Chapter 22

Garcia rubbed her eyes and took a long sip of her coffee as she sat down on her couch. While the rest of the team had a day off the message she had received from Dave seemed important and she hadn't wanted to leave it, but she also knew that she could start the search and then go and grab a shower and have some breakfast. As she read the notes that Dave had sent across a frown crossed Garcia's face, he had already identified there were similarities between six victims that were across the East coast and he wanted to know if there were any other similarities and if there were other victims that she could identify. Quickly typing the information in Garcia set the searches going and placed the laptop on her breakfast bar before she yawned once again and headed into the bathroom for a long relaxing shower.

Emily smiled as she watched Stacey open her eyes and turn around to face her.

"Morning."

Stacey blinked a few times as she rested her head on Emily's shoulder.

"Sorry about last night."

"Already forgotten about Stacey. Come on let's go down and have some breakfast and you need your tablets too."

Emily gently moved her arms as she smiled warmly at Stacey who nodded her head and followed Emily down the stairs before she sat down at the kitchen table.

"Right here you go, have these first and then I'll make some pancakes."

Stacey took the tablets and put them in her mouth and took a large sip of water to wash them down.

"Thanks Emily, I do really appreciate all that you've done for me."

"I know sweetie, and it isn't just me who appreciates your help it is all of the team. Tara and Rebecca are popping round in a bit they were wondering if you wanted to go for a walk to the park and get some fresh air?"

Stacey raised her eyebrows and opened her mouth slightly.

"They do?"

Emily smiled as she sat down and put her arm around Stacey, kissing her softly on the top of her head.

"Yes sweetie, if you would like to of course?"

Stacey smiled and took a breath before she turned and looked at Emily and nodded her head.

"That would be lovely, thank you."

JJ sat at the table and had a warm smile on her face, Henry and Michael were both shovelling food into their mouths while Will stood at the stove cooking. The turmoil of the last week was almost forgotten and JJ was grateful that there were no lasting effects on either of her sons.

"Mom?"

"Yes Henry?"

"So the children, they're all ok?"

JJ smiled as she pulled Henry in for a hug.

"Yes they are."

"Good I'm glad, even the girl Emily was looking after?"

"Well she is safe with Emily still for the next few days."

Henry raised an eyebrow as JJ kissed her son on the top of his head.

"We just want to find the best place for her and that's going to take a little longer than we thought."

"Do you think that Emily would like to come over with her and watch a movie and have pizza? It might be nice for her to have some company that is, how can I put it mom?"

JJ laughed as she squeezed Henry tightly.

"I think that sounds a wonderful idea Henry and yes some company around her age would be good for Stacey. I will give Emily a ring later ok?"

Henry nodded his head as he went back to concentrating on his breakfast, JJ smiled as she watched him, immensely proud of how thoughtful he was.

Tara knocked softly on the door, she had already sent Emily a message that they had arrived so it wasn't long until Emily opened the door and gestured for them to enter.

"Hey thank you for this, Stacey is so pleased that you wanted to spend some time with her."

"Of course, how is she after yesterday?"

Tara spoke quietly as Emily gestured for them to walk through to the kitchen.

"Stacey's just having a shower and getting dressed."

Emily poured three cups of coffee and passed them around before she spoke.

"It was rough, I found her locked in the bathroom in the middle of the night, I ended up picking the lock."

"Did she harm herself?"

Tara's voice was low as she looked at Emily while Rebecca reached and took a hold of her hand.

"No, no, she was just inconsolable. I held her until she fell back to sleep again."

Emily looked carefully at Tara, surprised by the comment but then she realised that she too had thought the same last night.

"Well hopefully we can have a nice time for a few hours and you can have a bit of a rest Emily."

Tara smiled as she heard soft footsteps approaching as she turned around and warmly greeted Stacey.

"Morning Stacey, lovely to see you."

"Hi Tara. Hi Rebecca. Thanks for coming over to see me."

Stacey smiled as she walked so that she was in between Tara and Rebecca, instinctively Tara reached and put an arm around her and rubbed her back softly.

"So we were wondering if you wanted to go to the park with us? There is an outdoor art exhibition that we both wanted to see and thought that you would like to join us."

"That sounds wonderful, thank you so much for thinking about me."

A genuinely warm smile crossed Stacey's face and Tara knew that at least for a couple of hours they could bring a small piece of happiness into Stacey's mind.

Garcia grabbed another coffee as she hummed to herself before she wandered over and sat back on the couch, taking a long sip of her drink before she leaned in and looked at the results of the search.

"Oh my!"

The words flew out of Garcia's mouth as she brought up more results. The amount was slightly overwhelming but she knew that she needed to refine them down more before she phoned Dave and filled him in. Garcia took a deep breath as she quickly got to work.

An hour later the outlook wasn't much better but Garcia had narrowed it down to 9 victims, though that did include the ones Dave had already highlighted. Reaching for her cell she waited impatiently for Dave to answer.

"Hi Garcia, sorry for asking you to do this."

"Well check your email and you will also be regretting it."

Garcia waited as she heard Dave open his laptop and then a heavy sigh left his mouth.

"I hate it when we are right. But seeing as these are all in different jurisdictions it was only the luck of a curious medical examiner that we have discovered the link."

Garcia frowned as she read through the results again, her voice cracking as she spoke.

"Dave, look at the first case."

Garcia felt a tear trickling down her cheek as she read through the case once again.

"Shit."

Garcia heard the same hurt in Dave's voice as they both stared at the name of the dead woman, Alison Ellis, killed in New York six years ago.