Sorry for the delay. School's back in motion and it's stressful. Plus I sleep a lot due to 'lack of sleep'. Last chapter, long for you guys!
"What's up with Anya and Matthew?" Ryan asked the next day, seeing that the couple completely ignored each other and sat apart from each other. Natalia turned to her husband before looking at Anya talking to Agent Hotchner and Matthew hanging out with his work pals.
"Probably a little argument." Natalia shrugged. She sat down and read over some files.
She saw from the corner of her eye, Anya gathering up their team. "Alright, I'll question Hannah again with Agent Morgan and you guys can work on some unsolved cases while I question her. Any objections?" the team shook their head. Horatio whispered in her ear and she nodded. "H will question the rest of the kids. Who will join him? Two of you."
"I will." Natalia nodded. Delko nodded his head, notifying he will too.
"Okay. Good. I'll see you guys later." Anya said, joining the FBI.
Then Walter turned to face the rest of them. "Did you notice something off with her?" he asked.
"Yeah." Ryan nodded, looking at her.
"I've noticed that she's not wearing her wedding band. Neither is Matthew." Calleigh said, frowning.
"Guys, it's probably a little argument. Come on. Who here hasn't taken off their bands once in a while whilst being pissed with their significant other?" They all kept quiet. "Exactly. It will pass." she waved it off.
"I hope you're right. Young love sometimes last but sometimes it doesn't. I hope theirs last because there's kids in the picture." Calleigh sighed.
"Who's the guy?" Hannah asked as Anya entered with Derek Morgan.
"SSA Derek Morgan. I'm from the FBI." Morgan said.
Hannah's eyes widened as she gasped. "The FBI are involved?!" she yelped.
"Is that a problem, Miss Bracknell?" Anya smirked, tilting her head. Hannah gulped and sighed, looking down.
"I'll tell you everything." Hannah finally said.
"Don't leave anything out because if you didn't kill Arden, we could get you at least 2 years in jail. Tops." Derek said, reasoning.
"Okay." Hannah nodded. "Have you met my brother?" she started, talking to Derek. He shook his head. "Well he's a sick bastard. He got one of his mates, some drug maker nicknamed 'Slick', and he had him make the poison. Said poison was a gas."
Derek looked over to the tinted screen, knowing Hotch would nod along with Reid. They have come across a certain drug like this.
"And?" Anya asked.
"He put it in one of my perfume bottles. I walked up to him and acted friendly with him. Then I made a show of spraying 'my perfume'." she gulped, looking down. 'Him' referring to Arden. "I liked him, I really did. I didn't mean to kill him."
"Okay." Anya nodded.
"Do you know anything about this 'Slick' guy?" Derek asked. Hannah shook her head and started to cry.
"Greg... He would kill me. He's killed someone before. I know this because I'm his twin sister. It was a year ago, he dumped this guy who wronged him in a well. The guy died on impact. I think he's still there."
"Do you know this man's name?" Anya asked.
"Rolly Barnes. He was a supplier of some sort." Hannah said. "Please arrest me to make it seem like I didn't tell you all this. Let the others go. Greg can't know I grassed him up." Hannah looked convincingly worried.
"Hannah... Has your brother hurt you before?" Derek asked cautiously. Hannah's eyes widened as she gulped and pulled her sleeved up, showing the two officers her purple blue mark.
"Yesterday, when we had a moment with our parents. Mom and dad went out to talk to Lieutenant Caine and Greg grabbed me by my wrist, telling me to keep shut. I had already damaged our hopes of freedom, he said."
"Look, we can do this as sibling abuse. We can get him done because he's 18. And we can pin him for the murder of Rolly Barnes and Arden Vincent-" Anya got cut off.
"All you have to do is make it seem like I didn't tell you guys. Xander could betray him. Xander can protect himself. I can't. Pin it on him." Hannah begged. Anya looked sorrowful at Derek as she sighed.
"Here's how we do it." Derek said, an idea popping into his mind. "You tell us you worked with this 'Slick' guy and from there, we connect him to your brother. And as for the Rolly Barnes business, we say his family have been looking for him and we know your brother knew the guy." Derek shrugged.
Hannah smiled lightly and nodded, wiping her tears. "Sounds good." she smiled. "Rolly has a wife. He lived with her and his mother."
"Should be easy then." Anya sighed, a faint flash of fear in her stomach.
...
Hannah waited with her family, stealing glances with her brother who smirked. Then Horatio and Anya entered the room, the FBI and the CSI team watching from behind the glass.
"Hannah Bracknell, we're arresting you on suspicion of murdering Arden Vincent. You do not have to say anything but anything you do say would later be brought up in court-" Anya read Hannah's rights.
"Hey! You can't do that, my daughter has a lawyer!" Mr Bracknell yelled, standing up.
