CM Fic: One Hundred and Twenty Minutes. Chapters 7 & 8

[carlyisnot]

Title: One Hundred and Twenty Minutes
Author: Carly Carter
Fandom: Criminal Minds
Pairing: Emily/JJ (with a lot of bitter resentment and unresolved issues, but yes Emily/JJ)
Rating: PG ish for now
Disclaimer: I own nothing at all
Spoilers: Up to present day....set in early season 7 after Emily's return to the team.
Summary: As Emily struggles to integrate herself back into the BAU, the
building is locked down. Emily & JJ become embroiled in a bitter argument over
a case. The rest of the team witness as the situation quickly turns into
something more...


Chapter 7: Chapter 7
Chapter 7

Earlier that day...

Back in the basement.

They sit on opposite sides of the semi-darkened room. Less than 20 feet apart. But a seemingly insurmountable barrier between them.

"Do you think he's coming back?" JJ's hesitant voice breaks the awkward silence. She cant stand it, sitting there in the dark, not saying a word. She knows Emily could keep it up for hours, maybe days. If the silence is to be broken, she's going to have to swallow her pride and do it herself.

It's only the tremble in JJ's voice, betraying her deep fear, that makes Emily push aside her own bitterness and expend her own energy to formulate an answer.

"No." She tells JJ confidently. "His fantasy is blown. He will move on. Start again. We are no use to him now." She assures the other woman with a steady voice echoing across the darkness.

"But isn't it a little sloppy to leave us alive?" JJ points out.

"It doesn't matter to him. He has a lot of self control. It's part of what makes him so dangerous. He doesn't care about witnesses. He's left witnesses before. He believe he is above the law, above being caught. And he has no use to torment or kill us. Not now you've blown my cover. It's ruined his whole fantasy. And he is nothing if not a perfectionist. He will simply move on, start again." Emily shudders as she pictures the poor unsuspecting, undeserving woman about to fall prey to him.

"You seem very certain about that." JJ states, as if she doesn't quite believe Emily, but isn't prepared to openly challenge her.

"Aren't you? The profile is solid." Emily asserts.

"It's just a profile, a guide, it doesn't mean anything." JJ tells her.

"Well you've picked an interesting career, since you think profiling means nothing. It's what we do. It's why the government pays us. Why we have a private jet. Someone, somewhere, must see some value in our profiling ability."

"You know what I mean. The profile isn't rock solid. You can't predict the future. It's a guide, and it's open to interpretation." JJ maintains. "Sorry I'm not as calm as you. I would imagine it's natural to be a little freaked out under the circumstances. It's only human."

"Where as I'm totally heartless, I suppose?" Emily finishes. "Less than human?"

"God, why do you always have to do that? Put words into my mouth? I'm not criticising you. I wish I was like you. We all do, if you must know. You're so calm under pressure. And here I am, just sitting here, wondering if I'll ever see my baby boy again, and you..." JJ trails off.

"Oh, please, finish that sentence." Emily pleads sarcastically.

JJ wishes it hadn't come out quite like that, but there is no turning back no. "I see that look in your eye, Em. I know you, better than you might like to think. " JJ insists.

"You've just been telling me about my secret life, how you don't know me at all." Emily reminds her. "So which is it? I'm getting confused."

"Why aren't you afraid, Emily?" JJ asks.

"I told you. The profile. Were you paying any attention as the rest of us spent six weeks putting that thing together?" Emily asks.

JJ refused to dignify that with a response. "You just don't care." She accuses Emily.

"Believe me, I care very much, and if I thought there was any danger to you, I would tell you. But the profile is solid. And you're forgetting I've spent the better part of the last week up close and personal with him. Trust me, killing either of us at this juncture is not going to satisfy him in the least. He is long gone."

"Why did you even accept this undercover mission? You're obsessed with this case, with catching him. You don't really care one way or the other if he kills you, as long as you get him. That's the bottom line, it's all that matters to you. You don't care about anything else, not even the rest of us."

Emily feels as if JJ has struck her. "I'm glad to hear you think I have nothing to live for. It might surprise you to know that, even without you, my life has some meaning. I'm not quite ready to throw it all away just yet, but thanks for that."

"That's not what I meant. But, Emily, you take too many risks. Don't think I didn't see it."

