Here is the next installment, I love all the reviews you guys have been giving me, and I would love to get more! I hope you enjoy this chapter- it's one of the longer ones.
Once again, I owe so much to my amazing beta youdude!
I do not own Criminal Minds
Emily's dead eyes were staring unfocused on the television screen, when her cell phone rang.
She picked it up lethargically and held it to her ear.
"Yeah?" she asked.
"Hey Emily." JJ's voice greeted on the other end. "I'm sorry to be calling you so early."
"It's alright- I was already awake," Emily informed her, with no greeting in return.
"Oh." JJ faltered briefly. "Well, this morning when I tried to start my car, it wouldn't run. The mechanic won't be in until tomorrow and there aren't any taxis or rentals open this early."
"Okay, I can be over in twenty minutes." Emily answered the question she knew was coming.
"Thanks."
Emily hung up the phone before either of them could say anymore. She groaned as she got up from the couch and worked the kink that had made its way into her neck. Slowly, she made her way to the bathroom and looked in the mirror. The face that looked back was a ghost's. Dark circles underlined her eyes, and her bruise was turning purple. After taking a quick shower, she applied makeup to the spots and left to pick up JJ. She didn't bother with breakfast- it just didn't seem important right now.
When JJ entered Emily's car, she did a double take. The woman sitting next to her did not look like the Emily Prentiss she knew.
"Hey Em, how are you doing?" she asked cautiously.
Emily shrugged in return and started the car. Without any further conversation, the two drove to the BAU.
Morgan and Reid were already sitting at their desks when JJ and Emily entered the bullpen.
"Hey guys," JJ greeted them, as she passed them to walk up to her office. The men returned the greeting and then quickly got back to their paper work.
"Hotch has been up there with Strauss for an hour," Reid observed. "Doesn't she know he didn't do anything?"
"As team leader he's responsible for everything that happens. Even if it isn't his fault." Morgan unconsciously glanced at Emily, but then quickly turned away. But she didn't miss it.
Emily sat down at her desk and started working on the piles of paperwork that filled her desk.
A few minutes later, Hotch walked down and into to the bullpen, "Prentiss, Strauss wants to see you in her office."
"Emily Prentiss." Strauss acknowledged her briefly as she walked into the room.
"Ma'am," Emily returned coolly as she stood in the doorway.
"Sit down." Strauss gestured to the chair in front of her desk, and Emily took a seat. "We need to go over the events of the last few days."
Emily nodded curtly.
"Why was it you that went undercover?" Strauss asked first.
This question involved no thinking. "I was his 'type'. He went after brunette women."
Strauss accepted this answer and moved on. "Why did you go to the Black Tree Bar?"
"We knew we only had one chance to get the right bar, and that was where he had taken over half of his victims, so we knew it was in his comfort zone."
A listening device was placed in the strap of Emily's dress and then zipped up. She was wearing a tight navy blue knee length dress. A microphone was placed in the bracelet she was wearing.
"Looking good Prentiss," Morgan said, walking over to her.
Emily smirked. "In your dreams Morgan."
Morgan scowled, but then laughed. "You stay safe out there Prentiss."
"I will," she promised him.
He patted her on the back, and then left just as Hotch arrived.
"Are you ready?" he asked her.
"As ready as I can be," she answered.
"Remember that if at any time you feel you or your identity is compromised, just say-"
"Hotch I've been undercover before," she assured him, stopping him mid-speech. "I will be okay."
"Okay, just use the profile to filter out the other men that talk to you," Hotch reminded her.
"Hotch, let me also remind you: I have dated before. I know what I'm doing!"
"Okay, then let's go."
"How many men did you speak with before you met the UNSUB?" Strauss cut into her thoughts.
"Five."
"How did you know who the UNSUS was?" she asked.
"He had the classic traits of a narcissist and fit our profile," Emily explained. Against her will, the man, Kyle, filled her thoughts.
Emily was sitting at the bar when a man approached her. He had dark hair and eyes and had a muscular build. He sat down next to her and said to the bartender, "I'll have two scotches."
"I already have a drink." Emily informed him of the obvious as she held up her beer.
"You'll like this better," he responded.
"This has to be the UNSUB," Morgan said through her earpiece.
"My name is Kyle," he informed her. He didn't even ask for her name.
"Nice to meet you Kyle," Emily greeted.
Their Scotches arrived and Emily took small sips of hers while he gulped his down in one.
