So, I'm really happy with this chapter, and I hope that you'll be happy with it as well.

Please let me know what you think!

Enjoy!

I do not own "Criminal Minds" only my Oc.


"Within the core of each of us "is the child we once were. This child constitutes the foundation of what we have become, who we are, and what we will be."

Neuroscientist Dr.R. Joseph.


It was the next morning, and Garcia burst through the door of J.J's office. J.J was one of her best friends, and coworker. They told each other everything. Well, almost everything.

"I might be in big trouble." Garcia said, not even bother with knocking on the door.

"Come on in." J.J said sarcastically, being swamped with cases.

"I can't believe he showed up at my apartment. We just had a seminar on fraternization last week." Garcia continued.

"I really have a lot of work to do, Garcia." J.J tried to tell her.

"So, you don't want to hear How agent Rossi showed up at my door in the middle of the night while I was enjoying a post-coital shower with fellow FBI technical Analyst Kevin Lynch?" Garcia asked, gaining J.J's attention, who dropped everything.

"Sit. So, you were in the shower with Kevin Lynch?" J.J asked, trying not to laugh.

"Come on, J.J, I'm being serious. I need your help." Garcia said pleading her.

"With what?"

Agent Rossi. We're not supposed to date fellow bureau employees." Garcia told her.

"From what I hear, Rossi is the reason most of these fraternization rules even exist, ok? He's not gonna Tell anyone. Just relax. Wait-what- What was Rossi doing in your apartment?"

Well, that's a good… I'm not supposed to tell anyone.

"Why?"

"I didn't press the issue. I was all naked and all drippy." Garcia said, wanting to hit her head on the desk.

"Right. Doesn't showering with someone always seem like a better idea before you're actually doing it?" J.J said, thinking back on past experiences.

"Yeah, it is a bit of a workout." Garcia said with a laugh.

"I mean, there comes a point when a girl's just gotta wash her hair alone. You know?"

The two girls laughed and talked some more among themselves. It was important to laugh a little. If not, they would not be able to do this job.


A little while later, Emily Prentiss calls the remaining BAU team into Rossi's office. It was a mess.

"Hotch is in Connecticut, Right? With Reid. They left last night. They're doing A custodial interview." Prentiss asked both J.J and SSA Derek Morgan.

"Chester Hardwick." J.J confirmed.

"He doesn't need anything else on his mind when he's dealing with a guy like Hardwick." Derek said, looking out on the mess in front of them. "You got any idea what Rossi was working on?"

"I think Garcia might know. He stopped by her place last night." J.J told them.

"What, why?" Emily asked, as Garcia heard them talking.

"I'm really not supposed to say. Because he said he wanted to keep it between us." Garcia told them. Feeling as if she betrayed him.

"He might need our help." Emily pleaded.

"He didn't ask anyone for help." Garcia argued.

"Penelope, Rossi is a guy who color codes his handwritten notes in his notebooks. Blue pen for evidentiary items, red pen for supposition and theory." Emily told her. "The guy is a fussy, anal-retentive neat-freak who never leaves anything Out of its place. I would say this is a scream for help."

Garcia stood there for a few seconds, trying to figure out what to do.

"He's in Indianapolis, On a 20-year-old Double homicide. He said it's time Someone pays for it. And he was upset. He took a commercial Flight this morning, He picked up a bureau suv half an hour ago." Garcia said, deciding that this was for the best. The three profilers looked at each other.

"Jet's available." J.J suggested, and it didn't slow them down.

"Let's go." Morgan said, and they went down to the bull pen to pick up their stuff.

"You should also know that he's not all alone." Garcia added, making them all look up.

"What do you mean, baby girl?"

"Rossi told me that he wasn't doing this all by himself, but there's only one person he trusts more than his team." Garcia added, and it was as if something dawned on Emily.

"Of course! I know who he would bring into this." Emily exclaimed, without giving the others more to go on. She knew this person better than anyone.


