Author Note:

Hello to everyone who clicked on this story. If you are like me then you will likely skip of the author note in order to get to the story, however, in this case I ask that you make an exception. I'm a long time reader of fan-fiction and long timer lover of the show. This is my first attempt that I have ever published and as such I welcome any review, good or bad. I've written quite a bit of this so far and will continue to post a chapter each week. I am a firm believer of not judging a show based on the pilot and I hope the same rule applies here, as such have two chapters this week, it will give you a bit of a look as to where I am going with this.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it, either way let me know.

Thanks, Hannah. :)

Chapter 1

Derek Morgan opened his eyes slowly, savouring the feeling of the delicious warmth surrounding him. Inhaling deeply, he smelt the scent of cherry blossoms, the scent he had come to recognise as her shampoo. Looking down he caught a glimpse of long black hair splayed out around her face that continued to trail onto his torso. She was curled up against him, his arm wrapped around her waist and her head resting in the crook of his neck. Their legs were tangled together and his hand rested on her thigh. Rays of sunlight peaked through the curtains, dancing over the crisp white sheet, giving him an idea of just how late in the day it was. A feeling of happiness and peace washed through him, it was something he hadn't felt for a long time. His dark eyes swept over her features, taking in the length of her eyelashes and the fairness of her skin, the fullness of her red lips. He sighed contentedly, savouring the moment, wishing that it would never end.

"Quit staring" she grumbled sleepily, opening one eye to mock glare at him.

A smile played on his lips "Can't," he replied in a low voice "you are so damn beautiful."

A delicate flush spread over her cheeks, making him chuckle. She tilted her head up to meet his and pressed a chaste kiss on the edge of his jaw line. She repeated the motion, trailing a path upward to his lips, capturing his bottom lip with her teeth. Morgan let out a soft groan and without breaking the kiss rolled her body over so that he came to rest on top of her, his arms spread out on either side of her to support his weight. It wasn't long before the kiss deepened, causing a wealth of emotions to stir with in him. Fire raced down his every nerve and everything else seemed to fall away, all that mattered was the feel of her lips against his. Taking her lower lip into his mouth he begun to suck gently on it, her answering moan made his soul ache, he kissed her desperately, as if he were starving and she was the only sustenance in the world. Electric shocks ran down her spine and she clutched him tighter, her nails pressing into his lower back. Eventually the need for oxygen won out and they both pulled back, breathing heavily. Staring at her, the words tumbled out of his mouth before he could stop them, but the moment they were out he knew them to be true. "I love you."

She froze in his arms and looked directly into eyes as if she were trying to judge the sincerity of his words. A moment passed that seemed like eternity to Derek. A smile slowly spread across her lips and she breathed "I love you too."

Derek awoke to the sound of a shrill ringing which he ignored, squeezing his eyes, trying to stay in the dream. The sound dropped off for a second before promptly starting again. Growling, he rolled over and sat up straight in his bed, experiencing momentary confusion as he tried to come back to reality. She wasn't beside him, the warmth had disappeared and along with it, the calm and happiness. Shaking his head from side to side he realised that it was just a dream, the most vivid one he had ever experienced. Slightly angered by this realisation and the annoying ringing he reached blindly for the source of the noise, his hand closed around his cell phone; from the caller ID he could see that it was Garcia. Flipping it open he answered the phone with a gruff "what?"

"Hello to you too sunshine" the usually bright voice replied, somewhat hurt.

"Sorry baby girl" he apologised, rubbing his face with his free hand "Weird night, have we got a case?"

"You're forgiven" she said, perking up "and yes, Hotch wants the team down here pronto."

"Be there soon." He said and closed the phone, setting it on the table beside him. What was that? He thought. The dream was fresh in his mind, so clear that he had to check the other side of the bed to make sure that she wasn't there. Who was the girl? He thought for sure that he had never seen her before, he definitely would have remembered. Climbing out of bed he stumbled to the bathroom to splash some cold water on his face, trying to dispel the lingering effects of the dream, his body felt flushed and his emotions were all muddled and confused. Leaning on the sink he stared at his reflection in the mirror, a man with a red face and dazed, bloodshot eyes stared back. Get a grip man; he said to himself sternly, you've had dreams like that before. Not as vivid, part of him argued, and not with that level of emotion. Breathing deeply he shrugged his shoulders as if trying to shrug off the dream itself. Just ignore it, he told himself, and with that conviction he began to dress.

