"I thought that you might want to see this, Erin."

She looked up from her computer monitor to see Helen standing in the doorway, a file folder held in her hands. She didn't like the creeped out look on her assistant's face, and even though she tried to keep a neutral expression, Erin felt the first stirrings of a frown start in her lips. "What is that?"

Her assistant hesitantly came over to the desk and handed over the file in her hands. "I don't know why this came to my attention, but I was doing a little history deep diving on past cases. When you don't give me a lot of work, I like to learn about what the BAU has been up to years ago. It helps me to help you, because I can streamline some things that you never have to see, because I can take care of them. But then this…"

Erin dropped any pretense of trying to look neutral as her frown deepened immensely. Opening the file, she quickly glanced over the information presented there, feeling the first stirrings of familiarity as she read through the case. "We worked this case a few years ago. Before I was made Section Chief, before Amerithrax. What about it unsettles you?"

She looked up from the file, pulling her reading glasses off her face and tapping one arm of them against her desk as she regarded Helen with interest. The woman swallowed thickly a few times before taking a deep breath and meeting her eye once more. "That's not from a few years ago. It's a brand new case from Wisconsin."

Erin shook her head before looking back down at the file, shoving her glasses back on her face as she scanned the documents for a date, blanching a little when she saw that it was from just last week. "This is impossible," she whispered as she leaned back in her chair, feeling a weird sort of déjà vu. "We closed that case. Alex figured out who the unsub was, and we made a clean arrest. He was convicted and placed in a maximum security prison for the rest of his life."

"That was why I brought this file to you, because I know that you closed that case. I, I was looking through the ones that you and Alex worked together, since I was trying to find a way to make things easier between the two of you. I know, it's not my place to do that, but I just didn't like how stressed out you were by her hostility."

Erin's expression softened a little as she smiled at Helen. "You are so good at looking out for me, Helen. Have we been asked in to assist on this new case?"

"No, and I think that it's because the time differential between the two is so great that a correlation wasn't made. The only reason I even saw that information was because I was specifically looking at the previous case, and the search parameters called up this information as well. I, I don't think that we can be called in to assist on one unsolved murder, even if it is a copycat of a previous case. Can we?"

Erin let out a long breath as she shook her head. "No, there's no reason for us to be consulted, and if I tried to get us access to the case, it would appear as if I was overstepping jurisdictional capacities in order to make our department look better."

Helen nodded slowly, still looking concerned. "So what do we do?"

"I suppose that the only thing we can do is watch out for more cases that have been copied. I know that that will be like looking for a specific piece of hay in an entire stack of it, but there's nothing to be done. Don't go out of your way to look for more of these cases, but if you do come across something that perturbs you, pull the case file along with the corresponding previous case that you think is being copied, and we'll take note of what's happening. After all, this could be a complete coincidence."

Helen ticked an eyebrow upwards in perfect imitation of her expression, and Erin shrugged a little. "Okay, it's clear that you're telling me that because you want to convince yourself that this is just a one-off coincidence."

"I don't need one more weird happening to occupy my mind right now, Helen. I'm still trying to get Alex to soften towards me, and her reaction to that creepy letter and package that I received just tells me that maybe I am overreacting to things."

"I don't think that you're overreacting, at all. These two incidents might not be related, but that doesn't mean you can just shrug off the copycat as mere coincidence."

Erin sighed as she nodded. "All right, I will try to take this seriously. But it will be difficult to do so before there's another copycat case. So, keep your eyes out and we'll take things one step at a time."

Helen nodded as she got to her feet, giving Erin another concerned look before she left the office. Once Erin was alone, she looked back down at the file, reading through it once more, a little more carefully that time, and took a few notes on her pad, seeing that there were so many similarities that it was spooky. Helen was right, there was no way that so many little details would be copied that perfectly for it to be a coincidence. But with there only being one case like that so far, there wasn't enough data for Erin to go on, and she knew that she would have to set the entire matter aside, to try and not worry and fret over something that she couldn't do anything about at the current moment, no matter how difficult that would be for her.

Shaking her head a little, Erin tore off her sheet of notes and stuck them in the file before setting it to the side and then trying to focus on her work once more. It was a difficult endeavour, because her thoughts kept returning to the fact that there were those letters that she and Alex had received on top of the creepy present and now this copycat case. Something hinky was happening, and she couldn't put her finger on what that might be, even if she knew that she had to keep from dwelling on things that were outside her control. Finally unable to get her focus back, she picked up her phone and dialed Agent Anderson's direct line. "Agent Anderson here."

"Grant, it's Chief Strauss. I don't mean to be a bother, but have you heard anything about the package I gave you a few weeks ago?"

There was a small pause, and Erin felt her heart sink, knowing that that meant nothing good was about to come from his lips. "I wish that I had better news for you, Chief Strauss, but whoever sent you that package was really smart, and left behind no fingerprints or clues as to who it might be that sent it to you. From the handwriting analysis of your letter, however, I can safely say that your sender is a male, most likely around the same age as you. But again, there's no other identifying details. I wisht that I had better news for you, but at least this might mean that it truly was just a mean prank?"

She knew that he was just trying to make her feel better, and she nodded a bit, even though he couldn't see the gesture. "I pray to God that you're right, Grant. Thank you for looking into that for me, I appreciate the extra work."

"Anytime, Chief Strauss. And if you get any more weird letters, just give them to me, and I'll start seeing what sort of profile I can build off the word choice. I…may have learned a trick or two from Doctor Blake's seminars."

Erin chuckled a little. "She is a great teacher, and I'm glad that you were able to learn from her. And I will make certain to keep you in the loop, if I receive any more letters. Have a good day." She hung up the phone and then slumped in her seat as she tried to not worry about what the future might hold.