Disclaimer: If they were mine do you seriously think I would be writing fan fiction? I make no profit from the ideas and concepts of others (or from my own ideas, but that's a different story).
A/N: So I definitely started writing the first chapter of this story about four months ago when I first read Crist's Babies in the Privy. I re-read what I'd written and decided to run with it. Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up...real life kind of popped up and smacked me in the face and I had no time for writing.
6:01am
New York City, New York
Hilton Hotel - Room 1121
JJ slapped blindly at the alarm that had shattered her blissful sleep, breathing a sigh of relief when it was silenced. She rolled onto her back rubbing at her temples, attempting to rid her head of the last remaining traces of yesterday's migraine. The pain had reduced to a dull ache, mostly caused by exhaustion. She got up and downed a single aspirin before turning on the shower to a temperature just shy of scalding. She stripped quickly and stepped into the shower, hissing when the torrid water hit her skin.
Her mind began to get into what she called "case mode". All extraneous thoughts were pushed aside and she focused in on her team's goal, to catch the bastard that was murdering innocent babies. JJ turned the facts over in her head, trying to come up with some new angle that she hadn't seen the night before. Finding nothing new she shut off the shower and stepped out. She dried off quickly, sliding into a pair of slacks and a bra before blow drying her hair. JJ functioned on autopilot, stress and exhaustion keeping a foggy cloud over her thoughts. She finished getting dressed and quickly did her makeup, pasting on a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes as she walked out the door.
7:58am
New York City, New York
NYPD Briefing Room
The team sat quietly, most sipping large cups of coffee to ward off the lure of sleep while they waited for Gideon to arrive. The look on Jason Gideon's face when he entered the room told the team that something had happened, the silence became thick with tension as they waited for him to speak.
"Last night a tourist couple who'd lost their way and ended up in Alphabet City heard crying from a garbage can. When they lifted the lid, expecting a cat, they discovered a female infant The child was bloody and cold but otherwise unharmed. They brought her to Mount Sinai and as soon as they told the emergency room personnel where they'd found her the police were called. This little girl is likely the seventh in our string of victims, she just got lucky. Police are canvassing the area around where she was found to see if they can find the birth mother." A commotion in the bullpen caught everyone's attention. A brunette in high heels, a tiny skirt and an even tinier top was being led in by two officers. A sharp knock at the door preceded the chief of police's entrance to the briefing room.
"Think we found her. Molly Simms, been brought in a couple'a times for prostitution. Went MIA about two months ago but not before we found out she was knocked up, which she ain't anymore. Claims the baby was snatched from her cradle on Avenue Q 'bout three hours after she was born."
An interrogation soon revealed that while Molly Simms may have been a strung out prostitute, she was not a murderess. The woman had been high on something of dubious legality and had no intention of keeping the child but had passed out not long after delivering her baby at home. She'd seen the midwife had clean the child up and place her in the bassinet but when Molly awoke the child was gone. The NYPD were out in full force in Alphabet city, trying to track down other birth mothers to find out their stories.
12:28pm
New York City, New York
NYPD Lunchroom
JJ stared blankly out the window as she ate a bagel and drank her third coffee of the day. She was amazed at how incredibly bustling New York was, definitely not her kind of town.
"JJ?" Emily touched JJ's shoulder lightly to get her attention. Inwardly JJ groaned, wondering why it was so hard to have fifteen minutes to herself.
"Yeah?" JJ turned around, quickly veiling the annoyance in her face, but apparently not in her voice.
"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to...I mean...I'll just leave you alone." Emily retreated quickly and JJ felt a twinge of guilt, Emily was only trying to fit in. JJ looked at her half eaten bagel before dumping it in the garbage on her way out of the room to find Emily.
"Emily!" JJ called, getting the other woman's attention as she walked quickly across the bullpen. "Hey, sorry I snapped at you back there, it's just kind of been a long week. What can I do for you?"
"No it's nothing. Go back to your lunch," Emily smiled.
"It wasn't that good," JJ made a face, "What's up?"
"Oh, well I was just wondering if you wanted to throw ideas back and forth, see if we can come up with something new?"
"Sure," JJ replied, "Meet you in the briefing room in five?"
"Yeah that sounds good!" Emily walked off looking happy, removing 'guilt' from JJ's ever growing list of problems to deal with.
