A/N: Hello again, everyone!

A shout-out to AHowell1993, Moo2001, Lugm58, and kljher for either reviewing Chapter 66, favoring, and/or following the story. The occasional scenes from episodes of Criminal Minds in this story belong to Criminal Minds and CBS writers. No copyright infringement intended.

It's the 1st P&P Chapter of 2021.

My apologies for the lack of Opal and if I had made any mistakes but do enjoy the chapter!

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


Élise was in the living room with Séraphine twenty minutes after breastfeeding her and made silly faces and noises to her; Opal was napping in the corner.

"May-may, Fifi," Élise beamed as she was playing with Séraphine, who was nicely developing chubby arms and legs. "Look at you. You're getting so big and so much cuter and more adorable; you're just a big baby, aren't you?"

Séraphine responded by smiling.

Reid walked into the living room after leaving his home office with a hardcover copy of War and Peace in his hands. "Hello, favorite girls in the world."

"Just having some mommy-and-daughter bonding time," Élise replied as she was playing with Séraphine's hands and bouncing Fifi on her knee. "Yes, we are."

"Aren't you cute?" Reid pinches Séraphine's cheek before kissing her forehead. Séraphine continued to smile and let out a squeal before blowing a raspberry at him, which Reid giggle.


Reid was watching Séraphine play in her playmat in the living room; Opal was taking a nap. Squatting down to play with her,

"Do you like your playmat, Fifi?"

Séraphine soon began reaching for one of her dangling, squeezable and colorful toys before gently grabbing one.

"Yeah, Fifi," Reid quietly cheered for her, lightly clapping his hands. "You did it again. You're really starting to strengthen your neck and shoulder muscles; your motor skills are steadily developing, and another benefit with keeping up with your tummy time is that you'll prevent yourself from getting a flat head."

Séraphine began shaking her rattle before her eyes set on Reid. Another squeal escaped from her mouth, which caused Reid to smile again. "Hey, Fifi." Gently bringing Séraphine into his arms, Reid lay down on the floor and floated Fifi into the air. "How would you like to take a flight to Daddy Air One?" Reid soon began to make silly airplane sounds, which made Séraphine grin and let some squeals out.

"Hey, what's going on?" Élise asked as she entered the living room with a few pieces of paper in her hands.

Chuckling, Reid slowly got up and comfortably carried Séraphine in his arms.

"Fifi just flew on Daddy Air One."

"Oh," Élise sounded intrigued. "May I take a ride on Daddy Air One later?"

Reid whispers into Élise's ear, covering Séraphine's ears. "Maybe tonight if you're a good girl."

Élise bit down on her tongue before letting out a meow sound.


"Oh, Élise, look," Reid grabbed Élise's attention when he noticed a small patch of bright red skin on Séraphine's bottom as he started to change her diaper, which caused her to act a bit fidgety.

Élise worryingly replies, covering her mouth, "Oh, God."

"Don't worry, love," Reid eases. "Diaper rash is often related to wet and/or infrequently changed diapers, chafing, and of course, skin sensitivities and yeast and/or bacterial infection, even though a bacterial infection is rare."

Élise looked at the creams on one of the shelves of Séraphine's changing table. "Good thing we stocked up on diaper rash treatment creams."

Reid nods his head in agreement before he heard his cell phone vibrate in his pocket. Élise knew, just by the look on his face,

"You got a case?"

Reid shakes his head, "Yup. Jacksonville Beach."

"Don't worry, babe," Élise assures him as she was playing with Séraphine's feet and trying to calm her down. "I'll take care of her."

"E…" Reid tries to change her mind.

Élise reassures him, "I got her. You go to Jacksonville Beach and take the unsub down with your team."

Reid's mouth briefly opened and closed before he swallows his gulp. Exhaling a sigh, "Okay."

Élise smiled and gave Reid a gentle head kiss. Reid soon looked at his precious child in the eye and said,

"I'll be back, princess."

He gives her a forehead kiss.


