A/N – Once again, thank you everyone for the comments via PM, reviews left and even those of you who are following the story, it honestly is good to know others are just reading it.
Here is another instalment. Unfortunately real life is going to invade for the coming few days, and I won't be able to write anything more until sometime early next week. So I'm giving advanced warning that it's going to be likely 4 or 5 days at the earliest before this happens. Sorry and all that. Personally, if I had my way I'd be chained pretty much to the computer writing!
Chapter thirty five
"There is a unknown dead male on your porch."
As JJ heard the words, she felt her world beginning to spin. Emily turned and looked as JJ went white, and honest to god, she never thought she would say this, but she then turned green, before turning white again. Emily instinctively moved in, seeing that JJ was looking as if she would pass out on them.
"JJ." Emily concerned voice finally seemed to penetrate the fog that was surrounding JJ's brain.
"JJ." Emily questioned again, seeing JJ looking around her seemingly more aware of what was going on. The agent standing at the front door had the decency to avoid eye contact with the two women.
"Oh god."
JJ didn't even realize she had said anything, but it was enough for Emily to guide her back in to the sitting room and the couch and placing their guns on the table alongside it. The agent followed them at a respectable distance, as Emily looked up at him once she was sure JJ wasn't about to collapse on her.
"It's likely the body is Detective William LaMontagne. Have you called in the rest of our BAU team?"
"Yes ma'am, and if you don't mind me asking, why are you giving me this detectives name?" The agent looked confused.
"He's missing, has been in a previous relationship with Agent Jareau and is the father of Henry Jareau." Emily tried to explain quickly. "Someone in our team should be able to make an ID for you when they arrive." Then more to herself, "God don't they tell you lot anything!"
Emily effectively dismissed the agent by turning her full attention back to JJ, who seemed to be in an almost catatonic state.
"Talk to me sweetheart." Emily spoke softly, her fingers linking hands with the blonde's, her thumb sweeping across the back of her hand.
"Please, Emily I want you to look and tell me if it's Will." JJ looked up, and Emily could only nod as she stood up and found the agent standing in the hallway.
"JJ has asked me to check the ID." Emily said quietly, but with a tone that meant there would be no arguing. The agent tilted his head in acknowledgement and they headed to the porch together. Just as they opened the front door and stepped outside, two SUV's came thundering down the street, drawing to a halt, angled across the curb, the blue and red glow of their emergency lights seemed unusually harsh in the daylight that was now filtering through clouds skittering across the sky, having fought past the first tentacles of dawn.
Emily didn't even watch the BAU team pile out as she saw the body lying there. She moved slowly towards it, and since he was face up, she hoped the ID would be made. She drew a sharp breath in when she saw the state of his head, which was so severely beaten he was almost unrecognisable. It had been a brutal attack and it made her skin crawl, knowing this was indeed the work of Athena.
"I can't be 100% sure." Emily turned to the agent who was hanging back just off her shoulder, "but weight, build and hair color all suggest it's Will LaMontagne."
The agent nodded sympathetically, and moved to begin calling in the information. It was only then Emily was aware that Morgan was standing right in front of her. She looked up in to his concerned brown eyes.
"Will?" Morgan asked, his eyes glancing to the side towards the body, before he looked back at Emily.
"Looks like it." Emily took in a deep breath. "This is going to kill JJ." Her throat working shakily as Emily tried to clear her mouth from the bile that was trying to rise. She wasn't going to be sick. That hadn't happened in years, but this was the closest she had come to it in such a long time it had completely thrown her. She could feel the bile rising again, and she had to turn away from Morgan, otherwise she knew she wouldn't have been able to stop herself from vomiting this time around.
"Emily?" Morgan placed a hand on her shoulder, his voice laced with concern.
"I'll be okay, I just need a second." Emily managed to say without throwing up, much to her relief, partly because of pride, but also because she did not want to be responsible for contaminating a crime scene. She continued to swallow down, as she turned back to now see the rest of the team were now on the porch, looking worried.
"Let's go inside." Hotch said, moving forward towards the front door.
Emily moved in first, and without waiting for the others, she headed to the sitting room, where JJ looked up from the couch, looking pale. She just took one look at Emily's face and soundless tears began to fall, clutching at Emily's heart as she moved to sit alongside her girlfriend, bringing JJ's head to her shoulder as much as she could.
