Regina's first day back at work occured when the team was due vacation. She met Hotch and Gideon in the hallway. "Hi," she said brightly.
"How are you feeling?" Hotch asked, professionally. He figured being personal with her would make his feelings for her erupt even more so.
"Better. Thank you...for everything." She pointed this to Hotch.
"Don't mention it." He turned to Gideon. "Will I hold the lift?"
"I'll catch the next one." Hotch nodded and left.
Regina frowned and turned to Gideon. "Is he alright?"
"Don't ask."
Regina nodded. "Thank you, too. I know that if what happened gets out... You and Hotch are putting yourselves on the line."
"If you slip up... If either one of us thinks you're slipping, you're gone."
"I understand."
"Good. Welcome back." He smiled and left.
Regina was greeted next by Elle and Morgan. "You wanna come to Jamica with us?" Elle asked.
Regina smiled. "Sorry. I've already taken four weeks off. I need to do some work."
"Kay, princess," Morgan said, donning his hades. "Don't hurt yourself."
She smiled. She walked over to the kitchenette and reached for the caffine. "Damn it," she muttered, pulling her hand away.
"Puppy, what's wrong?" she heard Garcia ask.
She turned. "Oh nothing... I just can't have caffine or I'll go hyper active."
"Don't you have vacation now?"
Regina nodded. "Yes, but I also have four weeks worth of work to catch up on. Work outweighs vacation time." She sat across from her friend. "Has Hotch been acting weird lately?"
Garcia frowned. "Not that I have noticed. Why? Has he been acting weird with you?"
Regina just shrugged. "Maybe not... Maybe I'm just...making something out of nothing." She smiled. "I better get back to work." Before she did she decided on caffinated coffee. The meds made her restless and She wasn't going to go through one file if she didn't. "Maybe it's just me," she sighed.
It wasn't.
Hotch managed to go through nine boxes of crap in half an hour, his mind not on the task in front of him, but rather on Regina. He and Haley had patched things up since the hospital. He knew she would never forgive him for lying but he also knew that they did both love each other. It was the quantity and quality of his love that was questionable.
He stared at the rest of the boxes he had to go through. He picked up the pirates hat. The pirates hat he wore in Pirates of Penzance, when he played "the worst fourth pirate in history". When he'd met Haley. Focus, he told himself. And donning the hat, he pushed aside all thoughts of Regina and set about looking for reasons why he should get to keep the hat.
"Agent Williams?"
Regina looked up and smiled at Anderson. It was late; she hadn't realised. The coffee had given her the kick she needed. enough of the files were done that she could be finished the rest by the end of the week. "Hey. What are you still doing here?"
"I was on my way out. This was at reception." He held up a brown cardboard box and held it out for Regina. "It's adressed to you."
She took it and examined it. "Is there a return address?"
"No address at all. And no stamps. It was hand delivered."
She nodded. "Thanks, Anderson. Goodnight."
"Night." And she was alone. She grabbed her knife from her desk and tore through the tape. Pulling back the flaps, Regina gasped. Inside contained hardback, pocket-sized books of William Shakespeare's plays.
She pulled one out and examined it, then another, and another, hoping there would be some note. There was none.
Little did she know that at that time, Hotch was recieving a phone call; Gideon, a head; Garcia, a hacking; Morgan and Elle, a dead body and a night in Jamacian prison, while JJ and Reids gifts were being wrapped and delivered, respectively.
Regina decided to call it a night at one a.m. On her way out, she met a frustrated Garcia. "What's wrong?"
"Someone hacked me." Garcia didn't stop and headed for the kitchenette. "I need lots and lots of coffee."
"How?" Regina was shocked. No one could hack Garcia. She was unhackable.
"I don't know. But when I find out how and who, I will send him a virus so bad, they'll need to go into a whole new time era to get rid of it!"
"Do you need a hand?" Her cell started to ring.
"No," was the only reply she recieved.
She read the name: Morgan. "How goes Jamaica?"
"Reg... no luck Hotch and Gideon are there?"
"No. Just me and... Garcia's here too but she's kinda busy."
"Think you can get hold of Hotch and Gideon?"
"I can try. Why? What's going on?"
"Elle's been arrested."
"Tell me you're kidding?"
"A blood trail leading to her room from a decapitated body."
"Gideon's here. I'll call in the team."
"Thanks."
She hurried over to greet Gideon, who's followed closely by JJ. "Hey... There's a problem."
"I got a head and a card of Nellie Fox." Regina's eyes grew wide, misinturrperting the statement. "Literally."
She sighed. "Well, we found the owner. In Jamaica. Elle's been arrested for murder."
"What?" JJ said, incredulously.
"Call Hotch." JJ nodded.
"Why a Nellie Fox card?" Regina asked.
"Don't ask. All I know is he was my idol as a kid."
