Hey all, here is the next chapter for this fic. How about that S13 premiere? Personally, I thought it was pretty great. Also, when I wrote this chapter, I had a lot of characters to keep track of, so I wrote one of them out (I'll leave it to you to read who is away from the BAU). I hope you enjoy and please remember to review. Happy reading. x

All rights go to the owners of Criminal Minds, except for my original character.

P.S. The timeline for Jamie being injured and returning to work might be causing people to question the writing, but trust me, everything is not what it seems.


Not Like This

Chapter Sixteen: Back in the Game

Three Weeks Later:

December 16th, 2014

"Hello, my little crime fighter!" a happy Penelope Garcia greeted Jamie as she walked into the bullpen.

"Good morning to you, too." Jamie said back, smiling at her eager team member. Jamie tried to hold back a big yawn that was working its way over her, but she failed. She took another sip of her coffee, hoping for its effect to take over soon.

"Looks like somebody didn't get enough sleep."

"That's why the good lord created coffee!" Jamie remarked, holding her travel mug high in the sky. Meeting her desk, Jamie dropped her bag beside it and sat down promptly in her chair.

"Are you good to go back into the field yet?" Garcia wondered, sitting on the edge of Jamie's desk.

Jamie nodded, pulling out stacks of papers room her bag. "Yes, ma'am. I have one report to finish from the case in New Jersey last week, but I'm good to go as of yesterday afternoon."

"Good morning, guys." Spencer greeted the two women as he entered the bullpen, walking to his own desk.

"Good morning, smarty-pants!" Garcia bantered.

"Morning, Reid." Jamie slipped out, her attention held by the papers she was organizing. When she looked back up to her coworkers, she noticed the slight surprised expressions on their faces. She eyed them, hesitantly and confused. "What?"

"Did you just call me Reid?"

Jamie's eyes switched between Penelope and Spencer. When she realized that she had, in fact, called him Reid, her eyebrows knitted and she was muddled by her own words. "I think so…" Jamie nodded with confirmation. She shrugged, "I guess it's the job." Jamie opened her almost empty coffee cup, eyeing the lukewarm liquid at the bottom. Standing from her seat, she turned back to Spencer, who was going over his own paperwork. "You want some coffee?"

"Yes please, and can you-"

"Can I bring back the sugar for you? Yes, I can do that." Jamie smiled at him, making her way over to the coffee. Luckily, she was met with a fresh pot and another one of her team mates.

"Hey, Morgan." she greeted, pouring coffee into a cup for Spencer and her own. Another yawn came to her and she did nothing to stop it. It was seven o'clock in the morning, but paperwork was a bitch and Jamie had needed to get it done-well, the majority of it.

"Late night, Carter?" Morgan teased, sending Jamie a wink.

"Oh yeah," Jamie played along as she made her coffee. "me and the paperwork were so wild last night. You should've been there. We were all over my bedroom…" Now, it was Jamie's turn to send him a wink, but her's was filled with sarcasm. She picked up the sugar and the two cups of coffee, leaving Morgan hanging with her words over her head while he followed her down to the floor.

"Here, Spencer." she called, handing him his coffee and the sugar.

"Thank you."

Then, just as Jamie sat back down in her seat, JJ came striding into the room. "Debriefing in fifteen guys." she told them, walking up the catwalk to Hotch's office.

Jamie noticed the others kind of sulking. "Oh stop," she spat at them. "You guys knew what you were signing up for."

"You only feel that way because you've been out of the field for three weeks. I wouldn't be surprised if you got your ass handed to you by an elderly lady on the street." Morgan jested, causing the others to laugh.

Jamie dropped her jaw with fake offense and stood up, ready to defend herself. "One, I was told to stay out of the field and two, I wouldn't fight an old lady even on my worst day."

Whatever you say, sweetheart."

"Whatever you say, sweetheart." Jamie mocked in a high-pitched voice, following her teammates to the debriefing room.


In the briefing room, all were there except for Emily. Her mother had called her for her assistant with a case for a family friend from Europe. So, that left the remaining seven while she was overseas.

"Good morning, everybody." Hotch spoke as he entered the room, handing out files to his agents. He handed the last one to Jamie, "Good to have you back in the field, Agent Carter."

