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JJ looked at Emily strangely and continued. "Eight women, all pregnant. They seemed to be in their final trimester when they were kidnapped and their bodies were mutilated and it looks like the fetus was cut out of them. This is a local case guys so we're all at home on this one."
Emily stared at the writing in her file, systematically sipping water. This was not going to be a good case for her. She looked at Rossi who looked at her with sympathy and understanding. She took a deep breath and thought to herself "If I can get through the case with Matthew, I can get through this. Nothing is going to happen." She closed her file and headed to her desk after Hotch gave the word for everyone to study their files and come back with their initial findings and profiles in an hour.
JJ followed Emily and sat on her desk.
"Everything okay?" She asked quietly. Morgan picked up on that and asked her also. "Yeah Prentiss, you seemed quite off in there. You okay?"
"Yeah. Everything's fine. I think I have an upset stomach that's all. Feeling a little queasy." She said, smiling at JJ and Morgan.
"Ouch. Those images can't be very stomach settling, can they?" Morgan said, grimacing in sympathy.
"Please don't remind me. I think I may actually be sick!" Emily said, laughing lightly.
JJ put her hand on Emily's shoulder, telling her silently that she didn't buy one bit of what Emily said, but she left it at that. "Hope things get better!" was all she said and left to go back to her office. With a local case, it was more hectic than relaxed. There were dealing with a psychopath on their turf and the stakes got higher.
The team soon met again in the conference room. As they all settled, Emily got up.
"Um, Hotch? I was wondering if I could sit this one out?" Emily asked, hesitating a little.
"Is there a reason Prentiss?" Hotch asked. Though stern, he liked and respected his team and gave them a respite if he felt that they needed it.
"Uh, I'm just not feeling too good." Emily said, her excuse sounding weak even to her ears. She refused to look up at Hotch, choosing to look down.
"Well, this is a local case. Let's see how you feel at the end of the day and we'll decide based on that. Now, Reid, what could you gather from the information we have so far?" Hotch asked, shifting focus.
While Reid gave them a rough geographical profile, Emily slumped in her chair and looked at the first picture, cringing. JJ looked at her girlfriend, shocked. She couldn't believe that this was the same person who went into the field with broken ribs. Something was seriously wrong. She looked at Morgan who was paying attention to Reid and Hotch and then at Rossi, who was staring intently at Emily. After Reid gave the geographical profile, the men game to the conclusion that it was a male, based on the brutality of the murders.
"I think it's a couple. The woman wants the baby and the man wants to get one for her. Probably infertile or too old to have children. They also could have some kind of record, because clearly adoption is out of the question and may not be very well off for fertility treatments." Emily said, and slumped back into her chair. She looked at JJ for the first time who gave her a puzzled look and a reassuring smile. Emily didn't know what to do with that. JJ was comforting her even though she didn't know what was wrong. She felt like a tool. She sighed and looked down again, trying to spell things backwards. Like 'chair' was 'riahc'.
After the team had a preliminary profile, going by Emily's theory, which was the most plausible, they split up. They decided to meet the local police at 3pm and they had an hour for lunch. Emily decided to go out without JJ who was hurt. She just went to her office choosing to skip lunch. She didn't feel like eating.
Rossi followed Emily and decided to join her for lunch, which was a pastry at a bakery nearby. She ordered two red velvet cupcakes and an iced tea and sat at a table near the window. Rossi got himself a chicken sandwich and joined her. They kept quiet until she ate a whole cupcake. She then looked at Rossi, who was chewing calmly and he gave her a questioning look.
"These women, they wanted children. Probably loved them. They must have had plans for the nursery, picked out names, decided which schools. All of that. They were murdered, and the one thing they loved the most was taken from them! So brutally. Then, there is me. I had a chance to have a child, I chose not to. I killed something even before it was allowed to become anything, become this person. I'm as bad as the killer!" Emily said, looking down and not at Rossi. She saw tear drops fall onto the brown wood of the table and she quickly wiped her eyes, ashamed. She sniffed, but continued to stare at the lines scarring the wood on the table.
"Emily, look at me." Was all Rossi said.
She looked up, her expression tortured and anguished. She wiped her eyes again, as the tears wouldn't stop, even though she was not consciously crying.
