Here we go! Chapter 7! Also, I'm about to post a fluffy one shot featuring Derek/Spencer which is super exciting because a) I've never written man love before. Like ever. In the like 7 years I've been writing fanfiction. and b) it was brought to my attention that I very rarely write fluff. So if that sounds like something you would enjoy, it's called The Perfect Day. Read and review, tell me how you like this chapter!)

"The best protection any woman can have… is courage." Elizabeth Cady Stanton

Emily

Almost twenty four hours have passed and it doesn't feel like we're any closer. And to make things worse, another man had been killed last night, same MO as our unsub. Garcia was crawling through his life to determine if he also had a history of domestic abuse.

"How is the unsub finding these men?" Morgan asks in frustration. We're on our way to the latest victim's house to speak with his wife, Luciana.

I let out a harsh breath. "I don't know. Garcia cross checked everyone in law enforcement, shelter workers, counselors. No one matched."

"We have to be missing something."

I nod. "But what? We're running out of time. It's our second full day here and it doesn't feel like we've made any headway. And we're up another body." We're silent for a moment. "I know it's awful to think but… Never mind." I shake my head, not wanting to finish my thought aloud.

"What?"

"Nothing."

"If someone had to be dying, part of you is okay that it's these wife beaters?" I glance at him, not disagreeing. "Believe me, the thought has crossed my mind too."

"It's just… The worst thing I can possibly think of is something happening to JJ or the baby. Before she got pregnant and was still actively in the field dealing with unsubs, when she would get hurt in hand to hand…" I let a shaky breath. "Seeing it happen would hurt worse than if it were happening to me. And in the days after, seeing the leftover bruises would make my stomach turn. The thought of me physically doing that, inflicting those wounds on someone that I profess to love… I just can't."

"I get it. We took an oath to protect others. And there's a tiny part of me that not only understands why this unsub is doing this but even applauds them. Any bastard who raises a hand to the ones he loves isn't a man in my book. But unfortunately our oath includes protecting them too."

"Don't I know it." We're now parked in front of a small brick multi family home. We get out of the SUV and approach. We find the right door and I knock. After a few moments, someone knocks back. Morgan and I look at each other. I knock again, repeating the same rhythm they did.

"Hello?" I ask. The door cracks open and a tiny face with huge brown eyes appears in the space. I kneel down so I'm on his level. "Hey buddy. My name is Emily and this is my friend Derek. We're police officers, is your mommy home?" He nods but doesn't move. "Could we maybe talk to her?"

"Dominick? Baby you can't open the door without me!" We hear a female voice call from within. The little boy steps back and the door opens to reveal Luciana Wright. She has long, straight black hair and brown almond shaped eyes, one of which is barely visible through the swelling of a black eye. Her most prominent feature however is a swollen, very pregnant belly. The little boy, Dominick, grabs onto her leg and buries his face in her side and she tousles his hair.

"Can I help you?" she asks. My mouth is dry and I can't seem to inhale enough air to speak so Morgan takes over.

"Yes ma'am, I'm agent Morgan with the FBI and this is my partner, Agent Prentiss. We were wondering if we could ask you some questions about your husband."

She pulls the little boy a little bit closer to her. "Now really isn't a good time."

I find my voice. "Ma'am I understand this is difficult but it's very important we talk to you."

She hesitates then nods, letting us step into the house. It's small but warmly furnished. There are several photos of Dominick on the walls, a few of them also including Luciana and her late husband, Stephen. She leads us to the living room and motions for us to sit on the couch.

"Dominick, mijo, ir a jugar por favor." He nods and leaves the room, keeping his big brown eyes focused on us for as long as he can.

"How can I help you?" Her hands smooth her shirt over her rounded stomach and my heart aches for JJ.

"How far along are you?" I ask.

"37 weeks."

"Wow, you're almost there."

She nods, giving me a small smile. "Do you have kids?"

I pause. "I have one on the way. Only 33 weeks though."

Her eyes flicker to my stomach and then my left hand, where my wedding ring sits. When I don't supply anything else, she just nods. "Catch up on sleep while you can."

"That's what we've been told." I clear my throat. "We're here to ask about your husband. When was the last time you saw Stephen?"

She chews on her lip and looks above our heads. "The night before last. He got home from work and dinner wasn't ready because I had been at a parent's night at Dom's daycare. We got into a fight and well," she brought a hand self consciously to her black eye. "Things got rough. He took me to the emergency room and when we got home we went to bed. I woke up yesterday morning and he had already left for work. Then last night I got the call."

"Did he get rough with you often?" Morgan asks.

She gives a humorless laugh. "Not at first. Things were fine while we were dating and even when we first got married. But then we moved here from Arizona and after Dom was born he started getting angrier at more and more things. Little things would happen and he would just lose it. He would hit me or kick me, sometimes he would strangle me." The tears in her eyes threaten to overcome her and she stops for a moment. "Afterwards it was like the anger would drain out of him and he was a completely different person. And he felt awful about what happened. So he'd take me to the ER to make sure I was okay."

