A/N: This chapter and the rest of the fic will contain triggering topics like rape abuse death suicide and other thing so please don't read if it might negatively effect you
……………………….
JJs leg bounced as she sat on the edge of her aunt's bed, everyone else was working hard to get enough proof to storm 'The Downstairs' and there was a lot going into it, they had to have enough backup without the help of the local police, they also had no more information other then what JJ had told them and by looks of it she wasn't ready to talk any more. They had got to 'The Hut' and JJs thoughts had finally caught up with her and it felt like the world was crashing down around her.
Luke had been fucking kidnapped and JJ couldn't do anything about it, she knew he was safe for now but she couldn't help thinking about the fact that wouldn't true for long. JJ had a little brother who she never got to meet and didn't even know about. She was constantly on edge just from being back in town, the only things keeping her sane were Luke and Aunt Mae and Becca, and now Luke was gone. JJ could faintly hear Garcia rattling off things to Rossi who was writing down everything she said.
Emily had just got off the phone organizing for SWAT to show up and noticed JJ looking very stressed over on the bed rubbing the necklace around her neck eyes straight ahead of her eyes glistening with unshed tears; Emily wasn't sure if JJ could tell. She got up and walked over to her and slowly pried one hand away from the necklace to get her attention.
"Hey why don't you head downstairs for a while, we got it up here." Emily suggested "You know hotch won't mind"
JJ knew Emily was just looking out for her but she couldn't help feeling like she was weak, it didn't take a profiler to see JJ was struggling and that's why JJ felt week, she had been taught all her life emotions aren't meant to be seen by others. JJ considered telling Emily see was fine and leaving it at that but that wouldn't be good for the case; she needed a clear head. So instead, she simply got up and walked down the steep stairs towards the bar.
This was the first time she had arrived in south rock that she was really able to get a good look around. Behind the counter were 3 older children working as bartender- was it legal, probably not- she glanced into the kitchen where there were some more kids either working or just sitting, sometimes you need to just sit. Across the bar JJ recognized several people and unlike the people in town she actually liked these people. There were kids wiping down tables and delivering food, all over, there were so many more then there were in JJs time.
Deciding she could do with a little distraction JJ scanned the bar/diner for something to do, she looked back over at the people she had known before and figured that would be her best bet. JJ walked past booths and tables over towards a part of the bar that was slightly raised. That's where the regulars normally stay. JJ approached a table where 2 guys and a girl were sitting, all looking to be about her age. And slipped into a chair without a second thought.
"Jareau!" one of the guys exclaimed as JJ sat down
"Hey Little Jimmy" she said smirking
"Jareau, what's up we haven't seen you in ages" the girl who was sitting next to JJ said lightly elbowing her.
"Um yeah, we kind of thought you were dead" the other guy said leaning back in his chair confused.
"Well, um it's a long story. But I'm not dead. Not sure why there's a headstone with my name on it though" JJ said as plainly as she could to her friends "Long story short, I'm with the FBI now and we are working that murder case, and are now working on shutting down 'The Downstairs' fir good. But that's a little complicated."
The group looked shocked, they themselves had never been in 'The Downstairs' but had heard all about if from a lot of different kids over time. They spent a lot of time in the bar weather or not you were in 'The Downstairs' Aunts Mae and Becca would always help you if you needed it and these three people needed it. All three of them were siblings and ran away from foster care when the oldest- known as Little Jimmy- turned 12 and his siblings were 10 and 8. They spent a lot of time living upstairs above where the loft was in what used to be an attic that Was now turned into a room with bunkbeds and cribs.
The oldest jimmy was JJs age with short brown hair and brown eyes. The middle child and girl was Christina and her hair was dirty blond pulled into a neat ponytail behind her. The youngest was Jonah, he was small and lean with his dyed blond hair, with bright green eyes. Something JJ was always jealous of.
"Hey JJ" little jimmy started
"Yeah"
"Wanna play darts?"
"You know I do"
………………………
The team noticed JJ walking down the stairs but chose not to mention it. As soon as JJ was out of sight the atmosphere changed drastically. As much as they hated to admit it everyone was walking on eggshells around JJ, like she would break at any moment. Sure, JJ had told them a lot of what happened in 'The Downstairs' but none of it was personal she never told them what specificity happed, just enough for them to get an idea of what was happening.
The team spent close to an hour working mainly in silence until Garcia popped up on one of the laptops. "Um guys, I'm finding the files on all the kids and I'm sending JJs over to your tablets. You're going to want to read it." She spoke voice shaking, and the team knew it was bad.