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Derek was the last one to the conference room when he arrived at Quantico, enough time had now passed for him to have put the dream to the back of his mind, it wasn't his main focus now. Garcia had already handed out the manila folders that contained the briefs of the case when he walked into the conference room; she gave him a small smile in greeting before handing him one. Garcia waited until Derek had sat down and she held everyone's attention before starting. "Alright" she began in an unusually sombre tone and she pressed a button on the remote that she held in her hand. Six separate photos appeared on the screen. "In Chicago six bodies have been found over the last two weeks, all with the same MO. The victims have suffered multiple fractures, bruises and contusions consistent with multiple beatings over a short period of time. Each body was found in local parks wrapped in plastic, with their arms folded over their chests."

"Six bodies?" Emily Prentiss asked almost incredulously, "and they only waited until now to bring us in?"

"The Chicago PD was reluctant to admit that they had a serial killer on their hands, they've been dealing with heat from the states department because of crime rate rises." Garcia replied, sharing the same frown as Emily.

"So in short, they didn't want to look bad." JJ said bitterly. "Why can't they just let us do our jobs?" she asked no one in particular.

"Back to the victims," Hotch cut in, with a tone that clearly said that the Chicago PD were not the issue, "the beatings seem like overkill but the way that the bodies were laid to rest would suggest remorse, the two don't usually go together."

"The medical examiner seems to think that the injuries were not caused by any sort of weapon, but rather that they are consistent of the wounds inflicted by hands and feet." David Rossi put in, reading from the file.

"There doesn't seem to be a connection between the victims, they are of different race, gender, even their physical attributes are different. How is he choosing them?" Spencer Reid asked in a puzzled tone.

"The amount of energy it takes to beat someone to death in this way would indicate an extremely high level of rage, maybe the unsub knew the victims personally." Morgan answered thoughtfully, tapping his fingers on the table.

"Six victims in two weeks is not a long cool down time," Hotch said "this unsub is confident which is bad news, we have to solve this case fast." He stood up and looked at each team member individually "Everyone gather their things, wheels up in fifteen."

Chapter 2

One, two. One, two.

The sound of flesh hitting something solid echoed throughout the empty room, joined occasionally by the sound of guttural grunts and heavy breathing. Elariah Montgomery stood in front of one of the many punching bags that were hanging around the room.

One, two. One, two.

Punching the bag was her release, her way of dealing stress and of working through her thoughts; it had been that way ever since she was sixteen. Now here she was thirteen years later and she still retained her coping mechanism.

Elariah knew that she was pushing her body to its limit, her last self defence class for the day had ended two hours ago and still she stood, venting her pent up emotions. Her limbs ached and were coated with sweat. Her long black hair, which had been braided back at the start of the day, had begun to fall out. Her chest was heaving as a result of the exertion she was putting herself through, but that didn't stop her. No, what stopped her was the loud buzzing that was coming from the corner of the room where she had left her gym bag. Halting her movements, she pushed the sweat soaked locks out of her face before walking over to pick up her phone.

Seeing the caller ID she smiled and flipped open the phone, "Okay okay, I'm heading home now." She said by way of greeting.

"Good," the voice of her best friend and roommate, Anya, answered "because I have here a full pint of cookies and cream ice cream and a collection of Molly Ringwold movies to watch, and I refuse to spend the night alone."

Chuckling, Elariah stooped to pick up her exercise bag and began to exit the Dojo, her Dojo, she corrected herself, she had finally inherited it three months ago when her Aunt had passed away. She was still getting used to owning something so large. "Don't worry" she said opening the front door and scanning the car park, she hadn't realised how late it had gotten, it was completely dark and the sky was littered with bright twinkling lights. "I'm leaving right now." The combination of turning around to lock the door while trying to sling her bag on her right shoulder and at the same time focusing on what Anya was saying, led Elariah to fail to hear the approaching footsteps.