Abby's p.o.v

It was the early hours of the morning, when I finally reached Indianapolis. Luckily for me, it wasn't that much traffic in the middle of the night, so it went smoothly. I only needed to stop to let Mudgie go to the bathroom, and to get myself a few cups of coffee. I would never have done this for anyone besides my father. He's lucky that I love him. I parked outside the hotel he told me about, and jumped out of my car, stretching my sore muscles.

"Took you long enough." I heard someone say from somewhere behind me. I turned around, only to find my father. He seemed troubled.

"Well, you didn't have to drive almost 7 hours to get here!" I said, crossing my arms. Dad let out a sigh and wrapped his arms around me, and I let him.

"I'm sorry for pushing you like I did." He whispered in my ear.

"No worries, you are forgiven." I replied.

"I'm glad you're here, Abby. You are the only one that can help me see straight." My dad said, and I rolled my eyes at his drama.

"Yeah, and don't you forget it." I said, playfully punching him.


I made sure that Mudgie was taken good care of, before going anywhere. I couldn't leave him in the car all day. But when we finally left, we took my dad's car. He knew where to go, I didn't.

We drove down what seemed like a lovely street in a normal neighborhood, and it was hard to imagine that this was the place of horrifying murders.

When the car finally stopped, I saw the house. It seemed like a nice house to grow up in. But knowing what went down here, made it seem haunted. Like the memories of what happened would never go away.

"What do you think?" Dad asked me as we jumped out of the car.

"Well, my first impression is that it's a nice house, on a street that you have good insight from every angle. It's amazing no one noticed anything." I said, looking around. "Except right over there by the shed. Someone could've been hiding there for hours, watching their every move without anyone knowing."

My dad looked back to where I was pointing, but then let out a sigh.

"It's a good thought, kiddo… But that shed wasn't there 20 years ago. That's new." My dad said.

"Or so you think. Maybe you didn't recognize it, because you weren't looking for it the last time." I argued back, and it got him thinking.

It didn't take long until we heard a car approaching us. We both turned around and we figured that it was the police finally joining us.

"Agent Rossi. Gary Willis, Indianapolis Police department." The policeman said, before turning to me. "And you are."

"I'm Abby Cole." I said, introducing myself with my mother's last name. I didn't want you use my father's name when it came to me maybe working for the BAU. I wanted to make a name for myself.

"Soon to be SSA Abby Cole." My dad added. "I asked for Captain Giles."

"Yeah, he died a year ago." Willis said, and I could tell that it saddened my dad.

"That's a shame. He was a good cop. Do you have The Galen files?" Dad said, not beating around the bush.

"Yeah, they're right here." Willis said, handing it to him.

"Do you have anything new?" I asked, taking the file from my dad before he could protest.

"If we do, It's not in this file." Willis answered.

"You don't know? Well, who's working on this?" Dad asked him.

"20 years is a long time cold." Willis started to explain.

"When do you stop looking for a double murderer?" My dad asked outraged.

"You know, I didn't know This was an FBI case." Willis argued, not feeling comfortable at all.

"Well, it isn't, not officially. I was on the original scene the day it happened." My dad explained.

"You probably know more About it than I do, then. At least you had Someone to talk to." Willis said, and it angered my dad so much, he just left, to go back to his car. He could be such a sourpuss sometimes. I turned towards Willis, wanting to apologize for his behavior.

You know, no one's lived here since that day." Willis told me, edging a little closer to me, no doubt trying to flirt with me. "They said it's a haunted house, and that no one dares to go in But there's a housekeeping service that comes in once a week, but otherwise it's empty."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at this.

"I know. My dad owns it. He bought it at an auction." I said, looking back at my father.

"Why?"

"He told me that he gave the money to their grandmother. She raised them after… Well, she died some years later and they're still living over there at her house. Or at least, that's what he told me." I said, flipping through the file.

"That's pretty personally Involved. Does he know these people or something?" Willis asked, looking back at my dad.

"No. It was the kids, I guess. He knew he couldn't do much for them. But luckily enough, he could for me.

"Do you want to take a look inside?" Willis asked me.

