Disclaimer: I do not own one little bit of Criminal Minds.
Just to warn you all, this chapter contains torture. Please review and tell me your thoughts!
"Hotchner," Hotch said when he answered the phone.
A very panicked Derek cried, "Hotch, we need to get to the BAU now!"
"Morgan, what's going on?" he asked in confusion. It was after seven at night on a school night. There was little to no reason for Derek to be calling demanding a meeting in the BAU room.
It was then that something interesting happened. Derek choked on a sob. "Hotch, it's Lynch. He took Eden."
Penelope was making sure her children were settled in the bullpen before she made it into the BAU room. The twins and Haley were extremely confused about why they were dashing immediately to the BAU but Penelope refused to leave them alone at the house with the possibility that Kevin could try and take them too. All of them were rushing around trying to figure out what they could do.
"When was the last time you saw Kevin?" Rossi asked. Though he was retiring in just a matter of days, the older agent was unyielding in his offer to help find Eden.
"It's been sixteen years," Derek growled. "What the hell is he doing?" Derek's anger was beginning to get so out of control that he could barely think straight without seeing red. Next to him, Penelope was sitting with tear-stained cheeks and her head in her hands. Emotions were flooding through her: pain, fear, guilt. The last thing she'd said to her daughter was that she was lying and the thought that Kevin had her somewhere, locked up and hurt, made her feel sick to her stomach. She remembered when Eden had been a baby and Kevin was still furious over her leaving him for Derek. Something he'd said on one of the occasions she'd gone to get their divorce papers signed sprang into her mind and she gasped.
One day your daughter will get what's coming to her.
"Oh my God," she murmured, covering her mouth with her hands. "When I went to get him to sign our divorce papers he said… he…" Her voice broke and she sobbed into her hands again. "I should have protected her from this! I should never have thought he wasn't serious!"
"What did he say?" JJ asked, watching as Derek wrapped his arms around Penelope in an attempt to calm her down.
"He told her one day Eden would get what's coming to her," Derek grunted through gritted teeth. Standing up again, he blindly slammed his fists on the table.
"Hotch, we heard him beating her," Penelope said, tears still coming from her eyes. "Please tell me you'll get her back."
Hotch looked at both Penelope and Derek, people he had known for a little over twenty years, and felt the strings of his heart tighten. In all that time he'd never seen either of them worse than right now. Penelope was a mess of tears and Derek, a man Hotch never thought he'd see break, looked like he was cracking. He remembered when Eden was born and watching her grow up, practically a clone of her mother already and he knew he wanted blood too.
"I promise you that we'll do everything in our power," Hotch vowed. "We'll hunt him down and catch him, just like any other unsub. You'll have Eden back. But right now, I need you both calm. We're going to need to talk to both of you in depth about the events surrounding Eden's disappearance. It won't be easy and we can't predict what Kevin will do. I need to know that you both will be prepared."
Penelope's eyes were wide and she stared at him, frightened. Derek just looked at the ground. They both knew the dangers that came with unsubs who took people for revenge. There was a chance that Kevin might severely hurt or kill their daughter. It wasn't only her parents that looked scared around the room. The entirety of the BAU had watched Eden grow up and were frightened too that they might lose her. This would likely be the hardest case of their lives.
"We understand," Derek said hoarsely. He looked back up at Hotch with bloodshot eyes. "Can you give us a minute?" he asked.
"Of course," Hotch said with a nod. "We'll give you the room. Everyone…"
As they made their way out of the round table room to allow husband and wife a few moments alone, Rossi said, "This is going to be one hell of a case to retire after." It was looking like David Rossi's last case would be one of a more personal nature.
The other three Morgan children looked up from staring at the floor when the team entered the bullpen and there was varying degrees of emotion covering all their faces. Asher looked like he might throw up, Aiden was trying not to cry, and Haley's face still had tears pouring down it. She got up from sitting next to Asher on the floor and ran to throw her arms around Emily's waist. The little girl had always idolized her. "Aunt Emily, are you gonna get Eden back?" She looked up at Emily and the rest of the team with her soaked cheeks and wet eyes. "Please tell me you'll get her back home." Her lower lip trembled.
Rossi looked at the little girl and said sympathetically, "Of course we're going to get her back, bella. I promise you we're going to do everything we can."
Haley just nodded and held on tighter to Emily's waist.
"Derek, we need to get her back," Penelope sobbed. "I want my baby back."
Resting his forehead against hers, Derek whispered, "I know you do, Penelope. And we're going to get her back."
Shaking her head, she mumbled, "The last thing I said to her was that she was lying, Derek. I called my daughter a liar and she was telling the truth and now she's been taken. Derek, I should have told her I loved her. She must hate me now! She must think I abandoned her!"
"No!" he said firmly. "Eden knows you love her. You're her mother. She was calling out for you, Penelope. Don't you ever doubt that she loves you."
