A/N: Ugg, I'm so sorry for not getting this out over the weekend. My weekend was pretty horrible (enough so that I was completely happy to be coming back to work…ssh, don't tell anyone I said that) and my creative juices had completely run out. But I am hopefully back now and back in the mojo.
But no matter how slow I may be in updating, I will never stop appreciating my amazing reviewers. You guys never cease to bring me joy and these latest reviews were no exception. Greengirl82, it's all good if you miss a chapter; though I do so love your reviews and appreciate that you wrote a little something not only about chapter 4, but about 3 as well. HPforever-after; sorry if the storyline is a bit creepy. This one has been building for a while and unfortunately I just had to put it out there. Hopefully later chapters will be less creepy for you as the story gains momentum and more info is filled in; the focus won't always be on the bad stuff. Miaa29, I think large might be a bit of an understatement at this stage considering what I still have running through my head but we'll play it by ear. I'm completely glad that you are along for the ride with me and I'll try not to be away too long in between chapters. Hazmatt, expect more adorable moments and loads of action to come as Emily works to keep them all alive and as the team as a whole works to catch the bad guys and get their ladies back. Thanks heaps for liking what I write. HGRHfan35, hint I may, but I am hopefully not too predictable and it still ends up being an enjoyable read. Get ready for a whole lot of butt kicking from a whole heap of different angles.
I would also love to give a big shout-out to a reviewer who is slowly making her way through my early work and will eventually catch up with where we are all currently at. To x-MJ-x, even with the lengthy messaging going on outside of the reviews, I don't think I've adequately explained how much your friendship and support truly means to me. I love you to pieces and back again. Thanks for reviewing Of Family & Mistletoe and the first 4 chapters of The Road to Nowhere all in the same day. I love seeing them anew through your eyes.
But now on with the story; the less time I waffle on here, the more time I have to write another 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 6
Aaron frowned in irritation as his mobile rang for the second time in fifteen minutes and ignored the guys as they laughed at his expression.
Next time, I'm turning the phone off when I have a guy's day.
"Hotchner," he said as he waved everyone to be quiet.
"Is this SSAIC Aaron Hotchner."
"It is," he replied cautiously. "To whom am I speaking?"
"This is SSAIC Alex Jackson, with California's Los Angeles branch office. I believe that Director Fickler recently requested your help on one of our cases and that you had agreed to that request. Considering the size of this case and how stalled we are with it, I thought I would get right on to finding out what your fax number is so we can send the information we currently have to you straight away."
Aaron raised an eyebrow, even knowing the other man couldn't see it. "I actually told the director that I would discuss it with my team and get back to him, as we are all on leave and I don't want to make it a unilateral decision without discussion." He turned as the doorbell peeled through the house and winced just slightly as he thought of the girls sleeping in their little port-a-crib at the side of the room and Ben sound asleep on his fathers' shoulder. But the girls stayed sleeping, Derek appeared to be breathing a sigh of relief and Dave passed him on the way to the door, leaving him to deal with the agent at the other end of the line.
"I see." Alex was silent for several long seconds before he sighed tiredly. "I'm sorry for jumping the gun here Agent Hotchner. I honestly thought we already had you all on board with this. I'll do my best to practice the virtue of patience my mother always said I was terrible at."
It was Aaron's turn to be quiet for a few moments before speaking. "Is the case that bad?"
"It's worse."
Aaron shoved a hand through his hair and sighed. "Look, I can't speak for my team and I'm guessing you know why it isn't an order for us to help you out, but if you want to send through what you have, I'll start looking at it this evening and hope my wife doesn't kill me for not discussing it with her first."
He could hear the sudden humour in the other mans' voice as he replied, "Well, I wouldn't want to get you kicked out of bed; I'll wait if you want to run it past her first."
Aaron chuckled. "She isn't home for me to ask but considering I've been driving her nuts over the last few weeks, I'm sure she'll be happy once I explain the situation. She's also an agent on maternity leave and is herself frustrated from enforced leave so she'll probably demand that I let her help. Let me just grab that fax number..."
A wordless roar of fury and fear ripped through the house from near the entrance to the living area, startling all three babies into screaming wakefulness, causing the boys to squeak in fright and dart towards their parents (or in Toby's case, him) and causing most of the adults in the room to reach for weapons they weren't actually carrying on their persons'.
"What on earth was that?" Agent Jackson demanded.
"Wait a minute and I'll find out," Aaron said as he crouched down to hug Jack and Toby to him. He could see Brad and Kevin, each with one of his daughters in their arms and each trying to soothe that child. Brad's experience as a doctor was obviously winning out, but Kevin needed the practice so Aaron left them to it as he turned to see Dave shaking in the doorway, a thick piece of parchment in his hand.
Derek beat him to it, demanding in a rough voice, "What the hell was that man? You better have a good reason for scaring everyone half to death."