"See what?"

"In your eyes." JJ continues.

"I don't know what you mean." Emily tells her. And even though JJ can scarcely make out the other woman's face across the darkened room, she can picture precisely the look on Emily's face. That hardened mask that gives nothing away.

"That anger in your eyes, hatred." JJ tells her.

"He murdered nineteen women, yes I'm angry." Emily acknowledges.

"You want him to pay."

"Yes." Emily admits.

"At any cost." It's a statement and not a question.

"Yes." Emily is quick to answer, without censoring herself. It was a bad habit she'd always had with JJ. Some part of how they had first clicked. Something that JJ quickly learned to use against her.

"Just how were you going to lure him into any kind of trap?" JJ asks.

"Hotch explained it, we worked on it for weeks. And I almost had him." Emily is losing patience.

"It never would have worked." JJ protests.

"Interesting. I didn't know you could predict the future."

"Emily, ever since you came back, you've been trying so hard to fit in."

"What's wrong with that?" Emily asks.

"It's like you'd do anything to win back the team's trust again." JJ observes.

"I still don't see the problem."

"It's like you'd be perfectly willing to sacrifice your own life for this case, just to get everyone's approval."

Emily doesn't bother with any outright protest. "I trust the profile, I trust the team. It's more than I can say for you. Why do you even do this job? If you're so worried abut making it home in one piece to your son? You could have stayed at the pentagon, better hours, less risk. This job is what it is, and it has always involved a degree of risk. I'm not the only one taking a risk, we all do. Every day. But I trust the team, and the team trusts me."

"Are you saying I'm a bad mother?" JJ asks.

Emily sighs, she doesn't quite know how JJ put those words into her mouth. But she is rational enough to look back over the conversation and see it's a pattern they both fall into too easily. And she isn't getting sucked into that argument.

"I'm saying, if you were so damn worried about the un-sub, why didn't you just stay on the sidelines with Morgan?" Emily asks.

"That's how you want it, isn't it? Yourself in the spotlight, taking all the risks, and the rest of us on the sidelines."

"What on earth are you talking about? I didn't choose this case. Hotch chose me, because I fit the un-subs profile." Emily tells her.

"You could have said no. Hotch asked you if you were ready, and you should have said no." JJ insists.

"Is that what you said to Hotch?" Emily asks. "When he asked you, all of you, if you thought I was ready. Because, he obviously didn't take your word on that."

"How could I tell him that I didn't think you were ready, everyone else gave him the green light, even you, how would it look if I told him no?" JJ asks.

"It would look, JJ, like you had some sort of personal problem with me." Emily answers.

"That isn't true."

"You've been determined from day one, to sabotage this case." Emily accuses her.

"Now you're just being ridiculous!" JJ responds.

"You didn't even want the team to take it." Emily reminds her.

"We've spent nearly two months on this. There are other cases we haven't taken, people we could have helped. And no, this case wasn't my choice."

"You don't think his victims deserve justice? Or that the world will be a better place with him off the streets? Or that he deserves to pay?"

"There are so many cases out there, we can't solve them all. We've spent so much time and effort on this one case, and we've got nothing to show for it!"

"Maybe so, but we're here now, on this case. We need everyone's head in the game."

"My head is in the game, thank you very much. I'm looking out for my team, making sure we all go home in one piece."

"You totally blew my cover. Everything we all worked for." Emily accuses her.

"You want me to just leave you here in the clutches of a serial killer?"

"I was fine. Better off without you."

"That's your opinion." JJ responds coldly.

"Well where is Morgan then? He didn't think there was any danger, did he? Does he even know where you are? That you've single handedly blown the case to hell?" Emily demands.

"There wasn't time to explain it to him." JJ tells her, and even to her own ears it sounds like a feeble excuse. And panic is rising in her voice as she continues, "But Morgan is watching closely, he will know something has gone wrong."

Emily finds herself reassuring JJ again. There are some things she just can't stand to hear in the other woman's voice. And terror is one of them. "You're right, Morgan will know soon enough. The team will find us soon, and nothing is going to happen to us before then. Who knows, maybe the team is following him, maybe that's why they aren't here yet."

"Do you really believe that?" JJ asks again.

"I do." Emily asserts.

