In a dark room
He looked into a mirror and the face he saw was not his. It was never his.
"That is because you are such a wimp. A coward. A spineless useless little man who cannot even kill properly," said the face in the mirror.
"No...no...shut up...shut up. You don't know me. You know nothing. I am good at this. I can do this," said the man.
"If you are so good, how can you let him go? You are despicable."
At the hospital
"Dave?" Hotch started to wake up.
Rossi immediately put down the magazine he was holding and leaned forward.
"Hey you...how is that head of yours," he asked Hotch.
"Like I just have been hit in the head," he replied and grimaced in pain when he tried to turn his head to look at Rossi.
Rossi pointed to his right to a sofa and Hotch broke into a smile when he saw Jack sleeping soundly with his favourite G.I. Joe doll by his side.
"He once told me that doll is his lucky Jim," Hotch told Rossi softly so that he would not wake up his son.
"Mine, it was a baseball. Now that baseball is in a glass casing safely on my shelf," Rossi added, smiling.
The older agent then turned serious and gave Hotch the look.
"Look Dave. I have been trying since I woke up to remember. Nothing."
"You don't remember the shadows and red toy car," Rossi asked. Hotch frowned and tried hard to recall what had happened. He had flashes of images but they did not make much sense.
"Agent Hotchner, I am Dr Michael and your head scan shows no other injuries aside from that deep gash. I don't see why you cannot leave tomorrow. I will give you painkillers for the headache. We keep you here overnight for observation and will give you the discharge papers tomorrow."
"Thank you Dr," Hotch replied and started to feel sleepy.
He turned to watch his sleeping son before closing his eyes. Few seconds later, he was asleep.
Rossi could see how tired his friend was and started to leave the room to get a cup of coffee when he saw Jack had wakened up.
"Hey kiddo. Why are you awake?" "I need to go to the little boy's room, uncle Dave," said the six-year-old and began getting up from the sofa.
He walked to where his dad was lying and gently put his G.I. Joe doll besides his pillow. "Lucky Jim will look after daddy awhile, right Uncle Dave, until we come back."
"You bet kiddo. Let's go," Rossi said and smiled when Jack's little hand grabbed his.
Somewhere in the city
A lone figure was seen carried a green duffel bag and left it outside a police station. As the late shift clocked in, one of the officers spotted the bag.
She unzipped it and what she saw caused her to lose her dinner. The sight of a small hand clutching what looked like a red toy car.
Without checking for pulse, she knew the little boy was dead because of the cuts that nearly severed his head.
She immediately raised the alarm and within minutes dozens of police personnel and crime lab techs turned up looking for clues.
The duffle bag was sent to the coroner office. The on-duty medical examiner gently lifted the boy's small body from the bag and put him on a nearby slab.
He checked the bag when he saw something that caught his attention.
Whatever it was, the M.E. could not get fast enough to the phone.
The next day at the BAU office
The phone rang