A/N: Hello again, everyone!

A shout-out to ahowell1993 and Love . Fiction.2020 for either reviewing Chapter 33, favoring and/or following the story. The occasional scenes from episodes of Criminal Minds in this story belong to the writers of Criminal Minds and CBS. No copyright infringement intended.

Again, sorry for any delay!

My apologies if I had made any mistakes but do enjoy the chapter!

Also, I would like to credit ahowell1993 for helping me with this chapter.


"Ahh," Élise heavenly sighed as she lifted her head, sniffing the air. "I love the smell of being back in DC."

"I know," Reid agreed. "I feel rejuvenation into going back to work after the holiday season."

"Same here. I feel ready as hell going back to work and putting those criminals in their rightful places."

"You and me both," As Reid wraps his arms around Élise. "I'm really glad and extremely proud you got through the holidays without arguing with your mother."

"Same." Élise quietly said. "I wish my mother was like your mother sometimes. Or at least like Mrs. Brady from the Brady Bunch. But then again, no one loves you like your mother and father."

"Oh!" Reid exclaimed. "I have a confession to make." Clearing his throat, "I…saw my father the other day when your brother, father, and I was at Binion's."

Élise's faintly dropped, "Really?"

"Yeah." Reid softly answers. "At first, I wanted to turn him away. But I figured…if you could try and get along with your mother, I can try and…get along with my father. if even it'll never make up for him leaving me and my mother."

"I get it." Élise nodded her head. "Are you planning on inviting him to the wedding?"

Reid truthfully answers, "Maybe."

"You're honest. I definitely respect that."

"And I definitely respect you," Reid kisses her hand before kissing her lips.


"Hello-hello-hello!" Élise singsonged as she and Reid entered the BAU bullpen.

Reid waved, "We're back!"

"Hey-hey-hey," Morgan got up from his seat and started to hug them. "It's my pretty boy and pretty lady!"

"Oh, I see hugs," Garcia said before her eyes widen. "And I definitely want some" Garcia soon starts to hug them before asking them. "How were your holidays?"

"It was great."

"Spence! Élise!" JJ and Prentiss said as they saw them and gave them hugs. "How was Christmas in Las Vegas?"

"It was great!" Reid exclaimed. "My mother says 'hello' to everyone."

"I went wedding dress shopping." Élise happily cried.

"Oh," Prentiss sounded disappointed. "We wanted to help pick out your wedding dress."

"But we still can go bridesmaid dress shopping, right?" Garcia intriguingly asked, raising her eyebrows three times.

"Of course."

Garcia claps her hands, "Yay!"

"We have presents!" Reid gets the bag of presents down on the roundtable and began passing them out. Giving a blue bag to Morgan,

"Thank you, kid and kidette." Morgan smiled before, "Ouch."

He pricked his finger as he carefully lifted his gift out of the bag. "A cactus plant."

"It's the thought that costs, right?" Élise smirked.

"Oh la la!" Garcia yelped in excitement and pulls a pair of gold multi-strap shoes with 2.5-inch platform and 5-inch heels. "Fancy! Love." She gives Reid and Élise another hug.

"Take a look at this!" Prentiss held up a red-and-black dress with feathers and sequins with a matching headpiece.

"Look on the bright side, Prentiss: at least you have an outfit to wear on Halloween. Or maybe you own Las Vegas night party." Morgan chuckles.

"Ha-ha." Prentiss sarcastically replies.

"Jean Philippe Patisserie Chocolates." JJ smiled at the sight of her gift. "Thanks."

"A bottle of Nevada Vodka," Rossi smirks. "Thank you both."

"Well, this is nice," Hotch observed his gift. "Elvis impersonating jumpsuits for myself and Jack."

"Ah, Elvis," Rossi began to have a reminiscing memory. "Reminds me of a story best saved for another day."

"Thank you very much," Hotch said in an Elvis impersonating voice.

A roar of laughter filled the room for a few seconds.


Élise was just walking out of the bedroom, decked in a navy pinstripe cropped wool blazer, matching wool paperbag pants with buckled self-belt, pure merino wool turtleneck sweater, and pumps carrying a handbag as Reid was refilling his coffee mug.

"Morning, sweet brain." Élise gives him a peck on the lip. "Oh! Hi, my little angel!" She pets Opal as she refills her bowl and gave her Opal's new Las Vegas bone-shaped chew toy. "Do you like your toys, Opie?" Élise baby-talked her. "That's what you get when you have a good little girl while Daddy and I were away at Rossi's."