"We started off the day fighting and it only got worse," she said. "How did it come to this? How did Eden and I become so distant?"
"Baby Girl, you're a mother with a teenage daughter," Derek reasoned. "There's bound to be some distance between the two of you at some point in her life."
Sagging against her husband's chest and crying harder, Penelope said, "I just want to get her back and tell her I love her. She has to hear it from me."
"And she will Baby Girl," Derek swore. "She will."
A flood of water fell down Eden's hair and she coughed, coming back awake. She looked up to Kevin's eyes again and glared at him. Light came from only a fluorescent panel on the ceiling and she had to blink several times for her eyes to adjust to the dimness. The cup that had doused her was tossed to the side and into a furnace that was making her cage feel like a thousand degrees. In it was a large metal poker and Eden eyed it warily.
"Wakey, wakey 'Baby Doll," Kevin cackled. "That's what your daddy calls you, isn't it?"
"Fuck you," she grunted. For that she received a smack that made her see stars. Blotches of black and gray filled her vision. Both her arms were sore, she had a pounding head, and she was fairly sure the punches she'd received throughout the last twelve hours were bruising.
Kevin went to stand in front of her and sneered, "Be nice." Moving to a laptop positioned to face Eden, he added, "It's showtime. Ready to see Mommy and Daddy?"
Eden's eyes shot to the clock and saw him pulling up an internet connection. It was noon; time for her parents' webcam viewing. Kevin let out a girlish snigger when he succeeded in getting a connection up. "Good afternoon, Agents," he giggled. "How's everyone today? Penny, you're looking a bit pale." He moved out of the way of the camera so Penelope and Derek's faces became visible to Eden. The rest of the BAU team was present, all of them looking grave.
Penelope let out a strangled cry when she saw her daughter hanging from the piping, bloodied and bruised. "Eden? Eden, can you hear me?" she sobbed.
Kevin made a "tsking" noise and smacked Eden across the face, making her grit her teeth. She wasn't going to let her parents know how much pain she was in. As she predicted, her father had shot from his chair and began shouting all forms of obscenities at Kevin through the camera.
"You're a dead man!" he yelled. "Don't think I won't beat you until you're fucking body isn't breathing. Because when I find you there won't be a body for anyone to find!"
Eden watch as her Uncle Hotch and Aunt Emily grabbed her raging father by the shoulders and dragged him, still hollering, from the room. Kevin remained snickering at his old rival until he was taken away.
"Kevin, why are you doing this to my daughter?" Penelope asked, her voice hoarse. Though it was clear that she was crying, she was remaining relatively calm, trying to stay strong for Eden.
"Penny, I warned you that one day precious Eden would get what she deserves," he snarled, grabbing Eden's throat and squeezing it. She began to fight for air, her eyes going wide in fright. "You don't remember? Your husband dear jumped me that night that I said that to you." Releasing Eden's neck, he gave her another stinging punch to the jaw, causing her head to flop backwards. This time Eden couldn't stop the groan of pain that escaped her lips. Penelope wrung her hands together and a sob of her own came from her mouth.
"Kevin, you're mad at me," she cried. "Let my daughter go. Take me!"
At hearing her mother's plea, Eden's body shot into overdrive and she started fighting against her restraints, barely noticing the sting in her wrists. "No, Mom! Don't give this sicko what he wants! Don't!" She felt tears roll down her cheeks as she looked at her mother through the webcam. "Aiden, Asher, and Haley need you. I'll be fine."
"Hear that, Penny?" Kevin said, moving towards the furnace he had blasting. "Your baby is all grown up. And she's becoming just like her father in this situation: a martyr." Looking back at Eden from the furnace, he asked, "What would you do to keep your mother away from here? Anything?"
Eden nodded, despite Penelope's protests from the computer. "Anything."
Kevin nodded and smiled. He began to fiddle with something and Eden looked back to her mother. "Eden, no," she whispered. "What did you see on your way there? Anything to tell us where you might be?"
Shaking her head, Eden said, "Even if I did I wouldn't tell you. Stay away from him! He's nuts."
"I'm not going to leave you!" Penelope cried. "Eden, I promise you I will find you!"
Sniffling, Eden said, "Mom, I'm sorry. I'm sorry about everything. Please don't hate me. I love you and I didn't mean anything I said."
Penelope was close to sobbing now. "Eden, baby, I love you so much! I'm going to find you and it's going to be okay. We're going to see you soon."
"Don't be so sure of that, Penny," Kevin hooted as he strode back into view of the camera. In his hand he was carrying a long metal poker that was bright orange on the end. "Your little girl is about to be eating her words right now." With wide eyes, Eden stared at the poker until Kevin was behind her. She began to shake violently when he ripped the back of her t-shirt.
"No!" Penelope screamed at the same moment Eden shrieked as Kevin drew the burning hot metal rod across her back, leaving a trail of burning flesh in its wake.
Don't worry, Kevin will be getting what he deserves…