Categories > TV > Criminal Minds > Beneath a House, I Lay in Wait
JJ was exhausted but she refused to let the welcoming darkness of sleep to take her just yet.
She loved this moment. When she was between consciousness and unconsciousness. This was when her memories became realistic, like she was watching them on a screen. Or even witnessing them first hand.
Tonight her mind went to Henry's first christmas. She remembered how she gently poked the sleeping infant once or twice at 6am because she was so excited and wished her almost one year old boy would wake up. She recalled how Will pulled her from Henry's room and told her off. Only for her to sneak back in and prod the child some more till his bright blue eyes opened.
It was memories like this that kept JJ going, kept her alive. Without them she would most definitely have gone insane months ago.
Hotch and Morgan sat at the round table flipping through the coroner report of the 8 victims. Neither of them wanted to see what could have happened to JJ over the past year but it was necessary to catch the guy.
"He used a wide rang of methods to torcher these women" Morgan spoke in digust "burning, stabbing, cutting, strangulation, starvation. The list just goes on"
"He kept these women in a state that they couldn't fight back" Hotch stated "though the ligature marks on their ankle indicates that they were bound, chained to something maybe"
"So he isn't capable of keeping them restrained by himself so he chains them, limiting their movements and keeps them weak?" Morgan thought outloud.
"Most likely" Hotch sighed "what we need to figure out is how he came into their lives"
"He would have to be someone JJ would have meet in passing, since she has practically no life out of work like the rest of us" Morgan mused, trying to add a bit of humor to the situation.
"Yes but if that is the case and she met this guy in passing then it will difficult to find him" Hotch stated the obvious.
"Unfortunately" Morgan agreed "maybe we should question Will, see if there is he can think of anyone that she may have come into contact with, I know we already asked him when she first went missing but we have more of a profile to go by"
"Its worth a try" Hotch muttered.
Will strode into the BAU. Henry held tightly in his arms.
Garcia had called him, explaining that there is a possibility that they had a lead on JJ's case.
He couldn't believe it. The possibility of JJ still being alive. Of them finding her and bringing her home.
"Why we here?" Henry questioned his father in his small voice.
"Penelope wanted us to stop by, remember?" Will reminded his son. Who in turn became excited by the news of seeing his god mother.
Upon sensing her god sons presence, Garcia practically ran through the bullpen and admittedly took Henry into her arms and hugged him tightly.
"Hey cutie!" she cooed to the small boy.
"Penny!" Henry cheered, hugging her back before looking her in the eye "is Mommy back yet?" he asked innocently.
"Uh, no shes not sweetie" Garcia spoke, a fake smile on her face.
"But you talked about her" he accused her.
"Thats because Hotch wants to speak to Daddy about her, in the 'war' room" she spoke to the young boy but looked at Will.
Understanding the comment, Will made his way to the 'war' room. Knocking on the door before entering.
"Is it true? Could JJ be here in the city?" Will blurted, unable to restrain himself.
Hotch and Morgan both stood, a glum expression between them.
"We are currently investigating a series of murders that we think may have a connection to JJ's disappearance" Hotch explained seriously.
"Murders? You think she might be dead?" Will asked, his voice wavering.
"If this is the UNSUB who took JJ then we have 5 days to find her alive" Morgan spoke "this guy is keeping women alive for exactly a year and 5 days"
Will bit his lip "if this is the guy who took JJ, is it possible to find her in time?" he asked. Trying his best to keep his voice from breaking.
"We hope so" Was all Morgan could say.
JJ lay on the sad excuse of a mattress. Having no energy to even sit up. During her unwanted stay with Collins, he had made sure to give her just enough food and water to keep her alive but not enough to give her the energy she needed.
She knew that her body was suffering, as she was barely anything but skin and bones by this point. But there wasn't anything she could to about it. This was Collins way of making sure she wasn't able to fight back.
But the malnutrition was the least of her worries. Her body ached from each and every injury she had obtained over the year. The bruises, breaks and wounds were never given a decent chance to heal.
JJ picked at her DIY bandages that she had made with the remainder of what used to be a shirt Collin had given to her after her previous shirts suffered the same fate. By this point all she had was what she was currently wearing. A thin blood soaked singlet and equally thin sweatpants.
