RUNAWAY
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE...!

❝ OFFICER DOWN , SEASON
SEVEN ❞

JENNIE only continued standing there, in the line of hostages.

It was really all she was able to do if she wanted to live to see another day. The Queen and King unsubs had shown no mercy, and after now killing five people in one morning, Jennie knew that fact better than anyone.

The teen could feel sweat dripping down her forehead, as she heard the gunshots, the screams, and the begging from the innocent people moments away from their lives ending. Some of the deaths, she witnessed in front of her, her own eyes widening at the sights. Some she could only listen to, her body shaking as the sounds hit her ears.

Needless to say, they all allowed new waves of fear to brush over her.

"Let these people go."

When Jennie looked up at the voice, her eyes widened at the sight of Will. He stood there, no sign of any weapon or protection, with his hands in the air. His eyes landed on hers for a quick moment, before looking back at the male unsub.

"Will." Jennie muttered under her breath, her terrified eyes staying on him.

"Alright— you, you, you. The kids. Get out." The male unsub had pushed a blonde woman to the door, along with the two kids with her. There, they swiftly left the building, before the King's eyes went back on the detective, "Hey, what's your name?"

"William LaMontagne Jr."

"MPD." The male unsub chuckled to himself, looking back at his partner in crime.

For a flickering moment, Will looked back at Jennie, only to see her with a horrified look on her face. Except, by the way she was looking at him, he could see the anxiety-ridden state wasn't for the stakes of her life.

It was for the stakes of his.

Just barley, he could see her mouth her silent words with widened eyes. "Go. Now."

But once again, everything had happened so fast.

Shots fired.

Officer down.

—

Spencer had stayed back at the BAU office with Kevin, seeing if they could find anything there that could help with the case.

"Kevin, could you possibly pull up the surveillance feeds prior to Will being shot?"

"Sure, what are we looking for?"

"The female unsub disappeared once before. If she wasn't looking for an escape, what was she doing?"

—

       JENNIE was now kneeled down next to Will, her hand pressing firmly on the bloodied gauze atop the man's gunshot wound, with assistance from another citizen in the bank.

When Will winced, Jennie's eyes softened, before muttering, "Sorry. I'm sorry."

"Keep the pressure." The citizen next to her, who she learned was Matthew Downs, told her, "The pain won't kill him, but the loss of blood will."

"Just hang in there, Will." Jennie told the man, her voice coexisting with his heavy breathes. While she was trying to bring the man to ease, she couldn't help but feel ridden with immense anxiety herself. She had to fight the urge to look behind her every five seconds to make sure the unsubs weren't holding a gun to her.

But, for now, her focus only stayed on Will.

"Are you armed?" Matthew inquired, looking down at the bleeding man. When the detective shook his head, the citizen sighed, "Damn it. I feel like we might have something of a chance here. The girl's gone, and the guy's off his head."

"He doesn't know who to trust."

"We can work them against each other."

Will paused, pinching his eyebrows together slightly at the man and his commentary, "Are you a cop?"

"Former Marine."

Will tried to nod understandingly, only met with an increased amount of pain, causing him to wince. He rested his head on the floor for a moment, before looking back up at the teen.

"Jennie— if anything happens to me, I need you to take a message for JJ."

The citizen looked at the girl, questioningly, "JJ?"

"His girlfriend."

"You two know each other?"

Will paused for another moment, before letting a small chuckle fall from his lips, despite the pain it caused him, "The girl's like a daughter to me."

There was a small silence, Jennie allowing her mouth to curve upwards at Will's statement. The momentary pause, where she could feel her heart warm just a little bit, allowed for past memories of her and the man to appear in her mind. For instance, him and JJ coming home from a night out, drunk, and seeing their babysitter (Jennie, of course) being stuck on the couch with Henry, as the little guy fell asleep on her lap. Or — when Will, for some odd reason, had requested Jennie to teach him to skateboard on a random Sunday afternoon. The memories caused her to rejoice a bit.

But, only for a bit.

Jennie's demeanor changed quickly, as she saw the injured man start to stand up. In protest, she tried to call out his name, but he only ignored her attempts to stop him.

"Tell her I'm sorry."

"You can tell her once we get out of here." She reassured the man, referring to standing up next to him, "You can tell her anything. Once we get out of here, you can tell JJ anything."

