Chapter Five: By the Light of the Moon

The first thing JJ was aware of when she woke up was the sound of the shower running. After spending hours at the precinct last night, Hotch demanded everyone go back to the hotel to get some rest. Will had been loath to leave Tate asleep in the office, but Jack had assured him he would check in on her.

As she reached onto her nightstand to grab her phone and check her messages, she heard the water in the bathroom turn off. Will stepped out of the bathroom, dripping wet, with a towel wrapped around his waist.

"Mornin', Cher," he greeted JJ, giving her a kiss as he walked past the bed towards his bag on the floor. "How'd you sleep?".

"Alright", she replied as she went through her texts. "Hotch wants us to be back at the precinct by eight,".

"Well, then we have an hour to get over there. Why don't you go take a shower and we can stop for some food on the way, hm? It's about two miles, so I figured we could just walk,".

Half an hour later, JJ and Will were walking towards the precinct, having stopped to pick up takeout at a diner on Newbury Street called Stephanie's. It was a typical winter day in Boston, the cold air having set in once the month of December began.

JJ looked over at Will, who seemed to be deep in thought. She reached forward and grabbed his hand not holding the bag of food.

"I know I keep asking this, but are you really okay?" JJ hesitated, "I just…I feel like something's been bothering you this whole time".

"I'm okay, Cher," Will sighed. "This whole case just has me thinking about my daddy, I suppose".

"Well, what about him?".

The two came to a stop in front of a crosswalk before looking both ways and crossing the street. JJ checked her watch to make sure they were going to be on time, and saw that they still had twenty minutes to make it the mile to the precinct.

"He just would've hated to see this, ya know? Thomas started working as the DA 'bout twenty years ago, and my father always respected him. Plus, him and Harlan were basically like their uncles when they lived in New Orleans, not that Tate would remember," Will told her.

"Harlan?" JJ wondered.

"My daddy's best friend. They were partners together when they were in homicide. Harlan was basically my uncle growing up, always there for me. He's got Alzheimers now, most of the time when I visit he thinks I'm my father," Will replied.

JJ was about to tell him she was sorry before he continued, "this case just makes me think about everyone I've lost. I mean, Tate's 13 years old and she's got nobody left. I was having a hard enough time being alone at 31".

JJ pressed more into Will's side as they walked before reminding him, "you have me, you know. Always".

"I know that now, Cher, but in Miami…when everything was going downhill I didn't. I just kept thinking about how my daddy and Charlie were dead, Harlan had one foot out the door, and you were leaving". As he spoke, Will had been tightening his grip on JJ's hand, seemingly unaware of his actions.

JJ stopped beside him all of a sudden, and waited to speak until he turned to look at her.

"Hey, listen. We always have each other, okay? Cause as long as we have each other we won't ever be alone," she told him, looking deep into his icy blue eyes.

Will wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and pressed a kiss into her hair. "Glad we're in agreement then, Jen".

As JJ and Will stepped out of the harsh Boston wind and into the warm bullpen, they could see the rest of the team gathered around the evidence board.

"Ooh, food and coffee. Thank god," Emily said, seeing the pair carrying the takeout bags and drink trays.

"Garica hasn't been able to find anyone that would have wanted revenge against the boys. Can you have Tate look over this list and see if anyone sticks out?" Hotch addressed JJ, handing her a sheet of paper with roughly 15 names on it.

"Are these the boys they would have been in the group home with?" JJ questioned

Hotch nodded before saying, "they're all in the right age range, and they all lived in the home at some point during Theo and Johnny's stay there".

Will stood up from the table, and grabbed a paper bag with a muffin in it from the takeout bag, along with a bottle of orange juice.

"I'll bring her some food before you get started. She probably hasn't eaten since early yesterday," Will said, knowing the girl didn't have any dinner since she'd fallen asleep before they had time to get food the previous night.

Will walked over to the office he had left Tate in and softly knocked on the door before entering. Tate was curled up on the corner of the couch, reading Reid's worn out paperback copy of the Sign of Four.

Tate, who had looked up upon hearing Will enter, marked her page, and set it down on the table. "Sorry about last night," she mumbled, looking back down.