After being called in, the team briefed on the plane to investigate buried bodies discovered from the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. The team settled on the beach where the bodies were discovered with many CSIs crew members, thanks to Detective Jarrett Foreman.

Under one of the tents, Reid was looking into a microscope when Hotch approached him. Taking a slight step away from it, Reid soon tells Hotch, "You know, based on the parasites on the most recent kill, the unsub killed as recently as a month ago, which means he's still active."

Hotch questions, "How did you establish a timeline so quickly?"

"By reverse engineering mother nature. Each year, sand and sediment cover up the remains, creating layers on the ocean floor." Reid explained as he moves his hands.

"That makes sense." Hotch guesses. "The deeper the pump dug, the older the remains."

"9 victims in 9 years means that he's in control of his urges," Reid replied.

"Any sense of the victimology?" Hotch asked.

Reid answered, "Only that he likes variety. Pelvic bone width indicates that he kills both men and woman, and skull structure says he crosses racial lines as well."

"Agent Hotchner, excuse me." Detective Foreman approached them, moving a piece of clear plastic cover. "We found 3 more remains." He leaves them be.

Hotch said. "If he's been dumping this long, it's not just out of convenience. There's got to be an emotional tie as well." Hotch said with a bad feeling.

"He'll change his M.O. Because he has to, but he won't be happy about it," Reid replies.

"Then he'll have the entire Atlantic to choose from," Hotch said again with a horrible feeling.

"I have many reasons why I hate the beach," Reid said. "And this is one of them?"


Reid was observing a piece of the human body with gloved hands when Hotch approached him again and asked him, "Have you nailed down the victimology?"

"I found a unique evolution, actually," Reid answered as he set the human body piece down and shows Hotch another example. "The earliest victims appear to be high-risk. These lesions are consistent with syphilis, most likely a prostitute." Reid shows Hotch a human jaw, "This one has severely ground and missing teeth, commonly seen in excessive methamphetamine abuse." Reid grabs two more human pieces. "And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a sea change- healthier and stronger victims all the way through to number 12."

"Lower-risk, harder for him to hunt. What do we know about the first victim?" Hotch asked.

"You know that one's tough. He or she has been in the water so long; they're mostly bone fragments. I can attempt to reconstruct—" Reid was interrupted when Hotch said,

"You've got 3 hours," Hotch ordered as he reaches for his phone.

Reid made a face before challenging, "I can do it in 2."

"Make it one."

Soon Reid got on it.


About less than an hour later—fifty-nine minutes and forty-eight seconds to be exact…

Reid had a bunch of human bones and skull laid out on a silver table and in front of Hotch, who had his arms crossed and explained to him,

"You know, on this first victim, the more I work on this skeleton, the more I question its condition. The ocean floor preserved the other remains remarkably well. I think something else caused this."

"Could this be the age of these bones as opposed to the others?" Hotch asked.

"Well, he's significantly older. Arthritis in the joints puts him in his late 50s, but that doesn't account for this degree of breakdown. In fact, nothing in the ocean would."

"If the unsub's responsible, maybe he didn't disarticulate this victim, but he tore him apart instead."

"And look at this." Reid picked up a human bone. "This bone has a defensive wound like he held it up before the blow came down. I think the bone-smashing occurred while the victim was still alive."

"Overkill." Hotch figured.

"He worked out a lot of aggression on this victim. He didn't do that with the others. That would indicate a personal relationship." Reid explained further.

Hotch guessed, "Father?"

"That would be my guess. And not a good one, based on the low calcium levels consistent with alcoholism." Reid concluded.


Finally, a match was confirmed as Reid hangs a picture of a woman from the near head up with blonde hair, light eyes, and was wearing a white shirt and brined straw hat on the clear board,

"Meet our first confirmed victim, Dr. Samantha Cormick. Since her DNA profile was already developed, we were able to save a couple of days."

Morgan replied, "So he dumps here and hunts in Charleston."

