I posted the last chapter thinking...a couple of days and the interview will be ready to go. My muse had other things in mind. So instead of keeping with the usual length of posting, I give you this...enjoy.
Observe...
Snow White looked different, he concluded, after several moments of silence. He realized that Snow White was no longer in the beautiful dress he had provided for her. She was wearing jeans, and a long sleeved shirt. Her hair was down, the way he liked, and she looked uncertain, as if she shouldn't be here with him.
"Hi." He began tentatively. He had no idea what lies or truths the Police had told her while they had been separated. She seemed in one piece and she still seemed to trust him.
"May I sit?" She inquired. He loved that she was still looking to him for direction. It meant that all their time together had not been for nothing.
He agreed quickly, watching her every movement. He was conscious that she never looked toward the mirror that lined one wall. He loved that about her, she had no concept of how beautiful she was. And it also meant that her entire being was focused on him, as it should be.
"Are you alright?" He asked.
"The people at the hospital said I am fine now."
"I've been waiting for you…why didn't you come sooner?" He grimaced a little. He sounded like a petulant child, not the kind of Prince he truly was. Take control, he ordered himself.
"The people, those men from the clearing," she paused and looked at him, to make sure he knew to whom she was referring. He nodded emphatically. He remembered every single man that had been there, the dark man who had tried to approach his Snow without permission and the two severe men who had kept hold of him. How one of the severe men had gone running to his Snow White when had collapsed out of the shock of so many unworthy men surrounding her. The same men who had not allowed him access to Snow. He desperately wanted to know everything that had happened to her while she was away from him. But he didn't want to interrupt her so he merely let the nod subside, and beckoned for her to continue. "They said I had to remain in hospital for a while, to make sure I was okay."
He nodded again, that made sense, everyone would be concerned with her welfare…who wouldn't be concerned about Snow White, she was perfect. She needed to be protected from every bad thing in this world.
Tobey turned his head quickly when he heard more voices and noises emanating from the other side of the door.
"They went through your house Tobey." Snow White said, bringing his attention back to her. She must not have heard any noises outside their little room. However, she was always more concerned with him than any other event or person. As it should be.
Finally, her last remark pierced his thoughts, "They went through my house?" He went to stand up again, in righteous indignation, but quickly remembered his hands were cuffed.
"To try and find my room, maybe they wanted to find my clothes." She was so sweet and innocent and trusting. "They could not find my room Tobey…do you know why?"
"That's going to be our room Snow, you don't need to worry about what those men could or couldn't find. All you need to do is trust me. I'll take care of everything."
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
Rossi was standing a little too close to the mirror for his liking. But he wasn't about to move. After a few seconds of Emily-induced chaos, the team had calmed down and realized she was probably talking to Tobey. Just like she said she would, but they couldn't afford to go in and break that up now, especially if she had already gotten into his room. It would make them look incompetent. Better to let the UnSub believe he had gotten some special consideration, or that Emily had sneaked into see him. Perhaps it would feed into his delusions. Morgan, Hotch and Reid were lined up against the back of the small room. The observation room was even smaller than the interview room. JJ and Garcia had wanted to observe but the room was too small. So they had been asked, rather firmly by Hotch, to stay outside and keep the rest of the station busy and away from the interview room. Emily did not need any interruptions.
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"They went through my house!" Tobey screeched, attempting to stand up in rage. His anger and derision at the restraints showing on his face.
Emily was unmoved. She sat stoically and kept talking.
"To try and find my room…"
Rossi shifted a tiny bit, causing the others to move to find better vantage points as well. He wanted to see Emily's facial expression more clearly. Her voice was leaving much to desire. In all of his experience with Emily Prentiss he had never heard her so vacant, so devoid of intonation and nuance.
"You need to trust me. I'll take care of everything." The tonal quality and expression on Tobey's face was so predatory and disturbing that Rossi took an unconscious step backward. He quickly righted himself. He didn't want to cause another mass movement within the tiny room.
Behind him Morgan and Hotch both reflexively fisted their jackets into their hands to avoid bolting into the room and yanking Emily out.
Reid simply watched her, looked for any of the obligatory signs of Emily or Snow White. If he could cataloge their individual expressions he would instantly know with whom he was conversing or observing. He was slowly beginning to recognize one from the other. But in this particular instance, Emily and Snow White seemed to be working together, they were collaborating to interview Tobey effectively. He wondered what questions they would ask next, where were they taking this interview?
