I didn't mean to torture you all and make you wait almost a week for this chapter - I swear! But my brain needed a break, and of course I have this real life gig - it's called a job, where I have to spend time every week - man does that cut into writing time...so here it is Chapter 50. I hope you all enjoy it.
I don't own Criminal Minds.
Happy reading - enjoy :)
JJ sighed as leaned back against Spence's chest resting her head on his shoulder.
"Come on JJ, I know you've told me about what happened last time, but never in detail. I need to know what happens so we can figure this out." Spence said rubbing soothing circles where his hand lay on her stomach, his other hand idly played with the fingers of her left hand where their hand lay entwined with his on his thigh.
JJ turned her face in towards his neck and spoke softly "I just want to skip the next week, for it to not happen, for this case to just not exist."
Spence tightened his arm around her waist and bent to kiss her forehead. "I know, but whatever happens we'll get through it together, right?" He murmured against her forehead.
JJ nodded and sat up, turning slightly to face him as she began to tell him in detail what happened last time in Georgia.
JJ took a break from playing darts with Ben and Mike to see what kind of mischief Spence was up to with Kyle and Hannah. She walked up behind where he sat at the table and wrapped her arms around his chest.
"What are you guys doing?" JJ asked with a smile.
Spence tipped his head back to look up at her "We're playing a Star Trek drinking game."
JJ smiled and leaned down to kiss Spence while he looked up at her. Her fingers trailed lightly along his neck and jaw as they deepened the kiss. She broke the kiss as Mike called out to her that it was her turn at darts.
"Oh wow" Hannah said.
Spence blushed slightly "What?"
"You totally got a Spider Man kiss" Hannah said teasingly as she leaned into Kyle's side.
Spence looked back and forth between Hannah and Kyle "What are you talking about?"
"Haven't you ever seen the movie 'Spider Man'?" Kyle asked.
Spence shook his head "No"
"Ask JJ, I'm sure she's seen it, and can even explain it." Hannah said smirking slightly as she shook her head.
"Hey Morgan, be careful. The one in the back could take your wallet." Emily laughed as she walked past the dance floor where Morgan was dancing in the middle of five women, with her hands full with four drinks. Beers for herself and Hotch, and rum and cokes for Haley and Elle.
"That's alright, I'll be a broke happy man." Morgan responded back.
Emily sat the drinks on the table. Everyone picked their drinks up calling out cheers as the clinked glasses.
"So how are they treating you at the BAU Emily?" Haley asked.
"She means am I being nice to you." Hotch said as Haley pointed at him and nodded indicating that he had got it right.
"Actually everyone's been incredibly nice" Emily said.
"Good" Haley said with a smile.
"Just look at him move. He's like a cat" Garcia said as she sat leaning back against the table watching one Derek Morgan get his groove on.
"More like a dog" Emily said as she looked over to watch the scene Garcia was focused on.
"He did not ask them to dance. They asked him" Garcia said as she sipped through her straw.
Elle raised her eyebrows at Emily and Haley before turning back to watch Garcia watching Derek.
"Okay, okay, he's a cat. An alley cat" Emily said.
"Come on honey, let's go show 'em how it's done." Hotch said grabbing Haley's hand and raising their arms to make it around his coworkers still seated at the table as he led her to the dance floor.
"I'm game if you are" Haley responded as she made her way behind Emily and Elle.
"That is so sweet" Emily said to Elle as Hotch and Haley took to the dance floor.
Elle nodded as she watched Hotch and Haley dance together. "It really is. Much sweeter than what Derek is doing" She said pointing to Derek working his grove thang. She and Emily laughed at Morgan and his groupies.
JJ ran her fingers through Spence's hair, messing it up as she walked by him on her way out of the bar to answer her phone.
"…I'll take care of the notifications. Most everyone is here with me." JJ said into her phone sighing. Even though she had known it was coming, she could still feel the weight of the case once again burdening itself on her shoulders. She hoped things turned out differently this time. She didn't want to have to watch the man she loved suffer. It had been hard enough last time when they had only been friends.