"I think it's him." Emily said softly, "He's..." Emily hesitated as she felt the sobs increasing at the news she was delivering, knowing instinctively that JJ knew what she was trying to say. "I'm so sorry." Emily said eventually, as her robe and shirt underneath became increasingly wet. The rest of the team had moved respectfully to the kitchen and Emily was grateful she and JJ were alone at a time like this.
Eventually, JJ's tears subsided, and she moved, grabbing some tissues from a box she kept on a side table along the one end of the couch, before blowing her nose. She looked back at Emily, who had just allowed her to do whatever she needed to and swallowed hard.
"Do I need to do an ID?" JJ asked cautiously.
Emily simply shook her head. "We're going to have to use dental or DNA records." came her careful reply.
JJ swallowed hard again, trying to avoid the tears that were once again threatening. Taking a few deep breaths, she moved back in close to Emily, who lifted her good arm and brought the blonde back in to the cocoon of her body. Without thinking, her hand came up and began to gently run through JJ's hair in a soothing gesture.
"The rest of the team arrived while I was outside." Emily finally spoke up once she felt that JJ had regained some of her equilibrium.
"Where are they?" JJ asked as she then pulled away from Emily. It dawned on her she hadn't even realized they had turned up, she had been so upset before.
"I think they headed to the kitchen."
"I could do with a coffee. Let's see if there is any more news." JJ stood up, straightening her spine as she did so, before stretching her arms out above her head, rolling her neck slightly to ease the kinks she was feeling. She then held out a hand to help Emily up from the couch, and with they moved towards the kitchen door.
"Henry hasn't woken up, that's one small mercy." JJ said quietly as they entered the hallway, looking towards the stairs.
"He'll sleep through a nuclear bomb going off once he does finally go down for the night." Emily said with a light laugh.
"I used to be like that as a child and in this instance I'm pleased he takes after me." JJ admitted, before she stopped at the kitchen door, where she took a breath before pushing it open. The team's heads all snapped up from around the kitchen table where they had situated themselves. JJ smiled at them.
"I hope to god someone put the coffee on!" JJ said, and her comment drew a round of uneasy smiles from everyone there.
"Ever the caffeine addict and of course we've made sure there is fresh coffee available. They'd take our law enforcement badges of honor from us if we didn't, although we've not managed the donuts, so we might still have our card carrying membership revoked." Morgan teased, as he moved across to one of the kitchen counters where JJ's coffee machine was. He poured her a mug, and looked at Emily, who nodded she would like some as well. He grabbed a second mug and poured some more out. Both JJ and Emily laughed at Morgan's words as they grabbed the mugs from him, quickly adding sugar and stirring the coffees joined the rest of the team at the table.
After a few minutes of silence, people just drinking and gathering thoughts, Emily looked around at everyone. "Is there any new information?"
"I've had a more in depth autopsy report for Susan that I read when I got back from here last night." Hotch said, putting his mug down. "It's not much, but we can tell her body was, at some point frozen for a short time. It's making the time line for her disappearance a little more difficult to pin down. I'll ask to see if the same has happened to Wi..." Hotch hesitated, "The unknown body on the porch. The body doesn't look as if it's decomposed in any way. It might be nothing, but if it is Will, which I think we all agree is looking likely, we have to ask the questions, did Athena bring him up here before or after the events leading to his death. Either way, she must have some means to transport either him or a body undetected, which rules out using public transport of any kind. The time-line also suggests a car or van would be unlikely."
"A private plane." Emily lifted her head up, as the thought went through her mind. "Doyle was able to move undetected using private planes, even though use of airspace has been tightened since 9/11. It would explain how she has been able to move around like that, and I'm willing to bet she's got the financial clout or contacts to achieve it as well."
Hotch nodded, and pulled his cell out of his pocket. "I like that idea." He said as he hit a speed dial number. Within a few minutes, a sleepy sounding Garcia answered.
"Garcia, I want you to look at private planes, airfields, possibly helicopter usage that Athena might have access to." Hotch spoke swiftly, once he knew he had her attention. Garcia didn't question why she was being asked about this, just acknowledged the request, as he ended the call.
"I was thinking through the situation, and we have to ask, why dump the body on the porch?" Spencer began to theorize out loud. "It's a risky operation, she must know there are agents on duty, so she must have been watching their movements somehow. What if she's planted herself locally, to also gain the full effect of the discovery. While Susan's body was left at Emily's apartment, the DVD and pictures were left here. Why? I can only surmise it allowed her to see whoever saw the items first reactions to their discovery."
