A/N: Another dawn, another day and another chance to advance this piece. Wish me luck getting this to where I want it to go. :p
Most gigantic apologies for not having this out two days ago. I was going to have this posted by the time I went to bed on Monday but my manager called me first thing Monday morning and told me a new lady was starting and she would be training with me for the first two days of this week. So there went my idea of being up to chapter 5 already. I do however have a three day weekend coming up so am intending to go a little crazy with the writing unless my plans change at the last minute.
I have just been utterly blown away by the generosity of everyone's reviews. I absolutely could NOT do this without all of you behind me and wanting more. I'll only stop this when the reviews stop (hopefully that will be ages away because I am having sooooo much fun with this). So to this end, many thanks go out to Wtiger5, miaa29, HPforever-after, Hazmatt, greengirl82 and HGRHfan35 for saying such wonderful things; the piece continues on because of you.
Thanks also to DianaJ22 and StarDuquesneEMT for adding this story as a favourite already (only up to chapter 3 so you guys are amazing for my ego). I also want to thank anyone else who has alerted to my stories in any way or to me as an author. It really does do my heart good to know that what I write seems to be so appreciated and so please know that this is all dedicated to you, the fans, because you are just so amazing.
I am dedicating this chapter specifically to miaa29 for making me feel so incredibly good about the changes I've made so far to Emily's backstory when I was almost literally biting my nails over whether everyone would be okay with it; you really did make my day sweetie.
I also want to say a special thanks to Hazmatt for again picking up on a mistake I made in the last chapter. I swear my editing skills are getting worse the longer I write so maybe I should start thinking about finding a beta…hmm. I will do my best to have this mistake-free by the time I post it and I'd just like to apologise to everyone for all the mistakes I am making…it really isn't like me, I swear. I have since fixed the mistake and reposted the last chapter. The mistake doesn't actually have bearing on this chapter.
Rated M for violence, torture themes, drug use, coarse language and sex scenes. (yes, this is going to have a little bit of everything)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Criminal Minds at all, although they do own me and I do own Carrie and Toby, Chloe and India, Kelly and Brad and Ben.
Arabian Nights – Chapter 4
"Okay, now that the ladies have left us to it, Aaron, spit it out. Whatever it is that's been bothering you since the accident, just get it all out because my doctor's radar is going nuts."
Aaron smiled dryly. "That bad huh?"
Brad shrugged. "What can I say; as a doctor I tend to see things that most people wouldn't even notice. Your confusion at times when you are an extremely confident Alpha male has been raising red flags for weeks. The only reason I hadn't confronted you already was that a carefully phrased question to Emily informed me that you hadn't spoken to her about what was bothering you and so I didn't want to bring it up in front of her in case you were keeping quiet for a reason."
Aaron's smile grew. "You are a true friend Brad. Truly though, I finally spoke to Emily just now before she left and everything is fine."
"Fine as in, now you've off-loaded your burdens you feel better or fine as in, what was wrong has now gone away?"
"The first one." He detailed everything that had happened since the accident that had concerned him and watched as Brad's open and friendly face took on its 'doctor look'.
"Do you know, I don't think that's too out of the ordinary for patients recovering from head injuries. You said your confusion and forgetfulness is always limited to the moment and then once it's been explained it's as if nothing ever happened, right?"
"That's it exactly. It's never the same thing twice."
Brad nodded and smiled. "I wouldn't be too concerned about it. You had a massive head trauma followed by major surgery. Then you were still recovering before that from your breakdown. Truthfully, I might have been more suspicious if you'd had no reaction of any kind. I guess, to put it in terms you might more easily understand, it is your brains' way of adjusting to everything it has been through. Once it has adjusted, I imagine that this will all settle down and you won't have any more happenings of a similar kind.
"I would still mention it to your neuro-specialist for follow-up over the next little while, but I doubt it has anything to do with something still being physically wrong with your head."
"Is it too cliché to say that what you just said is a massive load off of my mind?"
Everyone groaned even as they chuckled and the heaviness in the air lightened as they moved into the living area to see what the children were up to.
New Section
Alex felt that his eyes would fall out of his head if he continued staring at the hundreds of photos Mirkal had taken of Marnie's home; yet whenever he thought about taking a break, something else would catch his eye and draw him back in. He knew he was obsessing over this, but with the scene still fresh, he found that he just didn't care how it looked to anyone as long as the outcome was a positive one.
The ringing phone jarred his concentration and he glared at the handset for a moment before he picked it up and straightened in his chair, his neck and back protesting the movement almost violently.
"Jackson," he barked, deciding he was entitled to being annoyed at being interrupted.
"Well aren't you just in a foul mood today."
He groaned internally and straightened further in the chair. "Director Fickler. Sorry about that; I've been staring at photos for a few hours and I'm frustrated at not getting anything out of them after so much time."
"That's understandable Alex, especially considering the amount of pressure you've placed on yourself to solve these abductions. Unfortunately for you, I'm about to dump a fairly heavy amount of pressure on top of what you are already under."
He groaned out loud this time. "I'd heard a rumour that one of the abductions might have political ramifications?"
"Not quite, but close enough. You've heard of Jason Schleberger?"
"Doesn't he own the largest oil and gas company in the world?"
"He does, and it's made him a multi-billionaire and a man you don't want to cross. Regrettably for him, the unsub took the man's youngest daughter several years ago. The file is on its way to your inbox and the original letter is on its way to you by courier. How many confirmed victims do you now have?"
