A/N: I know, I know...I am such a tease. But we are getting closer to a resolution of some kind, so read on to see how much closer we are to finding out if the girls actually get away.
I'm going to keep my thanks for reviews short and sweet this chapter. I think by now that if you don't know how truly grateful I am for your words of encouragement to me, I'm not keeping up my end of this crazy journey. But just in case you haven't gotten it yet; I LOVE YOU ALL! So thanks to NicknHotchfan, miaa29, HGRHfan35, greengirl82, Hazmatt, sarahb2007, Wtiger5, HPforever-after and melodic2686 (chs 19 & 24) for inspiring me on to greater and greater cliffies...ahem...chapters. ;)
Also everyone please note: I love these characters! If I didn't, one or more of them would be dead by now. But I do assure you all that it WILL come good in the end, because I DO love them to pieces and I would never permanently harm them. Good times are a comin'.
As always, I couldn't do this as well as I have done without the magical help of the gorgeous Wtiger5; your inspiration of Lydia Scott has and is enriching this story beyond belief. I am also entirely appreciative of your help with providing me with my much-needed medical advice. Your love and support is invaluable to me; thanks for being the most amazing sister and friend. Love you sweetie.
Rated M for violence, torture themes, drug use, coarse language and sex scenes. (yes, this is going to have a little bit of everything)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds at all, although they do own me and I do own Carrie and Toby, Chloe and India, Kelly and Brad and Ben.
Arabian Nights – Chapter 25
She didn't know when she'd fallen asleep, but she woke as the sun inched its way in through the windshield and struck her face. Time stopped for a moment as memory returned and she came awake with a jerk and a whimper representing the pain her body was in. Emily looked around wildly as her eyes grew accustomed to the dim light in the cab of the truck, but gradually she calmed as the driver, who had introduced himself as Doug shortly after the truck had fully picked up speed the night before, shot her a brief smile.
"Morning Emily. Did you sleep well?"
She shifted, stifling another pain noise as she straightened up carefully.
"I'm not sure I'll ever sleep well again, but it helped for sure. Where are we?"
"We're about an hour from New York. I had to stop for a short rest break a couple of hours ago."
"Oh."
Jordan groaned against her and shifted.
"What hit me?" she mumbled groggily.
"Not too sure about that, but considering the shape of your bruises when you were changing earlier, I'd say several booted feet and clenched fists."
"It feels like I got hit by a truck."
"Nope; we actually managed to avoid that fracas, but Penelope and Lydia very nearly did get run over."
"What?"
Jordan shifted her head but kept her eyes closed. She wasn't entirely sure her head was still attached to her neck, but the amount of pain she was in everywhere was a slight reassurance of how well everything was still attached. But then there was the concern that she might have brain damage because surely she hadn't just heard what she had?
She forced her eyes open and jerked backwards despite her pain, catching her elbow on someone's ribs and causing them both to yelp in pain. When they'd finally stopped writhing, she looked carefully at the guy driving the vehicle they were in to see that he hadn't moved from his spot before slowly turning her head to view the glare Emily was shooting her way.
"Sorry," she muttered. "What's going on?"
"Big long story short, after you passed out we kept going and eventually left the trail. The road was there so suddenly and the girls were going so fast they ended up in the middle of the lane before they knew it. After we avoided getting run over, Doug agreed to drive us to safety."
Jordan shot the driver another look. He didn't look that scary now that she was properly awake and in possession of the story of how they'd gotten where they were.
Emily watched Doug look in his side mirror again and like the times he'd done it before a frown came over his face.
"You look worried," she said softly. He shot her a look and shook his head slightly. "Tell me, please."
He sighed quietly. "I'd just left the rest stop when I noticed a van behind us. I didn't think too much about it, but when it didn't overtake at the first opportunity it had, I started keeping an eye on it. Then I hit a winding road on a downward slope and you could have easily walked faster than the truck. But the van stayed behind me the whole way down, even though there was an overtaking lane half way down that everyone else behind them used. They're still behind us."
Everything in Emily went still. That meant that if they stopped somewhere now, chances were good they were all going to die.
"There's more. I'm going to need fuel soon."
"How soon?" Emily took Jordan's hand as the other woman's voice squeaked slightly at the end. She'd clearly been thinking the same thing.
"I might just be able to get us into New York. But I'm not sure how far into the city we'll manage to get. Any chance you girls have connections that could help us out? Because I know I don't."
