AN: Thanks to all of you for your support. Here is the next chapter. Hope you enjoy it. I do want to answer a couple of questions that have been made in the comments:
rmpcmfan(ch 17)- I do agree about Strauss attitude with the team. I'm planning to make this mostly canon-ish or canon compliant for a while before going fully AU but I will say the time will come that her treatment of the team will come back to bite her.
functionderivatives(ch 18)- no Spencer did not hear the topics of their conversation, only that they were having a heated one and the Ambassador left annoyed.
Disclaimer: I own nothing.
Hotch shook his head after hanging up with Gideon.
Button mums.
Gideon had gotten his date, a date he was clearly late for, button mums. He had known Jason for a long time but nothing spoke more to no matter how gifted he was as a profiler he was clueless about women than buying button mums for a date. As he had said to Gideon on the phone, they were flowers you gave your mother.
Or, Hotch considered, maybe knowing that flowers had specific meanings was a rarity today. He had been taught about flowers as a child by his mother. For as long as he could remember, she had done volunteer work with the local Botanical Gardens. One of his oldest memories had been of her working on flower arrangements as well as in the gardens themselves.
As he thought back about Gideon's excitement over this evening, he hoped his date wouldn't be offended by the choice.
In the last few weeks Gideon had been more at ease than he had since the Fisher King case a year earlier. While he could still be overly gruff, he was also engaging more with the team as well as his students at the Academy. Their impromptu viewing of the Charlie Chaplin film after the last case had improved morale amongst the team and from what he had heard was a big hit with the cadets.
As he looked forward, Hotch was encouraged as he was planning his move away from the BAU. If Gideon was doing as well as he appeared, then the transition would be smoother for the team when he left. In fact, depending on Gideon's comfort level, he may even be ready to resume his position as Unit Chief. Because if he was being honest Hotch didn't know who would take over for him otherwise.
He was almost certain that, if she could justify it, Strauss would bring someone new in to run the unit. Someone loyalties were to her before the team as well as someone who she didn't consider competition. And if Gideon wasn't willing or was deemed unfit to resume the position, Hotch was certain that is what would happen. In his opinion, no one else from the team was ready to be Unit Chief.
JJ and Garcia weren't profilers and therefore not eligible to lead the unit.
Reid didn't have the age, experience, or temperament for the job. That wasn't even considering the significant trauma he was still working to recover from after Georgia.
Morgan's trust issues were the largest factor in Hotch ruling him out as being ready for the position. Being Unit Chief required a good deal of delegation and to be an effective delegator, you need to have a willingness to trust those working with you.
Morgan also was still working through with a Bureau psychologist what came to light during the case they worked in Chicago a few months earlier. Maybe in a year or two but he wasn't ready now.
And then there was Prentiss. On paper, she was the best choice of the group but he didn't feel she was there yet. Over the last few weeks, she had made tremendous progress with the team after what was a rocky start. She had worked hard to earn respect from each member of the team, though there were times he could see her overcompensating.
But he still noticed that her insecurities were holding her back from allowing herself to fully integrate with the team. Insecurities that he unfortunately played a significant part in creating the environment for since she had joined the team. And she couldn't effective in a leadership role for the team if she didn't see herself as part of it.
Looking down at the memo that had crossed his desk that afternoon, Hotch recalled his call with Gideon had started because of the upcoming team reviews. While it had been an eventful year for the team, the FBI had already investigated the circumstances of the Fisher King case including the attack on Elle, Morgan's arrest and his expunged record, Reid's kidnapping in Georgia as well as closely monitoring Gideon reaction to being back in the field.
He was more confident with those areas since they had already been investigated. However there were topics that could lead to more questions or issues for the team.
A closer review of what happened to Reid in Georgia could be problematic. It was a situation that if someone looked close enough and asked the right questions, the truth could come out.
When they had returned, the review that had been done mainly focused on the team's actions up until Reid's kidnapping.
