Fighting Wars

Chapter 16

They walk into the office and Emilie says "Someone's shown up again." after three years they finally got their hands on this case that has gone through so many teams that they have to act. "He's in Wyoming, roadblocks are everywhere and I mean everywhere people can't even get out of their neighborhoods." Kyrsten pulls her hair back in a ponytail and grabs her gun. "Kyrsten are you dropping the full tech analyst?" Jennifer asks, she shakes her head. "I'm still bringing my laptop but I need to help out in the field." Jennifer picks up Jack who is listening to some music and playing on Jennifer's phone. Aaron grabs his vest and says "With him out in the open we need to have our vests on at all times." They slide on theirs and run out grabbing their go bags.
They land and immediately rush out to the garage to get their SUV's. They climb in and as soon as Jack is buckled in Jennifer starts scribbling down a profile in her notebook, "He obviously is organized or else he wouldn't keep the victims for long." Emilie says Jennifer nods and writes it down, "He keeps his victims for about six months except for this one he dropped her after three." Jennifer says "What does that mean?" Charlie asks, "Well I profiled him as a sadistic organized serial killer. Now with this last one he is becoming less organized, sloppier killings, and less time." Jennifer tells him, "So they're devolving?" Aaron asks, Jennifer nods and adds "Fast, if we don't find him now we're going to lose him." They pull up to Aaron's brother's house and Jennifer unbuckles Jack and picks him up. "Hey buddy I'm going to need my phone back okay? You're going to stay with your uncle Sean." He nods and Jennifer grabs his little bag and walks up to the house. She knocks on his door and Sean's wife opens the door. "Jennifer!" She exclaims giving her a hug. "Thank you so much for watching him, we couldn't find anyone else who could take him on such short notice." She smiles and says "Please its no problem, we'll keep him safe." Jennifer nods and turns her head to face Jack, "I love you buddy, don't forget that." He nods and asks in his small voice "Are you and daddy going to catch the bad guy?" She nods and says "Of course, I'll come and check on you at night when I have some free time okay?" He nods and gives Jennifer a hug and Jennifer hands him off to Sean who has come to the doorway. "Tell my brother to stay safe okay?" Jennifer nods and quickly walks back to the car.
They arrive at the station and thankfully people have set up for them and have supplied them with all of the pictures and files. Charlie studies the pictures and notices something different. "Guys look at this." They come gather around the board and he says "Look at the M.O it's the same but on every other victim it's shallow." Jennifer turns around and pulls out her notebook from the desk. "Do you think that he's teaching a partner?" He nods and says "We have our original unsub who has apparently been doing this for a while. Then we have the trainee who is shallow and has more attempts before hitting an artery." They nod and Aaron says "Okay, Kyrsten keep looking, Derek look through the victimology see if they are connected somehow, Charlie see if you can find his comfort zone. Jennifer keep polishing the profile. I'll talk to the chief." they nod and break into their separate places working.
Six hours later it's dark and Jennifer drives down to Sean's house to keep her promise to Jack. She gets out of the car and knocks on the door. Sean opens it and she steps in "Thank you again-" a hard object hits her in the back and she falls forward hitting her head on the tile. "Agent Porter, oh how I will enjoy this." and with that nine gunshots go off and Jennifer's eyes go dark.
"Where's Jennifer?" Derek asks walking into the hotel room. "She wanted to go check on Jack, she made him a promise that she would come check in every night, why?" Derek looks uneasily around the room and says questioningly "She isn't back yet?" Aaron nods and stands up "You don't think?" Derek nods and Aaron grabs his gun and runs out with Derek to the SUV's.
"Where's your brothers house?" Derek asks "1423 Manville avenue." Aaron says he calls Jennifer again and no response. Derek pulls up to the house and the door is wide open. Derek and Aaron run inside the house with their guns out and flashlights on. "Aaron." Derek whispers nodding towards the ground. Aaron closes his eyes and takes a deep breath before stepping over Sean's body. He steps into the kitchen and there's Karen, Sean's wife. Aaron bites the inside of his cheek and Derek walks up the stairs towards the room where Jack was staying. He lets out a sigh of somewhat relief when he doesn't find Jack or Jennifer. "Aaron, he took them. They aren't dead." Derek calls walking back down the stairs. "Really?" Aaron says meeting him by the door. Derek nods and Aaron nods. "We have to find them before he does kill them." Derek pulls out his phone and calls Emilie. "Emilie, get the team down here. Jennifer and Jack have been taken." Derek states gravely. "Okay we'll be right down." Emilie hangs up and Derek walks around the house.
