the art of saying goodbye

ashes to ashes

"JJ, I'm sorry, I know I promised the team a restful night, but I just got a call. The police say that there's a bomb threat, and they're holding someone hostage. They're going to blow up the building-- possibly kill the people inside, but we might be able to evacuate some. Be there. Soon. It'll blow up if we aren't all there fast enough."

JJ had just hung up the phone and was pulling on her coat. She heard a patter of footsteps. She turned around. 

"Henry?" She whispered. "What are you doing awake, I thought you and daddy were sleeping in the blanket fort tonight?"

"I heard you come downstairs. I wanted to tell you bye." He whispered back.

Did she really go to work that often?

"Oh, baby..." She smiled sadly and pulled him into a tight hug. "I'll get some time off soon, okay? Then I can be home for a while and we can have so much fun."

He nodded. "Bring Uncle Spencer. This time I'll beat him in chess without him letting me." 

JJ laughed quietly and stood back up. "Go on back to bed. When daddy wakes up, tell him where I went. Make sure he knows I'm sorry." She gave him a kiss on the forehead.

He ran back to the living room where she had come home earlier to Will and Henry making a blanket fort. It was honestly impressive: it covered the whole living room, and they had filled it with lights, and-- well it was basically just the living room but with blanket ceilings and pillow walls.

She hurried out to the car and typed the address into her GPS without thinking. She had done this how many times before? Every time she had to do a hostage negotiation, she went completely numb. She didn't really think about anything, her mind was blank; it was like stage fright. But this would happen to any sane person: it's hard not to be nervous with someone's fragile life in your hands.

But Agent Jareau delivered once she was negotiating-- so they kept sending her in.

She arrived shortly after leaving her house, her body tingling as the numbness began to wear off. Fire trucks, police cars, and ambulances surrounded the building. Officers and paramedics rushed around, people lined the barriers.

"Did they evacuate?" JJ walked briskly to Hotch's side. 

"Yeah, everybody's out, except..." He sighed, looking up at the building. JJ hadn't seen him so visibly worried in a long time. "I know there's a hostage. We'll get him out. Or her. We can do this." 

Hotch nodded. "Reid's the hostage." He said. He didn't giver her time to react and continued, "We're getting set up over there in that tent. We don't have too much time; let's go."

But JJ couldn't go. She couldn't move. She looked back up at the apartment building. There was his window. What was he doing inside? Was he asleep, completely unaware of the danger? Unconscious and hurt? Was he tied up, awake, unable to move, so he could watch himself burn to death, and feel himself die?

She ran to the tent.

"How do we know this genius plan will work?" Harry stared at Spencer, who lay motionless on a bed in his cell. 

"Because I know how profilers work. They follow evidence: evidence and circumstance is all they have. They follow the trail we leave." Leo crossed his arms. He felt powerful. This was his plan, and it would work.

"So. What trail did you leave?" Mark asked, leaning on the bars of the cell, and eyeing the still doctor.

"They'll start with the profile." Leo answered confidently. "I wait for them to call me. I give them an entirely different story. This is for revenge. They'll be looking for someone with a criminal record, someone disorganized, with experience in intricate constructions: a criminal wouldn't order a bomb. But they'll also think that we are sloppy and unorganized, because I called his whole team. They think that I didn't think about blocking any tracing, so they would know it was Spencer's phone I called the police with. Also, I'll leave a false trail, so when they have their tech goddess track this plain burner phone phone call,  they'll go to a fake location with 'evidence' of a hasty departure. They will think they know it's about revenge. Once they are all sure that the doctor is dead, they will continue to investigate, and using this false profile we left them. They will slowly lose motivation and energy, and the case will go unsolved."