A/N: Hey, y'all. I know this took forever. I could give an excuse, but it truly is just who I am as a person. Anyway, enjoy! As always reviews are welcome, and these aren't my characters, blah blah blah.
Emily picked up her phone and decided to call her parents first. She called her mom's cell and got no answer. This was not surprising. Ever since her parents retired, Elizabeth was constantly losing her phone. She called her dad. Still no answer. That's when a small twinge of panic set it. She called Melissa, who answered almost immediately. "Hey Mel, can you get the phone to my parents, neither answered when I called."
"Sure, I'll have to go to the main house. How is she doing?" Emily could hear shuffling noises as Mel talked.
"Not good. We have to go to the hospital. She may need surgery which is totally not something I wanted to have to deal with today." Emily groaned. "She has appendicitis which is really taking a toll on her body."
"Oh, the poor baby, oh, here's your dad."
"Hey Emmy, we just got in from the stables, Henry really loves that horse of his. Are you gonna teach him to ride?" Edward barely left room for Emily to answer.
"Yeah, but that's not why I'm calling. I may need you and Mom to stay for way longer than expected."
Emily heard her father sharply inhale breath, "Is it bad? Will she be okay?"
"Dad she's fine, she has appendicitis and no matter what we choose for treatment she needs a hospital trip. Is there any way you guys can stay with the boys for longer than expected? I don't want to ruin any plans you may have made but I don't know how long we'll be, and I can't j-"
Emily was cut off by her father, "Emily, calm down dear. We'll stay as long as you need."
Edward heard his daughter sigh with relief. "Thank you so much dad. I have to go and call Jennifer before we reach the hospital. I love you."
"I love you too, good-bye."
Emily hung up with the hands-free button on her steering wheel. She looked in the rear-view mirror to see Ellie asleep. She called JJ and right as Emily thought it would go to voicemail, JJ answered. "Hey baby, I don't have a lot of time. What's up?"
Emily gave JJ a run-down of all that was happening. "That's it, I'm hijacking the jet and coming home right now."
"No Jennifer, you don't need to do that. I can handle this, my parents are with the boys, I got this."
Emily heard JJ sigh, "Emily, our child is sick, really sick and may need surgery. I've just finished all the interviews with the victims. I am coming home."
"JJ stop. You are working a serial rapist case. There will be more, you can't leave. Maybe if there was another female on the team they could help. But that isn't where you're at. They need your expertise. Stay and do your job, then maybe you can take a few days and help her recuperate. I love you, now go get the bad guy so you can come home."
JJ sighed; she knew her wife was right. She had to stay for this case. "Okay, I hope we can get done fast. I love you, keep me updated."
After JJ hung up, irritation started to bubble underneath her, she stormed into the conference room where Hotch was. He looked at her, "Everything alright?"
"No, it's not. You need to hire another female profiler." JJ huffed out without further explanation.
"Why now? The team has been working well so far."
"Now because Eloise has appendicitis and I can't go home to help her and Emily because I'm the only female profiler we have. Emily talked me into to staying, and you are so lucky she did, because if she had asked me to come home, I would have left this fucking boys club to walk on eggshells through the rest of this case. Now, are you going to hire another female profiler?"
"I'll get right on it when we get back. You're right, we can't let ourselves be put in this position again." JJ nodded to him, "Oh and JJ?" she brought her eyes back up to meet his, "I'm sorry Ellie is sick, but please remember I'm your commanding officer, so maybe not call my unit a 'fucking boys club'?" He finished with a wink, letting JJ know he was only half serious.
"Yes sir."
Emily carried Ellie into the hospital. When she gave the intake nurse her name, she was taken right back. The clinic had called to let them know ahead of time. Emily set Ellie down on the bed and covered her with blankets. Two nurses, whose names Emily didn't catch, were checking all the vitals of the sick toddler. Emily sat and watched, she was so consumed with worry, she couldn't breathe.
"Ms. Prentiss?" The dark nurse pulled her out of her spiral. "We're going to get her set up with IV fluids, that way whatever course the doctor feels is best it's already prepped."
"Okay." Emily moved her chair closer to the bed, she softly kissed Ellie's forehead. "Ellie, honey." Her green eyes were duller than before but the looked sadly into Emily's deep brown. "The nurses need to give you some medicine under your skin. It'll be kind of like a shot. DO you think you can handle it?"
"Em'ly. I'm scared, I don't want a shot." Ellie began to cry again, and it broke Emily's heart. She wrapped Ellie into the best hug she could give at their angles.
