They've hit every dead end possible. But on the plus side, no more kids were taken in the night. The team has mixed feelings on what that means. Half of them think it means whoever the next victim is just didn't fit the right patterns. The other half thinks it means that the unsub may have a limited amount of holding space. If the latter is correct then they are waiting for a body, which might be worse. They're focusing right now on doing what they can to find Aimee before her time runs out. They're running close to the 36 hour mark. If she runs out of insulin, her body can start fighting against her and her body could shut down into a coma or even die.
A coffee cup sits down in front of her stack of files. She looks up to see Aaron walking away with his own cup to sit at the other end of the table where more folders are waiting. He gives her a soft smile as he takes the empty seat next to JJ. Morgan looks up from his own files. "So Prentiss is the only one special enough for coffee Hotch?"
"You and JJ already have coffee. I wasn't going to bring you another cup." Aaron shrugs off the accusation and Emily can't help but smile into her cup. It might be his excuse, but she can appreciate the sentiment of him caring enough to bring her a cup when they're all exhausted. "So where are we?"
"Financials all check out. None of the families were into anything shady." Morgan says.
Emily adds, "there's a couple coworkers with red flags, but most of them are financial or work related. Nothing involving children. And none of them connect between families," before taking another sip of her coffee.
"Garcia is already checking the dark web to make sure that if any of the kids show up, we'll know." JJ points out.
"Any leads on Aimee?" Aaron asks, dreading the information that will leave their mouth.
"Not yet, but if the unsub made the dolls match all the girls, why didn't Aimee's have an insulin pump?" Emily asks.
"I don't know," he admits but then waits for Emily to continue her thought.
"If this unsub is watching their victims far enough ahead to match them to a doll, wouldn't they know she has type one diabetes?"
"You're thinking the unsub is prepared?" Morgan asks.
"I wish I could say yes, but more I'm wondering if Aimee was a more last minute victim. The unsub didn't pay enough attention ahead of time to realize that Aimee has medical needs."
"Let's make a profile focusing on that. We still need to focus on finding her before her pump runs out."
"Her mom is also worried that if the unsub is feeding her she won't fully know how to bolus for it. She's only been type one for a year and her mom said that they usually bolus for Aimee. She knows how to use her pump but she doesn't know how to figure out the amounts of carbohydrates in the food yet." JJ adds from their conversation with Sharon Reeve yesterday.
"So there's a chance that Aimee could be very sick even if her pump hasn't run out of insulin?" Aaron asks.
"There's a chance. Especially because she doesn't have a way to check her blood sugar either."
"Maybe our unsub will be willing to get a meter for her?" Morgan throws out hopefully, but all eyes fall back on the clock. They need to find her before her time runs out.
"Agent Hotchner, Kindred Hospital Los Angeles just called us. They have an unconscious diabetic patient that matches Aimee Reeve's description."
"The unsub took her to a hospital?" Emily hears her own voice ask.
"Possibly. She was dropped literally outside of the ER and a silver car with a partial plate of D1F sped off. A couple leaving the ER saw it happen and the security tapes say the same thing."
"JJ call the Reeves and tell them we might have Aimee. Have them meet us at Kindred Hospital Los Angeles. Emily, you're with me. We'll go to the hospital to see if we find information that will bring the other girls home. Morgan, call Garcia and see if she can get the footage from the hospital to get any more information." Emily and Aaron make their way to one of the SUVs sitting outside of the station.
"So the unsub dropped Aimee off? That doesn't line up."
"Why not?" Aaron asks. He knows something is sticking in her mind or she wouldn't have posed it the way she did, so he adds, "What's going through your mind Emily?"
"Well the unsub went through with planning of the dolls and taking all the girls. So what happened with Aimee? How did the unsub miss the fact that she was diabetic and why is the unsub just giving her up?"
"I agree it doesn't fully line up completely with what we were expecting from our unsub."
"Also, driving up and dumping Aimee where someone could catch their license plate is risky behavior for someone who did such planning with everything else. It almost sounds like two different people."
