Who Knew, Huh?
Chapter Thirty Seven (37): Zoe's Reprise
"How does it feel to be back from maternity leave... again?" Morgan added the last word to get a rise out of Emily, who just glared and threw a ball of paper at him.
"Good, but hard as hell" she answered, before going back to her paperwork.
"How about you pretty boy? You glad to have her back on the team, now that you don't have to room with me"
"He better be, cause my doctor still hasn't cleared me yet" she said while staring at her husband, who just swallowed loudly, making Morgan laugh more.
Right then, JJ walked through the doors with a stack of files and as a joke Emily played dead, earning a confused look from her husband, "What are you doing?"
"She can't make me work if I'm dead" she muttered to him, Morgan laughed even more.
"Ha ha Emily" the Liaison replied in a sarcastic tone, "Here" Emily reluctantly took her share of work.
"Everyone grab your bags, we're heading to Cleveland" Hotch said as he walked out of his office holding his go bag.
"Isn't that where Rossi is now?" Morgan asked, earning a nod from Reid, "What's going on? I thought during our break you'd show my baby girl and I photos of Henry?"
"I'll explain on the Jet"
"Alright" Morgan said while grabbing his go bag from under his desk.
"I'll call my mom so that she can take the kids for a little while" Emily said while speed dialling her mother, after grabbing her go bag.
"Alright" he said while following her, with JJ right behind him.
"This place was a definite bore without her, finding a new way to get a rise out of me about the amount of work I hand to you guys daily" JJ stated, making Reid laugh.
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"So, this is a serial killer studying serial killers?" JJ asked the team who were overlooking the case files once again but this time at the precinct.
"Yes, that's what it looks like" Hotch said, before looking back to the team, "The question is, why copy various known killers?"
"...I think I might have an idea" Reid spoke out.
"What is it, kid?" Morgan asked.
"From the various use of weapons and COD it looks like he's a serial killer trying to find his choice of COD, what turns him on the most and can cause the right release for him"
"It kind of makes sense Hotch" Emily stated before continuing, "I mean he tries the butcher of Kingsbury... doesn't satisfy him as much as he thought so he goes looks and chooses the next one that looks appealing to him, Jack the Ripper, but the shallowness of the cuts shows that it wasn't his choice, so he moves on"
"And goes for the Son of Sam but shooting doesn't satisfy him, and he looks up more and finds the BTK, but something out of that... does repeat itself with Zoe" Hotch stated, "Strangulation"
"That was probably because she showed up, startled him at how she got at connecting the murders together, that's why he used her scarf" Morgan argued.
"Maybe but let's keep it in mind and not throw it away" Emily said, "Because maybe he did chose COD as strangulation, but there are many weapon of choice to use to strangle someone"
"Prentiss's right" Reid said, with Hotch nodding and JJ as well.
"...Maybe the natural reaction to her connecting the murders together brought out his true calling" at this the room fell quiet, because they all knew that if this was true, then it would be only a matter of short time before he killed again.
"Alright let's move on and try to gather up a preliminary profile as soon as possible" Hotch said while staring at Morgan, before keeping an eye on Rossi, who just stared at a photo of Zoe.
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"What do you have?" Hotch asked both Reid and Morgan.
"Looks like our UnSub found himself" Reid answered.
"What do you mean?"
"He might have mimicked another murderer but his choice of COD was strangulation, but with a wire and it was done the same way as Zoe's was killed"
"So we were right then?" Hotch asked them, and Reid answered while Morgan just nodded, "Reid go check on Prentiss, Morgan follow me"
After Reid left the he went to go find his wife who was outside of the station, talking on the phone.
"Hey baby girl... You and Ale being good at grandma's?...That's good to hear sweetie... Yes, I'm taking a little break to make sure you guys are alright... Yes mommy and daddy are working real hard to put the bad guy away" she turned around, saw her husband,and smiled up at him, "Yes, as a matter of fact he is near me...I'll hand over my phone to daddy right now" she then hand her cell phone to Spencer who put it to his ear, "We're on speaker phone" she told him.
"Hey Cassie and and Ale"
"Hi daddy!" both said at the same time.
"You two are being nice at grandma's?"
"Yes, daddy"
"Huh uh, we are, even Matty, Willy and Ari-a" Cassandra told him.
"That's good to hear"
"You coming home soon?" Ale asked.
"I will as soon as Mommy and I put the bad guys away"
"Pwomise?" Ale asked.
"I promise, now go get ready for bed okay?"
"Okay, night daddy! Love you" Cassandra said before he heard her running off.
"Night daddy, love you"
"Love you both, and night" he chuckled out before hearing Elizabeth talking to him.
"Be careful and take care of my daughter"
"I will"
"Alright then... night Sarah" she then hung up on him. Spencer's facial expression changed to a sour look on his face.
"...What is it?"
"Your mother, called me Sarah again" she then started laughing.
"You know that's her way of saying she loves you honey" she said, while wiping the tears from her face.
"Hotch wanted me to check up on you, well because I wanted to"
"Thoughtful of him" she answered back.
"Our UnSub found his signature, which was what we profiled earlier. Strangulation"
"But he'll still choose places and attack others like other serial killers right?"
"From what Morgan and I saw from the latest victim, yes"
"Can you promise me something?" she turned to him as they made there way back into the precinct.
"Depends"
"If our kids show any interest in what we do... talk them to death with statistics" she told him, while grinning.
"HEY!" he exclaimed while chuckling getting her dark sense of humour, "Unfortunately I know where you're going with this and I do want all of our kids to avoid what we do, but what if they have what it takes?"
"Then I guess we let them but we make sure to embarrass them and get the rest of the team to help"
"Deal" he said with a short laugh before they both went back to agent mode.
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After picking up the kids from the ambassador's home, they drove home, put the kids to bed and spent a quiet evening on the couch watching an old Alfred Hitchcock film on TV. But halfway through the movie, before long they started to make out and continued it for a while, until a war film came on and the first explosion broke them apart and woke all five kids.
"I'll handle Cassie and Ale" Spencer said, while straitening his dress shirt.
"I get the triplets" Emily said, while nodding her head, while buttoning her blouse and both made their way up the stairs.