Jamie nodded at his words, taking the folder. "Thank you, sir."

"Go ahead, Garcia."

The screen in front of the group lit up brightly with pictures of a woman. "This is Vanessa Holden, age twenty-five. Last Friday night, she was out clubbing with her sister. A stranger, roughly her age, a white male, picked her up. The two left the club around one in the morning, went back to her place…" Garcia looked back at the woman's picture behind her and visibly took in a long breath before continuing. "He forced her on her hands and knees," Another picture popped up on the screen. It was Vanessa, dead on the floor. "then he cut her open, below her stomach."

Jamie observed the violent images before her. She shook her head, wondering what the hell would drive a person to commit an act such as this one; but that's something they would eventually learn.

"Gutting causes the intestines to spill out of the body. You can actually survive a few hours, even days." Spencer mentioned.

"Postmortem indicates that he slit her throat around five in the morning." Garcia added.

"So, he disemboweled her, but he didn't actually kill her until four hours later?" Jamie asked out loud, exasperated.

"He could be a sexual sadist." JJ offered.

"Yeah, apparently great minds think alike." Garcia handed the team more files. "These are reports sent from the precinct of similar priors from one year ago, prostitutes in motel rooms."

"Okay, so, how do they think this is the same unsub?" Morgan wondered.

Garcia turned back to the screen, bringing up more pictures, this time of different victims. "In Vanessa Holden's apartment, the following items were discovered. Bleach, ammonia, trash bags-and all of them were placed in a triangular pattern. Here we have one year ago, the motel rooms…more bleach, more ammonia, more trash bags, same triangular pattern."

"Perhaps he's attempting to cover his tracks." Rossi added.

"What about a sign of remorse?" Jamie suggested, eyes still focused on the screen. "He's apologizing for the murder by trying to clean up after himself."

"There's also one more commonality," Garcia mentioned. "and that's that both bleach and ammonia were found under the victim's fingernails."

"He's making them clean up their own murder…" JJ concluded.

"It's the same unsub." Hotch spoke. "Wheels up in an hour." With that, everyone gathered their files and began exiting he room. As Jamie was about to move her leg past the threshold, her name could her heard from behind. "Carter," Hotch called out.

Jamie turned to face him, walking slowly towards her boss. Her face had confusion written on it. "Yeah, Hotch?"

"Are you going to be okay?" he asked her.

Jamie stared at the serious looks on his face, silently wondering what the heck he was talking about. Then, it hit her. A soft scoff escaped her mouth and she let the tenseness in her shoulders fall. "Are you asking if I'm going to be okay because I've been out of the field for three weeks or because I was shot and practically almost died in Spencer's arms?"

"Both." Hotch replied bluntly.

Jamie nodded, understanding where it was coming from. "Look, I'm fine." she claimed, placing one hand over her left shoulder where she had her injury. "Sure, I was on the brink of death, but I'm fine."

Hotch tilted his head slightly, not even a note of humor in his face. "You went through the evaluations and passed, but that doesn't always mean an agent is ready to return. If you have to stay out for this one, you'll still travel with us, you just won't-"

"I am ready, Hotch. I've been ready and like I said, I'm fine."

Hotch gathered his files from the table, collecting them in his arm. "One more time and I'll believe you." He said nothing further, leaving Jamie in the debriefing room alone.

Was she really "fine"? What does that even mean, anyway? She was right, she was on the brink of death and maybe in Hotch's mind, she was accepting what had happened to her better than he expected. There was no hesitation to get back to work, no wariness in holding her own gun. She didn't have a hard time sleeping and when she closed her eyes at night, she wasn't haunted by the scene where a bullet pierced her body. In Jamie's mind, there was nothing to be concerned about and she was, in fact, just fine.


"This unsub changed his victimology, so does that count as organized or disorganized?" JJ wondered.

"The prostitutes point one way and the club points to another."

Jamie scooted further onto the edge of her seat, going through the crime scene photos. "Look at the cleaning supplies," she told the team, her eyebrows very narrowed as she did so. "It's the way that they're organized. The bleach, ammonia, and the roll of garbage bags are placed in the same spots, even though they're different murders, one year apart."

