Chapter 6 –

11:28am Monday 13th November 2011

"Uh oh that does not look good."

Morgan spoke quietly as the sound of Garcia's heels reverberated around the bullpen but she kept her head bowed low as she quickly made her way up to Hotch's office, closing the door behind her.

"Well it has been nearly two week."

JJ puffed her cheeks out as she sat on the edge of Reid's desk and looked up at Hotch's office, feeling the rest of the team's eyes join hers.

"I'd better ring Will and give him a heads up."

JJ turned away and jumped down off of Reid's desk walking towards her office to make the phone call as she watched Garcia and Hotch talking animatedly in Hotch's office.

Hotch walked out of his office and nodded as Garcia walked past him towards the conference room to set up. He waved his hand as Morgan, Reid and Emily looked up at him.

"Conference room now, get JJ."

Everyone nodded in response, grabbing their iPads before walking up and taking their seats around the table, the room silent until everyone was present and Hotch stood up at the front of the room.

"Dallas PD called an hour ago, they found the bodies of four women early this morning, a dog got loose at Cottonwood Trail and uncovered four shallow graves, all victims had gunshot wounds to the head."

Emily felt her heart pound, a bead of sweat quickly appeared a top of her right eyebrow. The photos of the four women were on the screen but their faces unrecognisable, any of them could be Milly but for some reason she did not believe that they were. Emily reached down and put her hands under the table, clenching her hands tight together. Sucking in her bottom lip Emily tried to keep her emotions in check, she knew that she couldn't say anything as it would tip her over the edge, instead Emily kept quiet pretending to focus on the file in front of her as Hotch continued.

"We haven't got any identities on the victims yet, but Dallas PD want us down there ASAP, we've uncovered his dumping ground so the sooner we can get down there and help the better."

"I'll run their details through our databases and also check missing persons."

"Thanks Garcia, right wheels up in thirty."

As soon as Hotch finished speaking Emily got up, quickly, walking straight out of the room, down the stairs, through the bullpen, not stopping until she was in the sanctuary of a locked cubicle. Shutting the lid before she sat down, her head bowed towards her chest as she reached up and covered her eyes, unable to stop the tears from falling.

"Is Emily ok?"

Garcia whispered into JJ's ear as the two of them walked out of the room together.

"I don't know Garcia, she's been really quiet the last week of so, I'll go and check on her."

"Good the last thing I want is to worry about is our ninja Prentiss while I have a stack load of work to do."

JJ smiled at Garcia's term of endearment for Emily but as she scoured the bullpen she could find no sign of her friend, the smile faded as she parted from Garcia and walked into the toilets.

Emily heard the door open, quickly she squinted her eyes tight shut and sucked in her bottom lip as far as it would go, concentrating hard on her breathing as slowly she got her emotions under control.

"Emily? Are you in here?"

Emily slowly released her bottom lip as she heard her friend's voice, she knew that she had to reply.

"I'm here."

"Oh, hey are you ok, you left rather quickly?"

Emily clenched her right fist and punched her right thigh, hard.

"Sorry, I'm fine, my stomach is doing a few somersaults, probably something I ate last night."

"Oh ok well I've got some ginger biscuits in my office if you need them."

Emily could hear JJ moving closer to the cubicle, she unfurled a bundle of tissue and held it to her face, trying to drain the moisture from her eyes.

"Thanks, I'll be out in a couple of minutes."

Ok I'll see you in a bit."

Emily held her breath until she listened to JJ's footsteps leave, heaving a large sigh as the door shut. Finally she stood up and rested her palms against the locked door, making the stern decision there and then that she had to leave her emotions there, locked away in the cubicle, she couldn't let Milly's whereabouts affect the investigations, not until she knew more details. Firmly Emily unlocked the cubicle, confident that she was now alone, but not confident enough to look in the mirror to check her appearance, instead she turned on the cold tap, running it for several seconds to ensure that it was ice cold before she stuck her hands underneath and splashed the freezing water onto her face.

1:20pm Monday 13th November

Emily had sat next to JJ but hadn't said a word to her friend, instead the blonde had patted her knee sympathetically and offered her shoulder which Emily had quickly, and gratefully, accepted, falling asleep as the jet levelled off from its take off.

JJ looked out of the corner of her eye at her sleeping friend, she knew that something else was wrong but JJ knew that Emily would tell her when the time was right, not before. Suddenly Hotch appeared beside them.

"Garcia's got something for us."

"Huh?"

Emily quickly lifted her head up and opened her eyes, confusion reigned for a moment until JJ gestured towards the laptop opposite them and Garcia's image appeared.

"Oh thanks."

Emily feigned a smile and rubbed her eyes, listening carefully as Garcia began.

"Ok I've got identities on two of the four victims, Alison Lawrence 22 years old and Nicola Perkins 26, both of them had their prints on the system for solicitation."

Garcia took a break as she waited for the team to digest the information.

"So it looks like he is targeting prostitutes but we need ids on the other two victims to confirm that. Garcia have you got any photos of them?"

"Yes sir."

Garcia already had the information to hand as Hotch asked the question, two seconds later two photos took her place on the screen.

"Well he has a type, they could be twins."

Morgan opened his eyes as he took in their appearance, thin faced, tanned, shoulder length blonde hair and blue eyes.

"Ok thanks Garcia, see if there were any links between Alison and Nicola and keep trying to get the other identities."

"Will do, Garcia out."

The screen went blank as Hotch looked around the jet.

"Dave, you and Prentiss go to the trail and look at the dump site. Morgan and Reid I want you at the morgue, JJ and I will set up at the station and start looking at victimology."

Emily breathed a sigh of relief as Hotch finished, the victims definitely didn't match Milly's description but that didn't mean that she was safe, Emily was just glad that she didn't have to go to the morgue, she wasn't sure that until she knew that none of the victims were Milly she'd be able to cope with that.