"Want to go back to my house?" he asked.
"Go, Prentiss," Hotch said through the earpiece, "Morgan and I are ready to follow him. Get into the house and give us the signal the second you see anything."
"Of course," she answered, replying to both Hotch and the UNSUB at once.
He stood up and took her arm- a little too tight for her comfort. She plastered a smile on her face, asking "Where do you live?"
"I want it to be a surprise." He smiled.
She nodded and followed him into a white Subaru.
Strauss nodded. So far everything she was asking had already been answered by Hotch, but she wanted to confirm that the information was accurate. But this next question was where she would get her real information. "What happened when you got to his house?"
Emily leaned back and closed her eyes. She was forced to replay those memories. The ones that she wished so dearly to forget.
They turned into the driveway of a modest white house.
'What is it with him and the color white?' she asked herself. He unlocked his door, got out, and then opened Emily's door for her. Through her peripheral vision, Emily could just make out the SUV with Morgan and Hotch in it as it drove by the house. They would park a few houses down, and when they got the signal, they would come. Kyle grabbed Emily's arms tight and walked her into the house.
"You're coming with me," he hissed.
Her eyes widened, "What are you doing?" She faked confusion. She had to pretend she was just another victim.
He practically dragged her across the room and towards a closet.
What the hell?
He opened the door, and just when Emily thought he was going to lock her in there, opened a door in the floor- a hidden door. He pushed her down the ladder, and then closed the closet and the trap door. He then quickly followed her down, kicking her shoulder with his foot if she didn't climb down fast enough. She got to the bottom and saw a sight that hit her like a ton of bricks. Caroline was curled up in the corner of a cage, and there was another one next to her.
"Come on," Emily hissed into the microphone to Hotch.
"We're on our way," he confirmed immediately.
Kyle came up from behind Emily and grabbed her neck. He put his other hand around her stomach and walked her to the cage.
"Here you go, my love," he whispered fiercely into her ear, before throwing her in.
Hotch's voice came in Emily's ear. "We're approaching the house."
"I read the profile that your team made for this case. Isn't it true that you should have had one week before the UNSUB was supposed to kill Caroline?" Strauss questioned.
"Well yes…" Emily started.
"Then why didn't you?" she demanded.
Emily picked at her nails in her lap. "He was raping her."
"And so its better that she's dead? I have been getting calls from Los Angeles for the last 24 hours questioning how the team handled this case, and that is your excuse? How could you not have held him off for five minutes? Hotch was in the house!" Strauss asked angrily. Despite what the team might think, it was her ass on the line and she wasn't prepared to let one agent's careless actions affect her.
Emily shook her head slowly. But she wasn't disagreeing with Strauss, because she was right. She took in a deep breath and was again sucked into the memory of that terrible moment.
Kyle locked the cage Emily was in and approached Caroline's. "Now, you're new here," he looked at Emily, "so I'm going to let you see how it's done first."
He stepped inside the cage and slowly bent down, grabbing Caroline by the hair and forcing her to stand up.
"Take your pants off, bitch," he commanded her. She un-did the button on her jeans mechanically as if someone else had possessed her body.
"Stop!" Emily shouted, "Do it to me, not her." She tried to buy time until Hotch and Morgan got there.
"Prentiss where is the door to the basement?" Hotch's voice rang through the earpiece, but Emily wasn't able to answer because Kyle's attention was fully on her.
"Don't worry, you'll get your turn too," he promised with a smile. He started to take his own pants off.
He pushed her to the ground and bent over her. Caroline turned her head and her dead eyes fixated on Emily.
"Kyle, you don't want to do this," Emily shouted at him.
"Now, why wouldn't I?" he asked, turning his head towards her.
"She is not your wife. Hurting her will not make you feel any better," Emily said, desperately trying to get him to stop.
"You don't know what you're talking about." Kyle turned his attention back to Caroline.
"I'm with the FBI; believe me Kyle when I tell you that this is not what you want." Emily urgently tried to get his attention off of Caroline.
"FBI you say?" He pulled his pants back up and zipped them. Emily let out a breath, thinking she had stopped him.
Then suddenly he was pulling a knife out of his pocket. "You FBI agents just can't stay in your own business can you?" he asked, bringing the knife up to Caroline's face.
"I know that your wife left you, and I know how angry that made you feel. But you must know that killing these other women doesn't help you feel any more powerful."
