Disclaimer: I do not own Criminal Minds.
A/N: Shout out to tannerose5 and OhSnapItsMadison for reviewing chapter 35.
I thought that with Hotch and Jack not being in witness protection, I thought that I could have Hotch call Spencer in this chapter.
This chapter starts the Saturday after the last chapter, and Albert's already playing soccer.
Spencer and Olivia sat on a blanket with Piper, Ava, and Daniel as they cheered for Albert who was currently kicking a soccer ball to the opposing team's goal net.
"You can do this, Albert!" cheered Spencer.
A minute later Spencer, Olivia, Piper, and Ava all cheered with excitement while Daniel clapped when Albert scored a goal.
"Great job, buddy!" cheered Spencer.
"That's my boy!" cheered Olivia.
"Go, Albert!" cheered Piper as she held up a sign that she made for her brother.
"Too loud." whined Ava as she pressed her hands against her ears.
Spencer reached into his messenger bag and grabbed Ava's noise canceling headphones.
"Here you go, birdie." said Spencer as he placed the noise canceling headphones over Ava's ears.
"Thank you, daddy." said Ava.
Olivia looked down at Daniel who was on her lap.
"Are you going to be athletic like Piper and Albert when you get older?" asked Olivia.
Daniel babbled at his mother while saying words that me mastered before watching his big brother play soccer.
The next evening Spencer and Olivia were sitting on the couch cuddling as they watched their four children play on the living room floor.
"I just can't believe that we're celebrating the twins turning four next week." sighed Olivia sadly.
Spencer wiped the tear that was falling down his wife's face before giving his wife a kiss.
"Me too, and I'm sad about our oldest turning five next month." said Spencer.
Olivia tilted her head up to give her husband a kiss before whispering at her husband.
"After the kids are asleep should we have some mommy and daddy time?" asked Olivia.
Spencer nodded before kissing his wife again.
"Ewww." chorused Piper, Albert, and Ava at the same time.
Spencer and Olivia broke out of their kiss and looked at their three oldest children.
"Who taught you to say "ewww" while we're kissing?" asked Olivia.
"Jack and Henry." said Piper.
Spencer and Olivia laughed before they decided to play with their four children on the floor before getting their four kids ready for bed.
The next morning Spencer was sitting at the round table with Emily, JJ, and Rossi when Rossi looked at Spencer.
"Are you sure that your ready to be back today?" asked Rossi.
"Despite getting spending the remainder of last week with my mom, she told me to go back to work." said Spencer.
"How are Piper, Albert, and Ava dealing with your mother's request?" asked JJ.
Spencer sighed sadly.
"My mom's request has been hard on them, but they are happy that they can still talk to my mom on the phone." said Spencer.
"Now how are you doing?" asked Rossi.
"Part of me is upset that my kids can't visit their grandma anymore since she is the only surviving grandparent that is related by blood, but part of me is relieved because mom has been becoming more violent with other patients and staff members." said Spencer.
"So that means your probably going to be visiting your mother less too?" asked Emily.
"Whenever I go visit my mom, I always make sure to call ahead to make sure she's having a good day." said Spencer before taking a deep breath, "There were times that she has gotten violent at me." said Spencer just as he heard Garcia and Luke talking.
A minute later Garcia started briefing.
"The Bergstrom family was killed in their home in Winona, Minnesota, last night. Mother, father, and little boy, all shot execution style." said Garcia as she gave Spencer and JJ both sad looks since they both have two sons.
"Any suspects?" asked JJ.
"There in lies the mystery. The Bergstrom family was as low-risk as they come." said Garcia.
"What about murder-suicide?" asked Spencer.
"That was ruled out. There was no murder weapon found at the scene, and both Bridget and Scott Bergstrom were shot in their bed." said Emily.
"But there was a survivor. A teenage daughter." said Rossi.
Garcia showed a picture of Amanda.
"17 year old Amanda. She was out past her curfew at the time of the murders." said Garcia.
"And she's the one that found the bodies." said JJ.
"It almost seems like a hit man scenario." said Spencer.
"Maybe a mafia retaliation kill? But that doesn't seem likely in Winona, Minnesota." said Luke.
"But it does seem like a revenge killing." said Emily.
"If the unsub expected to wipe out the entire family, he screwed up big time leaving Amanda alive." said Rossi.
"Unless she had something to do with it." said Spencer.
"That's a question mark, but according to the ME's preliminary report, she can't be the shooter, based on alibi and time of deaths." said Garcia.
