Emily's sleep was plagued by dreams of all possible terrible outcomes that could come as a direct result of her decision to talk to Garcia. Several times she woke up following images of Garcia or JJ losing their jobs, her friendship with the rest of the team dissolving as a result and by the morning she felt as if she'd hardly slept at all. Though with the sound of the shower running at the opposite end of their hotel room and the empty bed next to her, she wondered if JJ had the same problem. After a few moments procrastination at the thought of losing the collected heat in the small cove she had made beneath the thick duvet Emily poked her hand out and lazily searched for her phone on the small bedside table. She found it with relative ease and withdrew her hand, bringing the cold object beneath the covers with her.
It took a moment to unlock her phone with the haze of sleep still fogging her mind and after succeeding it took a few moments of staring at the list of notifications for the frown to fully form on her face. She had missed an alarming number of calls all from the same number that she had ignored the previous day. It was crystal clear to her what she would need to do in response and she made a mental note to try and talk to Garcia at the next available opportunity. She cleared the notifications with the click of a button after reading through them all. Her home screen indicated she had awoken half an hour before her alarm and with a disgruntled noise, she cancelled it before retrieving her clothes from the black go-bag at the foot of the bed.
By the time Emily finished gathering her clothes, JJ emerged from the bathroom with a whirl of steam. She gave a tight smile, gathered up her jacket, go-bag and phone then left the room without a word. The encounter left Emily with a cold stabbing feeling in her heart and she had to use almost every ounce of her will to ward off the sadness and contain it in one of the many emotional filing cabinets of her mind. She sincerely hoped that their meeting back in Quantico would help put them back on the path to the carefree easygoing friendship they had before. Being at odds with the gorgeous blonde left a large storm-cloud hanging over Emily's head. Whether she would ever have a chance to discuss the feelings that had been steadily growing within her for years or not all Emily really wanted was to have any kind of relationship with the blonde and she felt as if her current path would lead to quite the opposite.
When Emily finally finished up she still had an hour left until they would be leaving as a group. She didn't see any reason to stay in the room, seeing as JJ had already gone down to the lobby and the others would probably be there as well already eating breakfast so she gathered up her belongings, did a final sweep of the room then headed downstairs. She grasped the rough strap of her bag which was slung over one shoulder and made her way over to the elevator. Surprisingly it appeared rather quickly and she made it down to the lobby much faster than she had assumed. It was still early and not many people roamed about, those that did where leaving with suitcases presumably heading to catch a morning flight. There were a couple of hotel patrons dotted about the seating areas some with newspapers, others nursing steaming carry-out cups of coffee while they lounged. Her team did not appear to be anywhere in sight and after a moment of consideration, Emily decided to pop outside.
The morning air was brisk and almost burned her nasal passage as she breathed in. The morning sky was clear and blue with small fluffy white clouds of various shapes and sizes creating small amounts of contrast. Emily rubbed her hands together for a moment in an effort to prevent the cold from seeping any farther into her skin then after deciding it wasn't helping much she slipped a cigarette from her packet and lit it quickly, content to get inside as quickly as possible. The first draw filled Emily's lungs completely and she felt the pleasant tingling of nicotine rush forming in her body. The rest of the cigarette enjoyable experience and calmed some of the emotions raging in quarantines providing Emily with some peace.
"I didn't know you smoked, Emily? Is it a recent thing?" Dave's voice came from her left and she whirled around to meet him in surprise.
"Oh... It's, well it's not really something I've told everyone about if you know what I mean. It's not new to me though."
"I see, well your secret is safe with me. Shall we walk inside together? The others were getting breakfast but I decided to venture out into the city for some good coffee." He gestured to the cup in his hand with a sly half-smile and Emily laughed in response.
"Lead the way."
Emily and Dave walked into the lobby side by side and strolled through to the restaurant area together. It didn't take long for Rossi to locate the team amidst the many customers gathering for breakfast before heading off to their respective destinations. JJ, Reid, Hotch and Morgan were chatting animatedly and finishing up their breakfasts. Emily spotted an almost empty coffee pot next to an empty mug beside Derek and sat next to her friend, offering him a small smile as she did so.
"Good morning sunshine, you look tired. Didn't sleep well?" Morgan inquired, pouring coffee into the empty mug without being prompted.
