Disclaimer: I don't own Criminal Minds; I'm just fiddling around with it. Therefore, everything you do recognize belongs to the geniuses behind Criminal Minds any thing you don't are my own ideas

The Wedding Killer

Prologue: There goes the Bride

He stroked her cheek one last time in a gentle loving caress, hypnotized by her now fading beauty. This one had been a complete sweetheart, giving him everything he had ever needed. He thanked her for that, repeatedly, her compliance had made their two-week long affair seem like magic. Still in the end, like the three before her, she had disappointed him.

It was a shame really. He had such high hopes for her, but regretfully he had been forced to take steps. He never liked having to do what eventually every woman since his first mistress forced him to do. All had been disappointments; none could measure up to the perfection of his first love. He let lose a regretful and oddly satiated sigh turning away from the now stiffing body, all alone in the middle of the bed.

"Well my dear," he purred at the limp form, "it's always a pleasure to see you." Then smiling into the glazed over eyes he left the opulent hotel sweet, but not before blowing her one last kiss goodbye.

Quantico, Virginia:

BAU Headquarters

Jason Gideon was sitting in his office just above the bullpen of the BAU team, trying to listen intently to the increasingly panicked voice on the other end of the phone line.

"Stephan," Gideon said as evenly as he could, "I need you to calm down. I can't understand anything you're saying right now." At that moment, while Gideon tried to calm down his estranged son, Aaron Hotchner appeared in the open doorway looking for the senior BAU agent. Gideon looked up at his fellow agent a speculative gleam in his eyes.

"We have a briefing Gideon," Hotchner said by way of explanation, "we'll start when you're ready." Hotchner then turned to leave, before Hotch had taken two steps away from Gideon's office the older man was already attempting to hang up the phone.

"Stephan, I'm sorry but I have to go." Gideon told his distraught son, leaning forward and resting an elbow on his desk. He listened for a moment to the sudden string of words that poured into his ear over the receiver.

"Yes, of course Stephan," he said to soothe the young man, "I don't know what case this briefing is about," another pause as the person on the other line issued demands. "Yes if it's that I'll let you know. Better yet, I will get in touch with you if we end up in the area." That guarantee seemed to pacify the man on the other end for his voice slowly lost its panicked tone. "Goodbye Stephan," Gideon said into the ensuing silence, he barely waited for his son's reply before hanging up the phone and striding out of his office.

He strode into the round table room to find every team member already there and waiting for him. As soon as Gideon walked into the room, Morgan handed him a copy of the case file. JJ waited patiently for Gideon to sit down before starting the briefing.

She turned to the projection screen bringing up the picture of a young woman in her early to mid twenties with long black hair who appeared to have been strangled to death.

"Rachel Adams," JJ announced her voice tense, "found in one of the Plaza hotel's honeymoon suites, pronounced dead at the scene. Her death matches that of Cheryl Monroe found strangled in the honeymoon suite of another one of New York City's finer hotels." JJ brought up a picture of the second victim so both pictures were now side-by-side on the screen.

"Alright, what makes these two deaths the work of a serial killer?" Emily Prentiss asked.

"This unsub is good," was JJ's immediate response, "we probably never would have noticed him for years if he hadn't gotten ahead of himself."

"What do you mean JJ?" Hotch asked looking up from his copy of the file.

"This is the first time that one of his murders happened so close together, in the span of two weeks to be precise." She paused waiting to see if anyone would have any questions sure enough, someone did.

"There have been other murders?" Prentiss asked her voice full of doubt.

"The NYPD looked through their old case files and came up with at least two other unsolved murders with the same MO as these. Both found strangled to death in one of Manhattans ritzier hotels' honeymoon suites. The only difference between Rachel and Cheryl's death is that these other two occurred exactly a year apart."

"How does those two connect to the more recent ones?" Prentiss pushed further, clearly doubting if this was an actually serial case worthy of the BAU's attention.

"This unsub has a specific type," Dr. Reid said answering for JJ. "Each victim has been in the same age range, early to mid twenties. They have all had the similar hair color, similar eye color, similar height, and weight. Suggesting that the unsub is targeting young women that match the appearance of someone close to him, someone he either lost or does not return his romantic feelings. Each victim has had some level of sexual abuse before she was killed, indicating that this is a crime born out of obsession and suppressed passion."

"Thanks Reid," JJ said as he took time for a breath. "In addition to all that each victim has been killed within in the same month, on or around the same day. All four of them were brides to be at the time of death."

"So what made this one special," Morgan asked staring at the photograph of Rachel Adams, "why is the unsub devolving?"

"Well, he left a love not," Gideon said into the ensuing silence, tossing a photograph of the crime scene onto the table.

In the center of the picture, written in a bright red ink and bold lettering was:

For the Love of My sweet Matilda…