"We've got a bad one."

Dave looked up from his paperwork and sighed, seeing that Penelope was trembling. "Why are you coming to me, Kitten?"

"Because I don't know if I can present this case without losing my already tenuous at times impartiality. I tried to look at some of the crime scene photos, but I couldn't."

Sighing lightly, he beckoned her inside. She nodded and shut the door, handing over the file. "What has you so spooked, now?"

"This case is local. Well, semi-local, in that it's happening around Quantico and DC. We wouldn't have picked it up, had the unsub not crossed between the two locations."

Dave nodded as he opened the folder, taking a look at what she had gathered. "Oh, god, he made the children watch?" he muttered as he read the M.O. of their unsub. Looking up, he saw Garcia nod. "I'll do the briefing for you, Kitten. Come here."

Holding out his arm, he waited for her to join him. It didn't take long for her to cross the small distance between them, and then she was hugging him tightly, letting out a small sob. "I'm trying to keep it together, I really am, Rossi."

"Sometimes, you have to let it out. At least this one is at home, so you can go home with Morgan tonight."

"I'd rather go home with you and have supper with Erin. I need time with her."

He shook his head, a wide smile crossing his face. "You don't need an excuse like this to come over. She likes having supper with you."

Penelope grinned at him widely. "Did she tell you that?"

"No, I just see how she lights up in your presence. She never had a little sister, just two older brothers, and she's been so grateful to you for filling that role." He stood and slipped his hand into the crook her arm. "Now, shall we?"

She nodded and let him lead her over to the briefing room. The others were all gathered already, and he shooed the younger woman over to Morgan. She smiled gratefully at him as she took her seat, and he nodded, picking up the remote. "Hey, why are you doing this, Rossi?" Blake asked and he gave her a dark look.

"There are some things that we don't force Garcia to do. I'd rather keep her my tender friend than have her become jaded by shit like this." Blake blanched and nodded, turning her attention to the pad in front of her. "All right, we have a serial rapist stalking the single women of DC and Quantico."

"And why were we called in on this case?" Hotch asked, trying not to flinch as Dave flipped through the pictures the police had taken of the women.

"Because, as you can see, this is a particularly violent offender. He is not intent on killing the women he attacks, he is intent on inflicting the maximum amount of pain that he can. And there's the children involved."

Both JJ and Blake couldn't suppress their gasp when Dave flipped to the next slide, showing images of the children involved tied tightly to chairs, duct tape covering their mouths. "Please tell me that he didn't hurt the children."

He looked into JJ's eyes, seeing them swim with unshed tears, and nodded. "So far, this unsub has not touched the children beyond tying them up. That does not mean that he has not hurt them in a deeper way. The children were forced to watch while the unsub raped and sodomized their mothers. We need to find this jagoff before he hurts another family."

Even he was having trouble maintaining impartiality, and Penelope smiled sadly at him, as she rested her head on Morgan's upper arm. "So how many families are we talking about here?" the man asked, covering Penelope's hand with his own.

"Four, so far, Sugar Bear. He seems to strike once a week, always on a Friday night."

"Which gives us four days to hunt this unsub down. All right, what can we see that connects these families?" Hotch asked as he stood and walked over to the white board and picking up a pen.

"They all have three children," Reid piped up, looking at the files in his hands. "The oldest child is seventeen, while the youngest is eight. And these are all single mothers, and therefore more vulnerable. Has there been any DNA or fingerprints or anything of that nature left behind to give us a clue into who this man is?"

"No, that's the thing. This unsub is very methodical in nature. The kids come home, he holds a gun to the youngest one's head, and has the oldest one tie up the middle and youngest child before he ties them up as well. When the mother comes home, he again uses the gun to get her to disrobe."

The woman all shuddered, and Dave shook his head, wondering how someone could be so cruel. "And he tells the women that they deserved to be punished like this? Am I reading this right?" Morgan asked angrily, shoving the pad away from him. "Ugh, we need to catch this bastard, before he hurts anyone else."

"And to do that, we have to come up with a profile." Hotch's words were short and clipped, an indicator of how bothered he was by this case. "I would not hesitate to say that he has a lot of rage against a woman in his life."

"Most likely an ex. You wouldn't tell a single mother you're doing this to punish her unless you've experienced a bad breakup yourself."

"That's a lot of misplaced rage, Blake."

"I know. But he's also very controlled. He beats the women, treats them cruelly, but he holds back from killing them. Why? Is he incapable of murder? Would that be going too far for him?"

"No. He wants them to suffer," Dave said suddenly, wishing that he was not anywhere near this sick bastard's brain. "He needs them alive so that they are forced to live with their punishment. He needs them to feel degraded and less then."

Penelope met his eye, and he saw that she was crying, silent tears rolling down her cheeks. "Do we have anything that I could use to begin narrowing down who this man is?" she asked softly.

"We're looking for a white male, late forties to early fifties, who has been through a divorce recently."

"That is too broad for my search parameters, Hotch."

"I know, Garcia. It's all we have at the moment, until he makes a mistake." Again, his words were tight, and he looked to JJ, nodding subtly. She gave him a little nod in return, and he relaxed a little, knowing that they would take care of each other. "All right. We should go and speak with the women, see if they can give us any more information they might not have thought of. Blake, you and Rossi will be talking to Marissa Breslin."

He nodded and began to flip through to her information, standing and motioning with his head for Blake to follow him. She followed him over to his office and smiled sadly as he set the pad down. "How are we going to go about this?"

"Very carefully." He looked at the picture of Erin on his desk and closed his eyes. "Would you mind if I called home a moment?"

"Go right ahead."

Nodding, he pulled out his cellphone and quickly dialed home. Erin picked up right away and he smiled to hear her intake of breath. "Hello, Rossi residence."

"Erin, it's me. Didn't you look at the caller id?"

"No, honey, I'm in the middle of a good chapter. What's up?"

"I'm bringing Kitten home for supper tonight. We…picked up a really bad case."

"Oh. What do you want me to make, then? The kids are going to be here, too, since it's our week with them."

"Mmm, lasagna sounds really good tonight."

"All right, I'll head out to the store in a little bit to pick up everything. Tabby's been bugging me for the red velvet cinnamon rolls, too, so those are dessert tonight."

"Sounds delicious, bella. We'll be there before six, I promise."

"All right, see you then. I love you."

"Love you, too, bella."

They hung up and Alex arched her eyebrow at him. "That sounds cozily domestic."

"Alan sold the house out from under her while she was recovering and playing dead. I didn't want her to be out on the street, with no job, so I decided we'd move in together."

"And am I going to be invited to the wedding?"

He chuckled lowly. "We haven't decided if we're going to take that step. None of our marriages have been the best, after all." Alex nodded and smiled, watching him jot down the address they needed to go to. "Now, come on, let's get this over with."