"OCD?" Hotch suggested, sending Jamie a curious look. She returned with a nod of confirmation.

"Could've been institutionalized at one point." JJ said.

"I think we're missing something here." Rossi spoke up. "This unsub started with prostitutes-as we all know that's high-risk victimology. He took a year off, came back and killed a socialite."

"There's no forced entry, no coercion of any kind, either." Spencer added.

"There you go. So, how does this guy go from a nobody, to somebody that can pick up girls at a club?"

"Something must've happened between the last prostitute and Vanessa Holden to make the change in the victimology." Hotch stated.

"Could this unsub have known Vanessa?" Jamie questioned.

From the corner of her eyes, she could see Spencer shaking his head and clearing his throat. "That's unlikely, since sexual sadist attack their victims anonymously. They sever the connection to see their victims as objects to perpetrate this level of torture."

Jamie sent him a complex look and shifted in her seat. "Right, maybe I'm just…rusty." She took his reply as a personal blow, suggesting that he provided an explanation to her answer, because she had been in the office instead of out and about with the team.

"So, we build two profile, then?" Morgan asked.

"One for the unsub who killed the prostitutes and another for the unsub who killed Vanessa Holden." Hotch clarified. "This victimology is too different. We need to see what overlaps here. Reid, work up the geographical profile and focus on the location of the murders. JJ and Rossi, concentrate on the prostitutes, figure out what you can there. Carter, Morgan and I will go deal with Vanessa Holden."

"We've never done that before, make two profiles." Rossi mentioned.

"There's a first time for everything." Jamie remarked, making her way to the back of the plane. She shuffled through the seats, meeting the tiny counter in back. The last thing she needed was more caffeine, but it was the only thing she could think of that would provide her some sense of security at the moment. Of course, as she could see it in her mind before she even left the group, Spencer was walking towards her.

"Hey." he said quietly.

Jamie didn't look up at him. Her focus was solely on how much sugar she was fixing into her coffee. "Do you need something?"

"Are you alright?"

"Why wouldn't I be alright?"

"You just seem sort of on edge back there." Spencer explained, leaning against the wall of the plane. "If what I said bothered you, I didn't mean to insult your intelligence. You know, if you need anything, you-"

Jamie drank from her cup, finally meeting Spencer's eyes. "Let me guess, you're wondering if I'm doing 'alright', because I was shot, right? Well, I'm here to tell you that I'm fine and no, you didn't insult my intelligence."

Spencer opened his mouth, as if he were going to say something else, but decided not to. Instead, he turned to walk away, only to be called back by Jamie. He turned back around to face her, hands tucked safely in his pockets.

"You don't need to coddle me, Spencer, okay?" Jamie's tone had softened, realizing that she was being too hard.

"Okay…"


Arriving at Atlanta Metro, the team met with the lead detective on the case and to set up their own little headquarters in a conference room.

"Detective Harding," Hotch greeted the woman as they entered the room. He extended his hand to the her, who accepted it graciously. "I'm SSA Hotchner. This is my team, SSA Carter, Morgan and Dr. Reid."

"Thank you for coming." Harding said, as she shook hands. "I thought you had more members."

"We have two other agents, Jareau and Rossi out in the field as of right now." Jamie responded.

"Do you have a DNA match between the unsub and the prostitutes?" Spencer questioned. "We can run it though ViCAP just in case."

Harding sighed, "Um, there's no DNA at all. We have no prints, not even fibers of any sort. Just like with Holden, everything gets cleaned up."

"Pretty effective countermeasure." Morgan remarked.

"Tell me about it. We do, however, have a sketch for you." Harding stated, handing over a sketch with minimal details to Hotch.

"So, you have witnesses?" Jamie assumed.

"Oh yeah, lots of people."

"This sketch is a little vague." Spencer noticed, analyzing the work.

"Yeah, and that's because of the guy's other countermeasure." Harding explained. "Come take a look at this," The screen in the room lit up with security camera footage from the night club. "This guy right here," she pointed on the screen, "he's our killer."

"That looks like a fedora." Spencer noted.

"So, he's drawing attention to his face, while also obscuring it."

