A/N: The story continues…I apologize for being lax but all of my stories have a distinct…flavor if you will…the muse will at times leave me for one or the other…your humble bard.
"All right people, what do we have?" Hotch looked around the room at his team and the additions from Boston PD.
"Young male, Caucasian, in his twenties" Reid looked around as the others nodded.
"Some military or Para-military background" JJ said.
"A personal beef with the Boston Police Department" Jane's quiet words had them all looking at her. "Tell me I'm wrong."
"No Jane," Rossi looked around at the others, "we don't think you're wrong, in fact I think we need to start with any complaints there have been against the department in the past six months at least."
"Garcia, Frost," Hotch began.
"Already on it Hotch," Frost looked over at Garcia as her fingers flew across the keyboard entering the parameters they'd been given.
"JJ, did you get a look at the person you spotted?" Morgan hoped she saw more than she had stated earlier.
"No Derek, sorry, he had a hood on, all I saw was the direction he was headed and what looked like a rifle."
"Well we know what caliber he's using at least and where he was. Now we just need to figure out who the hell it is and why he's doing this." Morgan slapped his hand down for emphasis.
"I want to know what the connection is between the students and the police department." Emily glanced up from the file she was reading. "Why these students? According to Garcia the only thing they have in common is that they were all criminal justice majors." Scratching her head she went on, "There are too many questions. The sites where the bodies are found appear to be significant or not, and the multiple victims. What is this guy's ultimate purpose?"
"Fear." Jane stood up and paced as she continued, "he's getting back at us for something and we need to find out what before anyone else gets killed."
"I agree. Prentiss I want you and Morgan to go to the university our victims attended. Find out about the program they were in and whether there may be anyone with any information on our newest victim." Hotch read through the file quickly, "Rossi sit down with Detective Korsak and review the files that Garcia and Frost give you. Anyone in the past year who has had a personal complaint with the police department that Garcia can't exclude given the parameters we have."
"Hotch, what about Reid, Jane and I?" JJ drummed her fingers on the table and looked at her watch, knowing Jordan would be getting antsy about now.
"Dr Isles, I'd like you to provide the autopsy results on the other victims to Dr Reid. See if we can't find a common link that way." Hotch tapped the desk for a second, "Garcia, the officers that have been targeted so far, cross reference them with anyone who may have a personal beef with this department and see if we can't refine this even further."
"Yes sir" distracted, Garcia was already trying to filter through the information she had been able to gather.
"Hotch?" JJ glanced at Jane.
"Sorry JJ, Jane…JJ I'd like you to follow up with ballistics, see if we can't narrow the origin of that bullet further. Detective, I'd like to talk to you for a few minutes before you go anywhere please." Hotch's searching look made Jane sigh. She hated being spoken to about her attitude but she did respect Hotch and she knew what he was going to say.
"Sure" Jane took a seat and smiled at Maura as she left with Reid. She smiled as she watched Emily squeezed JJ's hand on the way out. Turning back to him she raised an eyebrow. "so?"
Sighing heavily Hotch shook his head, she was definitely worse than Emily. "So, I need to know that you can be objective Jane. I know about the nightmare" Raising his hand he stopped her. "Emily didn't want to tell me, but I was a bit curious as to why you called her directly, so I'm asking you again, can you be objective?"
"Hotch if you're asking me to keep my emotions out of this, I can't and I won't. It's who I am. Do I worry? Hell yes I do, about Maura, my team and hell, now all of you too." Agitated she stood up and glanced at Frost and JJ who were pouring over some data. "Someone is targeting the Boston PD, so yes this case is very personal Aaron. I won't let it get in the way, but you need to know its there." Eyes flashing, she waited to hear what he would say.
"Relax Jane, I just wanted to see where you were, now I know, but remember, we are working together as a team, what happens to one of us, happens to all of us. Please keep that in mind."
