Since it is so likely that children will meet cruel enemies let them at least heard of brave knights and heroic courage. Otherwise, you are making their destiny not brighter, but darker.
C.S. Lewis
Emily Prentiss lies awake, listening to the wind rustle through the leaves of the sycamore trees just outside their bedroom. On a warmer night, they might have left the French doors open, letting the soft aroma of the Italian night warm their bodies and minds. The sheets Emily is lying on are the most comfortable and most expensive sheets she has ever touched and as she spent most of her childhood moving from mansion to mansion or from five-star hotel to five-star hotel, that is an impressive feat. The man lying next to her, with his arm draped over her shoulder, keeping her body prone with his, is fast asleep. The warmth of his body and his even breathing keep her calm and grounded, but sleep, as usual, escapes her.
As if he can sense her restlessness, the man beside her stirs slightly, "What is it, Love, that keeps you awake at night?" His voice is low, slow and dreary. Emily smiles to herself despite the pang of guilt which rises in her gut.
"Go back to sleep, Ian. You won't remember my answer anyway," she teases.
"I have a rather good memory."
For long seconds, Emily says nothing. An internal war wages inside her, but finally the need to be heard overpowers her better judgment. "Did you ever believe in magic?" she asks.
"Like Merlin and swords stuck in stones? No, Love, I much preferred to fight my battles without waiting for a magic spell to fight for me."
"No, I mean - I don't know. Never mind."
Ian uses his leverage to coax her body to face him, and Emily puts up no resistance. When she turns, his face is only inches from hers. Only a few months ago, having him this close and being this vulnerable with him would have been unimaginable, but slowly all of Emily's walls had been chipped away and now, his presence brought her only excitement and comfort. It's when he is away, when she has time to remember that she is living a lie, that her apprehension returns.
"Tell me, Lauren." Cold, white moonlight is reflected back to her through his steel blue eyes. His tone and expression are gentle.
"Did you ever believe there was...something more to being alive than just what is in front of us? That life could have meaning and purpose and beauty? That we're here for a reason other than to just die?" The questions tumble out of her without filter, revealing how desperate she is to have these questions answered.
"I suppose," Ian answers, "when I was a child, but then I went out into the world and left those ideas behind."
Emily nods her head and sighs. "Yeah, me too."
Ian raises one of his hands to stroke her hair. She reaches up, grabs his hand in hers and places a soft kiss on his knuckles. She smiles weakly at him as he continues to gaze at her. "What is it?"
"You are beautiful, Lauren, the most beautiful and magical woman I have ever met. If there is any meaning in this life, I am grateful that it purposed us to meet."
A raging sense of despair fills her. To stop the tears and the guilt from taking over, Emily crosses the small distance between them and presses her lips to his. Their bodies harmonize to the other's movements and for long moments, they are caught in the rapture of the other. Ian is the first to pull away, "Lauren," he breathes, holding her face firmly but not painfully in his hands.
"Yes, mon amour?" She murmurs.
"A four-leaf clover should be a nice addition to your other tattoos."
"What?" Emily tries to pull away, but she can't move. She's stuck to a chair, and nothing she does will make it budge. She's in the center of a dark room, alone except that she can feel him behind her. His hand grabs her hair and forces her head back.
"The more you fight, the more this will hurt." His eyes are still steel blue above her, but now instead of offering her comfort, they are fixed on her with rage and disgust.
Fire erupts in her chest, and all thoughts of anything but the agony flee from her mind. His hands hold her in place as the pain takes away her breath. The smell of burning flesh fills her nostrils, and it is everything she can do not to vomit.
"No!" Emily screams in panic and terror. "No, stop!"
"Emily! Wake up, Emily! Open your eyes!"
It isn't Doyle's voice. She can't remember exactly who it belongs to, but she knows she should trust this person. "Make it stop!" She pleads, hoping whoever it is can help her. "Make it stop, please!"
"Emily, open your eyes! Emily, it's J.J. Just open your eyes...just open your eyes, Emily."
Emily obeys, but immediately has to shut her eyes again as pain lances through her head from a blinding white light above her. "Shit," she gasps, throwing her arms up to shield herself.
She hears someone sigh in relief close to her. That's when Emily realizes there are still two hands holding her down by the shoulders. She cautiously opens her eyes again, this time giving them time to adjust to the lighting. When she is finally able to see clearly, her mind registers the word friend before she even makes out J.J.'s face. The blonde is standing over her, with her arms holding Emily down, a look of concern and suspicion on her face.
Emily swallows hard, trying to remember the last thing that happened. Just as her unconscious mind moved ahead of her at the sight of J.J.'s face, so too she registers that she's in a hospital long before she can remember why. "J.J.," she finally gasps, "what...what happened?" Perhaps out of mercy, her mind erased the memories of her dream as soon as she opened her eyes, leaving Emily terrified but without a reason why.
