Prentiss
It took me quite a while, but I was finally able to convince the team to let me go to my apartment by myself tonight to get some things. I promised them that I'd go to Rossi's straight after I got it, but I told them that it was something personal and that I needed it without them knowing what it was exactly. I didn't really have anything to grab, I just needed a break and some time to myself. I had to assure Hotch that I'd be fine several times. I did argue with Rossi for a while before I won with the lines "Rossi, I'm not a child. Do you not think I'm good at what I do? Because this is really insulting". The whole team had heard it and they all shut up then; they didn't want to upset me.
I walked into my apartment and closed the door behind me. I was exhausted after today and nothing seemed different from when I left it. I hadn't cleaned up after they made a mess of the place but nothing looked like it had moved. I turned the lights on and put my bag down on the kitchen counter before sitting on the couch. I sighed and sat back.
I was surprised that no one had contacted me via either text or call to make sure I was okay here. They were asking me in person every five minutes; what was different now? Maybe it was because of my argument with Rossi. I appreciated the silence. I wanted to relax, to let my mind and my body rest, but I just couldn't do it. I was rigid, my mind was working without even a minute's break, I always had this sick feeling of fear in my stomach. It got to a point where it actually made me feel nauseous. I had gone to the bathroom several times today, thinking I would throw up. I never did, but I felt like I would.
I sighed and stood back up. I needed to find something to take back to Rossi's with me so no one questioned me. I didn't have many things that had a lot of value to me that weren't already packed into my bag by JJ. I picked up a few picture frames from the table and took the photos out of the smashed glass and edgings. I took the photo of JJ, Will and Henry when Henry was only about three months old, I took a photo of Garcia, JJ and I, I took a photo of the four men in my team and I took a photo of all eight of us together. These were valuable to me. I slipped them into the pocket of my jacket that I hadn't taken off and continued walking around my apartment.
I started to clean it up a bit; the mess was too irritating to tolerate any longer. I cleaned for a long while and by the time I sat down again, it had been about an hour. I checked my phone and found no messages or missed calls. I smiled to myself. At least they were able to trust me, to give themselves some time to relax and not worry so much.
When I sat back against the couch again, I closed my eyes and I accidently fell asleep almost instantly, but it wasn't for long. I woke to a loud bang in my apartment and before I was even able to turn around, there was a long piece of fabric pulled over my mouth and hands holding me still. I tried to struggle and get out of the grip of the four men but I wasn't strong enough.
"Just keep her still." I heard a slight Irish accent speak. My eyes were covered and I tried to shake the hand off but I was unsuccessful.
"She's stronger than we thought." Another voice said.
"Knock her out. He doesn't care how we get her there, as long as she's alive." I tried to scream but the fabric in my mouth made it near impossible to make a sound loud enough for the people across the hall to hear. Maybe the tenants underneath me would here the struggling footsteps and call the police. Not likely, considering my whole apartment was raided and no one was called.
Something caused quick pressure and pain to my head that lasted only a second before I blacked out.
I felt the fabric being loosened around my head and then removed from my mouth as I regained consciousness. There were several soft voices I heard, mostly Irish and Czech. I wondered if I'd know any of them. I blinked my eyes open and saw the dull light. Two unknown men at my sides grabbed my arms and lifted me up. They led me out of the room and down a hall. They turned right and then stopped at the door at the end that had several locks on it. On my right was a small room with cheap seating and on my left was a dead end to the hall with only one more door fitting in before the wall.
I waited silently as one of the men undid the locks and opened the door. The other pushed me forwards and I stumbled as I walked into the room. It was lit, but it was a dull light as well. That wasn't my main problem with the room, however. There were eight seats lining the walls with enough room for someone to walk behind them between the chairs and the wall, and seven were already filled with my team and Will. I heard Garcia sob but I knew she tried to keep it in. Across the room were Rossi, Garcia and then Reid. Will sat on the adjacent wall next to JJ and then Hotch and Morgan. The seat that I assumed I would be tied in was on its own against the same wall that the door was on.
I didn't bother trying to fight back as they pushed me back into the chair and tied my hands behind it. They tied my feet too, although these were looser than my wrists. After the tied me, one walked towards the door and the other stood in front of me, looking at my face.
"Pathetic." I whispered to him. He placed a hard slap across my face and it stung. I turned back to look forwards again and kept my face expressionless. He walked towards the door quietly. "Tell Doyle I'm eagerly awaiting him…" I said to them when I heard the door open.
They snickered, "Like she could do something when he does come in." One said to the other.
"I'm going to kill him and the two of you and every other motherfucker out there and I'm going to do it slowly and painfully and it will be the first time that I regret nothing."
"Anything else to say to him?"
"Tell him that I was not joking when I warned him to stay away from my team." I stared forwards and down at the ground as I spoke. There was no emotion in my face or my voice. I sounded tired, but I sounded sincere, fearless and threatening. I was good at lying through tone, apparently.
"Such a pretty girl." The slightly shorter one said, looking at me.
"All three of them are. We're going to have some fun tomorrow." The other said before they both walked out. I looked at the ground as I heard the door close and silence fell over the room apart from the quiet sobs that Garcia tried to keep in. She was too terrified to be completely successful.
"What are we in for, Em?" Rossi asked quietly.
"If it were anyone else, death," I said, "But I'm not going to let that happen this time."
"You're tied to a chair…" Morgan said, "How are you going to stop them?"
"They're going to untie me."
"How do you know?" Reid asked.
"I know," I looked at him, "But they'll untie Garcia first and she's who they're planning to be the first to go, at least in their original plan. She's also who they would have tied the loosest."
"Why?" JJ asked.
"Because they don't think she's capable of any harm."