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"Tobey. Can I ask you something?" Snow/Emily softened her words further, slid down her seat a little bit more. She made herself smaller and weaker, reliant, subservient.
"You can ask me anything." He voice was gentle and clear.
"It's about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty."
"They are perfectly fine. They can take care of themselves. They will wait for us."
"Of course, I just…" She trailed off, how should we ask this?
"Snow? You can ask, there will be no repercussions this time." He earnestly reached out to her with his cuffed hands, imploring her to grasp his.
She didn't want to touch him, she desperately wanted to hold him. Emily and Snow White struggled for a few precious seconds, long enough for both the occupants of the observation room and the interview room to realize something was wrong.
"What it is? Have those other men turned you against me already? Are you that fickle. I thought you were better than all the rest but you are aren't you. You ungrateful little wh-"
Snow White immediately took control.
"No, Tobey!" Her hand immediately stretched out and grabbed his. He quietened instantaneously.
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Behind the mirror, they all tensed. Tobey yelled at Emily, in his anger he pulled at the handcuffs on his wrists and scraped the table along the floor. The very heavy, supposedly immovable table that he was chained to for the express purpose of restricting his mobility. They watched in mute amazement as her hand appeared to move of its own volition. They were holding hands now, it was like a switch had been flicked in Tobey's mind. As if he had an off/on capacitor that was tuned into his emotions. This was a very dangerous man.
"Tobey, I got distracted, I was thinking about Cinderella and Beauty waiting for us and I thought. Why are they always around?"
"They are your near-sisters; I explained all this to you already." Tobey appeared puzzled by Emily's question.
Evidently, Prentiss had found an entryway to the information they needed to retrieve from him. Hotch had already come to a decision about this perpetrator; he would never be allowed out of a penitentiary. Not as long Hotch was still alive to prevent it. Could he work that into a clause of his will?
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"I know they are my near-sisters Tobey, I'm pleased that they are. However, I wonder at the place they seem to hold in your life." She paused to gauge his reaction. Upon the lack of one, Snow/Emily proceeded. "I am your wife, am I not?"
"Yes." He was pleased.
"Yet, you allow these other two to remain in our house. Of course, when you were determining me, that made sense. But now. I don't know." She shook her head sadly, in regret.
"What doesn't make sense?" This was new. He had not expected Snow to have any interest in the running of the household. He had not anticipated she would actually have an curiousness in regard to their future, that she would have ideas and things to contribute. He was secretly delighted, but for now it would be best not to show her what he was feeling.
"They failed you."
Oh, but she was perfect.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
Garcia was extremely put out. Hotch had all but ordered JJ and herself out of the observation room. He had politely asked, Hotch-speak for 'get out now'. They had successfully cordoned off the area, and distracted the remaining law enforcement officers but Penelope was dying to know what was occurring in the closed room. Was her Emily handling herself well, were the boys taking care of her, was the information that needed uncovering being uncovered, or was Snow White simply manipulating this situation for her own benefit?
Garcia came to a decision;
Option A – remain in the proverbial dark, reliant on second-hand information she may or may not be given at a later date when this whole debacle was finished.
OR…
Option B – hack into the surveillance equipment and watch the interview in a quiet corner of the room.
This is a hard decision, she thought sarcastically. Her laptop was already on standby, one or two quick minutes later, and Garcia was watching Tobey and Emily hold hands.
"Yuck!" She exclaimed aloud, drawing JJ's attention. She had the sound turned down, just low enough for herself and anyone standing directly over, or next to her, to hear it.
"They failed you." Emily said, still clasping her hand to his. Thankfully JJ didn't come over. This was one thing that the pregnant self-blaming woman did not need to know, see or imagine.
The evil man did not answer her, he merely stared at her with a disgusting look mixed with awe and confusion, and lust.
"I know that they were the better ones, the two that were almost perfect, but that they failed you in someway."
A look of comprehension appeared, "Yes that's true…"
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"Tobey, why did they fail you?" She was genuinely interested.
"Sleeping Beauty was the first that nearly completed me." His mind wandered, he was no longer in this tiny room. He was in Snow White's attic, long before she had ever set foot in that room, in the town, in this area. "There was three wrong ones before her."
