After my talk with Morgan I was in no mood to stay and chat with the team like normal. I found Reid at his desk, packing up for the night. I turn off my computer and my desk light and look up.

"Man, it's 1:30 in the morning? I'm heading home, Reid. See ya in 7 hours." I tell him picking up my bags and walking to the elevator, to find Morgan holding the door for me.

"Thanks." I tell him and he nods. The ride down from the 6th floor is awkward to say the least. I didn't mean to tell Morgan about Kyle, but it just came out. He sighs and pushes the stop button.

"Look, I'm not going to tell anyone. That's on you, Lucy. And I think you should just talk to Reid. He's too shy to make the first move." He tells me, smiling reassuringly. I blush, tucking my hair behind my ear.

"Um, I didn't mean to tell you about that. I just felt like I could trust you. You seem like the best one to keep a secret." I say to him and he chuckles.

"Well, thanks for that. I do know how to keep a secret. But seriously, you should tell the team. We can help, Luce. It'll give you an excuse to meet Garcia." He tells me and I remember I haven't met the famed technical analyst yet.

"Yeah. I just hate telling people because they pity me. I mean, I was treated differently because of who my father is, and I just wanted to earn everything myself. You do know who my father is, don't you?" I ask him hesitantly.

"David Rossi. We read your file when we were picking the new team member. You were chosen because you are the best for the job, Lucy. You and Reid make a great team." He tells me and I smile.

"Like you and Garcia?" I ask him smirking and he looks away, pushing the stop button again and the elevator moves.

"It's different." He tells me and I roll my eyes.

"I heard you flirting with her on the phone, Derek. I'll make you a deal, okay? You tell Garcia and I'll tell Reid." I tell him and he looks at me shocked.

"Seriously? You're on." He says pulling me out when the doors open and practically drags me to an office at the end of the hall. He knocks once and opens it, and a blonde turns around.

"Hey baby girl, this is-" Morgan manages before she interrupts.

"Oh handsome, you underestimate me yet again. I peeked at her file. Lucy! So you're the female version of Reid? It's so great to finally meet you! I love your hair, it's such a cool shade of red. What's your natural shade? Oh, I'm Penelope Garcia by the way. You can call me Garcia or Penelope, I don't really mind." She says smiling.

"My hair is this red, naturally. My mom had red hair and it wasn't quite as red." I tell her. Morgan looks at me and I nod at Garcia.

"Well, it's amazing nevertheless. Welcome to my lair. Sorry about the mess, I've been super busy lately." She tells me.

"I should probably get home, seeing as I have work in 7 hours." I tell them.

"Well, I'll walk you out." Morgan says opening the door. I nod and grab my bags I had dropped by the door.

"It was great meeting you, Little Red." Penelope tells me and I giggle, blushing. She grins.

"Oh that is so your new nickname! Little Red. I love it!" She says happily. I shrug.

"I've had worse. Bye Pen." I tell her and she winks at me. Morgan shuts the door on the way out and I start to grin at him. He sighs.

"I totally get why you like her, 'Handsome'."I tell him and he chuckles.

"And why is that?" He asks me. I take a minute to compose myself.

"She's beautiful, funny, bubbly, unique. I could go on but I think I have it covered." I say and he nods.

"Yeah, but we've been friends for a while. I don't know if I could risk ruining that if she doesn't-"

"She does. It's obvious. You both light up around each other." I tell him.

"You and Reid are different because you don't really know each other." Morgan says as he stops at the elevator.

"You were coming down here anyway weren't you?" I ask him and he grins at me.

"I'm going to talk to her tonight. Be prepared to do the same with Reid in the morning." He says to me as the elevator doors close and I descend to the garage. I get back to my apartment and see that the door was kicked in. I push it open and see that my apartment was completely trashed. Picture frames shattered, pillows and my couch torn up, drawers emptied on the floor. I feel tears running down my face and I realize who did this. I walk back to my car and drive to the first place I think of, pulling up 20 minutes later. I walk to the door and knock, the light turns on above me and the door opens revealing a pregnant blonde woman in her pajamas. I remember that it's the middle of the night.

"Can I help you?" She asks me, concerned and I quickly wipe my face. Hotch comes up behind her.

"Lucy?" He asks concerned.

"Hey boss. Sorry about the timing but I have something to tell you, and I don't think it can wait." I tell him, my voice quivering. He opens the door and I walk in. His wife puts her hand on my shoulder.

