"Mother, I'm telling you nothing is wrong! I just needed to move. The apartment was too small, the people who lived both above and below me were loud and…well it was small."
"So that justifies you moving into a huge house? All by yourself? Alexandra, really…."
Pulling the phone away from her ear, Alexandra proceeded to pack up her bag for the day double checking that she had her sorts, t-shirt, and deodorant, all the while listening to the noise, or the words, that were spilling from her mother's mouth about her safety and her money and her lack of a boyfriend. Everything that she always nagged her about.
"Mother? Mother listen, I gotta go. I'm heading out to work and…"
"When are you going to go back to school? You were always so smart. And now look at you, working in a gym helping ugly fat men look better. Honestly Alexandra you could do so much better!"
"You know what mother…" Alexandra sighed, grabbing her bag and slinging it over her shoulder. "Some of those 'ugly fat men' who you detest so much, are actually really nice guys."
"Alexandra don't you dare…!" Her mother warned, and Alexandra smiled.
"And maybe, just maybe I might ask one out sometime!" She called into the phone, before chuckled as she bounced towards the door, her mother having one of her 'fits' on the other end of the phone.
"Oh mother please. You know I was only kidding!" Alexandra laughed, stepping out of the house and into the bright morning light shinning down on her. "You know how I feel about dating clients and…"
It was just sitting there as she stepped towards the stairs, a plain box with her address and a red rose on it. Just like all the others…
"Alexandra? Alexandra are you still there? Did I lose you? Oh damn these cell phone things I don't think I'll ever…"
"Mother…" Alexandra whispered, leaning down towards the box. "I'm gunna have to call you back." She clicked the phone shut as her mother protested on the other end of the line, and reached out, touching the small box slowly.
But she pulled her hand back before she could actually touch the object and looked up and around, looking for any sign of anyone standing there, watching her.
It had been nearly three years since the gifts and letters and card and pictures started arriving. It had been three years of living in fear of who this man, if it was a man, might be. Three years of wondering, why her?
She flipped her phone back open and dialed out, jumped up and rushing back into her house, leaving the box where it was.
"Connor? It's Alexandra. I won't be coming to work this morning." She turned slowly as she pushed open her door, looking out at the street once again. "He found me…"
&
"Hope you all had a good weekend." JJ smiled, as the team filed into the office. "I know I did." She chuckled.
"Baby giving you troubles?" Emily asked, looking up at her smiling.
"Teething." She smiled.
"So, whats the case?" Derek asked.
"Denver Colorado, Alexandra Vega, twenty five." Walking around the table rapidly, Hotch handed out case files to each member. "She's being stalked. And has been for the last three years. She's moved, changed jobs, basically changed everything and anything she can think of. And it sometimes works."
"This last time, " JJ explained. "She moved from a small apartment on the south side of Denver up to the northern end into a rather large spacious house." JJ reached into the file that was in front of her and pulled out a picture of a large Victorian house. "And she changed jobs once again. And he didn't find her for a month. Until yesterday."
"He's disorganized, he loses her when she moves but finds her again…" Morgan noted, reaching over and picking up the picture of the house. "Kinda big for a girl in her twenties isn't it?"
"He father left her some money." Hotch explained.
"Well look into the money as the original attraction." Morgan said softly, still looking over the picture.
"These gifts that he's leaving her are…slightly odd." Reid's face scrunched up as he looked over the pictures of the most recent items. "A picture of the ocean? A Canadian maple leaf laminated to a piece of black paper? And iPod with only Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Back Street Boys and N'Sync on it?"
"According to Alexandra, each of those items holds special meaning to her. The picture is of a beach in Cuba, where she went with her older brother on spring break."
"And the maple leaf," JJ reached down and picked up a copy of the picture. "Her father took her to Newfound Land when she was seven just before he died."
"And the IPod?" Rossi asked.
"Apparently in college she had a thing for ninety's pop." JJ smiled.
"So…this has been going on longer then just three years." Morgan whispered, looking over the pages in front of him. "This has been going on since she was just a little girl."
"And it's getting progressively worse." Hotch explained, dropping a paper down onto the table.
It was a picture of a single red rose, along with a small glass figurine of a heart surrounded by red fire, with a dagger stabbed into it.
"Well if that doesn't say I love you I don't know what does." Prentiss joked, her eyes slightly wide in shock as she looked down at the picture.
"We're leaving in an hour. When we land, Reid, Morgan and Prentiss I want you to head over to her house and talk to her. Rossi, JJ and I will go to the local police and see what they have. She hasn't actually filed any complaints about this till now so; I don't think we'll have much to go on however it's worth a shot."
Hotch gave each member one last look, before they all rose up and headed out the door, to prepare for their plane ride to Denver, Colorado.