Chapter 17

Morgan comes out of the garage, carrying Jess. Hotch and Gideon rush out to help a very emotional Derek.

"What happened?" Gideon asks.

"Walt killed her before I could get to her. I promised her that I'd protect her and her unborn child! I let her and JJ down." Morgan says, handing Jess' body to Hotch and dropping to his knees and just sobbing.

"NO! Derek, you did the best you could in the situation you were given. Walt's to blame! Not you!" Gideon says, hugging Derek as he cries. Hotch puts Jess' body on the ground on the safe side of the trucks. Everyone gathers around Jess' empty shell.

"Oh God! Oh peter, what's this world coming to?" Sophie says, sobbing into Peter's shoulder.

"I don't know darlin. I don't know."

"I'm going to call an M.E. to come pick up this young lady. Does she have any family?" Detective Hoyt asks.

"Yes, JJ. She also has a husband and a four year old boy." Prentiss says.

"Okay. Thank you. Would you possibly have the phone number?" Woody asks.

"Yes, right here." Emily hands him the info sheet that Garcia faxed over.

"I can't believe she's gone." Daisy says, wiping away her tears.

"Are you sure there's nothing I can do?" Reid asks Daisy. Daisy just throws herself into Reid's arms and busts out crying. Reid holds her ever so tightly. Woody steps aside and calls Jordan, the on call M.E.

"Cavanaugh."

"Hey Jordan, we have a body that needs to be picked up. She's been removed from the crime scene, but this is a really sensitive case. She was killed by her sexually abusive step father. She's a sister of an FBI agent. She's pregnant. Excuse me, was pregnant. We need this to be handled with finesse. The address is Jessup Dr. See you in a few minutes." Woody says, then hangs up without letting Jordan get a word in.

"Morgan, how'd JJ take the news?" Hotch asks.

"At first, not good. She was crying and yelling. Then, in an instant, she was calm. No emotion. It scares me. Josh was even nice. But when I mentioned that we both leave, she said Josh said they had a deal. She's really scary." Morgan says, shaking a little.

"Did she seem scared?" Gideon asks.

"No. She was emotionless." Morgan says.

"Okay, why don't you have the medic check you out. You were drugged too." Gideon says, pointing to the back of the ambulance. Derek slowly walks over.

"I wonder what's going on in that house?" Hotch asks to no one in particular.

Two hours pass with no noise from the house. Hotch wanted to go in an hour and forty-five minutes ago, but Gideon told Hotch that JJ need to settle things with these two before she can move on with her life. At five AM, Gideon decides it's time. "Hotch, we need to get a plan together. First, lets try the phone. If JJ's still getting closure, then we wait. If no one answers, we need to go in."

"We need to pick four to go in." Hotch turns to the remaining people and asks, "does anyone want to volunteer to go in?" Two people jumped at the chance. Agent Michaels and detective Hoyt.

"Me!" Woody and Shawn says at the same time.

"Okay, now this is what's going to happen. I'm going to pair up with Agent Michaels. Gideon's pairing up with Detective Hoyt. You stay with your partner at ALL times. Each team gets a walkie-talkie. That way if we need back up, we don't have to leave each other. Gideon and Hoyt, you take the second floor and the attic. Michaels and I will take the first floor and the basement. Go get your vests on, get your guns and then meet back here in five minutes." Hotch let them break up ad do what they needed to do.

Pretty much everyone else had gone to the hospital to get checked out. Hotch's orders. Morgan and Reid had to get tested for the type of drug given to them. Plus, make sure they were physically okay. Sophie, Kate, Daisy and Juliet had to also get checked out. Make sure they didn't have any injuries or that they weren't raped. Peter and Hank went with their wives. Prentiss went to take all their statements. Garcia, Scott and Auggie arrive at the hospital. Once everyone's check out, they head to the hotel. All except Scott, Garcia, Morgan, Reid, Prentiss and Daisy. As they leave the hospital, they run into Jess' Husband and son.

The little boy has white blond hair and blue eyes, just like his Aunt Jen. Not to mention his beautiful mommy, who's now dead. Her husband didn't know that she died. Emily decided to step forward and tell the husband. She figured that that was the only way she could help JJ at this time.

"Mr. Bowers? Hello, I'm Agent Emily Prentiss. Could I speak to you for a moment?"

"Sure, but could we hurry? I want to see Ash. I need to see her for myself." He says, looking a little scared.

"Hey there little man. Do you want to come with me over there? See the M&M machine." Daisy asks with a look to dad. He nods and Daisy walks the sleepy boy over to the candy machine.

"Mr. Bowers, I'm sorry to have to tell you. Ashley's dead. I'm terribly sorry." Emily says, rubbing his shoulder and back.

"What? How?"