"You alright?" Reid asked Gideon with his arms crossed across his chest as they stood in the midst of the crime scene.
"What?" Gideon asked turning to look at Reid from where he was studying the highlighted Bible verse on the bed.
"You seem unhappy." Reid said shrugging his shoulders slightly.
"I am unhappy" Gideon said "I'm tired of people using religion to justify the terrible things they do." He said ignoring the true intent of Reid's comments.
As Morgan finished doing a walk through of the crime scene to get into the head of the unsub, his cell phone rang.
"Yeah, talk to me baby girl" Morgan said walking across the bedroom.
"Are you at the crime scene?" Garcia asked as she studied the video on her computer monitor.
"Yup" Morgan responded.
"Is there like a burgundy settee against one wall?" Garcia asked.
Morgan looked around "Um.. If a settee is a little couch." he responded.
"Oh my lord" Garcia said.
"As far as I can tell this computer belonged to the Kyle's" Reid said standing up from where he sat in front of the Kyle's computer and walking around to join the team where they sat analyzing the video of the Kyle's being murdered. "Garcia can do a better analysis, but it has their banking statements, vacation photos."
"One comes into the room and immediately goes after Mr. Kyle, when did the other unsub turn the camera on?" Hotch asked as he looked at the video again.
"We might be asking the wrong question. This video, this message, clearly it's important. They want the world to see this. They need it, but they didn't bring a camera with them." Gideon said as he turned to look back at Hotch from where he was seated.
"Agent Franks, does this building have wireless internet?" Reid asked
"Yeah, why?' he responded.
"I think we just figured out how he did it." Reid said as he turned to face the team.
"Reid, care to explain for those of us who's brains don't work in overdrive?" Elle asked.
"The unsub used the Kyle's own computer, their webcam to film their murders." Reid said. "He streamed the video feed, probably to his own computer. He captured it, edited it, and uploaded it. If the computer is connected to the internet right now, it might be streaming right now. We should have Garcia see if she can run a trace. We have to be careful to stay away from the computer though. It needs to stay connected, but if the unsub is watching, he'll hear and see everything that happens with in range of the webcam."
Together Garcia and Reid explained the power and capabilities of technology to the rest of the team who were slightly less tech savvy.
Garcia was running a trace on the destination of the video feed currently streaming from the Kyle's computer while simultaneously looking up any calls the Kyle's made for tech support in the last six months.
The team began working on analyzing the video, and the information they had so far attempting to pull together a profile of the unsub.
JJ walked up to Hotch "Franks is right. There's nothing in the old case files." She said "It's like this guy just snapped"
"What if he did" Reid said from where he sat at the conference table. "What if the reason we've been having trouble profiling the unsubs is because there's only one who is in the middle of psychotic break that has caused multiple personalities to develop." He continued.
"Agent Hotchner" Agent Franks said approaching Hotch as he stood in front of the evidence board "State just responded to another murder"
Hotch grimaced and turned to face Reid and JJ "You two stay here and look at what we've got so far through the lens of Reid's new theory." he said as he walked of to join the rest of the team in going to the crime scene.
Standing outside the crime scenes at the Douglas' home, Gideon explained his theory that there was one unsub.
"Reid actually had the same thought. He and JJ are going back over the evidence we have so far, but if Mrs. Douglas is Jezebel there is an especially unpleasant death in her future." Hotch said as he glanced about the team.
The team entered the Bureau office with the Sherriff discussing the case and the crime scene. As they passed Agent Franks' desk, he got Hotch's attention.
"Hotchner, your tech from Quantico's on the phone" he said.
"Jezebel's death" Gideon said as the team watch the video Garcia had sent them of Mrs. Douglas' murder.
"My God" Emily said as she watched the screen.
Elle and Morgan closed their eyes to the horror on the screen.
