"He usually keeps his victims for three weeks, so he must be some place pretty isolated or else he would draw attention to himself." Reid said, examining a map of Oklahoma. "There are warehouse districts inside his comfort zone here, here, and here." He said, pointing to different locations. "There's also boundless stretches of desert so he could technically be anywhere."

Emily let out a strangled sob at that.

"Shut it, kid," Morgan said, putting an arm around his friend.

"Oh. Sorry," Reid said, abashed.

"Well, luckily I'm pretty sure our boy genius is wrong for once." Garcia chimed in, "Damion has no record of any purchases of hardware or manual labor. It doesn't appear that he has any unregistered structures."

"He would need a building to hold these women in. Otherwise, even if no one saw him, we'd see the effect of the elements on the bodies." Rossi reasoned.

"Exactly!" Garcia said to the sound of her fingers typing wildly, "Unfortunately, that's the only good news I have for you. I can't find any other properties that Damion has ever purchased. And there's not a lot of traffic cams around, so the license plate hasn't shown up yet."

"What about houses of family members or any land they own?" Hotch suggested.

"Mmmm nope. Nothing within a four-state radius. They all live up in Maine." Garcia said.

"Hey, what about Patrick?" Morgan suggested, "I mean they were engaged. Maybe they had access to each other's finances, and maybe Damion still does."

"Uh…You are good, my shadow of sexiness. A huge storage unit was bought under Patrick's name…five months ago." Garcia said, staring at the computer in shock.

"That's gotta be it." Rossi said, looking around at the team.

"Alright. Reid, you're with Rossi. Morgan with me. Emily, you stay here." Hotch stated.

"Sir!" Emily exclaimed, outraged.

"You're too involved, Prentiss. We can't have you in the field." Hotch explained.

"I am not going to stay behind while that monster is holding my JJ! Who knows what he's doing to her? He raped those other women, you know!" Emily said, her face set but her voice trembling.

"What if she stays with me," Morgan chimed in.

Hotch hesitated, looking between the two agents, "fine. But you will follow every order to the letter, understood?" He said, receiving enthusiastic nods in return. "Alright. You two are with me. Let's go."

The team headed to the cars, Rossi calling for backup on standby from the local police. Morgan immediately got into the backseat, earning a confused look from Emily, who expected another battle for shotgun.

"You know, I don't blame you." Emily said, turning to Morgan and speaking over the wail of the sirens.

"You should." Morgan said, unfeelingly.

"No, I shouldn't. You did what you had to. He was gonna kill her if you'd done anything differently." Emily said, reassuringly.

"We shouldn't've split up." Morgan argued.

"No, we shouldn't have sent you two in alone. Splitting up was your best chance." Emily responded.

"Yeah, I guess. Let's just get that son of a bitch and get JJ back." Morgan said, his face set with determination.

"Agreed." Emily replied, turning her face forward as they neared the address.

The team held their guns aimed at the storage unit when Hotch nodded to Morgan. Morgan, in turn, threw his shoulder against the door and it burst open, the agents flooding in, guns ahead of them.

"So, you found me," Damion said from the back of the structure. JJ was chained to a post with a cloth over her mouth and Wilson's gun held to her temple. "I didn't think you would. I bet it's Patrick's fault. He sold me out, didn't he?" the killer spat.

"Meeting him eventually led us to you," Hotch admitted calmly.

"This is all his fault, you know. If that whore hadn't tempted him to go play with her, I wouldn't have to teach her a lesson. You know, I'm bisexual, too. My parents weren't onboard with the wedding; they wanted me to go find a nice girl to settle down with, so they could pretend I never loved any boys." Damion ranted, his gun still held near JJs terrified face. "But I didn't. I actually cared about Patrick. But he never cared about anyone. No one really cares about anyone. You're all liars and whores!" He shouted.

"You're right," Emily said, stepping forward. "It wasn't fair. It's not fair that Clarise took him away from you." She tried to appeal to some sort of humanity in him, "But some people do love each other. That woman you're holding there? I really do love her. And it wouldn't be fair if you were to take her away from me."

Damion looked back and forth between the two. "Oooooh a little office romance, hmm?" He cooed, sickeningly. "You know she doesn't really love you," he told JJ, but loud enough for the others to hear. "The moment she finds some cute new toy, she'll leave you in the dirt." He spat, making JJ flinch. "You know, there's another girl," He said to the room at large, "and I'll tell you where she is. But only if…" he paused, smiling at Emily, "only if you finish my job for me." He said, that sickening grin growing.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked, confused.

"The rest of you, leave the room." He shouted. "Leave or I'll kill her right now!" He screamed when he saw their hesitation.