"Yes, you were a good girl with Rossi." Reid pets down Opal, who responds with soft purrs. "Did you have a good time with your daddy, Mudgie?"

"According to Rossi, they were inseparable." Élise chuckled before her cell phone vibrated. "Oh, my…" Looking at her cell phone,

"I know that look," Reis predicted.

"Yup," Élise replies. "Big case involving the kidnapping and murder of a ten-year-old girl."

"Go get them, tiger." Reid gives Élise a kiss on the lips.

Élise eagerly said, "Oh, I will."

"I'm going to go to the park for a while before work."

"Okay." Élise gives him another peck on the lips. "Be safe and have fun!" Blowing him and Opal kisses as she was out the door. "Love you."

"Love you more."


It was a nice, quiet and definitely a peaceful day at the park. Which was perfect for Reid to sit by a nearby bench read to himself. Just as Eric, an old acquaintance of his, was playing chess.

"I see checkmate in 5." Eric thinks before asking Reid, "What do you see?"

"I see it in 3," Reid answered observing the board and chess pieces.

"We've missed you out here," Eric commented as he finished the game.

"Thank you. Thanks. I, uh, I had to take a little break."

Eric wonders, "How come?"

"Life." Reid replies, "I got engaged and I moved."

"Oh," Eric said. "Congrats."

"Thanks," Reid smirked at him before he continued, thinking about a certain someone: Jason Gideon. "I used to play with a co-worker friend of mine. He's probably the best mind I ever went up against. One day, he just decided that he didn't want to play anymore."

"So, you gave up, too?" Eric questioned.

"Just the opposite. I attempted to play through every permutation of moves on a chessboard."

Eric counters, "That's an infinite number of games."

"It's not infinite." Reid recounters. "It's just- it's exponentially large."

"You couldn't have played through them all." Eric retorts.

Explaining in greater detail while still thinking about Gideon, "There's an average of 40 moves per chess game, And I'll tell you something- the more I played, The more I realized that every single match, Every single chess game, Is really just a simple variation on the exact same theme. You know? It's aggressive opening, Patient mid-game, inevitable checkmate, And I realized why my friend quit. He was tired of repeating the exact same patterns and expecting a different outcome."

"So, you have a lifetime of chess strategy in your head and you're just sitting on it." Eric figured as Reid's phone vibrated. Seeing the message on his phone,

"I still use it. I just, uh... I apply it differently. I have to go." Gathering his books and bag, "It was good seeing you."


"Hey, you," Reid greets Élise at the first ring.

Élise was excited to hear from her love. "Hi, baby!"

"I'm heading to Atlantic City."

"Ah, my home state." Élise began happily reminiscing. "Home of Rutgers University and the Scarlet Knights. Now, I have a sudden craving for a Fat Cat Sandwich."

"A what sandwich?" Reid asked.

"A part of Rutgers University's history, a Fat Sandwich is a sub roll containing ingredients such as burgers, cheese, chicken fingers, French fries, falafel, and mozzarella sticks. They often serve them in grease trunks or on the College Avenue campus."

"Now you're making me hungry." Reid's mouth was already watery. "Oh! I better get going."

"Don't let me keep you waiting. Be safe, okay? I love you."

"I love you times pi."


Throughout the course of the investigation, since the team landed in Atlantic City to help out with a series of kidnapping, two more women have been abducted with a day apart. The team concluded that unsub is not only a collector but that the unsub is a woman. An extremely introverted woman with an attachment of a certain type of object.

Dolls.

Mimicking them.

As they are a part of the unsub's life. And that she is medically trained.

And a seamstress as she physically sewed into the victims' hair.

After visiting a doll store, where a now-defunct doll-making company held a 'design-a-doll' contest which also included writing an essay about their doll.

Only for the company to end the contest when they turned some of the essays to the police.

But the team managed to get a possible name.

Samantha Malcolm.


As Rossi and Reid were on their way to see Samantha Malcolm's father, Dr. Arthur Malcolm, with Rossi driving, Reid was busy rereading her essay, 'Sally doesn't like the Room with the Lighting,"

"Hmm…" Reid lifted his eyebrow.

"Are you okay?"

Reid was already having a bad feeling. "There's something about this essay that…the father…"

"What are you getting at?"

