The dead cannot cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so. - Lois McMaster Bujold

The concrete ground was cold, damp from the water dripping from the ceiling. A basement; a dungeon. Her screams echoed round the stone walls. The sound of metal rattling..the chains that bound her to the ceiling, her arms tied above her head.

"Stop! Please!" Something sharp hit her thigh, burning her. "Why are you doing this to me?! Just kill me! PLEASE! KILL ME!" Her voice broke, and she gave into the tears building up in her throat. "Let me go.." Her voice was weak, giving into the stress of her ordeal. "End this.."

A shadowy figure stood in front of her. Tall and broad, her abductor was clearly a man.

"Why are you doing this to me, you sick son of a bitch? Who are you?!" She was sobbing now, the pain on her thigh spreading down her legs and up her spine like a fire, paralyzing her. Her body hang limply, the restraints burning against her wrist.

"I, my dear, am your saviour. Your saviour from the sin in which you have surrounded yourself." He walked around her, hands by his side but his head moving as he looked her up and down.

"Sin? What sin?! I haven't DONE anything." Despite the intense pain that stunned her body, she struggled again, her restraints cutting into her wrists. Blood began to trickle down her arms. She cried out in agony.

"Oh, darling, I think we both know that isn't true.." His voice was tight, his voice a clipped English accent. She struggled against her ties again, and he laughed coldly.

"Please, please, I'm pregnant. Can't you see? The baby.. Let me go. The baby..please." Desperation to preserve the life inside her overwhelmed her.

"Why let another bastard into the world, hmm? No, no I think it's time to end this." He lunged forward, a knife she hadn't seen before plunging into her stomach. She could see a flash of white teeth in the darkness, as the man who was doing this to her smiled.

"Goodnight, Alison." The pain was unbelievable, blinding her. Blood rose in her throat, choking her. She felt the knife enter her abdomen again, as if he was ensuring the baby would perish even if the mother somehow survived.

But she had no chance. No chance at all.

Melinda Gordon woke up with a start, sweat covering her body. Breathing shakily, she reached over to her bedside table to get the glass of water that sat there. Her eyes fell on a pair of feet at the side of the bed, and she screamed.

"Please..please help me." Slowly, Melinda pulled her eyes up the body. The ghost was blonde, covered in blood and in her underwear. Though technically not the worst condition she had ever seen a ghost in, it broke her heart to see such damage. She knew that the nightmare she had just experienced wasn't a nightmare at all – she had been shown a vision of the last moments of this woman.

"A-Alison?" She nodded. "I saw it. I saw what you wanted to show me. What's your last name?"

"Parker." The woman said, moving closer to Melinda. "My name is Alison Parker."

"Where are you from, Alison?" By now, she heard Jim stirring next to her, mumbling "Who's Alison?"

"Jim, Jim, call 911. I think I have the ghost of a murdered girl."

"You sure? What's she told you?" He sat up, stretching and rubbing the tiredness away from his eyes. He wrapped his arms around Melinda, holding her close. She was trembling violently, her face grey with fear. "When did it happen?"

"I don't know, I hardly know a thing. She showed me, she showed me her death." Melinda was crying freely now. "We have to help her, stop this happening to anyone else."

"Wait, wait. We need more. Ask her some questions. Is she still there?"

"Yes, she's still here."

"You'll need her age, location, job, if she knows where she was taken from. And when this happened. This could have been years ago. Alison," he spoke into the empty room "Melinda and I want to help you. OK?"

Alison nodded, smiling for the first time. Melinda could see she was very beautiful, with long blonde hair and delicate features. Her stomach had terrible wounds, her face was dirty and her slim body was covered in bruises and burns, her wrists smeared with blood. Alison looked to be a similar age to Melinda, and Melinda knew she had to do whatever she could to help her cross over.

"Is that your husband, Melinda?" Alison's voice was soft, but full of sadness. "He looks nice."

"Yes, this is Jim. He's gonna do everything he can to help you, just like me."

"But he can't see me?" Alison moved to the foot of the bed, waving a hand in front of Jim's face. Melinda had to stop herself smiling - even though this situation was awful, Alison seemed to be a naturally upbeat person. That would help - angry ghosts were difficult to get through to.

"No, no, just me. You came to the right place though. I'm guessing there's no light you can see?" Some ghosts could see the light, but didn't understand what it was. Melinda prayed that, somehow, this girl was ready. Her prayers weren't answered.

"No, nothing. Everything went dark. Just darkness."