"Uh, Gideon." Regina followed him up the steps to his office. "I don't know if this is important. But, um, earlier, I got a package. They were Shakespeare books."
Gideon shrugs. "So?"
"I collected him, when I was a kid... I guess you could say I idolised him."
Gideon stared at her. "Return address?"
She shook her head. "Hand delivered. I figured it might have been my mom. Maybe, somehow she found out about the hospital. But... It's too weird to not be connected."
Gideon nodded. "Have security check the footage."
"Will do."
There was a knock on the door. JJ walked in. "Uh, I just got something." She handed a frame to Regina. She stared at the beautiful butterfly inside, then at the small banner. She read it aloud. "'She has been searched for, yet never found'..." Handing it to Gideon, she glanced at JJ.
JJ looked embarrassed. "That's a pale clouded yellow butterfly. They're indigenous to Europe. Britain mainly."
Regina nodded. "That explains it."
"What the hell is going on here?" Gideon stood quickly. The two women followed him out of the room. By the elevator they met Hotch, Elle, and Morgan.
"JJ, any word on Frank Giles?" Morgan asked.
JJ nodded. "Left Jamaica on the red eye. Flew to Florida, then Virginia."
"Virginia?" Elle asked incredulously. "You mean he's from here?"
JJ shrugged. "I don't know if he's from here, but he flew to Arlington. Long criminal record: manslaughter, robbery, rape."
"And the victim?" Hotch asked.
"Marty Harris, a two-time convicted fetish burglar, registered child sex offender."
She cleared her throat and told them about the framed butterfly.
"An we have his head. CSU Identified it after it came to my cabin," Gideon announced.
Hotch grabbed a notebook. "'Don't waste time on the first victims. They were unrepentant bad men. They only got what they deserved." Everyone looked at him questioningly. "I got a phone call last night before you called from Jamaica. He said to save her."
"Him?" JJ asked.
"I think he means Reid," Gideon offered.
"Reid?" Regina asked.
"He got a note in Vegas: 'She will die unless you save her, Dr. Reid.' We need to regroup."
Everyone followed him into the Round Table Room.
"Who is 'her', and 'she'?" Regina asked she wiped a board.
"The items must be a clue," Gideon said.
"Let's get started." Morgan handed Regina a picture of the head and the Nellie Fox card. She stuck it on the board.
"I got a Nellie Fox baseball card from 1963, and I got a head in a box," Gideon started.
Morgan handed Regina a picture of the books.
"Hard-back William Shakespeare from the same year," she said, ramming a thumb tack into the board.
Next was of the framed-butterfly. JJ handed it to her. "A rare butterfly in a shadow box indigenious to Britian mainly."
"Repeated messages to 'save her'," Hotch said as it went up.
"A decapitated body and a visit to the Jamaican Police Headquarters," Elle offered.
"Reid got a skeleton key and a note," Gideon mentioned.
"And the guy who called me said the youngest one holds the key: Reid," Hotch stated.
Regina turned and faced the table. "Ok... Taunts, dares, yes. Dragging us into a game: Unsubs don't do that."
"Why not?" JJ asked.
"They're sexual fantasies. Taunting is a show of power."
Gideon decided to share something. "Something else about the baseball card. Nellie Fox was one of the stars of the 1959 White Sox. I went to almost every game with my father that year. Fox was my hero. So is it a coincidence that he sends this to me? Or does he know how I feel about him?"
"I idolised Shakespeare for a few years as a kid, but I never stopped favouring his work," Regina told.
JJ looked at them "I collected butterflies when I was a little girl. That's how I knew what butterfly was in the box."
Morgan frowned. "So he knows us."
"I got an anonymous message," Hotch said.
"Police Raid." Elle held up her hand.
"He knew exactly where we were..." She pointed at Gideon. "Cabin..." Then Elle. "Jamaica..." Then Hotch. "Home. And Reid in Vegas"
Garcia walked in. "He got that from the Bureau computers. Your locations are always in there so they can find you if they need you. I checked the log. The hacker was definitely in the personnel folders. There were room numbers to the hotel in Jamaica, the address of Gideon's cabin. There's a lot of information in those databases."
Hotch lookde at her. "Have you figured out how he was able to get into the Bureau's computers?"
She shook her head. "Not yet."
"If you know something...?"
"I was playing an online game yesterday. On my own personal laptop."
Regina closed her eyes. JJ winced.
"I don't understand..." Hotch looked around, confused.
"Wireless...By wirelessly hooking into the net here to get online, the hacker could have gotten into my computer first, and I have far less protection on my own laptop," Garcia explained. "It's possible he could have gotten into the entire Bureau computer system this way."
"Playing a game? How could you be that stupid? Information, files. You have a responsibility." Gideon was furious.
"I found him.I know who he is, the hacker. His name is Giles, Frank Giles. He lives in Arlington, Virginia, four miles from here. I have his address."
