Hello, everyone. And a shout-out to AHowell1993, Amy, Martha, Betty, Skylar, Susan, and Kelly, for either favoring, following, and/or reviewing Chapter 18. The occasional scenes from episodes of Criminal Minds in this story belong to the writers of Criminal Minds and CBS. No copyright infringement intended.

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

Make sure you are all safe and sound with the COVID-19 pandemic going on.

Previously from the last chapter…

"We're married, Spencer!" Élise cried in excitement as she, Reid, and Anastasia began touring around Williamsburg in a horse-drawn carriage. "We're married!"

"Yes, we are." Reid smiled before kissing Élise's lips.

Anastasia squealed, "Family!"

Élise giggled before cuddling Anastasia in her arms, "Yes, baby. We're a family!"

"We're one big happy family." Reid embraces Anastasia before giving her a kiss on her head.

"I love you both you." Anastasia happily replies.

Reid and Élise kissed her, "And we love you, too."

"Mmm…."

"Ahhh…"

Élise giggled as she and Reid embraced, tossing, and turning in their bed. It's been a few days since they came back from Williamsburg and all of their families have returned home.

"Oh, là là, chérie," Élise breathed as she began kissing Reid's cheek.

Reid sighed, "Ahhh…" Turning his head, he sees his silver watch on the nightstand and looked at the time. "Oh…" He pulls the comforters aside. "I better get going."

Élise guessed. "Work?"

"Mm-hmm," Reid said, putting on his plaid robe.

Resting her head on the pillow, "I can't believe it's been two weeks."

"I know." Reid agreed as he walked over and kissed Élise's lips.

Élise offers, "I'll go get breakfast ready."

"Here you go, babe," Élise said as she gave Anastasia a parfait of vanilla yogurt, mixed berries, oats, and nuts.

"Yay, mama." Anastasia cheered.

Élise giggled. It felt so comforting for Anastasia to call her mama, even though she knows that she'll never replace her biological mother. Just as she was fixing breakfast for herself and Reid,

"Hello again, you two."

Élise looked up when she saw Reid fixing up his dark color tie, which matched his dress shirt and jacket, cladding with a dark reddish-purple dress vest, dark pants and shoes, and his messenger bag. Élise bit down on her bottom lip; to her, Reid looked like a male supermodel modeling for high-end European suit makers.

"Hey, don't you look handsome?" Élise replied, raising her eyebrows as she gave Reid his breakfast.

Reid kissed Anastasia's head before kissing Élise's lips again, "Thanks."

"Made you a bacon, egg, and cheese on a croissant."

"Thank you," Reid said before taking a bite. "It's good."

"Thanks," Élise said as she gave Reid a glass of orange juice before asking him. "Are you sure you're ready to go back to work?"

"I think I am." Reid confidently said.

"You can still take some time off," Élise suggested.

"I know, but I know I need to go back to work."

Élise shrugs her shoulders, "True." Noticing his wedding ring was not on his finger. "What's your ring?"

Reid pulls out a gold chain, which had his wedding ring as he was drinking.

"Wow," Élise exclaimed. "You're wearing it as a pendant?"

"Mm-hmm." Reid nods his head before tucking the necklace back inside his dress shirt. "Plus, I don't think I want the team to know yet. And I want to keep you close to my heart."

"Plus, they don't need to know everything that goes on in your life. Yet." Élise replied.

Reid had just finished his breakfast before he looked at his watch again. "Oh! I better get going." Reid said, wiping his mouth.

Élise took Reid's plate, "And if anything, you'll call, right?"

"Yep," Reid answered before kissing Anastasia's head and Élise's lips again. "Love you both."

Élise smiled, "We do you."

East entrance of the FBI Building...

Just as Reid was stepping into the elevator,

"Hey, you!"

Reid noticed Prentiss acknowledging him. Smirking back to her,

"Hey."

As Prentiss steps into the elevator and stood beside him, she asked him, "So, how were your two weeks off?"

"They were good," Reid replied. "Decided to take a trip to Williamsburg with my mom, my cousins Abigail and Jonah, Uncle Gordon, and Aunt Ethel."

Prentiss snickered, recalling, "This is the famous Aunt Ethel who doesn't like your long hair?"

Reid shakes his head, "Mm-hmm."

Prentiss asked him again, "Are you sure you're okay? I meant what I said about you and Penelope taking some time off, especially with…"

"It's not the first time I've been abducted, taken captive, hostage or almost killed," Reid assures her.

"But still…"

Reid reassures her. "I'm fine."

"Okay. Just let me know of anything, okay? I'm not just your boss, I'm also your friend."

Reid gulped, "Then I need you to swear to secrecy."

