Psychopathy

Chapter 5- How It All Went Down

But all that meant was that they had to do everything to find Ciara because JJ wasn't sure Reid would be able to keep going if they couldn't. If they were too late and found Ciara dead- well, that might just kill him, too.

"So, to start, the fingerprints on the bat belong to Ciara." JJ was forced out of her head by Garcia's voice. Right. The analysis of the fingerprints and the blood. Hopefully it would tell them a story they didn't already know.

"And the blood?" Rossi asked.

"Well, that's where things get... well, interesting isn't really the right word, given the circumstances, but I think you can understand the emotion I'm going for. The blood on the floor is, unfortunately, also Ciara's. The blood on the bat, though, belongs to one of our Unsubs, but even more unfortunately, they weren't able to make an I.D. off of it," Garcia explained, and Akilah laughed under her breath.

"She went out swinging. Atta girl," she said softly, shaking her head. It was an incredibly small comfort, but it was a comfort nonetheless. It was good to know that Ciara had at least gotten a few swings in and had hurt her abductor enough to draw blood. It wasn't much, but JJ would take what she could get. "So, where does that leave us? Anywhere?"

"Red Fury, did I say I was done?" Garcia asked, and Akilah raised an eyebrow. There was more? JJ and Prentiss had already shared their victimology, Morgan and Rossi had shared what they had gotten from MPD, Garcia had shared her piece, and Reid, Hotch, and Akilah had shared what they discovered. What else was there to go over? Now was when they began to profile and theorize, and JJ would probably start to come up with a media strategy.

"You have something else?" Reid asked, almost sounding hopeful. Well, JJ could understand why. Anything that could possibly get them one step closer to Ciara was worth being hopeful about.

"That camera you sent me? It was absolutely no match against my technical prowess. I skipped through all the footage until last night after you guys got back, and I... well, I have the footage of Ciara's abduction. Would you like to see it?" Garcia asked, and JJ could almost hear Garcia begging for the answer to be no. She never was good at watching people suffer, especially people close to her. Not that it was a bad thing- quite the opposite, in fact. But she probably didn't want to watch the events that led up to Ciara's abduction and whatever caused the blood on the floor. Or, rather, watch them again, since she probably already had.

"Yes. Please." Akilah was the first one to answer, and slowly, everyone put in their agreement, including JJ. Reid was the last one to answer, but even he eventually nodded. As Garcia started to pull up the footage, JJ moved closer to Reid, sitting beside him.

"Are you sure you want to watch this?" she asked softly, and Reid shook his head.

"I don't want to. I don't want to watch Ciara get hurt. I'd rather do anything else- but I have to know. I have to know what happened," he answered, and JJ frowned softly at the pain in his voice. He truly was stuck between a rock and a hard place. She couldn't think of any words to make the situation better, so she simply squeezed his shoulder softly, letting him know that she was there. He gave her a small smile, before looking at the screen where the footage was playing.

The angle of the camera gave them a clear shot of the bathroom and the hallway where the blood was found. At first, nothing was happening, but after about 30 seconds, Ciara's head popped out of the bathroom, looking up and down the hallway cautiously. Well, if she had known what was about to happen, that would make sense- she was probably looking to see if the Unsubs were there yet.

Slowly, she stepped out of the bathroom, dressed in a bathrobe with hair dripping wet, and crossed to her room, out of view of the camera. After a moment, she came back into the frame, clutching the bat to her chest tightly. She disappeared into the bathroom again, and when she stepped into the hallway again, the bathrobe was gone, replaced by her signature long-sleeved shirt and a pair of leggings.