Emilie, Charlie and Kyrsten walk into the house "Oh my god. What happened?" Emilie asks looking around the house. "That's what we need you here for. "Your job overlaps with Jennifers the most, she's given you plenty of profiles we need you tell us what you think happened here." Emilie shakes her head "Why doesn't Aaron do it he actually trained for a bit of every single one of our jobs." Aaron shakes his head "My opinion would be too bias." Emilie nods and sighs "Alright." Emilie steps outside and looks to the front door, "Okay so Jennifer steps up to the door and knocks. Sean opens the door and then the Unsub shoots him." Emilie steps in and they step back. "The blood splatters this way towards the door. That means that the Unsub was in the house already. Jennifer steps inside it's dark so she doesn't see him until she gets hit... but who shot Sean if she got hit in the back of the head facing this way?" Aaron looks at where Emilie is standing. "So Jennifer is there, Sean is here... Charlie's right he does have a partner. One behind Sean the other in the kitchen behind Jennifer." Kyrsten nods and pulls her laptop out from her bag. "I'll crosscheck partnership crimes with the profile and see what I can find." Aaron nods "Jennifer also said that they might be angels of death, meaning that they kill to relieve the victims of the worldly pain." Kyrsten nods and starts typing and Aaron turns to face the open door.
Jennifer's eyes slowly flutter open as she sits up in the hay. "Mommy?" Jennifer stands up propping herself up on the wall. "Jack, I'm here buddy it's alright." She rubs the back of her head to numb the throbbing sensation. She looks around and realizes she's stuck in a horse pen. "Jack I'm stuck but I'm here okay?" she calls "Okay." Jack replies. The barn door swings open and one walks in. "Jennifer Porter-Gideon." He says with such anger. "How is it that you know my name but I don't know yours." She replies. He opens the gate and grabs her hair and pulls her out throwing her on the ground. Jack sits in a chair in the loft just barely in her view. "Don't touch him." She commands. He laughs and says "Don't worry I won't." Jennifer looks at him in the eyes and he lifts her up. A chain comes down from a beam and that's when she sees the second unsub. He's rolling the chain down. A pair of handcuffs are attached to the end of the chain. The first unsub locks her in the handcuffs and grabs a metal rod from the table. "Jack Close Your Eyes!" Jennifer yells up to the loft "Okay mommy." Jack calls back down. Jennifer looks up to make sure Jacks eyes are closed as the unsub grins and beats her with the rod.
"Aaron you need to sleep." Derek says grabbing his bag from the car. Aaron shakes his head "No I let her go alone, I shouldn't have. You know the main rule for our team is stay in pairs." Derek nods and grabs Aaron's bag from the car. "Aaron, you can't blame yourself for this, Jennifer and Jack need you. But they need you well rested so you can be there for them." Aaron nods and Derek closes the trunk. "Now let's go inside and get some rest."
Jennifer crumbles to the ground and the chain starts rolling back up to the ceiling. "Why did you join the FBI when you're so weak." Jennifer looks him right in the eye "I joined the FBI to protect people, and to stop people like you." He rolls his eyes and kicks her in the ribs. Jennifer coughs and looks to the loft and Jack is still there with his eyes closed. Jennifer sighs and the unsub grabs her hair and lifts her head off of the ground. "You want to go see him right?" Jennifer nods and he looks to the second and motions to the loft. The second nods and climbs up the ladder to the loft. Jack climbs down the ladder and the first let's go of Jennifer's hair. Jennifer sits up and Jack runs to her and Jennifer catches him in a hug and holds him close. "Are you okay?" he asks Jennifer nods and Jack puts his hand on her face. "You're bleeding." he says Jennifer nods and says "I'm okay though I promise." Jack nods and asks "Is daddy coming?" Jennifer glances up to the unsub then back to Jack. "I think so." Jack nods and says "Do I have to go back up the ladder again." Jennifer bites the inside of her cheek and nods. "Yeah." Jack nods and the second unsub leads Jack back up the ladder.
