Hola! New chapter today. I'm glad you all are enjoying the story thus far. Being stuck at home isn't very entertaining, especially if it has been for more than 2 months. but I hope this story is keeping you slightly entertained. As always, I will be posting the next chapter on Tuesday so remember that. Any thoughts or suggestions so far?

Enjoy.

Chapter 24

Ding

Dani wakes up to her phone notification. She sits up and instantly regrets getting up so fast. Her head was pounding and spinning around. I shouldn't have drunk so much. Why the hell do I do this to myself? She asked herself. She rubbed her eyes and got her phone. Her vision was blurry and the bright phone screen didn't help. Once her eyes adjusted, she checked the time. It was roughly nine o'clock. She saw a message from Emily.

Emily: Hey, honey. We solved the case. I will arrive in DC in a few hours but I have to pass by the office to fill out some paperwork. Take care :)

"Shit", Dani murmured. She stood up and went to the bathroom. The teen looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like hell with roughly no hours of sleep. Her eyes were slightly red with dark circles under them. She washed her face with cold water to fully wake herself up. When she stepped out of the bathroom she saw Camila sitting down on the couch.

"I see you are trying to get rid of the hangover too," Camila chuckled.

"Emphasize on trying," Dani said while walking toward Camila. "Emily is coming back today. I don't want her seeing me all woozy and shit."

"Oh crap. Will she be here soon?" Camila asked while heading towards the kitchen. Dani followed her.

"Not until the afternoon," Dani said with a yawn. "But I still need to sober up. The last thing I need right now is for her to be up my ass telling me how I was supposed to be home because I'm grounded."

"Yeah, that doesn't sound like fun but don't worry. I have coffee," Camila said. She prepared two coffee mugs and handed a mug to Dani. Dani loved the smell of warm coffee. The two teens finished drinking and washed their mugs.

"Thank you, Cam," Dani said while picking up her guitar case. "I gotta go now. I need to shower and change before Emily smells the alcohol."

"No problem," Camila said with a smile. "I will call you when we have our next gig."

"Cool," Dani replied. She hugged her friend goodbye and headed out. She walked two blocks where a bus stop was located. She waited fifteen minutes until the bus arrived. She entered and paid with cash. She didn't want Emily to know that she was out so paying with cash is a better alternative.

Dani was hungry so she decided to stop by a Dunkin Doughnut to get breakfast. She ordered a breakfast wrap and an iced coffee with the hope that this food will help her sober up.

After finishing eating, she felt more energized so she decided to walk the rest of the way home. It would only take her about ten minutes. She put on her headphones and started to walk.

The walk was uneventful. The streets were quiet and only a few people were walking outside. Dani was a few blocks away from the apartment. She decided to take a short cut to arrive faster. She was walking through an apartment complex. The place was calm. The morning sun rays were beaming lightly creating beautiful scenery between the apartments. The only thing Dani could hear was the sound of birds chirping in the background.

While walking, Dani's music paused abruptly. She stopped and looked at her phone. "Damn it. Why is my data going slow?" she said to herself. She closed her music app and opened it again, hoping it would load. She was waiting for her song to load when all of a sudden she felt something hit her hard on the back of her head which made her fall hard on the floor. She lifts her head up from the concrete floor and turns around and sees a person with a hiking mask standing over her. Dani tries to stand up in order to escape, but the man kicks her, causing her to stumble. He dunks down and covers her mouth and nose with a tissue. Dani tried to push the man away but in a matter of seconds, her brain started to feel foggy and her eyelids were feeling heavy.

Then everything went dark.

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Hours passed by and the team arrived back at Quantico. The team were all inside the elevator, waiting to arrive back at the office. Reid was telling the whole team a list of facts about Pennsylvania after Luke asked him if he knew the state.

"Did you guys know that Pennsylvania is the only original colony not bordered by the Atlantic Ocean," Reid told the group. "And that Pittsburgh has over 300 sets of city maintained steps. If they were stacked on top of each other, they would reach over 26,000 feet high. They would measure higher than a lot of the Himalayan Mountains."

"Why would you know that information?" Matt asked with a puzzled expression.

"No! Don't ask no more questions," Emily told him. She was tired of being bombarded with facts. "If you continue he will end up telling us how many insects are in that state," she said while rubbing her head. The team giggled.

"Actually, the state has over-"

Ding. The elevator doors open, interrupting Reid's fact. The team steps out of the elevator, escaping hearing any more facts Reid had to offer. They suddenly hear running down the hallway. They turn and see Penelope running towards them with a very worried look on her face.

"Hey, Garcia. What's wrong?" asked JJ with a brow raised.

"Oh my God! I… I tried calling you guys but I forgot that you were on the jet and… and," Garcia said while stuttering. It was obvious that she was very anxious.

"Garica, calm down," Emily said while placing down her bag at a nearby table. "What happened?"

"Dani is in danger," Garcia said with a face of fear. The team's face changed abruptly from relaxed to full alert. Emily's heart skipped a beat when she heard the techanalyst say that. "I saw this in the mail and… oh God," she said, sounding like she was on the verge of tears. She takes out an envelope and hands it to Emily, her hands visibly shaking.

Emily takes the envelope and opens it slowly. She takes out the papers that were inside and looks at them.

Immediately, her heart sank.

She saw pictures of Dani tied up against a pole, both hands, and feet tied. She had duck tape strapped to her mouth, preventing her to talk. In the pictures, Dani was hardly conscious. Barely being able to hold her head up.

Emily slowly placed the pictures on the table and backed up. Her brain couldn't wrap around the thought of Dani being kidnapped. Emily felt a wave of fear. Who took her? Why did they take her? What do they want? Many questions popped up at once but she had no answer. The main question that was haunting her mind was if Dani is okay. She was scared of Dani being hurt or even worse.

The team all gather around and look at the pictures carefully. They were all shocked by these images.

"I am so sorry I didn't tell you sooner," Garcia told Emily in a whisper.

"It's okay, Penelope," said the brunette, trying to compose herself. "Do you know who brought the envelope?"

"It was with the rest of the mail we received. No address or anything of that sort was written on it."

"In that case, we will have to find out who sent that envelope," Rossi said. "That will be the key in knowing who took Dani."

"We won't rest until we find her," JJ said with assurance. The team all nodded in agreement.

"In that case, let's begin."