Author's Note: Sorry for the little delay in updating - I took a mini-vacation with my in-laws and got back yesterday evening. Suffice to say that after spending two days running around a water park and riding the go-karts with my niece and nephew, I was a little tired. So much fun though! And, you get a slightly longer chapter than I intended for your patience. :)

Author's Note 2: I also realise that JJ is now a profiler, but for the sake of this story she isn't. That is all. Enjoy!

Chapter Three; Handcuffed For Your Safety

10 hours since Henry's abduction;

Her boots thumped against the cold, hard floor as she strode purposefully down the long, echoing hall. Men whistled and heckled like animals in heat from the cages surrounding her, but they may as well have not existed. There was one person that she was here to see, and one person only.

"He's handcuffed for your safety." The guard spoke as he unlocked the gate to the next section of the prison.

She raised an eyebrow but kept her eyes straight ahead. "If he doesn't give me the answers I need, it will be me that needs to be handcuffed for his safety."

Purposely choosing to ignore her comment, the guard pushed open the gate and stepped aside, allowing Emily to enter into the large area that they had cordoned off for interviews and special visits such as this one; before locking it again behind the brunette and stepping aside, arms crossed against his stomach.

Emily slammed the newspaper down on the table in front of the shackled man. There was no hesitance; the last thing that she wanted was to begin this game at a place where he already had the upper hand. "Who is he?"

Ironically, the media had caught wind of the situation and felt that the story of the kidnapping of the BAU's Press Liaison's son making front page would be undoubtedly helpful - to their wallets. BAU KIDNAPPING was written across the top of the newspaper in arrogantly large font and below it was a photograph of JJ and Henry. It had pissed Emily off beyond belief to know that despite the teams urges to the media to keep this out of the public eye, it had still wound up on the front page of a major tabloid, and she didn't even want to know how they'd managed to get a photo of the two. But right now, she was more pissed off by the yellow-toothed grin of Percy Watson as his eyes fell upon the folded newspaper.

"Looks like Miss Jareau's son to me missy." He spoke mockingly. "But shouldn't yer know that since yer screwing her?"

Admittedly, a little part of her grew instantly nervous at his words – being discreet about their relationship was still an issue, even if it did pale majorly in comparison to the other issue at hand – but she didn't falter one bit. She didn't know how he knew that, she didn't even know how he knew that she existed since she had had absolutely nothing to do with his conviction, but she was extremely good at her job and there had never been a more important time to show that. "How long have you been in here?"

"Heh.. yer don't look like the type to have got yer job by fuckin' the boss. So I'm sure yer can do the math." He leaned back in his seat, a kind of proudness playing across his aged features. "She was 10 when me n 'er spent time together n she's 32 now. It took 'em three days or so to catch me, but I don't think yer care to know the details. Unless yer do of course.. Perhaps we can swap stories."

It was clear that this repulsive excuse for a human-being had held JJ as a very fond memory to keep him warm over the years. But whilst that provoked in Emily an anger that she had never felt before – one that spread from the wriggling eyebrows and the sickening suggestion itself , to a red mist in behind dark eyes and a tight, vomit-inducing knot in the pit of her stomach - it also told her that he had to know something. Anything. If he'd kept a close enough eye on JJ, even now, to know that her and the blonde were in some kind of a relationship, it was very improbable that he knew nothing of Henry's kidnapping. "22 years is a long time."

"It's more like 21 years, 9 months and 27 days, but who's countin'." Percy smiled again, his whole demeanour screaming his nonchalance and arrogance.

The brunette laughed humourlessly, nodding her head, almost as though she was amused at some kind of joke that only she knew the punch line to – and the confusion that, just for a moment, marred the guy's aged face reminded her that she really was great at her job.

"I hear you're supposed to get moved next week?" She pulled a piece of paper from her pocket and read as she spoke. "To a more comfortable prison in Arizona to live out your final days." The guy was pushing 60, but death couldn't come soon enough as far as she was concerned. Lifting her eyes from the crumbled piece of paper and stuffing it back into her pocket, she took a seat in front of him – her own demeanour carrying as much arrogance and composure as his. Inside she was a grenade without it's pin, ready to blow at any second, but on the surface she was exactly what she needed to be; calm, collected, and one step ahead of any game that he could even imagine playing.

If one thing was ever true about Emily Prentiss, it was that it took a lot for her to wholeheartedly care about another person – she had had enough reminders in her life to show that people go as easily as they come - but the few people that she did allow into her heart, she was fiercely protective of. To cause any pain or disservice to anyone that she cared for was to cross Emily – and that could quite possibly be the worst move that anyone could ever make. In those situations, when she needed to protect, 'any means necessary' was the only phrase in her vocabulary, and that had never rung more true than in this instant – but she'd play tame at first, if only to shake him a little. "It'd be a shame if anything were to happen to that transfer."