"On the surface, they were a well liked family, living a low risk lifestyle." said Rossi.
Spencer looked at Garcia as he thought about his two little girls who were currently at school.
"The daughter Amanda, where is she?" asked Spencer.
"Protective custody, in case the unsub sees her as unfinished business." said Garcia.
Rossi looked at his teammates.
"We good?" asked Rossi.
"Hm mm." said Luke.
"We fly." said Rossi.
"Much different that wheels up." joked Spencer causing some laughter.
A few minutes later Spencer was at his desk calling Olivia who answered on the third ring.
"Have a case?" answered Olivia.
"Going to Winona, Minnesota." said Spencer as he took a deep breath, "When I get home, I need the kids to sleep with us since there are kids involved with this case." said Spencer.
"They can sleep with us when you get home, and I have to get back to my students. Please stay safe." said Olivia.
"I promise." said Spencer.
"I love you." said Olivia.
"Love you too." said Spencer before hanging up.
"Bridget and Scott Bergstrom grew up in Winona and have deep ties to the community." said Rossi.
"Scott was a local distributor of farm equipment. Bridget cut hair at a salon in the mall." said JJ.
Emily who was sitting between Spencer and a window spoke up.
"Yet they were murdered by a family annihilator." said Emily.
"Sad but true. The Bergstrom family had their share of dirty laundry. Though who of us does not?" asked Garcia.
"Scott developed a Vicodin habit a few years back after a skiing accident." said Spencer.
"So he could have been in over his head with his dealer." said Emily.
"So Bridget was having an affair?" asked JJ.
"Yeah. I looked at their financials. She's got a secret credit card just in her name, with charges to a motel just outside of town, and nothing else." said Garcia.
"She might have cut things off, causing him to go off the deep end. Can you get us a name?" asked Rossi.
"Yeah, I'm already into it. You'll have lover boy's ID asap." said Garcia.
"What about Amanda, the sole survivor? Any motive there?" asked Spencer.
"Deep sigh." said Garcia as she sighed, "I hate that you're asking that. And deep sigh again, I am bound by duty to report the facts. There's a modest insurance policy. 17-year-old Amanda is the beneficiary." said Garcia.
"$100,000." said Emily.
"That would seem like all the money in the world to a teenager." said Luke.
"People have been killed for a lot less. That's an unlikely motive for the daughter, but we can't rule her out." said Rossi.
"Whatever set this unsub off, he made the whole family pay for it." said Spencer.
"OK. JJ, Spencer, Emily, you go directly to the crime scene. Luke, you're with me. We'll set up HQ at the local PD." ordered Rossi.
Emily looked at one of the windows in the house.
"Unsub entered on the second floor through the cut screen." said Emily.
"He had to be physically fit." said JJ
"He knew the house well enough to know this was the room to enter." said Emily.
"He went straight to the parents' room. He wanted to remove the greatest threat first." said Spencer.
"Based on the bullet trajectory, he was standing here at the foot of the bed when he fired. He wanted to stare at them both before firing." said Emily while she mimicked shooting a gun with her hands.
"And that woke Bridget up. She was attempting to flee when the unsub shot her." said JJ as she mimicked shooting a gun with her hands.
"Did he enjoy watching her terror and panic, or was it inexperience on his part? Bridget's scream is probably what woke Kevin." said Spencer.
"So the unsub heads down the hallway where Kevin is coming out of his bedroom. And he runs into the unsub." said JJ as she exchanged sad glances with Spencer.
A few minutes later the trio were heading downstairs.
"So it seems this unsub knew who lived here and where each person slept implying a personal connection to the victims." said JJ.
"In spite of the home invasion, there's no sign of burglary, so he's mission oriented." said Spencer.
"He's highly organized and sophisticated." said Emily.
"The big question is Amanda. Did he think she was home, or did he deliberately strike when she was out?" asked Spencer.
"We need to talk to her." said JJ.
The next day Spencer stood with his teammates as they started to give the profile.
"We believe the unsub is a variation of what we know as a family annihilator." started Rossi.
"The garden variety family annihilator is usually a narcissistic male patriarch experiencing psychological stress. This causes him to become homicidal and then suicidal." said Emily.
"His narcissism often manifests as rage directed at a specific family member, prompting him to murder the entire family as an act of punishment and revenge. He then blames the object of his rage for his violent outburst." said Spencer.
"Once the entire family is dead, the patriarch typically commits or attempts to commit suicide." said Luke.
"But this unsub is murdering families that are not his own." said JJ.
