Later that same evening, Dave was editing the latest chapter of his book, while having a cup of coffee, when Alex came into the living room, looking pale and tired.

"I'm going to bed," she said.

"What's wrong?" he asked after consulting his wristwatch. It was only a quarter past nine; very early for Alex who was usually quite the night owl. She shrugged a little.

"Monthly business," she said. He frowned.

"It's that bad again?"

"Not that bad."

He knew she was lying, it was written all over her face, from the deep lines around her eyes and mouth that suggested that she was either very tired or in pain, to her ashen complexion, to the dull look in her eyes.

"I think you should see a doctor," he said.

"Dave, if you knew what it's like to see that kind of doctor, you wouldn't want to go either. Believe me. I'm okay, I just need some rest. Good night."

"Good night," he replied and watched her walk away. Limping, rather. Gone was the feisty sex goddess, gone was the resilient FBI agent, here was just a miserable woman bent in pain. He got to his feet. "Alex, honey, wait!"

She turned around.

"I beg of you, please, see a doctor. I'm really worried about you. I've never seen you like this. And I think you've lost weight."

She smiled. It was strained, but it was a smile.

"I'm not surprised, we've been somewhat physically active during the past few weeks," she reminded him. But he didn't return the smile; he was honestly worried about her.

"If you don't make an appointment yourself, I'll make one for you and I'll cuff you and drag you there if I need to," he said. Alex's eyes widened for a moment, then the playful twinkle in them made a brief appearance.

"Cuff me, huh?" she said. "That's an idea worth exploring once I feel better."

"I'm not kidding, Alex. What if something's wrong? For real, wrong."

For some reason that she couldn't explain even to herself, hearing him put her own concerns into words suddenly made her furious. She opened her mouth and, much to her own surprise, raised her usually soft voice into a shout.

"Nothing is wrong, will you just leave me alone!? You're like a band-aid!"

He stared at her, looking surprised and more than a little hurt, and she immediately wanted to take it all back, the words and the tone in which they were spoken alike.

"Sorry. I… I didn't mean to lash out, okay?"

"I don't care if you get angry with me," he said. "I want you to see a doctor so we can at least rule out the worst possibility."

'We'. He said 'we'.

It was that very thing that made her change her mind, the thought that no matter what it was, at least she wouldn't have to deal with it alone. She sighed.

"Okay. I will."

He relaxed.

"Come here Alex," he said and opened his arms. She walked into the offered embrace and hugged him hard. He hugged her back and said patiently: "I love your stoic nature, but it's okay to be afraid sometimes. I want you to feel like you can be honest with me and share your concerns and fears as well as your joy. Love is supposed to be 'for better and for worse', isn't it?"

She was quiet. That was her usual response when she had to process something, and Dave knew that. He could respect her to the moon and back, but respecting someone was, sometimes, the same as interfering. He might not have been so worried if this had been a frequent occurrence over the years they had worked together, but as far as he could remember she had only called in sick two or three times, and one of those times it was a stomach bug that got the whole team. And while she did keep any discomfort to herself, he didn't believe she could have hidden something like this on a regular basis without either of them noticing. Not a chance.

"I'm sorry I yelled at you," she mumbled against his shoulder.

"It's fine, don't worry about it," he replied, and he was relieved to feel that the last of the tension seemed to leave her body with his words. "I'm just going to finish editing this chapter, and then I'll come to bed too."

She pulled loose, nodded, and gave him a quick kiss.

"I love you," she said.

"Even though I'm a band-aid?"

"Maybe because of it," she mused. "I'll call the doctor tomorrow."

"Good. And I love you too."

A faint smile tugged at her lips.

"Yes, I noticed."

He chuckled.

"Go to bed, sweetheart."

She went.

He had just sat down and tried to redirect his focus to the pages in front of him, when she stormed back into the room, with her hair flying around her face.

"The doctor!" she said. "That's our unsub!"

"What do you mean?"

She sat down, winced at the pain as she did, and began to explain.

"The original unsub already had mental problems and saw a psychiatrist prior to the murders, right? Well, if he suffered from hallucinations, is it that far-fetched that 'the ghost' he spoke of was a man in white scrubs? His doctor?"

