The team had just come back to Chicago for yet another case. Considering what he had to face last time he visited his hometown, Derek was not too happy about it. But at the moment he was a bit distracted. As he and the team started heading up the stairs to the police station, he spotted her. Well, from behind anyway. The sexiest woman he had ever seen, truly. Only a few strands of her perfect blonde hair showed from where it was up under her black hat. She stood at about 5'4" and most of that height seemed to be her legs. She was extremely curvy, with a full and perfect behind that he couldn`t help but stare at as she walked up the stairs. Suddenly she turned and caught his eye.
"Derek!" she exclaimed and came running back down the steps. He held his breath. The first thing he saw was her trimmed waist and large breasts, but as soon as her looked up her felt guilty for checking her out, because he realized who she was.
"Luella!" he said and gave a joyous smile as she hugged him tightly.
When he pulled back and started to say how great she looked, he finally took a good look at her and saw something that upset him beyond words. His best childhood friend was covered in bruises. They were all over her face and neck. The rest of her body was covered with long pants and a long-sleeved shirt with multiple animal prints in black and white.
"What the hell?" he basically growled, "Who did this?"
"I think I might be able to help you with your case..." she said, fiddling with the sleeve of her shirt to avoid looking at him.
"Well then why don`t you come inside with us?" Hotch said, finally catching up to Morgan.
She nodded sadly, not even looking up to see who was talking to her. Morgan immediately noticed this. She had easily become so popular and well liked in high school because of how she made everyone feel important and cared about. She did the same for him, even when he was getting picked on freshman year. She didn`t care who it was, she started and continued conversations easily, and always made eye contact. He quickly decided that he would talk to her later, for now they needed to find out who did this. If it was their unsub, she was lucky to be alive.
She followed him into the room that had been desginated for the team. They were discussing victimology.
"There seems to be no connection between the victims at all," Reid was saying, "A white brunette, an Asian woman, and an African American woman... they were all around the same age, but that`s not a very specific type."
"He`s killing off my friends," Luella stated, her voice a mixture of fear, hatred, and guilt. Still she sounded sure, "And their names were Angela, Riley, and Diane, not 'the victims.'"
"Your friends from college?" Derek asked, a little bit surprised. He`d never heard of an unsub doing this, and he certainly wasn`t happy that he was doing it to his best friend, who had always treated him better than anyone else ever had.
"Do you have a name?" Rossi asked.
"Darren Cole," this time she looked at him.
"Darren?" Derek was shocked, "Darren from the football team?"
"You knew I was living with him; we`ve been together since you moved to Virginia."
"Well you didn`t tell me he was beating you!"
She looked down, ashamed, "Derek, why did you think I could only call you on weekends when he went to his cabin? He wouldn`t let me talk to anyone, so I called everyone when he left."
Derek was fuming, more angry than he could ever remember being in his life. "Where`s the cabin?" Derek finally asks; it sounded demanding and angry and she flinched.
"I don`t know. But I followed him once when he said he was going there, and he picked up some red-head before heading out of the city. They...they kissed. He was cheating on me but I was too afraid to bring it up. I can tell you where she lives."
She told them and they brought her in for questioning. Luella stood and watched her walk in. She was beautiful, that was for sure, but so much younger than Darren. And then she asked if she could call her parents, and Luella went pale. How old was she? Well JJ asked her that same question and the girl replied that she had just turned 15.
Suddenly Luella felt sick. She had watched her boyfriend go off with a child to take advantage of her. She had only seen the long legs and red hair, and of course never thought that the woman- no, the girl- was so young. She literally felt sick because she was so disgusted and angry with herself.