While touring the Giza pyramids Emilys phone rang, and she did a double take seeing Morgans name on the screen instead of Rossi's. Something she had discussed with the man before leaving was receiving phone calls just from him because it would be expected that way. The rest of the team could send all of them texts and they'd answer, but not about the case, only normal family things which would be good for everyone including the kids.
The children had barely touched their phones since getting on the jet which was great seeing as the adults lied and told them they didn't have an international plan meaning, no service, but they could take pictures to show their friends when they got home. When the team texted with the adults though, the kids were able to say hi and they liked that part so everything was working out with nobody talking about the case.
"Jen," Emily whispered, showing JJ the caller ID.
Emily quickly looked to make sure all the kids were distracted, kissed JJ and then made her way away from the group to answer the call. She didn't know how long she would have before someone realized she was gone and was hoping this would be a quick call because Emily was having a lot of fun looking at the pyramids. Seeing anything through your children's eyes is absolutely magical and the five with her along with her nephew were captivated by everything down to the sand they were standing on.
"Hey Derek," she answered.
"Em, thank god," he said, breathing a sigh of relief; just hearing her voice made him feel like a weight was lifted off his chest even though nothing had been solved yet.
"What's going on?" Emily asked, now feeling worried.
"Em, it's bad. But I swear on my life I don't believe this bull shit, it's just not possible. It's not, I just know it's not," he said, now pacing around again.
"Morgan, I know I told you not to call Emily!" Rossi scolded. Emily heard the Italian man's voice through the phone and winced at how mad he sounded, whatever was going on had the entire team on edge and they were clearly taking it out on one another.
A few minutes later Emily was placed on speaker phone and asked about a little blonde boy and a woman who appeared to be held at gunpoint with tape over their mouths in an abandoned warehouse. "Louise and Declan," Emily answered.
"And they're dead?" Reid questioned, although it sounded more like a statement.
"No!" Emily exclaimed. "Gosh no. I could never, he's an innocent child. I cared for Declan while I was undercover, I grew to love him, I would never ever," Emily said, choking up. She didn't mean to however, she too thought of Oliver because even though they didn't look exactly alike, they were both little blonde boys and so darn sweet.
"I knew if Doyle's enemies found out about Declan, they'd use him and I couldn't let that happen. I did the only thing I could think of and staged their murders. I even convinced my own team they were dead so I would be the only person who knew they were alive then got them to the states using my own funds so it couldn't be traced to the mission—"
Emily paused because she had killed Doyle almost two years ago and didn't know why this was coming up now, there would be no reason for it to. She had a friend who kept an eye on Louise and Declan for safety purposes the pair was doing very well in the states though, they were very happy and Declan was thriving here. Doyle never knew where his son was, in fact, when he kidnapped Emily he never even asked about Declan he only asked about Lily who isn't his at all according to the brunette. She prefers to think of Lily as hers and JJ's because Doyle didn't do anything besides a little donation.
"Wait, what does Doyle have to do with Stratton?" Emily questioned.
"Garcia, pull up that footage again," Reid said, ignoring Emily's question. When the tech goddess did the genius realized she no longer needed to run it through all her programs to prove it wasn't a current video because he knew what it was. "This is from the warehouse when Doyle kidnapped Emily, the father Samuel told Morgan about wasn't innocent. Look, it's been edited to show when Emily pulled the trigger but if you zoom in you can tell from her body language she too is injured."
"Can someone please tell me what's going on," Emily commented.
"Oh sugarplum, I almost forgot you were here with us," Garica said, picking up the phone.
"I'll take that," Rossi said, grabbing the phone from her and walking out of the room. "Emily, it's just us now. I'm sorry for the sudden call, Morgan couldn't—"
"I get it, Rossi," Emily interrupted. She could only imagine what was going through their minds when the team saw those pictures of Declan and Louise without any explanation, especially Morgan. Emily looked back at her kids and made a quick decision. "Listen Dave, unless you need something else from me, I'm going to go enjoy this time with my babies."