"Wrong ones?"
"I wasn't always this adept at finding who I'm supposed to marry. It's taken me a long time to find you. To see the signs. To understand what snow was trying to tell me."
"Why didn't Beauty…I mean, why aren't you married to her."
"No, ask him about the others!" Morgan hissed at her from the other room. Rossi and Hotch looked at him sharply. As if by some miraculous chance Emily would actually be able to hear him from the other room.
"Sleeping Beauty was supposed to wake up when I kissed her. I am the Prince after all."
"Yes, you are."
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Garcia almost gagged on a little bit of vomit when she saw the pure look of adoring love on Emily's face.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"But she didn't, she just continued to sleep, for days and days, and after a couple of months. I realized I must not be her true love. She was harboring feelings for some other less worthy Prince. If I was not her true love, there was no way she was ever going to wake up."
"Is that why she is still on my bed?"
"It would be wrong of me to move her, she was almost perfect. She was almost you. She could have been you if she only loved me truly. If she only had true love in her heart for me as you do."
"And Cinderella?" Her head tilted in the adorable manner that he had come to love.
"I kept waiting and waiting and hoping that her Godmother would arrive. But she never did. Perhaps she didn't have one, and if she truly doesn't have a Godmother, or even a Grandmother, like my Grandfather, then she can't be the real Cinderella. Can she?"
Snow/Emily had absolutely no idea what Tobey was talking about, grandmothers and grandfathers?, but she knew better than to let him know that. "Of course she can't."
"That's exactly what I thought. One day she just fell asleep like Beauty."
"Near the fireplace."
"Right. In your room. It didn't feel right to move her either. I can't blame her for her Godmother not appearing. She was so close."
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"Wait. Does this mean Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, are two of the victims?" Morgan asked.
"It seems so." Rossi replied.
"He kept the corpses in the attic?" Hotch postulated.
"With Emily." Morgan grimaced in sympathy.
Reid knew this already, he remained silent. Intent on watching Emily's mannerisms and expressions.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"The ones that were wrong," she began cautiously, "The first three before Beauty, and the ones before Cinderella."
"Two before Cinderella."
"Of course. And the one before me."
Tobey nodded, remembering the previous wrong Snow. She had been so unbelievably close to being the right Snow. But her affinity with the snow was slightly off. He needed a completely 'affinitive woman to snow' woman.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"She just got him to admit that he's abducted nine women." Morgan spoke in hushed tones.
"We know the fate of four of those women now, we just need her to get the rest of the information." Hotch replied.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
She seemed stuck, Penelope thought.
Silence had reigned in the interview room for almost two minutes. Emily looked slightly lost.
"Say something, do something." She begged through the screen.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"We should do something." Rossi said.
"NO." Reid answered in a decidedly final tone.
Questioning glances followed his statement. Hotch was giving him a lot of latitude, had been giving him a lot of latitude and it was leaving him very quickly.
"Emily is deciding the most effective way of getting the information we need." Reid couldn't stop the wince that worked it's way out from his mind.
"What's the most effective way, Reid?" Hotch's voice was cold and suspicious.
"It depends who is in control. I think that's why she's been so quiet and still...They're fighting."
"Who's fighting?" Rossi asked.
"Emily and Snow White."
"Reid, you said she could handle this. I would never have let her stay in there if I thought this other personality was going to be a controlling factor in this interview." Hotch looked thunderous.
"She can handle this. And she can handle Snow White. It's just…"
"What!" Morgan asked exasperatedly.
"When we talked before, she was worried that the only way to get the information we needed would be for Snow White to…" he waved his hand, attempting to find the appropriate word.
"To…what?" Morgan asked again, more exasperation bleeding through his voice.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
Tobey had been contemplating Snow White in the silence. It was obvious there was another question burning in her mind. He would wait for her to ask it. But this time there was going to be a price. He was well aware that the Law would not understand his quest for a bride. His Grandfather had always warned him that if their methods were ever discovered they would be cast in dungeons for eternity. That was just the way this twisted and perverse world worked. People misunderstood the great men in this land all the time.
"I have one last question Prince." Her hands folded in her lap, she was beseeching him as one would the king and queen of the faeries.
"I want payment for this one."