"Not so well, no..." Emily allowed her eyes to flash up to Jennifer's face. For a moment JJ looked upset, with her bottom lip tucked between her teeth but her blue eyes met with Emily's own dark ones and the expression fell away from her face as quickly as her eyes darted away.
"Well, I've received notification from Strauss that we are needed back in Quantico as soon as possible so we'll be heading out when everyone is finished up here," Hotch noted, pausing afterwards to take a large bite of whatever strange toasted sandwich he'd ordered.
"That's a bit quick isn't it Aaron?" David asked, a hint of alarm in his tone.
"Apparently we've been called in later than we should have, Strauss stressed that we won't have any time to relax we'll be debriefed and have our meeting at the same time then go from there."
"I suppose we don't have any choice then, I'm guessing the call came after I left." Rossi sighed and rolled his eyes at Hotch's slight nod in response. "Of course it would."
"Well everyone is almost finished, I'll have this coffee quickly then I guess we'll be heading out," Emily said, pouring some milk from a small white jug that had been sitting on the table into her coffee. She added a couple of packets of sugar and stirred vigorously before downing the coffee in two long drinks.
Hotch cleared up the bill afterwards and the team set off to the car-park. They split into two groups in the elevator with Hotch, Rossi and JJ getting out a few floors before the other half of the team. Emily allowed Reid to sit in the front with Morgan driving. The fatigue from her lacklustre sleep had her feeling lethargic and she decided that trying to nap wherever possible on the way back to Quantico would probably be for the best, from the sounds of it they were in for quite a case. She was vaguely aware of Spencer and Morgan discussing fitness tests in the front during the ride to the airport, however, it took most of her concentration to analyse some of the shops and local scenery they were passing. For a moment she considered feigning surprise that her coffee hadn't helped boost her awareness but in the end, she decided it would take to much effort and resolved to sit comfortably against the back seat watching things go by.
It seemed like not long after that she was boarding the jet with Spencer and Derek, who had taken to asking every fifteen minutes if she was okay. Emily sat in one of the comfy beige leather imitation seats and relaxed into it while the rest of the team found themselves advantageous seats for conversating away from her. She appreciated the small amount of space they opted to give her. No matter what physical or emotional troubles Emily found herself having her team were always conscious of them, they were always understanding. With a smile, she strapped herself in and watched out the window as the runway began moving beneath the plane and then the ground tilted away and became ever distant as the plane took off. It was a little while before the plane flattened after reaching it's intended altitude and having reached the smoothest part of their flight Emily drew the curtain across the window, reclined back in the chair and attempted to sleep.
The jet touched down smoothly and Emily awoke to the bustle of her team getting ready to leave. She sat up and shook her head to try and lose the haze of disorientation clouding her mind and fumbled for her go bag which had been tucked by her feet.
"Are you okay Emily? It's just I don't normally see you get this tired and I'm a little worried about you." Spencer's soft voice alerted Emily to his presence and she stood to look him in the eye with a small smile.
"We've been on the go, I didn't sleep well last night it's not a big deal Spence don't worry." She placed a comforting hand on his upper arm and he responded with a crooked smile.
"Okay, I'm here if you ever need to talk though."
They followed the others off of the jet afterwards and each filed into two respective SUV's. Journeying back to the office took little time and Emily spent most of the drive focussing on the small knot of anxiety building inside of her. They squeezed into the lift together, few words exchanged between them as they began the mental preparation required for their next case. As they entered the office space Emily's eyes passed over JJ, noting her anxious expression and then darted over to the meeting room, where she could see Penelope tapping away on her keyboard through the open blinds.
"Penelope's here! Is that Strauss as well?" JJ's excited voice broke the silence between the group as they made their way across the floor.
"Oh dear, we should probably get in there." David sighed, climbing the carpeted steps that lead to the 'upper' floor area. He strode over to the door which had been closed over and swung it open. Emily and Derek shared a look, following closely behind Rossi who boldly strode across the room and took the empty seat between a deadly focused looking Garcia and Strauss, whose expression was unreadable. JJ sat on the other side of Penelope and Derek, Emily and Hotch followed suit filling the last empty chairs. Emily rested her elbows on the table and sat up straight, schooling her expression. Across the table JJ placed her hand on top of Penelope's, effectively stilling it. Their eyes met and they smiled at one another. It was a simple exchange that assured they were still on okay terms and Emily felt a small sigh of relief escape from between her lips.
