For the second time that day, JJ experienced a very loud silence. No one in her life could do anything small. Not even strangers.

She spoke to Bex first. "I'm Supervisory Special Agent Jennifer Jareau. With me is my partner, SSA Emily Prentiss, and our technical analyst, Penelope Garcia. All three of us work with your brother."

Bex took this in stride. "He's mentioned the BAU before and told us everyone's names. It's great to finally see who is who."

"We appreciate you coming to see us." JJ told her. "Would you like anything before we get started? Coffee? Tea?"

Bex politely declined. "No, but thank you. That's very nice."

Taking care not to let the Jareaus or the other families notice that a new person had arrived, JJ took the lead in escorting Bex to the conference room they'd just vacated. Penelope followed. Emily was beside her. Luke tagged along for good measure.

"How do you know Katherine and Olivia?" Emily asked when they had all settled at the table. "No answer is wrong."

"Katherine is more the one I know, but only from a professional standpoint—I'm a real estate agent. I've sold her the house that she and Olivia are going to move in to."

Emily, Penelope, and Luke immediately looked to JJ.

"Did you know Katherine had plans to move out here?" Luke asked her.

JJ shook her head. "No. I guess she was going to surprise me."

"And now I've ruined it." Bex fretted.

"I'm sure Katherine will forgive you." Penelope consoled her.

Emily nodded. "She will. Bex, did you ever have a chance to meet Katherine's husband?"

"I did, and I sent flowers when I found out that he was killed in action." Bex answered truthfully. "Philemon and Katherine attended multiple showings of the house, but they were the only party that consistently held the highest bid. The two of them were all about the long game."

"So I take it that today's meeting was to have been about officially closing the deal?" Emily deduced.

"Yes, and the meeting was meant to have been at eleven-thirty. I waited when they didn't show on time."

"When did you make the choice to come in?" Luke asked Bex.

"When I saw the missing persons alert that just happened, since it's the kind that gets broadcasted through everyone's phones because of the emergency alert system."

The others knew exactly what she was talking about because they'd also gotten the same alert.

JJ spoke in a kind tone to Bex. "You're doing so good. We really appreciate it."

"I've helped?" Bex's tone was laden heavy with skepticism.

"Yes—you've helped establish a timeline of Katherine's movements. Did she happen to mention any stops she would be making beforehand?"

"She said that she wanted to stop at the mall, so she could purchase pajamas for Olivia because… oh…"

A dot seemed to have connected in Bex's head that previously hadn't.

"Keep going." Emily prompted.

"Katherine also mentioned me that they're going to be staying in town for a few days because really wanted to see her sister."

JJ rubbed her temples. "I'm her sister. Do you know where Katherine had reservations for a hotel? Or if she had any?"

Finally, Bex shook her head. "No, but the new house is in Capitol Hill. Maybe you guys can check things out over there."

"Great call. We appreciate it. Thank you."

Bex perked up at the praise. "You're very welcome. It's my pleasure to help the FBI—especially Luke's people."

DING!

Anything more that Bex could have said was interrupted by a chiming sound coming from a smart watch that she was wearing. She promptly sat up straighter and started to gather her things.

"That was a reminder that I have a showing at a different property to prep for." Bex informed her company. "Is there anything else you need?"

Emily shook her head. "No, but you did the right thing by stopping over here."

"You've been a really big help." JJ added. "Thank you."

Penelope chimed in, "We have a lot to work with now."

Bex got to her feet and shook hands with Emily, JJ, and Penelope. "I'm pleased I could help, although I'm sorry that we had to meet under this kind of a circumstance. I wish you the best of luck with everything that's happening."

"Thank you." JJ repeated. "I'm sure we will meet again."

Emily looked over at Luke. "Please report back here after you see Bex off, alright?"

Luke also rose to his feet. "Yes, boss."

The Alvezes closed the door behind them when they left. Emily and JJ immediately fell back in their seats. It was time for a quick breather.

Penelope noticed her friends' behavior at once. "Are you two alright?"

"No." the duo said together.

"Would you like to talk about it?"

They voiced their answer in unison a second time. "No."

Now Penelope really knew that something was up—JJ and Emily rarely withheld anything from her. They were truly having a mental block of some kind. Penelope didn't even question it. She just trusted that whatever it was, her friends would work together to conquer the problem. Everything would turn out just fine.