Jordan shot her a look that plainly asked how much they'd told their good Samaritan. Emily shook her head just slightly and asked cautiously, "Do you have a mobile I could use?"
"I have the mobile, but we won't have reception until about five minutes outside of the city limits. Boss said it has something to do interference of some kind that I didn't quite understand when he explained it."
"So what happens if you break down outside of the signal?" Penelope asked from the back seat. Jordan turned her head carefully to see all four women huddled together for warmth and comfort. They were exchanging tentative smiles when Doug spoke again.
"I have a panic trip-switch that I can hit that will ping the office with my GPS coordinates; the office then dispatches both a highway patrol car and a tow truck."
"Why the patrol car?"
"In case it's actually a robbery instead of a breakdown."
"What's the response time like?"
"I've never personally been involved in a panic call, but I've heard a buddy hit the button and the patrol car was at his location in under five minutes. The tow truck took almost two hours to follow, but the patrol stayed with him while they waited because there had been some robberies in that area at that time."
"So hitting the panic button wouldn't help us while we're moving."
"Not in the slightest. A patrol car might come quickly but because we would be moving it would overlook us, even if the plates matched the ping." They all fell silent as they contemplated this. Doug waited a moment before asking, "So you do have connections?"
"My husband is with the FBI. I don't know exactly where he is right now, but if I can contact him with enough notice, he can meet us with firepower enough to protect all of us."
Doug nodded slowly and pulled out his mobile. "Here; take this. Watch the signal strength and as soon as you can, you call as many people as you need to. I don't particularly think my wife would be too happy with me if I mentioned I'd helped you girls out and then got hurt for my troubles, so you call up as much help as you think we need."
"Considering this is the third time they've tried taking us and they are still following us, I'm not sure the entire combined force of the FBI would be enough to save us from them now," Carrie muttered in the back seat.
"Doesn't stop us from trying," Lydia said soothingly as Emily started checking the signal strength on the phone.
New Section
Dave was almost asleep in his chair when a light hand ran over the top of his head and brought him to immediate wakefulness. He tipped his head back to see Teresa smiling sleepily down at him.
"I was missing your presence in my bed and when I couldn't get back to sleep, I thought I might come find you."
He smiled back at her and tugged her around and down to his lap. She settled down pretty quickly with a happy sigh.
"Sorry love; I was helping Sampson keep an eye on these guys. How are you feeling?"
"Apart from mildly nauseated and incredibly sleepy, I'm fine. And since the nausea is bearable, I'm not blaming you just yet for getting me into this position."
He smothered a chuckle as he grinned and gently kissed the top of her head. "I greatly appreciate not needing to accept all the blame for bedding you well enough to plant my child in your womb."
She made a soft sound of assent and shivered just slightly. He leaned forward just enough to slip his jacket off and wrapped it around her shoulders. Her happy sigh a moment later was the last he heard from her before her breathing evened out into sleep.
"Congratulations," Sampson said softly.
Dave smiled and tightened his arms around his sleeping woman. "Thanks."
Sampson nodded and they lapsed back into another contented silence. And with Teresa safe in his arms, her body heat keeping him warm in the cool hospital air, he was just starting to doze off again when the sound of several babies crying started coming closer.
Teresa stirred to wakefulness in his arms as a nurse marched into the room with a screaming baby in her arms. And by the way Aaron turned immediately from the window, it was one of his girls. Two other nurses followed the first into the room, each with a crying baby. By their uniforms, they'd clearly come from the ward that looked after babies and toddlers, where the three youngest of their family had been placed for observation after what had happened to their mothers.
Not a single one of them, from the oldest to the youngest, was happy.
The first nurse marched right up to Aaron and deposited the child into the arms he lifted automatically to receive her. He instantly shifted her up against his shoulder and started to rub her back as he tucked her closer, her cries immediately beginning to ease.
"Right; this is how it's going to work from now on. I don't care how distraught you are over your missing wife. There isn't a lot you can do about that until she is found and standing here at a window and shirking your duties as a parent won't help anyone. Your daughters have been fed, bathed and changed. They've had more than enough cuddles from my nursing staff and as you can hear, they're still crying. Now that Chloe has stopped crying, it just proves my theory; she needs her father.
"So you're going to stop moping and you're going to shower your daughters with love, cuddles and attention. And while you're at it, you're going to take a walk down to your son's room and spend some time with him. Read, or tell him, a story; let him cuddle one, or both of his sisters and reassure him that everything is alright because right now, I've heard he's thinking he's lost both of his parents.