"I suppose I should begin then. As I'm sure most of you are aware my superiors were negotiating for Jennifer to be transferred from our department. It came to my attention yesterday that two members of this team conspired to and succeeded in stopping said transfer. Needless to say, we are less than satisfied with the actions Miss Garcia and Miss Prentiss and were it the sole decision of my superiors you would both be let go. However, Aaron has argued desperately for you both and as Miss Garcia is still under a binding contract that will not be happening. We had originally intended for the Liason position to be discontinued and the work divided between the team evenly after Miss Jareau left and we don't have any intention of changing that too much, Miss Jareau will come back as a profiler and as punishment, Miss Garcia and Miss Prentiss alone will cover the liaison work. For the next few weeks, you will both be under a watchful eye so try not to make more trouble. Now if we are all on the same page, I have several other meetings to attend." Strauss's eyes met Emily's and flashed dangerously spreading a cold feeling throughout the dark-haired agent's body. She steeled her nerves and stared back for a moment and then Erin broke the eye-contact abruptly, stood up and promptly strode from the room.
Emily looked over at Penelope, her expression regretful. Their eyes connected for a moment and Emily could see the stress Garcia had been keeping to herself but also the underlying happiness at her success. Emily smiled sheepishly and then more genuinely upon seeing Garcia's own smile in response.
"You two got really lucky there, I wasn't sure I'd be able to control the damage. I know we've all grown accustomed to the make-up of our team, we're a family but sometimes the actions we take trying to protect our family end in disaster. I hope the two of you will be more careful going forward."
"For what it's worth, I'd have laid my job on the line to keep JJ here, I'm sure Spence would have too and I encouraged Emily to contact Garcia..." Derek slumped back in his chair his expression regretful. Emily watched as JJ whirled around in surprise, her mouth forming a perfect 'O'. She surveyed him with a thoughtful expression and then her blue eyes wandered over to Emily's and they locked into an emotional gaze. They held their eyes there for a moment, neither seeming to want to stop the flow of silent communication between them. Emily could see all of the stress, anger and helplessness that had plagued JJ and her eyes softened, conveying her own emotions to her blonde-haired friend. After a moment JJ looked away towards Penelope, her expression confused sparking Emily's own concern and confusion.
"We should just try and focus on the fact that we're all here, that's what matters," David added, looking around the group as he did so.
"Garcia, shall we start?" Hotch prompted, flashing their resident tech-wiz a small smile.
"The briefing! Yes, of course!" She smiled widely in return appearing flustered as she fumbled for the remote on the table and bustled to the front of the wide tv screen fixed to the wall. "You, my lovely ladies and handsome gentlemen, will be travelling to Manassas here in Virginia. We have three victims each of them died about a day apart Jeff Harding, Simon Rowell and Frank Ainsley all three were killed and mutilated in the same way, victims number one and two Jeff and Simon were found in the trees at the back of Winterset park. After the local PD moved in and shut down the area he switched his method and dumped victim number three in the trees opposite a local seven-eleven." She clicked a button and the screen came to life displaying pictures of the three men, each with brown hair short at the sides and long on top. They had varying eye-colours and facial features but it was apparent their unsub already had a declared type.
"Mutilated you say? In what way?" David asked, leaning in as his interest blossomed.
"Ah, I knew you'd ask, I'm going to have to look at pictures of kittens and puppies for an hour after this. Okay here are the crime scene pictures for each victim. You can see the genitals have been mutilated just completely beyond recognition, the cause of death for all three was a heavy blow to the back of the head." Garcia shuddered as she cycled through all of the pictures. "They were each left unceremoniously relatively in the open, best guess is that they were dumped late at night. Oh, each of the victims lived locally as well."
"You don't say baby-girl, wow. This guy has some rage built up in him, look at all of the bruising around his stomach, neck and arms. It almost looks like controlled overkill." Derek pointed out.
