Work Text:
Penelope Garcia was in contact with her team when suddenly there was silence.
"Guys? Are you alright?"
No answer.
She panicked but quickly dialed up the local police force where they were- a city in Minnesota she had not heard of before this latest case.
They gave her the unfortunate news that though the team had split up on the property they were investigating, there was an explosion.
She asked them to keep her updated as she fretted about what to do next.
The entire BAU was caught in an explosion, hurt, or dying, and they had no one to help them but her.
She had been running some searches before they decided to all go see if that property had any further clues.
She needed a profiler to help her direct her searches.
She could probably do something but...
She needed her family.
Then she got word that the BAU team was missing... and only the BAU team. THe officers that were with them had been found, and thankfully, not all of them injured.
But... her family was missing.
She tapped frantically then it hit her. Not all of her family was missing.
She dialed a number and started pacing as she waited for the last person to pick up.
"Penelope?" Emily asked.
"Oh my gosh, Emily, hi. I need you right now, the team is in Minnesota and there was some sort of explosion and they're all missing now, the officers that were with them are around, but the team? They're just... gone according to local police and I don't know what to do to find them, and I need someone to help direct my searches and I-"
"Okay, first of all, breathe. The team is smart. They will make it out. If the unsubs have them, it's for a reason. That gives us some time. Send me the file and I will get back to you. I think I can convince them to let me go take over in Minnesota, I know the team best, I know you best, and I know how to help you find them and pick up where they left off."
"Okay, okay, good. I'll keep running my searches, I will add anything I can to your files as I come up with them, thank you so much."
"Of course, Penelope. We're not going to let the team die if we can help it."
"Uh-huh. File is on the way."
"What are we looking at, anyway?"
"Some kind of ritual killing of groups, but it's always different and there hasn't been a connection in the victims we could find. They were investigating some tip called in that- wait. Do you think that could have been the unsub, setting them up to be kidnapped?" Penelope gasped.
"I-uh yeah, that's likely. You get on that, I'll look at the file and get back to you, hopefully from a jet."
"Alright I will have more information for you pronto!" Penelope turned back to her computer with more determination. Her team, her family needed her, and she was not going to let them down.
.
Spencer groaned as he woke up, head throbbing. He felt a bit like he'd been on the edge of an explosion. He had experienced that far too many times if that was his first thought...
Oh. Right. He had been at the edge of an explosion. The noise had disoriented him and then something hit him in the head, and that was the last thing he remembered.
"Kid?" Morgan asked. "You awake?"
"Yeah." Spencer opened his eyes and then groaned. "The unsubs took us."
Morgan sighed, leaning against the wall in a small cell. "They did. No idea what they want... we still don't know what their rituals are about."
"I've been thinking about that. It reminds me of that case in Utah."
"Yeah? But that was ritual killing for witch hunting."
"Yes, but what if it has to do with ritual killings as sacrifices for some sort of belief system?"
"That's not really common anymore, but you could be right. It would explain the different methods- different types of sacrifices need something different. You might be onto something. Too bad we can't tell the team that."
Spencer grimaced and looked around. Then he paused. "Morgan?"
"Yeah?"
"We did not see any groups of less than four people. I doubt we're the only ones they took."
All Morgan could do was curse.
.
Dave paced the cell muttering under his breath. The unsubs had taken him while he was still awake, but he had been disoriented and easy to drag at the time.
They had underestimated him. He had fought back, and took them by surprise, until a third unsub appeared with Blake and he knew he couldn't let her get hurt while she was unconscious.
She still hadn't woken up yet, and he hadn't seen the unsubs since they had locked them into the small room. The window was blocked with bars, and he couldn't see outside or open it.
There was no way out until the unsubs came for them. He hoped they were smart enough to get out of this.
Blake stirred, then put a hand to her head as she sat up. She assessed the situation in seconds. "If they have us, they likely have the others."
"I know. There's at least three of them, possibly more," Dave responded grimly. "I don't know how many there are."
Blake frowned. "All we can do is wait and go over what we do know."
"I think the most likely explanation has something to do with at least one of the unsubs being delusional. We learn the delusion, we learn how to talk to them."