"You think our unsub has a partner?"
"Maybe?" Emily shrugs. "It would make more sense than all of these things that don't line up. One pays attention to the details, the other doesn't." Aaron hits a button to call Morgan and JJ.
"What's up Hotch?" Morgan's voice rings through the SUV.
"Emily thinks our unsub might have a partner."
"You think the partner's the one that dumped Aimee at the hospital?" JJ's asks.
"That's what we're thinking. Can you two work on running that in a profile?"
"Sure Hotch."
"We'll see you after the hospital." Emily replies before Hotch hangs up.
Looking at the girl that doesn't take up even half the hospital bed, Emily is shocked how pale this girl looks compared to her school photo. "Are you her parents?" A doctor asks Aaron and her.
"No, we're the FBI agents that are working her case. Agent Prentiss," He motions towards Emily, "and I'm Agent Hotchner. Her parents are on the way. How is she?"
"Her blood sugar is dangerously high right now. Nearing 1200. Almost ten times a normal person's blood glucose. We've pumped her with IV fluids and insulin to work on bringing her down and hopefully get her conscious soon." The doctor's pager goes off. "I need to go, but if you need anything just ask. Or if her parents get her, have the nurses page me. I'm Doctor Walters."
"Thank you." Emily says as she looks over the little blonde girl. Turning to Aaron, she points some things out. "Her hair is brushed and she's not covered in dirt or anything."
"So most likely she was kept in some sort of house or storage area that had ways for them to stay clean." A nurse walks past where they're standing. "Can I ask you a question?" He holds up his badge to answer the questions that are coming. "I'm Agent Hotchner, this is Agent Prentiss. We're working Aimee's case."
"Uh sure. How can I help you?"
"Aimee's blood sugar being as high as it is, was her insulin pump out of insulin?"
"No, but if I had to guess, she probably wasn't giving enough insulin for her food, if any. To spike that high but still have insulin going, she would have to have been eating multiple meals without giving insulin. There's also the stress that could have raised it too. That's just a guess though. I'm Cassidy. I'm her nurse if you need anything."
"Thanks Cassidy." Aaron looks back towards the girl. They have no idea what she's been through and they won't know until she's out of her coma.
"Aimee?" Emily can hear Sharon's voice before she is even down the hallway. Sharon spots Emily and Aaron. "Where's Aimee?" She asks as she rushes up to them. Emily turns her body so that Sharon can see into the room. "Oh Aimee. My poor baby."
"Has she ever been in a coma because of this before?" Emily asks softly.
"Once. Back when she was diagnosed." Sharon answers as she sits down next to Aimee and smooths her hair. "I was really hoping we could avoid another one though."
"This wasn't your fault."
"I know. But do you know what it's like to know your baby is in pain and there's nothing you can do about it?" Sharon's voice is laced with pain and sadness. "I just want to keep her happy and healthy now."
"She's back and she's getting the treatment she needs. That's what's important." Emily pauses before asking, "The last time she was in a coma, how long was it before she woke up?"
"Five days." Looking over her shoulder, she can see that Aaron is thinking the same thing; it might be too late for the others by then.
It's late when they finally left the hospital. Rossi and Reid are staying at the hospital in case anything changes. But for now, her and Aaron are going to head back to the hotel to catch a little bit of sleep before they have to get back to the station.
"Are you going to work out?" Aaron's voice breaks through the silence of the SUV.
"I'm not losing the bet. I don't want to be the one to pay for dinner." She teases lightly.
"You realize we're going to be going to dinner no matter what? We don't even have to finish if we don't want to."
"I didn't start this to just go to dinner with you Aaron. I started this to get more fit before my vacation. So to answer your question I'll still be working out. You don't have to. There's no judgement. But I'll make sure to pick a great meal for you."
"You only get to pick my meal if the others don't figure out the bet."
"But if you quit, the bet's over and I won." He glances over at her from the driver's seat, his left eyebrow pulled down as he looks at her. "A win on a technicality, but a win nonetheless."
