A/N: Hello there! This is a new story elaborating on the Blood is Thicker Series, as I have come to refer to it. To bring you up to speed if you've missed anything: Haley is Spencer's sister, now working for the BAU and has been for about two weeks now, they haven't had any major cases up until this point, so it is her first. You are now up to speed.

Secondly, this is sort of an experiment, not one like Your Skin is Ice Cold, because that story is what happens when I think too much about things. No, this story is going to follow its title as closely as I can manage while still making it my own story, and I mean no copyright infringement. Let's see how this works out.

"The shaft of the arrow had been feathered with one of the eagle's own plumes. We often give our enemies the means of our own destruction." -Aesop

One

It was nine PM on a Friday, and Officer Steven Phillips of Aberdeen PD stood against his car on the corner and rubbed his hands together vigorously. It didn't matter how used to it he was, the weather always seemed to suddenly and drastically chill in November. If one wanted warm, one didn't want to look in Aberdeen, Washington.

He was young, not just out of the academy, but still young enough to be bored and mildly horrified at the prospects of having to stay outside for another hour at this time of year, he just prayed that it wouldn't snow on him. Of course, he knew that he was out here for the right reasons, he had been told to stake out some local restaurants and places people would normally be; there was a killer on the loose.

He hadn't been shown pictures yet, but the guys on top said that they were pretty grim. He had heard rumors though, and they seemed to coincide with what he'd heard about the pictures. Victims had no particular thing in common themselves, they were young or old, fat or skinny, male or female; there was even one couple. They were all killed in entirely different ways, but what they did share could not be overlooked.

Each and every one was abducted on a Friday, and the victim from the previous Friday would turn up in a different spot each time. Each and every one had been found in a grassy or wooded area with metal stakes pounded into the ground around them. The first body, a man who's cause of death had been poisoning with cyanide, had been surrounded by nine stakes; the second, a woman who had overdosed on sleeping pills, was surrounded by only eight. Of course, he wasn't told everything, and he was sure that he didn't want to know everything in this case.

So it had been with three more people, each dying in their own way, but each with the dwindling number of stakes, now it was down to five. One could only imagine what this meant.

Phillips rolled his shoulders back in a shrug at his condition, freezing and waiting for two different things, a body to show up or a person to go missing. The body normally showed up first. His radio buzzed every few minutes with conversations that had nothing to do with him, mainly the officers grumbling about the FBI being dragged into this. Not that he blamed them; Phillips couldn't believe it either.

He knew his Chief, and he was a hard, stubborn man whom was not easily persuaded. So when Chief Steven Robinson had submitted the case file to the feds, the whole Department was astonished. In fact there were rumors flying about Chief Robinson retiring soon, and not wanting his successor to have to deal with such a grisly case.

This is what Phillips was hearing now, buzzing back and forth over the static roar of his radio. They were such eighth grade girls, he thought viciously toward them, but still he knew that he would dive into any conversation about or pertaining to Chief Robinson and the FBI.

He began to look impatiently at his watch and began to give up hope when he heard something very, not gossipy, over the radio. Sudden pandemonium, people shouting and barking orders.

Another body.

--

"Judge Julian Wargrave," JJ pressed the pointer, revealing the corpse of the late Mr. Wargrave slumped in a chair in his judicial garb. Haley straightened some as she saw the sixth body surrounded by the four metal stakes. "Cause of death, multiple shots to the head, found at around 9:15 PM in Aberdeen, Washington. Like the others, he was found with traces of semen on the body." She lowered the remote in silent conclusion.

The rest sat around the table in the conference room with the same air of finality and acceptance, they were definitely going to Washington today. With a nod from Hotch, the team left immediately to the pre-packed overnight bags under their desks kept for sudden flights such as this. Spencer looked up from his desk at Haley's bag. "A little small," he noted.

"What do you mean?"

"Compared to JJ and Emily's, that's a small bag," he said as he stood, flinging his bag over his shoulder. "What's going on?"

Spence, Haley's still overprotective older brother, was looking worriedly at her.

"Why?" she asked earnestly. "Do I look tired?"

"You look like you're working too hard," he admitted.

Haley raised an eyebrow and scoffed. "Who doesn't?"

"But that's not why you're upset," Spencer continued, trying to drag it out of her. "Just tell me, Hales! It shouldn't be like pulling teeth."

Haley smiled at him on their way to the plane. "I'm kind of… disconcerted, I guess." Before Spencer could ask what about, she held up her finger to stop him. "It's two things. The first is that I'm going to have to cancel my date with Nick tonight."

"The history teacher?"

"The very one."

"Are you sure he's okay?" Spencer asked for the ump-teenth time.

"He's a nice guy, Spence. But we've never actually been on a date. Just sort of talked on the phone a lot because of work."

"What's number two?"

They were outside, walking toward the jet. Haley took a deep breath of the still-early morning air. "Spence, this sounds crazy, but I swear that I've heard of this crime before. When JJ was explaining it, I was guessing the next MO correctly, but… I've never done this before so why would I know about a crime with the same MO to the T?"

"That is a little weird," Spencer admitted. "Do you think it might be nerves?"

"About my first major case?"

"Let me tell you, the first case is the absolute most nerve-racking. I can't imagine anything to compare it to that would be a sufficient example of the nerves you get. You might just be freaking out."

Haley had to laugh at herself, of course, that might be it. She hadn't been on a real case yet, and Spencer's theory was completely plausible. She conceded the point and sat down in the plane, praying that it would be a smooth flight.