"You were 15, in a foreign country, with the Ambassador as your mother. You dealt with it the best you could. It does not make you a killer. Can you imagine the life that child would have had? A mentally unstable child, wait, don't interrupt, for a mother, a grandmother who could only give it financial support and no father. It would not have had a happy life! You did it a favour. And honestly, it just existed, it didn't live. So you 'killing' it, doesn't say that you are a serial killer ripping apart families! Do not do this to yourself Emily. You are so much more than that. If you could see yourself the way we see you… Now come on. Dry your eyes and stop feeling like this. We've got a serial killer to catch." Rossi said, kindly, but firmly. He hoped the words would stick.
Emily nodded and dried her eyes. She ate the other cupcake and laughed at a story that Rossi told her about some people who were his fans. She felt much better. The duo got up to leave the bakery and just before they stepped out, Emily hugged Rossi, in a rare show of affection and said thank you. Rossi just hugged her back and they walked back to the office.
Meanwhile, in the office, JJ was upset. She was confused, because Rossi had cancelled lunch with Reid saying he was going with Emily. She was hurt because she felt that Emily had chosen Rossi over her and then was pissed off for acting like a juvenile girlfriend. Emily had a life outside of their relationship and that should be fine. JJ had her friends, she was much closer to Garcia, more than anyone, so it shouldn't matter. She gave herself a smack on the head, literally, and told herself to grow up. Emily would tell her if something was wrong in her own time. She just ought to be grateful that Rossi was around for her.
JJ went and got herself a sandwich from the cafeteria and ate it while watching an episode of Friends on her laptop. Somehow Friends always made her feel better!
Soon, her phone rang and it was the coroner saying that he was done and they were sending over the report. She called Hotch and let him know. He decided that they would discuss it here and then head on over to the Police Department and get a profile out to the Police. JJ texted everyone to get to the conference room as soon as possible.
Emily and Rossi got back five minutes after JJ texted them and they headed straight to the conference room. Emily looked better and was calmer. She went and sat in her usual chair and sent a reassuring smile to JJ and Morgan. Things were okay with her.
Hotch came in and handed out copies of the coroner's reports. He asked Emily if she was feeling better and she said "Much better, thanks. I'm on this case a hundred percent." She opened up the report and paid attention as the team discussed it. Apparently the babies were cut out of the mother's while they were alive. Care was taken not to hurt the baby, so the team knew that the killers were after only the baby.
They headed to the police station where they gave out the profile for a couple, who was probably childless and had lost the child or couldn't have children. The sad part was that they couldn't really do anything until someone else was kidnapped, but they were keeping an eagle eye on things. They had narrowed the victim pool to women who were in their final few weeks of pregnancy, who were brunette and attractive. The victims were tall, had high-power jobs and were well-off.
JJ released the profile to the press, urging people who fit into the victim type to be extra vigilant. The day drew to a close, with no one going missing and the BAU doing all they could. Emily partially was glad that the day was over and dreaded it, because she had to explain things to JJ. She sent JJ a text saying that she would come over to her place after going home and freshening up a little. She was going to bring some wine and JJ was going to get ice cream.
Emily showered and put on a navy blue top and a long skirt. She pinned her hair at the sides and wore a long necklace. The skirt was a tie-dye red and white skirt that made her look decidedly feminine. She wanted to see JJ's expression, because she was sure JJ wouldn't have even imagined that Emily would own something like this.
She knocked on JJ's door and waited. The door opened to JJ in shorts and a tee. Her jaw all but fell when she saw Emily. "Oh, wow. Em, you look amazing. More than amazing. Superfantabulously amazing!" JJ said and leaned in to kiss her. They broke apart and Emily came indoors. As JJ shut the door, Emily asked "Is that even a word?"
"Huh? What?" JJ asked, her mind was pretty much mush. She didn't know what Emily was talking about. The only thing that was registering in her mind was that Emily looked breathtakingly beautiful and smelt amazing! It was taking all of JJ's control not to jump Emily's bones.
"Superfan.. whatever. Is that a word?" Emily asked, feeling pleased at the effect she was having on JJ. She put the wine on a table and took JJ's hand and drew her to the couch. They sat down, where JJ said, "I made it up. It should be a word. I'm sorry, I cannot concentrate! Emily you look so good and smell so good and all I'm thinking about is you, me and my bed!" JJ said, looking at Emily like she was going to eat her alive.
Emily laughed and stood up. "Well, what are you waiting for? Let's go!" she took JJ's hand and they had a very pleasant night!
A/N: This is a long chapter! It gets quite serious and touchy topics are, touched in this chapter. The views are opinions expressed, each person is entitled to their own. The ending is a little fluff cause I like ending things on a light note. Now question – should Emily and JJ talk it out now or later? Cause they don't really know each other too well, and this is Emily's deep dark secret!