"Yes, of course. But I am concerned that the person who is in charge of this group is not delusional and is just manipulating them."
"That is a possibility. Something like a cult, but in a smaller unit."
"Exactly. There is also the possibility that one person is delusional and has convinced the others that their delusion is real and they are the only one who can possibly understand the truth."
"Then we'll have to figure out which it is."
.
Aaron sat up, wincing. He didn't remember anything past trying to move away from the explosion. It must have knocked him out. He glanced around the room as he tested out his limbs for injuries.
JJ was sitting and leaning on the wall, looking tired and deep in thought.
"JJ?" Aaron asked.
"I'm just thinking," she said. "Oh, you're awake!"
"I am. Do you know anything yet?"
"Well, we know they don't kill in groups smaller than four, so we're not the only ones here, we just don't know if they have the rest of the team, or any of the officers, and how many people they now have."
"We know it's a small group," Aaron responded. "There can't be more than six people involved in this. It would be too noticeable otherwise."
"What if it's a family?" JJ suggested. "A family could be that big or even bigger and no one would suspect a thing."
"That changes the profile." Aaron sat up, thinking back to the boards they had set up and the files they had looked through. Every bit of information that Garcia had dug up regarding the city they were in and the sorts of people that lived there. "But I do think it would be possible. It would explain how they were able to move quickly to grab us with the explosion. It would have been likely that they would be seen otherwise. They probably knocked out anyone they didn't want to take who was still conscious."
"That uncovers another possibility," JJ pointed out, sitting up straighter. "A family unit explains why there doesn't seem to be any disagreements so far, why the different approaches are varied, and why it seems like different people are killing each group."
"Hopefully being a family unit means that there is a weakness we can exploit."
.
Emily arrived at the police station and started examining the notes that she hadn't had access to yet, conferring with Penelope on what they had found so far.
There were a lot of holes. But hopefully they could figure it out.
She stopped suddenly. "Penelope... within each group that was killed, what was their connection to each other? Did anyone describe them as family?"
Penelope typed away. "Looks like they treated each other like family, if nothing else." She started listing off the ways, giving each other rides, paying off debts and so on.
"And the BAU is family too," Emily finished at the end. "That's the victimology, that's who they're targeting."
Penelope gasped.
"But why?" Emily said, looking over everything again. "Just what does found family mean to these unsubs?"
.
Spencer stumbled as they shoved him onto his knees in a circle. He was gagged, so that he couldn't speak.
Morgan was shoved into a chair, but he wasn't gagged.
Noise made Spencer look.
A gagged Rossi was shoved into the circle next, with Alex put in a chair next to Morgan.
Then Hotch joined them in the circle, also gagged, and JJ took the final chair.
Morgan decided to speak. "What do you want with us? Is it because we were looking for you?"
"That is why we noticed you. But more interesting to us is how you interacted."
"How we interacted?" JJ asked, looking around at the people that appeared.
Spencer also looked around, noting the similarities between everyone. The youngest were teenagers. The rest didn't look to be older than sixty. But they all looked related.
"You think of each other as more than just a team that works together don't you? You think of each other as family? None of the others were strong enough."
"Strong enough? For what?" Morgan asked.
"We need to test the bonds first. Let us begin."
Spencer cried out when the cattle prod was jammed between his shoulders suddenly.
Hotch and Rossi were quick to support him when he almost fell over.
Blake gasped, eyes widening as she brought her hands to her mouth.
"Spence!" JJ exclaimed.
"Leave him alone!" Morgan demanded.
That didn't deter her from holding the cattle prod there for a bit longer.
Then she moved onto Hotch, and then Rossi.
Someone else took the cattle prod.
Some of the unsubs had to hold Morgan, JJ, and Blake down to keep them from getting to the others.
The torture took several rounds.
At the end, none of the three were able to stand from the pain.
The unsubs all left and locked any way out.
With them gone, there was nothing holding back Morgan, JJ, and Blake from getting to the other three.
The gags were removed as they checked on the injured teammates.
"I'm okay," Hotch said, panting and clearly not okay.
"Hotch, there's a large burn on your back from all that. You are not fine," Morgan said firmly.
"Okay, what was that about?" Rossi asked, sitting up.
