A/N: Shout out to tannerose5, TVHollywoodDiva, Hippichic81, and Angel Wings00 for reviewing chapter
Clarissa's now 25 weeks pregnant in this chapter, and I already figured out who I will cast as Bridget Mackenzie Reid.
I know that Diana's at the age when she can start attending preschool, but Spencer and Clarissa decided that she could wait until she's closer to turning four to start preschool.
Despite it not being 8 PM yet, right now I'm sitting up in my bed while burrowing myself under my sheets and comforter while wearing some flannel pajamas since the real feel outside temperature is currently -21 degrees Fahrenheit. I just love Wisconsin winters.
Diana looked at her father as they sat across from one another playing chess in the library.
"Will you still play with me after my baby sister is born?" asked Diana.
Spencer's heart dropped at Diana's question causing him to get up and scoop up his daughter before sitting down with Diana on his lap.
"I'll always have time to play with you. Its been planned that I take a month off after Bridget is born so I can spend more time with you while I adjust to losing sleep since Bridget is going to be waking us up during the night since she'll need to be fed, get a clean diaper, or even be rocked," said Spencer.
"Did I wake you and mommy up during the night when I was a baby?" asked Diana.
Spencer chuckled.
"You sure did, and when I was home you would wake mommy and me up since you wanted attention from me," said Spencer.
Diana giggled before focusing on the chess board and moved a piece.
"Checkmate," said Diana with a huge grin on her face.
Spencer's eyes went wide as he realized that his nearly three and a half year old beat him at chess without him letting her win.
Later on that night Spencer looked at Clarissa as they headed up the stairs.
"I know that we should have Diana take an IQ test when she turns five years old so Washington International School can make sure that she doesn't get bored, but part of me doesn't want to get her tested for your aware of the pressure I was under when it came to being a child prodigy from my teachers," said Spencer.
Clarissa looked at her husband.
"We don't have to decide yet if we want to get Diana tested, but how about we ask Diana about what she wants to do when she turns five." said Clarissa before winking at her husband, "Besides Diana's happy that she's a genius like you," said Clarissa.
"OK." said Spencer before looking at his wife, "I know that we're doing everything to make Diana a well-adjusted kid since she's already making friends in Sunday School and in her figure skating classes, but I just don't want her to get bullied about her intelligence when she starts going to preschool at the end of August," said Spencer as they entered their bedroom.
Clarissa closed their bedroom and door and locked it before she looked at her husband as she started to undo the buttons of Spencer's dress shirt.
"We have over three months before Diana starts going to morning preschool, and luckily I'll be able to help with her transition since I'll be on maternity leave for the first couple of months." said Clarissa before kissing her husband, "Let's have some mommy and daddy time since its probably going to be a few days before we have mommy and daddy time again," said Clarissa as she removed her husband's dress shirt.
A few seconds later Spencer was leading his 25-week pregnant wife to bed.
The next morning Spencer was fixing himself some coffee when Gideon approached him.
"How was your weekend?" asked Gideon.
"You know that I've been teaching Diana how to play chess and I've been letting her win on purpose?" asked Spencer.
"One of the best ways to make your daughter not get upset about losing a game," said Gideon.
"Yesterday was the first time I made sure that I wouldn't be letting her win, and she beat me," said Spencer proudly.
Gideon smiled a bit.
"Shouldn't you try to find out if she can have her first IQ test much sooner?" asked Gideon.
"She can't have her first IQ test until she's five years old, but I just don't want her to skip as many grades like I did," said Spencer before walking away with his coffee.
Two hours later Spencer stood in the doorway of Gideon's office to seeing his brother in law and Gideon watching Charlie Chaplin.
"Why are you two watching Charlie Chaplin?" asked Spencer.
Hotch and Gideon turned to see Spencer standing in the doorway with a few files in his hands.
"I'm planning on showing the cadets this as a way of dealing with the stress our job brings," said Gideon as he motioned Spencer to sit down.
Spencer smiled as he quickly turned the free chair around and sat down next to his brother in law.
"Luckily Clarissa and Diana both help me deal with stress this job brings me." said Spencer before grinning, "Bridget's upcoming birth in 15 weeks gives me something to be excited about," said Spencer.
Hotch reached out and squeezed his brother in law's shoulder.
"I'm excited about getting to hold my second niece, Spencer," said Hotch.
Gideon looked at the two brothers-in-laws.
"Having wives and kids are a good way to cope with this job," said Gideon before looking at Spencer,
"Luckily you didn't let the Hankel case destroy your marriage, but the trauma you went through caused your marriage with Clarissa to get stronger," said Gideon.
