Chapter 5

The sound of her cell ringing and waking her up was never a good sign and when in a hotel room on a case it was even worse. Groggily JJ reached and picked up the offending item.

"Jareau."

"Sorry to wake you Agent Jareau, we have another body."

The groan was audible as JJ sat up and swung her legs off the bed as Officer Jenkins carried on relaying the information.

"It is in a completely different location, Chippewa River near a local picnic site. Young woman, African American."

"Ok can you send the location details over please? We will be out to join you shortly."

JJ finished the call and sent a message to the others before she grabbed a quick shower.

Libby smiled as she walked into the kitchen, giving Hannah a quick hug before she walked over and sat down next to Emily, accepting the arm around her back as she rested her head against Emily's shoulder.

"Sorry I missed you last night Libs."

"It's ok Emily, Hannah and I had fun."

"Yeah I heard but at least your homework was done!"

Emily kissed Libby on the top of her head but then her cell started to ring, instinctively Emily pulled gently away from Libby and looked at the display.

"Sorry guys, I'll take this in my office."

Emily smiled as she stood up, coffee in one hand cell in the other as she started to walk away from the kitchen.

"Jen?"

"Hi Emily, sorry for the early call. I just wanted to let you know that there has been another body found."

Emily closed her eyes for a moment before she carried on walking into her office, closing the door behind her and sat down.

"Emily?"

"Sorry Jen just wanted to get into my office, so what do you know?"

"Change of location but still remote, just outside the city. Description that we have had of the victim fits the others but we will know more when we get out there."

"Ok can you send me over some photos when you can. I'll work with Garcia on a press briefing so please don't worry about that."

"Thanks Em, it feels like we are close to a breakthrough."

Emily heard the slight hesitation in JJ's voice as she doodled on her notepad, waiting for JJ to continue but it wasn't forthcoming.

"It's Tara isn't it? Do you want me to check in with her?"

"No it's ok I've got it covered, it's just hard watching her and wanting to take the internal struggles on."

"You know she will open up when she is ready, if you need me to do anything Jen just let me know ok?"

JJ smiled as she listened, Tara had helped them both and they both wanted to do the same for her.

"Thanks Em, I will do, right I had better let you go and do the school run!"

"Yeah Libs won't forgive me if we are late! Speak to you soon Jen."

Emily finished the call and wandered back through to the kitchen, gently hugging Libby and kissing the top of her niece's head.

"Sorry about that Libs, right are you ready?"

"Yes Emily, is everything ok?"

"Of course sweetie, the team are away so I might not pick you up from school."

"So why don't we just say that I will be there Emily, then you don't have to worry and Libby and I will be fine."

Hannah smiled as she rubbed Libby's back as the young girl nodded her head in agreement.

"Thanks Hannah, I know it's meant to be your day off but that would be really great."

"Not a problem Emily, I wouldn't have offered if it was."

Emily smiled and put her arms around both Libby and Hannah, before she nodded her head at Libby to get ready to leave for school.

The scene hadn't been pretty, it was definitely the unsub again, same injuries on the victim and another hard to reach destination. JJ, Tara and Dave had left Luke and Tyler at the scene to see if they could find evidence that could link the two scenes to the same unsub. Sitting at the table and picking at their sandwiches they had their thoughts interrupted as Garcia appeared on the screen of JJ's laptop.

"Hey Garcia good to see you."

"Hi guys, glad to see you are looking after yourselves!"

Garcia smiled as JJ wiped her chin and put her sandwich down.

"Right so I have narrowed down the people who have worked at the clinics and there is a cleaner that worked across all of them but she died two years ago."

"Ok can you send the details over please, Tara and I will see what each of the clinics have on record this afternoon."

"No worries, I have also sent you over the press release and Emily said that if you need anything message her, she's in a resource meeting but…"

"Oh I bet she is desperate for a chance to escape that!"

Dave laughed as he shook his head, glad that he didn't have to attend any meetings like that anymore.

"Definitely Dave, anyway I am just finishing off the analysis of those tyre tracks and cross referencing against the DMV so that all should be with you soon."

"Thanks Garcia, if you can send those to Dave and then we can all regroup later this afternoon."

Tara rested her head on the steering wheel as she waited for JJ to climb in. The lack of sleep and her own internal struggles meant she needed a moment to catch her breath.

"So that was interesting, the husband not wanting her to work at the clinics."

"Yeah but she didn't share his beliefs and wanted the money to help their daughter, she was a strong woman."

Tara looked across at JJ as she finished, a small sense of pride that the woman had remained true to her own morals and beliefs.

"Definitely, I'll ask Garcia to see what she can find out about the husband."

Tara nodded her head in agreement as she started to drive away while JJ sent a message to Garcia. Both of them quiet as they made the journey back towards the police station. Tara was concentrating on the road ahead, she didn't see the vehicle speeding along the side road until it was too late.

"JJ!"

Tara tried to swerve as she screamed out to JJ to brace for impact but it wasn't enough. The force of the impact causing the airbags to inflate and knock the both of them unconscious.