12:45pm
New York City, New York
NYPD Briefing Room
By the time JJ had refilled her coffee and made it to the briefing room Emily was already bouncing ideas off of Reid.
"Hey," she sank into a chair next to Spencer and across the table from Emily, "You guys come up with anything yet?"
"Not really," Reid told her.
"We need more information. Trying to come up with a profile with what we've got is like trying to put together a jigsaw puzzle with half the pieces missing!" Emily was clearly frusterated.
"We have to find some other link," JJ mused, more to herself than to anyone else, "Okay so they're all babies but who are their mothers? Are they all like Molly Simms or do they come from different backgrounds? The babies were all found in Alphabet city so that's likely a link of some kind but does it link the mothers or the killer to the children? Maybe it has something to do with the midwife...I wonder if the other mothers used the same one, did anyone ask Molly Simms who her midwife was?" JJ trailed off, realizing that both Reid and Emily were staring at her silently, "What?"
"The midwife!" Emily exclaimed.
"JJ it's distinctly possible that the midwife didn't leave after delivering Molly Simms' baby. She may have waited around until Molly passed out, snatched the child and dropped her in the garbage can where Mr. and Mrs. Henderson found her," Reid took JJ's scattered thoughts and solidified them for her, smiling when her eyes lit up.
"We need to find out who Molly Simms' midwife was!" JJ exclaimed. The three agents rose from the table and went in search of Gideon or Hotch to tell them of the possible new angle.
6:18pm
5475 7th Ave.
Greenwich Village, New York
Canvassing Alphabet city had payed off and two more mothers had been found, one a stripper and the other a prostitute. Neither of the women admitted to knowing each other or Molly Simms but both had given the same name for their midwife, Laura Zybala. Everyone had been surprised when the only Laura Zybala in New York City turned out to be a neonatal nurse at St. Jude's who lived in an upscale neighborhood.
JJ ran a hand through her hair nervously as she waited for the NYPD to give the team the all clear to enter the townhouse. Reid's hand touched her wrist to get her attention, not realizing that the small touch, knowing she wasn't alone, helped quell her anxiety and let her focus on the task at hand. She turned to face him, to see what he wanted,
"Good work JJ," he smiled at her, "If it wasn't for you we'd still be scouring files to try and find the link."
"Someone would have thought of it eventually," JJ brushed off the compliment, feeling awkward.
"Don't sell yourself short JJ, you did good work today," Aaron Hotchner praised. No one noticed the faint blush that spread across JJ's cheeks when she realized that she had made a major contribution to hopefully capturing a ruthless baby killer.
"All clear!" an officer called from a third floor window, "She ain't here!" The team moved in to see what they could uncover in their suspected murderer's home.
11:26pm
New York City, New York
NYPD Briefing Room
There was no evidence that anyone had ever lived in Lara Zybala's Greenwich Village apartment, the place was spotless. JJ sat in silence on a hard plastic chair, thinking about the babies already lost and the ones that they all knew were coming if they didn't find the killer soon. She didn't even notice when her eyes slipped shut, only realizing she'd fallen asleep when Reid put a hand on her shoulder and shook her gently.
"JJ...JJ wake up," he whispered, trying to avoid the attention of the rest of the team.
"Hmm?" JJ looked up sleepily.
"Gideon wants us all to go back to the hotel for the night to get some sleep. We're starting fresh in the morning." JJ nodded and stood up, shaking her head to try and wake up long enough to get back to the hotel, or at the very least, into a cab.
Reid followed JJ to the elevator, his analytical mind noting the shuffle in her steps and the slump in her shoulders. He was sure if he were Morgan that he could have come up with some grand, masculine gesture to make her feel better but the fact was he wasn't Morgan and so instead he shared a silent elevator ride and spoke only to ask JJ if she would like to split a cab.
JJ sank wearily into the cab next te Reid, falling asleep almost as soon as her feet stopped moving. A sharp left sent her sleeping form sliding into Reid who placed an arm around her as the cabbie veered right, nearly slamming JJ into the door. When Reid woke her up for the second time that night they'd reached the hotel. After another silent elevator ride she smiled tiredly at Reid as he left her to her door, leaving her to her nightmares.