J.J. makes no move to step away or take any pressure off Emily. "You don't remember anything?"
"I - no, not yet. Give me...a second." Emily starts to look around her room for more clues as to why she would be here. When the room offers no information, Emily turns her attention back to J.J. "But it might help to remember if I could breathe properly." She says with an attempt at a smile.
J.J.'s eyes narrow slightly but a moment later she releases the pressure on Emily's shoulders and takes a step back.
"J.J., what the hell is going on?"
The blonde hesitates.
"J.J., please," Emily whispers.
"You went after Ian Doyle."
And in a flash, the last few weeks return to her. Emily inhales sharply, closing her eyes against the onslaught of memories now bombarding her. She draws her arms over herself again but this time in an attempt to protect herself from the past. J.J. grabs her wrists almost immediately. "Emily, stay with me. You're safe here. Stay here with me."
Emily can feel her arms shaking in J.J.'s steady grasp. "Don't let go," she breathes. "J.J., don't let go." Emily isn't sure how long they stay like this: her quivering in her hospital bed and J.J. grounding her to reality. Her friend keeps whispering words of encouragement over her, and Emily desperately clings to them. Finally, her mind seems to have calmed, and she is able to open her eyes again though she is still shivering.
Emily swallows before speaking. She meets J.J.'s eyes. "We were in a warehouse. He wanted - he wanted to know where Declan is."
J.J. nods. "Emily, I know this is hard, but I need you to tell me. Does Doyle know where Declan is? Is he going to find him?"
Emily shakes her head vigorously. "No, I - I kept stalling him because I knew you - I knew you guys were coming."
J.J. sighs in relief, but the expression is short-lived. She fixes Emily with a look of desperation and concern. "We thought we lost you," tears fill the corner of her eyes. She knows she shouldn't lose control like this, not with everything that is happening outside this room. Emily needs her to be strong for her perhaps now more than ever. J.J. watches as Emily begins to look over her own body. Of course the hospital gown covers the worst of her injuries, but there are black, blue and purple bruises across both her arms as well as several long scratch marks.
"What is this?" Emily gasps, trying to remember where she would have gotten those wounds.
J.J. stares at her friend's arms. "Maybe we should take it slow. Not too much information at one time."
Emily nods, setting her head back against the pillow behind her. For the first time, she examines J.J. It's the first time Emily has seen her friend in the months since the blonde left the B.A.U. for the State Department. Her skin shows evidence that wherever she has been re-assigned, J.J. is getting plenty of sun. She looks thinner than Emily remembers. Her clothes hang around her rather than fit to her form, but the real change is in her eyes. They look haunted, and Emily has already caught the blonde checking the door multiple times. Wherever J.J. stands, she makes sure she can see the exit. And all at once, Emily realizes that J.J. has not been working for the State Department. Even in her own sorry condition, Emily's heart breaks for her friend. She more than anyone knows what a life of secrets can do to the human heart.
After long moments of silence, Emily finally asks, "Is the team okay?"
A spasm of pain then panic flashes across J.J.'s face, but in the next moment her expression is stoic once again. "Not yet, okay, Em? Not yet."
"J.J., you have to tell me something. Did something happen to one of them? Did Ian hurt - " but she can't finish the sentence. Terror begins pooling in her stomach and her throat until she can barely breathe. "J.J, damn it, tell me they aren't hurt."
The blonde shakes her head. "No, no one is hurt."
Relief washes over Emily. "Then they caught him? It's over?" The hope in Emily's voice beats against J.J.'s already rocky self-control.
This is the moment J.J. has dreaded. How is she supposed to tell Emily that her nightmare isn't over? How is she supposed to tell her that they failed? That Doyle is still loose, and she can't come back to them? She looks down at Emily's frail form. Her skin is pale, and her cheeks are sunken in. The woman can't see her own face, but even if she could, would she recognize it? Her left side is still swollen and discolored into deep blues, purples and greens. A long bandage runs along her right temple. The same bruises cover her arms, and then there is the brand and the wound where Doyle sent a table leg through her abdomen. How, on top of all of this, is J.J. supposed to add to Emily's nightmare?
She must have gotten lost in her own thoughts because Emily reaches out to grab her wrist. J.J. is surprised how strong her grip is even in her weakened state. Emily's eyes are filled with animal-like terror, "J.J...tell me you caught him. Tell me he didn't get away."
"Emily," J.J.'s voice cracks, and she feels her eyes begin to swell with tears again. Damn her cowardice! Emily needs her. "Emily, I can't. Doyle disappeared. He's gone, Emily, I am so sorry! But we will catch him, Emily, I promise."