"About what?"

Reid pulls out his necklace and shows Prentiss his wedding band.

Prentiss gasped, "You're married? To who?"

Reid smiled. "Élise."

Prentiss' jaw slightly dropped, "Really?"

"Yeah," Reid said, tucking the necklace back in. "We…finally admitted our love for each other and after what happened with…you know, we just decided…"

"Well, congratulations." Prentiss gave him a hug before the elevator doors open. "I swear to secrecy."

Reid allowed her to step out of the elevator first, "Thanks." Walking into the BAU bullpen,

"Welcome back, Spence," JJ greeted him before Penelope waved to him as she was walking towards Prentiss' office.

Alvez was next, "Hey, man. How are you feeling?"

"Ready to get back to work." Reid self-confidently said.

"How was your two-weeks off?" Simmons asked.

"I'm good," Reid replied. "And like I told Prentiss, it's not the first time I've been abducted, taken captive, hostage, or almost killed."

"You know we can't help but worry about you," JJ said.

"Yeah."

"Okay, everyone," Prentiss said, catching everyone's attention. "Let's wheel up in 30. We head to South Carolina."

After arriving in South Carolina, while Simmons and JJ headed to the local sheriff's department, Prentiss had Reid and Tara go to the nursing home and talk to Dorothy Elgin, the wife of Karl Elgin, who lived in total isolated with no kids, family, or friends as she, Luke, and Rossi went to the crime scene.

As Reid and Tara walked inside the nursing home, Reid gets a text from Élise and a picture of her and Anastasia quoting,

ENJOYING SOME GIRL TIME TOGETHER! LOVE!

Reid chuckled. Tara turns her head,

"You okay?" She asked.

Reid put his phone away, "Yeah, I'm okay."

"If anything, I'm here for you." Tara guaranteed her.

Reid lightly smiled, "Thanks."

A woman at the front desk greeted the agents, "Hello there. May I help you two?"

Reid and Tara showed her their FBI creds, "Hello. We're here to speak with a Mrs. Elgin."

"Mrs. Elgin was committed here three months ago," The receptionist replied. "She was found wandering on the outskirts of town in the middle of the night."

"And the diagnosis was dementia?" This made Reid think about his own mother.

"That's right. Honestly, I don't know how much luck y'all are gonna have talking to her. Mrs. Elgin drifts in and out."

"Did she bring any personal possessions with her?" Reid asked.

"She had a bag with some small items when the police found her. I believe they're still in her room if you want to take a look."

"What about visitors?" Tara asked as they see her sewing. "Not a one. It's sad, really. Mrs. Elgin, there's some people here to see you.

"Dorothy, hi." Tara tried to start off. "I'm Tara. This is my friend Reid."

"We were hoping to maybe talk to you about your old house."

"We think something bad happened there. Maybe with your help, we could fix it." He and Tara watched as they saw her prick her finger and calmly kisses it.

"Maybe we should check her room?" Reid whispered the suggestion.

Tara nods her head, "Good idea."

Tara and Reid approached Dorothy again after giving her a few minutes to calm down after she screamed that 'It won't work. It's not the same.'

"You're pretty great at that," Tara said, trying to start a conversation with Dorothy. "My aunt loved to sew. I was a tomboy, always tearing my jeans, and she would mend them, make them good as new.

"Now, Dorothy, you can be truthful with us about Karl and the girls. We know you cared about them. That's why you fixed their clothing." Reid said.

"I'm sorry, but it's time for Mrs. Elgin's medicine." One of the women said.

"Dorothy, you said something earlier. 'It won't work. It's not the same.' What did that mean?"

"Did I say that?" Dorothy asked confusingly.

Tara asked her. "You don't remember?"

"No."

"I'll bring her back in a few minutes if you'd like to wait."

"Something's going on with her," Tara said, expressing her feelings to Reid. And before they knew it,

"No! No!"

Dorothy stabbed herself at her throat with a fork.

"Call 9-1-1," Tara cried to Reid as she tried to stop the pressure and he rushed to call 9-1-1.

After getting off the phone, Tara tells Reid, "Dorothy died on the way to the hospital."

Reid sighed, "Whatever she knew died with her. I can't believe she did that."

"Well, maybe the guilt got to be too much for her." Tara assumed.

"Is that everything? There's nothing else?" Reid questioned, observing the personal belongings/

"Those are the only items she brought from her house."

"All right, Dorothy was picked up by the police in the middle of the night." Tara tries to recreate what happened. "She was brought here, went to bed, but she wasn't processed until the next morning."

Reid reflects. "So, she had a small window of unsupervised time."