"Are you okay? You look shaken up. Would you like some coffee, Lucy?" She asks me and I nod.

"Okay. It started 6 years ago.." I tell them everything, starting with Kyle and ending with the break in.

"I wasn't going to tell you but I got home and it just freaked me out. I'm really sorry about waking you guys up. I shouldn't have just came over here like this.." I say and Hotch shakes his head.

"I'm glad you trusted me with this, Lucy. You said that Morgan's the only one you told? Would you be okay with telling the team at work? I think that it would help us find him if we all knew about this." Hotch says to me and my head jerks up to look at him.

"Find him? You want to-? Thank you Hotch. Really. I'll tell the team first thing." I say getting up.

"Do you have somewhere to stay, Lucy?" Haley, his wife, asks me and I nod.

"I have somewhere." I tell them and I wave goodbye before getting into my car and driving to the address Pen texted to me. I get out and walk to the door and he opens the door.

"Hey, Garcia gave me your address. My apartment was broken into and this is the first place I thought of." I ramble and he chuckles, opening the door.

"Come on in, Lucy." Reid tells me and I smile as I walk into his apartment. I finally notice that he is in a gray t-shirt and plaid pants. He has adorable bed head. I giggle and he rubs the back of his neck.

"I can crash on the couch." He tells me and I shake my head.

"It's your bed, Spencer. I'll take the couch. It'll only be for a few hours anyway." I argue. He sighs.

After a few minutes of arguing, we sit on the couch and I tell him everything. He just sits there and listens to me, and when I feel a tear slip down my cheek, he grabs my hand and squeezes it. Eventually we both get tired and I fall asleep with my head on his chest and his hand still holding mine. When his alarm goes off a few hours later, I wake up and realize my position. I carefully get up and head to the bathroom to brush my teeth and get ready. When I'm done putting on my black jeans and black and white stripe sweater, and pull on my red converse, I pull my hair to the side in a braid. After I finish my hair, I leave the bathroom to find an awake and dressed Spencer leaning against the counter drinking coffee and reading the paper. I see a coffee cup sitting at the end of the counter and walk over and pick it up. He looks up and sees me, smiling. I smile back and take a sip of my coffee.

"Thanks for letting me stay here last night." I say to him and he nods.

"No problem. I'm glad you did. And I'm glad you told me." He tells me, putting his coffee down and walking to me. He stands in front of me and takes my hand in his.

"You can tell me anything, you know that right?" He asks me, looking into my eyes.

"Yeah. I know, Spencer. There's something else that I-" I start to say, but our phones ruin the moment. 'Was I actually going to tell him I have feelings for him?'

"It's Hotch. We have a case." Reid tells me, after checking his phone. I nod looking back up at him.

"We can finish this over coffee when we get back." I tell him and he grins. We grab our stuff and head down to our cars driving to the BAU separately. I get to the bullpen and see that Spencer was talking with Morgan, but stops when he sees me. I wave and set my stuff down at my desk and head to see Pen and she grins when she sees me. I giggle and she motions to close the door.

"What can I do for you, my little Red?" She asks me, smiling.

"My apartment was tossed by my abusive ex boyfriend and I went to stay with Reid last night and I almost told him that I have feelings for him and I have nobody else to talk to about this because my dad is out on assignment in London and I'm rambling." I say, taking a deep breath. She grins at me.

"You like Reid? That's great! Why didn't you tell him?" She asks me excitedly.

"Because Hotch decided to call us both in at that exact moment. We made a date for coffee after the case though. Well, it's not exactly a date it's going to get coffee and talk. It wasn't called a date." I tell her.

"Who else knows about Reid?" She asks me curious. I sigh.

"Morgan. It slipped out as I was explaining about my ex, because he texted me last night and it was just complete word vomit. He was really sweet about it though." I explain and her smile widens when I mention Morgan. I gasp and she looks at me.

"Oh my god, you're glowing. You slept with Morgan! So, how was it?" I ask her and she bites her lip.

"It was, um, not like anything I ever imagined it would be like. He came back here after you left and we went back to my apartment to talk, we told each other how we felt and it just sort of happened. " She tells me and I hug her tightly. 'At least they tell each other their feelings.. I gotta get my shit together..'

"I'm so happy for you, Pen! I have to go and get briefed on the case. I'm coming over later with a bottle of wine and we're talking all about our love lives!" I say as I hurry out the door towards the conference room. Everybody is gathering as I walk in and I take my seat beside Morgan. Gideon and Hotch come in with files.

