Hello everybody; ModernDayBard here with the start of the climax. This is the chapter where it finally happens—we learn Amanda's backstory, and clear up all those little mysteries that went with it. Hopefully, you enjoy!
Because I am required to say it: I do not own Criminal Minds or any cannon characters/events; just those of my own creation.

Her lunchtime conference with Garcia may not have completely solved her inner dilemma, but it had convinced Amanda of at least one thing: Joseph deserved an honest answer about why she was stuck in this no-man's land. Around three that afternoon, she pulled out her phone, carefully typing out a message:

I'm sorry about the disappearing act these last few days—had a case. I don't know if this is a problem I can wrestle with on my own, so can we meet tonight to talk about it? I'll cook.

She was re-reading it prior to hitting 'send' for the third time when Hotch appeared at the top of the railing. "We just got word about a case. Conference room—now."

Amanda fumbled for the 'save as draft' command before stowing her phone away, so she was a few steps behind the others by the time she finally made it to the conference room. Her eyes went instinctively to the screen as she entered the room, where pictures of no less than four victims were already displayed.

...But they weren't just any four victims, and Amanda froze as she recognized them. Her whole body was tense—she was probably shaking—and she could hear the others saying her name, noticing her reaction, but she couldn't look away from the screen, couldn't answer them. She could feel what was coming, and she didn't want to break down in front of her team, so she forced herself to move—turning on her heel and walking back out the door, breaking into a half-run once she was out in the hallway.

Spence stared at his partner's retreating figure in some surprise—she'd gone pale and started shaking without any explanation, hadn't responded to their questions, then ran away. What was going on? Acting more-or-less on instinct at that moment, he went after her, not noticing that Rossi followed him after gesturing for the others to stay put.

She hadn't gone far, at least. By the time the two men had caught up with her, she was sitting on the floor, back to the wall, just around the corner. She apparently hadn't been able to get much further before whatever memory she was trying to fight off had overtaken her. Reid hesitated, suddenly uncertain. He hadn't seen her this rattled since...

...Since Indiana.

That one thought made him remember the scars he'd seen and tried to force himself to forget once it was clear that Amanda had no intention of ever talking about them. Based on her reaction at that moment, all he could guess was that something about those people had reminded her about how she got those scars. His first instinct was to guess and say same unsub, but her scars were far too old, and the pictures had all been of the victims beforehand, not crime scene or ME photos.

Rossi brushed past the younger man, crouching in front of the seated girl. "It was him—wasn't it? You've got a better memory for faces than me; I had to see the name before I knew it was him." it was a poor attempt at a joke, to be sure, but at least it got Amanda to raise her head. "Are you going to be able to help us on this one?"

Spencer shifted awkwardly, wondering how Rossi knew so much about Amanda. There was one obvious answer, given their ages and the timeline, but the young doctor was hoping for his partner's sake that wasn't the case. Unfortunately, that was beginning to look like the most likely possibility.

"No."

Both men were surprised—both at the fact that Amanda had answered Rossi's question, and at what her answer was. After a deep breath, she elaborated: "I can't. They won't let me investigate; I'm a suspect."

Amanda didn't—couldn't—explain anymore until the three made their way back to the conference room and the rest of their team; she only had the resolve to get through this once. Rather than take in the concerned faces of Hotch, Emily, and Morgan, Amanda focused on Garcia, and her worried expression was enough to deal with.

"I know it doesn't look like there's a connection between the victims, but I know that there is, and what it is," she said at last. "In fact, in most ways of phrasing it, I am the connection." Working up her courage, she focused on the screen again, and started by pointing at the first woman. "She's Felicia Warren, and she's the social worker that declared my mother an unfit guardian. The other woman, Cassandra Gerald, was the social worker in charge of my brothers and me when we entered the system, the one that cleared our first three foster homes. Mr. Yeates was my fourth grade teacher, and that man..." she faltered, barely able to look up at the mug shot glaring down at her. "Mr. Veere. He—He..."

"He and his wife were the third foster home you and your brothers were sent to," Rossi finished for her, and Amanda nodded.

