"So is the girl a coconspirator?" Morgan asked as he moved around the table in the room the team had been given to set up in at the police station. The team had reassembled and the coffee was flowing freely.
Reid took a sip of coffee and frowned at the cup. "There is no evidence to suggest that it has been more then one un-sub at any of the crime scenes and the cutting pattern that was used on this last one is the same as on the first two."
Crossing his arms where he stood leaning against the coffee counter Gideon commented, "We were finally able to confirm her alibi for the night of the other two murders. But now we have to figure out what she is to the un-sub. Why does he want us to let her go, and how did he know we had her?"
"He could have been watching her house; a neighbor perhaps, who noticed that she didn't come home the other night?" Prentiss asked.
"No, Val worked doubles a lot, so if she didn't come home one night it was nothing new for her." Morgan said, then caught himself and frowned. He didn't want to defend the nurse, he still thought she had a larger role to play in this then she was letting on to.
Hotch commented, "It also isn't rare for someone who works long hours to crash at work, how many times have one of us slept on the couch at work, or just slept at your desk when things get busy."
"So we are looking for someone who either worked at the hospital or maybe she was being stalked?" JJ asked.
"You're just going to let her go?" Sheriff Wilson asked from the doorway.
Hotch studied the man for a moment before saying, "given the recent addition to evidence there is nothing that we can hold her on."
Gideon nodded, "Lets start back at the hospital, see if anything new has turned up there. Maybe they will have found the chart that was lost with the security video, I still can't believe they misplaced that during their investigation." He shook his head at the lack of organization the hospital had displayed in loosing both the chart and the security feed from the night Val had saved the patients life. "In the mean time, I want a watch on Val, and I would prefer she didn't go back to work, too many places there to cover and easily accessible weapons."
Stepping away from the doorway Sheriff Wilson stared at the team of FBI before him and said doubtfully, "what kind of weapons are you expecting to find at a hospital, we are a smaller town, but we do have metal detectors in the ER there, and security staff."
"Just the kind of weapon our un-sub would go for, scalpels." Hotch said grimly.
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Val glared at the men who approached her cell. She had been a little surprised at how easily she slept that night-what little sleep she had gotten, before these people showed up to make her life a living hell again. "Are you here for round two?" She asked from the defensive position she had taken up on her bed, her legs folded beneath her. She didn't seem to care that her long brown hair was askew, and her clothes were wrinkled.
Taking his sunglasses off Morgan studied her. He wasn't sure if it would be kinder to put it bluntly or to ease her into another death at her hospital, but considering she wasn't being the nicest, he didn't feel like being nice either. "Dr. Stone from your work was found murdered early this morning."
She went pale, deathly pale, and it made the dark circles under her eyes stand out even more. "Dr. Stone?" she whispered.
Morgan instantly regretted the low blow but kept him self-distant from the woman. "His neighbor went to check on him and found him, called it in."
When Val spoke again her voice was gravely with suppressed emotions and her eyes were unfocused. "Mrs. Stapple, she's a good lady, lost her husband a few years ago, she always looked in on Stone," she cocked her head a little, "even at awkward times."
"Are you telling us that you and the doctor were more then just co-workers?" Reid asked as he walked up behind Morgan. He shot his friend a look asking why Val was still in her cell and not on the way to her house; Morgan ignored him and focused on the nurse.
Val shook her head and wiped in vain at the tears that had begun to leak from her unwilling eyes, "we used to be, but things changes. I never wished ill of him. He was always kind to me, until a few weeks ago anyway." Her voice trailed off, but there was no bitterness to her voice. Just sorrow.
Reid stepped forward and opened her cell door. "We are going to need to keep you away from work, just until we figure out what is going on."
Eyes wary, Val regarded the two men, "So I am staying here until you figure all this out?"
"No, no, no, no, you are going home, we just…don't want you to go to work." Reid explained.
Taking a step forward and therefore taking the attention away from Reid, Morgan's eyes locked on Val's wary ones. "We think that the un-sub may be at your work, and we can't protect you there."
"Protect me?" Val's voice raised a few notches. "Protect me, last night you were convinced that I was a murder, and now you want to protect me." She shook her head and crossed her arms, visibly disturbed.
"Its our job." Morgan said through gritted teeth.
