Em tries to profile her captor. Meanwhile, Dave and Morgan bond over their guilt.

Through The Fire

A key rattled in the door before it was swung open. Stepping down the stairs, the string was pulled as light filled the darkened area.

"Hey bitch," his voice called out. "Where are you?" He looked around the area and saw nothing. Walking closer, he caught sight of the red sweatshirt. "I know you're not hiding from me." Reaching down, he yanked Em up into a sitting position.

"Not hiding," she whispered. She tried to focus on his face but he kept dancing around in her vision.

"You're supposed to come when I call."

"Sick," she replied as her eyes rolled up in her head.

"Hey!" he shouted and shook Em hard. "Get up! It's time for some fun."

"Need a shower."

"Damn right you do."

"Why?" she asked. Focus, Em. Focus on his voice and words. Learn all you can.

"Because I don't fuck dirty whores," he spat.

"I'm not a whore."

"All women are."

"That's not true." Em could feel her second wind coming on.

"Women are only good for two things in this world and they can't even get that right."

Em took the moment to delve deeper into his psyche since he had opened the door. If she was going to survive, she needed to find a way to outsmart him - use his anger against him and get him to drop his guard.

"Who hurt you?" she questioned. Her head hurt, her lungs were on fire, and her stomach rumbled loudly, but her first instinct was survival.

"What do you mean?"

"Someone hurt you. Was it your mother? Is that why you rape women who aren't hookers and leave them naked and humiliated in death while you barely touch prostitutes?"

"Shut your fucking mouth!" he spat.

"Is that why you are seeking revenge? Is it revenge on you mother? Was she having an affair? I think she was and that is why you are doing this."

"Shut your fucking mouth!" he spat. Lashing out, he slapped her repeatedly until her head lolled and blood trailed from the corner of her mouth. "You don't speak until you're spoken to! Do you understand me?"

Multi-coloured starbursts exploded behind Em's eyes as she felt her world fade in and out. She couldn't pass out or he would kill her. She tried to clear her head as tears ran down her cheeks and the taste of iron filled her mouth. She was bleeding, but she had to stay focused. But she had found out more about him.

"I'm sorry," she whispered and waited for another fit of rage. But it never came. Instead, he looked at her with a snarky smile.

"That's better." Yanking Em to her feet, he pushed her toward the stairs. "Come on."

"Where are we going?" Stumbling, she tried to keep herself upright and steady although the world seemed to be spinning out of control.

"Get you cleaned up, then we can have some fun." Blindfolding her, he pulled her up the stairs to the outside. Em tried to pull back. The shower was the next step to her possible demise. But she also uncovered a possible motive behind the UNSUB's abductions and murders. He was going to slip up. He had to.

But first, a hot shower.
*****

Morgan tried to maneuver his crutches while holding on to the folder gripped tightly in his hand. As his crutch hit the side of the desk, he stumbled causing the contents from the manila folder to spill out.

"Son of a bitch!" he cursed under his breath. Balancing with one hand, he tried to bend over and retrieve the papers. His knee protested. Sweat broke out on his forehead as he straightened up.

"Here, let me get that for you," Rossi offered. Kneeling down, he swept the papers up into a neat stack. Taking the folder from Morgan, he stuffed everything inside.

"I can take that."

"No, you looked wiped out; sit down before you fall down," Rossi ordered and placed everything on the desk.

"Rossi…"

"You might be acting Team Leader, but I still outrank you on a dozen levels. Besides, you're on medical leave and shouldn't be here, so that negates any authority you may have had. Now sit," Rossi repeated with an authoritative tone.

Realizing that it might be better to do as he was told than to argue, Morgan sat down on the chair. Setting the crutches aside, he took a deep breath and tried to wait for the spasm in his knee to pass.

"I thought Hotch told you to go home and rest your leg?" Rossi asked as he sat down on the corner of the desk. He took in his ashen faced co-worker and the thin film of sweat coating his skin.

"I'm fine."

"Fine?" Rossi scoffed. "You nearly passed out bending over to pick up some papers. If that is fine, I don't want to see you when you're really hurting."

