By time the ambulances and police cars had arrived at the gas station, JJ made it clear the proper authorities that she and Derek were FBI agents, relieved that she didn't have to be in charge anymore. She also washed her hands of Derek's blood to the best of her ability before going back inside to make a call that she'd been dreading.
Hotch picked up immediately. "JJ, where are you, Prentiss, and Morgan?"
"Hotch, are you sitting down?"
There was a pause, and then, "Yes."
"Jacoby Fitzgerald somehow found us and followed us to a gas station on Broadway…"
"Come on, JJ—stay with me." Hotch coached from his end of the line as he became acutely aware of Penelope, Spencer, and Rossi suddenly watching him. "What is it?"
"Jacoby pistol-whipped Derek in the head and shot him in the shoulder, after which he stole our car, kidnapping Emily in the process."
To Hotch's credit, he didn't immediately panic. "I see. We'll come to you now; can you give me any more specifics about where you are?"
JJ just laughed nervously and began to fan herself because she was beginning to feel ill. "No—I'm just trying not to lose it. I need… to sit down… I feel sick… Gotta… hang up now…"
Her words were beginning to slur because she could feel herself slipping into shock, and she needed to focus more on herself and her children. She desperately needed help.
"No, Jennifer, don't hang u—"
JJ ignored him and hung up her phone, pocketing it.
She was definitely going to faint now, but it was just a matter of when.
"Agent Jareau?"
"Hmm?"
JJ saw one of the paramedics approaching her, but that was the last thing she remembered before finally shutting down and fainting. Her day had just gotten longer.
Thirty minutes later, JJ was at the hospital she'd been taken to after the kidnapping drama with Baylor. By the time she was dressed in a hospital gown, hooked up to all of the proper oxygen tubes, and wires and monitors, she also had to be sedated because she had a panic attack when she remembered what had happened to Derek and Emily.
When she came to, she wasn't alone.
"Oh, JJ—I'm so glad you're awake! You gave us all a scare!"
Still adjusting to her new surroundings, JJ was more than a little thrown because the voice she heard wasn't one that she'd been expecting.
"Spence?"
"Uh-huh." the young man eagerly confirmed as he hurried over and helped her sit up so she could have a drink of water. "I came in as soon as I could."
When JJ gave him back the cup, Spencer set it aside and pulled a chair up to her bed.
"What do you want to know?" he asked as he sat down.
JJ gave her bump a rub as she felt the middle area of her body get parried and thrusted upon by two different pairs of hands and feet. "I would ask how the twins are, but they're both wide awake and letting me know it."
"From what I understand, there was an ultrasound performed on you during the ambulance ride while you weren't 'all with it,' but everything checks out fine." (JJ breathed a sigh of relief) "The gender of your kids was also revealed."
"Wait." JJ held her hands in the 'time out' position. "How do you know these things?"
Sheepishly, Spencer said, "I may have lied and told them I'm your brother?"
"Lucky you, you're the little brother I never got but always wanted, so in this case, I don't mind."
Spencer breathed his own sigh of relief. "Would you like to know what you're having? The doctor only told me, and I haven't told anyone."
Both touch and impressed Spencer hadn't told, JJ nodded. "Please tell me."
"Congratulations—you're having two little girls."
JJ's heart filled first with joy because two little girls were exactly what she'd been hoping for, and then sorrow that her love wasn't there to partake in the joy with her.
All of the emotion made her cry, but Spencer sat beside her, holding out a tissue box and waiting patiently for her to cry herself out.
When she did, there was a few moments of silence before JJ suddenly dropped the tissues and gave a wince, pointing to the left side of her middle.
"Whichever baby princess is here, she just gave me a huge kick because she doesn't like the quiet; she says, "Keep talking, Uncle Spencer!" And please do—talk to me about Emily and Derek."
"The SUV that Jacoby took Emily in had a GPS feature, but it was destroyed before Garcia was able to track it completely."
JJ gave a sigh of dejection. "Emily is clever enough to talk her way out of an immediate situation that could cause immediate harm, but what do you think—is Jacoby taking her to wherever Polly and the other missing little girls are?"
"He has to be, and he probably took Emily as a warning, or something. Does Emily know Russian?"
"That's my department," she sighed. "So I really hope that if she can't get around the language barrier with her wit and charm, that Polly or one of the girls will help her."
"That's what I've been thinking, too."
JJ did her best to change positions in the bed; her children were squirmy and they didn't appreciate it when she was horizontal and not asleep.
"How is Derek?" she wanted to know as she smoothed out an imaginary wrinkle in her gown.
"Still in surgery, and Penelope is the waiting room, knitting up a storm."
"She's probably thinking about when she was the one in the OR after her own gun shot. It still hasn't been a year yet."
Spencer nodded. "Hotch and Rossi are with her, and so is her stepbrother, Juan Carlos, and his wife, Chloe."
"Because they're local," JJ recalled. "And Estefani lives with them. I can't say I blame Penelope for wanting her family near, like how all of us were with mine in Alabama."
"If you're still here later, I bet Estefani will show up, just to check on you."
"Did Penelope say that?"
Spencer gave another nod. "Yes."
"Do you think she'll come see me?"
"Oh, absolutely, but you need to have a check-up first." Spencer pressed the 'call nurse' button on JJ's bedside table. "I was told to tell you that that's non-negotiable."
