Yep - I know you all ended up having to wait a torturously long time to find out what happens next - I really am sorry about that. I just really had to figure out how to lay out this chapter... but here it is now and I hope you all enjoy it immensely. Now I'm off to work on chapters 7.
I don't own Criminal Minds.
Happy reading and enjoy :D
"Mm… you are a brilliant, brilliant man Spencer Reid." JJ sighed in absolute bliss as she sank back against her husband's chest in the bath tub.
"Hmm… it's nice to be appreciated." Spence murmured as he lowered his head and kissed her shoulder.
JJ's fingernails raked along her husband's thighs as she shifted in his arms and leaned back, her head resting on his shoulder, tipped to the side, allowing him access as his lips continued to peruse the soft flesh of her neck and shoulder. Warm vanilla scented vapor from the tub enveloped them, the humid air condensing on their skin where it was exposed to the air.
Spence inhaled deeply, taking comfort from being close to his wife after a hell of a case that had taken the team across Montana, Idaho, and Washington. Sharing a bubble bath with JJ… that was his idea of nirvana he thought to himself as his fingertips trailed up and down her arms, sluicing through the bubbles, while his lips continued to dance across her collar bone.
Goose bumps raised on JJ's skin at the feel of Spence running his fingertips lightly up and down her arms while his lips caressed her shoulder. "Spence" she moaned softly as she felt his fingers leave her arms and then his hands caressed her belly softly.
Spence rubbed his hands softly across his wife's belly, smiling into the kiss he placed on the pulse point of her neck as he felt the baby move; shift; and stretch his legs out, causing his foot to press against the side of his Mommy's belly. Then Spence slipped his hands between them and rubbed at JJ's lower back, which he knew had to be bothering her.
"Mm… that feels amazing." JJ moaned arching her back as Spence's thumbs moved in circles over the tight muscles that were strained by the additional weight of the baby. "What did I ever do to deserve a husband as wonderful as you?" she asked as she turned her head and kissed Spence's neck.
"You loved me for who I am and you never asked me to change." Spence replied as he kissed JJ's temple. "It was an equitable exchange though. I love you JJ." Spence whispered with his forehead resting against her temple as his hands skimmed past her hips and along the length of her thighs.
"I love you too baby." JJ replied, lifting and turning her head so that she could look up into Spence's eyes.
Spence dropped his forehead to rest on JJ's, maintaining eye contact as he slid his hands up and down the silky smooth skin of his wife's thigh.
JJ gasped as she felt Spence thumb graze her ever so slightly and then she whined softly at the loss when his hand moved away on the downward stroke of her thigh.
Spence tipped his head and captured JJ's lips with his as his fingers teased the skin of her inner thigh at her knee. His hand glided up the distance between her knee and her hip, pausing for a moment at the top and then repeated the path between her knee and hip for a few more cycles as he reveled in the feeling of his wife's skin underneath his fingertips. After almost six years together he knew just what JJ liked.
JJ crooned her approval as Spence's talented fingers slid through her folds, teasing ever so softly as he stroked. "Spence, baby…" JJ keened in a low voice.
"Do you like that?" Spence whispered in her ear. "Does it feel good?"
"Yes… oh god, yes... Spence, baby…" JJ moaned in reply as she writhed under her husband's touch.
They cuddled together for a bit as they recovered. Then JJ turned in Spence's arms and kissed him softly. "Come on baby, we need to go to bed."
"Hmm… the water's getting cold anyway." Spence said as he sat up and leaned forward and pulled the drain plug on the tub. Then he turned on the shower and stood up. He reached down and helped JJ to her feet. "So what do we have planned for tomorrow?" he asked as he wrapped his arms around JJ under the warm spray of the shower.
"Mm" JJ moaned as she rested her head on Spence's chest while the shower rinsed away the bubbles. "I was thinking we should get Henry's hair cut and then we can finish up the nursery."
"Sounds like a plan." Spence murmured against the top of JJ's head. Then he reached down and turned off the shower. He reached out of the shower and grabbed the large fluffy towels he'd set out earlier and wrapped one around JJ and then held her hand as she stepped out of the shower. He grabbed the second towel for himself and wrapped it around his waist and stepped out of the shower himself.
Emily sighed in relief as she and Aaron checked on Avery and Seth who were both sleeping peacefully. At least their babies were peacefully sleeping. After the news they'd received from Sean, she didn't think she'd be able to sleep peacefully until Doyle was back in prison.
She reached out and softly brushed Avery's ebony locks back from her face and then leaned over and pressed a kiss to the one year old's forehead. "Sleep well baby, Mommy loves you." Emily whispered as she stood up. Then she moved across the room, repeating the process with Seth, who slept soundly in his crib.
The Hotchner family was definitely in need of a larger house, one where the kids each had their own room and a yard to play in. Emily and Aaron had been planning on looking at houses over the next few weeks to see what their options were. 'That's going to have to wait until after we've dealt with Doyle' Emily mused in her head as she stood against the rail of Seth's crib looking down at him as she trailed her fingers over the baby boy's head. She knew that as much as they needed a new house, their odds of defending themselves and the kids, should it come to that, fared much better in familiar territory.
