Chp. 1

The familiar reverberation of his cellphone vibrating on the nightstand woke David Rossi from a sound sleep. He automatically reached out and grabbed the device to silence it before it could wake his wife.

He answered without looking at the screen. "Let me guess. We have a case."

"Yeah, get here as soon as you can, Dave. It's a bad one." SSA Jason Gideon answered, before hanging up abruptly. Dave was long use to his friend's quirks and had come to the conclusion that quirks were what made people interesting.

Dave glanced at his wife to see that she was awake and looking at the clock, which read 4:45am. "You have to go in." She said. It wasn't a question. Rossi detected no malice it his wife's tone, only concern. Despite the fact that he'd been doing this for nearly half their married life and it wasn't the most dangerous thing he'd done for the Bureau, Dave knew Carolyn still worried about him.

He was up and moving to the bathroom before he was even fully awake. "David?"

He turned back to his wife, knowing what she was going to say, but listening anyway. "Be safe."

Rossi went back to the bed and leaned over, meeting Carolyn and the two kissed gently. "I always am, cara. You know that."

"Never hurts to remind you." She said.

Dave smiled. "Go back to sleep."

000

"He on his way?" Max Ryan asked as Jason hung up.

"Yeah, Morgan and Prentiss should be here in about twenty minutes." Gideon said.

"Good," Ryan sighed and looked at the pictures on screen. Seven smiling little faces stared back at him. "What do we know so far?"

"Apparently, the unsub isn't an unsub." Hotch said as he joined the other two agents in conference room.

"Come again?" Ryan asked.

"We weren't called in by local LEO's. The U.S. Marshal's office in Las Vegas requested our assistance. The subject's name is William Reid."

"Do they know for sure if he kidnapped, molested and murdered, these kids?" Gideon gestured to the screen.

"Not for sure. Also, one of the Deputies requested our help specifically."

"Who?" Gideon and Ryan asked simultaneously.

"Mark Rossi." Hotch said.

Both men looked like they'd seen a ghost. Ryan was first to speak. "Rossi as in related to Dave Rossi?"

"Mark is Dave's oldest son." Aaron said.

"Do you know if he's been assigned as our liaison?" Gideon asked.

"Unlikely, but he will probably demand to be part of the case." Hotch answered.

"Demand?" Ryan asked as if he was tasting the word.

"Deputy Rossi and his partner, Tim Freeman, were staking out a location where William Reid was believed to be hiding. When they attempted to apprehend William, he opened fire and Deputy Freeman was shot. He died before help arrived.

"Two emotionally involved Rossi's, one of whom we know nothing about. Lovely." Ryan said.

"There's one more thing." Hotch said.

The other profiler's gave him a, 'what now' look. "Mark's a former Navy Seal. He served seven years in the navy after graduating from Georgetown University with a B.A. in Arabic."

000

Spencer lay on the filthy closet floor and tried to just…float away. He wondered if he shouldn't find some way to just end it all. Even at five year old, he was smart enough to know he couldn't keep going like this. It had to end at some point, somehow. If someone wouldn't save him and stop his father, Spencer knew he'd have to save himself. The question was how would he do that.