"No. My dad spent years looking in that house, I don't think it will do me any good being in there. There's nothing there, nothing he missed, no evidence they didn't find." I said with a sigh, turning around to walk back to the car.

"Then why are you here?" Willis called after me, making me stop.

"We're hoping for a miracle." I said, and I really, really did. "I'm sorry to bother you."

I returned to the car, and my dad did not look away from the house.

"Did you get any useful information out of him?" Dad asked, looking at me.

"Well, I almost got his phone number… does that count?" I said, and he only shook his head.

"Well, he's right to try. You are a really beautiful woman." He said, patting my reddish-blonde hair. He knew I hated it, and that's why he did it.


Third person p.o.v

J.J, Morgan and Emily was already on the jet heading for Indianapolis. Looking through some old files.

"You know, there's not really much to this file, Garcia." Morgan told her.

"Oh, there's a latent fingerprint that's making its second run through aphis as we speak. As soon as I get results I'll let you know." Garcia answered. "And then there's also apparently some crime scene notes that agent Rossi wrote up that I'm still spelunking for.

"So, he was on the actual crime scene with the local detectives?" Emily asked.

"Could be why It bothers him so much." J.J answered, which made a lot of sense.

"Well, I highly doubt this was his first scene." Morgan said, knowing how experienced Rossi is.

"Yeah, but it was a bad one. The weapon was a long-handled ax." Emily added.

"Yeah, but we've seen worse since he's been back." J.J told them.

"There's nothing else cross-referenced, no other crimes tied to this?"

"No, nothing I can find. I mean, certainly nothing with these signature elements.

"Ok, so it's a double homicide, yes, but a single occurrence with no apparent issue of state lines? Was there a request from the local authorities For the FBI's help?" J.J asked Garcia.

"I don't think so."

"So then why is this a BAU case?" Morgan asked.

"I don't think it was."

"All right, Garcia, I want you to double-check any other unsolved murders in Indiana or the surrounding states near this time." Morgan told her. "Something this brutal doesn't feel like a one-time thing."

"You've got it." Garcia confirmed before the screen went blank.

"What is it? What is it about this case for him?" Emily asked.

"I don't know." J.J said, looking at her. "But who is this person he included on this case? And why hasn't he told us about her?"

Emily let out a breath. She knew her. She knew her very well. They got to know one another when Abby was an intern at Interpol before Emily decided to join the BAU. They became so close, Emily told her things she would never tell anybody else.

"Her name is Abigail Cole." Emily told them.

"Wait. Abigail Cole… that name sounds familiar." Morgan said. "Why do I know that name?"

"She graduated from Quantico in 2005. She was the best of her class. Hotch and Gideon actually wanted her to join the team, despite her young age of only 21." Emily answered.

"Wait, is she who I think she is?" Morgan looked through some old files on the computer.

"Who is she?" J.J asked, not knowing where this was going.

"Abigail Cole's name is actually Abigail Rossi. She is Rossi's daughter."


Abby's p.o.v

We had been standing outside that house for what felt like hours. I knew that he really wanted to see something new, see something he somehow missed the last time.

"I've got to call and figure out if that analyst found something on that print. He dialed the number and put her on speaker.

"Agent Rossi?"

"Anything come back yet on that print?"

"No. No matches. Nothing on file. Sorry."

"What about his notes?"

"Those I have. Girl's voice I don't know."

"I'm Abigail Cole. I'm helping Agent Rossi in this investigation."

"Okay…Do you have a pda? 'Cause i can e-mail them to you."

"What's a pda?"

Seriously… sometimes, I swear my dad's a fossil.

"It's a personal digital- Never mind."

"It's okay, Garcia. I have one. Just send it to me. My dad doesn't understand technology."

"Oh and, sir, there's something else that you should know. Agents Prentiss and Morgan found your office in disarray this morning."

"So?"

"Well they're concerned about you."

"Well, tell them not to be."

"Yeah, uh, sir, that's the thing, See? I'm sorry…"

"You told them about this case?"

