A/N:Hey, here with the next chapter. This chapter focuses heavily on Ryder and there is some real angst so I apologize in advance. I own nothing except the characters on my profile. Glee and Criminal Minds do not belong to me. They belong to the people who thought up these amazing shows. That is all. I hope you enjoy.

Chapter Four

Ryder sighed as he went to his locker. It had been a long day and the only thing he had left to do was glee rehearsal. If he could just get to the choir room, he'd be fine. He'd get to see Marley again and try to apologize for yesterday. Unfortunately, the hands of fate had other ideas. He gasped for breath as all of the air suddenly went out of him.

"Hey look its the mute!" Devon Parker, one of the school's biggest jerks, had pushed him up against the locker. "You going to sing something?" Devon eyed the guitar case in Ryder's hand, kicking out towards Ryder's wrist suddenly. "Oh wait, you can't even speak." The guitar case clattered to the floor.

Ryder covered his face with his hands shutting his eyes against the onslaught of hits as his breathing grew more and more shallow and tears started to fall.

"You crying? Aww poor baby."

"Hey butthead baboon!" Ryder heard a familiar voice, not daring to open his eyes. "Knock it off." He felt Devon's weight come off of him suddenly, opening his eyes into slits. Kitty Wilde stood in front of him with her hands on her hips.

"What are you his knight in shining armor?" Devon sneered.

The cheerio glared. "Don't push it Parker. These kicks are for more than choreography." She lifted her knee as Devon backed away.

"You wanna degrade yourself to their level, be my guest. Loser."

Kitty smirked. "Degrade, that's a pretty big word Devon. Are you finally paying attention to more than just Mrs. Drew's breasts?"

Devon rolled his eyes before walking away. "Whatever."

Ryder smiled in gratitude as Kitty helped him to his feet.

"You okay?"

He nodded as his smile grew bigger.

"Don't mention it. Devon Parker needs his ass kicked every once in a while." She picked up his guitar case opening it. "I think it survived."

Ryder took the instrument strapping it on and plucking a few of the strings with a sigh. He nodded in relief.

"You ready Lynn?"

Ryder nodded again, relaxing as his feet crossed the threshold. The choir room was a safe zone. Nothing bad could happen to him here.

"Hey Ry', what's up man?" Sam held out a hand. "Did Marley tell you? Are you in?"

Ryder frowned and shook his head.

"What? How come?"

He shrugged.

"Seriously Lynn?"

Ryder sighed. He couldn't explain it to Sam. Well, he could, but Sam asked too many questions and he neither felt like composing a symphony nor writing a novel.

"Dude! Ryder's not coming." Sam was shouting in Blaine's face as soon as he walked in.

Blaine looked from Sam to Ryder. Ryder squirmed under his friend's gaze. There was just something about the older teen that made him feel exposed. He thought maybe it had something to do with his father's occupation, a whole like father like son deal. After what seemed to Ryder like an hour of staring, the senior shrugged. "That's fine. I'm sure you have a reason right?"

Ryder smiled in relief bobbing his head and looking at him apologetically.

"Don't sweat it Ry'. We'll do something another time," he shot a glance at Sam. "Right Sam?"

"Oh," Sam grinned. "Yeah totally, don't sweat."

The choir rehearsal began, Ryder playing accompaniment to Blaine and Sam's impromptu performance of yet another Katy Perry song, much to the others' chagrin.

"How many songs does Katy Perry have anyway?" He heard Unique's commentary which of course, only made him play louder grinning the whole while.

"Ok, so what do we know?" The whole team was now assembled in Lima PD's briefing room. Hotch looked around as the officers watched.

"Well, the crime scene was a mess, but the UnSub was careful to contain said mess to the bathroom, which meant he had some semblance of control over the victim." Rossi said.

"Not to mention he's organized." Morgan added. "He managed to keep control over the sitter and the kid."

"When Reid and I were at the ME, we noticed that the cuts were precise, almost clinical." Emily said. "This is someone who probably has an affinity for torture, takes it slow."

Reid walked over to the board where the pictures were posted. "But the cuts on the neck are rushed and sloppy. They didn't plan to kill or remove the tongues of the victims. Something probably caused them to change their game plan."

"We'll finish the interview of the parents. It'll help build a more complete profile." Hotch said. "Prentiss, will you go with JJ to help do that?"

Prentiss nodded.

"Morgan, you and Reid go talk to the Velez family. Rossi and I will see what we can put together here." Hotch said.

"Hey Ryder," Ryder spun around as he walked out of the choir room to see Marley and Blaine. "I asked Blaine if we can go to the station."

Ryder frowned and began shaking his head. Why would she tell him? He didn't want anyone else to know.

"Please don't be mad." Marley sighed. "Please… I just want to help." She grabbed his hand.

" It's cool." Blaine said. "I won't press. If you want to tell me you can. I just know Dad's working on a case right now, maybe there's a chance he's free if you want to go down and see."

