Stand In The Rain

Thirty Eight

Jacoby Fitzgerald had always been clever, and in spite of his recent reckless ways, he still knew that sooner or later, he was going to get caught for what he had been doing. That being said, he also knew that when he got caught, it would more than likely be with Boris and the others, and unlike Jacoby, they would rather go out via suicide by cop. Jacoby was not about that. He would rather go to jail for life before being shot to death by a cop.

So... after a difficult night of sleeping, he finally made up his mind about what he was going to do.

The next morning found Derek released from the hospital with his arm in a sling and sitting in one of the chairs at the main table in the conference room at the station-house that the BAU had been using since their arrival. For obvious reasons, he wouldn't being doing any fieldwork for awhile, but he was happy to contribute to helping narrow down the field to the most probable areas that Jacoby had to have hidden Emily and the girls.

JJ was in a chair beside him, also aiding in the effort. She didn't have orders that weren't exceedingly strict like Derek's, but she agreed to Hotch's request to stick to the station-house for the day. She didn't mind. Though JJ was an FBI agent like her colleagues, she wasn't a profiler and had had enough excitement in the field for awhile. The office was more her speed.

"Excuse me, agents."

JJ, Derek, Penelope, Rossi, Spencer and Hotch each looked up to see the head of the precinct, a Captain Bartoli, standing just inside the door.

Hotch stood first. "Yes, Captain?"

"Jacoby Fitzgerald has just turned himself in."

JJ and her companions all experienced a sudden record scratch moment and turned to Hotch, wanting to know what he was going to say. Agent Hotchner was taken aback by the sudden development, but he kept his cool.

"He turned himself in?" he echoed. "Voluntarily?"

Captain Bartoli nodded. "Yes, and he's willing to talk, but on two conditions."

"He's hardly in a position to bargain!" Spencer blurted.

"That may be true," Hotch agreed. "But something prompted this change of heart, Reid, so whatever Jacoby's conditions are, they probably aren't outrageous at all."

Spencer didn't see a flaw in Hotch's reasoning, so he just nodded and watched his boss pose a new query to the captain.

"What does Jacoby want?"

"The first is that he'll do jail time for any long length of time, but not for life."

"Well, that's for the lawyers to decide, but it doesn't sound unreasonable because of how cooperative he's being. What's the second?"

"He won't speak to anyone but Agent Jareau."

"No." Hotch said immediately. "We'll figure something else out."

Using help from Spencer because he was the nearest to her, JJ stood and marched over to Hotch.

"This could be our only real chance before something happens, like Emily and the girls getting split up, or God forbid—sold! Are you really going to risk that, especially when there's a lot of ground to cover in the 'places they could be' category?"

Hotch raised an eyebrow. "JJ, I'd like to think that I shouldn't have to remind you why this is a bad idea where you are concerned."

JJ put her hands to her middle, where she could feel her daughters kicking and nudging her. "We're all fine, and I'll even take someone with me."

"Jacoby sounds pretty firm about the 'only you' part."

"I can make him focus on me, and we both know it."