Spencer let Blake and JJ fuss over him as he sat up, deep in thought about the way the unsubs had interacted, the testing, everything.
"Guys, they basically told us what their victimology is," he said finally. "They're looking for people who see each other as family when they're not. But these unsubs? They're related by blood."
Morgan stopped and thought about it, nodding. "Yeah, you're right. The question is, what does that mean?"
"Is now really the time to be profiling?" JJ asked.
"It's the perfect time," Rossi responded. "They left us all together. To prove that we're like family. But we can use this time to put our heads together to come up with a profile and theories, and then we can use that against them."
"He's right." Hotch gave up on pretending to be fine, leaning on Rossi who was leaning on a wall while both JJ and Blake supported Spencer.
Spencer took a breath in and let it out, ignoring the way his hands shook and reminded him of withdrawal. "Morgan and I were theorizing that this ritual killing is related to believing in witchcraft. That they're sacrifices."
Morgan gave him a worried look but picked up the thread. "Based on their comment on testing if we're stronger than the others, I think they're looking to sacrifice to accomplish some sort of magic. And they need a strong family type bond between people who are not blood to do it."
"Well, Rossi and I were discussing the possibility that these unsubs were delusional led by a leader who is not but has them convinced of it, or that the leader is delusional and has the others convinced that only they can see what the others cannot for some reason."
"The fact that it's a family unit makes it trickier," Rossi spoke up. "But based on the idea that they're looking to accomplish some sort of sacrificing ritual, I have to lean towards the latter. A leader who is free of delusions would know that this would not work, and I don't think they'd want to risk the goal not happening and the family turning on them as a result."
"Could be that more than one family member believes something strongly and convinced the others to believe in their reality," JJ said slowly. "Hotch and I discussed the possibility of the unsubs being a family unit rather than a group of unsubs, and if any of the family doesn't believe this delusion or is skeptical, that could be our weak link."
Hotch nodded, shifting again and wincing. "We've already witnessed them taking turns with the torture. It's very likely that along with trying to find the right family bond that they are taking turns with the ritual sacrifice, looking to find someone who can actually do it."
"Or maybe," Rossi spoke up, "maybe some of them have refused to do it again. These ritual killings have been gruesome and over the top. Even doing it for a purpose can be hard, so maybe they decide to pass it on to someone else to do it."
"Well, that would make sense, that just leaves what these sacrifices are for." Morgan shifted and pulled Hotch towards him to support him better while JJ reluctantly stopped fussing over Spencer in order to help Rossi.
"Okay, so if it's magic, what are the possibilities?" Blake asked. "It would have to be big. Weather, good luck, something like that?"
"Curses or breaking them, maybe," Spencer said quietly, looking around the room for any identifying features. He kept coming back to the circle on the ground. "What are they, as a blood family getting out of sacrificing found family, that is the real question?"
"I'm not sure," Morgan said. "I still have my family, and I'm close with them, I just don't see them often."
"But you do sometimes treat both Hotch and Rossi and you used to treat Gideon like a father figure," JJ pointed out. "That's some close bonds."
"Does that mean they're... jealous?" Rossi suggested. "They want their family to have the same sort of dynamic that found family has and they'll sacrifice the strongest family unit they can find to do it."
"That's possible... but if that's the case, they don't understand what a found family is." Blake ran a hand through Spencer's hair as she spoke.
Spencer found that far more soothing than he expected.
"Found family is a popular trope throughout literature and storytelling, and it's particularly popular among fans who like to tell their own stories with those characters," Blake explained. "People latch onto the idea because in some way, their own family is not enough, or they fancy the idea of having close friends if they do not have any. Some suffer from both. It's possible that whoever started this was desperate for family to work, and found the dynamic they thought they'd get impossible to make."
Spencer hummed, thinking about his own life. "The thing is with creating a family that's not blood is that it does go deeper than friendship. It's the ability to rely on each other to show up during ups and downs, to support each other, it's often a bond forged through trials or through persistence in teaching any of those involved how to trust the rest."