Ryder sighed running his hands through his hair as he stomped his foot in frustration. There had to be a way to tell him without telling him. He wished he wasn't the mute. He then got an idea. He pulled out his cell phone pulling up the internet and searching the news clip from last night handing his phone to Blaine.

Blaine took the phone watching with wide eyes. "Ryder, you don't mean… it's part of the case?"

Ryder did nothing becoming really focused on his guitar.

"Dude, now you have to go in!"

Ryder shook his head.

"If you know something Ry'... you can't just do nothing!" Blaine was nearly shouting as Marley shot him a death glare.

His head shakes became more violent, spreading through his whole body as he collapsed to the floor. A crowd was forming in the hallway whispering and jeering. Ryder's vision blurred as the tears began again.

"Hey! Get outta here!" Coach Beiste screamed as she parted the crowd. "There's nothin' to see here! Get home all of you!"

The students scattered leaving Blaine, Marley, Ryder, Coach Beiste and Will who had come out of the choir room.

Beiste knelt tapping Ryder on the shoulder. "Can you stand up for me Bumpkin?"

Ryder blinked and nodded standing on shaking legs and leaning on Beiste as she helped him into the choir room. Will held the door open as Marley and Blaine followed.

"You ready kid?" Morgan looked at Reid who nodded. They were on the steps of the Velez family home. Morgan knocked. A girl who looked about sixteen answered the door.

"Can I help you?"

"I'm SSA Derek Morgan, this is Dr Spencer Reid," Morgan said. "We're with the FBI, are your parents home? We'd like to ask you some questions about Hector."

The girl nodded. "Yeah, they're here… just give me a minute. I'll go get them." Reid and Morgan both noticed the girl nearly breaking down into tears as she went to go find her parents.

Reid's eyes were flitting a mile a minute as he looked around the house. He picked up a photograph. It showed the girl that had just left, with Hector. The photograph couldn't be more than a year old. The boy wore a Jedi robe carrying a blue lightsaber, and the girl was decked out in full Princess Leia attire. "They were extremely close." Reid said.

Morgan walked over nodding. "You don't see very many teenagers doing matching theme costumes with their younger siblings."

"I wonder…" Reid frowned. "If they were so close, how come the sister wasn't with him?"

Morgan shrugged. "You see what you can get from the sister. I'll talk to the parents."

As they turned around, the parents and the girl were walking into the living room.

"Mr. and Mrs. Velez, I'm Agent Derek Morgan, I'd like to ask you a few questions about the night your son was killed." Morgan said. He saw Reid pulling the girl aside out of the corner of his eye.

The parents and Morgan walked over to the dining room table. Morgan saw Mr. Velez pull a chair out for his wife. "We'll try to answer everything the best we can Agent Morgan."

" What can you tell me about Hector?" Morgan pulled up the photograph given to him by Garcia, a smiling happy, eleven year old with a twinkle in his eye.

"Hector was really friendly." Mrs. Velez laughed. "If he were here right now, he'd be talking your ear off."

"So, he was a good kid?"

Mr. Velez nodded. "He would always try to please you, but if he knew something you were doing was wrong, he wouldn't hesitate to tell you so himself."

Morgan nodded writing this information down. It could be something useful. "Were he and his sister close?"

Mrs. Velez nodded. "Serena would spend every night reading to him from his book, Operation Stormbreaker I think it was called. I'm not sure. I could never keep up with all the books they read."

"Even after he learned to read himself, he would always ask Serena to read with him." Mr. Velez chuckled. "He just loved being around people."

"Mr. Velez, how old is Serena?" Morgan asked.

"She'll be seventeen this December." Mrs. Velez said. "Why?"

"So she was old enough to stay with Hector in the house on her own? Why did you hire a sitter?"

The parents exchanged a look as a fresh wave of tears escaped. "Serena had a party." Mr. Velez said. "She refused to babysit. She was being feisty, then again that was nothing new. We had made reservations, we didn't have time to fight with her so we found a sitter online the week before."

Morgan raised his eyebrows. "Online?"

"Si." Mrs. Velez sighed. "It was a website where you could email a babysitter and make arrangements."

"Can I see this website?" Morgan asked.

A/N: I'm so so sorry! I told you that there was drama for Ryder. Please don't hate me. It was necessary. Okay so, we the school's resident jerk Devon Parker, who is portrayed by Mason Dye. We also met the Velez family. Serena is portrayed by Cierra Ramirez, Mr. Velez is portrayed by Jay Ali and Mrs. Velez is portrayed by Constance Marie. Ryder had another and worse panic attack because Marley told Blaine about his possible connection to his father's case. The Velez family found their babysitter via a website. Next chapter, Reid talks to Serena, more with the Scott family, Prentiss and JJ and more with Ryder. Predictions, theories, feedback. Until next time.