On the other side of the glass, Emily was taken aback as Penelope, Spencer, Derek, and even Rossi all give a collective gasp at the mention of the name Elle.

"Umm… you guys?" Emily looked at her friends in confusion, her eyes lingering particularly on Derek, who was perched atop a nearby low bookshelf, being comforted by Penelope. "Obviously, Elle is important; was she one of us?"

Penelope nodded. "She was part of the team for awhile before you arrived."

"Was she the one who was shot?" Emily asked, recalling a piece of information that she'd heard around the time of Penelope's own shooting.

The tech analyst nodded, but said nothing, so Rossi chimed in, "I never met her, either, but from what I've heard, she's lovely, quick on her feet, and brilliant, but also headstrong."

"That's Elle Greenaway to a t," Spencer confirmed. "But we just don't talk about her."

Emily's next inquiry came with a dose of caution. "Why?"

"She spun out pretty badly, and the crash and burn was worse."

"And," Penelope added softly. "We didn't know until quite literally just now that she had even moved to New York after getting out of Quantico."

"Anything else?" Emily prompted. "Elle must mean a lot if all of you gasped."

"She was Derek's old partner."

Before Emily could say anything to that, JJ, Hotch, and Aquino exited the interrogation room with JJ going straight to Derek.

"You and I are going over to Saint Vincent's hospital to see Elle." she told him. "Think you can handle that?"

"Uh-huh." Derek slid off the bookshelf and stretched. "Let's go."

Leaving the rest of the team in Hotch's capable hands and promising to call with updates, Derek and JJ left.


Because their job took them all over the country, the BAU team had been to New York City enough times to know their way around it pretty well.

Even with the use of the car sirens, they were at the hospital faster than JJ had time to process because she was making calls to Elle's doctor to identify herself and Derek so they'd be able to learn about Elle's condition and be able to see her when they arrived.

Upon arrival, though, JJ noticed that Derek was dangerously quiet, no doubt filling with even more contempt for Baylor than he already had. Knowing Derek as she did and that he had a tendency to go on a crusade when someone he cared about was hurt or in danger, JJ decided that she had to keep her colleague in check.

She didn't get a chance to do it until they were heading to the urgent care ward and weren't too far from Elle's room. JJ surprised Derek by pushing him against the wall with her good hand, pinning him in place.

"JJ, what the hell?" Derek protested; the petite woman, even when handicapped and pregnant, was deceptively strong.

"Look, I know you want to catch Baylor, mostly out of your loyalty to me and to Elle, but listen to me: she was dragged out of her car, hit her head, and broke a limb."

"So Baylor was violent enough to break your arm and Elle's?"

"Technically, my arm and Elle's ankle."

"How did that happen if she was taken from her car…?"

"That is neither here nor there." JJ cut in. "What is important is that Elle is a scared mama right now, and she's in pain. I'm as concerned about her as you are, but we can't go in there, super worked up because the last thing we need is for her to be pushed back into a state of hysterics."

"Wait: back into a state of hysterics?"

"The event sent Elle spiraling into hysterics and she had to be sedated. She's waking up now, and her mother, Luna Greenaway, is here."

"I'll talk to her," Derek decided. "And you talk to Elle."

"Precisely what I was thinking; I'm glad we're on the same page now." JJ told him. "You good?"

"Yeah."

JJ let go of Derek and straightened out the wrinkles she'd created in Derek's shirt. "Good man. Let's go."

Covered in bruises, dressed in a hospital gown, and hooked up to a saline IV and monitoring wires with her injured (and casted) leg propped up on a pillow, Elle Greenaway looked to be a sorry, almost pathetic sight. She was a little confused as to why two of her former teammates had suddenly appeared, but she didn't turn them away, despite the darkness of the hour.

"Derek? JJ?" Elle questioned as she quickly hugged them. "What in the world are you guys doing in New York?"

"You know them, angel?" Luna asked as she watched the scene play out.

"Yes, mom." Elle told them as the others backed away a bit. "These are old friends, Jennifer Jareau and Derek Morgan. I worked with them in Quantico, and Derek was my partner."

Luna raised her eyebrows. "What is the BAU doing, looking for Hope and Vivian? Isn't this a local matter?"

Derek stepped in. "Missus Greenaway, why don't we go for a walk, maybe find some coffee?"

"What about Elle?"

"I'll take care of her." JJ promised. "Please don't worry, Missus Greenaway."

When JJ and Elle were alone, she pulled a chair up to the bedside and sat down, leaning back in the seat because she was already learning that carrying twins was no walk in the park.

"How are you holding up? I didn't know you had kids."

