A/N: Okay, let's just cover the basics. 1. Thank you for the support. 2. I don't own the show, or anything affiliated with the show. 3. Hope you enjoy,and tell me by reviewing this after reading. :)
Hotch and Jessica stepped out of the office.
"Don't worry. Everyone on the team is really nice."
"How did you... wait, profilers."
"Hey, Hotch, sorry to bother you, but we have a lot coming in this morning." JJ interrupted.
"A case?"
"No, but one may possibly be coming this afternoon. There may be a serial rapist in rural Virginia, but they aren't sending anything over until later. Until then, Gideon is working on a consult to the Phoenix PD about an arsonist, and another consult is just coming in. A serial killer in Gulfport, Mississippi. The police have a few suspects, so they want a profile to help."
"Okay, what is everyone else doing?" Hotch said as he followed JJ towards her office.
"Morgan and Prentiss just got here, but Reid is doing that seminar in Charlottesville."
"I thought that was Wednesday."
"Apparently, there is some community thing that just came up. Too much police personnel will be needed, so they rescheduled for today." JJ continued as she gave him the file on the serial killer.
"Okay, make sure Morgan and Prentiss get caught up on paperwork. Gideon or I may need help, so if they're caught up, have them check with us." Hotch instructed as he flipped through the file.
"Yes sir." JJ replied as she started to walk away.
"Oh, I almost forgot. This is Jessica Raguse."
"Hi, Jennifer Jareau." They shook hands.
"Uh, JJ, I need to get started on this. Can you show Jessica around and introduce her to everyone?"
"Uh, yeah."
"Thanks." Hotch turned out of the room, file in hand.
JJ turned to Jessica.
"So, are you here to talk to Hotch about a case or...?"
"Me? I'm, uh, here because I'm the new press liaison." Jessica said softly.
JJ's eyes widened, and then she laughed.
"I'm sorry. I completely forgot that this is my last week. I just kind of got caught up with all the files coming in, and…"
Jessica laughed along with JJ. Awkward silence filled the room.
"Well, this changes things a bit. I'll start the tour here since this will be your office starting next week. Sorry about the mess."
"Don't worry, I understand. Moving can be a hassle."
"Actually, it always looks like this."
Morgan looked up from his file. Prentiss was sitting across from him, working on her computer. Reid was missing, but the ideas that were popping into Morgan's head about his whereabouts were pushed away by the woman walking next to JJ.
"Hello." He said loud enough for Prentiss to hear.
"What?"
"Who's that with JJ?" Prentiss turned to look.
"Don't know. Why?"
"Because she is fine." Morgan answered standing up. A moment later JJ and the woman approached him and Prentiss.
"And Jessica, this is SSA Derek Morgan. He's the team's expert on obsessional crimes. This is SSA Emily Prentiss. She specializes in languages and other talents. Guys, this is Jessica Raguse. She's going to be the new press liaison."
Prentiss had to hide her laugh as Morgan realized that dating this woman would go against his code of survival.
"Uh hi." He recovered shaking her hand.
"Nice to meet you." Prentiss followed suit.
"And you heard me talk to Hotch about Reid."
"Who?"
"SSA Dr. Spencer Reid. He's an expert on-"
"Everything and anything." Morgan supplied.
"Among other things." JJ concluded. "His desk is over here."
"Where is he by the way?" Prentiss asked.
"He's doing that seminar in Charlottesville."
"Charlottesville?"
"Charlottesville, Virginia. It's only about an hour from here. He should be back this afternoon. They only wanted the basics. So you guys get to do paperwork."
"Are you sure? I mean, I can give Jessica the rest of the tour." Morgan pleaded.
"Hotch and Gideon are both working on separate consults. If you guys are done, you can help them. Oh, and we might be getting a case this afternoon."
"Might?"
"It's in rural Virginia."
"I like it already, it's close to home." Emily said.
"I talked to a detective this morning. He said that there could be some connected rapes in some nearby small towns as well as theirs. He wouldn't have the information until this afternoon. So, we'll leave you guys and go visit Garcia."
"Is she always like that?" Jessica asked after her first encounter with the technology diva.
"Garcia? Yeah, get used to it. She and I got to spend a lot of time together if I didn't go along, which happens. But don't worry. She's totally sweet, and she can brighten even the darkest days."
They headed back to JJ's office.
"So, are you going to miss this?"
JJ looked up. She had been answering questions for Jessica all morning. This one caught her off guard.
"Miss the BAU? Yeah, a lot. It's... it's just one of those jobs."
Jessica gave JJ a confused look.
"I can't truly describe it. This job, it's rewarding, but it's also scary. There are a lot of times I found myself going to Garcia's office just so I could talk to her and laugh. I'm not trying to scare you, but there are some things that you will see and be forced to do that are pretty frightening. Some days you start to wonder about the world and the people in it."
"How do you handle it then?"
