.
"I said, Emily, tell them. Tell them that you love me."
She continued as she had been, until she felt the temperature of the water drastically increase back up to higher temperatures. Biting her lip she drew blood as she tried not to succumb to him. She couldn't do that in front of her team. Then she felt the water getting hotter, scaldingly hot. So hot that it felt like it was burning her. She felt like a piece of meat in a cooker.
The temperature rose one more time, and she let out a yell, shouting "I love him."
JJ looked at Emily and saw the blood that was coming from her forehead as she lifted her head in an attempt to talk. She didn't look well. All JJ wanted was to wrap a comforting arm around her friend and tell her that she was going to be okay; that the entire team was there – no matter how much she would hate it.
Rossi ignored her state. He had to. He had to focus solely on the man that they had trusted, and do anything that he could to get her out unhurt.
After she made her announcement, he turned the temperature back down. Way down. Way, way down. Down so far that it added to the burning that she was already feeling all over her body. At first it was a welcome relief. But then the cold became a torture as each individual drop from the shower head appeared to seep into each of her pores, right down to her very core. Her body temperature was dropping, and she was losing the feeling in her fingers and toes. She was also feeling the cold as her teeth chattered. Her head was hurting. If it was even possible, her brain felt foggy. Why couldn't she just go home?
Through the chattering she held on, and just waited for her team to do their thing.
Hotch had been talking to him for 10 minutes and it was getting nowhere. Apart from making Thorne more agitated. Putting Emily in that much more danger.
Thorne got up and started pacing. He didn't come out for enough from behind the glass of the shower where he had cornered himself in though. So that meant that the agents couldn't get a completely clean shot of him without risking shattering one of the glass panes which could result in shards embedding themselves in Emily's skin.
He started rambling about their future addressing both Emily and the team several times. Second by second his eyes grew wild and panic set in. He wasn't going to get out of this. There was no way. He didn't want to die. He didn't want her to die, but if it was the only way that he could be together, so it must be.
As he stopped pacing, he began to raise the gun and Hotch took action. He moved into position and as Emily was put in eminent danger, Hotch took the shot. But as soon as he did, he half regretted it. A portion of it hit a panel of the glass and the cracked before shattering.
The man was attended to by Rossi and much to Thorne's chagrin he was put into handcuffs by Rossi who never once took into account the bullet wound in his shoulder.
As soon as JJ was cleared to, she herself was like a bullet and was at Emily's side.
As she moved closer to her shivering friend, she herself caught a few drops of the water on her own skin and was shocked at how cold the water was. "Hotch, turn the water off, and get out."
In any other circumstance if she talked to him like that it would be inappropriate. But right here, right now, it was to be expected. Hotch found the dial and the constant flow of water stopped.
This allowed JJ to really get into the shower and get a look at her friend.
The skin that was already usually a light pallor, was now a sickly white as the poor woman trembled. JJ wanted to engulf her in a hug and heat her up, but what made that thought dissipate was the large shard of glass sticking from her arm, as well as a few smaller pieces that littered the right side of her body.
Outside Derek was waiting for the all clear to go in when he heard a gunshot. And in that moment he didn't know if he would recover from this whole nightmare.
Okay. So next chapter… do you want to get a JJ/Em friendship in the basement and an Emily-injury scene with the medics, Derek and the Unsub (well likely hurting him), and maybe a bit of Demily if I can flick it in? Please review and let me know what you think. They keep me on my toes. ( :