Hey guys sorry about the delay on getting chapter 9 out to you... but here it is now. The good news is that I'm going to get to work on chapter 10 right now - so we'll have a double update weekend. It's been quite a while since we had one of those :D - but I also don't want to make you guys wait to long...
Thanks to my wonderful beta DetectiveNikkiBenson040709 for all her help! Love you girl and how you've managed to help me keep things fresh, on track, and moving. :D
Thanks to everyone who's reviewed, favorited, and set up alerts... and those who are just lurking and reading too :D I'm glad that you're all enjoying the stories... you keep reading and I'll keep writing. I've got some new ideas for stories that I'm anxious to start playing aroung with, but I want us to get a little bit further into this story first. Plus I still owe you all the sequels for 'Sleight of Hand' - you didn't think I forgot did you? So my point (and I do have one) is that we have a busy summer ahead of us. :D
Sadly, I still don't own Criminal Minds... trust me, if that ever changes, you all will be the first group to find out :D Now, onto what you really came here for... on with the story...
Happy reading and enjoy :D
Morgan sat with his elbows resting on his knees, his head down, as the team sat in the waiting room. They'd been here in the waiting room for hours... should it be taking this long... shouldn't they have heard something by now? He stared at the floor as he mind raced over the events of the last three days.
"Well, well, well," Morgan said looking up at Reid as he entered the bullpen on Friday morning. "If it isn't the sex god himself." Morgan laughed as he leaned back in his chair.
Elle bit her lip and kept her head down to avoid laughing out loud at Morgan teasing Reid.
Zoe and Ashley glanced at each other and then look back and forth between Reid and Morgan in confusion.
Elle took pity on their training agents and filled them in. "A few weeks ago Emily had to borrow Reid's phone to call JJ because her phone was dead. JJ thought it was Reid calling her."
Ashley raised an eyebrow and tipped her head wondering how JJ could possibly have been calling the same man a sex god who just over a week ago had given her a several minutes long verbal dissertation on Dr. Who.
Zoe nudged Ashley and whispered "What are you doing?"
"I'm trying to reconcile rambling 'Dr. Who fanatic' with 'sex god'." Ashley replied under her breath.
Elle snorted at overhearing Ashley and Zoe's conversation and then turned her attention back to Reid and Morgan's standoff, interested to see how things were going to play out.
"You know, I had a coffee for you…" Reid said as he handed Starbucks coffee out to Ashley, Zoe, and Elle. "… but it must have gotten lost in the shuffle. I guess I better go get Anderson his coffee before it gets cold." Reid said with a smile at Morgan as he walked away.
"Did he just…" Morgan trailed off as he watched Reid head across the bullpen and hand Anderson a cup of coffee.
Before Morgan could complete his comment, Hotch and Emily swept into the bullpen.
"Hey Hotch, Hey Emily" Reid greeted them as he walked back across the bullpen and handed them their coffee.
"Thanks Reid" Emily replied with a nod as she took a sip. "Can you let JJ know to expect a phone call? I have some friends visiting the area and they're hoping to get a tour of the Pentagon. I thought maybe JJ could set something up." Emily said as she lowered the cup. She picked a post it note up off of Reid's desk and wrote Tsia, Sean, and Clyde on it.
Reid nodded in understanding and sat down at his desk and called JJ, letting her know to expect guests shortly at the Pentagon while Hotch went up to Penelope's lair to speak with her. He brought Reid's offering of coffee with him to deliver to Penelope.
Reid turned to look at Emily. "JJ said to let you know that she's more than happy to give your friends a tour, but she has a very important conference call that she needs to step into in about fifteen minutes."
Emily nodded in reply that she understood. "Thanks Reid. Tell JJ I appreciate her welcoming my friends to the city."
Fifteen minutes later, the team was gathered around the conference room table of the SCIF and connected via a secure phone line to JJ, Tsia, Sean, and Clyde at the Pentagon.
"I'm sorry for the secretive measures for the call this morning, but it's important that you all know that Ian Doyle is here in DC." Emily explained.
"How can you be so sure?" Clyde asked.
"I sat next to him last night." Emily replied.
"What?" Tsia asked.
"He has the BAU team and their families under surveillance. He's not working alone."
"Why didn't he kill you?" Tsia asked.
"More importantly, why didn't you kill him?" Clyde replied.