"Can you remember where you're from?" Her voice was gentle. Ghosts were often confused just after their deaths, but Alison seemed coherent and accepting of her situation than others she had seen who had died violent deaths.

"I'm from Poughkeepsie."

"Well, you're still in New York State. You're in Grandview." Alison didn't seem to register this, she grew more agitated.

"I need to get home, I need to see my mom, tell her that I'm safe now.." Her voice was shaky, and she began to sob. "I was so scared."

"You haven't seen your mom yet?" Ghosts were normally attracted to loved ones, but somehow this ghost had ended up hours away, just happening upon Melinda. "Where did you go after you were ki- after it happened?"

"Someone told me to come here. They said you could help me. I woke up - well, whatever it was - next to my body. I stayed there for a really long time, not sure where I could go. I wandered around a bit, but never went too far. I wanted to make sure my mom knew. I didn't want to be one of those girls who just went missing. After they found me, and my body was taken away, I don't know where I was. It was dark, and I was alone. I stayed there for what seemed like eternity – I couldn't move. Then, one day, some weird lights appeared and they told me how I could move, leave the dark, and find the light."

"And they told you to come to me?" Melinda was confused how a ghost could find her at random, but it wasn't the first time it had happened. "They knew me? What did they look like?"

"A small, hovering light. Lots of them. They were shining, like light reflecting on metal. They didn't even talk..I just heard them in my mind."

"Well, they told you the right thing. I will do everything I can to help you cross over."

"I just want to see the bastard that did this to me punished. He killed my baby." Her hands hovered over her stomach, and she began to cry. So, that was the question of what it would take for her to move on answered.

"I saw, you showed me everything. I am so sorry this happened to you. So sorry. I will do everything I can, and now that you're with me, you can help too." Melinda swallowed, not sure how to ask the next question. "How far along were you?"

"Seven months. Where's my baby, Melinda?" Her voice was small, emotion blocking her throat.

"There's a special group of people that take care of babies who pass away. It's possible they have the baby, but I just don't know." Alison was sobbing now, but no tears were coming. Nothing real was inside her now, just her energy. "The baby's safe now, and is waiting for you. I promise."

"So you'll help me?" Alison asked pleadingly. "You'll help me to see my baby again?"

"Yes. Yes, I will. I'll need you to stay with me though, I'm going to go to the police and tell them."

"Will they believe you? I mean - you're talking to a.."

"Ghost, I know. It might take a while but I'll make sure they listen. We're going to get justice, Alison."

BAU Quantico, 10am

"Morning everyone. Ready for today's briefing?" JJ greeted them all, ignoring the tired groans. They'd been working all week on a tough spree killer case and had only been back a day. "That's the spirit!"

"What we got JJ?" Morgan asked, leaning back in his chair.

"We just had a call from the chief of police in Poughkeepsie. They have a string of missing women; bodies turn up later, tortured, obviously strung up by their arms with bleeding from the wrists, all of them stabbed to death with seemingly frenzied wounds. Dumped in public places, but wrapped in garbage bags." JJ dropped the case file on the table. Prentiss reached out and opened the files, leafing through the photos of the bodies.

"Any evidence of sexual assault?" Prentiss asked, examining a photo of one dump site carefully.

"No, no sign. That's the other thing – these women were pregnant. Alison Parker, the first victim, seven months. Lisa Smith, six months. Betty Williams, five months."

"So they were all far along enough for the pregnancy to be visible, but not near enough the due date for the baby to survive safely outside the womb without specialist medical care?" Prentiss asked. Murder cases were hard enough, but the thought of deliberately murdering a pregnant woman and letting an innocent baby die disgusted even the most hardened of agents.

"Were the babies removed in any way?"

"No. The women had also been stabbed several times in the abdomen, but it was not cut open so the babies died before the mother. It was clear this UnSub had aggression directed not only to the mother but also specifically to the unborn child." JJ pointed to the wounds of one woman on a photo she had kept back from the file.

"Could it be possible he was the father of these babies?" Prentiss asked, still focused on the files.

"Unlikely, the sheer aggression towards the pregnancy and the women indicates that he is impotent." Reid piped up, chewing on a pen.

"Another thing." JJ added. Her voice was hesitant. "The Poughkeepsie police investigating the case have received a call from a woman named Melinda Gordon, claiming to have information on the murder of Alison Parker. Her information was incredibly accurate, right down to the clothes that Alison Parker was wearing when her body was found and the position of the stab wounds. She had no information on the other victims, only on Alison. She claims not to have actually witnessed the murder, but to have seen something," JJ coughed, nervous of the team's reaction, "supernatural."

