Disclaimer: I don't own the characters from Criminal Minds. All other characters are fictional.
When the prince finally climbed off JJ, Emily heaved a huge sigh of relief. He rolled over on the bed so he was lying on his back, breathing heavily.
Emily watched as JJ just lay on the bed, staring up at the ceiling. She didn't try to cover herself, didn't try to get up. It was like she wasn't home in her body.
The prince moved and sat up on the edge of the bed with his back to them. He raised his right hand and gave a flick of his wrist, signaling his guards to take Emily and JJ out of his presence.
Emily felt the knife leave her neck and hands pull her up. She instantly moved toward JJ, and she wasn't stopped. Ignoring the hands on her arms, she reached out to JJ, grabbing her hand and putting her other hand behind JJ's bloody shoulder.
JJ flinched at the touch.
"JJ," Emily whispered. "Come on. Let's go."
She helped JJ into a sitting position and then JJ stood. Emily pulled JJ's shift down around her body. She glanced back at the bloody pillow and sheet that JJ had vacated, and reached her hand up to wipe some sticky, bloody hair out of her face. Then hands grabbed JJ as well, and the two were escorted rather quickly out of the room.
Hoods were placed on their heads, but even with it on, Emily could tell that JJ was right beside her. She could hear her stumbling, falling. And then Emily could tell JJ was no longer beside her. The man who was pulling her didn't stop when JJ had stopped, and for a moment Emily was terrified at what had happened to her friend. Then she heard heavy footsteps beside her again and realized the other guard must be carrying JJ.
Finally they reached their room. The hoods were removed, the doors were opened, and Emily was pushed inside. JJ was unceremoniously discarded in a heap right beside her.
JJ curled herself into a tight ball, wishing for unconsciousness. The pain in her head, the strain in her shoulders, the burning between her legs…it was all becoming too much for her to handle. Then Emily's voice brought her back to reality. Emily's hands on her back. She willed herself not to jerk away. It was just Emily. Her friend.
Emily's instincts were to reach out to JJ, pull her into her arms. But she didn't know how the younger woman would react to that at this moment. Instead she bent over her and gently touched her back. And it was JJ who reached for her. Reached up and put her arms around Emily's neck. Reached up and clung to her for all she was worth. Emily was startled at JJ's response. She hadn't expected that, but she was willing to provide as much comfort as she needed.
JJ was silent. Too numb to cry. But holding on tight to a real human body was comforting her. Emily helped her stand up and walk to the bed. Her whole body started convulsing uncontrollably with intense shivers: from shock, cold, the head injury, she didn't know for sure, all she knew was that she felt terrible.
Emily helped her to lie down on the bed. JJ was a wreck. The shaking worried Emily. JJ was deathly pale and was in a cold sweat, which made her look sick enough, plus there was all the dried blood that was covering the right side of her face, neck and shoulder. Emily pulled apart the hair at JJ's hairline to get her first good look at the cut on her head. The cut was jagged and looked deep. The bleeding had stopped, but the entire area was swollen and purple.
JJ closed her eyes. Emily thought for a moment that maybe she shouldn't go to sleep due to a possible concussion, but looking at JJ again she realized that there was no way she could sleep when she was shaking so much.
Emily knew the easiest way to clean her up would have been to put her in the bathtub again, but there was no way she could handle a bath in this condition. Instead she went into the bathroom and wet a washcloth with warm water and came back to JJ's side and began wiping the blood off her face. JJ barely responded to the washing. Emily made several trips back and forth to the bathroom to clean the blood off the washcloth before she finally decided that it would have to do for tonight. She ran cold water on the washcloth and brought that back to JJ and laid it across the cut on her head.
JJ was still shivering, even though Emily had covered her with all the blankets they had. She still had her eyes closed, but every now and then she peeked out to make sure Emily was still there.
Emily wasn't quite sure what to do next. She knew it must be early morning by now, and she was exhausted, but she also wanted to monitor JJ and make sure she was okay from the head injury. She finally decided to crawl into bed next to JJ. She could watch her from the bed, she decided.
The whole bed was moving from JJ's shivering. Emily snuggled up close to her on her side.
"JJ?" she whispered.
JJ didn't respond.
"Are you still cold? Is your head hurting?"
Again, no response.
"I thought you were very brave tonight. You kept me from getting hurt." Emily paused for a moment before she added, "Thank you for doing that."
Again, JJ didn't say anything. But Emily saw a silent tear slip out the corner of her eye and fall into her hair. And Emily knew that JJ had heard her.
Silently, she reached out and put her arm across JJ's chest and pulled her in close. She snuggled JJ down into her body so that JJ's head was resting right under her chin. She kept her arm wrapped around JJ's back and held on tight to her.
