A/N: This is my first Criminal Minds fanfic and only the second non-anime/manga related fic I've written. Further, I started writing this barely a month after I first started watching the show in October, so I hadn't and still haven't watched all the episodes...
Time's Sublimest Target
Brief Summary: While investigating a case, three of the BAU members are out sick so new agent is brought in to help out.
Prologue:
"What the hell..." Cam mumbled, shutting the refrigerator door after a brief glance over its contents. Not that she was hungry or thirsty: it was an action motivated by habit. Her brain barely noticed the food packed neatly inside in plastic containers. "I shouldn't have argued...I..."
She shook her head and fiddled with the rubber-band around her wrist. Going over the conversation she had earlier with her boss mentally, she realized how unnecessary the resulting argument had been. Especially since it got her booted from their current case.
"...why did he do it?" She mumbled, opening the cupboard next and gazing at its contents. She pulled and released the rubber-band around her wrist roughly, striking her skin. Its sharp bite left a red mark and helped pull her away from negative thoughts. It had been only an argument over tactics – something that they had had before. And, she recalled, it had gotten her reprimanded when she first joined the team three years ago. But she was younger then, and in some ways reckless – it took her getting injured and having to stay in the hospital for seven months to realize how idiotic she'd been.
She took out a granola bar and started nibbling on it. Remembering how intent she'd been to improve herself, to catch up with the agent she'd met years ago...not that catching criminals or profiling were contests. She just hadn't wanted to feel useless.
She felt so now.
"Why did I argue? Now I can't help them catch that son of a bitch rapist..." Cam paused in nibbling on her granola bar, recalling her team's profile on their unsub and specifically his choice of victim: eighteen to twenty-five year old women, fair skinned and with reddish brown hair.
She cursed.
"What the hell! That's why...that..." She cursed again, realizing for the first time the most likely reason behind the argument and her being dropped from the case. She matched the unsub's type. And her overprotective team leader decided to remover her from the case. "Of all the f..."
Her doorbell and phone both rang mid-swear, distracting her. Finishing off her granola bar she answered the door – it's bell more annoying – first. All she found when she opened it however, was a single card envelope addressed to her. She heard footsteps resounding from the steps, so the deliverer was already on his way outside.
Shutting her door she tossed the envelope on her side table and answered her cellphone.
0
Chapter One:
Sixteen Months Later:
Reid opened his eyes slowly, his phone ringing insistently in the background. The sun peeking through the window blinds seemed to poke at his eyes, his head pounding. He squeezed his eyes shut and sucked in a breath at the most recent pulse of pain. Keeping his eyes shut he reached for his cell charging on his bedside table.
Throwing off his covers, Reid opened his eyes enough to check the caller ID before answering his cell.
"Hello, Morgan." Reid greeted his caller, wincing from the throbbing of his headache as well as the soreness of his throat.
-"Whoa kid, you sound terrible." Morgan spoke, hearing the hoarseness of his friend's voice. "Are you up to coming into work today?"-
"Yeah, I'm...I'm fine." Reid replied, clearing his throat in between each word.
-"You don't sound fine to me. It sounds like your cold from yesterday got worse."-
"No, I'm fi..." Reid sharply inhaled as he sat up, the change in position intensifying his headache. He coughed and swallowed trying to lessen the soreness of his throat. "...fine. We have that case in Buffalo today...without the dismembered..." Reid stopped talking, his throat too sore to continue his protest.
-"That's why I'm calling. We're about to take off, man."-
"What?" Reid opened his eyes enough to check the time, finally noticing how late in the morning it was. There was no way to make it in time to catch the jet. He groaned. He heard Morgan chuckle on the other end of the phone.
-"Kid, it's obvious you're sick. Take some medicine and rest up today. I'll tell Hotch."-
"I'm fine, I..." Reid coughed, interrupting whatever protest he was trying to make.
-"Pretty boy, stay home and rest. You coming in today will only risk the rest of us getting sick."-
"Actually, since this cold started yesterday, the odds of you not already being exposed are..." Reid paused mid-sentence, his head and throat both protesting against talking. He exhaled, rubbing his sinuses. While doing so, he heard what sounded like the phone being passed.
-"Reid."-
"Hotch, I..."
-"You do sound terrible. Take the day off and rest."-
"But the case..."
-"The best thing you can do right now is get some rest and once you feel better, then you can join us. That's an order." Hotch added when Reid started to protest again.-
"...All right." Reid gave in and hung up the phone before lying back down on the bed.