"Clyde, did you miss the part where I just said he's not working alone?" Emily asked.
"No… no you're right darling." Clyde replied.
"So is he just playing with her?" Tsia asked.
"No, no he's a para-socio-psychopath. He doesn't play games." Clyde replied.
"He gave me a matchbook for the The Black Shamrock in Boston." Emily said. "I think he wants to end this where it started… and I have a feeling I know what he's using as his base of operations."
"How do you know that?" Clyde asked.
"Because there was something I left out of the profile seven years ago." Emily replied as she took a deep breath. "Doyle had a son, Declan. In order to free Declan from the life his father had planned for him and to prevent him being used as leverage to get Doyle to talk, I faked his death. In a warehouse in Boston. Photos were staged to confirm the death and I added Declan to the profile along with the photos after everyone had rolled off to our new assignments."
There was stunned silence for moments on the other end of the phone before Sean cleared his throat. "Well as long as we're coming clean about things…"
"Sean, don't do it. It's on a need to know basis." Clyde said. "And her team doesn't have clearance."
"I think at this point, considering that everyone on this call is currently being watched by Doyle, we all need to know." JJ said as she looked at Clyde.
Sean nodded. "Right then, Emily, I lied when I told you that Doyle was taken to Russia. We contracted with Clear Water Security to have Doyle delivered to Camp 22 in North Korea." He said as he braced himself for what he was sure to come.
"You put him in Kwan-li-so?" Emily yelled. "No wonder he wants every one of our heads on a plate."
Zoe glanced around the room and saw that Ashley was just as confused as her. "Um, I'm sorry but what are Camp 22 and Kwan-li-so?" she asked knowing that if she didn't someone else would.
Emily sighed in agravation as she wondered how much of the revenge Doyle wanted had to do with where he'd been held captive for the last 7 years. "It's a political prison near Haengyong in North Korea. The prisoners are reported to have been subjected to slave labor conditions, torture, starvation, rape, murder, and medical experimentation. There have been accounts reported that included the use of a glass gas chamber to observe the effects of toxic chemical experiments." Emily said sadly as she looked around at the team. There were monsters in the world that raised the horrors they witnessed in the course of their work to a whole new level. "North Korea of course denies its existstance. So you can see why Doyle is wanting revenge."
"Well that and that little matter of thinking that his son is dead darling." Clyde replied attempting to break the tension before it broke the team. "And now that we've aired out dirty laundry what else do we need to discuss?"
"The team that delivered Doyle to Camp 22, has anyone warned them that he's out?" Hotch asked.
"I'm not sure." Sean replied. "I'll make the call as soon as we're off the phone."
Emily nodded. "PG can you help me check a few things out?"
Penelope nodded as she clasped her hands together, trying not to get excited about the cloak and dagger interagency cooperation happening in their midst. It always got her blood up.
"Good because we need to end this. I don't know about the rest of you, but I am tired of looking over my shoulder." Emily said. "I'll be in contact as soon as we have something."
Morgan glanced at his wife as she sighed and shifted next to him as they sat waiting in the hospital waiting room. He leaned back in his seat, wrapping an arm around Penelope. "It's going to be okay baby girl… it's all going to be okay. You'll see." Derek murmured as she leaned over and kissed Penelope on the cheek.
Penelope nodded her head and leaned over resting her cheek on her husband's shoulder as she thought back.
"Okay gumdrop, what do you have?" Penelope asked as she stretched her fingers before placing them on her keyboard.
Emily sifted through the file that she taken to keeping on her person about three weeks ago in order to be able to easily access it. "Okay, let's take a look at this" she said as she pulled out the staged photos of Declan and Louise's murder.
Penelope's eyes widened. "Oh my god Emily!"
Emily glanced sadly at Penelope. "They're staged PG. Declan and Louise are both still alive… but I had to make everyone think they were dead so that Declan could be free."
Penelope took a deep breath. "You're right, you're right. I know you're right… but they're so real."
"So the warehouse where I staged these photos… that's where I think Doyle has his operations set up at…"
"Okay… so do you have an address for this warehouse?" Pen asked.
"1518 Adams Street in Boston" Emily replied.
