CHAPTER 77

ABOUT TO CHECK THAT ONE MORE TIME

"Emily?" Henry called out from the living room.

"Oh, so you do know how to pronounce my name correctly?" He was so busted.

He always called her something that sounded like Eh-mey, which if she had to put down in letters would look like Emmey.

Then again, this came from the mouth of the child, whose mother Emily continuously called ChayChay, so she had no right to object. Nor did she want to. Henry was the cutest when he said her name like that, it was their own little thing. Mickey called her "Emi-yiii". Kids just had their weird ways of connecting with her, unlike adults.

"Yes, but I like the way I pronounced your name when I was a child." He confessed.

"Mhm, you grown up young man." She walked over to him, messing with his hair a little bit.

"Now that you're here. I do have a request. I'm hungry." He informed her.

"Yes, I was just starting to prepare something in the kitch-…"

"Can we go straight to ordering food online? I'm too hungry to go through all the steps."

"All the steps?" Emily asked, confused.

"You know, you cutting things veeery slowly, then you putting them in three different pots before you choose the right one, then heating up the oven and then waiting for them to burn, so that you could finally log in and get us pizza."

"You're lucky you're cute, young man!" Emily messed with his hair once again. She knew he hated that, but he deserved this much after he joined the club of passionate 'Let's offend Emily Prentiss' cooking skills' club members.

"Fine. Pizza it is." She gave up and ordered online, wondering exactly how bossy he would grow up to be if that was how he spoke at the tender age of ten.

"Do you want to play with your dinosaur collection while we wait for the delivery?" She suggested, picking up his little overnight backpack.

"Mmh, no. I want to see what's in the bags you tried to hide in the trunk earlier."

"Henry! That was a surprise."

"Well, not anymore." He stood up, putting his jacket on.

Emily took him downstairs to the car and they brought two big bags, full of things, up to the apartment. Her idea had been to disappear for two minutes while Henry would watch something on TV, and then to surprise him with all the things she had bought him when she left work early, at the time when JJ was trying to get in touch with her. Emily had spent an hour at a kid's shop, trying to figure out what a 10 year old boy would like to play with, before she ended up buying one of almost every toy she saw.

"Woah!" Henry kicked his shoes off when they walked back in the apartment.

He knew that Emily hated it when people walked around the house with their shoes on. He was a guest and his mommy had taught him to respect the house rules of people who had invited him. Even though he had technically invited himself over this time.

He busied himself, playing a little bit with each and every single toy, before he made a pile of his favorites and a smaller pile of the ones he would surely be donating to some charity, if his little brother did not want them either.

JJ had taught her two kids to think of the less fortunate ones. Every year, they would collect a bag of their belongings that they no longer use, and donate them to other kids in need.

"Can we call mommy now?" He asked sweetly, seeing as there was only one hour left to his bedtime. He just assumed that this was the time his parents would also go to bed. How naïve of him.

"This better not be bad timing…" Emily whispered on the phone when JJ picked up.

"Oh, it would have been really bad timing, fifteen minutes ago." JJ chuckled.

They had a way of telling each other way too much information about their…private business.

"Well, I'm glad that's over and done with. God knows you needed some." Emily laughed, without a hint of a grudge to be held against JJ, for that statement of hers earlier that day.

"Done with? Girl, yeah. Check and check. And about to check that one more time." JJ said cheerfully.

"Ugh, seriously!? How do you even have the streng-…ugh, nevermind. I don't think I want to know."

"I can give you some pointers. Apparently, mommy still got game."

"Yup, I definitely do not want to know that." Emily could not stop laughing.

"I need to set you up on a date with some hot guy." JJ suggested.

"Please, don't! I still have nightmares about the last blind date you put me through."

"But, Em, you need someone to hold you, kiss you, mmmmhhhmmmm..." A muffled sound came out at the end and Emily laughed out loud, picturing Will, walking in on that conversation and forcefully placing his hand on JJ's mouth, preventing her from saying yet another inappropriate thing to her boss.

For a brief moment Emily allowed herself to think of him – the man with the name of a pastry shop. This time it made her smile. Maybe she was healing?