"Pipe bombs." Gideon says putting down the picture on the table.

"Packed in cardboard boxes." Morgan tells us.

"Package bombs." Hotch says.

"Sent through the mail?" Gideon asks.

"No. The other picture in your hand is of the switch ATF found. Same mechanism for both bombs, mercury activated." Morgan explains.

"What does that mean?" I ask, not familiar with that form of bomb detonation.

"There are contacts to a detonator on either side of a bent tube full of mercury." Reid explains to me.

"What it means is all you have to do is tilt the package to activate it." Morgan sums up.

"So they couldn't have been sent through the mail. The bomber had to deliver them himself." I infer.

"Exactly." Morgan agrees with me.

"Strange way to commit an act of terrorism. Why go to all this trouble to kill just a few people?" Hotch says.

"Let's recommend not raising the terror alert level for now. No reason to spread panic." Gideon suggests. The door opens and we all turn to see JJ.

"We got news. This is just a local channel but the coverage is everywhere now CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Al Jazeera, you name it." She says, turning on the TV.

"So much for not spreading panic." Hotch states. We learn from the reporter that the victim is badly injured in the ICU.

"If the DHS doesn't raise the terror alert now, they'll look weak." Gideon says.

"Make sure Homeland Security knows this is everywhere." Hotch tells JJ and she leaves. On the TV there's a sudden secondary explosion.

"Looks like we're going to Palm Beach. Let's meet at the airstrip in 20." Hotch says. He leaves and the rest of the team leaves to get there go bags. Morgan and I wait in the hallway for Hotch.

"Hotch, listen, they're gonna be sending us bomb fragments by this afternoon. I'm the only one with an ATF background. So if you'd like me to stay behind to supervise the bomb profile, I'm on that." Morgan tells him and Hotch stops walking.

"Morgan, you wouldn't be afraid to be out in the field with a bomber, would you?" Hotch asks him and Morgan scoffs.

"You know, maybe its not the bomber I'm worried about." Morgan tells him, obviously referring to Gideon.

"I thought we were past all that." Hotch says.

"Hotch, Boston sent Gideon into a post-traumatic tailspin. How do we know that won't happen again?" Morgan asks him.

"Morgan I tell you what. Why don't we concentrate on profiling the bomber and not Gideon?" Hotch tells him before walking away.

"Copy that." Morgan says after Hotch leaves. I head to grab my go bag and get on the plane.

"Bombings occurred within 3 miles of each other. First victim was a 74 year old widow, Barbara Keller. Two hours after that, Clurman got hit in his driveway, and 45 minutes later, well we all saw that... Jill Swenson, 35 year old housewife who lived across the street from Clurman. Of the 3, only Clurman survived." Hotch informs us.

"Is there any connection between the victims?" Reid asks, from his seat next to me.

"One. Clurman was a partner in a $10 million condo development deal in which Keller was an investor, and a few weeks ago, the whole deal went bust." Hotch tells us.

"Went bust how?" I ask him.

"Geologists discovered that the land was on methane, the condo never got built, the land became worthless, and Clurman lost a lot of people a lot of money." Hotch tells us.

"So maybe one of them was mad enough to take aim at Clurman." Reid suggests.

"Oh, let's not get ahead of ourselves. It's a little too early to be theorizing about motive." Gideon tells us.

"Then where do we start?" I ask him.

"From the beginning. What do we know about bombers?" Gideon asks us.

"Mostly male, loners, history of criminal activity." Reid says.

"About 50% of all bombings are actually the product of vandalism." I interject.

"And more often than not, bombers accidentally end up blowing themselves up, so the first suspect you always look for in the bombing case are the victims." Hotch says, when I realize something.

"Clurman was the only male. Losing a large business deal like that, it could be a powerful stressor." I suggest.

"Well, then there's the crime scene. Clurman was the only victim who didn't get hit at his door. Why? What was different about this one?" He asks and we land in Palm Beach. We immediately head to the crime scene.

"Before Clurman passed out, what he told cops at the time was that he saw a package sitting on the stoop outside his kitchen door." Hotch tells us.

"Why didn't he take it in?" I ask, walking around the car to the passenger side.

"Why didn't it go off until he got to his car? Its like 50 feet away." Reid asks.