Because it always did.

"Okay." she decided. "Until you both work out whatever it is that's got you like this, I will stand guardian and not tell anyone that this moment happened."

"Penelope, thank you." Emily said with complete sincerity. "You are the best."

JJ nodded in an agreement, although she was rubbing her temples again. "I can only think of Katherine. My biggest hope is that she's warm now."

Katherine Hannah Spelling was far from warm. She was cold. Very, very cold. She was also more scared than she had ever been in her life before.

Like always, life had thrown a humongous wrench in her plans. She and Olivia were now victims of a human trafficking ring.

They had made their way from Baltimore to D.C. by train and went on to utilize public transportation. Katherine's main objective was to cut down on heinous parking charges. It all seemed liked a good idea when she had first thought of it.

Reaching the required bus stop at the mall meant traveling through the main parking garage. It was here they ran into trouble.

The abductors had first tried to take Olivia quietly, to a van that was was waiting for them nearby. To the little girl's credit, she immediately screamed bloody murder. So did Katherine. She didn't stop because she was desparate for someone to notice.

No one did.

As means to shut her up, the men forced Katherine into the van after Olivia.

Her screams changed to pleas and persisting all the way to their destination: a somewhat rundown house in what she would later learn was a very seedy neighborhood.

They were forced out of the van and into a house garage of some kind. She had no earthly idea as to their location because they had ridden around for awhile.

This was when Katherine made her final bid. Not for her own release, but for Olivia's. Nobody deserved this.

Especially a child.

The abductors didn't even let the Spellingses have a final good-bye to each other. They were thoughtlessly forced apart before they had a chance for anything like a hug. Olivia was too stricken with shock to say anything. Poor Katherine could only fall to her knees in utter despair as the van left and the garage door closed.

She wasn't alone for long. A boy in his late teens emerged from the house, and into the garage.

"Who the hell are you?" Katherine squawked as she was hauled roughly to her feet.

"I'm Zephyr." the boy growled. "Where did Asa and Wyatt go?"

Tears poured down Katherine's cheeks. "I asked them to let my girl go, but they didn't even let me hug her or tell me where they're bringing her."

"Tough luck. Now come on—I have a job for you."

Zephyr proceeded to frogmarch Katherine across the garage and force her through a trap door in the floor. At the end of a journey down a long ladder, they landed in a secondary basement of sorts. Katherine shuddered as she tried not to think about how far underground they were. She also did her best not to gag on what she was sure was the smell of dried urine.

What made Katherine's heart fall out of her chest was that there was a group of young, terrified, teary-eyed children standing before her. She had no idea who any of them were.

Katherine whirled around to look at Zephyr. "Who are these kids?"

"Never you mind, or would you rather I turn you loose? We're in the middle of nowhere. Who knows what you'd encounter out there."

Katherine didn't know that she was being lied to, so her fear intensified. Zephyr's threat also forced her hand about something.

"Please don't hurt me!" she blurted. "I might be pregnant!"

A twisted, maniacal grin crept over Zephyr's face. "Well, well—that certainly sweetens the deal. Unless you want me to turn you loose, you won't ask any more questions. You'll also babysit them."

Katherine surrendered. "Alright. I'll do whatever you want."

Zephyr sneered at her again. "Glad we're on the same page. I'll be right back."

He locked the door from the outside after exiting the room.

Katherine resigned herself to taking care of the other occupants in the room. She would be their mother until they were brought back to their families. They needed some stability.

She counted ten kids—three boys and seven girls—of all different ages, races, and sizes. Most of them even seemed curious about her. Their new savior was a way for them to forget their current peril for a few moments.

Katherine did notice that each child was wearing a length of yarn around one wrist. She thought it was odd, but she had no idea of the Yarn Children case because her every day life kept her too busy to read the local news every day. She had no idea that half of the children in front of her were being searched for, or that nobody knew of the second half at all.

"My name is Katherine. I won't hurt any of you." she knelt in front of the kids. "In fact, I'll take care of each of you while we're here. How does that sound?"

"Way good." said one the girls.

"What's your name?" Katherine asked her.

"I'm Hope." she put her hands on the shoulders of an identical beside her. "This is Faith. We're three."

