"You're sure about this?" Hotch asked Reid for the third time.
They all knew he was the genius on the team, but this wasn't something they could get wrong. Things went sideways in the field, that much was common knowledge—certain factors you couldn't plan for, variables were often unknown, these types of situations are what they were trained for.
Something that made this much harder though was sealing off the 6th floor without alerting Baylor. They needed to play into his hand, start the emergency protocol then ask everyone to stay put, and contain the sarin all at the same time. Should be an easy thing to figure out…
The only good thing, if you could call it that, was the fact Garcia had gone over all the footage, and they had followed the movements Baylor had made since teaming up with Hayes. They thought it would be necessary to check what he had done the entire time just in case.
"I'm sure," Reid nodded.
One of the unknowns in this mess was Hayes. They knew from the phone call that Baylor wanted to cause Emily extreme pain by taking everything she cared about most, but what did Hayes get besides his daughter.
The team had a feeling Baylor was using Hayes as a distraction; if they hadn't been tipped off about the fake case he had left on their desks and for some reason the mothers did bring the children back to 'keep them safe', every member of the team would be focused on the kids and getting Hayes, not Baylor.
The team had kept eyes on Hayes since the kidnapping which meant they knew he had made some huge purchases recently. Today they found out what those purchases were—it was clear they were Baylor's connections though which didn't look good for the bureau seeing as this was a deadly weapon.
"Okay," Hotch nodded.
He went into the other room to call Strauss giving her then code word as well; Emily was the one who gave him and Rossi that suggestion because she knew the woman would only cause the team to take longer to piece things together if she was there.
Emily had thought if Hotch called Strauss to meet them at their home once they had a solid plan, it would be best for the team—and if Baylor was watching them like they assumed, he most likely wouldn't piece together her working with them too. Hotch had briefed Strauss on the code word last week when the plan was put into place and Strauss also knew to bring director if the word was ever used.
It was a quick phone call. They spoke about a fake case the team had put together for situations like this which just happened to involve a serial killer who targeted families—the most recent set of fake murders had a little boy who was wearing a t-shirt with a turtle on it prompting the comment from Hotch, reminds me of porcupine.
If Baylor had tapped Strauss's phone line, he'd have no idea what that meant. It's not as if Hotch and Strauss would be discussing the t-shirt; the team did all take their own coded notes though and added them to the fake case report they forged.
In Strauss's file, there was picture of a t-shirt with a turtle on it that Emily had bought and spread ketchup on then she put a sticky note with the word porcupine on it for Strauss. JJ thought it was excessive, but Emily didn't trust the woman to remember the code; they had a lot riding on the woman because the team knew the director would be needed for the case and getting him to the Prentiss estate wasn't as easy as it seemed.
"Now we wait," Hotch said, walking back into the kitchen with all eyes on him. It was 1:05pm and he was ready for a drink, or five.
He switched to a glass of orange juice instead of more coffee, not even thinking twice about the fact this wasn't his home. That's the way Emily and JJ preferred it to be though—the team was their family.
Nobody wanted to break the silence, so they all took the time to look at the artwork, graded homework and test scores of the week that Emily always rotated out. The kitchen also had Clarke's photograph's framed and hung in the reading nook and on the wall between the kitchen and living room.
The kids photos and work were all over the home, so tastefully though—seriously, it was such a beautiful home.
"Fuck!" Struss said when she hung up the phone.
She had expected a lot of twists and turns with this case, she always does when it came to the BAU if she was being honest. Getting the director to the Prentiss estate, however, was not one of them.
Strauss already had a handwritten note prepared for this moment. She grabbed her purse, laptop, and phone then walked to his office. "Erin, how can I help you?"
"Sam, I need your signature on some documents," Erin smiled, setting the note down on his desk.
Classified case, rogue agent in our building, the BAU is compiling evidence against him, he's targeting their unit. We have a plan, but the agent has bugged the 6th floor and it's possible he has tapped our phones. I have an offsite, secure location. Please come to this address asap, we don't know how many people they are working with. This is much bigger than anything we've ever seen.
Strauss had written the Prentiss home address below along with the fact he would need a four-digit code and to show his credentials because it was the home of Emily Prentiss, something that put the director on high alert.
Emily knew it would, Sam Cooper was a close friend to Gerald's CIA contact; she wanted him to know the connection and was hoping Strauss could push him out the door and back to their home so the team could brief the man. Like she said, a lot riding on the woman. She also didn't want Strauss writing down or verbalizing their gate code.