"Joe Reese, one of Clurman's investors, was here before the bomb went off. The cops have ruled him out as a suspect, but he said he saw Clurman get into the car with the package." Hotch says.

"So maybe Clurman wasn't receiving a bomb at all. Maybe he was on his way to delivering one." I theorize.

"But he drops it or tilts it, and it goes off on accident." Reid says, going along with my theory.

"I'd like to talk to Clurman. In the meantime, let's get a warrant to search his house." Gideon announces, walking back to the car. We head to the porch and a man in a yellow polo walks up to us wearing a badge on a chain around his neck.

"Agent Hotchner?" He asks and Hotch looks up.

"Yes sir?" He answers.

"Detective Morrison, Palm Beach PD. I'm lead on the case." He tells us.

"Nice to meet you. This is Agent Reynolds. Agents Reid and Gideon are at the hospital. I think you met Agent Jareau at the station house." Hotch tells him.

"Oh yeah, she's taken over the place." He replies, seeming amused.

"She does that." I explain, smiling slightly.

"ATF hasn't found any hard evidence yet, just some kitchen timers, tape recorders, and electrical switches." Hotch informs him of the progress as we walk inside the Clurman house.

"Yeah It is amazing how many household items count as potential bomb-making materials." Morrison replies, sighing. =128

"Hello? Excuse me!" A redheaded woman walks in with a purple shirt on and Detective Morrison turns to us.

"Mrs. Clurman." He tells us and she approaches us.

"What's going on here?" Mrs. Clurman asks us.

"Mrs. Clurman, my name is Special Agent Aaron Hotchner with the FBI." Hotch introduces himself, showing her his badge.

"What are you doing in my house?" She asks us, still confused.

"There's a copy of the warrant on the table." Hotch informs her.

"I know this is hard to believe but we just need to cover all of our bases. We need to make sure that your husband was not involved in any way." He explains to her.

"Involved? My husband's in the hospital with his leg blown off. What are you talking about?" She asks, getting upset.

"Mrs. Clurman, there are some questions that your husband needs to answer, and the sooner that we talk to him and clear him, then the sooner we can find whoever's responsible." I tell her and an ATF agent calls Hotch over to him.

"We've got something." He informs us and we follow him to the garage, where he shows us a tool box.

"We found this buried on the back of that shelf." He explains and Mrs. Clurman walks over and stares at the box.

"Mrs. Clurman, do you know anything about this?" Hotch asks her, standing up and she looks genuinely surprised. Later, I'm walking around and I notice a picture of Clurman and a young boy. I walk into the kitchen with the picture frame to show Hotch. I ask rs. Clurman about the kid in the picture and after talking with her, I walk in as soon as Hotch ends his phone call.

"Look at this. This is their nephew in Texas. And according to Mrs. Clurman, he was staying with them for a month and left last week." I inform him, showing the picture frame.

"Mercury switches are a little sophisticated for a 12 year old kid." Hotch tells me.

"I'm not saying he's the unsub, but boys his age like to blow stuff up." I argue.

"I'll call Morrison. He'll contact local PD in Texas. He'll pick up the kid and talk to him." He tells me and I walk back into the living room to put the picture back. We all meet at the station because Morgan and Garcia figured out who the bombs were built by.

"Morgan emailed these over. The three on the left are the bombs from yesterday. The one on the right's from the evidence room at Quantico.

"They're all identical. Made with steel reinforcement rods." Reid conforms.

"Adrian Baal." Gideon informs us.

"Who?" Morrison asks, not understanding who Baal is.

"He held our agents in a standoff in Boston last year. He took out six agents and a hostage with one of his bombs." Hotch explains.

"So you're thinking he's behind this?" I ask Hotch.

"Possibly but he's in prison. He's got kind of a cult following, like Charles Manson. It could just be a copycat." Reid informs us.

"There's one way to find out. Let's put the screws to this guy." Morrison tells us.

"No, no, no. Baal's too smart. If we want information from him, we have to handle him carefully, and even then you have to assume that road will lead nowhere." Gideon dismisses.

"You're saying the connection to Baal doesn't help us at all?" Morrison asks him.

"No, I'm just saying let us handle Baal." Gideon replies.

"Look, we just heard from local Texas PD. You were right about Clurman's nephew. He admitted the bomb stuff was his, which is great for the Clurmans but it leaves us with zero suspects. So what do you suggest my men do now?" Morrison asks us.

"Proceed from the profile." Gideon tells him.