While the locals had highlighted in their part of the report that though Henkel had a history of drug use, the vials of Dilaudid were unaccounted for after they processed the scenes. The review board hadn't even suspected that Reid had been injected with it by Henkel and it wasn't on the videos. While the rest of the team had their suspicions, Hotch knew that only he, Gideon and Emily knew for sure about the Dilaudid even after Reid's statement in San Francisco a few weeks ago.
In fact, the FBI had done an additional drug screen on Emily during the investigation. It was SOP since she had been the member of the team who stayed on site with the locals to process the scenes where there had been a missing controlled substance. And now he was relieved to have received a copy of the report that the whole team had just passed each of their routine random drug screen done just after they returned from Idaho.
Reid had been cleared by both medical and psych for weeks now. It was unlikely that someone would know what question to ask however if they did, it could blow up in all their faces.
Then there was why Elle left the team While at the time the FBI had accepted the locals' determination that the man Elle killed was self defense and a good shot, they could revisit that determination. Given the proximity of that case and the psych referral Hotch made for Elle, it wouldn't take a giant leap to put the pieces together and make an issue of it.
Ultimately he didn't see the conclusion changing as the only one alive that knew what happened in the parking lot that night was Elle and she hadn't been willing to talk about it with anyone.
But he also knew these investigations could take on a momentum of their own and potentially could adversely affect the BAU as the FBI was looking at budget cuts. He just wished he had Gideon's optimistic outlook on the process.
Shaking his head, he packed up some files that he was taking home before organizing what was left on his desk. Walking out of his office, he went into the bullpen and handed a stack of completed files to one of the SAs to be taken to Strauss' office.
As he reentered his office and walked over to his desk, he winced when he saw the time. Coming home this late was only going to further infuriate Haley.
As he was walking towards the door, the phone on his desk started to ring. He groaned and looked up at the ceiling, briefly wondering if he could get out without answering it. Shaking his head, he thought better of it as whoever the caller was would only then call his cell while he was attempting to drive home.
Walking back over to his desk, he put his briefcase on one of the visitor chairs as he picked up the phone. His eyes widened as soon as the detective on the other end began to explain why he was calling.
He had just spoken to Gideon. What had happened in that short time? He didn't know anything except there was no way that Gideon was responsible for the death of his friend.
After agreeing to meet the detective at Gideon's apartment, he hung up. Walking out of his office, he saw JJ in the break room. After explaining the situation to her, she sent a message to the rest of the team to meet at Gideon's apartment while Hotch spoke the FBI's legal department on the phone about the situation as they headed out of the bullpen.
####
Hotch looked anxiously around Gideon's apartment as the team trickled into the main room. From the time he received the call he knew with the very fiber of his being that Gideon had nothing to do with his friend's death despite what the initial witness statements were leading the locals with their investigation.
For now, he knew his suggestion for Gideon to lie low was the right one. Though the decision could come back to bite him in the ass personally as well as the rest of the team. It was less than an hour ago that he was worrying about how all of them would weather the upcoming review.
But this was too important. The FBI had ordered them to stay off the case and initially he was just going to have them profile the room to gain any kind of insight into who had been targeting Gideon. Ever since the CIA case the previous year and learning that for some still unspecified time Gideon had worked with CIA CTU as well as his job as a profiler, Hotch had wondered if that was the only secret Gideon had been keeping from the team.
But the observations they were making quickly became unsettling as they all realized who they were looking for wasn't some unnamed person. The method of death as well as the rib bone that was in Sarah's hand told them all they needed to know about who had killed her - Frank. And with that determination, they all knew that they had bigger issues that investigating the savage murder of the woman in front of them or the FBI review.
Gently put as horrible as the scene was, there wasn't anything they could do for Sarah now. They along with Gideon could mourn her in the coming days. But right now, they needed to quickly find out why Frank was in DC and what caused him to suddenly go after Gideon. And if they didn't get on top of this soon, then they all were going to be following an even longer path rib bones from the bodies of murdered women.
Their suspicions were confirmed when they spoke to Gideon. He recounted his confusion at who he thought was Jane as he walked away from the flower kiosk. That the eyewitnesses that had spoken to the police who had seen him covered in blood was as he was chasing Frank, trying to catch him.
