A/N: Thank for the opening alerts and reviews! I hope you enjoy the rest.

Chapter 2

Finishing his conversation with Chuck, Matt sent a quick priority email to the team as well as Anderson. He quickly detailed the weather forecast they were facing, sending them all home to pack warmer clothes with a two hour window to do so. Our estimated take-off time is one; as I said earlier, we'll brief the case on the jet the email ended.

Two minutes after all of their emails pinged with the priority message, the team in the bullpen was starting to gather up their briefcases as Matt flew down the steps towards Anderson's desk. He handed him his briefcase. "Brian," he smiled, "this is a great opportunity to break in your new assistant."

Jesse Vertega's head snapped up at the desk next to Anderson's. Agent Vertega was fresh out of the FBI Academy, graduating at the top of his class. Hotch had requested an assistant for Anderson with his promotion. Cruz had approved it and Vertega got the plum assignment. "Yes sir," Vertega smiled. "I'm ready."

Matt shook his head and looked at Anderson. "Give him the lay of the land around here Bee," he smiled. Anderson smiled as well. "But Brian…"

"I got it Cob; we pack the winter gear for all of you."

Matt winked. "No, junior does; you supervise. Get used to that role Brian," he smiled. "I'll be back in about an hour to help you."

"And Brian, go easy on the kid the first time," Rossi added with a smile, walking past them. Matt joined him and they headed out the glass doors, noticing Hotch leaving his office.

-00CM00-

Three hours later, the BAU's Gulf Stream sped down the Quantico runway and lifted into the air. The team, buckled in for take-off, was already looking over the case details on their tablets, starting to form their own observations.

The jet leveling off, the seatbelt sign blinked off. Before any of them could react, Angie came over the intercom. "Sorry gang, use your freedom quickly. In about forty minutes, we're going to start to hit the outer east ridge of the polar vortex y'all are going into. You'll be buckled back in."

Matt, sitting on the couch across from Hotch and Rossi in the back two top of seats, looked at Emily sitting in his usual spot in the four top of seats with JJ, Garcia and Kate. "Oh, I really get to hit the magic button," she snarked, winking at JJ.

"Just hit the damn button Prentiss." Morgan and Reid, sharing the front two seats smiled at each other across the table. Settled again and confident in her role in the BAU, Emily had turned into the team's second wise ass behind Cob.

"Cockpit," Angie answered.

"I did it," Prentiss said, raising her fists in the air, getting giggles from the three ladies.

Matt shook his head at his competition, unbuckling his seatbelt. "Angie, will we have electronics to do the case briefing?"

"Roger that Cob; you're just going to get bounced around while you do it."

"Thanks Angie."

"Cockpit out."

Matt stood up. "Then we need to consolidate this seat configuration while we have the time so we can talk through the case details." He looked at the ladies, Morgan and Reid, who had got out of their seats as well. "After I get rid of the last of my morning coffee," he smiled, heading to the back of the jet.

"I'm next," Rossi said, getting out of his seat.

True to Angie's word, forty minutes later the jet began to wobble and bounce slightly. Yet the team was ready. Hotch was still in his seat, against the back bulkhead with the case files and his tablet spread out on the table top. Dave was now sitting at a ninety degree angle from his seat's former position, directly facing Matt once again on the couch. JJ and Kate's seats from the four top were next to his. Emily and Garcia were still in their seats, using the table of the four top. Reid and Morgan had joined Matt.

"Let's start from the top," Hotch said, looking at Matt. "You had Morgan do a consult on a single case?"

"Yes, because of the heart being taken," Matt said. "Secondly, the lead detective, Scott Larson from the Bloomington PD, was in one of my seminar classes for local PDs about a year ago. He's level headed; a fourteen year veteran of the department that worked his way up the ranks. He wouldn't have sent it without the case raising suspicions for him."

"The suspicions being," Rossi asked.

"The disorganization of the removal of the heart coupled with the organized dump site of the body," Matt responded. "Scott realized it didn't fit together and I agreed with him." Hotch and Dave nodded their approval.

Emily looked at Morgan. "Does the recent terror threat against the MOA play into this?"

He shook his head. "I doubt it."

"The chances of this being terrorists are exceedingly rare," Reid added. "They make bolder statements than this."

"The crime scene photos of the first victim, Marcia Dowd, and the dump site are on your tablets," Garcia said. "Sorry, I won't put them up on the big screen." The team thumbed through their tablets.

