Emily sat at one of the many tables in the cafeteria. It had been beautifully decorated for Jess's wake. There was a table lined with food from the restaurant down in the little town and soft music playing in the background. There weren't many people at the wake for the innocent woman that died too soon. There were old and current teachers/counsellors from Horizon, Store owners from the town that remembered the lovely girl that went to visit them when she was allowed out of the school and students from the past came back to say goodbye to their group member. Including the BAU and Old Cliffhangers there were about 40 people at the wake for Jessica Merrick
Emily had been clock watching since Walt walked out of the door. The longer time ticked on the more anxious she became.
"What's wrong Em?" Spencer asked taking a bite of a triangular sandwich noticing the brunette was very anxious.
"She's been gone almost 20 minutes. I don't like this. I'm gonna go and find her." Emily stood from her seat.
"I'll come with you; I could do with the fresh air." Garcia also stood looping her arm in Emily's.
"I'm sure she's fine." Reid said taking another bite.
"I expect she's just fallen asleep. It has been a long day." Rossi said from his spot next to Ezra. They had been sat talking about one of Rossi's books. It turned out Ezra was a big fan.
"Most likely" something still didn't feel right in the pit of Emily's stomach "but were going to check on her anyway." Emily and Garcia turned towards the door just as it opened.
"What are you still doing here; I thought we told you to leave!" Garcia spat and everyone in the room looked to see who the bubbly technical analyst was talking to and saw Alice standing in the doorway.
"I came to find my husband." Alice said frustrated and very pissed off.
There was an Orchestra of "What's!" and "Excuse me?" came from the BAU team. They all stood; their guts screaming at them that something was wrong. The Old Cliffhangers and Peter and Sophie hadn't put two and two together yet.
"Walt hasn't come back from the toilet! Do you really think I want to spend any more time with that thing I called a daughter for longer than I must?" she spat with venom.
"He left here about 15 minutes ago." Peter said as he and Sophie quickly also stood finally putting it together. The whole BAU team and the councillors ran past Alice and out the door. The Cliffhangers looked at them confused and quickly followed, not realising what was going on.
They all sprinted to the old Cliffhanger Cabin, practically knocking the doors off its hinges as they ran in. JJ was nowhere in sight.
Her jacket still lay on the bed and her ankle holster was on the floor minus the gun.
"No" Garcia whispered and put her hand over her mouth.
"He's got her!" Emily ran out of the cabin and into the middle of the lawn. She ran her hands through her long dark hair panicking as her eyes searched everywhere she could see.
The BAU and councillors all gathered on the lawn where Emily had stopped.
"Where would they be?" Hotch span and asked Peter and Sophie as they all frantically looked around too.
"What's going on?" Scott ran up to them closely followed by the rest of the Cliffhangers.
"We think Walt has taken Shelby!" Sophie was panicking.
"WHAT!" Daisy yelled. She may still be pissed off with JJ, but Daisy still cared for the blonde woman she didn't deserve to be in the hands of him again.
"Peter! Where would they be?" Hotch's stern voice yelled. He was eager for an answer, not caring what anyone else had to say unless it had something to do with where his agent and friend might be.
"I don't know" Peter ran a hand threw his hair.
"Come on man! THINK!" Morgan said with panicked expressions.
Amy walked up the group of distraught and frightened looking people.
"What's going on?" she asked with caution.
"Amy! Have you seen Agent Jareau?" Peter asked taking a step towards the teenager.
"The blonde one?"
"Yes! Have you seen her?" Emily asked turning to the teenager that might have an answer.
"Yeah. I saw her walking towards the tree line with an old looking man he looked like her dad or something." She shrugged her shoulders and walked off.
"No" Garcia let the worried and scared tears fall.
"Look what's that!" Kat could see something laying on the grass just outside of the forest.
The large group of people ran (or in Juliet's case waddled) over to the unknown item.
Scott was the first to reach the offending item. He picked it up.
"Its Shelby's FBI badge" Peter took it from Scott's hand, held it up and showed the group.
"SHIT!" Morgan cursed. He bent over, lifted his trouser leg and pulled out his gun. Hotch, Emily, Rossi and Reid followed his lead.
"Let's go. We don't know how long he's had her or what his plan is." Hotch turned to run off with the team. They took a few running steps when Peter called out.
"Were coming with you."
"No that's out of the question." Hotch refused, the rest of the BAU except for Garcia were waiting a few meters in so they could continue looking for JJ.