Having that additional information, Hotch knew that they needed to be able to have Gideon available to them as they worked to determine why Frank was in DC and what did he want. They couldn't do that if he was locked up in an interrogation room at DC Metro being questioned about Sarah's death. There wasn't time to fully catch the locals up.
They also needed to find out how Jane fit into this. And to do that they had to find her. Hoping that it had been her that Gideon had seen and she wasn't now another of his victims.
####
Emily was stunned as she walked out of Strauss' office and towards the bullpen. She had been surprised when Anderson had approached her in the empty bullpen that Strauss wanted to see her. In the months since Strauss hired her, Emily had not sat down and spoken to her again. She had only seen her around the office with occasional greetings exchanged.
But today, Emily had been back in Strauss' office and this time the tone of the meeting was strikingly different. Everything that Strauss had told her months earlier about why she had chosen her for the open position was a lie. She hadn't earned her position in the BAU as she had been led to believe that first day. Looking back, it made the confusion with her arrival and paperwork on the first day made more sense.
Strauss had put her into the BAU with the goal of using Emily for her own purposes. Even with how Emily felt about Hotch back then if she had known what Strauss' goal was, she would have declined the position and walked out. And what Strauss was now telling her is she wanted Emily to help get Hotch out of not only the BAU but out of the FBI. It was a goal that Emily knew before she even left Strauss' office that there was no way she would help her achieve it.
Is this what her life was going to be? Going from from assignment to assignment with the only way to advance her own career was to hurt someone else. If it was then she needed to seriously reevaluate her career goals because that wasn't who she was.
Emily was almost back to the bullpen when JJ flew through the glass door and walked quickly over when she saw her.
Stopping in front of her, JJ said, "Emily, Hotch wanted you to go to Metro lockup. They are holding a woman there that sounds a lot like Jane. If it is he wants you to bring her back here."
Emily nodded and responded distractly, "yeah, OK."
Before Emily had taken more than a couple of steps, JJ asked concerned, "are you OK?"
Emily turned and smiled at the media liaison before responding, "Yes, I'll be fine. Forward me the information you have and I'll go check it out."
She didn't want to share with JJ about her meeting right now but even with the decision she knew she needed to make after the ultimatum that Strauss gave her, she knew she would be fine… eventually.
JJ looked at her skeptically for a few seconds before looking back down at her phone before she said, "OK, sent. I need to get back. He's targeting children." as she quickly walked away, heading towards her office.
Emily gulped as she heard the disgust in JJ's words. The reaction made her remember she still needed to make a plan of what to do to protect Declan.
####
Emily stopped after walking up to the door of the interview room. The relief at finally seeing Jane again in the police station had been immeasurable. She had frequently thought about Jane after that evening in Nevada when she arrived with the rest of the team and LEOs to have Gideon tell them that Jane had disappeared with Frank after telling him where to find the children from the lost bus.
Today, as soon as Jane had seen her and Reid at the police station, she had immediately asked to speak to Gideon and anxiously went with them. But right now Jane couldn't talk to Gideon as he was still secluded with Garcia trying to find something they use to get the upper hand on Frank before he could kill anyone else.
They needed to find out as quickly as possible if she knew where Frank was. Or any other information that would help them find him. Not finding him wasn't an option.
Frank was already targeting the team. Specifically Gideon. But an attack on any member of the team put them all on notice. A few minutes difference and they could have been standing over the dead body of their colleague as well as his friend. That was a frightening prospect for all of them.
With Gideon unavailable, Hotch had asked her to take the lead with Jane. The stakes were high as Jane was the key to more information including what had happened over the last few months and why she was no longer with Frank. Emily was hoping the older woman would talk to her. They had started to build a rapport in Nevada but would that translated to today with how agitated Jane was.