"I didn't know we had a profile." He says, confused, so we go into the bullpen and begin to present our profile.

"When we're dealing with a bomber, we're talking about someone who's non-confrontational. If you bumped into him in a cafe, he'd apologize, even if it wasn't his fault." Gideon stars off the profile.

"We would classify this bomber as highly organized based on the meticulous design of his bombs. It means above average intelligence. He probably has a skilled job, a trade, one that allows him to work alone. That's how he was able to make a sophisticated device without raising suspicion. Furniture maker, jeweler, etc." Hotch informs them.

"Background in explosives?" Morrison asks.

"No, not necessarily. You're thinking about a type who likes to blow things up. Gives them an emotional or sexual release. Death? Secondary." Gideon explains.

"Then what's this guy doing?" A uniformed officer asks.

"Murdering. Bombs? Just weapons. And these attacks, they are not random." Gideon answers.

"Well, how do you know that?" Another officer asks.

"By process of elimination. We know bombers fall into a discreet number of categories according to motive. There's the terrorist whose aim is to spread fear. We expect him to strike in a populous area like a subway. There's the politically motivated bomber. He makes a statement by choosing a symbolic target like an abortion clinic. Then there's our unsub. He made bombs designed to kill and he chose his victims specifically by placing the bombs at their stoops. That tells us he has a direct motive. Statistically, he bombs for a profit or to conceal a crime. And it tells us how we're going to find him- through the people he killed." Hotch explains.

"Somewhere among the three victims, there is a direct motive. Keep digging." Gideon tells them.

"Thanks. If you have any questions, we'll be around." Hotch informs them, indicating the profile briefing is over. Hotch and I go into the conference room that is our interim office, and start looking for the motive. JJ walks in, on her blackberry.

"How we doing?" She asks us.

"Frustrated. I can't see why anyone would want to kill a little old lady who collects cats and coins." I tell her.

"Unless somebody wanted the coins. I spent a good chunk of my childhood looking for a 1944 penny worth thousands." He admits and I look up at him, smiling slightly.

"Yes, I was a little bit of a nerd. Is that so surprising?" He asks.

"Not to me. I spent my childhood reading college level books and helping my father with cases." I admit, and they look at me. The phone rings and Hotch puts it on speaker.

"Morgan?" He answers.

"Yeah. I just got the lab results from the powder residues on the bombs. Amonia nitrate, Potassium chloride, and Aluminum powder. Nobody uses that mixture, Hotch." Morgan explains.

"Nobody but Baal." Hotch adds.

"That's right. And the closer I look at these things, the more they're the same. Same weld pattern, same switch assembly, same thread sizing. It's weird, man. This guy's not building bombs, he's forging them. That's the other reason I'm calling you. Baal wrote addresses on his packages in block letters with blue ink. I'm thinking our guy's doing the same." Morgan informs us.

"Ok. I'll set up a press conference, make sure the public knows." JJ says before leaving.

"Thanks Morgan." Hotch tells him before ending the call and his cell phone rings.

"Excuse me." He tells me and I nod as he steps out to answer the call. I look back to the files hoping to find the motive. Hotch gets a call about another bomb so he and bomb squad go to the location while I keep checking for the motive. I walk up to Hotch as soon as he gets back.

"I might have something. Barbara Keller was having trouble insuring some coins she bought. The insurance company thought they might be fake." I tell him.

"So the insurance company's blowing up annoying clients?" Hotch asks sarcastically.

"What if someone sold her the fake coins? She's on to him.. He shuts her up." I suggest.

"Were these coins valuable enough to kill over?" Hotch asks.

"She told the insurance company she thought they might be worth $12,000." I reply.

"Alright. Do you have any idea who sold her the coins?" He asks me.

"No, but she had an appointment with a coin dealer scheduled, I'm guessing to challenge the insurance company's appraisal. A guy named David Walker." I inform him.

"So maybe he can help us figure out who sold her the coins." Hotch suggests so I decide to head over to David Walker's address and talk with him. His wife answers the door and agrees to take me to the garage.

"Personally, I couldn't think of anything more boring than coins and old papers. Are you single?" She asks me and I smile slightly.

"Yes." I tell her.

"I have a word of advice. Don't marry the first guy that proposes. I wanted a pool table back there, but David insisted on making it his workshop." She tells me. As we get closer to the garage we hear a car start as I dig through my black messenger bag for my phone.

"What's he up to now?" Mrs. Walker asks.

