"Come with me now or I'll blow his head off"
Jay's heart froze. Even over the din she recognized that voice. He was one of the Watchers who worked for Washington. She panicked, her pain hazed mind sharpening, doing a quick inventory of her weapons. One lay on the other side of the cage where she had dropped it after Skinny had stabbed her, another was still embedded in the Brute's throat.
She still had her smaller one, lying in its sheath against the flat of her back.
She cried out as he yanked her upright by the scruff of her neck, but snaked her arm around so her fingertips just brushed the hilt of the knife, her ribs burning as she did so.
"Don't even think about it, you little bitch." The Watcher hissed at her, pulling the knife from its sheath and tossing it across the Cage, far out of reach. "Try anything like that again and I'll ensure the Lieutenant fails to renew your protection order." He yanked her head back to sneer at her but jerked her away in disgust as she coughed up another throatfull of blood.
Without him there to hold her upright, she fell to the floor again. Crow was looking at her but his gaze was distant, and the pool of blood around him was steadily growing. Working on instinct and adrenaline, she put his bloodied t-shirt in his hand and then pressed it against the hole in his chest, hoping he still had the strength to slow the blood flow. She yanked her makeshift necklace- the piece of string attached to the broken chess piece- from around her neck and placed it in his other hand.
Just as the Watcher was wiping her blood from his arm where she had coughed it up, she placed her hand on Crow's cheek. Her hands were coating in both her own and his blood. "Live." She whispered. And then she was yanked away, leaving a bloodied handprint on his cheek.
Another Watcher was waiting just outside the open door to the Cage; gun in hand, poised to fight off the crowd. As the first Watcher forced her out past the bars, the other placed a collar around her neck. The collar was attached to a 3ft pole. Her brain screamed at her at the feeling of the cold metal encircling her skin.
One Watcher stalked ahead, clearing a path through the crowd by any means necessary, the other used the pole to push her forward. More than once, she fell, her legs unable to hold her weight, only to be jerked upright and forced forward again. They felt leaden, her entire body became heavier and heavier. Black spots were appearing on her vision. She knew that she was hallucinating when just meters away, someone looked as though they were wearing an FBI issued bulletproof vest.
At least she hoped she was hallucinating, because not a second later they gave a shout of pain and fell to the ground, presumably dead.
She didn't register that they had somehow made it outside the warehouse until the noise died away and her bare feet splashed into the icy slush that covered the sidewalk. Suddenly she was thrown into the back of a van. She was exhausted, barely even noticing the fresh pain as her ribcage smacked onto the cold floor.
She felt numb. It wouldn't be long now.
Handcuffs replaced the collar but she didn't care; she was consumed by her grief. By now Crow would be dead, having bled out alone in the Cage. She coughed, and more blood came up, but she didn't care. Above her, one of the Watcher's shouted, fear tingeing his voice.
"What's wrong with her?! The Lieutenant wants her alive!"
"Oh shit." The other replied, rolling her over so that she was looking up at the roof of the van, at them. Her eyes lazily followed their movements but they wouldn't focus. She felt the van judder slightly. When had it started moving?
"Give her some adrenaline!" One of them shouted. Her head rolled to the side and her breath gurgled over the blood in her throat. Her breathing was so shallow now that she was sure her lungs were just full of dead air. "Hurry up! Her lips are going blue!"
She could almost have smiled. Adrenaline wouldn't do anything. In fact, it would only speed up the process by causing her heart to pump blood into her lungs even faster. But she didn't get even get the chance of an early release. As the Watcher was bringing the syringe to her skin, there was a terrifying crashing sound and the grating scream of metal colliding with metal before she was thrown against the side of the van.
The van shuddered to a whiplash inducing halt. Even as her mind was clouding over she could hear shouting outside. "FBI! Get out of the vehicle with your hands raised! I repeat, get out of the vehicle with your hands raised!"
But she was cold, and tired. She was done fighting. She just welcomed the warm embrace of the darkness as it consumed her, drawing her into the peaceful abyss.