Thudding from above announced Collins arrival home. JJ was certain that he made his footsteps as loud as possible, just to mess with her. Which at first, it had. But it had lost its effect a month or so into the abduction.
She knew he would venture down to her cell within the next 10 or so minutes. Her final meal for the day with him. The idea of food made her stomach lurch. She was so used to not eating that it had become such an unusual thing to do. Sometimes she even considered just ignoring the food but then she would remember that she had to do whatever it took to stay alive till Morgan kicked down the door, Rossi and Hotch took down Collins and Prentiss and Reid freed her from the cell.
Like she had predicted, Collins clambered down to the basement. A plate of rice and a slice of bread with him.
JJ watched as he entered the cell and placed the plate on the desk before approaching her.
He knelt next to were she lay "don't look so glum sweetheart" he spoke, reaching out and brushing JJ's hair from her face "our time together has been wonderful"
JJ merely glared at him. Locking her glare to his dark brown eyes.
"But sadly our time together is almost over" he sighed.
JJ's eyes widened involuntary. She knew what this meant. He had told her exactly what he had done to previous women he had abducted. Told her exactly how it ended.
"Jennifer my dear" he lent in close to her face "your different from the others, stronger" he pressed a light kiss to her lips and it took all of JJ's self-control not to bite his lip. "but no matter how much strength or hope you have, you are never leaving this house alive" he pulled back and looked sadly at her. He pulled a knife from his belt and pointed it at JJ "lets begin shall we? Might as well make use of the time we have left" he then plunged the knife into her thigh. Causing JJ to yelp out in pain. She would have screamed the pain was so bad but she wasn't capable of raising her voice higher then a whimper.
"Will we need you to think though anyone that JJ could have come into contact with" Morgan spoke seriously.
"I went through everyone and everything when she first went missing, but I couldn't think of anyone!" Will stressed.
"We know. But it is likely that there is someone you missed. Someone you didn't think to take notice of" Hotch spoke calmly "can you remember what she did the day she disappeared?"
"Uh she took Henry to daycare, went to work and then was meant to come home" Will spoke "thats it, i'm sure of it"
"What daycare?" Morgan asked, already dialing Garcia's cell.
"The bureau's daycare" Will replied "do you think the guy found her there?"
"Its possible" Hotch responded.
"Henry and Penelope at your serves" Garcia spoke.
"Baby girl, I need you to run the names of every employee of the bureau's daycare with every place that the previous victims went to on the day they were abducted" Morgan instructed.
"On it" Garcia chimed "you know, if you think he was at the daycare when he took JJ, then maybe Henry saw him" Garcia said.
"Do you think he would be able to recall it if he had seen something?" Will questioned.
"Maybe" Morgan muttered, deep in thought.
"Garcia, could you have Prentiss bring Henry to us?" Hotch asked their tech analyst.
"Alright, the cherub will be with you soon" with that she hung up.
Minutes later Emily carried Henry into the room. Rossi and Reid in tow.
"Have you found something?" Reid questioned Hotch.
"We think that the UNSUB was at the bureau daycare the day he abducted JJ. If he was then maybe Henry might have seen someone approach her" Morgan explained.
Emily placed Henry onto a chair and then knelt in front of him "Henry, do you remember when you last saw your Mommy?" she asked gently.
The blonde boy nodded.
"Do you know if Mommy was talking to someone?"
Henry thought for a moment. And the team started to wonder if this was pointless. Henry may be bright for his age but he is still on 3 years old.
"Mommy talk to a man before going" he muttered.
The team passed a look between them.
"Had you seen that man before?"
Henry nodded "I tink so"
"That could be him" Morgan stated. Just as his phone rang "Talk to me Garcia"
"I think I have someone" she spoke quickly "there was a guy who volunteered at the daycare up till 5 days after JJ went missing. To make things even better he volunteered at each of the places that the previous victims were seen at the day they were abducted!"
"Do you have a name?" Hotch asked, hope raising within him.
"And thats where things turn sour. The name he used was a fake"
"He used a fake name but didn't change it?" Reid mused "thats unusual. He must have figured that he wouldn't have been caught"
"Garcia try find his true identity. Any means possible" Morgan spoke before hanging up.