JJ shivered against her for several more minutes, but gradually Emily felt her body starting to relax. She decided that even with a head injury, sleep was more preferable for someone in JJ's condition. She needed the rest. She needed to escape from her thoughts, her pain, and her emotions.
Emily held her tight until she herself fell asleep.
A small bit of sunshine coming in their narrow window, and the warmth of the room, woke JJ up. She opened her eyes to see Emily lying beside her, still sleeping. She looked exhausted, even in her sleep. JJ wondered how long she had stayed awake watching over her.
The previous night was mostly a blur to JJ. She remembered coming back to the room with Emily, but she had been so out of it. Now, she stretched her body and threw off some of the covers. She decided to test out her legs and see how steady she was this morning. She really had to pee, and she didn't really want to wake Emily up just for that.
She slowly rose to the edge of the bed, and then stood on shaky legs. A few steps got her to the doorframe of the bathroom, which she held onto to steady herself. Another step got her to the sink, and from there she just had to turn around and sit on the toilet. She sighed in relief once she finally made it.
When she was finished, she pulled herself up again to stand at the sink. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and shocked herself by what she saw. Man, she looked like hell. She still had blood in her hair and dried blood flakes on her skin. She knew Emily had tried to wash it off, but nothing would replace getting into the bathtub to scrub it off herself. She reached past the toilet and turned the bath water on.
JJ figured it wouldn't be long before she saw Emily's face in the doorway, and she was right. About 30 seconds after she turned the water on, Emily came running into the bathroom.
"What's going on? Are you okay?" she asked breathlessly.
"Yeah, I'm fine." JJ replied. "I just want to wash all this blood off me."
"Oh, yeah. I tried to get it off your face at least, but it was impossible to get it out of your hair last night."
She watched as JJ got undressed, apparently feeling a little stronger today even after last night's ordeal. She gave JJ a steady hand while she climbed into the tub.
"I'll leave you to it, then," Emily said, exiting the bathroom.
"Okay," JJ responded. "Thank you."
JJ leaned back against the porcelain tub. The hot water felt good on her skin as she sank under it. She closed her eyes and let her head fall back in the water. She remembered how when she was a kid, she used to do this, put her head in the water. She had pretended she was a mermaid, with her long hair flowing out around her. Now she wished she really was a mermaid, and could sink below the depths and never return. But at least she had Emily now. She wished she felt worse about Emily being kidnapped too, but she selfishly was glad that Emily was there with her. It had been so lonely in the few days before Emily came.
She sat up out of the water and opened her eyes. She was stunned to see bright red blood swirling around in her clean bathwater. She put her fingers to her head and they came away bloody. Her head wound was bleeding again. She did the only thing she could do, the thing she had come to rely on in the last 24 hours….call for Emily.
Emily jumped out of the chair when she heard JJ call her, and was in the bathroom in less than two seconds. She immediately saw the blood seeping out of JJ's head as she sat upright in the now pink water.
"Oh, my," she said, as she grabbed the towel off the counter, kneeled beside the tub, and then pressed it to JJ's head.
"I don't know what happened," JJ started, tears beginning to form in her eyes. "I was leaning back with my head in the water and when I sat up there was just blood….blood everywhere."
"It's okay, JJ," Emily soothed, as she continued to apply pressure to JJ's cut. "It looks like more blood than it is."
JJ sniffled.
"Head wounds always tend to bleed a lot," Emily consoled, as she lifted the towel to peek at her head. "It's already starting to slow. It probably opened up again from the soak in the warm water."
She reapplied the pressure and then JJ laid her head down against Emily's chest, too weak to continue holding it up and applying counter-pressure to Emily's hand.
They stayed like that for several minutes, both silent. Every now and then Emily took a look under the towel to check on the bleeding. She had to change towels once when the first one became soaked through with blood.
Just when she thought JJ might actually have gone to sleep like that, Emily felt and heard her give a big sigh.
Then she said in a quiet voice, "Emily?"
"Yeah?"
"What did the Prince say to me last night? It was Arabic, wasn't it? I could tell you understood."
"Yeah, I understood him."
"So, what was he saying?"
"Well, he called you 'amira', and that means 'princess' in Arabic."
"Oh. What else?"
"Ummm, he said you were beautiful."
JJ frowned into Emily's chest at the notion of the prince thinking her beautiful.
"Eww."
Emily smiled at JJ's reaction, smiled for the first time that day.
And then she was serious again. She had to tell JJ what the prince said. She had a feeling JJ already knew. It was why she was questioning her so much.
"JJ, there is something else he said."
"What?"
"I didn't want to tell you, but I think it is important that you know."
"What is it?" JJ asked, sitting herself up to face Emily.
Emily paused a moment and distracted herself by taking the cloth off of JJ's head and checking the wound. The bleeding had stopped. She looked down at the bloody towel in her hands.