JJ had gone to wait for Metro to drop off the bag Jane had with her when she was arrested. Jane had been fixated on this bag since they arrived at the BAU. They didn't anticipate her being forthcoming with any information they could use until she had it back. When Emily entered the interview room, she sat quietly across the table from where Jane was pacing and ranting about her bag. As she listened to what Jane was saying, she worked on staying calm and quiet in an effort that Jane would follow suit.
It wasn't until JJ returned with her bag that Jane's rambling turning into information that help them piece together what was happening. When talking to her, Emily kept her questions open ended more trying to guide Jane's ramblings. In her experience with Jane, back to back direct questions didn't produce the quick results they needed.
Though while Emily was still lead on the interview, Hotch had come in shortly after JJ and they both were standing on the side of the room. For the most part Hotch and JJ were quietly observing though both had asked clarifying questions of Jane. Some she answered while others she ignored and continued on with her story.
"Is it wrong to love Frank?" Jane asked Emily imploringly as she looks to the other woman across the table for something that will help her make sense of what she was feeling.
"You don't control who you fall in love with." Emily responded calmly while looking straight ahead at Jane as she ignored the other two people in the room.
The response had been out of her mouth before she put together that one of the people she was speaking about was in the same room. She knew if she looked over towards them her feelings for Hotch would be obvious and that wouldn't be good for either of them. She was also afraid that Hotch would be able to see through her if he saw her face. But, the answer was the reassurance that Jane needed.
As Jane continued pacing, Emily considered the question and her response further.
Falling in love had been the last thing on her mind the day she had gone to the bookstore and subsequently met Aaron. But it hadn't mattered. It had just happened.
And while over the next few months she thought they had navigated every obstacle they had to them being together, it wasn't until recently that she realized that there were more obstacles than either of them had known at the time.
The months she had been with him were some of the happiest of her life. The feelings she had only got stronger as time when on.
Her love for him was why him being gone when she returned from France was so devastating. Why she hadn't been able to move on with someone else since then as she hadn't found anyone close. None of the guys she dated made her feel even close to the same way.
As she told Morgan weeks before, her dating history was filled with a lot of short interactions. She couldn't even bring herself to call any of them relationships.
And just a couple of hours ago, she was given an ultimatum - give dirt to Strauss on the man she fell in love all those years ago or lose her position as a profiler.
But as important as this position was to her, she had already made her decision. It had been made before she even walked out of Strauss' office. No matter what she would not sell Aaron or anyone else on the team out even if it adversely affected her career.
Then there was Declan though her love for him was very different than the romantic love she felt for Aaron.
She still remembered the day she met him when he was introduced as the housekeeper's son. Wild blond curls. Bright blue eyes. Gentle soul. Inquisitive mind. Running around the garden chasing after a butterfly. Having had extensive experience with children, she easily interacted with him. She noticed a look pass over Doyle's face that day however didn't realize until later what it would mean for her.
Over time, Declan had become the only light in what was otherwise a stressful undercover experience. Emily had used the time she was spending with Declan to ground herself while in her undercover role.
This was particularly helpful for her once the mission went off script and she was trapped at Doyle's villa. What hadn't occurred to her and came as a shock was that Declan was actually Doyle's son. The son that he had been closely watching her interact with. The son that Doyle wanted her to help raise into his family business and he became violent when she expressed reluctance in following that path.
During her debriefing after being exfiltrated, she went with the narrative that she had been told until recently - that Declan was Louise's son. While she hated almost everything about Doyle, she did have to admit that the rationale for keeping that piece of information secret was sound.
With Louise not being seen as a threat, she was one of the few present that day who was quickly released after questioning. It wasn't until later that Emily with Sean's help arranged for Louise and Declan to be protected.
And after that, Emily thought that she had done all she needed to do to make sure Declan was safe. However the inquiry by Jeremy on Clyde's behalf now has her questioning what steps she will need to do next to keep him safe. And what will the personal cost to her end up being?
Sighing, Emily knew she needed to put her dilemma about Declan aside because right now she had an urgent situation in front of her. They needed a lead.
