Authors Note and Disclaimer: This is a fan-made work of fiction: I don't own Criminal Minds or any of the main characters.
Kindest of thankyous to all of the favourites/follows/reviews. You're all a blessing!
Chapter Five: The Right Words
There had been a warehouse fire in Providence, Rhode Island.
Inside the warehouse, nineteen-year-old Jenna Thornton, was restrained to a cot, and burnt alive.
JJ couldn't help but feel rattled. This reminded her of Francesca Morales; the case in California a few years earlier. JJ still felt responsible for what had happened that day, not that it was her fault at all – but, how she wished things had been different.
She was shaken – so, as the BAU sat around the table of the police department, discussing the case and how they would prevent another victim, Emily eventually pulled JJ aside.
"Talk to me" Emily asked.
"What do you mean?" JJ crossed her arms across her chest.
Emily could see that this was perhaps uncharted territory. She didn't know exactly what JJ had gone through; this had been before her return; however, she didn't want to her friend to feel alone either.
"We're allowed to lose it every once in a while. It reminds us we're human" Emily reminded.
JJ smiled a half-smile, "Hotch used to say that".
Emily squeezed her shoulder, "If you need anything – let me know".
"I will" JJ promised.
Then, the two returned back to the table.
JJ was still a bit distant; not very talkative, and seemed in another world.
Emily knew that the perfect solution to a bad case, was for the case to be over.
In private conversation, again, she reminded JJ this.
JJ agreed.
They just needed the case to be over.
A couple of days went by before the break came.
Unfortunately, another nineteen-year-old girl, Kelly Harrison, died before it happened.
Same M.O.: another warehouse burnt down, and the poor girl was restrained to a cot, and killed inside.
Emily was frustrated; as was the rest of the BAU. The members of the Police Department were on edge too.
Victimology was only getting them so far, and motive was unpredictive.
Aside from assigning stake-outs on every warehouse in town, Emily was uncertain.
She feared that the UnSub would start setting fires on non-warehouse locations.
She was right.
A burger place burned down. Then, a wing in a science facility.
Thankfully no one had been injured in these little petty fires, but Emily knew she had to get ahead of the case; especially before someone got hurt again.
Then – the news broke.
A nineteen-year-old girl; her name was Dina Carter.
She had been last seen in the parking lot of a grocery store, but when she didn't return home, her mother had contacted the P.D.
She had now been missing for six and a half hours.
The BAU were scrambling at any and all evidence on their bulletin boards; hoping that they would find the UnSub, before Dina got hurt.
Simmons and Rossi worked it out.
It never made sense until it did; like usual.
The UnSub had reached his end-game, and unfortunately, he didn't care about Jenna and Kelly. He didn't even care about the fires or their locations either.
However, Dina; it was all about Dina.
Dina Carter was the daughter of a wealthy business mogul, Shaun Carter, who owned many mainstream casinos across the USA.
Shaun Carter would fly in and out of different corners of the states, letting his "employees" do the dirty work for him. He was yet to be busted for his bad business, but the UnSub wanted his share of payday.
Cash to burn.
The UnSub's name was Harvey Cook – a disgruntled, underappreciated, scheme minion.
He previously worked for Carter and did his dirty work, until they had some sort of falling out.
Since then, Harvey Cook got caught up in the backlash - a bunch of the old deals gone wrong – and he didn't want to take the fall for it; he wanted Carter.
He couldn't get to Shaun Carter but he could get to the next best thing - Dina.
Yet – he couldn't have predicted the BAU catching up to him.
So, here he was – getting arrested by Matt and Rossi.
"You'll never find Dina!" he seethed.
"You bet your ass we will" Rossi tempted.
So, the search continued for the girl.
Matt, Rossi and Reid stayed to hold Cook, and Carter too, in custody - but the rest of the group went to go find Dina.
Garcia tracked a possible location to an old hangar where Carter once kept his helicopters.
The whole atmosphere was dark and dusty.
They weren't in Rhode Island anymore.
"This feels like a trap" Tara had suggested, "We're right where they want us".
Emily split the group up so they could cover all corners of the building.
Each wall had its own entryway, so, they just needed to work out the safest route.
The team all got in their positions and cautiously waited for their next instructions.
"Emily, are we going to go in?" JJ asked into her microphone.
Prentiss was going to respond, but, before anyone else could react, there was a large clanging sound and a scream for help.
"Dina?" Emily called out to her.
"Help me, please help me! I don't want to die!".
"We're going in" JJ announced before she and Luke ran right into their entryway.
Suddenly, the place went up in flames.
"Dina!" Emily called out to her again.
She didn't expect a reply, but she got one: "Please, get me out! Hurry!" Dina screamed.
The hangar was a combination of heavy beams, abandoned helicopter parts, and rotten wood; combined with the flames, heat, and heavy smoke – it was a dangerous mission now.
In flames, the place looked like it was about to fall down. There wasn't much room to move either.
A part of the roof crashed down near where Emily and Tara were standing, so they were afraid to step forward any further.
"Luke! JJ!"
The entryways became blocked with flames, rubble, and falling rotting wood.
"Help us get out of here" JJ begged.
Then, yet another roof beam crashed to the floor blocking another path.
The crashing sounds echoed throughout the whole hangar. The fire ran hotter.
Emily and Tara looked at each other desperately – they knew they had to come up with a plan - and it had to be quick.
Meanwhile, the remaining police units were about to give up.
"It's too dangerous" someone screamed.