"I will" Jane grabbed the file and headed toward Garcia to go through some of the complaints, maybe she could spot something, couldn't hurt.
Garcia started at the feel of Jane's hand on her shoulder, "hey woman, its just me." Smiling Jane sat down next to her friend.
"Sorry, I guess I was just a little preoccupied" Pen gave her a small smile.
File forgotten, Jane moved her chair closer, "you okay? Is it this case?"
"No, its nothing Jane…lets go through these complaints." Garcia turned back to her screen leaving Jane to wonder what was going on. Jane knew she wasn't any good at this but she persisted.
"Is it Jordan?"
Garcia's fingers hesitated for a fraction of a second over the keyboard but it was enough for Jane to notice.
"Hmm…I won't push Pen, but I'm here if you want to talk."
Garcia's arms around her neck surprised her. "Whoa…"
"You really are a cannoli." Garcia hugged her tightly, letting her know how much it meant to her that Jane cared.
"Oh lord…Pen…you're crushing me…and I'm not a cannoli!"
"Hehe…crunchy on the outside, soft and gooey on the inside? Jane you being nice again?" Frost's laughter echoed through the conference room as he walked toward them.
"Oh for the love of…" Jane cracked a smile at the both of them. They had managed to lift her spirits and she had somehow managed to lift Garcias. "Come on, let's review this stuff before Hotch chastises us."
JJ grabbed her cell and walked away while Frost spoke with Jane and Garcia, seeing Jordan's number flash on her phone.
"Jordan?"
"JJ, is something wrong with Penelope? Has something happened?" Jordan's anxiety could be clearly heard through the phone.
"No Jordan, nothing's happened its just…well did something happen between you and Pen before we left?"
"Is she acting strangely?" Jordan tapped the table in front of her. She knew she should have pushed the issue with Penelope. They should have talked more. Obviously Jordan's background bothered her.
"Yes, even for her…what the hell is going on?"
Jordan explained what had happened and filled JJ in on her background and waited. "That explains a lot actually. Did you get to discuss it?"
"Not as much as I would have liked. She seemed okay but preoccupied. Did something happen though to make you text me?" Jordan knew there was more, there had to be.
"It's the case we're working on, something we found I think reminded her of the conversation with you and she can't seem to shake it. It's bothering her, a lot." JJ bit her lip trying to think of a way to remedy the situation and get Garcia back on track. They needed her focused, but Jordan took the issue away from her.
"I'll be there tonight."
"No Jordan you don't need to come up here, just call her, talk to her, ease her mind." JJ suddenly realized that she might have stuck her foot in it. She didn't want Garcia to know that she had gone behind her back to speak to Jordan.
"Relax JJ," Jordan's accent shown through whenever a word had an "x" in it. "Today is already Thursday, I'll just take Friday off and be there for the weekend. I won't be in the way; I'll just be there, for her. She takes others burdens on herself you know."
Smiling Jennifer Jareau realized just how well this person knew her friend and how much they loved them. "Fine, surprise her, it'll do her some good I'm sure." JJ knew their time together had been a bit sporadic due to the nature of their cases. "Just do me a favor okay, don't mention that we talked."
"My lips are sealed, see you tonight."
Jordan disconnected the call and leaned back in the chair. Her boss wouldn't be happy but she would work it out. She didn't have appointments tomorrow since Friday's were usually a field day for her anyway. Walking back to her office, she went through a mental checklist of what she needed to do to make one of the regular evening flights from D.C. to Boston.
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Brandon looked up as his class was interrupted. The woman who had come in was familiar and he smiled as he recognized the woman, excuse me, FBI agent he had seen with Detective Rizzoli in the café. She was pretty. Chuckling to himself he knew exactly what they were doing, following up on any possible connections his little playthings had. He knew exactly what the connection was, him, but he wasn't about to tell them that, not yet anyway.
Professor Long looked at the clock and realized there were only five minutes left in his seminar.
