Never Together Nor Apart

[Chapter 62]

[Emily is 30 weeks pregnant (7 1/2 months); JJ is 17 weeks pregnant (4 1/4 months); Lily is 19 weeks old (4 3/4 months)]

Emily's POV:

"Oh my gosh. I am so sorry for the delay! The system was down. We overwork her, and I had to go into the belly of the beast, who I have affectionately nicknamed Persephone, and do some machine whispering—" Garcia rambles.

"Garcia, could we hurry this along? Emily was supposed to be finished with cases, but she insisted on coming this last one," Aaron warns me within his sentence.

"Well, this case is a doozy, so I definitely understand your interest," she winks towards me, "Emma Baker. 38, math teacher from Medford, Oregon. She went missing 17 days ago, and her body was found yesterday afternoon at St. Baldwin's. St. Baldwin's is now a defunct psychiatric hospital for the criminally insane. Now, that is in Salem, Oregon, which is 239 miles away from Medford, and we've been called in for the bizarre nature of the case—observe the photos," she finishes with a gasp of air.

"Wow. Look at that dress," JJ exclaims.

"Was she going to a renaissance fair?" I suggest.

"Not with her feet bound, and a missing persons report says that she was in jeans and a t-shirt," Garcia explains.

"But look at how she's laid out. It's almost like it's a ceremony and she's the sacrifice," Morgan shifts through the hard copy photos.

"There's obvious staging going on," Rossi takes notice.

"Could it be a ritualistic killing?" JJ offers.

"And cause of death is still unclear. The M.E. report shows no sign of sexual assault or mutilation except mangled and missing fingernails," Aaron reads.

"You know there were rumors of satanic rites being performed at Byberry Hospital in Pennsylvania, which is also an abandoned asylum," Reid informs.

"Judging by all the graffiti, this place isn't exactly locked down," Morgan points out.

"Uh, yeah, local P.D. said that vandals and vagrants have been breaking in," Garcia adds.

"Which means she could have been killed elsewhere and placed here," Rossi says skeptically.

"She had limestone under her fingernails, but limestone wouldn't have been used when this asylum was built, so she was obviously held somewhere else," Reid sheds further light on the matter.

"We'll, the bottom line is, the unsub transported her hundreds of miles from her hometown for a reason," I defend.

"We just need to find out what that reason is. Wheels up in 30, Emily I need you in my office... to talk about your pregnancy leave," he adds quickly.

I nod and begin picking up my files.

*time skip*

"So... did you really want to talk about my pregnancy leave?" I ask once the door is closed.

"Yes and no," he smiles.

I groan, not wanting to even think about taking my leave.

"Emily you've already been here a week longer than you promised me," he scolds.

"I know, I just don't want to sit at home on the couch all day. I want some action, some people to talk to, something other to do that just eat and sleep," I complain.

"JJ will be taking leave soon too," he reminds me.

"That's after I've had the baby, by then I'll already have my hands full. I won't need to worry about sitting still," I argue.

"There's nothing I say that's gonna make you happy is there?" He laughs.

"Well, no... but there is something you could do..." I trail off.

"We don't have enough time, plus I think it would be pretty suspicious to have us in here for longer than 10 minutes," he explains.

"You're really not helping my situation," I whine.

"You'll be fine," he kisses my temple then opens the door.

*time skip*

"Emma Baker was a divorced math teacher. No children," Rossi reads from the file.

"She has a boyfriend though, who's a drummer in a goth band. Her Facebook has pictures of them at the Bram Stoker Vampire Festival in Slayeroma, which is a celebration of all things Gothic," Garcia informs.

"Hmm. Teacher by day, Elvira by night," JJ smiles.

"Well, clearly this is a woman with two different sides to her personality," Morgan rephrases.

"Yeah, the boyfriend's band pours fake blood all over themselves in stage," Reid adds the strange detail.

"Ok, so if these two were satanists, it wouldn't be a stretch," I suggest.

"Garcia, has the boyfriend been questioned by the local P.D.?" Aaron asks.

"He has by phone. He's got an airtight alibi. Him and his band have been on tour in Asia for the last month," she excuses him.

"Well, if it's not the boyfriend, the unsub could be someone in their circle," Morgan takes a different approach.

"Emily, you asked earlier if she was going to a renaissance fair. There's something to that," Rossi turns towards me.

"Well, based on the dress, there could be more of a connection to history than the occult," I explain my thinking.

"Renaissance fairs typically replicate the 16th century England. They've surged in popularity since they began in the 1960s," Reid keeps his definition to a minimum.

"Training him to ramble less, quite interesting," I give JJ a smile.

"She has not been training me, why does everyone think I'm the submissive in the relationship?" He gasps.

"Because you're just—you're pretty boy," Morgan explains.

"Well for you're information I'm not the submissive. You'd think Emily would know all about that from the months she stayed with us," he scoffs.

"I hate to agree with him but he's right JJ, you have very thin walls," I shrug.

"Okay, first of all, I tried very hard to be quiet, and second of all, why were you listening to begin with," JJ questions.

"If that was you being quiet, then I have no idea what loud must've been," I smirk.

"Okay! Okay! Okay! I've heard plenty of you're personal lives and sex lives recently and since I think of most of you as my children, I would very much not like to hear of it, thank you!" Rossi exclaims.

"Back to the topic at hand..." Aaron grabs everyone's attention.

"Right, as I was saying, renaissance fairs have become very popular," Reid states once more.

"And it's not just a bunch of nerds in costume eating turkey legs you guys," Garcia chimes in.

"A different time is somehow very important to this unsub," Aaron agrees.

Okay, depending on the amount of course work and or exams/tests I have coming up, things may come to a slow point again. I will try very hard to avoid that but it will be pretty hard to fit that around my schedule <3

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