"So it's ride or die," JJ replied, staring off into the distance while fiddling with her necklace. "That's what that kind of dynamic is. But family isn't ride or die in the same way, especially not in the situations where people want out, or want a new family. Our unsubs didn't know how to build a proper family unit, turned to the idea of found family, and that hasn't worked, so now they're sacrificing those who have found family with each other towards making that reality with their own family unit."
"And we're their next victims," Morgan said grimly.
"We're making progress," Hotch said. "We just need to keep discussing and see if there's anything else we've missed so far. We need a stressor, what made them decide ritual killing was the way to get what they want."
"And we need to study them," Rossi spoke up. "We need to see if we can figure out their dynamic, and where the weak spots are. We figure that out, we figure out how to start getting them to fall apart. It will make them act more erratically, but it's the best chance we have."
"For now, I think we should all get some rest. I don't think they're going to give su food any time soon, and you three are still shaking and wincing," Morgan said, pinning each of them with a flat look when they went to protest. "If someone comes up with something and they're not the only one awake, sure discuss it, but... if this torture to test our family unit is going to continue, we need our strength."
Everyone reluctantly agreed and started getting comfortable on the floor, laying together and not sure exactly what they were going to do.
"We should use first names," JJ said suddenly before everyone could get settled. "They want us to prove that we're close, right? We use last names in the field for a reason for the most part, but we'll seem more human and relatable if we're reverting to names now that we're recognizing we're trapped. We'll seem scared, for each other and what is going to happen."
"Good idea, JJ," Hotch responded, eyes closed. "It'll be a little strange, since Hotch is as much my nickname as it is the first part of my last name, but it's for the best. We don't want them to decide we're not what they're looking for and move too fast."
"Don't forget Penelope is looking out for us, she was in contact when that explosion happened," Derek pointed out. "I'm sure she'll be working her magic and figuring out the best way to get us out of this mess, even without our help."
"If we're going to rest, we should be quiet," Spencer said quietly. "Although, if there is any way we can get word out to the police, if not G-Penelope, we should find it to give everyone the best chance possible."
There were murmurs of agreement as everyone fell into contemplative silence.
Aaron fell asleep first, followed by Spencer.
It took JJ helping Dave get more comfortable to get him to fall asleep.
Derek and Alex were also resting but they were wide awake as they thought about the conclusions they had drawn so far.
"A stressor that leads to this..." JJ said quietly. "What could it be, there were older people here, and teenagers. How long have the unsubs been trying to build this family?"
"Maybe it's the older couple, but the teenagers aren't actually their kids, but nieces and nephews," Alex suggested. "They weren't able to have children of their own, and maybe didn't have a good relationship with their parents. Siblings die, suddenly these teenagers need a home, and now they're making a family, and it should work because they're blood."
"Only, these are grieving kids, and there are all sorts of way they can react. Feeling safe or not," Derek replied quietly, thinking of his reaction to his dad's death. "So it didn't go as planned."
"That doesn't explain the young adults at play though." JJ frowned, back to fiddling with her necklace now that Dave didn't need help.
"Could be the oldest of the siblings' kids, or maybe their own younger siblings..." Derek replied.
Alex lifted her head to look at them. "What if one or both of the couple were parentified growing up, the oldest of at least five siblings, likely more than one ten years younger, but they were looking forward to having their own kids and doing it right, only to have that fall through. That would explain why the oldest seem to be in their fifties, then there's some adults around the age of thirty, then the teenagers."
"Losing any of thier siblings, getting the chance at family, and it falling apart... that could have been the final straw, and if they believed in magic... R-Spencer mentioned curses or removing curses as a reason for needing sacrifices. What if they think their family is cursed, and sacrificing a family that's not blood family will cure it?" Derek's eyes widened as it hit him what he just said and he shared looks with Alex and JJ.
"Then that means we're in for a rough time, if we can't even figure out how to get hints to the police." JJ paused. "...how long do you think it'll take them to decide if we've passed the tests?"
"I don't know," Alex said grimly. "But now that we have a working theory, we need to get some rest. Next time they're here, we'll need to see if we can test it while watching for anyone we might be able to convince to help us."
"I'm not sure I can sleep," JJ said softly, looking at their teammates. "There is too much going through my head."
"I know," Derek sighed. "But this is one of those situations where we're going to have to figure it out."