JJ threaded her fingers tightly through Spence's as they watched the video. It had been bad enough to see the aftermath of what the dogs had done to her last time, but to see Mrs. Douglas' terror as she realized what was about to happen to her, to actually see the dogs attack…..
Spence held JJ hand tightly and comfortingly stroked his thumb over the backside of her hand. He knew how much anxiety this case was causing her and how glad she would be when this case was wrapped up. Hopefully sooner, rather than later.
"You can turn it off" Hotch said.
"Wait" the Sherriff said.
"You haven't seen enough?" Morgan asked with a look of disgust on his face.
"Those dogs… those three dogs attacked someone a couple of months ago. I would've had them impounded, but the victim knew the owner. A neighbor. He didn't want to press charges. "
"You're sure?" Gideon asked as looked up from where he was bent over the table.
"As God as my witness" the Sherriff said reaching to his back pocket to pull out his notebook and read his notes on who the dogs belonged to.
JJ turned to look at Spence next to her in the backseat of the SUV as the sped out to the home of Tobias Hankel. She raised her eyebrows at him silently communicating to him that he was under no terms to split up from whoever he was partnered with when they got there, should they not find Hankel in his house.
Spence made eye contact with her and nodded. Message received. After their intense discussion of what had happened last time, there was no way he was going off on his own without proper backup, on this case, or any other time.
When they arrived at Hankel's house, the Sherriff, Hotch, and Gideon went to the door. There was no answer. Hotch kicked in the door. He, Gideon, the Sherriff, and a deputy cleared the house.
Reid and Morgan moved around the side of the house. Leaning up Reid was able to look in the window and see the bank of computer monitors. They made their way around the side of the house, along the side yard, and headed towards the shadows at the back side of the barn.
JJ, Elle, and Emily entered the barn. Elle brushed against the chains that hung from the rafters. Elle and Emily paused to look back at JJ. JJ's flashlight was pointed at her feet. The toes of her boot was in a puddle of blood and as she raised her flashlight back up, it came across the mattress on which Mrs. Douglas had been attacked.
All three Agents became keenly focused on their surrounding as they heard the snarling of dogs. Their flashlight quickly came upon the dogs just as they charged them. Three gun shots rang out.
Morgan ran up to JJ, Elle, and Emily in the barn. "What happened?" He asked glancing at the dogs that lay dead on the barn floor.
"We had to shoot them. They completely tore her apart." Elle said pointing her flashlight at the mattress in the barn stall.
"Damn" Morgan said.
JJ turned to look at Morgan "Where's Spence?" She asked looking about the barn.
Elle and Emily led JJ out to the ambulance to get her arm looked at. She had been worried about hitting Emily and Elle and hadn't had a clear shot of the dog that attacked her until it was already on her.
Morgan turned around and went out the back doors where he had come into the barn. He looked around. He didn't see Reid. He back tracked to where he had last seen him as they both took off running towards the barn when the gun shots went off.
"We can't find Spence?" JJ asked Elle as she sat in the back of the ambulance from getting checked over and having her dog bite bandaged.
"Not yet" Elle said shaking her head and not knowing what else to say.
"Prentiss, I think he got Reid in the cornfield. It looks like somebody got dragged" Morgan said.
Emily's head sagged. This was bad and who was going to tell JJ? She turned to look over to make eye contact with Elle, who sat next to JJ on the tailgate of the ambulance, and shook her head signaling that they hadn't found Reid.
"Welcome to our nightmare" JJ said as Garcia walked into the Hankel house behind Hotch.
Garcia nodded as Gideon told her that he needed her to dissect Hankel's computer system. Morgan led her into the room where the computer system was set up and she began going over it with a fine tooth come. She would do what ever she could to help the team get back their junior G man.
"Emily, how come none of this gets to you?" JJ asked.
"What do you mean?" Emily asked.
"You came off a desk job. Now suddenly you're in the field surrounded by mutilated bodies and you don't even flinch" JJ said.
