Disclaimer: See chapter 1

A/N: Since I destest the story of JJ and Will and her pregnancy, I am ignoring it in this story.

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When Reid walked into the round table room, Prentiss, Rossi and Morgan were already there. As he pulled the strap of his messenger bag over his head he saw the screen. Three bright little faces stared back at him. They couldn't have been more than three years old. Kids, he thought, he hated when it was kids. The silence in the room told him everyone else hated it too. He sat beside Emily and tried to avoid looking at the screen but his eyes seemed drawn to it. Three little girls smiled at him with big eyes and baby teeth. He looked at their faces, full of joy and innocence and all he could see was Joanna. They'd handled cases with kids before, lots of them, and Reid had always felt a moral outrage that someone could prey on the most innocent and vulnerable of society. He thought he'd empathized with the parents, he'd understood the anguish they were feeling, but now he knew that wasn't true. Now he understood. He didn't know what he'd do if anything like this ever happened to his precious Joanna. He only knew that his soul would be ripped apart. People always said things looked completely different when you had your own child. They were right. The moral outrage he usually felt in this situation was now a blazing, seething anger that he was quite sure he'd never felt before.

He looked at the pictures again and again Joanna flashed before his eyes. He resisted, but just barely, the urge to pull his cell out and call Allie to see if she was okay. Joanna was okay he told himself. Her fragile little body was safe at home with Allie. She was asleep in her crib, her yellow checked quilt with the funny animals on it keeping her warm. Her tiny pink bear, that Reid and Allie had christened Emmy because Aunt Emily had given it to her, was keeping her company. He looked at the little girls again. Were they dead? What if they weren't? What if they were cold or hurt, they'd be crying for their mommies. They'd be so scared. Where were Hotch and JJ? Why didn't they get in here so they could get to wherever the hell they needed to go to solve this thing?

As if reading his thoughts JJ, Hotch and Garcia walked into the room. Hotch and Garcia took seats while JJ stood by the screen, remote in hand. She clicked the remote and the first little girl filled the screen, a fair haired little beauty with big blue eyes. She smiled joyfully at the team. "Topeka needs our help. This is Mindy Sangstrom, aged three. She clicked the remote again and the little girl smiled from between two adults, a happy family picture. Her parents are Anders Sangstrom who's a surgeon and his wife Lori who's an attorney."

JJ clicked the remote again and a second child's face filled the screen. She was of obvious Latino descent. She had black hair that fell to her shoulders. "This is Rebecca Ramos, aged four. She clicked the remote again and the Ramos family appeared on the screen. Her parents are Angelo and Maria Ramos. He's an estate attorney and she's a social worker."

JJ clicked the remote one more time. The small girl that filled the screen this time had light brown hair and hazel eyes. She had an impish grin on her face as she looked at the photographer. "Jessica Adderly, aged three," JJ said. A second click revealed the family unit. "Her parents are Jeff and Amy Adderly. He's a Presbyterian minister and she's a judge.

"The families don't appear to have a lot in common. They all have good jobs and their well respected in their fields and in their communities. All the mothers only work part time as they chose to concentrate their time on raising their daughters. All three girls disappeared within two days of each other five days ago. Topeka has no leads. Topeka PD has done a citywide manhunt. Nothing from the amber alerts. They've checked everybody on their SOR. They're all accounted for, no girls."

"I'll check pedophile sites," Garcia said, grimacing at her least favorite job, still amazed at what some of these creeps could do with children. "I'll see if there's any sign of them or any action from Topeka."

"How were they taken JJ?" Emily asked.

"Two were taken from their own backyards and one was taken from a park near her home," JJ replied. "No one saw anything suspicious."

"So," Morgan said, "the unsub is either someone from the neighborhood or someone who wouldn't arouse suspicion, who looked like he belonged."

Hotch interjected, "Okay, let's get going, we can discuss it further on the plane. Wheels up in forty minutes." The team rose to get themselves ready for the flight. As they filed out, Reid turned back and looked at the little girls on the screen, silently vowing that he was coming for them.

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William pulled out the next letter and unfolded the pretty stationary he'd come to associate with Allie.

