Soulmates

Chapter 34-Dresses and Clubs

Continuation of 4x09 "52 Pickup"

Trigger Warnings: Talk of disembowlement, misogyny, kidnapping, and talks of Panic attacks.

Emily, Morgan, and Hotch drove back to the police station in silence. None of them knew what to say. All of their minds were focused on worry for Ryan. "One of us should have stayed with him." Morgan, who was driving, said suddenly. "He wanted to be alone." Emily said. Though, she also immediately regretted not fighting to stay with Ryan. But she knew that he was probably embarrassed and knew how stubborn he could be when it came to doing things by himself. 

Hotch looked at her in the rearview mirror, "You said that you'd never seen him like this before, so he's never had this type of thing happen before?" He asked. Emily shook her head, "Not that I know of." She responded. She liked to think that she would know if something like this had happened before. However, Emily knew there was no real way to be sure. 

Well, she guessed there was one way. Morgan sighed, "What do you think it was that caused it?" He asked. Emily shook her head, "Hell, if I know, probably has to do with what Viper said." She responded. "It could be anything." Hotch added. "Sometimes an attack like that can happen out of nowhere." He added. 

"It could be because of repressed emotions." Morgan suggested. Emily heard that and instantly thought that could be it. "That's a distinct possibility." Hotch muttered. Morgan looked at Emily through the rearview mirror, "Emily..." He hesitated. "Has Ryan ever said anything about talking to anybody about his childhood?" Emily didn't answer the question at first.

 "Besides Linda? No." She finally said. "Remember when he said he said Linda was the only person he ever told." Emily then reminded. "Maybe he should talk to a professional." Morgan suggested. "Good luck trying to convince Ryan." Emily said, knowing that if Ryan was hesitant to talk to her about it, he wouldn't want to talk to a shrink about it.

The rest of the drive was spent back in silence. They parked outside the station and headed inside. They met up with the other team members, and Rossi was the first to notice them. "Hey, how'd it go?" He asked. Reid and Todd then turned to them. "Well, let's just say Viper is lucky to still have his balls." Emily said. 

Rossi raised an eyebrow, "That bad?" He asked. "Oh yeah. The guy has a high opinion of himself and sees a woman as nothing but prey to man being a predator." Morgan informed. Todd scoffed, "Glad I didn't have to deal with him." She said. "Don't be too glad. We may need to come back to him." Hotch said.

Reid then noticed the missing person. "Where's Ryan?" He asked. Morgan, Hotch, and Emily shared a look. "Things got heated between Viper and Ryan, so he went to cool off." Hotch said. It was a half-truth, but there was a silent agreement between the three agents not to speak of what happened afterward. Rossi could tell there was more, but he didn't press it.

"I'm gonna call Garcia to see if she can find Viper's real identity." Hotch announced and went to go make the call. Reid had a curious look on his face, "When you say things got heated, what exactly does that mean?" Reid asked. "Things got heated. End of story!" Emily said shortly. 

"Well, I mean -" Morgan cut Reid off. "Kid, trust me on this. Don't ask questions." He said sternly. Rossi was even more curious now, along with worry. "I need to go make a call." Emily announced and went out. Rossi made eye contact with Morgan and motioned his head. 

They went to another area of the police precinct. Once they were alone and nobody else was around, Rossi asked, "What's going on?" "What do you mean?" Morgan asked back. "It's more than just things got heated between Viper and Ryan. what also happened?" Rossi repeated. Morgan sighed, "It's not my place to say, Rossi." He said before walking off. Now Rossi was really worried.