"We've almost got him" Rossi grinned.
Reid looked at his watch "lets hope we find who he is soon. We only have 4 days left now"
"They will find me" JJ weakly spoke.
"Who? Your team?" he laughed "in case you haven't noticed, iv'e had you here a year and they haven't a single clue as to who I am" he laughed some more.
"They will find you and they will kill you" JJ mastered all the strength she had to move herself into a sitting position.
"Jennifer. We've been thought this so many times. They WONT find me" he continued to laugh.
"Keep telling yourself that" she muttered, falling back onto the mattress. Her leg throbbed and she felt lightheaded from blood loss. She was close to passing out but refused to while he was still in the room.
"No Jennifer YOU keep telling YOURSELF that" Collins spoke harshly, getting to his feet "YOU tell yourself that when they find your corpse in a ditch and have to tell your son that his Mommy is NEVER coming home!" he shouted and then stormed from the cell and up the basement steps.
"How can I tell myself anything if i'm DEAD?!" JJ yelled after him. Feeling pretty smug when she heard his growl.
She heard him thump around upstairs. Shouting about like a mad man.
Sighing she rolled onto her side. That was when she noticed it. Just outside the cell door lay a heap of brown material. Collins coat.
JJ doubted that he was careless enough to leave it there with anything potentially useful in it but it was worth a look. JJ rolled fully onto her stomach and began crawling, well dragging herself, towards the coat. It took ages and all of her strength but she finally made it.
Breathing heavily she pulled the coat into the cell. Where she raided the pockets. She didn't allow herself to have any hope that she might get lucky and find a key or something in the pockets. But maybe she should have.
In the left hand pocket she retrieved a cell phone.
She simply stared at the device. She couldn't believe her luck. She couldn't believe it enough that she figured that she was either dreaming or this was trick. However the pain in her leg proved she was in fact awake and Collins wasn't the type to pull ticks like this.
JJ fumbled around with the phone for a minute, trying to figure out how to use it. It didn't take long and she soon lifted the device to her ear. Listening to the phone ringing. After four rings someone answered.
"Aaron Hotchner speaking"
She loved this moment. When she was between consciousness and unconsciousness. This was when her memories became realistic, like she was watching them on a screen. Or even witnessing them first hand.
Tonight her mind went to Henry's first christmas. She remembered how she gently poked the sleeping infant once or twice at 6am because she was so excited and wished her almost one year old boy would wake up. She recalled how Will pulled her from Henry's room and told her off. Only for her to sneak back in and prod the child some more till his bright blue eyes opened.
It was memories like this that kept JJ going, kept her alive. Without them she would most definitely have gone insane months ago.
Hotch and Morgan sat at the round table flipping through the coroner report of the 8 victims. Neither of them wanted to see what could have happened to JJ over the past year but it was necessary to catch the guy.
"He used a wide rang of methods to torcher these women" Morgan spoke in digust "burning, stabbing, cutting, strangulation, starvation. The list just goes on"
"He kept these women in a state that they couldn't fight back" Hotch stated "though the ligature marks on their ankle indicates that they were bound, chained to something maybe"
"So he isn't capable of keeping them restrained by himself so he chains them, limiting their movements and keeps them weak?" Morgan thought outloud.
"Most likely" Hotch sighed "what we need to figure out is how he came into their lives"
"He would have to be someone JJ would have meet in passing, since she has practically no life out of work like the rest of us" Morgan mused, trying to add a bit of humor to the situation.
"Yes but if that is the case and she met this guy in passing then it will difficult to find him" Hotch stated the obvious.
"Unfortunately" Morgan agreed "maybe we should question Will, see if there is he can think of anyone that she may have come into contact with, I know we already asked him when she first went missing but we have more of a profile to go by"
"Its worth a try" Hotch muttered.
Will strode into the BAU. Henry held tightly in his arms.
Garcia had called him, explaining that there is a possibility that they had a lead on JJ's case.
He couldn't believe it. The possibility of JJ still being alive. Of them finding her and bringing her home.
"Why we here?" Henry questioned his father in his small voice.