"Yeah, I'm… We're all worried about you."

"Damn it, I asked you to keep this between us. I already have someone here to help me!"

"I'm sorry, sir. I know, and I… They're going to see you."

"They're coming here? I don't need Anybody's damn help."


My dad hung up the phone, frustrated and angry.

"I can't believe her! She's being disrespectful, and she's showing that she can't be trusted with anything!" Dad practically yelled at me. I had to count to ten before answering him.

"Dad, I love you, but you're acting crazy! You know that she wasn't disrespectful. That Garcia woman did what she did because she genuinely cares. Don't take it out on her because you're stubborn." I told him. He wanted to argue, but my look said it all. He should not start with me. "Maybe it's not the worst idea ever, to have them come here. Your team, seems like a group of people that would do anything for each other. Let them be there for you, just like I am."

My dad knew that I was right, but his pride and his sense of doing things alone, prevented him to see it.

"Come on, let's go back to the hotel. There's nothing we can do about this here. Let's sit down and go over what we already have and see if we can find something you haven't seen before."

This time, I took the car keys, and drove us back to the Palmer hotel, where we were staying for the time being. It was a nice hotel, and I couldn't afford it, if my dad wasn't paying. Not that I expected that from him at all.


He didn't want to talk too much about it, which was no huge surprise for me, so we walked down to the bar to get something to drink. I needed to find a way to get him out of his funk, but it wasn't easy.

"You're buyin', I'm drinkin'." I heard someone say from behind us, and I turned around to see three people coming towards us. One of them, was a girl with long blonde hair, and very kind eyes. She seemed like a really good person.

The other one was a hunky Afro-American, well built and a sparkle in his eyes. The last one, I knew very well. She was like a sister to me, an older and wiser sister whom I loved dearly. Emily.

"I don't think any of us could afford this place otherwise." The man said.

"Yeah, I know I can't." The blonde one said, as I got up from my chair.

"And you think I do?" I asked, looking at Emily. "Hey, Em."

"Hey, squirt!" Emily said, hugging me tightly. Oh, how I missed her after she left. My dad wasn't up to this right now and interrupted our reunion.

"Go home." He said rudely.

"Dad!" I exclaimed, feeling fed up with his behavior.

"We thought you might need some help." Emily said, not being fazed with his grumpiness.

"You're wrong."

"Come on, now, Rossi. bounce some theories off us. Fresh eyes can't hurt." The man said, I really needed to get his name.

"Yeah, I mean… You asked me to come." I added with a smile.

"That's completely different, and this isn't even a BAU case." My dad argued.

"Maybe not yet, But I can make anything a BAU case if I wanted to. It's about paperwork and I know the paperwork." The blonde one said.

"Why do you care?" My dad asked them.

"Because you do, dad." Let them help us. I don't think I can do it alone." I answered, trying to use my puppy dog eyes, knowing he couldn't resist it.

He let out a sigh, and I knew I had won this round. Each of us ordered a drink and made our way over to a remote table, so we could get some privacy.

Emily smiled widely at me, and I was so glad she came here.

"Abby, I would like you to meet SSA Derek Morgan, and Jennifer Jareau. Morgan, J.J, meet Abby Cole. She doesn't like to be called Abigail." Emily said, and I couldn't help but roll my eyes. Agent Morgan was the first one to hold out his hand.

"Nice to meet you, Abby. I remember you from the academy. Gideon and Hotch wasn't too happy about you saying no back then." Morgan said, and I couldn't help but laugh.

"I didn't feel ready. I needed to know I could do the job the way it was supposed to be done." I said, and it was the truth.

"Hi, I'm Jennifer, but everyone calls me J.J. I guess you can too." J.J said, and I smiled at her.

"It's nice to meet all of you. But I wish it was under other circumstances." I told them honestly, before we sat down with my father.


"I was here on a serial rapist in '88. It was pretty short work. The guy wasn't gonna win any IQ. contests. The day after, we, uh, collared him, a local detective was driving me to the airport, and, uh, he hears a call on his walkie of kids screaming in a house not far from where we were. He asks if I mind taking the job in with him." My dad told us, and I knew what was to come. He had told me this part of the story before.

