Part 01

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

- Jesus of Nazareth

Chapter 01

BAU Headquarters
Quantico, VA

"What'cha reading?" Penelope Garcia asked. A pile of folders landed on the desk. "Seeing someone again?"

Spencer Reid smiled. "No. It's from my Aunt Ethel. News about my dad."

"Oh? Good news? Bad news?"

"Good news for him. Apparently he's won a few big cases lately. He's doing really well for himself. And he's getting married again."

"Oh!"

"To a woman my age with two kids."

"Hello soap opera."

"Yeah. No kidding."

A sharp whistle pierced the air. They all turned to see Emily coming out of Dave's office, with him close behind. "My team! Hostage situation in Congress Heights."

"Oh god." Penelope said as they started moving.

Spencer left the letter on his desk.

First Church of Christ the Merciful
Congress Heights
Washington DC

"I've never heard of this one." Luke said.

"Me neither." Tara replied. "Reid?"

"No."

"Okay, then it has to be a fairly new denomination."

Truth was they didn't want the entire team. But when you have the guy who literally wrote the book on hostage negotiation around, you call him. And he brings who he want to with him. "What's the situation?" Dave asked.

The local cop in charge turned to him. "Janitor left his lunch box, came back on his day off to pick it up. He found a woman from the church with six kids from the after-school program. He said they were drugged and the woman was doing something to them. When she saw him she pulled a gun and fired. He called 911. We got here to find that she'd barricaded herself in."

"Do we have a name?" Dave asked

"Mary Johnson."

"Any contact?"

"We called her phone. She said she couldn't talk now and hung up. We've been trying every ten minutes."

"Keep trying."

"We have the Pepco guys here if we need to cut power."

"That's an escalation. Let's not go there just yet."

The church was a solid brick fortress with bars on the windows. Getting in was going to be a nightmare. "According to Garcia this used to be Baptist."

Emily said. "She's trying to get what she can on the current occupants."

Just then the locals waved them over. "We got her." The cop said, passing the phone to Dave.

He put the phone on speaker. "Stop calling me!" Said an angry, almost frantic woman's voice.

"Mary, my name is Dave Rossi. I'm an FBI agent. What's going on in there Mary?"

"These children deserve the Lord's mercy! You can't stop be before I'm done, it would be cruel!"

"What do you mean the Lord's mercy?"

"When I'm done they'll be going to a place much better than this! Now let me finish! Please!" She hung up the phone.

"What do you think she means?" Luke asked.

"Linguistically speaking?" Spencer replied.

"It means we need to get in there." Dave said. "Cut the power as soon as we're ready to breech the building."

They did indeed cut the power, right before they rammed the door open with a bang.

From inside they heard a loud "NO!"

Then they heard the first gunshot.

They ran.

When they got there they found six teens lying on tables. Five of them were covered in fresh blood. An older woman was standing there with a gun in her hand. "FBI! Drop the weapon!" Luke called out.

The woman looked like she was crying. "He deserves the mercy of Christ." She said.

She pointed the gun at the last child. And then she went down as everyone else fired.

Spencer was the first one to the last victim, to check for a pulse. "Medic!" He called out. "He's alive!"

Dave looked up and away from the carnage in the room. "Mercy of Christ."

Notes: So I don't know where my summer has gone. Or perhaps my spring. I do know that the last 10 episodes of Season 12 left me with a nasty case of writers block, and I haven't even watched them yet.

Canon through Season 12, roughly episodes 11 or 12. Also, pay attention for a trigger warning or two, although there's no kinky sex in this one.

I'm hoping life will let me keep to a M/W/F publishing schedule for this one. I just finished chapter 17 so I'm well ahead, I just have to decide how to end it.