Chapter 1

"Everything Dies. That is the law of life-the bitter unchangeable law"

― David Clement-Davies, Fell

As a young girl, when asked what I wanted most in my life at that moment, I would have said something like a puppy or some ice cream. Now, with a one year old Australian Shepard and a freezer holding at least two half eaten containers of Double Dunker ice cream, I want nothing more than to have my parents alive and next to me at this exact moment.

I can remember that night as clear as day, how cold everything seemed to be. The warmth that the house used to hold was no longer there. My mom wasn't waiting at the door to ask about my day at school. My step dad wasn't in his office upstairs, third door on the left, next to my bedroom. As a nine year old girl, I didn't understand why my parents were taken from me.

The images of my step dad, my Papa, tied to a chair, blood dripping from his wrists and eyes dead and empty. My mother hung from the ceiling fan, bruises marrying almost every inch of her beautiful face. Those images haunted me then and still do now. Though they caught the murderer, I was never the same. Still the worst part of it all was who the murderer turned out to be. My biological father, a abusive man I had never met, all because of me.

In court he had said he did it because he wanted me as his own, he didn't want some other man to raise me if he couldn't, he was so angry at my mom for letting another man in my life that wasn't him. My only solace in the whole ordeal was a young FBI agent by the name of Aaron Hotchner. He was new to the force, but he reminded me of my step-father. Kind eyes and a warm smile. He was one of the first to arrive after my neighbors had heard me screaming and called the police.

Agent Hotchner was there for me throughout the investigation and the trial, even for a couple of months after when I had gone to live with a distant Aunt in Florida. He would call every chance he got, but soon we lost touch after my Aunt and I moved to Quantico, Virginia. I find myself wishing I could find him and talk to him, I needed someone who was there that day, someone who knew what happened. My Aunt only knew what I and the police had told her. She didn't understand how I felt.

Now I stand in front of the FBI building in Quantico, Virginia, wearing my best business outfit, holding all of my credentials, wanting nothing more than to ask him how I should go about this interview. After everything that happened I had dreamt about being a FBI agent on no other team other than the Behavioral Analysis Unit. I graduated high school a year early, making me sixteen when I started Criminology classes at Marymount University. I graduated top of my class when I was twenty and after two years of vigorous training I was finally ready.

My trainer at the FBI academy heard that the BAU was in need of another profiler, and was asked if he had any student in mind, I was his first choice. I was to meet with one Jennifer Jareau in about ten minutes, thirty-two seconds. Thirty-one, thirty, twenty-nine...

"Fallyn Shylah Hensley, why is your 126 lb. ass not in that building?"

I whipped around at the sound of my name, cringing, already knowing who it was. "Toby, what are you doing here?" I said, folding my arms in front of my chest.

"I knew you would freeze up, you do it when you are unsure of yourself. I came to force you to get your butt in that building and wow them with your impressive credentials."

I scoffed, "Toby, as much as I love you, you taught me everything you know in the arts of hand to hand combat and weaponry but the student has surpassed the teacher and you couldn't force me to do anything"

He laughed, a good hearty laugh that I had grown accustomed to over the past two years. "You got me" he smiled.

"I can't physically force you, but I can give you an amazing pep talk making you want to go in and do it all on your own."

Now it was my turn to laugh. Toby always had a way of making me smile. If he didn't bat for the other team, I would have gladly dated him. Toby was one of those guys that you would never tell he liked other men. He was about 6'4, short buzzed brown hair and bright blue eyes that made anyone weak at the knees. He was my best friend for all intents and purposes. "I love you Toby, you know that?"

He smiled and pulled me in for a hug, "I know babygirl, I know. Now get your skinny ass in that building and make me proud!"

With one last sigh and a quick nod I set off toward the building that could make me or break me.