"No, daddy. I did this. All evidence points to me." Hannah obliged, standing up and putting her hands behind her back, letting Anya cuff them.
"And..." Horatio started, eyeing Greg. "Gregory Bracknell, we're also arresting you on suspicion of conducting a murder. Two in fact."
"Two?!" Mrs Bracknell yelled.
"Arden Vincent and Roland Barnes. Ring any bells, Gregory?" Horatio asked, Greg's smirk immediately being wiped off his face.
"How did you-" he started before eyeing Hannah. She turned away from him. "You bitch!" he yelled before running to her and slamming her into the window, causing Eric, Derek and Ryan to move in and restrain him. Hannah screamed as her parents watched in shock. "You 'fessed up!" he yelled, being dragged away from her. Anya and Mrs Bracknell consoled her as she gulped.
"I didn't! I only told them about Slick and I killing Arden. I left you out!" she screamed. "They obviously connected you to him and from there found out about Rolly!" Hannah sobbed. "I'm not like you, you bully!"
Greg growled at her before looking to his father's face. His father's face wore disappointment and disgust. Anger was also shown. "From this day on," Mr Bracknell started. "I disown the both of you." he said, leaving. Mrs Bracknell looked between her husband's parting figure and her children.
"I only want Hannah in my life. Not you, Greg." she gulped, leaving also.
...
"Well, we still don't have this Slick dude." Ryan sighed, as they all sat in the conference room.
"We'll get him and when we do, he'll do longer than those kids in prison." Horatio promised.
"Thank you so much for your help." Anya smiled at the FBI team.
"It was no problem, really." Alex Blake smiled.
"Well, we ought to be off. Our office awaits." Derek said, standing up.
"How about we stay for the night. I'm sure Henry can cope." JJ smiled.
"Yes, we should. Are there any hotels around?" Aaron asked.
"Yeah, I'll show you guys." Eric offered.
"Thank you." Aaron nodded.
"Uh, actually I'm heading back for a while. See my family or something." Matthew said, eyeing Anya briefly. She remained unmoved.
"Say 'hi' for me." she said before standing up and grabbing her things. "I'm heading home. Have a early night. See you guys." she said.
...
As Anya stood outside into the darkness of the night, she let her walls break as she cried. Instead of going to her car and driving home, she decided to walk, clear her mind, to prevent any accidents.
She thought about how long her marriage was slowly breaking in front of her without neither her or her husband realising.
She should have noticed when Matthew stayed up late, talking to his boss about a case he had missed as he had to stay home and look after their kids.
She should have noticed when Matthew managed to convince her that they needed money coming from both sides.
She should have noticed when they stayed up talking one night about their jobs and Matthew said he loved the adrenaline his gave him.
She should have noticed when Matthew literally dumped their kids with her mother one night he got a 'good' case.
She should have noticed.
Then why did they get married? Why did they have kids so early? Why did they even have kids if this was the outcome.
Because they loved each other, that's why.
And that's why she didn't notice someone following her...
...
"Us guys are going to stay and finish up paperwork. You ladies can go. Spend time with your kids etcetera." Derek offered. Blake smiled and stood up waving farewell.
"JJ, you can come over to my home. Us girls have fun days on Fridays." Natalia smiled, standing up along with Calleigh.
Calleigh kissed Eric and waved, leaving the room. "I'll see you there!" Calleigh yelled.
The other ladies left as well, meeting Calleigh by the doors. "Let's walk. We'll leave the boys their cars." Natalia said, hooking her arms through Calleigh's and JJ's. They noticed Anya's car was still there.
"She probably left it for Matthew to drive home." Natalia shrugged it off.
"But he's going to L.A." Calleigh said. JJ furrowed her eyebrows before sighing.
"Let's go. She probably walked home to take her mind off her possible divorce." she immediately covered her mouth.
"Divorce?!" Calleigh and Natalia yelled.
"I overheard Matthew talking to Hotch about a permanent job again. He says he's experiencing some issues in his marriage and he wants out."
"What about their kids?" Calleigh asked.
"Co-parenting." JJ offered.
They stopped when they heard a whimper. "Hello?" Natalia called out.
She turned and saw a foot. Eyes wide, she walked towards the body in the alley way.
"Anya?!" she yelled, going and crouching beside her. JJ and Calleigh joined her.
"He's here." Anya croaked out.
"Who?" JJ asked, wiping her hair back.
"Sl-" a bright light and debris was all around.
A frickin' flash grenade was thrown at them.
"JJ? Cal? Anya? Can you hear me?!" Natalia struggled out, trying to push herself off the floor. She was met with no reply but that didn't matter as she was knocked out.
This sequel is called The Case of The Fallen Girls. Coming soon.