"We were first on the scene. Inside we found…" Dad said, as Morgan dropped something on the table.

"Found this." Morgan said, dropping the file down in front of us.

"The ax had been left behind, but it had been wiped clean. It turns out it belonged to the family. The, uh, oldest daughter, Connie, told me her father bought it on Christmas eve A few months earlier to cut down the Christmas tree. Now I, uh, always associate the whole thing with Christmas. Never been able to put a tree up myself again." Dad said, looking at me.

"That's why I've done that every year for the last 15 years." I said, grabbing his hand.

"So he-he never hurt the kids at all?" J.J asked.

"Not physically."

"But he would have known that the kids were in the house." Morgan added.

"He only hurt the parents and then left." I said, knowing this story by heart.

Ok, so, using a weapon He found at the scene and not eliminating all of the potential witnesses, that makes him disorganized."

"But he left no evidence, which suggests he's organized." I added. This was going to be difficult.

"There was a fingerprint." J.J reminded us.

"But it was behind the bedroom door. I don't even think he knew it was there. There should have been prints In other places, but they were wiped clean. There was an open back door, a- a drinking glass left in the kitchen. And that one good print was not a match anywhere. I've been over this a million times." My dad said in defeat. "I- I keep thinking, if there was just one more piece, one more thing to go on. The answer Was right in front of me."

"He might be dead." Emily added.

"I have to be sure."

"Rossi, if he's dead, you may never really know." Morgan told him, but my dad only shook his head.

"When we arrived on the scene before any of the other units got there, I could hear them before I even got out of the car. It was a warm morning, and the, uh the windows were open in the upstairs bedroom. And their voices floated out into the street. They were crying and calling for their mommy and daddy, for their murdered parents." Dad told us, and I knew this was hard for him. "I've seen so much death and pain, But that sound It's been 20 years and I can still hear them screaming every night, crying. There's only one other time that happened, but I managed to at least keep her safe and out of harms way."

Dad looked at me, and I knew he referred to me after I understood that my mother wasn't coming back to me.

"If I can't tell them for sure that whoever's responsible will never do it again that screaming might never stop."

I hated seeing my father tortured like this. I hoped that we would be able to fix this.

"Well, let's get to their house first thing in the morning. There's not much else we can do tonight anyway." Morgan said, and I couldn't agree more. I was completely drained after the long day I've had, and no doubt, the others as well.


My dad walked back to his room, and I was about to go back to my room, when Emily came up behind me.

"So… it's nice to see you coming out of your hole for a change." Emily told me.

"I was not in a hole! I was just spending some time alone at the cabin. Am I not allowed to do that?" I asked, smiling at here.

"No, of course you do. I just missed you, that's all." Emily answered, and I knew what she meant. I've missed her too.

"It's good to see you again, Emily. It's not the same without you." I told her, and she let out a sigh.

"Well, if your dad and Hotch gets their way, then maybe we could be working together at the BAU." She said, and I was never going to hear the end of it.

"Well, maybe. I'm not saying yes yet, but I'm not saying no either…" I said, before opening the door. "I'll see you tomorrow."


The next morning, we started the day early. My dad ran my door down at 7 in the morning, wanting me to go an eat breakfast with him, even though he was too nervous to eat. I couldn't say no to that. Not today.

We drove down a different road towards the house the three kids, or now grownups lived in. My dad seemed rather excited to see them again. He stepped out of the car, as the oldest one walked towards him.

"Hi, Connie. I brought the team…" He started to say, but Connie cut him off.

"You need to stop this."

"Excuse me?" Dad asked, not understanding where the anger came from.

"We thought that if we didn't call you back the last couple times, you would just give up and leave us alone." Connie told him off. I felt the urge to talk back to her, but I knew that she was still hurting.

"Well, I know That it hurts, but I'm only trying to make sure someone pays for your parents' deaths." My dad said, trying to reach out to her.

