Disclaimers: I do not own CM or its characters. I do own all OCs, including Elijah Jareau, James Prentiss, etc.
Spoilers: None
Rating: T
July 4th, 1983
*Prentiss Residence*
It is now July, and sadly, Elizabeth and James buried two of their children just last week. Tobias Henry and Leah Brooke passed away just 2 weeks after they were born. And now, their other Quad babies have also been born.
Two days after James and Elizabeth laid Tobias and Leah to rest, Grace and Avery James Prentiss were born. They are doing really well, and the doctors give them a much better outlook than what Toby and Leah had.
Right now, Emily is at home, and she is waiting for her cousins, Benson, Cal, Harvey, and Annie, to arrive. They are going to spend the night tonight, over the weekend, and then on Monday, Kathryn and Billy will come over to do a cookout for the Fourth of July.
Jenny and Elijah and Roslyn would be coming over also, except they are away with family. It is July 4 and they left on Friday and will be gone the rest of this week.
Apparently, they went to visit some of Michael's family. His aunt and uncle's house on his mother's side of the family.
Emily isn't sure; she did not get very many details.
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It's just after two in the afternoon, and Emily has gotten a big surprise – her Aunt Mary and Uncle Ethan came to the BBQ with their kids, 7-year-old twins, Alyson and Lauren, and 6-month-old twins, Megan and Samuel.
"Cousin Em!" Alyson squeals.
The kids go down to the basement to play. Meg and Sam come along, and they have fun showing off their new talents – sitting up and playing with their toys.
Emily reads everyone a story, then the older boys, Harvey, Cal, and Benson, take turns playing "horsie" with them, where they crawl around on their hands and knees while both sets of twins ride on their backs.
Sam and Meg are soon fed some food, along with a bottle, then are put down for a nap. The older kids all gather in front of the TV and VCR player, watching a movie, eating popcorn, and soon, falling asleep themselves.
When they awaken, Aly and Laur beg to play a board game. Apparently, they are both going through a phase where their absolute favorite thing is to play games like Monopoly or other similar games.
They clear their mess from earlier, pulling the coffee table over and setting out the game. Their pick is Monopoly, so once they each have their game piece, the game begins.
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It's now closer to the late afternoon. After three games, the kids go outside to enjoy the cooler evening air.
They play on the trampoline, swim for a little bit, draw hopscotches with chalk, and play jump rope.
Aly and Laur show off their talents with the jump rope. Like how they are able to do two ropes at a time or only one foot.
They have hamburgers and hot dogs early, along with chips, homemade cookies, and salad. The kids eat them go back to playing. They have to wait at least 20 minutes before they can get back in the swimming pool.
Alyson shows her talent in cannonballs while Lauren dives for the toys at the bottom of the swimming pool. Emily worries about Jen, as she has not received a call or anything from the blue-eyed preschooler.
However, Cal comes over and challenges Emily to see which one of them can get all the diving toys in the fastest times. There are dozens of toys, having been accumulated over the years, so with the timer set, they get to it.
Calvin gets all 32 toys in 4 minutes, 13 seconds. He beats Emily by only 4 seconds.
"Cal, I wanna do it!" Lauren shouts as she bounces up and down on the heels of her feet. "Please, Cal, please?"
"Sure, why not?" Calvin hands the toys to his dad, who throws them in, scattering them from the shallow end to the deeper end of the pool. They get their goggles on, and Calvin lets Lauren go first as he sits on the side with his feet dangling in the way.
Lauren makes it in 6 minutes, taking a couple of breaks in between to catch her breath. Calvin does his turn and, no matter how much his older brothers and cousin question him, he is being truthful when he says his time was actually 7 minutes, 29 seconds.
They think, good-naturally, that he took longer so Lauren could win. But the truth is, he is out of breath from swimming in the water for the last several hours.
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It is now just before "fireworks time."
James hears the phone ringing and goes inside to answer while his wife and in-laws get the kids ready to go to town to watch the Fireworks Show.
The phone call is from Michael Jareau, JJ's father. He has very concerning news…
This afternoon, at about 4 o'clock, JJ was walking back from the park with her cousins, 3-year-old Leslie Jareau, 5-year-old Margaret and Elizabeth Scott, and several others.
They were about six blocks way, the park being a full 10 blocks from the house, when something happened.
A van pulled up. The door opened. A man, supposedly, maybe even a woman, in all black and wearing a ski mask, reached out, grabbed JJ and Leslie, and pulled them into the vehicle.
It then drove off.
Maddie with Roslyn and Elijah, the oldest of the bunch at 11 and 13, ran home with Maggie, Eliza, and Natalie all following.
