Trials and Tribulations

Chapter 7

Aaron Hotchner stood in Emily's kitchen, staring down at the blood puddle on the floor. Policemen and other FBI agents were rushing around the apartment trying to collect evidence and figure out what happened but Hotch could not move from where he was standing. He stared down at would could quite possibly be Emily's own blood.

Hotch was snapped out of his trance when his cell phone rang in his pocket. Caller ID showed Penelope Garcia calling and he answered quickly.
"yeah" he said.

"okay sir, I checked with all the family of Ems we have on file and none of them have heard from her. I called a couple of her friends too but came up blank there also" Garcia said.

"okay. thank you. I'm finishing up here i'll be at the bau shortly" Hotch replied.
"
yes sir"

"and Garcia, keep working. find something" Hotch said before hanging up the phone.

When Hotchner arrived at the bau he went straight into his office. He instantly got on the phone, making calls and calling in every favor that he had available. Only shortly after, there was a knock on his office door.

"come in" Hotch called out.

Rossi entered the room, Hotch was still on the phone but gave him a nod and Rossi sat down on the other side of his desk. The phone call ended and he hung up the phone, sitting back down in his chair.

"Hey. So nothing was found at the scene?" Rossi asked.

"No. no evidence. just the blood" Hotch replied.

"The team is at the round table when you're ready. We don't know where you want us to go from here. we've hit a lot of dead ends" Rossi said.

Hotch stood up and walked to the window.
"I don't know. I don't know what to do next okay?" Hotch snapped.

"Alright so you're agitated, It's okay. we all are."

"I am not agitated I just want to find her" Hotch said.

Rossi was silent. Hotch faced his colleague again and returned to his desk chair. He sighed.

"Dave I spoke to her. we were on the phone." He said.

"At 3:00 am?" Rossi asked.

"Yes. she called me." Hotch said.

"Why did she call you?"

"She just did. We were talking when she heard someone at her front door. I instantly headed over there but-" Hotch trailed off.

"What aaron?"

"She didn't want me to hang up. I told her I had to so that I could call in backup. I just hung up on her."

"There's nothing you could have done. You did what was best okay?"

Hotch sighed again and put his head in his hands. Rossi stood up from his seat.

"The team is waiting on us, i'll see you in there when you're ready. you're a good leader Aaron, we'll figure this out" he said.

He left Hotchners office and closed the door behind him. Hotch leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. before he could get up and join the team Strauss entered his office. Hotch got to his feet.

"Ma'am, how can I help you?" He asked.
She held up an envelope.

"You're going to want to see this. come on" she said then turned around and exited the office.
Hotchner got up from his desk and followed her to where to rest of the team was at the round table. Hotch didn't sit down but hovered at the back of the room with his arms crossed.

"This was just sent here to us." Strauss said,
dropping the envelope on the desk.
Morgan picked it up first and pulled out the letter.

"Emily Prentiss will be dead at midnight. If this is something you do not wish for you will play my game." He read aloud.

"oh em" Garcia said quietly with a frown.

"How long does that give us?" JJ asked.

"Well, given that it is currently exactly 5:29am, we have 18 hours and 31 minutes to find Emily" Reid said.

Nobody responded for a moment. Rossi stood up first.

"Alright we better get to work"

Hey guys. Thank you all so much for reading this story. I hope you all are enjoying it! I struggled with this chapter and ran into a lot of writers block but the next one will be up asap and it will be a really good one. Leave comments or votes if you like it! -K🦇