"Penelope wanted us to stop by, remember?" Will reminded his son. Who in turn became excited by the news of seeing his god mother.
Upon sensing her god sons presence, Garcia practically ran through the bullpen and admittedly took Henry into her arms and hugged him tightly.
"Hey cutie!" she cooed to the small boy.
"Penny!" Henry cheered, hugging her back before looking her in the eye "is Mommy back yet?" he asked innocently.
"Uh, no shes not sweetie" Garcia spoke, a fake smile on her face.
"But you talked about her" he accused her.
"Thats because Hotch wants to speak to Daddy about her, in the 'war' room" she spoke to the young boy but looked at Will.
Understanding the comment, Will made his way to the 'war' room. Knocking on the door before entering.
"Is it true? Could JJ be here in the city?" Will blurted, unable to restrain himself.
Hotch and Morgan both stood, a glum expression between them.
"We are currently investigating a series of murders that we think may have a connection to JJ's disappearance" Hotch explained seriously.
"Murders? You think she might be dead?" Will asked, his voice wavering.
"If this is the UNSUB who took JJ then we have 5 days to find her alive" Morgan spoke "this guy is keeping women alive for exactly a year and 5 days"
Will bit his lip "if this is the guy who took JJ, is it possible to find her in time?" he asked. Trying his best to keep his voice from breaking.
"We hope so" Was all Morgan could say.
JJ lay on the sad excuse of a mattress. Having no energy to even sit up. During her unwanted stay with Collins, he had made sure to give her just enough food and water to keep her alive but not enough to give her the energy she needed.
She knew that her body was suffering, as she was barely anything but skin and bones by this point. But there wasn't anything she could to about it. This was Collins way of making sure she wasn't able to fight back.
But the malnutrition was the least of her worries. Her body ached from each and every injury she had obtained over the year. The bruises, breaks and wounds were never given a decent chance to heal.
JJ picked at her DIY bandages that she had made with the remainder of what used to be a shirt Collin had given to her after her previous shirts suffered the same fate. By this point all she had was what she was currently wearing. A thin blood soaked singlet and equally thin sweatpants.
Thudding from above announced Collins arrival home. JJ was certain that he made his footsteps as loud as possible, just to mess with her. Which at first, it had. But it had lost its effect a month or so into the abduction.
She knew he would venture down to her cell within the next 10 or so minutes. Her final meal for the day with him. The idea of food made her stomach lurch. She was so used to not eating that it had become such an unusual thing to do. Sometimes she even considered just ignoring the food but then she would remember that she had to do whatever it took to stay alive till Morgan kicked down the door, Rossi and Hotch took down Collins and Prentiss and Reid freed her from the cell.
Like she had predicted, Collins clambered down to the basement. A plate of rice and a slice of bread with him.
JJ watched as he entered the cell and placed the plate on the desk before approaching her.
He knelt next to were she lay "don't look so glum sweetheart" he spoke, reaching out and brushing JJ's hair from her face "our time together has been wonderful"
JJ merely glared at him. Locking her glare to his dark brown eyes.
"But sadly our time together is almost over" he sighed.
JJ's eyes widened involuntary. She knew what this meant. He had told her exactly what he had done to previous women he had abducted. Told her exactly how it ended.
"Jennifer my dear" he lent in close to her face "your different from the others, stronger" he pressed a light kiss to her lips and it took all of JJ's self-control not to bite his lip. "but no matter how much strength or hope you have, you are never leaving this house alive" he pulled back and looked sadly at her. He pulled a knife from his belt and pointed it at JJ "lets begin shall we? Might as well make use of the time we have left" he then plunged the knife into her thigh. Causing JJ to yelp out in pain. She would have screamed the pain was so bad but she wasn't capable of raising her voice higher then a whimper.
"Will we need you to think though anyone that JJ could have come into contact with" Morgan spoke seriously.
"I went through everyone and everything when she first went missing, but I couldn't think of anyone!" Will stressed.
"We know. But it is likely that there is someone you missed. Someone you didn't think to take notice of" Hotch spoke calmly "can you remember what she did the day she disappeared?"
"Uh she took Henry to daycare, went to work and then was meant to come home" Will spoke "thats it, i'm sure of it"
"What daycare?" Morgan asked, already dialing Garcia's cell.
