A/N: I am SO sorry it has taken so long to get this story updated :( I can't believe it's been almost 6 years :'(
I won't go into all the details, all the things that happened in the last near-6 years that kept me trying to update and get back online and then falling off again :/ Life is basically what it boils down to though. A lot of things happening and changing beyond the obvious thing that's happened the last year :/ Each time I felt like I got to a good place to get back and posting, something else would come up and just knock me down again :/
But early last year I got to a point where things seemed to be stabilizing and getting into something of a routine and I felt like I could really try to come back again. I've learned my lesson from other attempts, started very, very slow by posting only 2x a week and focusing on the stories I had left unfinished during that time, putting all other stories on pause, like this one. Then moved into trying to catch up/complete some series in the last few months of 2020.
Since things kept relatively smooth and on schedule last year, I tried to slowly bump up my posting to 3x a week this year. AND I'm trying to get the side stories (Spin-offs, Sequels, and AUs) back up and running.
But, again, it will be VERY slow going to start.
So what I will be doing with the side stories is I am going to post A chapter for 2 stories in a month. There are/will be 12 side stories, so 2 stories will have a new chapter each month and I'll rotate through them, and now it's time for Profiling 101! :D
I posted on tumblr the order of what stories I'll be updating each month. I'll be aiming to post a chapter around the 15th and 30th of a month (this one got a bit delayed, we ended up doing Mother's Day last night due to work schedules). I'll also be trying to space them out where we're not getting stories from just 1 series in a month and maybe try to space out the AUs a little more too.
I know it may seem very slow, because it would mean this story will only be updated 1 more time this year after this chapter, but after being on pause almost 6 years, something is better than nothing, right? And if I can keep up the 2 updates a month, I may bump it up to 3 a month once I get through the 12 side stories ;)
For now, we're on Profiling 101 but check out my tumblr's Upcoming Stories page for more of a schedule for the other ones ;)
~8~
A/N 2: Just another quick warning, this 'blog' will follow Criminal Minds episodes, so there will be some talk of crime scenes, murders, sexual assaults, and other crimes. Leena won't be too graphic in her depictions, but there may be a time or two where a case gets to her and she vents a bit about it. In this chapter, she will be talking about kidnapping, restraints, sexual assault, stabbing, and death.
~8~
May the 5th, 2006:
As it turns out, first days of work are even more nerve-wracking when they're occurring in a different country on an entirely different continent. It likely wouldn't be so bad if more than one member of my new team had been made aware of my arrival before they were about to jet off to their latest case.
I literally met them on the tarmac, my 4 new teammates, and only one of them knew I'd be joining them.
Needless to say, it was an awkward introduction.
They were quite nice, once they warmed up to a woman being among them (all of them were men, which, I do not understand because you would need at least one to offer a perspective that differs on gender. There's only so much a man can learn in a class that a woman herself has lived through or grown with, and vice versa.) I'm especially fond of Dr. Spencer Reid, though, he reminds me quite a lot of Sherwood and I would give any amount of money to put them both in a room and see what happens.
(If I'm ever given time off to return to London, I just might drag Spencer with me, Sherwood, you've been warned and Mycroft I expect you to make it happen!)
Among the other agents…perhaps it was my newness that was a bit off-putting for them, that I came in with no warning or real experience, not on the scope they were used to. They were a bit distant, friendly but distant. Derek Morgan is quite the flirt, charming, suave, but I've helped stop serial killers who were much the same so it wasn't as effective as he probably hoped it would be. (That or I'm just too used to Sherwood's usual tact…or lack there of...that someone having a modicum of charm is just abnormal to me now.) Mr. Gideon was stiff and on edge most of the time, though I've been told that had little to do with me and more to do with a recovery from a past incident. (No, I won't get into it, don't ask.) And our lead, Hotchner, he's very professional, very level-headed and rational, calm, focused, he at least knew I'd be joining them, his quick introduction to the rest of the team and their expressions gave that away.
That's all I'll say about them, that's all I really know about them so far, so, I suppose, it's time to get to the main reason for this blog.
The case.
I'm not fully certain what I am allowed to divulge, so I will be very cautious and only reveal the details that the press were privy to, or information that could easily be found on the internet, that seems a good way to begin.
It all boils down to a single serial killer.
Or so it seemed at first.
