"Could… Could it be an optical illusion? Misdirection?" Wringing her hands, Garcia couldn't even take her eyes away from the screen to look at her teammates as she spoke.
"It's like no magic trick I've ever seen…" Reid mumbled, a deep look of concentration on his face. "I mean, her tongue was absolutely excised."
JJ, pale and wan since the video had been received, clutched her paper coffee cup as if it was a lifeline. She winced at Reid's plain words. "I just don't understand this," she shook her head, voice rough. "None of this. Emily's smart, she's always observant… Have we found out how she was taken, yet?"
Rubbing his forehead, Rossi shook his head. "No. But we've narrowed it down to a time between when she left here yesterday to when her neighbor arrived at her apartment. We're still looking for her car."
Hotchner frowned. "Garcia, can you pull up the first few minutes? I want to check something."
"Yeah… Sure…" the analyst agreed faintly, pushing her chair over to one of the monitors that wasn't showing the video. "Anything you're looking for in particular? 'Cuz I gotta tell you – I've already been up and down, in and out of this footage. A lot more than I ever would have wanted to," she added somewhat below her breath. With a couple clacks, the video popped up. "Here you go."
When Hotchner ignored her comment, leaning in close to the monitor, Morgan shifted. "Hotch?"
"Something Rossi said got me thinking…" Hotchner started. He narrowed his eyes, "Garcia, zoom in on Emily. Thank you. …If she was taken while she was on the road, I want to look for injuries indicative of an automobile accident she may have already had before the video started."
"Instead of being caused when he abducted her like we assumed," Reid spoke up, pulling his hands out of his pockets, along with a rubber band he started stretching.
Hotchner nodded, eyes trained on the video.
The image was grainy, the quality of the video not the best it could be. However, with the enhancements Garcia made, Hotchner pointed, "Garcia, freeze." When she did, he immediately pulled out his cell phone. Offering a short, "Excuse me," he was already on the line with the local traffic control and striding out of the room, Rossi following a second later, "Yes, please, this is SSA Hotchner with the FBI, Quantico. Can you fax me the list of all the traffic accidents reported in the last twenty four hours? Thank you."
Morgan quickly took his place. "Well I'll be damned," he shook his head, scowling, "How the hell did we miss this?"
"What? What is it?"
Morgan let out a sound of frustration at JJ's question. "Facial injuries that coincide with a rear-end impact. You can see it on the bridge of her nose and forehead. Dammit, we should have seen this."
"Uhm…" Garcia raised her hand, looking sick and disturbed and afraid of what she was saying, "I hate to add more freakiness to this, but…" She hesitantly met everyone's gazes, "I think we didn't see this because…" The frozen image was replaced by another video, which she froze and zoomed in. "This was five hours later. Anyone see what's missing…?"
"But… That's impossible," Reid squinted, deep lines appearing on his forehead. "They're… They're gone. It's a little hard to see with the caked blood, which explains why we didn't notice it earlier, but the bruises definitely aren't there anymore."
"Okay, so you see it too?" Garcia almost begged for more confirmation, "Please tell me I'm not the only one seeing it, because I don't want to be the only one seeing it. I couldn't handle being the only one seeing it. I mean, after the tongue and the blood – " When her voice started to edge with hysteria, Morgan knelt down next to her.
"Baby girl. Baby girl. C'mon, look at me," he placed his hands around hers, trying to get Garcia to look at him, "C'mon, this isn't the time to freak out. I know it's confusing, and scary, but panicking won't help explain it, okay? And it won't help us find Emily."
Garcia sniffled, but she nodded. "You're right," she tried to state determinedly, even with her eyes tearing up and her chin trembling, "You're right. It may not make sense, and it feels like we've been dropped into a freaky X-Files universe, but that won't help."
Morgan smiled, squeezing her hand. "That's it, Momma. You think you can get on one of these computers of yours and see if you can beat Hotchner and Rossi in getting information on traffic accidents?"
"Who do you think you're talking to?" Garcia dipped her head, giving him a thankful smile and taking her hand back, "Of course I can. Now, even though it's incredibly nice having you at my feet – as it fulfills some of my favorite fantasies – I need you to move so I can get to work." She made shooing motions with her hands.
Morgan smirked, shaking his head and standing up, "That'a girl." Then, sobering, he turned to Reid and JJ who were focused on the current stream, "Now – "
"Oh, oh god. Oh god." Voice breaking, JJ interrupted him, face paling even more. Body rigid, her fingers tightened hard enough on her coffee cup that it crumpled in her hand, the smell of black coffee quickly taking over the room as it splattered down her hand and arm, thankfully not landing on any of Garcia's computers.
Garcia immediately jumped up. "Okay, JJ, honey, let's get you out of here before anything else happens. It's time to go to the bathroom, don't you think?" Without waiting for an answer and studiously avoiding looking at the feed, the redhead reached out and forcefully turned JJ away from the computer, "Well, I do think, so we're going. The list can wait."
"But… But…" Almost stumbling, totally oblivious of the ruined coffee cup she still held and the hot coffee burning into her skin, JJ let Garcia shepherd her out. "That sick bastard," she whispered brokenly, shoulders shaking. "Garcia, he, he…"
Pushing them into the women's restroom, Garcia shoved her to the nearest sink, quickly running cold water on her hand. "Sweetie?" she asked reluctantly, biting her lip to keep her own tears back; the expression in her best friend's wet eyes was scaring her, and she knew she didn't want to know.
She listened anyway.