When the Levee Breaks
The greatest conflicts are not between two people but between one person and himself.
Garth Brooks
TWO
'Two pair,' announced Morgan, laying his hand flat on the table, an insignificant four off to the side.
'Full house,' countered Prentiss, showing him her own cards.
'I could've sworn you were bluffing.' Morgan collected the cards to re-deal, shaking his head as he did so.
'It's the twitching,' she agreed. 'I think it'll stop once the bruising goes down.' Seeing the look on his face, she hastily added with a grin; 'I think I'll use it to my advantage for now.'
JJ returned from the jet's bathroom, where she had been vigorously expelling her stomach contents. Turbulence hadn't helped matters in the slightest; her face was a sickly green, and in her opinion, the sooner they landed, the better.
'You want in?' asked Morgan, still shuffling.
'I think Hotch wanted us to get started on the profile,' JJ said. The three of them steadily made their way to the back of the plane, where Hotch was video conferencing with Garcia.
'Hey, gorgeous.' The analyst's voice emanated from the tiny laptop speakers.
'Hey baby girl. What've you got?'
'Well apparently the torture package came with complimentary video footage. Lots of it; it'll take a while to get through, and I don't think I can handle it. In spite of my awesomeness,' she added.
'You concentrate on the files themselves, Garcia. Where they came from, whatever you can find. We can handle the videos,' Hotch assured her.
'Thank you,' Garcia said with sincerity. 'Do you have the files on the victims?'
'Our contact in Maine faxed them over,' confirmed JJ. She nodded pointedly towards the RIDGEVIEW box that they still hadn't looked at yet.
They split the files between them, looking for anything that stood out.
'Seems like inconsistent victimology,' commented Morgan. 'I've got a 39-year-old female school teacher, and a 63-year-old male CEO.'
The other victims were similarly varied. Between them, they had ages ranging from 28 to 67, both genders, and several different occupations.
'So why these victims?' Hotch asked the question they were all thinking.
'It might not be about the victim,' suggested Prentiss. 'Maybe the act of torture itself does it for him, so he just picks targets randomly.'
'But these aren't exactly low-risk targets. A police officer. A lawyer.' Rossi held up the files in his hand.
'Authority figures,' Morgan suggested.
'It can't just be that. It's too brutal. Authority figures who have wronged him in some way.' Hotch skimmed over the files.
'Morgan, Prentiss; I need you two to talk to the victims. Get what you can out of them. We need to move fast before he takes another one. Rossi and I will go over the video footage. See if we can find anything. Reid-' he paused momentarily and turned to JJ. 'Did Reid ever show you how to do a Geographical profile?'
'I only know the basics,' admitted JJ. 'We do need Reid.' It was hard to admit, but the rest of the team knew it was true. Still, it was better to need Reid and not have him, than to bring him back too early and lose him altogether.
'If we still haven't solved this in a week, then he can fly up and meet us,' conceded Hotch, though he too wondered if they actually would have this solved in a week without Reid.
There were two cars waiting for them at the airstrip. 'Where do they get all these black SUVs from anyway,' mused Morgan.
'The black SUV factory?' suggested Prentiss. She, Morgan and JJ got into one SUV, Hotch and Rossi into the other. Reid's absence was certainly taking its toll; emphasising the seemingly gaping void between the junior and senior agents. They drove into town, hoping that they could still function properly as only five-sixths of a team.
A couple of authors notes, I guess. I really should be doing my assignment, but I don't want to, so I'm doing this instead. To the reviewer who asked, no, I'm sorry; this will not be an M/E ship fic. Strictly canonical as far as shipping goes, though I'm trying as hard as possible to emphasise the non-shipping interactions between the team members. On another note, the quotes I've chosen relate to the fic as a whole, and not necessarily to the chapter they precede. R&R, tfm.