"I'd ask what you're thinking about, but I already know the answer." Aaron said as he stood in the doorway, arms crossed over his chest while he took in the sight of Emily tucking in their youngest two children. He walked into the nursery and wrapped an arm around Emily as he looked down at their youngest with Emily. He smiled as he watched the sleeping baby boy. Then he glanced over his shoulder to see that Avery was also sound asleep. "Are you ready to talk about it?" Aaron asked as he led his wife out of the nursery and down the hall to their bedroom.
"So what were you thinking?" The stylist asked as Spence lifted Henry up into the kiddy hairstylist chair that was shaped like a car.
JJ bit her lip in thought for moment. "I'm not sure. I know he needs it trimmed so it's not in his eyes, but…" JJ trailed off.
The hairstylist smiled. "But you want to keep it a little bit longer for now?" the hairstylist asked knowingly. After all, she saw mothers coming in to get their baby's first haircut done all the time. A lot of the mothers cried when the baby curls were cut off and their children left looking more like big boys and girls than babies.
JJ nodded while she watched Spence bending down and talking to Henry.
"Okay then, how about a bowl cut for now? It will keep a lot of the length like you want, but it will trim it up so his hair isn't in his eyes anymore."
JJ smiled; glad the hairstylist understood exactly what she wanted, as she nodded in agreement. "That sounds perfect."
"Alright then Mr. Henry let's get you all set here." The stylist said as she wrapped the cape around Henry's shoulders.
Henry glanced down at the cape that now completely covered him and made a face as he poked at the inside of the cape with his fingers. He giggled as the cape made a crinkling sound and then bulged out in front of him.
The stylist smiled as she ran a comb through the little boy's hair. He was definitely a cutie. "So Mommy, how short were you thinking? About here?" the stylist asked as she held her finger at about the middle of Henry's ear.
JJ nodded in slight surprise as she realized just how long Henry's hair had gotten. He looked almost like Daddy before he'd gotten his hair cut last spring.
"Okay." The stylist replied and then she gather a section and wrapped a rubber band tightly around it just below where she would be cutting to and snipped off the bundled lock of hair, placed it in a baggie, and handed it to Mommy.
JJ's eyes teared up ever so slightly as she glanced down at the blonde lock of baby fine hair that rested in the baggie in the palm of her hand. Then she made sure the baggie was sealed and stashed it away in her purse to go in Henry's baby book later. Then she smiled as she watched Henry hold his Daddy's hand while the stylist trimmed his hair from the wild tussled locks of a baby to the very cute bowl cut of a toddler.
"Mama?" Henry asked as JJ strapped him into his car seat.
"Yes Henry?" JJ smiled as she smiled at Henry.
"I hunwy."
JJ glanced down at her watch. "Well how about we go home and have lunch with Chloe and Rebecca?"
Henry nodded. "Pisa?" he asked hopefully.
"You want pizza?" Mommy asked.
"Uh huh" Henry nodded his new haircut bouncing slightly as he nodded his head.
"Hmm… do you think Chloe and Bec would like pizza for lunch too?" Mommy asked as she glanced at Spence over the seat of the car and winked.
"Uh huh" Henry nodded again.
"What about Daddy?" Mommy asked with a smile.
"Dada wike pisa?" Henry asked as he looked at Daddy in the front seat of the car.
"I do like pizza." Daddy said as he smiled at Henry and JJ.
"Hmm… well then I think since you were such a good boy about getting your hair cut, we can have pizza for lunch." Mommy said and then kissed Henry on the top of the head.
"JJ, babe, can you…" Spence paused as they walked out from picking up the pizzas at the take and bake place. Spence had Henry in one arm two pizzas in his hand, and his cell phone was ringing in his pants pocket.
"Why certainly." JJ replied with a smirked as she reached playfully into Spence's pants pocket with her free hand.
Spence groaned as JJ squeezed him briefly just before she pulled out his phone.
"Dr. Spencer Reid's phone" JJ answered as she leaned up and pecked Spence on the corner of his mouth. "Oh… hey Hotch" JJ replied, her stomach sinking with the thought that the team was needed on a case over the weekend. "Oh… okay… sure... okay. We'll see you then."
"What did Hotch need?" Spence asked as JJ slipped his phone back in his pocket.
"It was strange. He wanted to know if it would be okay if everyone got together at our place this afternoon, but he didn't say why."
Spence looked down at the two pizzas in his hand and then looked at JJ. "We should put these in the car and get a few more pizzas. We'll just tell everybody to come over for lunch."
"Okay, I'll call Hotch back and have him tell everybody." JJ said as she pulled her cell phone out of her purse and opened the car door for Spence to be able to set the pizzas inside.
"I'll get it." Spence said at the sound of the ringing doorbell as he pulled a cheese pizza for the kids out of the oven and sat it on top of the stove. He paused to kiss JJ, who sat at the kitchen table with Chloe and Henry as they munched on some mixed fruit and some veggies while they waited for the pizza to be ready for them to eat.
"Hey pretty boy" Morgan said with a smile at Reid as he opened the front door. Derek and Penelope stepped across the threshold of the doorway and into the Reid household.
"Hey man… Hey Garcia." Reid said smiling at his friends. Even though technically Penelope was now a Morgan, the team still affectionately called her Garcia as well as calling her by her first name. "Hi Jake" Reid said smiling at his godson, who was happily perched in his Daddy's arms, as Morgan pulled the blanket off of the boy's head.
