I don't own anything CM related.

Chapter 2

The next morning Reid found himself at his desk in the bullpen mulling over his coffee. He watched the sugar dissolve, grating the spoon against the bottom of the cup to help with the process. He recalled the rest of yesterday evening, starting with the aftermath of the circus show.

Garcia and Morgan suggested getting late dinner, but Prentiss and Jane opted out. Prentiss had to go take care of Sergio while Jane claimed to need to attend to a Charlie. Reid vaguely wondered who Charlie was, but figured that he was probably a family member or significant other. Morgan and Garcia, of course, teased him about how his expression seemed to appear dejected after Jane departed.

It wasn't true. Liking Jane more than a friend, that is. To be honest, Reid thought it was difficult to imagine himself and Jane in a romantic relationship. He was curious about her, yes, but just as a friend. They hadn't exchanged contact information before she left, so he doubted that they would see each other again. Unless Garcia planned another outing, which he was almost sure that she would.

"Morning Pretty Boy," Morgan greeted with a cup of coffee in hand. "Still thinking about last night?" Despite the early hours of the morning, his voice held a playful tone to it.

"Morning, and no," Reid lied. He already felt his headache beginning to form. He wasn't in the mood for jokes.

"Guys, we got a case and it's a bad one." JJ said, barely glancing at them as she brushed past in a rush to the conference room. Morgan and Reid headed into the conference room as the rest of the team trailed in.

"Where's Hotch?" Garcia asked from the front of the room. Their unit chief was rarely late to morning briefs.

"Sorry for being late," Hotch began as he stepped into the room. He adjusted his tie before sitting down. "Was discussing some matters with another unit chief. Let's begin the briefing." His professionalism silenced the team's chatter and redirected their focus to the case.

"My fine furry friends, you are all heading to the local Alexandria." Garcia pressed a button her remote, causing three pictures to appear on the screen behind her. One picture depicted a lively brunette with green eyes while the other two showed her pale carcass on a rocky bank of a river. "Her name is Victoria Smith, age thirty-five, discovered in Founders Park right next to the Potomac River two weeks ago. She's missing her heart, kidneys, liver, lungs, pancreas, intestine, and thymus. There is an X branded on her left wrist. "

Garcia pressed a button again and similar images of a male with blond hair and blue eyes popped up. She continued, "This is her boyfriend, John McCarthy. Also thirty-five, missing the same organs, has the branded X on his left wrist, and discovered beside Victoria. Local PD suspects that they may have been used for organ trafficking. Both died from blood loss due to stabs to the vertebral, axillary, and brachial arteries."

Flipping through the pictures on his tablet, Rossi noted how the victims were still dressed in the clothes that they were abducted in. "Why didn't they call in the threat assessment unit?" he inquired.

"The following, sir, will explain that. This is where it gets weird." Garcia explained. More images arose on the screen. The images exhibited a bald woman strapped to a tree trunk about fifteen feet off the ground. She seemed to be restrained by ropes of human hair. A ID photo of her with blond hair and brown eyes appeared beside disturbing images. "Jillian Lee, age twenty-one, found in Monticello Park (also a dog park) a week ago. Her hair seemed to be shaved off after her disappearance. She died by strangulation."

She sighed before clicking the button again. This time it produced images of a black haired male sprawled against a tree. "This is her brother, Marcus Lee, age twenty-two. He was found under a tree a couple meters away. He died with a single shot to the head, execution style. His eyes were slashed as well. The X was found on both victims' left wrists."

Again, Garcia pressed the button and more images appeared. The images unleashed a gruesome scene- the corpse of a man that was mutilated beyond recognition. His face was caved in, head shaved, and thoracic cavity gouged out. The only things that remained were his clothed lower body and limbs. "Due to the extent of the damage, he's currently a John Doe. Found on a bench in Ben Brenman Park, yet another dog park. Coroner's office is still determining the cause of death and fingerprints are being run to identify him. The X was also located on his left wrist."

"The unsub definitely dislikes any sort personal relationship." Prentiss observed. "Maybe he can't gain or maintain one himself so that's why he sets off to destroy others'."

"He also probably has a dog, or had one when he was younger, especially if he used dog parks as his dumping site." JJ commented. She wondered why the appearance of the second murder seemed familiar.

"Leaving out his kills in plain sight, a classic narcissist." Rossi added. "His victims tend to be adults, youngest being twenty-one. He's steering away from children and teens for some reason."

"What does the X stand for? Why the change in MO?" Morgan pointed out. "Goes from possible organ trafficking to whatever the second one is to complete destruction of the body."

