BULLETS | JEMILY

where's emily

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Love starts as a feeling, but to continue is a choice. And I find myself choosing you, more and more every day.

Justin Wetch - Bending the Universe

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{JENNIFER}

I don't actually know what happened. One minute I'm heading to the door to collect a pizza, and then I wake up with a pounding in my head and no idea where Emily is. As I slowly stand up, I call out her name, first calmly and then start to get more and more panicked. I rush through her entire apartment, but she's not here. "Dammit."  I grab my phone and dial Hotch who answers immediately. "Aaron, Emily's gone. She's not at her apartment and I don't know where she is." "Gone? Someone's taken her?" He questions. I rub my forehead as I try to think. "Yes, no, I don't know, maybe. She was here, and I went to get the pizza, and then I just woke up. I don't remember anything else, but she wouldn't just leave like this without saying where she was going." "Alright, I'll send the team over. Are you okay?" "Just a headache, I think, I'll be fine. Please, just hurry." I reply whilst anxiously pacing around the room, biting my fingernails. I picked up Emily's bad habit, but I feel closer to her doing it.

I check the apartment one more time just to make sure I'm not  going crazy. There's no signs of any sort of struggle but no clues as to where she might be. The clock on the wall reads 5:42 AM. How long have I been out for? The wine glasses are still on the coffee table where we left them and I'm still wearing the robe from earlier. I quickly change into Emily's oversized FBI hoodie and some black leggings just before the team arrive. 

Morgan's first through the door, absolutely ballistic. "How could you let this happen, Jennifer? She was right here!" He yells. I back away from him and sink into the couch, afraid that if I so much as breathe, I'll just burst into an infinite stream of tears. Spence is much more sympathetic and rubs my back lightly before inspecting Emily's apartment. "You should get your head checked out." Hotch greets as he walks in. "No, no, I need a cognitive. Please, I need to find Emily. Whilst it's still in my head." "JJ you could have a concussion." "Hotch, please. I promise I will get it checked out afterwards." I say stubbornly. He gives in. "Alright, let's sit down. But the moment it gets too much..." All he needs to do is give his stern 'Hotch' stare and I nod slowly. "I promise." 

We sit on the couch, staring at the city that's just starting to wake up and come to life. "Alright, just take a deep breath and close your eyes." "I know, I know." I say impatiently. "What were you and Emily talking about last night?" 

~~~

"Em I think you have a stalker." Emily shakes her head and smiles. "No, nobody likes me that much to stalk me, unless it's secretly you." "Em, I'm being serious." I say. She starts chewing the inside of her cheek, a sign of nerves. "Fine, I'll get Garcia on it in the morning. First things first, I'm starving."  We sit back down on the sofa and I pull out my phone. "Pizza sound okay?" "Of course, babe, order whatever you want." She replies with a kiss and a smile. "How about some more wine?" I hold out my glass with pleading puppy dog eyes and she sighs but heads to the kitchen to refill our glasses. I settle on simple pepperoni pizza and wait for Emily to return. She settles back down beside me and hands me a full glass. "All I'll say is there better not be a case tomorrow. Not with all this alcohol." "You mean today." I giggle. It's already past midnight. "Whatever." She rolls her eyes but laughs at the same time. Her laugh always fills my stomach with butterflies because it's just so pure and gorgeous. "How much longer?" Emily whines as her stomach starts to rumble. Right on cue, the buzzer sounds and I stand up to answer it. "Pizza for 5b." "Come on up." I let the delivery man up and grab some cash from my bag. Emily joins me and takes the money out of my hand. "It's my treat, JJ, no arguments." This time it's me who rolls their eyes. "Fine. Do you want to sort out plates?" She disappears and I wait for the guy to knock on the door. For a delivery man he sure took a long time to walk up some stairs. Finally, there's a loud knock on the door and I open the door only to be hit on the head with something.

~~~

I open my eyes quickly. "That's it, that's all I remember." "Alright, that's good, JJ. Now, take a step back. Can you remember the pizza company that you ordered from?" "Uh, it's Emily's usual place. Giovanni's, I think. It's only a couple of blocks from here." "Did you recognize the delivery man? Was there anything unusual or anything that put you on edge?" I close my eyes again, determined to give Hotch something useful. "Uh, I didn't know him, not straight away at least. But nothing seemed out of place. Except he walked slowly. It took him ages to walk up the stairs to Emily's apartment, I was waiting for him by the door." "Can you remember if he had a uniform on? Or a nametag?" "I-No, wait..." In my head flashes an image of a man with stubble on his chin and short dark hair. He's wearing the blue and red uniform with the baseball cap too and a badge. "Dan. It said Dan, I'm pretty sure." I say, opening my eyes again. Hotch is nodding reassuringly. "That's good, JJ. That's really good. Now can you please go to the ambulance outside to get checked out?" "Fine. And Hotch, please find her." 

As I approach the door, I turn around to take one last look of Emily's apartment and I can hear Morgan's footsteps behind me. "Jennifer..." "Save it, I don't need your judgement right now." I say. I'm not angry at him, I'm just too sad and exhausted to deal with his anger right now. I miss Emily too much and the pounding in my head is getting even more intense. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have shouted. Hey, JJ..." I don't remember him saying anything else because my legs suddenly give out and I feel myself falling to the ground. The last thing I see before my eyelids shut is the blur of legs and shoes as people rush towards me.

{EMILY}

The first thing I realise is that I am not in my apartment and JJ is not beside me. Two very bad signs. It's darker than it should be, but not pitch black. I can just make out the outlines of some furniture and the silhouette of a window behind shut curtains. So it's someone else's house. But who's? How did I get here? Is JJ okay? What's going on? All these thoughts rush through my head as I try to recall what happened, but I'm coming up empty. 

"Hello? Is anyone there?" I shout, listening for footsteps or breathing. It's silent so I guess I'm alone. I stand up and walk slowly towards the window. Opening the curtains, it's starting to brighten up outside so it must be early morning. With the light flooding in to the room, I realise that it's actually a bedroom. There's a bed and a wardrobe and two doors. One of the doors leads to a bathroom, I discover, which has a window but it's locked. The other door, which I assume leads to the rest of the house, is also locked. Typical. "Hello? What do you want?" I shout again and start banging on the door. This time, I am rewarded with the sound of heavy footsteps. I'm guessing it's a man. I back away from the door as I hear the key turn in the lock.

My jaw drops as the man walks in and lifts his head. 

~~~

Guess who the stalker is.