AN/ #PrayForParis

This chapter is in memory of everyone who died in the attacks of friday 13th in Paris, remember them.

Two days later, the team was off on a case in a small town in Alabama. Some creep was hunting down young men before killing them with a single bullet to the head. Which was a bit unusual, as of most serial killers were sadists. It happened from time to time but those cases were always more delicate to handle because of the lack of motive.

Hotch had sent Morgan and Reid to the morgue, to see if there was anything relevent other than the bullet hole in the victims' skull. He and JJ were at the police station while Rossi and Prentiss went to speak with the latest victim's family.

By the end of the day, they still didn't have any lead or suspect, and according to the unsub's timeline, a new victim was to be found in the next few hours.

And indeed, they were all awaken in the middle of the night. Half of them went to the dumpsite while the other half went to the police station to dig up as much as they could on this victim.

So far, the first three victims didn't have much in common but maybe something would come up with a new input being thrawn in. Garcia had been running searches since the beginning of the case, and she saw it as a challenge to find something. If the unsub wasn't interested in a painful death for their victims, maybe the victims themselves were what was important to them, but since nothing came up connecting them, it had to be something else.

After another day, they still didn't have much. They were up to four corpses in the morgue and no idea of who might want to do this, nor why. Not one of them wanted to go back to the hotel until they had found something of significance to the case. Which might be why they were all kind of zombie-like, walking only thanks to caffeine. In the last 72 hours, they had had less than 15 hours of sleep. They had gone through the reports again and again, but to no use. On her way to the coffee maker, JJ heard officers talking about some random movie which got her wondering. When she got back to the conference room where the team had set up, she was still mulling over an idea.

"You okay there, Jayje?" Morgan asked when she didn't pick her file back up.

"Yeah..." She paused for a second, before asking him, "Would it be crazy to consider that the reason he's doing that is neither the kill nor the victims, but rather the rush of finding them, lurring them, playing them, and not getting caught?"

The other agents looked up at her suggestion, wondering if it was possible. They all came to the same conclusion that indeed it was, and started going back through their files with a different angle.

Finally, Hotch decided it was time to call it a night. The team left the police station and gratefully had a whole night of sleep, though a short one. The next morning they all got back to their files with fresh eyes, and by noon, had established a preliminary profile for the unsub. Garcia had refined her searches, but still didn't have anything for them. The cops were starting to get a bit impatient, and the FBI agents knew it wouldn't take long before they were asked to leave, unless they found a tangible lead.

They retraced the last few days of every victim, trying to see a pattern, something they all did before the unsub got to them. They talked to the victims' families again, searching for similarities, before Reid pointed out that the only thing they had in common was their age and sex. Other than that, not once they had been in the same place. The Doctor suggested this might be what the unsub was looking for. For each victim he had to adapt, to change.

"Maybe he kills them once he's bored with his new persona."

"That would explain the lack of remorse or overkill at the crime scenes." Hotch agreed.

"That seems about right, unfortunately, it doesn't get us any closer to finding and catching him." Rossi said, always the pragmatic one.

"Maybe it does... Our guy is a cameleon, and right now I'd bet he's looking for his next victim, probably someone that represents a threat to him. We find that person, we find him." Emily countered.

"Anyway, we better have some results quickly. The captain is about ready to quick us out." JJ said, walking into the conference room.

"Well, we can assume that the next target will be in a different part of town, most likely a higher profile guy than the previous ones. I'll call Garcia, tell her to run new searches."

By the end of the day, they had released the profile to both the press and the police. They were hopping someone would remember something that would lead them to their unsub before he kills someone else. Garcia had narrowed down the probable area where the unsub might be operating, so they had focused their searches on a couple blocks.

Later that night, a local cop arrested a young man who fit the profile, following a tip they received on the hotline. Hotch went to interrogate him as the others stayed behind in case he wasn't the unsub.

There wasn't any other incident during the night, and Hotch was about to crack the suspect.

With the help of Garcia, he found his weakness and used it against him. After a couple more hours, he finally confessed, taking pride in what he did and in resisting for as long as he did.

The whole BAU team was glad to go back to Virginia, with the case wrapped up, and away from the unfriendly Captain. They all got back to their daily tasks, not really in the mood to celebrate this new closed case. Although they did make plans to get together later in the week. There wasn't any big cases or anything in the few days before they went out, and so all were eager to leave the paperwork for the whole weekend.

They met in a bar, talking about everything but work, enjoying themselves. Later in the night, Hotch, Rossi and Reid had already left, leaving Morgan dancing with quite a few ladies while Garcia was watching him, and Emily and JJ tryng to avoid any awkards topics. As the minutes were flying by, they moved slowly closer to each other, ending up with their knees touching.

Unknowingly, they started talking about relationships and inevitablely, they talked about their time together and their regrets on the way it ended.

At one point, Emily leaned in, her face just a couple inches aways from JJ's, but the blonde didn't move away, quite the opposite actually. Their lips were about to touch when their eyes locked. Neither of them pulled back, and it was impossible to tell which one kissed the other first. Old memories came flowing into their mind, and they couldn't stop from kissing and touching the other.