"Okay, so I'm looking, I'm looking… and oh my… that's big enough to house a small army… weapons… supplies… its own perimeter…"
"I needed someplace large enough that no one would notice what we were doing." Emily said. "So is there anything to tell us if Doyle is using the building?"
Penelope's fingers flew over the keyboard as she pulled information out of the ether with each keystroke, building the arsenal of information they'd need against Doyle.
"Okay how about Jack Fahey, of Boston. What can you pull up on him?" Emily asked after they'd looked at everything regarding the warehouse.
"I'm going to need more than just Jack Fahey to go on gumdrop. Do you see how many Jack Faheys there are in Boston?" Penelope asked as she pointed at her monitor.
"Well you can get rid of all of the Jack Faheys that don't have rap sheets as long as your arm. The Jack Fahey we're looking for is connected to the Irish mob. He's small time, but he's kept the Boston PD very busy over the years." Emily explained.
Penelope nodded and then found one Jack Fahey that looked like he could be the man Emily was looking for. "Is this him?" Penelope asked as she pulled his photo up on the screen.
"That's him." Emily nodded.
Penelope frowned in concern as she glanced over at Ashley and Zoe as she tried to judge how they were holding up from their experiences over the last few days.
Ashley sat with her feet planted on the seat of the hospital waiting room chair, her arms wrapped around her knees, hugging them to her chest, as she contemplated all that had happened in the last few days and how the team had ended up in Boston.
Within just a short while the team was back in the SCIF on the phone with JJ, Sean, Tsia, and Clyde discussing the plan that Emily had come up with to draw out and capture Doyle.
"PG checked and Fahey is still in Boston. I think our best bet is going to be tracking him down at The Black Shamrock and getting him to tell us where Doyle is." Emily said as they began discussing the plan to bring down Doyle.
Clyde nodded. "I'll pull some funds together. Fahey always was bloody greedy bastard."
"Sean, were you able to reach everyone from the Clearwater Securities team?" Emily asked in concern, not wanting anyone else to be hurt by Doyle in his quest for revenge.
"Aye, I was." Sean replied. "They've all been warned. They're trained like agents. They've broken their normal routines, and I set them up with access to a few different safe houses that they can use until they receive word that we've brought in Doyle."
Emily nodded. "Then I think we're ready to put our plan into action."
Ashley flinched ever so slightly as Hotch walked past her while he paced anxiously. Hotch still couldn't believe that he'd let Emily go off to Boston alone on Friday. Well she hadn't exactly been alone he supposed.
"Are you sure you want to do this alone… one call and we can have the jet ready and be in Boston in under an hour." Aaron whispered into Emily's ear as they stood sharing a private moment together before she 'fled' to Boston in search of Doyle.
"You know I would like nothing more than for you and the team to be with me, but we discussed this. In order for this to work I need to head to Boston alone and draw Doyle and his men behind me. I'll have Sean, Tsia, and Clyde watching my back, and you know we need to finish this away from here so that the kids will be safe. Were you able to get everything set up?" Emily asked.
Aaron nodded. "Will is taking Billy and going to JJ and Reid's for a play date. I have Anderson and a couple other agents going to help Will with protecting Rebecca and the kids. They're going to disguise themselves as college students getting together with Rebecca for a study group. Morgan and Penelope assured me that Jake is safe in the daycare downstairs. They don't want to pull him out since it would come across as being out of routine, just in case it raises suspicions. I called the head of your mother's Security team and let him know to lock down the house. Nobody goes in or out until they hear from one of us. Your mother wants you to call her as soon as you can."
Emily smiled and shook her head at how well in hand he had everything that they'd talked about as far as how they would keep all of the kids safe if and when it came time to face off with Doyle. "We need to end this. We need to get things back to normal for Avery and Seth, even though I know that my parents are enjoying spoiling and doting on them non-stop 24/7."
Aaron tightened his grip on Emily, pulling her closer, knowing that their time together before she had to leave was limited. "Well isn't that supposed to be every grandparents dream?" he joked, his voice wavering ever so slightly as he looked into his wife's eyes.
Emily reached up and cupped his cheek with her hand. "I suppose it is. And someday, many, many years from now, when Jack, Avery, and Seth are grown and married we'll do the same thing my parents are right now." Emily said reassuring Aaron that everything in Boston was going to go as planned. "But now I have to go. The sooner I get to Boston, the sooner this is all over."