"What do you think Hotch and Emily wanted to get together for?" Morgan asked Reid as they headed for the kitchen.
"I have no idea… maybe they're having another baby?" Reid speculated.
Penelope tipped her head to the side in contemplation and then shook her head. "No… our Emily isn't showing symptoms of being preggers. It has to be something else." Her mind raced as she attempted to figure out what could be going on with the dark haired dynamic duo.
Then the doorbell rang again. "Excuse me, I'm going to get that, but JJ and the kids are in the kitchen." He said over his shoulder as he turned back towards the entry way.
The group sat together in the Reid's kitchen. Everyone had arrived but Hotch and Emily at this point. Morgan and Will were helping Reid with shuffling the pizzas in and out of the oven and getting them cut. Dave was holding Billy and making funny faces at the currently youngest baby of the group, causing him to laugh and giggle at his Uncle Dave.
"So, no Erin this afternoon?" Elle asked from where she sat next to Dave.
"No" Dave replied shaking his head. "She and Courtney are out shopping for the perfect prom dress."
"Ah" Elle said with a nod of her head in understanding of how important the perfect prom dress was at seventeen.
"JJ" Gideon said as he took a sip of his coffee, "I just want you to know that Hotch, Dave, and I haven't given up on getting you back from the Pentagon. I had a meeting with the Director this week… he'd like you back as well. He isn't happy about the fact that one of his agents was co-opted right out from underneath him with no say whatsoever on his part. We'll figure it out soon."
JJ rubbed her belly where the baby was kicking. "Thanks. It's nice to know you're still trying… but don't worry sir; I'll completely understand if it isn't possible."
Gideon nodded and then smiled as he looked around the room for a moment, taking in how close the team had become over the years. It was moments like this that made him appreciate life and how good it was. The sound of happy toddlers and babies filled the Reid's kitchen. The team had grown and shrank in different ways over the years, but they really had become family. Of course he'd never forget about the six agents he lost in Boston… he'd carry their memories with him always. But he'd finally forgiven himself for sending them into that building… for surviving while they died. He'd made a promise to them at their funerals that they hadn't died in vain. Looking around at the agents currently gathered here and thinking about Hotch and Emily who were still en route, he couldn't help but be proud of everything the team had accomplished since then, both professionally and personally. He wondered what the old team would have thought of the new team. And he realized that a large part of what the new team had become was the result of JJ's second chance. Then he resolved himself once more to finding a way to get her back on the team.
He turned and looked at JJ again as he stood up from the table. "If we can't find a way, we'll make a way." He said as he squeezed JJ's shoulder. Then he stepped over to the other side of the kitchen to help the guys with the food preparations.
JJ smiled as she turned to look at Penelope who sat next to Jake who was in a booster seat at the table with Chloe and Henry. "I can't get over what a perfect combination of you and Derek Jake is growing into."
"He is pretty cute with his perfect complexion, blond corkscrew curls, and his Daddy's devastatingly dark eyes, isn't he?" Penelope replied with a proud Mama's smile on her face.
JJ nodded. "I think you're going to have a heartbreaker on your hands when he's older. Mothers lock up your daughters." JJ laughed.
"Hey look who decided to join us." Morgan said as he looked up as Reid led the Hotchner family into the kitchen just as he, Will, and Gideon finished getting everything ready.
Chloe perked up at seeing Aunt Emily and Uncle Hotch. "Where Jack?" Chloe asked as Emily sat Avery on the seat next to Chloe.
"Oh sweetie, Jack couldn't come today. He's with his Mommy this weekend." Emily replied as she gave Chloe a hello hug.
Chloe sighed. "Okay… can you teww him I said hi?"
Emily smiled. "I definitely will. He says hi too." Then she turned to look at her godson. "Henry, I like your haircut."
Henry grinned at his godmother. "I want it wike Dada's. Mama say no."
Emily chuckled enjoying the remaining time before she and Aaron rained down havoc and chaos on the group when they shared the information about Ian Doyle. She thought back to the conversation she and Aaron had the night before as the planned how to tell the team. Aaron had wanted to use the SCIF, but she hadn't been sure that going into the Bureau on the weekend would go unnoticed if somehow Doyle already had managed to get eyes on her. She could only hope she was making the right decision. Then she turned to glance at JJ and she knew that if anyone would understand, it would be JJ. "Yeah, I think Mommy made the right choice buddy. If you had Daddy's haircut how would we tell you apart?"
Henry looked puzzled for minute and then looked over at Daddy, then over at Mommy, then back at Aunt Emily. "You siwwy. I wittle no big wike Dada."
JJ smiled at Henry's logical reasoning in response to Emily's teasing, just like certain other genius she knew. "Aunt Emily was only teasing baby. We'd still have been able to tell you apart from Daddy, but Mommy doesn't want you to look as grown up as Daddy yet. I want you to look like my baby boy Henry for just a little longer."
Henry nodded in agreement, as if Mommy's argument made perfect sense to him. "Otay"
By the time lunch was done, four very messy toddlers sat in their booster seats at the table with pizza sauce all over their faces. Billy and Seth weren't much better. They were seated in Chloe and Henry's old high chairs and their faces were covered in baby food.
