heart like yours (jennifer jareau)

3. eighteen

AN: hey guys!

big one again today with 7200 words! and it's in jj's pov!

welcome to the chapter where we officially find out how delilah ended up in the basement with dylan!

so as you can imagine we've got a few trigger warnings, but i hope you all enjoy and this helps you understand delilah a little bit more <3

TW:
mentions of abductions
serial killers
mentions of child abuse
mentions of sexual assault
mentions of murder
mentions of torture

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"am i supposed to be grateful to have survived this?" - brenna twohy

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JJ was in Delilah's childhood bedroom.

It almost felt like an out of body experience, what was happening. Delilah was missing, had been abducted with her nephew by a serial killer just less than an hour after talking to JJ over the phone.

It felt like JJ's heart had frozen in her chest as soon as Delilah didn't pick up her calls in the early hours of this morning. She'd called at six thirty, and again at seven, and nothing. Her location had not changed from the Highlands. JJ had thought telling Nora and Colin about Ziggy being missing was what was holding her up, because she knew how traumatising it would be for the couple to find out that their dead son's best friend now had a missing nephew.

And then Liv had turned up at work in tears, and JJ had just known it was something bad. She hadn't been able to breathe through the flight, or the drive, or the talks with the team and Nora and Colin about search parties and choppers and dogs.

But being in Delilah's childhood home, seeing the portrait of her dead mother above the fireplace, seeing the posters on Liv and Eli's doors, seeing inside the room Delilah had grown up in, it was the weirdest part, yet.

It was nothing like she'd imagined, yet everything that she'd imagined. The room was almost frozen in time from the day Delilah had left, with homework still out on the desk, and a calendar still open to August, crosses marked on the dates until August 31st, 1990.

Though, a quick calculation in JJ's head figured that Delilah would've been twelve at this time. She'd thought Delilah left the Highlands at thirteen, so, it didn't make sense, but maybe she'd just never bothered to change the calendar.

JJ looked around, spotting the toy chest at the end of Delilah's bed. She crouched down in front of it, frowning when she saw the disturbed dirt on the top of it.

Somebody had opened this recently.

JJ lifted the lid, squinting down at the Barbie doll at the top of the pile.

It looked exactly like the Barbie doll they'd found in the Katie Jacobs case. She'd been getting molested by her uncle.

This Barbie screamed the same thing. The SLUT written on the back in childlike handwriting made JJ's stomach turn. She wobbled to her feet, closing the toy chest over as she left Delilah's room.

"Uh, guys?" JJ said shakily, heading down the hallway to Liv's room.

Liv and Emily turned to look at her, Emily's arms wrapped around Liv's waist. Liv frowned when she saw the Barbie.

"Her Barbie," Liv mumbled, taking it from JJ.

"Liv-" Emily started.

"I know," Liv muttered.