####
Hotch followed JJ into the interview room where Emily was with Jane. He stood on the side of the room away from the table where Emily was sitting and Jane was pacing in front of. After Jane snatched her bag away from JJ, JJ came and stood next to him. They listened as Jane spoke about Frank while she repeatedly rummaged through her bag with it unclear what she was actually looking for in it.
As Jane talked, Hotch intermittently asked clarifying questions. It was a strategy he and Emily had worked out before she went into the room.
Since Emily was the agent Jane had shown she was most comfortable with, she would be at the table with Jane and try to keep the focus on Frank while asking broad questions. He would interject as needed. As expected, Jane gave very short answers to the questions he posed before refocusing on Emily.
It quickly became clear that JJ was growing frustrated at the indirect questions and Jane's limited responses to the questions. But every piece of information that Jane shared with them could end up being helpful in finding not only Frank but where he was hiding Tracey Belle.
And Hotch suspected that Tracey Belle was a significant factor for JJ. While cases with kids were difficult for all of them, it had been JJ and Gideon who had rescued Tracey the first time and that connection was making this all the more personal for JJ.
It didn't surprise him when Jane stiffened when he asked about if Frank had killed anyone while they were together. When she ignored the question, Emily posed the question again. This was a question that they really needed an answer for.
Hotch couldn't consider the question Jane then posed to Emily about was it wrong to love Frank before Emily answered quickly though hesitantly that you don't control who you fall in love with?
Was she talking from experience? She had told him when they were together that she loved him. Did she regret it then and/or was she regretting it now? Was there another person in her life that she had loved since?
Or had she just been giving Jane a supportive answer as she knew that there was a long and complicated history between Frank and Jane. That Jane needed to know that people were going to listen to her non judgemental way before she would really open up after being written off as crazy in her hometown for years. While they knew as a psychopath Frank wasn't capable of love, that didn't mean that Jane wasn't.
Whatever Emily had intended with the statement he would need to put aside. Later he could revisit it but right now he needed to focus on the case. He stated to Jane what all of them had expected had happened after she left with him. What Gideon had told her was going to happen.
But after considering what both of them said, Jane quietly admitted that Frank had tried to kill her and that is what made her leave him. Jane shut down a short time later when she learned that he had started to kill women again and said he would continue until she came back to him.
A call from Garcia shortly after to let them know that Gideon had a call from Frank and then left. She then read the note he had given her for Hotch. With that information, he sent JJ and Reid to the apartment in NYC hoping that they would find Tracey Belle there and thus removing the hold Frank had on them with threatening to harm a child. With that done all the rest of them could do was wait for the next morning when Frank said he would meet them at the train station.
####
It was late and Emily had just arrived back at her apartment. After they finished their part of the crime scene at the train station, most of the team had gone back to the BAU while Gideon had disappeared after talking to Tracey Belle on the phone while still at the train station. JJ and Reid had joined them in the bullpen after reuniting Tracey with her parents at the airport as they arrived back from NYC.
Emily tried to push everything that was going on around her aside so she had worked on her report for the case. She wanted to hand it in and be done with this case as quickly as possible.
She had wondered for months what had happened to Jane after she disappeared with Frank. But now knowing what happened…then and today...
Though they knew they needed to expect the unexpected with Jane, Emily had been caught off guard today when Jane not only approached Frank but had seemingly fallen under his spell again. Then before any of them could stop it, they jumped in front of a train, killing both of them.
Later as she sat on the couch with a glass of wine, Emily wondered if Jane had been doomed since that fateful night when she was 19 and Frank had abducted her. Yes she had survived. The only woman they knew of who survived Frank but had she ever really escaped him?
In Nevada, Frank had told Gideon and Morgan that he had felt a connection to Jane so he let her go. After he released her instead of killing her, Frank had kept tabs on Jane, viewing her as a possession. Visiting. Making and delivering the rib windchimes. Attempting to involve himself as much in her life as he could but staying at a distance.