………………………
Jennifer Jareau
Admitted- October 13th 1990
Age at time of admittance- 10 years old
Date of birth- September 18th 1980
Tier at time of admittance- 1
Behavior- not compliant
Main Methods used- temperature therapy. Electric shock. Whippings. Sexual correction therapy.
Privileges: soccer practice and games
Times of temporary removal: September 19th 1991
Notes from staff:
February 19th 1990: Jennifer had been with as for only one week and is already causing problems. She had been caught stealing food as well as books from the library she isn't even allowed in.
March 12th 1990: things have not gotten better with Jennifer's behavior. She often refuses to eat or drink and is failing every class she is taking. She stopped talking completely after she got her tattoo, I don't know why she's fighting when she knows she can't win.
June 1st 1990: I'm starting to think there's no hope for Jennifer. We have resorted to having her in afternoon therapy every day instead of every other day. She seems close with another follower 'Luke Hart' who she was brought in with and while we normally would encourage talking between followers it feels like they are planning something and that worries me.
December 23rd 1990: JJ has resorted to breaking everything she can get to, books, chairs, whatever she can get her hands on. She has completely given up on school falling asleep in class half the time, yet somehow manages to keep her grades up. We have started her on sexual correction therapy and I've never seen a kid give in so hard. By the second session she had completely stopped fighting. She still has not given into the fact she will not be leaving here anytime soon. We are hopeful Christmas will change that.
September 24th 1991: Jennifer was taken home for one day by her parents for her birthday and things didn't go well. When Jennifer returned, we were informed by her parents that the oldest Jareau sibling Roslyn had passed away but didn't give us details. Unfortunately, that is no excuse and Jennifer is back on her normal Schule. We haven't heard her speak on over 5 months which we have been trying to correct that threw electric therapy, but have so far been unsuccessful. We have seen no improvements revolving around her homosexual habits.
October 13th 1991: Jennifer has been with us for a year now and are noticing no improvement, we had moved on to more intense methods, one of which more sexual correction therapy with 2 or more males present, including Bro. Jesse who does one on one with JJ once a week. She now has afternoon therapy twice a day with an activity in-between, she also is only allowed to eat lunch in the cafeteria her other meals must be eaten in her room away from other kids, and had been down graded to smaller meals so she is aware she is in fact not in charge. We are.
April 22nd 1991: Jennifer has become violent in all forms, the not talking thing is no longer an issue because she will yell at whoever she sees whenever she has a chance. She is physically aggressive towards all members on staff, she has given several black eyes and broken noses to staff members as well as leaving numerous bruises on the staff and herself, she is no longer allowed to be alone with staff because and is restrained during classes and activities. There is effort to stop this behavior using whips and other things.
September 19th 1992: yesterday was the day of JJs surgery, she has shown no improvement and has reached the age of puberty, she was taken to the hospital and completely sterilized having all her reproductive organs removed. When she woke, she began extremely angered and began fighting the nurses, before she was restrained and put in a room on the top floor away from everyone else as to not draw attention. she somehow managed to rip the IV out of her arm while restrained, only for it to be put back in minutes later. She screamed and sobbed for all of the 24 hours spent in the hospital. It's the first time she's cried
October 13th 1993: Jennifer has been with us for 3 years and her aggressive behavior has not gotten any better in fact it gotten worse she has begun rebelling in every form you can think of and has gotten many other followers to do the same, they staged an attack on the security guards one night before lights out and managed to knock 3 different guards out before getting caught. As Jennifer gets older, she has become more dead set on the fact she is a homosexual and says we can't change her mind. She's wrong we can. We have been doing it for years.
December 4th 1994: JJ has been with us for over 4 years and is still a tier 1, It is extremely rare for a follower to go a year without being promoted and she has gone 4. She is still showing no improvement and as beginning to show signs of believing she is somehow not a girl, we are working hard to correct all of this threw therapy, she now has what is know as afternoon therapy all day, she no longer takes classes in the morning and is instead expected to study during the night in order to keep her grades up.
November 15th 1995: we have had to go to great lengths to help Jennifer and have been unsuccessful. We have had several exorcisms done in hopes that she would no longer be filled with a demon but we saw no different, although her behavior hasn't changed, we have allowed her to start eating meals with everyone else, though she still didn't go to classes. If we don't see improvement, we will have to carry out code black.
June 12th 1996: we have had the biggest issue with JJ yet. During a one-on-one sexual correction therapy session with Bro. Jesse, Jennifer somehow bit his genitals clean off and got out of her restraints in order to reach a small knife and sliced him in several spots across his body. Unfortunately, it does not look like Bro. Jesse will be able to have his genitals reattached. Jennifer will continue like she was before and no one will know about the incident because we don't want to give anyone else ideas, but if there is zero improvement by the end of the year, we will carry out code black.