"I guess I remember everyone that we save. And if you think about it, any person we pass on the streets could be a potential victim. Sometimes after cases where we deal with a specific type of person, such as blonde older women, every time I see a person that fits the description, I can't help but think about that case, that unsub, and his or her victims. But then I remember that had we not gotten that unsub, that person could have been a victim. Every person we see has the potential to be a victim. We have the ability to change that. That, as much as anything, helps me through this job."
Jessica seemed to be contemplating this when JJ's phone rang.
"Agent Jareau. Yes. This is sooner than expected. You're sure? Okay, fax everything over to the office, and we'll get on it. I'll call you as I know something more." JJ hung up. "We have a case."
"Thank you Dr. Reid."
Reid was shaking hands with the Charlottesville police chief.
"No problem. It's good for every police department to know some of the simplest profiling tools. Uh, excuse me." Reid stated as he took out his ringing cell phone. "Hello?"
"Hey Reid. We got a case."
"Hey JJ. Uh listen, can you wait until I get back to Quantico? I just finished; it shouldn't take me too long."
"Reid, you're really close to the most recent scene."
"What?"
"There's a serial rapist in rural Virginia. The victims are all from small towns that are really close to each other. The two farthest apart are only 35 minutes from each other. The most recent happened two days ago. The victim was found by hikers in a forest off the highway. The sheriff thought this sounded familiar to another incident that occurred a few months ago. However, with that one, no rape was reported, so the connection was never made. The local news station then ran this story, and since then, 5 new victims have come forward. They span from a few weeks ago to 8 months ago."
"How do we know they're related then?" Reid asked.
"The victims were found along the highway as well. There doesn't seem to be a connection between the sites. Some areas are wooded, others are more open. But they all have the same story. They went out partying with their friends, woke up confused along the highway. All are believed to have been raped." JJ informed him. "Most show signs of being drugged, but toxicology on the latest victim isn't back yet so we don't know with what. The others are being tested in case, but for most, the drug has probably been removed from the body by now."
"Reid, can you go talk to the last victim?" Morgan instructed through the speaker phone.
"Yeah."
"Okay, I'll come out there. We can go to the site, see if we find anything."
"I'll go with you guys. We'll need to watch what the news is saying, especially now."
"I'll stay behind. Garcia and I can start on victimology." Prentiss stated as she got up and left.
"JJ, what's the information on the victim?"
"The victim's name is Kevin Wintcher, and he lives at 191 Hapner in Clearmont."
Reid's eyes widened.
"So, are these sorts of things common?"
Reid was sitting in an SUV with a Charlottesville officer; the local cops said it would be best if one of them took Reid as it was somewhat difficult to find all the turnoffs for Clearmont.
"Serial rapists? Well, we see our fair share."
"How about for this, where guys are the victims?"
"Well, actually, 9 percent of all rape cases are believed to be male victims. However, this is only an estimate since only about 16 percent of all rapes are even reported."
"So, what are you going to do?"
"Well, first we're going to start comparing stories. I'm going to talk to the last victim to start. The most recent victim is more likely to have the most details. Then we'll start seeing how this matches up to other stories. We'll look for what's constant, what's unique about each case, what seems important, etc."
"Well, don't you already know some of that already?"
"Well, according to what faxed over, the victims all appear to be around the same age, and they all went partying the night before. That's where-"
"Holy-!" The officer yelled.
A man was standing almost directly in front of the SUV. The officer slammed the brakes and swerved. Luckily, he saw the man in time. The car came to stop only a few yards form him. Both immediately hopped out.
"What are you doing?" The officer yelled.
"Sir, are you okay?" Reid asked. He ran over to the man, who looked ready to pass out.
"Help me." He whispered.
"What?"
"Help me. I don't know where I am, or what's going on." He whispered again.
The man looked right into Reid's eyes. It was obvious that he was impaired, but it felt like it was more than a few too many beers.
"Get an ambulance." Reid ordered. "Sir, what's your name?"
"Lowell Quintin."
"Okay, Lowell, what do you remember?" Reid asked as he guided Lowell to the side of the road.
"We were partying..."
"Who was partying?"
"Me, my buddies, and my brother. Then I started to feel sick, so I started to leave. And then I woke up down there."
"You're kidding. All right. We'll be there in about 20 minutes." Morgan flipped his phone shut and put his eyes back on the road.
"Who was that?" JJ asked.
"Reid. He found another victim."
"What do you mean found?"
"I guess he was driving along, and a man was on the road. He stopped, and it appears that he's most likely another victim. He's only a few miles from Clearmont."
"Is this an escalation? Most of the victims were at least a few weeks or months apart. This is the second man in two days."
"It's possible. We'll have to check out the crime scene. This one will be fresh, so there could be some indicators there."
"Okay. Jessica and I will need to go to the police station in Clearmont. It appears that most of the cops are going there to set up one base so we don't have to go between all the towns."
"What will we do when we get there?" Jessica asked from the backseat.
"We'll need to be watching the media with this case. Although the media so far has been very good for drawing out victims, we don't want it to start to hurt the case.Also, if we need to, we'll start organizing the police efforts. Most will probably never have dealt with something like this."