A possession that he had acted out about when he was denied access to her. Both times Jane had run away from him and was being protected by the police/FBI, Frank had put multiple children in danger, kidnapped and killed as well threatened to keep causing havoc until he got what he wanted - her. He felt entitled to have her regardless of what Jane wanted. Though Jane had agreed to go with him both times, the decision to even go talk to him had not been a cut and dry either times as the lives of others hung in the balance.
After her JTF12 mission, Emily had come to terms with that Ian Doyle had viewed her and Declan as possessions. Even from their early meetings he had stated that there was something different about her. She hadn't taken the comments to seriously at the time given he was a womanizer in addition to a weapons dealer.
Before the mission started, she had looked at the pictures of the long list of women who were linked to him that they knew about. She was certain from the research they did that it wasn't an exhaustive list. Like all the women on the list, she fit his type but then again so had Tsia which is why she had originally been the one who was supposed to go undercover on that case.
Maybe his comments should have given her pause but there was so much about the case that was off. Given his long list of conquests, it probably was different and set her apart to not fall at his feet and into his bed.
But that was her assignment. Given how quickly Doyle went from woman to woman, her mission had been flirt and try to attract him but not to sleep with him.
Previously when another agency was targeting Doyle, the mission was over and all of the work that team have invested in it was lost when Doyle suddenly broke things off with the undercover to move on to another woman. She hadn't been undercover long enough for that team to have sufficient evidence for an arrest.
By keeping just outside of Doyle's grasp, JTF-12 was anticipating it would keep him interested long enough for Emily undercover as Lauren to get the weapons they needed into his network. The goal was once the weapons were in the network they would be able to trace them. This would allow the network to be identified and eventually brought down as a whole as those involved were arrested.
But Doyle had other plans, he wanted her. She had been able to sidestep his advances until one day when she was delivering a weapons shipment, things changed drastically. Doyle and one of his top crew questioned her intentions in front of her.
Before she knew it, she had to make a decision - stick to the mission and most likely end up on the side of the road with a bullet in her head as one of the previous women who went undercover on Doyle had ended up. Or go deeper and give in and make him believe she wasn't working against him, trusting her team would pull her out shortly.
Even with how things turned out Emily still believed that the decision she made that day was the only reason she was still alive. Once she was at his compound, it quickly clear he was not letting her out of his sight or at the very least she was no longer free to come and go. He repeatedly told her she was his and reacted explosively and physically whenever she refused his wishes such as when she wouldn't accept his marriage proposal and balked at his demand of giving him another child who he was adamant would be another son.
Unable to freely leave, she was forced to wait on being extracted however that didn't happen when it should have based on when she missed check-ins. Then he moved them along with Declan to another compound that her team hadn't even discussed.
Doyle viewed Declan as a possession as well. When talking about him, he never called the child by name but it was always "my son" once he admitted to her that he was indeed his child and not the child of his housekeeper as she had initially been told.
The day that Interpol and the Italian police had raided the villa, he saw Emily escorted off separately. Even from a prison cell, he had been able to put a target on the four agents that had been assigned to her. All four were kidnapped and tortured before being killed for taking her away from him.
Emily's decision to go off the grid and hide out in her grandfather cabin instead of the planned safehouse after her debriefing had saved her life. No one had been able to explain how but the safehouse location had been compromised.
Concerned about these attacks, the decision was made while Emily was away to kill the Lauren Reynolds cover. Once they were sure word had gotten back to Doyle, they had him moved to prevent him from orchestrating any more plots before being sent to prison in Russia for further questioning.
Though as far as she could tell from her short conversation with Jeremy, Doyle was still being held and questioned. Most of his crew were either arrested or killed though there were a couple that got away. So by all appearance she had escaped the psychopath who saw her as a possession. Was that really the case or like Jane was she doomed as soon as Doyle first saw her?
Putting the wine down on the table and walking over to the window, Emily shook her head.
While she refused to consider doomed, she did acknowledge that she didn't escape the experience unscathed. She still carried the scars both from her time with Doyle but also from the breach of trust from being let down by her team.
Having lived through a breach of trust, she wasn't going that person to her team. If she couldn't figure out a way to work around Strauss' demands for information then she would just take herself out of the equation.