"About a 103, the last time I spoke with Agent De Tritt. Not all states, but we have a couple of cases from clear across the country in New York, so clearly this guy isn't choosy about his hunting ground. Thus we are having a hell of a time pinning down a geographical profile, particularly since none of us are really that good at it."
"Yes well, to that end, I'm calling in some additional help for you. There's a BAU team in Quantico with an impeccable track record. They're all on leave at the moment, but if you're willing to send copies of your information over to them, I'll get them to look it all over and give you an in-depth assessment."
"Would they be willing to interrupt their leave like that?"
"Since their leave was not of the willing variety, I doubt they'll mind. I heard most of them are chomping at the bit to get back to work now even though they haven't been medically cleared."
"Are you talking about the team that was in that plane crash a month ago?"
"That's them. SSA Aaron Hotchner and his team are off until the end of the year and are apparently already complaining about that fact."
"But it's only mid-October."
"Yep, so you can see why they'd probably be happy to help. I'm calling them as soon as I get off the phone with you."
"Well I suppose any help we can get would be great, but is he any good?"
"He and his team have the best track record of all the BAU teams and better than that are the fact that Agent Hotchner and SSA David Rossi were part of the very first team when the BAU was first dreamed into existence. This gives you years of profiling experience and then there are the rest of the team to take into account and well, you'll get the point when the insights start rolling in."
"Good thing I trust you then, isn't it? Since you aren't giving much away, that is?"
"Trust me Alex, you'll thank me later. Now, considering the time difference, I'll call them now before I head home for the day. You have all my numbers, so don't hesitate to call if you need anything else. This big case just became bigger."
Listening to the dial tone a few seconds later, Alex muttered, "No shit."
New Section
"There you are, finally awake. Why don't you come and sit down? We're just about to eat so you have perfect timing and I'm sure you must be starving by now."
"I'd really rather go home."
"Don't be silly; you are home."
New Section
"Are we decided? We're really going to do this?"
"It's an acceptable risk to gain happiness for our brother."
They both murmured their agreement.
"Are we all completely clear on the plan? Because if this isn't as tight as tight can be we will be biting off far more than we can chew."
When they were all absolutely certain they knew what the plan was, they settled back to wait for the perfect moment.
New Section
"You look like you could quite happily run all the way home from here. Can you maybe stop moving for two seconds? You're making even me tired to just look at you."
Emily laughed at the face Austin pulled at her and reigned in her enthusiasm to get home and boot everyone out of the house.
"So do I need to occupy the boys for a few hours?"
Emily's smile came slowly as a thought came to her. "Could you maybe occupy them for the entire rest of the day and put them to bed this evening? That way I can take my time with my drop-dead-gorgeous husband." She put a little shimmy in her hips and the girls rolled their eyes and made a couple of lewd comments about her and Aaron as they exited the park and headed back towards the house. Emily replied to every one of the comments with a comment of her own that made the others blush and after a minute they stopped making fun of her near-voracious sexual appetite.
"Do you know, I swear the baby hormones never left. I don't recall being this horny since the first time around with Aaron."
"Brad once told me only exhaustion makes a woman less randy."
"Either that or a headache," Jordan agreed.
"Don't forget monthlies," Austin piped in with an exaggerated roll of her eyes.
Emily screwed up her nose. "Let's not talk about monthlies. I had a month-long one of those following giving birth and it was so far away from fun that burying me then would have produced a better party."
Groans turned into laughter, though Jordan, Carrie and JJ were nodding their agreement.
"Do you know I'd forgotten that downside. Thanks so much for bringing it back up," JJ said as she swiped half-heartedly at Emily's arm. Emily danced out of the way and curtsied.
Carrie sighed. "She'll be impossible now until she's gotten her way, so don't even bother trying to reign her in."
Austin suddenly shot Carrie a sly look. "Hey, it just dawned on me that you live with the Hotchners." She ignored the teasing comments at her slow thinking and continued, "So maybe you could let us all in on the goss of living with the boss?"
Carrie blushed slightly and shook her head as she ducked it. Emily turned to scold Austin for her audacity in even asking the question and nearly tripped on her own feet as she came to a halt.
"If you don't do anything stupid, then maybe they'll live to see their babies born. Scream, or otherwise make things difficult for us and I won't hesitate to carve either of the brats out of them, leave them behind to die and sew the ladies back up to make more." When none of them moved, he nodded. "Let's go ladies, nice and slow now."
They moved in the direction indicated and Emily picked up on the sameness of the van from earlier in the afternoon. She shot Jordan a look and received a raised eyebrow in return. A flicker of a glance at Penelope and JJ told her that trying anything could be fatal for someone if they didn't play their cards right. She shook her head minutely and kept moving.
Austin moved closer, shaking and crying softly. "What are we going to do?" She whispered as Emily wrapped a comforting arm around her shoulders.
Another look at JJ and Penelope and she shook her head again. "I don't know Austin. I just don't know."
End-
A/N: I'm pretty sure I promised you all that I would leave our favourite superheroes alone for a while and give them a break from all the bad stuff in life, but this was entirely necessary for the story and I promise I won't leave you hanging for too long as to what happens next.
Please review with the conveniently placed link right under these words. I love to know what you think and it makes me type faster and update quicker.