"That's it," Reid mused aloud, causing everyone to turn and look at him. "The second murder represents Rapunzel, a German fairy tale published by the Brothers Grimm. Marcus represents the prince of the tale. The prince gets blinded by the thorns below the tower, which in this case, explains why Marcus' eyes are slashed." He paused, fixated on the image of Jillian. "Unlike Rapunzel, she was bound to the tree, instead of released. The reenactment also missed a couple characters- the enchantress and Rapunzel's twin children."

JJ exchanged a look with Reid, understanding what he implied. "The enchantress was forever trapped in the tower while the twins lived happily with Rapunzel and the prince. But in this case, maybe not so happily."

"Are you saying that children did this?" Garcia gasped.

"We don't know that yet, baby girl." Morgan attempted to placate her. He gently patted her shoulder.

"It's a start," Hotch noted. "But if he's abducting them by pairs, there's a woman out there who might possibly still be alive." He eyed the latest victim before turning to the rest of the team. "JJ and Reid, head to the local PD. Morgan and Prentiss will visit each dump site. Rossi and I will go to the coroner's office. Garcia, pull up records of all of the victims and find out what they were up to before their abductions. Check for any crossovers."

He continued without a pause. "Because Alexandria is nearly an hour away, we'll operate from the local station. Wheels up in twenty."


"What do we have here?" Rossi asked, pulling back the sheets from the first set of victims. He, Hotch, and the coroner stood in a cold morgue surrounded by five corpses.

The coroner gestured to the complexion of the corpses before beginning his explanation. "They weren't in the water for long. Only about three hours before they were discovered."

"They were discovered at seven twenty in the morning." Hotch filled in. "How about the organ removals?"

"Whoever did this had the correct precision, but poor instruments." He pointed the edges of the gaping holes throughout the body. Some corners overlapped and appeared crude. "The instruments are too large and difficult to maneuver compared to scalpels. They probably used an ordinary kitchen knife. Same for the arteries."

"How much medical training would a person require to remove the organs and locate the arteries?"

"A medical student could probably locate the arteries, but only a trained surgeon has the skills to remove the organs that way." The coroner looked at his clipboard to look at his notes. "There were no sedatives or anesthesia found in their systems so they were most likely conscious when they bled out. The organ removal was immediately after death." He pointed to the ligature marks located at their wrists and legs. "Bound by ropes and no signs of assault."

"Perhaps a impotent sexual sadist," Rossi remarked. The trio moved to the second set of victims. "Any signs of assault here?"

The coroner shook his head. "None. The only physical damages were caused by the strangulation, bullet, and restraints. Strangulation was done with cloth this time while ropes were still used for restraint."

"He might have felt remorseful this time around." Hotch said.

"Or didn't want to get his hands dirty." Rossi finished, snorting at the irony of the statement.

The coroner let out a nervous laugh before continuing. He gestured to a mound of blond hair on a separate metal table. "Most of the hair was from a synthetic wig, but some of it was from the victim. They must have had a lot of extra cash to buy enough wigs to make it strong enough to hold up a body."

"So, an unsub that has time, money, and creativity..."

The coroner made his way over to the latest victim and cleared his throat before pulling the cover back. "The latest victim died instantaneously when his neck twisted. All mutilation was done postmortem. There were no signs of sexual assault. A blunt weapon, such as a bat, was applied to the face. The carving was also done with an average kitchen knife. Judging by the dental work, the victim was probably between late thirties and early forties." He pulled the cover over the victim. "All of the branding on the victims was done by crude pokers, much like the ones they use to brand animals."

Rossi surveyed the scene then nodded. "Thank you for your assistance." The coroner nodded to Rossi and Hotch before they left.

Once outside, Hotch turned to Rossi. "We need to interview the victims' families. There has to be more to the victimology besides the pairings. We need to find how the unsub came into contact with the victims."


"Hello, I'm Agent Jareau. We spoke on the phone." JJ greeted, shaking hands with the detective in charge of the case. She gestured to Reid. "This is Dr. Reid."

"Detective Davis," Davis replied. He extended to shake Reid's hand, but instead received an awkward wave from the young doctor. He shrugged the action off and dropped his hand. "I thought there was a larger team?" He mentally hoped that there was. He didn't understand how the timid beanstalk (Reid) was even in the bureau. Maybe he was a genius deep down or something.

"The rest of our team is at the crime scenes and coroner's office. May we set up in a conference room?"

"Yes, of course." Davis turned and led the way to a conference room. "Feel free to use any of the resources available." He went off to fetch the rest of the files and evidence related to the case.

"Spence, can you set up here? I need to go alert Davis on how to deal with the media." JJ notified Reid, and once she received a nod, left the room.

