Author's Note: I should forewarn you that there are scenes in this chapter that some people may find difficult - I know it was difficult to write. But, I assure you, I will be giving you a little light at the end of the tunnel in the next chapter to make up for it.
Chapter Six; The Chase
JJ watched as the prison guards helped Percy into the caged back seat of the police car, her arms folded across her Kevlar-covered chest in what would typically be a defensive manner, but somehow she looked fierce, ready for anything.
She glanced down briefly at her watch, 4:43pm; the team would be here any minute, but that was a minute too long. They had a multitude of prison guards and local police officers right here, and yet she was still waiting. Her blood boiled with anticipation – she hated protocol in that moment.
"Any chance I can change your mind?" Emily walked slowly towards her, idly adjusting her own Kevlar as she did.
JJ knew that the brunette was concerned, could see it etched over every inch of her perfectly sculpted face, but she could also see that she was holding back, trying desperately not to question her judgement. She was grateful for that. "Tell me that I'm doing the right thing."
The brunette's face winced slightly; she knew that JJ wouldn't like her honest answer, and honestly, a part of her was afraid to piss her off. But at the same time, she couldn't lie to her – it would do more harm than good. So with a breath, she spoke truthfully. "I think you're walking into a deathtrap." Unconsciously poking out her tongue to run along the corner of her mouth, the brunette looked off into the distance before returning her gaze to JJ with a sigh. "You know how this movie ends, JJ. You're not stupid."
And she did know. She was hanging everything on the sixty seconds of power that she'd had over Percy, and she couldn't even be sure that the old man would lead her to her son anyway, but she had to cling onto the hope; it was the only justification for what could essentially be a suicide run, and it was the only thing bounding together a plan that went against everything that she had ever been taught. She had to tell herself that Henry was at the end of this tunnel, that Percy would lead her to him, because without that, she wasn't certain that she'd climb into this car.
"But I also trust you. I understand why you need to go with us, and I trust you."
Emily's voice startled JJ from her thoughts, and tears welled in her own eyes as she recognised the honesty burning in the brunette's. There it was, the final surge of hope that she had needed, the encouragement that she knew she would only ever get from Emily. And that's when it hit her, the reality of everything that she'd be leaving behind should this go wrong; this beautiful and honest woman stood before her, her friends, her family, her son.
A small shred of comfort warmed the blonde's heart as she remembered the more than adequate god parents that she had chosen for Henry, but it was easily overshadowed as she realised that in the eyes of the law, her son still had a biological father and therefore wouldn't be passed immediately onto Garcia and Reid. "Don't let Will take him. " JJ's eyes were wide and exposed and easily conveyed everything that had run through her mind in the previous five seconds. "I mean it, Emily. He's Garcia's and Reid's, and.. yours. Should anything go wrong, do not let Will take him. Please."
Emily's eyes glazed over with her own tears as she heard the implications in the younger woman's words, the finality that laced her request – a request that both her and JJ knew that she could easily accommodate with her contacts, but one that she didn't even want to humour right now. Placing a hand against JJ's cheek, she promised. "He is yours, Jayje. And he is going home with you."
JJ wanted to believe it; more than anything, she wanted to believe the promise that Emily was making, but she couldn't allow herself that luxury right now. She swallowed hard, her eyes flicking between brown orbs and welcoming lips as she relaxed into Emily's touch. A buzzing phone broke their intense silence, and both women knew what it was concerning even before Emily answered – there was only one reason that she'd be getting a call on that phone, and it wouldn't be a positive one.
Pressing her lips gently to Emily's in one chaste kiss with no concern for who might see, JJ spoke in a whisper. "You should get that."
She watched as Emily bit her lip and turned to answer her phone. Blocking out any and every other sound around her, JJ tried to listen to the conversation that she knew Emily was purposely mumbling. She made out odd words, but nothing that really added up to a fully comprehensible sentence.
But then it came. "Strauss knows?"
And that was it, the confirmation that the call really was nothing positive – the breaks had been slammed on the whole operation, a revelation strong enough to fuel the blonde's next rash decision.
"Excuse me! Ma'am! You can't!"