"Come on!" Morgan shouted towards Hotch.
"We know these woods better than anyone. We are all coming with you!" Scott almost yelled
"We don't have time for this." Hotch said under his breath "Fine but not you" He pointed to Juliette and her pregnant belly "Garcia stay with Juliette and see if you can track JJ's phone, she had it in her trouser pocket."
"On it. Please find her my super agents please." Garcia wiped the tears away. She believed in her family. They had to find her best friend.
"Don't worry baby girl, we will" Morgan took a few steps back kissed Garcia on the forehead to give his baby girl some reassurance and followed the others back into the woods with their guns drawn.
"We all stick together! Under no circumstances do we split up." Hotch announced, as the 11 people ran into the trees "This man is dangerous."
Hotch, Morgan, Emily, Rossi, Reid, Peter, Sophie, Daisy, Ezra, Kat and Auggie ran deeper and deeper into the trees calling for JJ.
"JJ, can you hear us!" Morgan yelled his eyes frantically searching for his friend.
"SHELBY!" Scott yelled for his ex-girlfriend and first love.
"Everyone stop, listen to the sounds around you, what seems out of place!" Peter stopped everyone.
" Questo e Stupido" Rossi muttered angrily in Italian "We're wasting time"
"Please trust me. Just listen for a minute." Peter reassured them. Peter was the one to best lead the search, so everyone did stop and listened much to the BAU teams annoyance.
For the first few seconds all they could hear was birds cheeping in the trees and the wind blowing through the leaves, the trees creaking then they heard a noise they didn't belong. It was a yelp.
"This way!" Peter pointed east and everyone ran in the direction.
They ran for another minute or so when a loud shot rang out just a few 100 meters ahead of them.
"JJ!" Emily yelled. If it were possible, they all ran a little faster towards the sound
They came to the small clearing in the tree to see JJ laying face up on the cold muddy floor. Her shirt was torn, her trousers were undone and pulled halfway down her hips so her underwear was on show, her body and face were covered in bruises and her whole top left side was covered in blood.
She was alone, all alone. He was gone, ran off into the woods like a scared dog. Everything felt numb yet hurt at the same time. She knew her body hurt, and damage had been done yet it was like a heavy cloud lay over her chest, she couldn't move, she could hear her heart beating in her ears.
She lay there looking up at the overcast sky that poked through the trees. And some birds flying overhead.
I'd like to be a bird, JJ thought to herself flying away at a moment's notice, no baggage keeping me down, free to go and leave wherever and whenever I want. It must be nice to just fly away from the pain and the hurt.
A twig snapping to her left caught JJ's attention. She re-gripped the gun that lay loosely in her hands just moments before and swung it up towards the sound. Aiming at the figure standing there.
"JJ stop!" Emily walked out of the trees into the clearing "It's us!" she didn't want to startle the broken blonde, but she didn't want to be shot either.
Her hand was shaking at the weight of the FBI issued weapon, it had never felt so heavy before. The adrenaline coursing through her veins started to fade away. Everything was getting harder and heaver. She could see the figure standing to her left, but her vision was still blurred, and JJ couldn't quite make out who the person was. Then suddenly, another figure walked out of the bushes.
"It's ok JJ." Morgan joined Emily with his hand up in front of him not making any sudden movements as they both now had a gun pointed at them "Its Emily and Morgan baby girl. Were all here."
Oh,JJ spoke to herself in her head Emily and Morgan, my friends. Maybe they'll help me. JJ was very disorientated and shock.
She dropped the gun back to the floor and stared up at the cloud covered sky again.
Emily and Morgan looked at each other worried. they holstered their guns and took some slow cautious steps to were JJ lay on the floor. She still had the gun, they needed to be careful until it was made safe.
Morgan picked her gun up and tucked it in his trousers as he and Emily knelt on the dirt next to her. Emily knelt at JJ's right side and Morgan to JJ's left.
"Baby girl, you're ok." Morgan reassured JJ and looked over his vulnerable friend. On closer inspection the blood covering most of her shoulder wasn't hers, there was no gun shot or knife wounds that would cause that much bleeding. And JJ had blood splatter on her arm and face indicating that it also wasn't her blood. JJ had bite marks and love bites on her neck and shoulders, she also had a few on top of both her breasts. She had two deep cuts on her face and bruising to 25% of the skin he could see. JJ's cloths were ripped and torn in places and her trousers were undone.