She enjoyed not worrying about the case and focusing on being in the moment with her children. It took Emily a bit to truly let herself just be when she retired from the FBI because even though she wanted that time with Lily, she didn't know what to do with herself. Nowadays she has no problem sitting back and letting others handle things for the most part. As long as Emily knows her family is safe she can relax and that was the deal she and Dave made before they left on the trip. It was another codeword situation, if Rossi felt or knew the family's location was compromised, he'd give her the codeword.
"Go have fun, Emily. I'll talk to you later," Rossi said with a smile on his face. He didn't believe Emily murdered that little boy either but he was very happy to hear it from her mouth so they could put it to bed and move on with what was pressing in this case.
He took a breath after hanging up the phone and then went back into the round table room.
"Where did you go mommy?" Oakley asked when Emily came back. "We're gonna go into the pyramid, come on, come on," she said, jumping up and down while taking Emily's hand and leading her over to their group.
"This is the coolest thing ever! I can't wait!" Oliver agreed. His body was vibrating in excitement, as was Jack's. They had spent hours building a pyramid with Allen for their school project because they wanted it to be perfect and he was the professional in the family but now they were going inside a 'real life pyramid', something they kept saying.
"I'm so excited," Jack added with a smile.
"Doe-doe no wike dis," Lily said, hiding her face against Gerald's shoulder while pointing to sphinx.
"Grandpa will protect you, pumpkin," Gerald said, rubbing her back.
Lily shook her head and Hayley stepped in while Emily assured JJ and Hotch things were fine without using words after her phone call back home. "Why is doe-doe scared, sweetie?" she asked.
"Dat stary," Lily whispered to her.
"In a few minutes we're going inside the pyramid and we won't be able to see the scary face anymore, it will be all gone," Hayley assured, moving her hands to either side when she said the last two words to show Lily that the face would disappear. She understood that to a four year old the sphinx would be pretty scary, it wasn't decorated in bright fun colors, it didn't even have a smile on it's face therefore, Lily was scared. "Should we hold hands until it's time to go inside?"
"Yeah," Lily nodded, immediately reaching out for her aunt's hand. She made no effort to leave her grandfather's arms as she was comfortable where she was, but she did want the extra comfort from her aunt until the scary sphinx went bye-bye.
"Prentiss family," the tour guide called out. And while Hotch wasn't planning on changing his name, it was easier to stick with one on vacation.
"Let's go, let's go!" the boys called out, jumping up and down.
"I freakin' told you," Morgan said after Rossi took the phone from Garcia. "You all doubted Em and thought she actually did this," he continued, holding up the picture she had taken of Declan and Louise. "No way. She's not a killer. I know Em."
"Morgan, we never said Emily did anything. We presented the evidence we found, and you believed what you heard," Tara tried to explain.
"Yeah but you accused her of murdering them!"
"We said from the looks of these pictures, Emily was most likely forced to do the unspeakable," Reid repeated verbatim. "Now we know they were staged so we can move on."
Morgan looked everyone in the eye for an extra few seconds each to make sure they were truly willing to move forward then agreed. He couldn't have the team thinking about Declan or Louise any longer, at least not what they initially thought about them because they'd never get anywhere if that were the case.
They had three people depending on them, it was time to focus not get distracted by speed bumps Samuel had planned to throw in their way. That's exactly what these were, however, they were more like grenades. Anytime a new one was thrown, the team got distracted and spent time working on it instead of focusing on the three people who needed them. The first grenade was Doyle, a man the team searched for because from the footage it looked like Emily murdered him in cold blood. The second was Declan and Louise. Now that the team knew to expect more, they were prepared.
"How did a man like you come into contact with Ian Doyle?" Rossi asked, taking a seat across from Samuel.
"Well, hello to you too Agent Rossi," Samuel said, sitting back in his chair and crossing his legs casually.
"Ian Doyle," Rossi repeated.