"It's okay, I'll be right here. Just look at me, do you want me to tell you a story?" Ellie nodded. Before Emily started, she looked towards the nurses and gave a slight nod. It was a silent way to indicate for them to wait until the little girl was preoccupied to begin anything. Emily smiled at the little girl, wracking her brain for a story. Finally, the best she could come up with popped into her head. "Once upon a time, in a land not too far away, there lived two beautiful princesses. They came from different kingdoms. The princesses met on a magical flying carriage. With one look they fell in love."
"Two princesses can love each other?" Eloise asked, her attention transfixed on the story.
"Of course! It happens all the time. The two princesses loved each other from a far. One was already to be wed to a Prince from her Kingdom, the smaller kingdom of Allegheny. The other princess from Romea, had no one to love her yet, so every time they both ended up on the flying carriage, the princess from Romea would watch the beautiful princess of Allegheny. Before they knew it, they found secret places to meet: an inn, a saloon, a market. They loved each other so much. But the Princess of Romea worried about her heart. The other princess was ready to be wed, she was ready for her own kingdom. Romea thought there was no one she could ask Allegheny to sacrifice all that. But Allegheny had her own worries. Romea was a high society Kingdom, she worried she couldn't find a place to fit in Romea's world. Romea hid from her love, she ran across the world because she was scared. Allegheny tracked her down and made her go home, to a place that loved Romea. Allegheny promised that her future husband didn't want a wedding anymore. She promised Romea that her heart would always be protected, and then do you know what happened?" Emily asked the enthralled girl as the nurses found a viable vein.
"Happily, ever after?"
"Happily, ever after." Emily confirmed. Ellie didn't even notice the IV go in.
"Okay, Ms. Prentiss, we will send the doctor in." The nurse smiled at the pair.
"Okay, thank you." The brunette smiled back. "Now Eloise, why don't you try to get some rest."
"Guys, this doesn't make any sense." Spencer spoke as he stared at the board. "He's a classic power-reassurance rapist, but he also goes far enough to add some forensic counter measures. His conflicting ideals make me think this about more than just his personal power dynamic."
Morgan folded his arms and nodded, everyone else on the team listening closely as well. "Alright, what are you thinking?"
"The DSM-5 describes sexual sadism as the physical or emotional pain of a sexual partner. I believe he is married. A power-reassurance rapist couldn't maintain a healthy relationship, so we discounted a spouse. Most people with paraphilic disorders start fantasizing at 13 and never act on it. What if he's had these fantasies but forced them away so he could maintain what he saw as a normal relationship? And what if something happened to his partner that harmed her sexually? Then he would have to watch her constant pain. That could have triggered something in him that desired to cause the same pain. I don't think what he makes them say is power-reassurance, I think it's a fetish. If it was truly about the power, he would make sure they knew who he was. He wouldn't hide his face." Everyone thought quietly for a minute.
JJ spoke up, "So he has more than one paraphilic disorder? Sexual Sadism and Fetishism?"
Reid nodded, "Most people with one have others. He probably also has frotteurism. It should be noted that the DSM does not include rape in its list of paraphilic disorders. He has just taken his own and perverted them to justify his actions."
Hotch nodded, that would explain the conflicting ideals. "A power-reassurance rapist doesn't normally care about getting caught. He wants to hurt as many people as possible for however long he can, but a sexual-gratification rapist just wants sex. He would be more cautious about evidence and wouldn't repeatedly offend. This unsub is kind of in between."
"According to Groth's typology of the goal of a rapist, I believe our unsub is a sadistic rapist, with crossing patterns of a sexual gratification rapist described by Barton-Bellessa." Reid corrected.
Hotch pulled his phone out, "Garcia. I need you to run a search of married women raped within the last year."
"Uh, sir," She said, her voice carrying to the others through speaker phone. "That's going to be a hard search, not to mention the appalling number of unreported rapes each year."
"I know, based on the profile, our unsub has some understanding of the process legally. It was reported. Check open and closed cases for women whose primary residence is Gillette. Also, cross check the husbands with access to tranquilizing drugs that metabolize quickly."
"Aye-aye cap'n." The click of a receiver handing up let everyone know she had hung up.
"Alright, we have to deliver the profile. Based on his pattern of escalation, we need to catch him before he gets another victim."
Emily saw a handsome young doctor walk into the room, "Hi, you must be Ms. Prentiss. I'm the on-call peds doctor tonight, Dr. Mitchell West. I'm going to use my trusty device here," He pulled a portable ultrasound out of his coat pocket. "And we will see how severe the infection is. I'd like to avoid surgery at all costs." Ellie wiggled around uncomfortably as he checked her stomach. "Alright, I'm going to order some IV antibiotics and have a nurse check the swelling in an hour. If it looks less swollen by then we'll do a blood test to check her white blood cell counts and then probably send her home with oral antibiotics. If it doesn't look less angry in an hour, we'll have to come up with a new course of action. Based on it's appearance now, I'm hopeful."