A massive cleanup effort happened with the Mommies washing faces and hands before they turned the kids loose to play together for a little bit before they needed to be corralled for nap time.
Hotch watched intently as all the kids played together in the living room. He hoped against hope that no matter what happened they would be able to keep everyone safe. What he wouldn't give for JJ to still know the future… If only… He shook his head. Nothing productive would come from that line of thought at this point.
"Aaron, are you alright?" Dave asked as he sat down beside the man who'd become his best friend over the course of the last few years. "You're looking especially hyper vigilant today and I really don't think Reid and JJ's carpet has ever done anything to you to have earned the glare you're giving it." He joked.
"And I think its nap time." JJ said as she watched Chloe and Henry almost nodding off to sleep where they sat together on the floor with Jake and Avery playing with some toys.
Spence stood up and picked up Chloe and Henry in his arms. "Come on let's get you guys to bed before you use the pile of blocks as a pillow."
As JJ and Spence headed upstairs with Henry and Chloe to get them tucked in for their naps, everyone else set about getting the rest of the toddlers and babies down for naptime as well. A few minutes later when Spence and JJ descended down the stairs, all of the kids were sound asleep and napping in the living room. JJ and Spence followed the sound of low voices to their kitchen.
"We thought we'd come in here so that we wouldn't accidentally wake the kiddos up." Penelope said from where she sat at the table. "So Emily, my friend, what's going on… why the big gathering?" she asked as she prepared to interrogate her friend in her anxiousness to find out the news of what was going on.
Emily glanced to Aaron who was sitting next to her and took a deep breath. Aaron could sense Emily's nerves and took her hand in his and squeezed it in silent support as she prepared to tell her story.
Emily turned and looked at her closest friends, her chosen family, all gathered around JJ and Reid's table waiting for her to speak. She cleared her throat. "JJ do you remember back when I first joined the team and you asked me how come none of this gets to me? How I could come off of a desk job and suddenly be in the field surrounded by mutilated bodies and not even flinch?"
"Yeah… that was in Georgia, when Spence was…" JJ answered trailing off at the horrible memories of Georgia… both times.
Spence wrapped his arm around JJ and kissed her temple.
Emily nodded. "Yeah… you were right. I did come to the team from a desk job, but I'd only had it a few months. Before that I was part of a special task force. JTF-12."
"The group that was profiling terrorists after 9/11?" Dave asked as he leaned forward on his elbows where they rested on the table.
Emily nodded and swallowed. "It was a joint task force between several western countries. I was recruited to the task force not too long after I took the profiling classes because I thought they'd come in handy with my career at the CIA." Emily said dryly. "The nature of the profiling however was a bit different than what we do… it wasn't just a matter of delivering a profile… we used infiltration to bring the terrorist cells down from the inside."
"Emily, why are you choosing now, after all this time, to tell us about this?" Morgan asked calmly. He'd definitely learned to stop and listen after the last time he'd exploded over a large secret being kept from the team. But what nobody other than Penelope could see was his fist clenching and unclenching as he prepared for whatever news Emily was about to share with them.
Emily took another deep breath. "Seven years ago, the team and I took down a very dangerous man by the name of Ian Doyle. We worked for a long time to bring him down, over a year. He was a former IRA Captain who went freelance. I made contact with him in Boston because we were looking for intell on a terrorist who used the code name of Valhalla. We checked his background thoroughly searching for our way in to his group. We even looked through the background of all of his romantic relationships… I was his type." Emily said softly pausing to let the team absorb the information she'd shared so far.
The team all looked at Emily with wide eyes, wondering how bad the news could be if she was sharing something with them from before she even knew them.
"The reason I'm telling you this is because last night Aaron and I met with Sean McCallister. He and I became friends when he brought the JTF-12 in to help locate and apprehend Valhalla." Emily took one final deep breath. "Ian Doyle escaped from prison and Interpol can't find him. Everyone who worked the Ian Doyle cases is in danger. I couldn't let any of you be blindsided… and I also need your help. If it was just me, I would take care of it on my own… but it's not just me." Emily said as she glanced at Aaron and smiled sadly.
"So how do we find this guy? Let's catch him and put him back where he belongs." Morgan said as he leaned forward.
"Derek's right. We need to find Doyle as quickly as possible. There's a lot at stake and the sooner we catch him the better." Dave said with a nod of his head towards the living room indicating their sleeping children.
Reid sat absorbing every detail that was discussed, knowing that if they needed to recall something later, he was the team's best bet for fine detail.
"I need to get to my babies at Quantico and see what they can pull up for us on one Mr. Nasty Mean and Vicious." Penelope said as she started to push back from the table.
Emily smiled in appreciation that the team was behind her in this. "Wait, before we go off and start working on this, I need to give you all at least the complete set of cliff notes on what happened and how Doyle operates."
"What else do we need to know Emily?" Elle asked cautiously.
"Well for starters he had a little boy named Declan. He was incredibly protective of him and in fact I was one of the few people that knew Declan was Doyle's son." Emily said as she continued to fill the team in on everything she knew about Doyle; how he operated; how organized, meticulous, and driven he was; how he'd asked her to raise his son to follow in his footsteps; how after Doyle had been taken into custody she'd faked Declan's death so that he could have a normal life without being used as ammunition against his father.
