Chapter Text
“Truth or dare?” Casey asked, shaking with anger as he pointed his gun at JJ's face.
“Truth,” JJ responded, knowing that any dare he would ask her would undoubtedly be sadistic. She was scared. The situation was out of hand, and she didn’t have a plan. She was just trying to stall and praying to God that someone would make this end before anyone else died.
“I want you to say something you’re afraid to say. That you’d never tell anybody, and you better make it good, ‘cause if it’s not, it’s gonna be the last thing you ever say. What’s it gonna be?” Casey growled, taking a step towards JJ aggressively.
“Ok, Ok!” JJ gasped, her mind racing through memories and lies whilst simultaneously trying to think about what kind of answer might satisfy Casey.
“Now!” he shouted angrily, growing tense as he suspected she was trying to make a story up.
JJ was desperately wracking her brains for a lie that might help de-escalate the situation, but she couldn’t think of a story fast enough. Instead, she splurted out the secret that had immediately come to mind when he’d asked for something she’d take to her grave. She only had one secret like that. One thing she’d sworn to herself that she’d never tell a living soul. “I’m in love with my boss!”
JJ saw a spark of intrigue flash across the unsubs face. That was good. Intrigue would keep herself, Reid, and the other hostages alive a little longer. What was important now was to keep him intrigued. There was no point worrying about the consequences of saying these words aloud if she wouldn't be alive to face them anyway. She wished she had a better plan, but for now stalling would have to do and she was willing to sacrifice her dignity if it could save their lives. She’d gotten his attention, that was progress. Now she had to engage the unsub by conveying to him why this was secret was so devastating.
“You see the camera up there?” JJ said, glancing up towards the camera to her right but otherwise keeping completely still so the unsub knew she wasn’t trying to make any moves to escape.
The unsub looked anxiously up in the direction JJhad signalled.
“You see the red light?” JJ continued. “My team is watching us right now. They can hear us too. Including my boss...Emily”
The unsubs face shot back towards JJ with a smirk. “Emily, eh?” He asked, surprised that JJ was referring to a woman. It was a risk, revealing she loved a woman. He could have reacted angrily. But instead he was turned on. It disgusted JJ, but this was also the response she was hoping for. She needed to keep him engaged in her story and this was piquing his interest. She only wished she had managed to concoct a lie instead of spilling a true secret.
“Emily,” JJ confirmed. “But she was never meant to know. It’s totally inappropriate for me to have these feelings towards her. I could lose my job.”
JJ could see the unsub losing interest already. He didn’t care if JJ lost her job! Had she really just revealed her greatest secret for nothing? Her head scrambled for the words to say next. She had to excite him. He doesn’t care about her career. What excited him that she has the hots for her boss. Her genuine heartache and angst that her heart and her career were in conflict did not matter to this man. She needed to arouse him if she was going to survive long enough that her team might have a chance to save them.
“That would be the worst thing that could happen” continued JJ, trying to regain his attention, “because this job is how I get to be with her. We’re always travelling... sharing hotel rooms...” JJ said suggestively. He was interested again but JJ knew she had to raise the stakes. She could feel Reid’s stare burning into her but didn’t dare look to see the expression on his face. She felt humiliated, but also terrified and it was her fear that they could all die in seconds if she lost his attention that made her force herself to keep going. “I like coming down south because it’s so hot down here... we only sleep in our underwear.” There was a time when she and Emily had slept in their underwear due to the heat in Texas but JJ brought this up in particular as she knew in the unsub’s mind it would create a link between him and their relationship. It was hot here in LA, the last few days unseasonably so, and she knew he would be imagining her and Emily sleeping in their underwear on this work trip. Maybe he’d even imagine them together tonight. Engaging the unsub in the future of their story is what would be most likely to keep her and Spence alive. She needed to get him fantasising about what might happen now because he’d made her spill this secret.
“Sometimes she lets me hold her at night, but she’s never known how much that means to me...” JJ continued. She felt sick in her stomach as she decided on her next move. So far she’d been maintaining eye contact with Casey, hoping her expressions would convey to him not only that her story was true but also how much it was destroying her that he had forced this confession out of her. But JJ calculated that the best way to keep his attention and to keep him engaged in this drama - rather than the much more dangerous chaos he was creating for himself - was to make sure he felt Emily’s presence in the room, listening to JJ through the security system. And so JJ forced her eyes away from the unsub and looked straight at the camera. She felt her eyes tear up as she looked down the lens, feeling completely overwhelmed by fear and humiliation. She may well be about to die, but first she was admitting to her entire team that she had been perving on her boss. If she survived this, she wasn’t sure how she would ever look Emily in the eyes again.
Looking at the camera only made her all the more conscious that Emily could hear all this, although of course that was the point of her theatrics of staring into the lens: the unsub had to be engaged in her confession to Emily, and so had to feel Emily’s presence through the camera lens too.
“Emily, ever since I first met you you’ve driven me crazy. I can hardly control myself around you.”
It worked, and he looked up to the camera again with a broad, sick grin on his face. JJ felt a wave of relief not only that he responded just as she hoped, but also that the movement of his head was an excuse for JJ to take her eyes off the camera and back to the man who was pointing his gun at her. It didn’t feel good to be looking at him either but staring into the camera lens felt like she was staring into Emily’s dark eyes and she couldn’t handle that connection right now. For the first time in JJ’s life, Emily was the last person JJ wanted to think about.
“She’s hearing us right now?” The unsub asked, still smirking.
JJ nodded, glad he was engaged but also worried about where this was going to go next.
“Tell her what you want to do to her,” he ordered, “in bed.”
JJ bit her lip. She had led the conversation in this direction hoping to engage him and buy time, but she didn’t know how she would ever look her teammates in the eyes again if she did what he was asking.
“Tell her!” the unsub shouted, angry at JJ for wasting time.
“Ok!” replied JJ, startled by his anger. She forced herself to look up at the camera again. Knowing she couldn’t afford to hold back, she said “Emily, so many times I’ve dreamed of undressing you...Undoing your bra as I kissed you. I want to feel your breasts pressed against mine. I want to feel your hands caressing my body...gently to start but I know quite quickly I’d be overcome with passion and...”
JJ looked back at the unsub. She could see him practically drooling as JJ exposed her fantasy in front of him. She looked him straight in the eye now, knowing the unsub was thinking of himself with her, “I want her to fuck me so bad”.
At that moment there was a loud bang and the unsub fell to the floor. JJ looked behind her to see Spence holding a gun and her eye flicked to the gun holder from which the weapon was drawn, now only partially concealed by his trousers. Before JJ could react, armed police knocked down a door at the back of the room.
Whilst JJ stood awestruck, Reid directed orders at the incoming police. “We have three people down. We need an ambulance”.
The sound of Reid’s voice gave JJ the jolt she needed to remember where she was. Putting aside her feelings about her confession, she rushed to aid the unsubs injured victims.