JJ and Emily made the journey back to the police station to meet back up with the team. Emily had fallen asleep on the way over from the hospital and JJ desperately wished she could have taken her to the hotel to rest, she was too doped up to truly be of any help, but she wasn't allowed to be unsupervised because of the concussion. She pulled into the parking lot and took a moment to watch the brunette dozing in the passenger seat. Under different circumstances it would have been a serene moment, but there was a killer at large and they needed to work quickly.
"Em," JJ whispered. She gently nudged the other women awake.
"Hmm?"
"We're back at the station," JJ replied as she unbuckled and waited for Emily to do the same. Emily yawned and blinked a few times to focus on her surroundings.
"I thought we were going to the hotel?" Emily asked. JJ realized her conversation with Hotch had taken place out of ear shot and Emily had been in and out of consciousness the entire car ride. She sighed knowing the brunette was not going to like the fact they had been called back to work after such an eventful evening.
"There's another set of bodies. Gentry isn't the killer, he just proved to be a homophobic asshole."
"Jeez, can't catch a break on this one," Emily huffed. She slowly exited the vehicle, leaning against the door to catch her balance. Her head was swimming and vision blurry, she knew there was no way she would be allowed in the field in this condition, but she was willing to help at the station in whatever way she could.
They made their way inside, regrouping with the rest of the team. The two new bodies had been found in a residence, nearly thirty minutes from town, after a neighbor heard screaming and called 911. The unsub was escalating, two couples in two weeks, when previously he had put a two week cooling off period between kills. One look at Emily and Hotch knew she would have to stay behind. Although JJ volunteered to stay to keep an eye on Emily, Hotch left Reid in charge, much to the younger agent's dismay. Hotch and the other members of the team headed out with local law enforcement to survey the newest crime scene.
"So I guess it's just us," Emily sighed. She sat down to rub her temples gently, the pain meds were wearing off already and between the throbbing in her head and the fractured knuckles, she was in bad shape.
"I guess," Reid muttered. He settled into a chair across from her at the large conference table and opened a case file to review notes.
"Reid, I never wanted to hurt you. Or anyone for that matter," Emily admitted quietly. Thinking now was as good a time as any for the difficult conversation to take place. She had only been back for a short period of time, but the longer Reid refused to talk to her, the harder it became for her to try to apologise.
"Emily, I think we should just focus on the case," Reid stated flatly without looking up from the folder in his hand.
"No, we're going to be adults about this, because it kills me when I see the betrayal in your eyes every time you look at me. I know you're hurt, I can't even imagine the hell you've been through. The funeral, the grieving... but look I lost someone too. Actually, I lost six someones. While you were reeling from losing one person, I was all alone having to deal with the fact I couldn't talk to any of you," Emily paused knowing that was technically a lie. She and JJ had kept in touch as much as they could, but that was just pouring salt in the wound and she wanted to avoid causing him further pain. "Reid, if I could have, you know I would have told you. JJ and Hotch were sworn to secrecy for my safety..."
"What? JJ?!" Reid yelled, jerking his head up to look at her. "JJ fucking knew about this too?!"
Up until that moment, Emily hadn't been aware the team didn't know about JJ's involvement in the cover up. She wanted to try and make things better, but somehow found a way to make her, already strained, relationship with Reid worse. Perhaps, trying to have a serious conversation while coming down off painkillers hadn't been her best idea to date.
"Reid, I'm so sorry," she murmured softly. It didn't really matter what she said, the blow had already been struck and she knew he wasn't going to forgive her, not right then. Not to mention, he suddenly knew about JJ's lies and it was entirely Emily's fault. He was shaking with rage and refused to look her in the eyes. She sighed, resigned to the fact there was nothing she could say to diffuse the situation, so she decided to calmly leave the room and search the precinct for a pot of coffee.
