She is back! It's been a while, hi how are you? Hope you haven't forgotten about this story, that's my bad lol. Anyways, I'm now out of my temporary hiatus, so hopefully chapters will come more frequently. I also gave up on trying to make the chapters longer cuz my attention span doesn't want to work. But I am trying to make each chapter at least 2k (which didn't happen here, but oh well). Anywho, enjoy chapter 3!
"Hey." The sound of a tired voice came through the phone.
"Hey back." She murmured, taking her seat on the small jet.
"I'm sorry I didn't call this morning. Uh, things took a turn." Even though Emily couldn't see him, she knew that he was running his hand across his face and through his hair. He always did that when he got frustrated.
"It's okay, you're calling now." Biting her lip, she takes a glance around the jet before whispering. "Jess knows."
There was a slight pause before his deep voice said. "You think we could convince her to join the Bureau?"
She lets out a throaty chuckle. "She's a better profiler than others I know."
"Don't say that too loud, it'll be an unbearable flight for you."
Before Emily could respond, she looked up and saw three pairs of eyes staring at her. She cleared her throat and whispered. "I think it's too late for that."
Hotch didn't even try to disguise his laugh. "It's only an hour and a half flight. I'll see you when you land. Love you."
"Love you too." Shaking her head, she pulls the phone away from her ear. The second it moved; the others pounced.
"Talking shit about us to the boss?" Morgan asked, the smirk on his face giving himself away from being intimidating.
Laughing Emily raised her eyebrow. "I never said any names, if that statement offended you, then you were the one who read into it and thought it was about you."
"She's got you there." Rossi piped up from the backwards facing seat at the front of the jet. This set off the rest of the team, all laughing as they settled into their seats.
Morgan looked across the table towards Emily. "Seriously Princess, who were you talking about?"
Licking her bottom lip, she tilted her head slightly. "If you have to ask, maybe you can't handle the answer." That answer led to another chuckle from the team before the computer sitting on the table started beeping with Garcia calling in.
"Okay, my fellow crime fighters – wait, what did I miss?" Her eyes kept glancing around the jet noticing that her call interrupted something.
"Nothing baby girl, what have you got for us?" Shaking his head not wanting to continue being the brunt of the joke.
Pouting her lips, her eyes glaring a little bit. "Nuh – uh, just because I don't fly with all of you doesn't mean I can't know things. I like knowing things." Garcia looked towards JJ who was sitting across the table from Morgan.
"Em made a comment to Hotch about someone who could possibly be a better profiler than 'some people she knows' and Morgan took it a bit personally." JJ even added air quotes in. She looks at the brunette sitting to her left out of the corner of her eye before adding in with a smirk. "Though we all are a bit curious as to whom they were talking about."
Pointing her frilly pink pen at the camera she exclaims. "JJ turn me!"
Without a second's hesitation, JJ quickly turns the laptop despite the protesting from Emily.
"Pen, it's not that big of a deal. We were just talking about one of our friends who watches Jack. I was just pulling Morgan's chain." Emily shakes her head, rolling her eyes.
"Oh, that was anticlimactic." Penelope pouts for a second.
"You rang in Garcia?" Rossi moves from his spot and sits on the arm rest of the couch trying to get them back on track before they take off.
"Yes! Sorry, side tracked and all. Anyways, boss man asked me to check into the last couple victims before the case went cold." The computer screen switched to start showing pictures of a woman and a man laying prone next to a parked car. The woman was nearly unrecognizable, covered in blood. The man was propped up by the car, also covered in blood. "The woman is Amanda Bertram. She was found dead with multiple stab wounds, and the man is George Foyet. Unlike his lady partner, he survived. Managed to hang on when the paramedics showed up. He said that the sicko pulled over to help them with their flat tire, but then spontaneously he slashed her neck and proceeded to … uh you know."
"Hey Garcia, what's the marking on the car?" Reid looks up from the paper file and squints at the small computer screen to get a better look. She pulls up the next picture, which is a zoomed in picture of the drivers side of the car that has what looks like an eye inside a triangle drawn in blood.