"I know none of you started off as part of this… and I certainly don't want Doyle knowing you're helping me. He's going to be out for revenge in as big a way as possible. If he doesn't know that you're helping me, he sees you as being innocent as long as you don't get in his way. Now that he's out of prison, I also have to accept the fact that my cover as Lauren Reynolds and the fact that she is dead has been blown." Emily explained.
"Why would you automatically assume that you're cover is blown?" Will asked.
"Because it's safest to assume that. It also means we can set up some traps for anyone looking for information on Lauren Reynolds and Emily Prentiss." JJ answered.
Emily turned and looked at JJ in surprise.
"What exactly do you think I've been doing at the Pentagon?" JJ asked.
"Well, we actually weren't sure what you've been doing at the Pentagon." Morgan smirked. "But I did catch pretty boy with a big grin on his face while he was talking to you while we were on the way home on the jet a few weeks ago… so I think it's pretty safe to say that you and pretty boy are still… OW" Morgan rubbed his ribs where his wife had elbowed him.
"Leave JJ and her snuggle bunny alone." Penelope scolded. "Emily needs us right now… and one of these days, you are going to go too far in picking on Reid and he's going to fight back."
Emily laughed outright at the lightened mood and shook her head. "No Penelope, this is exactly what we need to do while we work on this. We need to continue to act as normal as possible. Unfortunately we can't drop everything and work solely on finding Doyle…"
"There's actually a task force already set up that's doing that." JJ added as she turned to look at Emily. "They convened this week, but with the majority of the file redacted, I don't know how far they're really going to get."
Emily nodded even she didn't have all of the information on Ian Doyle's case. "We'll find him. We have to, but in the meantime, like I said, we also have to make our lives look as normal as possible with a few slight and unnoticeable changes here and there that make us safer."
The team continued to talk about how to handle Doyle until the kids all woke up from their naps and then everyone headed for a home a little more world weary than they'd been before, but also more prepared for what was to come.
Emily breathed a sigh of relief as she snapped Seth into his car seat. The team had taken the news much better than she'd expected. To be honest she really hadn't known what to expect after what had happened when JJ shared her news a couple of years ago… but then she supposed the teams eyes, including hers, had been opened by everything they'd experienced in the last couple of years combined with what had happened… or more accurately, what JJ and Reid had stopped from happening in the few years before that.
"Feel better?" Aaron asked as he climbed into the driver's seat and turned to look at her as he started the car.
"I do." Emily said turning to smile at Aaron.
"Good" Aaron nodded and glanced into the review mirror and smiled at Avery.
Emily pulled out a disposable cell phone that she purchased explicitly for the phone call she was about to make right now. She dialed Tom Kohler's phone number from memory into the disposable cell phone. "It's me. I can't talk for long, but you need to know that what we hoped would never happen, has happened. Keep the three of you safe. Only call me if you absolutely have to. I'll contact you when it's over." With that, Emily hung up the phone and glanced over at Aaron.
Aaron nodded and pulled over next to the garbage can of the park they happened to be driving by. Emily got out of the car, dropped the disposable cell phone to the ground next to her, and stomped on it once, twice, three times, with the heel of her boot rendering it useless, and the phone number that had been called unrecoverable. She bent over scooped up the pieces and dropped them in the garbage can. Then she climbed back in the car and buckled up as Aaron put the car in drive and they headed home.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Aaron asked as he slipped up behind Emily while she sat at the desk in their bedroom looking at some old photos and documents regarding Doyle.
"I'm just trying to figure out where he's going… what he's going to do." Emily said as she tipped her head back to look at Aaron.
"Who are they?" Aaron asked as he pointed down at the photos in her hands.
"Well you met Sean." Emily said dropping his photo onto the desk. "This is Tsia Mosley and this is Clyde Easter. I think I need to touch base with them both and find out what's going on."
Aaron nodded and then leaned down to kiss Emily. Their kiss however was disrupted by the ringing of the telephone on the bedside table.
"I'll get it." Aaron said as he pulled away from Emily and turned around and crossed the room to the nightstand and the ringing phone in three long strides. He picked the ringing phone up off of the cradle. "Hello?" he answered the phone. He paused listening for a response for a moment. "Hello?" he repeated again, but there still was no response on the other end of the line. "Hello? Is there anyone there?" He asked one last time and then hung up the phone. "Well that was strange." He said turning back to look at Emily. "There wasn't anyone there."
Emily's eyes went wide as she turned to look at her husband. "What does the caller ID say?"
Aaron lifted the phone up to look at the last caller. "Caller unknown"
Emily shot up from her seat and gather together the files she'd been looking at and grabbed hers and Aaron's go bags and sat them on the bed. "We need to get out of here."
"Emily… what?" Aaron asked as he watched her fly about their bedroom packing a few items into their go bags.
"Did you hear breathing on the other end of the line?" Emily asked as she paused from packing for a moment.
"I… yeah" Aaron replied. "Wait… you think Doyle?"
Emily nodded. "I was thinking before that if we had to stand our ground against Doyle familiar territory is the place to do it… but the more I think about it, the more I realize we can't do it here… the kids… the stairs… the elevators. We'd be sitting ducks here. We need to leave now."
"Okay" Aaron said as he reached out and wrapped his arms around Emily. "Where are we going?"