He hated to admit it, but he did feel terrible. Worse than during any of his migraines. It took only a few minutes for him to fall back asleep.
0
Ten minutes later on the jet:
"Yes, I understand." Hotch, sitting down on the jet, replied to the person on the other end of the phone. "Take whatever time off you need. Take care of yourself." He ended the conversation after mentioning the jet was about to take off.
"I take it that JJ isn't coming either." Morgan said after glancing at Hotch, then around the jet. Him, Rossi and Hotch were the only ones on-board.
"JJ and Garcia are both still sick. With Reid being sick as well, and Prentiss still on vacation, looks like it's just us."
"...Great, we're down to three agents and our unsub is scattering the dismembered body parts of his victims all over western New York." Morgan opened the case file he held, perusing its contents.
Starting some five weeks ago human body parts were found scattered across the western half of New York State. The dump sites ranging from parks and forested areas to back alleyways and warehouses. All sorts of body parts were found as well – from hands and feet to genitalia, even the scalp of one victim was found left behind a beauty salon. Every single part was severed from a different victim and all antemortem, according to the file given to the BAU.
"This is one sick unsub." Morgan said after looking over a photograph showing two eyes, each from a different victim, tacked to the trunk of a tree.
"Very sadistic as well." Rossi rubbed his temple, reading over one of the pages. "He sliced off the skin from a victim's leg, while the victim was alive. Do you know how excruciating that must have been? Not to mention how bloody it must have been." Rossi put the file down, a thought occurring to him. "...I'm amazed no bodies have been found. Some of these...amputations had to be extremely dangerous, and possibly fatal."
"You think our unsub must have medical knowledge or training in order to prevent the deaths of his victims?"
"That's a strong possibility. Another is that he has a really good hiding place where he stashes the bodies of his victims that don't survive." Rossi leaned on the armrest of his seat, his fingers scratching his cheek.
"Even if he hasn't killed one of them yet, he has to have some place where he's keeping them. Almost twenty different body parts have been recovered so far, each from a different person. He has to be keeping them somewhere." Morgan said, leaning forward and looking from Hotch to Rossi.
"The local authorities are getting ready to dredge all nearby bodies of water for each crime-scene."
"Why haven't they done that already?"
"There were very bad snow storms across the area for the past two weeks, it was considered too dangerous to search until the storms subsided. Also, many of the lakes and ponds are still frozen over."
"That's why you told us to pack sweaters and boots."
"Yes. And also we need to be careful when driving on the roads, since it tends to get very icy there, especially at night." Hotch replied, continuing after a second when he read the question on his team member's faces. "The lead investigator warned me about the weather when we spoke on the phone. Apparently there were three weather related car crashes two nights ago."
Morgan groaned, wondering why their unsub couldn't have chosen Florida or California. The ringing of Hotch's phone interrupted their data-pooling.
"Hello? This is agent Hotchner." Hotch greeted his caller. He listened to the other end, nodding and saying 'yes' and 'all right' every once in a while. "Yes. That will help." Hotch listened again, then hung up after a crisp goodbye.
"What is it, Hotch?" Morgan looked at him.
"That was Strauss. Since JJ and Garcia are still out sick from yesterday, and now Reid is, the director called in a profiler from another team to join the investigation. An Agent Fitzgerald."
"All right, we can use the help this time. When will he be joining us?"
"Apparently, she's already there, so we will meet her after we land. She was on her way back from vacation when her flight was canceled due to weather."
"...who takes a vacation to one of the cold and snowiest places in the country during the winter?"
"Agent Fitzgerald is from the area, and the director thought it'd be useful to have an agent who's a local on the case."
"Wait, 'Agent Fitzgerald'... You don't mean Camille Fitzgerald?" Rossi asked Hotch, while Morgan looked from one to the other, curious.
"Yes. That agent Fitzgerald."
"...Okay, what's it about this agent that has you two looking like that?" Morgan inquired.
"A little over a year ago, her entire team died while hunting down an unsub. She's refused to work peacefully with another team since."
"Oh man, that must be rough." Morgan began, leaning back on his chair and rubbing his forehead.
"If I remember correctly, wasn't her brother one of the people investigated as the possible unsub?" Rossi asked.
"Yes." Hotch replied, pursing his lips as the implications fell upon the group.
"...Hotch."
A/N: End Chapter