"And don't even think of answering that ringing phone until you do. If it is about your missing wife, there are other people that can be called. Sally, give him India as well."
The youngest of the three nurses shot the older woman an awed look and placed the other crying baby into the agent's arms. Derek had already been given Ben to hold and sudden blissful silence met their ears.
"The same applies to you Agent Morgan. Your son is old enough to know something isn't right and he needs your reassurance and your love. And since you don't have other children, you can focus your sole attention on him. And don't answer your phone either."
Derek pulled the phone out anyway and checked the number. Shaking his head slightly, he slipped the phone back into his pocket and tucked Ben in closer.
"And one of you needs to go and sit with Toby; he's feeling very alone and vulnerable right now and just because he doesn't have a father doesn't mean he should be left in that state."
"Can he leave his bed?" Aaron asked cautiously. He was struggling to wrap his head around the fact that this stranger had just put him in his place; something that shouldn't have been necessary if he'd been thinking straight and remembering that Emily wasn't his entire, and only, world.
"For a short period of time yes. Why?"
"Toby and Jack often share a bed at home. They find it comforting because they consider themselves brothers. I was thinking of shifting Toby into Jack's bed and reading to all four of them at the same time."
He only just restrained a sigh of relief as her severe look eased into a small smile. "If they fall asleep while in the same bed then that's fine. Yes?" she asked in answer to Kevin's tentatively raised hand.
"Am I allowed to answer my phone?"
"Do you have any children in my ward?"
"No ma'am, I don't. My wife's pregnant with our first child."
"Then you may answer your phone."
Teresa smothered a giggle at the relieved look on Kevin's face as he pressed a button on his phone and lifted it to his ear. Everyone else, including the angry nurse, was fighting not to smile as he said hello.
But somehow he'd hit the speaker button because the next thing they knew, all the smiles were gone.
"How hard is it, when your wives are missing, is it to get one of you, just one, to answer his phone? Hmm? Answer me that if you please. No wait, Emily's saying don't bother about the answering, just put Hotch on."
"Ah, babe? You're on speaker phone, so just get Emily to speak and he'll hear. Oh, and I love you."
"Aww, I love you too hunkmeister."
Hunkmeister?
"I would normally be keen to get the answer to Pen's question as well, but right now I need people with guns and I need them fast."
"Babe, my arms are full with girls and I was being scolded by an irate nurse, otherwise we would have already had this conversation because I would have answered the call in the first instance. What's going on?"
"Turn here. Babe, your arms may be full of babies but in just a couple of minutes, my body is no doubt going to be full of bullets. So give the babies back to the irate nurse and come rescue all of us."
Aaron didn't have to ask, the nurses stepped forward as one unit and took the babies back. Teresa slipped off of Dave's lap and handed his jacket back to him as he stood and checked that his gun was still secured.
"I'll go sit with the boys and tell that what's going on. Are we getting all of you back."
"Oh shit...sorry, yes; more or less. We'll need medical help straight away though."
"Where are you?"
"About two blocks away from the hospital where Austin is. Where are you?"
"At the hospital where Austin is. How long...?"
"Traffic is reasonably light so I doubt it will be more than a few minutes. You might want to hurry; they're right behind us and no doubt wanting to kill us to keep their little torture palace location a secret. We won't have much time at all once we stop; locked doors don't stop bullets."
"Come back safely; that's an order!" Teresa yelled at the men's rapidly retreating backs. She turned to Mirkal. "We need to call your boss and tell him what's going on."
He nodded agreement and pulled out his phone. Holding down a single key, the call rapidly went through as he put it on speakerphone.
"Jackson."
Mirkal grimaced, not liking how snarky his boss sounded. Teresa thankfully beat him to speaking.
"Emily just phoned to say they've escaped. They'll be pulling up out front of this hospital any minute now but they have unsubs hot on their tail so the guys here need immediate backup."
The tone of a call abruptly disconnected met their silence and Kevin shook his head.
"Man, no offence, but your boss needs to take a chill pill."
Mirkal shrugged. "None taken. Shall we go downstairs to wait for Carrie and Penelope?"
Kevin's answer was to head for the door. Mirkal followed quickly and Teresa was left shaking her head, a combination of worry and amusement washing over her as she went to find the boys and reassure them that their mothers were coming back to them.
End-
A/N: I promise, we are going to be getting a resolution shortly...it's just taking a little longer than expected.
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