Emily heard the prison guard yelling followed by the deafening screech of tyres and turned just in time to watch the white police car speed out of the parking lot, almost knocking over the young guard that was trying in vain to stop what was unfolding. "Oh fuckin- ..Hotch she's gone again."
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Morgan naturally put his foot down as he heard Emily's words over the speaker phone. A huge part of him wanted to yell 'I told you so!' to his boss, but what was that going to achieve? So instead, he put his anger into ensuring that they got to the prison in as little time as possible.
Hotch pressed his phone to his forehead and his jaw locked; an outward sign of his anger that he wouldn't typically display. The mess of this entire situation had increased exponentially in the space of one phone call. He knew that it hadn't been Morgan that had slipped Strauss information on their not so predetermined plan – however angry the dark agent was, the last thing he'd do is go running to the Section Chief - it had simply been the grapevine that threaded high throughout the FBI, but he couldn't help the frustration that coursed through him at knowing that he had gotten his way. Though, did he have a right to think that? Had Morgan really gotten is way? It was fair to say that in this situation, no one had really gotten their ideal outcome.
Of course, it didn't matter anymore that Strauss knew, not now that JJ was speeding off into the past with one of the most unstable men that he'd never had the displeasure of meeting – they had no choice but to go after her. Returning his typical stoic form, Hotch dialled Garcia. "I'm going to need the coordinates for car 875A."
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JJ's hands gripped at the steering wheel, the white of her knuckles visibly expressing her sudden turmoil. What the hell did you just do, Jareau? She could turn back now, put this down to a momentary lapse of judgement – but she knew that it was that very lapse of judgement that would be enough for Hotch to go against now definitive orders. And more than that, they were running out of time.
A huge part of her felt guilty; guilty for putting her team, her friends, in this situation - but for the most part she felt determined; determined to find her son. She pressed her foot to the accelerator until it hit the floor of the car, their speed increasing with a sudden jolt.
"Wo-ooah. Lil' Miss Badass comin' through!" The somewhat mocking voice came from the back of the car.
She ignored his comment, her jaw locking as she blinked her eyes several time and increased her grip on the wheel – she had to regain some modicum of control. "Which way?"
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"Thanks Garcia." Hotch turned to Morgan and spoke again. "Don't head to the prison. There's a GPS in the car that JJ took and Garcia is pulling up the coordinates now."
Allowing his eyes to show Hotch just how angry he was with him, Morgan shook his head and returned them to the road. He knew that this wasn't Hotch's fault. Whilst he wouldn't admit it verbally, he knew that he was simply being unreasonable under the circumstances that were, for him, far too close to home; venting frustration and fear in the complete wrong direction.
"Okay I've got it!" Garcia's voice filled the car once more, startling Morgan from his own mind.
"Talk to me, baby girl." The dark agent spoke, a hurried tone to his voice – time was not a luxury that they had.
"Okay, if you take the next right and then a sharp left you'll be on the right track. From there there is about three miles of highway that you're going to have to take. There is no quicker route. They're about fifteen miles ahead of you, and by the looks of these coordinates, they're not making plans to slow any time soon."
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"Which way now?" JJ questioned, her eyes moving constantly between the road and the rear-view mirror as she made the turn that Percy had instructed her to. Words couldn't express how uncomfortable it made her to have her back to the old man. It was true that he was almost sixty and probably couldn't do a great deal to her if he tried, but she still felt unsettled.
"Next left. Then keep goin' straight fer about a mile until yer come to an exit." Percy spoke, a strangely content look on his face that unnerved JJ. "That was quite a trick yer pulled back there."
JJ purposely ignored him again – she wasn't here for conversation. She turned left with a little more speed than necessary, almost like she was riding the go-karts at a fairground - except the thing fueling her wasn't the thrill of the ride; it was the promise of her son's safety.
Allowing her eyes to lift to the sky, she noticed the darkness closing in on them and silently prayed that they'd be there soon. There was only one thing worse than being alone with this man, and that was being alone with him in darkness. Memories of her childhood pierced through her mind instantly – she was losing it. Her grip on reality was slipping through her fingertips like grains of sand.