"Did… Did you ever tell anyone? Did you contact a shelter or try to leave?" I ask, trying not to make this more painful than it was.

She shakes her head. "I wanted to sometimes, but all of my family lives in Phoenix and I don't have a lot of friends."

"So no one knew what was happening?" Morgan confirms.

Luciana pushes her hair back from her face. "No. No one knew but me, him, and the ER staff." she pauses for a moment and her face crumbles. "And Dom. I tried to make sure that he never saw anything but you can't hide it." As she begins to cry harder I move to sit next to her on the couch and rub her back.

"Hey. You're going to be okay. Stephen can't hurt you anymore. He can't hurt you, or Dom, or your little one on the way. You can get past this. You can move back to Arizona if you want. But the important thing is that you're strong. You can do this."

After a few minutes, she is able to pull herself back together and show us out of the apartment. Back in the SUV, Morgan and I sit in a heavy silence. "Do you think she'll be okay?" I whisper.

"Hopefully. I mean like you said, with Stephen out of the question she can start over."

I nod. "This means we have to rule out the loose list of suspects though. No law enforcement was ever contacted, no shelters, no counseling. She was all alone."

"Wait." he says. "What was it she said, no one knew except for her, Stephen…"

"And the ER staff." I finish. "Oh my god, and that's how we knew that the victims were domestic abusers to begin with, Garcia found the ER visits. Our unsub has to be someone in the medical field."

As we drive towards the station we call Hotch and tell him our theory and he agrees. He patches in Garcia and tells her the new criteria to run. As we wait, JJ's voice comes across the line.

"But if a doctor or a nurse had suspected domestic abuse wouldn't they have been bound by law to report it to the police?"

"Not necessarily," replies Reid. "They encourage domestic abuse victims to contact the proper authorities but unless there is a knife or gun wound they are not bound by law. Several times legislation has been proposed to force them to report it but was feared that it would prevent injured women from seeking medical treatment." Spencer says.

"Okay okay! I have cross checked all of the ER visits from all four victims' partners and there are seven staff that occurred across the board. Two doctors, three nurses, an admissions attendant, and an orderly. Now what?"

"How many are female?" asks JJ.

"Mmm four. One doctor, two nurses, and the admissions attendant. And before you ask, the admissions attendant is 23, so she is not the right age but the nurses are 31 and 44, and the doctor is 42."

"Okay now go into their back grounds. Something had to have happened a few weeks ago to make one of these women do this." Morgan takes a sharp turn as we hurry to rejoin the team.

"Okay, searching, searching… Oh no."

"What is it, baby girl?"

"The second nurse, Ramona Jacobs. Three weeks ago her daughter, Eliza was stabbed to death by her live in boyfriend Deacon. Reports said that Ramona had tried to convince Eliza to leave him but she had refused."

"That's one hell of a trigger." I say as Morgan and I share a look.

"Where is she now, Garcia?"

"She is currently at work at Faith Prosperity Hospital."

"Morgan, Emily, reroute, we will meet you at the hospital, we've got to stop this now.

He throws on the lights and I grab on to the door handle as we make an abrupt turn towards the hospital.

Five hours later, and the jet is touching down in Quantico. Once the rest of the team had joined us, we had strapped on our vests and made our way into the hospital. It was thankfully not very busy which had minimized the amount of civilians in the emergency room. We had hoped to take her quietly, but she had realized what we were doing and had taken a young woman hostage. It had been a very tense couple of minutes but we had finally persuaded her to put down the gun, that she had only wanted to protect those women, the way she had wanted to protect Eliza. She was taken into custody and we had packed up our things and loaded onto the jet. And not a moment too soon. I missed my wife. I wanted to hold her in my arms and breaths her in. I wanted rub her tummy and take comfort in the fact that my family was safe.

I gather my things and hurry to my desk. I remove the necessary files from my bag and grab my keys.

"Tell JJ hello for me." Morgan says as he also gathers his things. "And that I expect to see her butt back at work tomorrow."

I shoot him a smile. "Goodnight Derek." I have to fight the urge not to break the speed limit on the way home. I can't help it. It's been a stressful couple of days.

As I pull up to the curb I can see that JJ left the kitchen light on for me. The rest of the house is dark. When I push open the heavy wooden door I am met with darkness and silence. I gently set my stuff down and lock the door behind me. I make my way up the stairs.

The moonlight pouring through the window illuminates the bedroom and my chest almost hurts with how beautiful JJ looks. Her blonde hair is spread across the pillow, her beautiful pink lips moving slightly as she mumbles to herself in sleep. As quietly as I can, I take off my work clothes and pull on my favorite old Yale tee shirt. I ease into bed beside her and wrap her in my arms, letting my hand rub her belly. This is why you do it. I remind myself. This is home.

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