Author's Note: Thank you for the kind words and reviews of the last chapter. Just by way of warning, THIS STORY IS RATED M FOR A REASON. Events in this chapter, and some subsequent chapters, are the reason for this rating. PLEASE MIND THE RATING. Let me know if you found this chapter was confusing. I've edited it about a million times, and I genuinely can't tell anymore. Thanks for reading!
For more information, please look at: www [dot] freetheslaves [dot] net/Page [dot] aspx?pid=356; aheartforjustice [dot] com; www [dot] humantrafficking [dot] org/countries/united_states_of_america; www [dot] youtube [dot] com/watch?v=KjttKoFWxv0
Emily jerked awake as she felt a soft poke to her nose. Snapping her eyes open, she opened her mouth to cry out and reached out immediately for her sidearm.
"Ssshhh" Morgan put his finger gently against her lips, "I come bearing coffee." He whispered, gesturing to the hotel room door, "thought you might like to join me."
Emily sighed with relief, smiling at the thought of some liquid refreshment, and slipped off the bed. As her feet hit the floor, she stopped and shook her head as a thought struck her. "If Hotch sees me outside, and not with her—" She grimaced as she played the potential argument in her head, "It would just be evidence that I messed up last night."
"Did you?" Derek asked, his hand resting on the doorknob. "Mess up?"
"She didn't want to go, Derek. I—I couldn't make her…" She trailed off, realizing just how easy it might have been to force JJ to go to the hospital the night before. "I couldn't live with myself if I made her go." Emily amended.
Derek nodded, smiled, and turned toward the door the door. "Then it's a good thing Hotch had to run an errand and told me he'd be gone for the next hour."
Her face broke out in a genuine grin and she whispered happily "Sometimes, Derek Morgan, I think I just might love you."
"You and all the other single ladies, Prentiss." He raised his eyebrows teasingly, "But I'll remember that next time you—" He stopped immediately and both he and Emily snapped their attention to JJ who whimpered and turned in her sleep, hissing at the pressure of the mattress against her shoulder before falling silent once more.
Gesturing hopefully toward the door, he smiled when Emily nodded with excitement. Tiptoeing quietly out of the room, Derek shut the door softly behind them and slid down the wall to his make-shift guard post.
"I forgot how much I liked coffee." Emily moaned as she sipped the warm liquid.
"You've only been gone a day and a half Em," He rolled his eyes playfully. "It couldn't have been that bad. I'm sure Arizona has coffee."
She stuck out her tongue playfully, and they shared an easy laugh. After a moment, she asked, "What'd the kid have to say?"
Derek grimaced at the memory of the kid's prideful recounting of just a couple of the torturous experiences JJ had faced. Attempting to change the subject, he nodded toward the closed hotel room door. "How was she last night?"
Emily chuckled with self derision, "I was so exhausted, I slept straight through the night. I heard her cry out once—but I was pretty dead to the world."
Derek laughed, "And that's different from how you normally are-?" He asked teasingly.
Emily snorted as she sipped the black liquid. "Did anyone ever tell you you're an ass?"
He shook his head, chortling. "If I remember right, you told me not five minutes ago that you loved me."
"I told you that sometimes I think I love you. There's a difference." She ground out in mock severity. Sobering, she put her hand lightly on his shoulder, attempting to use him to stand. "I'd better get back—"
"Emily." Derek looked at her closely, pulling her hand off his shoulder and gently pulling her back down, "If you keep going like this, it's going to kill you. Relax for a minute. She's not going anywhere."
Nodding reluctantly, Emily sat back down, somewhat relieved to have a momentary reprieve from the emotional rollercoaster she had quickly found herself a part of. After ten minutes of light-hearted conversation, she sighed. "JJ might be up soon. We should be there."
Derek groaned ostentatiously, "Fine." He rolled his eyes playfully, "If you say so."
Smiling as she reentered the room, Emily's face fell when she heard the shower running.
Derek read her mind and spoke up quietly, "She's allowed to take a shower, Em."
"I know." Emily dismissed, feeling a sense of foreboding pring along her stomach. "It's just—there's something off—" She trailed off, glancing back to make sure that Derek understood.
Morgan nodded, "Is something missing?" He prodded helpfully.
Mentally cataloguing everything in the room, her eyes almost skipped over the side table to the bed where she had been laying only minutes earlier.
It was gone.
Her gun was missing.
Turning to Morgan quickly, she whispered, "Give me your gun."
He looked at her as if she had gone mad. "Derek, give me your gun, now!" Quickly, he thrust the cool metal into her waiting hands. Not bothering to stop to even think, Emily quickly jiggled the handle of the bathroom door only to find it locked. Bursting through the bathroom door, she found JJ fully clothed in the shower, her knees curled tightly against her chest. In her left hand, she cradled Emily's gun, caressing it gently with her right hand while tiny beads of water beat against her body.