Rossi scoffed; he'd seen his fair share of bogus mediums, and was frankly sick of them getting in the way and distracting attention from the case at hand.

"Have her be there when we arrive, we'll need to talk to her just to eliminate her from our investigations and I'd like to get it out of the way as quickly as we can." Hotch requested, his voice low.

"Think she could have something to do with the murders?" Reid was putting on his jacket ready to go.

"Unlikely, she lives in New York State like the victims, but four or five hours away from Poughkeepsie. Check her alibi. The UnSub is almost certainly male, check her husband too."

Hotch stood up, gathering his things from the table.

"Wheels up in thirty."

"Is the woman who called the police waiting for us?" Hotch asked the police officer who had welcomed them into the station.

"Yes, sir, interview room 3. Observation room is the door on the left."

"Thank you. Does she have anyone with her?"

"Her husband, one Jim Clancy. They travelled here this morning and she's been talkin' to herself an awful lot."

"How does she seem, besides the talking to herself?" He knew exactly what to expect; fruitcake old lady, being paid by the family, or just obsessed with death and criminal investigations.

"Normal. Late 20s, early 30s maybe, haven't seen her birth date yet. Attractive, well presented, runs an antique shop. Husband's a paramedic. Like I said, normal." Hotch disguised his surprised, offering a nod and a hand to the officer.

"Thanks, officer. We'll take it from here." The officer shook his hand and showed him into the room. Melinda Gordon sat at the table, her hands clasped together nervously. Hotch eyed her carefully; her appearance caught him totally off guard – she didn't fit the profile of a medium at all, and it made him all the more certain this was a hoax from an attention seeking member of the public.

"Ms Gordon? I'm SSA Aaron Hotchner, I'm with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit." He reached out to shake her hand, and she shook it with a smile.

"Agent Hotchner, thank you so much for talking with me." Hotch nodded, his face solemn, and switched the tape recorder on.

"We have a few questions to ask you about what you know about the death of Alison Parker, and how you may have come to know that information. I trust you don't mind being recorded?"

"Sure. Of course."

"How did you know Alison Parker?" Hotch asked, fixing her with a careful stare.

"I didn't." Melinda had explained a certain amount of the story to the police, both on the phone and when she'd first arrived at the hospital. "I've never met her."

"Then how did you know.." Hotch flipped through the file "That she was seven months pregnant, as well as the detailed information regarding the underwear she was wearing when her body was discovered?"

Melinda looked down. "I already told the officers, Agent Hotchner."

"And I would like you to tell me. At this stage you are at risk of being arrested as a suspect. You also knew the position of the stab wounds on the victim's torso, as well as the method of death. I'd say you need to start being honest with me as soon as possible."

"She told me." Melinda sighed, shifting slightly in her chair. Her eyes drifted behind Hotch, and he turned to see what you were looking at.

"But you've never met her, had any form of contact with her?" Hotch sighed, losing patience with yet another liar. He suddenly noticed she was fixated on a spot behind his head. "Sorry, what are you looking at?" Annoyed with her aloofness, he was determined to get the truth out of this woman. "If you wouldn't mind focusing on the questions, Ms Gordon." Melinda snapped her eyes back to his unapologetically.

"Agent Hotchner, I can explain how I know all the information, but I need an open mind."

Hotch raised an eyebrow. "Go ahead." This should be good, he thought. You've seen one, you've seen them all.

Rossi, Reid and Prentiss were watching the interview through the two way mirror, Reid occasionally making notes.

"Nutjob warning.." Rossi muttered under his breath.

"After we die, Agent Hotchner, our spirits are separated from our bodies. Some stay behind because they have unfinished business that is preventing them from crossing over."

"Bingo." Prentiss mumbled.

"Crossing over?" Hotch asked.

"Moving on into the next world. A light comes for them and they move into it and they're gone from our world. If they have no unsolved business, they pass into the light with no problem at all. But when they die, or are killed, in violent, tragic circumstances like Alison was, sometimes the light doesn't appear straight away. That's what happened to Alison, and she's come to me for help. I just want to help with the investigation, to make sure this man is brought to justice so Alison can go into the light and find peace."

"Ms Gordon, I cannot use evidence that is not from a proven source. Any "evidence" you give us would be inadmissible in court. The FBI does not use mediums, psychics.." Melinda leaned forward and interrupted him.

"I'm not a medium. I don't sit at some table and look into a crystal ball. I can see them all the time, whether I want to or not. I don't make any money from what I do. I've helped hundreds of families, free of charge and on my own time. I don't do this for any other reason than to help people in need. I have dozens of names that will be happy to vouch for me."