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"Okay got it." Emily hung up the phone and spoke to the wardens men who were currently speeding sixty miles an hour in the wrong direction. "Spin around and take a right, you're going the wrong way."
The brunette was unable to pinpoint any one of her emotions in that moment, but she knew that the three other people in the car with her were quite possibly the most incompetent people that she had ever met. Her opinion was likely bias, of course, considering how personal the situation was, but the facts were the facts – it was the warden's men who had jumped into the nearest car with guns and sped off in the first direction they came to, and it was the warden's men who had allowed JJ to hijack a car whilst in a less than logical frame of mind and drive off into the sunset with a convicted rapist and murderer.
Wasn't it?
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As they turned another corner, a small house came into view. It was no more than 30 foot by 45 foot, and was surrounded by woodland that easily kept the small building from sight to passes by. The place looked like it hadn't been used in years, with dirt covered windows, crumbling roof tiles and flaking blue paint – and that's when JJ's heart clenched in her chest. Goose bumps immediately burned at every inch of her skin as she shut off the engine..
I've been here before..
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"They've stopped." The tapping of keys could be heard through the phone's speaker before the redhead spoke again, a fear-laced hesitance in her voice. "Sir.. What was the name of the location that Percy held JJ when she was a child?"
"It didn't really have an address. It was something lodge.. Cedar Lodge." His hand wrapped around the small handle above his head as he tried to steady his body against the force of the car's velocity.
"Oh god, Sir.. He's taking her back to where it all began." The redhead's panic was unmistakable now.
"So it is a trap?" Morgan yelled over the sound of the road, shaking his head in anger, his foot pressing even further into the accelerator.
"We don't know that. He couldn't have known that JJ was going to hijack the car."
"Yes but you did!" Morgan began – it didn't matter that his personal experiences were fueling his own anger; the truth was that Hotch should have never allowed JJ to be a part of this and he had no qualms in making his opinion known. "She shouldn't have been anywhere near that guy Hotch. You should have stopped her!"
Hotch's eyes spoke volumes as he stared down Morgan – a silent You're on thin ice burning only in his eyes. Despite his stern out-ward appearance, he did have a heart, and he did know exactly what was pushing Morgan to act so irrationally, but now really wasn't the time.
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Emily listened to the conversation unfold through her earpiece, her own heart crushing under the weight of the new revelation. She knew what everyone else did – Henry was likely nowhere in the vicinity; there was really no good reason that he would be. Percy was inconceivable; why would he keep good on his word now that he had JJ to himself?
Her naturally cool demeanour broke as her fist met the side of the door. "God dammit!"
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She knew before she had even climbed out of the car that Henry wasn't here, that he was never here, that actually, he may no longer even be alive. The truth was, Percy didn't need a living and breathing Henry to achieve his goal – all he had needed was the illusion that he may still be alive to lure JJ into his trap, and if the sadistic look that currently marred his face was anything to go by, she wasn't going to see her child again.
The corners of her world crumbled and fell, the final pieces of reality slipping away completely, and powerless to stop it, her darkness returned with more fury than ever. She climbed out of the car, slamming the door behind her, her entire body shaking with a force far stronger than she had ever felt as she opened the passenger door and dragged Percy from his seated position and onto the ground.
The old guy hit the dirt with a thud, a sadistic smirk still playing on his lips as he saw JJ's blue eyes turn black and cold, evil and empty. He looked somewhat proud, even.
The blonde grabbed a fistful of scraggy hair. "Where the fuck is my son?"
The laugh that fell from Percy's lips was the pure definition of evil, everything that nightmares were made of. "Oh lovey, yer don't need to worry about him anymore."
JJ saw red as, in so many words, Percy verbalised her worst fear - Henry really was gone. Her hand curled itself naturally into a fist and it had met his face three times before she had the wherewithal to stop herself; her hand now covered in blood, him still laughing like it was all a sick and twisted game.
"Stand up." JJ grabbed Percy by the shoulder of his overalls, a determination radiating from her that suddenly faltered as she felt a hand grab her leg and pull her to the ground.