They told their parents, who called the police, who sent out a search party for this van.
Michael has called James to let him know that, so far, they have not found Leslie nor Jenny. James sighs, and…
God, he has no idea what to say. Michael's voice breaks his heart. He can hear the pain and cannot even begin to imagine what Michael is feeling right now. First, they lose Noni Jareau, and then this? And to make it worse, it was not only Jenny, but also Leslie.
So not only is Michael experiencing a parent's worst nightmare but…
His brother is, as well.
James speaks to him for several minutes, which turns into half an hour, until Liz is coming to check on him. She is immediately concerned by the tear tracks on his face, and at the tears in his eyes. She chokes on her breath when he tells her the news.
Together, they speak with Michael and Sandy, and even Roslyn and Elijah. They – Michael and Sandy – give James and Elizabeth permission to tell Emily, and the rest of their family.
"Emily!" James calls out "Can you come in here, please? Your mom and I have something we need to tell you!"
Emily comes bouncing into the room with Aly and Lauren on her heels, all three giggling about something that only they would find funny.
"Aly, Laur, go on back upstairs, Uncle James and I need to speak with Emmy alone, ok?"
The twins just simply shrug and obey their aunt, not knowing any different. Emily, however, takes one look at her parents and…
And just knows this is not going to be good news.
The last they need to "talk to her about something," was when James sat Emily down a couple of months ago, and told her that her little brother, Tobias, was being taken off the machines. They were going to let him pass peacefully, as there was nothing else the doctors could do for him.
But now, now she has Grace and her little brother Avery, who both thankfully survived being born so early.
They are still at the hospital, in the NICU, but they are all three getting stronger each day.
So, why does her mom and dad look like this? Why do they look as if they are about to delivery some very unsettling news?
"What's going on?"
"Come sit, baby." Elizabeth gestures to the seat beside her and James. "Daddy and I need to tell you something."
Emily slowly sits, almost mechanically, unconsciously. Her hands begin to tremble and her heart speed up and…
"M-Mama, you're–… you're scaring me." Her voice breaks here, and… "Just–… Just tell me, ok? What is it? Did–… Did something happen with Avery or Gracie?"
Elizabeth smiles sadly, almost wishing she could answer yes to that. Somehow, a problem with her youngest children would be easier to explain to or tell Emily about, than what she and James are about to say.
Still, it is wistful thinking, and so she takes a deep breath, and…
"Michael called us, baby. He said–… He–… Well, he has some bad news, and it is about Jenny." She looks to James then back to Emily, and… "You see, Sweetheart, something happened. And well… Jenny is gone. She was… Jenny was coming back from the park with Eli, Rosie, and some of their cousins, when… when…"
James lays a hand on her shoulder, rubbing it, trying to give her the comfort that she will just not feel in this moment.
"Someone came up in the van," He continues. "And they, well… I am so sorry, Emmy, but someone took Jenny and Leslie."
Silence…
Benson walks in.
He goes to call out to Em, to ask her when she is coming back to the basement – Aly and Laur are getting restless, and they want her to play a videogame with them.
The floor creaks under his foot and suddenly, he has three pairs of eyes on him.
The smile slips from his face and…
God…
"What's going on?"
He most certainly does not expect Emily to… to begin laughing. Though it is one that sends chills down his spine. She looks him dead in the eye and laughs and he feel terror settle deep in the pit of his stomach, and it only worsens when…
When Emily says,
"Someone fucking kidnapped Jennifer and Leslie. That's what is going on."
She stands, spins on her heel, and storms out of the kitchen. Seconds later, the front door is slamming shut.
Benson is unable to breathe and wishes and hope to God that Emily is playing some sick prank on him, but…
James's and Elizabeth's faces say otherwise.
8 days later – July 12th, 1983 – Jennifer fifth birthday
Amazing how fast your life can change.
Emily remembers meeting Jennifer Jareau and her big sister Rosalyn, and their big brother Elijah about 14 months ago, in May of 1982.
So much has changed since then. She met the little girl who quickly became her entire world. For whom she would lay down her own life.
They spent so much time together in the 14 months they knew each other – sleepovers, birthdays, family vacations, holidays.
It is July twelfth today.
Jennifer would be 5, or is five, if she is still alive.
Emily turns over, facing away from her doorway, towards her window, which are covered in her room-darkening curtains.
The 13-year-old has barely moved from this spot in the last eight days. Doing nothing except to maybe go to the bathroom. Elizabeth and James have tried to get her to each, and they succeed part of the time with some toast and Gatorade but not much more.
Their other children, Avery James and Grace who now has the middle name Jennifer, are 2 months old, and are coming home within a couple of weeks.