"Excuse my wife. She's a bit…" Will grabbed JJ's phone, but not before JJ was able to hit loudspeaker.

"Worked up? Mhm, I know." Emily said teasingly.

"So, your son, a.k.a. the cutest blonde kid in the world, wanted to say goodnight to you." Emily then put her loudspeaker on, only after having warned JJ and Will about it. The kid did not need to hear anything explicit and JJ was known to have no filter when speaking to Emily.

"Hey. We are having a great time. Emmey has bought me toys and she's letting me play all I want. I am also allowed to watch TV, but there isn't anything interesting at the moment. She's drinking wine." He briefed it all up in a few sentences.

"Way to throw me under the bus, partner!" Emily faked disapproval while taking another sip of her wine.

"Enjoy your evening then. Both of you." JJ said, sending a loud kiss to her son over the phone.

"Goodnight." Will added.

"Goodnight mommy and daddy. Thank you for letting me stay here tonight."

"Oh, thank you for-…" JJ's mouth once again got shut by Will before she could say what was on her mind.

"Ok, bye!" Emily put an end to this miserable phone call before she turned her attention back to Henry.

"Pizza!" He jumped up happily when he heard the doorbell.

Emily had bought five different bottles of juice, three of which she knew Henry liked, but she got the other two as well, just in case he was willing to try something new. Everyone knew that Emily was one to overcompensate. Always. And about everything. This clearly included the moments when she was around this kid.

More than an hour went by and Henry was still awake, enjoying his time with Emily. He had asked her so many things, about her job, about her life, about her friends outside of work. That last question had made her think about the fact that she did not have any friends outside of work.

"Are you sleepy?" She asked when she saw him rub his eyes for the second time. It was only 8:30 pm, but then again, he was just a child.

"I can resist." He stated calmly, not wanting to waste valuable 'Emmey time' if he admitted defeat.


"Where this Yankee bar is?" Angie's voice finally sounded from the other side of the line. She spoke bad English, with heavy Latina accent.

The team gathered by the table, Mae typing away on Clara's computer and soon coming up with an address for this bar she had mentioned.

"You have to trust me. You want to learn English well, right? Well, I'm going to teach you." A male voice could be heard as well.

"Southern accent. He's definitely American." Jack pointed out while waiting to hear more.

"Oh, this uhh called…in American how you say about this thing on the left our side?" Angie spoke, still keeping that Latina accent and pretending not to know English well.

"A lake." The guy replied, almost sounding soft.

"What name of lake?" Angie pushed it.

"Embalse niña bonita. Have you never seen it?" He questioned.

Angie had to pass for a local, yet she did not know the name of the biggest reservoir near Havana.

"I no live Havana. I live south on Cuba – Boca de galafre." She shrugged, shooting the name of the first small city she could think of, down south.

"Here it is." Mae turned the computer, so that everyone can see it. She had located the reservoir on the map.

"She mentioned South, and she also said she saw the lake on their left side. They're clearly going South on Autopista Este-Oeste." Clara summed it all up, pointing at the highway on the map.

"We need Monty, right now." Jack was amazed that nobody had called him yet. Why was Mae doing all the computer work? It was Monty's task.

"Uh, there is no service here. Not for international calls anyway." Mae said hesitantly.

She knew how pissed Jack could get if things did not go his way. And right now they were literally playing with the life of a four-week Trainee who looked as fragile as porcelain. Jack's whole career could go up in flames if anything happened to the girl he did not approve of, for this case, in the first place.

"Give her time. She'll communicate with us." Clara calmed him down.

"I need go pepee. There green land. Can I go?" Angie asked the guy, pointing at a secluded area around the highway, covered in trees.

"Is he taking her to his dumping ground?" Jack raised an eyebrow.

"No, he hasn't even started playing with her. For him, it's not about the kill. It's about the game. He wants something from these girls, that's why he was bribing the families with expensive things." Clara sounded very sure of what she was saying.

"Then he must live near the place where the victims were discovered, because they are certainly moving in that direction." Mae pointed out.

"Angela, if you can hear me, cough once." Clara said, in hopes of initiating a two-way conversation with her asset.

The only thing she heard on the other side of the line was silence. There was some noise, as if Angie had cracked the window open as they were driving on the highway. But no cough.