"You're right." Morgan said, his eyebrows knotting in concentration. "She wants to see people suffering through this, and she could only do that by either revisiting the scene or having a safe location where she can do some kind of stake out nearby."
"I'll have Garcia look and she if she can find out if there are any rental properties near here once she gets back in touch about the other information." Hotch said, nodding in agreement. "Or if there have been any sales recently, possibly empty properties on the market. You're right, she would want to see rewards to the spoils, and that means having to be close by somehow. JJ do you know any properties locally that have been empty, for rent or sold recently."
"I don't know." JJ admitted, "Remember, we've been away undercover."
"Yes, of course." Hotch rubbed a hand across stubble that was beginning to show, since he'd had no time to shave before heading out that morning. "Perhaps we can print out Athena's picture and get the local police to do a canvass of the area, to see if anyone recognizes her."
"Worth a shot." Rossi spoke up for the first time.
Morgan stood up abruptly and began pacing the kitchen. "We should have thought of this earlier." He said, sounding angry at himself as much as anything.
"We've only been on this a short time." Rossi said quietly. "Remember it took seven months to track down Doyle. We've learned a lot from that event as a team, and we're good at what we do, and we will manage this."
Morgan stopped mid stride before sinking back on his chair. "I know, it's just I feel like we've been two steps behind for too long. We're still playing catch up."
"That's as maybe, but we're getting closer on each occasion." Rossi reminded him. "We're almost level with her, because she's beginning to leave clues behind that she's never done before. The mistakes might be small, but they are there, and we are using them to our advantage. It's what we do so well. Perhaps if the CIA had come to us earlier for a profile on Athena, for us to look at her movements, and operations, she might well have been caught a long time ago."
"While that might be true, we cannot sit and think about the 'what if' scenarios, and we can't do much more for now." Hotch stood up. "I'll liaise with the police and crime unit outside, in the meantime I suggest everyone else tries to get some more rest. JJ, Emily, I want you to stay here and I also don't want Henry going anywhere today. Emily I'll also ensure that you're therapy sessions are fully secure, because I'll escort them personally."
Emily's eyes shot up in surprise. "I don't think..."
Hotch put his hand up. "I know we've used agents to move them in and out of the house, but this body dump has raised the level of Athena's boldness. I'm not taking any chances."
A growl of frustration tore through Emily before she replied with a curt "Yes Sir." JJ looked sideways at her showing her disapproval at Emily's behavior, making Emily look sheepishly down at the table.
"Right, everyone back home to rest. I don't want things being missed because we are too exhausted to see things. I know we all want to keep going as long as possible, but it we need to recharge before we do anything else." Hotch looked at his watch, which showed it was still 6 in the morning. "We'll all meet back here at 2 this afternoon. I don't want anyone going to the office before midday, is everyone clear?"
Morgan looked defiant, but nodded. Reid simply said 'Yes' quietly, while Rossi also nodded his agreement to Hotch.
"Okay people, let's go and leave these two in peace. Emily I'll see you around 10 for your first appointment."
"Fine." Emily replied, as she stood up slowly, suddenly aware how stiff she was. JJ also stood up, and moved towards the sink, picking up empty mugs on the way, to wash and tidy up. JJ deposited her spoils in to the sink before she swiveled around, leaning back on the counter top to watch as everyone apart from Emily filed out of the room. She waited until she heard the front door latch closed before moving towards Emily, needing a hug. Emily immediately opened her arms and enveloped JJ, no words required to convey the comfort that JJ was seeking.
Just as JJ was beginning to relax, she heard Henry moving around upstairs and with a sigh, she moved away from the comforting arms of Emily and headed upstairs to see to her son, trying not to think about what she was going to have to tell him, even though formal identification had still to be made. Emily watched the back of JJ, her heart heavy with sorrow, knowing how difficult the coming days were going to be for JJ and Henry knowing words right now were pretty meaningless.
Athena watched as Emily walked out on to the porch. She trained her lens even more keenly, snapping away constantly, not wanting to miss even the slightest nuance on the face of the woman she was chasing. She couldn't stop the smile as she saw Emily's face contort in emotional pain. She could also tell Emily was swallowing down hard, obviously trying to avoid being sick on the scene. It gave Athena a thrill to know that she had got that much sensation out of the Agent. It was unexpected and she smiled even more when she saw Emily turn away from one of her colleagues who joined her on the porch, so obviously trying to hide her feelings from him.
You might be able to hide from him, but I can see everything Athena thought with increased satisfaction as she finally rested back in her chair once everyone began to disappear back in the house.