It was three o'clock in the morning when Hotch was awakened by the shrill ringing of his phone. Groaning, he rolled over and picked up his cellphone. "This is Agent Hotchner," he said when he answered the phone. He hoped the grogginess he felt wasn't apparent in his voice.

Once the caller told him that the call was about a missing child, Hotch perked up. He listened intently to what the caller was telling him.

There was a new case. The Los Angeles Police Department was requesting the BAU's help on a child abduction case. A raid on a digital child pornography ring in Los Angeles found images of three children who had been abducted from different parts of Virginia. The children were connected to the same man, and police were having trouble tracking the man's IP address because it kept leading them down bogus routes. They also found an encrypted folder that was believed to contain images of a fourth victim. Since the victims had been taken across state lines, it was a federal case.

"Thank you. I will gather my team, and we will start working on this case right away," Hotch said before hanging up. He turned towards his sleeping wife, Emily. "Hey, Em. Wake up," he said, gently nudging Emily's sleeping form.

"Do we have a case?" Emily said, sleepily rolling over to face her husband.

"Yes. Three children who went missing a few years ago may have been located," Hotch told his wife. Hearing this, Emily sprang out of bed. She flicked the light switch, and light flooded the bedroom. She threw on a maroon cashmere sweater and a pair of dark wash blue jeans. She rolled her eyes when she saw her husband buttoning up a dress shirt. Hotch always wore a suit to work, no matter what the time was. This was no exception.

While Hotch was getting dressed, Emily refilled her cat's automatic feeder and waterer.

Once Hotch had his shirt buttoned, he grabbed his suit jacket, and he and Emily left their house.

During their brief fifteen minute car ride to the BAU Headquarters, neither Hotch nor Emily said much to one another. Hotch was focused on driving as fast as he could without breaking any laws, and Emily was using his phone to alert the rest of the BAU members about their newest case.


When they arrived at the BAU Headquarters, they parked their car. Hotch slipped on his suit jacket before getting out of the car. He and Emily entered the building and rushed up to their floor. They were eager to start working on the case.

Hotch and Emily were the first to arrive. Reid and Garcia arrived next. Then, Rossi arrived, and finally, JJ and Morgan were the last to arrive.

Once everyone had arrived, the team headed to the conference room, where they briefed cases.

"Thank you all for arriving promptly. I've forwarded an electronic case file to each of your tablets," Hotch told everyone as they took their seats around the table. He looked at JJ and nodded, "Whenever you're ready."

JJ stood up with her iPad and walked to the front of the room. She clicked a button on her remote, and the screen behind her turned on.

"Last night, the Los Angeles Police Department raided a digital child porn ring. Three children were identified as missing kids from different parts of Virginia. Authorities believe that these three children were abducted by the same person," JJ told the team. She clicked a button on her remote, and a photo of the first victim appeared on the screen. He was a gangly boy who looked like he was about five years old. He had curly black hair and clear blue eyes. "The first victim was identified as five-year-old Charlie Atwood. He was abducted from Dulles, Virginia five years ago. His parents were shot execution-style in the middle of the night, then he was taken. His abductor left a partial fingerprint, but the police weren't able to match it to anyone," JJ explained. She clicked a button, and another picture came onto the screen. The picture looked like it was a close-up screenshot taken from a video. It showed a thin boy with matted curls and stoic blue eyes. "This is an screenshot taken from one of the videos that they found during the raid. The LAPD ran it through facial recognition software, and came up with two possible matches," JJ said, clicking a button. Three more photos popped up. The photos looked like a school pictures of two very similar-looking boys. "The first photo is a school picture of eight-year-old Caleb Hanson. He was reported missing a year ago," JJ told the team, gesturing to the photo on the left. It showed a smiling young boy with with dark wavy hair. "This next photo is an age progression that shows what Charlie might look like now," JJ said. She gestured to the photo on the right. It showed a very serious young boy with curly black hair.

"If the kid from the video really is Charlie, then that age-progression is almost spot-on," Morgan commented.

"How did they identify him? Caleb looks closer in age, but the Charlie's facial features in the age-progression look more like those of the child from the video," Rossi said.

"They ruled Caleb out after finding pictures and videos that were taken years before he went missing," JJ explained. Satisfied with JJ's answer, Rossi nodded. JJ clicked a button, and the images on the screen were replaced with a photo of a little girl. The girl in the photo was missing her two front teeth, and she had a small scattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose. She had each blonde hair that was the color of golden wheat. Her playful green eyes sparkled as she looked into the camera. "The next victim was identified as five-year-old Addison Hough. She was abducted from Richmond, Virginia four years ago. She was abducted during the same time of year that Charlie was. Same MO as Charlie's abduction. Her parents were shot execution-style in the middle of the night, and she was taken. Her abductor must've learned from his mistakes with Charlie and wore gloves this time. No fingerprints were found at the scene," JJ said. She clicked a button, and two more photos appeared on the screen. The first was a screenshot from a video. It showed a skinny blonde girl whose blonde hair hung limply around her bony face. The second looked like another school picture. "This first photo was taken from a different video that the police found. The other one is an age progression of what Addison would look like at nine years old," JJ explained.

"How did they identify her as Addison?" Emily asked.

"The police identified her with photos that were taken three days after she was abducted," JJ answered. Emily nodded and looked down at the case file on her iPad. JJ clicked a button, and the photos of Addison were replaced with a photo of a young boy wearing a baseball uniform. The boy had friendly brown eyes and toothy grin on his face. His light chestnut brown hair swooped across his forehead and settled just below his eyebrows. "Our next victim was five-year-old Luke Brown. He was abducted from Roanoke, Virginia around the same time that Charlie and Addison were three years later. Now here's where things changed. Luke's father, James Brown, woke up before his son's abductor was able to shoot him. He and the abductor fought, but the abductor managed to knock him out. The abductor shot him to finish the job. James survived but was unconscious. Thinking that he had killed James, the abductor took Luke and left. James was able to give the police a brief description of the man who took his son, but he lost consciousness before being able to say much. He died en route to the hospital," JJ said. She clicked a button, and another screenshot and age-progression photo showed up on the screen. "This is from one of the videos," she said, pointing at the the screenshot. There was a frightened young boy in the screenshot. She then pointed to the age-progression photo. "This is an age-progression of what Luke might look like now," she said. "Police identified him by running his picture through facial recognition software. Four possible IDs came back, and police cross-checked the dates the boys were reported missing with the dates that the earliest photos of Luke were taken," she added, knowing that someone would ask about how Luke was identified.

"The only things that these kids have in common is the they age they were when they were abducted and the state that they were abducted from. Other than those two things, these kids seem to be completely different. Did the kids or their families have any connection to each other?" Reid asked.

"The police found no connections between the kids or their parents," JJ replied.

"What was James Brown able to tell the police before he died?" Emily asked.

"He said that the guy was a white male with shaggy brown hair and a goatee, and he looked like he was in his mid-thirties. He also said that the man may have had a tattoo of a woman's name on his left bicep," JJ answered.

The team continued to discuss the case and review the file until they felt they had a pretty good grasp on it.

"Garcia, I'd like you to accompany us to Los Angeles because the police chief mentioned that his team was having trouble tracking down the UnSub's IP address, and they couldn't open an encrypted folder that might contain images of a fourth victim," Hotch said.

"You got it, Boss Man!" Garcia chirped.

"Whoever this guy is, he's had those kids long enough. Wheels up in thirty," Hotch told everyone. He dismissed the team, and the BAU members left to get their go-bags.