'God, what that monster Doyle did to Emily…' Hotch thought as he continued to pace.
"Hey" Zoe whispered to Ashley as Hotch continued pacing in front of them, "are you okay?"
"Yeah" Ashley nodded. "I just never… I don't… I've never seen that much blood before."
Zoe nodded in agreement in her chair next to Ashley's. "I know… this was definitely not something we were prepared for at the Academy." She said as she sank down in the chair and allowed head to fall back and rest on the back of the chair her thoughts wandering back over the course of the last 3 days.
"So what happens when we get to Boston?" Zoe asked as the team and JJ sat congregated together on the jet bound for Boston.
"Clyde is meeting us at the Boston field office. Emily has eyes on Doyle and his team at the warehouse right now. Sean and Tsia are busy debriefing Jack Fahey, for lack of a better term, but they aren't making much headwy so they want our help." Hotch explained as he leaned on the back of the seats, attempting to hide how tightly his fingers were gripping the leather seats from the rest of the team. Somehow he knew though, that he wasn't fooling those on the team that he'd worked with the longest.
"And then what happens?" Ashley asked as she tipped her head back to look at Hotch who was standing behind her seat.
"Clyde will brief us all on what they've managed to find out. Once he's brought us up to speed, we'll be preparing for what happens when we go after Doyle. We'll interrogate Jack Fahey, and hopefully we'll find out how many men Doyle has and what type of equipment we'll be dealing with."
Rossi nodded. "We'll definitely need to know that if we don't want to be blindsided. We need to be prepared for the fact that Emily is operating right now as a spy and not as an FBI Agent. She might be put in a position where she has to be just as ruthless as Doyle."
Morgan wasn't entirely comfortable with what that thought could mean, but he nodded, knowing that what was important was that they all made it home to their kids, so if Emily needed to play by the rules from her life as a CIA Agent, then that was something that he was just going to have to deal with.
"How much information do you think Jeremy Wolff gave to Doyle and how much do you think Doyle figured out on his own?" JJ asked from where she sat next to Spence on the couch.
"In theory, the only thing that Jeremy would have really needed to give to Doyle was everyone's real names." Spence replied.
Rossi shook his head. "True… but there was also the Clear Water Securities team. To be honest I think Jeremy gave Doyle the entire file that had been built on him or at the very least everything that he had access to."
The team nodded as they continued to discuss all the information that they had as the jet made its way to Boston.
Rossi breathed a sigh of slight relief when Hotch finally took a seat next to him. The man had understandably been on edge… he shook his head and stood up, taking his turn to pace. He glanced around at the worry on everyone's faces.
Rossi and another agent led Fahey through the bullpen. He released Fahey's arm as the other agent continued to escort him to the interrogation room. They'd picked Fahey up from the safe house where Sean and Tsia had been holding him. If federal agents were going to question him, he had to be in custody and read his Miranda rights. They didn't want anything slipping through the cracks on this. Emily might be able to squeak by in what she was doing under the auspices of being a former CIA Agent; the rest of the team however, didn't have that luxury.
"Anybody got a smoke?" Fahey yelled as he sat handcuffed in the interrogation room. "What about you beanpole?" Fahey asked as he looked at Reid who was studying Fahey's demeanor and looking for how they were going to get any additional information out of him.
Reid looked behind him in an 'are you talking to me?' manner and then crossed his arms as he turned to look at Rossi.
"What do you think?" Rossi asked.
"Narcissism. Probably has some deep seated insecurity."
"So if we puncture self-image, this hood rat will talk." Rossi replied.
"Hey, hey, hey, I ain't no hood rat. You take that back" Fahey said as he pointed at Rossi.
"Well you look like one." Rossi said as he walked towards Fahey. Then he sniffed. "You smell like one. Do you smell that?" he asked as he turned to face Reid.
Reid sniffed a couple of times as he stood with his arms crossed. "Hood rat." was his reply to Rossi's question.
"I am not. Take it back." Fahey replied fiercely denying the accusation.
"Hey Jack" Rossi said as he leaned down, getting Fahey's face. "Do you know what a hood rat is?"
Fahey stared at Rossi unable to reply because he truly didn't even know what a hood rat was.
"See what I mean?" Rossi said as he turned to look at Reid. "He's just going to have to learn the hard way."