"It sounds like a car." I tell her as I find my phone.

"I hope he's not committing suicide. I won't be able to collect life insurance." She says, and I answer my phone.

"Yeah"

"Lucy, it's him. It's Walker." Hotch tells me just as the garage door opens and the car comes speeding out.

"Get out of the way!" I yell to Mrs. Walker as I dive onto the grass to avoid the car, but Mrs. Walker gets hit by the unsub in his car and I shoot at the car as he drives away. Hotch walks over to me as I lean against the railing by the back door.

"You okay?" he asks me and I run my fingers through my curly red hair.

"Yeah, I'm alright, but Mrs. Walker.." I gesture to the poor woman being loaded into the ambulance.

"Yeah, guy's a real peach. Morrison's got a county-wide search out for the car, uniforms are gonna try to find out where his haunts are, and ATF should be here any minute. You sure you're alright?" Hotch asks me.

"Mrs. Walker said her husband spent most of his time in the garage." I tell him, nodding my head in that direction.

"Let's check it out." Hotch tells me, and we walk over to the garage. Once inside, we notice that nothing is out of place.

"Well, we got the organized part right." Hotch comments.

"What's this?" I ask, pointing to a coin attached to some kind of battery.

"I've seen these. It's for electroplating. Look at the date on the coin." Hotch tells me, picking up the clip holding the coin.

"It's half gone." I notice.

"He was using this to build up the metal so he could change the dates on the coins." He explains.

"To increase the value." I add.

"Exactly." Hotch agrees.

"Like what he did with Barbara Keller's coins." I comment.

"Look over here. Check this out." An officer tells us. We walk over to see newspaper clippings of Baal.

"The best. So this is why he chose to use Baal's design." Hotch says and I notice the tarp.

"He was working on something." I say as I take the tarp off to reveal bomb making supplies.

"Make sure Morrison tells your officers that this guy is smart, dangerous, and he has absolutely nothing to lose." Hotch tells the officer. We head back to the station to meet up with the rest of the team.

"So far, nothing from the search." Morrison informs us.

"Well, what do we know about Walker?" Gideon asks him.

"He's a quiet career criminal. Spent 4 years in prison for a series of forged checks when he was in his early 20's. He's now 46. Past 18 years, he owned a store which sold coins, maps, and historical documents. We raided the place as soon as you gave us Walker's name. Most of his inventory was fake, forgeries valued in the millions." Morrison explains.

"But the walls had started to close in on him. We talked to some of his clients, and he was in debt up to his ears and promising stuff he didn't have time to forge." Hotch adds.

"Then Barbara Keller found out that the coins he had sold to her were fake. She threatened to out him." I interject.

"And if she had, all the forgeries would have been discovered, he would have done 20 years." Hotch finishes.

"So he had to shut her up? He planted all those bombs just to kill one little, old lady?" Gideon asks us.

"Yeah, and to throw us off, he made it look like it was much bigger than it was." Hotch suggests. We hear an officer loudly speaking to someone so we turn and look at him. A man walks up, wearing some kind of collar around his neck and he looks nervous.

"Please. Help me." He begs, opening his jacket to reveal a bomb.

"Everyone back- now. We need bomb squad in here." Morrison orders the officers.

"Please.. It's not me." The man tries to tell us.

"Don't come any closer. Put your hands up and walk slowly back out." Morrison tells him.

"I can't. He'll kill me." The man tells us.

"Who will?" Gideon asks him.

"I don't know. He held a gun to me.. Put this on me. He said.. You'll know who he is." The man explains.

"Well, what does he want?" Gideon asks him.

"A helicopter. A passport. He's watching. Once he gets what he wants, he's got instructions to defuse the bomb." The man tells us.

"Walker's close by." Gideon deduces.

"Let's get snipers around the perimeter." Morrison orders.

"Ok, we understand and we're not going to leave you." Gideon tells the man.

"Please.. Take it off." The man pleads.

"Well, we need to figure out how the bomb's put together first." He explains. Tracy, from bomb squad, comes in and takes a picture of the bomb.

"This is a really sophisticated device. It looks like it was probably made by a master bomb maker, which means tampering with any part of it could set it off." Tracy explains.

"So there's no way to just cut the whole thing off of him?" Hotch asks.

"Well, not without cutting these wires. See how they're threaded all around the collar? They could be booby trapped, or there could be a hidden secondary trigger." Tracy dismisses the idea.