"Right now it's unclear. But it might have been an accident. We have to wait for an autopsy. Would you like me to take you to the morgue? Emily asks.

"Yes, please. Can someone watch Scottie for me. I don't think that's a place I want my boy to be."

"Sure. Garcia, can you watch Scott Bowers for Mr. Bowers so we can go to the morgue?"

"No problem. Sorry about your loss sir. I'll take Scott back to the hotel for some healthier breakfast. Em, just bring him back. Call if you need anything." Garcia walks over to Daisy and little Scott. The others go back to the house to find out what happened. Scott's eager to see Shelby/Jennifer. They all go their separate ways.

At the Boston morgue, Emily and Mr. Bowers get off the elevator and run into a very professionally dressed young lady with a smile on her face. "Hello. Can I help you?"

"Yes, I' special agent Emily Prentiss and this is Mr. Bowers. He's here to see his wife, Ashley Bowers."

"Oh, sure. If you follow me to a conference room, I'll just grab Dr. Cavaugh. Then we'll talk first. Have a seat here. I'll be right back." Lilly says, shutting the conference room door and hurrying to Jordan. She busts in, scaring Jordan. "Jordan!"

"Ah! Lilly, switch to decaf! My goodness! What?" Jordan says, doing the exterior exam.

"Mr. Bowers is here to see his wife, Ashley Bowers. He and an Agent Prentiss are in conference one." Lilly says, pretty jumpy.

"Okay, let me make her a little more presentable." Jordan says, combing her hair out with her fingers. She arranges her hair down around the bruise on her temple. Then she covers the body completely. Making sure she has enough sheet to uncover the head only. Lilly and Jordan walk back to the conference room. They open the door and Mr. Bowers and Emily stand up.

"Hello Mr. Bowers. I'm Jordan Cavanaugh and I want to start be saying how sorry we are about your wife. This is our grief counselor, Lilly Libowski. Do you have any questions?"

"Yes, how did she die?" She was a healthy twenty-four year old woman. She just found out she was pregnant again." Mr. Bowers says, crying.

"I'm sorry. Did your wife have any type of health problems? Asthma, diabetes, a heart condition?" Jordan asks.

"No. At least none that we knew of. Was there any physical signs of foul play?"

"We did find a bruise at the temple. Their was a also a split lip. And I believe she might have been assaulted. I haven't had a chance to start the internal exam. If I had to make a guess with what I have seen, I'd say blunt force trauma to the head. Now whether it was done to her or an accident, I don't know yet. Do you have any other questions before we go see her?"

"No."

"Alright, please follow me. Agent Prentiss, are you coming too?" Lilly asks.

"Yes, she is." Mr. Bowers spoke up before Emily could say anything. They all walk to the exam room. Emily grabs Mr. Bowers hand and he squeezes it.

"Ready?" Jordan asks. Mr. Bowers nods. Jordan lowers the power blue sheet from Jess' face. Mr. Bowers gasps. He notices the lip and some of the bruises on her temple.

"That Bastard did it, didn't he?" Mr. Bowers asks, angry.

"Who are we talking about?" Lilly asks.

"Ashley's abusive step father. He's the one that kidnapped her from Michigan. She wouldn't tell me much about him. Just that she was hiding from him. She said he was abusive and he would kill her if he got a hold of her. I thought she was being over dramatic. He killed my love and our sweet baby. I used to try to give her a nickname. You know, like sweet cakes or something. But she just told me to stick to Ashy." Mr. Bowers says, wiping the tears away. "May I kiss her and hold her one last time?"

"Sure, we'll wait for you out in the hall." Jordan says. They walk out and wait.

"Agent Prentiss, when I took her finger prints, she came up as Jess Merrick. Can you explain that?" Jordan asks. Lilly's intrigued.

"Yes. A little over ten years ago, Jess Merrick testified against her sexually abusive step father. He threatened retaliation. The FBI put her in witness protection. Her step father was currently released and somehow located her. He kidnapped her and brought her to a house here in Boston. Now we believe he killed her, but we can't guarantee it was intentional or accidental. Her sister's one of my team members. Oh, this is just so awful. She has a four year old boy named Scott. He looks just like his mom and Aunt Jen."

"Oh, she's the one out on Jessup Dr. Woody's out there helping." Jordan says, "So have they arrested the bastard?"

"Well, actually there's two bastards. I don't know because I had to take a mass of people to be checked out at the hospital. I was going to go check and see. If you guys want to come with, you can. I have to drop off Mr. Bowers at the hotel. The I'm going." Emily says.

"Actually, we can drive over ourselves. We can't stay long. But if he killed my sister, I'd kill him. So I might be needed." Jordan says, with a sarcastic smile.

"Here, here girlie." Emily says and high fives Jordan and then Lilly.