But before I really start, I HAVE to say this, because it is so important: ladies, please be aware, never get into a car with a stranger, ever, not by yourself, unless it's a taxi you've ordered and even then always have your location on and sent to a friend. If you're buying a car from someone, and they offer you a test drive, for the love of god bring a friend with you.
That was how this unsub (unknown subject, I've been told, is what they Americans prefer to call their criminals) was able to lure women to him. He would offer them a test drive in his car, then offer them a drive to their homes and just…not take them home.
It was…awful.
You go through school thinking, this is what I want to do. And you know it will be awful and terrible and scarring, just how brutal some people can be to other human beings. You think you've prepared yourself for it. I've seen my fair share working with Sherwood, helping Mycroft, learning in school, odd jobs here and there.
But nothing could have prepared me for afterwards, when you've graduated and you actually have to DO the thing you've trained for. It was different, in school, seeing pictures, reading cases, writing papers. There was a disconnect, a distance, between that happening and me studying it. It was even different working with Sherwood, rushing about London, solving crimes, stopping killers and criminals. It wasn't as a true profession, we were not getting paid for it. It was never official and the burden wasn't entirely on US. Because we were never Scotland Yard, people came to us who the Yard couldn't help but always knowing it wasn't official, that it was on their own head if we couldn't help them or if things went wrong.
(Ha! Like Sherwood ever came across a case he couldn't solve. Even the ones he hasn't solved yet are just those, ones he hasn't solve YET. Do you hear that Sherwood? YET. Put down the blowtorch and get to work!)
Now though, now it IS real. It's official, it is my job, and I wasn't prepared for that pressure…and I'm not ashamed to admit I wasn't prepared for the sights I would see.
It's one thing to see a photo of a gruesome murder scene and know it already happened, the case has either been solved or gone cold and there's nothing YOU can really DO about it.
It's another thing entirely to see live feed of a woman in a cage, with her eyes duct-taped, gagged, knowing she's been assaulted and strangled, and you only have mere hours to save her, to know her life is, quite literally, in your hands and reliant on your knowledge, experience, and profile to be saved.
That's something I will have to live with for the rest of my life, seeing that, knowing that. And no, I am not being over emotional or exaggerating, this image will live in my mind for decades to come.
Perhaps I should have mentioned I have an eidetic memory, so everything I've read or seen…I remember. Which is wonderful when you need to study or recall an important piece of information, not so much when the image burned into your head is a grizzly murder scene.
(Perhaps that was also why Spencer seemed to take to me easier than the others, he shares the same affliction.)
Anyway, enough melodrama and existential cries of 'am I really going to do THIS for the rest of my life?' and back to the case.
The Seattle Strangler, perhaps you've heard of him. 4 victims in 4 months, kept alive for 7 days before he strangled them to death, after…well…assaulting them. No physical evidence, meaning he was careful and likely quite intelligent, able to think ahead to what might be left behind or lead to him.
And then, number 5.
22 year old, Heather Woodland, who was only identified as being missing or his next victim because of an email she had downloaded with a virus in it, that revealed a message, 'For heaven's sake, catch me before I kill more. I cannot control myself.'
We had less than 36 hours at that point to save her.
We began by looking back at his first victims, the very first was the only one with stab wounds, but ones that were made AFTER the strangulation. You'd think that odd, wouldn't you, but really, that's how they learn. You never really consider how much effort it takes to actually strangle someone with your bare hands, the force involved, the time, their struggle. (Personally, I think smothering is easier. The person can't see you if you use a pillow, usually there's less weapons within reach, and if they live in a large manor, like a certain Holmes, there's no one there to hear the struggle…)
The unsub failed to strangle the first victim, then stabbed her to finish the job.
He learned from that, stabbing is too messy, there's too much blood, he couldn't do that again, so he decided to use a belt next time, to make the strangulation easier and faster.
To be honest, watching the team at work was an eye-opening experience. I'm usually used to speaking about murders and crime with Sherwood and we trade facts, things we noticed, here…I mostly observed, listening to them and how they came to make their profiles. I wanted to see how they worked, so I would know how to fit in with them, what lines not to cross, what toes not to step on. I'm here for 5 years, that would be a very long time to be at odds with them and I'd rather work with them. And even just watching them talk, seeing how they built that profile, I see so much potential and use for the Yard.