As Reid stopped, "I don't think you want to know. Because if you do…" Reid shook his head in silent frustration.


"I am very confused, gentlemen." Dr. Malcolm said. "What does this have to do with Samantha?"

"We need to talk to her." Rossi insisted before asking, "Is she here?"

Dr. Malcolm answered, "No, she's at work."

Asking again as Reid began to observe the shelf behind Dr. Malcolm, "Does she live here, Or did you move her into one of your halfway houses?"

"As a matter of fact, she is in one of my houses."

"Well, we'll need the address." Rossi required.

"And I'll need to know what this is about."

As Reid observed the shelf more closely as Rossi continued, "She might be tied to a series of abductions."

"That's not possible. It's not my daughter."

"Is Samantha on her own at this house? There are no other patients, right?"

"She thought that was best, and I agreed."

As Reid now observed a dollhouse, "Yeah, but let's face it—You're happy that she's out of your hair."

"I beg your pardon?" Dr. Malcolm questioned what Rossi said.

"Because if you had been visiting her recently, doctor, you would know what she's been doing," Rossi said as Reid now observed boardgames.

"Samantha has always been troubled."

"3 women are dead because of her." Rossi retorts.

"She's not capable of that."

"Are you certain?" Rossi doubted "I mean, the effects of electroshock, especially at that age, are permanent. But maybe you knew that."

Rossi forced himself to listen to Dr. Malcolm as Reid continued to observe, "My wife died when Samantha was 10, And she never recovered. I tried everything. Child psychiatry, pet therapy, nothing helped. She was cutting herself. She was in pain. That's the end of this meeting."

Rossi impatiently asked as Reid practically focused on some toys on the shelf before moving a chess piece, "Where's your daughter, doctor?"

"And, agent Rossi, if you try to talk to her, A mentally ill woman, without her knowing what she's doing—" Dr. Malcolm threatened.

Rossi interrupts him, "Do you know about the women she's keeping?"

"And have no medical or legal counsel present, you'll have no case. Do you understand me? None."

"We'll keep the police here in case Samantha drops in for a visit. Let's go, Reid."

Reid stopped before asking Dr. Malcolm, "Hey, a really fast question. Why are these toys here?"

"I use them in my therapy."

"No, I understand that, but why are they way up on this shelf, Away from where any kids can actually reach them?"

"They're reminders of patients that I've helped."

"Let me ask you something." Reid quietly said before placing a unicorn plush doll on Dr. Malcolm's desk, "What was the name of the girl you helped with this one?

"Jenny Larson."

"Hmm. And this one?" Reid asked as he placed another plush toy doll. "What was the name of the girl You helped with this one?"

Abigail Moore."

"How about this one?" Reid placed the last one.

"Linda Krauss."

Reid figured out exactly who Dr. Malcolm really was, especially based on the tone of his voice and the way he looked at the toys, "These girls are what, they're like 9- 9 or 12 years old, I'm assuming?"

"My Ph.D. is on the effect of trauma On prepubescent girls. I do not appreciate what you're implying." Dr. Malcolm was almost insulted.

"Oh, I'm not implying anything," Reid assured him. "I'm making an inference. An inference is an educated guess. And based on that, I form a hypothesis. For instance, my hypothesis here Is that after you raped your daughter, you submitted her to electroshock treatment To make sure she stayed quiet." Reid seethed and said certain words with vitriol.

"This is outrageous." Dr. Malcolm denies Reid's hypothesis after he looked at Rossi.

Reid continued, "And then, out of guilt, you bought her toys, more specifically, you bought her a line of dolls. Because that's what serial molesters do. They give gifts. So you continued the pattern With your other patients, And once they left your care, you added their toys To your collection."

"I'm sorry, you can't back up your story, doctor."

"This is why I love my job, doctor." Reid scoffed at the way Dr. Malcolm calls him 'doctor' as he continued as he got in Dr. Malcolm's face. "Because my lab, it's a jury of your peers. My tests will be Jenny Larson, Abigail Moore, And Linda Krauss. The D.A. will put them on the stand, And I'm going to personally bring these dolls in, and we're going to watch how they react."

"Or you could tell us where your daughter is and we'll tell the D.A. you cooperated." Rossi interrupted them. "But once we walk out this door, that deal comes off the table." Rossi points to the door before walking away with Reid,

"2529 Adams Street." Dr. Malcolm quickly told them as they walked back in. "You'll tell them, right? That I cooperated."