She was shaking again, but trying to get it under control. Almost nineteen years, and it was still terrifying to face Veere's pock-marked face. "Is he dead?" she asked in a small voice.

"He died in prison two years ago, but the autopsy noticed that someone had carved the fraction 1/5 into his back sometime before he died. He'd been catatonic for a month, and there were several people who would've had access to instruments that helped care for him in the prison's medical ward, so they never figured out who carved them." Garcia reported, still regarding the youngest agent with protective concern. "They didn't assume it mattered, until three months ago, when the bodies started turning up—each was either strangled or shot and, in order, had the following fractions carved on their back: Felicia Warren, 2/5; Cassandra Gerald, 3/5, Ethan Yeates, 4/5. They assumed they were all connected, since the numbers kept going up, and in most cases, those details had not been made public. It took them so long to connect the dots however, since the kills were spaced out geographically and on the time line..."

For once, Spence wasn't listening much to Garcia's information, and Amanda could feel his gaze boring into her. "What did you mean you were a suspect?"

"I didn't do it," she rushed to clarify, "but anyone looking at the whole story would say you'll be forced to consider me a suspect, which makes me ineligible to help with the investigation." She glanced at Hotch and Rossi, but knew without even looking that the time had come. This wasn't how she'd wanted it to become common knowledge—she hadn't ever wanted it to get out, if she was honest—but there was no avoiding the truth now.

"The Veere's were verbally and physically abusive from the start. It was worse for the boys, especially Jason and Brandon, since Mr. Veere beat them a lot. For Jamie and me, it was mostly Mrs. Veere who punished us, making us skip meals, locking us in the basement overnight, even in the winter when it was freezing down there and we didn't have coats or blankets—things like that. Jamie never was the healthiest kid, a few months of that and he got real sick. At that point, I was the only one the Veere's were letting go to school, they made some kind of excuse for the older two, so I tried to ask my teacher for help. He denied it later, said he didn't know, but that day he said he'd known the Veere's for years, and that I should stop exaggerating, since they only punished kids when they deserved it. Three days later, we woke up, and Jamie didn't. That's when the whole story came out. The Veere's got locked away, and the system separated Jason, Brandon and I."

She'd told the whole story without looking up, never raising her gaze form the tabletop, but even that didn't stop the pain of the tears trying to squeeze their way out. That hell hole of a farmhouse refused to leave her alone, even after nearly two decades. "Excuse me," she muttered, slipping away again—this time bound for the bathroom.

"The details were worse," Rossi added after she left, trying to warn the team way from prying. "That was one of the few cases the early BAU looked into that wasn't one of our own investigations. We interviewed the Veere's and the children, trying to form a picture of events and a profile of the couple, since the abuse was on a horrific, nearly sadistic level. We were using the Veere's as the basis of a profile—that's how bad they were."

Silence fell over the conference room then, as each tried to process what that meant their teammate and her brothers had been put through at such a young age—how strong did they have to be to emerge a decent human being after going through something so terrible? The, there was the more sobering thought...Amanda hadn't had the opportunity, but only she or her brothers knew of all four victims' involvement in their case.

...What if one of them hadn't emerged a decent human being?

So, yeah. I kept it light on details, since I can't imagine Amanda would spill everything in this kind of situation, but there is the backstory that has been hinted at from the start. Hopefully, this makes her flashbacks in Chapter 24 make sense (one was Jamie calling from the cellar, the other was overhearing her brothers as she regained consciousness after her first beating), as well as explains how Rossi seems to know her—he interviewed her when she was a kid. And, yes, this is also the root of why she reacted to the proposal the way she did—she's mostly healed from the trauma, but the thought of being so intimate and vulnerable with someone is still hard for her, since there are still things that haunt her about her time with the Veere's.
Anyway—yes, somehow this case is tied in with her backstory, and top suspects 1-3 are Amanda and her brothers. Who could it be? Stay tuned to find out!
As always, if you saw something you like, or something you think I can fix/improve on for next time, don't hesitate to leave a review and let me know!