Date night - Part 4
Tara remembered her first day at the BAU. She was nervous, of course. She wanted this job more than anything, but her interview with Hotch had been put on hold because the team was working on an active case. That was, until Tara had, somehow, ended up wrapped up in the case as well and helped them out, enough that Hotch had decided to hire her on the spot.
Tara had never felt happier in her life, but, since she was the new one in the team, she had tried to prove herself worthy of her position, which was how she ended up finding herself late at night in the office that day, trying to figure out the best way to do her new job.
"Oh, hey." She remembered Lily saying as she left her office that night and looked over at Tara, still hunched over the papers in her new desk. "Tara Lewis, isn't it? I'm Lily Scottley. I don't think we have been properly introduced yet, with all the mess of the case going around, but I did take a peek at your file since I was helping Hotch with possible new people for our open slot and it really is impressive."
"Thank you." Tara had said then. "I heard a lot about you too. It's a pleasure to meet you."
"Oh, I hope you've heard all good things."
"Of course." Tara had smiled, before frowning when she noticed a little bandage on her arm. "What happened there?"
"A bomb went off nearby. I scratched my arm on the pavement, but I'm good." She had shrugged as if it was nothing. "I heard you did a great job on the phone earlier."
"Oh, yeah, I... I did what I thought was right."
"That's why Hotch hired you." Lily said. "Smarts go a long way of course, but, in this job, you need to have a good gut instinct. If you have that, you really don't have to worry about proving yourself to anyone, Tara. And you especially don't need to stay here late at night every night."
"You're staying late at night." Tara had pointed out as Lily laughed, with a shrug of her shoulder.
"I'm pretty much the definition of do what say, but don't do what I do." She had joked. "But in any case, welcome aboard, Agent Lewis. Whenever you need me, my office's door is always open."
Lily had smiled as they shook hands and Tara remembered how safe she had felt just then. Lily was like that. She had the most impressive curriculum, and not just academically speaking - even though it was obviously impressive -, but also being part of the famous BAU for so long, she had quite the range of solved cases under her belt, all the while still being a rather calming presence and always making sure Tara felt comfortable and accepted in the team.
A while back, Tara had even made a joke about the fact that Lily Scottley was possibly the youngest person at the FBI with the most amount of solved cases and, as impressive as that was, right now, it really wasn't helping them at all.
"Lily's worked too much." Tara said, sitting on the table of the conference room with Luke, Matt and Garcia as they all went through files and files of cases that Lily had been apart of. "She's pointed guns at too many people. She's arrested too many people. This is impossible..."
"It can't be." Garcia shook her head, her fingers frantically flying over her keyboard as she tried to find any type of overlap with Cat's prison staff with all the other possible unsubs that the three of them found. "We have to find something. Anything... We have to, we..."
"We will." Luke assured Garcia gently, noticing how she started to spiral a little, too worried for her missing best friend, but far too valuable for this team to step back. "But Tara is right. This is gonna take too long. Lily have doing all of the official reports on our cases for the local P.D.s for almost a decade now. Everything that goes out to the public has gone through her first. If this unsub is seeking revenge for how the media portrayed him, it could be virtually anyone."
"We have too little to go by." Matt added. "Male, big, strong... That's all good, but that still leaves us too many cases."
"Maybe JJ and Rossi got something else from Eleanor and Shawn." Tara said. "There has to be something else."
"Well, from the video we saw earlier, the unsub used physical violence against Shawn." Matt said. "I mean, he threw a mean punch across his face as a means of torture. Why? Didn't he have access to a gun?"
"I don't think he wanted to kill Shawn." Luke shook his head. "Beat him up, sure, but not kill. Otherwise he would have. And Eleanor... She had a bruised eye when we found her, but nothing else. And Alec was fine. So this is deliberate, thought through."
"It's almost as if the unsub is doing only what he needs to do." Tara said. "Maybe he had been working with Cat, but his grudge is definitely against Lily personally."
"And now he has her..." Garcia cried. "Now he has her and, oh... Oh my God, what if... What if she's already... What if..."
"Don't think like that." Matt said. "She's not dead."
