Hello lovelys!

So... this hasn't been updated in forever. I'm so sorry, I don't even know how that happened. Time just goes by so quickly, and next thing you know, it's over a year since you started writing a fic. I'm not even going to make a promise as to when it will be updated next, because I really don't know.

Sorry again for the delay in updating, and thanks for still sticking around!

San Diego Police Department

The day kept moving along at a slow, slow pace. Seconds ticked by like minutes, and minutes felt like hours. Each tick of the clock mocked the entire department, it almost screamed at them, continuously telling them they were one second closer to losing Leia forever. Almost three hours into their never ending wait, it had seemed like they struck gold. Daniel wanted to cry and his heart leapt out of his chest, Leia was calling him! He answered immediately and got a trace started on the call, but before even five seconds had passed, the line went dead. In retaliation, Daniel slammed his phone down and shattered his screen. He stormed off and no one dared to follow him, not even Jared. He knew what his brother was like, and quite frankly, Jared didn't blame him.

Fifteen minutes after the call, almost exactly three hours since the call from Garcia, Daniel returned. Then, it was as if Garcia was psychic, for in walked Harry Pascale, with a very panicked Samuel Pierce trailing along behind him. Harry was a big man, in all respects of the word. He was tall, a height to even rival the BAU's resident genius, with broad shoulders and a naturally big build. Samuel Pierce looked tiny in comparison, but was every definition of average in appearance.

As the pair walked towards Daniel's desk, every eye in the station turned to them. Eventually, Daniel and Jared followed everyone's actions and met eyes with their father. It wasn't quite the reunion the BAU was expecting, as Daniel glared and stormed towards Harry. Jared tried to hold him back and calm him down, but Daniel brushed him off. They met in the middle and the yelling started immediately.

"You really are a stubborn old bastard, aren't you?" Daniel demanded.

"Careful, Daniel," Harry calmly responded, though it was clear in his eyes he was not to be tested. "I've had a very long day."

"You can't let the damned case go!" Daniel shouted. "And now you've dragged Sam into it as well!"

"I never forced anyone to do anything," Harry said, his voice still calm. "Look, we can talk about this later. I just want to focus on finding Leia, or have you already forgotten she's missing?"

Daniel glared, "Excuse me?" he asked incredulously. "You haven't even been here!"

"And whose fault is that? You should have called me the minute you thought Leia was in danger, not after she's already been taken!"

"The only reason we didn't call you earlier was because Leia was so set on leaving you out of it! She didn't want to interrupt you during a case. Think about that for a second. Your own daughter didn't want to contact you when she was in danger because even she knew you're too god damned pig-headed to drop a case!"

"Guys!" Jared called out. The two other men hadn't even noticed the younger man approach them until just then. When they finally took in their surroundings they noticed everyone was still staring at them, including the BAU (who were now only a couple steps away). Sam had drifted away from their argument, sticking closer to Jared and the BAU.

"This isn't important," Jared continued calmly. "What's important is finding Leia, and we have some of the FBI's best in this precinct to help us do just that. So rather than wasting more time that we don't have, can we just use these guys and their skills to try and find Leia?"

There was a moment of silence and the tension in the room could have been cut with a knife. Finally Daniel and Harry let out a sigh and joined the rest of the group. Hotch gave a quick introduction and set out tasks. Prentiss and JJ would catch Harry up on what was happening, and maybe even try to convince him not to investigate the case (though they already knew their attempts would be futile). Sam was to work with Garcia over video call to try and trace Leia's call, or find any other leads. Garcia could also bring Sam up to speed in that time. The rest would review surveillance videos, past interviews, and revisit crime scenes to try and see if they missed anything.

It had been hours of continuous work. It was past three in the morning, but no significant work had been done. The Pascale family, now that Harry was up to date, didn't stop working on the case, despite not being sure how to proceed with the investigation. They kept looking over everything they knew about the case and tried to match up what they could with potential suspects. They hadn't slept in hours, if not days, and despite Hotch and even Chief Vick urging them to go home and sleep, they refused.

Hotch, on the other hand, had sent Reid, Prentiss, Morgan and JJ back to the hotel to get some rest an hour earlier. The Pascale's weren't happy about it, but Hotch simply told them that the agents were of no use when they were half asleep. The older FBI agents had offered to stay behind and give insight into the profile and help them look over the case, but even they had trouble keeping their eyes open. In fact, Rossi had fallen asleep at the table just over twenty minutes ago. Hotch didn't bother to wake him up.