"Alright," Sam said, grabbing his pen and writing something on the back of the paper. "Is there anything else I should be made aware of?"
"No. I haven't received all my reports yet today though," she said with a slight laugh to keep her cover.
"Good, that's good. I'm leaving for a last-minute meeting in about five minutes and I'm not sure how long I'm going to be gone. It's a good thing you caught me."
"It sure is, Sam. It seems like you've had a lot of last-minute meetings lately," Erin added.
This conversation was killing them both, they were very direct people who hated speaking in code—it was difficult though because Sam was trying to talk and write, and Strauss wanted to respond so as not to tip off listening ears while also giving Sam time to write.
"I have, it's the worst," Sam said. "We both love our schedules. Okay, you're all set here. Have a great rest of your day Erin."
"You as well, Sam," Erin said then she quickly read what he wrote and nodded to him before leaving his office.
"Alright babies, are we up for more rides?" JJ asked.
They had eaten lunch and had seen a parade afterwards giving the kids and Jen enough time to digest. Emily knew even rides suited for Oakley and Lily wouldn't cause her to feel sick, so she was good to go.
"Me wanna doe to mopstwers imp, momma," Lily said, even though it wasn't a ride.
"That's so funny, I wanna see monsters inc too," Oliver agreed.
"What about your sweets, you haven't chosen anything today," JJ said to Clarke.
They had multiple easy-going children; it was evident Clarke didn't want to cause any tiffs between her siblings though. Even if they all had different opinions, something the mothers accepted and wanted them to with lots of things, they'd give everyone a turn.
"I want to go on splash mountain if we can, but if not it's okay," she shrugged.
"We love splash mountain," Amelia said.
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's so much fun. And it causes momma to scream every time," Oliver giggled.
"The carousel is right near splash mountain, Jen. I can take the littles on that, then we can all go to the monsters inc show," Emily suggested.
JJ looked between Amelia, Oliver and Clarke who all nodded in response. "Yeah, let's do it. Oakley, Lily, do you want to ride the horses?" Amelia asked them.
"Mhm, me gonna wide horseys an me don't need mommy ta howd me tause' me a big giwl now," Lily said proudly.
"Yeah, which is good because her hands are going to be super full," Clarke laughed, seeing Brynley reaching for the wipes Emily had just moved further away from her for the second time.
Clarke found it so fascinating how fixated the twins got on things that didn't even matter, like the pack of wipes. It happened so often, whether it was a pen, a napkin, a handful of grass, a sock, etc. As an only child for 13 years, she just didn't know much about younger kids or babies and was learning so much.
"Alright, let's go on some more rides," JJ smiled, standing up from the table.
"Holy shit," Strauss said before exiting her car. She had never been to the Prentiss estate and she was beyond impressed.
Strauss and Cooper got out of their cars and Hotch was the one to answer the door. The first few times he did so felt extremely odd, Hotch had been over enough times in the last three and a half years though to find it almost normal to get himself a drink, get the kids a snack, stay over if it got too late, answer the door, etc. They all felt that way, the only odd part about today was the fact the kids, Emily and JJ, weren't here.
After the awkward few minutes of greetings and beverage offering/refills, the team filled Strauss and Cooper in on everything they had. The extra-large countertop was now completely full of the evidence they had compiled against the men spelling out their plan of attack for today as well.
They had to work quickly and quietly, that included the warning of a rogue agent to steer clear from, not engage with and to act calm around, all while they stopped a sarin attack and anything else the men may try and throw at them.
Once the team had laid the plan out to Strauss and Cooper, they all patiently waited for any type of response from the duo. Hotch knew this was a lot to process, but they didn't have a lot of time to shoot the breeze, they needed to put the plan into action.
The sooner they got back to the office, the sooner the plan would start; it was clear Hayes wouldn't be making an appearance until they came back into the office, and with something so dangerous like sarin, they'd have it on a strict trigger backup time release. They needed to manage two takedowns and seal off the round table room to protect the 6th floor, themselves, and close this damn case.
"And you're sure this will work?" Strauss asked. "This sounds like it could go wrong at any second."
"I think we should evacuate the building immediately and arrest the men; you seem to know exactly where they are right now," Cooper added.
"With all due respect director, our profile isn't wrong. If we evacuated the building now, the charges against Baylor wouldn't stick due to his fathers' political connections," Hotch said, then saw the director was about to protest.
"Think of the Baylor and Prentiss names as the same," Morgan interrupted, helping Hotch out.