"My father was a very boring man," Samuel began. "He did what he was supposed to do when he was supposed to do it and that was it for him. Do you know how disappointing it is to watch a man with so much power not use it to do more with his life?"
"So you did," Rossi mused.
"You're catching on, Agent Rossi. If Ian had just waited until I was back in the states before taking Emily, she would be dead and he'd have his kids back," Samuel sneered, showing his first real emotion. Anger.
Rossi internally shivered at the thought because he knew how hard Emily fought to keep Doyle from Lily as it was clear he didn't know about Oakley or Amelia back then, Samuel on the other hand had pictures of all the children. Whether or not he had a plan in place for them was another story. The team didn't profile either man would harm the children however, Samuel clearly didn't mind using them as pawns.
"Who are these kids?" Rossi asked, showing Samuel a picture from the file he brought in with him with the woman and children in the video.
"Baby girl, can't you trace the feed or something?" Morgan questioned. It was breaking his heart hearing these little kids tell the woman that their tummies were hungry just for her to snuggle them and say they needed to wait a bit longer.
Rationally, they all understood she was trying to preserve what they had left. It was beyond smart actually, almost as if she had done it before which made them all feel very sad. But hearing how upset they were that they couldn't eat right now was so hard especially because they were young kids who didn't understand, and how would they.
"Chocolate thunder, what do you think I'm doing?" Garcia asked hypothetically.
"I think we'd have better luck tracking down this woman," Matt said, holding up the picture of the possible mother or nanny. "I'm not doubting your abilities Garcia, I just think if some of us try and get Samuel and Stratton to tell us where this is, while the rest of us look for who, we can piece it together the fastest. But I know I'm the newest one here so you can tell me if I'm totally off base."
"I'm not sure if we'll get anything out of Stratton, but I think it would be worth a try with these pictures," Tara agreed. "And we haven't actually asked Samuel about the woman and children either, so I think we should do it."
She looked around the room and saw everyone nod in agreement then they went their separate ways. Morgan was going back to Samuel, he wasn't going to let Rossi have all the fun with that jagoff—Reid and Tara were going to Stratton leaving Garcia with the newbies which was fine because to be honest, they were adding a lot to the team.
"Oh my," Elizabeth said with a long sigh as she took a seat on the patio chair once again. The spilled iced tea had seemed like ages ago after the lunch fiasco the grandmothers had just endured. Elizabeth had no idea three tiny humans could make such a large mess, it was unreal.
Sandy just smiled. She knew what Elizabeth was feeling although she enjoyed seeing her grandbabies make these memories with one another. Granted, the mess wasn't the best thing in the world however, she was able to snap a few pictures and because it didn't happen every day she noted it was worth it.
"It's a good thing they still fit in the sink," she continued.
"Well, I think a major part of that is the size of the sink," Sandy commented.
"You're right, Sandy. Brooks is a big boy, he wouldn't fit in just any sink."
"Not with Brynley, no," Sandy agreed.
"I cannot believe he smeared his applesauce in her hair," Elizabeth said, pinching the bridge of her nose.
"And then himself," Sandy laughed.
They had put the littles down for their naps after lunch and getting them bathed, besides Harper who stayed perfectly clean and content through the entire process which was great. The two enjoyed a few moments of comfortable silence then she added. "It's actually a normal part of growing up," Sandy explained. "It's a part of their development and learning process. Not necessarily smearing it in your sister's hair, but food helps with a lot of different things. Sensory, fine motor skills, cause and effect…and while we as adults know better and may not want them to experiment so much, not letting them could stunt that process."
"I never thought of it that way," Elizabeth commented. "Where did you learn that? I mean, you obviously raised your own children and they turned out to be incredibly successful people but was this something you knew back then?"
"Oh gosh no," Sandy said with a laugh. "When, hmm, I'm trying to think because I am absolutely certain that JJ reminded me recently with Brooks and Brynley but the first time was from Emily. I believe it was around the time of Lily's first birthday although, we both know how much she hates messes. Emily and I had a long discussion about it again though the first weekend we came to visit Oakley."