"How about a song I used to sing to myself when I was having a bad night?" Alex suggested.
"I'll try anything."
Alex sang a gentle song about hope and seeing the good in the world.
By the time she finished, Derek and JJ were both dozing.
Alex let out a yawn and got comfortable.
.
Dave woke up feeling unusually comfortable despite the burning between his shoulder blades and lingering aches.
He freed his arm and rubbed his eyes.
He let out a soft chuckle at the sight that greeted him. At some point, everyone had grouped together. He was the pillow for three different people curled around him, his head was still on JJ, and Alex was the only one not in direct contact with Dave, but she did have her head resting on Aaron's shoulder.
Considering the circumstances, he was not surprised everyone needed the comfort. But he was still worried about them all.
This was a tricky case, and they weren't even safe as they tried to solve it.
He just hoped that Penelope had called in help, because that was their best chance, though he wasn't going to voice that to the team.
The door opened.
Dave sighed. "Alright everybody, looks like this break is over. Time to be up and at 'em."
Spencer stirred first, blinking in confusion, then he realized he was basically on top of Dave and sat up, blushing.
"No need to apologize Spencer. The floor is uncomfortable."
Spencer was about to reply when he heard the family entering. He stiffened and turned to stare at them before poking Derek awake while Dave tried to wake up JJ and Aaron.
Derek swatted at Spencer's hand, grumbling and groaning about annoyances.
Spencer would have smiled normally, but they did have an audience and after the cattle prod, that made him very nervous. "Derek... you need to get off of Dave."
"Off of..." Derek opened his eyes and sat up as fast as Spencer had. "Right..." He rubbed his eyes and glared at the nearest adult.
By then, Aaron was up and sitting stiffly to avoid making the burn between his shoulders worse.
Spencer gave him a sympathetic look as Derek started trying to wake Alex.
Dave sat up and gently shook JJ.
By the time JJ sat up, everyone that had been there for the torture the day before was there again.
Derek stood up. "Alright, so what's your problem? Why do you need to make sure we're a better family unit than all the rest, huh?" He knew that Dave, Spencer, and Aaron didn't know what they had concluded the night before, and he was hoping to clue them in or at least get them thinking about it.
"So you are volunteering to be the first today."
Derek didn't get a chance to react before one of the teenagers was grabbing him. He didn't want to hurt the kid so he didn't fight back.
Alex stood. "Can you at least tell us a bit more about you?"
"And you have volunteered to be our second."
JJ glanced at Aaron, Dave, and Spencer and could see them showing the signs of hiding pain. They were still affected by the electrical burns left by the cattle prods.
She stood as well. "I will be the third," she said simply. "Are you sure that your plans will work out if you torture us?"
"This isn't torture. This is a test. So far... you are all passing."
JJ shared a look with Alex as they were pulled away.
The remaining three were left on the chairs.
.
It was hours later, all six of them were sore in some way. There were broken bones and open wounds, but no one was in danger of dying.
As soon as they were alone, Alex, JJ, and Derek shared their conclusions, and then they discussed the new dynamics they had noticed, such as how the adults seemed loyal to the couple in charge, while the teens seemed more wary and uncertain, but like they couldn't say no.
They concluded that they could maybe convince a teenager to get a message to the police.
.
Emily was at a high school when a teenager rushed by, dropping several papers.
The teenager dropped down to pick it up.
Emily helped quietly.
"You're with the FBI, right?" The teenager whispered as she picked up the papers.
"Yes, I am."
"Keep that." The teenager disappeared down the hall.
Emily had been talking to the principal looking for possible leads into who they were looking for; between her and Penelope they had concluded that the unsubs might have teenagers.
But they just didn't have enough of a profile to be entirely useful.
Emily looked down at the notebook and opened it up.
My family is messed up. All the killings, and now a team of FBI agents? I dont' know what to do. Help.
Emily took a deep breath and closed the notebook, rushing back to the precinct, where she called up Penelope and started reading all the notes.
As she read the notes about the family unit, Penelope started searching.
THen she got ot the end of the explanation, and found a few differnet handwritings... all but one she recognized.
She put a hand to her mouth. "They're alright."
"What?" Penelope asked.
"They wrote something in this notebook. They're all alive, Penelope."
