A/N – sorry for the delay in updating, various problems keep cropping up, hope people are still enjoying the story.

Chapter 10 – Delta

Reid had his head down, his eyes focused on the book as his fingers rapidly turned the pages while instinctively his feet headed in the direction of the bullpen.

"Reid!"

Reid carried on walking, completely oblivious to any voice.

"Reid!"

Reid finally stopped, but mainly due to the fact that he had reached the closed doors and not because of Garcia's loud command. Garcia eventually caught up as Reid lifted his head up to push the door open, firmly placing her hand upon his left shoulder.

"Spencer!"

"Oh hello Garcia, did you find anything out?"

Garcia sighed and shook her head as she followed Reid into the bullpen, perching on the edge of his desk as he sat down, the book still open in his hands and his fingers poised atop of it, pausing as he looked towards Garcia who smiled at him before she responded.

"Six days ago a male was found dead in a field outside of Fredrick, Maryland, he had no apparent signs of torture apart from a tattoo on his right forearm. He didn't live in the town but his parent's did, the ME put the cause of death as suicide. My search also revealed that there was another recent death, this one was in Richmond Virginia, he also had a tattoo on the right forearm that had been done just prior to death. That victim died pretty horrifically, he was covered in bee and wasp stings and died from anaphylactic shock."

Garcia stopped as she held out the files and watched Reid eagerly take them, she could tell from his eyes that he was processing the information and whatever she had found out it wasn't good.

"Thanks Garcia, is Hotch in?"

"No not yet but Dave got in a little while ago."

"Great."

Reid didn't even stop to breath as he grabbed a book and placed it on top of the files and ran up the stairs towards Dave's office, Garcia gasped slightly as she caught sight of the book.

"Dante's Inferno, this is definitely not good."

Emily sat on the chair, her legs curled up underneath her, absorbed in the book she had in front of her. Hotch had left ten minutes earlier as he knew that Emily needed to speak to Natasha alone and there was always paperwork at the office that he needed to catch up with. Emily sat there patiently, she had rung her daughter earlier but it had gone through to her voicemail so Emily knew that the frustrations of the last few days had caught up with Natasha and she was now sweating them out of her body. Without thinking Emily's head dropped and her eyes lids headed south, her mind free and her body relaxed, the tiredness caught up with her as she fell asleep with the book still open on her lap.

Natasha opened the door, her breathing deep and slow as she recovered from the exertion she had placed her body through, heading straight to the kitchen Natasha quickly refilled her bottle with cold water, kicking off her trainers in the hall as she wandered towards her mother whom she could see was asleep in the chair. Carefully Natasha lifted the opened book from her mother's lap and placed it on the floor before she smiled and decided that she would let her rest for a little longer and that it would be best to have her shower before she woke her mother from her slumber.

Reid knocked rapidly on the open door but he didn't wait for a response as he burst in and started talking to Dave who quickly sat up and listened intently to the young doctor.

"I think that there is an unsub who is subjecting his victims to circles of hell as depicted by Dante's Inferno. My friend Doctor Rice phoned me this morning concerning a victim who died in a wind tunnel with a circle tattoo on her arm with the number two in roman numerals inked inside it. I asked Garcia to see if there were any other victims and she has found two that match perfectly with the gates to hell opening and the first circle of hell."

"Where were the victims found?"

"The first in Richmond, the second in Fredrick Maryland and this morning's victim was in Suffolk Virginia."

"So he is not targeting one set area. What about victimology?"

"I haven't got that far yet, do you agree with me?"

Dave nodded his head slowly and rubbed his chin before he stood up, pushing his chair back in the process.

"Go to the conference room, I'll get the others to join us, I think Hotch is in now."

Reid nodded his head, if he was right then this was going to be a frightening unsub to try and stop.

Natasha quickly got dressed, pulling on a pair of faded jeans and a casual jumped before she tied her wet hair back in a ponytail. She wasn't surprised to see that her mom was still asleep as she walked towards her, the emotional turmoil that she had been through had well and truly caught up with her. Natasha perched on the arm of the chair as she gently shook her mom's shoulder.

"Hey mom, I'm back."

Natasha smiled as Emily reached and immediately rubbed her eyes before she turned to face her daughter.

"Oh hi sweetie, sorry I didn't mean to fall asleep."

"That's ok, I thought I'd get showered and changed before I woke you. Did you want a coffee?"

"That sounds great."

Natasha nodded as she stood up and started to walk towards the kitchen before she was stopped in her tracks by a hand on her shoulder, she turned and saw her mom standing right beside her.

"Hey we need to talk Natasha."

"I know mom, but I don't need to know what happened in New York unless you want to tell me. I understand why you went and I hope that you aren't upset that I told Aaron, I was worried about you and wanted you to have someone there to support you."

Emily smiled as she heard the anxious tone in her daughter's voice, she allowed her to finish before she reached out and brought Natasha towards her, holding her tightly.

"It was the best thing that you could have done, thank you for being so understanding, I hate having this strained relationship with my mother and I'm eternally grateful that our relationship is completely different."

"I love you mom."

"I love you too sweetie but there was something else I needed to talk to you about."

"Ok."

"Aaron."

Natasha grinned widely as she lifted her head up and looked directly into Emily's eyes.

"So you're ready to take the next step?"

"Only if you and Jack are ok with it."

"You know that I am happy for you, Aaron is good for you, he makes you happy and treats you well."

"So if we were to start looking for a bigger place to live?"

"Sounds great to me, plus I can look after Jack when you and Aaron are away."

"I hadn't thought of that!"

Emily laughed as Natasha rolled her eyes and playfully pushed her mom away but then the sound of Emily's cell ringing disrupted their conversation as Emily picked it up and looked at the display.

"Sorry Natasha its work, why don't you make the coffee whilst I get this?"

"No worries mom."

Natasha smiled as she walked away, pleased that their lives were now settling down.