Reid regarded Morgan for a moment before stepping around him to get to Val. "We are concerned that the un-sub is watching you at work, if we take you away from that, it may take the him away from the hospital. And your house is much easier to survey and keep safe. This is just temporary."
Slowly Val's gaze went from Morgan to Reid. She studied him for a moment before standing. "Lets just get this over with." She swallowed her tears and followed the two agents out of the cell.
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Prentiss and Gideon canvassed the hospital again, asking everyone involved in the case that Val had gotten suspended over. The only problem was that the two other nurses who had been with her in ER that night had been victims one and two, and the doctor that had come in at the end of the case had been the third victim. Everyone that they talked to had only been involved in the case in passing. And no one could think of anything specific about the patient, except that he did seem upset that Val had gotten in trouble for what she had done in the ER.
Prentiss turned to Gideon after talking to the floor nurse who had taken care of the un-sub after his stay in ER. "Could our un-sub think that he is in love with Val? That is the fourth person in a row that said that he asked about her by name."
Gideon was silent for a moment, "Reid said that Val reported recognizing the un-sub when he showed up in the ER, but that she didn't know where from. It would explain why he was so concerned for her, and it would explain why everyone else involved in the case has turned up dead. He would think he is protecting her, in some odd fashion. Maybe we need to dig a little bit more into her past." He pulled out his cell phone and dialed Garcia.
"Queen of all things you want to know, how can I help you." Garcia's happy voice answered the phone.
"Garcia, Gideon. You said that Val was involved in a few societies, any chance we can get pictures of any of the males that she could have interacted with that fit the profile, white male 30-to mid forties, medical background."
The only sound coming from Garcia's end was the clicking of her keyboard. "She is involved with the AHA, and the ACS, the only wrinkle in your diabolical plan is that she is a volunteer, and neither of them require their volunteers to provide a photo id. So this could take me a little while."
"Just get us what you can when you can." Gideon said before he hung up the phone and put it back in his pocket.
Prentiss observed Gideon for a moment before asking, "You think maybe she met the un-sub through one of her volunteer organizations?"
"We know she doesn't have much of a life outside of the hospital, so either she met him there, or through one of those groups. Have we had any luck getting the security video yet?" Gideon said as he flipped through the file folder in front of him.
Prentiss shook her head, "The video was pulled initially for evidence against Val, and was never returned to security. And the chart was lost as well, no seems to remember who was supposed to take it to medical records. There is something to be said for electronic charting, this hospital needs to catch up to the times." Flipping through her own file Prentiss kept tried to think of a nice way to ask what had been bothering her for the better part of the morning. "Morgan and Val don't seem to get along that well."
Gideon glanced at Prentiss over the top of his case file, but Prentiss didn't lock eyes with him. "Interrogation last night was a little intense."
"Is there any reason that you can think of that he shouldn't be the one outside her house."
This time Gideon caught her eye when she glanced at him. "Is there something you want to tell me?"
"She's been through a lot, I just don't think we should put her through anything more." Prentiss admitted.
"Morgan is a good agent, he wont let personal feelings get in the way of what is right. " Gideon said, finally moving his gaze away from Prentiss's. "He wont overstep his bounds, and if there was any real concern, he would have to be asked to leave the case." Gideon paused a moment before asking, "Do we have a reason to ask him to leave the case?"
Prentiss was silent for a moment taken aback, "I can't think of any reason why I wouldn't want him on this case." She offered Gideon a reassuring smile that wasn't so reassuring.
Val had spent longer then she would have ever though possible in the shower, trying to rinse away the last 24 hours along with the scent of the holding cell she had spent the night in. Once out of the shower and wrapped in a towel she stood in front of the mirror for a long time before making a tough decision. A few weeks ago one of the doctors noticed that Val hadn't been sleeping well and written her a prescription for Ambien. With a resolved sigh, Val pulled out the vile and popped one of the small pills into her palm. She knew it wouldn't give her the REM sleep that she dearly needed, but she was afraid without it she wouldn't be able to sleep at all. She didn't want to dream tonight anyway, every time she closed her eyes she saw Dr. Stone, and wanted to cry. Fighting back the tears she didn't want to shed, she swallowed the pill without water, and turned off the light in the restroom before climbing into bed.