But Emily heard nothing of her friend's promise. As the weight of J.J.'s news hit her, Emily Prentiss is drawn back into the warehouse where he kept her then further back to meeting him in the park where he threatened her team and further back still to the nights and days they spent together. It isn't J.J.'s promise which she hears but one Ian Doyle made to her a long time ago, before he knew what she really is. "I will always come back for you, Love. Always." And if Ian Doyle is anything, he is a man of his word. Emily hears someone's high pitch screaming in her ears, but before she can register who it is, a warm blackness settles over her vision and all panic seeps away.
"J.J., what happened?"
J.J. has a seat pulled up the side of Emily's hospital bed. Exhaustion is written in every line of her face, but she never breaks Emily's gaze. She has one of Emily's hands held tight in hers. "You passed out after - " J.J. hesitates.
"After you told me Ian escaped."
"Emily, I am so sorry," now J.J.'s tears do fall. She hates herself for showing weakness, but at this point, she feels like she has met the limit of what she is capable of controlling.
Emily shudders and closes her eyes. Tears begin trailing down the sides of her cheeks as well. J.J. grips her hand tighter, knowing that Emily needs her strength, but at the same time wondering how she is supposed to act when Emily is broken.
"He won't give up. He will never stop hunting me. He'll hunt you down, one by one, until I come to him." Now Emily's eyes open wide and fix on J.J. "How long has it been, J.J.?"
"What?" The blonde responds, surprised by Emily's sudden movement.
"How long have I been in the hospital?"
After another moment's hesitation, J.J. answers, "Three days."
"If you haven't found him by now, you won't. Ian can just disappear...like magic. That's why I had to go in in the first place - " Emily stops, realizing she is saying more than she meant to. Without warning she attempts to push herself up from the bed, but almost immediately a sharp pain jolts through her abdomen and down her legs.
"Emily," J.J. hisses, "what are you doing?"
Again Emily fixes J.J. with her eyes. The only evidence of terror left on her face is the trail her tears traveled moments ago. Her eyes are set with immoveable fortitude. Her expression, even clouded by bruises, is one of determined action. J.J. wanders at her friend's resilience. "No one knows Ian better than I do. I am the only one who will be able to find him. The team needs me. Help me up. Is the rest of the team here? My JTF-12 team leader, Clyde Easter, I am assuming you found him as well? Doyle doesn't have as many domestic contacts as international, but he has enough to rebuild. We should start there - "
Emily tries to sit up again, this time a little slower, but she can only rise a few inches off the bed before the pain effuses through her body. "Damn it!" She groans. A layer of sweat has started to shine on her face from her exertion.
"Damn it, Emily, lie down," J.J. growls.
Something in J.J.'s tone compels Emily to examine her friend again. It is completely unlike J.J. to lose her head in any situation. Since Reid was kidnapped by Tobias Hankel four years ago, the woman has forced herself to develop into the cool-headed agent she is today. Emily's suspicion rises when J.J. refuses to meet her eyes.
"J.J., what aren't you telling me?"
J.J. turns away from her friend and wraps her arms around herself as if to hold her body together. When she turns back around, her eyes are wide with fear and, to Emily's surprise, pity. It is the second emotion which scares Emily the most and causes a knot to form in her stomach. Something in her mind tells her she already knows what J.J. is going to say, but she forces that part of her brain to remain silent. She won't utter the words even in her mind before she hears them from J.J.
"J.J..." Emily doesn't mean for her voice to break, but it does. Tears start to fall again without her permission. She feels the world begin to crumble in around her. It feels like she must be living in someone else's body as she stares at her friend.
"Emily, we had to..."
"No, J.J., please..."
J.J. has never heard Emily's voice sound so weak, so pleading, but she has heard that tone in others a thousand times over. It is the sound of helplessness and disbelief as a person's worst nightmare materializes before them. J.J. knows she has to say the next words. She has to make it real for Emily even though it will cause her unimaginable pain. The words catch in her throat, but somehow she is able to force them out in the next moment.
"To protect you from Doyle, we had to tell the team - to tell everyone - that you died in surgery. Everyone, except Hotch and I, think you're dead."
The guttural sound that erupts from Emily's throat is one J.J. will forever hear in her own nightmares. J.J. rushes to her friend's side to both comfort her and restrain her as she starts to thrash on the bed. Tears flow freely down J.J.'s face as she watches the bravest woman she knows crumble before her eyes. Emily fights with all her strength against J.J.'s hold. She ignores the agony of her wounds splitting open again. What is physical pain in comparison with the torture of losing everyone you love in one moment?
"No, J.J., please," Emily begs. "Don't, please...don't do it..."
"It's already done, Emily. It's done." J.J. forces each word out, but each one is a dagger to her own heart.