"JJ—" Emily sighed feeling tears burn behind her eyes. Reaching over to turn off the water, she flinched as the ice cold stream hit her arm. Turning the knob to the side, Emily felt completely incapable of the task in front of her. Gently placing Morgan's gun on the counter, she crouched down next to JJ who, though trembling, hadn't moved since Emily had entered the room.
She hadn't even looked at Emily, which worried the seasoned profiler more than she would like to admit.
But right now, Emily had to focus on getting the wet gun out of JJ's shivering hands.
"Can you hand me the gun?" Emily asked softly, not wanting to startle JJ. She felt a wave of gratitude that she had removed the clip out of habit—otherwise this situation would have been a lot more dangerous. As it was, she had no idea what to say or do—the only thing she knew for certain was that she had to get the gun out of JJ's hands.
JJ's fingers simply traced the barrel of the gun in a circular motion while JJ stared at the gun as if Emily hadn't spoken.
After a moment, Emily tried again. "JJ, hand me the gun," She ordered more forcefully than before. Seeing that her words had little to no effect on the blonde, she tried again in Spanish, "give me the gun, JJ." She stated in a voice normally reserved for vile UnSubs.
She couldn't act fast enough as she saw the scene play out before her eyes.
JJ's fingers moved from where she had been tracing the barrel to the trigger. As if in slow motion, JJ pulled the trigger of the gun, the click of the empty gun reverberating in Emily's mind.
Finally, Emily caught up with the scene in front of her. Throwing her arms around the soaked woman, Emily pushed the gun in JJ's hands away from the trembling woman's body. Prying JJ's ice cold white knuckled grip off the cold metal, Emily kept her gaze focused on JJ for possible reactions.
"JJ?" She prodded softly, sliding the gun along the floor where it hit the wall with a thud. The sound brought Derek in, though he stopped at the threshold of the bathroom, unsure of whether or not his presence was welcome. She smiled gratefully before tipping her head slightly toward the trembling, frozen blonde. "JJ, Derek is going to lift you out of the tub." Sliding back to position herself between the bathtub and the toilet, she placed her hand on JJ's shoulder comfortingly. Seeing JJ shrink back slightly when Derek approached, Emily added, "I promise, it will be okay."
Trying to ignore the way JJ flinched as he approached, Derek quickly strode over to the two women intending to gently lift the shivering woman out of the bathtub. As he reached the porcelain lip, he knelt down purposefully slowing his movements so that JJ knew what was coming.
Lifting her out of the tub, both he and Emily were startled when JJ pounced forward in an attempt to lunge for the gun on the counter. Fortunately, Derek was faster than the weak and tired blonde and easily shifted his arms more securely around her. JJ's errant fist struck him lightly on the chest as she tried to grab the gun but he quickly shifted her weight against him pinning her left arm effectively against his own body.
Catching Emily's eyes, he strode purposefully out of the bathroom while Emily attempted to savage her water logged weapon.
Placing JJ gently on the bed, he quickly looked her over for injuries. Hotch would kill him if JJ caught a cold on top of some of her obvious other injuries.
Grimacing as he felt his cold shirt begin sticking tightly to his chest, he instantly removed the offending article of clothing mentally reminding himself to grab another shirt once Emily was done in the bathroom, completely oblivious to the reaction it would cause. Nothing could have prepared him for what would happen next.
JJ slid off the bed and avoided looking up at him as she knelt down and began gently fumbling at the zipper of his pants with fingers trembling heavily.
Frozen in shock, he could only stand there in a mixture surprise and horror.
Glancing up at him before ducking her head, JJ whispered so softly he could barely make out the words, "Por favor no me castiguen por golpear a usted. No era mi intención de desobedecer."
When JJ successfully managed to grab hold of his pant zipper, she pulled it downward and moved to start on his belt. The motion snapped Morgan to action. "What the hell, JJ!" He shouted, slapping JJ's hand away from him as he jerked back, his back slamming hard into the old television set.
JJ scrambled away to the nearest corner, pulling herself into a ball.
At the commotion, Emily burst out of the bathroom where she had been attempting to salvage her weapon. The first sight she caught was a shirtless Derek frantically attempting to zip up his pants with his fingers tripping over themselves as a soaking wet JJ huddled in the corner. Incensed, she whipped around, "What did you do to her, Derek?" She practically shouted.
"It wasn't me!" He held up his hands. "She just—she—" He was at a loss for words. "I didn't do anything!" He insisted.
"You're half naked!" She spat in horror.
"I—My shirt was wet—Em, I swear—I didn't think—I swear to God, I didn't know—" He rubbed the back of his head, as the scene replayed in his mind. "She thought—Em, I'm sorry, but I swear—Shit, I didn't—" He rambled softly, horrified at what had just transpired.
Emily sighed, and looked at him apologetically, "Its okay Derek, I trust you." Turning toward the blonde she crouched down, careful not to get too close. "JJ, he didn't mean to."