"Tourist spot," Seaver said. "Larger victim pool."

"It's a 250-mile trip back here. It's a lot of exposure." Hotch retorted.

Rossi adds, "Torture takes time and privacy, and disarticulation is a mess."

"You know, he could have a mobile torture chamber in his truck or trailer. We've seen that before." Reid said, remembering a certain unsub.

"Who?" Seaver asked, wondering as she observed some of the team members' facial expressions.

"Let's not talk about that right now," Hotch suggested.

Morgan got right back to the current conversation topic, "Or maybe he doesn't drive at all. He could do it all from his boat."

"Well, if he gets them on board in Charleston and sails them out here, he would have time for both." Reid agrees with Morgan, nodding his head.

As Hotch was calling Garcia, Morgan said, "And nobody would even notice a fisherman tossing chum into the water."

"Yello," Garcia answered Garcia-styled after the first ring.

"Garcia, we've got more information about the unsub's boat. It might help you narrow your list." Hotch orders.

"Ok. Bring it." Garcia was ready.

Morgan asked. "Can you give us boats with cabins large enough to hide a torture chamber?"

"Torture chamber?" Garcia sarcastically answers. "'Cause that would, yeah, totally be listed in the manufacturer's specs of amenities."

Reid clarifies the search for her. "Try cabin dimensions. Start at 10 by 10 feet and cap it at 30."

"That is totally gonna take forever 'cause I gotta go record by record. You are lucky I love you. Bye." Garcia said before hanging up to get to the search.

"We need to go back to the families and see who else got a postcard," Hotch said as Reid observes the handwriting on the postcards. "This might finally be a link to victimology."

"Sending goodbye postcards as a ruse is a gamble. Even if written under duress, the victim could sneak their own message into it." Seaver thinks.

"I don't think this was written under duress." Reid reasons just before looking to Morgan and asked him, "You said Dr. Cormick wasn't taking medication for Parkinson's, right?"

Morgan shook his head as Reid gave the postcard to Rossi, "Look at her handwriting."

Rossi took a throughout look at the handwriting and said, "No indication of tremors or shaking."

As Reid is given back the postcard, "There's a drug called Trilamide. In minute doses, it treats Parkinson's, but its main use is for seasickness."

"Something a fisherman would have access to," Rossi replied.

Morgan adds, "And criminals in South America. Intel reports say they figured out a high dose makes the victim totally compliant."

"Yeah, they slip it in your drink or blow the powder in your face, and nasodermal absorption's almost immediate. You're instantaneously susceptible to any suggestion. There have been reports of locals letting thugs into their apartments to rob them, even helping them load the getaway trucks."


Reid was walking towards one of the rooms in the Jacksonville police station just as his phone vibrated. Looking at it and answering it, he had an instant smile.

"Hello."

Élise giggled, "Hello again, love."

Reid giggled back once he heard Séraphine's squealing on the other end.

"Oh, I miss you two."

"And we miss you, too, but you have to make those unsubs take a long time-out. BTW, her diaper rash is easing down now, so don't worry. I got her."

Reid smirks. "I know. I'll talk to you two again while I still can, okay? Love you."

"Love you."

Reid laughs as Séraphine blew a raspberry.


After a geographical and linguistic profile, as well as talking to the people who got the victims' postcards, the team knew it was time to deliver the unsub's profile:

A 30-to-40-year-old fisherman is currently chartering his boat to tourists trying to find a medium risk victim who was trying to start over. To this unsub, they were abandoning their responsibilities. That anger stems from his first victim—his father, also a fisherman but definitely an alcoholic. Based on this unsub's level of sadism, violently abusive, who was the first person to abandon the unsub. The unsub picked a site of significance to them both, but since he can't go back to that spot, he won't leave Jacksonville either. Clinging to what he knows, he'll change his M. O., and that'll make him erratic. He'll escalate due to his sadism and he'll kill uncontrollably until he finds another spot in the ocean to replace this one.