Dear Dad,

Well, we made it. We got moved into our house in time for Thanksgiving. The baby's room's not finished but the rest of the house is pretty much done. It's so exciting to have our own place and it's so much roomier than our old apartment.

Thanksgiving was terrific. My family came from Ohio. I'm glad they got out now because they don't know if they'll get out at Christmas as my sister's baby is due next month. I cooked this really big turkey. Spencer was freaking that it was too heavy for me and insisted on lifting it. He was like the pregnancy watchdog, keeping an eye on both me and my sister. Everybody thought it was quite funny.

Oh my God, speaking of funny. I never did tell you what my jackass brother did to us on our wedding night. We found out later it was my jackass brother Dylan and my jackass brother-in-law Evan working together. Anyway, they put ten alarm clocks under the bed in the bridal suite and set them for 4 am. We thought at first it was the fire alarm but then Spencer found them under the bed. He laughs about it now but back then he didn't think it was so funny. We decided to stay up and read our cards. That was a very emotional night for Spencer because he read your letter as well as one from Jason Gideon. I guess you could say Jason kind of discovered Spencer. They were very close. He was like a father to my husband. He quit the BAU a while back and Spencer still misses him.

We had Thanksgiving dinner which Spencer said was the best meal he'd ever had. He said he'd never had a Thanksgiving dinner like that in his life. He freaked a little when I told him, as the head of the household, he had to carve the turkey. My dad showed him how. They get on wonderfully together. We were eventually winding down with coffee and dessert. My mom makes the most amazing pumpkin pie. So, Dylan's looking for sugar for his coffee and Spencer says he must have forgotten it and gets up to get the sugar bowl. Dylan and Spencer both love a lot of sugar in their coffee. Dylan puts his sugar in and takes a sip and spits his coffee out all over the place. Spencer had filled the sugar bowl up with salt to get back at Dylan for the wedding night. Spencer was laughing so hard at the look on Dylan's face. I was so happy to see him laughing that way.

Evan decided he wanted to stay overnight so he had to sleep in the sleeping bag Spencer had bought when he went on a father/son camping trip with Evan. Dylan was sleeping on the couch down in the family room. Spencer had saved the alarm clocks from our wedding night and set them up to ring about 3 am in twenty minute intervals. The guys would hear an alarm clock, find where Spencer hid it and get back to sleep when the next one would go off. He gave everybody else in the house ear plugs. The next morning it was so funny to see the two of them come straggling up for breakfast after no sleep. I think my brother should be very afraid. Spencer could get really good at this. They may have created a monster. Next victim, Morgan! Take care Dad.

Allie

William couldn't help but smile at his daughter-in-law's almost joyful missive. He sometimes wondered if he should even try. His sons were happy now. They had found replacements for him. Spencer was filling the father role for Evan and Lloyd Graham and this Jason Gideon were filling the father role for Spencer. They neither wanted nor needed him in their lives.

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As the jet winged its way toward the Midwest, the team discussed the case. "There was a note left at each of the disappearances," JJ said. She passed a blown up picture of the note to each of the profilers. The note was handwritten and contained only five words.

An eye for an eye

"Matthew 5:18," Reid said, "the Code of Hammurabi, King of Babylon 1792-1750BC. The notion that for every wrong done there should be a compensating measure of justice."

"He's out for revenge," Emily said. "These people have wronged him in some way and he's seeking recompense."

"Could the surgeon have botched an operation on someone he loved?" Rossi suggested. "Then he went to a lawyer and got no help there and then went to his minister and perhaps he blames them all."

"How would we find out?" Morgan asked. "Doctor/patient…privileged, lawyer/client…privileged, minister/parishioner…privileged, if this is the case, we're going to have a hell of a time digging anything up."

"Unless he filed a suit in court," Reid pondered. "That would be a matter of public record. I'll call Garcia; maybe she can run their names through a database and come up with something." He took out his cell and pressed speed dial.

JJ came from the fax machine at the back of the plane. "The Topeka Capital Journal just got a note from the unsub. It doesn't look good."