"Angela?" Clara tried one more time, but she felt Jack's hand on top of hers, him urging her to drop it and to remain calm.

"Shouldn't we follow them?" Kevin finally had the courage to suggest something.

"No. We don't even know where she's going. If we're on the road, we won't have access to the internet and we will just end up getting lost and, possibly, lose her in the process. Her best chance at survival is to trust her own instincts and to keep on communicating with us, for as long as we have the line open, at least on her side." Jack nearly scolded the young guy.

"What instincts? We haven't even had our first undercover missions class at the Academy. She doesn't have a gun. And she wears a freaking bow in her hair." Kevin motioned with his left hand, touching his forehead to see if the wet feeling was from sweat or if his veins had finally busted and he was now covered in blood, because he sure felt like bleeding from all this pressure.

"Guys, she's not an idiot." Clara's voice was silent, almost as if she believed that saying it out loud may jinx something.

Five minutes later, they received another communication from her.

"What we will do?" Angie said innocently.

To the UnSub it looked like she was trying really hard to speak good English, but to her this was all just a game.

"I am going to introduce you to someone and you can start your lessons right away. She has already had a few classes, so you need to keep up."

"We arrive already?" Angie raised an eyebrow, trying to figure out how to explain her location to the team.

"Who is Corrales?" She read the name of the street, but there were no buildings on it. Except for one very old looking thing that resembled a chicken coop rather than a house.

"I dunno. You're Cuban, you should know." The guy said, getting out of the car.

"Ok, a door slammed. They've come to a stop. Mae, search for anything 'Corrales' in direction of where they were headed to." Clara commented, listening intently.

"Uh, there's a street with that name, but at some point they would have left the highway, like a few miles before that." Mae spoke.

"That's when the whisking sound started." Jack pointed out.

"Crap, she was communicating the change of route to us, when she cracked the window open. Damn it, I should have known!" Clara's heart was racing. This was such a stupid mistake. How could she have not noticed?

"It's a long road that starts nowhere and leads nowhere. No buildings, no flora, no lakes, nothing around it. Just wild land." Mae kept her eyes on the map, searching for any sign of a house or anything at all.

"We should call the closest police station and ask for immediate back-up at the location." It was Jack's best choice.

"No. There's another person involved, a civilian. If they are being kept there against their will, this means we have two people to rescue now. If the police shows up, the UnSub would know this is the end and he would not hesitate to kill either one of his two hostages. He knows he won't be getting out of there alive. Come on, he's an American dude in Cuba, it doesn't get any worse than that." Clara strategized. "We need her to keep talking, so we can understand more about this whole operation. If he ends up getting out alive, we need all we could find out about him, so we can secure him life in prison, with no chance of parole."

"Pretty sure he already has that in the bag." Kevin smiled, at least the thought of this man being close to being caught was giving him some comfort.

"Que bonita!" Angie chuckled when she met the UnSub's other friend - a young, beautiful local girl. Poor, no doubt. But Angie could tell she had a good heart.

She found the girl by a small gas stove, cooking rice and something that smelled terrible. It seemed like she was willingly hanging out there while the UnSub was away, hunting for one more girl. Poor thing, she had no idea what her fate was going to be.

"Belita Oramas." The other girl introduced herself after Angie did the same, with a fake name.

"Good, run that…" Before Clara could turn to face Mae, she was already replying.

"Nothing. I mean, yeah there's a girl with that name that dropped out of a high-school last year. Outskirts of Havana, poor neighborhood…fits the story." Mae spoke. "But nobody filed a missing person's report."

"Wait…" Clara heard some commotion and her attention shifted to that.

After that, there was silence for a while, before Angela spoke again, this time in Spanish.

Clara and Kevin took turns in translating simultaneously.

"Angie is asking Belita what's going on." Clara said.

"Belita replied that the guy has a short temper and that he disliked her cooking." Kevin started translating the other girl's words, so it would resemble a conversation, even in translation.

"Angie said she was hungry and that she would love to eat some of the rice."

"Belita then says she tried very hard, but cooking is not what she is good at. Also, languages."

"Angie questions what she meant by that."