"I'm not." Garcia shook her head.
"You are," I disagreed, "If it's one guy in here to untie you, point the gun upwards and jab for his throat and kick him in the crotch. His hand will loosen on the gun. Take it and shoot him. If it's more than one, obey them and don't take any risks."
"No—"
"Garcia."
"I'm not shooting—"
"Garcia! If you ever want JJ and Will to see Henry again, if you want Hotch to see Jack, Reid to see his mother, Morgan his family, Rossi his, then you need to fight because you're the one they'll underestimate. You need to get them out of here."
"And you." JJ said quietly.
"I'm not going anywhere." I shook my head.
"What? You're just going to let him kill you? Work for him?" Morgan asked.
"I'll do whatever he wants me to do if it means your lives and your safety in the future. I'm not getting out, Morgan. I'll be the one they'll do anything to stop. I know what they do in these situations; I was on their side of this once upon a time."
"This has happened before?" Will asked.
"Doyle never abducted but his "soldiers" did. They're terrorists turned murderers. We'll be lucky to get the seven of you out."
"If it's more than one guy and Garcia obeys, what will they do with her?" JJ asked me.
I shook my head, "It changes, depending on who Doyle's working with or who's doing the dirty work. She could just be made to make a call to someone that knows us and lie about where we are, she could be interrogated, she could be…" I didn't finish that possibility but they knew I meant raped. Garcia sobbed and dropped her head forwards.
"What are we waiting for right now?" Hotch asked, speaking for the first time. His voice was comforting, I feeling of safety and security.
"They're probably trying to communicate with Doyle to see what he wants done next. We could be waiting from minutes to hours to even a day or two. It really depends on where he is and how long he wants us to wait."
"So it's going to be a while before anything happens," Morgan nodded, "And we have no one left that would notice our absence and know what kind of danger we were in."
"No one even knows that Doyle's alive." Rossi said.
"Someone knows…" JJ said quietly.
"What?" Hotch asked her. He had told us not to say a word to anyone else.
She closed her eyes and dropped her head after hearing the anger in Hotch's voice, "It wasn't safe for us to just keep it within the team."
"Who did you tell?"
"…Cruz," She told him. I saw Will's eyes flash with anger, but it went as quickly as it came as he looked at his wife. She looked back at him, "He saved my life, Will. That's it. He's just my section chief."
"Now's not really the time for jealously or anger." Morgan reminded them of where we were.
"You'll be doing their job for them; turning on each other voluntarily." I said quietly. The conversation ended at that and we returned to silence. I was the closest to the door and tried to listen to what was behind it.
Hours had past and we had all lost track of time. There were no windows in this room so we had no idea of the time of day. I think we were underground. I hadn't stopped moving my hands and wrists for hours, trying to loosen the rope. It was looser, but not enough to free me yet. I would need a few more hours to loosen it enough to free myself. Then I'd need a while on the others around the room and I knew I wouldn't have that kind of time all at once.
I looked to my left as I heard the locks turning. The door opened and three men walked in. One walked to Garcia, one stood in the corner of the room closest to Morgan and I and the other stayed by the door. I looked at Garcia and she was looking at me. Her eyes questioned me on what to do.
"Just do what they tell you." I said quietly.
"Shut up." The one in the corner stepped towards me slapped across my cheek. He was one of the men that had brought me in here.
"Did you talk to Doyle? Did he tell you to kill me yet?"
"He doesn't want you dead."
"Bullshit."
"He wants Lauren." The one near the door said.
"Well you tell him that there won't ever be a Lauren again if he doesn't quit being a coward and come in here to talk to me himself."
"He won't like that you called him that."
"What? A coward? I'll bet he's never heard that before." I rolled my eyes.
"You know, you're all talk." The one from the corner crouched in front of me.
"Untie me and I'll be a whole lot me."
He snickered and nodded, "Nice try."
"Pussy." I smirked.
He shook his head and stood up, "Oh, I cannot wait for the words "untie her and have your fun."."
"Nah, he'll want her to himself." The one untying Garcia said.
"I'm looking forward to it." I said quietly.
"Let's go." The one said at the door. The other walked through with Garcia.
"I'm getting impatient!" I called to them before the door closed.
Quite a while past and I was horrified at the screams I was hearing from Garcia. I guessed she was in the room beside this one; it was the only one close enough for us to hear her. She has begged whoever it was to stop what they were doing, she cried and screamed. Morgan fought against his chair for a while but he gave up and stopped trying to break free one way or another. I kept working at the rope around my wrists. I think I had roped burn from the way I was rubbing them together, hoping the friction would make it easier to snap.
The door opened after a while and a man pushed Garcia back into the room. She looked petrified and scarred for life. She sat back down where she was previously and tied back up.
"Garcia?" I asked her quietly. My voice had more desperation in it that I had wanted my team to hear. She was unresponsive. She didn't even look up at me. Tears were in her eyes, although not falling, and she stared at the ground. She looked numb.
"You'll get worse than she did, so don't worry your pretty little head too much yet." He said to me, crouching in front of me.
"You son of a bitch!" I tried to pull my hands out and he stood quickly, stepping back and my body moved forwards slightly in the chair. I hear a small tear in the rope and I kept pulling on it.
"I need more rope!" He yelled out the open door. After there was no reply, he mumbled to himself angrily and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him and doing the locks up.
"Baby girl?" Morgan asked quietly. She still didn't respond. I worked at the rope again, feeling it get looser each time I twisted my wrists around, holding them as far apart as the rope would allow. I didn't have enough time to snap through it before the guy turned the locks and came back, wrapping the new rope around my wrists tighter than the other.
"Someone will be in for you soon." He said, pointing to JJ before walking out again.