"We don't care anymore. It's been 20 years. We need to be able to move past it. Please!" Connie pleaded him.

"I won't bother you kids again." My dad promised them, and I could see that it was tearing him apart.

"And you'll stop it with the gifts, too?" She asked, and that made me stop. "What are we supposed to do with a bunch of toys? They remind us of the worst day of our lives."

"He never sent you any gifts." I said, standing up for my dad in a little nicer way. But when I said that, they all freaked out a little. They just assumed that it was him that sent them gifts, but why would he do that?

Because of what we just learned, the Galen kids decided to let us come inside, and showing us the toys. And it was a lot over the years. The pile just got bigger.

"This is it?" My dad asked them.

"It's all we could find." Georgie answered, looking at the toys in disgust.

"We threw a lot of them away." The youngest one of them added.

"I wish you would have told me about this." Dad told them.

"We thought you were sending them. First, we kind of liked it, and then it just became a bad reminder." Connie said, as Emily and I went through the things. We looked at each other, and we both concluded with the same thing.

"These are incredibly cheap, aren't they?" Emily said, looking at dad.

"Where would you even buy toys like that?" Morgan asked.

"Or why? How did you receive them?" I asked, looking at the three siblings. I wanted to know as much as I could.

"They were usually left on the front porch at night. Mine was found in my car this time." Connie answered me. It gave me chills, I would've freaked out if something like that happened to me.

"So, he's following you." Dad stated.

"There was a pickup outside the- Uh, where I work. I just… I always thought it was you." Connie said, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed.

"What do you remember about the pickup?" I asked, starting to write some stuff down.

"Uh, all I saw was the shape, and the headlights." Connie told me.

"Morgan, obsessional crimes are your specialty." Dad said, patting my back to silently tell me that I was doing a good job.

"Well, there's two kinds of obsessional offenders that would send gifts of survivors. Sadists who want to make the families keep reliving the crime, or guilt-laden offenders, desperately trying to find some type of way to apologize." Morgan informed us, as I kept on thinking by myself. Something was very off about all of this.

"Sadists usually use something they know will remind the family of the person or the crime. Jewelry, newspaper clippings." I listed. "These don't look like the kind of things You would send to inflict pain on someone."

"So, guilt-laden."

"You know, they actually look like the kind of thing a child would send." Emily said, and it got me thinking even harder.

"Ok. Well, it's rare, but an unsub who feels this much guilt sometimes commits the crime unintentionally." Morgan said. "They tend to be Developmentally disabled, Extremely low-IQ offenders and generally, well, they're physically large and they're very strong."

"Strong enough to hurt Somebody accidentally." I added.

"Like Lennie in 'Of Mice and Men'"

"Exactly."

"He needed help, then. There wasn't a fragment of Evidence left at the scene. That's not low IQ.

Well, usually They're assisted by an older relative, and it's almost always…" Morgan started to say…

"A parent…" I finished.

"And this parent rationalizes that the unsub would never try to hurt anybody. See, in a lot of ways, this type of unsub they're sort of overgrown children.

"J.J, when you get Garcia on the phone, tell her we're not looking for other homicides here. Get her to look into a string of less serious offenses in this area- Parks, playgrounds- Involving children, but not necessarily children that have been injured or abused." Morgan told her, and she just jumped into it.

I looked over at the siblings, and they didn't understand much of what was going on. So I wanted them to get a better grip on things.

"See, an unsub like this, when they seek out children, they want to play with them.

They don't really want to hurt them. But it's their size. It frightens people." I told them, hoping they would understand.

"This could be that piece You were looking for." Emily said, looking at my dad, and he finally felt as if this was going somewhere.


J.J returned to the room with Garcia on speaker, she worked fast, and she already found out some things.

"Ok, crime-fighters, I got the information you were looking for, but it may lead to more Questions than answers."

Oh, of course.

