𝐫𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫, 𝗲𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗲𝗻𝘁𝗶𝘀𝘀

𝟎𝟗𝟓

"𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎 𝚂𝚑𝚘𝚝𝚜"
ᴀᴜᴛʜᴏʀ
𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘩𝘰𝘵𝘤𝘩𝘯𝘦𝘳 𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘴𝘦𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘥

     THE TEAM'S hearts sink as they all drive faster. Derek's mind races as he slams the gas pedal to the floor. Rossi looks over at him, not wanting to stop him, but also knowing that he is at risk of acting recklessly.

"He can hear us, right?" Aaron asks Haley.

"Yes," Haley says, "I am so sorry. Oh God, please tell Emily that I'm so sorry."

Emily shakes her head as a tear falls down her cheek. She has no idea how her daughter got there, but she knows it cannot be Haley's fault.

"Haley, show him no weakness, no fear," Aaron says as he furiously drives.

"I know," Haley replies as she wipes a tear away, "Sam told me all about him.  Is he, uh—"

"No, Sam is fine," Hotch states.

"Aaron, Aaron, Aaron," Foyet sighs sarcastically, "Is that why your marriage broke up?  Because you're a liar?"

"Don't listen to him, Haley,"

"I have Sam's service phone right here," Foyet says as he holds up the U.S. Marshal's phone, "They sent out a mass text about his death.  You can take a look if you want."

"He's trying to scare you."

"Did you even tell her what this was about?" Foyet asks, "About the deal?"

"He's just trying to make you angry."

"Well, she should be.  She's gonna..." He trails off before reaching over and covering Jack's ears, "D-I-E because of your inflated ego," He finishes his sentence, making Noah lower her brows out of anger.

"And what about you?" Foyet asks as he looks at Noah, "You think you're here by accident?  You think you just bumped into them?"

Emily furrows her brow as she tries to gauge whether he is talking to Noah or not.  Her heart pounds as she listens to him go on.

"You know, I heard you're a real hassle with some anger issues," Foyet says, confirming everyone's theory of who he is talking to, "I hear you're working on it though.  Dr. Stephenson, is it?  You know his notepad had a lot to say about you. Between the family trauma, abuse, being in love with that girl, and living your whole life feeling unwanted, I didn't think it would be this easy to get you to help someone."

Noah just glares at the man, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of a response or outburst.  She knows that if she does one step wrong, it could all go south — not that there is much more that could go wrong anyways.

"JJ, please drive faster," Emily says and covers her mouth to hide her tears.

"Ignore him," Hotch says.

"I'm sure you don't want them to know this part either," Foyet speaks, "You know, all he had to do was stop looking for me and you wouldn't be in this mess?"

"Don't react," Hotch says quickly.

Noah looks down at her feet in anger.  She knows that it is probably true, but whether Foyet would have disappeared or not, she is not so sure.  He would probably just go terrorize someone else.  The teen turns to look out the window again, wondering when the team is going to get here — when her mother is going to get here.

Noah analyzes the window, seeing that it is a cottage-style window and it will only open a little bit.  Using context clues, she assumes all the windows in the house are like that.  She is not sure how to get Jack out of the room, but even if she does, the safest plan would be to lock themselves in a room upstairs.  The only thing is, she cannot drop Jack out of a second-floor window, even if she dropped pillows on the ground first.