Some lessons to be learned:
If there's a body placed in a location that is not the crime scene, you need a way to move it there. Therefore, the unsub has a car.
If the fourth body was left in a location out of state, it was on purpose as the unsub was choosing where to put them, so he knew law enforcement would get involved. Therefore he likely has some sort of criminal record, enough to know about the crimes across state lines.
If the nails are clipped, then the unsub wants the victim to fight back, but not enough to actually hurt himself.
If they cover the eyes, the unsub wants to do the deed but doesn't want eyes on him, doesn't want to look them in the eye or have them stare back at him, to see who he is.
If there's an…assault…of that nature involved, but without penetration of a human part…then the unsub likely cannot perform the actual duty. He's compensating for something.
If he clothes the body before dumping it, is usually a sign of remorse, but you have to take into account WHERE the body is too. This unsub dumped them in places where you would drop trash, they were disposable to him.
That was a red flag to me, something I didn't understand. Why show remorse but toss them like garbage? It didn't fit. If he was remorseful, he would have placed them in a more comforting place, or one where they'd be found faster to be laid to rest quicker. But if women were that disposable, he would have just left them, torn clothes, hair in disarray, battered and dirty.
It bothered me, how inconsistent that was with the profile being built.
The only conclusions I could see were 2 possibilities and neither one of them were pleasant to think of.
The first being some sort of identity disorder, two different personalities handling the body. I didn't want it to be that, not just on the grounds that those sorts of cases are rare if they even occur at all but also that, from what I understand of such disorders, the people involved are rarely ever violent towards others. It would just make things harder for that community to pin this on those disorders.
The second, more likely, but still terrible for us, was that there were two people involved in the crime. One who did the crimes, and another that handled the details of it. One would pick the location, the other would bring the body there…but likely feel that remorse for what he was doing and place the body as he had, cleaned up and dressed.
Stupid me, I didn't say anything about that, feeling that I should more observe than interject. Maybe if I had things would have gone differently and precious time would have been saved.
The profile the team built, it painted a picture of an organized killer, aggressive, with trauma in his past, who would push themselves into the investigation to sort of taunt the law enforcement, wanting to feel powerful and in control.
We found a man, Richard Siessman, taken in by another agent, Elle. (I like her, she's got spunk, though she has nothing on Penny. I ADORE Penny, and yes, Penny I know you're reading this. I have only good things to say about you.)
It was all wrong.
Well, not ALL wrong.
He had a trauma in his past, lost a parent, had a criminal record in petty crimes, knew the law.
But he was NOT an aggressor, at all. I could probably snap him like a twig and I have a bare minimum knowledge of fighting (thank you Sherwood, for making me completely inept at handling people attacking me. I love that you want to protect me, but we're now a literal ocean apart and I need to defend myself…especially after my gun certifications. Don't ask.)
(…though Morgan did invite me to the self-defense class he teaches, might take him up on that…)
Siessman, as I said, was far from an aggressor. Adding in that he had no defensive marks on him from where the women would have been fighting him. Though that didn't mean he didn't WANT to be an aggressor.
(I still don't understand how Spencer got that from a Chinese game Siessman was playing against himself. But he was right.)
He had a computer though, with only 6 tries to hack the password or we'd lose all the data on it.
My time had come.
(I probably shouldn't be laughing so much typing that, but it's 4 in the morning, I'm dead tired, over emotional, and hopped up on caffeine right now so don't you dare judge me Sherwood!)
I used a few tactics Sherwood taught me (yes, Sherwood, 'kudos to you' as they say in America), sat at his desk, looked at his belongings, sifted through his music with Morgan and Spencer. Mr. Gideon and Hotchner had gone to try and crack Siessman, they'd realized there were TWO unsubs (and did I kick myself that I should have said something first? Saved us the time? Yes, yes I metaphorically did) trying to find a friend of his, someone that would be the more aggressive, dominant personality. But the computer, we knew it would help us more so we focused on that.
I might have laughed a little bit…when Spencer and Morgan ran in from another room, shouting that they worked out the password, and stopped dead when they saw I'd already cracked it myself.
Sandman.
Siessman was a fan of Metallica, of all the CDs he had that was the only one missing, and if I were an insomniac, Enter Sandman would be the one I'd think of when it came to sleep.
