Once again, a ringing cell phone woke the two women up. Only this time, it was JJ's. She rolled over, disentangling herself from Emily, and grabbed the phone off of her nightstand, pushing Emily's shirt out of the way because it had somehow managed to land there last night.
"Hey, Garcia, what's up?"
"Hotch just called. He wants the rest of the team to fly out today. Rossi's waiting with the jet. It's wheels up in an hour."
"Shit, okay, just let me wake Emily up."
Penelope paused briefly on the other end, and JJ could almost hear her smirking. "So she spent the night, then?"
"Yes, Pen, she did. Please, we can talk about this later, but it's going to take us a little while to get ready, so I've gotta go."
"Alright, my love. Garcia out."
JJ hung up the phone and immediately turned to start shaking Emily awake. Emily swatted her away with a groan, and JJ sighed. "Emily, seriously, wake up, we have to be on the jet in an hour."
Emily opened her eyes groggily. "The Escambia County PD came through, then?"
"Yes, they did. And it's a twenty minute drive, so we have forty minutes to pull ourselves together."
Emily sat up and stretched, then rubbed her eyes and looked over at JJ. "Shit, your makeup is so smeared." She commented, suppressing a laugh.
"I know it is, and so is yours. We need to hurry up and clean up. And you've really gotta cover that hickey; we don't need the police, the press, and the victims' parents seeing it."
"Fuck, you're right. At least I had the courtesy to only leave them in places you could cover up!"
JJ blushed and looked down at her chest and stomach, which were sporadically spotted with dark markings. "Shut up, I didn't even realize I had given you one until the day after."
"Well, I certainly don't want Morgan asking any more questions. Come on, let's get ready to go." Emily wrapped herself up in the bedsheet and stood up. "Honestly, Jayje, did you have to throw my clothes everywhere?"
"Sorry." JJ giggled, walking over to her dresser. "It's not like that's what you'd want to wear today anyway. You'll have to borrow something of mine."
"You're right. At least I've got my go-bag on me."
JJ nodded, pulling out a black pencil skirt and a white blouse for herself. "Here, I've got a whole drawer of slacks over here, and you can borrow a blouse as well." She said, pulling her clothes on.
"Thanks. Hopefully no one notices these are your clothes." Emily said, gathering up a black blouse and black slacks.
"No one will, it's not like they're monogrammed."
"Yeah, I guess."
Once both women were dressed, they headed to the bathroom to tackle their hair and makeup.
"God, my mascara is nearly impossible to get off, and it's all over my face!" JJ complained.
"Just do your best, and if there's anything left you can cover it with foundation." Emily offered. Her makeup was much easier to take off since she'd barely worn any.
After their faces were clean, they swiped new makeup on, Emily having to forego foundation because her skin tone didn't match JJ's. When it came time to do their hair, both women struggled immensely.
"I can't believe how tangled our hair got." Emily said, laughing a little as she worked a comb through the mess that was the back of her hair.
JJ agreed with a sharp cry of pain as her brush ripped through a tangled spot.
After they'd both made themselves look presentable, they pulled on jackets, slipped on their shoes and headed out the door, with Emily complaining about having to wear the same shoes she wore the night before.
Twenty minutes later, the pair was the last to arrive. "Let's go, ladies. You're right on time." Rossi greeted them as they boarded the plane and took two seats across from each other. Morgan and Reid were also seated together, and Rossi already had Penelope set up on a video call.
The plane took off without a hitch, and the team had nearly three hours to talk basics. Rossi opened up his folder and gestured for the rest of the team to do the same.
"So, while Hotch and I were trying to convince the Escambia County PD that they did, in fact, have a case, the spree killer got two more women."
"Two women in one day? Jesus, we'd better hurry." Morgan commented.
"Yeah, we're going to have to work this case fast, because he's escalating. We don't know why he's killing yet, especially since he doesn't seem to have a type." Rossi said, paging through the folder that had the victims' pictures in it.
"Well, he is only targeting women, so that's a start." Emily offered.
"Yes, it is. Unfortunately for us, he will be harder to profile because he's killed two white women, one with blonde hair and one a redhead, two african-american women, and one hispanic woman. He doesn't care about race, hair color, or even eye color. He's just killing at random."
"What if it isn't random? What if each of these women wronged him somehow?" JJ put in.
"It's possible, but with the rate he's killing at, and the fact that each of these women come from different demographics, it isn't likely."
"Right, but we still need to consider it."