"If you're wanting to win on technicalities, then I'm going to stay in this, so you have to actually win to win."
"That's fine. But know you can give up at any time and I'll claim my prize as I keep going." He rolls his eyes as they pull into the hotel parking lot. "I'm going to run up and get changed and I'll be in the gym if you want to join in."
"Meet you there in ten." He says, turning the engine off.
When he walks into the gym, he can't wait to see what tank she's wearing. Somehow she has a million tanks with sayings on them and she hasn't repeated one yet. She looks up in the mirror and smiles at him. "Glad to see you decided to join me."
"I said I would." She stands up and faces him, making her shirt visible. 'Already Planning What I'm Going To Eat After This.' Honestly it's not wrong. He's probably going to have to make a shake after this to make sure he gets his macros in. "Is your whole closet just hiding more of these tanks?"
"What?"
"You haven't reworn a single one. So you either own a ton, or you keep buying more." She looks down at her tank.
"Didn't know you were keeping track of it." She can't help but laugh. "Garcie buys me a lot of them when she sees them online. I like them better than just plain work out gear. But I've also been stocking up on them for years. I probably have at least thirty or forty different tanks with funny sayings and then I have some plain workout stuff too."
"So you just have drawers and drawers of tanks?"
"Basically." Emily laughs again at the mental image. "But still I get ads for new ones all the time too and sometimes I can't say no." She admits.
"So shoes and workout tanks, your shopping weaknesses."
"You're ridiculous." She shakes her head, remembering the comment he made about her shoes when he spent the night. "Let's get our workout done."
"And here I thought if I distracted you with shopping, you'd forget what we're supposed to be doing."
"I wouldn't forget. Some of us are in this to win it. But let's do this before it gets too much later and we lose more sleep." She opens her web browser and pulls up the videos to pick from. "Cardio Power and Resistance here we go."
"Let's get it over with." Aaron moans from next to her. She's used to him not being excited at the beginning of the workouts, so she just rolls her eyes and hits play. Aaron hates the montage. That's what he's decided from having to hear it so many times over the last twenty three days. It should have a skip intro button. But besides that, the workout passes quicker since he has Emily working out with him again. Their break of working out with each other had made the workouts even worse because he didn't want to do them by himself. But seeing Emily's smile when they finished the workout, well that made everything worth it. He would do Insanity over and over again if it meant that he got to see her smiling at him at the end of it.
"See easy peasy."
"If that's your definition of easy, I'd hate to see your definition of hard."
"I'd rather see your definition of hard." Emily winks at him. "Maybe you can show me sometime. But right now, I have to go take a shower."
"You can't say things like that-"
"Why not?" Emily's eyebrows rise and fall with her words.
"Because you do things to me that shouldn't be allowed while we're working Em." He husks.
"I'd invite you back to my room, but I don't know how my boss would feel about that." She winks at him and turns to leave the gym when he pulls her back to him. All of a sudden, his lips are crushed against hers.
"Don't tempt me." He whispers between kisses. His lips leave hers and move down her jaw towards her neck.
"Aaron, gym. In gym." The words breathlessly escape her lips.
"Don't care." He doesn't care where they are, or if anyone were to see. He doesn't care that they're both still sweating from their workout. The only thing that matters is his lips being allowed to worship her skin.
"We're at work."
"At hotel." His kisses into her skin.
"For work." She reminds him, a hand gently placed on his cheek to stop him from moving any further. She pulls him away from her skin. "Aaron, we can't do this here."
"You did mention something about a hotel room." He reminds her.
"And you said you wanted to go on a date first."
"I couldn't give a fuck right now."
"So I'll give one for you." She smiles at him. "You'll regret it in the morning. So let's hold off. We've got time. Plus you already got the yes to the date." His lips fall softly on hers.
"I love you."
"I know. I love you too." She runs her fingers along his jawbone. "Now I think we both need a shower and some sleep before tomorrow." He knows she's right. He needs a shower for sure; a freezing cold one.