This is my first CM fic, I'm so excited. Title is Italian for The Promise, I ran out of room in the summary. There is a mention of Agent Cooper. I own nothing but the OCs that appear in this story. Enjoy!
Chapter 1- Family Affair
June 14th, 1997.
Chicago, IL.
The unsub carefully walked into the restaurant and stared at the bar in disgust. This was the reason his world was destroyed. Those that owned restaurants that served alcohol had to pay. Destroying their property wasn't enough.
Now it was the owners and the patrons he wanted to destroy…
Michael Rossi walked into UNO's with his wife Katherine and their eleven-year-old daughter Angela, who everyone called Angie.
"Table for three, please?" said the man.
The hostess smiled and directed them to a booth. The family smiled as they looked at their menus and talked. Yesterday had been Angie's last day of school and the family was looking forward to spending the summer together in spite of Michael's job as a homicide detective.
CRIMINAL MINDS
After the family finished their meal and Michael paid for it, they all made their way home.
"Dad, it's hot in here," said Angie.
"Could you open the windows?" said Katherine.
"No problem," said Michael.
He opened all the car windows and scowled. The thermometer he had put in the car due to the heat wave that had started a week ago was still reading eighty degrees and the breeze was doing little to help. He decided just to roll the windows up and blast the AC instead, which helped a lot more.
No sooner had they pulled into the driveway did the police scanner in Michael's car go off.
"It's your night off," said Katherine.
"Murder doesn't take the night off," said Michael.
"Can I come? I wanna come," said Angie.
"No," said Katherine.
Angie rolled her eyes. She knew she was young, but she was old enough to know that her father and her uncle caught these people for a living and when she was older she either wanted to be a cop like her dad, or a profiler like her uncle.
CRIMINAL MINDS
Michael waited until his wife and daughter were in the house. His partner, Bobby O'Reilly, had pulled up in their police car.
"Tell me why you installed that scanner in your car when it isn't even an unmarked cruiser," said Bobby.
Michael just shrugged and hopped into the passenger seat.
"I had to turn the scanner down because I had Katherine and Angie in the car with me, but I heard enough to know it was bad," said Michael.
"Bad doesn't describe it," said Bobby.
CRIMINAL MINDS
The two detectives arrived on the scene to find the bomb squad present and what appeared to be the remains of a restaurant. Michael shook his head. It was a Saturday night. The restaurant had probably been packed with people. The scene looked familiar for a reason but Michael couldn't place it.
Suddenly realizing why, he went over to the bomb squad member in charge, Lou Wilder. Despite working in different units, the two cops were close friends and often hung out.
"Wasn't a restaurant blown up last week?" said Michael.
"Yeah, and one the week before that, both on Mondays," said Lou. "They were both closed, no one was inside."
"How many dead?" said Michael.
"It was packed to capacity," said Lou. "Small Italian place, fifty people and that doesn't include the employees. Ten were dead at the scene and the rest were rushed to Chicago General."
Michael looked at the body bags and sighed.
"Bobby?" said Michael. "I'm gonna need you when I make these notifications. Lou, let me know when you confirm a match to the last two bombings."
Lou nodded.
CRIMINAL MINDS
Michael put his head in his hands after notifying the last family, the victim had been a seventeen-year-old girl who had gone out with her friends to celebrate the end of the school year.
"You okay?" said Bobby.
Michael looked at his partner. Bobby was 25, still young, but learned quickly. Michael was 40 years old and had seen a lot but this was messing with his head. The youngest victim had been five, part of an entire family that had been wiped out in the bombing. Lou was 55 and had been a cop since the age of 18, with a stint in Vietnam in between his years on the force. Of the three of them, Lou was the only one who was a Chicago native. Bobby had been born in Boston, Michael in Long Island, but the last two still considered Chicago their home nonetheless.
"I don't know," said Michael.
His phone rang, it was the hospital.
"The amount dead just jumped to fifteen," said Michael.
CRIMINAL MINDS
Two days later the remains of the bomb recovered from the restaurant were deemed a match to the last two bombings and the death toll had climbed to 18. Michael went to his captain and explained what he thought needed to happen.
"This guy went from blowing up two restaurants a week apart on Mondays, to blowing one up on a Saturday the third week, and now people are dead," said Michael. "My brother works for the BAU, as I've mentioned before. I want to invite him on the case but I wanted to get your permission first."
"You have it," said the captain.
CRIMINAL MINDS
June 16th, 1997.
Quantico, VA.
Rossi was doing paperwork when his cell phone rang.
"Rossi," said Rossi.
"Hi David," said Michael.
"Michael?" said Rossi.
Normally he was happy to hear from his brother, but he knew that Michael never called Rossi while on a case, and rarely ever called at night since he too was normally working. Michael also usually called Rossi's home, an apartment that had since become a bachelor pad in the wake of the divorce from his third wife.
Something was wrong.
As he listened to his brother talk, he knew even before he had received the files that he would be going over there.
CRIMINAL MINDS
Hotch was talking to Haley on the phone when he noticed Rossi waving him over.
"There's a case, I'll call you later," said Hotch.
Hotch walked over to Rossi's desk, passing Max, Gideon, and Cooper on the way. The three agents were talking about a teenager Gideon had met in California three years ago during a lecture. Hotch barely heard them as he approached Rossi's desk.