Emily sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "My parents. Since my mother's an ambassador she has a security staff… at least we know the kids would be safe..." Emily said as she looked up at Aaron. "Can you finish packing here and I'll go pack some things for Avery and Seth… at least enough for the next few days. We can always come back and get more, later."
Aaron nodded as he quickly worked to pack them clothes for the week and the toiletries they would need while Emily went upstairs to pack what Avery and Seth would need for the next few days.
"Hey where are Emily and Hotch?" Morgan asked as he walked into the briefing room with his coffee cup in hand.
"I don't know. Their car wasn't here when I rode in this morning." Reid said as he tipped his head back to be able to look at Morgan as he walked past him.
"That's not like them." Penelope said. "Do you think everything is okay? Maybe I should go give them a call and get their ETA?" she asked as she uncrossed her legs and stood up from her spot at the table where she was prepared to brief the team on the freakiness that was currently going on in LA.
"Hey" Emily said as she entered the round table room just as PG was just about to exit the door.
"Hey," Morgan replied. "Somebody have a long night?"
Emily sighed and nodded. "Yeah… can we talk about it when Aaron joins us though?"
"Sure" Morgan replied with a note of concern in his voice. Then he turned and noticed that Hotch was making his way down the hallway. Morgan took his seat at the round table as he glanced around at everyone else to see if they too had noticed the weary and stressed expressions on Emily and Hotch's faces.
Hotch closed the door of the round table room and then took his seat at the round table. "There's an update on the Ian Doyle front." Hotch said in his normally stoic voice. "We had a hang up unknown caller last night that stayed on the line for over 10 seconds."
"We're staying at my parents. There are more potential emergency exits in case we need them and there's my mother's security team. I have it on good authority that she only every hires or accepts the best." Emily said attempting to make light of the situation as she smiled at her husband across the table.
"That makes sense." Reid replied. "You'd be very boxed in being on a high floor and having to deal with elevators and stair wells if anything were to happen. There's also Seth and Avery to think about."
Emily nodded. "That was exactly why we needed to get out of there."
"Well, let us know if you need anything." Elle added.
Emily nodded somberly, looking forward to being able to focus on a case, if only to get her mind off of Ian Doyle for a little while.
"Garcia?" Hotch asked with a nod of his head to redirect the team to the case at hand.
"Spin the wheel and it is sunny Los Angeles people." Garcia said as lifted the remote and turned the screen on over her shoulder.
"Two times in one year huh?" Morgan questioned as the team settled in to hear about the case.
"Remind me again why it's called the 'City of Angels'?" Rossi said in a deadpan voice.
"It was originally called the Town of Our Lady the Queen of the Angels" Reid paused as he felt everyone's eyes on him. "That was a rhetorical question wasn't it?" he asked as he looked around at everybody.
Elle chuckled and reached over and patted Reid on the back while everyone else just shook their heads.
"This is a weird one." Penelope said as she got started.
"As opposed to?" Morgan asked.
"Ah, withhold your judgment mon amour." Penelope responded. "Okay, three women, all abducted from different parts of the city and murdered within the last couple of weeks. Shelly Onteau, 23 year old bank teller, 15 days ago; Vicki Haggarg, 39 year old art teacher, 6 days ago; Linda Dean, a 28 year hostess at a bar, 2 days ago." Penelope said as she turned to look at the photos of the three women on the screen. "All from different parts of the city, all from different socio-economic statuses." Penelope continued as she turned back to face the team.
"All three were held approximately 24 hours before being dumped in a public space." Hotch added.
"He's not hiding what he's doing." Rossi said as he leaned back in his chair and studied the screen.
"And here's one weird part." Penelope said as she looked away from the screen purposefully and clicked on the remote to bring up the next photo.
"They all look like floaters…" Emily said as she scanned the photos Penelope had brought up on the screen.
"Nn hn" Penelope nodded. "All three women were drowned."
"Wait their bodies weren't found anywhere near water?" Reid asked as he looked up from the file in his hands.
"They were drowned somewhere else and transported to the dumpsite." Hotch said as he glanced around the table at everyone.
"Penelope, you're right; this is weird." Morgan said.
"Beyond weird." Elle added as she continued looking at the photos.
"Oh, but there's more." Garcia said with a shake of her head.
"They weren't drowned in water." Hotch added.
"Methanol?" Reid questioned in a surprised tone as he read the file.
"Wheels up in 30 minutes." Hotch said as he gathered his files and stood up from the round table as the team finished the briefing.
"Can I borrow your cell phone Reid?" Emily asked as she turned to look at him where he sat next to her.
"I… sure… but, why?" Reid asked as he nodded at Emily's phone lying on the table.
"Because nobody would question why you were calling your wife if they hacked your phone history." Emily replied as she held out her hand for Reid's phone. "That and I forgot to charge mine last night, so I'll have to do it on the plane." She said as she held up her dead cell phone.
"Okay" Reid said as he handed Emily his cell phone.
JJ smiled as she looked down at her ringing cell phone and saw Spence's number. "Hi baby. How's my handsome, genius, sex god of a husband this morning?"
Emily chuckled. "Sex god huh?" she asked as she glanced at Reid.
Reid promptly buried his face in his hands and shook his head as the tips of his ear begn to turn red.