"Wow," was the only thing Elizabeth could think to say in that moment.
Matt continued looking at the information they did have and couldn't shake the feeling they were missing something. Everything seemed so calculated up until their capture and even then, Samuel was always one step ahead of them in some way or had something else to throw at them to sidetrack finding the woman and children.
"You look like you have something, dude," Luke said, nudging Matt out of his little trance.
"I'm not sure," Matt responded, shaking his head.
"Well, spit it out. We're not gonna judge you," Luke assured him. The men were super close friends because they were on the same detail of protecting Oliver which meant their schedules were the same, and even when the men were off duty they spent time together with their spouses.
"We've already thought it was possible Samuel was the ringleader behind all of this," Matt began, stating something Morgan suggested in the first place. "And Reid said we'd need a DNA test but he thinks it's possible these children are Samuel's based on appearance—" he said, although Reid used much more sophisticated verbiage when he explained his theory.
"If Samuel has been pulling the strings this entire time, that means he's behind the notes," Matt continued and gathered the notes together on the table so they were in front of him. "He also told Morgan that he's created his own poison, something he thinks Emily is. So should we be looking for similarities between Emily and this woman maybe? Could he have trained her to be or do something for him? I just think Samuel has planned out every last detail and we have no idea what we'd be walking into…"
Matt looked up when neither Luke nor Garcia said anything to find two stunned faces. When a familiar noise echoed through the room Garcia's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped open. "Umm guys, I got another email…"
The team now had a pretty clear picture of why the murders were committed by Stratton, at least from the point Samuel was trying to prove that was. Back when Rossi said they needed to shake the tree and see who fell out in regards to figuring out who knew about what Sanders and Shelly did, a few names stuck out to them.
Two of those people were found dead in front of the abandoned home where the team found Stratton and Samuel waiting for them. The other two had worked for the Greenburg family which made sense to the team however, they would much prefer them to still be alive because murder shouldn't be a go to option for anyone. For Samuel though, the team wondered what he was trying to prove or if it was just a distraction to help with his own sick plan.
They were confident however Stratton had no idea children were presently involved, they didn't even know if he knew the Prentiss and Hotchner children were targeted in the first place. The notes may have had an S.G. at the bottom of them but Samuel's initials were the same and it appeared that Stratton's mental situation was worse than the team thought it was. The latest email showed a filmed conversation between Samuel and Stratton followed by a familiar sentence and the older brother completely shutting down once again.
If Samuel could control him all along, who knew what Stratton could actually comprehend.
"Did you just expect to pin all of this on Stratton and walk outta here?" Morgan asked Samuel.
"As I've said numerous times Agent Morgan, my brother is a very sick man. He needs help and I intend to get him the best money can buy," Samuel answered.
"From prison?" Rossi questioned.
"And why would I be in prison?" Samuel smirked.
"Remember back in preschool when they taught us to listen?" Morgan asked. He had listened to just about everything under the sun that Samuel went on and on about, it was his turn to ramble a bit. "We've just laid out everything you've done that's against the law, and if you used your listening ears, you would know why we were going to put you in a cage and throw away the damn key."
Morgan felt so much better after his little outburst at Samuel that he closed the file and stood up then said, "Come on Rossi, this piece of scum isn't worth our time. I heard Stratton's talkin' anyways, let's go."
Rossi also stood up and when the men made their way to the door, Samuel panicked because if it were true and Stratton was truly talking, he was screwed. Stratton had a conscience and would turn on him in a second, that's why he planted his seeds to begin with and has since childhood.
Samuel always knew Stratton would follow in their father's footsteps and that wasn't okay with him, he deserved the power, he deserved everything, Stratton wasn't even family. Samuel overheard a conversation he knew he shouldn't have when he was seven and from that day forward, he started messing with his brother to make sure he became who he was.
"He doesn't know where the kids are, only I do!" Samuel nearly shouted.