"Is that so?" Katherine said in a tone of being very impressed. "My baby girl is also three, and she loves elephants."

Katherine hugged Hope in reassurance before moving to face Faith.

"Hi, Faith. Are you shy?"

"Kinda." she admitted. "I have help to hear."

Faith showed Katherine a pair of pink hearing aids that she was wearing.

"What do you think?" she moved a stray lock of her long dark hair behind one ear. "Do you like them?"

It was clear that Faith was looking for approval. Katherine gave it to her immediately.

"I love them, and I think it's awesome that they're pink."

Faith did a little victory dance at this. "Pink is my favorite color, and Hope loves green."

Katherine spoke to her in a playfully conspiratorial tone. "My daughter loves pink, and I love green. What do you think of that?"

Both Ridley twins were both so deeply impressed that they both hugged their new friend. Katherine could make them happy.

None of the other kids approached yet, but they were also feeling safe now. That was enough.

Zephyr came back with food for everyone after while. It was very poor, but Katherine didn't complain. She just ate her fill and saw to it that her charges managed what they could. Katherine also lobbied for a bathroom break, as their 'space' didn't have the proper facilities.

Her demand was granted because the rest of the house occupants would be awhile. Zephyr was dying to see what would happen when his boss came returned.

He shut everyone in the room again after that.

Hours passed.

The air grew colder.

Katherine was extremely relieved that there were a lot of beds and blankets in the room because the floor was very unappealing. She wanted her companions to be as comfortable as they could.

Faith and Hope were still the only ones displaying any physical affection towards Katherine, but the rest of the kids decided that sitting near her wouldn't be so bad. This proved to be a sound conclusion because she even started telling them fun stories as means to keep them occupied.

Unfortunately, the stories also ran their course after awhile.

Everyone was just sad and cold.

From under her blanket, Faith shivered. "I-I'm c-cold."

"Oh, I know." Katherine commiserated. "Come here."

Faith moved forward, and sat in her lap. Hope was already there. The rest of the children pressed closer to them.

"Will they find us?" Hope cried. "I'm so scared!"

Katherine held her close. "They'll find us, Hope. They will."

"You're sure?"

"I am."

Hope finally relaxed, and chose this moment to tell Katherine a vital piece of information. "You know the guy who brought us food? He's our big brother."

Katherine's heart lurched. "Oh, my."

"Do you have a brother?"

"Yep, and I also have a big sister. I love both of them so much."

"Good." Hope huffed.

Beside her, Faith sat up. She'd been squirming around on Katherine's lap for the past few minutes, trying to get comfortable. Something was in her way. It took her a moment to locate the source of her annoyance.

"What's on your arm?" she asked her protector.

Faith had been leaning against it, but Katherine had something there that was jutting into her back. She just couldn't readily identify the object in the gloom.

Katherine wanted to kick herself when she realized what Faith was talking about.

She spoke to all of the kids at large. "This is my smart watch! I forgot I had it on!"

"My mom and dad both have those!" Dashel Goldberg told her excitedly. "Can we text them?"

Katherine checked the battery level, only to see that it was quite low.

"We'd better not." she decided. "I'm going to text my big sister because the battery is almost out."

Dashel's face fell, but he didn't lose heart altogether. "Is your big sister the police?"

"Not quite—she's FBI. Do you know what that means?"

"The super special police, right?" the little boy guessed.

"That's right. Now hold on."

Thinking quickly, Katherine sent an SOS text to JJ. They were clearly in trouble, but her hope was that this would be enough help for someone to ping their location. The watch battery finally went out after the text went through.

"What now?" Dashel asked her.

Katherine heaved a sigh. "Now, we all cross our fingers and wait."

Over at the precinct, everyone was working extra hard to not freak out.

Even with Bex's help of an established timeline, it seemed as though they were at dead end after dead end. Now they were at a very solid brick wall.

Visiting Katherine's grief group turned out to be a bust, as was the hotel. Neither place had heard from her.

This day was truly going from bad to worse.

The MPD and BAU were at the station house again, filling each other in on what they'd learned while they'd all been apart. Both of the dead men were the people who had brought Olivia to the station, but this leap had yet to be made. Zephyr was in the wind. Even the fully-scrubbed footage of the abduction ultimately led to nothing but another dead end.

