A/N: Hope you enjoy!
"You okay?"
Emily turned her head as Gibbs sat down next to her on the couch. Rossi, JJ and Reid were in the kitchen preparing lunch and Ducky had taken Hotch upstairs to examine the younger man.
She shot the NCIS agent a wry smile. "You mean aside from finding out that my boss' ex-girlfriend is a potential psychotic stalker who may believe I've been carrying on an affair with the object of her obsession? And to top off, she may have stolen my house keys and set up cameras to watch my every move? Oh, other than that, I'm great."
Gibbs didn't return her feeble smile. He was gazing at her with that worried look that she hated seeing because she knew what was going to come next.
"I don't think you should be involved in this case," Gibbs said firmly. "If you're out there investigating, interviewing people, you're just making yourself a bigger target for Beth or whoever might be involved."
"You think it's someone else other than Beth?"
Gibbs shrugged. "I don't think we've got enough information to say it is Beth. Rule #3."
"Don't believe what you're told, double check?"
"Well, the second part definitely applies, as does Rule #10, Never get personally involved in a case."
Emily sighed. "That can't really be helped here, can it? We're all drawn into it, whether we want to be or not. I didn't ask for Beth to home in on me as competition. I mean, I'm not even that! Hotch and I are just friends."
Gibbs merely grunted, causing Emily to shoot him a suspicious look. "What?"
"Nothing," he muttered under his breath. If Emily was going to continue to deny the existing mutual attraction between herself and Hotchner, Gibbs wasn't about to correct her. He knew she could do so much better than her supervisor. Gibbs preferred her to be with someone other than Hotchner. In the NCIS agent's eyes, Hotch could not protect Emily and ensure her safety. Doyle was proof of that.
"If it's not Beth though," Emily was musing. "Who else could it be? Who would gain from some scheme like this? Framing Hotch for a murder?"
"Beth could be an accomplice. A pawn someone used," Gibbs added. "We won't know until Ducky talks to the ME and hopefully gets a chance to do his own exam."
She turned to regard him thoughtfully. "And how is he going to do that? It's not an NCIS case."
"We'll figure out a way."
"I thought you didn't want to get involved beyond just talking to the lead detective? You've done that already."
"Yeah, well, that was before I found out you could be targeted," Gibbs replied in a dark tone.
Emily's gazed softened. "Gibbs, I'll be fine. I'm a big girl who can take care of herself."
"Yeah, I know that, but you aren't going to be able to figure this out without me. The Bureau has cut you guys off. You'll need my resources."
"How are you going to convince Vance that this case is in NCIS' interest to look into?"
"You just leave that to me. Besides Ducky looking into Beth's autopsy, I'll have Abby run whatever he gets from Hotchner. McGee can do some of that computer stuff while Garcia is looking into the webcams at your house." With the mention of the cameras, Gibbs face darkened again. "I want you to promise me something. You don't go anywhere alone. I don't doubt you can take this psycho, but you don't know what she has planned or what she's capable of. You guys are flying blind in this and until you figure out what she might do, you stick with someone at all times."
"Yes sir," she said, giving him a mock salute.
He frowned at her. "I'm serious."
Emily's eyes softened and she gave him a small grin. "I know. I promise I'll be careful." Seeing Gibbs' annoyed look, she hastily added, " And not go anywhere alone."
"I'll make sure of that," Hotch said as he came back into the room rolling down the sleeve of his shirt. Ducky followed in his wake, medical bag in one hand, his coat in the other.
"Everything check out?" Gibbs asked. His question was addressed to the medical examiner, but his eyes were focused on Hotch.
"Without Ms. Scuitto's expertise, I won't be able to tell what Agent Hotchner may have ingested. I can say that he appears to be in good health, though I wouldn't recommend any strenuous activity for at least 24 hours and do an assessment of his condition then." He put on his coat and placed his hat on his head. "I can stay that I found no injection marks on him so if he was drugged, it was taken orally. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll take these samples I drew to Abby and have her put a rush on them."
"Thanks, Ducky," Emily smiled and hugged the older man whom she had always found irresistibly adorable.
The doctor blushed a sweet shade of pink. "I am always happy to be of service to a lovely lady," he said in his most gallant tone.