"Belita points out how she has always wanted to live in America and start a family there, have a job, earn good money, put her kids through school. She says the UnSub has promised her all that and that he was also helping her learn English well enough to be able to live and work in the US."

"Angie says this is bullshit and that any Latina could survive just fine in certain parts of the US, like Miami. When Belita said that Miami would be expensive, Angie said…" Clara trailed off. If she didn't translate it, Kevin would, so there was no point in hiding her words. "Angie said that she had once been to Miami and she had done a few uh, jobs, and uh, she had enough money to stay, before she got deported back to Cuba."

"Belita then says that she prefers to do it all legally and that this man had shown her documents for other girls he had helped move to the US, after they finished his English classes."

"Angie asks how long she had been there."

"Belita says, a week. He would drive up to her home sometimes and take her from there, drop her off at this place and then sometimes drive around before coming back. She says he once came back with blood-stained clothes and he had brought her a duck to cook."

"I can stomach a lot, but please, let this not be a case of cannibalism or I'd flip out." Mae put her hand on her mouth, already feeling sick at the thought of that.

"Belita said she took the feathers off and cooked it, but he hated the taste, so he beat her up."

"Oh, thank God that was an actual duck." Mae said, feeling like her face might have turned green by now.

"Angie is asking for his name, but Belita tells her he never said what his name was. He wanted her to call him Professor."

"Some sort of a superiority complex…" Jack allowed himself to make a quick deduction before he let Clara and Kevin continue their translation.

"Angie asks if he has ever done anything inappropriate and Belita says no. He only beat her up once and then hit her across the face on one other occasion, but nothing else. He was being nice, for the most part."

"Angie questions if Belita can get them back to the city and the answer is no. She doesn't even know where they are. She has been there four times for the past week, each time he had driven her there and then dropped her back home."

"Angie is now bringing up presents and Belita says she lives with her uncle, who has problems with alcohol and that the Unsub has given him an expensive bottle of rum a few days ago when he came to take her from the house."

"Same method – he lures the girls in, promising them the American life of their dreams, while he bribes the family members with gifts, so they wouldn't question where he takes the girls and why they don't come back home for hours. He passes for the new friend, possibly even boyfriend, a nice American guy who takes the girl out and always drives her back home. Until one day he doesn't. Then he plays sympathetic, he toys with the families and offers financial care to take care of all the arrangements, once the bodies are found." Clara took a moment to sum up the new information they now had. He must have paid the funerals of his first victims.

"So, you were right all along. He does know the families! But for some reason, none of the people you interviewed spoke about him." Mae had to give it to Clara – she was a genius and she had the sixth sense of Superwoman, when she was doing her job.

"Kevin…" Clara tossed the car keys to him and he was already on his way. He was smart enough to know this was his cue to go interview the families one more time. He also figured he'd only have time to go to one place, so he chose the one within the city limits, where three of the victims lived.

Clara heard a lot of silence after that. The UnSub must have come back, or something must have happened, but she could only hear Angie's breathing and, occasionally, a cough, just as a sign that she was okay.


"The oldest known dinosaur is Eoraptor, a meat-eater that lived 228 million years ago."

Emily kept on speaking as she came back from the kitchen. She had been a good host and had ordered Henry his favorite pizza, which was great, as it meant no dishes had to be washed afterwards. And yet – she had sacrificed both a fork and a knife, for him, which is why she had to run to the kitchen for about three minutes, to rinse them off. If that ain't love…

"Do you know how many dinosaur species are currently known to humans?"

Her eyes searched for the child, who was looking more and more like a grown up. When did he stop being a toddler? Scratch that – when did he stop being the cutest newborn she had ever seen?

The couch, where she had left him just minutes ago, was now empty. There was just a bunch of emotional crap, buried underneath the cushions, but she forced herself not to think of that. She hadn't touched that piece of paper since she let Morgan read it, a week ago.

"Henry? Are we playing hide and seek again?" Emily noticed all the lights were now off, besides the nightlight in her bedroom.

Henry would not go to bed without any source of light on, however faint it might be.

"Oh God, he better not have found the…" She trailed off, not even wanting to pronounce it.