December 27th 1996: we have lost all contact with Jennifer Jareau and Luke Hart as of last night. When neither follower was standing at attention on time, their rooms were searched and found empty with no evidence that they had even been to bed the night before. when we checked the security camera it showed both of them asleep at lights out. No search will take place, the names of the two lost followers will be put on red headstones and be placed in the cemetery the only people who will be told they are alive are the parents.
……………………….
The team sat shocked after reading the file, they really had no idea all JJ had gone through in 'The Downstairs' the torture and rape, the being forcefully sterilized the absolute she had to endure. It broke their hearts.
"We have to get in there. It can't wait" Morgan said getting up to pace the room.
"Morgan's right but let's slowdown" Rossi said "there are a lot of things going into this, we need CPS to se there for when all the kids are released. We have to make a mass arrest in more then one place, and on top of all of that we have to get to Luke"
The team knew Rossi was right and started making plans as fast as they could hoping for the best. JJ came up a little while later head clear after playing a couple games of darts. The team explained everything they did while she was gone, not mentioning that they had read her file, she helped starting to plan and set up how they were going to this. JJs main job at the moment was explaining where everything was in the building and how they could get in without being seen. It took nearly 2 hours but they finally had a game plan.
There were still children working and they didn't need to go back if they didn't have to. With the help of Aunt Mae and Becca they got all the nearly 30 children rounded up and standing up in the loft looking confused and a little scared, the same look JJ had got when she went in the room with all the kids at the church. Emily and JJ were the ones who were going to explain everything to the kids because her and JJ were less intimidating to a group of traumatized kids then the men would be.
"Hello, my name is Emily Prentiss and I work with FBI and this is Agent Jennifer Jareau" Emily started but was interrupted by the kid's saying "Gerbil" in a tone that meant they Definity who she was, almost like it was obvious.
Emily looked over at JJ confused, was she missing something. JJ just waved her hand meaning she would tell her later, and Emily nodded and went back to talking to the kids. "Now we know about 'The Downstairs and we are here to shout it down for good. And I know it might be scary but we will make sure you get to safe and loving homes." JJ noticed a toddler no more then 3 being held by an older boy who looked like she was about to faint, and quickly walked over taking the small child and gently guiding the boy over to the couch giving him a drink of water while Emily continued talking. "We don't need anything from y'all except for you to stay here, unless me or someone from my team tells you otherwise.
"Wait I want to go back" the boy JJ had led over to the couch suddenly exclaimed surprising everyone on the room. "I mean- um I want to go back because that's where I have spent all of my life I can remember- I just- if that awful place is going away, I want to be there"
JJ figured she better handle this one, she shifted the now fully awake toddler to her other hip, and set one hand on the boy's knee. "what's you name?" she asked
"Ethan"
"Ok Ethan, I can't tell you not to go back, and I know you want to see everything end. But your much safer here. Like I said I can't stop it is your choice and I respect that"
"I'm going back, I can just sit here and not know for sure what's happening" Ethan decided and reached for the toddler in JJs arms who leaded forwards are let him hold her. "I love you Julie, see you soon" he said hugging the small child before handing her back to JJ and stood up and left without another word. JJ knew exactly how Ethan felt, he had more than likely live in 'the Downstairs' since he was three, and whether he likes it or not its home.
Emily had continued her conversation with the rest of the kids while JJ was talking to Ethan, to take the focus off of him. She finished just as Ethan went down the stairs. Half a moment later both Aunt Mae and Aunt Becca came up the stairs and gave JJ a look saying they knew what happened with Ethan. JJ had talked to them earlier about keeping the kids at least for the night and of course they agreed.
"Ok everybody, lets get you all up to bed, I know you might not be able sleep but at least try" Aunt Mae said and started shooing all the kids up a second flight of stairs to where JJ knew they bunkroom was. Aunt Becca came and took the toddler from JJs arm "little Julia here is Ethan's little sister" she explained to JJ who nodded, that would explain the bong JJ could see in just the few minutes she had spent with them.
Once all the kids were in bed, JJ glanced down at her watch that read 2-am. It was time.
…………………….…
A/N: we're getting closer to the end of this fic I already have three works in progress for this universe including a sequel that I'm very excited about it's obviously not posted yet but I do have one chapter up on a prequel called "who I was" please read that so this fic makes more sense
My heart goes out to those effected by hurricane ida or the wildfires so if your religious please do whatever you do whether it be praying or something else. If your not religious just keep the victims in your thoughts and try to help where you can.
Stay hydrated and eat a snack
Reviews are appreciated but not required;)