Sighing, JJ held a hand out to Spencer. Around her left wrist was a plastic ID bracelet, and affixed to one of her pointer fingers was a plastic clamp that was hooked up to yet another wire that was measuring something else, but she didn't have the energy to figure out what it was right at that moment. Some of JJ's fingers were even smudged with mascara from she'd been rubbing at her eyes when she'd been crying earlier. She was a literal mess, but she needed support, so she reached out. And to the one person who had never been that big on physical contact.
"Then just be my baby brother for awhile and hold my hand. Please?"
Spencer gave her his hand immediately, as well as a warm smile. "Of course, JJ. I'd do anything for you."
And just like that, JJ's woes lessened.
Poor Emily was having a harder time of things.
By the time Jacoby brought them to their destination, a back alley behind what had once been a hardware store, she had no idea where they were. She had no choice but to trust Jacoby as he frogmarched her across the cold, slightly icy ground, inside the building and even down a flight of steps that led to a hallway with a door at the end.
"What's going on?" Emily demanded as they stopped in front of the door. "Please don't hurt me—I'm pregnant!"
"I won't hurt you because hurting preggos isn't cool, but I can't say the same for the others."
A wave of panic flooded through Emily's body at that last part, and in response, the baby kicked hard. Yanking herself out of Jacoby's grasp, she massaged her middle and made soothing noises to her offspring as she gazed at the bump it lay tucked inside.
"There better not be anything wrong." Jacoby warned.
Emily held her hands in the small of her back to offset the baby weight as she looked at her captor. "The baby is nervous because I am, and we're both hungry."
Jacoby didn't answer, instead unlocking the padlock on the door. "Do you speak Russian?"
"Excuse me?"
"Do you speak Russian?" Jacoby repeated, as if talking to a slow person.
Emily shook her head. "No."
"Then good luck with keeping them from finishing each other off."
Emily started to ask what he meant, but before she could finish the question, Jacoby had locked her in the basement and was gone again. When her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, she found that while the immediate area she was in was a play area, there was a sleeping area a bit further back filled with a variety of mismatched beds, including a few bunk beds, a trundle bed, and even an extra-large adult-sized bed. Just to the right of that, Emily spotted a bathroom, and she immediately realized that this was where the they that Jacoby has mentioned had gone to because she could hear small quiet movements, as though the occupants were doing everything not to be discovered.
Remembering the doll the Fitzgeralds had given them back at their place, Emily extracted it from her jacket pocket before casting her jacket on a nearby shelf and walking forward.
"Hello?" she called out. "I work with the FBI, and I won't hurt you; I'm stuck down here, too."
One by one, the occupants all filed out of the bathroom, arranging themselves before her. Emily felt her heart jump, though, because she recognized them as the missing children whose pictures she'd first seen in Quantico.
"My name is Emily," she said, pointing to herself before pointing to her swollen middle. "And this is my baby, but he doesn't have a name yet."
The girls all stared at her blankly, but behaving as a collective, they all took a step backwards.
"Who speaks English?" Emily asked cautiously.
The older girl spoke, and a lilting Russian accent could be heard. "We all do, but you said you're FBI, yes?"
"Mhm, and my team is helping to look for all of you—and now me, I suppose. I know all of your names, even."
"Prove it."
"Well, you're Tatiana, and I know you're only twelve." Emily said before moving down the line, pointing to each girl as she went. "After that it goes Nikita, Irina, Oksana, Katija, Rada, Anya… wait, where's Polly?"
A lightbulb went off over Anya's head and she pointed to the bathroom. "So that's her name! She's over there, the biter!"
Immediately peeved, Rada slapped Anya before Emily could stop her.
"I told you not to call her that!"
Tatiana intervened, wrenching them apart as she scolded, "And I told both of you to keep your hands and feet to yourselves and to not pick on Polly!"
"But if we're marked up, then they won't sell us!" Rada pointed out.
Tatiana shot daggers with her eyes at Rada, and realizing that she'd said too much, she let Tatiana herd her and the others towards the other side of the room.
"Polly?" Emily called. "My name is Emily, and I'm a friend. Will you come out and talk to me?"
Polly didn't move, but after a moment, she croaked, "No."
"I know you've got two full names; do you prefer Polina or Apollinariya?"
Polly finally appeared in the doorway, and Emily's heart bottomed out. There was no question that the little girl was beautiful, but she had also taken a recent beating. A fading hand shaped bruise on her fact was proof.
"I like Apollinariya, but you can call me Polly." she told Emily. "Do you have a realer name?"
"My parents named me Emelia."
"That's really beautiful!" Polly gushed, light coming back to her eyes. "Do you like Emelia more?"
"Yes, but everyone calls me Emily, so that's the name I answer to the most."
Polly took another step forward and pointed at Emily's belly. "I heard you say there's a baby in there."
"Mhm."
Emily reached for Polly's hand, beckoning to her. When she was within reach, Emily placed Polly's hand over a spot where she was feeling a flurry of kicks. Polly registered what she was feeling and gave the bump a rub.
"My sister's baby kicks me."
Emily stroked Polly's hair with her free hand. "You know, kid, I met Sasha today. Luna, too."
Polly's bottom trembled. "What about Sloan?"
"I didn't get a chance, but two of my friends and I, we also met his parents, and they gave us this."
Emily held Polly's toy and when the little girl saw her most prized toy, she burst into tears and hugged it and Emily close.
"Thank you, my Emelia! Thank you!"
"You're welcome, Apollinariya," was all Emily could say as she stroked the little girl's hair again and glanced over at the others, who were still keeping their distance, leery of her only because Tatiana was.
Emily just hoped that they were found soon.