Elle sighed shakily. "I adopted Hope; she's my niece, and her parents were junkies. I rescued her from that hellhole of a house she lived in because she was almost starving, a little underweight, and crying her eyes out. Her parents had both OD'd on speed."

"Are you rehabilitating Hope?" JJ asked, thinking of how Emily was doing that with her.

"Yeah, I guess you could say that because she's come quite a ways in the three months I've had her. She's very sweet, and has recently started trusting people besides my mom and me. Her parents messed her up pretty badly."

JJ felt both pity and pride for the little girl, even though she hadn't met her yet.

Come on, JJ, she told herself. Keep your head in the game.

"Can you talk to me about Vivian? Where is her father?"

"All I know about that bastard is that he's the stranger who raped me on the subway." Elle sighed sadly but smiled as she continued. "I still adore, cherish, and love my sweet little Vivian, though, no matter how she was made."

JJ nodded understandingly, thinking of all the times Baylor had raped her in the past five months when she made even the slightest mistake or displeased him in any way, whatsoever. She wondered—just for a second—if one of those kinds of encounters with Baylor that had created her babies, or if it had been one of the consensual ones, but then in the very next second, she decided that she never ever wanted to try to do the math on that because she'd just torture herself, otherwise.

Even as her mind wandered for those brief seconds, she rested her damaged arm in her lap while with her free hand, she rubbed her middle, thinking of her beautiful, innocent, yet-to-be-born babies.

Elle noticed. "You're pregnant?"

"Yes." JJ smiled proudly. "Twins."

"Congratulations."

Elle meant it, but her bottom lip trembled because the sight of JJ's baby belly was a stark reminder that she was away from her own babies.

"If you're here at the hospital with Derek, that means the others are here, too? Hotch, Spencer, Penelope, Gideon?"

"The team is here in the city, yes, and what happened to you is actually connected to the case, but there are some changes in the roster: Gideon is gone, and we have two new people."

Elle couldn't help it, but her natural curiosity got the best of her. "Was it because of me?"

"Stay with me, Elle." JJ coaxed. "Is there anything important you can think of about Hope and Vivian that we should know, or that will help us?"

Though Elle's head was throbbing, she was able to concentrate hard enough to describe what her daughters had been wearing at the time of their abduction. That was definitely a big help.

"Elle," JJ said at the end. "We already know that Hope is three, but what about Vivian? How old is she?"

"Viv is two months old!" Elle rubbed at her eyes, determined to keep from crying for as long as possible. "JJ can you please bring me that bag over on the couch?"

Spotting a generic plastic drawstring bag labeled 'Patient Belongings,' JJ retrieved it and handed it to Elle. The brunette rifled through the contents (what she'd been wearing at the time of the carjacking) and pulled out a small blue pouch decorated with different pictures of elephants.

"What's this?" JJ asked, accepting it when Elle handed it to her.

"Hope wears glasses because she's two steps from being legally blind without them, and she's also an asthmatic. Both of those problems have cropped up because her mother—my idiot sister—did drugs when she was pregnant with her. Hope's inhaler and refill cartridges are in there."

JJ tucked the pouch into one of her spacious jacket pockets. "I'll make sure this gets directly to the team."

Elle thanked her, then said, "I have to ask you something before Derek returns with my mom."

"Yes?"

"Did the man who did all this to me get you pregnant and break your arm? You wouldn't be talking to me if that wasn't even in the neighborhood of possibility."

JJ sighed and then laughed, although it was hollow; Elle must have picked up her finely-tuned skills of perception during her days in the sex crimes unit.

"He did, but that's all I can say."

"Of course. Please find my babies."

"We will, Elle. We will."

Unable to keep her tears at bay any longer, Elle began to cry all over again, but Derek had returned with Luna, and once she saw her firstborn in distress, the elder Greenaway hurried to her side to hold her.

Derek and JJ left quietly.


Hours later, they were still no closer to finding any trace of Baylor, Hope, or Vivian, and everybody was feeling the time constraint, but none more so than JJ, especially when it got dark.

At one point, she was feeling so overwhelmed with guilt that she ducked out of the teams' area and escaped to a small, unused conference room down the hall. Recognizing her "Help me! I'm about to go down a rabbit hole!" side of her personality and body language coming in to play, Emily and Penelope followed her.

When they found her in the conference room, the light was on and she was sitting on the edge of the desk. She also happened to be in tears and there was a tissue box and a pile of tissues next to her.

"JJ," Penelope began when they sat with her. "This isn't your fault."

"No, Penelope?" JJ raised an eyebrow. "My abuser is on the loose and has killed people, and now he's hurt a former colleague of ours and kidnapped her sweet little daughters! If I'd just fought Baylor a little harder, I could have incapacitated him enough to knock him out, and then we wouldn't even have to be here at all! It is my fault!"