A wave of relief went through her when she reached the bedroom and made sure the drawer next to her bed had not been opened. She always kept it locked, in attempts of hiding what she kept inside. That was for her eyes only. Henry had his dinosaur toys, Emily had…well, different ones.

"Eh, then again, his mom and I have matching ones. Might not have been the first time he saw it." Emily chuckled at her own insanity.

"I need therapy…" She rolled her eyes before she finally noticed a little bump on her perfectly made bed.

Pushing the covers aside just a tiny little bit, she saw him, curled into a ball, on her side of the bed, to top it all.

Henry knew where she slept – that side of the bed smelled like her perfume. The mattress had slightly sunk in, taking a faint shape of her body. That was where she found him.

"He better not kick." Emily smiled before that facial expression turned in the opposite – a frown.

Subconsciously, she brushed her left hand against her stomach. She wouldn't have minded a kick. Or two. Or a few months' worth of said sweet torture.

In need of doing something to make her jaw stop quivering, she simply sighed, letting her lips part just enough to be able to then take in a sharp breath.

"Goodnight, sweetheart." She hovered on top of him, placing a loving kiss on his cheek before she spent an hour in the bathroom trying to steady her emotions.


"Which one is yours?" An attractive brunette asked, taking a seat on the bench, right next to a very attractive guy.

Richard tried not to get annoyed. Women had always been attracted to him, with his body built, his posture, those deep, piercing eyes and that tiny little smirk that could flirt with just about anyone.

And yet, he wanted none of it, anymore.

He tilted his head sideways and caught a glimpse of who had spoken to him. This one was a brunette, so that was the better compromise between the looks of a dumb blonde and his perfect Lauren.

Shifting a little bit, he made sure he was sitting sideways, facing this woman. He was definitely not interested, but a little small talk wouldn't hurt.

It had taken him about three hours to drive up to that location, the night before. Then, he had been unable to close his eyes for the entire night. So, in the morning he had opted for a run, after which he had ended up at the beach, sitting by a beach bar, with a coffee in his hand. At first, he had admired the waves, crashing onto the shore with elegance. The sea was a bit rough that day, but rough was how he liked it anyway. Nothing in his life had ever been 'calm waters'. He wasn't sure he was even able to handle 'calm'. And he had handled a lot of things, in life. And people, too.

Then, his eyes had drifted to the little playground of that bar. It was on the sand, with slides and swings for the kids to enjoy while their parents were having coffee close by. There were a total of eight kids playing and they all looked so peaceful, even through the screams and the running around. They were all smiling, happy, carefree.

So, a little small talk wouldn't hurt.

"Oh, she's too old for playgrounds." He replied to the curious woman next to him.

"You have a girl too?" She smiled brightly.

He nodded. He wasn't new to lies and pretending. And he wasn't keen on being himself at that moment, so why the Hell not live out a fantasy?

"This one is mine." She pointed at an adorable little girl with two loose pony tails and rosy cheeks.

The kid ran over to them and as sweaty as she was, she gave her mother a hug before she went back to play with her new friends.

"She's adorable." Richard said with a smile.

"Her name is Marguerite. And I'm Mirielle." The woman introduced them both.

"Louis." Richard did the same, only he wasn't dumb enough to pretend to be someone while being himself and using his own name.

"Nice to meet you, Louis." The woman shook his hand politely.

Richard noticed how both of their names started with the same letter. This would be cute, for normal people, but it was suspicious, to him.

"What's your daughter's name?" She asked curiously.

"Lydie." For some reason, his replies shortened. And for some reason, their names also started with the same letter.

"So, which one is the husband?" It was now his turn to ask the questions.

He eyed a table of five guys, playing cards, while the table next to them was occupied by women, discussing something very passionately. Shoe sales was Richard's best guess.

"Oh, I'm not…he uh…" The woman in front of him frowned, looking down at her left hand. There was no ring on it.

"I'm sorry." Richard placed his hand on her back, trying to comfort her.

The way she had replied pointed at her, having lost a husband. He could relate to this kind of pain – losing a life companion.

"It was years ago. I'm fine. I'm just worried about her…" She shot a glance at her daughter.

Richard almost rolled his eyes. Who did she think she could fool?