The Prentiss name was far more influential though, it carried much, much more weight—he just wanted the director to know they needed to catch Baylor in the act to make it stick and having him on camera would do wonders in court; there wouldn't be any big payouts this time for the senator's son.
"I stand corrected," Cooper said. "Where is the Prentiss family in all this? I understand Baylor wanted them there and you won't be playing into his hand, but does he have someone else searching for them?"
"We've been monitoring his outgoing and incoming messages and phone calls, there isn't anything out of the ordinary. Everyone checks out except for Hayes. And the Prentiss family is in Florida, Disney World with the kids. We've already worked out a safety measure, they'll stay if things go sideways."
"Good, that's good," Cooper answered.
He couldn't help but feel the need to protect the family—even though he had only met the women a few times, a part of him felt like he knew them. And now, being in their home surrounded by pictures of their family…then he thought about his CIA friend who played golf with Emily's father each week. They were going to get these guys.
"You two will need to arrive back to Quantico at separate times," Hotch said to Strauss and Cooper.
The team arriving back all together wasn't uncommon, even if they left at different times and went different ways to begin with, they often met up and then came back together. Strauss and Cooper though, if Baylor was paying attention like they assumed he would be, it wouldn't be good for them to come back at the same time.
They all got into their cars, Hotch sent Emily a quick text and she armed the house from her phone after he locked the door, and the team drove back to the office while Strauss and Cooper went to a coffee shop.
"Momma, can we get a churro please?" Oliver asked.
"We sure can, buddy. But only if you can wait to go on rides for a little bit because we don't want your tummy to get upset," JJ said.
"I can wait," he assured.
"Us too?" Amelia asked, appearing on the other side of JJ with Clarke. The girls were holding hands which was so cute to the mother causing her to smile.
"Of course. Oh, hold on one minute, I think this is mommy," she said, feeling her pocket vibrate. JJ took out her phone and Emily had texted saying the girls wanted to know if their siblings wanted to see a show with them.
JJ asked the big kids who immediately said yes, and Oliver called Emily back on JJ's phone while the blonde bought the churros for them. "Momma wants to know if Oakley, Brooks and Brynley want a churro," Oliver asked Emily, then nodded to JJ holding up 1 finger.
They were huge and the littles couldn't eat a full one if they tried so she asked the man for five. One each for the big kids, one for Oakley and the twins to split, and one for Emily and JJ to split. Lily couldn't eat them because of her celiac disease, but she could have lots of other tasty treats—she much preferred the rainbow ice and Emily would get her one before the show so it wouldn't melt.
Surprisingly enough, all the gluten free pasta, bread, pizza, and everything else Emily purchased the kids ate and loved; they didn't even know the difference. Lily, however, didn't get any more tummy aches. And the few times things have been offered that Lily couldn't eat, Emily was able to distract her with something just as yummy.
"You're going to love this, it's seriously the best. It's like, umm…you know when you put Nutella on mommy's crepes? It's similar," Amelia described while JJ paid and Oliver spoke with Emily on the phone.
"Mmm, I do love that," Clarke said. She loved all the different meals though, so she wasn't really a great judge, or maybe that's what made her the best judge. Who knew. "I can't believe this place. I've never had so much fun in one day and it's still so early."
"I remember feeling that way my first time too. It's kinda unreal right? When we were going through lots of bad stuff, we never thought something like this was possible," Amelia continued.
"Sometimes I still feel like it's all a dream," Clarke said, and Amelia squeezed her hand a bit tighter.
JJ smiled listening to the girls—she loved that they had each other and felt comfortable with one another to open up. They were so darn cute, and because there was only a two-year age difference, they were seriously the best of friends.
"We're in the most magical place on earth," JJ smiled.
Back at the office, things weren't going as planned. While they knew where Baylor planted the device, it wasn't as easy as picking it up and moving it. They didn't know if it was a time release or set on a trigger and even though Garcia could loop the cameras, sarin was the fastest and deadliest nerve agent.
Hotch had already been in touch with the critical incident response group to figure out how to essentially seal off the room without drawing attention to it while at the Prentiss residence. An impossible task because they needed to appear invisible to Baylor who may or may not come to the 6th floor and check on the fake case he put on the BAU team desks.
"Hotch, can I get your signature on this?" Morgan asked.
Looping the cameras only worked to some extent though and because Baylor was in the building. The bullpen wasn't touched, the only cameras Garica looped were the ones pointing into the round table room so before any of the team went in there, they needed to check their surroundings.