Aaron noted the chalky whiteness of his friend's face as the older man lifted the parchment and held out an envelope. "A kid down the street found it on the pavement coming back from the park and remembered seeing the women leaving when he was just arriving and though he only recognised Emily and Carrie, he figured this was the right place to deliver this." 'This' was spat out in a venomous tone of voice none of them had ever heard Dave use before and suddenly he had everyone's full attention. "The envelope is addressed to The Families of Penelope, Jennifer, Austin, Carrie, Teresa, Kelly, Jordan and Emily. To the families of these beautiful women, don't mourn their loss in your lives..."
"Agent Jackson, I need to call you…"
But Alex Jackson wasn't done with the call and as Dave continued to read what was written on the parchment in his hand, Aaron's heart sank as he heard the same words echoed from clear across the country. "...but rejoice in the knowledge that your ladies are enriching the lives of their new husband and extended family. Be at peace, knowing they will be treated as the treasures they are and will be cared for all their days until the time they return to the heaven they surely must have come from."
Dave finished with, "It isn't signed."
Everyone turned to look at him as Aaron put the call on speaker and set the phone on the table so that he could hold Toby and Jack properly. Alex snorted angrily and swore. "It never is. The pretty speech is all you get and is the unsub's most disturbing signature. They take…"
"They?"
"Yes, we are dealing with multiple unsub's, all with a common goal. They take the woman or women they want and they leave behind a letter assuring the families and/or spouses that they don't need to worry about their lady because they are going to marry her and take good care of her for the rest of her days.
"Damn it all to hell. They only took their last victim here in LA just yesterday morning. How the hell did they get clear across the country in a day and still find time for hunting?" He started muttering to himself, his language degrading the longer he muttered until finally he spoke up again. "We'll be there as soon as we can. Bag that letter and any other evidence you may find, because I know you won't just sit there and wait for us to come to you. Take a thorough record of any witness reports or camera sightings you make collect and we'll pool it with what we've got when we get there."
"Answer me this before you go; have you ever found any of the women who went missing?"
"No. It was the letters that alerted us to the fact that we had a case. None of the over 100 women associated with the letters has ever been found."
He felt a deep sinking sensation. "Send through what you have before you go; I'll send that fax number to you and we'll start gathering the evidence here and compare it to all that you send through. Contact me when you arrive and I'll let you know where we're at."
"Consider it done, and if you have any questions in the interim, call immediately. It's never hit quite so close to home, but if your wife is an agent and one of the women that letter is referring to is your wife…"
"Yes, one of those women is my wife. Five of those eight women are agents, four of whom are on my team and the last is married to one of my team members. Of the other three women, one is the wife of another one of my team members, another is a fiancée of the man who answered the door and first read the letter who is also a team member and the other is my children's nanny. You can't get any closer to home."
"Clearly not. We are just about ready to go, so we'll be on the ground in Virginia in about 4 hours; the upper brass here are pushing this through as we speak. We'll go through official channels to arrange vehicles and such."
"Let me know if you hit any roadblocks there; you and your team have intimate knowledge of what is happening and we have to hit the ground running with almost no background on the case, all while trying to deal with our panic over what is happening to our ladies, two of whom are pregnant. We really need you here sooner versus later."
"I understand completely. Send me that number in the next minute and we'll send everything off before we leave here. The photos from the newest crime scene haven't been copied to paper yet, so we'll bring them with us and we'll also be bringing the physical evidence we have. You'll have the rest on your fax within the hour."
"Thanks. Failing to get them back isn't an option here; I refuse to let my three children grow up without their mother."
"That's good; hold on to that belief and with luck we'll somehow turn it into a reality. See you soon."
With that he hung up and Aaron did his best to comfort Jack and Toby as they clung to him and sobbed. He looked around the room at large and thought that if the determination he could see on his friends faces was anything to go by, they might just break this case yet.
New Section
"Do you know where we're going?"
Emily shot the men near JJ and Penelope a cautious look and murmured in reply, "I'm not really sure. They keep talking about returning to the palace, but that could be anywhere."
Austin leaned into Jordan's side and murmured something too soft for Emily to hear, piquing her curiosity. She didn't have to wait long to find out what it was.
Jordan leaned in closer and said softly, "Austin just saw a city limits sign."
She frowned. "Which city?"
"Baltimore."
Her frown deepened as she tried to fathom where these guys were taking them. She wasn't given that long to figure it out, as Teresa leaned into her side and whispered, "Do you think anyone's found the letter they left yet? Do you think they know we're missing?"
Emily rested her head briefly against the other woman's shoulder in comfort. "I'm sure it's been found by now. I saw one of the kids from down the street near the park as we were leaving and he's always walking around watching the ground in case he finds anything interesting. They'll figure it out and come to our rescue if they can unless we get a break sooner."
"Do you think we will?" Jordan asked softly as they pulled over yet again to change drivers.
Emily sighed as the knife at JJ's throat cut her skin just slightly, a threat to all of them to stay put and not to try anything.
"I really don't know anymore. But I think if we do get a break, we may only have seconds to make this work so we all need to stay alert."
"I somehow doubt any of us are sleeping any time soon," Jordan muttered as they continued on their way.
End-
A/N: I was totally going to have this in a different place by now but this just called for a new chapter, so stay tuned to this space to see what happens next.
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