"You're still thinking so much about the team, about the case, about catching him." JJ can't help but say it, even though she knows it was high time to drop the conversation.

"I still don't see what's wrong with that." Emily protests.

"I'm only thinking about you. That I'd die if anything happened to you." JJ whispers across the darkness.

Emily tries, so hard, to shrug that comment off. "That's the job, JJ, It's not without risk. You know that. You still leave your child and come to work every single day. Because you know that what we do is important. It makes a difference. You have to focus on the big picture. You can't value one person above the whole, above the work we do. You can't let yourself get caught up with protecting one person. You just can't do that."

"I have to." JJ admits softly, but assuredly. "I don't know how to stop. I don't know how you can expect me to risk anything happening to you. I just don't know how to do that. I don't know how to sit back and watch you on this insane undercover mission, this stupid plan that was never going to work, and that dark recklessness in your eyes, as if you don't care one bit about what happens to you. Well I care, Emily. Don't you know that you mean everything to me?"

Emily inhales sharply, still trying not to let herself really hear what JJ is saying. "It's been a long time since you've said these things to me." Emily tells her. And it has, it feels like a life time. And it's something she never expected to hear from JJ again. "You just finished telling me all about your husband and your baby and how you had no choice in the path your life took."

"I don't have all the answers. But something has changed between us, don't you feel it?"

"Has it, JJ? It doesn't seem so from where I'm sitting." Emily tells her.

"Well then, my mistake. Never mind." JJ retracts her words almost as quickly as she had spoken them.
Chapter 8: Chapter 8
Chapter 8

Present Day

There is only mild interest in the news bulletin flashing across the TV screen as Hotch, Rossi, Morgan, Reid and Garcia gather silently passing the time. Murder certainly isn't unusual. Its only when the TV reporter mentions the message that the killer has left behind, scribed in the victims blood, that their interest is piqued. That was one of the things the un-sub did. Something never publicised. Although not something entirely unique. More than one killer used their victims blood to write a message taunting law enforcement.

Hotch casts his eyes around the group- which consists of the majority of his team, minus JJ and Prentiss.

"It's too soon." Rossi answers the unasked question- could this be him?

"And that victim is blonde." Reid points out in support of Rossi.

It's what Aaron Hotchner wants to hear. That it's an eerie coincidence. But he's not convinced.

"Anyway, its in Florida." Garcia adds. Though she has been neither invited nor excluded from the conversation, she regrets instantly that she has opened her mouth when she feels the others turn to her eyeing her suspiciously They have this way of making her feel utterly stupid without even trying.

"What does that mean, Garcia?" Hotch asks her with a genuine curiosity that she misinterprets as mocking her.

"Uhm, Florida, you know, the sunshine state. That's where the news report is from, that's all I'm saying." She finishes quietly.

Reid simply can't help himself. "Actually, Garcia, "Sunshine State" is not an accurate nick name, as severe weather is a common occurrence in Florida. Infact, central Florida is known as the lightening capital of the United States..." His voice trails off as he notices the disapproving glances from the team.

Morgan eyes his watch. "There is enough time for him to get to Florida. It would be tight, travel plus seeking out a new victim, but it's not impossible." He declares.

"But you said he was heading west. Seattle." Garcia reminds him.

"I said?" Morgan takes a step back.

Now Garcia feels all the eyes of the team on her "Maybe not specifically you, one of you, one of you said Seattle."

"Who said that?" Hotch asks her.

"I don't know, it's been a long day, maybe no one." She is forced to admit. "Maybe I mis heard something."

"Who said Seattle?" Morgan asks here, taking a step towards her, authoritative tone to his voice.

"I'm not sure..." She trails off. She really isn't certain and it takes a moment before she is prepared to point the finger at anyone.

"Who? Tell me." Morgan repeats.

"JJ. I think it was JJ. But I'm not sure. Ask her.

"What exactly did she say?" Rossi wants to know. "She mentioned Seattle in what context?"

"Something along the lines that she hoped the police in Seattle were ready for him. Something like that. Nothing specific. Nothing like- oh he's heading straight for Seattle tonight, or anything like that." She stumbles.

"Ok." Hotch raises his hand to quiet her. "It's odd JJ didn't mention this to anyone else, did she?" The others shake their heads.