He was on her in seconds; straddled over her stomach, his legs gripping hers together, his hands pinning her smaller ones to the dirt above her head. His lips twisted into a smirk as he saw the fight still present in the blonde even under the sudden shift of circumstances. Not one part of her seemed afraid, and this turned him on just as much as it had at the prison. "Yer spend long enough with handcuffs on yer wrists yer learn a lot about them. Yer shoulda listened to yer woman Jennifer."
JJ lay there silent, unmoving – for the first time in her life, she had to admit that Percy Watson was right; she should have listened to Emily. But what would that have changed? Henry would still be gone, and with that last thought, she realised that she wasn't certain she had the power or desire to fight anymore. She'd fought her whole life – she'd fought when she was ten years old and locked in his dingy, dark basement; she'd fought for months after, every time she woke up covered in sweat, nightmares still pulling vividly at her imagination; she'd fought throughout her late teenage years when any sexual encounter brought with it memories that she thought she'd laid to rest; she'd fought that in her later years even, with every one except Emily; she'd fought every day since she received her FBI badge to ensure that no child would ever have to go through what she did; and she had fought every hour of the past day to keep her control, to not allow the loss of the most important thing in her life to get the better of her. But without the latter, without that light, she was done.
She was done fighting.
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"How much farther Garcia?"
"About 7 miles." Garcia spoke, knowing that it would take them at least another ten minutes to get there at their speed.
"Is there a quicker route? An off road track that we could take to shorten the time?" Hotch knew that they were still too many minutes away.
"There really isn't, Sir. There's the field to your left that would cut off-"
"Turn left." Hotch cut the redhead off as an easy turn into the field came into sight, and the screech of tyres and honking of horns followed his command as Morgan turned sharply.
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"I've dreamed about this every day Jennifer." Percy began, his eyes leaving her face. A frown formed on his own face as his gaze met Kevlar, and he loosened the protective garment and carefully pushed it up over her head, smiling once again as his eyes fell upon breasts covered only by the thin material of her black shirt. "Imagined what I'd do if I ever got the chance.."
JJ stared off at something in the distance. She wanted to close her eyes – more than anything, she wanted to close her eyes – but she knew that would only add to his pleasure and whilst she had no fight left, she certainly wasn't going to help him in his depraved, final victory.
Percy clasped both of her wrists in one hand and used the other to trail beneath her shirt and to the taut skin of her tummy. "Yer feel wonderful Jennifer."
"Mommy! Emmy's gona teach me to play catch!"
The blonde smiled from her shaded spot beneath the tree. She had been hesitant when Emily had suggested a trip to the park, but a part of her had also been relieved. It had been just a couple of weeks since they'd first taken their relationship to a new level, and the brunette was already making good on the promises that she had made that evening.
There was something incredibly beautiful and heart-warming about watching the older woman run around with her son – a closeness that she knew Emily had fought to avoid since the boy was born – and she settled herself back against the tree behind her, a content smile fixed firmly against her pink lips.
JJ fought to hold onto her memory as Percy's hands roamed freely over her body, further up her stomach before mauling at her right breast over the material of her bra. It was slipping away, Henry and Emily were slipping away.
"He is exhausting." Emily smiled as she flopped down on her back beside JJ, leaving Henry now kicking the small ball around like a soccer ball.
"And by the looks of it, he hasn't quite grasped that catch doesn't involve the feet." JJ smiled down at Emily. She wanted to kiss her, a silent thank you, but she knew that she couldn't. They'd agreed to take things slow, and that slowness didn't involve making out in front of her son.
"I'm glad we did this, JJ." Emily spoke honestly.
Her shirt was now pushed unceremoniously above her bra, and chubby fingers were dipping beneath one of the cups as Percy shifted himself so that he was now straddling JJ's thighs.
"Thank you, Emily."
The brunette pushed herself up onto her elbows, nothing but sincerity playing across her face. "There is nowhere else I would rather be than here with you and him. I meant everything I said, JJ." Reaching a hand to brush JJ's fallen hair behind her hear, Emily spoke again. "You amaze me, do you know that?"
Emily's words punctuated through Percy's grunts of pleasure as he ground himself against her thighs. There's nothing amazing about me right now, JJ thought to herself as she focused harder on a random object in the distance, trying to follow Emily's voice back to the safety of her daydream.