It would have been sexist coming from any other man, but Ducky's old-fashioned sense of honor and gallantry never failed to make Emily feel special.
Hotch was simply feeling annoyed. He should be grateful that the NCIS men were helping him in his case, but he knew they weren't doing it for him. All this was for Emily. It shouldn't matter, the results were the same, but Hotch did not like being indebted to anyone, least of all Leroy Jethro Gibbs. And that Emily had to go to this man to get help for him, Hotch, it simply didn't sit well with him at all.
"Thank you both so much for your help," Emily said in a soft voice.
He didn't know why, but hearing Emily thank Gibbs and Mallard in that gentle tone he so rarely heard coming from her increased his irritation. "Yes, well, thank you both. But I think it's time we start examining what we've gathered so far and start building a profile on Beth. We have work to do, Prentiss." Hotch wanted to cringe at his words and tone. He sounded rude and ungrateful not only towards the NCIS people, but to Emily as well.
Emily frowned at Hotch as Ducky shifted uncomfortably on his feet and Gibbs simply glared at the other man. The former Marine simply leaned over, kissed Emily on the cheek and murmured, "I'll call you later. Remember what you promised and know my offer still stands. You can always stay at my place."
She gave him a quick smile and nodded her head. After they were gone, Emily whirled on Hotch. "What was that about?" she demanded.
He gazed coolly back at her, but cringed inwardly when he heard his flat voice say to her, "Time is of the essence of, Prentiss. I would prefer not to have this cloud of suspicion hanging over me."
"I understand that, but those men are generously offering us the means to help remove this 'cloud of suspicion'. They don't have to do this. The least you can do is be a bit more gracious for the help they're providing you."
"You mean you," he bit out.
"I only asked them for help but they're giving it to you," she pointed out. She huffed out an annoyed breath. She didn't have time for Hotch and his problems with Gibbs. NCIS was giving them what they needed to prove his innocence. The least he could do was be gracious about it.
"Gibbs leave?" Rossi asked as he came back into the living room bearing a large platter that had an assortment of sandwiches. JJ followed with a salad and Reid carried plates and utensils.
"He wanted to get things moving on his end," Emily explained with a look at Hotch.
"So here's the information Garcia has gathered so far on Beth," JJ began as they sat around the coffee table eating their lunch. The tech analyst had informed the blonde about the information she had stored on a flash drive she was leaving behind. "She's been working at the Lingerhoff for about three years. Before that she was in Chicago for about six years. She did however, grow up in this area, Maryland in fact. Went to University of Maryland. Garcia didn't have access to police records but she found two odd things. When Beth was at the University of Maryland, her roommate, Cassie Burkhart committed suicide in their junior year. Garcia did a search on Facebook and came up with this." They had hooked up Emily's laptop to Rossi's big screen TV so they all could see everything on the computer. "This Facebook page belongs to Cassie Burkhart's sister, Rachel."
"I'm still not convinced Cassie committed suicide. It makes no sense. She was happy and loving life. She was getting good grades and completely in love with Mark, her boyfriend at the time. It's the anniversary of her death, but no one will ever convince me she killed herself." Emily read aloud. She raised an eyebrow at JJ. "She doesn't mention Beth."
"No, but Beth is the one who found Cassie," JJ replied as she pulled up an old newspaper article. 'Co-ed Tragedy' the headline read. The article went on to mention how Cassie Burkhart's roommate, Beth Clemmons found the young woman dead. Beth was interviewed and talked about how Cassie had been upset and disturbed over the last few days.
"So there were two different stories being given, one by Beth and one by the family," Rossi mused.
"Just the sister, Rachel. Apparently, Cassie wasn't close to her parents, but she was to her sister who was ten years younger, eleven at the time."
"And less attention probably would have been paid to an eleven year when trying to establish someone's state of mind," Hotch mused. "What else did Garcia find?"
"This." JJ pulled up another Facebook page, this time belonging to a man named Richard Martin. A handsome man with golden blond hair, a dazzling smile and the face that actors and news anchors would kill for, Richard Martin was also dead. "Richard Martin died five years ago and his family have kept his page up as a living memorial to him. Which also means they've kept his old pictures and entries. Look at the ones eight months before his death." She clicked on a photo and a familiar face appeared.
"That's Beth," Reid said of the woman who stood next to Martin.