"How do we find out?" Morrison asks him.

"Without knowing how this thing's put together, it's gonna take a while. I'll have to x-ray it, try to figure out which are the real triggers, but.. I don't think there's enough time. " He tells us.

"What do you mean?" I ask him.

"There's a timer. We've only got about three hours left." He tells us and we signal to Gideon that we need to isolate the hostage.

"I don't get it. If this guy's a hostage, then why hasn't Walker tried to negotiate with us?" I ask as Hotch and I walk into the bullpen, and the the man strapped with the bomb inside an isolation cube.

"Maybe he's scared or maybe he hasn't figured out what his next move is yet." Hotch suggests.

"We have a bead on Walker. Sniper spotted him in his scope. He's sitting in an office building across the street. It looks like a storage room with a small window facing us." Morrison informs us.

"We could surprise him." I suggest.

"That's a good idea. If he feels cornered, he might give himself up." Hotch agrees.

"Why do you say that?" Morrison asks.

"Because bombers are generally cowards. I'll take a team in, and we'll go in through the back of the building." Hotch tells us.

"This feels wrong to me. Why would Walker let himself be found so easily?" I ask Hotch.

"He wants to be found." Hotch replies.

"Why?" I ask him.

"To negotiate." He tells me.

"Yeah, but then we lose the element of surprise." I argue.

"Well, hopefully we catch him off guard and he gives himself up immediately. If not, we take a hard line and make him feel like he's got no way out. Remember, we have to take him alive. Walker's the only one who can defuse the necklace bomb. Everybody ready?" Hotch asks us and we all confirm.

"We're entering the building." Hotch says into the comm.

"Be careful. At the very least, we know he's got a gun." Gideon warns us through the comm.

"Copy that." Hotch acknowledges and goes inside behind me.

"We're approaching the door now." Hotch quietly says into the comm.

"Copy that." We hear Morrison say. We get to the door, with Hotch on the left and me on the right, and Hotch opens the door. The room is dark and looks empty, so he takes out a mirror to see if he could find the unsub, but no luck.

"David Walker, Federal Agents. Federal Agents!" Hotch announces and after no response, we go in and see the unsub.

"Walker, freeze!" Hotch calls out.

"Ok, please, don't shoot!" Walker yells.

"Show yourself! I'll shoot up the whole room!" Hotch threatens him.

"Ok.." Walker says, standing up so we could see his face.

"Alright, now put your hands where I can see them." Hotch orders him.

"I can't do that." Walker refuses.

"Then I'll shoot." Hotch tells him.

"My hand's on the remote. I told you what I want. The passport, the helicopter, the flight!" Walker explains.

"Walker, listen to me. You're at the top of the FBI's most wanted list. I think you're smart enough to realize there's no way we're letting you go. But here's my counter offer: A chance to get out of here alive. All you have to do is give yourself up. Just slide the gun across the floor. You have until 3. 1.." Hotch tells him, beginning to count down.

"You wouldn't let the hostage die." Walker challenges.

"You want to find out? Don't give yourself up. 2.." Hotch says, counting again.

"Ok! Ok." He says, sliding the gun to Hotch.

"I'm coming out. Don't shoot." Walker tells us.

"Now walk slowly towards me. Let me see your hands, Walker!" Hotch orders him.

"Get out of there now! Now!" Gideon yells through the comms.

"Go! Go! Everybody out! Go! Go! Go! Go! Go!" Hotch yells as we run out of the room and barely turn the corner of the hallway before Walker detonates a bomb.

"We're fine. Everybody made it out. Everybody but Walker. Is the hostage ok?" Hotch asks into the comm. Gideon and Hotch meet with Baal to make a deal in order for him to help us. He lies about which wire to cut but Gideon realizes it and tells Tracy to cut the blue wire, saving the hostage.

"How'd you know?" I ask him, wondering how he knew Baal was lying.

"He told me. He said given the opportunity of pressing that button, he'd have no choice. All I did was take his word for it." Gideon tells me and I smile, amazed at how well he read Baal. We all pack up our go bags and head back to Quantico. Reid and I talk the whole flight back, about things like our favorite books, movies, colors, things like that. By the time we get back it's pretty late so we decide to get dinner, at my favorite chinese place by my apartment. We end up talking for hours and he head home at about 2am. I lock up and make sure the windows are latched before I put on a black tank top and black and white striped sleep shorts and crawl into my bed, with my gun on my bedside table.