Twenty minutes later, Morgan pulled up to the now blocked off part of the highway. Everyone jumped out.
"Agent Morgan. These are Agents Jareau and Raguse." Morgan flashed his badge.
"Are you guys with Agent Reid?"
"Yes."
"He's down at the bottom. I'll take you down." The officer replied.
"Morgan, you good here?" JJ asked.
"Yeah."
"Okay, we'll head to Clearmont then." She said as she and Jessica headed back towards to the SUV.
Morgan passed the ambulance where a young man was being loaded in the back. He saw Reid looking around at the bottom.
"Hey. What've you got?"
"Hey. Not a lot. I was talking to the victim before the ambulance came. His name is Lowell Quintin and he's 26. He said he was partying with his friends, he felt sick and left the bar. He doesn't know what happened after that, but he woke up here."
"Did he say whether or not he made it home?"
"If he did, he didn't remember it."
"Well, he fits all the obvious links. He was out partying, and he woke up in the wilderness."
"He also fits the age. The other victims were all between 23 and 29."
"But there are no other similarities. I mean, these guys don't look anything alike. And they were at different bars in different towns. But the towns were all relatively close."
"I think Lowell said he wasn't even from Clearmont. He said that he and his brother are from Viola."
"His brother?"
"It was his brother's 21st birthday. That's why they went partying on a Sunday."
"What's the big deal with that?"
"Morgan, what kind of people normally get wasted on a Sunday when they have to work the next Monday?"
Morgan got a look on his face. "Anyway, so, I'm the unsub. Why did I choose here?"
"It is somewhat secluded."
"But some of the other scenes weren't so much. One of them was open plain."
"Yeah that's true. This site is actually almost contradictory. On the one hand, being in the wilderness is a form of privacy, but being that close to a roadway… It's almost as if the unsub wants them to be found."
"Like the unsub is protecting them? Why? Just a little while before, the unsub wanted to hurt them."
"Not necessarily. None showed major defensive wounds."
"Which means either they trusted the unsub, or they were too out of it to know what was going on."
"Lowell Quintin was obviously drugged. I'm not sure what with."
"Well, while it looks like most of the victims were drugged, it looks like it was probably something different every time. They described different symptoms that are not all associated with one drug." Morgan stated.
"I didn't see any obvious needle marks. He would have had to ingest it then."
"What was he describing his symptoms as?"
"He said he was drowsy, and dizzy when he woke up. He also was pretty close to puking. I had to keep him talking to make sure he wouldn't pass out."
"So what could that be?"
"Maybe a depressant, narcotic, barbiturate, it could be lots of things."
"So far there hasn't been any sign of date rape drugs."
"Morgan, were there any missing persons reports?"
"No. To file one, someone needs to be missing 24 hours. Most woke up and got help. Only one, the victim two days ago, was actually found. But he came out of it after a couple hours." Morgan looked around. They were surrounded by woods. "Hey, Reid, what's that?" Morgan asked as he pointed to the garment next to a tree.
"That's just my coat. I made Lowell sit down until the EMT's arrived." Reid brushed off. He got very quiet and had a pensive look on his face. "Morgan, I'm thinking that this isn't where Lowell was brought to do anything. There aren't any signs of movement in this area. Really, all you can see now are the footprints of the cops and us."
"So what are you thinking?"
"This is a dump site, and to learn anything, we're going to need to find the site where everything happened."
"Okay, well to add to your new victim, you have a total of seven men. One is an agricultural engineer, a mechanic, a student at the U of Virginia majoring in education, a farm hand, a bank teller, paralegal, and another student majoring in biology. One is from Twin Brooks, one from Gary, one from Lincoln, two from Viola and two from Clearmont. Two are married, and that's all I have for paper trails." Garcia finished.
"No criminal records?"
"Well, if you count things like parking and speeding tickets, then these boys were bad boys, but other than that, no nothing in common. Three have had a DUI in the past ten years. Didn't their mothers ever tell them to just get a ride?"
Emily was posting this on the board in the conference room. Garcia was sitting at the table with one of her many laptops.
"Garcia, I don't get it. These guys are normal guys, and for the most part, their lives didn't cross paths. Why them?"
"I don't know." Garcia replied. "I have a question. We believe these guys were raped, right?"
"Yes."
"How do we know?"
Emily was stumped for a minute.
"Maybe that's something we don't want to know." She tried awkwardly.
"Hey, what do you guys have so far?" Hotch asked entering the room. Both of the girls' faces turned red.
"Uh, right now there is no evidence to support that they were targeted. We haven't found a link other than their stories." Emily stammered.
"Okay."
Emily's phone began to ring.
"Hello? Hey Jessica, let me put you on speaker. Okay, go."
"The other victims were drugged, right?"
"We believe so."
"Well, I'm at the scene of the last victim, and I may have found the drug used."
"What?"
"Well, Reid left his coat here, and I moved it. Underneath it were some vials. Some local cops are processing it right now."
"What was it?" Hotch asked.
"Something called Dilaudid."
A/N: Please refer back to number three at the beginning of the page.