"There are scads of open petty crimes, as described, In the very area of Indiana in the last 20 years. But here's the rub- A large portion of them only occur in the last week of march and the first week of April every year. And then it gets weirder, 'Cause the same kind of crimes crop up in Springfield, Illinois, for the next 2 weeks, and then Dess Moines, Iowa, in the couple of weeks after that."

"So, he's traveling." I said, chipping in.

"On a specific schedule for years?" J.J asked.

"Maybe he's a salesman?" Emily asks, but both my dad and I just stood there looking at the toys. Cheap toys a kid would by and give away as gifts. Why did this look so familiar?

Then suddenly I realized….

"How about a carnival?" Both my dad and I said at the same time.

"Okay, that was creepy beyond measures."

"We went to a carnival the day before. It's the last thing We did as a family." Connie told us, and it all made more sense now.

"Did anything happen?" My dad asked.

"No. No, we had to leave early. There was this clown that Made me a balloon animal. It didn't even look right. But then he kind of followed me around. He didn't really do anything, but my mom got afraid, so we left." Connie replied, and her siblings just watched her.

"You never told us that." Georgie said.

"I didn't even remember it until now."

"Penelope, pull permits. Find out is this carnival Is still in business." My dad demanded.

"This Betty is ready. Hey new girl… You're doing a great job."

She hangs up and I just shook my head. I didn't even consider this a job. Maybe I was actually good at this. It certainly felt good that I could help others get closure, putting the bad guys behind bars.


We let the Galen siblings' house a few minutes later. Turns out it was a Carnival in town.

"You guys look around. Prentiss and Abby, come with me." My dad said, and he didn't want me to wander off on my own. I may be strong, but I was so small, if we were right about this, the unsub would snap me like a twig. I needed to bulk up a couple of sizes I think.

"Jeff! Get more tie-downs over that Ferris hauler! I don't want to have to slow down halfway across Illinois because that moron left pieces hanging off again! Idiots!" A man exclaimed.

"You look like You're in charge." My dad said, as the tall man turned towards us.

"You pulling out in a hurry?" Emily asks, as I look around for a bit.

"That's the way this business works. Gotta be set up Where the money is. Right now That ain't here." The man said, and I couldn't help myself.

"Where you headed to next, Springfield? We'd like to talk to you about one of your clowns." I told him, and I could tell that his body language changed drastically.

"Clowns? This ain't a circus. Clowns are for the circus." The man replied.

"You don't have any clowns in your carnival? How about a guy Who makes balloon animals?" Emily asked him.

"We might. Sometimes." He said vaguely.

"How long's he been with you?" I pressed on, and he started to get agitated.

"What is this?"

"This guy would have been complained about. Kids are uncomfortable around him. You'd have gotten reports from parents." My dad told him.

"I can't remember every complaint I get, mister." He practically hissed at my dad. That's a bad call.

"It's not mister. It's agent Rossi, FBI. Now, do you have a son?"

"A son?"

"The guy we want to talk to, he'd have been a big problem for you. You'd have gotten rid of him A long time ago, unless…"

"It would have been difficult for him to hold down a job for long, Much less 20 years." I said, and Emily agreed.

"20 years? I really ain't got time for this." The man tried one more time to get away from the situation.

"Make time." My dad pressed on, and I could see the man caving in.

"All right. He didn't mean to hurt those people. It was my fault as much as his. I got busy with one of the rides breaking down and he wandered off. He just wanted to see the little girl again. He liked her. He wanted to play. He would never hurt Anyone. He went into the father's Room by mistake." He told us, and it was hard to listen to this, but I promised myself I would be professional. "He come after him with an axe and he hit Joey with it. So, he got mad, that's all. I mean, that's understandable.

I mean, isn't that Understandable? He gets hit with an axe and he get mad? He was sorry as soon as he did it. He even put them back in bed. He just got angry. And I was too late! I was too late! I couldn't save 'me. But every year I take him back and I make him remember what he did. I'd even make him pick something from the joints to give them. He never forgets. Never. I make sure of that. Never! Look He's a good boy."

"Daddy!" I heard a voice yell, and I instinctively, started to run. I could tell that this was just a scared little boy, and he didn't understand, and Morgan didn't seem to understand either.