Not yet, he thought. If the unsub went through all this trouble just to get his hands on Lily, he wouldn't kill her in less than a few hours. Torture her, sure, but not kill her. Matt knew all that, and, by the looks on Luke's and Tara's eyes he knew they knew it too, but they didn't dare say anything to Garcia about it. She was too fragile now. So, instead, Matt chose another route.
"She's strong, that one." Matt said, as Garcia nodded. "She'll find a way to survive. She always does."
And Matt meant it. He had seen her strength before first hand, after all, and, every time she had had to rise above, she had done it, with a smile on her lips and light in her eyes.
Matt wasn't sure how she did it, if he was being honest. He knew all she had gone through and he could only imagine all the things she saw with her job, but Lily still managed to be kind and fun to be around. Especially around children. Hers or otherwise, her heart always showed whenever she was with children and Matt would never truly forget that one time, a few years ago when she was still on her maternity leave from having Alec. A case had come around and Kirsty was still in a meeting at the company she worked for, so Matt was in a bit of a situation. His usual nanny wasn't available at the time, so he did the only thing he could think of at the moment: he called Lily. Yes, he had been embarrassed at the time - after all, the maternity leave was meant to give her some time to rest and enjoy her own son, not look after four young hurricanes that weren't even hers to begin with - but Matt hadn't even finished explaining the situation to Lily, she was already on board.
"Yeah, I'll be there in half an hour." She had said.
And, that day, she had entertained the kids alright, playing with them and making sure they ate properly. She had even helped David with his geography homework. When Kirsty got home, all the kids could talk about was how cool auntie Lily was and ask her if she'd ever babysit them again. Matt had laughed when his wife had told him that, but, as soon as the case was over, he had made a point of buying Lily a new book - one he had hoped she hadn't read yet - and head over to her house to give it to her.
"Oh, Matt..." She had said, as soon as he offered her the gift. "You really didn't need to."
"I know." Matt had smiled then. "But the kids loved spending time with you and you were kind enough to help me out, so I wanted to."
"Thank you." She had smiled then, looking over at the cover of the book. "Oh, I was meaning to buy this one to read later. Thank you so much, Matt."
"I'm glad you liked it, Lily." Matt had said. "You know Chloe and Lily can't stop talking about Alec. They loved your baby."
"Oh, they're sweet." Lily had said then. "Energetic alright, but they were so kind to Alec. They wanted to play with him, but Alec is a little more reserved. They understood that quickly, though, and just sat down by him at one point, playing and speaking softly to him to make him smile. They are angels. All of your children, really. You should be proud."
"I am." Matt had nodded. "And if Alec is anything like you, I'm sure he will give you nothing but pride as well."
And, God, how he had. Alec was just three, but he was such an intelligent kid - well, no surprise considering who his parents were. But not only that. He was a very polite kid and very kind, always worrying about everyone, especially daddy and even more with mommy. So he knew Alec was suffering now, not having Lily around. And if that wasn't enough of a reason for him to give his all to this case as he tried to figure out who took Lily from them, he wasn't sure anything else would be.
"Are JJ and Rossi coming back?" He asked, desperate for any more clues that could help them with the case.
"We're here." Rossi called as he walked with JJ and Emily in the conference room. "But I don't think we'll be much help."
"Oh, no..." Garcia cried.
"What do you have?" JJ asked, moved to stand behind her friend with a hand on her shoulders to try and comfort her some.
"We narrowed down possible unsubs." Tara said. "Males that fit the description even a little. Ones that weren't killed on the cases, of course, but it is still too many. Lily's name is associated with too many reports and cases."
"Even ones we didn't really work in." JJ sighed.
Because she knew. She had been a liaison before, so she knew all of the things that Lily did and that the rest of the team didn't even know about. All the cases she saw and that didn't even get to their table, the cases she consulted by herself when she could help without the rest of the team, the reports she had to make for the policemen and the media... She had a lot more work to do than most of them had and most of them realized. Which was why, every once in a while, JJ made a point of going over to Lily's office with a coffee and a willing ear for her.
"Lily? Are you okay?" JJ remembered one specific day when she had gone to check on her only to find the woman on the verge of tears, almost four years before.
"Jay..." She had whispered, her lips forming in a pout as JJ rushed over to her and pulled her into a hug as she cried. "Oh, JJ... People are so... So horrible."