"Clarissa had survived dealing with PTSD from that car accident, so it helps that she helped me get through my PTSD," said Spencer.
Hotch looked at his brother in law.
"When you entered Clarissa's life, I noticed that the sparkle that was lacking in her eyes from the accident ended up returning," said Hotch.
"My academic adviser said the same thing about me when I ended up becoming more than friends with Clarissa. I guess that Clarissa and I practically saved each other since grief is what brought us together," said Spencer thoughtfully before he ended up laughing at a scene.
Hotch and Gideon looked at each other and smiled as they both thought about Spencer being one of the strongest people they ever met since he had overcome every obstacle that he has been given during his short 25 and a half years of life.
Hotch walked around the conference room table as he looked at Detective McGee.
"You aren't sure whether anyone is in fact missing?" asked Hotch.
"No, I-I am sure. I just can't seem to convince anyone else of it." stuttered Detective McGee.
"There's been no official investigation?" asked Hotch as he took a chair next to his brother in law.
"No," said Detective McGee.
JJ approached Detective McGee with a glass of water and passed it to him.
"63 people can't be coincidence, right?" asked JJ.
Morgan looked at Spencer.
"Reid, any stats on the percentages of, um well, I don't really know how to phrase the question," said Morgan as he took a chair next to Spencer.
"Homeless who go missing?" asked Spencer.
Morgan nodded at him.
"The very nature of homelessness suggests a lifestyle of fluidity, yet honestly, they're not as transient as you would think. They generally stay in small, well-defined areas based on familiarity and what services are nearby," said Spencer as he watched the young detective fiddle with his notebooks.
Detective McGee looked at Spencer.
"So-so you're saying they don't just disappear?" asked Detective McGee.
"Not normally, but I mean, that doesn't preclude the possibility," said Spencer.
Morgan reached for one of the little notebooks while Detective McGee worked on straightening out his little notebooks.
"Names, addresses, descriptions. Do-do you have any information that might help us find them again?" asked Garcia.
"I- I didn't have a need for it at the time," said Detective McGee.
Emily who was looking through a book looked at Garcia.
"Garcia, do you have enough here to see if they've been reported missing by someone?" asked Emily.
"I don't- I don't know," said Garcia.
"I- I ran them all through our computers and came up blank," said Detective McGee.
Gideon looked up from the newspaper he was reading and looked at Detective McGee.
"None of them turned up deceased? Checked the morgues and the hospitals?" asked Gideon.
Detective McGee looked at Gideon.
"I- I have checked everywhere, sir," said Detective McGee.
Hotch looked up from the little notebook that he was reading from.
"Simply being gone isn't a federal issue," said Hotch.
"We're gonna need an official invitation into your jurisdiction," said Gideon.
"An official?" asked Detective McGee.
"Police chief, chief of detectives. It has to come down through the chain of command. We have no authority to look into this," said Hotch.
"Um, I don't know that I- I can do that," stuttered Detective McGee as he continued to straighten out his little notebooks.
"Unless we're officially asked, we can't help you," said Hotch.
"Jurisdictional issues aren't open for debate. Sorry. It's out of our hands," said Gideon.
"Oh," said Detective McGee softly.
JJ looked at Hotch.
"Uh, Hotch... There could be 63 victims here," said JJ as she gave their unit chief a smile.
Hotch looked at Detective McGee.
"Well, I suppose you and I could go back with the detective and talk to his commanders and try to impress upon them the serious implications," said Hotch.
"Thank you," said Detective McGee.
Hotch looked at the rest of his team.
"If we get an invitation, we could send for the rest of you. I just don't want to give the appearance that we're running over them," said Hotch.
Gideon looked at his teammates.
"I'll wrap my class up. If anything changes, let me know. I should be available by 4:00," said Gideon before leaving the room.
"JJ, be ready in 30," said Hotch as he left the room.
Detective McGee looked at Hotch.
"Agent. Um, sir. He-he took 2 of my book," said Detective McGee.
Emily quickly got up and looked at Detective McGee.
"Uh, if you could leave your notebooks with us, we can unofficially go over them and maybe develop some more information," said Emily.
Detective McGee looked at them.
"How about I show you, uh, which people aren't around anymore and you can copy down all the information," said Detective McGee as he took a book from Garcia.
"OK. Well, you heard Agent Hotchner. You got 30 minutes to brief us on 63 people." said Morgan.
"OK. Um," said Detective McGee as he started to brief everyone on what he had.
Morgan posted a note card onto the board.
"Damn," whistled Emily.
"That is a lot of people," said Morgan.
"Homeless men, homeless women, runaways, prostitutes, and drug users," said Spencer.