"Back up! Back up!" someone else cried.
Emily bit her lip; she could feel her heart pounding in her chest.
Tara, the same.
They went to step forward and try and help - if they even could - but the police officers starting holding them back.
"It's not safe, it's not safe!" someone else said.
Emily scowled, desperately.
She was Unit Chief, and she was responsible for her team and the safe wellbeing of Dina Carter.
She was not about to let this end, not in a ball of flames anyway.
Everyone was looking around for safe entry points or exits, but there didn't seem to be much hope.
A crashing noise caught their attention as yet another wall collapsed.
Then, thankfully, Dina crawled herself out from the smoke.
Officers rushed to her aid, and they threw an oxygen mask over her coughing mouth.
Emily and Tara shared anxious looks; they were happy for Dina to escape, but it wasn't over.
"Luke! JJ!"
Nothing, at first.
Then, another crash.
Keeping their heads down, JJ and Luke escorted each other out of the smoke too; her head against his shoulder.
Emily and Tara ran up to them first, and walked them the rest of the way to safety.
Medical had arrived and the BAU joined Dina at the trunk of the ambulance.
It was a relieving scene.
Dina was looked over first but she was fine.
Smoked lungs, and dirty, hot skin - but mostly unharmed.
She hugged each member of the group and officers in turn, immensely grateful.
Meanwhile, JJ and Luke:
JJ was crying.
But, this felt bigger than shock trauma.
At first, Emily wasn't sure why.
But then, she learned more about the Francesca Morales case.
JJ wasn't able to save Francesca – but they could save Dina – and once again, Luke had helped her escape.
Luke knew this too.
It was a wave of shock trauma, survivor's guilt, and gratefulness that this case had ended different.
Luke pulled JJ into a hug, and embraced her tightly.
She hugged him back, tears in her eyes, and then she let him go.
Then, she whipped out her phone and called Will; repeating the same conversation she had most definitely had with him before.
"I love you, Will" JJ said, before she stepped out of earshot.
"Glad you're not dead" Tara smiled as she hugged Luke too.
He wiped a dirty, dusty brow and smirked, hugging her back.
Then, Luke's eyes met Emily's – but they didn't hug.
Emily brushed her hands over her dusty pants, nervously.
"You ready to get out of here?" she asked.
Tara nodded, "You freaking bet".
Leading the way, Emily walked Tara, Luke and the still-on-the-telephone JJ back to the car.
Then, they headed back to the P.D.
The P.D. was in chaos once they heard about the fire.
But, they were ecstatic when the BAU and the officers all returned alive and unharmed.
Initially they weren't sure how the fire started, but later on, it was discovered that it had something to do with a combination of leaking gas, spilled chemicals, and a faulty generator with electrical wires that wasn't meant to be there.
The hangar was practically abandoned; Sean Carter didn't expect there to be any actual danger.
Thankfully, it was all okay now.
Harvey Cook was going away for his crimes.
Sean Carter was going away for his too, but, first, he got to see his daughter, Dina.
He was in his own disbelief that his own daughter had been caught in the crossfire of his mess, but was so humble she had been rescued.
His "thankyou" to the BAU had been bittersweet; for when a bad guy needed a favor, they still had to oblige.
Emily took it with a grain of salt, but was happy that Dina was now safe.
Emily watched Sean Carter hug his daughter; he sobbed into Dina's shoulder, embracing her tightly.
Luke stood beside her and watched the scene with her.
She leaned over and shoulder bumped Luke next to her.
It was the first time she had done something so boyishly charming like this, but, Luke made her vulnerable.
He probably even knew it too.
Nobody saw, but he reached over and held her hand in his, just for a brief moment. Platonically, of course.
He squeezed her hand - his dark eyes meeting her own, with the same almost intoxicating spark they had shared their last time at O'Keefe's.
"Thankyou" she told him.
"For what?".
"For… so much…" she took a deep breath, "For rescuing JJ. Twice, now. She's my best friend…. Tara and I couldn't do much at that hangar, in fact, I'd never felt more useless in my life. But, you – you somehow make it all okay".
"I do my job" he told her.
"Yeah, but … I think you do so much for this team, and perhaps we don't appreciate you enough".
Luke shrugged, "I do my job" he repeated, "… it's the same as Rossi. Reid. Matt".
"No" Emily cut him off, almost forgetting that he was still squeezing her hand.
She was trying to find the right words; it was silly.
No wasn't the right word. Disagreeing with everything he was saying wasn't correct at all.
"Luke, I…" she trailed off, lost in how dark his eyes were.
It wasn't her admittance of a crush, it wasn't meant to be romantic at all… but, she wanted him to know how lucky she felt to have him in her corner.
She just couldn't find the right words. She couldn't put her thoughts into words.
The BAU was lucky to have him.
They had been through so much… with Hotch, with Morgan…
When Tara, Luke, and Matt showed up in was like the start of a new era.
It was tough, it was an adjustment, but now, here they were.
They'd already come a long way, and there was so much further to go.
"Em" he let go of her hand, which brought her back into the conversation, "It's good".
He forced a fist-bump from her, which Emily smiled at.
He smiled back at her before heading back to the rest of the team whom were tidying up the conference room.
He had put emphasise on the word 'good'.
It was the most genuine, sincere word he could say; just friendly, and easy, and naturally felt.
Much like their friendship.
Genuine, easy, and naturally felt.
Good.
Perhaps that summed it up.
Perhaps that was the right word.
Perhaps, for right now - that was all they needed to say.