"Emily?" JJ prompted.
"He said….." she paused again, trying to choose her words carefully.
"He said…..? What?"
Emily heaved a big sigh, and then looked up, looked JJ straight into her questioning eyes. "He said you were going to bear him a son."
JJ gasped and jerked her head back.
"He said you were going to be the mother of a line of great kings. He said the future of the House of Fassad lies in you."
"No," was all JJ could say.
Emily looked at her in a mixture of compassion and empathy.
"No!" JJ said again, voice raised. "No, Emily, no."
"I'm sorry, sweetie," Emily replied. "It is what he said."
JJ responded by putting her head in her hands and shaking her head back and forth.
"Come on, J, let's get you out of the tub." Emily helped her stand up and wrapped her in a towel. JJ stepped out of the tub and just stood there, numb. Emily had no choice but to dry her off herself.
JJ suddenly reached her hand up and rested it on her belly.
"Emily?" she implored.
"Yeah?" Emily said, bending over to dry her legs.
"You don't think… you don't think I could already be pr…preg….pregnant do you?"
Emily looked up at JJ. "Well," she started, as she straightened her body to stand in front of JJ. "When did you have your last period?
"Umm, I think, I think it's been awhile. I think I'm due soon."
"Okay, then, you probably aren't pregnant. You have only been here for about 5 days. If you really are due to menstruate soon then you probably already had your most fertile time before you came here."
"Okay," JJ said, finally breathing again.
Emily wrapped the towel around JJ's back again and began drying the ends of her hair.
"Emily?"
"Yeah?" Emily replied again.
"We have to get out of here."
Emily again looked JJ in the eye. She saw fear, uncertainty, and anxiety all hanging heavy on her face.
Emily reached out her hands and placed them firmly on JJ's shoulders. With as much confidence as she could muster, she said,
"We will, JJ. We will get out of here."
JJ and Emily spent the rest of the day trying to relax. JJ was quiet. Emily knew she had a lot to think about. Emily was glad for the quiet, because she also had a lot of thinking to do, trying to come up with an escape plan.
JJ took several short naps that always ended with her waking up, gasping for air. Emily could only imagine what she dealt with in her dreams now. She knew sleep for JJ was no longer the escape it used to be. Each time JJ had woken like that, Emily had helped her calm down and soothed her back to a relaxing state, trying to ease the worry of her young friend.
JJ was right, they had to get out of here. Soon. Emily feared JJ's life depended on it.
Three times during the day, the door had opened and the petite Asian woman had entered with a tray of food. Emily had positioned herself in a strategic place the second time she heard the key in the lock, so she could try to see out into the hallway when the door was opened. She didn't see any guards posted outside their door or anyone accompanying this servant. Emily could almost smell the possibility of escape.
They sat on the bed later as they ate their evening meal. The setting sun caused their room to darken, and they once again turned on the lamp. The tension in the room was growing as it neared the time that JJ was taken the previous night. The apprehension and anxiety of not knowing what was going to happen was making both of them on edge.
Emily gave a sideways glance at JJ, propped up on a pillow and munching on a piece of toast. She knew JJ had been fighting a headache all day from her injury. Emily didn't think JJ could handle another round with Prince Fassad.
JJ could feel Emily's eyes on her. She sighed, and put down her toast. She was only eating for Emily's benefit. To be honest, she had no appetite, and her headache was making her feel nauseated.
"Well, I almost wish they would just get here so I could get it over with," JJ finally said.
"Yeah," Emily replied. "But maybe they won't come tonight, JJ."
"Well, there hasn't been a night yet when I wasn't taken, so why would tonight be any different?"
Emily was stuck on that one. Logically, JJ was right. But she had to give the girl some hope.
"Maybe he is too busy with business affairs tonight. Or maybe he is out of town. Or he could have requested one of the other girls. Lots of things could come up," Emily said, trying her best to sound positive for JJ.
"I guess you're right, Em. I just--"
She stopped talking when she heard the sound she had been waiting to hear: the key in the lock. Her faint hopes were dashed as she saw two guards enter the room. But it was Emily's side of the bed they went to. Emily they grabbed by the arms and pulled off the bed. Emily they hauled out the door.
JJ screamed.
"It's okay, JJ," Emily called. "I'll be fine."
JJ knew she was trying to be brave for her. But she saw Emily's fear.
"Emily!" JJ called after her.
"I'll be back, JJ! I'll be back--"
JJ sat in stunned silence as the door closed behind them. And now she knew a little bit of what Emily felt for her. She didn't quite know what was worse—being taken yourself, or watching your friend be taken and knowing what was going to happen to her.
JJ rolled over on the bed and curled herself in a little ball, praying Emily would come back safely to her. She couldn't handle this by herself anymore.