Morgan did a spit take of his coffee as he gathered his things together. Elle laughed. Penelope's eyes danced gleefully. She was sooo getting details out of JJ the next time they talked. Rossi grinned and Hotch just shook his head as he exited the room.
'Oh god Spence is going to kill me' JJ thought as she managed to squeak out, "Emily? What are you doing using Spence's phone?"
"I'll let Reid explain it to you later" Emily replied sobering from the briefly lightened atmosphere. "I can't go into a ton of detail right now, like I said Reid can explain later, but would you be able to coordinate with Penelope to have cameras put up so that we can have a feed of who is around the condo? Maybe a few cameras to capture the hallway and anyone that approaches the door and maybe a few wide angle shots of the inside?"
"I… okay. I'll touch base with Pen in a little bit." JJ replied.
Emily nodded and glanced at PG. "Thanks JJ. We're wheels up in 30. Do you want to talk to the sex god?"
JJ groaned. "Please put Spence on the phone… and don't think that I am forgetting this any time soon Emily Prentiss Hotchner."
Reid took the phone from Emily as she handed it to him.
"Your wife would like to talk to you, sex god." Emily said with a smile getting one last teasing jab in before she let it drop.
Elle smirked and stood to join Emily as she walked out of the round table room.
"Tell JJ I'll talk to her in a little bit." Pen said gleefully as she and Morgan walked out of the room together.
Rossi chuckled and stood up, clapping Reid twice on the shoulder before he headed out of the room.
"Baby… I am soooo sorry. I promise I will make it up to you." JJ said apologetically as she leaned back in her chair and rubbed her belly.
"It's okay babe. There are a lot worse things I could be teased for than you calling me a sex god… I can't think of what they are right now because I'm trying to think of how I'm going to fight off Morgan when he uses this as ammunition… but trust me, I can tell you from experience that there are definitely worse things to be teased about." Spence said as he leaned back in his chair. "But I don't have much time… we have to get to the jet…"
"Okay… I really am sorry baby. I'll have Penelope fill me in on everything else." JJ said as she chewed on her lip anxiously.
"I'll talk to you later and let you know what's going on." Spence said, then he paused in thought for a moment. "Shoot… my doctor's appointment…"
"Don't worry Spence, I'll take care of getting it rescheduled. I'll talk to you later. I love you baby. Be safe." JJ said.
"I love you too JJ." Spence replied with a smile on his face and then hung up the call and stood up with his files. He pocketed his cell phone as he headed down to the bullpen where Morgan stood holding his go bag out to him.
"Hey Pen, it's JJ."
"Why if it isn't Mrs. Sex God." Penelope replied gleefully. "Tell me when you have to write that out, is it hyphenated or not? And more importantly, I want to hear all about just what exactly earned Reid that little nick name… come on Jayje give me the dets."
JJ groaned. "Pen you have to promise me that you guys won't tease him about it…. Seriously. And I'm not giving you any details… I'm 8 months pregnant with our third child doesn't that fill in enough details for you?"
Pen laughed. "Well when you put it that way, it does sort of paint the picture now doesn't it?"
"Pen! We have more important things to talk about… what happened with Emily and Hotch?"
"They had a hang up caller last night. Emily was shaken enough by it that they took Seth and Avery and stayed with her parents."
"So she's obviously worried that even though they can't seem to find Doyle, he's already found her."
"It would appear so." Penelope replied with a nod. "So how are we going to do this?"
JJ shrugged. "I can get the equipment easy. We'll just need to have someone help me set it up. I can't really be standing on chairs and ladders right now and the team needs you in the office… I'll call Will and see if he can help. I talk you in a little bit once I have everything lined up."
"Okay tech goddess out."
"Live from Quantico VA, it is the divine Miss Penelope, Los Angeles you're our first and favorite caller, talk to me."
"Okay, woman you do know you're crazy right?" Morgan asked his wife as he walked across the LAPD precinct.
"Mm hm" Penelope nodded. "But like you always used to say, don't hate the player, hate the game."
"Okay, playa, my bad." Derek said as he stopped and sat in a window sill while he talked to Penelope. "Listen, I need you to check and see which cab companies serve the Hollywood area where Linda Dean was abducted."
"Won't even break a sweat." Penelope said as she quickly typed on her keyboard. "There are seven. Bell, Beverly Hills, Checker, City, Independent, United, and the Yellow Cab Company."
"Can you narrow that down and find out who picked up fares at Vaughn's Bar and Grill in the last 72 hours?"
"That's going to take a minute of two, but still no calls for perspiration. I shall lovingly hit you back when I have something 'kay?" Penelope said turning her head away from the screen.
"Hey, wait, baby girl were you and JJ able to get everything taken care of for Emily and Hotch?" Morgan asked.
"You know it." Penelope responded as her fingers continued to type away. "JJ was able to locate the necessary supplies and equipment. Will helped her install it just a little bit ago and we now have a live feed."
Morgan nodded. "Alright. Talk to you in a little bit… playa." Morgan grinned as he hit the end button and tucked his phone back in his pants pocket.
"We suggest going public with the information as soon as possible." Hotch said as the team finished giving the profile "That he's an unregistered taxi driver and that he's had confrontations with people in the city. Thank you very much."
"You think we'll get lucky with the press release?" Elle asked as she turned to look at Hotch.