"Oh, oh that's good news."
Emily read everything aloud. When she finished she closed the notebook and leaned on the table. "That's a good profile," she said. "Too bad that kid is too scared of her family to leave her name on it."
"I think it's enough to narrow my search down and... ah-ha, here we are, I think I have the news article about Mason and Lacey Schmidt taking in their niblings, and how their youngest siblings were helping raise the kids. Sending it now."
Emily looked at the news article. "Two years ago. That's when those smaller murders that we connected to this case started happening. It just got bigger and bigger."
"Uh-huh. And really, this family is full of tragedy. First the parents are just, not great, then the couple goes to college, has some issues with getting their degree, mostly some administration problems, not their fault at all, then they get married, and there's a bad snowstorm on that day. Then after years of trying, they find out they can't have children, the same year that a still teenage sibling has her first child." Penelope took a breath before continuing.
"Then fifteen years later, they lose two siblings and their spouses to a bad accident, leaving them with the custody of ten kids ranging from two years old to fifteen years old."
"That definitely sounds like the sort of bad luck that is driving these unsubs to believe they have some sort of familial curse that can only be alleviated by sacrificing people that have the sort of family bond they want. JJ says that there are four teenagers?"
"Uh, oh, looks like the oldest is seventeen, then there's a fifteen year old, a thirteen year old, and a twelve year old, the remaining six are two ten year olds, an eight year old, a six year old and twin four year olds. And... oh, oh no."
"What is it?"
"Two months ago, one of the ten year olds was diagnosed with leukemia."
Emily sighed. "There's the final stressor. That's when they decided they had to break the curse."
"Uh-huh. Oh, looks like they own a big property on the lake near the property that the team got kidnapped from, with a couple of buildings on that property."
"Right. Send the addresses, I'll talk to the police force. It's time to get our family back."
"Already sent."
Emily let out a breath and went to brief the police chief.
In short order, they had their warrant, and it was time to move in.
Emily was grateful that backup from the FBI had also arrived with SWAT to make it easier on the police department.
She went in the back door of the surprisingly large house and found three of the little kids coloring.
She quickly herded them out the door to someone who could take care of them before resuming her search.
While part of the team went through the other parts of the house, Emily took a team down into the basement.
She was partly down the stairs when she heard Hotch yell in pain, and several protests, accompanied by the sound of a scuffle.
She picked up the pace and kicked open the door. "FBI!" she yelled as she entered.
There were only four adults in the room, and they all looked stunned.
Hotch was already in the grip of one.
The remaining three each grabbed one of the team- Alex, Spencer, and Dave.
Derek was on the ground with a clearly broken leg and JJ's shoulder was a bloody mess.
Emily stared down the unsubs. "Let them go."
"No! We need to break this curse. We can't take anymore hardship."
"You know that this won't work," Spencer spoke up, ignoring the looks everyone else was giving him. "We're a family that we chose, our bonds created on the job, and deepened with hanging out outside of work and getting to know each other, trusting each other with our secrets. You don't trust each other, and no amount of sacrifices will bring that sort of bond. If you don't have that bond... how can you break the curse?"
"Family by choice has the same sort of bonds that family by blood do," Aaron agreed quickly. "There just is not the obligation that comes with family of blood. Are you a family just because of blood or do you actually care about each other, love each other and want the best in each other?"
Emily noted that the hands of the two holding onto Dave and Alex were shaking; they weren't the couple who was infertile though so that made sense.
"Killing us isn't going to solve anything anymore," Dave agreed. "Especially now that you've been found. You push them too far, they will kill you, and where will your family be then?"
"You can kill us," Alex said. "But that does mean that there will be a reason for them to shoot, and if you don't die from that, you will have the additional charges of murdering a federal agent. You're already not going to get to see the kids much as they grow up. Killing us just adds to that sentence."
Emily put away her gun and held up her hands stepping forward. "I just want my family back. Penelope and I have been working hard to find them, and now that I'm here, I'd like to leave with them alive. I don't want to kill any of you, but if you're a threat, then you will be treated accordingly. I understand you just want what's best for your family, that you're worried about Steven's leukemia, and that maybe one of the other kids will get cancer. But I want my family back."