As Reid was looking at the clear board, he sensed that he would need to cover his tracks if the unsub's abducting in transit. After thinking for a moment, Rossi immediately thinks of passenger trains since a conductor can handwrite a ticket once you're already on board. Seaver also adds how one would have to buy tickets onboard. Detective Foreman approached them and alerts them of a body pulled out of the water and how Morgan was at the autopsy, prompting Reid to meet up with him.


With his gloved hands, Reid lifted the sheet covering the victim and said, "The wounds on the thigh show hesitation marks. An unsub this experienced wouldn't display that."

"I don't think the unsub did," Morgan suggested as he was reading the autopsy report. Looking to Reid again, "The angle indicates left-handed dominance. The file says this guy was left-handed, too."

"You know, if he'd been given Trilamide, the unsub could have forced him to cut himself. It makes sense for a sadist with abandonment issues, but why didn't he finish the job?" Reid wondered.

"The victim must have gotten a chance to escape and took it," Morgan replied.

"But how?" Reid questioned as he was still wondering, "The Trilamide kept him compliant enough to hurt himself. It overcame his self-preservation instinct."

Morgan guessed, "Well, then another instinct must have been stronger."

Reid asked, "Like what?"

"A protective one," Morgan responded. "This guy was mentally and physically compromised, but he still went after the unsub with everything he had."

"Who would he fight that hard for?" Reid still asked.

Morgan realized, "Their children."

Reid's mouth slightly opened and agreed as he closed it again, nodding his head.


After getting what she needed, over the speakerphone, Garcia said, "James took the train 3 summers in a row during his parents' divorce. His aunt from South Carolina bought the tickets, filled out the unaccompanied minor paperwork, which is why it didn't show up in my search."

"What's the train line?" Reid asked as he was sitting on the edge of the table, listening.

"Surf Rider," Garcia responded. "It makes stops in Jacksonville, Charleston, and Miami."

"Cross-reference your list of boat owners with railroad employees," Hotch said.

Garcia got something, "I got a hit on a last name. Chuck Wells, local fisherman, son Blake, conductor on the line. And there it is. He didn't show up for work this week."

Rossi asked, "Is there a current address?"

"No," Garcia answered. "Only a boat in the dad's name, which moved to Norfolk in 2000 when the mom was diagnosed with breast cancer. She died a few months later."

"Dad walked out, and the unsub had to punish him for that," Morgan said.

Reid adds, "James doesn't fit the victimology. It doesn't make sense the unsub would take him."

"He picked up on a father-son relationship that reminded him of his own," Rossi replied. "What he didn't count on was Gary fighting for James' life."

"How do we know the unsub hasn't already killed James?" Seaver wonders.

Hotch said, "So far, he's only punished people who've abandoned their responsibilities."

"But that's exactly what James is to him now, a responsibility. The unsub's gonna get angrier and angrier at that kid, and when he does, he's gonna become more like his father."


Reid and Seaver watched James reunited with his paternal Aunt Barbara, who mouthed to them, 'Thank you.'

"She definitely didn't travel at the speed of light." Reid comments.

Seaver nods her head in agreement. "I know I would have." Looking to Reid, "Ready to go home now?"

"Most definitely."


"Hi, favorite people." Reid approached Élise, who was just about to change Séraphine's diaper.

Élise smiled, "Hello."

Giving each other a lip kiss, Reid looked down and asked a kicky Séraphine, "Hi, pretty."

Séraphine continues kicking her feet as Élise began unhooking her diaper. She immediately knew, "You had a long case?"

"Well, that and I've missed you all." Reid comments before asking, "Would you do anything for Fifi? Fight hard for her if anything were to happen to her?"

"I'd die for her," Élise answers. "And I know you would, too."

Reid began petting Séraphine's hair, "Any parent would."

Élise presents, "See? Her rash is gone."

Reid smiles, "You did a good job."

They engage in a passionate kiss as Séraphine began to squeal, smiling as she's doing so.