The man shook his head, "Only I'm not getting out. You guys need someone to cause a distraction."

Jennie had automatically pieced together what he meant as the man began to walk over to the unsub, quickly shaking her head in disapproval to his ideas.

"Will—"

"The woman." The detective began, now standing in front of the King unsub. Jennie stayed by the other citizens, her eyes watching the situation closely, "What happened to her?"

"Aren't you dead yet?" The King replied, squinting his eyes at the man.

"You can't trust her." Will told him, ignoring his witty remark, "She's taking orders from someone else."

"Uh," The unsub chuckled dryly, "She takes orders from me."

"Look around. In any second now, agents are going to storm into this place, and the only bad guy I see is you." Will told him, looking around the bank, "She's setting you up to take the fall for this."

"That's not true."

"Where is she?"

The unsub pointed backwards, "She's back there."

"Oh." Will chuckled, nodding his head knowingly — an action that only angered the man. Said anger had caused the unsub to stand up and bring the gun to the detective's face.

"Alright. You. Come here." Unsub told him, motioning to the back, where he claimed the woman was, "I'll show you. Come on."

As he was slowly lead to the back, Will looked back at the group once more, specifically at Jennie, who was shaking her head at the man. His glance towards the girl was so quick, it would be a surprise if anyone had even noticed it.

But, of course, Matthew could.

"Hey, let him go, man! He has a daughter!" Matthew quickly called out. Both Jennie and Will's heads snapped to the man, their eyes widening, trying to fathom why he would make such an erupt statement.

Jennie didn't know if it was on purpose, but she could see Matthew indicate it was her who was his daughter, slightly motioning in her general area.

"She's not my daughter." Will quickly spoke up, seeing the unsub begin to walk towards where Matthew and Jennie were standing.

"But you said—"

"That was a misunderstanding." The detective cut the former marine off, "She has nothing to do with this. Leave her out of it."

The unsub, however, didn't listen to Will's words. And soon enough, he stood in front of Jennie, his burning glare once again staring into the teen's eyes.

It was much more alarming this time, compared to the first time the girl met his eyes. This time — the King was filled with merely rage and exasperation. He wasn't the same person he was at the beginning of the day. In just a few hours, he went from being a bank robber, to being a murderer who showed no mercy. He went from being someone Jennie found peculiar, to someone she felt terrified of.

"Yeah?" The unsub then gripped onto the girl's arm, pulling her with him, "We'll see about that."

"Hey, wait—" Matthew tried to retract his statement, but the unsub only pointed the gun in his direction.

Again, no mercy.

"Say another word, and I'll kill you."

For a moment, Jennie quickly glanced back at the citizen, only to see him back down from defending the teen. The citizens watched in fear, as the King now lead Will and Jennie to the back.

Jennie could only reassure herself with the fact that if the team got the message she was trying to tell them on the security cameras beforehand, her and Will would be okay.

That is, if they even realized she was trying to send them a message.

—

       "ITS GONNA be fine, Jennie."

Will muttered to the girl, as the male unsub  lead them to the back. He spoke after a thick silence, constantly glancing over at the girl, worryingly, seeing her terrified state. He understood his words would barely ease any tension she was feeling, but he couldn't say nothing.

"I'm gonna get you out of here."

"The team isn't actually coming in here, right?" Jennie questioned, her voice as low as his. She winced slightly, feeling the King tighten his grip on her arm, as he walked behind them, "That was just a set up?"

"What do you mean?"

"Like— they found a way to diffuse this thing from the outside?" Jennie questioned, lowering her voice even more, "Obviously, there's no way they can come in here safely. I figured Reid, or someone else, found a way to stop this thing. . ?"

Will paused for a brief second, looking over at the girl. She seemed certain that he understood the context of her words, but in reality, he only became increasingly confused. "What are you talking about?"

"The codes I gave you guys."

Another pause.

"...What codes?"

Jennie's eyes widened slightly in realization, looking over at the man. He didn't get the message. The team didn't get the message. Which allowed the high probability that, in any moment, the team would actually storm in the building. They would get hurt.  Everyone was going to get hurt.

Another pause.

"Jennie— what codes?"

—

SPENCER stood at the computer, still back at the BAU office, switching his gaze from one monitor to the next.

