Chapter 5
Our next case had us traveling to Olympia, Washington. Even though we were on the west coast, this case was hitting a little too close to home. There were four victims so far. All mid twenties. All pretty. All with blonde hair and blue eyes.
"Have a seat team. There's been a string of abductions going back nine months. This morning, they found one. She was the first reported missing."
Garcia posted the pictures of all the victims on the board along with the crime scene photos.
"Huh, she looks almost mummified."
"Not exactly Rossi. She was embalmed."
"I’m sorry, what?" That was a new one, even for me.
"Yeah. So the time of death is a bit of question mark right now. She was found on a hiking trail in a state park. The surrounding dirt was loosened by a mudslide."
Reid was quickly reading some of the reports. "It says the victims were taken three months apart. If he's rotating his victims out..."
"There's going to be more bodies out there."
On the jet, we were going over our normal victimology. There was still something I couldn't quite comprehend. "I can't believe I'm actually about to ask this but, if I want to embalm a body, what's the process?"
Morgan attempted to make a joke that didn't land. And then I got my answer from Reid. "The blood is drained through the jugular vein and replaced with embalming fluid through one of the two major arteries. It usually takes a few hours."
"I still can't believe the amount of stuff you know Reid."
Rossi asked about the special equipment and training a person would need to pull something like this off. "As long as they have knowledge of the human vascular system, it would be a plus."
"So like a Dr, a nurse, or someone who studied mortuary science."
"Now there's a major they didn't offer at my school." I rolled my eyes at Morgan.
Hotch as usual tried to reel us back in. "The question is why would a person want to embalm someone they just murdered."
"He wants to hold on to them. It's a possession issue. This way, they can never leave."
"Well that's creepy. And that's coming from someone who has seen a lot of weird shit at SHIELD."
"The problem is that even embalmed bodies decay. So he finds himself in need of new victims. Thus creating his abduction cycle."
"If that's the case, that means at least two of the remaining women are already dead." I hated to agree with him, but Rossi had a point.
"It's been four days since the last victim was reported missing. That's not great odds."
"90% of all abduction victims are killed within the first 36 hours." Yet another morbid fact Reid brought up.
Reid and Morgan went to the crime scene, Hotch and Rossi went to interview the latest victims employer, while Em, JJ, and I went over things at the local police station.
Emily didn't say anything out loud, but I could tell she was nervous. She was constantly hovering by JJ's side. "What's going on with you Em?"
She frowned. "Nothing. I'm just working the case." JJ rolled her eyes and walked towards the break room. Before Emily could follow her, I grabbed her wrist.
"Hey, talk to me. What's going on in that pretty head of yours?"
"Nothing. I'm going to see where JJ went."
"Em, she just went to get coffee. What's going on?"
She rounded on me with fire in her eyes. "How can you be so calm about all of this? Can't you see the resemblance?"
"I've got eyes honey. I know the victims kind of look like her. But I also know that our third is a badass FBI agent who can hold her own. Be worried, sure. But don't let it drive you crazy."
"I can't....there's a lot of things I can compartmentalize. This isn't one of them." I sighed as she walked away to the break room after JJ. This was going to be a long case.
Reid and Morgan had just returned from the morgue where they studied the three bodies found in the woods. According to the ME, the cause of death was blood loss. That meant that the girls were alive when they were embalmed. They also found evidence that the unsub sexually assaulted the women after they were dead.
"I can't believe this case got even more disturbing. Please tell me something like this doesn't happen often."
"Never know what the BAU is gonna throw at you newbie."
As Morgan and I chatted about the case, I could see Emily and JJ having words in the conference room. It was obvious Emily was driving her crazy. Because of that, I decided to hang back and give them space.
"Hey, are your girls okay?"
"Yeah. Tough case is all."
"If by tough do you mean Princess is going a little loca because all of our victims remind her of JJ?"
"Pretty much."
"And why aren't you over there trying to calm them down Ms Thang?"
"I don't want to crowd JJ. Plus, Em made it very clear earlier that my lack of freaking out was a bit of a disappointment.”
"Oh hey now, come here." He brought me into a tight side hug. "She didn't mean anything by it. She just gets on edge when there’s a possibility that something can happen to someone she cares about."
"Right. To JJ."
"No, hey..."
I left before he could try to comfort me anymore. It was getting late and Hotch decided we should all head to the hotel to rest for a couple hours.
As usual, I got my own room. The past few cases I normally spent most of the time with Emily and JJ. Tonight, however, I decided to stay in my room. I had already changed and gotten into bed when there was a knock on my door. I smiled as I looked through the peephole.
"Hey babe. I thought you would have come over by now."
I let her in and made my way back to the bed. "I thought I'd give you and Em some time. She needs to feel that you'll be okay."
