"... and because he is telling a story he is going to do everything to finish it," Hotch stated and I continued on after him.
"Even if that means his killings become more erratic and he will be very dangerous," I said crossing my arms across my chest.
"He will not go down without a fight," Derek finished before Hotch dismissed them all and Hotch turned to me.
"What do you think we should do now?" Hotch asked me and I looked at him in surprise.
"I think since we saw the crime scene already that we need to talk to the suspect which is currently Aaron Hopson's twin brother," I said with some confidence, "but we need to confront him in a subtle way and see how he feels about the whole killing situation and see how he reacts to the information he is receiving because if he feels like we think he is doing it and he actually is the killings will be done quicker than his schedule."
"I'll call Garcia for the name and the address," Derek says giving me a nod with a smile as he walks off to call her. I sit down at the table and Hotch is - once again - just looking at me.
"Yes sir?" I ask him politely and he opens his mouth and closes it before finally beginning to speak.
"Morgan told me what you wanted to do and I admired your drive and your passion but I didn't think you would actually convince Strauss to let you do it and here you are nailing everything," Hotch tells me, "it takes someone years to learn how to pick up things like that and it seems like you caught on fairly quick."
"Well for four years my friends and I have been trying to find out who was 'A' and we kind of had to use intuition and guesstimates and we basically profiled everyone we knew due to the fact that we believed that we knew the person and Ali did something or one of us anyway," I shrug, "and on top of that I am very observant you give me a topic with some background on it and I immediately start looking for angles as to why things happen also I convinced her because I proved to her that I fit the qualifications."
"Well you are very special and I am glad you are being the best that you can be," Hotch got up giving me one of his slight smiles before I looked down at my hands playing with my fingers when Derek sits down in front of me and pokes my nose making me scrunch it.
"Hey you," he says with a small smile, "you look like you are a million miles away what are you thinking about?"
"Nothing," I tell him looking up at him, "just thinking about some things I already know the answer to."
I glance at the door seeing my dad but I don't pay any attention until I do a double take as he is coming in in handcuffs, "Dios mio."
Derek hears me mumbling and he follows my line of sight and he turns back to me muttering to himself, "Do you wanna go talk to him?"
"We have a job to do," I mumble getting up with my coffee in my hand keeping my head down, "when do we leave?"
"Hotch and Rossi are the only ones going," Derek tells me but I don't look at him I just try to focus on my breathing and he notices leading me outside and I pass my father who calls my name but I don't acknowledge him I just keep walking. And Derek and I get outside and Rossi is out there and he turns to us and he walks over.
"Hey, kid, are you okay?" He says when he sees my state and I nod running a hand through my hair. "You know I think it's time you face him."
I snap my head towards him on how he knew and he just chuckled and jutted his chin to Morgan and I just nod catching my breath. I give him a slight smile and I just keep quiet running my hands through my hair the wind continuously blowing it in my face. Rossi pats my back, before starting to walk away but not before telling me.
"He will always have this hold over you if you don't acknowledge what he did and talk to him, kid," Rossi said before walking towards the SUV with Hotch and I sigh before looking at Derek who gives me a slight smile as he pulls me into his side hugging me, pressing a kiss to my head. I walk back in with him and we relax and pull away as we see the others.
"Will you come with me?" I say with my voice low to Derek. "I don't know if I could do this without someone in there with me."
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Walking into the interviewing room, I see my father and he looks up and gives me a smile when he sees me and I just keep my face empty of emotion as I sit on the table across from him.
"Erica," He says to me, "it's been years now you are what?-"
"I am 21 years old," I say coldly, "so what did you do this time? Did you get caught with drugs? Decide to rob a bank? Start a fight with a rival gang?"
"None of your concern," He tells me sternly before asking, "How's your mom doing?"
"My mom? She is doing amazing she is raising four kids all by herself not including Dom and I, two of them a year apart oh wait you know this right?" I tell him before laughing coldly, "Or did you forget after you started a new life without us?"
"I didn't-"
"BULLSHIT!" I yelled. "You left my mom to deal with a one year old, a two year old, a six year old, a fourteen year old, and a sixteen year old all on her own and when you got out of jail instead of coming back you go and start a new life without a call, card, nothing it's like you erased yourself from our lives."
He looks down at his hands before looking back up at me, "I made a mistake, but I remember when Julio would step into my shoes and march around-" I cut him off once again.
"No, you don't get that memory of my brother, not your son, you don't get that memory if you don't have the memory of him waking up in the middle of the night crying asking where his daddy was, or when Fiona was old enough to understand that she was supposed to have two parents but only saw one and cried about it for four days straight, or when Jayce would throw fits because he couldn't go see his daddy because we didn't know where you went, or when Marisol started acting out in high school, or when my mom would cry herself to sleep every night or when Dom would drown himself in work and alcohol underage. You don't get to start acting like a father you lost that five years ago."
"What about you?" He asked me. "You talk about everybody else but what about you?"
"Somebody had to be strong," I told him before getting up walking to his chair turning it so I could lean down and look him in the eye, "but thank you for leaving because that made me finish school two years early and finish college two years early and I am in the FBI two years early but let me ask you something."
"Why ask when you are going to ask it anyway?" he retorted chuckling, "just like your mother."
"Because she is the only parent I have but why'd you leave? Did you miss the life where you had girl after girl and all the money and the world and no responsibilities?" I ask him to his face.