"It's almost hidden by his shirt but definitely visible, we'll need a better look at the bodies to be sure. There isn't much care put into the disposal of the bodies, each man's pants and boxers are around their ankles possibly because the unsub wants them to be found in a humiliating manner, he wants people to see his work." Emily continued frowning at the gruesome images displayed on the screen.
"Our unsub would have to be physically fit to control these men and then dispose of the bodies. Do we know where each of the men went missing from?" Morgan inquired, his eyes meeting with Garcia's as he spoke.
"I haven't been sent any information about last known locations, the local PD might have more information though." Penelope responded, blushing at Morgan's wide smile.
"We only have two points of interest just now, it'll be difficult to get anywhere with a geographical profile," Reid said, jumping into the conversation.
"That's true. This unsub has a lot to say through what he does though and with three victims already we can guarantee this guy won't stop until we catch him, there'll be more bodies." Rossi input, his features almost sorrowful.
"It's our job to make this stop. JJ, Prentiss and Morgan I want you to inspect the dump-sites. Garcia we'll need you to dig up everything you can about our current victims, we need to find out whether or not their paths crossed in the days or weeks before their deaths. Rossi and Reid, I want you to head straight to the coroners' office and find out what you can about the specifics surrounding each man's death. I'll head to the local PD and start-up communications and make sure our workspace is ready. Garcia, I want you with us on this case so you'll need your mobile tech ready. We'll take three SUV's to make everything smoothly, everyone head out now and we'll meet up and discuss our findings later." Hotch eyed each member of the team for a moment ensuring no one took issue with his plan then set off out of the room with Penelope hot on his heels.
"See you guys later everyone, drive safe!" Garcia exclaimed in passing, her pink heels thudding against the carpet as she tried to keep up with their diligent leader.
"I will never get tired of seeing that." Morgan murmured, a goofy smile playing at his lips.
"Derek's in looove." Emily joked, elbowing her dark-eyed friend in the ribs.
"Ow! Watcher princess, we can tango if you really wanna tango but at least I'm actually in tune with my feelings. You and I still have the matter of your love interest to discuss I think you'll recall." Derek smirked, the taunt falling easily from his lips. Emily blanched at the comment, her dark eyes flicking over to JJ's surprised face. She looked away quickly at the small blush forming on the blonde-haired agent's cheeks and made a small noise in the back of her throat, willing herself to be anywhere else.
"Ahem, we should probably get going," JJ mumbled, her clear blue eyes suddenly glued to the table.
"Yeah, you're right. Let's make it interesting then, last one to the SUV buys food for the drive?"
A short while later they found themselves situated in the SUV sporting warm coffee and pretzels. Morgan for once seemed to be managing his speed, though Emily suspected it was because of the pain au chocolate grasped in his right hand that he seemed content in all but worshipping with his mouth.
"So do you really think I'm qualified to join the team as a profiler?" JJ asked, her voice laced with doubt.
"Of course you are Jayje, your attention to detail has led to several captures and rescues and you have years of experience being out in the field with us. Really it just means you'll be doing a lot more of the hands-on stuff with us which you already have training for. On top of that, you have Hotch watching out for you, you shouldn't doubt yourself." Emily replied softly. There was something about seeing JJ so vulnerable that made Emily want to comfort her as much as possible.
"Emily's right JJ, you have plenty of experience and we will always be by your side to help keep you on track," Derek commented around a mouthful of chocolate filled pastry.
"Did you remember to get something for Penelope?" Emily probed, half smirking. She saw the not-so-subtle eye-roll Morgan gave her in the rearview mirror and chuckled to herself.
"You're just trying to rub it in my face that I technically got in the SUV last aren't you." Derek pouted, feigning hurt.
"Is there something going on with there that I should know about?" JJ asked, one blonde brow quirked inquisitively as she eyed the now sweating agent.
"That depends on what you think you'd need to know about and why you might need to know about said thing that may not even be a thing," Morgan replied. This time it was Emily's turn to roll her eyes at Derek's blatant attempt to overload the blonde and divert from the path the conversation was currently taking.
"Nice try buddy, not gonna work. Do you have a thing for Pen?" JJ pried, clearly interested in the dark-eyed agent's answer.
"Alright, fine. You got me. That doesn't mean it's a plausible thing, considering Alexis is still around."