"It's what's known as peacocking." Jamie explained to them. "It's the embellishment of some flashy object or effect to try and distract those around him, the potential witnesses."

"Then none of your witness statements match, then?" Morgan asked the detective.

Harding looked down at her files in hand, flipping through the papers quickly. "He had a gap between his teeth, there was no gap between his teeth. He had long hair, he had a receding hairline..."

"Yeah, that doesn't do us any good."

"Detective, we're going to need to sit down with Ashley Holden. She got the best look at the unsub." Hotch told her.

"Well, I wish I could make that happen, but unfortunately, the family has decided to stop cooperating with us."

"Why's that?"

"They won't tell us. I swear, yesterday the mother would've moved heaven and hell to help find Vanessa's killer. Today, there's no way." Harding said.

"Detective Harding, where can we set up?" Spencer asked.

"Of course, right this way." she led Spencer to an empty room across the way.

"We should get to the crime scene." Hotch stated, more to Morgan than anyone else, and Jamie didn't miss it.

She sighed and crossed her arms. "You want me to stay here, don't you?"

"Work on the geographical profile with Reid and before you even ask, no, this is not because I'm worried about your injury."

"Then why are you making me stay here?"

"Get to work, Agent Carter." Hotch instructed before exiting with Morgan, once again leaving Jamie in an empty room by herself.

Jamie couldn't stop the eyeroll that came after Hotch left the room. "Sure thing, boss." she sassed. There must've been something that she was missing, because she honestly had no clue why he asked her to stay behind at the precinct. Hotch provided her with no explanation, but Jamie figured he didn't necessarily have to.

She began walking to the room where Detective Harding had taken Spencer. The big whiteboard captured her attention first. It was covered with pictures and detailed notes, pins and the cliché strings that you see in movies. Spencer must've not have heard her enter the room, as he was still faced towards the board, studying it intensely.

"There doesn't seem to be any connection between these victims." Jamie suggested, stepping further into the room. She sighed, leaning on a wall next to her. Spencer looked at her, face full of curiosity since he wasn't expecting her. "I mean, the different facial features, their socioeconomic statuses, where they were picked up, it wouldn't surprise me if they never even crossed paths."

"I thought you were going with Hotch and Morgan."

Jamie nodded, taking herself from the wall and sitting down at the table in the room. "I did, too. I'm on geo-duty, now. Do you mind?"

"Not at all," Spencer replied, turning back to the board. "According to what we have from Garcia and the records from the department, the unsub killed these prostitutes in separate pay-by-the-hour motels in Fulton County. That's one of the poorer neighborhoods in the area."

"It wouldn't be too hard to guess that a girl like Vanessa Holden wouldn't be caught in a place like that." Jamie added, drumming her fingers on the table top.

"Exactly, and Vanessa's apartment was in the Peachtree District, where there's a lot of big money."

Jamie stood from her seat, meeting Spencer side-by-side at the board. "So, he isn't just changing his victimology, he's changing his whole tax bracket?"

"And the high profile of Vanessa Holden would justify those actions. By killing her, the unsub probably believes that he's climbing some sort of social ladder."

Jamie scoffed, "Then he has a long way to go."

"I'm sure the team will come back with more."

Nodding, Jamie spared a side glance at Spencer. "I'm sorry, for earlier on the jet."

Spencer faced her, eyebrows slightly narrowed. "What do you mean?"

Jamie slumped her shoulders and tilted her head in a way that suggested he knew what she was referring to. She turned her whole body towards him, idly scratching her nose and tucking some hair behind her ear. "I was snappy and you don't deserve that. So, I'm sorry." She moved, sitting back down at the large table.

"You want to talk about it?" Spencer offered, following her to the table.

Jamie shook her head and shrugged her shoulders. "There's nothing to talk about." she tried to reassure. "I wouldn't be here if I wasn't ready, right?"

"I suppose."

"But I meant what I said earlier, too."

"No coddling, got it."

"Happy to see we're on the same page, doctor." Jamie joked, standing up to smooth out her clothing and walk out the room.


Thanks for reading and please remember to review. I would really appreciate it.

If you like Supernatural, check out my other work(s): The Unforeseeable Life of Alexandra Winchester & Alexandra Winchester: One-Shot