They also stayed low the entire time, and before coming back out, got an okay text from Garcia who had eyes everywhere. To Baylor, it would seem as if that member of the team could easily be in the bathroom which could work. They were covering all their bases here—eyes on the round table room, the bullpen, and the entrances to look for Hayes as well.
Something they couldn't do was block the signal of the bugs without alerting Baylor, so their conversations were coded. Luckily for the team that was truly more like family, that wasn't a problem for them. They had discussed it at length while at the Prentiss home earlier and knew the game plan.
"Sure, let me see," Hotch said, accepting the paperwork from the man. He read over the file which had nothing to do with a case, it was what Morgan and Reid had seen so far in the round table room.
Hotch was a bit surprised by an automatic fish feeder delivery system for the sarin and it worried him because it was harder to plan for. He looked at the clock and then back at the paperwork in his hand and wrote his own notes back to Morgan.
Baylor wanted Emily, JJ and the kids here, and Hayes knew the schedules they held—because of this, there was no way the feeder would release the sarin before the girl's dance class ended for the day. Granted, the girls weren't at dance today, but they didn't know that. The team still had time to seal the room off and that made him feel a bit better.
"You haven't done a lot today, Morgan," Hotch commented while continuing to write some notes.
"Well yeah, but I was checkin' out those leads too," Morgan said, adding to the fake conversation the two were having.
"I didn't ask for an excuse. I'll be expecting the rest of your reports by the end of the day," Hotch said, handing the paperwork back to him.
"Got it." And with that, Morgan went back to his desk and de-coded what they were going to do with the sarin in their round table room, attempting to hide the smile from Hotch's tough love attitude about his poor work today.
CIRG had strict orders to make their appearance in office clothes, something they never wore as working with hazardous materials and chemicals meant lab coats and hazmat suits for them.
Today was different for all of them though. Whether they'd change into something else in the restrooms was unknown, but they'd pack clothes they typically wore to work. They also knew the order to change would come in the form of a code word, something they would all recognize because it wouldn't come up in their line of work.
They had started making plans before arriving at the building because they could speak freely—Morgan had taken pictures from every angle he could, and Reid wrote down all the measurements and knowledge he had. Between the two of them and Hotch's notes as well, the team felt hopeful the CIRG team had enough to go on to at least come somewhat prepared.
Morgan and Reid had carefully passed a note back and forth, carefully because they didn't want it to seem super suspicious if Baylor was continuing to watch them—if he was, it would look like the two were working on a case file and nothing more.
They weren't though, Morgan was asking if it would be possible if the CIRG team could essentially build a semicircle that would suction cup onto the table around the automatic fish feeder. Hell, even the table for that matter for all Morgan cared. Anything to trap the sarin in forever—although, it would be much easier to dispose of if they didn't need to get the table out too.
Reid didn't have an answer. Believe it or not, Reid didn't know everything like Morgan thought he did. "You know statistically, the amount of paperwork you do—"
"Kid, kid, nobody cares about all that nonsense," Morgan said, smiling at Reid's attempt at the coded conversations.
"I think what he's trying to point out is that you're slow," Tara laughed.
"Listen, Lewis. Nobody asked for your opinion on the matter," he smiled, tipping back in his chair as usual.
"Do you want any more coffee?" Tara asked, looking at Reid.
"I couldn't drink more if I tried," Morgan answered.
"I wasn't asking you," Tara teased. "Reid, coffee?"
"I'm good, thank you though." Once he saw the face she was making, he said, "Actually, yeah, I could go for one more cup." This code way of communicating was really difficult for him.
With the cup of coffee, Reid also received a post it note because he was next to have Hotch sign paperwork. This was one of the ways the team decided to handle things when they got back to the office because Hotch's office was not bugged.
While Rossi's office had been, Hotch's was rarely empty and locked at night. When Hotch's door was opened Baylor may be able to hear them and closing the door may alert him, so they stuck to their own tactics passing each other notes and sticky notes to share thoughts since being back at the office.
By the time Tara met with Hotch, CIRG was in the round table room. Reid had an extra job right when they got back from the Prentiss home to not so carefully read and bump into Morgan who had his coffee in his hand, causing him to spill it all over the floor on the round table room.
At least if Baylor stopped by the BAU he'd see them cleaning up a coffee stain, completely clueless to the sarin. It wasn't a flawless plan of course, but they could only do so much.
If it came down to it, the team had a shoot to kill order on Hayes and Baylor from the director personally. Sam Cooper was really hoping it didn't come down to that though because Senator Baylor wouldn't take his orders lightly…at all.