"Don't profile me, Rossi," Morgan bit out thru clenched teeth.

"It's not profiling when pointing out the obvious. So why are you still here instead of at home resting?"

"Why are you still here?"

"Because Emily is out there somewhere."

"It has nothing to do with guilt?" Morgan challenged.

Rossi raised an eyebrow. "Funny, I was going to ask you the same thing." His gaze held Morgan's for a long while. "I guess we share something else in common."

"I should have been there for her," Morgan admitted.

"Derek, you were hurt. What could you have done? Hit the UNSUB with your crutch?"

"I was supposed to take the both of you to breakfast on Sunday and officially meet Em's 'fiancé'."

"You don't say," Rossi replied casually. "How did you find out?"

"Call it my police instinct. Something was hinkey and when I asked her, she dodged the topic."

"Sounds like Em."

"I saw that look you gave her on the jet," Morgan stated and shoved the folder aside. "When we were heading to Seattle. It was the one moment where your guard was down. I also confronted her with what I suspected."

"What did she say?"

Morgan shrugged. "She finally admitted it. Then she told me that you wanted her to move in with you to keep her safe. I guess you know what her reaction was."

"What did you tell her?" Rossi prodded.

"That she should do it…especially when she revealed that we had been running in areas where the women had been disappearing." Morgan slapped the desk loudly. "Dammit! Why wasn't I there? Why did I have to get hurt?"

"It was meant to be." It hurt for him to say the words, but it was true.

Morgan's eyes flew to the senior agent. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"You're a cop, and you know better than anyone that there is very rarely a 'coincidence'. But if it makes you feel any better, I'm just as guilty - if not more so - that this happened. I vowed in front of a priest to protect her and I failed."

"Rossi, you had to go out of town on business, you didn't know this was going to happen."

"Maybe not consciously, but I suspected it might. I even told her not to go running."

"I did the same."

Rossi got up and paced the office. "I left Mudgie there for her."

"You did all you could."

"I should have taken her with me."

"I should have called her that morning," Morgan countered.

"I should have rescheduled."

"Yes, you should have."

"And you could have gone in last and avoided being hit by that arsonist," Rossi shot back.

Both agents got quiet as the last sentence rang in their ears.

"Are we…'bonding'?" Rossi asked. He thrust his hands into his coat pocket.

"I guess we are," Morgan admitted. Pulling the folder back, he flipped it open.

"Is that Em's dossier?" Rossi sat down across from Morgan.

"Yes. I've been over it a hundred times and nothing is standing out." Morgan started to hand it over. "Do you want to look at it?"

Rossi shook his head. "I probably know it better than anyone. You guys always run that area?"

"Three times a week when we can."

"And nothing was out of the ordinary the last time you ran?"

Morgan thought hard. "Nothing. She aggravated her charley horse and had to sit down." He concentrated as the morning came back. "I teased her about her fiancé and was about to make her divulge his name when she said she had to sit down."

"Did you stay with her?"

"No. She sat down on a bench and told me to keep going."

"Was anyone there with her?"

"She was alone…"Morgan's voice trailed off.

"What?" Rossi leaned forward. "You remember something."

"When I came back, she was talking to an older man. He was walking his dog. But he's not our guy. He's a widower and probably couldn't lift his dog."

"Maybe he saw something. If he has a dog, he has a routine." Rossi got up from the chair.

"Where are you going?" Morgan demanded and tried to stand up.

"To the park," Rossi threw over his shoulder, rushing to the door.

"Wait!" Morgan struggled to find his crutches and stand up. "I'm going with you."

"The hell you are! You're injured and can't be out in the field. Stay here and reanalyze that day."

"Screw that! I'm going."

"Okay. Tell you what: if you can get downstairs and to the SUV before I can get to Garcia and tell her what you are doing, you can go."

Morgan settled his weight on the pads of the crutches. "Bastard," he bit out.

"That's Agent Bastard to you." Rossi rushed out to find Hotch.

Morgan settled back in the chair. He was staying put for the moment, but he was going to be there when they found Em. And he was going to personally slap the cuffs on that scumbag of an UNSUB.

And if was going to be so sweet.