Laughing and leaning forward to place his cuffed hands on the table before him, he responded. "Yer can't do that." He shrugged. "I haven't done nuffin' wrong. I've been locked in here for 22 years remember." He waved his shackled hands in Emily's face to make his point, and it was all she could do to not strangle him with them.

"The funny thing about scum like you, is that protocol doesn't care. It doesn't matter if you've done anything wrong. All it takes is a few connections and you're back in general population for the rest of your natural life. With none of the safety and protection that you get from being in solitary confinement so I'd imagine that natural life wouldn't last too long." Her eyes twinkled like she was the queen of the damn world and her lips pulled into a subtle smirk as she mocked him with her words, waving her power in front of him like a red flag to a bull. "I know plenty of people who would be willing to make life as difficult as possible for a pervert like you. Do you understand me?"

Percy looked over at the two guards in the room - the one who had escorted Emily and the one who had come in with him – as though trying to make a point.

Leaning forward in her seat, Emily spoke again. "Oh, you think they care about what happens to you? I assure you that they don't. The guards don't care, the warden doesn't care, and the only reason that they haven't torn you apart themselves yet is because they're better people than I am."

"That yer plan? To threaten me?" The old man snorted. "Lady I don't 'ave many years left, I couldn't give a crap what yer do to me. Hell, it's been a while since I've been close to a woman." He shifted in his seat, wriggling his eyebrows at Emily as he called over to one of the guards. "Eh I think she wants me. What say yer get us one o' those conjugal rooms!"

Watson clearly felt that he was untouchable and he had no issue in showing her as much. But if her job had taught her anything, it was that no one is untouchable; no one. Everyone has their weakness and their price and she just needed to find his. "I think you're misunderstanding me Watson. Let me tell you something about convicts. You may think that you're all a band of brothers, you guys against the law, but the part you're neglecting to remember is that even cons have morals. Stealing a TV or even getting caught up in a gang and murdering someone is one thing, but to them, hurting a child or a woman is another. That is a line that you do not cross and once they realise that you've crossed it.. Well, let's you just say it won't take long for you to get a taste of your own medicine."

Emily could see that she had made an impact on Percy, it was evident in the scoff that left his lips as she spoke, but she also knew that it wasn't going to be enough - JJ was far too important to him to give up information on what could simply be an empty threat. She needed to show him that she meant business. Pulling the crumpled piece of paper from her pocket once again and a pen from her jacket, Emily flipped it over and wrote; purposely leaving Percy an open view of what she was writing. After scrawling a note to the warden - a note in which she explicitly made her request for Percy's transfer to general population - she called over one of the guards, a smile playing on her lips as she handed him the note and watched him leave the room. She knew that it would be declined instantly - there was no way that they would feed Watson to the lions - but all she needed was to convince the man before her that it was going to happen, and she wasn't disappointed as she turned and caught the well-hidden glimmer of fear flicker across his face.

"Yer bluffing." He wasn't sure that he believed the words himself, but he had done enough police interviews to know that whilst 99% of it is all a bluff, you never really can tell which 1% isn't. He also knew, however, that giving in was not going to get him anywhere and opted to keep up his own facade. He spoke again whilst eying the paper in front of him. "But maybe if yer tell me a little about this boy o' hers I might remember something that could be useful to yer."

"Not a chance." Emily took the newspaper from the table and put it on the seat beside her and out of his sight, instantly scolding herself as she realised that she had likely broken rule number one of interrogation: Don't show weakness.

Nevertheless, she was certain that she had gotten to him with her previous threat, but she couldn't leave anything to chance - she needed to use every weapon in her arsenal. Besides, once he realised that she was in fact bluffing, she could risk having the upper hand for good.

Garcia had filled her in on everything that her cyber skills was able to find on one Percy Watson, and as she sat planning her next move, Emily's mind filtered through piece after piece of pointless and yet entirely significant information. 58 years old, grew up in a single parent family in Ohio after his mother got pregnant at 15 by a man almost twice her age, left home when he was 15 himself, never had children as far as his files are aware but after the conviction that left him here, it emerged that he had kidnapped and killed 17 boys and girls between 1970 and 1991. And there is was; Why would he want to be transferred to Arizona, over 2000 miles away from the only family he knows?