"Don't worry about it, kiddo. You don't have to be strong all the time, okay? It's okay to miss him," Will said, gently lifting her chin so she would meet his gaze.

"Here," Will handed her the brown paper bag and juice, "I got you something to eat. Figured you must be hungry".

While Tate thanked him and began eating, JJ, Hotch, and Rossi had stepped into the room.

"Hey Tate, our technical analyst got a list of potential suspects, and we were wondering if you could look over it and tell us if any of the names stick out to you," JJ said, holding out the list for Tate.

Tate took the paper from JJ, and scanned the list of names. About halfway through the page, Hotch noticed her eyes stopped on one name.

"Is there anyone on there you think might have wanted to hurt your brother?" Hotch asked.

"Freddie," the girl informed him quietly.

Hotch took the list back and quickly read through the list of names. "Frederick Carlisle?".

When Tate nodded in response, Will spoke up. "Why do you think it was him?".

"Freddie had a little brother, Archie. He was my age, and one afternoon we went with Theo and Johnny to the park". Tate paused, and took a deep breath before continuing.

"The boys were playing baseball with some other kids, and I was reading on the bleachers. And then when it was time to go home, we couldn't find Archie".

"He was missing?" Will asked.

Tate nodded, "the police found him the next morning, dead in an alley up near Hyde Park".

"And lemme guess, Freddie blamed Theo and Johnny," Rossi interrupted.

"Archie'd been playing with them all afternoon, and Theo said one second he was there, and the next he was gone. But Freddie, he was furious. He thought Theo lost him on purpose or something," Tate finished, looking slightly distraught.

"Do you think he could be capable of something like this? Being this violent?" Will asked softly.

"Freddie…was always a little different, you know? He always got angry so quickly, and he lied…a lot. About everything. He manipulated everyone all the time, even his own brother," Tate responded. While talking about Freddie, Tate had slowly started looking more and more afraid. JJ could tell that whoever this boy was, he clearly had issues.

"There was something else, wasn't there? That made him different?" JJ asked.

"We had just moved into the group home, I was seven then, I think. And the neighbors had a dog. A golden retriever. It got hit by a car one day, and everyone was sad, because the neighbors always let us play with it. The dog got hit right in front of us, we saw it happen, and all I can remember is everyone crying. But not Freddie," Tate paused, shuddering.

"What did Freddie do?" Will asked, almost afraid to know.

"He just stood there, laughing. Like it was the funniest thing in the world. I don't think anyone else noticed, they were too upset. And no one wanted to look at the dog but Freddie, it was like…" Tate trailed off.

"Like he couldn't take his eyes off it," JJ finished, and Tate nodded stiffly.

"Those are psychopathic tendencies, which make sense considering the amount of aggression displayed. He wouldn't have felt any remorse. I'll go call Garcia and have her track down an address for Carlisle," Hotch said as he stepped out of the room.

Rossi soon followed Hotch, and JJ stood up from where she had been sitting next to Tate on the couch.

"Why don't we go see if Detective Fitzpatrick can have someone take you to the apartment we're gonna have you stay in for now," JJ offered to the girl.

Tate stood up to follow her, before asking, "JJ? Do you think it was Theo's fault? That Archie died. Theo always blamed himself".

JJ turned towards the girl and lightly put her hands on her shoulders. "It wasn't anyone's fault, okay? Archie wasn't a little kid that needed to be watched every second, and Theo and Johnny were keeping an eye on him. And it's not your fault that you didn't realize it might have been Freddie sooner, alright?"

"But if I figured out it was Freddie sooner, we could've saved Johnny," Tate blurted.

"Tate, until Johnny was killed, we had no way of knowing when your brother might have met the unsub. We meet different people everyday, and any one of them could have killed your brother, whether he met him at work or knew him from school or somewhere else. You couldn't have known," JJ reassured her.

"Now, let's go find Fitzpatrick and see if we can get you out of this glorified office building and to the apartment, hm? It'll be far more comfortable for you".

When Tate nodded in response, JJ steered her out into the bullpen, and they went off down the hall in search of Detective Fitzpatrick.