"It's his signature." Morgan says. "This was drawn at every crime scene and the UNSUB also always took something from each crime scene and left them with something from the scene before."
"The eye of providence, or how some like to call it, the all-seeing eye of God." Reid leans forward capturing the attention of the team. "It represents the divine providence. It's the ideology of God's intervention in the Universe, basically meaning that God is watching over humanity."
"So, uh, the UNSUB thinks he's God?" JJ chimes in, furrowing her brows.
"Possibly." Rossi nods his head, smirking at her. "You sure you don't want to take those profiling classes?" JJ just rolls her eyes, mentally trying to figure out a way to fit those classes into her hectic schedule. The thought lingers for a second before she discreetly shakes her head.
Emily jumps in with her own theory. "Or, he likes feeling like God. There's a chance that maybe him putting out this symbol is him telling us that he likes to be the one in power over whether they live or die."
"That's what we came up with back then too." Morgan says. "He left a Rolex watch at this scene and took George Foyet's glasses."
"Yes my Chocolate God of Thunder. After George survived, it seemed like this guy went underground and I can't find anything connecting these cases from then 'til now. I'll be here when you need me, Garcie out." As the screen goes black, Emily closes the computer before looking back through the file in front of her.
"If this case has no leads from then until now, why is Hotch having us fly to him?" Reid asks, furrowing his brows.
"I have no idea." Morgan agrees before shifting his eyes to Emily. "Princess, did he say anything over the phone?"
"No." Emily just shakes her head, but immediately regrets it as a burst of nausea rips through her body.
"Really? You were talking for a while." Morgan raises his eyebrow, trying to pry information out of the brunette sitting in front of him.
She swallows tightly, willing the nausea away before she responds. "If he said something about this, I would have brought it up. That call wasn't business related." Feeling herself lose the battle, she unbuckles and jumps up. "Excuse me."
Morgan's eyes follow her retreating figure as she makes her way, kind of hurriedly, to the small bathroom. Without taking his eyes away from the now closed door, he asks. "Was it something I said?"
"Okay, Hotch we're here, what's going on?" Morgan asks as soon as the team makes their way through the Boston PD precinct. Hotch doesn't say anything, just angles his head to have them follow him into a small conference room, away from the prying ears of the local PD.
Hotch stares at the firmly shut door for a second before letting out a short sigh. He turns towards the team, makes a sweeping look across all their anxious faces before locking eyes with Derek. "Morgan, do you remember the lead LEO on this case?"
"Detective Shaunessy? The one who eventually told us to go home after a week with no leads?"
"Yeah. Well, apparently he made a deal with the Reaper."
"He what!?" Morgan's eyebrows raise dramatically.
"What kind of deal?" Reid furrows his brow trying to piece together everything.
"Who would do that?" JJ wonders aloud.
The only two that stay silent are Emily and Dave, both of them stare at the Unit Chief with dread in their stomachs.
"His exact words were, 'I'll stop killing if you stop looking for me'." Hotch's mouth contorts into a thin line. Ever since Tom Shaunessy whispered that to him on his death bed over the phone, Hotch couldn't get it out of his mind. Who in their right mind would stop looking for a serial killer.
"That's why he sent you home." Rossi says.
Emily looks more intensely at her husband before saying quietly. "There's more to it than that."
Hotch stares at her for a second before whispering. "The deal only lasted until either the Reaper or Shaunessy died. Tom Shaunessy passed away on Saturday night."
"So it's only a matter of time before the Reaper comes out of hiding." Reid puts two and two together. "That's why you called us all out here. Just in case."
"This ends here and this ends now. I don't want anyone else dying on my watch." And with that, Hotch walks out of the room leaving the stunned team behind him.
"Am I the only one who doesn't have a good feeling about this?" Morgan asks, still staring in shock at the open door.
Things are heating up! I promise I won't take 2 months to post again, but I don't have as much free time as I did when I posted TSU so please be patient with me. I love you all and I'll see you in the next one!