Hotch looked at Morgan. "Your consult," he asked.

"Exactly what Cob noticed; Larson is dealing with a team. The first unsub is highly organized to get Marcia Dowd out of the largest mall in the States. The person that took her heart is a disorganized psychotic. Then throw in the added bonus of multiple brutal rapes anti-mortem. I advised him to scour through every inch of the mall's security tapes to look for a person leading Marcia Dowd out of the doors that looked normal. A tech analyst from the Minnesota BCA came up with squat."

"Nothing," Prentiss questioned.

Morgan shook his head. "The time that passed between Dowd being classified as missing and the LeSuerer county deputy finding her body at a closed county rest stop for the winter was too long. They didn't have a viable timeframe to narrow down the security footage; they tried but came up empty. And until they had another victim, our hands were tied. We couldn't join the case."

Dave just shook his head. "Damn politics; Larson called it and he was spot on." Rossi got the Matt finger point he learned from his mentor.

"Whoa," Callahan said. "Back up a bit; the BCA?"

"Bureau of Criminal Apprehension," Rossi explained. "A lot of states with populations like Minnesota use a state agency to handle all of the peripheral work such as crime scenes, DNA collection, and technical matters like weapon, bullet, computer analysis, and etcetera. They're a resource to all PD's, no matter the size."

"Wisconsin has the same thing," Matt added.

"Gotcha," Kate smiled.

"The second victim," Hotch asked.

"Patricia Crowley," Garcia said, pointing to the wide screen above Matt's shoulder. "She disappeared from the Mall of America sometime late Saturday afternoon. Her body, and again those photos are on your tablets, was discovered in the Minnesota State Recreational Area in Scott County outside of Belle Plaine this morning."

"This team definitely has a type," JJ said. "And one of them puts their clothes on before the body is dumped."

Callahan nodded. "Both are brunettes; about the same age.

"Guys, look deeper," Prentiss said, looking at the autopsy reports. "They are both nearly the same height, weight and body build."

"So unsub one has a specific target," Kate added. They all nodded.

"Both victims had ligature marks on their wrists and ankles," JJ said, looking the autopsy reports as well. Reid speed read through them.

"Which means they were held captive," Callahan said.

"Or restrained somehow for the sexual assault," Reid said. The team looked at him. "There's something that I noticed in the autopsy."

"You mean the slivers of wood in the back, buttocks, abdomen, finger tips, under the fingernails and particularly the breast area found in each victim," Emily said.

Reid looked at her. "Very good Emily," he smiled.

Prentiss put her index finger to her chin. JJ saw the spark in her eye and knew a patented Prentiss snark comment was coming. "Oh gee; does that mean I'm catching up to the genius Dr. Reid?"

"No," Reid answered.

Matt and Dave looked at each other sharing a smile and a shake of their heads.

Hotch arched an eyebrow at Matt. "Are we going to be dealing with jurisdictional issues with this one?"

Matt shook his head. "I talked to Scott while helping Brian and the rookie getting the go room ready for us. Bloomington PD has full lead on this one. They have a great working relationship with the adjoining counties around the MOA; because it's the MOA. And obviously, the mall bigwigs have full buy in. Their security staff is cooperating as much as they can."

"This is a potential publicity nightmare for them," JJ commented.

"Yeah," Prentiss said. "If you're a female around five foot eight and one hundred thirty pounds, stay away from the MOA. That narrows down the population by what," she asked, looking at Reid who was immersed in a map of the area that Matt was looking at on his tablet, looking over his shoulder.

"Sorry Emily; I missed that. I'm curious about the geographic relationship of the dump sites," he commented. "They have to mean something."

"Reid," Prentiss asked.

"Garcia, can you put up the map that Matt has on his tablet?" Garcia nodded and quickly put it up on the flat screen. Reid reached over Matt to point. "The MOA is here," he pointed. "But the dump sites have been in counties southwest of the mall. I think that has to factor into the equation."

"Agreed Reid," Rossi said. "But what does that tell us?"

Reid shook his head. "At the time; nothing."

It was Kate's turn to shake her head. "Going through the profiling classes, I obviously learned the 'big ones'," she said, with the fingers in the air for quote marks. "But I'm still trying to catch up on all the past ten years' cases." Hotch and Matt shared a look. She no longer said "your" cases. She was a part of the team. "Have we ever had one like this?"

"With this team killing dynamic, plus the rape," Morgan asked. He shook his head. "No."