"Can all of their disappearances be a coincidence?" asked Emily.
"Yeah, technically it wouldn't really be a coincidence since a number of these people share high-risk traits, which throws the curve off. You see, the word "coincidence" implies more," rambled Spencer.
Morgan looked at Spencer while thinking about Spencer being pretty much back to his normal self over three months after Hankel.
"Hey, kid, we do not need a vocabulary lesson right now," said Morgan.
"Right. Sorry," said Spencer.
Morgan looked at Spencer.
"What was it the Yorkshire Ripper said about his victims?" asked Morgan.
"The women I killed were filthy, bastard prostitutes that were littering the streets. I was just cleaning up the place a bit"," quoted Spencer.
"He's a house-cleaner," stated Morgan.
"Mission-based killer who believes his murders are helping society," said Spencer.
"These guys devolve rapidly until they're just killing machines," said Morgan.
"And our hands are tied by jurisdictional concerns?" asked Emily.
"Well, what are we supposed to do? If we don't follow the city's jurisdiction, no one's gonna ever ask us for help. We do it by the book. Then we pray that no one else gets hurt in the meantime," said Morgan.
Gideon came into the conference room and looked at Spencer, Morgan, and Emily.
"Any news?" asked Gideon.
Gideon started to look at the note cards that were on the clear board.
"Haven't heard from Hotch or JJ. Garcia went through all the names but couldn't find a single report to hang an investigation on," said Morgan.
"We've been compiling preliminary profile thoughts based on the limited victimology that we have," said Spencer.
"Profile?" asked Gideon as he turned around to look at Spencer, Emily, and Morgan, "We don't even have this case yet."
"We just want to be prepared in case we are called in," defended Emily.
Gideon thought about the piles of consults that were on Spencer's, Emily's, and Morgan's desks.
"We don't have enough other work to do?" asked Gideon.
"Gideon, he's a house-cleaner," said Morgan.
"With 63 potential victims," said Spencer.
Gideon sighed as he realized that his team is right.
"What have you come up with so far?" asked Gideon as he quickly headed to a table to sit down.
Spencer pulled out his phone and called Clarissa.
"Am I going to be keeping your dinner warm for you or are you heading to Kansas City?" asked Clarissa.
"I'm heading to the jet in 30 minutes to fly to Kansas City, Kansas," said Spencer.
"Have some time to talk to Diana?" asked Clarissa.
"I sure do, so please put her on," said Spencer.
A few seconds later Spencer heard Diana's voice.
"You go away, daddy?" asked Diana.
"I'm heading to Kansas City, Kansas," said Spencer.
"Please stay safe, daddy," said Diana.
"I promise, bumble bee. I expect you to be good for mommy and Lucy," said Spencer.
"I will," said Diana.
Spencer, Morgan, Emily, and Gideon approached Captain Wright.
"BAU?" asked Captain Wright.
Gideon shook Captain Wright's hand.
"I'm Jason Gideon," said Gideon before pointing out the rest of the team, "Agents Morgan, Prentiss, and Dr. Reid," said Gideon.
"Captain Al Wright," said Captain Wright.
Hotch approached them.
"If you, uh, want to get your squad together, captain, we could start giving the profile," said Hotch.
"Already?" asked Captain Wright.
"We've been working on it all day," stated Spencer.
"Oh, have you, now?" asked Captain Wright.
"Just out of an abundance of preparedness, yeah," said Spencer.
"Give me a few minutes, guys, huh?" asked Captain Wright before walking away.
Hotch turned around to look at his teammates.
"I'm not sure if he's really OK with this, or he's sure we're wrong and wants to see us embarrass ourselves," warned Hotch.
Spencer nodded along with his teammates.
"We're going to provide a psychological profile of the man we're looking for. It contains some unusual, specific personality traits that someone out there is bound to recognize," started Hotch.
"Which will make him relatively easy to locate. Long-lasting, negative impression he leaves on anyone he might meet," said Gideon.
"We have a term for the killing behavior this unsub displays: cleaning house- fixing what's wrong with the world," said Morgan.
Spencer looked at the officers that were in the room.
"He's deeply rationalized this behavior, and while he certainly knows the killing is wrong, he truly believes that he's doing the world a great service," said Spencer.
"Ultimately, this type of unsub becomes a loner. There will not be too many people that can still tolerate him. Now, if he does have a relationship at all, the person will not be his equal. It'll be someone subservient to him," said Morgan.
"He'll be fastidious, tending toward obsessive-compulsive disorder, and he'll have an overwhelming sense of indignation towards the things that he's judged to be wrong. He wouldn't even consider the reasons why someone might disagree with him," said Spencer.