The team reaced to Arlington Virginia. Too little, too late. Frank Giles had a sword through him.
"Here thy quest doth truly begins..." Gideon read the blood on the wall.
Regina scrutinised the blade. " There's something on the blade... 'To learn of what should next be done, leave the blade 'til the hour be none.'... Hour be none?"
Reid's voice came from behind. "It's three p.m. Medieval."
Regina nodded and smiled.
Morgan broke the reunion. "It's four forty five."
"Can we block out the light?" Reid asked.
It was done. Shining a flashlight, Reid found where light would be at three p.m.
Morgan tapped on the wall, then, taking out a pocket knife, teared into it.
"There's a locked box. Great." Elle walked away from the group.
"Reid," Gideon ordered.
Reid took out his key and opened the box. Music began. Reid picked up the note. "Never would it be night, but always clear day to any man's sight," he read.
Morgan pulled at a tab to find a disk labelled: Thy Quest; and a lock of hair.
"Let's go." Gideon quickly leads his team out of the room.
The team sat at the table again, watching the DVD, unable to see the unsubs moved to behind the table.
The unsub began. "I assure you ... you'll all understand in the end why it must be that way. You might even thank me. You know now you're on a quest. A young girl's life depends on the successful completion of it. As you can see, she's quite beautiful ... and in distress. Now please listen closely for there is one rule and this rule must be followed. The one rule is ... only the members of your team may participate in the quest. Jason Gideon, Aaron Hotchner, Derek Morgan, Elle Greenaway, Spencer Reid, Jennifer Jareau, Penelope Garcia. A quest must be completed in the proper way or it isn't a quest, is it? That's it. One rule. Simple. Now, you will be receiving an item soon that will hold the final clue you'll need to finish the quest. You will find you will also need a book which has inspired many an adventure like mine. Believe me when I tell you I truly hope to see you all soon. It will mean a successful end to this adventure for all of us." The screen went blank.
JJ entered the room. "The girl is Rebecca Bryant." She stuck the picture of the young girl up on the board. "CSU finished analysing the footage. She's been missing for two years."
Abrubtly, Gideon left the room. Hotch slowly got up and followed him.
The rest of the team was silent for a moment.
Morgan sighed. "He has pictures of us?"
"Are we really gonna play his game?" Elle asked.
"Have we a choice?" JJ countered. " A girl's life depends on it."
Regina stood up and walked to the board. "So what do we know?"
"He has a limp," Morgan began.
"He's technology literate," Reid said.
"He can overpower a grown younger man, though,"JJ said.
"He's a scumbag," Elle scowled.
Regina was writing furiously. When she was finished, she capped the marker and threw it to Reid. "I need coffee." She hurried out of the room and leapt the steps into the kitchenette,
Spooning coffee into the cup, Regina heard Hotch call her. "Coming." She turned and was in Gideon's office in seconds, almost not noticing Haley before turning to Hotch and Gideon. "Garcia's still working on the hacker..."
"Good," Gideon said, bitterly.
"What's going on?" She pretended not to hear his remark.
"A man delivered this to my house." Hotch held up a sheet of paper with numbers on it. Regina took it and scrutinised it.
"Get Reid to take a look at it," Gideon ordered.
"It's a book code. Each set of numbers represents a page, a line and a word," Regina stated.
"Do we know what book? One of Shakespeares?" Hotch asked.
Regina shook her head. "Seems too easy."
Gideon agreed. "Check with security, see if they have an image on whoever delivered the books." Regina nodded and turned to leave. "Reg?" She turned back. "Stay on that with Reid." Regina turned to leave again. "Regina?"
"Yes?"
"We're gonna get a sketch artist in here."
"I'll send a copy of the impression face recognition," she said as she went to turn the corner again.
"Wait."
"What!?" she asked, exasperated.
"Tell JJ to have a press conference ready... We'll air the picture."
Regina stared at him. "But he said..."
"I know what he said. But he's the unsub, we're the profilers. We call the shots."
"But a girls life..."
"Just do it."
She looked at Hotch. He nodded. "Anything else?"
Gideon shook his head.
Regina walked back into the Round Table Room. She turned to JJ. "Get reporters here ASAP. Say we need help on a new case."
"Press Conference?" Morgan asked. Regina nodded. She held up the sheet of paper, stuck it to the board and began copying it onto a clean whiteboard. "What's that?"
"A book code," Reid answered.
"The unsub had it delivered to Haley."
An hour later, the press conference was starting, Reid was calling out the numbers for Regina, who was half way through the code, Morgan was staring at the deliveries and Elle was sleeping on the couch. Regina and Reid was finishing up the code when Hotch walked in and shook Elle.
"Hey. I'm sending you home."
"No," she protested.
"It's an order. Let's go."
"Ok."
Regina sat down. "So what now...?"