"Does your mother ever visit you here?" The small, very well hidden, flicker of pain that played across his face showed Emily that she was definitely on the right track. "You mean she doesn't know what her little boy grew up to be?"

"Heh. That bitch would be proud." His words said one thing but his body language showed another and in that instant, Emily knew for certain that she had something solid on him.

"She'll be, what? 73 now? With her heart condition, she can't have very long left." The brunette agent grabbed the newspaper from the chair and rose to her feet. "It'd be a shame if she had to hear about the monster that her son turned into while she has so little time left on this planet." Emily turned to leave and shouted over her should. "I'd think about that while I'm gone."

CM-CM-CM

Out in the parking lot, Emily pulled her phone from her pocket as she made her way back to her car. No part of her wanted to make this call and admit that, essentially, she had failed JJ, but she was one step away from making another kind of call – one that would be answered by a snooty secretary who informs her that her mother is busy; one that is spent mostly admitting that 'yes mother, you're right, I never was able to figure anything out for myself'; the one that would probably not even solve this problem anyway, and would in all likelihood simply wind up with Percy beat to death in general population whilst any knowledge of Henry's whereabouts dies with him.

So, for right now, she chose what seemed to be the lesser of two evils.

"Hotch, he isn't talking. But I'm certain he knows something. He has to. I left him with something to think about while I'm gone and I'm expecting his call before the day is out." The dark-haired agent rubbed her temples as Hotch responded. "I know we don't have much time but until we have something else, his mother is the only thing we can hold over him. I'm pretty sure he knows as well as I do that the warden won't move him into general population, and he actually seemed a little excited by the thought of me causing him physical pain."

Juggling the newspaper, her phone and her keys, Emily fumbled to get into her car, and thankfully Hotch decided he was done talking. "Yep, okay. I'm gona check on JJ and then I'll be in the office. She'll string me up if I don't tell her what happened during my meeting with Watson. Okay. Bye."

Ending the call, Emily finally breathed. The first real breath that she'd taken since she had heard JJ utter those three not-so sought after words last night; since she'd taken responsibility for fixing the situation that was suddenly bestowed upon the younger woman; since the rookie agent had unknowingly uncovered the force strong enough to throw the blonde back into the past.

She had listened in detail as JJ described what had happened to her when she was ten years old, twice over, in fact, as the blonde relived it once more to the rest of the team; and she had wished more than anything, as she watched this brave woman that she grew to respect more and more each day repeat her story once again, that she could tell it for her, that she could hit stop and end this instant replay that the younger agent had no choice but to endure. She had sat right beside her as the team gathered up enough information from JJ's story to create a profile, and she hadn't cared one bit about the hand that naturally found it's way to rest on JJ's thigh in a reassuring manner, or the comforting glances that she had thrown her when she could see that she blatantly needed the encouragement. Even in a room full of profilers, the elite of reading body language - she did not care. Strauss could fire her tomorrow if she wanted; there was nothing and no one that was going to stop her taking care of JJ when it mattered the most, and that still rang true in this second - even after she'd spent the past thirty minutes with Watson, a man who could cost her her job and possibly her freedom in an instant just by looking at her the wrong way. The guy was treading on thin ice, and in turn, so was Emily, but none of it mattered. She was more than willing to destroy everything important to this guy, and everything that she'd built for herself even, as long as it meant that she could reunite mother with son.

As long as it meant that she could fix this.

Turning her key into the ignition, Emily took one final, long breath and put her foot down as she sped out of the parking lot.

She had to find Henry, before it was too late.

CM-CM-CM

"JJ?" Emily knocked before letting herself into the house after almost a minute of no one answering. She looked around the living room that came directly out from the front door, expecting to see Garcia, JJ, anyone, but there was no one around. She called again. "Jennifer?"

"I'm up here." The melancholy voice was faint, but Emily knew exactly where 'up here' was and she headed directly to Henry's bedroom.

As she reached Henry's door, she poked her head inside to see JJ sat on his bed, the boy's stuffed penguin in her hands. "Hey, love. I thought Garcia was staying with you while I went to the prison?"

"She was. I made her leave." JJ answered vacantly without lifting her eyes from the toy in her lap.

Emily's face fell somewhere between amazed and frustrated - amazed because she had no clue how the blonde had managed to get Garcia to leave, and frustrated because she had. She was more than afraid to leave JJ alone after the events of the past 10 hours, but however much she wanted to be, she really couldn't be everywhere at once. "JJ.. you shouldn't be alone."

"I'm not. There's a police car parked out front. I don't need a babysitter too, Emily." JJ replied with a similar eerie calm to her voice that had been there the night previous.