"He sounds like a real jagoff," said a detective.
"Exactly. Class-A scumbag," said Morgan.
"Detective McGee started noticing the disappearances a year ago. The unsub probably had a stressor at this time- the death of a family member or someone who had some semblance of control over him. Right now, no one has control over him," said Emily.
"It's probable that he isn't currently working with this many victims and the devolution that it brings a job just wouldn't leave him time to practice his true calling," said Spencer.
"Which is?" asked Captain Wright.
"A predator, a killing machine. By now, it's become all he thinks about," finished Hotch.
Spencer, Hotch, JJ, Gideon, Morgan, Emily, Detective McGee, and Captain Wright stood outside when Hotch looked at everyone.
"To cover more ground, we'll split up into groups of two," said Hotch before looking at his brother in law, "Knowing my sister, she'll release her pregnancy hormones on me if she finds out that I don't pair myself with you during this hour," said Hotch.
Spencer rolled his eyes causing Detective McGee and Captain Wright to look at them.
"Sister?" asked Captain Wright.
"When we're on the clock we're coworkers, but when we're off duty we're brother in laws since Dr. Reid is married to my baby sister," said Hotch.
Spencer rolled his eyes at his brother in law while everyone else started to pair up.
"How many kids?" asked Captain Wright.
"I have a three-year-old daughter, and my wife is 25 weeks pregnant with my second child," said Spencer.
"Know the gender?" asked Captain Wright.
"Its a girl," said Spencer.
Spencer looked at his brother in law as they walked away from the two young women who propositioned him.
"I'm already aware that my wedding band doesn't ward off all women," said Spencer.
"I know," said Hotch.
"All women tend to approach me when its just Diana and me, and Clarissa has told me that women like to fall in love with men who are good with children," said Spencer.
Hotch gave his brother in law an amused look.
"You do know that Clarissa's never going to let you live it down when I tell her about every prostitute propositioning you," said Hotch.
Spencer rolled his eyes before giving his brother in law a smirk.
"If you tell her, I'll make sure that your the last one to hold your niece after Bridget is born," said Spencer.
Hotch shook his head when he heard Emily talk to Morgan.
"You make the people around you feel good," smiled Emily.
Spencer and Hotch approached Morgan and Emily.
"Well, he's no Charlie Chaplin," joked Hotch.
"Again with the Chaplins'," deadpanned Morgan.
"How'd you guys do?" asked Emily.
Hotch gave his flustered brother in law an amused look.
Well, Reid got propositioned by every prostitute we talked to," said Hotch while Spencer nodded, "But we didn't find anybody who thinks they'd seen the unsub."
"Same story with us," said Morgan.
"We saw Gideon and McGee a block back. They hadn't had any luck, either," said Hotch.
"It's odd. If the unsub were out here, he'd stand out. You know, people would recognize the description," said Spencer.
"So where does that leave us?" asked Emily.
Captain Wright and JJ approached them.
"Right where I thought we were," said Captain Wright.
"Captain?" asked Hotch.
"You said this guy would definitely be memorable. You were adamant. So if no one out here remembers him, according to you, he doesn't exist," said Captain Wright.
"That's not exactly what we said, but," said JJ before Captain Wright interrupted her.
"It's what you implied," said Captain Wright.
"What do you think happened to them, Captain?" asked Hotch.
"I told you, I don't think anything happened to them," said Captain Wright.
"Oh, that's right. You think they all got houses and jobs," said Hotch.
"OK, all this means is we have another piece of the puzzle here. Someone got over 60 street-smart people out of here and no one noticed," said Emily.
"It's almost like he blended in," said Spencer.
JJ looked at Spencer.
"It's more than that. It's like he must somehow belong," said JJ.
"Like he's here all the time," said Hotch.
Morgan quickly noticed a man talking to the woman he just talked to.
"Like social services," said Morgan.
"What?" asked Emily.
Morgan looked at Captain Wright.
"Captain Wright?" asked Morgan.
"Yeah?" asked Captain Wright.
Morgan kept an eye on Mona.
"Does your social services department patrol around?" asked Morgan.
"Excuse me?" asked Captain Wright.
"Do they drive around in the middle of the night looking for people to help?" asked Morgan as he saw a social service employee take Mona's cart.
"No. They have to be called, and then," said Captain Wright before Morgan took off.
"Morgan!" shouted Hotch.
A few seconds later Spencer was sprinting after his brother in law and Morgan before Morgan approached the social worker.
"Hey, how's it goin', my man?" asked Morgan.
"I should go," said the social service employee.
"Slow down. What's your hurry?" asked Morgan.
"I got a lot of work. I should go," said the employee.
