Yes! We finally meet the unsub! And we finally learn the reason why all this is happening. I wonder if anyone has guessed it yet? Special thanks go to zzz-zzz84 and the anonymous reviewer. I appreciate the feedback and encouragement. I can tell you people are still reading, but that doesn't tell me if you like it or not. Please review.
Happy reading.
It wasn't often that an unsub got the drop on Hotch, and he didn't appreciate it. The throbbing headache was the least of his worries at the moment as he woke up to find himself bound in a chair in an unknown location. Each foot and each hand was tied individually to a leg or armrest of a very sturdy wooden seat. The absence of weight on his waist and ankle indicated he'd been searched and relieved of his sidearms.
By the brightness of the sunlight streaming through the single window of the room, it was somewhere around midday and Hotch had to wonder if the team had even noticed his absence yet. How long would it take to realize that he and Juliet were missing and what kind of trail could exist to help his team find them?
The room must have been an attic, or the top level of the building, judging by the slanted ceiling, wooden floors and walls. He could smell hay and dirt, but didn't think he was lucky enough, nor the unsub stupid enough, to be in any of the barns or buildings on Rosa property. Besides his chair, there was only a bed on the opposite side of the room. On the bed was Juliet.
Still unconscious, knocked out as he had been based on the goose egg on her forehead, the girl had been stripped of her clothing save for underwear and tank top. A length of rope was tied to one of her wrists and the other end was tied to the wire bedframe. If she would only wake up and attempt to untie herself, they might be able to escape…
What bothered Hotch the most was that he couldn't fathom how the unsub had gone from impersonal killings and body dumps, to a direct, confrontational attack, to kidnapping. That Juliet was here was the only part that did make sense. Hotch understood how knocking him out was to take out the threat so that the unsub could get to Juliet for whatever reason he had. But why then take the risk of bringing him along? And how had he managed to transport two unconscious bodies?
A pained groan cut off Hotch's thoughts and he turned his attention back to Juliet.
"Juliet?" he called out softly.
Her untied hand raised lethargically and touched her head until her fingers reached the lump. She hissed in pain and finally opened her eyes.
"Agent Hotchner?"
"Are you all right?"
"Someone hit me. What the hell?"
"We've been abducted by the unsub, though I'm not sure why. Can you get free?"
Juliet had discovered the rope tying her to the bed. She rolled to her side with a groan before sitting up carefully. Hotch watched as she felt around the knots on both her hand and the bed frame and even smelled them.
"Super glue," she concluded. "He glued the knots sealed."
Hotch could already tell that she didn't have enough slack in the robe to move farther than two steps from the bed.
"Do you remember anything about what happened?"
She shook her head and then grimaced in pain. "I heard a noise and found you downstairs on the floor. Nothing after that."
Juliet then seemed to notice her state of dress.
"Why the hell did he take my clothes?"
Hotch was beginning to have a theory, but knew she wouldn't like it. In the short days of knowing this young woman, Hotch knew that she would want to hear it anyway. "I think that you have been our unsub's focus this whole time. It would explain why he didn't hurt you last night and why he's kidnapped you now."
"What does the rest of it mean then?"
"That I haven't figured out yet."
"Can your team find us?"
"They will."
"What do we do?"
"The unsub has been trying to tell you something. When he comes, play along and listen to him. What he reveals to you will tell me more about him." Hotch stared at her, taking in the way she had begun to shake and worry her bottom lip with her teeth. "Juliet? Can you do this?"
She took in a shuddering breath and closed her eyes tightly. After several breaths, she opened her eyes and stared back at him. Nodding her head, she answered, "I can do this. I can do this."
"All right," he said, putting as much comfort and support as he could in his voice. "I will pretend to be unconscious still so that he focuses on you. But I will be here right with you, understand?"
"Yeah. Um, oh God. Is he going to, will he-?"
Hotch took a moment to seriously consider the possibility and likelihood of this unsub taking that action. He owed Juliet the truth.
"I believe that if that was his intention, he would have taken you last night when he attacked Tyler. There's more going on that we don't know yet."
At first, Juliet did not respond but breathed heavily. After a moment, she spoke again. "Okay."
"I'll be right here."
"I'm scared."
"You're not alone."
Both of them jerked their heads when a hatch on the floor cracked open.
