Cast Off
Chapter 1
Welfare

It is not flesh and blood, but heart which makes us fathers and sons. ~Friedrich von Schiller

Aaron Hotchner stood at the door of the bedroom and surveyed the scene.

Dark wood simple furniture, a bowl of deep red roses on the tell boy, the centre piece of the room being the wooden four poster bed hung with cream voile. Opposite the door was a free standing mirror, and Hotch could see his reflection in the glass.

Actually the centre piece was no longer the bed, but that horror that was lying on it.

The woman was probably beautiful once, now there was little to see of her face. The UnSub was frenzied when he did this. He was devolving. Arcs of scarlet cast off covered the ceiling and the walls, and stained the voile around the bed. Shorter, thicker arcs of arterial blood decorated the mirror that Hotch's eyes seemed to freeze on.

The pattern matched the roses.

This was the third scene like this that Hotch had seen in the last two months, fifth if you counted photographs of the first two. And it was getting worse.

This time the body of the child was on the bed with her mother. In the last four attacks, the child hadn't been touched.

'Same entry method, Hotch.' Morgan said, coming out of a side room. 'Bathroom window has been cut out and opened from the inside. The Unsub must be fit to climb through without alerting his victim.'

'Sarah.' Hotch said. 'Her name was Sarah.'

Morgan nodded. 'The child was Janey.'

'How did she die?' Hotch asked, trying to tear his eyes from the mirror.

'Single stab wound to the neck.' Morgan answered. 'Death would have been almost instantaneous.' he added, knowing how this would be affecting his Boss.

'Why has he killed the child this time?' Hotch thought out loud.

'She died on the bed.' Reid said. 'Possibly she was in bed with her mother. The others were in separate rooms.'

'Check the child's room.'

Jack sleeps with Haley.......

'We need to get together and work up a new profile.' Hotch said. 'I'll get JJ to call a press conference. I will release the profile to the media. We need help on this one.'

'I'll let her know.' Rossi said sadly passing Hotch into the rest of the tiny but immaculate apartment. He got out his cell and called JJ.

'Press conference at five thirty, in time for the six o'clock news.' he came back with. 'These attacks are getting closer together. The forth was only five days ago.

'Call the team, Dave. Let's get this profile together.'

-0-0-0-

'All the women were single parents whose children were born out of wedlock. All five were on welfare.' Reid said.

Emily said, 'The women were aged between eighteen and twenty three. All the children were three years old. They collected welfare from different offices, all came from different areas, attended different schools.

'We need to connect the victims. What do they have in common?'

'The age of the children, and the fact that they collected welfare. All white, blonde and attractive, with white children. All were raped after they were killed. DNA match hasn't been completed on the last two, but the other three don't match each other or anything on CODIS.'

'So this could be a woman, trying to make us think it's a man, or it could be several men.' Hotch said. 'Not so likely. Fingerprints?'

'None at the scenes.' Dave said. 'We have a size ten footprint at two of the scenes, but that could be a plant if the semen is.'

'A female serial killer is rare.' Emily said.

'That depends on the motive.' Reid said. 'Women are quite capable of killing if it is for revenge or out of jealousy.'

'So if this UnSub is a woman, revenge or jealousy is the possible motive.' said Hotch. 'Although how anyone could be jealous of a single woman struggling on welfare is beyond me.'

Hotch looked down at his notes. Woman, or possibly a man, white, aged between twenty five and thirty five. Possibly on welfare herself. She or he is devolving, so would be acting out of character, angry and confused. Not much to go on after five killings, but it might jog someone's memory. He called JJ to confirm the time of the press conference, and he left the crime scene to the rest of his team and Grissom's CSI team.

-0-0-0-

Hotch stood back as JJ called the room to quiet, and introduced herself and the basics of the cases they were talking about. Then she turned to Hotch, and he stepped forward and delivered the profile.

'The person we are looking for is probably a woman, of above average intelligence. She is white, single, probably on welfare, or at least low income. She may have lost a child recently. She is between twenty five and thirty five. She will be acting out of character, angry and confused. If this sounds familiar to you, please call the number at the bottom of your screen. thank you.'

Hotch stepped back and JJ fielded questions. Most of them JJ could answer herself, but for one she stepped aside and Hotch took it.

'Does the person you are looking for have to have all those points? How accurate is this picture?'

'The profile is based on precedent. We are confident that the UnSub will be most, if not all, the things that I have described.'

There was some frantic scribbling in note books, and some final photographs, and the group of journalists dispersed to their various stations with their news.

Hotch sighed heavily and walked with JJ back into the police building.

He needed to call Haley. Jack had had some photographs taken at nursery, and Hotch needed a new one for his desk. He smiled as he thought of his little boy. He had played the video clip of Jack on his bike over and over. Suddenly the image of the little family butchered on the bed overlaid the happy laughing child. The image was so powerful, so strong, that Hotch staggered as he walked with JJ. He leaned against the wall.

'Are you alright, Hotch?' she asked, reaching out a hand to steady him.

'Uh.... yes, I'm fine.' he said, feeling sick, and needing to sit down. 'Just a bit tired.'

Just inside the police station was a row of seats. He wanted to sit in one of them, but he couldn't show weakness in front of his team. He pulled himself together, and followed JJ to the elevator.

While he waited for the elevator, he pulled out his cell and called Haley. She was expecting him.

