Chapter Text
It was funny how much of an impact a simple phrase could have.
It was a spur of the moment decision on Reid's part, fueled by an urgency to catch Hankel before he disappeared. "JJ, Hankel's the unsub!" The realization hit JJ like a truck, and her eyes grew wide. "I'll cover the front, you go around back," he decided. JJ had tried to warn Reid of the potential dangers- it was just the two of them, and they were stuck in the middle of nowhere with no cell service, and they had no idea when Hotch and the others would get here.
But Reid was so confident in himself, and the resolve in his voice made it clear nothing she could say would stop him. His fearlessness made shame well up in JJ's throat; she was supposed to be the strong one, after all, she was older between the two of them. And Reid knew what he was doing- he always knew what he was doing. He wouldn't take any unnecessary risks. Before she could think the situation through anymore, Reid dashed off, and a goodbye died in JJ's throat.
She slowly made her way around the back, clutching her gun like her life depended on it. In a way, it did. The longer she was left alone, the more doubts that crept into her mind. What the hell do you think you're doing? You weren't trained for this. You're a damn communications liaison, Jareau. Why did you think you were qualified to do this?
Rustle.
The sound of shifting grass broke through the heavy silence. Sucking in a sharp breath, JJ turned in the direction of the sound, and her finger tensed on the trigger of her gun. At first she didn't notice anything out of the ordinary, but then she saw a flash of movement in the cornfield. "Spence!" She hissed. "He's over here!"
No response. JJ was well and truly alone.
She looked back in the direction she had come from, then at the cornfield that Hankel had disappeared into. She thought about how easy it would be to run back to where she had come from, and wait for the rest of the team to show up. That was, by far, the more logical option.
Taking a deep breath, JJ plunged into the cornfield.
At first, she didn't really know where she was going. Despite this, she moved with purpose, like she was trying to trick herself into thinking she did. It wasn't working.
"I don't want to do this anymore."
JJ froze, hearing the unmistakable wavering voice of Tobias. He sounded fragile, like a strong gust of wind might blow him away.
"Don't disrespect me, boy!" The outburst was punctuated by a harsh slap, and JJ couldn't help but jump. The tone was gruff and antagonistic- in a way, it reminded JJ of her father. What confused her was the fact that it sounded nothing like the Tobias she knew. Tobias was unconfrontational; timid, almost.
Then the voice shifted back into Tobias's. That made no sense, though. Was she missing something? JJ moved faster, remaining mindful of the noise she was making.
Then she heard a scream. Reid's scream. Gunshots went off in quick succession, and then there was silence. All concern for Tobias and her own safety lost, she ran off in Reid's direction. JJ sprinted through the field, haphazardly shoving cornstalks out of they way. Despite her best efforts, the cornstalks kept on battering her face, and they swayed back and forth, as if they were taunting her.
You failed him.
You won't get to him in time.
By the time you get there, he'll already be-
Thump.
JJ barely even registered the pain, just the fact that she was on the ground. Her face pressed against the dusty earth, and she managed to roll over so that she was propped up on her elbows. Staring down at her was no other than Tobias Hankel- and he had a gun pointed directly at her head. One shot from that, and she was dead.
"Mr. H-Hankel," she stammered, "Let's just talk about this, okay?" That was the only thing she could do- talk. He had taken her gun, and any attempt to get it back would probably end very badly.
"I tried to stop him by myself," he whimpered. His lip quivered, like he was trying not to cry. "I tried to warn them."
She nodded slowly, trying to stay as calm as possible. "It's okay, you're okay. Just take a deep breath-"
"Shoot her!" His lip stopped quivering, and his trembling hand grew steady. His voice... it was the voice of the older man she had heard earlier. Or, more accurately, it was the same man, just with... multiple personalities?
This back and forth between the submissive and dominant aspects of Tobias went on, and the whole time, JJ kept trying to gather her thoughts and form a plan. Unfortunately, the gun trained on her forehead was making it hard to think logically.
Being on the brink of death was a strange sensation. Knowing that the simple pull of a trigger could end her entire existence... it was scary. She had heard that peoples' lives flashed before their eyes before death, but that didn't happen. Instead, JJ thought of all the things she'd missed out on, and all the things she'd never be able to do if she died here.
There were little things she would never try, like hang-gliding and salsa lessons.
There were big things as well, like getting married, or even falling in love for that matter (that second part wasn't quite true, but she knew that the feeling wasn't mutual).
Her last thought as she was knocked into unconsciousness was that she could have done more.