"Yep, and look at the entry for that picture, 'Had a great time with Beth at the music festival today even though we had one of those crazy summer showers.' For the next few months everything seems to be going okay until this entry three months before his death. 'Crazy chicks are the worst thing to deal with! Why can't some of them get it through their heads it's over?' He makes a few more entries talking about some 'crazy woman' though he never names her. Then he starts to write about another woman, Mary Logan, whom he met at work. He's complimentary of her and mentions the 'crazy woman' less and less. And then he's killed in a car crash. Garcia pulled up the newspaper write-ups."
"Richard Martin, 40, and Mary Logan, 32, killed in a crash early this morning as their car rolled off the road and caught fire. Death seems to follow Beth around," Rossi mused. He glanced over at Hotch. "The Martin situation seems to mirror your relationship with Beth, or at least in her mind it might."
Hotch stared grimly at the screen. How could he have missed all of this? It's because he was so flattered that a woman would have gone out of her way to try to date him that he had let his guard down. And now, Emily has been drawn into the mess that he could have avoided if he had shown an ounce of sense.
Well, he would have to try to make this up to Emily later when things were resolved. For now, he would personally make sure nothing happened to her.
"JJ, with Garcia still tied up, you'll need to keep digging. Also try tapping some of your media resources, law enforcement connections you made when you were media liaison. Rossi and Reid, follow up with the folks in Chicago. See if you can find out anything more about the Martin/Logan case. Emily and I will talk to Rachel Burkhart."
"I'll need to get closer but if the creep is monitoring the camera feed, they'll see me in Em's apartment," Garcia said to Morgan.
"How close will you need to be to figure out if there's a live feed going on and to trace it?"
"If I had our usual surveillance van with all the bells and whistles I can do it from the street, but with my laptop, I'll need to at least be within 20 or 30 feet of one of the cameras."
Morgan thought a moment and then winked at the tech analyst. "I've got an idea."
"Oh! Agent Morgan!" Emily's elderly neighbor, Mrs. Mundy said in a delighted tone after she answered the knock on her front door. "How are you, young man?"
"I'm doing well, Mrs. Mundy," he said with a charming smile and a hug for the birdlike woman. He had met the woman several times and she had taken an immediate shine to the handsome man. "But I need your help."
"Me?" she queried. "Oh dear, Emily isn't in trouble, is she? I thought I heard her go into her house earlier today, but I didn't see her."
"Emily is having some wireless problems but because of the nature of our work, she can't just call up AT&T. So one of our tech analyst from the Bureau is trying to figure out the issue." He pulled Garcia who had been lurking off to the side, into the doorway to stand next to him.
"Hi?" Garcia waved her hand weakly.
Mrs. Mundy peered at her. "Oh yes, I think I've seen you here before." She looked at both of them, confusion in her face. "But I don't understand how I can help."
"Well, you see ma'am, we can't seem to find the problem in Emily's house, so Garcia here believes it could be a connector problem with the DGX box which from the schematics is located right by your East wall. It could be the LGT convenor or the megatron box. Garcia is wondering if she could spend some time here tracking down the issue?"
Both Garcia and Mrs. Mundy stared back at Derek blankly. He was spouting gibberish but it had the desired effect. It sounded impressive and convincing enough to Mrs. Mundy who agreed. She did give Morgan and Garcia an odd look when the latter said she needed to be on the second floor.
"So there's less interference to the signal," the tech analyst tried to explain lamely.
Mrs. Mundy merely shook her head and led the way. Morgan steered them to the guest bedroom where he judged was directly opposite Emily's bedroom. Given how closely the brownstones were located, they were well within the range Garcia required to see if the cameras were still transmitting and to where and whom.
"Is there anything I can get you? I was just about to have some lunch," Mrs. Mundy asked as Garcia and Morgan began to set things up.
"Actually, I'll go do down and help you, Mrs. Mundy," Morgan said smoothly, giving Garcia a look that clearly said he would preoccupy the old lady while Garcia worked. He turned a full watt smile on the older woman who blushed and looked flustered as the handsome man escorted her downstairs.
Garcia shook her head, marveling at the power of her Chocolate Adonis as she began to set up her equipment. She was going to find the creep who had been spying on Emily if it was the last thing she ever did!