"Ms Gordon, what you believe you can see and do is your own business, but we need to know how you got this information. It's best that you are honest with us, perhaps if you tell me the truth now there will be no charges brought to you for wasting our time."

"I've told you how I got the information, and that's all I can do." Melinda answered, not jumping to the bait of threatened criminal charges.

"Ms Gordon, until you are prepared to be honest about how you know what you know, this interview is over." Hotch switched the tape off and stood up, turning to walk out. "You're lucky I don't arrest you right now." Knowing that they were at risk of dismissing her and no longer talking to her, Melinda got desperate, and did something she had hoped to avoid.

"Haley's here." Hotch stopped dead in his tracks. Clenching his fists by his side, he turned slowly towards her. He eyed her up and down, and couldn't help but quickly flick his eyes behind her.

"What?" His steely composure never left him, but underneath that suit, his blood was boiling.

"Haley. She told me to tell you. She's been talking to me the whole time you've been in here. She's with you quite often." She knew she was taking a big risk in talking to him like this, but frankly it was better than getting arrested. "She knows that you're stubborn, and she's telling me that you'll never take me seriously."

"How do you know about Haley?" His voice was low, dangerously low.

"I told you. She's here." She took a deep breath. "She's always with you, Jack or Jess."

"You're lying!" Hotch was shouting now, snarling the words. "This is a sick, twisted trick and it will get you nowhere!"

"I'm not lying! She's standing behind your right shoulder. She's mid thirties, brown hair – looks like a wig maybe? She wants me to tell you that she's proud of you, that you're doing a great job with Jack and that.."

"STOP!" Hotch leant forward on the table, close to her face. His features were twisted in anger. "STOP! You know NOTHING! You've obviously just found out information somehow, death records, media reports, anything, and you're manipulating it to cover your own tracks, maybe the tracks of someone close to you! Don't you dare bring up my personal information for your own sick ends!"

"I'm not doing this to hurt you, I'm doing it so you believe me! She was shot in the back of the head, by a suspect the FBI was dealing with. He had a grudge against you, and they went into witness protection. He found them. She saw you hold her body, and she wishes things had turned out differently. She saw the light, but chose not to go in it so she could stick around to make sure you and Jack were okay. She says you only believe what's right in front of you, that I don't have a chance of making you see something that's so unlikely. But it's true, Agent Hotchner. It's true and if you don't at least give me a chance then more women could be at risk."

"This is over." Hotch walked out and slammed the door. Melinda sunk down in her chair, unsure if she could leave.

"You okay Hotch?" Dave asked Hotch, offering him a seat. Hotch shook his head, and took several deep, uneven breaths.

"No, no I'm not okay! You go and talk to her, work out what the hell she's up to. I'm sorry, I need to take a moment." Rossi nodded, patting him on the shoulder.

"Take as much time as you need, Hotch. Don't worry, I'll figure her game out." He watched Hotch exit the observation room. "You two, watch and see if she exhibits any body language that indicates she's lying or away with the fairies."

"Yes, sir." Reid answered. He wouldn't say so, but he was fascinated by the idea of people who believed they could see ghosts, and sometimes wondered if there wasn't some grain of truth in it, despite all the research he'd done into the matter. Visions of dead people could so often be triggered by psychiatric conditions or even simple tricks of the mind, yet to see a woman who was so determined (as well as having a spouse to support her convictions) was undoubtedly fasicnating.

The door opened again, and Rossi eyed her up and down. She was talking to someone, or herself, intently.

"Agent Rossi. You mind telling me what the hell you think you're doing?" Rossi stormed into the room, standing dead in front of her.

"I'm not "doing" anything! I'm telling the truth. I need to help Alison, she needs to find the light and she can't do that until this maniac killing pregnant women has been brought to justice! And the fact that I am willing to sit in this horrible room and be classed as crazy surely proves that I have a genuine reason to be here? Telling FBI agents I can see ghosts isn't exactly my idea of fun."

"Do you have any idea how many people like you we see in a year?" He said with unconcealed scorn, one eyebrow raised.

"There are frauds out there, Agent Rossi, but I want no payment, I'm not working for anyone, I am simply here to help you. I'll take any test you set me, if it will help you all believe me."

"Alright. Tell me something." Rossi took the seat Hotch had vacated, placing his elbows on the table and staring straight at her. Melinda didn't flinch, never losing eye contact with him.

"What?" Melinda asked suspiciously.

"Tell me something, something that there'd be no way you could know without talking to a dead guy." Melinda sighed.