"Were we too late" Emily whispered to Morgan with tears starting too well in her eyes.
"I hope to god we weren't Em." Morgan fearfully replied. Emily looked up to the sky to gain control of the tears threatening too full. She could break down later, right now JJ needed her.
Emily saw the rest of the group make their way into the clearing and start to slowly walk over. She made eye contact and shook her head towards Hotch.
"All of you stay here." Hotch looked at the Cliffhangers and Peter and Sophie. They all looked scared and didn't move any further.
Rossi, Reid and Hotch joined Emily and Morgan by JJ's side.
"Is she ok?" Reid asked looking over JJ's body.
"I don't know she's not responding to us." Morgan took his jacket off and placed it over JJ's chest as she shivered. With the adrenaline wearing off she was starting to feel the cold.
Hotch knelt down next to her head. He picked out a few sticks and leafs from her blonde locks then stroked her hair trying to get some sort of response other that her looking up at the sky.
"JJ look at me" Hotch said in his best stern voice "Jennifer…" It took a few seconds, but JJ did respond.
"I…i…I'm s..sorry" Her voice was shaky, her lips were blue and she looked like she was going into shock.
"Shhhh, you have nothing to be sorry for." Emily took JJ's hand and started rubbing comforting circles on the back of it.
"What happened JJ?" Rossi asked he stood by her feet with Reid not wanting to crowd their friend.
"He tr..t…tried to r…rape m…me." Her whole body was shaking and around the bruising and blood her skin was a grey colour, a small trickle of blood came from her nose again.
"We need to get her back to the school." Emily whispered to the men in the small group.
"I know." Hotch ran a hand threw his hair.
"Where did he go Bella?" Rossi asked. He wanted to find this man and rip of his face with his bare hands.
"I s…shot him in t…the shoulder. He r…ra…ran off. Th…tha…that way." JJ weakly pointed behind Rossi.
"Good girl." Rossi made eye contact with Hotch and nodded having a silent Conversation "Reid come with me." Both Rossi and Reid ran up to the others.
"Is she ok?" Sophie asked.
"He's done some nasty damage, but I think she'll be fine. Walt ran off we need your help to find him." Rossi asked Peter.
"Sure. Ezra, Auggie, Kat and I will come with you. Sophie, Scott and Daisy, help them get Shelby back to the school." When he received nods from everyone the 5 men ran off in the direction Walt went.
Morgan, Emily, and Hotch watched the smaller team run off hoping they can find the monster that hurt their friend.
"JJ can you get up?" Hotch asked. She nodded in response. JJ was starting to acknowledge them which was a good sign Hotch thought to himself.
Emily gently grabbed hold of one arm and Morgan grabbed the other to help JJ stand. As she stood she gasped in pain and Morgan's jacket fell off. JJ already felt vulnerable and exposed now she felt it even more. She let go of Emily's hand still holding Morgan's and tried to pull her shirt together to cover herself.
"Here" Emily pulled off her blazer "Take mine." She helped JJ put it on and do up the buttons.
"Thankyou" JJ ashamed did not look up from the ground.
"Em…" JJ whispered.
Emily took a step closer "Yeah"
"erm…"tears were building in JJ's "can you please pull up my trousers and button them" JJ felt so ashamed and pathetic not being able to do such a simple task and having to ask for help.
It felt like Hotch, Morgan and Emily were smacked round the face with JJ's question. She sounded so small, fragile, like a scared child would sound.
"of course I can sweetheart." Emily stepped closer to JJ and gently kissed her on the top of her head. She did this to cover what she was doing from the cliffhangers Emily fixed JJs trousers at the same time.
She let go of Morgan's hand to start the walk back to Horizon. She took a few steps towards the last remaining Cliffhangers and collapsed. If it wasn't for Morgan standing behind her, she would have fallen to the ground.
"Jayje, we really need to get you back and have your injuries checked out, can you please let Morgan carry you?" Emily held her hand as JJ lent against Morgan for support.
"No I can walk." JJ pushed off Morgan and this time she only took one step before collapsing and shouting in agony.
"Please JJ stop being stubborn." Hotch moved in front of her and gave her a stern look and she nodded "Thankyou" Hotch stepped back and let Morgan lift the broken woman into his arms.
JJ wrapped her arms round his neck and silently cried into his shirt.
Sophie, Scott and Daisy walked just ahead with the others following. Every now and again Hotch and Emily could hear JJ let out a quite sob and Morgan could feel her tears making his shirt damp.