"What's the one thing we know for sure about the Elgins?"

"They like to hide things."

"Yeah. Jewelry, keychains, bodies, you know, the important stuff." As they searched the room again, Tara found something interesting.

Letters.

"Old habits die hard," Tara said as she looked at them.

As Reid shows the old letters to the team, "The victims probably wrote these. We're having forensics expedite the processing of the envelopes."

"At least now we have names and addresses," Prentiss replied. "Let's see if Garcia can track down the intended recipients."

The sheriff asked. "Why write letters that never even got mailed?"

"It could have been a way for Karl and Dorothy to psychologically control their victims, allow them to write letters to loved ones, give them a sense of being in a safe and nurturing environment."

"Which makes the behavioral profile less sociopathic, oddly enough."

"How come?" He asked again.

Reid clarified for the sheriff. "To use parental love as a manipulating device means they have an understanding of the importance of family."

"Most sociopaths don't. By definition, they lack the sense of human connectedness the rest of us feel." Prentiss furthered explained.

"The Elgins must have experienced it firsthand."

The sheriff said, "I don't see how they could. Karl and Dorothy didn't have any kids."

"Was that ever verified?"

"Well, I'd drive out there now and then just to check in on them, and I never saw another soul besides Karl and Dorothy.

"Sheriff, have you ever heard the saying, does a tree falling in an empty forest make a sound?" Prentiss asked before taking a call.

"It's a metaphysical riddle about unperceived existence. The answer's largely dependent on whether you subscribe to substance or bundle theory. In this case, I believe Agent Prentiss is saying that, yes, the tree does make a sound."

Prentiss got off the phone. "Thank you. Surprise, surprise. Autopsy on Dorothy Elgin reveals at some point in her life she did give birth."

"I'll be damned."

Reid began wondering, "With the recent killings, the signature changed. All the feminine aspects went away. What if Dorothy had a son?"

"He would have known about the earlier killings, maybe even witnessed them. And then when the patriarch died, he was there to pick up the torch."

Reid went through the paperwork of the Milburn crime scene and based on the bullet trajectories, body angles, and blood spatters, he was able to conclude that not only it is consistent with a murder-suicide but someone staged the crime scene and killed the Milburn family, consisting of a mother, father, and teenage son. After JJ founded a baby bottle among all the other evidence, they looked at the Elgin property again, which was right next to where the Milburns lived.

In the end, Rossi and Simmons managed to find the victim and arrest the unsub. As the team packed up,

"So, all this is because the Elgins' daughter ran off?" The sheriff had to ask.

"Karl saw the effect it had on his wife," Tara explained. "So he went out, found those girls in an attempt to pull Dorothy out of her tailspin."

"He surrounded her with substitute LeeAnnes in the wall, under the floor, basically encircling her," JJ explained next.

"And their grandson tried to do the same thing for her once Karl died."

"Is this a normal case for you folks?" The sheriff asked again.

"None of them are normal," Rossi answered.

"Well, Dr. Reid, I can say it was a pleasure talking to you. I'm gonna give that tree in the forest thing some more thought."

"Don't give it too much thought. It's basically an infallible conjecture." Reid suggested to him.

"Copy that. Well, thanks again."

"Uh, Emily, I need to go to New York for a couple of days. Would that be all right?" Rossi asked.

"After the wrench I threw in your vacation with my quick detour, take all the time you want," Prentiss said.

"Coming?" Reid asked JJ.

"Uh, yeah, yeah. In a minute. There's something I have to do." JJ said before leaving the room. As Reid left the room himself,

"Hey."

Rossi greets him.

"Hey."

"So, how were your two weeks off?"

Reid answered, "Rejuvenating."

Rossi sensed something else. "Is there something you want to tell me?"

"Can you swear to secrecy?" Reid replied.

Rossi zips his lips, "Mum is the word."

Reid pulls out his necklace and shows off his wedding band.

Rossi pulls Reid into a quick hug and a kiss on the head, "Congratulazioni." Mouthing to himself, "Finally."

After Reid enters the apartment and locks in the security alarm system, he sets his bags aside and rushes himself into Anastasia's room and sees her asleep.

Anastasia muttered, "Dada…"

"Dada's home, Stacie," Reid whispers in her ear before kissing her temple. "I love you so much."

He quietly leaves her room, but not before watching her drift back into her sleep. He soon walks into Élise, who was already in her two-piece sleepwear.

"Hey, you." She whispered before giving him a kiss.

Reid noticed, "I'm surprised you're not asleep yet."

"I wanted to wait up for you," Élise said as she wrapped her arms around Reid. "We missed you."

"And I missed you both," Reid said before kissing Élise again.