"I loved your mother very much," He says slipping and I chuckle moving away from him.
"Loved meaning past tense when did you stop loving her before or after you got out of jail?" I ask with a slight laugh and I shake my head.
"You are a federal agent," He says acknowledging it, "they are our enemies."
"No, they are your enemies," I said as I began to walk out, "they are my friends, you are too late don't try and contact us oh wait? you weren't going to."
And with that I leave the room and sit on one of the chairs with my head in my hands when I felt not one but two hands on my back and I look on either side to see JJ on my right and Derek on my left and Emily crouching in front of me, I ruffled my hair a bit before lifting my head giving them a small smile, "Hey."
"He left you?" Emily asked in a soft voice and I held up 4 fingers to show 4 years, "How old were your siblings?"
"My baby sister was one, my baby brother was two, my younger brother was six, my younger sister was fourteen, I was sixteen and my older brother was twenty-one," I said picking at my fingernails, "He went to jail got out a year later and we never saw him again and that was 4 years ago and my mom had to take care of us all with one big paycheck with two smaller paychecks, from the help of Dom and I."
"That bastard," JJ said rubbing my back and a give her a little laugh and nod, "well he missed out on a lot and missed out on a very intelligent, strong young woman."
"Now that he knows what my job is he is going to try and use it to his advantage he's gonna try to get me to get him out of everything that he does," I murmur and I look up at all of them, "promise me that you will not let me fall for his tricks that man is a manipulative bastard and I am scared that one day I might fall for his tricks."
"Yeah, yeah sure whatever you need," Derek promised and I sat up pulling my hair out of my face and I gave them all a smile, reaching a hand out to Emily with one hand, squeezing JJ's with the other, while leaning my head on Derek's shoulder.
"Thank you guys for being here," I say looking at them all before sobering, "but enough with the chit chat we have a sicko to catch."
"You aren't going to stop calling them that are you?" Derek asked and I turned walking backwards shaking my head.
"No because that is what they are," I say before turning back around swaying my hips a little bit more, just to tease Derek a bit.
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I was walking around the table thinking biting on a pencil that I somehow got and I was thinking because the twin definitely didn't do it, "Guys, the twin may not have done it but he might know who is doing it and if his end game is peace he just might kill the twin to sit in for Aaron because they look the same so it would reenact it."
I lean over the table across from Derek and in between Reid and Rossi calling Garcia, "Hey there bella I need you to search childhood friends of Aaron Hopson, someone who was like attached to the hip with him and his brother."
"There is a Avery Moore grew up with them and every picture they are in so is he there is not a picture where he isn't in it," Garcia said quickly but then asked, "What does Bella mean?"
"It means beautiful, Garcia, byeee," I sang into the phone laughing, and everybody looked at me amused and I gave them a confused look.
"You are surely a mixture of Garcia and Morgan, sure you aren't their baby?" Rossi asked and I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Would my father watch my ass as I walk across a room?" I ask looking at Derek with a smirk who just grins at me with a wink.
"Gross but touche," Rossi laughed, "that case is closed."
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We go to Avery Moore's house and had to kick down the door to get in and we look around and I find the weapon that was used, "I found the weapon."
I hear Derek call from another room, "I found his next victim!"
With that we all get into an SUV and we drove back to the Hopson house and we see Avery and the twin in the house and the twin, Brian, held at gunpoint. We walk in slowly and I slowly put down my gone as I lock eyes with Avery.
"Hey put the gun down," I say in a gentle voice to coax him and he just shouts no, "You wanna tell his story?"
"Yes! These drivers need to know!" He shouts and I nod at him quickly.
"Absolutely, but think about Aaron for a minute what do you think he would want you to do?" I say taking a small step closer to them with another gun on my back as I do the other one on the ground.
"I don't know he isn't here is he?" Avery sneers and I nod agreeing.
"But do you think he would want you holding his brother, twin brother, hostage with a gun to his head?" I said with my hands in the air, "just give me the gun."
"NO! His story needs to be told!" Avery yells and I immediately slowly but steadily walk to him whipping out my gun pressing it to Avery's temple.
"If you shoot, I shoot, put the gun down no one else has to get hurt," I said quietly but sternly and he starts shaking his head a bit knocking his head against my gun, "does this feel good having a gun to your head?"
"No," he murmured his hands shaking fear coursing through his veins.
"So how do you think Brian feels?" I ask him and he closes his eyes muttering his story needs to be told. "Aaron was a known kid, everybody knows what happened and everybody feels bad so why punish people who had nothing to do with it, Avery, these kids were across the world and you brought them here innocent people so I am asking you one last time to put. the. gun. down."
Slowly but surely he put down the gun and I pulled his hands behind his back letting the police officer cuff him and take him away and I get pulled into a hug by Brian and I pat his back chuckling a bit before we all have to leave.
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"Okay how'd you know?" Derek asked as he sat across from me on the plane and I raised an eyebrow, "that I look at your ass?"
"I didn't," I shrugged, "you just confirmed it baby."
He scoffs at me with a smile as if to say 'you are something else' which I just give him my signature grin as we continue to talk and flirt a bit. As the plane landed we all got off and Derek wrapped an arm around my shoulder and we got into the car and drove back to his place.
1 case down, 2 more to go.
A/N: I tried to do that case like they do in the show so I hope that it was close and I see some friendships brewing between them all! I love you guys and please review!