"Hi, Juliet. How are you feeling?"
The person climbing up through the floor's opening, Juliet hadn't seen in several months.
"Clark," she said, absolutely confused at first. "What are you doing here?"
"I thought we could talk, just the two of us."
Clark Graham was in his mid-twenties, Juliet remembered. He had worked for her uncle for a year and half before catching the short straw when they had had to downsize. She knew he had been hired by Dr. Zare and often accompanied the vet on his visits to the stable.
Then the entire situation washed over her as she realized the obvious. She closed her eyes, not even having to fake the pain she was still feeling, taking the time to gather herself. She heard his footsteps as he walked through the room and stopped just in front of her. Agent Hotchner's instructions sounded in her mind.
She met Clark's eyes, remembering that he had always been shy. He was just as tall and skinny as she remembered, with unkempt dark hair and nail bitten fingernails. She pulled her legs close to her body as he bent down and brought out a folding chair from under the bed. He set it up directly in front of her and sat down.
"What, what did you want to talk about?" she asked uncertainly.
"I've been wanting to talk to you for a really long time."
He looked so normal it was painful. Try as she did, Juliet didn't see any lingering anger or malignancy in his eyes. He spoke as if they were back at the stable, exchanging a few words.
"Is that why you—is that why you killed those people, to get my attention?"
Clark seemed genuinely surprised. "No," he said. "I had to kill them because they were in the way."
"But, if you just wanted to talk to me," she argued, keeping her anger in control. "All you had to do is just ask, they wouldn't have stopped you-"
"No, they would have been in the way for us to be together!" Clark shouted and stood with such force he knocked the chair over.
"How?" Juliet demanded, letting some of her anger get through. "Casey and Brian were just kids!"
He was pacing, but he turned to look at her again. "You don't see it yet, do you?"
"See what? I don't understand."
"We have a chance to change what happened before. It's all so similar, but we have to be careful. You have to be careful."
"What happened before, Clark? Tell me, please, I don't understand."
He knelt in front of her on the bed. Juliet flinched and then tried to relax. Clark reached out with one hand and gently took a piece of her hair and brought it to his nose. She couldn't control her shaking and desperately wished to push him away.
"I had almost forgotten how good you smell," Clark murmured with his eyes closed. "I would try to stand close to you in the stables to smell your hair. Like apples."
Juliet looked over and saw Agent Hotchner staring at her intensely. He nodded to her in encouragement, jerking his chin at Clark in an unspoken signal.
"Please tell me what happened before, Clark," Juliet repeated. "Help me understand what we need to do differently."
Clark met her eyes and she swore that she saw hope in his expression.
"You're so much like her. Strong and fierce, but you do need someone to look after you. I can do that, I swear. Your brother, your uncle, they don't care for you, not like I do. They'll leave you behind, but I'll never leave you."
"I know. I know that," she lied. "But who is she?"
"Eowyn. You're just like Eowyn."
If Clark hadn't looked so serious, Juliet would have thought he was playing some kind of sick joke.
"Eowyn?" she repeated numbly.
"You see? You and your brother living with your uncle and cousin. It's just like in Rohan."
"And the horses," Juliet added only to herself, but Clark heard her.
"Yes! Now you understand."
Pushed too far, Juliet began to shake her head. "No. No. This is too crazy. Clark, what are you thinking? I'm not Eowyn, this isn't Rohan, and who did you think Peter was? What about Casey and Brian and their friends? They have nothing to do with this and you murdered them!"
Clark backed away as Juliet leaped to her feet, pulled short by the rope around her wrist. His face twisted in anger.
"Peter was in the way, trying to convince your uncle to talk you into leaving!"
Gandalf, Juliet thought, making the connection.
"And did you think the boys were the Hobbits?" Juliet demanded. "Damn it, they were just children!"
Clark reached out and seized her by the shoulders, shaking her so hard her head swung forward and back.
"You were supposed to understand!"
With a final shake, he pushed her backward onto the bed and then escaped through the trap door.
For Juliet, the shaking had released her final amount of control as she curled on the bed and cried.
AN: my laptop is now being doctored for a virus, so I don't have access to the rest of this story for about a week or so; I know, dummy me didn't back it all up on a flash drive or anything. We'll see what happens.