And that was when Heather appeared on the screen, alive, but tied up. Spencer noticed that the lights in the room were rocking, like they were on a boat, and Hotchner cracked Siessman, learning the location Heather was being kept at. Gideon and Elle went to confront the main aggressor, a jail guard named Vogel who protected Siessman when he was held in prison, earned his trust, made him feel indebted. They found Vogel just as he was trying to get Heather out, baited him into firing at them, so Elle fired back.
The unsub was dead.
Heather was alive.
And I can't sleep.
-13 Comments:
Are you alright Leena?
Sherlock Holmes 5 May, 04:49
Sherwood, what are you doing awake at 4 in the morning?
Jackie Jerrard 5 May, 04:51
Leena, it's nearly 10 here.
Sherlock Holmes 5 May, 04:52
Oh. Yes. That's right. It's...been a long day. I suppose I'm just so used to us being together, I'm not used to us not sharing the same time yet. Shouldn't you be checking in with the Yard right about now? Seeing if they have any cases they're desperate to solve? Why are you on the internet?
Jackie Jerrard 5 May, 04:54
I get notifications.
Sherlock Holmes 5 May, 04:55
Of course you do.
Jackie Jerrard 5 May, 04:55
Are you alright?
Sherlock Holmes 5 May, 04:56
I'll be fine, Sherwood.
Jackie Jerrard 5 May, 04:56
Which means you're not right now.
Sherlock Holmes 5 May, 04:56
Call me.
Sherlock Holmes 5 May, 04:59
srsly what is up w/ calling him sherwood?
Anonymous 8 May, 13:28
I wanna know how the gun certification went. What'd you do? Shoot the instructor by accident? Noob.
AKingRules17 12 May, 09:08
what happened 2 gidion?
Anonymous 13 May, 22:14
A/N: I know that this episode technically aired in 2005 and Leena is only arriving there around 2006, but let's take a bit of leeway there and imagine that the events of the show take place a few months later so Leena can be there ;) My plan is to sort of condense the events of season 1 a little bit and space out the events of later seasons so it's more of a year-long blog instead of ending in May and resuming in September like the shows ;)
Again, so sorry this was late. It was meant to be up yesterday, but we were doing Mother's Day things then, since it was the first day me and my siblings and parents were off to celebrate it, but we got it up! :) I hope you liked Leena's interpretation of the case. Poor her. I feel like that was the first time it really HIT her that this was real, this wasn't a game or something to do for fun or a case in class, but real life and people's actual lives are in her hands. It's her JOB now, and it's a lot of pressure she hadn't been expecting.
But lol, Sherlock is always there for her, even an ocean away and in a different time zone :) I like to think he took her lack of an immediate response as a sign she wasn't really ok at that moment and told her to call him, because he wanted to be there for her and couldn't physically be there :')
Some notes on reviews...
Just have to start by saying I'm so glad you're all enjoying the spin-off so far, and I'm very sorry it took so long to get back to posting it. I apologize if I worried any of you, so far things have calmed down and I'm excited to get back to Leena and her time at the BAU :)
Thank you for the correction! I went back and updated the comment :)
Oh I think Leena will try to set a record for insulting/threatening Mycroft :) I could see her finding something to threaten him over at least once in each blog :) Lol, I sort of see Leena only replying to Sherlock so the anon is safe for now ;) She's only really made the blog to keep him more up to date on what she's up to and dealt with, sort of writing for him and no one else, so she really only cares to read the remarks from him :) The anon should consider their person to be very lucky ;)
I probably won't do another story for Jackie at the BAU, this will sort of be her memories of it and experiences with it, so she may go off on tangents about things she does with the other members here and there to try and round out the cases. Here it's more her first case and she's only just met the team, so she's more focused on the case itself. But as she gets to know them more there'll be more bonding moments to come :)
I can neither confirm nor deny who the anon is ;) He or she or variations thereupon are anonymous };)
Awesome, thank you for the correction! :) I went back and fixed the introduction :)
I can't say who the anon is, could be anyone }:)
Thanks for the advice! I'm always open to corrections especially when it's translations from another language, I went back to fix the intro :)
Wow, just realized it could be a reference :) Was not even thinking that when I wrote it, but it's always fun when that happens and you get to go 'oh cool!' :)