"Well it can't hurt and Dave is right. Somebody has had a run in with this guy and will remember it. Let's just hope they come forward." Hotch replied as the team stood planning their next steps.
Detective Bailey made his way through the traffic of the precinct bullpen as he headed for the BAU team. "We just got a call. We've got another body."
Hotch looked around at the team. "Alright, Dave and I will go and check out the dumpsite. Morgan, I want to you give the press conference. Reid…"
"I'm going to work with Garcia to check on the combinations of purchases and deliveries."
"The methanol and the chloroform?" Hotch asked.
Reid nodded. "And the lab equipment."
"Smell is a powerful trigger for memory. He might be trying to bring back the memory of something he lost?" Reid said as he stood next to the evidence board. Then his cell phone rang in his pocket. "Excuse me." He said as he stepped away to the corner of the room to answer his phone. "Do you have something?" he asked as he looked at the caller ID and noticed that it was Garcia.
"Yeah, this wonderful and totally uncommon. I have exactly one address at which every piece of equipment you listed was delivered to." Garcia excitedly explained to Reid.
Reid tipped his head back as he listened to Garcia and then spun on his heels to face the team. "We have an address."
The team and Detective Bailey stood up from their seats and headed for the door, anxious to catch the unsub before anything happened to Anisa Gold, the young girl who'd gone missing on her way to a job interview earlier that day.
"Morgan and Elle take the back." Hotch called out as the FBI issued SUVs and police cruisers pulled up in front of the address Garcia had given them.
Everyone split up to surround the property and cover all the exits. Morgan and Elle moved along one side of the house to towards the back while Emily and Reid moved along the other side of the house. Hotch and Rossi ran up the front steps to the front door.
"He's got eyes on us." Rossi said as he looked up at camera mounted above the door.
"FBI" Hotch yelled as he banged his fist against the front door.
At the sound of a car starting, Morgan and Elle paused in their approach to the back of the house. A yellow cad sped out from the back of the house and along a separate driveway as the unsub attempted to escape. "HE'S RUNNIN'" Morgan yelled as he turned and ran back to the vehicles parked at the front of the house, followed closely by Elle.
"Reid and Emily, search the house." Hotch called out as he and Rossi headed back to the SUV to assist in the chase.
Elle looked at the cab in shock as she came up behind Hotch. The cab hadn't been able to stop in time after swerving to miss a van; a trailer had been blocking one side of the road. The trailer had been at just the right height to shear off the top of the cab. Everything from the dash up on the cab had been ripped backwards in a twisted pull of metal and glass, that included the unsub who'd been driving the car. What remained was only vaguely identifiable as human due to the blood and gore. What made the scene before her ironic was the MP3 player laying on the ground playing the recording of what she assumed was the unsub's voice going on about humans only being animals pretending to be something more.
After a moment of staring in shock, the Morgan, Rossi, Elle, and finally Hotch turned and headed back to the SUVs. As disturbing as this scene was, there wasn't anything that could be done beyond documenting the scene. There was however a survivor and that was a positive. There was also a long flight home ahead of them.
The team was just settling in on the jet when Morgan's cell phone rang. "Hey baby girl, we're just getting on the jet right now… okay…" he said in a confused voice. "I'll put you on speaker right now."
The team gathered round where Morgan stood in the aisle, wondering what Garcia could be calling about now that the case was over.
"Hotch, Emily… you were right to have cameras on your hallway… I have something you need to see. I'm sending it to your tablet now sir."
Emily leaned into Aaron's shoulder to look at the screen of the tablet as he held it up so that the rest of the team would also be able to see. On screen in black and white they were able to see a delivery man approach the door of their condo and knock a few times. After there was no answer, he knelt down and leaned a box against the front door.
"Do you know what was in the box?" Emily asked.
"No… I did call Will and ask him to go and pick it up, but we didn't open it." Penelope replied.
Emily took a deep breath. "Can you open it please and let me know what's in the box?" She paused, "Wait can you connect us so I can see what's in the box?"
"Absolutely" Garcia replied and mere moments later her face was on the table with her voice coming from that instead of Morgan's phone. Morgan hung up his phone and tucked it in his pocket.
"Be careful PG." Emily added as she watched her friend undo the ribbon that was wrapped around the box.
Penelope cautiously lifted the lid on the box and then moved back the paper. "Emily…" she said as she looked up at the web cam. "It's a flower… a single flower." She said as she reached into the box and pulled out the delicate purple flower and held it up to be seen. "It smells wonderful."
Emily's eyes widened. She could still remember just the way the flowers smelled as she cut them fresh that morning. She experienced a brief flashback to the day Ian Doyle was taken into custody. "It's a Lilac Freesia… I was picking them when Interpol and the local authorities showed up at Doyle's Tuscan Villa to arrest him." She said as she pulled her eyes away from the screen and looked around at the team.
A chill ran down the spines of everyone on the team as they realized just who they were dealing with. Doyle wasn't going to be like their normal unsubs. He wasn't even going to be like Foyet. For Doyle it was personal and right now he was toying with Emily, letting her know that he knew who she was and he was coming for her. He was letting her know just how far his reach was that he could get to her without even being on US soil. But what he didn't know was she had the backing of her team; a team that wouldn't; couldn't; refused to let her down; after all they were family and that was a tighter bond than he could ever purchase with blood money.