─── ･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ. ───
Not many words were spoken during the search for Reid and JJ. The tension in the air was palpable, and they were all driven by their shared concern for their two teammates. Morgan gestured for Emily to follow him to the barn, and she simply nodded and hurried after him. Though she was putting on a neutral appearance, deep down she was panicking harder than she ever had in a long time. Reid was one of her closest friends, and JJ... she couldn't lose JJ.
As soon as she entered the barn, she felt a wave of nausea crash over her. The smell of blood was sharp in the air, and when she looked down, she saw the mangled remains of a woman, though it was barely recognizable as a human being at this point.
The next thing she noticed were the bodies. Not human corpses- dogs. Dead dogs littered the ground, and Emily knew they were the dogs that had torn apart the woman. She knew they were violent and needed to be killed, but she couldn't help but feel a little bit of remorse.
"FBI!" Emily looked at Morgan, thinking he had been the one to say it, but then she saw Reid. He was hunched over at the edge of the barn with his back against the wall, and he was pointing his gun wildly in every direction.
Morgan raised his hands up in the air, and Emily did the same. "Reid, don't shoot!" He demanded. "It's just us- Morgan and Prentiss." Slowly, Reid lowered the gun, and Emily took that as her cue to rush up to him.
There were no obvious injuries aside from a gash on his left arm, but he looked pretty shaken up. "I'm- the dogs attacked me. The door closed behind me and I saw her corpse," he began in a shaky voice. "Th-there are approximately 16 dog-related fatalities a year," he mumbled. "And I- I didn't want to be one of them. I had to kill them, Morgan, I had to-"
Emily placed a hand on his shoulder and gently turned him to face her. "Reid, where's JJ?" Maybe she was being blunt, but she couldn't stand not knowing where she was.
Reid opened and closed his mouth a few times, like he was trying to search for the right words. "We split up. I told her to go around back," he explained shakily. Not waiting for any further explanation, she beckoned for a handful of policemen to follow her and she ran out of the barn. Morgan would take good care of Reid- right now, she needed to find JJ.
It was immediately clear what had happened. Some of the cornstalks in the cornfield were pressed down, like someone had walked through them. "JJ chased Hankel into the cornfield," she stated, trying to keep the trembling out of her voice. She led the policemen through the trail of disturbed cornstalks, and she felt a building sense of dread as to what she might find at the end.
And she found... nothing.
Well, sort of. There was no body, no weapon. But it did look like there was some sort of struggle, and she felt her breath hitch in her throat when she saw a small droplet of blood on the ground. Sure, it was better than finding a pool of blood, but the fact that JJ could have gotten hurt at all made her anger levels spike.
"Hey, uh, Prentiss?" One of the policemen caught her attention, and he pointed at the ground. "Look." There was yet another trail of pressed-down cornstalks, but they weren't from someone walking through. Someone was dragged.
"A body was dragged," the policeman pointed out. Emily wanted to scream at him, wanted to yell at him for using the word "body" because that insinuated that JJ was dead, and JJ couldn't be dead because... she just couldn't.
Emily left before she said something she would regret.
She joined Morgan and Reid back by the house, where Reid was being examined by some doctors. Morgan leaned against the ambulance with his arms crossed, clearly trying to put on the "tough-guy" persona he was known for. He straightened up when he saw Emily, but his eyes narrowed when he noticed that JJ wasn't with her.
"We... we can't find JJ. It looks like she ran after Hankel into the cornfield, and someone was dragged." She couldn't bring herself to explain in any more detail, and Morgan cursed under his breath. Reid, who had looked up halfway through her explanation, visibly tense at the news.
"You can't find JJ?"
Emily could only nod in solemn silence.
She must be alive. If Hankel had intended to kill her, he would've shot her right there. But if she was being held somewhere, how long did she have before Hankel acted on his murderous tendencies?
Don't think like that. Though she had only known JJ for a short time, the woman had become a natural part of her life. Even on the mornings when she had practically nothing to look forward to, she could rely on JJ to be there. No matter what happened, JJ would be there.
Emily didn't know what would happen in a world without JJ. Perhaps the world would stop spinning. Maybe the sun would stop shining.
Deep down, Emily knew that wouldn't happen. There would be a couple news stories on her death. The reporters would describe her as a "beautiful young woman" who had "so much more to give the world". And they wouldn't be wrong- Emily was convinced that JJ could do whatever she set her mind to. She was awesome like that. But then, after a day or two, the world would forget. It would be like she had never existed in the first place.
Maybe the world wouldn't end without JJ in it- but Emily's world would.