As JJ walks out to the SUV she sees a man leaning against the back of it. "Well, at least he didn't hit and run," she mutters.
When she gets close, she calls out to him. "Hi, I'm Agent Jareau. That's my-"
He turns and smiles at her. Her blood goes cold as she sees a now clean-shaven Mitchell Reese standing there.
"I know who you are. And I can see you remember me," he taunts.
Most people would have been so totally focused on a man who had tried to kidnap them that they are sitting ducks. But her experience in Afghanistan has JJ's personal radar tuned higher than normal. She senses the person behind her and dives as a bat is nearly brought down on her head. She is alone, unarmed, and facing off with 2 men. She rolls to her feet and runs, dodging between cars, circling to get back to the doors of the hotel.
"GET HER!" Reese screams at his puppet.
The men split up to try to trap her.
JJ pulls out her cell phone. She hits Morgan's speed dial. He answers after the second ring, humor in his voice.
"What? Miss me already, Jayje?"
"HELP! PARKING LOT! HURRY!"
Morgan drops his phone and grabs his gun just as he hears Hotch yelling for the team from the hallway.
In the parking lot, JJ had made a turn she thinks will get her to the entrance. Suddenly the man with the bat is in front of her. She skids to a halt. She turns back but sees Reese behind her. With no other choice, she steps onto the bumper of the car beside her and runs up and over the car, trying to put distance between herself and them again.
"Shit, shit, shit, getting farther from the door," she thinks to herself.
She knows she has to do something to get back to safety. The farther she is from the door the longer it will take for the team to find her. It seems like forever before she hears Hotch's voice.
"JJ!"
"HOTCH!" she screams.
The four FBI agents take off towards her voice. Reese spins around. "Fuck," he mumbles. He looks at the still running JJ and sneers. "Next time."
Leaving his puppet to take the fall, he fades off into the darkness.
JJ comes around the end of a van and barely manages to drop to the ground as the killer swings his bat at her head. She scrambles away from him as he raises it over his head once more.
"FREEZE! FBI! DROP THE BAT!" Hotch yells.
The killer looks up in surprise. He sees the four agents, guns trained on him. "I have to stop her. She's going to hurt the park," he explains.
Rossi takes a step closer, holstering his gun. Hotch had explained as they ran down 5 flights of stairs what was going on. "No, she's trying to save it. She wants to make it safe for everyone."
The man shakes his head. "No…No! Master said she was going to blow the investigation. We can't make the park good again if she does that."
He lifts the bat higher. JJ backs up more but ends up against the front end of a sports car. She cusses as she realizes she can't even roll under it to get away from a madman acting like Sammy Sosa. Rossi sees this and steps so that the man will have to turn a little away from JJ to keep the conversation going.
"Your master was wrong. See, we already stopped the one that was going to-"
No more words are needed as a hole suddenly appears in the middle of the man's chest. As he crumbles to the ground, the agents spin around, trying to see where the shot came from. The gun that fired it had obviously been silenced.
"Anything?" Hotch asks.
Morgan, Reid and Rossi can only shake their heads. Once again the puppet master has gotten away. Rossi steps over and offers a hand to JJ.
"You okay?"
She takes it and lets him pull her up. She nods, still a bit out of breath. "Yeah. It was the guy that-"
"I know. The one that got away in Lancaster."
"How did you know?" she asks in amazement.
"He sent an overnight package to Emily yesterday. She called after she opened it."
JJ's heart skips a beat. "To…to Emily? AT HOME?"
Hotch shakes his head. "I don't know. She called, said you were in trouble. I just listened and ran. We'll call her when we get inside. What the hell were you doing out here anyway?"
JJ sneers. "I got a call from the front desk that someone hit my SUV. I came down to do the insurance swap shit and snap a couple pics of the damage."
Morgan shakes his head. "That was twice that bastard has targeted you, Jayje. We need to find him."
"Yeah, no shit." She pulls out her phone and calls her wife. "Em, I'm okay."
"Fuck, Jen…thank, God."
"Em, did he send that fucking package to our house?" she demands.
"No. It came with the courier. Shit, Jen, it had to have arrived just after I left the office today. Why the hell didn't I look at it sooner?" Emily is beating herself up. She paces the bedroom.
JJ sighs. "Em, this isn't your fault. Don't even start that."
"It's been here for hours, Jen. Hours," she whispers.
"Emily, stop. I'm okay. The killer is dead."
"And the puppet master?"
JJ leans against the car she had sheltered against. "We'll get him, Em. We will."
"Maybe."
"Em, how's your blood pressure?"
"Not good," she admits.
"Call Garcia."
"I will. Promise."
"I love you, Emily."
"I love you, too, Jennifer."
Emily hangs up and calls Garcia. "Hey, Emster, I'm just leaving the office. I think this last search will-"
"It's over. The case. Jen told me to call. BP is bad. I'll explain more when you get here."
"On my way," Garcia says, not even questioning the call.
Emily hangs up and, on shaky legs, makes her way to the recliner. That's where Garcia finds her just 15 minutes later. She had made record time to the Prentiss house.
JJ refuses to go back to her room. She sends Reid up to fetch her gun but insists on staying in the parking lot while the police investigate. She does concede to putting on her Kevlar vest though she figures the puppet master's aim has proven to be good enough to use a headshot to take her out if he wanted.
But it's too impersonal. She knows he wants to kill her when he can look into her eyes. She suddenly stands up straight.
"Oh, shit…someone else is going to die tonight, Hotch."
Hotch looks at her. "I know."
JJ turns and kicks the tire of the SUV she had been leaning against. Whoever his true target was would die tonight and there was nothing they can do to stop it because they still don't know who his kills were meant to hurt.
In Virginia, Garcia had taken Emily's blood pressure and it was beyond the red zone. She strokes a hand over Emily's head.
"We need to go to the hospital, honey. This is really, really bad."
Emily nods. "She…she made it back here and I still nearly lost her, Pen. She was…he was going…he…"
"Stop, Princess. He didn't get her. You and the team saved her. And she saved herself. Everything is okay."
"No, Pen, it's not. He's still out there. He's still…he's still out there."
"Okay, he is. But, Emily, you need to let it go for now. For Rocky."
Francesca pops her head into the room. "Emily?"
"Thanks for coming back down, Francesca. It's bad. I need to get her to the hospital," Garcia explains.
"Okay. I'll help you get her downstairs." She looks at Emily. "And I will stay with Henry. All is okay, cara. All is okay."
Emily just nods, suddenly feeling too weak to argue. The other two women help her up. She sways a bit. They steady her and get her down to Garcia's car. On the way, the analyst calls Dr. Manton who promises to meet them at the ER. Emily knows she will probably be staying overnight. She looks at her friend.
"Tell Jen I'm okay."
"I'll tell her the truth, Emily. Don't ask me to lie for you."
Emily sighs, knowing she'd be pissed if JJ had Garcia lie. "Right. Sorry."
Garcia just nods, hating how weak Emily's voice is sounding.