"I know..." JJ whispered back at her, running a hand through her hair. "I know... It's awful, isn't it?"
"All those pictures... All those women... It never ends. Everyday I have more and more requests of help from all over the country and it never... It never ends. I can't help everybody."
"I know..." JJ sympathized. "I know how it feels, trust me. But you don't have to do this alone, Lily."
"It's my job."
"Doesn't mean I can't help."
"Jay..."
"Give me some of those files." JJ had said. "I'll take a look at them for you."
"JJ, no."
"Give some to me." JJ insisted, and she remembered the way Lily had sent her such a genuine, grateful smile. "I'm here for you if you need me, Lily. Just as much as you have always been for me."
JJ had meant it then and she meant it now. Lily had always been a loyal, good friend to her and JJ would forever be thankful for her. So, it wouldn't be now that she'd leave her alone.
"We've been tracking all of them down, seeing what prisons they are in and if there had been a break out at some point, but nothing came up." Luke said. "We were kind of hoping Eleanor and her husband would be able to give you some more information."
"Well, not much, actually." Rossi said. "Eleanor did say the unsub did seem to enjoy the violence and she also said he used a piece of wood once to hit Shawn."
"This doesn't make any sense." Tara shook her head. "This whole thing... This whole thing seems to be calculated, but the kind of violence inflicted on Shawn... It's brutal."
"And why just Shawn?" Emily asked. "Why not Ellie? Or Alec? If this is about Lily, hurting them would hurt her more."
"This unsub is all about the physical, though." Matt said. "Inflicting psychological pain just won't do."
"That means... That means he wants to... Hurt her?" Garcia asked. "Physically?"
"Most likely." Emily nodded.
"Oh, no..."
"We need to find her soon." Emily said. "If what the unsub did to Shawn was just to show us what he could do and his target has been Lily all along, she's in danger. We need to figure out now who this unsub is."
"I think I can help with that." A new voice was heard from the door and, at that, everyone stopped for a moment to look. "I think I know who took Lily."
"Spence..." JJ whispered. "What are you doing here?"
"George is home with Alec. They're safe." Spencer said, already walking into the conference room and going through the files Luke, Tara, Matt and Penelope had been working with. "They'll be fine for a while, but right now, I need... I just have to..."
"Reid, take it easy." Rossi warned, but Spencer didn't listen to him.
"I can't take it easy..." Spencer mumbled, still going through the files. "I need to find it. Need to make sure."
"Make sure of what?" Luke asked.
"That my suspicions are right." He said. "I... I think I know who took Lily."
"What do you mean?" Emily asked, as Spencer pulled out the file he had been looking for and opened it. "Reid, slow down and talk to us. Do you know who took Lily? Did they contact you? Reid, how do you know who took her."
"Actually, I think I can answer that for you."
Another new voice sounded from the door and, this time, the whole team gasped. They hadn't heard that voice in so long. Hell, some of them thought they would never hear it again. Especially not in the bureau. But, alas, there he was, standing by the door of the conference room with clothes much more casual than most of the team had ever seen him in: Aaron Hotchner.
"Hotch." Emily mumbled, absolutely shocked. "Hotch... What... What are you doing here? It's... It's the middle of the night."
"I can explain everything. And I will." Hotch nodded, looking over at his old team before letting his eyes fall on Spencer who had a file in hands, but kept his eyes on Hotch. Sad, worried eyes, Hotch realized, which meant that their theory had been right. "Did you find him?"
"No." Spencer shook his head. "I can't find the file."
"We pulled every file that had Lily's name in it." Luke said. "It's all there."
"Not that one." Spencer said.
"Her office." Hotch said. "Maybe she kept it there. Maybe she wanted to keep it close."
"Right." Spencer nodded, wasting no time in rushing out of the conference room, most likely toward Lily's office instead."
"Spence..." JJ called, only to be ignored before frowning as she looked over at Hotch. "What's going on?"
"Sit down." Hotch said, feeling a bit awkward giving out orders to a team that wasn't his anymore. Still, he was relieved to see them obeying with no questions. Not because it was him, but because, if he had a lead on Lily's whereabouts, they should listen to it. "I'll explain everything."