Nope, I still don't own Criminal Minds, though my muse keeps trying to steal them for me.

Just a note, the museums I mention in this chapter are real. As for any other locations, those are purely my imagination. Enjoy!******

Chapter 6

"Gone? What the hell do you mean he's gone?" Hotch demanded to know.

"He just told Garcia he was leaving and when he got back everything would be taken care of," JJ tried to explain to her enraged boss. "Then before we knew what was going on he flew down the hall and out the stairwell door."

"You've got to find him, Hotch!" Penelope pleaded through her tears. "I just know something is going to happen to him if we don't", Emily leaned over and put her arm around Penelope to try and keep her calm.

"Damn it, Aaron! He's gone off to try to fight his own battles, this can't be good," Rossi snarled as he paced the hallway.

"This is exactly what I didn't want to happen. I knew I should have made him step back from this case," Hotch said.

"Well you know as well as I do that would have never happened, Aaron. Just like you won't step away from Foyet. He's out for vengeance and he'll do whatever it takes to protect Penelope and the rest of us for that matter." Rossi observed with a tinge of pride in his voice. He didn't agree with Derek's methods, but he understood them.

"So what do we do now?" Reid asked.

"We find him!" Hotch said matter of factly. "Penelope, I know this has been hard on you but I need your help to find Derek, are you up to it?"

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Penelope knew it was time to step up when the team, and Derek, needed her the most. "Anything you need, Hotch, if it will help get him back safely."

"Good. Reid, you and JJ take Penelope back to her computers. I need you to delve back into the old case in Chicago. Find out all you can about Bradley Averitt and his personal habits. Also, anything about Bradley and Ben's childhoods. Evidently Derek thinks he has an idea of where Averitt might be, maybe there is some clue to that in the past."

"It's not much to go on, Hotch" Emily pointed out.

"No, it's not, but for right now it's all we got."

Derek knew he should have never left without at least informing Hotch and the others about his plans but he was also certain that if he had, Hotch would have never let him go. His idea was a long shot but if it meant keeping Penelope safe, he had to take the chance. He refused to watch this woman who had become the center of his world suffer any more for something she had nothing to do with in the first place. This was his fight, not hers, and it was time to make sure he was the one carrying the scars of the battle.

Since the day before when they had arrived, Derek had been plagued by the question of why Cincinnati? The question had been partly answered with the explanation Emily had given the officers the previous afternoon, size and proximity to state lines. However, something had been nagging at Derek, saying it was more than that. As the team worked around town with the officers, Derek noticed something else that jogged his memory.

Cincinnati was a town with a lot of museums, The Art Musuem, The Taft, Union Terminal, The Contemporary Arts Center, The Freedom Center and more. While working the original case back in Chicago, he remembered learning that Ben and Bradley had pretty much raised themselves as kids. Their father had split when they were both young and their mother worked, often several jobs, and wasn't home very much. To keep themselves busy, the boys would often spend their time at museums. It was an interest that stayed with them through adulthood. Bradley had taken an interest in film history and often sought out such exhibits. It was one of the reasons he had sent black and white films of his victims to the media.

Jumping into a cab, Derek asked the driver if he knew of a place with all night computer access. He needed information off the internet and since he couldn't call Penelope or the team for help, he would have to find it himself. The driver informed Derek of an all-night internet café and coffee shop he was familiar with and took him there.

Once online, Derek began searching for information on all of the local museums. He knew that Averitt was hiding himself somewhere during the day and a museum seemed like the most logical choice. Now, if he could just figure out which one.

Derek had been researching for hours when he finally found what he was looking for. The Union Terminal Museum was currently hosting a touring exhibit of old movie memorabilia and during the day was having showings of several old black and white films. "That's gotta be it!", Derek excitedly thought to himself. He checked the schedule and saw that multiple films were set up to be playing throughout the day. The first movie of the day was to be "Some Like It Hot," starring, among others, Marilyn Monroe. "I've got you, now Averitt. I'd bet my soul you'll be at that showing." The museum opened its doors at 9:00 am and the movie was scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m.

Derek looked at his watch, it was 6:30 am. He decided to have a few more cups of coffee to keep him awake and planned to be at the museum when the doors opened so he could have a good look around and be there when Averitt showed up.

It was getting near dawn and Penelope and the rest of the team hadn't felt they had made much progress. Hotch had ordered the police to keep a look out for Derek and to bring him back if they found him but they had come up empty. Garcia was ready with a trace on his cell phone and credit cards, but so far, Derek hadn't used either. Penelope was in a near panic, fearing the worst.

As dawn quickly approached, Reid ran into Garcia's temporary office yelling, "I've got something!"

"What is it Reid?" Hotch quickly asked.

"Earlier we tried tracing the cab companies figuring Derek had needed some form of transportation around the city.,,"

"Yeah, but that didn't pan out, none of the drivers said they picked him up," Emily said.

"You're right," Reid continued, "but we only checked with cab companies, not individual owner/operators of which there are evidently quite a few around here. So, on a whim I asked the hotel concierge if he knew of any private cabbies around here and he did….I found the guy who picked Morgan up not far from here a few hours ago!"

"Reid, you ARE a genius!" Penelope said as she stood and hugged the young agent.

"Where did he take him, Reid?" Rossi asked.

"Well that's the strange thing. He said that Morgan was inquiring about someplace he could get access to a computer and the internet so he dropped him off at an all night internet café."

"All right, good work Reid. Let's get over to that internet café. Penelope you're coming with us. Maybe we can get on that computer and figure out what he was looking for." Hotch ordered as the team headed out to the SUV's.

It was 9:45 and Derek had been inside of the museum since it opened. Immediately upon entering he had tried to make himself as familiar with the building as possible. However, the Art Deco museum had originally been built as a train station and was huge. There were several floors, including the underground terminals where the trains had once come and gone. Making matters worse were the numbers of visitors that were milling around. Union Terminal was a big tourist attraction, not to mention the school groups that were often in attendance.

Morgan wasn't sure how this was going to all end. He would just have to do the best he could to lure Averitt to a deserted part of the building if at all possible. Of course, first he had to find him. Derek had positioned himself in a spot where he could see the ticket sales for the movies. He prayed that Averitt wouldn't spot him but figured he had the element of surprise on his side. Averitt wouldn't expect him to be there.

At exactly 9:55, Averitt entered the building and bought his ticket. Derek would have sworn that Averitt could have heart his heart pounding in his chest from 20 feet away. Derek watched as his target entered the theater. It took all he had not to jump him right there, but this wasn't the place. Patiently he waited until the movie had started and the theater was dark. He entered the theater and sat in the very back row. Letting his eyes adjust to the darkness, Derek searched until he had located the back of Averitt's head. His target was in sight! Luckily the theater was not very crowded, only about 20 people were scattered throughout the audience.

Derek instinctively felt for his gun that he had put into his ankle holster. He hadn't wanted to draw attention to himself by wearing it on his belt. Feeling secure that he knew where his weapon was, he sat back to wait for the moment to make his move on Averitt.

TBC

I hope you liked it. Sorry to leave you hanging but I figured the final confrontation deserved a chapter all of it's own. So it's coming next, I promise!!!! Please R&R and let me know what you think!