Hello, this is a Criminal minds fiction. Just to let you know, this doesn't involve Emily Prentiss or David Rossi. It is set in season 1, with Jason Gideon and Elle Greenaway because I find them easier to write. I respond to reviews, signed and anonymous, and I may or may not turn this into a romance thing. The quotes I put at the bottom and top will mostly be my own quotes, but I still put my name and stuff.
Imperfection Chapter One: Odessa, Delaware
'With bad events when there's nothing you can do, the tears come from a mixture of sadness and helplessness. But when something bad happens and you could've made the slightest difference, the tears come from ideas of what could've been. Flowing ever stronger." Kia Leigh Yori.
Hope Burns was listening the the newest Flo Rida song on the radio as she was cruising home. She had just got on her summer holidays at the community college. It was relatively close to home but she stayed in the dorms anyways. Kathrin Cavanaugh, her roomie was helping her load the car earlier when she gave Hope a warning.
'Careful Hope. I don't think you should go out alone too much, okay?' Kathrin had warned.
'Why not?' Hope asked.
'Well, there's a murderer out there. He's been killing a bunch of people in that half of the city.'
'Don't worry about me. What chance is there that he'll come after me?' She asked stubbornly.
'I know, but still. Keep your eyes open.'
'I'm glad one of us actually watches tv.'
'I think you're talking about me, since I do watch it. I'm just confused on whether you mean it as a good thing or not.'
'Don't worry. It's a good thing for now.' Hope said, causing them both to grin.
That had been about twenty minutes ago. Now Hope was almost home. She only had one more turn and a couple houses to go, but a cop car cut her off, heading down her street. She braked quickly and the tires squealed, but she came to a stop before there could be a collision.
She hit the gas slowly, resuming her cruise-along until she was fully turned onto her street. She looked at the cop car, parked haphazardly in front of her house. She pulled into the driveway, watching the police look through her mother's house. She wondered why her mother's Honda wasn't in the driveway. Had there been a break-in? Or worse, murder? Hope wondered how there could be a murder if her mother wasn't there. Of course, there was the odd occaision that Hope's mom didn't take the twin's out with her. But then who would be left to kill?
She stayed in the car for a couple seconds, willing herself not to cry when she didn't know what was happening yet. Hope climbed out, leaving the door open as she ran to the front steps. She called into the front hall, as not to startle the cops with guns.
"Hello?" She called. No answer came to her. So she rang the doorbell. One of them came down the stairs directly across from the front entrance. He was tall, dark-skinned and had a shaved head. He was wearing a dark blue vest with three white letters on the front: F B I. Once he saw her there, he lowered the gun.
"Is something wrong?" He asked quickly.
"Yea, there's FBI agents in my house, and I'm kind of curious as to why there's a Federal Bureau of Investigation gun party in my house and nobody told me." Hope said sarcastically.
"Uh, just let me go get Gideon." He said, running off to go get said person. Moments later Hope heard a man barking orders.
"It's clear, we've searched the house and he's not here." After a minute both the person from before as well as an older, slightly balding man in another FBI vest came down the stairs.
"...She says she lives here, but I don't think she'd live here alone, maybe he lives with her." The first guy explained.
"Who are you?" The older man asked Hope curtly.
"My name's Hope Burns. Why are you here?" She asked in the same tone as he had used.
"My name is Agent Gideon, I'm head of the BAU of the FBI. This is Agent Morgan. We're here to check out one of a series of murders." Gideon said monotonously.
"Who died?"
"Do you live here?" Gideon persisted.
"It's my mother's house, but I live here when I'm not in the college dorms." Hope replied.
"I think you better come see this." Morgan said, turning to go back up the stairs. Hope and Gideon followed. She walked up the varnished wooden stars, getting more and more afraid for her family. She walked a couple paces through the upstairs hallway, past her room, past the master bedroom and past the guestroom. The only place left was the twins' room. Morgan held the door open for her, and she walked into the bedroom belonging to her younger twin brothers. The rope attached to the ceiling fan was wrapped around the neck of the thirteen year old. With his feet just inches off the floor, he had strangled to death. Hope's eyes widened as she saw the younger twin's bloodshot orbs. She froze. After another twenty seconds it fully sunk in and she cried. The cops and the FBI agents in the room either shifted around on their feet uncomfortably or just looked away.
Dustin Burns, the youngest brother of Hope Burns was dead. Hope ran downstairs as she heard another car pull into the driveway. She ran out the open front door, and hugged her mother as soon as the woman had taken two steps out of the car. Hope and her mother bore a close resemblance, porcelain skin, coffee-brown eyes, and thin lips. The only difference was Hope had dirty blonde hair that she kept at chin length, while her mother had auburn hair that went to the woman's shoulders. Amy Burns held her daughter close, but clueless as to what had caused Hope so much distress. She saw a couple FBI agents in her doorway. She then released her daughter to see what was wrong. She got to the agents, leaving Hope alone to deal with her other brother.
"Can I help you, officers?" Amy asked.
"Is that your son?" Gideon asked, gesturing towards the boy in the van.
"Yes, is something wrong?" She asked again.
"Do you have another son?" Gideon persisted. Amy nodded. "A twin brother?"
"Yes, the one in the van is Mattie, his younger brother is Dustin. He's upstairs."
"Ma'am I'm afraid your other son is dead." Gideon said apologetically. Amy pushed her way past Gideon, past Morgan and the other from th FBI. She went into the bedroom shared by Mattie and Dustin. She saw her son hanging by the rope and burst into tears, falling to her knees. Hope came in, still crying and asked what she should do with Mattie.
