A/N- So I had another little hiatus, sorry! But hopefully this chapter will make up for it! XD As always, enjoy!
~MBL xox
7 HOURS SINCE MISSING
She's dead.
Holly's dead.
Everything seemed to go in slow motion. JJ could feel her knees buckling underneath her. She could feel strong arms help guide her to the floor, catching her. She could feel the heat on her cheeks from tears, yet she wasn't crying. She could hear people calling out her name, but they sounded so distant, like it was all a dream.
It was all a dream, wasn't it? It had to be.
Holly could not be dead, not after everything she's gone through. And for her to only come back to America for a few days, only to be killed on the first day of her new job? That wasn't fair to her.
It took a few minutes for JJ to take knowledge of her surroundings once more, looking up at five very concerned looks belonging to her teammates staring down at her.
It took her another minute to realize she was lying on the floor. Sitting up, she noticed everyone was concerned for her, trying to profile her.
"I'm fine, just got dizzy," she muttered, not wanting to draw any more attention to herself.
Rossi and Morgan helped her up to sit in the desk chair next to her. "Are you sure, Blondie?" Morgan asked. "You just collapsed."
"I'm fine." She repeated, firmly. "Holly. Is it true? Please tell me I was hallucinating or something. Is she dead?" No one would answer her, for fear she would suffer from another breakdown as earlier, or collapse again.
"Is she dead?" JJ asked, much more firmly than she had intended to. Turning to her Unit Chief, she sought the answer to her question. "Hotch?" Her voice breaking slightly.
"JJ," he began, not wanting to be the cause of her teammate's pain. "We heard two gunshots go off right after he landed hard punches on her. We believe that yes, she has died."
JJ couldn't feel anything. That's what made it so terrifying. She should be feeling something, anything. Remorse, guilt, anger, but instead, she just felt like an empty shell.
"JJ," Rossi began. "Are you alright?"
"What did Garcia say?" JJ turned to Morgan, completely disregarding the senior agent's question. Morgan was taken aback at the blank look on his friend's face.
"The call was made from a disposable cell, so she couldn't get an exact location, and there wasn't enough time to triangulate cell towers to get an approximate area." He looked to her with pity on his face. "JJ-"
"Get Garcia to look up Charlie Price, we can only hope he hasn't used an alias." instructed the blond, ignoring her friend's concern once again.
"I'll get right on it," piped up the female brunette, immediately getting on the phone with their Technical Analyst.
The Unit Chief had turned back to JJ. "JJ, if you need time-"
Once again, the blond cut him off. "No, what I need is to find this bastard before he does any more damage! If he did kill Holly, then I owe it to her to find this son of a bitch and nail him to the wall! I'm not going to stand here doing jack shit when there is a monster out there!" Panting, JJ just glared at Hotch.
"It's late, and if you do want to work this case with us-"
"I do,"
Hotch held up a hand, signaling for her to wait. "If you want to work this case, then you need your sleep, and tomorrow we'll treat this like any other case. We are all going to continue our assignments and we are going to catch Price. Do you understand?"
JJ nodded, eyes cast on the floor in front of her.
Hotch put a hand on her shoulder. "I understand what you're feeling, JJ, but stressing over this and making it too personal is not going to help this case, and it's not going to help Green. Please, go to the hotel, call Will, and get some rest. You're rooming with Blake, room two-nineteen. We'll be right with you, I'll send Rossi and Reid to take you home."
Dejectedly, JJ picked up her go-bag and gathered items she would need to take home and sorted out which ones she would need to keep at the station. Sighing, she picked up the photo of herself and Holly from the championship match, still slightly wet from earlier. She held the photo close to her chest, blinking back tears, silently promising to find the other blond in the photo and praying that she was, in fact, alive, despite the odds.
Following Reid and Rossi to the all black SUV, JJ silently slipped into the backseat, behind the driver's seat. Rossi and Reid stood outside of the car, sharing a subtle nod, and in agreement, Rossi climbed into the driver's seat and Reid, instead of sitting in the front seat, sat in the back, next to the blank blond.
The drive to the hotel would take forty minutes at best, so JJ leant her head against the window, blankly gazing at the lights flashing past.
Reid, noticing the abrupt change in his surrogate sister since they had taken the case, reached out to grab the blond's petite right hand. JJ flinched at first, but relaxed into the doctor's silent gesture, gripping his hand tightly and rubbing his own hand in circles with her thumb.
"What are the odds of her survival?" spoke the woman suddenly, causing Reid's head to snap up to look her in the eyes.