"That's where you're wrong." He laughed. "If you hadn't come I hope you know this little dear here would stay alive." He toyed the knife against her cheek bone, breaking the skin.
"Kyle-"
He cut her off, "I hope that at night when you close your eyes, you see this woman. I know you FBI like to pride yourselves on how many people you've 'saved'. How about how many you killed."
With this he brought the knife to Caroline's throat and with a single slash blood spewed from her neck. Her head sat oddly on her shoulders in a way that no living person's ever would. Even in death, her same dull eyes stared directly into Emily's.
Emily shuddered when she thought of those eyes. The ones that she should have protected; should have saved. "Is that all?" Emily questioned. She needed to get out of this office.
"You are suspended for two weeks pending a further investigation. Give me your badge and your gun."
Emily kept her face locked in an emotionless expression. Robotically, she reached to her belt and took off her gun and badge. She was reluctant as she set the items on Strauss's desk.
Strauss took them with pleasure. It wasn't that she particularly liked suspending her, but now she had done something about the way this case had turned out. She had answers to all the questions that were being shouted at her.
Without any other words, Emily got up from the chair and left Strauss's office. She closed the door behind her and brought her hands to her head. All of her worst thoughts had just been confirmed in that room.
Reluctantly, she walked back to the bullpen and immediately went to her desk. She pulled her bag together and gripped it tightly in her hand. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Reid and Morgan staring at her. Quickly she turned away and walked up to Hotch's office.
She knocked slowly on his door, and he looked up from his papers. He motioned her in, but she stayed near the door.
"I assume Strauss already talked to you?" Emily asked.
Hotch nodded.
"Then I guess I will see you in two weeks." She turned her back to leave.
Hotch stopped her. "Remember that these things happen to the best of us."
Emily gave a cynical laugh and left his office.
She was about to go down the stairs when she heard another voice call her name. She turned and saw JJ exit her office.
"I was just headed home; do you think you could give me a ride?" she asked.
Emily really just wanted to be alone. She didn't want to talk about anything. "Why don't you ask Morgan or Garcia?"
"They're not leaving yet," JJ told her.
Emily didn't argue back, and JJ took this as a yes.
The sky outside was grey and smoggy, and the two of them drove down the foggy street in silence. When JJ finally couldn't take it any longer, she broke the silence.
"Emily, do you want to talk about it?" she asked.
"What is there to talk about?" Emily replied coldly.
"About what happened on the case?"
"No," Emily said curtly, "Please JJ just leave it alone."
But of course, just that single mention of the case forced all of her thoughts to return to it.
"DAMMIT HOTCH WHERE ARE YOU!" Emily screamed into the microphone, no longer caring if Kyle heard.
"We found the door." Hotch's words came calmly to her ear.
She ran for the door of her cage, but it was locked. There was no way to get out without the key.
She heard footsteps coming down the ladder.
"Kyle, drop the knife!" Morgan yelled, his gun cocked.
Kyle looked around the room and contemplated his choices. There was no way he would go in with the cops. He thrust his knife in front of himself and ran forward towards the agents.
Three shots rang through the room and Kyle hit the ground mid step.
"Get Caroline!" Emily yelled out to the men.
Hotch ran over and felt her pulse, "She's dead," he confirmed. "We need a coroner and an EMT." Hotch spoke to JJ over the microphone.
Morgan searched through the pockets of Kyle's coat and found the keys to the cages. He grabbed it and ran over to unlock Emily.
"I need to help Caroline," Emily mumbled, trying to step around Morgan.
"She's gone Emily," Morgan told her, taking her arm.
"No, she can't be," Emily said numbly as she tried to pull out of Morgan's strong grip.
"Emily, she's dead."
Emily closed her eyes. Caroline couldn't be dead. She promised her parents she would do anything to get their daughter.
She had promised.
"I was just trying to stop him," Emily mumbled staring out the window.
"I know that Em." JJ told her. "It will help if you talk about it."
"I slipped up." She gazed into the dark sky. She thought about what JJ just said. Maybe she should talk about it. But that wouldn't bring Caroline back, or the fact that it was her fault. But maybe it would help.
"Emily!" She faintly heard someone yell. She slowly blinked back into reality, and the last thing she saw were two bright headlights staring straight at her. She barely felt the impact itself, but JJ's screaming voice rang through her.
"EMILY!"
I hope you liked the chapter, and I would love to hear what you think :)