"Normally we would consider it, but so far Penelope has found no connection between the women."
"Right, but I've only run a basic check. I'm digging for more as we speak." Penelope put in from the screen behind Rossi.
Rossi nodded towards Penelope. "We've got her covering that, so we're going to work on piecing together our profile. When we land, I want Morgan and Reid to go to the two dump sites he's used to far, and I want Emily and JJ to speak to the victims' parents. Hotch and I are going to continue working with the local PD to get as much information as we can on potential suspects."
Emily and JJ smiled at each other. "Glad we get to work as a team." Emily whispered. JJ's smile widened and she buried her face in her folder, trying to hide her obvious feelings from the expert profilers sitting just a few feet away from her.
When the team landed in Florida, they took off for Pensacola's police department, quickly getting set up in an office and preparing interrogation rooms as well as spaces to speak to the parents of the victims. Hotch met up with them in the office space, quickly excusing himself and Rossi to start going through the non-digital files that Penelope couldn't access.
Emily and JJ headed over to speak to a detective working the case, Detective Alison King. They introduced themselves, Emily thanking God that she'd been able to use JJ's makeup to cover up the mark on her collarbone.
"The parents of Stacey Kiminick will be here soon, as will the parents of Kira Rodriguez." Detective King said as she shook JJ's hand.
"Great. What about the parents of the other three women?" Emily asked.
"Unfortunately, Katie Pruitt's parents are refusing to talk to us. We don't know why; it seems like their grief is too much for them to handle. Alexa Jameson's parents are flying in from France where they were vacationing, but we aren't sure when they'll be here. And Mira Robinson's parents are stuck at an airport in Kentucky. There's a storm going on down there and all flights are grounded so far."
Emily and JJ nodded. "Alright. We'll talk to Stacey and Kira's parents, and hopefully Alexa and Mira's parents will show up. Even if they don't, talking to the parents isn't a crucial part of the profile with this case since the women don't seem to be connected. We just like to cover our bases." JJ said.
Detective King nodded. "Keith and Jamie Kiminick should be here any minute. Why don't you just relax until they get here." Her sentence was nearly cut off by the sound of the precinct door opening and closing, and she turned to see a couple coming through the door, both of their faces tear-stained.
"There they are now. I'll set them up in one of the rooms you've prepared."
"No need for that, Detective. Agent Prentiss and I will take care of it." JJ stated firmly, walking towards the couple and signaling for Emily to follow her.
"Hello Mr. and Mrs. Kiminick, we are so sorry for your loss. My name is Jennifer Jareau, and this is Emily Prentiss. We're with the Behavioral Analysis Unit of the FBI." JJ introduced them, a sympathetic smile on her face.
Neither of the two answered them as they solemnly shook the hands of the agents. "We're going to head into this room over here." Emily said, signaling to a room on their left. "Would either of you like any water or coffee?"
"I'd love some water, thank you." Jamie answered quietly.
"Of course, ma'am." Emily answered, whisking off to the water cooler. JJ led the two into the room and closed the door after Emily returned with a cup of water. They sat down across from the Kiminicks and Emily signaled to JJ to start talking, since she was so much better at these things than Emily was.
"We'd just like to talk to you a little bit about your daughter, Stacey. It would help us get a better idea of who she is, and could help us catch the guy who did this to her." JJ began.
Jamie let out a loud sob, tears starting to flood down her face. Keith put his arm around her and looked at JJ and Emily. His face looked tired and worn, like he'd exhausted all of his tears. "Stacey was an amazing woman. She was in college, training to become a nurse." He began.
"She never failed a class. She was always on the honor roll. And she was one of the kindest people you could ever meet. She always gave money to the homeless, and she started volunteering at the childrens' hospital when she was fourteen."
Emily nodded. "It sounds like she was a wonderful young woman."
Jamie nodded, then looked up through her tear-filled eyes."You're going to catch the son of a bitch who did this to our baby, right?"
"We're going to do our absolute best." JJ affirmed.
Suddenly there was a knock on the door, and Hotch entered. "I'm sorry to interrupt, but I need to speak to you two." He said.
JJ and Emily stood. "Let us know if you need anything at all." JJ offered before following Hotch and Emily out the door.
"What's going on?" Emily asked.
"They found another body."
A/N: Thank you yet again for your love and support! Within the next month I'm going to write multiple chapters and upload them within a week of each other so you guys get more consistent updates. Thank you for your patience!