________________________________
5 minutes earlier
The Watcher from Washington had been stood outside for about 6 minutes, having a cigarette and talking with man standing watch, when his cell phone rang. Morgan watched him closely from inside the SUV. He apparently saw the incoming number and cursed. The man flipped his cell open angrily and answered. Morgan rolled down his window a bit so that he could hear. "Emily, can you translate what he's saying for me?"
Emily nodded and shifted over so that she could hear as well. The man was talking very quickly but his anger was making him talk loudly, so that he was almost shouting. Emily frowned slightly then began to translate. "What do you mean the FBI seized the shipment? Why the hell didn't you high-tail it out of there as soon as you saw the feds?" She paused as the Watcher stopped and listened to whoever was on the other end of the call.
Now the man looked exasperated and nervous. "They were at the First's headquarters as well? But that cargo is still safe?" He listened again and wiped a hand across his brow. "Okay, I need to get the Lieutenant out of here. Meet us at the rendezvous point outside the city with the cargo."
The man hung up abruptly and cursed to himself, then he stalked back inside. Morgan and Emily looked towards Santiago, who had listened in to Emily's translation. "What do you think all that was about?"
Santiago shook his head. "I'm not sure. But by the sounds of it Washington will be leaving soon. As soon as he does, we can breach."
Emily and Hotch smiled in relief. Morgan didn't. His face was stony as he turned back to watch the warehouse. He had never felt more powerless, or angrier. Every time he heard JJ scream or shriek he wanted to throw up.
Suddenly the man from before burst out through the same door, tailed by two other Washington Watchers. Emily began to translate automatically. "The Lieutenant has to jump ship early. You two need to stay behind until after the fight is finished. When it's over, the female belongs to Washington. You grab her and you transport her back to headquarters, do I make myself understood?"
Morgan felt sickened. They were talking about JJ.
One of the lower ranking Watchers tried to argue with his superior. "It isn't looking good for her, odds are against her. She'll be lucky if she makes it to the kill round."
"Did I phrase that as a question or an order?"
"An order, Sir."
"Well then. The Lieutenant has already paid good money for that Ghost. I don't care if you have to bring her to him in pieces. Just make sure she gets to him. Oh and Slev?"
"Yes, Sir?"
"Question my orders again and I'll rip your throat out."
With that the first Watcher pushed past the other two back inside. The others quickly followed. Santiago grabbed his radio. "All units, be on the lookout for a man in a suit leaving the building in a town car. I want to know as soon as you see it."
2 minutes later the radio crackled into life again. "Santiago, I've got eyes on the town car. It's leaving from the north side of the building. Do you want my team to intercept it?"
Santiago spoke quickly into the radio, signally Hotch and Prentiss to be ready. "No, Sergeant, let it go. We're cleared to breach. All units move in. I repeat, all units move in."
They all looked over towards the warehouse as a sniper took out the man standing guard.
Morgan could only watch in frustration as Santiago, Prentiss and Hotch jumped out of the SUV and lined up alongside Santiago's team outside the door. After a moment's hesitation, Santiago kicked the door in and led the teams inside. Not long after that, Morgan heard the sharp bangs of the flashbang grenades followed by an eruption of gunfire and shouting.
He was itching to take action but dutifully remained where he was.
He hadn't been sat there for very long when movement caught his eye. A bit further down from the door Santiago's team had used to enter the warehouse, was a window. He wasn't sure what the movement was however until glass shattered outward onto the sidewalk, followed by a little more as someone used the butt of their gun to remove the remaining glass from the edges of the window pane.
A man jumped out onto the sidewalk and then a moment later, something large was passed out to him. Morgan watching in horror as the something staggered as its feet hit the sidewalk. It was JJ. Suddenly a van screeched around the corner and came to a halt in front of them. Another man jumped out through the window and wrenched the back doors of the van open.
