"Hotch, have you heard from Emily?" JJ questions as she walks into the nearly empty office, two cups of coffee in her hand. She hands one to the tall, dark-haired man, and he shakes his head.
"No, I haven't. Not in a few days, actually. Why do you ask?"
The blonde sighed, leaning back against her desk. "I just haven't heard from her in a while. She's been awfully different since she got back from France. I called to check up on her a few times in the last few days, and she never answered the phone. So I went to her apartment and she wasn't there. It just seems odd to me."
Aaron nods his head. "Let's go talk to Garcia. We'll see if she can pull some strings and check up on her."
The two make their way into Penelope's office, and Hotch knocks on the door jam, causing Penelope to turn around quickly. "Oh hi, sir. I didn't hear you walk up."
"Garcia, is there any way you can track Prentiss's phone?"
She raises her eyebrow, but quickly turns around to her computer, immediately typing into the keyboard. "Yes, of course. Is everything alright?"
"We haven't heard from her in a few days and we just want to make sure that she's alright."
Penelope goes through a few programs, frowning as she gets a result. "Well that's odd...her phone is off. It says it's been disconnected." She tries another route, starting to get anxious as she still can't find anything. "You don't think Doyle got to her, do you?"
None of them wanted to think of that as a possibility. Since Ian Doyle had slipped through the cracks and escaped FBI custody, the BAU had been a little skeptical of whether he'd come back and try to take Emily out again. JJ sucked in her bottom lip, frowning at the thought of losing her friend again, of actually losing her this time. "I'm hoping that she just needs some time alone." JJ says, more trying to convince herself than Penelope and Aaron.
"We need to find her." Penelope turns back to her computer, desperately trying to think of every possible way that she can locate Emily.
Aaron sighs, a little nervous but not wanting to show it. "Let's not panic yet. When Morgan gets here, we'll have him and JJ go to Prentiss's apartment. They'll check and see if anything is off. Until then, let's relax."
Morgan and JJ pull up outside of Emily's apartment, and JJ is playing with her hands while she waits to get out. "JJ," Derek looks over at her, locking eyes with the blonde. "I'm sure she's alright."
"Yeah." She forces a smile as she gets out of the SUV, closing the door behind her. "I'm sure you're right."
Derek knocks on the door a few times, getting more and more nervous every time that he knocks without a response. "Emily?" He yells out. "Prentiss, open the door." When he finally knows for a fact that she's not going to open the door, he steps back and kicks it open.
He pulls out his gun, his stomach knotting up at the thought of what might be in this apartment. He hadn't gotten over finding her in a abandoned warehouse, near death, with a table leg pierced through her abdomen; he didn't know if he'd be able to take seeing anything else that could've happened to her.
JJ and Derek split up, checking different parts of the apartment. "Clear." JJ states as she checks the kitchen, Morgan stating the same as he goes through the living room.
They meet up in her bedroom. Nothing looks amiss until they notice that her safe is wide open, and it's completely empty except for a folded up piece of paper. The profilers look at one another, confusion spread across their faces as Morgan reaches in the safe, taking the paper out and unfolding it. "I'm safe. I love you guys." He reads out loud, practically throwing the paper on the floor once he finally comprehends what it says.
"Damn it, Emily! What the hell?"
He wants to hit something. He knows exactly where she is, who she's with, and he cannot possibly believe that she's that stupid.
"She's with Doyle..." JJ whispers, taking a moment for everything to come together in her mind. "Why would she do that?"
Morgan shrugs, not having much to say as he takes out his phone to call his unit chief. When Aaron answers, he can barely control his anger. "She's with Doyle." He spits out.
On the other end of the line, Hotch can hardly believe what Morgan is telling him. It takes him a few moments to process before he can even respond. "How do you know?"
"Her safe is empty. Passport, paperwork, Doyle's necklace, it's all gone. Everything but a note. A note that says she's safe and she loves us. There's no doubt in my mind that she's with that scumbag."
Hotch thinks for a moment. "Could it be a trick? Do you think maybe he cornered her and forced her to write it so that we didn't try to come after him and look for her?"
"I don't think so, Hotch." Morgan responds, sighing as he wipes a bead of sweat from his forehead. "She would've left us some sort of clue that this wasn't her choice. I think she's being stupid, to be completely honest. I'm not really sure what's been going through her head lately. After all of this stuff with Doyle, I really don't think any of us ever knew who she really was."
And he's right. Prentiss surprised them all when they found out about the whole Lauren Reynolds/Ian Doyle situation. They were even more blown out of the water when Emily returned from what everyone thought was six feet under. Maybe none of them had any idea who Emily truly was; maybe it was all a facade, everything over the last 5 years.
"Garcia's doing a little more digging, but you're probably right. She's a profiler, she knows how to get our attention if something was wrong."
"She's an FBI agent who took off with a fugitive. Does she realize how much danger she's putting herself and her unborn child in? Does she realize how much trouble she's going to be in when they catch her? Her and Doyle are going to get thrown in jail and that baby will be thrown into the system. She's not using her damn head!" Derek's anger starts to get the best of him. How could she possibly be so stupid, so reckless?
"I don't know, Morgan. You're right. She's not using her brain."
Derek storms out of the apartment, practically ripping the door of the SUV off of the hinges as he opens it. "We're on our way, Hotch." He tells his unit chief, hanging up the phone as JJ gets in the car and closes the door.
"Maybe she really did love him." JJ contemplates as she watches the road ahead of them, unable to believe that her friend would just up and leave with a man that tried to kill her. "It wasn't just an assignment...she actually fell in love with him." And it's the first time that anyone has made that realization.
Morgan clutches the steering wheel, trying to control himself as he drives back to the office. "Apparently she's not as good of an agent as we all thought she was." He says coolly as he pulls into the parking garage.
When they get back upstairs, JJ immediately goes to Penelope to see if she had discovered anything new. When she realized that it was only the two of them alone, Penelope looked up to her friend. "I don't care if we find hard core proof that she willingly went with him, I'm never going to stop looking for her."