"You don't believe me, do you?" Emily moved herself into a sitting position, a weary eye flicking to the small boy that was still engrossed in kicking around the baseball. "Do you remember that day at Hankel's farm? When I found you in the bathroom?"
JJ frowned at the memory, but she nodded for Emily to go on.
"That was when I realised."
The blonde's brow furrowed in confusion. "Realised what?"
"That there was no one else I wanted." Emily spoke simply. "I've never been able to show my emotions, and I was so in awe in that moment of how fearless you were."
JJ rolled her eyes and averted her gaze once again, leaning back against the tree with a sigh. "If I remember correctly, my hair was a mess, I had tears in my eyes and I almost shot you. I don't think fearless is the right word."
Emily smiled adoringly. "You were open, and exposed. You let me see that you weren't okay. Do you realise how much strength that takes? I've spent my whole life devoid of emotion. Even when I knew what I felt for you, I spent every waking minute after that pretending to be oblivious. But you JJ.. you wear your heart on your sleeve. That makes you pretty damn fearless to me. And you know what the best part is? This.. The way you shrug it off like it's nothing. You have no idea just how amazing you are."
JJ felt a hand slip between her legs, dragging her back suddenly from her reprieve and something snapped; something within her reached out and shook her with a force great enough to give her back the strength that she needed, and she ripped her arms from the grasp of a now wide-eyed Percy.
"Oh I love a little fight." The old man chuckled as he fought to regain control of the situation, curling his hand into a fist and slamming it against the blonde's cheek when he felt that he wasn't getting anywhere.
She tasted blood immediately, a pain radiating throughout her face that told her that the bone was probably broken - but somehow it only fueled her further. She kicked her legs unceremoniously as she clawed at the old man's face, earning herself a Bitch! when she broke the skin there.
"You are going to regret that." Percy spat as he continued grasping at air, trying in vain to keep a hold of the blonde's flailing limbs.
JJ felt a hand slip once against between her legs as Percy's full body weight pressed down against her; her hands now pinned by her sides as she fought to grasp on to something, anything, and a sudden relief washed through her as she felt the handle of the gun that Percy had been too damn stupid to remove from her.
"Ohh yer gona get it good missy." Percy grunted. "So good."
"Don't make promises you can't keep, old man." She engaged in conversation with him as she stretched out her fingers, grasping for a firm grip on the guns handle. "Can you even get it up?" She added, despite having had the proof back at the prison.
"I will show yer just what I'm capable of."
Percy leant back to unzip his overalls and JJ seized her opportunity, stretching the last inch to her gun and pressing it tight into the old man's chest in the blink of an eye. She didn't falter as she pulled the trigger, didn't even blink as the sound ricocheted around the trees surrounding them and Percy fell unnaturally backwards.
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The sound penetrated the car, firing fear into every one of the agent's hearts.
"Garcia! Tell me we're close!" Hotch all but yelled.
"You are, you are!" Garcia had heard the sound just as the rest of them had. "You're about eight hundred yards away but because of the direction you came, there's no close way to get the SUV through the trees. You are going to have to get out and walk in about two hundred yards."
The team sped across the field, their hearts collectively pounding in their chests, each one of them fearing the worst but at the same time refusing to accept it. The SUV came to a sudden stop as the veil of trees became too dense, each agent jumping out, guns drawn before the vehicle had even fully stilled.
"You and Reid go left." Hotch told Morgan before turning to Rossi. "Rossi, you're with me. I know what we heard guys and we need to get there as quick as possible, but we have to get there as quietly as possible too. Be careful." Hotch didn't need to be another agent down – things were already as bad as he could handle.
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Emily jumped as the sound shot through her earpiece, the sudden lump in her throat almost choking her as she squeezed her eyes tight shut as if that would magically change the possibilities.
By now they were just a few yards behind the SUV and almost smashed into the back of it as it had made it's abrupt turn into the field; their own speed not warranting them enough reaction time to make the same turn and they'd wound up a few hundred yards out before they had the chance to follow the team.