"Well, there are chances he was just saying that she was dead to affect your mentality in regards to this case, ultimately hindering our ability to work this case thoroughly, allowing him more time with her, of course the gunshots could've been anything, from him shooting into a wall, or even hitting something non-fatal, such as a foot, or a kneecap or-"
"Spence," JJ pleaded, and Reid could see her bright blue eyes had become considerably duller. "Is there a chance she's alive?"
"There is a fair chance," Reid encouraged, despite the look of disapproval Rossi shot from the driver's seat.
"Thank you," JJ replied, once again looking out of the window.
There was another moment's silence before Reid spoke up once again. "JJ, are you okay?"
JJ let out a humorless chuckle, much like the one she spat out to Blake. Reid, having never heard such a cold laugh come from the blond's lips, flinched.
"I don't feel anything. I know I should feel angry or upset or something, but I just feel numb."
"We will find him," Reid promised, gripping her hand tighter. "And we will find out what happened to Holly."
"Yeah," JJ sighed, not taking her eyes off the window.
"I promise you, Bella," Rossi spoke up, not taking his eyes of the road. "We will do everything in our power to find him, and find out whether or not Agent Green is alive or not."
"My only concern it that it's the latter," the blond muttered coldly, while continually staring out the window.
"We will find out. I promise you Jayje. We will." Reid urged. JJ looked to him, eyes slightly brighter, and managed to turn up the corners of her lips into a half-smile.
"You're the best, Spencer." She whispered, clutching his hand tighter, as a lifeline.
Reid couldn't help but give the former liaison a warm, comforting smile.
The remainder of the car trip passed in silence, Rossi was silently praying that Holly would be all right, if not for her, than for the blond profiler who was obviously in distress. Reid never took his eyes off his best friend, giving her an encouraging smile or nod whenever she would glance in his direction.
JJ was pretty sure she was cutting off the circulation to Reid's left fingers, but she couldn't bear to let go. She was so grateful to have a team like hers, especially at this time, even though she was less than pleasant today. She didn't know what she would do without her team, her family. She was so thankful for everyone: Morgan, being the reality but also being the rock; Blake, being the listener and always understanding; Rossi, being the father who tells her not everything will be okay, but they'll get through it; Hotch, remaining the one who always keeps his cool and is always grounded and calm; and Spence, just the little brother who would always listen and let her scream, or cry, or vent. But she couldn't do that now, not even if there is the slightest possibility that Holly could be alive. She needed to find her, and bring her home.
When they finally arrived at the hotel, Rossi checked them in and collected all of their keys. He would be sharing with Hotch, room two-twenty, Reid will be sharing with Morgan – which will not end well – at room two-eighteen, and JJ would be with Blake in the across from Rossi and Hotch and next to Morgan and Reid.
They all headed up to floor two, and went into their respective rooms. JJ immediately dumped her go-bag on the floor next to the small desk set up near the window – which had no view at all – and pulled out her cell phone.
It only rang twice, until a familiar Southern drawl answered the phone.
"Hey, Cher,"
"Will," JJ replied, glad to hear the voice of her husband.
"Is everything okay? You sound tense." JJ bit back a smile. Even on the phone, Will was able to sense when something was wrong.
"Not really. You remember that girl I was telling you about from high school? The one who disappeared?"
"Heather, or something?"
"Holly. Well, she came into the BAU this morning."
"Well that's good, isn't it?" Although he wasn't a profiler, he knew something wasn't right with his wife, and he was beginning to get worried.
"It wasn't for me. She- she got transferred into the team. She didn't want to make contact with me at all. She'd been living in Australia for the past fifteen years, with only that one note to say goodbye!" JJ's voice was breaking now, and was reaching an unusually high pitch.
"I'm so sorry, JJ." Will couldn't think of much else to say. What was there to say?
"If that's not enough, she's missing again."
"What?"
"She could be- be dead." JJ let out a loud sob, tears cascading down her cheeks.
"How? What happened?"
"We're searching for this rapist in Pittsburgh who it seems had a connection to Holly. We think he's the reason why she left in the first place. I'm not sure how long I'll be staying here, but I'm not leaving until we find her."
"I understand, Cher. Come home as soon as you can. Henry was asking for his Momma tonight."
JJ let out another few sobs. "I'll call him first thing in the morning. Thank you."
"I'll see you soon, honey. And JJ?"
"Yeah?"
"Take care of yourself. You will find her."
A/N- So what's going to happen? Is Holly dead? Will JJ find her? What is Charlie going to do? Is his name actually Charlie?
Follow, favourite and review to find out!
Love you all!
~MBL xx