"I know you don't. I just worry. Probably too much. But it's only because-"

"Well don't." She made eye contact with Emily for the first time, her tone as cold as it was just last night when she had snapped at the rookie.

A fantastic profiler she was, but all the training in the world couldn't have prepared her for this situation. You can read every text book you can get your hands on, but all rules and laws and logic disappear as soon as the heart is involved. And as she witnessed the rapid change in JJ's demeanour once again, felt the cold that was now directed solely at her, she had no idea what move to make next. But she knew above anything else that JJ was hurting and that she had to say something. "JJ, we're gona find him."

"So you keep saying." The blonde's jaw locked, an accusatory anger evident on her face that seemed wholly directed at Emily.

The brunette hadn't expected JJ to suddenly be all smiles, but she hadn't expected that response either. "JJ-"

"It is your fault he's gone, Emily!" JJ was on her feet now. "My son was taken while I was too busy fucking someone who had no business even being here! You should never have come over." Even through her pain-filled haze, the blonde knew that she was being unnecessarily cruel towards the older agent, but she was flailing and every life line that she found seemed to abandon her.

If she was honest, the latter part of JJ's statement had cut like a knife, but as soon as the pain entered her mind it was replaced instantly by a different kind of pain as she watched silent tears fall from the blonde's eyes. All she wanted to do was wrap JJ up in her arms and tell her that everything was going to be just fine, that they would find Henry and justice would be served. But she couldn't say that, not to JJ, not again. JJ wasn't just another parent who had lost their child, just another victim of a senseless crime; she was, quite simply, JJ – and any textbook lines that she could feed her to keep her placated until they had a useful lead, just wouldn't work. She opened her mouth to speak but the blonde beat her to it.

"He must have been so afraid and I wasn't there Emily." The younger woman's eyes fell to the ground as she spoke. She knew that there were no shades of grey here, no understandable sense of reasoning – she quite simply wasn't there when her son needed her.

"JJ you can't do that." Emily placed a comforting hand against the younger agent's shoulder. "You are a great mother and you are no way to blame in this." Even as she spoke the words, she couldn't bring herself to say the same about herself. It wasn't like she hadn't thought of it before now, but JJ verbalising it simply made it painfully clearer – if she hadn't come over, something that they'd both decided probably wasn't best, then perhaps JJ would have heard something. But blaming herself wasn't going to find their unsub, and it certainly wasn't going to bring Henry home. "Stop beating yourself up, okay? You didn't do this."

"I chose an orgasm over my son! I'm not exactly mother of the damn year." JJ pushed the brunette's hand away, folded her arms across her chest and walked to other side of the room, so that she was now stood where Emily was just moments before.

A small part of Emily was getting frustrated now. She was a good person, and she wasn't unreasonable, but she was also human. "JJ you need to stop." She was trying her best to keep her frustration out of her words, but she wasn't sure that she succeeded. "It wasn't like that at all and you know it."

"Wasn't it? Are you sure about that?" Her arms dropped by her side as she stepped a little closer to Emily; guilt pouring from every word of her confession. "He told me Emily. He told me there was someone there and I was more interested in getting him into bed and talking to you. So I ignored him. I just ignored him!"

Emily's brow furrowed. "Wait.. What? What do you mean he told you?"

Sighing – missing the point in her grief-ridden haze - JJ replied. "Before I tucked him into bed, he was staring out of his bedroom window and said something about playing on his swing. I thought nothing of it and told him that he could tomorrow. Even when he told me 'You should tell him to put a jacket on so he doesn't get the sniffles'.." JJ laughed humourlessly at the hauntingly clear memory of her son's words, before trying to collect her thoughts again and making eye contact with the older woman. "All I did was look out the window. He all but told me that there was someone on his tyre swing, and I did nothing to protect him."

"JJ." Emily braced her hands at the younger woman's upper arms. "Did anyone check the swing? For prints? Fibres? Anything?"

JJ's face flushed white. She knew Emily hadn't intended to make her feel worse, but she somehow she had managed it. How the hell did I not think to mention that? "Uh.. no.. I guess.."

Emily pulled out her phone immediately and dialled. "Hey Hotch. We're gona need someone here to dust for fingerprints and-" The brunette was cut off by Hotch; she was beginning to grow really tired of not being able to finish a sentence. "Yes. I know they already did. But they didn't check Henry's swing." Her words were probably more stern than necessary, especially considering that she was speaking with her boss, but she was tired, and nervous, and uncertain, and concerned, and stepping on eggshells around JJ – however necessary that was – was exhausting. "We have reason to believe that the unsub was sitting on it before taking Henry."