"No! Please, I can't go away again...J.J., I can't go away! Please, no, I can't go away again! I'll do anything, please..."
J.J. feels the medical staff running around her, trying to pry her off of Emily and also restrain the terrorized woman, but J.J. is determined that Emily hear her next words.
"Listen to me, Emily! Damn it, we will find him! We will bring you back, Emily. I swear to God we will. Do you hear me? I promise you we will find that son of bitch!" Two sets of hands are forcing her away from Emily, but her friend's face is all she can see. "Let go of me, you bastards! I need - "
But one of them has managed to stab Emily with a needle. Almost instantly, the raven-haired agent stops thrashing. Her face falls flat, and her head rolls back onto her pillow. Several tears fall from Emily's eyes even after the medication takes away her consciousness.
J.J. can't stop the agonized bellow from her escaping her lips. Her legs give out from under her. One of the nurses attempt to help her up, but she shoves their hand aside. "Leave!" She screams through her closed eyes as she kneels on the floor beside Emily's bed. J.J. wraps her arms around herself in an attempt to calm the raging storm going on in her mind. She reaches over the side of the bed to find Emily's hand. Somehow, their hands meet instantly. She squeezes Emily's hand as hard as she dares. "I promise, Emily, I will find that son of a bitch. I will bring you back home to us, I swear it, Emily, okay? I swear it."
A tragedy need not blood and death; it's enough that it be filled with that majestic sadness that is the pleasure of tragedy.
Jean Racine
AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Thanks everyone for reading! If you are so inclined, I would love to know what you think! Below is my MBTI for each of the main CM characters (including Doyle) as well as a little bonus for all my MMORPG peeps out there!
MBTI for CM:
Aaron Hotchner: INTJ
David Rossi: ENTJ
Derek Morgan: ESTP
Emily Prentiss: ESFJ
Spencer Reid: INTP
Jennifer Jareau: ISFJ
Penelope Garcia: ESFP
Ian Doyle: ESTJ
Just for fun! Criminal Minds characters as WoW classes!
Aaron Hotchner: Death Knight
Death Knights engage their foes up-close, supplementing swings of their weapons with dark magic that renders enemies vulnerable or damages them with unholy power. They drag foes into one-on-one conflicts, compelling them to focus their attacks away from weaker companions. To prevent their enemies from fleeing their grasp, death knights must remain mindful of the power they call forth from runes, and pace their attacks appropriately.
David Rossi: Hunter
From an early age the call of the wild draws some adventurers from the comfort of their homes into the unforgiving primal world outside. Those who endure become hunters. Masters of their environment, they are able to slip like ghosts through the trees and lay traps in the paths of their enemies.
Derek Morgan: Warrior
For as long as war has raged, heroes from every race have aimed to master the art of battle. Warriors combine strength, leadership, and a vast knowledge of arms and armor to wreak havoc in glorious combat. Some protect from the front lines with shields, locking down enemies while allies support the warrior from behind with spell and bow. Others forgo the shield and unleash their rage at the closest threat with a variety of deadly weapons.
Emily Prentiss: Paladin
This is the call of the paladin: to protect the weak, to bring justice to the unjust, and to vanquish evil from the darkest corners of the world. These holy warriors are equipped with plate armor so they can confront the toughest of foes, and the blessing of the Light allows them to heal wounds and, in some cases, even restore life to the dead.
Spencer Reid: Mage
Students gifted with a keen intellect and unwavering discipline may walk the path of the mage. The arcane magic available to magi is both great and dangerous, and thus is revealed only to the most devoted practitioners. To avoid interference with their spellcasting, magi wear only cloth armor, but arcane shields and enchantments give them additional protection. To keep enemies at bay, magi can summon bursts of fire to incinerate distant targets and cause entire areas to erupt, setting groups of foes ablaze.
Jennifer Jareau: Druid
Druids harness the vast powers of nature to preserve balance and protect life. With experience, druids can unleash nature's raw energy against their enemies, raining celestial fury on them from a great distance, binding them with enchanted vines, or ensnaring them in unrelenting cyclones.
Penelope Garcia: Priest
Priests are devoted to the spiritual, and express their unwavering faith by serving the people. For millennia they have left behind the confines of their temples and the comfort of their shrines so they can support their allies in war-torn lands. In the midst of terrible conflict, no hero questions the value of the priestly orders.
Ian Doyle: Rogue
For rogues, the only code is the contract, and their honor is purchased in gold. Free from the constraints of a conscience, these mercenaries rely on brutal and efficient tactics. Lethal assassins and masters of stealth, they will approach their marks from behind, piercing a vital organ and vanishing into the shadows before the victim hits the ground.
*All characters, descriptions and classes above come from WoWhead.I own nothing.*