JJ looked at her with doe eyes and hugged her knees tightly, "I didn't know. I'm sorry." She murmured in Spanish, rocking gently against the walls.
Rubbing her upper back in giant circles, in a desperate attempt at comforting her friend, Emily spoke soothing phrases that she easily recalled from her beloved childhood nanny. "Its okay now." She insisted.
Derek yanked his soaking shirt back over his chisled body, still utterly appalled by what had just transpired. "I'll call Hotch." He said softly, hoping not to startle JJ who was just beginning to calm.
"No" Emily shook her head intently, stopping him in his tracks while she continued to rub placating circles along JJ's upper back. "We can't—he can't know."
"Why the hell not?" He stepped back, "in case you didn't notice, we don't exactly have this situation under control."
"She's not a situation, Derek." Emily's eyes hardened and she could feel JJ's perplexed and calculating gaze upon her.
"That's not what I meant Em, and you know it." Derek's own eyes hardened at the suggestion. Emily, of all people, knew how desperately they all wanted to find JJ—Emily was the only person who knew he had been seeing a therapist for years—the insinuation that he didn't care stung a little more than he'd like to admit.
"If we tell Hotch," Emily mused after a moment, standing and slowly backing away from JJ who still held her knees tightly, "He'll tell the doctor—Derek, they'll commit her."
"Maybe that's a good thing." Derek offered softly, glancing at the trembling woman in the corner as evidence. "She is going to need a lot of help—Emily, I don't know that we—any of us—can give that to her. Hell," he flung his hands up for emphasis, "we just found her playing with a gun in a bathtub—I don't know that anyone can get her the help she needs."
"It wasn't loaded." Emily defended softly. "The gun wasn't loaded. Nothing happened."
"But what if it had been?" Derek retorted poignantly. "Emily," He sighed, "it's obvious she needs help and—"
"And what's going to happen when she's stuck in a hospital and some low-life working there tells her to take off her clothes?" Emily shot back, interrupting any argument he was going to make, "What happens Derek?"
Morgan grimaced, thinking back to the events that had just transpired. It made him feel sick at the realization that Emily was right. JJ had practically thrown herself at him when she thought that was what he wanted her to do. In the right circumstances, they could just be delivering JJ to another set of people who would simply take advantage of her. "Emily," He sighed already realizing somewhere he was fighting a losing battle, "We have to trust the professionals—not every stage of the system fails."
"We couldn't find her. If we failed, maybe—" She trailed off in an almost whisper, "If she's in a hospital, whoever had her—they're going to come looking for her."
Derek paused thoughtfully, considering. Emily knew it wasn't fair, but she also knew the muscled man had been wracked with guilt ever since JJ's abduction—always wondering if he had gotten there faster, if maybe he could have stopped it from happening. With that weapon in her arsenal, she pushed forward. "Did she say anything to you?" She asked.
He nodded. "Umm," he tried to remember and separate the long string of words that had spewed out of JJ's mouth. "She said something about 'no canisterguen'…or maybe 'canstinguen'… 'castiguen'?" Seeing the recognition in Emily's eyes, he felt a surge of pride that he had at least gotten one word she recognized. "for—she said 'por gold pepper'?" He suggested.
"Golpear?" Emily's face fell at her own suggestion, but couldn't bear to let him in on it just yet, seeing him nod, she prodded. "What else?"
"Intent? I think I caught that word, and I think she said disobey, but I don't know." Seeing Emily turn away with tears pricking at her eyes, he felt the all too familiar sickening feeling that he probably didn't want to know what she was about to tell him. "What did she say Em?"
"I—" Emily's voice caught. "I can't be sure." She shrugged.
"Prentiss." His voice dropped with sincerity, "What'd she say?"
"I think she asked you not to punish her for beating you, she didn't mean to disobey." Emily translated reluctantly. "Derek—she just, she doesn't know—"
Holding up a hand, he relented, "Alright, we don't tell Hotch. But—Em, we can't leave her alone. Ever."
Emily nodded quickly, smiling with relief "I know."
"No." He shook his head emphatically, "I mean it. Emily, if she killed herself, I—I don't know that I could handle that."
Emily watched him closely, suddenly seeing a side of Derek Morgan that she had never considered. "I won't leave her alone."
"You have to let me know if she gets too much for you." Derek cautioned, "Even, I mean, I—we all—can help you with the pressure, but if it gets too bad, then we go to Hotch."
Seeing that this was likely the best condition she was going to get, she nodded softly. "If it gets too bad, we go to Hotch."
Derek nodded slowly in agreement, ignoring the pit in his stomach that cautioned him that this was a bad idea.
Author's Note: Suffice it to say, this is not the way that they should handle this. In no way should Emily and Derek EVER try to keep something like this from the doctors. Though they have good intentions, this is a mistake.