"What! Morgan! You told me you were gonna ditch her like a month ago, she's insane!" Emily fell back into the back seat, her eyes wide.
"Who is Alexis and how come I haven't heard about her?" JJ inquired, sipping at her coffee and staring at Derek intently.
"Well, I met her about three months ago and things were pretty wild for about a month we were keeping it casual, no big deal right? Then halfway through our second month of seeing each other, she asks when we're going to get married so obviously alarm bells are ringing for me here, it was a strictly casual relationship then all of a sudden WHAM she hits me with her weird obsession. So obviously I ended things with her and a week or so later I met this girl called Maia, long story short I spent one night with her then the next morning I woke up with Alexis in my apartment cooking me breakfast and I have a voicemail from Maia saying the psycho threatened her!"
"Ah, I see. You've been scared to start seeing anyone again in case she goes full psycho." Emily said, nodding to herself. "That's logical but if I had to bet I'd say she's the kind of girl that has fleeting obsessions when was the last time you heard from her?"
"Oh I changed the locks that day, I haven't heard from her since but I did tell Maia her full name and address, she may have taken legal action against Alexis," Morgan replied looking thoughtful. "You're right I'm probably fine now."
"Sooo that means you could ask Penelope out?" JJ suggested with a sly smile. She placed her coffee into the cup holder in the centre console, plucked her pretzel from its brown bag and began nibbling on it. Emily gazed at JJ's lips for a moment, a small smile blossoming on her face. It was nice to be engaging in a conversation with the blonde after all their tense interactions and Emily felt an immense amount of relief.
"I'm not going to dignify that with a response," Derek replied, shifting gears back into terrifying driver mode as he finished his pastry.
It was around a forty-minute drive to Manassas and Emily felt as if she was once again on the verge of sleep for the last ten minutes. She hoped she'd be able to part from her team-mates for some privacy to smoke soon, though it wouldn't bother her too much to wait. In truth she just didn't want JJ to know about her habit, she wasn't sure how the blonde would view it. A large part of her mind told her JJ wouldn't care but the more conservative minority wished to keep JJ's image of herself as untarnished as possible.
"Here we are, Winterset park. Looks like local PD has kept the area on lockdown, that's good." Morgan commented as the SUV rolled to a stop.
They stepped out onto the large patch of grass, the lines of loose dying grass indicating it had been mown recently. To their left, a large empty basketball court sat, with a sandy play area surrounded by five small trees. Towards the back of the park, Emily could see three local officers congregated on the outskirts of a large crowd of trees and bushes which served as the dump site.
"Alright, let's get a feel for this guy," Morgan stated, unfolding the arms of his sunglasses and placing them over his eyes before starting across the grass.
"We're not completely cool right now, just so you know Emily. We still need to talk." JJ commented before setting off after him. Emily sighed to herself and began walking, making sure to keep a few paces behind the blonde. The few conversations they had after the briefing had proved to give Emily unwarranted hope and she couldn't help but feel a little hurt at the blonde's ability to revert back to her prior hostility so easily. She hoped that after having a proper conversation that they'd be able to go back to the way they were before but a small part of Emily felt like that might never happen.
After meeting with an older member of the local PD, officer Jamieson, the three were led through to the small clearing where Jeff was found.
"Local maintenance worker came across the body up here while refilling all the bird-feeders." Officer Jamieson gestured up at a nearby tree where a wooden box hung from a high up tree branch. "A lot of the grass and shrubbery looks like it was cut with some kind of blade, and back there the perp left a sign."
"He left a sign? There wasn't any mention of this in the information we were sent." JJ noted, following after the balding man as he stepped through a tight grouping of trees.
Emily and Derek followed closely after, almost bumping into JJ who stopped dead with a furrowed brow at the edge of a large circle. Emily moved to the side of her friend in order to see what she was looking at. A large circle of shrubbery and grass was cut in a large circle, much like the disposal area only the unsub had used the cut scraps to form the gender symbol for female on the ground. Emily and Derek shared a confused look, not sure what to make of the signature.
Derek walked around the perimeter of the circle for a moment, looking for anything else out of place then came to a stop, one hand resting on the outline of the phone in the front pocket of his dark jeans. "Well, this is a weird one."