Soulmates

Chapter 49-All nighters, hired guns, and backward steps.

Trigger Warnings: Talk of Coercion, Torture, one mention of suicide, and there's also some instances of Racism. 

Nobody went home last night. The team pretty much spent the whole night scouring the files on the case. Detective Bellisario's visit really had spurned them all into action, The man managed to send the files Hotch demanded in the middle of the night. At some point Ryan had fallen asleep in the chair in the conference room with a file in his hand. Reid decided to rest his eyes on the floor while Morgan was getting coffee. JJ had gone to change her clothes. Hotch and Rossi we're in their respective offices. 

Emily was currently looking at the board and Rhonda came back into the room. She saw Ryan in the chair and Reid on the floor. "Do you usually work cases like this?" She asked Prentiss. Emily shrugged, "Most of the time, we spend the night in a hotel." She said. Rhonda chuckled, "That can't be easy for everybody's love life." She commented. "Well, not everybody can have the white picket fence or the picture perfect family." Emily responded. 

"I wouldn't exactly know about that." Rhonda said. Emily looked at her curiously, Rhonda sighed, "Let's just say my dedication to the law has already drove plenty of men away from me. Including two I was married to." She said sadly. Emily looked at her, "I'm sorry to hear that." She said, meaning it. Rhonda shook her head, "Thanks. I don't know why I brought that up." She said. 

Emily shrugged, "Sometimes you think about certain things in a moment and find yourself talking about it." She said. It reminded her of Ryan talking about his past before they all knew about his dad. As she thought about that, it made her realize it was something Ryan and Rhonda appeared to have in common. The butterflies returned to her stomach. Rhonda looked at her, "Are you married?" She asked.

Emily shook her head, "One day I hope but not currently." She said. Her eyes slid to Ryan's sleeping figure on the chair. Rhonda hummed, "It's always good to wait for the right person." She said. Emily didn't say anything to that. Morgan then came back with his coffee, "You know, sometimes I feel like we don't get paid enough to pull all-nighters like these." He complained. 

Emily scoffed, "Yeah well, I think Alexander, Tumbleton, and Winger would agree that there are more important things than our beauty sleeps right now." She responded. Morgan nodded as he picked up a file. It was the interrogation notes for John Tumbleton. "There's something strange with these notes." He observed. 

Emily and Rhonda looked at him, "What do you mean?" Emily asked. "Besides the fact that they don't include when they tortured Tumbleton?" Rhonda added a little sarcastically. "It's two consistent. Just like all the others." Morgan responded. Garcia then came into the room, "That's because they were all heavily edited." She stated.

She sat down at the table, "So I've been in touch with forensics and they found that these particular notes were handwritten, deletions and additions had been added and rearranged." Garcia explained. "Not the only thing that's suspect." Emily said and then picked up a file. "Detention records don't match with interview times." She said. 

 Hotch then came into the conference room, "So we know that Bellisario and his partner lied throughout the whole case and framed the Barstool three. How does that help us find the real bombers." Hotch asked, all the while kicking Ryan, waking him up. Reid also seemed to wake up and got up from the floor. Ryan groaned and then rubbed his face, "How long have I been asleep?" He asked. "About three hours." Emily answered.

Ryan sighed, "Why didn't anybody wake me?" He asked standing up. "I was going too, but you looked so cute just laying there in the chair, I thought it best to let you sleep." Emily said with a slight smirk. Ryan returned the smirk though his was more sarcastic, "You got a weird sense of humor you know that." He said. Emily shrugged , "Haven't heard you complain before." She said.