She climbed in next to me and started brushing her hand through my hair. "And what is it that you need?"
I sighed. "This case to be over for a start." She hummed and kissed the side of my head. "I'm fine, really. You should get back to Em, I'm sure she's going crazy."
"Hey." She lightly grabbed my chin and moved my head so I was looking into her eyes. "It's the three of us now. Always."
"I know. I'll be okay tonight. Go."
"How is it that I get two women and both of them are so stubborn?"
"That's the luck of the draw Agent Jareau." She laughed and kissed me before she went back to their room.
The next morning we delivered our profile to the officers. We were looking for a somewhat wealthy white male who's awkward with women. He was using his victims to represent someone he loved.
After several rounds of interviews, we were able to link a local grave robbery to our unsub. Turns out, the grave belonged to a nanny of a boy who tragically passed away of myocarditis at the age of 24. Blonde hair, blue eyes. He had to be our guy. The problem was, he was in the wind.
Garcia tried to work her magic by looking through the financials of the guys family. Turns out they had two vacant vacation homes in the surrounding area. The quickest way to try and find this guy and hopefully our last victim was to split up.
The boys went to one property while Em, JJ, and I went to the second. Both teams had several police officers with them as backup. When we got to the location we ran inside while Emily instructed the police to check out the perimeter. "JJ, stay by my side. I mean it."
We were slowly moving through the house, looking for the room where the embalming would take place. "Y/N, check down that way. JJ, you're still with me."
When I made my way down the stairs, a sterile smell hit my nose. We had to be in the right place. I carefully opened the door and went in, gun at the ready. The first thing I saw was our victim lying on a table. After clearing the room, I made my way over. I felt a pulse, but she was out. Probably due to the drugs this guy would use.
"I have eyes on the victim. She's alive and needs medical." Nothing. "Does anyone copy?" The silence was starting to make me nervous. I didn't want to leave her here, but I had to check on JJ and Emily. As I made my way back up the stairs, I could hear some static through my coms. "Guys, do you copy?"
"He's...towards..."
Fuck. I ran up the rest of the way, trying to locate them. As I was making my way outside I saw several of the officers on the ground. One looked to have a syringe sticking out of his neck.
"Let her go!"
My heart stopped. I ran towards the back of the house where the commotion was. Emily had her gun on the unsub who was holding a syringe against JJ's neck and dragging her along with him. "She's mine!"
"She's not her. Let her go!"
"No! She is, she's mine!"
I couldn't let anything happen to them. I holstered my gun and ran right at him. Luckily I was behind him, so he didn't see me. The element of surprise was my biggest advantage. I was able to kick his knee out and he let go of JJ who stumbled forward and into Emily's arms. "No!"
He tried to make another grab at her, so I yanked him back. He was a big guy, but luckily I had been trained well. I could hear JJ yelling, probably trying to get Emily to help instead of checking on her. Nevertheless, our fight continued. We traded punch for punch. I took out a knife, and right as I sunk it into his shoulder, he jabbed me with his syringe.
We both fell to the floor. "No! Babe. Babe look at me!"
"I...I got him."
"You did. Em, get medical over here!" She kept smacking my cheek, trying to keep my eyes from closing. "Don't go to sleep. Look at me." It was taking everything in me to keep my eyes open.
"They're here! She got dosed with a barbiturate."
The paramedics were at my side in an instant. "Let's get 2 milligrams of narcan, now. And start two large-bore ivs."
As soon as the drug hit my system I began coughing. "Babe, look at me."
I looked up and saw both JJ and Emily standing over me. "Hmm. That's a great sight to wake up too."
The main paramedic started laughing. "I think she's going to be okay. Let's get her to the rig so we can get her vitals."
"Wait. The girl."
"We got her. She's alive."
I had refused to get on the gurney, so I was sitting on the back of the ambulance. They had taken my vitals, but wanted to monitor me for a little while before I could leave. Since there was no way in hell I was going to the hospital. As the team gathered and spoke with the police, Hotch came over.
"You know, we don't usually use knives on a case."
"Sorry. Habit from SHIELD."
He chuckled. Like actually chuckled. For a second I thought I was still high on these drugs. "One of these days you will have to tell me about some of your SHIELD missions. They sound...intense."
"Classified."
He smirked, patted my shoulder, and went to the team. JJ and Emily took that as their queue and came over. "How are you felling babe?"
"I've been drugged by worse things."
"I thought you were always kidding when you said things like that. But now I'm not too sure."
"Love...I...I'm sorry for doubting you. I should have known that you would do anything to protect JJ."
"Not just JJ. You too honey. I uhm...well I can't lose you guys. You're too important."
They each gave me a quick peck on the lips. It would do for now until we were back at home. And until we could level out with each other after this crazy case.