Reid smiled as he looked down at Jack Fahey. "Or maybe he'll just tell us what he knows."
"I ain't no snitch." Fahey replied. "You don't get to be the man by being no snitch."
"Ah, but your… I suppose you could call them business associates, they don't know that." Rossi said with a tip of his head as he looked at Fahey. "How long do you suppose it would take Jacky boy here to be able to tell us a good amount of dirt on all of his associates?" Rossi asked as he turned to look at Reid.
Reid nodded, understanding where Rossi was going. "A couple hours or so."
"I already told you, I ain't no snitch." Fahey said again.
"Ah but that's the beauty of it Jacky boy." Rossi said as he sat on the edge of the table and leaned over into Fahey's personal space. "You don't have to tell us anything." Rossi said as he glanced over his shoulder at Reid.
Reid nodded and rocked back on his heels as he stuck his hands back in his pockets. "Your associates will automatically assume that you told us what we wanted to know since we let you go."
"You're letting me go?" Fahey asked in confusion as he tried to put together what was going on.
"Oh we're going to let you go alright," Rossi nodded "but, I wonder how long you'll last when every member of the Irish mob thinks you rated them out and Doyle thinks you ratted him out too."
Reid tipped his head and smiled at Fahey. "Still sure you don't want to just tell us everything you know about Ian Doyle?"
Rossi shook his head as he filled two cups of coffee. 'Fahey really was an honest to god hood rat, and a dumbass big mouth one at that with all his bragging about being the man. He'd say it was a shame about his ear, but then Fahey wasn't using the brain between his ears so he'd probably do just fine where he was going with only one ear.' Rossi thought as he carried the cups of coffee back to his seat and handed one to Aaron as he sat down next to his friend. One of the great ironies of their lives was the he and Aaron Hotchner were best friends, while you probably couldn't pay Emily Hotchner any amount of money to spend time alone in a room with Erin Rossi, let alone be friends with the woman.
Hotch took a sip of his coffee and continued to stare down at his shoes as that nights events played over again in his mind.
"We need to go. Now." Clyde said as he came back in the room from calling Tsia and Sean to get an update on what was happening.
Hotch pinched the bridge of his nose as he thought about how quickly everything had moved from that point forward. He looked up and made eye contact with Morgan and nodded, reassuring his agent, but more importantly, his friend that he knew that he'd done everything he could.
Derek broke eye contact with Hotch buried his face in his baby girl's blonde curls, wishing for the moment when the last month would be nothing but a bad memory, willing it to happen as he squeezed his eyes shut at the events of the night.
"Agent Prentiss is the only friendly in the building. Rescuing her is our primary objective." Hotch said as he briefed the strike force that would attack Doyle's makeshift complex in the warehouse.
"Our only advantage here is stealth." Morgan added. "Once they know we're onsite there's nothing to stop them from killing her. So we keep it quiet until we get to her." He said as they continued the briefing and prepared everyone to move out.
"Hey, it's going to be okay." Spence murmured into JJ's ear as she squeezed his hand, trying not to cry.
JJ nodded and let her head fall back, reminding herself to breathe as she allowed her thoughts of the last 72 hours wash over her.
JJ hung up her cell phone from speaking with Spence regarding Emily's visiting friends, knowing exactly what friends Emily had been speaking about as she looked across her desk at where Tsia, Clyde, and Sean sat. "Well we should probably go get ready for our conference call with Emily and the team." JJ said as she stood up from her desk, locked her cell phone in her desk, offered to secure their phones as well, and then led them down the hall to the SCIF they would using for their conference call with the team in Quantico.
JJ's mind jumped and skipped though all of the various briefings, updates, planning that had happened in the last few days, culminating with the events of earlier that night.
"JJ, you stay here with Garcia." Hotch said as he handed out the team member's assignments for when they breached the warehouse that Doyle was using as his compound. Thanks to Garcia's finesse on a computer, they had blue prints, power grids, access points, and all of the surrounding roads.
"Like hell I will." JJ replied.
"JJ, you're pregnant." Hotch replied, in no mood to argue.
"You're right, I'm pregnant, not an invalid." JJ replied testily. "I'll be in the surveillance truck with Ashley and Zoe."
Hotch breathed a sigh of relief. He could live with JJ being in the surveillance truck. And you never knew, they might need an extra set of eyes and ears, especially ones as well trained as JJ's, when they breached the warehouse. "Okay" he nodded.