Reid ignored his question and approached his desk, "You want to know I figured you out? Those toys. You take care of them. These ones you treasured. But you know what? The collection's not complete. Where are they?"


After the case concluded—with Reid gently talking down Samantha into surrendering once he gave her the dolls her father gave to another patient of his—and watched the victims reunite with their families,

"Élise," Reid rushes to hug his fiancée, "What are you doing here?"

"My case ended;" Élise explained. "Both the husband and wife were found guilty on all counts of kidnapping and murder. Took the jury five minutes to convict."

"Wowza," Rossi smirked. "You should have seen your fiancé, Agent Reid, in action today. It was a hell of a first case back as a full field agent too"

"Really?" Élise sounded interested.

"I profiled a pedophilic doctor who not only raped his unsub daughter, who lost her mother at ten but admitted her to electroshock therapy to make sure she stayed quiet about the repeated molestation; he bought her dolls after he felt guilty about doing it. And in all honesty, I wanted to do bad things to him. You should have really seen his face when Rossi and I returned to his office with the police and told him to his face directly we never tell the D.A. he 'cooperated' since we were already out the door."

"Bastard better be lucky I wasn't there," Élise growled. "I would have done such…to say bad things would be me putting it mildly. I tell my acquaintances to make sure he's not only prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law but to revoke his medical license. And...to add the cherry on top, I'll make sure he's sent to a prison where he'll be given the 'special' treatment."

"You should have seen the way I handled him," Reid whispered seductively in her ear.

Élise breathes back, growling, "You have seen me in court, today. The way I handled the wife."

"Oh, tell me." A fascinated Reid asked.

"I figured out the wife was a part of the kidnapping and murder when I noticed she wore the victim's—Ava Wilson's—, necklace. Ava's parents said that she always wore her necklace which not only had her name engraved but that it had her birthstones, which were also your birthstones, babe. She insisted it was her birthstones, but the wife's birthstones are aquamarine and bloodstone."

"Now, that's very impressive." Reid got closer, kissing her temple, allowing Élise to giggle.

"Oh, God," Morgan almost barfed at the sight of them. "Are you two about to make out or…?"

"Say, Élise…" Rossi interrupts him, noticing paper bags on the table, "What do you have there?"

"Oh," Élise began passing them out. "A little taste of my alumni school Rutgers University: The Fat Sandwich."

"Wow," Reid said once he saw the sandwich.

Prentiss replies, "That's a sandwich alright."

Morgan began munching, "But it tastes so good."

"I know," Élise said before she began eating.


Reid and Élise have decided to stay in New Jersey for the night and leave for DC the next day in the afternoon. Élise figured that she could surprise her brother and sister-in-law.

"It was really great for you to come and visit us, sis," Élise's brother, Arthur said.

"Anything, big bro." Élise replies as they were all gathered around the dinner table, eating Chinese food.

"So, any new wedding plans?" Brenda interestedly asked.

Élise shrugs her shoulders, "Not yet."

"Not even a honeymoon?"

Reid truthfully answers, "We're going to Japan and South Korea for our honeymoon."

"Where'd you guys go for your honeymoon?"

"A week in Hawaii and another week in the Caribbean." Brenda answers. "And they were some of the best two weeks in my life."

"Sweet." Élise comments.

"Do you two plans on having children soon?" Arthur questions.

"Hopefully," Élise answers. "And you two?"

"Maybe. Maybe not." Brenda responds. "But if you do have children before us, at least we'll be having nieces and nephews to spoil."

"As long as you keep them disciplined," Arthur reminded them. "You know how children can be."

"Of course." Élise and Reid said simultaneously.


"So, where are we going?" Élise interestedly asked Reid as they decided to take a stroll down to the park.

"It's a surprise?" Reid answers.

"Okay." An open-minded Élise replies.

Reid saw Eric playing chess by himself.

"Hey." Looking at Élise. "She's your fiancée?"

Élise presents herself, "Federal Prosecutor Élise Bastien. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Same here." Eric greets her before going back to his chess game.

Noticing Eric's chess game, "Checkmate in 12." Reid comments.

"No way." Eric chuckles.

Reid kisses Élise's lips before joining him. "Let me show you."

"I believe it was Isaac Asimov who wrote, "In life, unlike chess, the game continues after checkmate.""