Author's Note: This is my first Criminal Minds fanfic, so please bare with me! Flashbacks are an add-on to the episode In birth and Death. Detective Alexandra Halls is mine. Hotch, Prentiss, and related characters do not belong to me. But if they did...

Oh, and a note to Derek Morgan fans: He unfortunatly is not in this story at all. I don't hate him, I just couldn't find a way to put him in here! Lets just say he's on vacation...

"The beauty of friendship, so deep and nurturing with infinite laughter, is that it comes with no price and shall always be carried in your heart. –Jenny Acasio

=Flashback=

He looked around the empty house, quiet with its barren walls and lifeless rooms. It didn't even look like his anymore. The bookshelf was empty, containing nothing but cobwebs. The kitchen was stripped clean; all the former dishes that made home in the cupboards now somehow gone in the blink of an eye. And his son's room-or, what used to be his son's room, looked quite lonely without the colourful toys and giant stuffed animals. It was as if he had entered a whole new world.

He walked into the kitchen and found a forgotten glass. Rummaging through the alcohol cabinet he found his favorite whiskey bottle and filled the glass, hoping to wash all his feelings away with the amber liquid. Tossing his jacket on the dinner table, he made his way into the living room and took a seat on the couch. He knew this was going to happen eventually. Haley always complained that he was never there, like a ghost. That she was the one to do all the work and that he was never there for his son. And now, he would never see him again. But he couldn't just leave his family at the BAU.

He gulped down the last of his whiskey and poured himself another. He wished it didn't have to end like this. A sudden wave of loneliness washed over him. He needed to talk to someone. Someone that would understand. He reached over to the coffee table, picked up the phone, and dialed a number. He waited as it rang. And rang. He hoped that she would pick up, and fortunately she did.

"Yeah?"

"Emily, this is Hotch."

=Present=

"So, what's our case?" Emily Prentiss asked, leaning back in her seat. Clouds flew past her window like whisps of light cream, telling her that they were at a fairly high altitude.

"Two bodies were found at their own house in east Hartford, Connecticut, later identified as married couple Lee and May Lynn Ang. They both suffered multiple stab wounds all over their bodies, but not an equal amount. This suggests disorganization, but it's actually the opposite as no fingerprints were found at the scene." Spencer Reid replied. He began to pass out photos of the crime scene to the team. "One notable thing is that they were both only wearing their underwear with their clothes nowhere to be found. This may suggest that the unsub is psychotic, which might derive from their-"

"Thank you, Reid." Aaron Hotchner interrupted. He then turned to JJ. "Do we have a profile for the UnSub?" Jennifer Jareau, legs crossed and her elbow resting on the seat arm that she shared with David Rossi, shook her head.

"Like Spence said, the Unsub could be Phychotic. But right now, the possibilities vary. The Unsub could have ties to the family, are against Asians, or this could be totally random. We can't know for sure until we gather more information." She explained.

"And we're going to find out just that."

"Yes. While Reid, Rossi, and I investigate the crime scene, you and Emily will go to this address-" She handed him a document with an address highlighted on it. "-and question the victim's son and his Aunt and Uncle, who are left as his legal guardians."

"It's a shame that the boy is left without his parents." Rossi commented. He seemed to be staring intently at the photos of the bodies. They all wished that it was anyone else than someone with a child, especially a boy who was 13, and old enough to understand. And they wouldn't stop until they found the man who killed his parents.

-()-

As Emily was stepping off the plane, JJ came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She spun around to see her and Rossi with huge grins on their faces.

"Good Luck." Rossi said with a wink. She rolled her eyes and playfully punched his arm. She knew they were just teasing her about going solo with Hotch, the one of all people who they suspected her to be attracted to. They were right, of course, but she would never let them know it. Her attraction for the handsome agent had grown over the past years, and she couldn't deny any feelings she had for him. When she first entered his office and shook his hand, she was truly smitten by his appearance. Cleanly pressed suit, mysterious dark brown hair, and deep, intriguing eyes that could make any woman fall.

But what she didn't know was that Rossi's message would mean much more then what it did now.