"Are you sure, Agent Rossi?" Melinda sat straight. "You may not like what they have to say."

"Try me." His eyebrow was raised, his posture was challenging. Melinda sighed.

"You have several men attached to you, Agent Rossi. They weren't in the room before, there was only Haley, and Alison. They followed you in from outside. They're angry. There are five in total, but they say there are more at your home." Despite himself, Rossi couldn't help but feel fear grip him. Staying cool on the surface, he scoffed.

"Lady, I'm an FBI agent. I've helped convict hundreds of angry men." Rossi was losing his patience now. "If a few are still hanging around me, I'm not surprised."

"These men aren't criminals, Agent Rossi. These are victims."

"What?" Caught off guard, Rossi sat back in his seat, eyeing his surroundings suspiciously.

"They never passed over to the light. They're angry with the money you've made off their backs. They feel like you forgot about them. Like you gave too much power to the murderers, and not enough respect to them."

"Again, easy. I'm a famous author specializing in interviewing serial killers, Ms Gordon. Not too hard to make something like that up."

"Ask me something. Something I couldn't possibly know unless I talked to these victims."

"Give me a name." Melinda nodded, and stopped to listen. Rossi looked around him. Sure, he thought this was a big pile of crap, but she'd gotten him spooked a little.

"Guys, guys, not all at once. Okay, there's a man here who has been shot through the head. His name is Mike Rose. He and his son were killed while hiking, by a man named Michael Joyce. His son was kept alive for days, and was strangled. He couldn't protect him. Your profile helped the man to be caught."

"That's one of my cases, sure. One that I've written about extensively."

"He says you promised his wife you'd check up on her. You never called once."

Rossi shrugged. "There are just so many." He replied softly.

"His wife was pregnant, she found out after the case had been closed. She had another son, and she named the baby David, after you."

"I-I didn't know that."

"Agent Rossi, I'm not here to discuss your past. I'm here to help Alison. She's still here with me. This is your chance to interview her. You may doubt me, but this is an opportunity to find things that could be invaluable. I want to prevent this happening to any more women."

"You could have known the Rose family. That doesn't prove anything."

"Ok. Well, when you were observing the interview before in the other room, you called me a "nutjob" and a lady with black hair replied "bingo"." She paused, listening. "Last night, you ordered pizza because you were too exhausted to cook. You threw half away because they put pineapple on by mistake and you hate fruit on pizza. You drank two glasses of scotch." She paused again. "You watched a documentary about pandas on the Discovery channel and fell asleep on the couch." Rossi's look of distain turned to one of astonishment.

"These..these guys are with me all the time?"

"Yes. They're angry, but they aren't dangerous. I'd say they're more upset, really. Even though they aren't pleased with what you did with their stories, they respect you for solving their cases and giving their families peace. But because of the violent way in which they died, they don't find it easy to forgive even little things."

"But I solved their cases.."

"Yes, and they thank you for that. I think you just need to take care to remember that the people you deal with, Agent Rossi, are not just names or photographs of dead bodies. I know there was a case that you were trying to solve for a long time, and you did. That eased their anger a bit – to know that you were dedicated. That something could move you."

"Why won't they leave?"

"I think they're so used to being angry that they don't know they can. Maybe now you realize, you can apologize. That will bring them peace."

The door opened again, and Reid entered the room. He avoided eye contact with Melinda, worried that he had someone attached to him, and went over to Rossi.

"Rossi, you need to stop. Another body's just been found." Reid whispered.

"Ok, Ms Gordon. Please don't go anywhere, we'll be back to talk to you later."

"You need me, Agent Rossi. Wherever the body was found, I can guarantee the ghost will be for the next few hours. They stay with their bodies until they're discovered. That's what Alison did."

"Until you're ruled out as a suspect, you aren't going anywhere. And you're certainly not coming to any crime scenes. Reid, let's go."

A/N: First of all - I know this is a crossover. I'm just being selfish in not wanting my story to languish away in the crossover section not being read. But this is a story that focuses on Criminal Minds, and if I changed the names would not be a Ghost Whisperer story at all. The second chapter on are entirely from the perspective of the BAU. I could change the names I guess. But if this gets reported or I get a load of messages telling me to move it (please try not to be harsh, I'm ridiculously sensitive) I'll move it no problem. I just really want to give my stories a chance to get seen I guess..I've seen other stories around here using characters in a similar way and they seem to have been accepted. I've put a lot of love into this story and just want to give it a chance.

If you would like, please drop me a review to let me know your thoughts! More coming soon.