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Morgan and Reid sat comfortably in their car around the corner from Val's house. "So Val didn't seem to talkative on the ride home." Morgan stated to break the silence.
Reid took a sip from his now cooling coffee cup and frowned. He was a little upset that he hadn't been sent to the hospital with Gideon to question the staff, he wanted another cup of the coffee there. "She did seem happy to get home. But I am a little surprised that she was so upset about not being allowed to return to work. She said she hadn't had time to grieve so you would think she would be happy to have a little time to herself."
"She isn't exactly alone right now is she?" Morgan took a sip of his coffee. They fell silent for a few minuets both of them lost in their own thoughts. "Maybe she wants to go to work because it would provide a distraction from dealing with this? Three people that she was close to are dead. And now we think that someone is after her. If that was me I sure would have trouble sitting still at home."
Nodding Reid offered his own theory. "Val doesn't strike me as the kind of person who enjoys being the center of attention. A lot of the people that are drawn to nursing as a profession are strong willed, but naturally submissive. They want to help people, want to take care of others rather then themselves. Like how she made sure we had coffee before she had a cup herself. In a way this is a subtle kind of torture for her, being thrown into the center of attention."
"Lets look at this from a different point of view." Morgan said trying to keep awake. "When she described the un-sub she said he looked familiar, but she didn't know from where, granted that could just be due to the excitement of what went on that night. JJ showed her all the photos that Garcia could find of males who volunteer for the same associations. Val didn't recognize any of them as the patient that she had that night. The security video is still missing. What about a coworker at the hospital? Someone who saw her every day?"
"That's highly unlikely, one of the other nurses would have recognized someone like that." Reid dismissed Morgan's theory.
Morgan dropped his head back against the neck rest, thinking hard. "Val, Val, Val, how did you know this guy."
Reid tapped his hand against the coffee cup, studying the night around them. "How long has Val been a nurse at this hospital?"
"Her file said since she got her RN license, so 2004." Morgan answered.
"And the other nurses how long were they there?"
Morgan glanced at Reid confused, "I don't know, it would be in the files though." He reached into the center console and retrieved the file folders there. Flipping through them he pulled first one file then the next. "Amy was employed in 2004 a few months after Val, and Lela was employed in 2006."
Reid nodded. "So maybe the un-sub had come in to the ER before and knew Val, so he felt more comfortable with her assisting him then someone else? That would account for going to her instead of the other nurses he saw. And it would also be why she recognized him, but didn't know where from. ER nurses see thousands of people every year, so she couldn't be expected to remember everyone she had treated."
"That's great and all, but it doesn't explain how the person had a medical background." Morgan pointed out as he put the files back in the center console. The night outside of the car was quite, not even so much as a neighborhood cat was out hunting.
Another silence passed between the two agents, as they were both lost in their own thoughts. Reid took a deep breath as though to speak, but shook his head instead of speaking. Turning to question him Morgan raised an eyebrow. Reid smiled guiltily, "What if she met him through school? There was a group of med students there the other day I saw them. They were the only people in matching scrubs, everyone else was wearing more colorful ones-they kind of stuck out."
"I didn't notice them." Morgan answered flatly.
"Has anyone done a search for any past medical students, students that would have been there when Val was before the others were hired?" Reid asked.
Morgan cocked his head to an angle, "sounds like a Garcia question to me."
Reid's phone gave a single beep indicating a text message he reached for it and read the message out loud. "'Goodnight.' Guess that Val is going to sleep, and didn't want us to worry that her light is going off." As if on cue, the light where her bedroom was went out.
Nodding Morgan took another sip of coffee, "if anyone needs a good nights rest its her."
She was home, but not alone, how inconvenient, he thought as he studied her bedroom window. The light had just gone out. He wanted to be closer to her, wanted to watch her chest rise and fall as she slept, wanted to feel her skin. He had loved her for so long, and only recently been able to find a way to show her how deeply that love ran. Because only recently he had known that she felt the same way, why else would she risk her career for him? She had to love him. Maybe she was just shy, that's why she hadn't expressed her love to him sooner. It was only a matter of time before they would be able to be together for the rest of their lives. Together in the physical sense, he already knew she was his soul mate, the one he was supposed to be with forever. Maybe another gift would be what she needed to prove his love for her…