Morgan and Rossi smirked then slowly turned around to face the man. Rossi was the one to walk to him and put his notepad and pen down on the table but refused to say anything, just waited for the man to write the address. Samuel hated to lose and in his mind, this was considered a loss especially if Stratton was talking too. This was not how he planned to end things. He had the perfect getaway planned once he finished his nice little chat at Quantico and now, he was going to need to call in every favor to escape from whatever hell hole they sent him to. This was such crap.
Once the address was written the men took off out of the room grabbing Reid and Tara on the way back up to the 6th floor. Garcia quickly pulled up the address and checked the surrounding area for any type of traps that might be set while Matt relayed the theory he came up with to everyone else. They'd keep it mind, but until otherwise proven they would be treating the woman as a hostage as well because the team didn't have much else to go on.
"Be safe my loves!" Garcia called out as the team left.
"Oh my gosh it was the most fun thing like, ever! The camels are literally so funny. They walk kinda like this and when they drink they go like this," Oliver relayed, telling and showing his grandmothers about the camels and pyramids. "I think Clarke took a million pictures just today cause' it was so cool, right?" he asked, and she nodded.
Allen winked at Clarke who happened to look at him after answering her brother because he knew that she had taken extra pictures just for Oliver which was very nice of her. While Clarke too loved the experience today, there have been a few other days she's taken as many if not more pictures on this trip. "I'd love to see some of them, honey," Sandy told her.
"The pictures are loading onto my laptop now, it should be done in a bit," Clarke answered.
"Perfect," Elizabeth smiled. "And what about you, Oakley. Did you enjoy yourself?"
"Mhm. We gotta go inside the pyramids and look at armi-facts," Oakley said, making a face because she knew what word she was trying to say but actually saying it was another story. "Artimfapcts," she said, trying again. "What is it again, Uncle Aaron?"
He was sitting next to the grandmothers where the kids happened to be gathered and he smiled at her and helped the little girl sound out the word the same way he did while they were at the pyramids because she had the same trouble there as well. "Artifacts. Art-i-facts, right? There's an I in there."
"Oh yeah. Art-im-facts," Oakley said confidently. The adults smiled at the added m and let it slide for now, she was learning right on pace; in fact, she was a bit advanced so a word here and there was fine by Emily and JJ.
"Me an doe-doe haf fum too gwamma," Lily said, crawling out of Gerald's lap and into Elizabeth's.
"Lily bug, wait your turn please," Emily reminded her, bouncing Brynley up and down in her lap.
"But me too, mommy!" Lily whined.
"I know you too," Emily said, playing along. "But your sister was telling your grandmothers her favorite part and you completely interrupted her. That's not very nice, is it?"
"No. Not nice," she answered, shaking her head and waving her pointer finger back and forth. "Me sowy Oakwee."
"It's okay, Lily," Oakley assured, then looked back at her grandmothers. "We saw this writing stuff but it's not like our writing and grandpa said we can maybe make our own. He's gonna help us. I think that was my favorite part cause' it's kinda like drawing. And the camels too like Ollie."
"Wow, I think that will be a very fun art project for all of you," Sandy commented.
While the kids continued to tell Elizabeth and Sandy about their day, JJ brought Brooks increasingly closer and closer to her nose and smelt behind his ear. "Jen, what the heck are you doing?" Emily whispered. She knew her wife was crazy that much was clear and she loved to smell their little ones because for the most part, they always smelt like baby wash with a mixture of French perfume thanks to Emily but she was taking her crazy to the next level right now.
"He smells like apples," JJ answered.
"Apples?" Emily questioned.
When the women turned to look at Hotch his eyes jumped between the two of them as his brows furrowed. "What?" he asked, taking another bite of the apple in his hand. He had just been holding Brooks before the little buddy made his way over to JJ and the blonde was convinced he was the reason her baby smelt like fruit. Little did the three know the chubby monkey covered himself with applesauce and grandma missed a spot when she gave him a bath.