"She's right, you've never blinked" Hotch said from where he stood behind Emily.
"I guess maybe I compartmentalize better than most people" Emily said.
Elle watched the conversation with raised eyebrows. She had to agree that Emily had not flinched. Not like a knew person to this type of team normally would, with everything this team sees. No one could compartmentalize that well. Emily had to have seen quite a bit in her previous postings, and Elle was willing to bet the desk job was a cover or had been an extremely short term assignment after a previous assignment.
"What happened?" Morgan asked as he watched the over half of the monitors in front of he and Garcia go blank.
'I don't know" Garcia said.
And then video of Reid flashed up on the previously blank screens.
"Oh my God" Garcia said seeing what Reid looked like.
"Guys, guys, get in here!" Morgan said leaning out the doorway into the next room.
The team gathered around behind Garcia where she sat in front of the monitors.
JJ gasped when she saw Spence on the screen. She had one hand spread across her face over her mouth and nose and one across her heart as she stared at the monitors. "Oh baby" she murmured softly, her voice muffled by the hand covering her face. She had been right - it was much worse seeing Spence like this as his girlfriend than as his friend.
"He's been beaten" Emily said.
"Can't you track him?" Elle asked as she glanced at Garcia.
"Hankel's only streaming this to his home computer." Garcia said.
"This is for us. He knows we're here." Gideon said.
JJ licked her lips as she silently prayed that Spence would be alright and for things at this point to not get any worse than they had last time.
"Reid, if you're watching, you're not responsible for this. You understand me. He's perverting God to justify murder. You are stronger than him. He can not break you." Gideon said as he sat down in front of the latest victim's laptop and spoke into the webcam.
"I thought you were going to try and get some rest?" Morgan asked JJ as she walked into the kitchen.
JJ shrugged "Everyone else is working. I should be too." she said as she leaned against the counter top wishing she and Spence had figured out how to tell the team her secret, that they could just go and get him right now. "I just keep thinking that the one thing we need to crack this case is, well, Spence." JJ said with a quavering voice.
"JJ" Morgan sighed as he turned to look at her "for what its worth…I'm sorry. I should have looked back to make sure Reid was behind me r had him run ahead... we were just was so worried when we heard the gunshots and I…" Morgan said.
JJ interrupted him "Derek Morgan this is not your fault. I don't blame you, and as soon as we find him, I know Spence will tell you the same thing."
Elle wrapped an arm around JJ and helped her to sit in a chair as the team watched Reid convulse and stop breathing on the monitors. JJ prayed like she had never prayed before, that things would turn out like they had on this case the first time around.
JJ sighed with relief through her tightly clasped fingers as she watch Spence begin breathing again on his own on the monitors.
The team watched as Reid named Hotch as the team member to die, calling him a classic narcissist for thinking he was better than everyone else on the team. And while most of the team didn't know he was misquoting Genesis 23:4, JJ knew, and Hotch suspected. Hotch talked to the team about not being a narcissist as he flipped through the Bible to find Genesis 23:4. He handed the Bible to JJ and had her read the Bible verse.
"He wouldn't get it wrong unless it was on purpose" Hotch said as he looked around at the team gathered around him.
"He's in a cemetery" Morgan said.
"Reid" Hotch said helping Reid up from where he knelt over Tobias Hankel's body "Are you alright?"
"I knew you'd understand" Reid said hugging Hotch.
JJ moved forward from behind Hotch and tightly wrapped her arms around Spence. "I love you baby" She whispered softly in his ear.
"I'm sorry kid, I…" Morgan said starting to apologize.
"It's alright. It wasn't your fault" Reid said turning to look at Morgan.
"Let's get you outta here." Gideon said reaching over to help Reid lean against him and support Reid's weight.
JJ wrapped her arm around Spence's waist supporting him on the other side, the threesome slowly made their way to the ambulance that was waiting to take Reid to the hospital.