Emily stood and shook his hand, "Thank you."
Hotch quickly answered his phone, "What do you have Garcia?"
"Okay, I just got a name from your search, turns out rural Wyoming doesn't have a lot of married women who were raped and whose spouse is a veterinarian."
"Hey, baby girl, can you see if all our victims have pets?" Morgan asked.
"Already done, each person has visited North East Wyo Vet Services shortly before being abducted. Though they didn't see the same doctor."
"It doesn't matter, he could see them in the waiting room and feel the need to act." Hotch answered gruffly, "Garcia. A name?"
"Adam Bierman. Picture, work and home addresses are already in your tablet."
The team split up and JJ looked to Hotch who was driving, "The latest victim said she smelled a soap her dad uses. But he works in the oilfield. Why would a vet use it?"
"Actually," Reid leaned forward from the back seat, "A lot of different soaps can smell similar. The victims described it as a citrus scent. It's also possible that the unsub just uses a similar smelling product."
Morgan and Rossi were checking at the Vet clinic, even though it was after hours.
The others pulled up to the Bierman house. Uniformed officers pulled beside them. After handing out tactical assignments, Hotch led his team to the front door, while JJ took hers to the back.
They apprehended Adam Bierman quickly and fairly easily. JJ felt a shiver run through her body at the smug smile he had as Hotch led him out. In that moment, JJ knew, without a doubt, that they caught the bastard.
"Okay guys, we've been awake for more than 24 hours. Let's hit the hotel. We'll fly back out tomorrow at 10:00. Meet in the lobby." As the exhaustion caught up to the team, they all headed back to the hotel.
JJ dropped her go-bag on the bed and lazily opened it. She needed sleep. She could shower tomorrow. As she rifled around for her pajamas, she brushed up against what felt like a piece of paper. Curiosity got the best of her and she fished it out. She unfolded it carefully. A smile hit her as she saw what it was. It was a finger painting from last weekend. It had the house, or a 6-year-old's rendition of it. It was full of color. In front of the house was the whole family, including all the animals in stick figures. JJ was about to put it away when she saw the writings in crayon on the back.
"I have a new sister. She makes Mommy and Mama Emmy happy. Sometimes she cries, but that's okay. Mommy told me it's okay to cry. I love my family." JJ did her best to figure out the note. It was difficult due to his spelling and handwriting, but she was used to that by now. On the bottom of the note it read, "Henry, age 6."
JJ felt the tears hit her. She pulled the picture close to her. She was sad she had to be away from her family. But she was also filled with pride for her son. At only six, he knew Ellie would be in his life as a sister. This was his way of letting that out, without having to talk about it. He saw Emily as a mother figure. JJ new that he did, but she suspected from his behavior that he wasn't ready to admit it yet. She didn't think she was even supposed to end up with it.
She knew it was 2:00 a.m. back in D.C. but she couldn't not call Emily at a time like this.
"Hello?" Emily answered, sleep clear in her raspy voice.
"Em, hey it's me." Emily heard her wife sniffle.
"Jayje? Is everything alright?"
"Everything is so good, and I love you so much. I just had to tell you that."
Emily sat up in bed, smiling to herself. "What has got this coming up now?"
"I just found a painting in my bag, I think it got there on accident, but it just reminded me of how much I have." JJ sniffled again. "How's our girl?"
"She's good. I couldn't reach you earlier, figured it was the entire state of Wyoming. Anyway, no surgery. The IV antibiotics worked great. She got a prescription for 5 days to make sure it's all cleared out. But we got home for dinner, and she seemed to feel better. She ate all her dinner and some of Henry's too." Emily chuckled lightly. "How's everything out in the wild, wild west?" Emily joked.
"I'm so glad she's okay. I kind of had a tantrum at Hotch today, but he was cool about it. We caught the guy; we'll be home tomorrow."
"What do you mean you had a tantrum?" JJ could practically hear how the brunette's eyebrow quirked up.
JJ laughed, "I'll tell you tomorrow. But I'm going to get to bed. I love you."
"I love you too. Sleep well Jennifer." Emily disconnected the phone and fell right back asleep.
JJ changed and crawled into bed. Her weekend was one shit show after another, and after it was all said and done, the good she had done outweighed the bad. That was her last thought as sleep took her quickly.