Chapter Sixteen – The Burn

Rossi strained to wake JJ, but his attempts did nothing but elicit a whimper. It was another ten minutes before he saw any sign of her waking. She tried to curl into a ball, but the chains made it more challenging than it should have been. Rossi wanted to rest his hand on her back, but she moved out of reach.

"JJ?"

She peeled her eyes open slowly, groaning as she did. While she was definitely awake, JJ made no move to pull herself off the floor.

"JJ," Hotch pressed, hoping to draw her out. It took a few more tries before she even attempted to answer.

"Please don't, Hotch," JJ whispered in response.

She didn't want to talk about it. The images were already burned into her brain, and there was no way she could get them out. Not wanting to make them worry too much about her though, JJ slowly began to sit up. She only made it about halfway up before her pale skin took on a greenish tinge, and she lowered herself back down.

"Easy, JJ," Rossi soothed when he noticed her response to movement.

"Going to get sick."

Emily winced and glanced at Hotch. Either the drugs JJ had been given were making her sick or what she'd seen had been horrific enough to physically make her ill. Given how JJ had initially responded after the injection, Emily was betting on the first possibility. The second was probably contributing to it as well though. Hotch seemed to agree.

"JJ, if you start feeling really bad I need you to tell us."

When he received a nod in return, Hotch settled back against the wall. The movement had caused the chains binding him to rattle. In an instant JJ was huddled against the wall and breathing hard. Rossi's attention snapped to her and he couldn't stop the unease that flooded through him. He'd seen that type of reaction before. The wide, glassy eyes. Gasping breath. Tremors. Whatever JJ had seen, it had a vice-grip on her soul and wasn't letting go any time soon.

"JJ?"

She didn't even seem to hear him. Rossi tried once more, a little louder this time, but received the same result.

"PTSD," Olivia whispered, recognizing the stunned shock in JJ that she herself had experienced a few years ago.

Morgan caught the word and glanced from Olivia back to JJ. It certainly seemed to make sense with what he was seeing. Figuring Rossi hadn't heard what Olivia had suggested, Morgan voiced it again. A slight frown creased Rossi's face when he'd heard.

"It would fit."

Rossi would have liked to reach out and give her something to physically hold on to, something to anchor her in the present, but he couldn't. She was too far away.

"Rossi, you better do something, man. He's coming," Morgan warned. If the unsub tried to get too close to JJ when she wasn't sure where she was it could turn ugly.

Bill skipped his way in a few moments later and stood surveying the group. When his eyes landed on JJ he grinned happily. He'd seen and heard her earlier terror, and it appeared that she was still suffering from it even now that she was awake. It was fantastic! Of course the puking afterward was far from a desired effect, but details! He could work on solving that later.

As he moseyed his way up to JJ he saw her flinch away, which only widened his smile. He could use this. Yes, indeed. Pivoting elegantly, he headed toward Hotch and Emily and squatted down in front of them.

"Since I know you care sooo much about your friend, I think it's the perfect~ opportunity for us to play a game. No, no, don't get too excited!"

Hotch's eyes narrowed slightly, and Emily continued to watch him warily. Neither one really liked where this was going, but they didn't have much of a choice.

"JJ seems too scared to let me get close to her. I'm sure if I tried to get that monitor off her right now she would panic~ and hurt~ herself. Now, I'm willing to give her a few minutes, but of course, there's a condition."

"You're not going to get anywhere if you don't say what it is," Emily warned.

"Tsk!" Bill replied, waving his hand airily as if to say it was nothing. "It isn't anything big. You just need to answer some questions."

It was the perfect opportunity to gather data, and he doubted they would refuse since it would help one of their own. He wasn't disappointed.

"First then, do you know what she saw?"

"How would we know that?" Emily demanded.

"Well, she did mention what she figured it would be. I bet you know exactly what she was talking about. Don't you?"

"Probably," Hotch confirmed tersely. If Bill wanted real answers, he was going to need to work for them.

Bill simply nodded and appeared thoughtful for awhile. When he finally asked the next question, Emily and Hotch were caught a little bit off guard.

"Who is Henry?"

Emily clamped her mouth shut, unwilling to share that. Hotch didn't seem any happier about the question than Emily.

"Could be the king of England," Olivia piped up from the other side of the room. She hadn't wanted to say anything and her instincts and training told her not to, but she'd seen the looks on Emily's and Hotch's faces. They didn't want to answer, and they may have decided not to at all. Having this man mad at one person was enough. It didn't need to be three, possibly four.

Bill swung toward her, frowning and irritated.

"You do realize that is not cute at all, don't you, Detective?"

Olivia simply shrugged, and Bill's eyes narrowed further. When she'd been acting that way before, it hadn't bothered him. Now though, she was disrupting his data collection, and that was far too important to destroy. He turned his head to look at Emily and Hotch, eyes blazing.

"I take it this Henry is someone important who wasn't supposed to be in that situation."

When he received no answer, Bill took the silence for a yes. Nodding, he strode purposefully toward JJ. Without any kind of hesitation or compassion, he yanked the monitoring device from her and left the room.

0~0~0~0

She was so infuriating! Absolutely infuriating! Bill caught sight of one of his men approaching, probably with a stupid question. Not wanting to deal with him, he narrowed his eyes dangerously at the man. He got the message and scuttled away. At least someone got it. The detective definitely didn't. Something needed to be done about her and soon. He would force himself to wait though. If he got the drug combination perfect in the end the waiting would be worth it.

Bill allowed a slow smile to spread across his face. He would make sure the waiting would be worth it. One more trial to get it just right. He was under a time limit though and didn't want to risk losing the chance with Olivia. If he worked fast he could get the last agent ready tonight. That would leave tomorrow morning to Olivia. It should work, and if it didn't, well, he could always take her with him.

Yes, this could work. As long as he timed it right.

"Don't worry, dear detective. All of your efforts to anger me will pay off. I promise~."

0~0~0~0

"Manipulative bastard," Emily growled once the unsub was gone.

"We probably just saw one of the reasons why he has so many loyal followers. He knows how to play them," Hotch confirmed.

"He's really good at it too. We didn't have much choice in answering." Emily paused and glanced over at Olivia. "You put yourself in a really bad spot."

Olivia met Emily's eyes evenly and nodded. She knew exactly what she had done. She would very likely pay dearly for it too.

"Probably another reason he keeps followers. He has a fiery temper; it's just slow burning on the start up."

She may not be a profiler, but Olivia had a lot of experience on the job. Reading people wasn't difficult for her.

"It's the first true anger we've seen," Hotch confirmed. "Right now we don't know how intense his retaliation is going to be."

"Upwards of very, I would think," Rossi responded.

The others couldn't help agreeing with that. This was going to come back hard on Olivia.

"Hey."

Olivia glanced over at Morgan when she heard his voice and found him watching her intently.

"You need anything, you tell me. You ticked him off to help JJ. In my book, that's worth doing anything to help you."

"Thank you, really. I'll be fine though. You're going to need to worry about yourself."

Olivia turned away from Morgan and focused on JJ. She was still curled near the wall, head resting on her knees. JJ looked fully defeated. Olivia didn't want to end up like that, but she had a feeling she wouldn't. She'd end up a lot worse.