Stay with me

chapter 13

It had been 36 hours since they got called in on the case and since then, JJ didn't think she'd had a minute just to sit down alone and clear her head; pacing backwards and forwards in the conference room, her mind was overflowing with information about the case and worry for her friend.

They knew who their unsub was, but didn't know where he was or what he was planning to do. They knew what gas was being used, but not how to treat it. This case was just full of unanswered questions and that didn't sit well with JJ. She wanted to call Will- she needed to hear his grainy, southern voice just for a minute to put some life back into her, but he would still be at work for another hour so she'd have to wait. Instead she decided to go see what Garcia was up to down in her lair since she couldn't find anything else productive to occupy her mind.

"Hello my lovely," Garcia chirped as she spun round on her chair to face the blonde agent.

"How did you know it was me?" JJ asked with a slight chuckle in her voice- probably the most positive sound that came from her mouth all day.

"Oh dearie, I'm the all-knowing oracle of the BAU, I know everything." JJ smirked at her remark; she could always count on Garcia to lift her spirits.

"What are you on with now then?" JJ questioned.

"I've just been sifting through the Mayfield family record to see if there is any property that could have been left for James that didn't show up in my initial search, but so far I've came up empty," she explained despondently. A few moments of silence passed before Penelope spoke up again, "JJ... what if, what if Emily-"

"Don't. She's going to be fine. We'll find this guy and we'll get her back," JJ declared confidently. But Garcia could hear the fear in her friends voice, JJ was just as scared as she was, she just wasn't ready to admit it to herself yet.

At that moment, Hotch barrelled into the room, determination written all over his face.

"Hey did you finish interviewing Mrs Mayfield?" JJ asked, moving out of his way.

"Garcia, can you search for an old barn conversion that belonged to Mrs Mayfield's father?" he asked, indirectly answering JJ's question.

"Sure... Just looking through property records and... here! There's a piece of farmland that was left in Mrs Mayfield's fathers name which housed a large barn, a shed and a silo. It appears that the barn has undergone some remodelling in the past few years, but it can't have been her father because he died 8 years ago."

"It's got to be James," JJ deduced.

"What kind of remodelling Garcia?" Hotch asked.

"Erm, plumbing was installed, more electricity panels were put in, and..."

"What is it Garcia?" JJ urged, leaning closer to the screen.

"He put in high pressure containment and corrosive waste disposal units."

"That's it. Garcia send the coordinates to our phones and alert the local LEO's," Hotch commanded.

"Already done my liege. Go get him."

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Hospital:

Emily had been sedated and sleeping soundly for just over an hour, and in that time, not a word was spoken between the remainder of the agents. Nothing needed to be said. No comfort could be brought by the exchanging of hopeful glances. They simply sat and stared into nothing.

Derek had perched himself next to Emily on her bed, holding her protectively into him with his arm around her shoulders, and her head on his chest. He didn't care if Blake or Rossi were watching, he just needed to be close to Emily and make sure she was okay.

Alex was sat thinking about her husband, James. He was overseas somewhere with his 'doctors beyond borders' group and had been for the last 3 weeks. She didn't know when he would be coming home or for how long he'd be staying before having to leave again for god-knows how long. She envied Derek and Emily's relationship, where they could come to work and be around each other all day and then go home and be a real couple; never having to be apart, but not always being so close and intimate that it would create problems. She wouldn't change her husband or the work he did for anything, she loved him all too much, but it was times like this she wished she had someone to go home to, someone to talk to that wasn't an entire continent away, because Alex knew that when they finally got out of this hospital, she'd be going home to nothing but an empty bed, left only with her own mind and the memories of this horrible case echoing from the walls of her empty house.

Rossi on the other hand was looking forward to getting away from people and the job after this ordeal was over. He loved his team like a family, but he needed some time to take a step back and consider what he really wanted; since he came back to the BAU, he felt like he'd just been running on a high from one case to the next, never stopping to think where his life was leading him. He'd already achieved his goals and failed at more things than he'd care to admit, so what else was there? He was pretty content with his life as a whole, but always felt like there was that one piece missing that would help everything to come together and complete him. He'd never been able to pin point what is was that he felt he needed- until now. Looking at the way Derek held protectively onto Emily, he felt a pang in his heart that he hadn't felt in probably over a decade. He needed someone to love. Someone to go home to and talk about his day. Someone to go to sleep with at night and wake up to every morning. A hole had formed in his heart over the years, dug deeper and deeper by the endless miseries he saw on a day to day basis. Each case took away a piece of him, small enough for him not to notice, but big enough for those special people to whom his heart supposedly belonged, to notice.

Rossi had never spent so long pondering his love life- perhaps that's where he'd been going wrong- being too quick to jump into relationships and marriages: his wedding with Krystal came to mind, or rather the 5 minute Las Vegas ceremony performed by an Elvis impersonator came to mind. The thought made him chuckle internally and brought a slight smile to his face- the first one that had graced him all day.

He looked back to Emily, who's previously red, feverish complexion had now paled to the colour of the hospital sheets. She looked like a ghost- her chest barely moving as she breathed in and out, occasionally letting out an exasperated sigh. He wanted more than anything to take her pain away, probably just as much as Derek, who was till staring into space with a despondent look on his face.. If Emily didn't make it, that man would never recover.