"What kind of payment?" It was not asked cautiously or derisively, but with expectation. Does she already know what I am going to ask her? She probably does, she knows this is the only way we will ever be allowed to do this.
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"Payment?" Garcia echoed worriedly.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"The payment the Princess gave the Swineherd." Tobey answered her question.
Her face paused mid-expression. If Tobey had of known Emily Prentiss he would have recognized it to be shock.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
Garcia certainly saw the shock. Princess and the Swineherd? She immediately began a search for the answer. What kind of payment would that make?
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
For her part, Emily had immediately recognized what the payment would be. Unfortunately, Snow White was rejoicing over the fact. Emily had been dreading anything remotely to do with this aspect of their relationship. How was she ever going to explain this to the team?
Blame me.
Reid will know.
Spencer will understand it was me.
I won't, I don't understand, I'd be letting you/us do this.
I can force you do this if I need to.
You wouldn't!
You said I could say Goodbye, this would qualify.
Saying goodbye and what he's asking are too very different things.
This would qualify as my Goodbye, Emily.
And then you'd go, no fuss?
Agreed. Make your decision.
We do need to find the other victims.
The failures, not victims.
Fine, whatever. Do it.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
Spencer Reid had yet to answer Morgan's question. He was still vainly hoping that what Emily had been worried about would never need happen. Thankfully, Tobey and Snow's conversation had continued. So his attention had been directed elsewhere.
Morgan watched in confusion as Emily had once again lapsed into contemplative silence. This time though, he could see the struggle come out through her clasped hands. They fought and twisted in her lap. It was like the left side of her brain was fighting the right side. Or perhaps it was Emily controlling the left side of the brain and Snow White the right? In any event it was disturbing and he prayed Emily would win. Whatever payment she was supposed to give was unnecessary. Right?
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"Answers before payment." Snow White answered him.
He was delighted, there was truly nothing better than anticipation.
"I want to know where the others are, where are all ones who could have been my near-sisters. Who in a lesser way are my near-sisters. They all lead you to me…I'd like to know where they are."
"Do you remember we were got married?"
"Or course I do, that's not something I'm likely to forget." She smiled as him.
"Do you remember the building behind the stone altar?"
"Yes."
"That building was started by my Grandfather. It's special. I wanted to honor his memory."
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"Where's he going with this Hotch?" Morgan inquired, "didn't you assign some men to scour that clearing?"
"I did." He responded.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"Honor how?"
"I finished building it."
"Wait, your Grandfather?"
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
Reid watched as something clicked in Emily's brain. He could literally see the pieces forming a whole. But would she still have to make the payment? Could he get her out of there before it happened, or had she made another deal with Snow White. He sighed in extreme frustration, causing all three men to look at him.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"I told you his story, and my mothers."
"I remember." The shock was evident on her face. When had he told her this?
We were asleep next to Sleeping Beauty.
He woke us.
Told us the story on the way to the clearing.
I remember everything.
"He buried your father within the walls." She said.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"He buried his what in the where?" Morgan echoed. This kept getting stranger and stranger. He just wanted all of this to end.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"Yes. And I carried on the tradition."
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"Oh God!" Garcia exclaimed in sickening realisation. Not only for the fact that this pervert's victims had become mortar for the building she had seen on Google-earth, but also for the fact that the unceasing wonders of the internet had finally found the Hans Anderson fairytale 'The Swineherd'.
Payment was in kisses.
She stood hurriedly grabbed JJ and ran, as best as she could dragging a pregnant woman behind her, for the small room most of her team were currently residing in.
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
"Thank you." Emily said to Snow White. She knew they would never had got this information without her help.
Tobey thought she was thanking him, he smiled viciously, "There's no need to thank me, I'm getting paid for this."
The guys watched as the woman standing in front of them visibly changed from Emily to Snow White.
"She was not thanking you, dear Prince."
"Who was she…you…talking to?" Tobey stuttered in confusion.
"She was talking to me."
UNSUBCRIMINALMINDS
Two things happened simultaneously; Garcia burst through the door screaming "SHE'S GOING TO KISS HIM!", while beyond the mirror Snow White pounced on Tobey O'Conner for all she was worth and kissed him goodbye.
FINALLY!
One last post I think, and this lovely (and I say lovely in the Criminal Minds disturbing way) fic will be finished.
Review thanks folks, I love your feedback.
Arc