"Not far-fetched at all," Dave said. His heart was beating faster, the way it always did when he felt they were onto something that could crack a case wide open. He could see the same excitement mirrored in Alex's eyes as she went on.

"And the other murders - were either of the victims seeing a therapist or psychiatrist? I think they did. And I think they did so in another town, possibly to avoid any gossip around here. Why wouldn't they? They were all well-known in the community, and wealthy, at that. You don't want it to get out that you have mental issues, no matter how innocent. I should know, I didn't even tell my husband I saw a therapist after the Amerithrax case."

"You went through that whole ordeal by yourself?" he asked. He needed to know, that would explain a lot about her.

"Was there any other way?" she asked in return and shrugged. "James just told me to get over it. My co-workers recoiled as if associating with me would drag them down as well. We don't speak about those things in my family. And I didn't really have any friends outside of the job. But I did alright, that's a closed chapter now," she said, brushing it off. "Anyway, that would also explain why there was a couple living here that our unsub didn't target - they were young and still going onward and upward. Everyone we've spoken to told us they were happy, right? Themselves included."

He saw where she was going with this.

"And happy, healthy people don't seek council, why would they?"

"Exactly!"

"He must be rather old now, if he's still alive."

"He could have been very young when treating Nicholas. Maybe even fresh out of med school."

"I'll call Garcia," he said. "It will be a relief if she finds something."

"Garcia's House of Wonders, how may I make you stare in awe on this fine evening?"

"Are you still at work?"

"My dear sir, you're calling this number, aren't you?"

"Anything happened that I should know about?"

"I could ask you two the same…" she said in a sly voice, then took pity on them. "No, nothing's happened here. The others went home a couple of hours ago, I'm just updating some programs and running some server security checks. What's going on?"

"Check the doctor who treated Nicholas in the 80's and see if any of the other victims had contact with the same doctor."

Garcia began working her computer magic.

"Uh, two of them did, if that's any help."

"Which ones didn't?" Alex asked.

"The last couple."

Alex sighed. "I still like my theory."

"So do I," Dave agreed. "Could they have met somewhere else?"

"Oh yes they could, and they did. The wife worked as a specialist nurse at the same practice where this creepy Doctor Death has been at for the past sixteen years," Garcia said triumphantly. "I'm sending the information to your tablets right away."

Dave and Alex looked at each other.

"Great job," Alex said.

"Happy to help, Mrs Rossi," Garcia replied.

"Garcia…" Alex growled.

"Oops."

"Mrs Rossi, huh?" Dave said with a little smile.

"I was just, uh, that was just Garcia lingo," Garcia said, trying to save the situation. "You know, since you're posing as married and all."

"She's not Mrs Rossi," Dave said. "At least not yet. And that is all I have to say on the matter, Penelope," he added, sounding as if he warned her about pushing it.

"Okay sir," she promptly said. "I'll be here for another hour if you need me. Garcia out."

"You scared her," Alex accused him.

"I think you were scarier. That growling, it's freakin' terrifying." he said and went to get the tablets.

"I've never heard you complain about that before," she called back over her shoulder, smiling a little. Then a particularly painful cramp shot through her stomach and she had to hold her breath until it subsided.

No, this is not as it should be, she thought, and forced herself to stop thinking about it. She had more pressing issues at the moment, and she was fairly certain that her body would hold together for a bit longer.

"Do you want to go to bed? I can compile the information and then we can look at it in the morning. I doubt doctor…" he checked the tablet, "… Harold Brady, is available for house calls right now."

"Well, I don't know about that, he certainly called this house a whole bunch of times," she replied. "No, I'm okay. I want to see what we can make of this guy."

He watched her closely to see if she really meant that, and decided that she did.

"Alright. Let's get to work."

A/N

We have a breakthrough. ^^ Did ya'll see that one coming?

I just need to tie up the loose ends because I really sprinkled leads all over the place so I would have something to grasp if my first hunch didn't play out. And now I'm stuck with too many leads in different directions instead. Oh well. Coincidences do happen, right?

Still more to come, of course. :D

Also, virtual chocolate chip cookies to those who get the unsub's name references. :P