Walking through the double glass doors of the BAU, Reid expected today to be like any other. He flung his grey pea coat over his desk chair, and had only just set his coffee down when Hotch called from his office that the team needed to report to the bullpen. He hopped up the stairs to the bullpen, Morgan catching up with him on the way.
"Hey Reid, ready for another slaughter fest?"
Spencer allowed himself a morbid chuckle as they entered the bullpen together.
Hotch stood at the front of the table, holding a remote control.
"Now, this is a little unusual for us. We've been receiving photographs over the last few months. They're all of the same woman, but we've never been able to get a fix on the sender's location. Until now."
"No offense, Hotch, but isn't this sort of thing more suited for, I don't know, the police?" JJ asked.
"It normally would be. If it was ever reported. But no complaint has ever been filed about this, which leads us to believe the woman has no idea she is being watched. And, there is, of course, the matter of who she is." Hotch paused. "Her name is Avangeline…Gideon."
A general silence permeated the room as the shock subsided.
"As in…Jason Gideon?" Asked Prentiss.
"She's his daughter."
"Did anyone even know he had a daughter?" Asked JJ. She simply received looks from the rest of the team.
At that moment, Garcia conference-called in.
"Good morning my darlings, I have for you the stats on this very special case. Her name is Avangeline Gideon. She's 24 years old, just finished up her FBI training and degree in Behavioral Analysis and Media Psychology at Georgetown. No doubt she was headed right here to the BAU. Sending over the pictures we received from the unsub."
A series of photos flooded the big screen at the head of the table, each photo complete with its own message.
"She's…" Morgan started.
"Gorgeous." Prentiss finished his sentence.
"Unnaturally beautiful." Reid chimed in, once he recovered from the shock of Gideon having a daughter that looked like this.
Before them was a gorgeous young woman, seemingly unaware of being watched. Stepping into a cab, ordering coffee at an outdoor café, reading a book in the park, even a close-up of her asleep. She had pale, pristine skin like a china doll, a naturally rosy complexion, with wide, doe-like green eyes that sparkled like the wild sea. Her hair was a dark brown and cascaded in perfect wave-curls down to the middle of her back. In one of the pictures, she bit her bee-stung lips as they flooded with natural color, and Spencer felt his mouth going dry again.
The messages accompanying the photos ranged from "Sleep sweet while you can, darling princess, soon you'll be all mine." To "don't make me return her to her mother. Ashes to ashes, so the angel will return to the earth."
"The messages are contradictory. He expresses a love for her, calls her 'darling princess', but then he threatens her life." Rossi pointed out.
"Yes, well we've got an address now, so Reid and Prentiss, why don't you go to Gideon's house and talk to her, that is, if she's still safe." Hotch ordered.
"Um, I don't think that's necessary." JJ pointed out. The team followed her gaze to the main section of the BAU. Through the glass windows of the bullpen, the team saw the exact woman from the photographs, walking through their office, alive, healthy, glowing even.