Reid unloaded a laptop and the victims' files onto the large wooden circular desk. Once he connected the laptop with the station's wifi, he diverted his attention to a whiteboard in front of him. He taped up each victim's photo ID and listed basic information below each picture. Beside the X's that were branded onto each victims' wrists, there seemed to be no correlation between each of the pairs. He tapped a few keys on the laptop, issuing a call to Garcia.

"Hey, my favorite boy genius." Garcia sang. "You're probably wondering about the victims' records. The problem is, in the days leading up to their abductions, they all carried on their daily routine like normal."

"Did they have anything in common?" Reid questioned, perplexed. "Did they lived, worked, or visited any common areas?"

"None, nothing, zip. The first set were tourists from San Francisco. They were both lawyers. The second pair were locals that held blue-collared jobs. John Doe, whose name was Jason Martin, visited for an interview as a high school teacher. None of their paths crossed each other." Garcia paused to take a breath.

"However, I was able to pinpoint who might know where Martin was before he was abducted. Martin's best friend, Zoe Wright, provided Martin with the interview. She worked at the high school as a secretary. A couple days after Martin missed the interview, she stopped coming to work. She phoned in stating that she had a family emergency to tend to."

"Garcia, can you call Wright and have her come down to the station if she's in town?" Reid didn't believe that Wright was in any immediate danger. It was equally probable that Martin was abducted simultaneously with a different female. He went to the white board and wrote down the new discovery under Martin's section.

"Of course, sugar plum. PG out!" With a click, Garcia ended the call.

"What did I miss?" JJ asked as she returned. Reid quickly recapped the discovery of Wright to her. "If Wright is the missing female, this would be the first time the unsub didn't abduct two victims at once."

"Which indicates that he might be stalking his victims..." Reid trailed off as he looked out at the station and spotted a familiar person. "I'll be right back." He stood up and scurried out, hoping to catch the person before she left the station.

"Sure, Spence." JJ answered with an eyebrow raised. She wondered what Reid was chasing after, but figured that he probably noticed the grand espresso machine in the corner.

Reid pondered why he was able to run into her here out of all places. "Jane," he called. Knowing that she was also a federal agent, the probability of spotting her while on the job was moderate. But the chances of seeing her so soon was extremely slim.

Jane turned around in surprise. She wasn't sure if Reid, or a figment of her imagination, was the one that called her until he caught up to her. "Oh, hey, Spencer," she said. She found it cute how Reid's style of clothing for work remained the same as when he was off duty.

"What are you doing here?" Reid noted how different her appearance was. The black slacks added a sense of professionalism.

"I passed by here for a case, so my supervisor wanted me to stop by to pick up a few things. How about you?" She shuffled a box labeled 'evidence' in her arms.

"Working a case as well." He placed his hands in his pockets, not sure if he should continue the conversation or let her go on her way. She patiently stood without an indication of rushed behavior so he went with the former. "Do you work at Quantico?" It was possible that he never saw her around the building before. A small percentage, but still possible.

"No, I work at the Richmond field office." Her verbal pace began to pick up due to some excitement. "I'm hoping to transfer soon though."

"Reid," Hotch's voice drifted from the entrance of the station as the door shut behind him. He and Rossi strode over to Reid and Jane. He nodded at Jane in acknowledgement. "Agent Foss."

For a second Reid mentally speculated about how Hotch knew Jane, but his thoughts were shoved aside by his migraines that returned at full force. "Um, Hotch," he interrupted. "Do you mind if I go grab some lunch with Jane?" His need to step out for a break grew.

"Just be back in an hour." Hotch replied before heading to the conference room with Rossi. Reid mumbled a thanks and hurried out of the station. Jane looked back at Hotch and Rossi questioningly before accompanying Reid.

From inside the conference room, JJ witnessed the entire scene. She regarded Reid's conversation with curiosity. He seem flustered when Hotch and Rossi returned and left in an hurried manner. The woman was definitely Reid's acquaintance. "Who was that?" JJ asked once Hotch and Rossi entered the room.

Hotch's answer was simple and to the point. "That was Agent Foss. Her transfer to Quantico was approved earlier this morning."

"She's going to be working with us?"

"Maybe. That hasn't been decided yet." Hotch sat down and read the notes on the white board.

Rossi chuckled from his seat across JJ. "Wonder how Reid is going to handle that ray of sunshine."


A/N: I realize that the first chapter didn't really give away much of the plot, so I made this chapter longer. I hope that Jane doesn't seem like a Mary Sue. Please review and leave feedback on what you think of the fanfic so far.