"My brother just faxed me these crime scene photos," said Rossi.
"He's a detective in Chicago, right?" said Hotch.
"Yeah," said Rossi. "Three restaurants have been bombed, all of them in or around the South Side. The first two were on Mondays, each a week apart. Both restaurants were closed, no casualties. The third week, another restaurant was bombed, on a Saturday."
"Saturdays are a busy night for restaurants, Haley always keeps asking me to make reservations but this job is too unpredictable," said Hotch. "We often sit at the restaurant's bar just to get seating, and order our food there."
After hearing what Hotch said, Rossi took a second look at the names of the restaurants.
"You might be onto something, all three of the restaurants have liquor licenses," said Rossi.
The two of them grabbed their go bags and caught a plane to Chicago.
CRIMINAL MINDS
It was an hour into the flight. Hotch noticed Rossi looking at a photo and smiling.
"Is she your daughter?" said Hotch.
"My niece. Angela Dahlia Rossi," said Rossi. "She'll be twelve in a few weeks. She just finished the sixth grade this week. She insists on being called Angie, so her parents only use her full name when she does something bad, which isn't often. I taught her how to shoot last summer."
"You may be her uncle but you treat her like she's your daughter. Your brother is okay with it because he knows there may come a day he gets killed in the line, and you'll be the only father figure she has left. Your sister-in-law doesn't like you because she thinks between your three failed marriages and all the women you've slept with, you wouldn't be there for Angie when it counts but she's wrong," said Hotch.
"If you're that good at profiling me we'll definitely catch this guy," said Rossi.
The two men laughed, and Rossi winked at a blonde who was staring at them.
CRIMINAL MINDS
The plane landed and the two of them got off.
"David! David!" a voice yelled.
"That's Michael," said Rossi. "He moved down here after meeting Katherine one summer and has lived here ever since."
Hotch got a good look at Michael. The brothers looked alike. It was easy to tell they were related unlike his own who was blonde and often rebellious.
CRIMINAL MINDS
The three men walked outside and got into the police car, where Bobby sat in the driver's seat. Introductions were made and they set off for the precinct.
"I know you two would probably want to stay in a hotel, but I'm going to insist that you guys stay with me and Katherine," said Michael. "I'm sure you remember that there's two guestrooms, David. You won't have to bunk with your buddy back there."
"Hotch? That alright with you?" said Rossi.
"It's fine, they're getting sick of footing the budget for two hotel rooms every time we go anyways," said Hotch.
Everyone but Hotch laughed.
CRIMINAL MINDS
They had gone over everything until four in the morning, and Rossi had talked to Lou, but they were all exhausted, their minds were no longer fresh and they needed to sleep at least for a few hours and possibly get some food in their stomachs.
Lou went home to his wife, Bobby went home to his fiancée, and Michael went with Rossi and Hotch to the home he shared with Katherine and Angie.
He loved his wife and daughter, he'd die for them. He'd kill too if it came to that.
CRIMINAL MINDS
June 17th, 1997.
Rossi woke up the next morning. It was nine. He was surprised he'd gotten more than four hours considering there had been times on cases where he hadn't slept at all.
He got dressed, passing Hotch brushing his teeth in the bathroom. Rossi made his way towards the kitchen and saw that Angie was watching TV.
"She woke up and saw your suitcase in the hall, she's been downstairs ever since," Michael whispered.
"Why are we whispering?" Rossi whispered.
Michael led his older brother into the dining room, where he was certain they'd be out of earshot of Angie.
"I didn't tell my partner this, and now I'm telling you," said Michael. "He asked me last night if I was okay, but I'm not. That night, Saturday night, I took my wife and my daughter out for dinner. What if that had been us? I put my family at risk, David! I'm supposed to protect them."
"You didn't know at the time that anything was going on," said Rossi. "Inviting the BAU in was a good decision, whoever this guy is obviously changed his M.O."
The two of them stopped talking when they heard footsteps in the kitchen.
"Uncle David?" said Angie.
She was wearing PJs and carrying a DVD in her hands.
"What's that?" said Rossi.
"The Exorcist," said Angie.
"Angie, put that away," said Michael. "You don't want to watch that before breakfast. Trust me, okay?"
"So she throws up green, big deal," said Angie.
"Put that away, and I'll make pancakes," said Rossi. "We'll watch The Nightmare Before Christmas instead."
Angie nodded and went back to where the DVDs were kept.
"I thought FBI agents weren't supposed to except bribes, much less be the ones doing the bribing," said Michael.
"Not my fault that movie scares you and not her," said Rossi.
Michael rolled his eyes as Rossi went into the kitchen to cook the pancakes. Angie followed him.
"You gonna catch the bomber?" said Angie.
"How did you find out? I know your parents don't tell you about my cases," said Rossi.
"The news," said Angie.
Rossi looked and saw Angie had the TV on, the news was talking about the bombing that had taken place Saturday.
"Your father and I are going to catch the person responsible," said Rossi. "Now turn the news off before your mother comes down here and gets mad at us."
Angie giggled at the thought of her mother being mad at her uncle – again – and turned the TV off.
So that's my story for now. I'd love some feedback so I know whether or not to continue with this.