Reid looked at her. "The psychotic unsub though reminds me a lot of Eddie Mays."

"Eddie Mays," Prentiss asked. "I think I missed that one."

Reid went into his usual dissertation. "That was nearly ten years ago." He looked at Matt. "You had just joined the team." Matt nodded with a smile.

"Eddie Mays was a highly intelligent person that was sent to Harvard by his domineering, socially status aware mother and was a psychotic. At college, he met a girl and his mother went to Boston to break up their relationship that she didn't approve of. Eddie, deeply disappointed, went into the drug scene which caused his psychotic break."

JJ picked up the story. "I remember that case," she said. "Elle and Gideon were with us on that one. Eddie, after a six month stint in a mental hospital…"

"Without his mother visiting him once," Matt added.

JJ pointed. "Checked himself out and made a call to his mother to come and get him. She never answered those calls. He eventually made his way back home to Harrington, Tennessee."

"He killed Paul Thompson in his front yard," Morgan continued. "Went into the house and stole his shot gun."

Reid took up the story again. "He used said shotgun to beat Annie Stuart to death because she was seven year old Wally Brisbane's singing coach."

Kate looked around. "Mays saw Wally as a messianic figure with his 'angelic voice'," Morgan said. "Mays cut out Stuart's liver and stomach; which he later returned to the family on their doorstep. But he kidnapped Wally from his grandmother's home, cutting her heart out with a large pair of lock cutters. Elle and I grabbed him up trying to return the heart to a church."

Matt lightly laughed, remembering the desperate situation. "We found Wally after Hotch profiled the mother out of her old school nylon stockings and fur coat with Morgan and Elle doing some snooping into her Cadillac's GPS." Garcia eyed him. "With Garcia's help of course," he smiled. Dave gave her the finger point with a smile.

"Damn," Emily said. "I think I have some late night reading to do in the hotel room. I never read that case."

"I'm with ya sister," Kate smiled.

"I think we all should," Dave intoned. "I've read it; but it was just after I re-joined the Unit. I think we all can learn something from that case about our delusional unsub."

Hotch shook his head with a slight smile. Matt noticed. "Hotch?"

Hotch looked at him. "What I remember most about that case was Gideon." Matt immediately smiled, remembering the same thing. "We got that case on a Monday morning. Gideon was late for the briefing," Hotch said smiling. Morgan beamed as well. "He finally shows up; on crutches." Reid smiled at the memory as well.

"Hotch," Emily asked.

"Seems that Jason had started a bucket list; and number twenty three on the list of twenty-five was to go sky diving."

Kate smiled. "I take it that didn't go well."

Matt laughed, putting his head into the back of the couch. "Gideon on crutches was like an elephant on skates," Matt laughed more, running his hands through his hair. Morgan started to laugh as well, with JJ and Reid joining him. "So there's no way he can go out with the team."

"So Jason," Hotch continued, starting to do the adult version of Jack giggling, "is stuck in the office…"

Garcia eyed Prentiss and Callahan. "Which left him dumped on me," she griped. The team members that were around then laughed more. "And mind you," Garcia said, gathering steam for more righteous indignation, "I was still stuck in a ten by twelve foot cubby hole with my binary systems at the time." Morgan laughed more. "Shuddup my chocolate god of thunder," she bit out. Emily looked at JJ laughing. "That little cubby hole stunk of soy sauce for three days…." Rossi was doubled over with laughter, remembering Gideon's penchant for Oriental take out. Emily was laughing as well.

"And she chewed Hotch a new one…." Matt roared with laughter.

"To get all of Gideon's crap," Hotch laughed more, "out of her space."

Matt laughed more. "The tech analyst kicked the ass of the Unit Chief in front of the bullpen; and the bullpen all watched as Hotch lugged four containers of Gideon's books and whatever back to his office," he laughed more. JJ, Morgan and Reid laughed at the memory as well.

Morgan reached across Reid to slap Matt on the thigh. "Remember the next case out?" Matt smiled, nodded and laughed again. "I think she's sweet on me," he quoted from Gideon. Matt roared again with Hotch laughing as well.

"He said that," Garcia asked. Reid joined the laughter.

"Yes he did Mama," Morgan laughed. JJ laughed with the memory as well.

Dave smiled, winking at Hotch.

###

A/N: The Eddie Mays case was Blood Hungry, Season 1.

And before any of you ask, yes I know the Mall of America or MOA and the area quite well. The MOA is a thirty-five minute drive from my home.