'Jack is off school tomorrow. If you call round at about ten thirty, I can give you the photo and you can spend a little time with Jack.' she said.

'Can we make it earlier, Haley please.' Hotch asked. 'You see I'm on a case and.......'

She didn't let him finish. 'You haven't learnt a thing, have you?' she shouted. Hotch turned away from JJ. 'Ten thirty or not at all.' and she cut the connection.

JJ had heard enough. Her heart went out to Hotch. He had struggled with the job and his marriage for years, but it was only after Jack was born that Haley demanded more and more of his time – time he was not able to give. She thought of her little Henry, and Will. She hadn't accepted his marriage proposal, and looking at the state Hotch was in, wondered whether it was worth the fight. Could she say that she was sure that the same thing wouldn't happen to her? True, Will was not an FBI Agent, but he was a cop, and cop to cop marriages were notoriously rocky.

She resisted the urge to put her arm around Hotch, and she followed him into the elevator.

-0-0-0-

Haley looked at the phone furiously. He still did it! He hadn't learnt a damn thing. Always his job came first!

She threw the hand set onto the couch crossly and went through to her small kitchen where Jack was sitting in his high chair eating fruit. Another child sat at the table eating. Kyle, her best friend's little boy. She was minding him for the night while his mum worked. Haley didn't need to work. Aaron was more than generous with her alimony. She hadn't connected in her mind that the alimony was from his work.......

'Daddy's coming to see you tomorrow.' she said to Jack, and his little face broke into a huge smile. Haley knew how much he loved his Daddy...... but his Daddy loved his job more, and that was unacceptable.

'Is he staying here?' Jack asked innocently.

'No Sweetie. He has to work.' answered Haley bitterly.

When she had left Aaron, she still loved him a little, but couldn't cope with sharing him with the job; It was such a demanding mistress. But she had hoped that the shock of her leaving would bring him to his senses, and he would leave his job and be hers one hundred percent. But it hadn't worked, and he poured even more of himself into work now than he ever did while they were together. Now her love for him had dwindled to nothing, and although she didn't wish him harm, she certainly wished he would leave her and Jack alone to grow into their new life.

But that wasn't going to happen. Aaron still loved her and Jack. She was stuck with him.

'Daddy's on television!' shouted jack, pulling her out of her reverie. She watched him talk about serial killers and death enough to last a life time, but to Jack, seeing his Daddy on TV was exciting still. 'Look, Kyle, That's my Daddy!'

And Haley realised at that moment that she would never be rid of Aaron.

-0-0-0-

Hotch sent his team to their hotel to bed. They couldn't work while they were exhausted. Hotch was sharing with Dave.

'I will be late in tomorrow.' he said. 'I have to go and see Haley about something. I will join you back here at about eleven thirty.'

'That's fine, Aaron.' Dave said. He knew that something had happened, or maybe it was the death of the child at the last crime scene, but Hotch was quieter than usual, and Dave understood his need to check on Jack. Even though he had no children (although he did wonder sometimes about Erin Strauss's middle boy.) he understood Aaron's need, and in his usual kind way, made allowances for him.

-0-0-0-

Hotch was up and out of the hotel early in the morning, before the others. He walked slowly to the police station to check that no new evidence had come in from Grissom during the night, and then he walked to the town. He wanted to buy Jack a gift to take with him. In his heart he just wanted to hold him, but he knew how annoyed Haley got when he bought a gift for Jack, and the temptation to buy something huge and extravagant crossed his mind. He allowed himself a little smile, but it didn't reach his dark eyes,

In the end he bought him a game for his PSP. Something easy for him with no text instructions. He would like that. He went to another shop and bought wrapping paper and tape and sat on a bench in the park and wrapped it. "To Jack from Daddy" was all he wrote. Jack couldn't read yet.

He wandered slowly back to the hotel. He had an hour to go before ten thirty, but he decided to drive over now. If he was thirty minutes early, Haley might just let him see Jack for a little longer.

It all depended on her mood.

He was surprised to see that the other two SUV's were gone out of the car park. The team were starting early.

He unlocked his door and slid into the driver's seat and threw the game over onto the back seat. It was a half hour drive to Haley's, and the anticipation of seeing his son began to build up, and he felt the now familiar butterflies as he drove out of the car park.

He switched on the radio and the news was on. He quickly turned it off. He didn't want this meeting to be sullied by bad news. Instead he put a CD into the machine and played Erasure, and after a few miles, he realised he was singing along with it.

He felt happy and relaxed as he turned into Haley's street, and then suddenly his heart was in his mouth.

The flashing lights and yellow crime scene tape greeted him, and the other two SUV's were parked hap hazardly along the edge of the pavement.

Oh no! oh god, no!

He pulled up as close as he could get, fumbling for his ID.

'FBI' he shouted 'This is my wife's house!'

He pushed past the cops on the door and ran through the silent empty rooms He ran upstairs to the bedroom

'Aaron Hotchner FBI!' he shouted at a cop who tried to stop him. He ran into the bedroom, and saw it.

He collapsed onto his knees, and felt Dave and Reid at his side.

'Don't come in here, Aaron.' Dave said.

Hotch looked at him with shocked eyes.

'Haley?'

'We don't know, Hotch. She's been too badly mutilated.'

Hotch struggled in their grasp.

'Let me go in there..... please..... oh god! Jack....'

Dave and Reid kept hold of him.

'There is a child, Hotch. I am so sorry.' Reid said.

Hotch started to cry