"He's been taking his meds, so he should be fine." Amy told her. "Just don't bring him in." Hope nodded, and headed downstairs to tell her brother.
"Your son needs medications?" One of the FBI agents asked. She had long black hair and dark eyes, she only seemed to be a few years older than Hope. Amy nodded. "My name is Elle, and we can find whoever did this to your son, but you need to tell us everything you know, okay?"
"You mean Dustin didn't do this to himself?" Amy asked.
"No, this is the same way we found some others as well. what's your name?" Elle asked softly.
"Amy Burns."
"Okay Amy, I need you to tell me. Was your son Dustin in need of any medication?" Amy nodded through tears. "Why did he need them?"
"Dustin has Bipolar Disorder." Amy said. Elle wrote it down on a clipboard."Does it mean anything?"
"What we can see is that all the people murdered only have one thing in common." Elle explained.
"What is it?" Amy questioned eagerly.
"They all had some kind of mental disorder. Didn't you say that your other son needed medications as well?"
"He's got Schizophrenia."
--
"Mattie, I've got something bad to tell you." Hope said as soothingly as she could. He looked up at her questioningly, his facial expression hadn't changed. There were small gusts of wind going through the yard where Mattie and Hope were. "You remember Dustin? Your brother?" Hope asked, praying he would remember.
"Dustin." Mattie repeated quietly.
"Dustin won't be coming to supper anymore." Hope said.
"Why not?"
"Because Dustin left. Someone took Dustin aw--" Hope was cut off by a firm hand on her shoulder.
"That's not a good way to explain it." A tall man with another blue vest said. His black hair blew in the sudden wind.
"He's got Schizophrenia, how else can I explain it?"
"Will you let me?" When Hope nodded, he knelt down to Mattie's level. "My name is Agent Hotchner, can you say that?"
"Hod--, Hog--, Hotehchehner." Mattie tried repeating.
"How about you call me Hotch?" He tried.
"Hotch?" Mattie said.
"Good, Now, what's your name?" This seemed to stump the little boy for a couple minutes. he looked over his shoulder, but there was nothing there.
"Mattie."
"Nice to meet you Mattie. Do you have a brother?"
"Dustin."
"Okay. I need to tell you something about Dustin." Hotch explained, pausing for only a second. "Dustin was killed."
"No he wasn't. I saw him earlier."
"When did you see him?"
"Before we left for the doctor's."
"Well, Dustin died. Someone came to your home and killed him." Hotch tried to get him to understand.
"I told you, he's got Schizophrenia. I wouldn't be surprised if his meds haven't kicked in yet." Hope said
"It's 6pm, why didn't he have his medications earlier?" Hotch asked.
"Mom told me over the phone that she needed to bring him to his check-up today and that she would pick up more meds on the way." Hope said.
--
"Do you know anyone, anyone at all that could have done this to Dustin?" Elle asked kindly, but Amy Burns shook her head desparingly. "Was anyone ever mad at Dustin all the time, or constantly acted different around him?"
"Everyone acted different around him, almost everyone wanted to do everything they could to prevent an episode, but they didn't understand that it wasn't how it works." Amy burst into a fresh wave of tears. Elle let out a tiny sigh of exasperation.
"Was your son in a Manic or Depressive episode before he was killed?" Elle asked, as quietly as she could. She watched the mother of the twins look around Dustin's room, as two men brought Dustin down from the ceiling fan. "Is there any chance Dustin could've done this to himself?" Amy shook her head violently at the question, bursting into a flood of hot tears.
"He was in a Manic episode." She sniffled. Elle took her hand firmly for a moment.
"I'm sorry Mrs Burns, this is not something you should ever need to go through, but now we need you to tell us all about your son Dustin. Anything at all could help us find out who murdered him." Elle gave the older woman's hand a small pat before getting up to go check in with Gideon.
"The woman's a mess, she can barely keep herself under enough control to answer a couple questions." Elle told him, almost exasperated.
"And you would be the same if you were in her shoes. Take one kid out for an appointment, leave the other home, prepare for a nice weekend with all the kids, come home confused because of all the police in front of your home, you find your other son dead and you weren't even the first to find him that way. How else would you react?" Gideon said, watching what was left of the Burns family on the front lawn. Amy had come out and was crying with her daughter, Mattie was hearing about his brothers death from Hotch. The last little boy of the family was looking around nervously. He paused his gaze on agents Elle and Gideon, before looking down at his feet.
If the two women were clear of any mental issues, then it had to be the father with the history of Schizophrenia. Gideon turned to Morgan, who was watching Mattie run to his mother and sister as he realized what had happened to his brother.
"Morgan, Hotch. I want you two to talk to Mattie, Amy and Hope. See what you can find out about their family history of mental illnesses." Gideon said. "Elle, JJ, you find out what you can from their family doctor about Dustin. Mattie too. Reid and I will check out the neighbours."
And with that, they set out to do what they were told. Agents Morgan and Hotchner walked towards the door. Agents Greenaway and Jareau head towards the local hospital in the car. Agent Gideon and Dr Reid started towards the house directly accross the street from the home of the victim. They were all set out to catch the bastard who killed those who weren't mentally stable.
'The strongest person I ever knew was always in the most pain, and I would've died on the spot to make her strong enough to overcome the pain. Even if only to cause her more pain.' Kia Leigh Yori