"Your family? What do you know about them?" Lacey demanded. "And not just facts anyone could have looked up before coming here."
The other two let go of their hostages.
Alex carefully ducked down to check on JJ while Dave helped Derek up, supporting him so that they could start making a getaway.
"Well, Aaron always looks stern but he smiles sometimes when he's not being professional and he lets us get away with messing around when any other boss wouldn't. He's very protective and he'll stop at nothing to protect us if one of us gets hurt," Emily started. "Spencer's a bit awkward because he's a genius and was bullied for it, but he's overcome it and he loves playing with magic. I don't know how he can cram so much knowledge into that brain of his but I know that if I need some obscure fact, I might get it from him faster than from google. I also like watching movies in Russian with him since he understands the language. JJ seems like the softest of us outside of Penelope- she's our computer person, you wouldn't have met her- but she's really the strongest, able to withstand so much more than one thinks from looking for her, and she's really a rock in our tema. I don't know what we'd do without her."
Emily took a breath. "Derek is soft at heart. He likes giving nicknames that seem like the sort of nicknames you'd give a lover but that's just who he is, and he means it genuinely. He flips houses in his spare time to work out his feelings on some of the harder cases. Dave is good at wisdom and life experience, and I know I can go to him for good Italian food and wine. He's a bit private after the pain he's had in his life but he's learned how to ask for help and let us in when he needs it."
Emily was relieved to see both remaining unsubs had relaxed. They hadn't even noticed that Dave was helping Derek up the stairs and that Alex was heading that way with JJ.
"I don't really know Alex yet, because I had to move to London, but I know everyone loves her and how she fits in with the team. She can actually keep up with Spencer more than the rest of us, she's good at communicating and bridging misunderstandings, and I've been looking forward to getting to know her."
"They really are your family."
"They are. they've been there for me whenever I needed it, even when I tried not to let them help. Now, please, let them go."
To her relief, they did.
Both Aaron and Spencer fell.
Emily darted forward, letting Spencer fall on her and barely stopping Aaron's head from hitting the ground.
"Are you okay?" she asked, ignoring the unsubs being arrested.
Spencer groaned. "Well, I'm not going to die. But everything hurts. No narcotics," he added at her look. "I'll be fine. Eventually."
"I think I am about the same," Aaron said, not even bothering to attempt to sit up.
"Why did they hurt you? That has nothing to do with the ritual sacrifices."
"Testing to make sure we were actually family like they were looking for."
Emily sighed. "They wanted to see how you reacted and took care of each other in the face of torture."
Spencer nodded. "I'm glad you're here, Emily."
"Me too. Penelope was beside herself. And now I get to meet Alex. She does seem really cool."
Aaron smiled faintly. "You'll like her. She fits in with everyone."
"Good, but first, let's get you two to the hospital and taken care of, and then we can really catch up. Oh, shoot, I better call Penelope..." Emily fumbled with her phone.
"What happened?" Penelope demanded as soon as she picked up. "Are they alright/"
"We're hurt, but we're going to the hospital and we'll be alright," Aaron assured her.
"Oh, it's so good to hear your voice, anyone else with you?"
"I am, the others made it upstairs," SPencer replied, smiling. "Thank you."
"Oh, oh... you're welcome. I am going to take the next flight out to see you, you are going to all need help getting on the plane to come home and oh, are you going to need help getting around your homes after that I don't know I-"
"It's okay, we'll figure it out once you get here, okay?"
"Alright, right. Okay. Good. Job is done, I can go. I will see you very soon!"
That was perfect timing as the paramedics had arrived to assess Aaron and Spencer before taking them to the hospital.
Emily stepped away and finished out her part of the job. She went to the hospital as soon as she could.
Alex was able to be released the same day, which gave Emily plenty of time to get to know her. Once Penelope arrived the three of them split time between the remaining five.
JJ was released the next day as her only real concern was her shoulder, and she joined the rotation.
Aaron, Spencer, Dave, and Derek were only kept for one more night before the doctors released them, on the condition they went to be checked out within two days of making it back home.
When they made it home, they ended up agreeing to stay at Dave's where they could help each other and not feel alone.
They were family, after all.