"Nor did Emily." Adds Reid "And she is the one who spent the most time with him. If anyone had picked up a clue as to where he was heading, it would be Emily. And so far this guy has been all over the map with his victims. There is no discernible pattern."

"We may have been too quick to dismiss the idea of a cognitive interview." Hotch decides.

"Well, we had his name, his profile, what he does, how he does it, why he does it, we even had him. We didn't think we needed any extra information from Emily." Rossi declares.

"Not just Prentiss, JJ too, It's possible both of them may have picked something up about his future plans without even realising." Hotch explains.

"I don't know." Morgan puts in his two cents. "I mean this guy was so caught up in his fantasy with Emily, it's not like he was thinking ahead about which state to visit next. And we profiled he was disorganised with his location, no pattern, as if he just took to the road and didn't know where he was going. I'm not convinced he even knew where he was going."

"It's worth a try." Hotch tells them.

"Is it?" Morgan asks.

Hotch looks at him quizzically.

"Is it worth is?" Morgan wants to know.

Hotch nods in understanding "Unfortunately, with this latest murder, and the same partial signature as our unsub, I think It is a necessary step."

"Morgan, you and Rossi take Prentiss, Reid and I will take JJ, and Garcia find all the information you can on this latest murder."

There is a nod of acknowledgement all around the circle. As Garcia turns, the first to walk away to the sanctuary of her office, Hotch calls her back. "Garcia, would you go and ask JJ and Prentiss to join us please." He orders.

"Me?" She asks. "But I have to..."

"Yes, You, Garcia. Now." He tells her.

"Yes sir." She mumbles as she turns from the group. It's not like she wanted to be the one to go in there. She had somehow managed to upset both her best friends in the past hour. But she still isn't as scared as those men are to knock on the conference room door. She does knock though, loudly. And waits an inordinate amount of time before entering, just in case.

"If this is our unsub, and I'm not saying it is, but it's a huge break in pattern. He has never killed this quickly before." Rossi warns the others.

"Well, his fantasy with Prentiss was interrupted." Reid points out. "He is frustrated."

"He's been interrupted before, twice, by police." Morgan counters. "He's never deviated from his patten."

"Did anyone else notice the latest victim bore a remarkable resemblance to JJ?" Reid asks.

"You think?" Morgan asks sceptically.

"Maybe you can't see it on the surface, but if you look at the facial structure and symmetry, plus the long blonde hair." Reid explains.

"You think this victim was a surrogate for JJ? His way of striking out at her for blowing his fantasy with Prentiss?" Rossi asks.

"That's one possibility." Hotch reluctantly acknowledges. "But I think we are getting ahead of ourselves here. Let's do the cognitive interviews and see what comes of it. In any case there isn't much we can do for the next hour that we're locked in here." Hotch tries to keep everyone calm. "Morgan, you were there with JJ on surveillance that night. Was anything out of the ordinary?"

"No!" He tells Hotch adamantly. "Absolutely not. If I had any concerns you know I would have acted. I wouldn't have left Emily in danger, nor would I have let JJ go in there on her own." Morgan protests.

"No one is questioning your decision. I really need for everyone to stop being so defensive and just tell me what happened. Was there anything off, anything at all?" Hotch asks.

"No." He answers, just as adamant, but a little calmer. "Nothing. I told you, one minute things were going as planned, next thing I know JJ has disappeared and I see the unsub taking off, alone, down the street. I could have followed him, but instead I went into the house and found Prentiss and JJ in the basement."

"And you saw nothing unusual, prior to the point that you noticed JJ was missing. Nothing in the Un-subs behaviour that had changed, that might indicate he knew Prentiss was FBI? That he was being watched? Nothing in her behaviour that gave away she was concerned about anything?"

"If I'd seen something, I would have acted." He insists. "And you know Emily." Morgan notes Hotch hasn't used her first name throughout the entire conversation. "I'm not sure I would have seen something in her that she didn't want me to see. She knew the signal if she was in trouble. She didn't use it, and she had plenty of opportunity."

"Ok." Hotch concedes. "Well let's do these cognitive interviews. We need to find out if either JJ or Prentiss can tell us anything about his plans, if this could be him, and if not where he has gone. At least give us a head start to warn the local police. We might be able to salvage something out of this case after all."