Just as Emily found herself wondering if she would have to ask Andrew for a raincheck on their upcoming conversation, she was shaken out of her torpor by JJ nearly jumping out of her skin about something.

"What's wrong?" Emily asked her in surprise.

Will was also recovering from being startled. "Cher, what the hell?"

"Sorry." JJ apologized as all around the table, everyone recovered from also being startled by her. "I just got a text on my tablet from Katherine's number."

"Wait, really?" Rossi said in surprise. "Her phone was already found at the abduction site. It's dead."

"Perhaps she has a smart watch." suggested Tara.

JJ shrugged. "I haven't seen her in awhile, so maybe it was a recent acquisition."

Matt did his best not to roll his eyes as this conversation ramped up—it was like watching his kids digress when they were doing their best to be serious. "We will figure out later what kind of device Katherine used. The important thing for the moment is to read what the message said. Right?"

"Right." JJ agreed. "One moment… hmm…"

"What do you see?" Matt asked immediately.

JJ showed them the message on her screen. "My sister sent an actual SOS."

"Nothing else?" pressed Spencer.

JJ shook her head and passed her iPad to Penelope. "Do you think this is a Hail Mary?"

The tech analyst nodded when she understood what was being driven at. "Actually, this might just be enough data to discern or triangulate their location, but since Katherine could only send this acronym, it might have been all that she had time for."

"You're thinking that whatever device she used ran out of juice." JJ said.

"Bingo. My powers of tech mastery can reach far, but even I can't turn on a dead device."

JJ nodded somberly. "Alright."

"Then that brings me to my last point." Penelope went on. "I agree that Katherine and the others are somewhere in a local or semi-local radius, but they could still be anywhere. Don't say I didn't warn you if we only get something like a rough estimate."

"I understand, PG. Thank you."

The rest of the people in the room watched as Penelope used her laptop and JJ's iPad to work her magic.

None of them were exactly pleased when she furrowed her brow, saying nothing as she stared at her computer screen.

"What?!" the LaMontagnes cried together.

"Katherine's text originated from Dunn Loring, Virginia, but it's in a residential neighborhood. I haven't even found where they are yet."

Primrose arched an eyebrow; cryptic phrasing was not her strong-suit. "Those are good things, right? Certainly better than what we had an hour ago."

Will broke things down for his partner. "What Penelope is telling us is that if they were in a rural area, it would be easier to do a stealth retrieval mission because there would be more places to hide, whereas broad daylight means little to no cover. There's also a higher probability of a civilian accidentally getting hurt."

"That is the gist." Penelope said. "I'm also concerned because I haven't gotten a fix on any of Zephyr Ridley's devices yet."

She was keeping tabs on him from afar with her computers, but Zephyr had truly gone radio silent.

Primrose this time heaved a sigh. "So for all we know, Zephyr could also be at this location?"

"That would be my guess." Penelope affirmed.

"And because of all this evasion, there's a strong possibility that Zephyr could be dangerous."

"Right again. We all have to be very careful."

All eyes in the room landed on Emily. They wanted to see what she had to say.

"I would very much prefer that Zephyr be caught alive because he needs to be held accountable. He also has a family that can't possibly handle any more stress." Emily regarded those in the room who carried a gun. "Rescuing Katherine and the kids, and bringing Zephyr in are the main priorities today. Am I clear?"

"Yes." they chorused.

Emily stood and turned to Captain Walsh. "How fast can you arrange for a full mobile command center?"

Walsh also rose to her feet. "Ten minutes. I'll make sure we have one that has an alcove for Miss Garcia, as well."

"Outstanding." Emily focused on Rossi, Spencer, Luke, Tara, and Matt. "Use those ten minutes to prep for a tactical recon mission. Be ready to roll out when JJ and I come back with Captain Walsh, Will, and Primrose. Do you understand?"

"Yes." they chorused once more.

Pleased, Emily now addressed Penelope. "Have you figured out the point of origin yet for Katherine's text? Like an address?"

"I have an idea of the area, but we're still in that 'rough sketch' realm that I mentioned earlier."

"Will you will be able to have it smoothed out in a fast due course? Faster once we're on the road?"

Penelope nodded. "Yes."

"Very good." Emily praised as she, JJ, Will, Primrose, and Walsh headed out. "We will be back soon."