"Alright class, you all have your assignments for next week. I'm given you an extra five minutes to grouse amongst each other, but class is dismissed." The laughter and intermittent comments made his day as he turned to the FBI agent who had interrupted his class.
"I'm sorry you had to cut your class short sir"
"No worries, I'm sure they appreciate it. So what can I help you with? I can only assume that you are here assisting the police on the homicides? We've lost four students, awful…just awful…"
"Actually Professor Long, its five students, a new victim turned up this morning." Emily watched the shock that crossed his face and his body language, trying to gauge whether his shock was real or feigned.
"Who?"
"Madison Montes" she said and waited as the first thing he was about to say was quickly taken back.
"She was an excellent student, in this class actually, I wondered why she wasn't here today…" almost to himself, " she never missed class"
"You were going to say something else sir?" Probing gently, Emily wondered if there wasn't an emotional attachment to this student. She wasn't disappointed.
"I was her advisor." Smiling at the some the students who were shuffling past his desk he waited before speaking again. "And her friend." Seeing Emily's raised eyebrows, "no, no, not like that. We talked, she was a nice girl, loved the program but was a bit intimidated by everything she had to learn."
"Did she have anyone that she had a problem with?"
"Madison? No, everyone loved her, she was…she was a really nice." Clearing his throat he focused on Prentiss. "Was she killed like the others?"
"It seems so, but its still fairly early in our investigation. Would you mind sitting down with my partner and myself to discuss the other students? My understanding is that they were all in your class."
"Not at all, I'm free for the next two periods and my office is just down the hall." Grabbing his briefcase he turned a sad smile on her. "I hope you figure out who is doing this…soon"
Prentiss watched him leave and looked around at the students still in the lecture hall. She had the creeps; she could almost feel eyes on her and wondered if their Unsub was still in the room. There were seven students, all but one were male. She caught the eye of two of them before they turned away but the young man in the last row just smiled at her. Shaking her head she texted Morgan. He was in another classroom talking with a student who was under investigation by the Boston PD for an alleged sexual assault on one of their victims. They couldn't leave any stone unturned. Asking him to come join her she looked up at the last row again, but he was gone.
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Brandon chuckled to himself, he had made the FBI agent uncomfortable, he liked that. Hoisting his bag higher on his shoulder he bumped into a wall of muscle.
"Whoa, slow down there man." Morgan put his hands on Brandon's shoulders to steady him.
"Let me go!" Pulling back he cursed himself for that instinctive reaction. "Sorry man, didn't mean to yell, I was…I was thinking about a paper that's due, you know?"
"Yeah no problem," Morgan looked him up and down. He was scrawny as Reid but hard, much harder and his eyes. The kid was smiling at him but his eyes sure weren't.
Quickly backing away, Brandon turned the corner and headed to his car. He couldn't believe he had just physically run into the other agent. He cursed himself for yelling realizing it would make anyone wonder but he hated to be caught unaware like that.
"Fuck!" He sped up, wanting to get as far away from the school as possible.
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"Emily?" Morgan interrupted as she finished speaking with one of the students. "So, anything?"
"I don't know, maybe, there was a student in here who…well lets just say he made my skin crawl a bit."
"You?" Morgan laughed, Emily was tough as nails and if someone bothered her like that there was definitely a reason.
"Yes me, I want Garcia to pull up the roster on this class. Run background checks on all of them. Something feels off."
"What about the professor?"
"I told him we would be by to speak to him. I think there's something he's not telling us about our last victim."
"Well then…" pulling out his phone, he dialed. "Baby girl! Yes we're fine we need some info on a Professor Long, Deviant Behavior and the Environment class. Yes…k…yes I'll tell her." Hanging up he turned to Emily.
"Tell me what?"
"To behave around the young college girls and to be careful."
"I always behave…"
"But you're not always careful"
She's not is she? Nope, she's not…so…any wagers on who his first target will be?
