Chapter Four – Those That Haunt

They all fell silent for a little while. Each of them knew the hell that was coming would be personalized. Their worst nightmares would come to life again, and if the unsub was successful, it would be far worse than they could imagine. None of them really wanted to think about how their expected nightmares could go from living hell to something beyond that. Emily was the one who finally broke the silence.

"I have a feeling that I'm going to have a bad day pretty soon."

Hotch was the only one who took the comment at more than face value. After all, he was the only one who knew about the conversation Emily was referencing. The request he'd made of her hadn't been shared with any of the others. He met Emily's eyes, silently reassuring her that she wouldn't be alone.

Across the room JJ tucked her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. For the most part they would know the real situations the nightmares were manifesting from. Hopefully that would allow them to help each other get through. The team would support each other, but Olivia was alone. None of them knew what she had seen. While JJ could guess what her friends' dreams would revolve around, she had no idea where Olivia's would go. It would make it that much harder to pull her back to the present when the time came.

"Rossi? The Indianapolis case?"

Rossi turned toward her with a blank look on his face. It slowly cleared away when he realized what she was getting at. The case she was referring to had haunted his dreams for twenty years. Since he'd solved the case it hadn't bothered him, but JJ was right. Chances were it would be that case that would appear in the nightmare their unsub would force on him.

"I would be highly surprised if it wasn't," he answered. Before JJ even had a chance to ask the next question, he answered it. "About all you're going to be able to do is remind me that we solved it. Not that you need to worry. I don't see how he could make it worse, and I've handled it the way it's been for years."

He squeezed her arm lightly in reassurance. Rossi had no doubt that he could deal with a little nightmare. JJ gave him a tiny smile in return.

"What should I know?" he asked.

JJ shuddered lightly and couldn't help tightening her grip on her legs a little bit. Even though she'd seen more horrible cases than she could count since Tobias Hankel, that case still stayed with her. Years later and the deep growl of a large dog could still make her jump.

"Tobias and the dogs."

As she said it she realized that Rossi wouldn't know the case. He hadn't returned to the BAU at that point. A sick feeling filled her, and she couldn't stop the images from rushing to the front of her mind. Rossi saw the change in her eyes immediately and grabbed her arm. If she was already responding this way then it was going to be incredibly difficult for her later.

"JJ."

She took a steadying breath and turned to meet his eyes. He wouldn't let her be consumed by this. JJ knew it. Rossi squeezed her arm once more in a silent question, asking if she was okay. Once again JJ smiled at him, managing to hold the unease she felt at bay so it wouldn't come out in the smile. She would be fine. Somehow.

On the other side of the room, Emily was working out a way to offer Hotch support. Getting him to accept any help was going to be tricky, but she knew he would need it. Emily had no doubt that Hotch was going to relive the case with Foyet. She was as sure of it as she was that she'd relive her time with Doyle. Both of them would be teetering on the edge when this was over. She had to be sure she had a way to push Hotch back toward solid ground. He would do it for her without hesitation, but Hotch being Hotch, he'd never accept help himself. A little creativity it was.

"Hey, Hotch? We both know what I'm going to dream about, and we both know just as well that things aren't going to go well after."

So far so good. He was watching her and listening, but his expression was as unreadable as always. Emily forged ahead, hoping she wasn't about to screw up royally. A dormant volcano could become an active one easily enough.

"I know you can handle things, but will you let me help you after… you know… so I don't feel quite so pathetic when you need to help me?"

She bit her lip, trying to make it both look and sound like she was a little bit embarrassed about asking. Truth be told, she sort of was. Emily didn't openly share everything about herself, especially not her flaws. If something came up, she'd handle it herself. While she was starting to allow the team to support her when she needed it, the concept of getting help still didn't come easy to her. In this case though, it was a benefit since it might convince Hotch to let her help him too.

Being who he was, Hotch knew Emily had an ulterior motive. She'd done a very good job of making it believable though. He had to give her that. While part of her reasoning was likely to help him, Hotch had a feeling that Emily was being truthful as well. She needed to know that he wouldn't think less of her for needing help. He would never think that, but proof through his actions would say more to her than words alone.

"Fine, though you have no reason to feel pathetic or in any way inferior, Prentiss. There aren't words for what you went through, and it's still very fresh for you, I'm sure."

"Thanks, Hotch," Emily answered in relief. She'd pulled it off. Plus, while she knew she had his support, it was nice to hear it again.

While the others had been busy working out how to help their partners, Morgan and Olivia had remained relatively quiet. No matter how much Morgan had pushed, Olivia hadn't revealed much of anything to him. She'd simply insisted that she could see quite a few things, but whatever it was, she'd be fine. In reality, Olivia knew exactly what she was going to see. Even now she was forcing her mind away from the memories and pointedly keeping a thick barrier up around her. She refused to reveal how terrified she was of the thought of seeing his face again.

Morgan was still watching her, gaining nothing from the blank, completely closed off expression on her face when Hotch spoke.

"Morgan. What do you think you'll see?"

He peeled his eyes off Olivia's face and focused on his chief.

"I don't know, man. Could be a lot of things. Buford, Hankel, Battle, the Reaper, the Prince of Darkness. Those are just the ones that come to mind right away."

"Just keep in mind that we solved all of those cases."

From where he was, it was the most Hotch could do for Morgan. Hotch knew his agent well enough to know Morgan wouldn't need any kind of physical comfort. He was going to need someone to drag him out of his head so his thoughts didn't consume him. Hotch could manage to do that from across the room if he needed to.

Morgan nodded and pulled himself it his feet to begin pacing. The pacing only consisted of following the edge of a four foot diameter half circle, but he made do. It wasn't like he could just sit there any longer.