Title: An Honourable Man

Pairing: Emily Prentiss/David Rossi

Rating: M for now, but not sure where it might end up.

Summary: It was just another case, just another broken resolution, that brought them to this.

Spoilers: I've only seen up to series four episode twenty-two so anything up to there is fair game.

Author's Notes: I've never written Criminal Minds Fan fiction before I have loved the show since the first episode. I've written 'Waking the Dead' and 'West Wing' fan fiction before so this seems like a natural progression. I tend to write a few chapters then post one so it may take time to update but it also means I can take on suggestions along the way.

Part Ten

The coffee shop was virtually empty as Reid and Morgan dragged two tables together and the team gathered around them for breakfast. They had found that it was easier than trying to conduct a scheduling meeting across the room or in the small confines of the conference room. The staff for the most part left them alone, intermittently serving on them and retreating to the kitchen.

The conversation so far had been stilted as they each found themselves lost in their own thoughts, another early morning and no semblance of resolution making them all a little testy. Sometimes it was safer to hold back than to initiate a conversation, profilers engaging in the one thing they were not suppose to do - profile each other.

A waitress appeared with a fresh pot of coffee and earned herself a few appreciative smiles and mumbles of thanks. She hovered to take their orders then blended back into the background.

J.J. glanced sideways at her friend and frowned. "Are you okay?" she asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"Just tired," Emily offered, giving her a friend a small smile, her hand running subconsciously through her hair in silent acknowledgement of her lie.

J.J. nodded in acknowledgement that they were all tired. She turned her attention to the rest of the team, focusing on the Unit Chief. "I've had three calls since I woke up asking for updates and twice as many missed calls while I was in the shower."

"You need to stall them," Hotch stated, his tone firm but accusatory.

"Yeah," she replied flatly, neither surprised not upset by his reaction. "Which is why my cell is on silent."

They lapsed back into silence with the arrival of food and a waitress. She left as quickly as she had arrived, leaving them to return to the days agenda.

"Does anyone want some of these pancakes?" J.J. asked, holding up the platter.

Morgan helped himself, loading them up on the side of his plate.

"I have a theory," Emily announced, finally pushing her plate across the table. She wasn't sure her stomach and food were going to be compatible for some time to come and her mind was working in overdrive. "Something last night got me thinking."

Rossi, to her left, almost choked on his coffee, his recover a little less smooth than usual. "Sorry."

J.J. to her right did a double take, looking between her two colleagues and hiding her grin behind her cup.

"We've been looking at this as a revenge thing. Killing men because they have everything the unsub wants - rich, successful, single," Emily continued, her eyes focusing anywhere but on her colleagues for fear they would read her. "But what's bothering me is how he lures them. It's unlikely they're abducted with force because the evidence tells us so. And these guys aren't going to head off with a total stranger."

"Where are you going with this?" Hotch asked, his own meal discarded as he focused on the newest profiler.

"It came to me last night. A woman, our unsub is a woman. Or at least one of them is. Probably young, very young," she added bitterly, "flirtatious, and cute as a button. Most guys probably can't resist the come on, the fluttery eyelids, hanging off every word, and before they know what's hit them, she has them."

"Seriously, Em, you need to start dating different guys," Morgan said, pulling a face, wondering had truly bad her dating history was.

Rossi put down his coffee, this thoughts momentarily drawn to who Emily was dating before darting back to the case. "She might be right. This hasn't profiled right from the start. A woman in distress, an attractive one at that would certainly explain why these men . . ."

"Women aren't generally serial killers and if we're talking about killing teams then it's mostly men," Reid emphasised. "Between 1600 and 2003 only 17.6 percent of female serial killers acted with an accomplice, the rest acted alone."

"I think we can safely say she didn't do this alone," Hotch acknowledged quietly. "So we're back to a family connection or mentor."

"Father and daughter? Mother and daughter?" J.J. asked.

"Why not? My mother in laws weren't adverse to torturing the hell out of me," Rossi mock grumbled. "Seriously though the older one may have been doing this for years until she lost her looks. That's if we are talking about two women."

Hotch punched in a number on his phone and barely waited to be connected.

"Oracle of all knowledge."

"Garcia, look for unsolved cases involving the abduction of men going back twenty years in Washington," Hotch said. "Upload it to the state police here."

"Rossi rubbed his beard. "Check the surrounding states, maybe West Coast. Chances are she's moved around a fair deal otherwise someone would have picked up on the pattern."

"Good, I'll speak to the locals see if anything jogs their memory, Morgan and Prentiss, go back to the crime scenes and ask specifically about women. I'd imagine women down hunting tracks is unusual."

"Reid and I will recanvass the areas they were last seen see if anything comes up," Rossi announced, his eyes moving briefly to Prentiss, wondering if she was ever going to look him in the eye again.

"We'll meet back in the station at one and go over what we got," Hotch concluded, signalling the waitress that they were ready to go.