"Morgan, stop! He doesn't understand!" I said trying to get him to stop hurting him as he put on the cuffs. This was not the way to do it.

I knelt down in front of him and touched his shoulder.

"Joey, listen to me. My name is Abby, and I know that you're scared, but I need you to listen to me and your father." I said softly, waiting for him to calm down a little.

"I know that you don't understand what's going on right now, but I promise that if you just calm down, and go with this men without a fuss, your daddy can come with you." I told him, and the man just crumbled together. He was crying and shaking.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt them. I just wanted to play." He wailed, and I couldn't help but feeling sorry for him, so I said the first thing that popped into my head.

"I know, sweetheart… I know." I shushed him, and it calmed him enough to let the police handle him back to their car.

I let out a breath, feeling the adrenalin leave my body, and I tried to stop my hands from shaking, I never knew it would be this intense.


When everything calmed down, and everything was processed, I decided that it was time for me to get back home. I was packing my car, and letting Mudgie do his business before I had to drive for 10 hours straight.

"Hey, Cole." I heard Morgan said from behind me.

"Hey, Agent Morgan. I'm sorry for how I talked to you under the arrest, but I just needed him to calm down. He was scared." I said in a rush, and he tried to stop my ranting.

"Hey, it's okay, pretty girl." He assured me. "You did the right thing. You tried to make the best of the situation. You did good, I'm starting to see why Hotch and Gideon wanted you on the team in the first place. I think you could be a good asset to our team, and I want you to think about it." Morgan told me, before bumping his fist into my shoulder in a playful manor.

"Oh, and one more thing, Abigail… You can call me Derek, or Morgan. Agent seems so formal, don't you think?" Morgan said with a smirk before heading over to the SUV.

"Hey, Morgan!" I called back, and he turned around to face me.

"It's Abby. If I hear you call me Abigail again, I will have to hurt you." I said playfully, but I meant it. No one other than my mother had called me Abigail, and that died with her.

Morgan laughed a little, before getting into the car, what surprised me, was that Emily was standing there with her bags, smiling at me.

"Hey, what are you doing?" I asked her.

"Well, you dad told me that you had to drive your car all the way back to Quantico, and I thought that it would be a good time to catch up, and taking shifts driving." Emily answered, and I couldn't be happier. I was going on a road trip with one of my best friends.


Third Person p.o.v

The woman looked at the building in front of her… she was nervous, and she had all reason to be. She had told this place no in the past, because she wasn't ready. Now, she did feel ready. She took a deep breath and walked over to the front desk to get herself a visitor pass, before entering the building and going through security.

The elevator ride was dreadful, and she swore she could feel the sweat on her forehead.

But as the doors opened, and she saw the floor for the first time, the sound of phone calls and instant buzzing from the people answering them, the smell, for some reason gave her confidence. She walked straight through the bull pen up to the office in the left corner and knocked on the door. A deep voice called for her to enter. She kept the smile on her face and opened the door.

"Agent Hotchner, I think you requested me?"


Dr. Spencer Reid was sitting at his desk next to Prentiss, when the glass door opened up behind him. For some reason, he felt the need to look up. And he was glad he did.

There, coming straight towards him with confidence and grace, the most beautiful, angelic woman he had ever seen in his life. He felt his palms sweat, his heart rate increase, and he didn't understand why.

"Hey, Emily… who is that?" He asked in a whisper. Emily looked up and broke into a smile.

"That is someone that's going to change your life, in some way, and you don't even know how yet." Emily vaguely answered, before returning to her paperwork.

But he could only stare at the beautiful woman as she walked through Hotch's office door.

She would change his life indeed.


I know there wasn't much of Reid in this chapter, but that's why I loved the ending so much! And I hope you'll like it too.

I don't know which episodes I will do, but I don't think I will do them all, or I will not be finished with the story... Ever. I have to map that out, but please give me notes on what you want to happen. And if you want me to continue this story.

I'm really nervous about this.