The first man threw JJ inside whilst the driver was shouting something urgently in Russian. The second man from the building leapt into the back and shut the doors, prompting the driver to accelerate away.
Morgan had mere seconds to act. Grabbing the keys to the SUV from the dashboard, his shoved them in the ignition and threw the vehicle into gear. The wheels span in the slush before the SUV reared forward, slamming into the accelerating van. He was thrown against the steering wheel on impact, only to have the airbag blow up in his face a split second later.
It took him a couple of seconds to come round, registering a broken nose as he stumbled out of the vehicle, his gun raised. Suddenly he heard yelling. It was Hotch. "FBI! Get out of the vehicle with your hands raised. I repeat, get out of the vehicle with your hands raised!" He was shouting behind the back of the van. Morgan walked round to join him as Emily went to cuff the driver- who had all but fallen out of the vehicle to lie flat with his face against the ground and his hands behind his head.
Morgan's heart stopped as he joined Hotch. The doors of the van were open, and stood a meter or so away from the entrance was the Watcher from earlier, Slev. And held up against his body as a human shield was JJ. She was unconscious. He was pressing a gun against the base of her skull.
"Put the gun down and let the woman go." Hotch said coldly, not wanting the man to know he had any kind of personal connection to his unconscious hostage.
"No!" The man shouted back in a heavily accented voice. "You back off right now and walk away or I'll blow her brains out!" He jabbed the gun into JJ's neck to show that he was serious. It was all Morgan could do not to just shoot him on the spot. But JJ was too close to him; neither he nor Hotch had a clear shot.
Emily walked back around to join them, her gun raised, and gasped when she saw the state JJ was in. She was covered in cuts and bruises, but most worryingly, there was blood dripping down her chin and soaking into her top.
"I said back off!" the Russian yelled again. This time he jabbed the gun against her ribs. The ribs that Morgan knew were broken. It must have hurt because JJ stirred, her eyes flickering open for just a second. Hotch was trying to talk the Russian down but Morgan was now focused on JJ. Slowly, and with shaking hands, she seemed to be fiddling with the waistband of her leggings.
Then very slowly, as though every movement was excruciating, she twisted slightly so that she was sort of side on to the Russian. She was still covering too much of him though for Morgan to take the shot. The Russian didn't appear to have noticed her change in position. Then, without warning, she jabbed her hand against her captor's thigh. Morgan frowned in confusion, taking a split second to realize that on contact with JJ's hand, the Russian had given a shout of pain and released his hold on her. JJ dropped to the floor of the van like a sack of flour.
Emily did not hesitate. She put a bullet in the man's chest and a second in his forehead for good measure.
"JJ!" Morgan shouted and leapt into the van as the Russian's body collapsed on top of her. Grunting with the effort, he rolled the man away from her. Emily and Hotch quickly cuffed his unconscious counterpart who had apparently been knocked out during the crash.
JJ was unconscious again, but what worried Morgan most was the bluish hue to her lips. Her skin felt unnaturally cold as he checked for a pulse. It was there, but it was weak and thready. Emily knelt down next to him. "Has she got a pulse?" She asked desperately, unable to bear the thought that they had come this close only to lose her now.
"Yeah, it's there, but its rapid and-"
He didn't finish his sentence as JJ coughed weakly, spattering the floor of the van. "Oh my God, roll her onto her side! We need a medic!"
Emily quickly helped him to turn her onto her side and opened her mouth to try to keep her airway clear of blood. She had never been more terrified. "JJ, please, I don't know if you can hear me, but hang on for us, okay. Keep fighting for us! JJ, I'm begging you, don't give up us now!"
Morgan glanced around to see Hotch, yelling down the radio for a medic. He could hear sirens getting closer. Oh God please don't let them lose her now. He grasped her hand in his, willing her to fight. Then his eyes settled on the dead Russian. Sticking out of his thigh, where JJ had hit him, was a needle.
He couldn't help but smile slightly. She wasn't giving up on them just yet.