Emily cursed her big mouth as she found the kitchenette to pour herself a mug of luke-warm coffee. It was nearly 2am and the pain meds had all but left her sober again, making her painfully aware of her injuries. Struggling to pour from the coffee pot with her newly casted hand, she managed to spill it on the floor, down her top and all over her favourite pair of boots. "Fuck!" she growled.
"Looks like you could use some help," a kind voice offered from behind her. Emily turned to meet a pair of hazel eyes and a friendly smile. The woman reached out to take the glass carafe from Emily. She swirled around what little liquid was left after Emily's incident. "This has got to be hours old. How about I brew you a new pot?"
"Thanks, but that's really not necessary," Emily smiled at the young woman.
"No, I insist. Your team flew all the way down here and you haven't stopped working on this case. The least I can do is brew some joe," the woman nodded at the spill on the floor and motioned towards a cabinet in the corner. "Paper towels are over there."
"Oh thanks, I'm not really used to this thing yet," Emily admitted, waving her cast in the air.
"My name is Detective Barner, but you can call me Emma," the young woman beamed. Her shoulder length hair was an amalgamation of hues which seemed to change depending on the lighting. Currently, Emily picked up shades of blonde and red highlighted under the fluorescents of the police station. Emma's smile was genuine with the early traces of frown lines beginning to nag at the corners, this job tended to have that effect on people. She was young for a detective, probably only in her early 30s, but Emily had learned not to judge a person based on age, not after working with the BAU's boy genius daily.
"Barner? Is that German?" Emily asked, mopping up her mess with a pile of paper towels.
"Yes actually, it is. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. As a profiler, you probably know a lot about genealogy and linguistics to help build your profiles. I just admire what you do so much, your entire team is incredible. I think being a profiler just seems absolutely enthralling," Emma admitted. Her smile falter for a moment, while she let her eyes make the obvious journey up and down Emily's body.
"Actually, it was just a lucky guess," Emily joked. Emme look mortified that she had been gushing about the BAU, when Emily had simply been trying to make small talk. The detective quickly turning around to continue making coffee, so Emily wouldn't see how flustered she had become. Noticing the obvious discomfort in Emma's demeanour, Emily attempted to lighten the mood, "So how long have you been a detective?"
"Two years now, I've never seen something like this. I mean it's my first serial killer case, not that it's even my case, but everyone is talking about it. If I'm being honest, it's a bit intense, I don't know how you do it everyday," Emma poured two fresh mugs and handed one to Emily, accidentally brushing her hand in the process. The touch of unfamiliar skin sent excitement through Emily's system, as she tried to hide the excitement in her smile. Detective Barner was extremely attractive, although Emily was a bit off her game due to the pulsating headache.
"It's all just part of the job. I've been with the bureau almost fifteen years now, still, it's never something you fully get used to," Emily stated honestly. She had started sipping her coffee, when she caught sight of the faux wedding ring still adorning her finger. She starred at it for a moment getting lost in her own thoughts, her night with JJ felt like a lifetime ago and before the whole aggravated assault part of their 'date', Emily was fairly certain JJ had felt the same something that Emily did.
"How long have you and your wife been together?" Emma asked.
"My...what? Oh this!" Emily chuckled, awkwardly slipping the ring off and placing it in her pocket, "We're not actually together. It was just a ruse to try and draw out the unsub. A lot of good it did." The undercover idea hadn't gotten them any closer to their killer, all it had done was leave Emily with a busted hand and yet another head injury. She wondered what made people look at her and immediately want to smash her face in, there had to be something since it had happened one too many times to call bad luck.
"Emily?"
"Sorry, what?" Emily realised she had completely zoned out for a second.
"I was apologising to you," the detective repeated. "I just heard what happened at the bar and I figured, I'd punch a guy too for coming after my wife. I mean I'm not...well I am but I'm not married. I just meant..." Emma stammered before cutting herself off. Emily couldn't help but smile at the way she seemed to be flustering the other woman.
"You should go for her," Emma finally said after a momentary pause.
"Her?" Emily asked in confusion.