Captain Wright looked at the social worker.
"Sir, do you have a city employee ID?" asked Captain Wright.
"Look, I really don't have time for this," said the social worker.
"Yes, you do. ID, please," demanded Captain Wright.
The social worker started his truck and started to drive away with Morgan hanging onto the steering wheel before the van crashed.
"Out of the truck! Out of the truck! Get out here!" demanded Morgan.
"All right, all right! Don't hurt me! Just... Don't hurt me," pleaded the social worker as Morgan handcuffed him.
Spencer's cell phone vibrated causing Spencer to see a text from Clarissa.
I KNOW THAT YOUR ON YOUR WAY HOME SINCE AARON TEXTED ME TO TELL ME ABOUT HOW PROSTITUTES WERE PROPOSITIONING YOU. SO TOMORROW NIGHT, I HAVE PLANS FOR YOU. ~ CR
Spencer blushed a bit causing Morgan to laugh.
"Clarissa sent you something to make you blush?" asked Morgan.
Spencer looked at his brother in law.
"You just earned the rights to be the last person to hold Bridget after she's born," said Spencer.
Hotch shook his head.
Morgan looked at Spencer.
"Have any women hit on you when it's just you and Diana?" asked Morgan.
"Over 100 times, and Clarissa explained to me that a lot of single women loves seeing men who are good with children," said Spencer.
"She told me that she has a few colleagues who actually developed crushes on you when you do magic shows at Children's National," said Emily.
Hotch looked at his brother in law.
"So when are you going to tell Clarissa that you got her a week-long vacation that is starting next week Friday?" asked Hotch.
"Sunday," said Spencer.
"What are you doing, kid?" asked Morgan.
"With Clarissa now being 25-weeks pregnant, its the perfect time for a baby-moon before Clarissa starts having bi-weekly doctor appointments. So my Mother's Day gift for Clarissa is a baby-moon," said Spencer.
"Where are you taking her?" asked Morgan.
"I'm not telling you guys since I don't want Clarissa to find out from you guys," said Spencer.
Spencer entered the bullpen with his teammates and his eyes went wide when he saw Garcia standing with Diana on her hip.
"Daddy!" cried Diana.
Garcia placed Diana onto the floor, and a few seconds later, Spencer was scooping up Diana.
"What are you doing here, young lady?" asked Spencer as he gave Diana a kiss on the cheek.
"I couldn't help myself since I needed some cuddles with your daughter," said Garcia before looking at Hotch, "I called Haley and asked her if Jack could come here, but Jack's with his grandparents right now."
Hotch and Gideon looked at each other.
"Since there's a couple of hours before Diana's bedtime, she can stay while we watch some Charlie Chaplin," said Gideon.
Diana looked at Gideon with wide blue eyes.
"Really?" asked Diana.
"Charlie Chaplin is appropriate for a little girl your age." smiled Gideon.
Hotch looked at his niece.
"Are you going to take turns sitting on your daddy's and my laps?" asked Hotch.
"Yes, uncle Aaron," said Diana.
Diana looked at her daddy.
"I have to go potty," said Diana.
JJ looked at Spencer.
"I'll take her, Spence," said JJ.
Spencer handed his daughter over to JJ before looking at Garcia.
"So where's Diana's car seat?" asked Spencer.
"In my bat cave," said Garcia.
Spencer nodded before looking at his brother in law.
"I guess you're my ride home since I carpooled with you the day before," said Spencer.
Later on that evening Spencer was sitting on a chair with Diana on his lap when he felt some popcorn hit his head causing him to look back at JJ and Emily before hugging his daughter closer to him.
"You OK, daddy?" asked Diana.
Spencer leaned towards Diana's ear.
"When I say so, please help me throw popcorn at JJ and Emily," whispered Spencer.
Diana giggled.
"OK, daddy," whispered Diana.
A few seconds later Spencer grabbed a hand full of popcorn causing Diana to follow suit, and a few seconds later Spencer and Diana who had matching grins on their faces both threw popcorn at JJ and Emily.
"Please stop throwing popcorn at my daddy," ordered Diana as she gave her Hotchner glare at JJ and Emily causing everyone to burst out laughing.
"She's definitely your niece, Hotch," laughed Morgan.
At that moment Diana yawned.
"Daddy?" asked Diana.
"I take it that its bedtime?" asked Spencer.
Diana nodded as she fell asleep causing Spencer to look at his brother in law.
"Diana just fell asleep," said Spencer.
A few seconds later JJ, Emily, and Garcia were each giving Diana a kiss before the two brother-in-laws left with a sleeping Diana who was comfortable in her daddy's arms.