"There's a distinct punishment component to the annihilation that's driving this unsub." said Spencer.
"He's more organized than the typical family annihilator, with greater impulse control and a high level of sophistication." said Rossi.
"His sophistication is apparent in the fact that the object of his rage is deliberately spared rather than murdered." said Emily.
"This allows the unsub the satisfaction of inflicting ongoing psychological pain on the object of his rage." said JJ.
"We're looking for a male in his late 20s, early 30s. He's mature and highly intelligent." said Rossi.
"Amanda Bergstrom and Matthew Doherty may be surrogates for individuals who wronged the unsub when he himself was an adolescent." said Luke.
"Amanda and Matt both attend Pillsbury High School, and we have not identified any other connection between them or their families." said Emily.
"Pay close attention to the faculty and administrators of the high school." said Rossi.
"A lot of the parents are wondering if we should shut down the high school." said Sergeant Wilson.
"The school itself has not been a scene of violence. Closing it would not deter this unsub." said Rossi.
"We need you to beef up patrols and warn the public of the ongoing danger." said Luke.
"And we ask you to encourage the entire Pillsbury high school community to report any suspicious individuals they may encounter. OK, that's it." finished Rossi.
Spencer was sitting on one of the couches going through his copy of the case file when Garcia called them.
"What's up, Garcia?" asked Rossi.
"Do you have any idea how many selfies the average teenager posts on social media on any given day? I'm gonna tell you before you say anything. So many. And like the guys, too." said Garcia.
Spencer slowly got off the couch while feeling a slight twinge in his bad knee.
"Actually, some studies indicate that men take twice as many selfies as women 'cause it's considered to be an acceptable form of male vanity." said Spencer as he thought about the family selfies Olivia insists on having when they're out and about with the kids.
"How many pictures of yourself do you really need?" asked Garcia.
"And they're basically making the same expression..." said Garcia before realizing something, "Oh my God. Am I officially not young?" asked Garcia.
"You, my dear, are the portrait of everlasting youth." said Rossi.
"I'm timeless, right. Good answer." said Garcia before becoming serious, "OK. Back to my point. I have been drilling into the social media footprint of both of our adolescent survivors." said Garcia.
"Any connection between Amanda and Matt?" asked Rossi.
"Yeah. Stay with me while I go around here for a second. So, basically, both of their Facebook pages are just an outpouring of love and support from their peers. And it's touching, really, and it's very reassuring for the hope of our species." said Garcia.
"What did you mean, "basically"?" asked Emily.
"In between all the wonderfulness, there's a tiny tributary of nasty comments from some of their peers, saying that Matt and Amanda got what they deserved." said Garcia.
"Well, they're kids. Kids can be cruel and thoughtless." said Rossi.
"Right. But we all know that cruelty is sometimes inspired by previous action, which made me wonder what Matt and Amanda might have done to provoke some of their peers to saying some of these things on their Facebooks. So I looked into their school records, and both Matt and Amanda have complaints against them for "harassing behavior."" said Garcia.
"They're bullies." said Emily.
"Were they disciplined?" asked Rossi.
"No. To paraphrase the Violent Femmes song, nothing went down on their permanent record." said Garcia.
"So the victims were also victimizers." said Spencer.
"If the unsub was bullied himself as a teenager, that could be the original narcissistic wound that's fueling his present day rage. Turning his surrogate victimizers into victims is the point for our unsub." said Emily.
Spencer thought about the bullying he went through and the lasting emotional scars that he has to deal with.
"Bullying leaves lasting scars. Our unsub could be a teacher or staff member at the school who seems himself as an avenger of students who are current victims of bullying. Someone who punishes the bullies when no one else does." said Spencer as he thought back to Owen Savage punishing his bullies himself.
"From the unsub's point of view, the bullies themselves are responsible for the violence he's perpetrating against their families." said Emily.
"We need to dig into the backgrounds of the teachers and staff of Pillsbury High and identify anyone who was bullied as a kid." said Rossi.
"Already got digital shovels already throwing up dirt." said Garcia.
"We also need a list of any other known bullies at the school so that we can warn and protect their families." said Emily.
"Oh, here's something. There is a school counselor there named Eric Bakken. Not only is he the school administrator who's in charge of handling bullying complaints from the students, but when he was 15, he was charged with assault. He was arrested. He claimed he was provoked by a long-time bully, but the charges were dropped." said Garcia.
"Let's get him in here." said Emily.