"Go, I got this." Emily said over her shoulder and she heard the others file out.

"Yell if you need anything," Hotch said, before the door closed.

"Now that we're alone," Damion said, his face returning to his sickening smile. "You know what I usually do to the women. I rape them," he said, his mouth twisting further into that evil grin. "See, I can play with the whores, too. Just like Patrick. So, I want you to take this," he said, throwing a stick toward Emily, "and doing that part of the job for me."

"No." Emily said, taking a step back, disgusted.

"Do that or I won't tell you where the last girl is," he jeered.

"There is no last girl. You're bluffing." Emily said, though her voice wavered with uncertainty.

"Are you really willing to take that chance?" Wilson asked. "Show your little girlfriend how worthless she actually is to you. Then you can find out where the other girl is. She's pretty, you know. If you save her maybe you won't have to put up with this bitch anymore, anyway. Come on. Have some fun with her and then we can go get you a new girlfriend. A better one." He coaxed.

Emily took a step toward the stick.

"That's it. When I raped those girls they all screamed and begged me to stop. You have no idea the sense of power that gives a person. You look like you'd enjoy it. Imagine how fun it would be. She's chained up. You have total control over her. Imagine the way she'll squirm," Damion taunted.

Emily leaned down and picked up the stick, avoiding JJs eyes as they silently begged her to stop, tears welling in them.

"That's it. Here, I'll get you started," the man said, reaching for the fastening of JJ's pants.

"No, I'll do that." Emily said, smirking at Damion.

"Oh, you want the whole experience. I knew you were a top." Damion chuckled.

Emily approached JJ slowly, refusing to look into her girlfriend's eyes as JJ thrashed wildly at the chains. Emily stood right in front of JJ, holding the stick in one hand and placing the other just above JJ's pants.

Emily leaned forward to JJ's ear and whispered "you're safe." Before spinning suddenly and cracking Damion over the head with the stick. Damion's face barely had time to register the shock before her crumpled, out cold.

Emily threw the stick at Damion's limp form and hurried to release JJ from her bindings.

"Come on in!" She called to the team outside as JJ collapsed into her arms.

"I," JJ sobbed into Emily's shoulder, "I thought you were going to…"

"Shhh," Emily soothed, running her fingers through JJ's hair, "I know. I know, baby. But I wouldn't. I wouldn't ever."

JJ nodded into her girlfriend's shoulder, sobbing in relief and clutching to Emily as a lifeline as they both sank to the ground, JJ cradled in Emily's arms.

"We found the other girl." Hotch told Emily as Damion stirred. Morgan moved to handcuff him immediately and jerked him onto his feet roughly. "We called in the backup and searched nearby units. She was in an abandoned one a few rows down. She's on the way to the hospital now."

"We should head there, too," Emily said, glancing at the woman in her lap. Emily helped JJ stand and they walked out together, JJ still sobbing in Emily's arms.

Morgan led Damion to a squad car, reading him his rights and forgetting to help the killer avoid hitting his head on the door frame. JJ and Emily headed so JJ could get checked out.

"We'll meet you at the hospital," Rossi said to Emily as the woman stepped up beside her girlfriend's stretcher.

"Good job, team. Let's go." Hotch said, and the remaining agents walked to their cars and followed the ambulance.

The team was on the jet, headed back home. Rossi and Reid were playing chess in the corner. Morgan was chatting with Hotch in another, and JJ and Emily were curled up together on the couch.

"I think we're gonna be okay," JJ whispered suddenly.

"What do you mean?" Emily asked, peering down at the woman in her arms.

"Us. We're gonna be okay. I mean, I know it's not gonna be easy, but…after that case…I think we're gonna be okay." JJ elaborated. "I dunno, just…something clicked in the storage unit when you didn't…you know…but anyway, I think I finally realize…all of me realizes that I can trust you. I finally realized that…love doesn't hurt." JJ finished, avoiding Emily's eyes.

"That's great, baby." Emily responded, with a huge smile, sliding her fingers beneath JJ's chin to make the younger woman look at her. She leaned forward and kissed her girlfriend softly on the lips, pulling away only when Morgan called, "Hey! Get a room, you two!"

Emily threw a pillow at Morgan and JJ chuckled as she nestled further into the true safety of her girlfriend's arms. In this moment, everything was perfect. In this moment, JJ knew, everything was going to be okay.

THE END

A/N: Thank y'all for sticking through this story. I am so sorry for the delays and everything that prevented me from updating. Special thanks to my wonderful, beautiful girlfriend who took on the challenge of completing this story. Thank you all so much.