So, James and Elizabeth alternate between staying home to take care of Emily and going to the Hospital to visit their youngest children.
Benson has been here more, too. He tries to get Em to eat. Tries to get her out of bed.
He uses Jennifer as his bargaining chip…
She wouldn't want you to do this to yourself and you know it!
This is followed by a low growl of don't tell me what she would fucking want, Benson!
So then, he tries to guilt her into getting out of bed, taking a shower, eating, doing anything, with James and Elizabeth and AJ and Gracie.
Uncle James and Aunt Liz need you to get out of bed. They already have two babies, Emily, that they are going to have to take care, they don't need to have to do it with their 13-year-old child, as well!
All this did was almost get him hit in the face with her bedside lamp.
After that, he quit trying.
He understands how much this is hurting her. He knows because God it fucking hurts him, too. But being here, in her room, is not want she needs to be doing.
Benson's dad, Billy Knight, has offered to take Em and some of their cousins to where JJ and her family were for the Fourth of July.
He said they could go there, and help search for her, make fliers, go on the TV, do anything.
All they have to do is ask.
So, 8 days after the terrible news were given, Benson storms into Emily's bedroom, yanks the comforter off her body, blinds her with sunshine as he then yanks the curtains open, and declares that they are going to go help the Jareaus look for Jennifer.
Emily has two hours to pack a bag, get a shower, get dressed, and be downstairs for breakfast before Billy and Kathryn pick them up to go to the airport where they will then take their private jet to go see the Jareaus.
*4 hours later*
As soon as they arrive at the house, the door is open and Benson and Emily each have an armful of someone. Benson scoops up Maddie as Emily cradles Rosalyn.
They get into making fliers. Because that is all Emily can handle at the moment.
Pieces of papers with Jennifer's and Leslie's pictures proclaiming the question Have You See Me?
JJ is 2'6. She has blonde hair and blue eyes and she is 5 years old. She goes by 'JJ.' Leslie is 3'0. She has brown hair and green eyes and freckles, and she is 3 years old.
The fliers go up everywhere. Store fronts, light poles, car windshields.
In the evening, like the good, concerned, devastated parents they are, Sandy and Michael appears on the News.
Our daughter, Jennifer Jareau, and her cousin, Leslie Jareau, were both taken 8 days ago, on July fourth. Please, if anyone has any leads, knows anything, please come forward. We just… We need our baby girl to come home. Please, if you have Jennifer and Leslie, please will you just… bring them back to us. If anyone has any information, please call the number ****. Thank you."
Emily shakes her head as Benson turns the TV off.
"Where the fuck could she be?! How does no one know anything?!"
She punches the wall, "Goddamnit!"
Benson is up and over to her. He is grabbing her arms, holding them against her chest, and hugging her from behind, the two of them falling to the ground.
"it's going to be ok. It is going to be ok, Em, just breathe… Shh…"
Everything is so far from being 'ok', but it is the only thing he can think of to say.
And how he hopes that it will be… "ok."
Two weeks later
*Unknow location*
A man stands in front of a TV.
He watches the broadcast as it plays.
The Jareaus, both families, got some terrible news earlier.
A body was found. It was of a little girl, fitting the description of both Jennifer and Leslie Jareau, the two girls who were kidnapped 3 weeks and 1 day ago.
The parents of both girls, Sandy and Michael Jareau, Jennifer's mom and dad, and Amber Jareau, the mother of Leslie, came down to look at the items that were found with the body.
They could not ID the body because it was so decomposed, so the necklace and stuffed animal were the only things that would tell them which of their little girls were dead.
Sandy broke down into tears and Michael punched a hole in the wall…
The teddy bear was the same one Jennifer kept with her everywhere she went. The necklace was that of Emily Prentiss's, given to her as a keepsake for her trip away from her best friend.
They confirmed it, to the police and the coroner. Their baby girl, little 5-year-old Jennifer Jareau was…
Dead.
The man switches off the television and turns around.
He is an isolated area, a small cabin with only five rooms. He is here with his prize.
"Now, now…" He bends down in front of her, the little girl quivering in absolute fear.
"We are going to have so much fun. Just you wait and see. I have waited so long for this. Be a good little now and do as you are told."
BAM!
Who do you think the man was? I bet most of you can guess.
Next chapter will be up soon. I am going to get the next four posted tonight so I will not be working on this story any longer for the year 2020. HOWEVER, I do have a NEW STORY that is going to be Young!CM, as well, another d I am so excited to get it started posted. Probably next week as New Years treat for you all.
Anyway, please review and let me know what you thought! :)