JJ, Ashley, and Zoe listened on their own headsets while the communications team around them worked to record and document what was happening in the warehouse. They were taking no chances.
At first it was radio silent as the SWAT team, snipers, and various agents participating in the raid got into position. Then a couple soft pops signaled that the snipers had taken out the perimeter guards.
The sound of boots and breathing was all that could be heard for next few minutes as everyone moved to breach the warehouse. A few more of Doyle's men were silently taken out with the soft popping sound of silenced weapons. And then the sound of automatic gunfire filled the warehouse and it became a race to get to Emily before Doyle could exact the price he'd deemed necessary for all that she'd cost him.
JJ listened as Hotch gave the order to cut the power. She heard Morgan call out. "I got her!" Then it became a frenzy as everyone began asking each other over their mikes if anyone had Doyle.
JJ pulled the earpiece out of her ear as everyone began trying to talk at once. Then there was a shuffling noise along the side of the truck they were sitting in. She turned to look at Ashley, Zoe, and the couple other agents manning the equipment, and lifted her finger to her lips, signaling them to be quiet. She pulled out her gun and moved to the side door of the truck, waiting until the noise moved past them. She slowly opened the door and peered around the corner noting the shadowed figure quietly making its way away from the warehouse.
She stepped out of the truck and held up her hand as Zoe and Ashley moved follow her. "When I yell his name and he turns around, I need one of you to turn on the headlights of the truck. They'll blind him, momentarily at least."
Zoe nodded where she stood behind Ashley and stepped back into the truck and sat in the driver's seat, rolling down the driver's side window so that she would be able to clearly hear what was happening outside.
"FREEZE DOYLE!" JJ yelled.
Zoe watched, trying to discern in darkness of the warehouse loading dock if Doyle had turned around yet or not. Then she saw it, his profile. Then his form widened once again, and she flipped the switch for the headlights.
Doyle blinked and raised his hand to his eyes as he was suddenly blinded by the headlights in his eyes. He raised his gun as he continued to blink, making out the shape of a person standing next to the SWAT truck that he'd passed.
"Or you'll what?" Doyle called out seeing only one agent attempting to stop his getaway.
"Or I'll shoot." JJ replied in a no nonsense tone of voice.
"Not if I shoot first love." Doyle replied.
JJ pulled the trigger, her aim true, as the crack of the weapon sounded through the night air.
"Son of a bitch" Doyle as the bullet tore into his shoulder and he dropped the gun. He dropped to the ground and fumbled momentarily for the gun with his left hand as he lay on the ground. Knowing that he had mere seconds to act if he hoped to escape being caught and returned to a hell hole of existence.
JJ's firearm cracked again as it reported her shot.
Doyle lay on the asphalt, a bullet wound in his right arm, where JJ had first shot him, a through and through bullet hole in the center of his left hand where she had shot the gun right out of his hand. That bullet had then lodged itself in his chest.
JJ lifted her earpiece back to her ear as she spoke into her mike. "I've got Doyle."
Elle stared straight ahead as she sat thinking about last three days and everything that had happened much like the rest of the team had been.
She hadn't been able to help but notice Hotch pacing. The last three days had been hell for him. Rossi too had paced, but his unease in no way could compare to Hotch's. Ashley and Zoe were noticeably shaken by the experience, at first but she was sure they'd shake it off. Penelope's head rested on Derek's shoulder as she thought about one of her best friends lying in a bed, here in the hospital. She watched as Derek kissed Penelope on the temple, and she couldn't help but be just a little jealous that they had each other for comfort right now. She wished Will was here. It been an emotional couple of days since they last saw each other and she just wanted her husband's arms wrapped around her... she could only maintain the tough exterior for so long and right now she was reaching the threshold.
Before her thoughts could drift further into the events that led to the team sitting in the waiting room, the sound of footsteps headed towards them from down the hallway caused her to sit up straight and look at the doorway where the footsteps paused. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that everyone else had sprung to attention as well, anxious for the news they'd been waiting for.
"It's a boy!" Reid exclaimed with a large grin on his face as he stood in the doorway. The team all stood up with smiles on their faces, the tension of the last several hours while JJ was in labor washing away as they crowded around Reid to congratulate him.