Sam was in the IT lab, still on a video call with the tech genius of the BAU. Garcia was on the other end in her pyjamas working from home, and she was not all too happy. She had answered all of Sam's questions about the case and what was going on with Leia, and she had even answered all of his questions about how she was able to track down his IP address despite all the measure he put against that. The answer, of course, being that she was Penelope Garcia, one of the best technical analysts to live. They had worked together to try and track the phone, but it was a bust. The call didn't last long enough and was only accurate within a 5 mile radius. The radius that did come up was consistent with the geographic profile that Reid had come up with, but it wasn't any new knowledge. Since then, the two techs were looking at all the surveillance videos of each abduction, trying to see if they missed something.

"I feel like I've watched this video twenty times," Sam said, in regards to Emilia Banks' abduction. He had originally been in charge of Leia's abduction, but he quickly found that too hard to watch.

'I know I've watched this video at least twenty times' Garcia muttered from her side. Her head was resting on her hand. She was exhausted and she wanted to sleep, but every time she tried to suggest it, Sam would play on her conscience and make her stay. She could appreciate that Sam truly loved Leia and he only wanted to get her back, but she needed her sleep.

"I'm sorry," Sam said quietly. He did feel guilty for making Garcia stay, but not enough to let her go. "I just… I can't go to sleep without knowing I've done absolutely everything in my power to help her."

'I get that, I really do, but you won't be any help to anyone if you're this tired. I know I'm not' Garcia tried.

"You've been lots of help," Sam encouraged. "You've been much more useful than I have. I couldn't do half the stuff you do."

'Oh, any other time of day and that type of flattery would get you everywhere, but I am so tired,' Garcia said. 'I'm sorry, but it is past 6 here in Virginia, and I need to sleep.'

"You can't… I need to help Leia," Sam said quietly.

Garcia was prepared to argue, but then she saw how tired Sam looked as well.

'No,' Garcia countered. 'You need to sleep. You're exhausted, Sam.'

"No… I wasn't able to help her before, I need to help her now," he said glumly.

And it finally made sense. The bubbly analyst frowned at Sam, finally understanding why he was so desperate to do any and everything within his power. Even if it were detrimental to his own health.

'Sam, it's not your fault. You were helping her dad, I'm sure she can appreciate that and I'm sure she's not mad at you for not being here. Her brother might be mad for the reason you left, and I can't guarantee Leia won't be mad that you were investigating her mom, but… you were just helping her dad.'

Sam hesitated for a moment. "Can I tell you something… that you can't tell anyone? Especially not Daniel or Jared?" Garcia froze. She felt extremely out of place, but nodded anyways. "It wasn't Harry's idea to dig up his wife's case. It wasn't mine either. Leia was the one who needed to know. About two months ago, I woke up really late at night and went downstairs to get some water. I saw Leia on my work laptop, she was trying to get into the police department files. I talked to her about it, and she told me that she needed to know what happened to her mother, then she asked me to help her. And I did.

"Chief Vick caught on quickly that someone was hacking into the server, and when he found out what case was specifically taken, he told Harry immediately. Harry decided to talk to me about it, to see what I could figure out I suppose, and all it took was one look at my face when he mentioned the hack and he knew I was involved. So… it was the three of us working this case. It's been two months and the only lead we had was a potential witness that we tracked to Santa Barbara. That's what we've been doing the past two weeks, and we're still no closer to finding the killer."

'So Leia knew what you two were doing?'

Sam nodded. "The only reason she wasn't with us was because she had that research job interview."

'That's why she didn't want to call you in earlier then,' Garcia thought out loud. Sam just glumly nodded his head in agreement.

"Can you do me a favour?" Sam asked suddenly.

'Only if that favour involves sleep,' Garcia muttered.

"Leia mentioned a while back when we first started looking into her mother's case that she had a babysitter," Sam continued anyways. "Harry said they never hired one, so we just thought maybe Leia remembered wrong, she was young after all. But… the guy we met in Santa Barbara said he saw someone around the neighbourhood who claimed to be Leia's babysitter."

'So you're thinking whoever the babysitter was that Leia and this witness remember is probably the guy who killed her mom?'

"Yeah, but we don't know anything about him."

'I'll take a look into it,' Garcia said without thought.

"Really?" Sam asked, surprised that he didn't even have to ask.

'Under the condition that we go to sleep right now and we don't bring up the mother's case until after Leia is found.'

"But – "

'No, no buts about it! I haven't slept in almost 24 hours, and I have a feeling you're not far off yourself. Listen, Leia will be fine for tonight. The UnSub won't do anything to Leia now, it doesn't fit the profile. You're of no use to her when you're this tired and this distracted. Go to sleep. The case will still be here in the morning.'

"How can you be so sure?"

'I trust my team. And I trust in their profile.'

"Okay…" Sam agreed at last. "Goodnight." Garcia smiled on the other end and hung up the call. The two analysts fell asleep within seconds, still in their seats and computers still on.

Eventually, even the Pascale's succumbed to sleep. It was a long day.