Whatever she had been about to say to Anya was cut short when a heavy blow landed on her head from behind, a surprised oomph escaped her lips and Elariah slumped to the ground, unconscious and bleeding. "Elariah? Elariah, what was that?" the sound of Anya's frantic voice could be heard from the phone that lay a hands breath from Elariah's prone body. Bending down, a man with an unshaven beard and gloved hands closed the phone with a sharp snap. Gathering the slumped figure of Elariah in his arms, the man carried her to the back of his faded brown truck. He dumped her in the back, climbed into the front and drove off, leaving Elariah's scattered belongings and a faint blood spatter behind.

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The BAU team were all situated on the plane; it had just taken off when they received a video call from Garcia. "Ok crime fighters it looks like we have some new info." She began, waiting till she had everyone's attention, she continued. "If you all check your tablets you will see a photo of Elariah Montgomery, our latest victim."

Derek froze and sucked in a breath, an action that did not go unnoticed by the rest of the team. It was her! The girl from his dream. As he stared down at her smiling face, all of the emotions the dream had invoked came back and he found himself completely lost and confused. While he tried to digest this information he missed the question that was being asked of him. Looking up to see the team all staring at him expectantly, he realised that Hotch was speaking to him. "I'm. . . I'm sorry, what?" He asked a little unsteady, coming back into reality.

"I said, is something the matter?" Hotch said, staring at Derek with concerned eyes, he had noticed that the man had seemed distracted all morning.

"No, it's nothing, I'm fine."Morgan insisted, trying to collect himself, taking a deep breath he asked as nonchalantly as possible "so who is she?"

Garcia paused before answering, giving Derek an appraising look. "Elariah is a twenty nine year old woman, single and fresh out of college; with get this, a master's degree in criminology as well as a degree in behavioural psychology. She was reported missing this morning."

"So, again our unsub has gone for someone completely different then their other victims. Elariah is intelligent and young while the other victims have all been 35 years and up with little or no education." Rossi stated.

"How do we know she is missing?" JJ asked "maybe she took a spontaneous trip somewhere."

"Her roommate was on the phone with her when it happened sweet cheeks." Garcia explained, "Said that she was talking to Elariah when she suddenly heard a loud thump and a grunt before someone hung up the phone. Besides they found blood at the abduction site, and her car was left in the lot with her possessions scattered on the ground. The police are canvassing the area now."

There was a pause as the team digested this, "It seems sloppy." Emily put in "Attacking her while she was on the phone, leaving her things behind."

"Emily is right; the other abductions were more premeditated, this seems like more of a spontaneous action, one with very little thought." Spencer Reid said referring back to his folder.

"It's a high risk area as well" Garcia added "lots of foot traffic, even at that time of night."

"This abduction was nothing like the methodical style the unsub has shown before." Rossi said.

"So what are we thinking?" Morgan asked "are they devolving, or is there another unsub?"

"Too soon to tell" Aaron Hotchner answered "we will have to get there and see." He looked at the others, "Alright, when we land I want Rossi and Emily to head to the medical examiner, see if there is anything the local police have missed to tie these victims together. JJ, if you could coordinate with the local police and media? The last thing we need is this thing to cause panic. Reid and Morgan, go to Elariah's apartment, talk to the roommate, see if she can remember anything more about what happened." Everyone nodded and began to settle into their seats.

"Thanks baby girl" Morgan said, looking up at Penelope.

"Anytime sugar, Garcia out." The screen went dark.

Derek stared out the window, lost in thought. How was it possible to dream of someone you hadn't met? Realising how much of a problem it could be if he let this affect him so deeply, he tried to relax. Maybe the girl in the dream wasn't Elariah at all, maybe he was making more of this situation then it needed to be. Taking a deep breath, he resolved to forget about the dream, to push it away for now, there would be plenty of time to analyse things later.