Back at the bank, hostages took the chance of escaping the building, after the unsub left the room. The team watched carefully, their hearts dropping when they realized neither Jennie or Will had left with the other citizens. Shortly after — Derek, Emily, JJ and many other federal teams had begun slowly entering the building.

When Kevin saw Spencer's attentive expression, he spoke up.

"Did you find anything?"

"I might've." Reid muttered, "When Jennie answered her call, she kept tapping on her phone."

"Taping?" Kevin repeated, "Like— out of nervousness, or something?"

"No— it was more consistent." Spencer walked closer to the screen, squinting his eyes, before muttering under his breath in realization, "Morse code."

Kevin watched as the man quickly grabbed a piece of paper, and wrote down the letters she had tapped.

F O L L O W I N G L I N E S.

"Following lines." Spencer repeated, under his breath, eyebrows furrowing questioningly.

Spencer stayed quiet, ignoring the male tech analyst's upbringing of questions, as he switched his gaze to the other monitor. He watched attentively again, keeping Jennie's coded phrase in mind, trying to connect anything he could find.

And finally— It clicked.

"The unsub— she's following the electrical lines." Spencer muttered in realization, his eyes widening slightly, "Gas mains."

Kevin's eyes widened at the information, as the profiler quickly rushed to call Garcia and the team.

"Garcia, get them out of there!"

The three in the vehicle, that parked outside the bank, — Rossi, Penelope, and Strauss — quickly ran out, as the Italian man yelled into his wrist, alarming his agents.

"Abort! Abort!"

But once again, it all happened so fast.

Multiple officers down.

Jennie Hotchner — also down.

—

THE BUILDING was in pieces.

Walls were no longer walls, and the floors were no longer floors after the explosion the female unsub had caused. Everything practically had turned to fine powder, vanishing in front of the glassy eyes of Jennie Hotchner.

The same eyes she was fighting to keep open.

Jennie sat there, near the back exit of the bank, feeling almost no control over her body as she sat on the floor in the corner of the room. She had her back against the wall, her hand pressing against her stomach, atop of one of the wounds she had endured in the explosion.

Frighteningly, she found herself wishing she had been crushed to unconsciousness in the midst of the room falling apart.

It would be a lot less painful than what she was dealing with.

"I knew you'd make it."

She could hear a faint voice in the distance. She had practically used up all her remaining energy to turn her head slowly, her eyes meeting the sight of Matthew Downs walking up to her.

"Matthew." She breathed out, looking up at the man as her eyebrows weakly pinching, "I thought— I thought you and the other hostages evacuated?"

"Here, let me help you up." Matthew held out a hand, taking the teen's into his. There, she grimaced at the excruciating pain of him pulling her up swiftly. He kept one hand in hers, and placed the other on her back to help her keep her balance, "And— you're right. All the hostages did evacuate."

"Then, " She paused, squeezing her eyes shut at the continuous aching of her body, "Why— why are you still here?"

When she looked at the man again, she could only see him pause for a moment, before his mouth had formed into a small smirk.

She's taking orders from someone else.
— Will's words from earlier had then reappeared in Jennie's mind, her eyes widening, and her body tensing in realization.

Matthew was the someone else.

"No—" Jennie couldn't help but mutter under her breath, attempting to pull away from the man, "No."

She struggled to escape from his hold, his hands pressing into her skin as he gripped tighter onto her arms. It went on for a long, painful moment, before his grip hadn't gotten so stiff, that it pained Jennie too much to continue.

Ultimately, every form of reassurance she had told herself had now been crushed into cinders. An utterly painful realization struck her mind — embarrassment and utter guilt caved into her chest. After everything's she's been through, she should've caught on to the unsubs' plans sooner. She shouldn't have let Matthew Down's nice act cloud her knowledge that in many occasions, kind personas are just a disguise. She should've known better. She should've been smarter.

How could she have been so stupid?

She looked up at the man, her burning glare meeting his careless eyes. His smirk appeared once again, more infuriating this time, before speaking as he began to forcefully lead her out the door.

"Your friend is waiting for us, Jennie."

—

AUTHOR'S NOTE |

that was not very slay of matthew tbh

i apologize for another cliff hanger 😞 next chapter will be out sooon!!

word count.
2579.