Spencer was crouching down at the blood on the floor when Luke came over to him and JJ.
"ME's preliminary time of death confirms that we couldn't have missed him by more than a few minutes." said Luke.
Spencer stood up to his full height while flexing his bad knee a bit.
"There's extreme overkill here. Victim was shot 6 times and then bludgeoned. He's decompensating." said Spencer.
"Or evolving." said Luke.
Spencer headed to Austin's room, and after seeing the room being trashed
"Hey, guys." called out Spencer.
JJ and Luke came into the room.
"Austin's room." said Spencer.
"The other murders, the unsub left the homes undisturbed." said JJ.
Luke noticed a bloodied trophy.
"Well, it certainly looks like this is what he bludgeoned the victim with." said Luke.
"He could have left it in the living room with the body, but instead he brought it back in here and destroyed Austin's other sports trophies." said Spencer.
Yeah, you know, everything about this, the overkill, trashing the room, going after Austin's prizes, it fights against our profile of mission-oriented organization and impulse control." said JJ.
"He's more stressed now." said Luke.
"He knows we're closing in. It's more than that. His behavior reads juvenile." said JJ.
"Our unsub isn't an adult, he's a child." said Spencer before looking at JJ, "When it comes to the raid, I really need to stay at the station." said Spencer.
JJ give Spencer a sad smile.
"Why?" asked Luke.
Spencer looked at Luke.
"I rather tell you about one of my worst days of high school after this case." said Spencer.
Later on that evening Spencer sat away from the rest of his teammates when his cellphone rang causing him to see that it was Hotch.
"Are you done with TDY?" asked Spencer.
"Almost, and I should be back in time for the twins fourth birthday party next week." said Hotch.
"Albert and Ava will be glad that you can make it, but why are you calling me?" asked Spencer.
"I ended up getting a few phone calls from Emily, JJ, Dave, and Garcia about reaching out to you since the case you worked most likely reminded you of one of your worst day of high school." said Hotch.
"It did, and I stayed at the station during the raid." said Spencer.
"Good, but how are you doing?" asked Hotch.
"I'm doing OK, and I can't wait to go hug and kiss my kids since there were kids killed." said Spencer.
"I have to get back to work, and I'll see you next week, Spencer. Please give the kids a kiss from their uncle Aaron." said Hotch.
"I'll tell the kids that you said hi, and I'll see you next week, Hotch." said Spencer before hanging up.
A minute later Spencer was sitting near JJ, Emily, Rossi, and Luke causing him to look at JJ, Emily, and Rossi.
"Thank you for fielding those messages to Hotch." said Spencer.
"Your welcome, kiddo." said Rossi.
Luke looked at Spencer.
"What happened to you?" asked Luke.
"I went through something similar like Kyle did, but luckily I was able to break myself free." said Spencer as he ended up telling Luke about the goalpost incident, and when he was finished, a wide eyed Luke looked at him.
"Were any of the students punished?" asked Luke.
"Nope, and after graduating I only stayed in contact with three former classmates who did their best to protect me." said Spencer before smiling slightly, "I didn't even show up at a high school reunion until my high school 20 year reunion in 2014, and boy did a lot of former classmates ended up apologizing to me that night since their children ended up becoming victims of bullying." said Spencer before pulling out a book to read.
JJ looked at Spencer as he logged off his computer.
"I take it that your not going to join us for drinks?" asked JJ.
Spencer shook his head causing his ear length brown curls to bounce.
"I just want to go home and hug and kiss my sleeping kids, and Olivia told me that she has plans for me." said Spencer before looking at JJ and Emily, "I hope you guys aren't upset about me bailing out again." said Spencer.
JJ rested a hand on Spencer's arm.
"Its OK, Spence. I know that Olivia has it harder than Will since she has four kids under the age of five to manage on her own while Will only has two under the age of nine. So I don't blame you for wanting to go home and help out at home." said JJ.
"Go home, Reid." said Emily.
"I'll see you ladies tomorrow." said Spencer.
Over an hour later Spencer was going into Piper's and Ava's bedrooms and gave his sleeping daughters each a kiss before checking on his sons, and as soon as he entered the master bedroom he saw Olivia holding up massage oil.
"With the case you just worked on, I want to give you a massage." said Olivia.
"I was thinking about giving you one." said Spencer.
"How about we give each other a massage." suggested Olivia.
"OK." said Spencer.
A few minutes later Spencer was giving his wife a massage before Olivia gave him one, and after Spencer's massage the young married couple were fast asleep together in their bed.