He had lost his wife years ago, as well, but he was far from being 'fine'.

But then again, show must go on.

"She'll be okay. One day, when you find the right person, she will have a fatherly figure in her life again. Just, choose wisely. This time, it won't be about you, but about her future." Richard offered some words of wisdom.

"I'm in the process of…ehm, choosing. It's been a while and I've only just started to…you know, go out again. I think I'm ready to move on…" She kept on trailing off, acting insecure and looking away from his eyes.

Ready to move on? Wow, those words sure rolled out of her mouth a bit too eagerly.

Richard had been crazy about his late wife and now, years later, he was scared out of his mind to even think of the possibility of admitting this same thing - the 'moving on'; out loud. He felt ready to move on, he knew he was, and he wanted to do that with Lauren and no one else...but the mere process of saying it out loud was too emotional for him to handle. And yet, this woman seemed almost impatient to just scratch out her past and look forward to her future.

"How about I make it easier for you to figure it out. Tonight. At dinner?" He suggested, his eyes soft, hungrily taking in every inch of her body.

"Yeah? I would love that." She looked up, smiling instantly.

"Bitch, please!" Richard thought to himself while remaining quiet on the outside.

This woman was a mess, she could not stick to one emotional state for more than a few seconds. And the mood jumps were instant, quick, almost as if they were fake.

"You should know, though…" He gave her his best performance. "I'm not one to be tied to a woman. I like to keep my options open. And I'm a fan of, well, entertainment…"

Did he just admit to being a player who liked paid company?

"It's okay. I'm not ready to be tied, either. But they say there's nothing better than rebound sex." She smirked at him.

Rebound? Yes, that usually happened right after a tough break up, not years after your husband had died.

That woman was completely messed up.

"I like the sound of that." Richard let his hand brush against her shoulder before his fingers ended up caressing one of her cheeks.

His eyes narrowed at her, as if he wanted her, then and there.

He had been right, the night before – this was surely going to be awesome!


AUTHOR'S NOTE:

"rmpcmfan" Yeah, with Henry being JJ's son and JJ being Emily's best friend, it was only fitting that he'd feel so strongly connected to Emily. I wish they had more interactions on the show. Emily was so good with kids, I saw a YouTube edit about Emily and all the kids that appeared on CM and how she was there for them. :)

Yes, honest and brutal conversations are only just starting. Oh you just wait for it! JJ and Rossi keep Emily in check by telling her the truth. Jack is worried that Angie is not strong enough to survive in the FBI world, like he had been worried about Clara, years ago. Richard and Victor are the male version of Emily and JJ and they share WAY TOO MUCH personal information, LOL! I like this brutal honesty thing, so I'm using lots of it in my story. There is enough suspense and mystery around, so I'm balancing it out with some harshly delivered truths. Also, I like JJ and Emily's inappropriate conversations and little digs at each other, in a purely PLATONIC friendly way, but also, with clear subtext, lol, as witnessed by what JJ told Emily on the phone, in this chapter (or the chapter title haha)! Also, I needed JJ's "insensitive" little blurbs, to set up for something later on ;) and she feels awful about saying those things spontaneously, before thinking about her words.

Oh, Angie is a Daredevil. She is aware that she gives off the "invincible" vibe, but she knows that's not realistic. It's merely a survival tactic. However, she does not give a crap what happens to her (it will be touched later on), so in her mind she has absolutely nothing to lose, hence she jumps at risks without a trace of hesitation.

"zhangxinna" Yup, Henry ADORES Emily. And the funny faces comment was a tribute to Paget Brewster and her dorky, fun charisma (If you've seen her Instagram or Twitter, you know why, hehe).

Wait, nooo, Emily is not pregnant! Woah, it's a bit too early to have beautiful French babies :P Having the fluttery feelings in her stomach, the "butterflies", is a metaphor for being in love! That's what JJ congratulated her about and that's why Emily had no idea, because she's not realizing how strongly she feels about him.

Let me just say that when they meet, it would be...unexpected...out of character for one of them...and somewhere with meaning to both.

As for Angie: Little Miss Bubblehead has a lot to prove to Garrett and the UnSub just gave her the perfect opportunity to do so!