Derek didn't sleep that night. Not really. He was too wound up. And of course it didn't help that every time he tried to doze off he kept seeing Garcia being zipped up inside of a body bag. And so with those disturbing images in mind he just spent a better part of the night wide awake, and watching the clock on the far wall of his living room. The one hanging above his flat screen plasma TV.
The one that Garcia had given him two years ago for Christmas after he'd broken the last one while trying to change the batteries out of it.
And finally after what seemed like forever, he started to both see and feel the soft stream of sunlight filtering through his living room curtains. Coloring his walls in rainbow hues while warming the back of his neck. He waited another two or three hours before he bothered to pick up the phone and call in. He didn't particularly feel like going into work today anyways.
Not when he had so many other things on his mind.
So after that was done, he got up from his couch and began to move around a little while mentally going over what he was planning to do. He knew it was crazy and sort of creepy too. And it was against everything that he practically stood for as an FBI agent- but he wanted to follow Hanna around a bit and observe her. Maybe see if she somehow knew something about her mother's death. Or maybe met with anyone during the day when she thought no one was watching her, who might.
It was a fair enough thing, He reasoned with himself. After all it wasn't like he intended to follow her around and observe her movements forever. That was stalking. And it was against the law. No- just for a couple of days or so would do. Or at least until he went back to work where he could see if any new computer messages were posted.
A few minutes later, after having himself a nice shower and getting dressed. Derek had his keys, wallet and a plastic coffee cup in his hands and was out the door. He had a long day ahead of him and it was best to start early.
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Hanna's alarm went off at nine fifty two am. Forcing her from her nice comfy place on the floor of her bedroom where she had fallen asleep late last night after establishing a few connections that her mother had used back in her hacker days, before then getting off of the computer. After which she had spent several hours pouring over case files that her mother had kept copies of in her home and sometimes let her go over.
Cold cases and the like. Cases of serial killers running rampant and murdering in specific ways with specific weapons of choice. Kills of opportunity and so on. And after spending so much time staring at the pictures of their victims that she felt as if she'd always see the images of their dead faces burned into her memory- she had switched over to child molesters and kidnappers for a little bit.
Men and women who had stalked their intended victims until they had all but run them to ground like they were wild animals.
God, before she'd met her mother for the first time she'd only been aware of a few of these things and now- now she knew that there was such a thing as monsters. And she didn't like it. Not in the least. Why just ten of the people in some of the files she held alone were former convicts who lived within just seven blocks of her home! It was terrifying when she really got to thinking about it.
Sighing, she pushed herself to her feet using her bed as a crutch and silently moved towards the bathroom to shower and get ready to leave for the day. Prep time took no more than thirty minutes since she wasn't the type of gal to primp for hours just to make herself late for just any little thing.
No- once she was done showering and drying off, she brushed her hair- put it in her hair clip then went back out into her room and quickly dressed in a black lace pair of panties and a matching bra. Then grabbed an elbow length maroon colored shirt. Pulling on an emerald knit sweater over her other shirt, she then grabbed a pair of faded jeans and then slipped on her shoes and left her room to go give her mother her medicine and make sure that she had something to eat before she left.
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Derek was parked just down the street a little from Hanna's home at ten fifteen.
Right about the same exact time he saw the front door open and a disheveled looking Helen step outside in a fuzzy white bathrobe and pink bunny slippers a mere second or two before Hanna came charging out the door and grasped her sick mother gently by the shoulders and carefully maneuvered her back inside the house while speaking to her in a soft tone.
Ten minutes or so later, the front door opened again and Hanna stepped back outside and shut the door behind her and put her house key (which was attached to a thin leather chord) around her neck and looked around for a second. As if checking to make sure no one was around, which struck him as more than a little suspicious, and then started walking.
Curious to see where she was going, Derek put his skills as an field agent to good use and started up his car and began to follow her at a discreet distance. He followed her about a mile before she finally stopped walking and just stood on the curb and seemed as if she were waiting for something.
He parked his car again, and this time got out so that he could get a closer look at what she was up too. Leaning his back against the nearest building, he stood there with his arms and ankles crossed, his sunglasses on, his attention totally focused on the girl just a few feet away. She seemed utterly unaware of his presence for the few minutes or so that she stood there, looking around, awkwardly smiling at random people who passed her by and gave her strange looks.
Then finally something happened that truly made Derek's heart almost stop. A guy in a grey hoodie with a skull on it walked up behind Hanna and pulled what looked like a gun out of one of his pockets and pressed it against her back right between her shoulder blades, and slowly- ever so slowly started to pull the trigger.