"Emilie set up a press conference Jennifer has the profile written on the board." Aaron says pacing the room. "On it." Emilie calls running out the door. Charlie circles some more areas on the map and Derek looks deeper into the victims, with Kyrstens help. Aaron sits down and looks at the board to see if anything stands out. So far nothing. "Aaron I found something." Derek says, Aaron slides over to where Derek and Kyrsten are sitting. "So I unsealed some records and turns out that Jennifer was part of a group that got disbanded after they all went their separate ways and joined different FBI teams. The other mother son victims were the female members of the group. Jennifer is the last one on the list." Aaron leans back and rubs his temples. "Guys, I think I narrowed down his comfort zone. Which was not an easy task because Wyoming is so spread out..." Charlie's voice dies when he sees Aaron's expression. He flips the board over and there's a huge map with tons of circles on it and one big red circle in the top left corner "So this is a huge farm land with about twenty barns all spaced out and are privately owned by fraternal twin brothers that fit Jennifer's profile so well that it's a bit scary." Aaron nods and Charlie turns to Kyrsten "Alex and Tanner Towne." Kyrsten types them in and their records show up and starts scrolling down the screen. "Its them."
Jennifer wakes up to Jack screaming her name "Mommy!" She stands up and runs to the end of the pen and pounds on the door "Jack!" She calls "Mommy!" Jennifer looks to her cut leg and winces, this is going to hurt. She raises it up and kicks the door with as much force as possible and a loud crack sound fills the barn as the door crashes to the other pen and Jennifer's leg breaks. "Agh!" She bends down and waits a second before standing up and limping cautiously to where Jack is there he is types to the chair and Jennifer bends down and starts to untie him "Not so fast." The first grabs her hair and pulls her back as the second one lowers the handcuffs again. Jennifer fights but with her broken leg and possible broken ribs she can't do much. She meets Jack's eye and says "It's going to be okay I promise." She looks up to the ceiling and sees the nights sky through a hole in the roof and prays that Aaron and the team is on their way.
The first unsub grins evilly as he turns to the second and motions for the second one to give him something. The second hands the first a gun. Jennifer's face pales and she tries to slip her wrists out of the cuffs because that's the only way that she is being held from Jack. The first walks behind the chair and raises the gun to the back of Jacks head. "Please he's only two!" She cries tears burning her face. "Don't think of this as hurting him, I am only relieving him of the pains of the world." Jennifer hears the lock on the barn door break she attempts to turn to it but the second Unsub turns her around and holds her in a position to face Jack and the first monster holding her son at gunpoint. "Jack! I love you!" Jennifer exclaims "I love you to mommy." Jennifer shakes her head and pleads "Please don't, kill me instead!" The first looks at Jennifer curiously "You would kill yourself for him?" Jennifer nods and she tries to stop the flow of tears. "You really would?" Jennifer nods again as she crosses her fingers and hopes that Aaron opens the door before anything happens. The first unsub looks at her considering her offer for one split The barn door swings open and she hear the teams commands to get on the ground. Emilie rushes up to Jennifer and frees her from the handcuffs. Her ribs burn as she makes her way to Jack's dead body. She scoops him up into her arms and holds him as sobs fill her body. Aaron runs up to her and kneels down on the barn floor covered in hay. He holds her as she holds Jack's lifeless body. Aaron rubs her back while they cry together, she knew she shouldn't have gone back to say goodnight. Maybe if she didn't go back there maybe Jack would still be alive. Waiting at the door for them to come and see him. He would be all smiles and very excited to show them his new picture he and uncle Sean had colored. Her ribs burn as she turns into Aarons chest not letting go of her little boy. He whispers in her ear "We should... should get you back to the ambulance." Jennifer shakes her head and says into Aaron's shirt "I don't want to leave him." he nods and says "I know but I count several broken ribs-" Jennifer breaks into a mini coughing fit blood splatters on his shirt. "Come on." he says carefully scooping Jennifer up in his arms she begin to protest but she stop herself because she knows that he is hurting just as much as she is.
What is stronger than the human heart which shatters over and over and still lives - Rupi Kaur