Calmly, Emily spoke up. "If you had fought back, you could have knocked him out, but you could have broken more than an arm, and very possibly lost both of the babies."

Emily's words actually sobered JJ up a great deal, and the blond apologized to Penelope for being snarky before she let out a sad sigh.

"I would like to believe that since Baylor didn't kill me when he was angry enough to, he will be good to Hope and Vivian, but…"

"But what?" Penelope prompted.

"Hope is an asthmatic and is almost legally blind, plus Vivian is so tiny that she still has to be breastfeeding!" JJ blinked back her tears. "They must be hungry, cold, and scared right now! The sun just went down, too, and every kid is afraid of the dark!"

JJ began to cry more because she really couldn't help it, so Emily and Penelope very patiently encouraged her to cry it all out.

JJ did, and afterwards, she suddenly felt very sleepy.

Emily and Penelope both saw JJ's drowsiness and began to work on convincing her to go back to the hotel early to catch up on sleep, on account of how hectic the last twenty-four hours had been. JJ was just beginning to cave when Hotch appeared, almost out of nowhere, and looking almost in a daze.

He snapped back to reality when he realized that JJ, Emily, and Penelope were watching him out of concern.

"Oh… I didn't realize that this was where you'd all disappeared to; I thought I was going to be alone…"

"We can go, if you like, sir." Emily said quickly. "We were just about to find a uniform to drive JJ back to the hotel because she's nearly dead on her feet."

Hotch merely nodded, his head still too focused on a piece of news he'd just heard from his own personal home front. Genuinely concerned, JJ, Emily, and Penelope gathered around him.

"Are you okay?" Emily asked.

Hotch actually managed a smile. "Haley just called with some news that neither of us expected, but is not unwelcome: we're going to be parents again!"

JJ, Emily, and Penelope congratulated him and he was happy for it, but it was only a few moments later that he, too, noticed JJ's drowsiness.

"Okay, JJ: you really do need to go to bed." Hotch told her.

"But what about Hope and Vivian?"

"I will personally call you if there are any updates."

When JJ began to protest, Hotch raised an eyebrow.

"Do I need to make that an order?"

Again, JJ sobered up: since she wasn't technically a profiler, she didn't answer to Hotch in the same way that the others did and was even on an equal playing turf with him when it came to rank, she knew he wouldn't play that particular card unless he was very concerned.

"No, Aaron."

"Very good." he turned from her to her companions. "I need you two for one hour more and then you can go back to the hotel, too."

Penelope promptly followed Hotch out of the room, but Emily hung back.

"You going to be alright?"

"All things considered, all I can say is that I suppose I will be."

Emily kissed JJ on the forehead and then brought JJ's fingertips to her lips and kissed those, too.

"You are so important to me, Jennifer. So important." Emily told her. "I want you to know that."

"Every time I'm with you, I do." JJ replied. "I thank God for you, Emily, and talking to a higher power is not an easy thing for me to do anymore."

JJ really wanted to say, "I love you" to Emily because she really did, but the timing just didn't feel right. (Little did she know that Emily thought the same thing) Maybe after this case was over.

Instead of saying those three words, JJ planted a kiss on Emily's cheek and said, "Let's go find someone to drive me back to the hotel."

They found someone, an officer, to drive JJ back. On the ride to the hotel, JJ became curious about her, and started a conversation.

"What's your name?"

"Morrison." the officer answered. "You're Agent Jareau, right?"

JJ nodded. "Uh-huh. What's your first name?"

"Madalyn, but everyone calls me Maddie. You can, too."

"Okay, Maddie."

They continued driving down one of the avenues, making casual conversation, and then suddenly, JJ's heart skipped a beat: they'd missed the hotel.

"Maddie, we just passed my hotel."

"I know."

Her answer was eerily calm, almost cheerful, although in a sick, twisted way. They came to a stoplight, and Madalyn locked the car doors before flashing JJ a sinister smile.

That's when JJ felt a jolt of recognition ripple through her body so strong that it almost made her feel as though she was going to vomit.

"You're Baylor's twin sister?"

"Yep."

In a quick motion, Madalyn unholstered JJ's gun and pointed it at her middle, making JJ stiffen up immediately and start praying to a God that she hadn't believed in since she was eleven.

"I'm going to take you to him, but we need to make a pit stop first. If you deviate from the plan at all or call anyone, I will take the safety off your gun and shoot you with it, precious cargo or not. Tell me yes if you understand."

"Yes."

Pleased, Madalyn moved the gun away and drove on.

JJ leaned back in her seat and turned to look out her window, away from her kidnapper, so she didn't have to see how scared she was.

For now, all she could do was just settle in for the ride.