The warden's men and Emily followed the same suit as the team, jumping from they're vehicle before it had fully stopped.
"You, you, that way. You, young guy, come with me." The ever protective Emily Prentiss was still present somewhere in her as she chose the baby faced officer to follow her. The other two were old and experienced and could look after themselves – this guy, she wasn't so sure, and he should never have been thrown into something like this in the first place. "Stay behind me. Let me know if you see anything suspicious, and please, stay quiet."
The young officer nodded his head nervously, overwhelmingly grateful for the agent in front of him, and the four headed off into the trees in the direction that the team had disappeared.
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JJ looked down at the body below her and felt nothing – she had shot another human-being and yet somehow, she felt nothing. Though, human-being was hardly a fair term for Percy Watson.
The sound of a revved engine startled her from somewhere in the distance and suddenly it hit her; not only had she shot a human-being, she had technically kidnapped a human-being and then shot him. No matter what the details of the situation were, in the eyes of the law, this was going to be seen as premeditated.
She jumped into the driver's side of the police car, reaching underneath and inside everything in search of what she knew for certain was in there. The engine sound was approaching fast, she was running out of time, and then she saw it; a small, black circle fixed to the underside of the rear-view mirror. It looked like nothing more than part of the design, but that was the point – tracking devices weren't exactly intended for people to find. Smashing it from the mirror with the butt of her gun, JJ tossed it the ground beside Percy, and without a second glance to the motionless body, she slammed the door and sped off in the direction they'd arrived.
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They all heard the car before they saw it, their feet naturally picking up a faster pace in the direction of the sound.
Hotch pushed his way through overgrown shrubbery, a small house coming into his line of sight just as the tail end of a car blurred away and his feet moved faster once again despite knowing he could never outrun it. His hands met his knees in exhaustion, finally admitting defeat as the vehicle disappeared into the distance.
"Garcia, keep an eye on that car. Do not lose the coordinates." Hotch spoke into his ear piece, his breaths falling unevenly as he made his command.
Rossi caught up with him in a matter of seconds, Emily not too far behind and the young man with her trailing just a few feet behind her.
"Sir the coordinates aren't going anywhere, they're exactly where they've been for the past 20 minutes." Garcia spoke confused into Hotch's earpiece.
"The tracking device is no longer in the car." Hotch turned to the three other people in his company.
"I don't get it. Why would JJ leave if she knew we were close? Which she must have since she clearly knew that we were following her." Emily asked, confused.
"Well she's not exactly been thinking clearly.." Rossi answered honestly
"Or what if it isn't JJ in the car?" Hotch verbalised what they were all refusing to consider.
"Hotch, you're gona wana see this!" Morgan yelled, breaking them all from their thoughts; the different direction that he'd taken allowing him to come out at the front of the house rather than the back.
The four followed the voice cautiously, their training engrained into them despite Morgan's yelling already indicating that the coast was clear. Hotch lead first, his gun drawn, the other three following not far behind as they rounded the right side of the small building; each of them finding themselves stuck somewhere between anguish and relief as an orange jumpsuit came into view.
"It seems she did him over pretty good. And this," Morgan bent down to pick up a small black object from the ground, "tells me something that I really don't wana know."
Emily looked over the body, her eyes reading every detail as though it were a book. She'd seen her fair share of dead bodies in her time, but she could say with a great deal of certainty that this one wouldn't be keeping her from sleep – well not for the most obvious reasons, she realised, as she noted the almost fully unzipped overalls of Percy Watson, the defensive wounds and bruises against his cheek, the dirt ground into his knees and the small wet area against his crotch. She closed her eyes and held a hand to her mouth to quell the vomit threatening to escape. Please God no.
"It looks like there was a struggle." Reid spoke subtly, his innocent mind unable and unwilling to comprehend any further than that.
"Any sign of Henry?" Hotch asked, trying to keep his agent's focused despite the horrific truth that was screaming from the body at their feet.
"None at all." Morgan made eye contact with Hotch. "This doesn't look good, Hotch. The best case is that she has him and there's another explanation for her fleeing. The worst.."
"is that he was never here in the first place." Rossi finished his sentence for him.