Never Together Nor Apart

[Chapter 24]

[The weekend is over; Emily stayed with JJ and Reid]

Emily's POV:

I walk into the BAU after JJ and Reid. I feel bad for staying with them, but I won't be much longer. I see Garcia, who runs up to hug me.

"Ohhh I missed you so much my little gumdrop!" She exclaims.

"Garcia, it was only two days," I pull away to see her eyes are watering.

"I know, I just—I missed you," she repeats.

I realize she wasn't talking about the weekend. I give her a sad smile before we finish walking into the bullpen.

"I'm sorry to say this guys, but we have a case!" Garcia tells everyone.

Confused, I ask JJ why she didn't announce it.

"JJ, I thought you announced cases?" I whisper.

"Oh, since you um— I took over as and agent and Garcia now does that," she explains.

"Right," I confirm.

I finish my walk. There were two things I wasn't yet ready for. One, to give my answer on whether I was staying or not and two, seeing Hotch for the first time since Saturday. I sigh as I walk in, luckily he hadn't arrived yet.
My relief doesn't last long, seconds later I see the stern man enter.

"Hold on Garcia. Prentiss isn't allowed on this case unless she is reinstated," he states.

"Emily?" Everyone turns to look at me.

"I've thought about other offers," I see faces fall," but they were all missing one important thing. You guys," I smile as I decided to stay.

I receive hugs and laughter before Hotch becomes annoyed.

"We have work to do, remember?" He reminds.

"Right. You are jetting to Durant, Oklahoma, because in the last three days, two women have been found dead, being sexually tortured and then blinded with a sulfuric acid solution. Abby Elcott is our first victim, nineteen year old art student. She was headed to campus for an advanced drawing class. She'd been missing for two days. Same goes for our second victim, Beth Westerly, seventeen. She had just finished her coffee shop shift and was on her way to a bar method class," Garcia sighs at the end.

"Both low-risk victims," I speak.

"And physically similar," Morgan adds.

"How close are the two abduction sites?" Rossi asks.

"Five miles apart at bus stops. Abby's cell was found near one, Beth's scarf near the other," Garcia explains.

"Where are the dump sites?" Reid questions.

"One in an alley, the other in a field," Garcia responds.

"So he stapled their eyes open, then he blinded them," JJ states the irony.

"It's about power and control. Maybe he didn't want them to watch while he hurt them," Morgan suggests.

"Or it could be about shame. Perhaps the unsub is disfigured himself. Blinding the victims leaves them totally helpless, lost, totally dependent. It may be a manifestation of how he sees himself in this world," Reid spits off another idea.

"It is a form of enucleation, just without the scalpel," I inform.

"His face is the last they see before darkness," Rossi says.

"Garcia, come up with a list of jobs the unsubs could be working that would give the unsub access to sulfuric acid. The rest of us, wheels up in thirty minutes," Hotch leaves quickly without another word.