"Agent Jareau, you should go for her. It's obvious she likes you," Emma stated. The sudden piece of advice made Emily's heart race, it wasn't the first time Emily had considered the idea, it just happened to be the first time someone else thought she should consider it. The truth was, Emily had been wanting to ask JJ out for some time, she just never found the courage. She always talked herself out of it, thinking she had misread the signs between them, but after their night at the bar, she was reconsidering.
Before they could talk any further Reid entered the kitchen. "Penelope found something on the security video"
Emily thanked detective Barner for the coffee and conversation before following Reid down the hallway which lead to the conference room. The rest of the team were just walked back in and Garcia was anxiously waiting on speaker phone.
"Baby girl what's up?" Derek asked taking a seat.
"Well I went back on the video from tonight and there was nothing out of the ordinary other than Emily kicking that sleaze's ass," Garcia chimed happily. She had made sure to save the video to her computer in her 'Best Of' folder, she had individual folders for each BAU agent and Emily's was a 50/50 spilt of her kicking as and her getting her ass kicked. "But I did notice the Jacobsons at the bar last night. And the two weeks before on Wednesday nights as well, the unsub was either coincidentally at the bar each time or he's stalking his victims before he does the horrible, icky part."
"He's learning their routines," Rossi pointed out. "The unsub is definitely escalating, he didn't abduct the Jacobsons and take them to his hideout. He killed them in their own home, why change his M.O. this late in the game? And what was special about this couple? By all outward appearances, the neighbors we spoke to didn't seem to think Sandra and Dustin Jacobson weren't straight. Even if they were part of the rainbow community, how would our unsub know that?"
"I might be able to help with that, sir," Garcia replied typing away at her keyboard. "Sandra and Dustin were married two months ago, but before the wedding, I can't find any records of a Dustin Jacobson. There just aren't any records under that name that match his identity, but you know I don't give up that easily, so I dug a bit deeper and found old social media photos of Sandra and Denise."
"Dustin didn't pull up anything, because he's transgender," JJ replied.
"It would seem that way. I looked up his old name and it seems like he and Sandra had moved about the time Dustin started changing his social media profiles to match his new identity," Garcia finished.
"They moved to give him a fresh start and now they're..." Emily whispered under her breath. She stared down to the table to try and stifle her tears, it was extremely rare for a case to effect her emotionally, yet she couldn't help feeling heartbroken at the victimology. JJ noticed Emily's body language and silently placed her hand over Emily's, giving it a small squeeze.
"Thanks Garcia," Hotch replied. The technical analyst disconnected the call and the team went to work.
"He hasn't gone this far outside of his comfort zone before," Derek said. "Why would he follow the Jacobsons half an hour outside of town, when we've already established all of the other victims were more centrally located?"
"In a town this small, the gay population is sparse, maybe he had to go outside of his usual hunting ground to find victims that matched his victimology. It's realistic to think the Jacobsons were the only option he had," Reid replied.
"As if this case couldn't get worse, this guy has now single-handily murdered most of the town's LGBT population," JJ seethed.
"I think we need to send you two back to the bar," Hotch concluded. "He obviously was pre-occupied tonight, so your cover wasn't blown. If he's escalating as quickly as we expect then he'll be back on the prowl as soon as possible"
"I agree, I think we'll need to get back in there," JJ decided, looking to Emily. Emily blushed at the thought of a second date, fake date, she reminded herself. She wanted nothing more than to catch this unsub before he killed anyone else.
"Then it's settled. Same thing as tonight and hopefully, we can catch this guy's attention," Hotch stated.
The team wrapped up at the station, before everyone headed towards the hotel to get a couple of hours of rest. When they were in the car, JJ smiled at Emily eagerly, "So a second date, eh Mrs Hartwell?"
"I guess so," Emily grinned. "Now, don't think you can get fresh with me just because we're fake married."
"Oh, you're no fun!" JJ chuckled, winking to her passenger. Emily blushed at the innuendo, turning to stare out the window as they finished the rest of the ride in silence. This was shaping up to be a case full of unexpected twists.