"The bureau's daycare" Will replied "do you think the guy found her there?"
"Its possible" Hotch responded.
"Henry and Penelope at your serves" Garcia spoke.
"Baby girl, I need you to run the names of every employee of the bureau's daycare with every place that the previous victims went to on the day they were abducted" Morgan instructed.
"On it" Garcia chimed "you know, if you think he was at the daycare when he took JJ, then maybe Henry saw him" Garcia said.
"Do you think he would be able to recall it if he had seen something?" Will questioned.
"Maybe" Morgan muttered, deep in thought.
"Garcia, could you have Prentiss bring Henry to us?" Hotch asked their tech analyst.
"Alright, the cherub will be with you soon" with that she hung up.
Minutes later Emily carried Henry into the room. Rossi and Reid in tow.
"Have you found something?" Reid questioned Hotch.
"We think that the UNSUB was at the bureau daycare the day he abducted JJ. If he was then maybe Henry might have seen someone approach her" Morgan explained.
Emily placed Henry onto a chair and then knelt in front of him "Henry, do you remember when you last saw your Mommy?" she asked gently.
The blonde boy nodded.
"Do you know if Mommy was talking to someone?"
Henry thought for a moment. And the team started to wonder if this was pointless. Henry may be bright for his age but he is still on 3 years old.
"Mommy talk to a man before going" he muttered.
The team passed a look between them.
"Had you seen that man before?"
Henry nodded "I tink so"
"That could be him" Morgan stated. Just as his phone rang "Talk to me Garcia"
"I think I have someone" she spoke quickly "there was a guy who volunteered at the daycare up till 5 days after JJ went missing. To make things even better he volunteered at each of the places that the previous victims were seen at the day they were abducted!"
"Do you have a name?" Hotch asked, hope raising within him.
"And thats where things turn sour. The name he used was a fake"
"He used a fake name but didn't change it?" Reid mused "thats unusual. He must have figured that he wouldn't have been caught"
"Garcia try find his true identity. Any means possible" Morgan spoke before hanging up.
"We've almost got him" Rossi grinned.
Reid looked at his watch "lets hope we find who he is soon. We only have 4 days left now"
"They will find me" JJ weakly spoke.
"Who? Your team?" he laughed "in case you haven't noticed, iv'e had you here a year and they haven't a single clue as to who I am" he laughed some more.
"They will find you and they will kill you" JJ mastered all the strength she had to move herself into a sitting position.
"Jennifer. We've been thought this so many times. They WONT find me" he continued to laugh.
"Keep telling yourself that" she muttered, falling back onto the mattress. Her leg throbbed and she felt lightheaded from blood loss. She was close to passing out but refused to while he was still in the room.
"No Jennifer YOU keep telling YOURSELF that" Collins spoke harshly, getting to his feet "YOU tell yourself that when they find your corpse in a ditch and have to tell your son that his Mommy is NEVER coming home!" he shouted and then stormed from the cell and up the basement steps.
"How can I tell myself anything if i'm DEAD?!" JJ yelled after him. Feeling pretty smug when she heard his growl.
She heard him thump around upstairs. Shouting about like a mad man.
Sighing she rolled onto her side. That was when she noticed it. Just outside the cell door lay a heap of brown material. Collins coat.
JJ doubted that he was careless enough to leave it there with anything potentially useful in it but it was worth a look. JJ rolled fully onto her stomach and began crawling, well dragging herself, towards the coat. It took ages and all of her strength but she finally made it.
Breathing heavily she pulled the coat into the cell. Where she raided the pockets. She didn't allow herself to have any hope that she might get lucky and find a key or something in the pockets. But maybe she should have.
In the left hand pocket she retrieved a cell phone.
She simply stared at the device. She couldn't believe her luck. She couldn't believe it enough that she figured that she was either dreaming or this was trick. However the pain in her leg proved she was in fact awake and Collins wasn't the type to pull ticks like this.
JJ fumbled around with the phone for a minute, trying to figure out how to use it. It didn't take long and she soon lifted the device to her ear. Listening to the phone ringing. After four rings someone answered.
"Aaron Hotchner speaking"
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