daylight (jemily)

Chapter Thirty Nine

Emily knocked on Hotch's door, opening it slightly. "You wanted to see me?" she asked.

"Sit," he replied, shutting the case file he was looking at.

Emily shut the door behind her and took a seat in the chair across from his desk. "Everything alright?"

"Yes," he nodded. "Forensics ran the letters again after you gave them that keychain. There were markings in the third envelope that matched its shape perfectly. He sent her the keychain in that envelope."

Emily frowned. "If she got it then, why wouldn't she remember it?"

"My best guess is that it's connected to a memory of something he said the night of the attack. The letter didn't mention a lily pad at all, so she already knew the meaning behind it when she received it. I think he said something to her that night and when she saw the keychain, it started coming back to her."

"So she hid the keychain and her brain blocked it out again," Emily finished. It made sense. Honestly, she was glad it was that compared to the idea that he was in their house again.

"Thank you," she said, about to stand up. She stopped before she did. "Why are you telling me this instead of JJ?"

Hotch glanced down and back up again. "It's up to you if you want to tell her about this," he sighed.

"You don't think I should?" Emily asked. "Doesn't she have a right to know?"

"I think it's the matter of how much good it will do compared to the bad. This isn't really much information, there's not a whole lot we can do with it. If you tell her, it may upset her more and lead her to further block the memory out."

Emily nodded, weighing her options. "I'm going to think about it," she decided. "Thanks, Hotch."

She got up and walked back downstairs to the bullpen.

JJ looked up from her paperwork when she saw Emily walked down from the office. "What'd Hotch want to talk to you about?" she asked.

Emily had to make a choice fast. Lie and protect her feelings, or tell her the truth and risk her getting hurt from it?

The words began to come out of her mouth before she could even think. "It was just some detail about one of my files. Nothing serious," she said. She was shocked how fast she had just lied to her wife.

"Oh, okay," JJ nodded. She didn't think anything of it. Why would she?

It was almost midday now and Emily already felt tired. With everything going on and how much stress she was under, she got exhausted easily.

The crappy kitchen coffee wasn't cutting it anymore. She got up and grabbed her stuff. "I'm going out to grab a cup of coffee. Want one?" Emily asked as she passed by JJ's desk.

"No, I'm fine, thanks," she shook her head. "Alright, I'll be back in a minute," Emily nodded.

She headed down the elevator and out to the parking garage. She began to walk to her car, getting the odd sensation that someone was watching her.

Her keys in one hand, she placed the other on her holstered gun. Was she just being paranoid?

It was silent enough to hear a pin drop until she heard her keys fall to the ground. A rag was gripped over her face and something hard hit her head. She passed out before she even had the chance to realize what happened.

___

When Emily woke up she had to adjust her eyes to the darkness. She was in a basement, hung up by chains from her wrists.

Her head was sore and her arms ached, but other than that it was nothing too serious. As she came to, she tried to remember what happened. Her hand was on her gun and it was so quiet, how could someone have grabbed her like that.

She heard noise coming from upstairs, and soon a door opened. A man walked down to face her. When he finally looked up, she instantly realized who it was. It was James Collins.

It was just now occurring to her that she'd never seen him in real life. She'd only poured over pictures from files. Even so, she instantly recognized him.

Thoughts raced through her mind as she tried to remember everything she knew about him. Why did he take her?

She felt stupid when it finally clicked in her brain. He was in love with JJ, and so was she. In his mind, taking her out of the equation must be the only way to have JJ all to himself.

"How'd you know I was going to come down to the garage?" Emily asked hoarsely. James chuckled. "I was watching when you drove in with Jennifer. I hid in the car next to yours when you left. I was going to wait until the end of the day, you coming down alone was just a lucky surprise," he told her.

"Why bring me here? Why not just kill me, if you really want me dead that badly?" Emily asked him. She was prodding, hoping she didn't strike a nerve and get herself killed immediately.

"Aren't you ashamed of yourself?" he asked, ignoring her question. "Messing with a married woman? Brainwashing her? I would think you're better than that."

"She's not your wife. You two had never met until the night you attacked her," Emily told him. She was furious, but she knew that losing her temper would go nowhere.

"I didn't attack her!" James shouted. "I just had to get her to listen to me. I wrote her letters afterwards. She never wrote back. You stopped her from writing back. I had to go into hiding because of you!"

"She wouldn't listen to you?" asked Emily. "What were you trying to tell her?"

"I was just happy to see her, we'd been away from each other for so long. But then I saw she was wearing that ring that you gave to her. I was upset at her for cheating on me, but she didn't even care! She was being disrespectful."

"She was pregnant," Emily seethed. "You murdered her baby."

James shook his head. "She was complaining too, you know that? I just had to keep telling her it was okay. I told her about this house, with the pond in the backyard. It has all these beautiful lily pads in it. We're going to raise our family here. I told her how I was going to make her another baby when we got here. And I told her exactly how I was going to do it."

Everything started to make sense in Emily's head. That's what JJ had blocked out from that night. James had described to her how he wanted to rape her in this house, so she pushed out the memory. When he sent her the keychain, she blocked the memory again because it was so painful to think about.

"You won't get away with this," Emily muttered. "What's your plan? Are you going to keep me here forever?"

"No," he said. "I just want you to suffer for as long as I suffered. I had to hide for months because the cops were out looking for me. You're going to stay here and watch me build a life with Jennifer. That's your punishment."

Emily's body trembled with rage that built up inside of her. She shut her eyes and imagined all the different ways she could kill him. The thought of him even touching JJ made her sick.

"She will never love you. Ever," Emily spat out.

"That's enough from you," he stated. "Have fun down here."

James walked up the stairs. He shut off the lights and the heat, leaving Emily shivering and alone in the dark basement.